Cities By Shadow
Oct. 2nd, 2013 03:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lady_elfleda in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
birthright_rpgThere was a shadow flowing across glass... A dark, perfectly smooth surface, flush with trapped faces of agony pressed tightly against it. Whether sculpted that way or rendered so in paralytic contortion, was not for mortal mind to know. The presence willing its way across the room, from one end to the other; hunting, searching for something, as the floor beneath it darkened yet further. Glimpses from another realm filtering through the murk.
There... It wanted to go there...
A place of the living, no longer fully claimed by the dark. Merely looked back upon with envious desires. She understood that. Elfleda. Bride to that which laid... Beyond. And it was she whose emergence was made without fanfare, like a silky-smooth handkerchief falling in silence.
Nor, here, was her chosen attire that which others might be more accustomed to viewing of her depiction. No black dress here, nor pale complexion seen. Instead, there stood a teenage girl. Pretty, yes. Diabolical, likely not. Her choice of clothing something more conventional. The tone of her skin, relatively healthy. Eyes no longer inky pools of black, but perfectly normal.
White... That part was a deliberate mockery. A challenge, almost. A veiled insult to the forces she stood against.
But it was not geography which brought her here. It was the girl. Elfleda's usual unseen cloud of spiritual filth now held tightly against her for reasons of stealth. Reined in, so that erstwhile shivers up spines would not alert others to the arrival of one such as she.
"Hello," she said in greeting. Here, spoken like anyone else. Not the half-telepathic tease she gave to most others. Just a voice. Yet, one still spoken in that same clear-cut, educated English accent. "I'm sorry, have we... Met? You seem somewhat familiar..."
There... It wanted to go there...
A place of the living, no longer fully claimed by the dark. Merely looked back upon with envious desires. She understood that. Elfleda. Bride to that which laid... Beyond. And it was she whose emergence was made without fanfare, like a silky-smooth handkerchief falling in silence.
Nor, here, was her chosen attire that which others might be more accustomed to viewing of her depiction. No black dress here, nor pale complexion seen. Instead, there stood a teenage girl. Pretty, yes. Diabolical, likely not. Her choice of clothing something more conventional. The tone of her skin, relatively healthy. Eyes no longer inky pools of black, but perfectly normal.
White... That part was a deliberate mockery. A challenge, almost. A veiled insult to the forces she stood against.
But it was not geography which brought her here. It was the girl. Elfleda's usual unseen cloud of spiritual filth now held tightly against her for reasons of stealth. Reined in, so that erstwhile shivers up spines would not alert others to the arrival of one such as she.
"Hello," she said in greeting. Here, spoken like anyone else. Not the half-telepathic tease she gave to most others. Just a voice. Yet, one still spoken in that same clear-cut, educated English accent. "I'm sorry, have we... Met? You seem somewhat familiar..."
no subject
on 2013-10-07 11:36 pm (UTC)Fear, though, could be loud. A major reason for why the paranoid and sensitive often attracted haunting activities; disembodied entities being drawn to them, as surely as a lost ship to lighthouse. For an empathic being like Elfleda, auras were veritable goldmines of valuable information about a creature.
This one held concerns over... Yes.
"Sounds like something you've worries about," continued Beth. "Power is best held close... Lest it be taken from you, hmm? Or used against those who might think they've the right to do so."
A slight tingling was likely beginning to scratch at Valerie's mind now. Not of the same level the undead would signal, but Elfleda's limited use of inhuman abilities were were starting to trip natural alarm bells.
"Wouldn't that be something?" Smiled 'Beth'. "Never having to fear authority?"
no subject
on 2013-10-10 10:40 pm (UTC)Whoever Beth was she was incredibly clever. Valerie could respect that even if she wanted to kick herself for being quite so foolish. No, not foolish, there had been some sort of thrall at play during their interaction. It explained the twisting, slithering sensation inside, born from the stirrings of what made her one of the chosen nine. The demon essence responded to the brunette on some level, it pulled the blonde but she wouldn’t let it control her. She might not know exactly what was going on but she understood enough to keep herself in check.
“Is that why you’re here with me?” She said lightly, sidestepping the mindgame minefield. “To take power? No, you have that…” Valerie turned to glance at the woman, no fear or anger just curiosity as she connected dots out loud. “The tone of the questions suggest you want me to use mine, now why is that?”
Valerie arched her eyebrows as she regarded the girl, that might not actually be a girl, and shrugged lightly. If the brunette had wanted to attack her she would have done so by now, unless this was a cat and mouse situation where she enjoyed toying with prey first. Motives would be easier if she knew who she was dealing with. Definitely not a vampire, and not any kind of demon she’d come across yet, of which there had been many.
“Who, and what, are you really? You know what I am, I don’t know how, but I do know the why is intentional.” Feet crunched fallen leaves as Valerie paused to look at the girl, eyes narrowing as she tilted her head, lips pressed together a second before she stated slowly, “You sought me out specifically. That line about meeting interesting…”
Valerie straightened up, primal animal instinct, ready to protect those she knew.
“What exactly do you want from me?”
Whatever it was it was highly unlikely she’d get it.
no subject
on 2013-10-11 04:22 am (UTC)Tutting at the encountered display of curiosity, Elfleda's admonishment had her smile subtly shift into something more conceited. Turning squarely to face her; body language echoing a much more in control personality. The accent hadn't changed, but the more she spoke, the more the voice of this 'Beth' was to start leaking, half-in, half-out of phase between the realms of the vocal and something more telepathic.
"And here she is... The protector, the warrior, the one who would stand against the dark... The blessed - the half-breed - who turns against her brethren because she was ordered, not because she was set free."
Part-condescending, part-stinging with an interpretation of facts, the stranger walked in a more deliberate path off to one side, passing the Slayer by. Gaze keeping trained upon Valerie as she passed. A sudden cracking sound announcing the growing formation of a blackened portal forming out of the bark; splitting the wood and fracturing directly into tree's trunk. The material, later, under full daylight, would be seen as scorched, twisted and gnarled, as if the victim of a somehow temporary chronic sickliness. Elfleda's form slipping into the acrid smoke, only to appear summoned from the other side. The pathway to somewhere with real presence, signalling powerfully into the nearby Slayer's mind, sealing up behind the figure now dressed in a far more wickedly regal fashion than before. Now longer the girl of before. Now a pale creature in ebony bridal dress. Everything, from the colour of eyes and nails, to the style of hair, radically altered.
And, while by no means any longer a picture of radiant health, without any further need to retain disguise, the unfurling of Elfleda's true presence made her feel that much more compelling.
"What do I want, Valerie? Why, I wish to help, you silly girl..."