Topic: Blood & Fire

Elessaria · Date: 2007-12-09 00:08 EST

Strange Fire - Indigo Girls

~I come to you with strange fire, I make an offering of love, the incense of my soil is burned by the fire in my blood. I come with a softer answer to the questions that lie in your path. I want to harbor you from the anger, find a refuge from the wrath.

This is a message of love. Love that moves from the inside out, love that never grows tired. I come to you with strange fire.

Mercenaries of the shrine, who are you to speak for god? With haughty eyes and lying tongues and hands that shed innocent blood. Who delivered you the power to interpret Calvary' You gamble away our freedom to gain your own authority.

Find another state of mind. Grab hold. Strange fire burns with the motion of love.

When you learn to love yourself, You will dissolve all the stones that are cast, You will learn to burn the icing sky and to melt the waxen mask. Yes, to have the gift of true release, This is a peace that will take you higher. I come to you with my offering, I bring you strange fire.

This is a message of love. Love that moves from the inside out, love that never grows tired. I come to you with strange fire.~

And so we enter the infinite circle in which Eless lives....a world haunted by Blood & Fire.

Elessaria · Date: 2007-12-09 02:43 EST

BLOOD & FIRE: Shadowy Dreams

After another long, fruitless day of combing through the wreckage that had once been the beautiful Asheby Manor, the weary elfess sprawled in the fading sunlight that dappled the elegantly embroidered cushions which covered the window seat. As she slowly unbraided her knee length hair, Eless watched the shadows begin to fall outside of the Inn. A shadow flickered in the corner of her vision and her fingers froze with an elusive shadow from her past come to haunt her present...

Elessaria scampered down out of her parents' tree home, her ankle-length skirts swirled about her legs as she breathed a sigh of relief to be done with her lessons for the day. She quickly grew bored with the seemingly endless lessons in etiquette, dancing and all the requirements deemed necessary to be a well-mannered and properly educated lady. Her parents kept reminding her that she was The Lady Fire of Evandar, not just Elessaria. Not knowing where her unique gifts would send her, she needed to be educated in the ways of court life. Yet Eless much prefered her "younger days" as she called them— even though she was only 80.

As a child Eless spent many an hour curling up in her elders' laps, using her empathic gifts to soothe them and at the same time gather their love into her as a way to renew her strength. Anytime she was tired or weary, she would kneel by the hearth, instinctively gather the mana surging in the dancing flames, and channel it within her. The elven lass continued to haunt laps as she aged; her impish ways were often indulged by her elders.

The young elfess loved to spend hours listending to Calonderial Songweaver gift the denizens of Evandar with his songs. Quite often, unbeknownst to her, Eless' lyrical voice rose to match his song while she carefully wove her mana through the melody. With a fond smile Eless remembered opening her eyes to see the stunned look upon her audience's faces — especially the elven bard's— due to her first attempt at melding their magical gifts. She then tweaked his nose and hopped off his lap to go along her merry way, searching for some friends with whom to play.

On one particular afternoon, she sought the peace of a nearby pond where she often swam with her friends, had frog races, or searched for salamanders and other pond creatures. Eless reached the pond only to find it deserted by her friends. With a touch of jealousy, she knew their playtime was over and they were enjoying dinner with their families while she endured more indoctrination in the ways of the world.

Sitting under an old oak tree and watching the fading rays of the sun, Eless noticed the shadows lengthening in the forest. She blinked her eyes as she witnesses the shadows deepen and then move. A tall figure cloaked in black stepped into the dusky light and moved toward the petite elf. Thinking this was perhaps another human ranger like William Durnson, she didn't run— especially because her empathy signalled this human was not a threat. Her parents had been working with Eless on getting used to being around humans and they continued to preach tolerance, because again noone knew exactly where her gifts would lead her.

The elfess tilted her head to one side and tucked a stray golden curl behind her delicately pointed, elven ear as the stranger approached. Elessaria rose to meet him and extended an equally delicate hand. "Good day, sir. I am Elessaria Devabriel," she introduced herself. The stranger took her hand and smiled as she curtsied low, the way she had been taught and had been practicing all day. "Good day, Elessaria. I am...." What was his name? The empath never could remember that particular detail, instead only recalling vague chit chat about various topics; topics that to this very day she could never remember.

As the night drew nigh, Eless had to return home. She bid the man fare well and took off for the night. Every evening for the next few weeks, Eless stole out of her home to meet him in the secluded part of the forest where she would sit on his lap and listen to his stories; never recalling the details and only knowing that she enjoyed the sound of his voice. Eless' parents never chided her for coming home late, because they knew how trying her studies were and how her forays into nature tended to revitalize her. Besides, the lass often brought home a variety of herbs for her mother upon her return.

One night the shadows seemed unusually pervasive and particularly dark. Elessaria sat upon the man's lap, listening to his voice and remembered shivering as the air grew chilly. She thought nothing of the man wrapping his arms around her to provide warmth. She rested her head against his chest and could smell the faint scent of cloves that lingered on his breath. As the stranger's dulcet tones entranced her and nearly lulled her to sleep, his wandering hands and cool lips brushed along the curve of her ear and the soft, bare skin of her neck. A distant, faint alarm that signalled danger woke the elf with a start. Eless shook her head violently in a tremendous effort to clear it and her senses went wild with warning.

Jumping off the man's lap, the young, barely trained mage whirled upon the stranger, with the flames flashing angrily in her eyes. The man shed his deception, revealing the sheer power that pulsed around his aura. He thrust a mental stab at her unsteady shields that brought her to her knees with a cry of anguish at his magical assault. The empath reached deep within for her mana and lashed out with her counter-attack, screaming her rage as she did. When the unveiled mage staggered in surprise from the power Eless wielded, he whispered malovently before he retreated, "Tell your family of me and all of Evandar shall perish from your foolishness."

The powerful figure vanished, leaving Eless to make her way home alone and extremely weak. When she reached the base of her parents' tree home, her parents and the other elves heard her plaintitive cries; however, between her shame and her fear, Eless denied anything had happened during her routine foray into the forest. Yet Eless' father's empathy coupled with Calonderiel's bardic magic, revealed the truth behind her tears.

A search party scouted out the area surrounding the pond to no avail; there was no trace, magical or physical, to tell what had happened there.

Elessaria · Date: 2008-04-29 21:02 EST

CRIMSON RAINS: The Third Storm

Elessaria woke to the gentle sunlight filtering through the semi-drawn curtains of the canopied bed. She stretched slowly and moved to snuggle more closely to Wil, only to find the sheets holding a hint of his body's warmth and a beautiful, red rose laying upon the fluffy pillow. The elf couldn't help but smile as she first smelled the delicate fragrance of the rose, then rolled over to breathe in her love's scent which lingered on the soft ivory fabric. Her normally smooth brow furrowed for a moment while she wondered how he could be so stealthy. He could almost be an elf the way he moves! She frowned slightly when she admitted the truth to herself. The elf's previous encounter with the blood rain (of which she remembered nothing); the heightened emotions from the snippets of her past that sneaked into the present; and the escalating tension and violence in RhyDin, all weighed heavily upon Eless, leaving her exhausted more often than not.

The elven magess" power may have grown exponentially recently; yet, it was still erratic and even harder to control. She dragged herself to her bath and sunk into the basin fashioned in amazing imitation of a natural, warm spring. Eless had hoped a quick bath would revive her, but instead she found herself nearly dozing off. She grumbled, feeling tired and out of sorts for no particular reason. Quickly she dressed, grabbed a mug of tea and a light bite to break her fast. The restlessness continued to haunt her and she turned to Nuage, who was lazily sprawled in front of the fire that continually burned in the hearth. "Thou art a lazy, beast who shall let a mere human beat him during his daily runs if thou dost nae get some exercise," she accused the solid, black wolf who was part companion, part protector and part unknown. She slipped into soft boots and grabbed up her cloak, swirling it over her slender shoulders and fastening it. "Come join me, please?" All teasing aside, Eless really didn't feel like being alone today. She knew not how he managed, but Nuage almost always kept a watchful eye on his mistress.

The pair slipped out into the daylight where the sun sparkled on the light crust of snow where heavy feet had not yet tread. Eless walked briskly to what once was her home here in RhyDin" Asheby Manor" a gift entrusted to the elf by her old friend Tyntigal. Her heart ached when she came upon the destruction, just like it always did. As she quietly walked about, she remained huddled within the warm folds of her cloak, unable to shake the chill that seeped into her bones. Her tiny booted feet kicked at the smaller pieces of rubble while she reminisced. She could almost hear the laughter that she and Tyn shared while sliding down the several storied banister. Her head canted when she arrived at the spot where the Grand Ballroom had existed, here too she would swear that she heard an elven waltz being played. The diminutive empath could feel the memory of her friend Gray as he taught her swordsmanship, resonating amongst the splinters of wood and the molten marble that had solidified into grayish puddles. They almost seemed to be garden stones that led through a path of violence instead of winding through sweetly scented sprays of violets.

Eless followed the path blindly, yet unerringly. She no longer heard Nuage's whimpering nor felt the change in the winds which blew in blustery gusts and heralded the arrival of soot-colored clouds. The snow no longer glittered golden in the sunlight; instead, it took on a silvery, metallic glint that resembled the finely-honed edges of bladed weapons. When she reached the crest of the hill, the waters of Redstone Lake were churning and forming white caps that the sudden icy wind had whipped up. Her anger and sorrow were obvious in the dangerous flaring of the blue flames that normally simmered placidly deep within her eyes.

The rage and heartbreak that continued to torture the Lady Fire of Evandar, twisted and twirled into an intricately and dangerously woven spell of pure emotion that surged against her shielding as she desperately attempted to contain the mana that just as forcibly sought release. Her shielding was shredded as bursts of blue flame burned their way through every spell the weakening magess cast. Caught up in whirling winds and streaks of blue lightening that tore across the blackened sky, Elessaria climbed blindly upon the remains of an ornately carved column. Her cloak was nearly ripped from her fragile form and the golden tresses, that had been neatly pinned with sprigs of freesia earlier in the day, were tangled and growing wetter with each thunderclap. Once again she was driven into the Darkness where emotions eviscerated old scars and the impenetrable Shadows were splashed with flashes of crimson. Eless could feel the downpour, warm as it fell over her fragile features, in sharp contrast with the frigid air.

The weight of her blood soaked hair raised her chin to the raging skies, and her lyrical voice was harsh as The Lady Fire of Evandar shouted in defiance of the oppressive Dark. "Thine Evil shall never claim victory over the Light whilst I live to serve It!?

The last of her energy spent, the blue flames were extinguished by the scarlet pools in which Elessaria had crumpled into unconsciousness.