Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-3293219-20141119151542/@comment-5583506-20141122015601

Rowan Autumn-Arrow wrote:

Rowan was out in the yard sharpening a sword. The morning sun had just risen from the east and painted the winter sky pink.

He felt bitter.

Myling had yet again, stumpled into his life. Just as he had almost started to forget.

He wanted to forget.

perhaps the gods sent her.

Perhaps they didn't want him to forget.

The Nord shrugged, and got up.

the sword shun bright in the early light.

Freja's sword looked sharper than ever. She would need it. (Long post which merges together the storylines about some of the main crew from the previous entries in other RP's about Myling.)

Myling and Aldoran arrived to Rowan's home. Myling hesitated to knock on the door.

"What's the matter?" asked the Imperial.

She played nervously with her fingertips. "I... I don't want to be the first thing he sees when he opens the door."

Aldoran raised an eyebrow. "Are you bloody kidding me? Seriously what happened exactly to make him so pissed at you? You seem rather harmless..."

It was all a big mistake, she thought. ''If I had known about the Umbramancer at the time I met Rowan, I would have kept my distance from him as much as I possibly could and refused his help. It was all a mistake. I couldn't know that the creature would mark him as a potential target as well. ''

''Do I deserve to be hated for things I couldn't help? For things I didn't even understand? Am I the villain here? Is that what you think, Rowan?''

She gathered her courage and took a deep breath before she banged on the door. "Please, let it be that woman who opens the door", she whispered.

-

"Was it really it, my love?" asked the Khajiit curiously and sipped on her flagon of mead. "Did you really see it?"

"Indeed, my furry friend", replied Gwendolyne.

She had grown quite used to her Khajiit friend during the latter years. So far that she had even taken her on as a lover. Did she truly love her? No, not really. Their relationship was basically one-sided. Razani was the one longing for a more permanent life together with the Altmer mage, and Gwendolyne enjoyed her Khajiit mostly for the physical company, even though she didn't mind being courted by handsome Elven men from time to time. The Khajiit didn't seem to mind though, she was content as long as Gwendolyne didn't leave her side for more than three days in a row.

"But", began the Khajiit. "What are the odds of something like this happening again? We must truly be blessed by the gods, my love, yes? Razani thought we lost track of the spirit a couple of years ago."

"We did", confirmed Gwendolyne. "However it seems that the unholy being has once again awoken to ensnare the hearts of mortal men and women. Foul creature! It should be captured, examined and then put to rest before it has a chance to perform its dark and twisted magic on us lesser beings."

"Well, not lesser beings if you count us, my love", smirked Razani and blew a kiss to Gwendolyne. "We might have been outlawed as mages because of that experiment with the mountain goat a couple of months ago, but that doesn't mean we are fully incompetent mages, right?"

"Right!" said the Altmer in agreement. "Besides, we both know that we will eventually capture this ghost of a girl and reveal its identity to the world. That oughta prove our competence."

The Khajiit nodded and finished her drink. "We should hurry though. That young Imperial who went by its side looked at it as if it had cast a love spell on him. It has already ensnared the heart of a poor, innocent, young man. Wicked spirit!"

Gwendolyne smiled and rose from the table. "Razani, my dear. I think we both are back in business and ready to prove our worth. We should be watchful and remain a few steps behind them though. It might have hexed him so that he will defend it to his dying breath."

"Well, wouldn't you defend the one you love so loyally, my love?" said the Khajiit who put her arms around the Altmer's neck and kissed her.

"Of course", said Gwendolyne and paid for the drinks before they left the Bee and Barb. "But you don't have to bewitch me in order to make me obey that commando..."

-

Her presence, he thought. ''It's growing stronger! I... I can't believe it! I had almost lost it! I thought that she finally had figure out a way to get rid off me!''

The Umbramancer shrugged.

''But you were wrong, you little bitch. Nyanlacarmon is coming for you, Myling... and...''

He sensed yet another presence.

''What... is... this? Could it... could it be?''

If he had had a mouth he would have smiled.

''I don't think I have ever felt this good in ages... Rowan? Rowan Autumn-Arrow? Is that you I sense? It's been a couple of years, but what the hell... I aint peachy... Your soul is just as fresh as Myling's... You better not die on me before I devour you though. But not before I devour that little treacherous whore...''

''She taunts me with her constant escapes. She teases me with her corporeal form. Whore... She will die... I will devour your soul to the deepest fathoms of Sithis itself and then this whole putrid world will once again fear the name of Nyanlacarmon, the Lich Lord of Alinor...''

-

"So let me get this straight", asked Starkad. "You wonder if I have ever worked with ghost oak bark before?"

Riamide nodded.

The Nord scratched his forehead. "Listen, I am the only smith in the village. My father was a smith, and his father, and his father before him as well I reckon. But I don't think that any of my ancestors knew how to work with that material, and if they did, they would have to be bloody master craftsmen. Because there is no way in hell that you can put a dent into that thing! It's as sturdy as the mountain, I'll tell you!"

"So you have tried?" asked the Breton woman.

He raised his shoulders vaguely. "Tried and tried... I simply wanted to cut off one of the roots. It looked as if though it was rotting, and it is bad for the rest of the tree. So I took an axe and went out to cut it off in order to save the tree. Turns out the root wasn't rotten at all and simply looked like that. The axe bloody bounced back at me and flew straight over my shoulder before it broke a window at the Oak Trunk. Could have costed me my head if I hadn't been fast to throw myself to the ground."

"So, you wouldn't know how to forge ghost oak bark if I asked you to?"

He shook his head. "Nope. Sorry, lady. Maybe if you could raise my ancestors back from the grave, they would be happy to tell you."

Riamide looked at him seriously. "Do not joke about such things. Some consider the afterlife to the worst part of existence."

He wrinkled his eyebrows in confusion. And how the hell would she know?

Riamide sighed. "Do you believe in apparitions, Starkad? Or do you believe in what you can see and touch?"

He put his arms to the side. "Mind telling me what this is all about, Riamide? You are starting to creep me out a bit."

"Just answer the question."

Starkad rolled with his eyes. "I just know that a well-taught person such as yourself will have a blast poking at me and making fun of me for saying this. But if this is what I think you are asking, the answer is yes. Yes, I have always believed that there are things out there which we mere mortals can't explain or even begin to comprehend. And we better not even try to understand it. It might be keeping us up at night and make us slowly go insane."

Riamide smiled. "I am satisfied with your answer, Starkad. You seem like an honorable and trustworthy man, so I will therefore trust you with a secret which I and Myling have been keeping so far."

He looked at her wondering what the pair possibly could have been hiding from him. That they were indeed hiding something wasn't something new, but it was what they were hiding that mattered.

"Oh?" he said.

Riamide offered him a seat in the room in which she had stored all the literature known to man about the subject of supernatural phenomenon. "So, start to tell me what you know about ghost oaks, Starkad?" she began. "And I will in return explain to you just what exactly Myling and I are doing here."

"Uhm", he muttered and sat down cautiously, thinking that there was some kind of trick behind all of this. "I know that the ghost oaks are basically an acorn which has fused with a falling star. A very rare occurence indeed..."

Riamide nodded. "Do you know what an apparition is and what makes them different from that of a normal ghost?"

The smith rubbed the back of his head. "I have... I have heard stories as a boy. The apparition is supposed to be some kind of... uhm, what's the word... fleshy? No, that's not it... Uhm..." He snapped with his fingers. "Corporeal. Yeah! Yeah, that's it. Ghosts can't take a physical form, but are visible to the mortal eye, while an apparition is basically a ghost in physical form."

Riamide nodded again. "That is correct. Now then", she said. "Let me tell you all about who I am. I am gonna tell you Myling is. What her story is. What we are doing here and just exactly why the matter of the ghost oak is so significant to us that I sent her out to find the only book on the subject that I know of, which contains the informaton I need in order to secure her survival..."