Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-25828117-20191227032639/@comment-5543592-20191230045726

Nyasia woke up on a beach where the sun had just set, the last signs of it a dim, blue light out over the ocean.

She sat up, sand in her hair and down her back.

The beach stretched unto infinity in both directions. Massive, unsurmountable dunes rose opposite the ocean. She stood, wearing nothing but a nightgown. The beach was cold and she wrapped her arms around herself as a piercing wind blew across it. The sand was like snow beneath her feet, numbing them. The air was sharp, tense, and each howl of the wind stabbed at her core. A strange, awful terror rose in her, a kind of vertigo, as if she stood at the precipice of an unimaginable height.

The lap of the water was what calmed her. She breathed in as it rushed up, over the sand, and then out as it receded back. Breathed with every push and pull of the current. In, and out.

The water receded, welled up, and Nyasia’s breath stopped. She faltered as the water began to bubble and then rise as a figure emerged from beneath it.

Kismet stuck his grinning face above the water, shook out his scraggly hair of any droplets until it was dry, and then stepped above the ocean until he was standing on its surface. His grin opened, water pouring out of his mouth.

“I warned you.” The blademaster simpered, striding across the surface of the water, a sword in each hand. “I warned you.”

Nyasia stood stone still, frozen to the point that she was unable to lower her arms, unable to take a step. She could not even look away.

“Punishment.” He stepped from the surface of the water onto the sand. He did not leave footprints. He trod towards her, swords held out at his sides. “It’s time to punish you.”

The grip of fear let go it’s hold on Nyasia and she tried to back away, but couldn’t. The sand had swallowed her numbed feet, and began to devour her, inch by inch.

“No, nonono.” Nyasia whispered, struggling to free herself. Somewhere, beneath the ground, she felt hands grasp her ankles, pulling her down.

Kismet stood over her, grinning down as she sunk up to her waist. “It’s time.”

Hands and arms broke the sand in front of her and Baldr’s dead eyes looked up at her. Sand filled his open mouth, filled the rotting wound where his face used to be.

Nyasia screamed until his hands wrapped around her throat, squeezing the life out of her, and then pulled her below.

--

She snapped awake, shooting upright, covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Her breath came in terse gasps, as if the sand were still filling her lungs.

It had only been a nightmare. She lay back down next to Helian, trying to force herself to take calming breaths.

It had not been real, but a night terror, like she’d had when she was a girl. How long had it been since her last? Almost a decade ago.

She could recall Kismet’s face with perfect clarity. His gaunt cheekbones, his sunken, mismatched eyes, his scraggly hair. The way emotions seemed to flit across his face, never sticking, instead interchangeable from one moment to the next. The sheer horror he inspired in her.

The picture in her mind’s eye allowed her to hate him. A still of him, frozen in the moment when he stood over her, blades wet with the blood of her protector. I warned you. The words stuck in her mind. I warned you. It was the dream him that had said them, but Nyasia attributed them to Kismet all the same.

He could come back at any moment. Kill anyone he wanted. And there as not a thing Nyasia or anyone else could do to stop it. He would find a new sword and would not be surprised twice. And it was not as if she could reliably call upon the Shehai. He could be coming for her right now.

She sat up again, wide awake, the thought terrifying her. It was useless, useless fear, but it was fear all the same. And there was not a thing she could do to fight it. Baldr had protected her all her life and now he was gone.

She rose and dressed quietly, as not to wake her companion, and then hurried out into the early morning, snagging her sword to practice her katas with.