Lila
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Post by Lila on Jul 4, 2015 21:14:06 GMT -6
Feeling came back slowly, faster than memory. At first the kintu was confused, the last thing she felt was pain, searing stabbing pain. Even now, it still ebbed away. She blinked two large, golden, eyes and sat up slowly. Glancing around her revealed mist, blur, glow. She shook her head lightly, wincing against the pain. She look down at her hands, splayed on either side to steady her, and screamed.
Her hands were encased in a golden glow, reminiscent of when she still did magic. Magic that she could not reach in her final moments, knowing this as sure as anything. It helped that her memory was coming back. Lila remembered everything. All the pain she had caused, and felt. Everything that happened leading up to her final true death. All of it.
She kept screaming, tears now falling down her face.
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Idina Doc
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Post by Idina Doc on Jul 4, 2015 21:43:55 GMT -6
A high scream reached the girl, bringing to her ears the feeling of having been stabbed. She whirled her head around, searching wildly, sending whisps of green light from her hair. The sound did not stop, but she could not locate the source. Yet she knew whoever was screaming so couldn't be too far away.
Idina turned away from the path she had been taking and tried to follow the sound she was hearing. The longer the scream lasted, the more distressed it sounded; almost anguished, even. She had only known of spirits entering the afterlife peacefully, and couldn't shake the feeling that this meant something incredibly odd was afoot...
A brilliant light caught her eye: a golden figure on the ground, light shining especially brightly in its hands. No, not its hands, its face. Or maybe the eyes just made it seem that way. But its chest was glowing as well, so it seemed... The light was too bright to focus right away. It took a few seconds of studying for her to realize that all of these areas were, indeed, glowing together; all the while she studied the figure, it continued to scream, and she could see heavy wax-like tears streaming down its face.
"Come!" she cried, approaching the newcomer as though pulled by their distress. She kept a distance of five paces or so, enough to better see the person while still giving them their space. She spoke as best she could over the screaming: "It is alright, you are safe here. Can you see me?"
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Lila
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Post by Lila on Jul 4, 2015 21:50:42 GMT -6
Lila's head snapped up at a new voice, her scream tapering off as she stared through her own gold glow and the green of the newcomer. The voice was familiar, cutting through the swirling thoughts. Safe? Could she be safe here? Even from all of her sins? Lila gasped quietly as she glanced up to the stranger's face, she was no stranger.
"Idina!" She cried, jerking to her feet and stumbling forwards a few steps before stopping, regretting her hasty call. As if Idina would want to see her again, after everything that had happened. Lila stood trembling, waiting to see if Idina had heard her. She blinked away a few more tears, the glow in her hands dimming and fading, letting Lila see even more clearly now. An old ache throbbed in her chest; she wanted more than anything just to run to Idina, hold her in her arms again. But Lila only stood.
Idina would turn her away if she knew, if she could see how much blood was on Lila's hands now.
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Idina Doc
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Could we start again, please?
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Post by Idina Doc on Jul 4, 2015 22:06:16 GMT -6
That voice... She hadn't heard that voice in so long, but she knew it so well. The newcomer's lights were dimming in some areas, making them - her - easier to see. The golden figure stood now, having come towards Idina but stopped herself before getting too close, and in her surprise, Idina had stepped back a pace or two to compensate. There was still distance between the two women, and they stood, staring at one another.
In spite of herself, the colour of the light in Idina's chest warmed, yellow becoming prominent within the green.
"Lila..." she breathed, not taking her eyes off of the Kinto.
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Lila
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Post by Lila on Jul 4, 2015 22:15:46 GMT -6
Lila flinched, watching the green woman step backwards as she stepped forwards. She looked at her feet, not meeting Idina's eyes and letting her hair, long now, sway in front of her face. She was right, for once. Idina knew. Idina didn't want to see her. Why else would she have backed away? "I can...go," Lila stammered, unsure," if you...want?"
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Idina Doc
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Post by Idina Doc on Jul 4, 2015 22:21:55 GMT -6
A thousand questions filled her head in that moment: How was Lila here? Did she make her way here without a guide? How had she died? What was it that had made her scream like that? Did she want to leave? "You... are here..." she managed. The warm tinge to her light had spread to her neck, where the light from her wound pulsed as though from a rapid heartbeat. "Lila... Soul and spirit, Lila..." she repeated. Her mind finally settled on a specific question: "What has happened to you?"
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Lila
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Post by Lila on Jul 4, 2015 22:29:11 GMT -6
She wasn't ordering her away. She wasn't sending her away. At least, not yet. Lila took solace in that thought, at the very least. She let out a bitter laugh at Idina's question and at how stunned she seemed to be at her form here.
"What hasn't happened?" Lila said sourly, a dour twist to her lips. She glanced up through her hair, and instantly regretted her words.
"I'm sorry..." She mumbled, before continuing louder, "I died. That's how you end up here isn't it? That's why I felt all that pain?"
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Idina Doc
Wildgardian
Could we start again, please?
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Post by Idina Doc on Jul 4, 2015 22:42:36 GMT -6
"Yes, you seem fairly dead," Idina observed. "But..."
It had been a while since Idina had died, yes - or at least, she though so - but she could remember it, for the most part. The darkness, the grogginess, the numbness everywhere but in her neck, until her soul had joined with her spirit and Jennis had brought her to the afterlife. But the way Lila spoke of her own death made it sound like she had bypassed all of that, like she had come here right away and felt way too much on the way up.
"But this means your soul and spirit are one already. You made it here without a guide to bring you here." Her eyebrows knitted with a mixture of concern and confusion. "This should not have been as painful as it was for you, either." She looked down at the Kinto's hands, longing to take one; she reached one of her own hands out, letting it hover between them, and looked back up into Lila's eyes. "What has happened to you?"
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Lila
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Post by Lila on Jul 6, 2015 10:16:55 GMT -6
Lila openly stared at the hand Idina offered. Should she take it? She reached out her own hand and held it over Idina's, wavering. "My spirit was already here, my soul was destroyed." She said. Lila took a deep breath, before explaining further. She assumed Idina likely wouldn't have known about what happened with her soul.
"My soul was...eaten." She started, grimacing. "But the one who ate it preformed a...ritual? Of sorts? In order to bring it back. Only, it was encased in a necklace. I made a deal with a wizard to grant me a physical body. In exchange, I gave him the necklace. It must have been destroyed somehow, otherwise I wouldn't be here." Lila paused, musing over her words. A flash of anger rippled through her at the thought of the wizard she trusted destroying her soul, but it quickly subsided. If the soul wasn't destroyed, she wouldn't be here seeing Idina again.
"When my soul was eaten, my spirit died. My soul was the only thing left keeping me alive." Lila paused again. She looked up quickly at Idina, and then back to their hands. "When my soul was gone, so was I."
(I think I'm remembering insub/soul/spirit lore correctly if I'm wrong lemme know and I'll change it)
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Idina Doc
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Could we start again, please?
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Post by Idina Doc on Jul 6, 2015 12:48:01 GMT -6
Idina watched the face of the caribou attentively as she explained what had happened to her, and her own expression twisted and stretched with concern the more Lila spoke. It was hard for her to imagine all of those awful things happening to a soul - it sounded almost storybook-like, like a tale a parent would spin to teach their children a lesson. But no, what Lila was saying wasn't fabrication, and she knew that. She trusted her word. That didn't make the idea of a spirit-less Lila walking the earth any more pleasant, however.
"Who... Who did such a thing to you?" she asked, a note of desperation in her voice from her want to understand. "The wizard, the person who ate your soul, whoever destroyed the necklace... Were they in Wildgard?" Suddenly the place we called home does not sound safe... she mused.
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Lila
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Post by Lila on Jul 8, 2015 11:47:35 GMT -6
Lila looked down again, expression a little sad and far away. "I only left Wildgard twice since I've been living there. Once when we left for the winter and once after..." Lila stopped, her voice breaking. She glanced to the side and then back at Idina. "I don't know who broke the necklace; I can't say for them, but the others were in Wildgard."
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Idina Doc
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Could we start again, please?
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Post by Idina Doc on Jul 8, 2015 12:25:46 GMT -6
The final word, "Wildgard", carried unexpected weight in Idina's mind. She had never stopped thinking of herself as a citizen of Wildgard, albeit now an absent one. But seeing Lila here now, bathed in light just like her, make it all the more evident to the ex-healer that she hadn't been to the land in a long time, and her words made it sound like the place as she knew it could be gone as well.
Her features softened in sadness. "Alright..." she muttered. She pressed her lips together in thought. "What all has happened in Wildgard in the time I have been gone? It certainly does sound like things have changed since I had... left."
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Lila
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Post by Lila on Jul 9, 2015 20:37:52 GMT -6
Lila stilled. What had all happened? Dread sunk in the pit of her stomach as she thought back through everything she had done.
She backed away a few steps from Idina, shaking her head as she went. "What happened?" She repeated, "Well Aria had her child. Thats the only good thing I can recall." She said humorlessly.
"I...My mind was...clouded," Lilas voice dropped to a near whisper and she looked away.
"Idina, please forgive me. I know not what I have done."
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Idina Doc
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Could we start again, please?
Posts: 258
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Post by Idina Doc on Jul 9, 2015 20:46:40 GMT -6
As their godmother, Aria's child would be the first thing on Idina's mind in any other circumstance. But neither the relief she would feel knowing the child was brought into the world safely, nor the regret of not being able to greet the child herself, could manifest fully within her now. Not when Lila was stepping away from her, not when she was refusing to meet her eyes. Not when she was asking for forgiveness.
"Lila," she coaxed, a balance of firmness and tenderness in her voice. "Tell me what you do know. Tell me what it is you want me to forgive. I... I want to understand. It has been... so long, since I did last see you, and I want to know what you have experienced. If... If you will allow me, that is."
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Lila
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Post by Lila on Jul 15, 2015 21:29:46 GMT -6
Lila nodded, still not baring to look up at Idina. "I would allow you." She shuffled around, visibly nervous. "A lot has happened, I won't deny that."
Lila sat in the grass, relishing the feel of it under her hands. Over the past months, she either had no care of simple things like this or didn't have the capacity to feel the sensations. Even the breeze felt wonderful on her skin; a welcome change from the deadness she had been trapped in while her soul was gone.
She laughed humourlessly under her breath at the thought. Her soul was gone long before it had been eaten. From the moment Lila first picked up the old branch she used as a sword, from the moment blood touched it's bark, her soul was gone.
After the long pause, Lila spoke up again, looking up at Idina, momentarily marvelling at her hair and greenish glow against the sunlight. "But I've only just gotten you back and I can't bare to think of you sending me away again."
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