S T A N D I N GT R I A L S
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G L O B A L E V E N T
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G L O B A L E V E N T
TREID'S HEART
5th Saun, Arc 716
Location: Somewhere in Idalos...
Location: Somewhere in Idalos...
The mountain loomed over the expanse of field and forest. In the distance, the sun slipped below the horizon and the stars began to peep through the darkening sky. Night took hold and the towns and cities below began to light their lanterns. Upon the mountain, a figure stands silhouetted in the stars looking down on this great land, this IDALOS.
Piercing the darkness are two yellow eyes. As the clouds part and the moon finds passage behind, the figure's soot-coloured skin collects a soft sheen and hair of feathers rise and fall in the wind as if lighter than air.
It is Syroa.
Her clawed hands reach out as if to crush the city beyond. "Mortals. No more," she murmured.
She stands on a rock that projects out toward a cliff. Around her, plants and trees hiss in the wind. Her yellow eyes draw away from the scene as she notices a rustling of leaves. A forest of trees begin to lose its leaves, one by one, until all are bare. Syroa notices flowers in a bush beside her droop and blacken.
"You've kept me waiting, Lisirra." Syroa spoke, as if to no one in particular.
"There was something I had to take care of." The voice of a young girl pierced the wind. It was a strange sound. Raven hair, worn short, framed the face of what appeared to be a young girl. But the eyes, piercing and yellow, had seen arcs of death and decay. The black stains of her white dress, like her eyes, seemed to tarnish her apparent innocence. "I tested a beautiful disease on a town, just before this mountain. Their heads just...popped off. It was quite a sight—"
"Why bother then with the forests?" Syroa sharp claws unfolded to gesture to the trees, bare of life, like thorns rising from the mountain.
"I can't stand things living. Everything should just...die."
Syroa let out a throaty laugh. "That's why we get on so well, no? Well, darling, we have new things, bigger things, to kill." Syroa turned to face out toward the city in the distance.
Lisirra stood beside Syroa to gaze out at the view.
"Look at those tiny, insignificant mortals that find home." Syroa pointed with a sharp claw.
"So many to infect." Lisirra's eyes grew round and the ends of her lips raised slightly.
"Yes. Too many. Idalos is enormous and our task to rid her of this vermin is equally so."
Lisirra sniffed. "Such a task is only so great for those who have not the capacity to undertake it."
"Oh?"
"Perhaps you are aware of another who walks in our midst?" Lisirra glanced sidelong at her ally.
Syroa turned to Lisirra with an inclined brow.
Lisirra whispered to her. "Of course you do." Her yellow eyes gleamed, "He is here."
Syroa gave an approving smile and snapped her fingers. They suddenly appeared in a dark plain. Grass extended out into the horizon. A moon beamed in a cloudless night sky, peppered with stars. The mountain, the trees and forests, the cities beyond...all gone. Syroa and Lisirra turned about at their new surroundings.
"A most impressive display," Lisirra called out. Her hand flickered, as if from habit, and a wildflower nearby drooped and blackened. She stalked with her arms behind her back, feet pushing through the knee length grass, that died off at each stride. "Show yourself, Aelig." She spoke out, "You can't hide behind your illusions forever you know."
The scene began to warp as a figure slowly appeared before them. Shrouded in ribbons of cloth and face, that was not there. It almost seemed as if there was a place in the sky where stars were missing. Syroa crinkled her nose as the smell of rotten corpses engulfed the air. Lisirra took a long breath, her eyes rolling to the back of her head in delight. She shook her head of it and glared at Aelig.
''I noticed you many times in the past." Lisirra head cocked to one side as she regarded Aelig, with a sweet smile. "Of late, your stench seems to follow us wherever we go." The smile soured, "What do you want from us?"
Aelig simply stood there.
Suddenly all about them were cities on fire, burning, with the sounds of screams and terror. Shadowy creatures emerged all about to swamp fearful masses of people, enveloping them in a sea of blackness. Aelig disappeared, turning into a man, head shaven, eyes popping out in terror, screaming at them as if pleading at them to stop. The illusion disappeared. Aelig remained.
Lisirra and Syroa's eyes of yellow gleamed.
"Oh my," Syroa was exultant. "Let them have it then!"
