Topic: We All Search For Something

CherubicMagic

Date: 2012-07-13 11:16 EST
Cool, calm, and quiet were not things this particular woman of Rhydin was, then again, which one of the many truly were" Each person, woman or man, stood alone in their uniqueness in this city, about the world, throughout the span of space and time even, if one wanted to be technical. Such things would make conventional methods of singling out one in particular quite difficult, but thankfully for this woman, this gypsy witch, conventional methods were often the last she took. And deep down through the winding wood of the southern glen, within the homey confines of her caravan, Lilliana worked coolly, calmly, and quietly, tinkering with methods far from conventional, yet oh so familiar to her. It was like breathing really, this methodical application of magic and the arcane. It was something that'd filled her world since the beginning, not only because of her affinity for it, but because of the first and only true teacher, her mother. A woman set apart from most, Melina taught her little witch how to live in this unpredictable world with what, until understood, could be an equally unpredictable element. Magic.

As a child, Lilliana had learned how magic was a constant. It was everywhere, even in the simplest of day to day workings. From the cracking of a new seed, to the rise and the set of the sun. Science claimed to hold the keys to most of the knowledge, right down to the barest and basest of details, but not a one to date could sway a true practitioner of magic with any means of ultimate fact; there were simply too many rogue variables to account for. The body and all it's resilience even in the face of impossible odds, the way plans go awry or come together despite the most accurate of calculations, the birth of a soul, the power of love, the origins of the Nexus, eternal life...

'Life beyond death. Eternal life and youth sustained through the blood of the living and daytime slumber.'

This, this little bit of magic and mystery was something Lilliana was not well versed in at all. And unfortunately for her, this is what she was faced with now; it was ruining her pattern of cool, calm, and quiet.

"How does i' work?"

Her mind kept running circles about itself as she poured over various books and loose pages, part fueled by ignorance, part by mounting nerves. There was another part in there somewhere too, and that part was the most important one. It was the part that had her treading down this particular path of magic in search of an answer. Lucky. Lucky had humbly sought her expertise with a heavy heart, no doubt not knowing the path he'd send his gypsy friend down in search of answers to the well being and whereabouts of his wife. Normally such puzzles were easily solved, but when the subject she sought to locate wasn't of the living, or might not even be living well, there were a whole other set of steps to take and rules to follow. Rules that could rarely be broken. It involved magics with a greater amount of elements to be controlled and account for, and more often than not, the price paid for such things weren't something the everyday person could afford. Such magic could bring death and ruin. It had the power to reanimate flesh, or even called spirits long past. It could be terribly risky for those with an opposing source of power; power that best served life, or for those steeped in the pulse of the earth, death could easily become an area of the extreme taboo. Lilliana considered herself well versed in many a means of magic, but in this particular area, she was more than lacking, and not by chance either. Melina, mother, teacher, and nurturer, had also made it a point to avoid the poisonous twists and turns of necromancy and shade magics. The path was, quite simply, never to be tread.

'Except that one time....That once. You remember it Lilli. You remember it every time anyone says his name.'

The raising of the dead, the creation of corpse thralls, the crafting of elements made to strip away flesh and evaporate bone, the transfer of energy from one fading life into an awaiting vessel- these were all dark things. Dangerous things. Things to be respected as deeply as they were feared, for it took nothing less than great power for such feats to be accomplished, but never the less. Here she was. Swallowing down the anger that bubbled deep within at the very thought of how she'd brushed this world years before against her will.

"Travanix." She murmured beneath her breath.

Long gone were the days where she looked over her shoulder upon even the whisper of that name, but that didn't mean she wasn't subject to the occasional nightmare or unwanted flash back. Although Lilliana had embarked on a journey to cleanse and enliven her soul against the taint the man's darkness had left in her, it would never be completely gone. The witch always imagined the human soul was like a pristine, white bolt of cloth, making deep stains near impossible to remove. Travanix had been such a stain, and try as she had over the years, she could never quite remove the evidence of him from inside.

Drawing a breath, Lilliana had begun to realize a decision needed to be made. She'd already spoken to Niamh and Z'ev, not in depth to betray Lucky's plea to keep this all a quiet, but enough to hopefully find a bit of help for the puzzle problem she'd taken on. Most of it involved having one of them there, and that was something she couldn't have. Again, trust was at stake, and this friend in mourning had come to her, trusting she'd keep his pain secret. So secret she'd keep it....as well as she could anyway. When one needed help and couldn't fully explain the problem, it was beyond frustrating. But there was one person she could turn to, more specifically, one thing. And if there was anything about that thing kept the buxom from feeling completely wretched about it, it was that this thing could be useful from time to time.

"Travanix." This time she said it's name, his name with more strength. She even flashed a wry little smile to herself in the mirror across the room. Behind her molten eyes, Lilliana could have sworn she could see a pair redder than her own. Shaking her head, the witch took out a fresh piece of parchment and set to sharpening herself a pencil. Recollecting all the cool, calm, and quiet she'd lost earlier, the witch turned inward to the place she so often ignored, and began to write. If her scrawling bore any fruits of theory, all was the better. Lilli wasn't only determined, but damned clever. Goddess as her witness, she would learn and grow from this.

'Don't worry Kate....We'll find you. For better or worse, Lucky, we'll find her.'

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OOC Note: Big thanks to Lucky for involving me in their play with Kate, here's a link for ya'll to see where this all spawned from: Explosion in Old Town Super big thanks to Brish, Niamh, and Z'ev players also for keeping my chatty-fatty-bratty-gypsy company during random daylight hours! <3

Also, for the background on Lilli's dangerous dance with Trav in the past, click the underlined letters 'E' and 'T' in order! Equally juicy reads and a neat-o picture!