Quincunx Posted December 31, 2003 Report Share Posted December 31, 2003 This was dangerous! Rosemary brooded over the silversmith's bench, counting under her breath as the burnished hammer rose and fell, seventy-four strikes in a minute to mimic Rydia's heartbeat. She'd insisted on a gold circling instead of silver which could bind the moon-worshipping, and then forbidden Rosemary to inscribe anything protective upon the outside, and insisted that a name go within! Strictly it would not have been her failing if he slipped into that golden zero and been devoured, but even those who feed upon others must be moral. . .and he was nothing demonic that deserved to be eaten. Rosemary only did what she could, forming each letter inside of one of his more powerful names engraved too fine for angelic eyes to read, and dotted the name under which she'd obeyed him with a bit of power--herself, falling forever, spiraled counter-clockwise. Was she enough to plug the new, gaping hole in the universe? . . . She raised the ring to her right eye, squinted all around it, turned it and presented it to her left eye, gazed through it. Flawless, it fell into a clutch of mossy velvet and Rosemary turned her feet away from the silver spiral of eyes upon the wall. So few eyes were open to watch her, these days. ***** Rydia slumped to one side of her hammock, only half her face and a concealing hand showing over the edge of the sea-green silk. The hammock hung still as death, more still than Rosemary as she brushed the door aside and waited for her patroness to express some interest. After some minutes, Rydia gathered her strength and pushed herself upright, then sat with head bowed and hands gripping the hammock edge desperately. Rosemary sank to one knee before Rydia and opened the fistful of cloth, exposing the ring. One ear twitched weakly. "It's like. . .having a bit of him here," breathed Rydia. She leaned heavily to her right and freed her left hand from the hammock; Rosemary slipped the ring onto her finger without skin contact and drew smoothly away from the sudden tears. Whispering "thank you. . .thank you", the winged elf unfastened all of her shining earrings and dropped them onto the velvet. As Rosemary transferred them to a secure money pouch, Rydia dared to ask, "Have you heard anything of him?" "Gone," said the vampire flatly. "No!" Rosemary stared down at her with pity. "My six-and-six-again is fine, don't weep for him. The other one, she who was caught in it all unwilling--gone." She flung her arms out exactly as wide as the spiral upon her wall downstairs, indicating the two eyes of which she spoke. "And no-one notices, save me. . .and he. . .and now, who else is gone?" Unbelieving, Rydia screamed, and the power of an archangel flooded out with it. Rosemary screamed also, but in terror, and fled down the spiral staircase with half her headdress burnt away. Above, Rydia slammed the heavy door shut, then slumped against it and howled with misery, wringing her fingers against the new ring. It couldn't be true. . .couldn't be! Not while she was confined here and her love forbidden to follow! Couldn't be true! It isn't. But where is their love? She whimpered as the brilliant silver light faded from the ring and the ringing silver voice from her mind. Her spiritual sisters in the quincunx were meddling again--but in what? ***** (to be continued) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peredhil Posted December 31, 2003 Report Share Posted December 31, 2003 Brilliant. I'd thought you were spinning new spirals - spinning away from seed lain in the old, but transforming into the new. It's good to see you writing again. Valdar take note, there is life outside EQ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quincunx Posted January 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2004 The headdress was ruined; Rosemary removed it and tucked it into another belt pouch, then glanced at the wall. Wall to the right, stairs descending clockwise: she parted her dirty-blond hair as indicated and drew it into childish pigtails, all the while drawing closer to the yelling below. "I don't know what's going on, server-side boss." Despite the distortion of tone, that was recognizable as Tzimfemme's form of address. "Gods know we'd all be happier if you could get to her, but you can't--which is impossible 'cause this place never has anything but protective wards, and I trust you. We do. Whatever." Rosemary came out onto a landing and discovered Tzimfemme leaning out of a window and shouting down to someone outside the Pen keep. The naked mage heard footsteps and levered herself back inside, only to be startled and almost fall out of the window. "Don't do that, Rosemary!" she snapped, turning back to the window and continuing, "Someone wants to talk to me, better go wave at a few more windows, I'll try to send an elder around to you!" Abruptly she spun about and raised an eyebrow. "So have you heard anything about this?" "He's gone." "Have you heard anything new--" Tzimfemme stopped and assessed the hair, the dishevelment, the shell-shocked look which meant no information would be going into Rosemary's brain and only a repeating loop would be coming out. "Oh." A thin-lipped, dimpled smile spread itself on Tzimfemme's face and she did a brief, undignified hopskip of joy, her eyes glinting silver with the realization. One hand, powdery white, shot out and steadied Tzimfemme by the wrist. "It's not so simple," whispered Rosemary urgently, watching the light leach out of Tzimfemme's aura. "I yearned for someone to be paired, to spin and fall eternally. . .and none were. Those who were untouchable, I could not bind. Those who had been bound by you were not touched. Those who had been touched by you unbound themselves. You locked me away and I failed! You and I are the only ones so touched," and she raised their hands together into the moonlight. Tzimfemme's stomach lurched as she saw the pure, white imperfection rise to the surface of her own skin. "You preached truly," Rosemary rasped. "We are plagued." ***** (to be continued) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quincunx Posted January 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2004 Rarely, Tzimfemme cursed her mutable body. Most people only suffered reddened ears when someone was focused upon them; she would undergo metamorphosis under the pressure of her viewer's dreams, bursting out of clothes and changing coloration. Keeping close to Orlan held her features mostly steady nowadays, but some people--and Rosemary was one--retained their power over her. If the vampire's mad mind saw their bond as a disease, it was one: nausea and fever and hallucinations and mottled skin. "Dammit," she croaked, coughing, "dial it back a bit already, Rosemary!" "It is what you think it is." "I *cough* know that! And if I'm going to help with whatever idea you've got," lied Tzimfemme, "I need to be able to function! Give me something useful!" She straightened up, smiling, as the vampire let go of her hand and let the powder recede. Rosemary gathered herself and impressed to Tzimfemme's mind three mage names, one fused name, and an absence-of-name that screamed volumes. Tzimfemme doubled over again with the rush of memories, then crumpled to the floor, alternately cursing Rosemary and gritting her teeth against the emotions. Underneath her feet, her clenched fingers and toes started to dig tracks into the stone floor. After letting a vein into one end of the most coiled track near Tzimfemme's head, Rosemary turned her back and walked briskly away before the blood made it into the naked mage's system. ***** "Awaken." Minta pulled the zombie-skin crazy quilt more firmly over her head. When Rosemary shook her shoulder, she flipped a half-turn under the covers and tucked all of the quilt ends under herself. When one quilt end was pulled high into the air, she did one and one-half turns in midair before she was entirely free of the covers. Not even that and the resulting bounces coaxed open her scrunched-shut eyes. "Don't wanna! Rydia's sad so I'm sad, an' is all about a stupid boy anyway, an' is not time for me to get up yet, an' Tzimmy's being weird again an' nobody told me again. . .oooooooooo are you gonna tell me? Can I come this time can I can I can I pleasepleaseplease!!!!!" Minta shot out of bed and orbited around the bedpost and into a clean robe, landing with a bounce right in front of Rosemary with one sleeve turned halfway back on itself. Rosemary corrected the sleeve, then took a silver circlet of her own design (properly warded and engraved to be as distracting as the little one herself) and settled it on Minta's curly hair while sending thoughts of her spiritual sisters into the little one's mind. "Tonight," she whispered, "you will be where I once was. . ." Her fingers clenched angrily, and Minta protested. "Tonight you are the one to call, to see where she and I enthrall--and don't forget," with a sharp slap to Minta's backside that sent her scurrying into the corridor, "you're next to fall." ***** (to be continued) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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