[Lyra] The Ghost Within the Trainyard

[Chronicle]

Glade 6th, 122nd Year

Damn him. It was his fault that the black mage had fallen into this messy affair, that he would've been so close to completion again. His journey carried him far, that he would credit, but Odison had found that having a mere existence had grown tiring. Not that it helped that his own mortal body wasn't healing consistently, the dark aether he'd endured from that wolf's own power almost enough to actually have done so. But no. Death evaded Odison yet again, and now, he laid within the corner of a train cart, isolated within a trainyard where sounds of machines and life echoed from outside.

Black ooze rippled within the corner he'd lain in, the lower half of his legs still not yet regenerated, nor had the left arm that was blasted to smithereens by that power. Even the robe had been shredded all around his upper torso, the wicked black gashes throbbing as he breathed steadily. How... How did that pathetic warrior gain such power? What on Ailizane drives him to possess it? It was too soon... I haven't recovered... His only eye opened to gaze out into the car that he rested in, the sunset shining within as he could see black spots within the train.

That's right. He needed more... More bodies if he wanted to regenerate. Unfortunately... none had started to come around anymore. Last he heard while he was resting, the sounds of laughter and children were what filled his dreamless slumber. Laughter at the prospect of exploration, before horror awaited their curiosity. There were six in total, and none of them substantial enough to sate the appetite of the Dark One. It may very well have to carry on... The black mage realized as he still felt like he might choke, having spite for his cursed immortality once more.

Thus he closed his eye and breathed, lightly but as deeply as his faltering lungs would allow. "Lyrielle..." Odison whispered out into the air, as the last of the sunlight finally died out within the car. It was in these twilight hours that reached out to her, finally, after sensing her presence somewhere further within the city. "Lyrielle... won't you sing, a sweet lullaby?" As he waited the black mage lifted his right arm, his only arm, as though he waited for her to appear and reach for him.

"Speech" "Odison" "Odison"

[Lyra]

A prickle up her spine is what first alerted her, like breath on the nape of her neck that made her hair stand on end. Lyra lowered her book and glanced out the window to the fading sunlight across the city of Zaichaer, searching not with her eyes but with senses she had not used in centuries. Her name was called, spoken from the lips of a man who sang a similar note to her soul. Instinctively she released herself from her flesh as billowing smoke. The lights in her room flickered as the shadows creeped in from all corners, and the window latch came undone. Like a cloud she spilled out, falling as a dark mist upon the streets of Zaichaer as she flowed in spiraling patterns in the direction of the trainyard.

In the room her body slumped as the lights were extinguished, all that was left was a faint murmuring in the shadows as the window was closed and latched more.

*****

It began with whispers. Voices of men, women and children that spoke in tongues forgotten so softly that they could not be understood. Lyrielle came as a fog through the trainyard, dark tendrils of smoke flowing up and over cars as she grew closer and closer to the voice which had called to her. She found him, the person she had helped a year prior. Broken, blead, and pitiful.

Dark smoke covered the car in which Odison lay. First her golden eyes appeared, staring down at the man unblinking. Then her face framed by flowing locks of silver leaned down to within a hands width from his own.

"You called us, little one." Lyrielle tilted her head curiously, "We saved you once. Now you wish another favor? Do you wish death?"

Lyrielle's eyes trailed over his body, eyeing the black blood before looking back at his face more more. Long nailed fingers materialized from the smoke, gently stroking one cheek, "Who are you that you can summon us as you have?"

[Chronicle]

The shadows that filled the room seem to intensify around Odison, whether it was due to how late the sun had started to set or because of Her arrival; he did not know. He only knew that the connection felt stronger between them now, as golden eyes soon loomed within the gloomy air overhead. She had come. Just like he knew she would, the Lady of Whispers answered his prayers and approached. Even now the faint echoes that he could faintly hear in the shadows sparked a slight smile, if only for a moment before his pain erased such fleeting joy. As the dark smoke flowed within and she gradually took some form, Odison's hovering hand shook before it lost the will to remain.

As the limb fell over to rest though, the black mage watched her through the one working eye he still had. Though much of his body remained the appendages that failed to regenerate still throbbed, as the pulsating substance that oozed from the few injuries left on his chest and torso could only be described as blood. Black blood at that, coursing not just through Odison' veins, but along the floor and lower walls of the train cart they were within. The substance acted nearly with a will of it's own, Lyra would find, emitting a faint resonance from a song she felt most familiar to Her. Not only did the blackened blood carry this symphony, but the would be dying mage before her possessed two other symphonies of his own now.

Odison's obviously called out in bitterness and misery, with a hint of relief in knowing what was eventually to come. He knew. He was well aware that he would not be leaving this cart tonight, at least, not in the way his masters had planned on him doing. Yet as LYra would listen to this she'd hear the other two symphonies beneath his own, a symphony of hunger that resonated throughout the black blood Odison shared, and the other a symphony of mischief and delight within the presence of the Lady of Whispers.

"This one has craved it. This one yearns for..." The eerie dark glow in Odison's eye flared and lessened, as the man coughed unpleasantly from the amount of blood he choked on.

"You... came..." Suddenly the tightened features on his face lessened, a peaceful stare found in his eye as he looked to Lyra differently. It wasn't the same ravenous look in his eyes like before, no, instead he seemed to take pleasure in seeing her for one last time. "Sweet Lyra... even in this-" Another set of hacks led to more drops of blood trailing from the corner of his lips, as well as out of the black swirling mass that failed to reshape his other eye. "I... Could only wish for death..." He then mused, his eye closing as he felt the brush of a finger on his cheek.

For whatever reason a new note filled the main fading symphony in Odison, suggesting he was happy to share these final moments with her. Yet the eye opened once more, glowing a little brighter as the black blood rippled throughout his form. "We are... A servant. The Dark One returns... This one would serve him..." A pained sigh came from Odison's lips as the last few notes of his symphony died out, leaving just the two others that sang out to the Lady of Whispers. Starvation filled the void in the black mage's eyes though, his hand shot up with a life of its own as it reached for her. To touch her even if she were mere smoke between his grisly fingers.

"However... The mortal coil of this one... expires. And its quest... near completion." Toward his left against the wall, a travel bag saturated in black blood rested. Though the arm could not reach across to pull it forward, it did not matter, so long as the Lady herself was able to see it was there. "Within there... Pieces... like you..." The darkness that drove Odison's body emitted a low growl, clearly pained and aggravated by the condition of the dying vessel. "This vestige was meant to hold them... To... reunite them... But now..."

The eye shifted to stare deeply through Lyrielle's own eyes next. "You... must finish it. Find... the last... piece... And call... Her..." The dark mage exhaled another pained sigh, the entity within clearly encumbered by the failing body it possessed. Yet there was a new look in his eye when he mentioned Her, a look of utter terror as though the entity did not wish to call upon the one unnamed.

"Speech" "Odison" "Odison"

[Lyra]

His fingers passed through her body, dispersing her in pieces though her features flowed back together once his hand had stopped moving. She studied him, curious and wondering as her head and half-formed shoulders spun in a slow circle over his body. She listened to the symphonies as they vied for dominance, hunger and joy, and something else entirely. She smelled the sickly sweet stench of death, and then one of the melodies quieted forever.

Lyrielle did not understand, but while Lyra might have questioned and pondered the implications, Lyrielle herself found her attention pulled away to the bag that sat in the corner.

"You are a puppet like the flesh we wear." Lyrielle turned her head to look back at Odison, noticing only now that the intensity of his eyes had changed twice since she had arrived.

"Like us?" A question came as Lyra's face disintegrated and appeared over the bag that oozed black blood. More of her body condensed to form shoulders and arms, and she tried without success to pull on the straps that held the satchel closed. Irritation flowed across her features as she only succeeded in making the straps gently from side to side. Extending her senses out she searched, tendrils of smoke slipping in and around other cars in the trainyard until she found what it was she sought. With a flick of her thoughts, she stilled the melodies of several large rats, and then with the mark burning like hot coals, she sent a lance of shadows through their hearts, killing them so that her whispers could slip inside their now empty bodies and move them like puppets on strings.

Lyrielle's attention refocused on Ondison as she left the bag, the rats now beginning to flow in one after another as they headed toward the satchel to begin chewing through the straps with their sharp teeth.

"What are these pieces... and who is her that you speak with such fear in your melodies?" Once more Lyrielle flowed around Odison, her golden eyes staring intently at the still bleeding man with renewed interest, "What are you?"

She again looked at the blood oozing from the wounds, the part of her that was not enraptured by the freedom of her current state wondered if, perhaps, this was part of what she had been searching for.

[Chronicle]

Tonight would be a night filled with revelations, as the Lady of Whisper undoubtedly had questions spiraling within her. What Odison, rather the thing within him, would have given to have that kind of time. Yet the pulsations throughout the black blood slowed, the glowering eye of the entity observing her gradual orbits around him. Until it didn't. Inattentive of everything the breaths of the creature grew into deeper rasps, as the rats within the yard all came to aid Lyra in releasing the straps of the soiled bag. Black sludge spewed out quickly covering the rats, as fragments of a broken weapon slid across the surface from the shift in weight.

While the several litter critters caught in the immediate splash experienced displeasure in disintegration, the sludge thinned out quickly to allow the other rats to investigate the shards found on the floor. They were pieces of a blade dark as obsidian with weathered runes faintly glowing on them, a rather noticeably strong symphony resonating with the voraciously hungered notes within Odison's body. "Fragments desperate to be whole..." The mouth no longer moved and yet, a deep tone echoed from the lifeless body before her.

"As for Her, our Lady, She is the Wishmaker, only few ever dare invoke Her name." The nubbed fingers of Odison's arm twitched a little, before it craned over to press those fingers into the sternum of Odison's corpse. "The Flesh Queen." A sickening squelch was heard as the fingers protruded into the core of the body, along with the hand up until the wrist even. The rest of the body started to twitch and convulse in response to the invasion, wrinkles noticeably sinking within pockets of the flesh. "With the final piece to Oblivion... You must evoke Her, by name, with all the pieces presented. I can sense it calling... somewhere within this loud city..."

Something inside the body resonated a heavy pulse akin to a heartbeat, Lyrielle's heartbeat in fact, as the underlying joy beneath the heavier symphony grew louder; Odison's hand gradually pulled something toward the surface of the corpse, only to pause before the faint glimmer within the eye brightened one last time. "Reclaim your birthright... Lyrielle... Restore... us... both..." The squelch of blood around the hand revealed that the final pull brought to the surface another fragment of the weapon. It was the crossguard of Oblivion where hilt and blade were both cracked and severed. Where there rested a radiant violet gemstone within the slot of the crossguard, Lyrielle felt the shard of her soul calling out to her with eagerness.

The corpse of Odison began to shrivel and even melt away, the black blood oozed outward first before ripples pulsed inward from the edges of the pools. Gradually the black blood started to coalesce and seep into the crossguard of Oblivion, a sizzling sound heard as the contact with the metal seemed to absorb the blood with ease. Though stained black throughout the floor and lower walls, not a single drop of blood lingered within the train car anymore. Below Lyra waited her prize, as well as her newfound appointment with a Mistlord in particular.

"Speech" "Odison"

[Lyra]

As the straps came undone Lyrielle moved to hover over the contents as they spilled out like bile upon the floor of the train car. Several of her puppets steadily began to disintegrate, a fact Lyrielle barely took notice of as her attention focused on the fragments that glowed with a dark luminescence. Broken as they were, they gave a sense of sharpness that made Lyrielle feel as though they could still cut her even in her current state.

"The Flesh Queen?" Lyrielle asked, looking back at Odison, but she did not have time to ask further before the man was groping around inside his own chest. She watched with mild interest as he withdrew something metallic, and she felt the call that drew her fully back to his side once more.

Instinctively she drew nearer, eyes widening as she reached out toward the gem at the center of the hilt. She paused and glanced back at the fragmented shards on the floor, though as the black sludge was drawn back into the metal cross-guard Lyrielle was able to direct the rats to pull them into a pile to one side without fear of them disintegrating. When she finally looked back at Odison his body was shriveled, and not a single drop of the black blood remained.

For several long moments Lyrielle floated in silence, staring at the gem still held in the center of the metal guard that lay on the floor. She felt almost... hesitant, but as the call grew stronger she surged forth, extending hands that formed from smoke to touch the gem, reclaiming a piece of herself for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.

[Chronicle]

There was no certainty as to what Lyra would recover upon reclaiming the shard of herself, only the constant symphony that called out to her as she inspected the jewel within the crossguard. When she finally reached out to touch it, however, activity spurred as the fragment of her soul responded; therefore flooded the Lady's mind with memories and thoughts twofold. What she felt initially was anger and betrayal, both so exceptionally deep one would nearly mistake them for madness. Then the hunger and taste of power as it filled her being, and her very core felt as though it were altering.

The first of the memories that came rushing to her thoughts were that of a village, being razed to the ground by cultists who wrought fire out of the sky, as well as undead from the bodies of those slaughtered in the raid. Two boys ran for their lives along the pass of a mountain, desperate to clear as much distance between them and their burning village. Both of dark hair and different eye color, they both shared tears as they pushed each other forward, avoiding the coming storm as Dread Mists settled over what was once their home. The memory faded into another where the time had clearly advanced, and the boys were both a bit older by at least a year.

They stood within a courtyard designed for combat training outside a grand fortress of granite. Runes had been etched into their shoulders as they held onto their weapons, each of the blades charged with aether as the beginnings of a Pact started to forge. They sparred together to show off the incredible effort they had made, having dedicated as much time as they did into combat and training, and for a moment looked as though they would overcome the hardship of their initiation together as well. However, it was as the older brother noticeably grew weaker and weaker, that it became apparent his soul was slipping away. Failure filled Lyra's heart as she witnessed this boy, as herself, slipping away into the weapon he clutched dearly.

Veins throughout his body began to glow as though pure aether coursed through his veins, before the elder brother was found screaming where he stood, with aetherial blue flames burning off his body as he became consumed by his own weapon. He felt himself burning, burning away completely as his soul left his body, and he felt the cold embrace of steel house what remained of his soul. As the memory faded from there she'd feel the love this brother had for his younger, and how even in his fallen state, he intended to protect him from the dark forces of the world. Yet that love began to weaken and instead, loneliness grew within the pit of the brother's heart, before an unexpected power soon housed itself within the depths of his soul.

It was a power that Odison clearly feared initially, mistrusted even, as Lyra herself felt immense hesitation cross her thoughts. Yet, even so, that delicious power called out to him... and beckoned for him to allow it further within. There was the promise of freedom, the allure of being able to physically interact with the world once more. Yet it came with such a great cost, because no sooner did the older brother allow this entity within, did he feel the flow of his soul alter and change entirely. Darkness blossomed deep within his heart and with it, a growing hatred for the things that he once loved in his prior life. Before too long the dark of his mind lessened around Lyra, and her thoughts allowed her to witness a similar glimpse she'd experienced long ago.

She would know this memory. Odison's soul cairn rested at the center of a circle as the armored figured stood over it, the silver raiment enough to determine who this alleged knight was. As the younger brother brought up a sword by the hilt, with two hands he plunged the gilded blade down into the core of the soul cairn. Lyra felt as if hellfire burned through her chest as she witnessed the reaction, the puncture of the golden blade deep into the Obtenebrum gem housed in Odison's handguard. Yet as Oathkeeper plunged deep into the soul of Odison, the light that poured into him did nothing to cleanse his soul of that darkness. The Obtenebrum quickly shattered and dispersed, as veins of golden light cracked their way along the body of Oblivion's blade.

Just when it seemed like the soul cairn was ready to break, a foul presence resonated from where the Obtenebrum core once rested, and an otherworldly force surged out from it to ensnare Oathkeeper within its dark tendrils. They coiled up along Oathkeeper as the light radiating along the blade smoked and burned against it, struggling to pure the otherworldly darkness as the tendrils drew closer toward the crossguard. Before too long the silver-armored knight looked to accept his coming fate, as the tendrils swirled to wrap around him in minutes once the light he radiated dimmed. What was left behind in the wake of this tragedy was the two swords, Oathkeeper and Oblivion's very fragments, rested within the center of this circle; with a large Obtenebrum crystal situated at the north end of the circle's antechamber.

Lyra would see the face of a blonde she knew to be familiar as she looked to be resting peacefully within the Obtenebrum, and yet, the remnants of Odison's fading feelings would've suggested pleasure at the end of her life. As that last memory faded though she felt the rage in her renewed, enough to where her next glimpse was of an azure knight, wary and alert with what look liked a massive hall or corridor filled with riches. Riches and junk alike in fact, as yet another mysterious entity seemed to greet the azure knight where he stood. There was an offer it would seem. A trade in which he reluctantly looked at the spheres on his belt, before he pulled one of the final few off from there in offering toward the entity in question. The bargain was struck, and that piece of Lyra that she surfaced at last, the memory itself like a sharp edge raked against the surface of steel scornfully.

"You dare!?" There was maniacal laughter in her core now, as Lyra felt the powers of hexes and curses fill her momentarily. "I would think not!" She sounded so similar to the Lady of Whispers that it was practically hearing the same voice, and yet, as the powers she felt filled her void Lyrielle suddenly sensed a shift within her very being. She felt the sting of rejection enter her spirit now, as the fragment she sought to reunite herself with denied the claim outright. Now that true freedom had been experienced, she would allow herself this opportunity to subvert her own will unto the world once more.

Thus as Lyra found that her body, her physical form, of ethereal smoke had changed into slime; she felt a shadow of her heart betray her when another blob of black slime formed before her. It was her, Lyrielle, but at the same time completely not. "Now it is my turn to unleash chaos upon the world!" The symphony within this Lyrielle was louder, far louder than Lyra's own symphony and it sang of afflictions and misery. Of a pain that would drown the world in darkness and despair, and, of a hunger to devour all that would stand in her way. Before Lyra could interact with her, however, the slimy form her other shard held turned into smoke upon will.

And the shard she'd come into contact with dispersed into the air above, leaving Lyra alone with the shards of Oblivion now in her possession.

Off Topic

As of this moment, Lyra/Lyrielle has now unlocked a new form! She is capable of turning into a slime (dark slime?) at will, and has a means of solidifying herself when she chooses. She has not yet unlocked any of her new powers.

"Speech" "Lyrielle?"

[Lyra]

The flood of memories was disorienting, but she followed the winding trail of scenes one after another without hesitation. Questions she had not known she had were answered in part as she saw the two boys, children really, went through trials that were too much for many grown men to suffer. One was trapped in a blade, the splintered thing that Odison had left in her care Lyrielle realized, but her attention was drawn to another figure in Azure armor as he appeared.

The burning emotions seared her mind as she watched that person extend a small sphere to someone, and she thought she could hear screaming from within. Screams of anger, shouts of pain, and a voice that was too familiar. Who was it? Who was the man in the armor? Why had a piece of her soul become a part of this accursed blade? And why did that piece of her rebuke her attempts to bring it into herself once more?

I dare, and I shall. Lyrielle thought in reply to the voice, and she did she wrapped herself bodily around the shard and began to drag it closer, pulling it toward her broken soul, to the spot it was meant to fill. Yet it resisted. She felt memories slipping back into her mind as the two warring halves collided. She remembered the blood, the taste of it, the texture on her tongue as the screams of men and women alike filled the dark chambers deep underground. She felt the burning like acid in her veins as her whispers twisted and corrupted the body as well as the mind. The pleasure was mixed in with the pain, fury tainted to the point that vengeance lost its meaning. It was no longer vengeance, for the thing that called for it had long been forgotten.

Suddenly Lyrielle felt so heavy. She unexpectedly found herself falling from where she hovered over the train car floor, drops of tar-like rain coming down in a sheet to cover everything in blackness. Raising herself up Lyrielle found she could not see, could not hear at first, but sensations began to pelt her one after another. She FELT the wood of the car beneath her body, the light breeze was cool across her shining black form. Pushing herself up felt like lifting a mountain as her shoulders and head formed from the inky black liquid. Her form was skeletal, all made of the same black liquid that covered everything. She reached out to another rising blob just feet from her, but before she could do anything the sludge burst into black smoke and sped away.

Anger and frustration bubbled up into a scream that echoed across the trainyard then. The liquid bubbled like boiling water as Lyrielle rose up, stretching as she clawed at the door of the car and pulled herself up and out onto its roof, leaving trails of blackness in her wake that steadily began to spread out in a writhing mass all around her. She stared out after the smoke trail, thoughts cascading over one another. She had been angry before. She had felt fury and indignation, yet this sensation was... different.

It... rejected me. Lyrielle realized. Lyra knew that such a thing should not come as a surprise, but to Lyrielle that was an unforgivable affront. That THING was just a part of her. Would the hand reject the body and sever itself for freedom? Foolish, inconceivable.

The rats had gathered the shards, dozens of them holding a piece of it in their teeth, waiting for direction. With a thought she sent them scurrying beneath the train car, hiding deep in the nooks and crannies of the train cars. Black smoke was spilling from the surface of the bubbling liquid now as Lyrielle wove a powerful whisper and threaded it together into a song that covered the entire train car and a small area surrounding it. Ominous sensations of foreboding mixed with spikes of forgetfulness, designed to push away prying eyes that would try to search this area and dissuade people from attempting to get near in the first place. The whisper flowed down and became black slime that dripped down into the train car, from it spilling a steady stream of smoke that spread the Mesmer effects around it. With those precautions in place, Lyrielle focused on the fleeing sense of her other half.

Like the other shard, Lyrielle burst into tendrils of dark smoke, flowing into the sky as a billowing cloud that followed after. The difference, however, was the flickering red light that coursed through the dark smoke. The mark of the dark one burned in her soul as she called on its power. She pulled the shadows of the night in as she flew, empowering herself as she solidified almost fully into an elf with silver hair and golden eyes. She was a storm as she flew, her expression a mask of fury, and her eyes spoke of death when she caught that pathetic shard.

[Chronicle]

Name: Lyra/Lyrielle

Knowledge:

• 10 from this thread, can pertain to any knowledge (secret or not) that Lyra can glean from this event.

Points: 15
Magic: These points can be used for Mesmer.


Injuries: Nothing to report!
Loot: 5 fragments of the sword Oblivion, 1 new slime form for Lyra!

Comment: This was absolutely fun to setup for Lyra, and wowee I never saw the other Lyra coming til the end! Looking forward to what comes next in her endeavors to revive Oblivion and reclaim herself.

Just a side note here: Secret Knowledges found in this would obviously involve things like Myshala, for example, and the minor role she has played in the memories that Odison shared to her.

Welp, that's everything I'm sure! If you have any questions, or feel that something actually was missed; please do pm me so we can talk!