A Game of... Bones? - Printable Version

There was a feeling of magic building, swelling, almost overwhelming. And then the dam of memory broke, and washed Asimona away.

A vision of flesh, of skin wrapped around bone.

The green glow of peridot gemstone.

A shaggy creature, red-brown and spotted; a young white wolf, speaking. "I'm gonna turn the lights back on."

A long, serpentine shape, a silhouette in the darkness, and it, too, spoke: "Anyone home?"

Shifting black fur, another wolf, a snarl in its throat. "THIS, is why everyone should be afraid of me." Reseda, growling back: "Teach me... so we can both be feared."

The wolf, again, growling; a goose hissing a warning, "This is my place now. Leave or I'll rip you to pieces!" --and then the tumble of bodies, the surge and flash of magic...

Another serpent, smaller, darker, its words a soft and pleading hiss. "You were mighty."

A gangly creature, white-wooled, crooked-toothed and drooling, and Reseda's sharp voice. "...You're the ugliest thing I've ever seen in my life. You won't have any power or respect or love. You don't deserve it, fool."

A kitten, newly-hatched, and now the reptile's voice was sinister, threatening. "You have three choices right now. You can leave now, in peace to spread my name and fear. You can join me and pledge your life to my service. Or you can die now in terror." A scuffle of violence; and the vision bled into the next.

A cloud of choking fungal spores, and fierce magic lashing out, crushing them.

"I am Reseda, dragon of the bones," and there were bones, everywhere, and a young bird-

"Have you found anyone new to join our empire?" The black wolf again, leering, grinning-

A startlingly clear vision, shapes gathered in just this place--before the Throne; Reseda, a rodent-like creature, a gaunt black horse slicked with illness. The horse's rasping voice echoed. "I think it is the past that I hear, and feel. I believe the throne... was perhaps made by slaves to a long-ago king. But I cannot be certain."

Malice. Trickery. The goose, from earlier; a moose, Whispers and magic in the dark. Hidden gemstones, snapped up glittering into Reseda's jaws, stolen away.

A white fawn, pushing up from the remains of a glittering diamond gemstone, similar stones across its throat--peering around, unsteady on its feet. Eye contact. Silence, long eerie moments of it, while they stared at one another.

Reseda's voice. "The others in this cave are weak, visionless, rude little beasts. We can show them that they're wrong. That we should be respected and feared." A tiny creature--weasel?--chittering in answer. "That's right, that's right! Worms, all if them!"

"What you must find is light: creation, lizard, and enlightenment. You have a dark shroud over your mind. It will be driven away with light. With understanding. Inspiration--perhaps companionship. I don't know that, either, not for sure. But what must change is you." It was the hyena speaking--that same spotted creature; and nearby lay the white fawn, listening, silently attentive.

The moose--the moose whose stones she had stolen--the moose fighting, a flash of magic, the snap of bones-

Again, the white fawn--this time in the glimmer of the Spire, twisting his head, magicka flaring. A Reseda, flying into another Reseda--and his voice, overlapping, time blinking and shifting away. "Thank you, for teaching me."

Her voice, blunt, calling out. "What and who are you? And is it worth my time to stick around?" A massive creature, fire glowing beneath iridescent scales, serpentine, beautiful.

A tiny bird--a child, barely-hatched--and Reseda, speaking to it. " If it is not impertinent of me, then I would name you... Lust. Yes, if you so desire, that could be your name. It would fit you well."

A serpent--again--and it is large, but its voice familiar, if choked with emotion, with hissing pain--"Why do you train these mongrels? For what?"--a flash--"What is happening to me, mama?" And Reseda--"I train them because they are useful or may be useful. Also, because it is good to make the lesser creatures happy, make them think they are on your level. -You are growing, sweet one."

The images grew faster. More blurred. Spinning, one into another, maddening to try and follow.

A puppy, hatched; the bird called Lust, curled up against her; a great gathering of Gembound, crowning the weasel from earlier, atop this very throne. "I will submit to your leadership." "Who are you, to come into my home." A flash of red eyes. "You are certainly different from all the other idiots roaming the caves, aren't you?" A distorted, terrifying voice in Orion's dark--D̸̳̼͐̍ͩ̌͊̽̃͘O̞̹̽̓ͬ͐͛̊͛͟N͂ͫ̾ͨͬ̆̐̒ͯ͢͏̟̹͎̩̭͇'̷͙̫̱͓̙̹͉̎ͥͫ͒̉̓͆͟Ț̖̈́ͭ̍͢ ̙̼̣̳͍̝̖͉̒̒̆̃L̳̮̻ͭ̾ͭ̈́̈́̅ͤ̚͘E̱̦̘̼̥̘̙̖͙͊̔́T̢̘̭̻͙̙̐̄̆ͮ̋̓̑̎͌͝ ̵̴̞̘͓͉͈̞̏̄ͭͣ̀ͧ̂̓T̷̯̅̎ͥ̇́̄͐̕Ḩ̟̪͐ͬẸ̏̎ͭ̑ͤͫͅM̷̹͍̻̠͖̪͙ͪ̒ ̭̫̪̜̬̱͐̃͋͛ͩ̊T͍̙̼̱̠ͧ̐̍̑͐ͭͨ͒Ȧ͓̥̤ͧͅḴ̸̟̹͈̗͐ͣ̈̀͡Ę̳̯͔̻̦̮̀̔͒̍̇ͬ̅͜ ̨̮̰̮̜̺̉̋ͮ̐ͮ͢͢ͅM͓̹̣̖͚̱̫ͣ̊͊ͥ̿ͩͭͅE̦͉̖̣̞̍ͨ͛̅ͯ̔̚!

-...

Reseda, laying atop this very Throne once again, surrounded by bones not her own, chewing them. Cloak and hood, impossibly tall, red dots for eyes-- "Tell me, what is it that you value above all else?" "I am Greed. I value everything and I want everything." A tangle of violence. Blood, the scent of it, the red of it, the moose lying there dying, a bone driving into his face, whispering--"I love you Blackberry. Forever and always-" as his eyes glazed over. A moose body, lifted, dragging, hauled, Orion now with stars glittering and the Gembound stared at her, many eyes, Pride and the weasel and a dragon--a vast black dragon, one Asimona knew, perched atop the Throne--"You hear that, Dread? As soon as Envy is done with you they will cast you aside. They will take all the shinies they have given you."--and they were turning on her, and she was fighting the black wolf, and he was speaking, "You believe you are close to being king, eh? No, nobody will bow down to you as you hope. And if they do your reign will be short-lived. Fear only goes so far in a leader, you have to have some form of empathy. Some amount of awareness of emotion." The cloaked figure was there, and he was placing a golden collar around her neck, and she was speaking to the little black kitten, "I am going to kill them now...and if you stand in my way I will kill you too!" and bloodshed--it was always bloodshed--and the kitten was running, burnt, fur matted thickly with blood--

And there she was. And there she was. Asimona, wings spread, the desert beneath. Baking sun and raw survival, so near to death. There they all went, trekking across the dunes, the dead lying behind them. Vulture and marsh, flood and salt. Images of blinding light and shimmering mirage.

Hydra.

She was waking--Reseda was waking; the little lizard Amazon was there, voice kind and bright. "That's a very nice name!" and then her squeaking, her demanding to be let free, but Reseda would not release her--and now she was in Orion, here again, it always came back to here! Always back to the Throne, the thing the lizard wanted and only in death had she gained it, and Amazon was pinned beneath her foot. Her voice, mocking, taunting, threatening: "Try to do it. I dare you. Of course, if you do anything to me, it'll happen to her too. I suggest you quiet down now and do what I say, unless you want your friend tossed in a black hole. Ah, and right after she found the cure too." Pride. The weasel--green, now--Livius. Taunting back. "Grovel to your king, Reseda."

Magic, flares of it, blood.

The body, lifeless now.

Death.

Decay.

Bones, bones on a throne, bones lying on stone.

Bones alive--lifting, dancing, behind Pride where he lay.

A life, in an instant; overwhelming, perhaps. A flood of it; would it be hard to recover from..? It gave little hint as to what had animated them--no use whatsoever toward the mystery. But it was what it was.

It had been everything.

Asimona wasn't expecting the torrent of memories to sweep her away. Sure, the spell had been powerful, but never before had she been torn from herself like this. Never had she been completely immersed into another person's past so wholly.

It seemed to last forever, every moment stretching through. She was living the komodo dragon's entire past...no, she was watching it. She couldn't think about it now, she was too overwhelmed by everything to formulate any kind of reaction besides shock. She saw everything and it was like her head was going to crack open, it was so filled up. At one point, she closed her eyes, but the images just kept rushing in behind her eyelids. She couldn't stop it. She couldn't take a break from it all. She had to keep going.

It seemed to last for endless cycles and, in a way, it did - the lizard had lived a fairly long life, but when, at last, she was released from it, she came to gasping, barely a minute having passed. She removed her claw from the skull and stumbled back, heaving for breath, eyes stretched wide, legs like jelly. Everything felt surreal and detached. Pride was still standing there...but was that right? He had waited for her all this time?

Her head hurt. Everything hurt. Her heart was running a marathon in her chest and it was clenching at her chest, making it difficult to breathe. She trembled and suddenly tripped on her feet, collapsing into a heap on the ground, but she didn't bother to get up. The world wasn't spinning so much from down here. She could barely feel the stone underneath her feet as she gazed forward blankly, trying desperately to hold it all in, to not lose herself to what she'd just seen, but she remembered that Pride might still be waiting for her answer. "She didn't..." she gasped, "reanimate...herself...at least..." But that was all she managed to say before her throat choked up and she found it hard too hard to breathe again. The clattering of the rocks behind her were so far away, so unimportant, that they passed through her ears and right out the other side, escaping both her notice and her memory completely.

"Can you hear their voice?"
"Find the one who'll guide you."
To the limits of your choice.

tags: @Pride
notes: