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Post by Wixspartan on Nov 8, 2021 14:10:18 GMT
She woke to the swaying of the ship she had been travelling on for weeks. The mattress was solid and uncomfortable, but at least it was something. The captain had been a kind soul, and she had seen the tiredness and pain in Silvia's eyes as she asked for transportation to the new world of Kantas. The small lantern of her room swung above her as she blearily opened her eyes. One of the imps was hanging off of it, causing it to creak as they swung and swung. Her voice was tired and sad as she spoke.
"Please stop."
The imp sneered as it kept swinging, no matter, she knew it wasn't going to work. She pulled the spool of black thread out of her pocket and observed her knuckles. The thread she had wrapped around them last night had begun to fray and snap, it was the same story every morning. She got to rebinding them with fresh thread, making sure to be precise and wrapping every knuckle at least three times. She would never run out of thread, for as long as this curse lasted the spool would never run out, and she would repeat this ritual every morning and every night, keeping the monster at bay. Now that she was awake and her fingers had been bound with the thread she reached for her key and unlocked the manacles around her ankles, safe in the knowledge that she had more control when she was awake. The imps had dug their way into her food again, but she was used to their torments, had gotten used to half eaten biscuits and soured milk, it was just her life. She heard the cry from above deck, they had spotted land and soon she would be on shore and she steadied herself. She would not feel sorry for herself, she wouldn't let herself be a victim. There were people out there she could help, she knew, and she had sworn to help them. She clenched the key in her hand before attaching it to the necklace she wore around her neck. She had work to do...
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Post by Wixspartan on Nov 8, 2021 15:27:35 GMT
Image because I can:  |
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Post by Wixspartan on Dec 8, 2021 15:44:56 GMT
Origins, the first
Silvia tightened the straps on her breastplate her father had made her for her 15th birthday and smiled. She was a guard now, well a recruit but it was a start. Being born the third son (although shortly after she realized it was daughter) of a blacksmith meant she never had much to aim for in life, her older brothers already positioned to take over the family business. But Captain Kela had seen something in her and now she was joining the guard. It would be a tough year of training but when she came of age at 16 and finished her training she would be fully recognized as a guard, not that there was much to guard against in such a small rural town...
Two weeks later she was already the best of the three rookies, having quickly picked up a knack with the morningstar and flail, and was already being chosen to shadow the senior guards. She was growing bored however. It had been two weeks and she hadn't once chased down a thief, hadn't once fended protected an old lady from ruffians, the most she had done was help find a lost sheep. It was on another boring job after she had been assigned to shadow sergeant Ava on her mission to patrol the local woodland for rumours of a lost cat that disaster struck. From nowhere an arrow burst through the sergeant's neck and another barely missed her own. Panic ran through Silvia, this wasn't what she had wanted. Soon the paralyzing dread turned to a more sensible cowardly fear and she ran for town, screaming as she did. She had barely had time to explain what happened before the alarm bell began tolling its warnings. It turns out that a small but prospering town with a minimal, underexperienced guard force is the perfect target for bandit raids.
She barely knew what was happening, only that a spear had been thrust in her hand and a helmet shoved down over her red hair. The captain was barking orders, desperate to get some sort of defence ready as around a dozen raiders charged over the fields brandishing bows and swords. The fighting deafened her every sense, the iron smell of her helmet mixing with the smell of sweat, her eyes glazing over as she desperately tried to help without knowing how. She was not a soldier, she had no training, she didn't know what to do. Desperately she called out for help, but the clash of weapons and sounds of panic muffled her voice. Suddenly everything came to a stop, the noise, the violence, everything. Looking around slowly she saw her companions still locked in bloody combat, the Captain at their lead. Then she heard the voice in her head, it was a cruel sounding voice, but oh so beguiling.
"Awwww, what a shame. Such a pretty young girl dying like this. You don't deserve this my dear, let me help you"
Without thinking her eyes drifted to the ground where a jet black snake had slithered its way over the body of one of her companions in training, now dead. The snake's tongue flicked in and out of its mouth as it stared back with cold black eyes
"Give me your hand and I can help you dear. Give yourself over to me and I will make you a warrior"
Her mind raced, what was going on? She didn't have time to stop her hand reaching towards the snake as it coiled up and began to rise towards her outstretched hand. No! This was wrong! This shouldn't happen! But, she was a guard, she couldn't let her companions keep dying, couldn't let the town fall. Slowly the snake coiled around her fingers and she watched in horror as it shifted into a deadly looking spiked whip. Slowly around her the fighting began again and without thinking she launched herself into the closest bandit, tearing his flesh with her cruel whip, grinning in joy as she cut him down...
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Post by Wixspartan on Dec 8, 2021 17:23:47 GMT
Origins, the second
The blood ran over the spines of the whip and onto the ground as she stood panting over the body of the last bandit. Sixteen dead, twelve bandits by her hand, three by the captain, and poor Jack, now lying under the torn body of a bandit. She could feel the stares piercing her, she couldn't bear look at them as the smell of blood permeated the air. It felt like days before Captain Kela spoke up.
"What was that private Valtaire?"
Silvia couldn't bear it, she had never even killed a sheep, let alone twelve people. She ran wordlessly to where she had seen Ava fall in the woods and knelt over the now cold body. She felt the snake slithering up her arm and coiling round her neck, could feel its tongue licking at her ear as it whispered
"Well done Silvia, you did such a good job for me. Just one last step.."
Without moving she watched as the blood that had soaked into the dirt began creeping towards her like strange fingers reaching for her hands. She watched paralyzed as the tendrils crept over her hands, feeling them sinking into her hands as she could do nothing to stop them. All of a sudden she felt a flaming hatred inside her, this was not right, she didn't ask for this, this is not what she wanted. She gripped the snake's throat and the blood fell to the ground, soaking back into the dirt, as she stared with cold eyes, dead of the life that had greeted the morning sun. All she could manage was one word.
"No."
The snake hissed, but then relaxed. It grinned in a way that only reptiles can as its tongue flicked back and forth again. The voice in her mind, weaker this time, responding to her hate.
"I like you Silvia, you have life in you. It's going to be so much more fun this way. But alright, I'll leave you with what little I've given you for now, but you will be mine Silvia, I don't care how long it takes"
With that the snake began melting in her hands, dripping across them and staining her knuckles crimson with ichor.
It was a full day before she returned to the village. The priest did what he could, even giving her the black thread that he claimed would bind her curse inside. He was also the ones to give her her manacles, the one that told her to keep others safe by never letting them come close to her. It didn't stop the suspicion in the hearts of her former friends though, and within a week she had to leave her life behind for the road, the sad, angry and fearful look of Captain Kela her last goodbye. It haunted her to this day, and the imps that she began to see surrounding her used it to taunt her often. It's been years since then, and she has sworn to help others, to never let the snake win, to do good with the evil she has.
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