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Serene End
Jul Member 2020

Serene End

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So long had Balor and Ulyssa gone on in their lives as half a person, a jigsaw puzzle with but one single piece missing. They've struggled through this cruel, frigid existence, experiencing many darkest nights and weakest hours. Though such darkness would soon find them again, they realized now... now they needn't face it alone any longer. For finally upon this night, the two had become one.

Far beyond this splendid, captivating linkage, far beyond their bliss and intimacy, darkness befell the cruel land of Alverra. Requiring safety from those putrid, polluted waters, those of this merged following of rebels and Lamians sought out higher ground. It certainly took quite a while, finding themselves deep within the night, but eventually, they found the deliverance for which they searched.

Embraced by the silvery black, they found refuge in a small forest roughly several miles or so from that depressing, desolate fishing hamlet. Enshrouded by trees and rocks, the sound of the wild constantly at their ear. The group nestled around a large bonfire, hoping to fight off the nasty, stinging chill of the night.

The air around the campsite was certainly hopping, this small piece of sanctuary humming to a whimsical tune. An instrument in this concert was this environment, for the ground was practically alive with all sorts of exotic and unusual critters scattered amok. These curious, and in some cases, very colorful insects piqued the interests of several members of this flock, urging them to investigate.

Watching on quietly, Raphael witnessed this rising choir of excitement and intrigue. A song which enthralled several, making their hearts dance and swing with joy. He shared not in their harmony, for a storm of thought laid siege to his mind. His face brooding and stern, he was conflicted, his purple irises aiming at that soul whom he could not firmly grasp.
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11-Nov-2016 17:22:13

Serene End
Jul Member 2020

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Yes, his eyes grabbed at the long, black cotton coat of the furtive genius Telvern Thaddeus. He was found all alone with but a tree to call a companion, detached and distant from the rest of the group. He did nothing but stare, stare exhaustedly, emptily into this world. And despite the rush and urgency to pursue the Life Rune being gone, his mind still could not find rest.

"Does something trouble you, Dimri? " a kind voice then asked from Raphael's right, breaking his gaze.

The silver-haired heir then turned off to his right, finding there Libitina, the leader, the shepherd of the Lamians. Upon realization of just who stood in his midst, Raphael turned away, peering back off into the distance. "I'm fine," he dismissed her concern, a clear, blatant lie.

"It's Telvern, isn't it?" Libitina then questioned, a shot almost too good to be a mere guess.

"It's none of your concern," Raphael closed himself off, putting up all shields in defense against her. His sudden instinct to protect himself, to coil up, all due to these recollections of an answer he long sought after. Memories of a different person came crawling out from the darkness, these events which appeared from what felt like millennia ago. Flashes of fear and a trembling breath, remembering the night she nearly made away with his life.

Yet the masterful hunter would not take her prey, despite a kill so easy that even a novice could do it effortlessly. This ephemeral moment of thought reinstating a thirst, a need for an answer long forgotten. "You still haven't answered my question," the silver-haired prince then told her, drawing her eyes. "About why you didn't kill me that night."

"I couldn't," she responded.

"Why not?" Raphael continued on with a slight ire in his tone, looking for clarity. "You killed Markus Béla, so why not me? I'm the son of Lord Divus, a Barn. If your religion demands that you take vengeance on the Barns, then killing me is a necessity."
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11-Nov-2016 17:22:46

Serene End
Jul Member 2020

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"You're correct, Dimri, " Libitina confirmed. "But just as my religion tasks me with the taking of life, it also reminds me to pardon it. You were born to one of us, I'm obliged not to harm you."

"And yet, you still accepted the hit," the silver-headed heir pressed on his bombardment of facts and questions, placing Libitina in this boiling hot kettle. "It's more than obvious that you knew who I was, what I was, even before then. It doesn't make any sense why you'd accept a mission to assassinate someone who you can't kill."

"I was different then," the assassin expressed, shaken. "Truth be told, there are several interpretations of the words which Jeen drág Essa departed us. There are those who believe them a protest to violence, then there are we who believe them the permission to enact violence. I once blindly pursued the destruction of the Barn family, bending our beliefs to my whim to do so. I stood before your sleeping body with the intent to kill, but I began to question myself. I found a epiphany, and I came to realize how mistaken I was, how... wayward I had become."

"So that's all it takes, huh?" Raphael questioned angrily. "Makes me wonder why you didn't come to this realization before you killed Markus. He wasn't Solasúian or a Barn, you had no reason at all to kill him. You just did."

"...Like I said, I was different then," she vaguely told him, a dissatisfying answer which only seemed to further Raphael's frustration. The air ceased with words, yet sound of distant chatter vacanted the night. Libitina's legs sprung into action, beginning to move away from the prince. Raphael's eyes followed her on her way out, his intense stare keeping pace with her.

But then her foot halted, being just a couple of feet from Raphael's side. And despite the mile-high blaze behind her, despite the angry eyes of Raphael settled upon her back, Libitina turned back to him. Her eyes returned to him, offering kindness in the face of rage.
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11-Nov-2016 17:25:07

Serene End
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"Telvern is difficult to understand, but he's a good person," Libitina advised the silver-haired prince, attempting to break through his walls. "I've no doubt that whatever he does now, he does for you, Dimri. "

"I didn't ask for your opinion," Raphael vehemently denied, shaking his head in a rejectful manner. "Besides, what would you know?"

"Just... trust me," she requested with a smile, certainly one that Raphael had no intention of fulfilling. The assassin then just turned her cheek the other way, returning to her steady pace forwards. Her voice, as it faded into the distance, seemed sincere, yet Raphael would not buy it even if it were free. There was some mystery hidden under this blanket called Libitina, a veil, a mask.

His purple irises watched as that black-robed assassin walked away, her destination to be by the side of her clan. But Raphael held his tongue from pressing on any further, far more concerned and content in this mystery of his own. Stripped from Libitina's back, his eyes located that glasses-wearing genius named Telvern Thaddeus, a man truly stranded on an isle made of a grief and pain no soul should ever have to bear.

Although Raphael would no longer played spectator to her life by the minute, the persistence of Lamia's gaze would not extinguish. Her vermillion red gaze kept keenly, intently over her child, feeling a bold sense of determination emitting from Libitina. Yet, despite her intrepidation, there stood a lingering sense of doubt, of question. Were these words she was to say truly the correct belief to hold?

Having left Raphael's presence, the typically stolid assassin Libitina came into the warm, orange light of the bonfire. Her eyes cast over her flock, bearing witness to all their many voices and acts. Some were merely enjoying the other's company, some were trying desperately, futilely to ring the memory of that desolate fishing hamlet out of their clothes.
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11-Nov-2016 17:26:08

Serene End
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Though the moment she became noticed, all attentions were diverted, fixed solely upon her. Libitina's appearance humbling the few still remaining from her clan, their respect and admiration for their queen willing their heads down towards the ground. "Queen," all of them simultaneously, devotedly acknowledged.

" Paladimris áljin a Palalazolu, listen to me," Libitina summoned, gaining the undivivded attention of their family in black. "I've something I must say."

Each and every single man and woman in black bestowed their queen with their eyes, their concerns. Calvin, Kereske, and Shakir were fully alert, even some outside of their faith had their eyes stolen from them. Any and all voices now laid dead, giving Libitina absolute reign over the soundwaves.

Calvin curiously turned to his queen, crossing his arms. "Wassup, boss?" he asked her with worry in his heart.

The assassin's eyes laid still and compassionate upon her family in black, standing among them. "I believe we should cease our violence, our murdering," Libitina bluntly, seriously came forward, immediately drawing a vividly strong reaction from those in her company. Daevarro himself was rather shocked by this declaration, noting his own past words surely the onset of this.

The reaction of her brothers and sisters were as varied as the colorful leaves of a tree in the middle of Autumn. Some were calm and agreeable as yellow, some brewed with a mild irritation as orange, and some were angry and livid as red. The sense of dislike and disagreement swept across what was remaining of this family in black.

But how should one feel in this? To announce the end of this goal was like ending their existence. Indeed, the whole of their life was one which they trained night and day for this task, murdering the Barn family was what they were born to do. They were bred on hatred, raised on righteous indignation.
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11-Nov-2016 17:27:04

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"Forgive my tongue, queen, but why the sudden change?" Kereske then asked. "In our beliefs, it is said that Jeen drág Essa herself instructed us to defeat the Barn name, to seek revenge upon them for what they've done. They committed genocide upon a pacifistic ilk, and beyond that, merely look at the condition of our world. Is it fair that they slaughtered an entire race of people without consequence, and that they now enslave humanity in its entirety?"

"No, but neither is punishing those who did nothing to create our current situation," the assassin responded, looking at the merchant-turned-assassin directly. "Just as Jeen drág Essa taught us to resent the Barn name, she also taught us to love, to nurture. She taught us of her children, and we devotedly accepted the task of carrying on their traditions and beliefs."

Removing her eyes from a seemingly questionable Kereske, Libitina returned to walking among her brothers and sisters in black. Each and every single individual kept close eye over the usually stolid assassin as she approached, drawing quite the following of gazes. "The Neheztelians believed in looking upon all creation as equal, as precious as their own. They believed all life was sacred, even in their most hated of enemies." Libitina continued to make her case to this jury. "How would they react to these acts we commit if they were alive to witness them? We cannot answer violence with violence."

She halted in both word and step the moment she came into the heart of her family, close beside the warmth and breath of the bonfire behind her. "I will not ask you to abandon your beliefs, and do not think to change them simply because I do not agree with them," she told them solemnly. "It is the beauty of our kind. We are free to think, free to feel in any way that we can. The Neheztelians cherished emotions, and hatred... hatred is an emotion that all of us must embrace."
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11-Nov-2016 17:27:35

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Even still, despite this conclusion, there hung a lingering sense of tension in the air. Those who did not live off of malice and murder like it had become their bread and water were left rather joyous in their queen's realization. Indeed, Shakir and others among the Lamian flock had long been preaching this truth, a truth which so greatly satisfied them to have finally recognized.

Silence overtook everything as though the air had been drained entirely of noise, beginning to make Libitina question her own words. The very idea of potentially creating a vast divide between the two kinds of her family was devastating. Yet as hope seemed all but depleted, one soul would raise as a pillar to support her, carrying the burden.

With his trademark smile and laid back disposition, Calvin heeded the call, raising up onto his feet. His pale blue eyes settled down upon the woman whom he admired, respected, cherished most of all. "I'm right wit' ya, boss," he loyally pledged, then turning his eyes out to the family. ""Do no harm, if only to defend yourself. All life is sacred, precious; in the tiniest insect, in the tallest oak, in our most beloved child, and in our most hated enemy." Any-a ya 'member dat verse? It's the center-a our faith, the core-a our beliefs. Sure, if ya wanna 'ate the Barns, go right 'head. But huntin' 'em all down? Don't ferget, Jeen drág Essa also chos-a Barn as 'er vessel. Now dat's pritty tellin', if ya ask me!"

Calvin's words enough to spur a change in most assassins in their flock, his eyes finding each and every single of them. Upon the arrival of his eyes, they nodded their heads with a polite smile on their faces. " Ist ven ," they would loyally pledge as his eyes passed them, accepting these words as the truth.
The end
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11-Nov-2016 17:28:40

Serene End
Jul Member 2020

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Although it was apparent that some still stubbornly clung to their beliefs, the atmosphere stabilized, the tall bonfire the only source which radiated with heat now. The laughing and joking resumed just shortly thereafter, a truly remarkable feeling despite their unfortunate circumstances. Yes, this truly was the harmonious union of different kinds that those of the Resistance yearned for.

Libitina's eyes found Calvin, and his eyes found her. Upon meeting with her eyes, the lazy but unquestionably faithful assassin Calvin let out a gentle, kindhearted smile. Such encouraging, inspired words, such an appearance enough to lift Libitina. She smiled back at him, remembering him as a child who once didn't even come up to her waist.

The only child of Yáatiq Alaric Albertia, he was a young boy so wide-eyed and bright. She could recall it as though it were just yesterday, this blonde-haired boy sitting there among the children. Some of the children had fallen asleep, but no, never him. He could sit there for hours, devotedly listening to these many stories and lessons she had to tell. And even when his own eyes had begun to give out, he did everything he could to stay awake.

But now, many of the lessons were without purpose. It had come to an end, these practices which ended up tearing away many members of this single, large family of black. Yes, the Desert Assassins were more-or-less dismantled, and such a happening wasn't to the satisfaction or to the disdain of she whom they revered.

The mother of the Neheztelians resided abreast Raphael, distracting him briefly from his long, deep thinking. He could feel a strangeness in his chest, like his heart were the field for a great battle of tug-o-war. He instantly recognized these feelings as not his, but hers. But he didn't allow it take control over him, finding a notable ease in her feelings, an eye of calm in this swirling vortex of confliction.
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11-Nov-2016 17:29:42

Serene End
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But soon, all sound but that of the wild would die. The fatigue and taxation of the day had finally taken its toll, and those of this merged body soon found their minds floating up on their own dream cloud. Yet not all clouds were pleasant and placid, and not all could even ascend from this ravaged earth. Indeed, some minds were eternally bound to this world, this reality, such as the case of the furtive genius Telvern Thaddeus.

As per usual, he volunteered for the role of nightwatch. It's not like he could sleep anyway, even if he wanted to. He sat there in solitude, isolation, listening only to the sounds of those who could manage to find their cloud nine. He could feel the hours, minutes, seconds melt away very, very slowly, his grieving heart only capable of thinking about her.

Yet, like all things, this night too found its end. Like ice dissolving under the sun, the night disappeared, making way for dawn. Its gentle, brilliant light pushed out, these god rays which peeked through the pine trees to get a glimpse upon the forest's inhabitants. An inviting warmth which welcomed everyone to this morning, cracking open these eyes to find a delightful, but frigid morning day.

A burst of yawns took the air like a field of flowers in blossom, followed by a flurry of stretches which made them all stand tall and open like a tree. But before their sores were given any time to recover, their feet were quickly on the move again. And so, they continued their odyssey, deserting their campsite and the memories they shared within it.

They walked onwards, and after traveling a fair distance, they then come across a long, lonely road. Since they were geographically blind, they merely accepted this path as their guide, their northern star. They wandered down this road, and even as it seemed to head nowhere, they continued following it down all day and night. Yet with time, their persistence paid off, finding something cresting over the horizon.
The end
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the beginning...

11-Nov-2016 17:30:48

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