Nephriel

Vampire Academy

Anna glanced up as the nurse walked into her 'room' really it was just a sectioned off area like the other beds via a curtain. Gunner wanted to see her... Her heart half stuck in her throat, afraid he'd tell her he couldn't deal with what she'd done to him or forget her as a Strigoi, she made her way to his bed. However, when she entered the room and he threw his arms around her, her own tears started falling. "For a minute... for a minute you did...Gunner... I'm so sorry. I... I swear I never would have if I'd been... the horrible thing is I can't even say it wasn't me. It was... I WANTED to do it and when Sebastian brought me back and I... I tasted your blood in my mouth..." She shook all over, "I thought I'd killed you..."

She slid her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder, Ms. Karp had healed the bite but she was still afraid to look... afraid she'd see a scar from what she'd done. "Anya... Anya is dead. I guess it's better this way... she'd have never survived being changed back. I see that now..." She shivered, "Sebastian almost killed himself bringing me back and then... then he pulled Serena back too. She's Shadow-Kissed..."

There was so much devastation and yet everyone was still alive... everyone except Anya. "I'm so sorry Gunner... I wish I could forget."

~*~

Ms. Karp had finally awakened, a nurse had come to get her because Serena was stirring and the girl would need to know what was going on with her. She sighed, slipped to her feet and wandered into Serena's room and took a seat next to her. It was likely that with Sebastian sedated she wouldn't feel anything from him yet, still the girl should be warned so that she could be prepared for what she'd be up against when he DID wake up.

She took a seat by Serena's bed as the girl's eyes slowly came open. "Welcome back... you're safe at Academy as is Sebastian, Anna, and Gunner... Everyone is alright." She took a breath and offered the girl the same tea that Anna had been drinking, it was good for clearing the mind and easing pain though she doubted the girl was in any. Between her healing and what the infirmary had done thus far she should be fine... shaken but fine. "You should drink this... I have some things that will be hard to hear..."

She hesitated then went on, "You died Serena, Anya killed you... Sebastian brought you back with what little strength he had left in him, it nearly killed him. You are Shadow-Kissed now... When Sebastian wakes you will feel what he feels and I won't lie to you, when he wakes he will be... unstable. He used too much, it is possible he might never be the same but maybe with your help you can pull him back from the edge a little at a time... If you decide this isn't what you want we can safely stop your heart and start it again but there is always the risk you won't come back... if you do though, you will be free of your bond. It is your choice."

An Unfinished Story

First, if you read this do me a favor and don't steal it... It's actually writing from a story I started but, as the title says, never finished. I thought maybe, since I can't finish it because I can't decide what direction to take, that I could try using it for an rp. What I'm looking for is someone, or a few someones, who are willing to throw out plot twists and add their own ideas to this story... co-writing instead of just one person leading the whole thing.

Basically, the story revolves around warring Deities. There is Era, the Goddess of Chaos; Aya, the Goddess of Light; and Ina, the Goddess of Neutrality. There are also many others, but those are the premade characters and I can play them all if no one bites for them. There is also Azel, a Lesser God who is Era's servant and Rien a Lesser God who is Aya's servant. Ina's servant is never named. Since Ina is reborn you can make her human form however you want so really... beyond her past she's your baby if you want to play her. Same with Era, Azel, and Rien actually...

Background to the Story: To make a long story short, Era watched Aya creating wonderful things and did not have the ability to create anything herself... only destroy. She grew jealous so she drew from the Void itself, the place where all the Gods/Goddess' originated... a place of Nothing, and tried to create a living thing from that. The being that was created went insane and Aya was forced to calm it and give it true form and balance... She named him Azel and he loved her for saving him. However, Era played Azel's jealousy over Rien against them both... She lied to Azel and told him that now that Aya had created Rien, a being of light and life, she no longer needed a tainted creation of darkness like him. This was further solidified when Azel initiated a fight with Rien and Aya defended him, growing angry at Azel. Afterward Era told him she'd heard Aya tell Rien she planned to put Azel back in the Void where he belonged. He fell into the trap and again lost his mind to the madness of the Void within him. He nearly killed Aya and during the battle all of Creation began to unravel. Just as she was convincing Azel that she DID love him, that she TRULY loved him, Rien opened the Void and tried to force him in... Afraid that he was already too far gone. This caused him to disbelieve Aya's statements and he ran her through with the Tainted Blade he'd drawn from within himself. As Aya was dying Era told Ina the only way to save things was to seal Aya away, thus stopping her death and the Taint spreading through her from the wound Azel had left... Ina, being the more gullible of the sisters believed this and helped Era to do so... Azel was lost to the Void until he grew stronger and later escaped it, Aya was sealed away in the mortal realm as the Source, and Era... having gotten rid of her main threat cursed Ina and cast her also to the mortal world to be reborn over and over as a mortal herself and always remember her deaths. Rien escaped the realm of the Gods just in time and has been seeking Aya and Ina's mortal incarnations out for centuries, trying to save them each time only to fail... until Fallyn. I'll figure out how to tie in your original characters be they Gods/Goddesses/Lessers or otherwise once I get some bites...

How Gods/Goddesses were 'born'. Before Aya created the Pattern of Reality, the only thing out there was the Void. Inside it were mildly sentient beings made up of the Nothingness around them and driven by the primal urge to feed. They devoured one another, slowly growing in intelligence and strength as they did... Once there were many of them the beings began to formulate speech and unique powers, it is thus that Aya discovered her ability to Create. She wove the first Pattern of Reality, and all other realities that came after, so freeing the others from the Nothingness of the Void by creating them their own realm beyond the realities she'd created... The Realm of the Gods. Ina made the creatures to fill the realities, Era maintained the balance of Life with that of Death. The system worked... until Era grew jealous.

The actual story is below, in the Hider.

Secret of the Gods

Often she'd lay awake trying to work through the tangled web that was her memories. Tugging and pulling, digging for what she could not find. She didn't know how she'd lost herself, couldn't remember anything before this place of mist and shadows. She had no inkling as to how long she'd wandered there looking for something...someone. The fog crawled along her pale skin like a living thing, cool and clammy, there was no wind. In and out of the mists seemed to dance haunting wraith-like things, gone so fast she wasn't sure they'd ever existed.

She couldn't remember how she'd gotten here, couldn't remember anything but this place where the sun never rose and three moons drifted in the sky. Her breath came out as crystals in the cold air and the grass tickled along her bare skin. She remembered wandering in this world until she'd finally collapsed but there was no sense of time. How long had she been here? Where was here? These things seemed right there within her mind ready to be understood but when she grasped for them they slipped through her hands like water.

The only thing she had was a name that was not her own, Azel. The clouds drifted until the moons shown in the sky and for just a moment the mist parted. On the edge of a cliff sat a white barked tree with pale green leaves that seemed to glow with the moons light. Silver flowers nestled between two leaves and the tree swayed as though beckoning though no wind danced in its branches.

Confusion made itself known to her numb mind and she sat up. That tree... Where had it come from? It hadn't been there before. She got to her feet and padded towards it. Where there had been no sounds before other than her feet in the grass the beings that were and were not within the mist seemed now to whisper among themselves. The tree stopped swaying as though waiting for her. She neared it and reached out to touch it.

"Aya," the voice was aloud and not in her mind, soft and barely audible, yet she recognized the name and she froze inches from touching the trees cool, smooth bark. This world did not permit speech by mouth but whoever had just spoken had done so despite his surroundings. A hand touched her shoulder, physical contact after years of being alone. She gasped and whirled to face...nothing. There was a sense of terrible loss and terrible sorrow and then she was falling, falling fast.

~*~ Now ~*~

Dark blue-grey eyes snapped opened on a room dimly lit by fire's light. A pale hand pressed against a pale forehead touching jet black hair that seemed to catch the moonlight in silvery-blue threads and cascade around thin shoulders. Panting Fallyn sat bolt upright her slender body trembling from head to foot in a cold sweat. That dream, she'd had it so many times in the past year. So many times she'd wandered in that world alone only to forget come morning but this time was different. She remembered every detail, she'd felt herself die.

She closed her eyes trying to banish the memory and instead a cruelly handsome face with wounded angry golden eyes and black hair flashed through her mind. She jerked her eyes open with a cry half expecting to see HIM there. The room was empty, but for the first time in a long time she used her power to light the candle by her bed. The fire's golden light seeming to dance with the silver of the moon in her hair as she trembled and wrapped her arms around herself, "Azel..."

As she watched the flame dance her mind moved back... Back to a time when Sieran had been full of life and laughter, back to before it had went from being her home to her prison. The ruins were all that was left now of her life before and the events that had brought around its desertion had happened over a hundred years ago. Once Verrin, the old scribe, had told her that their kind aged much more slowly than the mortals outside the mist. Now, she wished it was not so. Remembering Verrin brought a smile to her face despite the grim thoughts that had brought the remembrance about. "Verrin," she whispered to the darkness, "I'm sorry I didn't get to tell you how much you meant to me..." Teacher and father, she missed him more than anyone else she'd lost.
~*~ Then ~*~

"In the beginning of what is left of Briel's telling of the Legend of Azel we are introduced to a place known as the Void. In that place there was nothing, no darkness and no light, only a lack of everything. One being was cast into this nothingness as punishment of some crime though the record does not say what. He was a lesser god known as Azel and he was believed to be a destroyer. Around him, through the power of the Void, his anger took shape and became shifting, black, palpable darkness. Try as he might he could not escape the prison the Void had become to him. In his helplessness he cried tears of bitter blood that mingled with the darkness that he had given birth to. The bitterness, pain, and emptiness in his tears mixed with the rage and hate in the blackness and became the Taint."

"Trapped within the Void Azel formed a plan and he allowed the Taint to cover him, to hide him. In doing so he claimed its power and became both something more and less than the lesser god he had been. Unable to sense him any longer his fellow lesser gods soon forgot about him and their hold on the Void lessened, freeing their prisoner. Freed, Azel used the Taint he'd created to destroy several of his fellow lesser gods and dared to taint the Source in the process. In doing so he defied the one true goddess Era, the creator of the lesser gods and the creator of worlds. Seven of the lesser gods, the seven of Azel's banishers that still remained, used the Source to bind Azel to one of Era's most loyal when they were unable to kill him by other means. With a powerful entity within him he became as close to a god as anything created by the gods can be but his name was lost to time. He became Era`s weapon and he became her love."

"The Source was sealed away after that to keep it from ever being used against the seven and Era again. Then, when the Loyal One had a son Azel's curse passed on to him. We mystical beings known as the Sadrahi were commissioned to watch over the Source's resting place and in return we would be given a stand just below the lesser gods as immortals. For centuries the Source remained a secret to all Sadrahi except the Elders who formed the Council. Slowly, those outside the Council forgot its whereabouts and Azel passed out of existence peacefully when the Loyal One was forced to sacrifice his son...."

"Fallyn, are you even listening to what I'm telling you," the old scribe asked closing one of the old musty books he'd been reading from. The cloud of dust that rose as he did so dirtied his spectacles so that it made it hard to see the young girl, fourteen and four months from her next birthday, setting three feet across from him at the small table. His sneeze seemed to bring his pupil out of her reverie and she quickly tore her gaze from the window and looked back to her teacher who was now cleaning his glasses.

Her quick mind saved her from being caught, "What happened to the rest of Briel's telling? You said what's left," she noted recalling the first and almost the last thing she'd heard.

The white haired, withered, kindly old man looked at her skeptically over cleaned spectacles with gray eyes that revealed his amusement. He knew she had not been listening but he would play along. It was her last lesson in the records after all, "No one is sure... but it seems the pages were torn out."

"Torn out?" she asked her own gray-blue eyes looking puzzled as her jet black hair fell into them. "Why would Briel, a scribe, tear out pages of the history he'd recounted?"

"Again no one knows and Briel is quite deceased so we can't ask him now can we," he asked as he pushed himself up from his seat, his old bones complaining. Immortality may slow the aging process but one could still age and no one knew Verrin's age other than Verrin himself.

Fallyn recalled one other thing she'd heard, "Does any of our kind still remember where the resting place of the Source is Master Verrin? Or what it is?"

Verrin looked pleased that she'd remembered something from her lesson but shook his head, "The Elders have long since died off Fallyn, no one knows anymore what the Source is... if they ever knew at all. Though, I suspect it is hidden within the mists around Sieran that separate us from the rest of the world." Noticing her eyes light with curiosity Verrin set a heavy hand on her shoulder, "You must give me your word you will not go looking for that place Fallyn. Your father's temper is bad enough to deal with without having the fury of the Goddess directed at you."

She smiled, stood, and bowed, "You have my word Verrin. I'll see you tomorrow, the sun has gone down."

"Very well," he said standing as he made his way to the bookshelves, "make sure to go over today's lesson Fallyn, or you'll never keep up with my other pupils. I'd like to see you out do them..." Yet, the girl had already dashed out the door when he'd returned from replacing the book. Slowly, he took his seat again and pushing his spectacles back up on his nose he shook his head. Fallyn had always had a hard time of it with her father. Her mother had died in birth with her and her father blamed her. It was unfortunate and because she was the only female in the family she was the lowest in rank and Lothrin took full advantage of it.

He beat the girl, made her work like a slave, and promised her to a low ranking man that would never be able to care for both her and what children she would have. Verrin desperately wanted to see the young girl succeed where her father wished her to fail. Lothrin had always been an ill-tempered man but it could no longer excuse the way he treated his daughter and lately even his sons. As a Scribe she'd at least be provided for and she'd never have to marry the man of her father's choosing. On top of this she'd be given the respect her quick mind deserved.

His mood darkened further as he turned his gaze back down to his own records, "If only, Child... you would pay more attention..." Verrin murmured.

Fallyn had four months left... only four. If she did not graduate by her birthday, and she was who Verrin believed, she would never have to worry about what life her father had planned for her... she would never live to see it. Once every one hundred years a girl was born with the touch of the Source to her... an effect of living so close to its resting place. This girl would loose her life the night of her fifteenth birthday to restore the strand of the Source to its resting place and keep the power from straying outside of the mists of Sieran. The worst part of it was that when the girl was killed, because the piece of the Source was within her soul, she would have no afterlife... she would simply cease to be. It was a dreadful business but it had always been done and so always would be. Unless, Fallyn could escape their grasp in time. A Scribe had a measure of immunity towards the rules of society since they would have been part of the Council of Elders had it still existed.

The old Scribe sighed and withdrew the torn out 'missing' pages of Briel's Records. There were so many secrets but to reveal those secrets would mean the wrath of the Goddess, earthly death, and living in torment after that death if you were allowed to live at all. "Secrets have a way of escaping their keeper's grasp.... What will the Goddess do when she looses her hold?"

~*~ Later ~*~

Time seemed to have no meaning, maybe it's always that way when a person is dying. Thousands of things passed through her mind, knowledge that she didn't want to accept, truths that she wished she'd never known, wisdoms she should not have been able to comprehend. Yet, nothing that was going through her mind could compare to the feeling singing in her blood. For dying, this was strange. It went against everything she'd been taught. Then it occurred to her that the light surrounding her was fading, that there was no pain anymore, that she could hear, smell, taste the season in the air.

Slowly, very slowly, she opened her eyes and for paradise the place she was in looked a lot like the marsh filled with mist she'd just been killed in. She looked about but her father, the knife, and the hooded figures were all gone and there was no wound in her chest... no twisted ankle or broken arm. She frowned in confusion, had it all just been a dream? No, because if it had why was she still lying here on the steps to an alter she hadn't thought really existed? If it had been a dream why was she still in the marsh she'd run through to escape her father and the mad men with him? Most importantly, if it was a dream why was there a gash in her shirt and a scar on her chest?

She swayed to her feet and bit her lip, "Hello?"

There was no answer but what could she expect? She was nearly a mile from the village. She glanced back at the alter steps and, for a single horrible moment, wondered why her blood wasn't painting them. She looked at the door, still open... and that meant. She stuffed her hand into the pocket of her jacket but the orb was gone. What had happened? Then, she remembered. She'd been showing it to Verrin, the old man had touched it and then swore in a way she'd never thought she'd hear the sweet old man swear. He'd sent her away then, told her to run for the marsh and to hide there until morning and he would come for her. Only, her father had found her first.

She tried to remember what had happened to the orb, she'd had it when she'd been fleeing because she remembered the way it pulsed with warmth in her hand every time her heart beat. She remembered the whispers telling her what way to turn and when to hide, keeping her calmer than she should have been. Finally, it came to her. She'd planned on hiding inside of the shrine where the alter lay outside but they'd caught her and surrounded her, driving her up the alter steps. She'd fallen when she'd twisted her ankle and one of the stairs had broken her arm when shed hit.

The last thing she could remember was a strangely soothing fire washing through her as the knife in her father's hand plunged towards her chest, a blinding light and a voice in her head, and then waking up. Had her father stolen the orb when he'd thought her dead? How long had she been lying there looking dead? How long had it taken her to heal and how... how had she done it? She bit her lip and wished for the tenth time that she hadn't found that shrine with Caeren. She wished for the tenth time that she hadn't gone into it when the doors had opened so strangely. Yet, there was a good chance that it had been the orb she'd found within that had kept her alive.

She ran a hand through her hair and looked about, what should she do? She could wait here till morning for Verrin and hope her father hadn't killed him too or she could go check on him herself. She opted for checking, after all... no one knew she was alive. She went back the way she came, not sure how she found her way but it felt as though she knew these woods as if she'd been the one who'd planted the trees and placed each stream and stone. She wound her way back and when she came out she froze, too stunned to move.

The city was empty. Candles were still burning in windows but the houses were abandoned and nothing had been taken. She was confused again and wrapped her arms around herself, "Hello?"

There was still no answer but for the whistle of the wind through the streets. She moved towards the Archives and pushed open the door to Verrin's office, it too was empty but this time there was a note.

Dear Fallyn,
I cannot tell you how difficult it is to write this letter knowing that your body lies in ruin at this very moment upon the steps to the alter where so many girls have been murdered by the Elders for a false God. I can only pray that somehow, by the grace of the TRUE Goddess, you have survived and that you are now reading these pages that I have left for you. Fallyn, you must understand that if you have lived then it is because I was right all along and you are the child I was told would come to be. You see, many years ago when I was still known as Briel I was met by a man whose aura was so bright that I could not bare to rest my gaze fully upon him. He called himself Rien and he told me that a child would be born who would carry more than just a strand of the Source, that she would be the one to discover and free the Goddess trapped inside the Shrine. He was right Fallyn, the orb you had was no normal trinket just as you are no normal child, that orb was the Soul of a Goddess... the Source of Creation. You will come to understand soon enough. The people in the city have fled from Era's wrath, they have been gone two days now and still you sleep. I am sorry Child, but I cannot wait any longer. Immortality does not mean you will live forever and I fear my time is up, death waits for no man. In the desk you will find a book with many pages that will describe foreign lands, cultures, and ways of worship. Study them, learn them, I've no doubt Rien will come for you Child. It is simply a matter of patience.
Your Friend and Faithful Servant,
Briel Verrin Feit.

An Unfinished Story

First, if you read this do me a favor and don't steal it... It's actually writing from a story I started but, as the title says, never finished. I thought maybe, since I can't finish it because I can't decide what direction to take, that I could try using it for an rp. What I'm looking for is someone, or a few someones, who are willing to throw out plot twists and add their own ideas to this story... co-writing instead of just one person leading the whole thing.

Basically, the story revolves around warring Deities. There is Era, the Goddess of Chaos; Aya, the Goddess of Light; and Ina, the Goddess of Neutrality. There are also many others, but those are the premade characters and I can play them all if no one bites for them. There is also Azel, a Lesser God who is Era's servant and Rien a Lesser God who is Aya's servant. Ina's servant is never named. Since Ina is reborn you can make her human form however you want so really... beyond her past she's your baby if you want to play her. Same with Era, Azel, and Rien actually...

Background to the Story: To make a long story short, Era watched Aya creating wonderful things and did not have the ability to create anything herself... only destroy. She grew jealous so she drew from the Void itself, the place where all the Gods/Goddess' originated... a place of Nothing, and tried to create a living thing from that. The being that was created went insane and Aya was forced to calm it and give it true form and balance... She named him Azel and he loved her for saving him. However, Era played Azel's jealousy over Rien against them both... She lied to Azel and told him that now that Aya had created Rien, a being of light and life, she no longer needed a tainted creation of darkness like him. This was further solidified when Azel initiated a fight with Rien and Aya defended him, growing angry at Azel. Afterward Era told him she'd heard Aya tell Rien she planned to put Azel back in the Void where he belonged. He fell into the trap and again lost his mind to the madness of the Void within him. He nearly killed Aya and during the battle all of Creation began to unravel. Just as she was convincing Azel that she DID love him, that she TRULY loved him, Rien opened the Void and tried to force him in... Afraid that he was already too far gone. This caused him to disbelieve Aya's statements and he ran her through with the Tainted Blade he'd drawn from within himself. As Aya was dying Era told Ina the only way to save things was to seal Aya away, thus stopping her death and the Taint spreading through her from the wound Azel had left... Ina, being the more gullible of the sisters believed this and helped Era to do so... Azel was lost to the Void until he grew stronger and later escaped it, Aya was sealed away in the mortal realm as the Source, and Era... having gotten rid of her main threat cursed Ina and cast her also to the mortal world to be reborn over and over as a mortal herself and always remember her deaths. Rien escaped the realm of the Gods just in time and has been seeking Aya and Ina's mortal incarnations out for centuries, trying to save them each time only to fail... until Fallyn. I'll figure out how to tie in your original characters be they Gods/Goddesses/Lessers or otherwise once I get some bites...

How Gods/Goddesses were 'born'. Before Aya created the Pattern of Reality, the only thing out there was the Void. Inside it were mildly sentient beings made up of the Nothingness around them and driven by the primal urge to feed. They devoured one another, slowly growing in intelligence and strength as they did... Once there were many of them the beings began to formulate speech and unique powers, it is thus that Aya discovered her ability to Create. She wove the first Pattern of Reality, and all other realities that came after, so freeing the others from the Nothingness of the Void by creating them their own realm beyond the realities she'd created... The Realm of the Gods. Ina made the creatures to fill the realities, Era maintained the balance of Life with that of Death. The system worked... until Era grew jealous.

The actual story is below, in the Hider.

Secret of the Gods

Often she'd lay awake trying to work through the tangled web that was her memories. Tugging and pulling, digging for what she could not find. She didn't know how she'd lost herself, couldn't remember anything before this place of mist and shadows. She had no inkling as to how long she'd wandered there looking for something...someone. The fog crawled along her pale skin like a living thing, cool and clammy, there was no wind. In and out of the mists seemed to dance haunting wraith-like things, gone so fast she wasn't sure they'd ever existed.

She couldn't remember how she'd gotten here, couldn't remember anything but this place where the sun never rose and three moons drifted in the sky. Her breath came out as crystals in the cold air and the grass tickled along her bare skin. She remembered wandering in this world until she'd finally collapsed but there was no sense of time. How long had she been here? Where was here? These things seemed right there within her mind ready to be understood but when she grasped for them they slipped through her hands like water.

The only thing she had was a name that was not her own, Azel. The clouds drifted until the moons shown in the sky and for just a moment the mist parted. On the edge of a cliff sat a white barked tree with pale green leaves that seemed to glow with the moons light. Silver flowers nestled between two leaves and the tree swayed as though beckoning though no wind danced in its branches.

Confusion made itself known to her numb mind and she sat up. That tree... Where had it come from? It hadn't been there before. She got to her feet and padded towards it. Where there had been no sounds before other than her feet in the grass the beings that were and were not within the mist seemed now to whisper among themselves. The tree stopped swaying as though waiting for her. She neared it and reached out to touch it.

"Aya," the voice was aloud and not in her mind, soft and barely audible, yet she recognized the name and she froze inches from touching the trees cool, smooth bark. This world did not permit speech by mouth but whoever had just spoken had done so despite his surroundings. A hand touched her shoulder, physical contact after years of being alone. She gasped and whirled to face...nothing. There was a sense of terrible loss and terrible sorrow and then she was falling, falling fast.

~*~ Now ~*~

Dark blue-grey eyes snapped opened on a room dimly lit by fire's light. A pale hand pressed against a pale forehead touching jet black hair that seemed to catch the moonlight in silvery-blue threads and cascade around thin shoulders. Panting Fallyn sat bolt upright her slender body trembling from head to foot in a cold sweat. That dream, she'd had it so many times in the past year. So many times she'd wandered in that world alone only to forget come morning but this time was different. She remembered every detail, she'd felt herself die.

She closed her eyes trying to banish the memory and instead a cruelly handsome face with wounded angry golden eyes and black hair flashed through her mind. She jerked her eyes open with a cry half expecting to see HIM there. The room was empty, but for the first time in a long time she used her power to light the candle by her bed. The fire's golden light seeming to dance with the silver of the moon in her hair as she trembled and wrapped her arms around herself, "Azel..."

As she watched the flame dance her mind moved back... Back to a time when Sieran had been full of life and laughter, back to before it had went from being her home to her prison. The ruins were all that was left now of her life before and the events that had brought around its desertion had happened over a hundred years ago. Once Verrin, the old scribe, had told her that their kind aged much more slowly than the mortals outside the mist. Now, she wished it was not so. Remembering Verrin brought a smile to her face despite the grim thoughts that had brought the remembrance about. "Verrin," she whispered to the darkness, "I'm sorry I didn't get to tell you how much you meant to me..." Teacher and father, she missed him more than anyone else she'd lost.
~*~ Then ~*~

"In the beginning of what is left of Briel's telling of the Legend of Azel we are introduced to a place known as the Void. In that place there was nothing, no darkness and no light, only a lack of everything. One being was cast into this nothingness as punishment of some crime though the record does not say what. He was a lesser god known as Azel and he was believed to be a destroyer. Around him, through the power of the Void, his anger took shape and became shifting, black, palpable darkness. Try as he might he could not escape the prison the Void had become to him. In his helplessness he cried tears of bitter blood that mingled with the darkness that he had given birth to. The bitterness, pain, and emptiness in his tears mixed with the rage and hate in the blackness and became the Taint."

"Trapped within the Void Azel formed a plan and he allowed the Taint to cover him, to hide him. In doing so he claimed its power and became both something more and less than the lesser god he had been. Unable to sense him any longer his fellow lesser gods soon forgot about him and their hold on the Void lessened, freeing their prisoner. Freed, Azel used the Taint he'd created to destroy several of his fellow lesser gods and dared to taint the Source in the process. In doing so he defied the one true goddess Era, the creator of the lesser gods and the creator of worlds. Seven of the lesser gods, the seven of Azel's banishers that still remained, used the Source to bind Azel to one of Era's most loyal when they were unable to kill him by other means. With a powerful entity within him he became as close to a god as anything created by the gods can be but his name was lost to time. He became Era`s weapon and he became her love."

"The Source was sealed away after that to keep it from ever being used against the seven and Era again. Then, when the Loyal One had a son Azel's curse passed on to him. We mystical beings known as the Sadrahi were commissioned to watch over the Source's resting place and in return we would be given a stand just below the lesser gods as immortals. For centuries the Source remained a secret to all Sadrahi except the Elders who formed the Council. Slowly, those outside the Council forgot its whereabouts and Azel passed out of existence peacefully when the Loyal One was forced to sacrifice his son...."

"Fallyn, are you even listening to what I'm telling you," the old scribe asked closing one of the old musty books he'd been reading from. The cloud of dust that rose as he did so dirtied his spectacles so that it made it hard to see the young girl, fourteen and four months from her next birthday, setting three feet across from him at the small table. His sneeze seemed to bring his pupil out of her reverie and she quickly tore her gaze from the window and looked back to her teacher who was now cleaning his glasses.

Her quick mind saved her from being caught, "What happened to the rest of Briel's telling? You said what's left," she noted recalling the first and almost the last thing she'd heard.

The white haired, withered, kindly old man looked at her skeptically over cleaned spectacles with gray eyes that revealed his amusement. He knew she had not been listening but he would play along. It was her last lesson in the records after all, "No one is sure... but it seems the pages were torn out."

"Torn out?" she asked her own gray-blue eyes looking puzzled as her jet black hair fell into them. "Why would Briel, a scribe, tear out pages of the history he'd recounted?"

"Again no one knows and Briel is quite deceased so we can't ask him now can we," he asked as he pushed himself up from his seat, his old bones complaining. Immortality may slow the aging process but one could still age and no one knew Verrin's age other than Verrin himself.

Fallyn recalled one other thing she'd heard, "Does any of our kind still remember where the resting place of the Source is Master Verrin? Or what it is?"

Verrin looked pleased that she'd remembered something from her lesson but shook his head, "The Elders have long since died off Fallyn, no one knows anymore what the Source is... if they ever knew at all. Though, I suspect it is hidden within the mists around Sieran that separate us from the rest of the world." Noticing her eyes light with curiosity Verrin set a heavy hand on her shoulder, "You must give me your word you will not go looking for that place Fallyn. Your father's temper is bad enough to deal with without having the fury of the Goddess directed at you."

She smiled, stood, and bowed, "You have my word Verrin. I'll see you tomorrow, the sun has gone down."

"Very well," he said standing as he made his way to the bookshelves, "make sure to go over today's lesson Fallyn, or you'll never keep up with my other pupils. I'd like to see you out do them..." Yet, the girl had already dashed out the door when he'd returned from replacing the book. Slowly, he took his seat again and pushing his spectacles back up on his nose he shook his head. Fallyn had always had a hard time of it with her father. Her mother had died in birth with her and her father blamed her. It was unfortunate and because she was the only female in the family she was the lowest in rank and Lothrin took full advantage of it.

He beat the girl, made her work like a slave, and promised her to a low ranking man that would never be able to care for both her and what children she would have. Verrin desperately wanted to see the young girl succeed where her father wished her to fail. Lothrin had always been an ill-tempered man but it could no longer excuse the way he treated his daughter and lately even his sons. As a Scribe she'd at least be provided for and she'd never have to marry the man of her father's choosing. On top of this she'd be given the respect her quick mind deserved.

His mood darkened further as he turned his gaze back down to his own records, "If only, Child... you would pay more attention..." Verrin murmured.

Fallyn had four months left... only four. If she did not graduate by her birthday, and she was who Verrin believed, she would never have to worry about what life her father had planned for her... she would never live to see it. Once every one hundred years a girl was born with the touch of the Source to her... an effect of living so close to its resting place. This girl would loose her life the night of her fifteenth birthday to restore the strand of the Source to its resting place and keep the power from straying outside of the mists of Sieran. The worst part of it was that when the girl was killed, because the piece of the Source was within her soul, she would have no afterlife... she would simply cease to be. It was a dreadful business but it had always been done and so always would be. Unless, Fallyn could escape their grasp in time. A Scribe had a measure of immunity towards the rules of society since they would have been part of the Council of Elders had it still existed.

The old Scribe sighed and withdrew the torn out 'missing' pages of Briel's Records. There were so many secrets but to reveal those secrets would mean the wrath of the Goddess, earthly death, and living in torment after that death if you were allowed to live at all. "Secrets have a way of escaping their keeper's grasp.... What will the Goddess do when she looses her hold?"

~*~ Later ~*~

Time seemed to have no meaning, maybe it's always that way when a person is dying. Thousands of things passed through her mind, knowledge that she didn't want to accept, truths that she wished she'd never known, wisdoms she should not have been able to comprehend. Yet, nothing that was going through her mind could compare to the feeling singing in her blood. For dying, this was strange. It went against everything she'd been taught. Then it occurred to her that the light surrounding her was fading, that there was no pain anymore, that she could hear, smell, taste the season in the air.

Slowly, very slowly, she opened her eyes and for paradise the place she was in looked a lot like the marsh filled with mist she'd just been killed in. She looked about but her father, the knife, and the hooded figures were all gone and there was no wound in her chest... no twisted ankle or broken arm. She frowned in confusion, had it all just been a dream? No, because if it had why was she still lying here on the steps to an alter she hadn't thought really existed? If it had been a dream why was she still in the marsh she'd run through to escape her father and the mad men with him? Most importantly, if it was a dream why was there a gash in her shirt and a scar on her chest?

She swayed to her feet and bit her lip, "Hello?"

There was no answer but what could she expect? She was nearly a mile from the village. She glanced back at the alter steps and, for a single horrible moment, wondered why her blood wasn't painting them. She looked at the door, still open... and that meant. She stuffed her hand into the pocket of her jacket but the orb was gone. What had happened? Then, she remembered. She'd been showing it to Verrin, the old man had touched it and then swore in a way she'd never thought she'd hear the sweet old man swear. He'd sent her away then, told her to run for the marsh and to hide there until morning and he would come for her. Only, her father had found her first.

She tried to remember what had happened to the orb, she'd had it when she'd been fleeing because she remembered the way it pulsed with warmth in her hand every time her heart beat. She remembered the whispers telling her what way to turn and when to hide, keeping her calmer than she should have been. Finally, it came to her. She'd planned on hiding inside of the shrine where the alter lay outside but they'd caught her and surrounded her, driving her up the alter steps. She'd fallen when she'd twisted her ankle and one of the stairs had broken her arm when shed hit.

The last thing she could remember was a strangely soothing fire washing through her as the knife in her father's hand plunged towards her chest, a blinding light and a voice in her head, and then waking up. Had her father stolen the orb when he'd thought her dead? How long had she been lying there looking dead? How long had it taken her to heal and how... how had she done it? She bit her lip and wished for the tenth time that she hadn't found that shrine with Caeren. She wished for the tenth time that she hadn't gone into it when the doors had opened so strangely. Yet, there was a good chance that it had been the orb she'd found within that had kept her alive.

She ran a hand through her hair and looked about, what should she do? She could wait here till morning for Verrin and hope her father hadn't killed him too or she could go check on him herself. She opted for checking, after all... no one knew she was alive. She went back the way she came, not sure how she found her way but it felt as though she knew these woods as if she'd been the one who'd planted the trees and placed each stream and stone. She wound her way back and when she came out she froze, too stunned to move.

The city was empty. Candles were still burning in windows but the houses were abandoned and nothing had been taken. She was confused again and wrapped her arms around herself, "Hello?"

There was still no answer but for the whistle of the wind through the streets. She moved towards the Archives and pushed open the door to Verrin's office, it too was empty but this time there was a note.

Dear Fallyn,
I cannot tell you how difficult it is to write this letter knowing that your body lies in ruin at this very moment upon the steps to the alter where so many girls have been murdered by the Elders for a false God. I can only pray that somehow, by the grace of the TRUE Goddess, you have survived and that you are now reading these pages that I have left for you. Fallyn, you must understand that if you have lived then it is because I was right all along and you are the child I was told would come to be. You see, many years ago when I was still known as Briel I was met by a man whose aura was so bright that I could not bare to rest my gaze fully upon him. He called himself Rien and he told me that a child would be born who would carry more than just a strand of the Source, that she would be the one to discover and free the Goddess trapped inside the Shrine. He was right Fallyn, the orb you had was no normal trinket just as you are no normal child, that orb was the Soul of a Goddess... the Source of Creation. You will come to understand soon enough. The people in the city have fled from Era's wrath, they have been gone two days now and still you sleep. I am sorry Child, but I cannot wait any longer. Immortality does not mean you will live forever and I fear my time is up, death waits for no man. In the desk you will find a book with many pages that will describe foreign lands, cultures, and ways of worship. Study them, learn them, I've no doubt Rien will come for you Child. It is simply a matter of patience.
Your Friend and Faithful Servant,
Briel Verrin Feit.

Vampire Academy

"No! Anya STOP," Anna screamed, the blonde ignored her and Anna struggled to her feet, getting into a fighting stance even though she had almost no strength left and her vision was blurring from the concussion she was trying to succumb to... Anya didn't get three steps when a dark form entered the room. The fight was short lived, one dark form... a Guardian, grabbed the Strigoi Anya and restrained her as another one that she recognized as a slowly healing Guardian Belikov, put a stake through her heart.

Sebastian's eyes fluttered at Anna's initial scream and he saw Serena's body hit the floor and everything in the room seemed to fade to nothing in light of seeing her lying there... eyes still open. "No...nonononono...." He's mind darkened, his power rushed through him and if he'd been able to get off the ground it was possible that despite his love for her when she'd been alive he would have killed Anya now. There was nothing he could do... nothing he could... He reached out and grabbed her hand, maybe it wasn't too late... maybe he could... maybe he could fix it... maybe she wasn't dead. If she was still alive he would give everything in him to save her, put out what little light he had left inside if it meant her getting up and looking at him without that glazed... His body shuddered, and the power in him changed from dark and angry to desperate.. desperate to heal. What little light still left in his soul struggled momentarily then flared to life and flowed... flowed from him to her... then his world went black one last time.

Anna had knelt next to Gunner, or collapsed next to him was closer to the truth. She dragged him halfway onto her lap to cradle his head and then Ms. Karp entered the room. She took an assessment of the damage and promptly went to Serena, "She is alive... barely. She is also... Shadow-kissed." She turned to Sebastian and put her hands on the sides of his face, she forced some of her light into him. "He will also survive but I suggest, however cruel it may seem, that he be restrained while the nurse is tending him and remain so for several days... He's used up all the light inside him, I've replaced some but the darkness... the darkness will need time to recede and in that time he may be violent... unstable."

Belikov nodded, "Can you help the trainees... You are beginning to pale."

Ms. Karp nodded, "I can... heal the minor injuries but then... I need to rest. Healing you and giving light to Sebastian has drained me."

Ms. Karp first rested hands on Serena, her power flowing... The minor scrapes and bruises cleared and she pushed the matter by trying to give her more of a fighting chance... Her pulse stabilized and some color returned to her cheeks. Sonya then stood and moved to Anna who shook her head, "I'm healed... Sebastian... I was... Please just fix Gunner."

Sonya nodded and placed her hands on Gunner next, closing her eyes. The boy's complexion lost it's paleness and his heart-rate stabilized... She healed the damage to his scalp from hitting the wall then looked at Anna. "You're concussed... your pupils..." She reached out and Anna leaned away, "I know you can't... I'll be fine. I just have to stay awake right? No problem..." Until her friends showed signs of being alright she wouldn't sleep... and with the taste of Gunner's blood still in her mouth she... she doubted she'd sleep for a while.

Guardian's lifted Sebastian and Serena, Anna struggled to her feet as another Guardian grabbed Gunner and carried him like a sack of potatoes. Anna stumbled and another Guardian helped her down the hall as Belikov helped Karp... Apparently, the reinforcements had been just a tad late.

~*~

The infirmary was packed full. Serena, Gunner, Anna, Sebastian, Belikov, and Ms. Karp all lying in separate beds. Anna had been given some kind of tea to help stimulate her and keep her awake, it helped ease the grogginess and the pounding in her head... it also got rid of the taste in her mouth... but not the memory. Serena seemed better, Gunner was next to her and was breathing steadily, Belikov was already setting up and talking to the nurse, and Ms. Karp was sleeping. As for Seb, they'd thought it best to sedate him and keep him under for a while. No spirit user could endure that much without horrible side effects and they hoped to spare him... A female Spirit wielding student kept coming in to help, she was giving Seb a little Light at a time... It seemed to be helping. His mumbling in his sleep had eased off and he was no longer thrashing about against the restraints... now he was sleeping peacefully.

Anna... just wanted Gunner to wake up.

Vampire Academy

Anya was the only Strigoi in the room now, Claus had been one of the ones to join in the fight and had died with the others. Anya frowned at Gunner, "Don't mourn Gunner... She'll Awake in a moment and I'll let her Awaken you. We'll be together..."

Anna, who had been limp in Gunner's arms just a moment before snapped red eyes open and before he'd even have a chance to respond since he had her held so closely to him... She buried her fangs in his throat.

Sebastian looked Serena over, and nodded... she'd be alright. Belikov though was leaning against the wall, a hand pressed to his bleeding side. Sometime in the midst of the fight a Strigoi had managed to drive a blade into him... Sebastian was about to go over and heal their best shot at getting out of here alive when he heard a voice that made his heart want to implode in his chest. His face drained of color and then, in the doorway he saw Anna open her eyes... and bite Gunner.

"NO!"

Without even thinking he grabbed Belikov's stake off the floor, his magic already winding through the weapon as he headed for the door...for Gunner and Anna before she could kill the man she... It was a split second decision, he knew he'd only be able to help one... Not enough strength after his stunt yesterday to even pull this off maybe... Before Anya even saw him coming, he'd set her clothes on fire and while she was distracted he'd buried the stake in Anna's back... praying... praying he'd done it right. She screamed , shoving Gunner away from her hard, and the stake stopped halfway in and he had to push again to force it into her heart.

By then Anya had put out her cloths and snarled but the light blasted all around them blinding everyone... When it faded Anna was on her hands and knees vomiting. She'd not been Strigoi for long but she could still taste Gunner's blood in her mouth. She wasn't as damaged in her soul as a Strigoi who would have been that way for days, weeks, years... she remembered herself... and she remembered what she'd just done. She looked at Sebastian, passed out next to her and Gunner who she'd knocked flying and prayed they were both okay. She stumbled to her feet, planning to attack but she didn't have the strength and Anya grabbed her by the shirt and threw her across the room to land next to Gunner, dislocating her shoulder.

Anya started for Sebastian and Anna, who'd been checking Gunner's pulse to make sure he was alive... and he was... just weak from blood loss, cried out. "Serena! Stop her!" She was struggling to stand again but all her muscles were screaming.

Vampire Academy

Belikov grimaced, "Gunner, I am the senior Guardian... I will go in but... Sebastian, if you got close enough could you see their auras?"

Sebastian seemed to understand, if he could see the auras he could see how many they were up against. "Yes... yes I can."

Belikov nodded, "Gunner, don't lose your calm here... Anna's life could depend on that. Follow..."

They moved down the hall a little further and Seb stopped, touching Belikov's arm. They were within hearing distance of a Strigoi but he could see them. He held up eight fingers and grimaced. That was two to each Guardian, including Anna who's aura he could also see and what he saw... He kept quiet, if he spoke Gunner would charge in and get himself killed. The desperate look on his face though must have caught Belikov's attention. He looked at Gunner, pointed at him and then held up two fingers... two Strigoi for Gunner. He held up four fingers for himself and then pointed at Serena and indicated the last two and for Seb to stay back. It would be close...

He held a hand up for them to wait and ran forward to draw out the Strigoi... Only six were outside in the halls, two were inside the old boiler room with Anna. "Now!"

Belikov quickly dispatched the first one and Sebastian used what limited ability he had over fire as a distraction for him to kill a second and third one.... breaking the rules by getting closer to the fight paid off sometimes... He kept glancing at the room and could no longer help it, "Gunner... Anna!" He set another Strigoi's clothes on fire to help Serena dispatch it as Belikov took out a fourth but he was slowing and he had quite a few wounds.

Vampire Academy

Guardian Belikov frowned, he knew it would do no good to lie to the boy. "The sun is still out, so even if it was they would have had to have used the tunnels to avoid the daylight. We've combed every inch of those tunnels and we know where each one exits out. Only three of those areas remain in darkness, out of the sun." He looked up as Serena and Sebastian caught up, "I am calling in more Guardians as we speak... but the sun sets in an hour. It will take them longer than that to get here..." He seemed torn a moment, his options were clear... Get Sebastian to safety was one of the first things he should do but he knew the Moroi boy would argue over Anna and they'd be wasting precious time.

"I will lead the group, Gunner I want you in behind us... Serena, you stay at Sebastian's side. If we go in we may catch up to them or find some better sign as to which tunnel they took so I can inform the other Guardians and maybe they can head them off... This is dangerous, remain close and do EXACTLY as I say... stay alert at all times. This is real life, no test... your lives will be at risk, understood?"

After he had their understanding he led them down towards the tunnels... Sebastian tensed at one of the cross sections, "I smell..." He hesitated and then knelt, "Blood... Anna's." His heart rate picked up and Belikov rested a hand on his shoulder, "It is very little... They must have incapacitated her, but there would be more if she were badly injured." He didn't bring up the possibility of a bite... none of them needed that worry right now. "Can you tell which direction they went?" There were three possible ways to go from here... Seb grimaced and then walked to the left tunnel and took a deep breath, then the right. "That way... it's faint but there's more blood...more in the hall."

Belikov nodded and then headed to the right... the twists and turns the Strigoi had taken were insane, obviously they'd expected to be followed... and the scent of blood was growing fainter.

~*~

Anna struggled to pull herself back through the haze... tried to think clearly but it was impossible. "I don't want to hurt you Anna... but I know you'll hurt me if you're strong enough. This is better, for both of us. There's no need to fight, I'm not going to kill you I just... I want us to be friends again, like before."

Anna shook her head, trying to clear it... "Friends... Anya... you bit me."

Anya sighed and knelt in front of her, "I didn't... it was Claus. He's the one who brought you to me... he's helping me."

"Strigoi.... don't help each other..."

Anya shook her head, "You Dhampirs have left us no choice... there are more of us you know. You can be part of a family."

Anna grimaced, "I... have a family." She was so tired, Claus must have taken a lot... Thankfully, it had been while she was out.

"Don't be like that Anna, I need you... you're strong. You've always been strong. You can help me get everyone back, you can all be with me again."

Anna shivered, she felt...cold. "No... it won't be the same. We'll be... dead. I'd rather die than be... Strigoi."

Anya ran a hand through Anna's hair then suddenly yanked her head back, "No Anna... you won't die... You'll Awaken."

Anya bent to her kneck and Anna screamed.

~*~

The sound echoed through the halls and Belikov tensed, "They're baiting us... if we run headlong into it we'll be ambushed at the crossways..."

Vampire Academy

Sebastian nodded, "Yeah... give them some space to schmooze." He sipped at his drink, "We should grab out seats before the place fills up." He headed into the theatre before realizing that the commercials were already ending, giving way to the previews. He frowned, "Where is Anna?"

Guardian Belikov checked his watch, "I gave her twenty minutes... It's only been about ten. The mall is a big place, she's probably still paying for her things."

Seb rubbed the back of his neck then nodded before letting Serena into the isle ahead of him and then he took a seat beside her and placed the popcorn where they could both reach. "I'll barely make a dent in a large, you Dhampirs have good appetites though so I figure you'd want a large... and if you don't finish it I'm sure Anna and Gunner will... Gluttons, the both of them."

It wasn't until after the previews ended and the opening of the movie began that he began to worry once more, he wanted to talk to Serena but Anna still gone had him distracted. He looked at Serena as he noticed Guardian Belikov check his watch for the third time in the past minute and then walk out of the theatre. "Something is wrong..."

~*~

Anna woke with her head pounding, she was pretty sure she was at least mildly concussed and she was definitely pissed. She'd allowed a Strigoi to sneak up on her while SHOPPING... really? She cursed, peeling her eyes open.

"Anna! You're awake!" The voice was so familiar her heart stumbled and every muscle in her body went tense.

Vampire Academy

Sebastian blinked, he wasn't aware he was being quite so obvious about his growing affection towards Serena and seeing her blush and the flicker in her aura made him wonder if maybe she was beginning to feel the same. Either way, he HAD planned to use today to try and get his nerve up to tell her... He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly a moment before tossing an arm around Serena's shoulders. "Please do, we need to gossip about you and Anna... Who thought we'd see the day," he teased.

He sighed at pretended disappointment, "I suppose we should at least grab our popcorn, I don't think Anna has enough hands. She's failing on all levels these days... Don't tell her I said that... She'd hurt me and I'm fragile," he joked.

He went to the counter and ordered himself a large popcorn and two sodas and passed one to Serena, "The lady doesn't pay," he explained. Then held up the cookie dough he'd bought, "Want some?"

~*~

Anna hadn't been gone long when she'd felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end... She felt watched. She frowned and shrugged it off, it was the middle of the day... Yeah, sure a Stigoi could maybe have taken some of the old Subway tunnels to get here.... but ever since the year when Rose and the group of her friends had gone missing the Guardians had made sweeps just to make sure they were clear... She wasn't 100% sure when the last sweep had been but she was sure that news of the sweeps had probably been passed around to any would be Strigoi squatters... She paid for her things, and then headed back towards the theatre. She hadn't gotten far and was just passing a piller when she was grabbed and yanked behind it. She struggled, slamming her heel onto her attacker's foot and then her head back into his face before she was slammed face first into the piller itself... As she fell to the ground, dazed and seeing stars, she saw a male face and red eyes and then everything was black...

((BUMBUMBUM))

Where Angels Fear to Tread (Community Revived Edition)

Lol... sometimes you just REALLY need to get the point across Hamster, in which case one 'of course' simply isn't enough.