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Wet Rainbow

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The others had not found anything worthwhile to do.
Kaitlyn and Derry entered the sleeping quarters to find the mages scattered like refuse about the room. Each mage had been issued their own chambers upon arrival at Waterbirth island but over the years a need for company had drawn them all into one large room, barrack-like, with six beds aligned along the walls. Taria, her hair a golden web upon her pillow, rested in one of these beds, cocooned within her blanket. Qalir G’hana, an Al Kharidian, lay sprawled across another, one mahogany arm and leg dangling over the side of the mattress. Several years ago Qalir had experienced an epiphany of sorts and realized that he no longer needed to change out of his nightdress every day. Now, most of his life took place in his bed and he only rose regularly at mealtimes. Qalir’s grating snores seemed to be annoying the man occupying the next bed over. Marlim Harper, the person who kept life on the island orderly, glared over at Qalir’s senseless form while studiously polishing one of his shoes. Xan, the last mage, was nowhere in sight.
“Having fun there?” Derry asked Marlim who only looked up darkly before returning to his shoe shining. “I’ll bet he is,” he whispered to Kaitlyn.
Marlim’s become quieter too, Kaitlyn thought; we’re breaking apart, the island is shattering us.
“Where’s Xan?” She demanded.
Marlim grunted. “Gone. Went to the storeroom to write a good bit back.”
“Looking for inspiration amongst the food.” Derry smiled. “Well, that’* Xan for you, always brooding over his papers.”
“We should find him,” Kaitlyn said, looking towards Derry, but Derry shook his head.

26-Jun-2008 19:21:05 - Last edited on 26-Jun-2008 21:15:46 by Wet Rainbow

Wet Rainbow

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“You should, my dear. He trusts you, maybe you can weasel some speech out of him. I, myself, am turning in for the night.” Derry sat on the bed, which squeaked in protest beneath him. “My last attempt at conversation with Xan was like talking to a rock, and not a particularly friendly rock either if you get my drift.”
“Will you come, Marlim?”
“No,” was the brusque reply.
~~~~
Xan was indeed in the storeroom. Kaitlyn entered to the furious scratches of Xan’s quill on parchment. He was hunched over against a pile of gunny sacks, writing as though the world were about to end. Disheveled, black hair flew as his eyes raced the feather across the paper, his breaths coming ragged and labored. He looked like a madman. Don’t be scared, Kaitlyn reminded herself, you know Xan.
“Xan?” Though quietly spoken, the name seemed to boom across the room.
With a snap Xan’s quill and notebook disappeared and his green eyes whipped about to meet Kaitlyn’s, one hand reaching for his rune pouch.
“Xan, it’s me,” Kaitlyn said hurriedly, “it’s Kaitlyn.”
His eyes appraised her apprehensively, his body tense. Kaitlyn’s fingers twitched but she controlled them. It would do no good to reach for her own pouch.
“Don’t you remember me? Kaitlyn…Kat?”
The latter seemed to touch something in Xan’s memory and his body gradually relaxed. Xan nodded at her and reclined against the sacks, pulling the notebook out from where he had hidden it and readying his quill once more. Kaitlyn exhaled. She hadn’t even realized that she’d been holding her breath. It’s Xan, she thought, nothing to worry about. You know him. You loved him.

26-Jun-2008 19:21:10 - Last edited on 26-Jun-2008 21:16:06 by Wet Rainbow

Wet Rainbow

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Yes, you loved him once said a voice within her, but he’s changed.
The island is shattering us.
The shelves of the storeroom seemed to constrict suffocatingly about her.
Kaitlyn sat down tentatively on the sacks beside Xan and tried to study him unobtrusively. Stains blotted his normally clean robes, a sheen of sweat covered his face, and deep rings were evident below his eyes, but under his tousled appearance lay intangible traces of the clean man who had read his first novel to her years ago. It’s the way he sits, she thought, his focus on his work.
She leaned over to see what Xan was writing but he pulled the notebook away.
“What’* that? Another adventure story?”
Xan scribbled furiously along.
“Are you going to get it published?”
The island did maintain some connection with the mainland in the form of a large cog that dropped off supplies almost annually. On several occasions Xan had given the crewmen his books and asked them to try and publish them on the mainland. No word of how any book had fared ever returned, however, and lately Xan had been sending less and less writing off. The quill tore inky gashes into the paper, Xan’s hand moving it mechanically back and forth, back and forth.
“Xan, talk to me,” Kaitlyn pleaded, “your silence, it’s – it’s – scaring everyone. It’s scaring me.”
And then, without warning, Xan seemed to burst into a fit of shivering. Notebook and quill both dropped to the floor as he raised trembling hands to his face and covered his eyes in his palms. For a moment Kaitlyn believed him to be crying - his breaths quivered out in short gasps and his whole body shook. Awkwardly, she wrapped an arm around him.
“It’s alright, Xan,” she tried to keep her voice calm, “tell me what’s troubling you.”
When his voice came, it was hoarse from disuse. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“I’ve known you nearly my whole life, Xan, you can trust me.”

26-Jun-2008 19:21:22 - Last edited on 26-Jun-2008 21:16:28 by Wet Rainbow

Wet Rainbow

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He lowered his hands from his face and Kaitlyn saw that his eyes were dry. They held the same hounded look that she had seen in Derry’s earlier.
“Have you seen her?” Xan rasped.
“Who? Taria?”
“She comes to me at night.”
“Taria does?” The other sorceress had always shown a liking for Xan. If she was the cause behind his silence…
“No, not Taria. The other one.”
“What?” As far as Kaitlyn knew there were no other women on the island.
“She comes in my dreams. We’ve had it wrong, Kat. We’ve been wrong all along.”
“What are you talking about?” Was Taria dream walking? Was that how she was getting to Xan?
“We’ve been wrong.” Xan looked forlornly at the ground. “I knew you wouldn’t understand,” he added and lapsed back into silence.
Any further attempts at eliciting speech were useless. Eventually Kaitlyn suggested sleep and they both left for the bedchamber, leaving Xan’s notebook discarded on the floor.
The other mages were all asleep when they arrived, even Marlim. Kaitlyn eyed Taria suspiciously before reclining in her own bed.
“Goodnight, Xan.” She murmured.
There was no reply.
I don’t know if I can stand another day here, Kaitlyn thought as she watched the flickering torchlight cast macabre shadows along the walls. I’m getting out on the next cog no matter what the others say. It should be arriving any day now.
The iridescent torchlight danced around Kaitlyn, danced within Kaitlyn. It soothed her and evened out her breaths. It caused the world to slip away from her and the blackness of sleep to glide in and take its place. And in that darkness, it was not long before the nightmares found her again.
~~~
Xan did not fall asleep. For an hour or two he lay on his bed and watched the ceiling. Only when the rhythmic breathing of sleep echoed from every part of the room did he move. Slowly, he slipped off of his mattress and slid out into the portal room.
~~~

26-Jun-2008 19:22:27 - Last edited on 26-Jun-2008 21:16:50 by Wet Rainbow

Wet Rainbow

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Kaitlyn awoke with a start to a world that was cold and black. Breaths shivered out of her and her clothes stuck to clammy skin. For a moment nightmare merged with reality and she thought she was still in her dream, still in the granite coffin on Schachtnacht; a whimpering, frightened animal, reaching out for the magic to find nothing: no source, no Za. Hard stone walls were all there was, pushing in claustrophobically on all sides with only blackness between them; a remorseless, icy darkness which pushed cottony fingers down her throat, pervaded her lungs, stifled her cries. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, and frantically she reached out to claw at the granite walls only to find…nothing.
The world seemed to twist and turn for a second within her mind and when it straightened itself out again she realized that the darkness she lay in was a different darkness than that inside a coffin. Her faintly echoing breaths implied a quality of vastness about her and the mattress she now felt beneath her entailed sleeping quarters of some sort. Still, it took several minutes of confusion for Kaitlyn to remember that she was on Waterbirth Island and several more minutes to realize why it had taken her so long to remember where she was in the first place.
Kaitlyn sat up suddenly.
It was the darkness that had thrown her off. For as long as she could remember the torches of Waterbirth Island had illuminated its halls and caverns with their continuous, flickering glare. Now they were out. The absence of the light was alarming and suddenly the room’s walls, hidden by the blackness, seemed to encroach upon Kaitlyn and once again she was in the coffin - breaths constricted, heart pounding, body trembling, and…

26-Jun-2008 19:22:33 - Last edited on 26-Jun-2008 21:17:46 by Wet Rainbow

Wet Rainbow

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...and she reached desperately for the magic and this time it was there; thinly dispersed about the icy room, but there nonetheless. Kaitlyn pulled it into herself with great effort and felt its pleasant warmth flood her body. She held it only an instant before directing it at a torch hanging in a sconce along one wall. Immediately the torch flared into life, casting a pallid light about the room. A familiar sight sprang into existence before her and Kaitlyn sighed in relief. Marlim and Qalir lay exactly where she had last seen them, spread across their beds. Neither was snoring anymore. Taria also lay motionless within her blanket. But that was all Kaitlyn was able to see before the torch she had just lit flickered suddenly and went out.
Annoyed, Kaitlyn drew from the room a second time and ignited the torch. It extinguished itself a few seconds later in much the same way as the first.
The third time Kaitlyn pulled the Za into herself she checked her surroundings after lighting the torch and what she saw rendered her motionless. Large strands of magic were traveling across the room’s ceiling, being pulled inexorably towards the portal chamber as though by a giant magnet. Holding the magic she could see them, like brilliant golden ropes, snaking past. Even as she watched, the flame she had ignited, which had briefly illuminated the room, bent its fiery head towards the doorway to the portal room, and, as though answering a summons, slid out of its bracket and joined the dazzling lines. Someone, it seemed, was performing powerful magic within the portal chamber.
Kaitlyn released her Za and let the darkness wash over her once more. Far above her the howl of wind whipping about the island could be heard.

26-Jun-2008 19:23:19 - Last edited on 26-Jun-2008 21:18:20 by Wet Rainbow

Wet Rainbow

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“It’s all a dream,* she tried to console herself, “no one’s doing magic. I’m going to wake up at any moment now. I’ll take the boat out of here and be gone.” Kaitlyn wrapped herself tightly in her blanket as her whispers echoed hollowly back to her through the darkness – ‘Take the boat out of here and be gone…out of here and be gone…here and be gone…be gone…gone.’
There were sounds coming from the portal room. Her ears picked them out now. Someone was murmuring; an eerie susurrus soon accompanied by an odd scraping noise, like stone on stone.
‘Back to sleep’, she thought to herself, ‘go back to sleep,’ and she buried her head in her stale pillow in an attempt to block out the noises. Sleep wouldn’t come, however, and it wasn’t long before she felt whatever was in the portal chamber begin to pull on her, draw the Za from her own body. She sat upright once more with the realization that this was, indeed, real.
Silently she extracted herself from her bed and crept over to Xan’s, treading upon a floor as cold as ice, as cold as the surface of the portal. Her fingers perused his mattress, searching for the comfort of another living being, for someone who could accompany her into the portal chamber. The ridges and valleys of a discarded blanket were all she felt, however. Xan was gone.
A shuffling sound reverberated through the blackness.
“Xan,” Kaitlyn hissed, thinking he might be walking around like her. “Xan?”
The shuffling sounded again and she realized it came from the other chamber. Tentatively Kaitlyn drew some magic into herself, just enough to allow her to see the energy flowing through the room, hopefully not enough to alert the person in the portal room to her presence, and scanned the sleeping quarters.
There was nothing.

26-Jun-2008 19:23:25 - Last edited on 26-Jun-2008 21:18:52 by Wet Rainbow

Wet Rainbow

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If Xan had been there, she would have glimpsed his Sa. If anyone had been in the room, she would have noticed them. Every bed was empty. She was alone. But she had seen Marlim, Qalir, and Taria lying in their beds in the torchlight only moments ago…
“Derry?”
The shuffling sounded again.
“Marlim?”
A thousand fears pervaded her mind - images of something breaking the barrier, something snuffing the torches, something killing, constricting, entombing, cracking, silencing, hiding in the portal chamber – they came in an instant, made all the more grotesque by the darkness. ‘They’re gone,’ a nasty voice in the back of her head cackled, ‘the others; they’re gone. It did them in.’
No, Kaitlyn thought, and slowly the voices and images in her mind began to fade. No, be rational. Don’t let this place get to you now, Kat. It took a great deal to soothe her frayed nerves but eventually she had them under some sort of control. Yes, be rational. The others probably left the room during the night and forgot to wake you. They are having a meeting in…in the portal room. Yes, in the portal room and are doing some magic. And the torches are out because…because they need them for the magic. Yes, there’s nothing to be afraid of. You were always the logical one, Kaitlyn, so be logical now. And the people she had seen on the beds? Had they just been a hallucination manufactured by her panicked mind?
Be logical. Be calm.
Letting the magic come again, Kaitlyn picked up the rune pouch she always kept close at hand and tiptoed carefully across the floor, following the incandescent lines of energy that flowed along the ceiling into the portal room. As she walked, Kaitlyn fingered the runes and hoped she wouldn’t have to use them.

26-Jun-2008 19:24:20 - Last edited on 26-Jun-2008 21:19:05 by Wet Rainbow

Wet Rainbow

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Upon entering the room Kaitlyn released her Za. The portal chamber was flooded with magic and Kaitlyn’s eyes, accustomed to the relative darkness of the sleeping quarters, couldn’t handle its brightness. Even without the magic in her grasp, however, Kaitlyn could easily see the room. The portal gave off an ethereal glow in the darkness, an odd light that bathed the room in a color that seemed caught somewhere between purple, black, and blue. Thankfully, the portal appeared to be intact although long cracks decorated its surface. A solitary figure sat before the portal, murmuring softly to itself. It shifted what appeared to be runes around upon the floor. The magic that Kaitlyn knew was circulating about the room made her skin prickle.
“Xan?” She knew it was him; the disheveled hair silhouetted against the portal gave him away.
Xan did*’t glance up. “You shouldn’t be here,” he murmured. Then, apparently as an afterthought, he chuckled and added: “Curiosity has always killed the Kat though, I suppose.*
*Xan, what – what are you doing?”
Xan did*’t respond. Instead, he shifted two runes around and for a moment they glowed brightly and what seemed like twin sparks shot from them to snake off into the portal. The runes smoldered a moment longer before disappearing, leaving two angry, red imprints in the ground.
“Xan, where are the others?” Her voice sounded shrill even to her own ears.
“Huh?” Xan leaned forward and tapped the barrier as though seeing if it might break.
“The others...Marlim, Taria?”
“Oh, them,” said Xan impassively, “they’re dead.”
“Oh.” Kaitlyn watched him for a moment before the statement sank in. “Dead?” Her voice burst out suddenly.
“Yeah.” Xan was now feeling around the sides of the portal.
“You – you killed them?”

26-Jun-2008 19:24:26 - Last edited on 26-Jun-2008 21:19:29 by Wet Rainbow

Wet Rainbow

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“They would have interfered. Aha!” Xan held up an air rune and a long silver something to exploded from it out across his hand into the line between portal and wall. He looked into the portals depths for a moment before shaking his head. “****, almost had it,” he muttered.
“Dead…” Said Kaitlyn. It felt as though her insides had been emptied out. Derry was gone. Qalir… Marlim… Taria…
“Yeah,” Xan was searching the scattering of runes on the floor again, “I couldn’t kill you though. I’ve always thought you the most beautiful person to walk the earth, Kat.”
Kaitlyn did*’t know what to make of this remark; she was still in a state of shock. Eventually she managed to force out “Why did you…?”
“It was the first step,” Xan murmured, “we’ve been wrong from the start and it’s time to set things right. Maybe if you help…” he cut off suddenly as a vivid burst of scarlet light emitted by one of his runes seemed to cause a reaction in the portal. A fire the color of sapphires sprang into existence at the portal’* base and began to creep up its face. Xan’s features lit up terribly in the light given off by the flames, every expression contorted into a monstrous mask of blue and black shadow.
“Yes,” he crooned, “Yes, yes, yes!” The light caught his triumphant grin, emphasized it, turned it into a malicious, blue leer.
Kaitlyn found herself backing away. “Stop it, Xan,” she pleaded. “Stop. You’re acting irrationally.”
The cerulean fire crept upwards and wherever it went, the portal melted, dripping downwards into a shimmering pool at its base. This pool itself spread out into the room and soon Xan abandoned his runes to retreat from the liquid.
“Xan…” Kaitlyn forgot what she had been about to say.

26-Jun-2008 19:25:36 - Last edited on 26-Jun-2008 21:19:45 by Wet Rainbow

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