Wait, hold up.... someone is there. Someone not wearing feathers, nor carrying a spear nor staff.
A woman, short, with a hard, capable look. She has very dark skin and soft, androgynous features, and wispy black hair like a cloud of cotton fluff that catches every hint of a breeze. She is wearing black clothing cut functional and close, though the white lace trim at her throat and the elaborate assortment of heavy silver (is it silver? experienced jewelers in the party may discover it is something else.) jewelry suggests that this is no scullery maid. There she is, leaning against the pale yellow-green soapstone wall, rolling a crossbow bolt between her thumb and forefingers. A fly in the ointment.
She is looking over Hei's shoulder to see who follows. Her quiet smile suggests the ripple of a lake under moonlight. If the ripple were caused by an enormous carnivorous fish.
"Fallen one, hide or perish. In there."
Her voice is soft; a vague, hushed sound, with a pronounced accent that licks along the L's and aspirates the TH-sounds. She points the flanged head of the bolt at an almost invisible door outlined in the stone of the palace wall.
A dozen guards are running your way.
It looks like the guards from the north are starting to notice the commotion.
It's the very first thought through his head, and it's so strong it slows him for just a moment. Something about that smile rings alarm bells in his head.
There is no time.
He acknowledges his instincts and then promptly ignores them. The guards behind him are a certain danger. The door in front could be anything at all, including, he supposes, death. But if she's dangerous, then so is he, and if the choice is between "no" and "maybe"--
It very dark once the exterior door closes. Slowly it becomes apparent that the only light is coming from the floor itself, on which a luminescent dust heaps and scatters at random. The wash of warm air from outside disappears into the cool, dry, mushroomy depths of the passage. There is no turning back.
He doesn't move forward immediately in the darkness. For a few moments, he listens to the ongoings outside. There is an indistinguishable murmur of voices; is she explaining herself to the guards, and if so, what is she saying? It's impossible to distinguish and pointless to guess.
In the meantime, his eyes have adjusted to what limited light there is. He looks down, frowns, and then starts walking. He extends his arms until his fingers can follow the walls on either side.
He moves as briskly as he can afford in the darkness, listening for any movement in front or behind.
The stone of the hallway is unbroken on either side, but there is a faint light up ahead...
The corridor opens upon a circular cavern. The sunken floor is obscured beneath water, 4-5cm deep, out of which grow innumerable slim plants that glow in the darkness and fill the water with their blue-green radiance. It is impossible to tell whether there is a ceiling or how high it is. The plants themselves are curled stalks like fiddlehead ferns clenched shut and poke their nodding heads up out of the water, thickly clustered, the occasional tall straggler emerging here or there. It would be impossble to walk to the door on the other side of the round without crushing some of them.
From far down the hall behind Hei comes a woman's voice: "Wind or hunger..."
Water. An immediate advantage (he recalls, in passing, many a star-lit rainforest pond which quickly turned into a graveyard) It becomes even more immediate when the voice presents itself and he tenses, moves -- into the cavern, out of sight.
He wants to glance down the hallway -- but it would be pointless, that far ahead, that far into the darkness. Instead, Hei braces himself against the cavern wall and starts moving, as soundlessly as he can, along the circle perimeter.
Wind or hunger. Was she talking to him? About him? He strains to hear more over the muffled wet sounds of his movement.
As Hei's light feet brush over the plants, they maunder towards him like iron filings to a magnet, and hunch up on each other, clinging to his ankles...
They begin to grasp at him. Though each individual one is not strong - pluckable, like blades of grass - en masse they present more and more of a challenge and they begin to climb up his ankles and calves.
He tries to walk through them at first, dislodge them second, but once he feels the numbing in his toes, it becomes obvious his options are limited.
A trap. His lips press together in displeasure -- but it makes sense. He pushes back the anxious throbbing in his belly (are they paralyzing him, what happens if hey climb higher...)
Hei stops and straightens. Then, much like the plants, he begins to glow. Not for a long time -- just long enough for him to release a crackling, sizzling wave of electricity down his body and into the water.
Plant, animal, trap; he's yet to see a living thing that didn't burn.
A searing electrical brightness .... a scent of burnt asparagus. Around Hei lie limp puddles of scorched white stems, their light dimming as they sink into the water. And for a moment there was illumined the white smile of a dark woman on the other side of the round - not the one he came from, but the one he was approaching.
She is there. One hand gestures him on.
"Not far," She says, and disappears into the darkness.
The following thought will occur inexplicably to Hei: hold hands.
He feels fleetingly hungry for a moment, and immensely irritated immediately after, when he spots her. Was she watching--? Testing him?
Hold hands, he thinks in consternation, moving after her -- quickly, so he can catch up and reach ot. It's only when his fingers brush her that another thought occurs to him: This makes no sense.
He grabs for her hand. His voice is almost as hard as his grip.
The woman is very fast and nearly as strong as Hei. At his touch she whips around and slams him against a wall, pinning his hand. Something sharp scratches at Hei's throat.
Her eyes glow in the darkness: dim silver rims that stare at him unblinking.
"Moontouched?" She hisses.
Though she has not released his hand. The constant pressure is very soothing, quelling a rising panic that had begun to push itself into Hei's brain.
Unexpected, and too quick even for him to react to. Red pinpricks flash in his eyes -- but no shocks follow, not now. He clamps his teeth together, every muscle in his body tense and hard-- this is wrong, something is wrong, he can't... no, he can breathe, and he does, slowly, in and out, until the confusion and fear start dissipating in favour of anger.
It's her, he realizes. And if it's her who's keeping him grounded, then--?
His eyes stay locked on hers.
"Who," he grinds out between his teeth, "is in my head?"
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Hei's path
A woman, short, with a hard, capable look. She has very dark skin and soft, androgynous features, and wispy black hair like a cloud of cotton fluff that catches every hint of a breeze. She is wearing black clothing cut functional and close, though the white lace trim at her throat and the elaborate assortment of heavy silver (is it silver? experienced jewelers in the party may discover it is something else.) jewelry suggests that this is no scullery maid. There she is, leaning against the pale yellow-green soapstone wall, rolling a crossbow bolt between her thumb and forefingers. A fly in the ointment.
She is looking over Hei's shoulder to see who follows. Her quiet smile suggests the ripple of a lake under moonlight. If the ripple were caused by an enormous carnivorous fish.
"Fallen one, hide or perish. In there."
Her voice is soft; a vague, hushed sound, with a pronounced accent that licks along the L's and aspirates the TH-sounds. She points the flanged head of the bolt at an almost invisible door outlined in the stone of the palace wall.
A dozen guards are running your way.
It looks like the guards from the north are starting to notice the commotion.
no subject
It's the very first thought through his head, and it's so strong it slows him for just a moment. Something about that smile rings alarm bells in his head.
There is no time.
He acknowledges his instincts and then promptly ignores them. The guards behind him are a certain danger. The door in front could be anything at all, including, he supposes, death. But if she's dangerous, then so is he, and if the choice is between "no" and "maybe"--
It's barely even a choice. He goes for the door.
no subject
It very dark once the exterior door closes. Slowly it becomes apparent that the only light is coming from the floor itself, on which a luminescent dust heaps and scatters at random. The wash of warm air from outside disappears into the cool, dry, mushroomy depths of the passage. There is no turning back.
no subject
In the meantime, his eyes have adjusted to what limited light there is. He looks down, frowns, and then starts walking. He extends his arms until his fingers can follow the walls on either side.
He moves as briskly as he can afford in the darkness, listening for any movement in front or behind.
no subject
The corridor opens upon a circular cavern. The sunken floor is obscured beneath water, 4-5cm deep, out of which grow innumerable slim plants that glow in the darkness and fill the water with their blue-green radiance. It is impossible to tell whether there is a ceiling or how high it is. The plants themselves are curled stalks like fiddlehead ferns clenched shut and poke their nodding heads up out of the water, thickly clustered, the occasional tall straggler emerging here or there. It would be impossble to walk to the door on the other side of the round without crushing some of them.
From far down the hall behind Hei comes a woman's voice: "Wind or hunger..."
no subject
He wants to glance down the hallway -- but it would be pointless, that far ahead, that far into the darkness. Instead, Hei braces himself against the cavern wall and starts moving, as soundlessly as he can, along the circle perimeter.
Wind or hunger. Was she talking to him? About him? He strains to hear more over the muffled wet sounds of his movement.
no subject
They begin to grasp at him. Though each individual one is not strong - pluckable, like blades of grass - en masse they present more and more of a challenge and they begin to climb up his ankles and calves.
A numbing sensation overtakes Hei's toes.
no subject
A trap. His lips press together in displeasure -- but it makes sense. He pushes back the anxious throbbing in his belly (are they paralyzing him, what happens if hey climb higher...)
Hei stops and straightens. Then, much like the plants, he begins to glow. Not for a long time -- just long enough for him to release a crackling, sizzling wave of electricity down his body and into the water.
Plant, animal, trap; he's yet to see a living thing that didn't burn.
no subject
She is there. One hand gestures him on.
"Not far," She says, and disappears into the darkness.
The following thought will occur inexplicably to Hei: hold hands.
no subject
Hold hands, he thinks in consternation, moving after her -- quickly, so he can catch up and reach ot. It's only when his fingers brush her that another thought occurs to him: This makes no sense.
He grabs for her hand. His voice is almost as hard as his grip.
"What did you do?"
no subject
The woman is very fast and nearly as strong as Hei. At his touch she whips around and slams him against a wall, pinning his hand. Something sharp scratches at Hei's throat.
Her eyes glow in the darkness: dim silver rims that stare at him unblinking.
"Moontouched?" She hisses.
Though she has not released his hand. The constant pressure is very soothing, quelling a rising panic that had begun to push itself into Hei's brain.
no subject
It's her, he realizes. And if it's her who's keeping him grounded, then--?
His eyes stay locked on hers.
"Who," he grinds out between his teeth, "is in my head?"