Also, I'd encourage new and old alike to post short teasers, SoT community may not know Lyra people, or visa versus, would be a nice OOC way to learn something!
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The Variant Walker
Kenra walked alone down the dim hallway, the light from torches mounted upon the walls illuminating the path before her. She could have walked the hallway to Insight’s Odeum in the dark without much trouble, she had spent the majority of her life navigating the deepest recesses of Evernight Stronghold. Insight’s Odeum. It was a name suggested in jest by Dreamseers long ago who preferred the music of screams to the whispers that now populated the massive chamber. It was the gathering place of all the Seers in existence, except those of the Forsaken, of course.
She was Shadow’s Mistress. She wasn’t particularly fond of the title, but the Forsaken’s master before her, Rovalith, did have a flare for the dramatic.
“Gatekeepers,” she thought, the corner of her mouth turning up in a mirthless smile.
Her predecessor hadn’t seen his demise coming, though he should have. He did the same to his own teacher. Was there no end to the density of Gatekeepers?
She continued her walk toward the Odeum, the buzz of hundreds of whispering Seers beginning to reach her ears. She wondered idly how things were progressing in the other houses. Tonight was a grand evening for the Forsaken. She slowed her pace, a hand coming up to her breast as she attempted to steady her breathing. The excitement of what was to come was nearly too much for her emotionless mask to contain. She couldn’t afford to let anything slip in front of the Cadre of Seers ahead of her. Her task was the most difficult—Seers were the most perceptive.
She entered the chamber, and the murmurs immediately ceased. She strode toward her chair in the center, her head held high, her simple white dress dragging behind her, bare feet peeking out from underneath.
She didn’t sit, instead allowing an impassive gaze to sweep across the room. She was the youngest Seer to ever lead the Cadre. It was unheard of. There were hundreds who were stronger, but there were none more relentless. Some she had power over simply because they couldn’t understand how she had ascended so quickly. They were cowed into submission because they weren’t sure who was waiting in her wings, ready to assist should any try to usurp her. Other were bribed, still others persuaded by grand, impossible ideals. She had done whatever was necessary to ascend.
“Tonight, we are victorious. The expansion is nearly complete.”
The murmuring began again. Their variant was overcrowded, the Nightmares pushed into the smallest holes in the Void, barely a threat to a newly awakened. An initiative had begun to breach another variant and provide new areas for the crowding, or so the story went.
Involuntarily, Kenra’s ears perked up. She could sense the subtle shift in energy from far below. A few moments later, she could tell others among the Cadre could sense it as well. Soon the Odeum was silent, every Seer focusing upon something that couldn’t be seen, only felt. Kenra wondered how long it would take them to notice. She could feel it, though she had designed it: the faintest morsel of malignant energy slowly corrupting the energy the Soulmasters had spent weeks purifying. It would spread like an infection, the shattered remnants of Wra’tziy’s soul essence, the most recent of the Nightmares to be vanquished.
A gasp sounded in the chamber, and all eyes went toward Yyloah, one of the most senior of Seers in the room. She looked petrified, staring at Kenra accusatorily, her mouth working but no words being formed as she tried to make sense of what she was sensing.
Kenra returned her gaze, her mask breaking into a sneer, “Yes, Yyloah. You feel it, don’t you?”
The room shook violently, and Kenra moved through the portal behind her chair, emerging in Caudal, the sound of screaming being cut off abruptly by her transition.
The Rift felt like it was tearing even more than it already had, and Kenra knew that she had been successful. No other Forsaken greeted her, which meant the traps she had set had already sprung, or they had not been able to find a way out of the cataclysm that was engulfing the variant.
The Tear opened up before her, and the shimmer of the Lost Caves greeted her eyes. She knew, without a doubt, she was looking upon another variant. It looked deserted, where her own variant would have been populated in the most obscure areas.
She stepped through the Tear and immediately was engulfed in agony. It felt as if her very soul was being stripped from her avatar, but she knew the opposite was true. She felt whole, seared throughout as if medicinally, and collapsed upon the cool Cave stone. Her soul essence had been returned, but at a price she grasped immediately: her halo was gone.
Her ears rang, and her vision was blurred by tears spawned by agony. She stood, finding her balance with difficulty, and was greeted by a smiling face. A demure woman, pixie-like, a glowing Soulmaster’s halo upon her head.
“Hello,” she said cheerfully, though Kenra could sense her guard was up, her body tensed, ready for anything. “My name is Shae!”
“I am Kenra. Where… where am I?”
Had Kenra’s emotionless guise been removed, a sadistic grin would have been permanently stamped upon her face. Better a big fish in a small pond.
Shadow’s Mistress walks a new variant. The Forsaken will rise.