As the Url sat before the ever burning flame of the Fire Union, amidst the fading ruin of the Fire Union Temple. He touched a hand to the dark black tattoo on his right shoulder, it hurt him to remember but this time he would not shrink back from his sin. His eyes closed and his body seemed to almost burn as he began to remember...
His eyes opened to a world grayed by memory, once more he was back in the cottage awaking in the rickety wooden bed with fur sheets and a smiling women by his side. She was like a dream, her light smile and welcoming eyes reminding him to see the beauty in things. He felt weak, his memories heightening to remind him of what he'd truly felt when he saw her face...gratitude but not much more. He remembered the words he had spoken to her, "Good Morning my songbird."
the sharp teeth of his bear head suddenly clamped, gritting as he spat out, "A fool and a disgrace, that was all I was." Tears ran from his eyes as he remembered more...
He remembered the Hunts, how he a Ailor of mere twenty years had done the work of elders. With a dagger of steel and a dagger of carved bone, he had sacrificed to his Goddess to Alu. She who had brought both grief and peace into the world but he had forgotten the latter. With his bound brother, with George he had obsessed and tracked Sanguine for many years. In all those years, the Gallovian Hound had been his most loyal companion, a true brother as together they had sacrificed the lives of many Sanguine to Alu. He had forsaken everything for the crusade: his sanity had been given to the Blood Lust, Mercy was replaced by hatred, and his heart had grown cold. His heart had not once stayed him from leaving his family, from leaving any thought of friends behind, from forsaking attachment and mistaking such isolation as solemn duty.
The Url convulsed in on himself, Shame like the hard blade of an Axe cleaving into his back raking his system with pain as he remembered all those lives he cut short and all the people he left behind.
But She'd been different, Doethia had been his song bird whose voice had made his heart heal...
"Gep shit", he spat out. She healed nothing, she provided a distraction a feeling of love which he had never really shared...no that he couldn't have shared. Lying would do nothing now, now wasn't the time to brush aside the truth. He was pitiful, a child who couldn't...wouldn't see beyond his hate and bloodlust. His head began to ring as he dragged himself further into the lake of memory.
He returned from his hunts warped with the Euphoria of blood lust, his knife stained with the blood of the single sacrificial stroke with which he ended his quarries. She had always had a slight hesitation when he would come home, a hesitation to embrace him like how one might hesitate to help a wild Dog. But she'd embrace him all the same and act as if nothing was wrong and he in turn faithfully played the part of devotion.
"We both knew," he admitted quietly, "we knew my thoughts never truly left the tragedies, my heart never burned with the Flame of Love amidst the darkness, my soul never separated from the Wolf that sought to cleanse the world, who sought the spilling of blood." He gripped his shoulder feeling the echo of the Pagan Book's burning touch upon his leathery skin. No longer could the black ink burn him with the flames of Ellea's penance but the weight remained. He plunged further on toward the night from which his penance was born.
He once more bounded through the forest his body reshaped by Alu's will to resemble a ghostly wolf. The form was customary to those serving the commands of Alu: every plague requires a carrier, every tragedy a messenger, and even condemned a harbinger of their end. Not a sound could be heard when he reached the cabin, only the creak of the aging wood door was heard as he walked inside. The euphoric trance of his sacrifice, that singular cut across the neck of his prey echoed in the wild wolf-like smile emblazoned across his predatory expression but in an instant it was gone.
The Url feel to his knees, for a moment he hesitated looking back to the stairs down from the temples. He could leave, leave the memories, leave the pain, leave...NO. He owed it to her, to himself, and to Ellea he could run no longer now was the time to come home. He dived into the burning flame of memory.
He glimpsed the small river of flowing red as he looked into the now bloody crimson of her eyes, the dripping of blood of her snowy fangs added to the river ebbing from the entranced man's neck. He hadn't been able to place what he'd felt in that moment as he looked into her crimson eyes...she had looked beautiful, entrancing in a way he had never noticed before...or did she.
The memory seemed to shake, uncertainty what had he felt fear, confusion, anger.... it was as if a fog hanged around those moments. Even now, he questioned why he had been so slow to react so peaceful. She'd just seemed...
Normal, her eyes looked just as warm as always even when painted with the reflection of dark blood. When she saw him she smiled...
The Url shook his head and pushed on until the fog began to lift.
The smile had thrown him off, the man whose neck she was biting also looked at him. Not with fear or relief but with a simple smile as if it was all some grand experience. Like he was simply talking to an old friend and was glad to see the return of another. His voice had shaken when he'd look to Doethea and asked, "How? How can you be a Al..." then blankness his mind seemed to cloud when he reached for the words...
The Url looked into the flame and answered the Ailor of so many years passed,"Alias."
But the Ailor heard nothing settling upon "Sanguine" as he simply stared into those crimson eyes. She seemed seemed to glide toward him with her usual loving smile, her foot steps silent upon the wooden floor as she hugged him closely. Yet the hug was cold, protective it brought none of that faint comfort it once did.
"We can thank Alanzo, such a kind man. He stopped by some time ago while you were away. He was so kind listening to my problems and offering solutions when I told him about us. About how you become so consumed by your hunts, forgetting me...leaving me," her voice hardened a buried angry bleeding through. "How I wanted us to live free of your darkness, free of your obsession so we might be happy together. He offered me the gift, he offered me a way to free you."
As he remembered the words his mouth opened echoing them as if solemn prayers before the fire, "If we are bound by the Gift we can be young forever, you can leave the dark for our shared light, and we can raise a family protected by the Powers we wield. We can be different from Ferals, we can control ourselves where others can't."
He remembered the split second moment were he almost said yes to her...but it was only a second. A split second in which he pulled her close, kissed her with all he could, and plunged the bone blade through her heart. As she recoiled her voice turned to gasps, she could only look into his eyes the harsh betrayal and buried pain pouring forth to condemn him...but all she saw in the end was the Icy disgust of his gaze. In her dying moments, her eyes welled with tears the last part of her was killed she had nothing he had taken the last of her soul.
He began to speak the sacrificial rites as he always did but he stopped and sank to the floor. His heart began to beat again, he cradled her in his arms and cried out howling like a dying Wolf for the ruin he had caused.
Amidst the altar the Url sank to his knees as the Grief, the Regret, and the Shame flooded over him once again. He simply wept for a time before stopping...calmed by the Oorl as he looked into the flame. "Doetheia, I am sorry. Sorry that I was not a good Fiance but most of all sorry that I took your heart, your soul, and in the end failed to even push you away. My greed in not curing you, in not loving you as you did me. These I will never repay, Find peace in the rivers may Julla give you what I took."
As the Url stood and turned his back to the flame, one last memory followed him up from the bottom of the lake.
A Ailor turns to a roaring fire, "Ellea, The Maiden, She who my Uncle has faithfully served before he, she who heals the heart and unites souls. I stand having committed the crime of betraying my love, of breaking her trust and stealing not simply her life but her hope. To Atone for this act I now dedicate an Oath to you, I will serve the rites of Ellea and work to reform my heart and soul so your fire may ignite within me...so I may grant Doethia's wish for others as penance for taking it from her. Should I break this Oath may your flame burn me to ash" The Ailor's skin burns as a Tattoo glowing like fire brands itself upon his right shoulder, his Oath was now bound in Body, in soul, but not yet in heart.
His eyes opened to a world grayed by memory, once more he was back in the cottage awaking in the rickety wooden bed with fur sheets and a smiling women by his side. She was like a dream, her light smile and welcoming eyes reminding him to see the beauty in things. He felt weak, his memories heightening to remind him of what he'd truly felt when he saw her face...gratitude but not much more. He remembered the words he had spoken to her, "Good Morning my songbird."
the sharp teeth of his bear head suddenly clamped, gritting as he spat out, "A fool and a disgrace, that was all I was." Tears ran from his eyes as he remembered more...
He remembered the Hunts, how he a Ailor of mere twenty years had done the work of elders. With a dagger of steel and a dagger of carved bone, he had sacrificed to his Goddess to Alu. She who had brought both grief and peace into the world but he had forgotten the latter. With his bound brother, with George he had obsessed and tracked Sanguine for many years. In all those years, the Gallovian Hound had been his most loyal companion, a true brother as together they had sacrificed the lives of many Sanguine to Alu. He had forsaken everything for the crusade: his sanity had been given to the Blood Lust, Mercy was replaced by hatred, and his heart had grown cold. His heart had not once stayed him from leaving his family, from leaving any thought of friends behind, from forsaking attachment and mistaking such isolation as solemn duty.
The Url convulsed in on himself, Shame like the hard blade of an Axe cleaving into his back raking his system with pain as he remembered all those lives he cut short and all the people he left behind.
But She'd been different, Doethia had been his song bird whose voice had made his heart heal...
"Gep shit", he spat out. She healed nothing, she provided a distraction a feeling of love which he had never really shared...no that he couldn't have shared. Lying would do nothing now, now wasn't the time to brush aside the truth. He was pitiful, a child who couldn't...wouldn't see beyond his hate and bloodlust. His head began to ring as he dragged himself further into the lake of memory.
He returned from his hunts warped with the Euphoria of blood lust, his knife stained with the blood of the single sacrificial stroke with which he ended his quarries. She had always had a slight hesitation when he would come home, a hesitation to embrace him like how one might hesitate to help a wild Dog. But she'd embrace him all the same and act as if nothing was wrong and he in turn faithfully played the part of devotion.
"We both knew," he admitted quietly, "we knew my thoughts never truly left the tragedies, my heart never burned with the Flame of Love amidst the darkness, my soul never separated from the Wolf that sought to cleanse the world, who sought the spilling of blood." He gripped his shoulder feeling the echo of the Pagan Book's burning touch upon his leathery skin. No longer could the black ink burn him with the flames of Ellea's penance but the weight remained. He plunged further on toward the night from which his penance was born.
He once more bounded through the forest his body reshaped by Alu's will to resemble a ghostly wolf. The form was customary to those serving the commands of Alu: every plague requires a carrier, every tragedy a messenger, and even condemned a harbinger of their end. Not a sound could be heard when he reached the cabin, only the creak of the aging wood door was heard as he walked inside. The euphoric trance of his sacrifice, that singular cut across the neck of his prey echoed in the wild wolf-like smile emblazoned across his predatory expression but in an instant it was gone.
The Url feel to his knees, for a moment he hesitated looking back to the stairs down from the temples. He could leave, leave the memories, leave the pain, leave...NO. He owed it to her, to himself, and to Ellea he could run no longer now was the time to come home. He dived into the burning flame of memory.
He glimpsed the small river of flowing red as he looked into the now bloody crimson of her eyes, the dripping of blood of her snowy fangs added to the river ebbing from the entranced man's neck. He hadn't been able to place what he'd felt in that moment as he looked into her crimson eyes...she had looked beautiful, entrancing in a way he had never noticed before...or did she.
The memory seemed to shake, uncertainty what had he felt fear, confusion, anger.... it was as if a fog hanged around those moments. Even now, he questioned why he had been so slow to react so peaceful. She'd just seemed...
Normal, her eyes looked just as warm as always even when painted with the reflection of dark blood. When she saw him she smiled...
The Url shook his head and pushed on until the fog began to lift.
The smile had thrown him off, the man whose neck she was biting also looked at him. Not with fear or relief but with a simple smile as if it was all some grand experience. Like he was simply talking to an old friend and was glad to see the return of another. His voice had shaken when he'd look to Doethea and asked, "How? How can you be a Al..." then blankness his mind seemed to cloud when he reached for the words...
The Url looked into the flame and answered the Ailor of so many years passed,"Alias."
But the Ailor heard nothing settling upon "Sanguine" as he simply stared into those crimson eyes. She seemed seemed to glide toward him with her usual loving smile, her foot steps silent upon the wooden floor as she hugged him closely. Yet the hug was cold, protective it brought none of that faint comfort it once did.
"We can thank Alanzo, such a kind man. He stopped by some time ago while you were away. He was so kind listening to my problems and offering solutions when I told him about us. About how you become so consumed by your hunts, forgetting me...leaving me," her voice hardened a buried angry bleeding through. "How I wanted us to live free of your darkness, free of your obsession so we might be happy together. He offered me the gift, he offered me a way to free you."
As he remembered the words his mouth opened echoing them as if solemn prayers before the fire, "If we are bound by the Gift we can be young forever, you can leave the dark for our shared light, and we can raise a family protected by the Powers we wield. We can be different from Ferals, we can control ourselves where others can't."
He remembered the split second moment were he almost said yes to her...but it was only a second. A split second in which he pulled her close, kissed her with all he could, and plunged the bone blade through her heart. As she recoiled her voice turned to gasps, she could only look into his eyes the harsh betrayal and buried pain pouring forth to condemn him...but all she saw in the end was the Icy disgust of his gaze. In her dying moments, her eyes welled with tears the last part of her was killed she had nothing he had taken the last of her soul.
He began to speak the sacrificial rites as he always did but he stopped and sank to the floor. His heart began to beat again, he cradled her in his arms and cried out howling like a dying Wolf for the ruin he had caused.
Amidst the altar the Url sank to his knees as the Grief, the Regret, and the Shame flooded over him once again. He simply wept for a time before stopping...calmed by the Oorl as he looked into the flame. "Doetheia, I am sorry. Sorry that I was not a good Fiance but most of all sorry that I took your heart, your soul, and in the end failed to even push you away. My greed in not curing you, in not loving you as you did me. These I will never repay, Find peace in the rivers may Julla give you what I took."
As the Url stood and turned his back to the flame, one last memory followed him up from the bottom of the lake.
A Ailor turns to a roaring fire, "Ellea, The Maiden, She who my Uncle has faithfully served before he, she who heals the heart and unites souls. I stand having committed the crime of betraying my love, of breaking her trust and stealing not simply her life but her hope. To Atone for this act I now dedicate an Oath to you, I will serve the rites of Ellea and work to reform my heart and soul so your fire may ignite within me...so I may grant Doethia's wish for others as penance for taking it from her. Should I break this Oath may your flame burn me to ash" The Ailor's skin burns as a Tattoo glowing like fire brands itself upon his right shoulder, his Oath was now bound in Body, in soul, but not yet in heart.
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