A World in Chaos

[Keira Kelly]

Cassia watched the big man as he left the picket of his fellow recruits and headed out on his own into the dark night. She moved closer, following, stalking the greasy, unkempt brute as he made his way away from the camp which had been set up just outside of a small town on the outskirts of a wild area of the Old World. The Imperial Order had been circulating recruiting units such as this one to all these towns as of late, making sure that all the able men they could get joined for.. some reason. There was talk of a coming war but Cassia had not yet figured out with whom; she had only been awake a short while but from what she had found upon awakening, all of the Old World had been taken over by this Imperial Order, even her home of Cavatura. Brutes, bullies.. the worst kinds of men were the prize of this Order. The thought of such men made Cassia's blood boil. She wanted nothing so much as to jump into the middle of them and slay them all, wade in their blood and take vengeance and make the world safe for innocents; but that would just be suicide and she was smarter than that. So she stalked them when they were solitary or in very small groups that she could manage. Like this big man.

The man stopped, just out of sight of his comrades and the firelight of the camp but there was just enough light to see by from the moon overhead. Cassia crept closer, staying behind the man so that she could get as close as possible before making her attack. She was smaller and very likely not as strong as the Imperial Order recruit before her so she had to be sure she kept the advantage. He seemed to preoccupied to notice her anyways. She had other means to stalk her prey at night but it cost her energy; if she could do so without the expense, it was preferable. As she closed in, she started to reach for her dagger only to find it missing. She cursed herself for having left it with her things. She hadn't been expecting to run across an Imperial Order camp nor to have had the luck of one of them making himself such a target. She didn't have time to go back for the relic now though; by the time she did, he would likely be finished his business and head back to his camp. She would have to go without it.

She cautiously stepped within a couple feet of her victim's back, pausing and holding her breath only long enough to be sure that he was oblivious to her presence before springing herself at him silently. She landed draping over his shoulder. Her sudden weight caused him to stumble to one side and she let that slide her around in front of the man like a human necklace, the backs of her knees hooking over his shoulder as she held on to him tightly. Her mouth opened, baring four sharp, extended canine teeth for a split second before she closed onto the front of his neck. She could feel the fangs puncture, slide around his windpipe and bit down as hard as she could. The cartilaginous tube crunched as it collapsed on itself, cutting off the man's air and preventing him from calling for help. His hands clawed at her, tried to pull off this creature that was causing him to suffocate but it was in vain; Cassia was latched on tightly. The man's movements began to slow and she rode him to the ground as he fell onto this back. She hunched, still holding his throat in a death grip, like some big cat taking down its prey.

Suddenly she felt a molten sensation run through her abdomen and out her back and she gasped at the agony of it, frozen at the fear that any movement would make it worse. She looked down, seeing only a few inches of metal between the man's hand and her torso. She glanced back, seeing the rest of the sword protruding from her back at an angle. Slowly she pulled back, making sure to stay parallel to the weapon as it slide out of her flesh. It was almost more than she could bear to do so. The freed sword fell to the ground, the man no longer having the strength to hold it; perhaps he had thought that he could have saved himself by getting her off him but his windpipe was crushed beyond any hope of saving and his life and strength were now ebbing away.

Cassia dropped to her knees, hand going to the wound on her stomach and blood oozed over her pale fingers. She knew the wound was bad and would normally have been a mortal one but she was not a normal person. She didn't have long to act however. She crawled back to the man who was already unconscious and turning blue in the face from the lack of air. Pushing his head to one side, she exposed the side of his neck to her and bent in close, sinking her fangs into him, almost chewing causing her teeth to rend flesh and blood vessels. She could smell and feel the blood that pumped copiously from the man and she didn't hesitate to swallow it down as it poured out. Already she could feel her own wound begin to heal, the pain disappearing as she fed. All too soon though, she could feel the man's heart stop. With a regretful sound, she moved away. She could have fed longer had she not been sloppy. Suddenly, she froze, eyes peering out into the darkness, mouth and chin covered in blood. Her eyes caught the moonlight, reflecting green as a cat's or wolf's eyes would. She searched the shadows around her for what had caused the feeling that someone was nearby.

[rivaan]

It was about a what the outsiders would call 2 weeks since Chambala had left the lands of her tribe. With her people dead, the forest burned and the secrets destroyed before the pet’s of the spirit of darkness could take them, the young woman was alone in this world. Always on the run. It didn’t take long after the attack on the village for her to realize, there were people after her. They didn’t seem to be that many of them, but all of them seemed very strong and were led by a dark witch… She was almost caught on the first day, but with the help of some of her friends in the forest, she managed to escape, using a raft her tribe had near a river, that crossed the forest.
Now she was reasonably sure, she was far away to have some time to rest, without the fear of those guys swooping down on her like a pack of hungry dogs. She even put a false track at a place, to make sure she gets extra time.
“This place is… terrible…” She thought, as she stalked around the town. It was dirty, near crumbling and many people looked too thin, which after some observation, reached the conclusion it’s from not eating well enough. These settlements looked so bad on food, that the tribal girl, had troubles believing people still would not try to do anything. Also those guys who seemed to gather men for some reason… As she never really left her forest before, she hardly knew what was going on in the world. All she knew was that these guys were with those who killed all her family… they were pet’s of the spirit of darkness!
Among the darkness of the night, from a distance, Chambala spotted something strange. There was someone who was creeping behind that guy who gathered the men. Slowly sneaking from afar, the tribal woman followed the 2, till the shadow jumped on the man and tore his neck. It was unnatural, that’s what it was. The woman who attacked him, looked like human, but the way she killed him was anything but. Chambala herself, had killed before, tearing a neck with her teeth, but what she saw now was beyond human. Still she attacked those evil men… While the tribal was thinking form afar, she noticed another man approaching the situation. She knew that when he sees what had happened, he would cause commotion and that wasn’t good. She quickly approached him from behind. Just as he arrived at the scene of the first kill and was about to shout. Chambala jumped from behind and the obsidian dagger, she stabbed the man’s lungs. With the lungs punctured, she cut his neck with the next motion.
With him taken care of, she faced the strange… woman creature that killed the other man.” You and I better get away from here… more people would come soon….” Chambala said, sheathing her dagger in the leather hand crafted sheath.

[Keira Kelly]

A man Cassia had not noticed quickly stood out in the dark and their eyes met. She could see the fear in his as he read the predator in hers. Her lips pulled back in a snarl, exposing her almost animalistic teeth as the anger at such men threatened to overwhelm. She was too far from him to stop him should he run or scream for help. Her only chance would be to run away herself before they could find her. She was just about to move into action when the man arched backwards, a quiet gurgling sound emitting from him rather than the cry she had been expecting. Something came round and a spray of red shot into the night from the man's neck, blood quickly coating the front of him in a dark sheet. Cassia remained frozen in place as the body dropped, revealing an odd looking woman wearing furs, leather and bone it seemed. One of the wild people, she reasoned but what was she doing here? They typically kept to their own lands, away from civilization. The woman spoke to her, snapping Cassia out of her state. She glanced back in the direction of the camp, realizing the woman was right. If two had come out here, it would be only a matter of time before one of their comrades decided to go and see where they had gone.. perhaps also decided this area would be adequate to take care of their business. She vaguely wondered how much this woman had seen of her own attack on the first man; if she had seen it, why would she be helping a stranger.. a creature who was so obviously dangerous and inhuman.

Whatever her reasons though, Cassia decided that this woman had also killed a man of the Imperial Order. That stood for something at least. She nodded with a final look back at the picket to make sure that there were no others yet. "I made camp back there." she said, pointing off to where the grassland became forest. She started out, keeping an eye on the woman, berating herself for having left her weapons behind yet again. This wild woman had weapons but Cassia was a weapon. She had means to act if she felt threatened at any point but the wild woman had given no cause as of yet. And so, Cassia led, knowing that she may have well owed her life to the woman. The walk wasn't too long before they reached a rock wall in the forest which gave some shelter, blocking line of sight towards the direction they had come. A fire could be made here without it being seen from that distance.

She pulled a pack, a sword and a dagger which were sheathed from a small crevice which had been hidden with leaves, dirt and moss and then looked up at the wild woman. "Thank you for back there." she said. Her teeth, while still lending her a predatory air were now nowhere near the length they had been. She pulled out flint and tinder and began to set about making a small fire in the ring of stones that she had earlier set up. She looked up through her work at the other woman, aware she was still covered in blood; her face with the blood of her prey and her clothing and hands covered in her own from the wound she had received. She frowned. "Why did you help me?" she asked, coldness and suspicion in her voice. She had never seen or heard of any who would willingly help a Lamia. She could see a hint of fear in the eyes of the wild woman, something she was used to. People could seem to sense her nature and were always slightly defensive around her. This woman had seen far more of that nature. Cassia tried to give a smile but realized it was almost more horrifying with the blood on her face and instead bent back to getting the fire going. "I am Cassia Aquino." she said to the wild woman, hoping to ease her fears somewhat.

[rivaan]

Chambala followed the creature to her camp. Taking a glance around, she was pleasantly surprised to see how well hidden it was. This was a very good place to have a safe camp to rest for a night.
“It wasn’t a problem.” The tribal woman said with a smile and sat, leaning on a nearby tree.” I did it mostly for myself. If he did warn the others, I wouldn’t have had time to get away safely as well. Though that’s not the only reason.” Chambala said and pointed at Cassia.” You are unnatural being… I saw how you killed that man and also the hole in you clothes.” She said, with eyes locked on the creature.” But you don’t feel like the pets of the spirit of darkness… you also killed on of his pawns. Anyone who kills one of those is a friend of mine.” The tribal said.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Chambala. I’m from the Lynxa tribe… was from the Lynxa tribe.”

[Keira Kelly]

The first flames began to lick up at the kindling and Cassia, letting out a small sound of victory, quickly reached for more twigs and grass to build the fire up as she listened to the other woman's response, concentrating on the task until the wild woman mentioned other reasons. She glanced up at that, cautiously trying to judge what the other reasons might be and still hesitant to hear them. Her gaze sank as the woman continued. So it was that again. Her hand went to where her wound had been, to the clothing that still bore the cut from the blade and her own drying blood. There were some good things about what she was now but.. underneath it all, she was still a person, had the same desires and needs as anyone else, many of which the predatory nature and aura she gave off denied her. She hadn't even had a friend or companion since.. since Tullio left her on her own so many years ago. She didn't even know if he was still alive.

She glanced up again, seeing the wild woman staring directly at her. She returned the look, keeping her face blank. "Spirit of darkness?" she asked, not understanding the reference. "I... Unnatural being... I suppose I am. I must feed and the men of the Imperial Order are nothing but brutes, bullies, rapists and thieves. They don't deserve life." she said, anger creeping into her voice. She forced herself calm once again, expression becoming impassive, unreadable. "Perhaps I am an unnatural being but I put what I was given to use, to stop what happened to my own family... and me at the hands of men like this." she said. Her hand unconsciously moved to the right side of her torso as the memories returned. The scars from her childhood ran far deeper than what still remained on her flesh. "I am only one person and I know there are.. tens of thousands at least, maybe more of the Imperial Order now... but if I can protect even one family from the same fate as mine..." she trailed off. Time to lock that pain, those memories away once again before she lost control of it.

The wild woman had said that anyone who killed these men would be a friend to her. Friend, a nice concept, Cassia thought. Nobody was friend to a Lamia. Not for long. The predatory nature created distrust in anyone she met. If they saw how she fed, that she was so different than them, it created fear, fear of the unknown, that she might turn on them next. She could see it still in this woman's eyes, that hint of fear at what she had seen. At least, unlike most, she tried to hide it, tried to work past it. She paused in her own thoughts as the woman introduced herself. "A.. pleasure, Chambala, despite the circumstances." she replied. She paused again, catching the correction that the wild woman made. "Was from?" she asked cautiously.

[rivaan]

"Hunger and thrist are a thing of a predator's nature. They shouldn't be denied and since you are feeding on evil men, you are doing a favor to the world." Chambala said with a nod." Desire to protect is a good thing. It should keep predatory instincts in check."
"15 days ago at the late afternoon, I was at the lair of my pack, when one of my friends came to warn me that the village was attacked. By the time we got near it was already late, but I saw the attackers. Many armored soldiers led by a dark witch. I've seen that dark witch before and they wanted the secrets our tribe held, so I ran away at that time to destroy them, before they could get them."Chambala said, taking a look at the small fire." From what I saw, nothing was left by the tribe. I should have expected it, when people began telling me that they were plagued by dream demon..."

[Keira Kelly]

A surprised look popped onto Cassia's face. That had always been her own philosophy since the need to feed had begun within her, that she sated herself on the blood of evil men, gaining strength from them in order to destroy more evil was the only moral way to live with what she had been cursed with. A way that she could live with what she was compelled by the hunger to do. She had turned her own curse into a weapon against evil. That someone else had comprehended that had caught her unawares. "You.. understand?" she said, half in question, half statement. Everyone that she had ever come across since she had turned thirty, every single one would have run or tried to kill her had they seen her true nature. A part of her did not blame them though; there were times when her hunger had almost become so bad, so painful, she didn't know if she'd have been able to stop from turning on the nearest warm body. She'd come close to crossing a line each of those times. As of yet, it had only been luck that she'd managed to find nourishment from a proper source. She might not be so lucky one day. That was the other reason she had always stayed alone, she knew how dangerous she actually was and she knew well how easy it was to come to the border of becoming so.

She continued to listen to Chambala, steeling her own emotions. She did not want to be drawn back into her own memories right now. So this woman had lost everything to brutes too. She understood a bit more now why this wild woman was far more accepting of Cassia. "I'm sorry to hear of your loss.." she replied in the long quiet after the woman had stopped talking. "They are with the good spirits now." The only sound after that was the quiet crackle of the fire as she gazed into it, unsure of what else to say. "Spirit of darkness, dream demon, dark witch... what are these things?" she asked finally. From what she could tell, this woman was connecting the brutes of the Imperial Order to these cryptic concepts. If there were other things that the Order was employing, Cassia reasoned it would be prudent to learn as much about them as possible. She knew that the Order had once or twice employed young wizards.. at least she had encountered one once. It had been an interesting encounter to say the least. Only one of them had walked away and Cassia had been sated for a good while. If they had wizards though, it would stand to reason they had sorceresses, likely what the woman had meant by 'dark witch'. The rest though, she was still clueless as to what the terms alluded.

She suddenly remembered something. "I would have offered you some food or.. drink but regretfully, I don't carry any with me. I don't.. tend to need it much." she said with a helpless shrug.

[rivaan]

“Well of course I understand. Such believes wouldn’t be that unusual for my people.” Chambala said with a smile as she took of the claws.” I’ve found it that people of the so called ‘civilized’ world, tend to forget the place of humans in the world. We aren’t anything special, we are just another species that exist. At the end of the hunt, meat is meat...” She smiled widely.
“You don’t know them?” She asked about the terms the other woman asked. The tribal woman blinked a few times and with a nod decided to explain. Perhaps Cassia had just known them by other names.” Dark witches are well.. the same as the regular witches that come to take away children that they say have the so called gift. The difference comes from the dark witches abilities to draw power from the world of the dead! Dark magic, that’s what it is! I saw it when they attacked my village. Flames black as a moonless night!” The tribal woman muttered with anger and slight tones of fear, but then continued.” As for the spirit of darkness.. well… the spirit of darkness resides in the world of the dead. It rules there, feeling an unending hunger that makes it want to swallow our world. For the dream demon… I’m not really sure what I can tell you. Some of my people said they were visited in their dreams some time before the …Order attacked. I’m not sure what it is. It never appeared to me.”
“That’s not a problem.” Chambala stated at Cassia’s apology about not having food or drinks.” I still have some dried meat and water.” She said and took them from her bag.” Truth be told I haven’t eaten much for days. I’ve been trying to run as far as possible from the dark witch and her minions that attacked my village. They seem to have decided to hunt me!” She said taking a big bite from the dried meat.” I lost them about 6 days ago, but decided to keep moving just in case.”

[Keira Kelly]

Cassia nodded slowly in response to the other woman, not agreeing but not really wanting to say anything. She was just a bit unnerved by the answer she had been given. To her, humans.. weren't just another species, another animal. They had the ability to reason, to think and had a far broader range of emotions and self-awareness than any animal. It was not the same thing at all. It sounded as though Chambala's people perhaps... ate human flesh? The thought disgusted Cassia in more ways than one. While she fed off human blood, of the spark of Gift held within in, she did so out of pure necessity and was driven to it, not by choice. And her choice in the matter, the choice she made so that she was not overcome with guilt at doing so was to only prey upon those who did not grant others the same rights to life that all deserved to live by. Her nodding turned to her shaking her head as she thought about it, about if she should speak up. "Meat may be meat but taking a human life is not the same as taking the life of an animal." she said finally. "Perhaps only if the human, through his actions, has forfeited his right to life.. but only then." she added. She had unconsciously moved her hand close to her dagger, ready to pull it in an instant if she had to, if the wild woman objected to her response violently.

She paused, waiting but the fur-clad woman made no moves, just changed the topic of conversation. A spark of recognition appeared on Cassia's face. She had lived for almost a century now, it would have been hard to not have recognized the description given. "Those are Sisters of the Light. Sorceresses from I've been told." she explained to Chambala. "The regular witches anyways. There.. are dark versions of them? The Sisters of the Light serve in the Creator's name..." she continued, with a somewhat confused look on her face. Her jaw slowly dropped as the wild woman continued on to talk about this 'spirit of darkness' and the abilities of these evil Sisters. "The Keeper..." she muttered. Fear mixed with anger on her features. "Are you telling me there are sorceresses out there who serve the Keeper and wield subtractive magic?!" she said, almost shouting. She had learned a bit about how the Gift normally worked under the tutelage of her uncle. She knew that no one was born with subtractive magic anymore, that it had been sealed away in the underworld.. until now, it seemed.

She lowered her voice once more, almost to a whisper now. "This Spirit of Darkness as you call it, the rest of the world knows him as the Keeper of the Underworld." she replied slowly, almost worried that she would be overheard. "If there are sorceresses that serve the Keeper and wield subtractive magics.. Good spirits protect us..." she added. As fearful as she was to hear of this, a part of her wondered what the blood of such a creature would taste like, what subtractive magic would taste like. A part of her yearned, ached desperately to know the answer. She pushed that to the back of her mind, trying to concentrate on the rest of the conversation. She shook her head. "I've not come across anything remotely like this dream demon that you speak of." she answered with a shrug. She paused, looking with a stern, studious look at Chambala. A thought occurred to her; if she kept the wild woman around, it might well just lead to an opportunity to feed from one of these dark Sisters. "Perhaps two is better than one.. for now. Would you care to join forces.. as long as it is in the best interests of the both of us?" she asked. Despite her reservations about the woman, there was far more she could gain from allying with her for the moment.

[rivaan]

“Don’t take my people for brainless bloodthirsty monsters. We used to allow travelers to cross our lands if they follow our rules. Those who attacked us, or transgressed the rules too far were a fair game… It’s not like we hunt humans for the sake of doing so. Even my pack used to ignore humans unless they intruded near the lair or the season was so bad that there wasn’t any other. Usually it’s easier to hunt rabbits, or more filling to hunt down elks.” Chambala explained to the other woman.

“Yeah, that’s how they introduced themselves…” The tribal nodded.” They didn’t seem like too bad people, if not pushy and looking at us with pity for some reason. The dark witch however wore the same clothes as them, but worked with the Order! Yes, they felt like they carried the darkness within them… the black flames were also a give away…” Chambala said with a big nod.

“Keeper, spirit of darkness, the name does not matter.” The tribal woman said and looked around.” Different names, same meaning… ahhh yes we could go together for now. I certainly would appreciate it… the world beyond the forest is so different. I’ve never been this far before. Besides if we stick together the chances are bigger we will survive, if we are attacked by evil people…”