Kallian - The Dark I Know Well

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Kallian - The Dark I Know Well

Postby Obsidian Sea » Tue Jan 31, 2017 4:31 pm

They were clustered together in one great assembly: a line of peaks capped with snow, collapsing sharply into green gorges that exist in anonymity in the private confines of the Earthspurs and Earthfasts. It is a bright day in the Earthspurs, where Celith Galiner makes a home for himself. The snow yet lingers in parts of the mountains, and inevitably shall where the land travels closest to the sky. Today looks colder than it truly is, for the wind is only drifting through the mountains. It is a welcome change from the harassment of the snow that - though not uncommon over the mountains - recently attempted to swallow the kingdom of Impiltur altogether.

The conifers sob off the rain that had fallen on the previous night. The occasional beauty of a great bird of prey sweeping down into nestled gorges makes for a grand sight. The bravest bears venture out to test the climate, their cycles strained by earlier abnormalities in the weather.

For Celith Galiner, it is the role of both hunter and guardian that keeps him in the high places. He communes with the land as a Druid; acts on its behalf as a Ranger. But since the threat of a new race of Bugbear, things have been relatively peaceful. That was the last great battle in which the Wood Elf had fought: a battle to reclaim his home, and spare the mountains from total occupation by demi-humanoid forces - or worse.

Yes. It has been with near-total lack of interruption that Celith Galiner has dwelled in the mountains for almost two months now. And with him, his love.

"Eagle winds, Celith."

Behind him on the cliff, an Elven voice emerges, speaking the mellifluous tongue of their mutual race. But it is not a female voice - it is not her's. Turning, the Wood Elf beholds a sight as familiar as she, clad in a raven feather mantle, with his dark hair pulled over to one side of his neck, cascading down both sides of his right shoulder. There are bits of wilderness caught in the tangle of his hair, as is inevitable for those who travel in the untamed Earthspurs.

Firess begins to step towards Celith. He could be silent if he wanted to, but his boots crunch upon the thin layer of residual snow - history might provoke Celith to think the action is intentional, elongating the sensory discovery of Firess' arrival, but it would be a petty taunt if it were true, and might be best left unspoken. Near to Celith, Firess does not smile. Two differently-painted irises rest with intention upon Celith.

"Where is it in these mountains that you and Kallian reside? Take me there. I must speak with her."
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Re: Kallian - The Dark I Know Well

Postby Xanthas » Tue Jan 31, 2017 11:21 pm

The voice is a familiar one to Celith’s ears and as he turns to look at the elf he lets out a slow breath. Flashes of memories holding anger and pain felt briefly as he reaches up and rubs at a remembrance of pain in his jaw. No smile is offered to Firess as he steps forward, Celith’s gaze flicking to the side a moment as his boots crunch the snow and clenching his jaw briefly before looking back.

“May they draw you up.”

Celith gestures with a hand for Firess to follow him, taking deliberately quiet steps and with a wary manner about him but for the moment seemingly without any intent to re-tread their past.

“What is it that you seek to speak to her of?”

He leads Firess along the mountain paths towards the cave slowly, eyes rarely finding the other elf and often drifting over the land around them as they walk. He makes little attempt to hide his wariness and moves through the mountain terrain with a practiced step, Firess might catch a hint of curiosity mixed in with this wariness however and despite his roaming gaze there would be a clear sense of Celith's focus being on him.
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Re: Kallian - The Dark I Know Well

Postby Obsidian Sea » Wed Feb 01, 2017 1:22 pm

"Calm, Celith," begins Firess, a small smirk leading his tone, "Have a few, insignificant years among humans made you so impatient?"

The second Wood Elf does not move with quite the level of comfort that Celith Galiner manages in the mountains, although with the terrain he - and all of House Galiner - have some proficiency. The lofty terrain and changing altitude is acutely acknowledged, heightened as the sensory experience of Elves often is. The wind begins to whisper round the corners of the rocky crags as Celith Galiner guides Firess back to his den. It is not sinister: perhaps it is holy? As though the wind were turning corners and following where the Druid of Aerdrie Faeyna leads. If so, maybe there is an element of good fortune on the rise as the sun begins its descend from its most heightened vantage at noon. Maybe.

"It is a matter of Elven importance," the Wood Elf continues after some distance is covered in silence. His heterochromatic eyes make a small turn from the landscape to the Druid that steps a few feet ahead of him. "Selvin sent me."

That said, the Wood Elf sets his eyes upon the path ahead, their destination coming closer in good time. Should questions or expectations of elaboration be lodged by Celith, they are not yet answered. But perhaps it is as Firess had said: what are a few, fleeting minutes, compared to the entire length of an Elf's life?
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Re: Kallian - The Dark I Know Well

Postby Kilaana » Wed Feb 01, 2017 6:28 pm

Leutha'Tala (The Bond That Binds) | | Credits: E.S. Posthumus


The sun had risen that day, brighter than the previous day's and brighter still than the day before that. Even in the perpetual chill of the mountains the heat that lit up the peaks and valleys of the Earthspurs had seen the frost on the conifers thaw, dripping in dew-like raindrops off the verdant green needles to land noiselessly in the shadows that danced along the ground. For the many days that had passed since they had returned to their home in the Earthspurs, Kallian had indulged in their own private rejoicing beneath the boughs where she played invisible games of catch with the light and the dark. The frozen forests returned their quiet songs as her laughter rang through the deep valleys, uninhibited and carefree, holding none of the cynicism that crept its way back whenever the elves were to come within sight of the trade roads again.

So too did she forego the trappings of civilisation when it grew warmer: Each day, an eagle's feather was tucked beneath the low collar. Each day, a flower found its place in the faded purple-dyed hair - a promise renewed, and of a love to bloom forever. And each day, perhaps one more braid was unwound, left to fall freely to the wind's caresses.

That day, however, there were no games beneath the thawing boughs, nor was a flower yet to be seen behind the slender-tipped ear. The eagle's feather had been laid aside as the Wood Elf rose from her place of rest to pull on her darkest set of man-made leathers to rifle through a small strongbox that stood nearby. When she had found what she wanted, the old mahogany pipe was lit and shoved roughly between her teeth.

Then the Wood Elf took up a whetstone in one hand, and broke the secluded silence of an erstwhile peace with her dagger in the other.
“Violence is the mark of the amateur.” ― Garrett, Thief: The Dark Project

Kallian | Delorwyn Lle'quellas | Wilhemina Alencar | Zalika Maszim Zartusht
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Re: Kallian - The Dark I Know Well

Postby Obsidian Sea » Mon Feb 06, 2017 12:58 am

It is Celith Galiner who comes first into the cave. What Kallian might read on the man's expression is between the two of them to know, but there is little time for the translation of small sentiments before Celith's entrance is succeeded by another. Firess, but why?

"Well met, Kallian. You have traded human settlement completely, then?" begins Firess, in a nonchalant tone that flirts with antagonism. His eyes scope out the interior, but in brief only. His eyes settle upon the Shadowdancer eventually, and lose their mocking oddity. They exert pressure; they exert expectation. It is a severity that quickly puts weight into the stones that shelter them, and which presses down the Elves all three, even Firess.

The scout drags his hair back from his right shoulder to fall down to the small of his back as he sits down upon a stone. Once more, the Elf takes no rush to explain himself: time, measured in seconds and minutes, is not an Elf's enemy. He offers the time for Kallian to acquaint herself with the pervasive atmosphere that distorts the modest home that Celith has made for them here in the Earthspurs. Exchanges of look or word between her and Celith are not given sanctuary, however, with the other Elf quickly turning up his irises when he detects such activity.

Eventually, he takes the dagger from the backside of his belt and flips it in hand. A sigh of little purpose is yielded to kill the silence, and then Kallian receives the full attention of his gaze once again.

"Tell me, how do you like these mountain homes that Celith has led you to?"
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Re: Kallian - The Dark I Know Well

Postby Kilaana » Mon Feb 06, 2017 5:26 pm

Not several hundred paces before their arrival was the subtle pulling of his presence felt in her, a thread of gossamer silk that wove the tapestry of two fates together. It was Tra'sel who first spoke of it upon their arrival in the Stormhorns - leutha'tala, or simply, the bond - and few would doubt the wisdom of an Or'Tel'Quessir nearing her seventh hundredth moon. In time, she learned to listen to another's emotions within herself, to share in his triumphs and sorrows, his fears and sometimes, even his thoughts when he was near.

Today, however, Kallian was listening to another voice. Only once did she lift her head to look to the dusky sky outside before the laborous task of whittling the dagger took her attention again. Sharp. A draw on the pipe. Dark. An exhale. ...Sharper. Musky smoke curled upwards, a seductive white finger beckoning to the heavens that looked down through the crevice above. Darker... Sharper.

Darkest.


The sound of faintest footfall from downslope made her snap to attention. Celith's presence filled the space even before he appeared, a wave of clearest water come to wash upon a night shore to leave ripples of joy-filled memories in its wake. Today, however, only a flicker of emotion in the pale eyes welcomed Celith Galiner, a clench of teeth around the still-smoking pipe that arrested a greeting when a second Elf came into view. The pale eyes - of one hue that matched Firess' odd pair - sent Celith a question that never found its way to her lips as she beheld the raven's feathered-clad figure that stood a head taller than the former.

"Will you try it?" The lean hand held out the offering of meat, freshly slain some hours ago for the feast. It would sustain the elves for the coming winter; the first deer in all the seasons to be hunted for the solstice, to celebrate the return of a prodigal son. "The seasoning is of my own creation."

She blushed, and felt small beside this stranger they called Firess. The meat smelled good, as did his scent - exotic, like the black feathers he wore on his shoulders. A scent she could not quite place, but which teased a smile from the darkest depths of her heart. An altogether different scent from Celith's. The flavours burst upon her tongue, and told of an expertise and sensitivity that made her deaf and blind to Celith's beckoning.


"...You have traded human settlement completely, then?"

The question was left to pass; a flippant greeting that needed no answer. Kallian watched from the corner of her eyes until the taller Elf found a place to sit by the unlit fire. The pipe was left to burn between her teeth, yet his scent - of ember and ash, of spice and of Uktar - pervaded the space between them with an arrogance that stirred her to restlessness. She began polishing her blade with a rag in silence, and became deaf to Celith's plea while her heart gathered up stones to build its wall with deliberate meticulousness against the poison of condescension.

The whisper of heavy, dark hair pulled aside made her look the other way, towards the darkest recesses of the cave. Then it was the question that caused her to look back, first at Firess, then at Celith. Dimly, she felt the latter's agitation, manifested only in the hard set of his slender jaw and a creeping inner cold that robbed Celith of his friendly demeanour. Calmly, she went to confront her own battle.

"These peaks are not so different to that of Man's, but they demand a different hand to know them well. Of joy and sorrow, love and loss, and of survival... do both not share such tragedies? But if you ask if I am well, then I will say to you that I have never been more glad to be alive."
“Violence is the mark of the amateur.” ― Garrett, Thief: The Dark Project

Kallian | Delorwyn Lle'quellas | Wilhemina Alencar | Zalika Maszim Zartusht
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Re: Kallian - The Dark I Know Well

Postby Xanthas » Mon Feb 06, 2017 7:11 pm

Celith offers no reply to Firess’ question of him as they walk, falling into a more complete and distanced silence as the winds whisper through the rocks around them. His attention is turned towards the path ahead and his own thoughts of the winds, the other elves taunting question slipping past him for now at least. At the mention of Selvin and a matter of elven importance however Firess recieves a glance, questioning but without words and it is not long before the cave is reached.

Celith slips into the cave with a slow breath taken in, his eyes seeking Kallian quickly a concerned sentiment and agitation showing there. As Firess steps in behind him however he moves to the side and walks towards the struggling fire, looking between Kallian and her blade and Firess, as he sets aside his bow and begins to stir the flame.

Though there is a sense of unease about him with Firess’ presence here Celith seems to have no intent of interrupting the two, watching and feeling for the familiar touch of anthers emotion. The quiet about him since the trek to the cave only deepens with time and its a distance gaze he watches their exchange with, though for a moment a keen eye might catch a wisp of a smile touch his face at Kallians reply.
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Re: Kallian - The Dark I Know Well

Postby Obsidian Sea » Sat Feb 11, 2017 1:49 pm

"Try as you might, you will not wield poetry better than that knife, Kallian," reprisals Firess in a calm and smiling state. "At least, as far as I understand the directions of your talents to lie."

He rises, and turns his head slowly to the dark corner of the cave where Kallian had looked before. He contemplates it, and then paces to the other end of the cave, walking in front of Celith Galiner to do so, momentarily eclipsing the view of him from where Kallian is sat.

"You have talents. Different from the talents of any within House Galiner. More importantly, different from the talents of any within House Galiner who have ventured here, lending time to the pursuit of a Dwarf."

The statement is left to fester for a moment.

"This time is not to be spent idle. The Dwarf continues wheezing efforts in the city, and the eyes of House Galiner turn elsewhere meantime. And there is a new presence in these mountains; harbingers beckoned by snow and its recess; beckoned by those made weak from the weather; their treasures; and their insecurity. And to those harbingers, we bear a strange relationship. One that exists in silence, and in an ignorance, feigned.

"But the time to turn away our eyes has ended, so Selvin tells me. And you, Kallian, new of House Galiner, share in our doings as do we in the doings of the Dwarf that has been made our tenuous ally through you both. Is this not so?"

And although he does not expect an answer to the question, for a lingering moment he awaits one, only to snatch away the opportunity as soon as it would be seized upon the lips of one or another Elf that cohabits the present cave with him.

"We are met in this land by a foe," and then comes an uncharacteristic pause - not one of timely taunting, but of true contemplation on the Wood Elf's part. "A brethren foe.

"One against whom our greatest asset, I am told, is you."
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Re: Kallian - The Dark I Know Well

Postby Kilaana » Sun Feb 19, 2017 3:49 pm

The pipeweed dulled the abnormal rush of adrenaline that left Kallian bristling after the veiled insult. She sat, and instead took a small pleasure in imagining the picture she could carve with her knife with the least number of strokes into the tall, athletic back as it walked away.

Nonetheless, Firess' conclusive statement took her by surprise. A surprise that was short-lived, and for Celith's benefit she made an effort to remain congenial.

"If Selvin believes this to be so, you need only speak of what we face. I am after all of House Galiner-..." She raised her eyes to meet those mismatched ones in making a point. "Different or not, I hold my loyalties dear."
“Violence is the mark of the amateur.” ― Garrett, Thief: The Dark Project

Kallian | Delorwyn Lle'quellas | Wilhemina Alencar | Zalika Maszim Zartusht
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Re: Kallian - The Dark I Know Well

Postby Obsidian Sea » Thu Feb 23, 2017 7:07 pm

The firm ground felt fictional here. If it was the domain of any man - or any Elf - then you are not the one to whom it belongs. A light layer of fog caresses any gorge that might lie further away still. Urgency is in the blood, but the atmosphere of the world around you belies it. Everything is still, and teased upon by only a light wind. It would almost be peaceful, if it weren't for you.

-------

A flourishing spin of Firess' knife leaves it spinning in his palm like a compass. When it stills, it is pointing inanimately towards Kallian.

"For our sake, I hope your mettle is not easily challenged," claims the interloping Elf, whipping the knife out of sight with the twist of a wrist, and retraction of the hand. A sigh, and a turning of his eyes towards Celith Galiner as he rises. "We are not the only Elves in the mountain anymore.

"It is nothing for which we were prepared. It has been two centuries yet since Selvin claimed to encounter such neighbours as these, and their coming has been quiet and shrewd. It always is.

"Their arrows? Just as finely fletched; their vision? The equal of our own. Their purpose? Hmph. Could it be that it is only as questionable as ours, having travelled Faerûn to give our time to a Dwarf. Nevertheless they have lost their first quarry - Orcs. We were happy to let them make their war where Orcs took shelter, but aid came unwitting to end that battle early. And from it, it was the neighbour Elves that took the greatest prize, wrongfully though they did it."

Firess had, by this time in speech, come to standing. In the centre of the cave, his arms hang, shoulders slumped as though feeble ribbons where all that held them to his torso. It is with an uncharacteristically defeatist quality that he is undressed of the steely fabric of his disposition. A solemnity pervades him, granted by Selvin or some other speaker that has in doing so transferred the duty of speech unto him. He looks up to Celith, and then to Kallian, and these motions are unbecoming in their slothful execution.

"These are not Elves of which we were told in our days, nor Elves that you should know, Kallian, though I will speak not for your background. Where they exist, our ears are made deaf, and our eyes do not turn to see - and gladly so. Justifiably so. But Selvin speaks to break that silence within House Galiner, for some deed they have performed to breach the neutral contract, and offend The Protector. Only two days of deliberation did he undertake before he spoke of them with me; now to speak with you, and bring you where he waits when you are willing.

"They are their own house, and it is not to these mountains only they come. All across Faerûn they exist, united under one name, and urged to battle one foremost foe throughout the world: humans.

"They are the Eldreth Veluuthra, and if our foe is yours, then call them 'foe', for as of this season and no sooner they have become one. But Selvin can speak it better than I, and if you need counsel then take it from him - and I will take you to him, to make it so. He is in the mountains too, awaiting your readiness."

There is a moment of silence, solemnity yet manifesting from the epicentre of the speaker. It disconcerts him to wear this shade of attention, and he drags a foot back across the cave floor to grind the stone and break the moment.

"So tell me when you are ready. This cave is too small for the three of us."
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