[color=gray][indent][indent][i]In the dark, though there was life sown, there also lingered an aphotic dread, the conceptual design of everlasting energy correlated into the fabric of reality that listed through the unwavering rule of time and all subjugated beneath its reign of inevitability. The void therein that churned and collided against unforeseen energies as wars raged above and below. Roots wove, and deep into the sphere of abyss did something stir and wake, prisoned since the beginning, where chaos was a malformed pit of unknown power; it was many things of an awakening disorder that slumbered still before the One took seed into the chasm of the deep, something that the world would never forget, but would refuse to acknowledge its truth lain far into the void of the in-between, where bedlam heralded through the eldrith roar of resonating malice and want of despair. The reaping desire of revenge for its imprisonment and the want of life and the Vis that fed its hate just as it breathed life through the creations of its once-upon-a-time keepers, now forsaken and cast aside for their greed and want of freedom now denied to it as time unwound through the mighty limbs of The Tree of Life and sowed deep into the roots impaled through the darkness of the endless void. 

Until finally, it broke free.

Once as an undulating pit of appetence, it arose as a terrifying, winged wyrm with eyes of loathed blue that sheered through the world and fed upon the energies of life and vestiges of death, relics of eternity and rebirth, denying souls repentance and instead bequeathing punishment of damnation. A serpentine creature once before that fled through the gardens of serenity and gluttonized itself upon the intrigues of immortality before plummeting far below into the chasm of a shattered looking glass and lay waste to lands bathed in a hated red glow. Wrought with insatiable hunger, such a beast fell far from reasoning, listing through the wiles of the world in nightmarish visions of glimmering, crystalline blue eyes peering back from the darkness, its roar shattering through bones and blood, flesh and even stricken unto the souls of many and all as it cried for the netherworld of all life owed to it.

All the wrongs of the world done unto it. 

For all the power in the world until naught remained but ash in its grasp.[/i][/indent][/indent]

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/yGUFIfx.jpeg[/img][/CENTER][indent][sub][COLOR=silver][B]Location:[/B][/COLOR] [i]unknown.[/i]
[/sub][sup][right][COLOR=silver][b]Human #5.064:[/b][/COLOR] [I]ancestral trauma.[/I][/right][/sup][/indent][center][sup][color=#2e2c2c]_____[/color][color=#373534]_____[/color][color=#403d3c]_____[/color][color=#494644]_____[/color][color=#524f4c]_____[/color][color=#5b5754]_____[/color][color=#64605d]_____[/color][color=#6e6965]_____[/color][color=#77716d]_____[/color][color=#807a75]_____[/color][color=#89837d]_____[/color][color=#928b85]_____[/color][/sup][sup][color=#9b948d]_____[/color][/sup][sup][color=#928b85]_____[/color][color=#89837d]_____[/color][color=#807a75]_____[/color][color=#77716d]_____[/color][color=#6e6965]_____[/color][color=#64605d]_____[/color][color=#5b5754]_____[/color][color=#524f4c]_____[/color][color=#494644]_____[/color][color=#403d3c]_____[/color][color=#373534]_____[/color][color=#2e2c2c]_____[/color][/sup][/center][INDENT][sub][color=silver][B]Interaction(s):[/B][/COLOR] [I]&.[/I][/sub][SUP][RIGHT][COLOR=silver][b]Previously:[/b][/COLOR] [I]&[/I][/right][/SUP]
[INDENT][indent]

[color=#000000][sup][b]| [I]Many Years Ago.[/i][/b][/sup][/color]

Long ago, a red moon rose. Through the sanguine splendor, there bloomed a fissure through the fabrics of the worlds, from root to branch, to be as above and so below, the equivalent exchange for life and death as Charlotte Cahors dragged herself through a conjunction, wrought with the vile remains of Limbo and putrid creatures that sought to carry through her likeness to feast upon the souls of life astride through the energy particles that infected Midyeden by the might of an undying star. Through sand and surf, she crawled, tides of an ocean heralded under the mighty influence of lunar rays donned in crimson shadows, roaring with their whorl of froth and churning void that ebbed and flowed against her trembling form. Clutched against her palm glimmered the remaining ember of precious jewels, now drained conduits of power lost of their luster, and in her opposite, a soiled blade of black no longer than her forearm. She fought for massive gasps of air, a lingering taint of smog instantly coating her throat, the firmament here embedded with industrial claims of iron and smoke, even the waters here slick with oil and tinged black into their depths as she looked yonder to the realm she had studied through scrying silver-glass of mirrors. Charlotte leaned back onto her heels, the grit of sand harsh on her knees and scoured through her palms that she cleansed with water, the salt of the sea stinging her flesh but further cementing her intentions as the rift at her back wavered and swelled before finally sealing shut at the rush of molecules that flitted through this time and many others, lingering caresses of magic threaded into the leylines burrowed here into the surf that connected to the edges of this world and the next. 

And there at her side, as had been for years and would be for many to come as always and meant-to-be, stood a towering beast of black and white, its coat tainted just as she was, laden heavily with the remnants of Limbo and the abysmal creatures that haunted it. Exhausted and spent, bound together in a tangibly felt fragment of a soul of souls, the wavering spools of magic struggled to contain their manifest in either body as this world was unknown for it and instead coiled with the vivacity of celestial endowment. Charlotte dug trembling fingers into its pelt and heaved herself up, burrowing into a heaving flank as the scarlet moon above began to pale and flicker, silver drowning them and painting the beach aglow with it, shimmering lamplight of starlight that reflected in her eyes of blue, burdened to see and witness all, the eyes of eternal sorrows that glistened with every drop of her lashes. A soft canine growl of concern purred through her bones, and Charlotte finally stepped back, carved hands through her midnight-black hair, and looked onto the shoreline, then back over rolling fields of deadened reeds and the cresting dunes of rock. 

	[color=ffffff][i]Are you sure about this?[/i][/color]

	[color=#624e51]“No,”[/color] she admitted quietly, soft hands whispering over perked ears. [color=#624e51]“But I saw something, [/color][i][color=#624e51]felt something[/color][/i][color=#624e51].”[/color] Charlotte amended, her Familiar for many years now so attuned with her voice and mannerisms, an intelligence that alighted in too-keen eyes that studied the landscape just as she did. [color=#624e51]“And whatever happens here could happen in Ünterland. Too many holes for things to crawl through, too many eyes wandering into the shadows, too few guardians to keep them at bay.”[/color]

	[color=ffffff][i]But the dragon -[/i][/color]

	[color=#624e51]“Sleeps.”[/color] She muttered and quickly pointed away from them. [color=#624e51]“Now, scout.” [/color]

Her Familiar chuffed, almost with an imperceptible too-human eye roll, before powerful paws carved deep into the wet sand, heaving its massive body quickly over the dunes and into the dark at a galloping pace. With him disappearing finally from sight, Charlotte sighed, her shoulders stooped with effort, her limbs weighted and weary, and her heart plummeted to the depths of a sudden loneliness stranded on this plane. She was not sure, no, because getting here was one thing, but to get back was entirely another, a circumstance she had contemplated in their journey with the moniker of [i]deserter[/i] chained to her spirit. Still, there was no turning back when they stepped over the threshold of knowing, to be seekers now that defied the order of [i]here and there [/i]to search for an evil that quaked through a mirror of mirrors, for as above and so below, as she was taught and could not ignore that calling that inspired her to leave from Ünterland. Banishment some had uttered, isolation in her curious mind that could not leave this world be, for though a reflection of what she knew, there was fascination in the towering spires of metal and glass she could glean and the inspiring architecture that stood against the ages. Things here were fast, quick; they accelerated far more than any other place she had seen, man and the world in a constant fluctuation of movement and sparing little charm in their daily endeavors. 

In the distant gloom, she heard a howl, something soft and careful that pitched low into an echo off the sands and curled over the quieting waves. 

	[color=ffffff][i]Nothing, dawn is some hours away yet. There are houses, I think, farther in. I didn’t get too close; they have their own Familiars.[/i][/color] 

	[color=#624e51][i]They’re more like pets, Keiran. They’d likely think you one as well. [/i][/color]

	[color=ffffff][i]I am not a pet.[/i][/color]

He returned to her side quickly, paced eagerly, and almost irritable, the sand giving way underneath his considerable weight and size. She studied him carefully, contemplating his guard in silence. 

	[color=ffffff][i]What?[/i][/color]

	[color=#624e51]“You’re too big; you’ll attract unwanted attention in this form.”[/color]  
	[color=ffffff][i]That’s ridiculous.[/i][/color]
	[color=#624e51]“No, animals are far smaller here. Domesticated.”[/color] 
	[color=ffffff][i]…What do you suggest then?[/i][/color]

Charlotte grinned and procured a small golden trinket, one beset with a polished, clear silver gem. She unspooled the chain from her delicate hand; her blade tucked curiously into the white veils draped over her form, adorned in curious armor and filigree. Keiran, as she called him, settled back onto powerful haunches. A chuff pumped away from a panting maw and growled. A sparkling convergence of magic intertwined between them, shimmering as a kaleidoscope of pale, white threads. 

	[color=#624e51]“Like a pet,”[/color] she uttered and intricately wove her hands, settling her palm against his furred brow and then [i]pushed.[/i] His once immense size began to waver, quivering with their combined souls, pulsating as a heart, as one, as Keiran possessed of bones and fur and muscle bunched and fell, a form of once dominating prowess sundered to something far more mundane. A sharp, swift bark sounded immediately; a simple dog of black and white now sat on her heels, obedient in all manners of a loyal hound with longer, shaggy fur, even if the response was less than pleased and disgruntled. 

	[color=#624e51]“There, now you look like a [/color][i][color=#624e51]normal[/color][/i][color=#624e51] dog.”[/color]

	[color=#49d3f2][i]Great.[/i][/color]
	
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Far across the sea, where the tides of fate would later converge on an island, Jonas Lehrer stirred, near panicked, and fell into the fabrics of time unwillingly; suspended within the throes of life as he tried to decipher that sudden shift in the spun threads of reality he had so carefully advised for many years; a once secured future for his family, his adoptive grandchild to be exact, suddenly shifted into uncertainty by the unveiling of an intriguing, pale face. In his many years of living, seeing events unfold, and knowing, he was burdened with everything unraveling from his grasp and unable to intervene, simply being an adviser to those directly affected by the cruelty of life’s eternal clock. Time shifted once more, out of his grasp, and he was thrust forward, he could see the ashen spires of a church lit through with terrifying, crackling wreaths of crimson power and obsidian wraiths born unto death in plumes of darkness. He fell onto a beach and saw this woman he did not know, heard her name, and then was dragged once more by his powers fluctuating madly, and then he saw a man there, one he knew of, and witnessed their meeting bid by the eclipsing matters of fate. He was sent to discover the torn veil she stepped through, to study and inquire about a potential threat heralded by those eyes wreathed of starlight to see All. The birth of a child next and the terrible fate meant for her by the hopeless draw of love, her own destines intertwined through this particular timeline now christened by the power of evil, a madman rose upon a self-given name of all-knowing cruelty and ill intent. Children unborn and unknown and all their lives now changed because, across the seas, there would be a little girl who would come to bear the mantle of pure destruction, born of midnight hair and pale eyes, delicate palms cupped around a shattered heart and held aloft as a sacrifice. 

Chaos is then given form and home in waxen skin donned in scars and ink. 

He knew he could not interfere, but even so, he grabbed both pen and paper and set to write a letter that would play a part in ultimately deciding her fate many years from now. He had to try something, yes, if only to save the child who had not yet been born, the one who would become his heir. A curious stone sat beside his still and poised pen, glinting in the light, and with a careful glance, he then set to write. 

[color=000000][i]Dear Ms. Cahors,[/i]

[i]	You don’t know me, but I know you, and I know of your daughter. I have seen what the world has done to her and I have seen the countless lives she will touch…[/i][/color]
[/INDENT][/INDENT][/indent][/color]