• Graded • Trial of the Sated

[Praetorum]

*shrugging noises*

As Praetorum watched, Luther's essence seemed almost to melt into the woman, the connection between them going with him. And for what seemed like the longest moment, it seemed that nothing had happened, that she'd simply devoured his friend whole, that she would soon turn on him, on the eternal, and then be turned loose onto the world. 



And then something surged within her, flashing behind her eyes. Bolts of power emerged, lightning quick, destroying where it struck, save for when it struck the eternal. And he could see it was Luther's eyes in her face now, Luther's hungry gaze.



The battle was won. But Prae didn't have a moment to celebrate. Stumbling over, Praetorum snatched up Caedro's coat, and the stone inside, and clutched it in his claws. "Luther." He grabbed on to the woman's shoulder, steadying himself in his weakness, and gestured to the newly opened door. "Come on. This place is falling apart, we have to go before it collapses on us."


He couldn't cajole the ghost away, Prae was sure of that. Not with such a tantalizing prize, newly revitalized with energy, sitting right there. Not when even Prae found his eyes drawn to it, the flaying thirst hot in his throat, urging him to drain, to drink, to devour. Praetorum knew little of ghosts, but he was almost certain that Luther's hunger was even worse than his own; what other explaination could there be for such a dramatic change in him? 



Praetorum wouldn't be able to get him away from the eternal, not without a threat. 



But he had to try. "Luther, please."


The look that Luther leveled him at that was painful to see. His memories of Luther were of a bookish, kind young man, with dreams of the world beyond, and nothing like malice in his heart. The ravenous hunger he saw now, the challenge and boldness... 



Prae tightened his grip on Luther's shoulder. "Luther. You know me, you always have. I'm a simple man; all I ever wanted was to protect people. And I've never shied away from getting hurt for it. So I know you'll believe me when I tell you this. If you try and drain that eternal, if this... this hunger is all you are now, I will give to it every scrap of life, soul, and ephemera I have in me to it, to try and help it escape. Everything I have, everything I am, because that's who I've always been. And then when it's gone, escaped or eaten, this trial will crumble to pieces. How long, Luther, do you think it would take to pry Caedro's coat from my dead claws and run to the doorway? How sure are you that you'll make it in time?


We can walk away, Luther. You and me, we can walk away and make a new home for ourselves. You don't have to be alone again. We can work this out, but only if we leave. Now."

[Luther]

Luther shuddered as he stretched his newly stolen fingers. This was certainly...unexpected. He had never inhabited a female form before, and he was sure this body had never held both a spirit and a soul vying for victory. He smiled on lips that were still strange to him, the only evidence of his possession clear in the women's now life-starved eyes.

He could feel the thrum of her power within him, a wall of life-energy hastily constructed to keep him out. It tasted like cinnamon and terror on his tongue. Luther licked his lips, slowly as to savor the feeling that seemed to tingle through his teeth. He had control of this body, but it wouldn't be enough. It rarely ever was for Luther, even before he became an Empty. The wall wouldn't keep him out for long. All it required was the slightest push and...

A scaled hand rubbed against the raw flesh of his shoulder. Luther lifted his eyes to meet the towering form of Praetorum; an aching, tire plea in his eyes. He wanted the ghost to go with him. To leave. It was true, this place was collapsing with every passing tick of time. Yet, that Eternal remained. Luther didn't move when Prae begged him forward.

Eyes locked on that gem, the ghost wondered what he could do with that type power? Power older than the Immortals, wasted on spirits that seemed as ambivalent about the would as its current rulers. What kind of strength could he wring from the blood of slain spirit like that? He could scantly imagine the type of good he could do for Idalos. The weak he could avenge, the answers he could gain. He would certainly do better than the kings and gods that laid claim to crowns now. Perhaps it would even make him whole again? Make him Luther again?

His gaze met Prae's again. There was a challenge in his endless eyes, an anger at the command. Praetorum thought he could order him around, like they were kids in the Empire again? Gone was the meek child from their past, the boy who was content with books telling the stories of other people's lives. In its place a stronger, stranger soul had risen. And he would not be ruled.

"No."

Praetorum's grip tightened on his shoulder. Even as weakened as the ithecal seemed, he could still feel the titan's strength dig down into his borrowed flesh. It was cute, how the man still tried to appeal to the ghost's long dead humanity. Yet, he made sound points. Luther did know Prae, as well as anyone could know family. The ghost knew the ithecal would sooner shave off his own scales than let another suffer unnecessarily. Beyond that, both of his anchor's were in the other man's possession. By the time Luther would have ripped the life from his being, he would be trapped in this nothingness; trapped with taunting mirrors of the ithecal's image. Praetorum held every advantage in his hand. The ghost had no choice but to obey, and nothing in the world could have made Luther angrier.

Until he saw his grandfather's coat clutched in his claws. Until he mentioned Caedro.

"You don't get to say his name!" The ghost raged, shoving back against Prae's broad chest and raising a quivering finger at the ithecal's snout. "You don't get to say his name. You weren't there. While you were off 'saving the innocent', the Empire came for us! Do you know what I did? As I watched them put my entire bloodline to the blade and blacken their skin with flame?! As they cut out my grandfather's tongue and shoved a burning coal down my throat?!" For a moment, Luther's eyes turned soft. Sad. He curled his fingers into a fist and weakly hit against Praetorum's chest.

"I prayed. I prayed that the Empress would send you to save me. But you weren't there." He took a heated breath through borrowed lungs, a delightfully cruel idea crawling to life in-between the beats of his anger. "So fine, save the Eternal. I can't stop you Prae. But you can't save everyone."

Luther pushed against the wall of Ephemera that separated the spirit from his soul, syphoning whatever was left of vessel he found himself in. That familiar taste of cinnamon and fear filled his mind, and spectral hand visibly rested on the woman's bottom jaw. Another hand joined it on the roof of her mouth, and with a horrifying display of gore he ripped his way out of the spiritborn's mortal body. Standing above the bloody viscera of the corpse, Luther once again met Praetorum's gaze with a challenge.

"You can't save me."

Filled with stolen power, Luther turned from his life long friend hurried to the exit of the trial.

[Praetorum]

Angst o'clock

Luther exploded in anger, the likes of which Prae had never seen from him before. And every word he spoke broke Prae's heart. 



Praetorum had failed him, in every way. Luther didn't need to tell him that—he'd known it the moment he'd crested that hill on his worn out stallion and laid eyes on the blackened ruin of the human's farm. But it wasn't until he heard it now, from Luther's stolen lips, of exactly what they had done to his friend, of the torture they had inflicted, of how Luther had died in agony while Prae had been miles away in a tiny fort at the edge of the empire, that Praetorum finally, finally understood. 



It wasn't the hunger that had changed Luther's disposition, or at least, it wasn't only that. The bastards who had killed him had burned every last scrap of gentleness and goodness out of his friend, and in its agony, the hollow shell that was all that was left of Luther had filled itself back up with rage and spite and greed. 



This wasn't his Luther. 



Prae had thought that threatening his own life would shake the ghost out of his hunger madness, but it hadn't, because madness was all he was anymore, with everything human gone from him.



Praetorum knew he couldn't give up on Luther, couldn't give up on the hope of bringing him back to his sense. But he saw, now, that neither could he afford to have faith in Luther anymore, not until he was fixed. He could not afford to treat Luther as anything but a threat, especially to the eternal Prae still hoped he could save.
 And since he wasn't willing to hurt Luther, even now, all there was to do was to remove them all from the situation.


Because Luther was furious, Praetorum was certain of that. This might not be his Luther anymore. But this was a Luther, and there were still some things that Prae knew about him—you always knew your own family, after all. Praetorum knew the tone of Luther's voice and the set of Luther's jaw, and he saw now that he'd said something wrong, made Luther very, very angry. He had no idea what this new Luther would do, though, and that was a stray variable Praetorum couldn't risk having in such a volatile situation.



So when the Empty's eyes softened in misery, as his stolen body beat a fist ineffectually to Prae's chest, the ithecal caught Luther's hand, and held it close to his heart. He cast his mind to his own trial as Luther continued to speak, fixing his thoughts to the memory of his own little domain in this realm. The paths of light in every color, the endless expanse of space they wound through, the sense of home, of ownership, of belonging; more than a memory or a sensation, these things were a certainty, an anchor, rooted deep in what passed now for his soul. 



Luther's words—as deep as they would have cut Prae had he engaged fully with them—washed over the ithecal like so much rain over rock, barely registering in his mind as the Spiritborn focused with every fiber of his being on that training ground he knew he could still reach. He remembered leaving it, the knowledge that he would be able to exit from it to anywhere in the world; there had been a peculiar feeling to traveling without moving that Prae reached for now as he tried to reverse that memory, to enter instead of exit. With every altered cell in his body, with all the energy he had left in him, however little that might be, Praetorum reached for that place, with as much haste as he could muster.


He'd have prayed he wasn't racing against time, if he'd had a thought to spare. But since he didn't, he simply acted, fingers tightening on Luther's wrist as he crossed over into his training grounds, dragging both Luther and the woman he was inhabiting along with him.

OOC

Using the spiritborn ability to enter their own training grounds from wherever/whenever.

Prae starts trying to cross into his own training grounds after Luther says 'As they cut out my grandfather's tongue and shoved a burning coal down my throat'. Fingers crossed that he gets them through before Luther McMurders the lady lmao

[Pegasus]

The Call: Thread Review

Overview

Oh. Emg. Gee. I loved this thread! Once I'd recovered from Luther's boxcode, I was just entranced! These two pcs are fantastic together and I love your writing, both of you. Thank you so much, as always, for your patience. Drop me a pm if there's anything I've missed / got wrong!


Enjoy the rewards!!

Prae

Points

XP = 20
Renown = X

knowledge

Ranged (Crossbow): Adjusting for the wind
Ranged (Crossbow): Shifting your aim at higher distances
Ranged (Crossbow): Using defiance to correct a bolt's flight
Shield (Tower Shield): Throwing your shield as a last resort
Shield (Tower Shield): Using the shield as a counterweight in spinning
Shield (Tower Shield): Most people expect a shield to be slow
Shield (Tower Shield): How to tuck behind the tower's cover
Shield (Tower Shield): Don't forget your shield while attacking
Shield (Tower Shield): Bracing the shield against blunt attacks
Shield (Tower Shield): Using the shield for clearance
Shield (Tower Shield): Blocking a hail of arrows
Strength: Exercises for the core muscles
Strength: The importance of training all muscle groups
Strength: Core muscles are used in most actions
Strength: Exertion works the tendons as much as muscle
Strength: The importance of joint support during exercise
Strength: Throwing a ghost as far as possible
Strength: How to plant your feet firmly
Strength: Squat to lift things
Strength: Interval training to build up power
Strength: The effectiveness of resistance training

Rewards

Staunch Ally
Prae must designate one person his "ally" - there may only ever be one ally, and who this is may only be changed once in a cycle. Then, once a trial, Prae is able to copy one skill from his ally, and also give one of his skills to that ally. Any non-Domain-Magic skill may be copied in its entirety for up to 2 hours. This does not "steal" the skill from the person who has it - but they must be willing. Equally, Prae is able to "give" one of his skills to that person only. Both parties must be willing and aware - the process takes approximately 1 minute to perform.

Luther

Points

XP = 20 (Ghost)
Renown = X

knowledge

Syphon: Feasting on a friend
Syphon: The taste of a spirit-merged being
Syphon: Devouring a shadow of one’s soul
Syphon (Empty): Domination
Syphon: The taste of an eternal
Syphon: Starvation creates strength
Syphon: The feeling of being feasted on
Syphon (Domination): Ordering a soul that shares ones obsession
Syphon (Domination): Dominating a spirit-merged soul
Syphon: Battling a creature skilled in Syphon
Materialization (Flux): Mid-air invisibility
Materialization (Empty): The Rind
Materialization (Convey): Phasing through an anchor
Materialization (The Rind): The fullest form of invisibility
Materialization (Flux): Endless combat utility
Materialization (Flux): Getting the drop on a surprised opponent
Materialization: Solidifying inside a body
Materialization: Physically tearing oneself out of a stolen form
Materialization: Works while possessing an unfamiliar form
Materialization: Solidification while possessing a body yields bloody results

Rewards

Staunch Ally
Luther must designate one person his "ally" - there may only ever be one ally, and who this is may only be changed once in a cycle. Then, once a trial, Luther is able to copy one skill from his ally, and also give one of his skills to that ally. Any non-Domain-Magic skill may be copied in its entirety for up to 2 hours. This does not "steal" the skill from the person who has it - but they must be willing. Equally, Luther is able to "give" one of his skills to that person only. Both parties must be willing and aware - the process takes approximately 1 minute to perform. Please note - if the "Ally" is a ghost, then only ghost-skills are open to them. If they are living, then only usual skills are. This is always true.