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Suluksati
Aedaun Alikhora Adult
Lvl 67

Proof of Eligibility:

20 Rps

1: XX Dragon Hunt/RP To Fight or to Defend (Grrel and Suluksati, 3 Kiandri), 1507 words

2: XX Whippersnapper - Soldul - Suluksati and Shaman Toki

3: XX - Skipping through the Fields - Serenia - Sueno and Suluksati

4: XX Adventure: The Crypt (Suluksati, Samael, and Carrion)

5: XX - Eowyn - Fluff N Stuff (Suluksati and Agniri) Counts

6: XX CREATURE HUNT: One Inquisitive Dragon, Many Nasty Hastars... (Serenia, 6 Hastar, 4 win 2 loss, 2212 words with response)

7: X Solo: Dragonwatching (1100 words)

8: XX DRAGON HUNT: Aedaun Raid - Serenia - (Suluksati, Raemos, Darke, Maeron, Samael. 5 Aedaun)

9: XX HUNT: Dragonblocking at Lightning Fast Speeds (Dragon Hunt: Eowyn, Kiandri x 3, won)

10: XX Adventure: Caravan Raid

11: XX Hunt: The Stupidity of Light Clans (Dragon Hunt, Kiandri x 3, won)

12: XX Hunt: If she didn't want a cold reception... (Dragon hunt, Peisio x 2 lost, Aislaka x 1, Won)

13: XX HUNT: Nobody Likes these Things (Raemos and Suluksati, Serenia)

14: XX SRP: Opposing Forces (Raemos, Suluksati, Mallew)

15: XX HUNT: Morning Hunt, Serenia (Raemos, Suluksati)

16: XX HUNT: Bad Bunnies, Ayr

17: XXX - Ayr - TAMING: Lets Fly! (Toki and Suluksati)

18: XX HUNT: The Hunting Party, Eowyn

19: XXXX - Eowyn, Serenia - Mara Meta

20: XX BATT: Protectors of Large and Small (Raemos vs Suluksati, Suluksati Winner)

5 Hunts

1: XX DRAGON HUNT: Borne on the winds (Ayr, Ayrala x3, 1019 words with response)

2: XX DRAGON HUNT: Borne on the winds (Ayr, Ayrala x3, 1019 words with response)

3: XX DRAGON HUNT: The Hurricane Ambush (10 Ayrala, 2 losses, 3260/3000 with response)

4: X CREATURE HUNT: A Hunted Hero (1 Borganah, loss, 324 words)
XX CREATURE HUNT: Serenia's Dangers (1 Notbjaovin, Loss, 768 words with response)

5: XX Lightning Reflexes (5 Kiandri, Win, 2030 words with response)

It was not hard to find the location of Rhazes' clan. Khehora of this land knew it well, though it was hidden from magescan eyes, and didn't mind pointing her to its location. She was close now, she knew, and intended to rest before approaching. So, she rested, stiff and sphinx-like, under one of the stinking trees of Soldul.

The idea of the ritual – so close at hand now – made her nervous. She did not know what it entailed, only that she had to pass it. Failure was not an option. Not anymore.

Her reflexes acted before her mind could perceive the threat, leaping aside as something clawed at her flank. She turned, hissing to see a khehora, it's features hard and cruel. It's sharp, uneven teeth were bared and it's eyes glowed with brilliant malevolence. She bared her own fangs in turn, her crest rising as she snarled.

The Khehora stank of darkness and she could feel the power radiating from it. Her feathers glowed in response, showing off her own power. She watched as it moved, sinuous and graceful, and – right as it tensed to pounce – she was on it.

Her claws raked through flesh before, suddenly, he vanished, leaving nothing beneath her claws. She staggered, landing awkwardly before his claws dug into her back.

With a scream of rage, she flipped over and dragged him to the ground, pulling herself over him to hold him down and raising a paw to deal a damaging blow.

He laughed. “Not bad.” he said, “Not bad at all, for an Aedaun.” He was suddenly no longer beneath her claws, but nearby, licking his wounds unconcernedly. She turned, growling.

He fixed her with a look that spoke of such terrors that it stalled her anger for a moment. “I am Rhazes.” he said, watching lazily as she shifted in cofusion “You've passed my test. I wanted to see just how strong you are...” he smirked a khehoran smirk, “Protector of dragons.”

“Oh?” there was still a growl in her voice.

“Yes. And I think, from the way you tackled me, that you are strong enough to go through the ritual...” he chuckled, “I assume, of course, that that is what you want. Because you aren't out here in the dark lands for your health.”

Suluksti felt she understood, though she still felt very wary. “Yes.” she said, forcing her crest down, “I am.”

“Then come with me.” he said.

~~~

She could have sworn that the 'ritual cleansing bath' in the icy cold spring had been just to cause her discomfort and, considering the almost gleeful glittering of Rhazes eyes as she had sputtered in the water, she wouldn't be surprised if he was enjoying it. ““Now, you need to clear your mind. Meditate. That sort of thing.” Suluksati tried to do so, but she shivered from the cold water that now permeated her feathers. “Think about nothing and, when you've got that down, think about why you want to be a khehorian. Oh, and you're wings. That's important too.”

“My wings?” she asked, opening an eye.

“Yes. What you want your wings to look like.” the spectral faces on his wings giggled, “It's important – it shows others who you are. It also looks interesting.” He shrugged. “Just keep it in mind. Let me know when you feel enlightened or something.”

Suluksati bared at tooth at the utter boredom in his voice, but – obediently – closed her eyes and cleared her mind as best she could. It was difficult – intruding thoughts kept popping in and disturbing her.

What if I fail? Will I die? Should I die? she still didn't know what the ritual – after this – would entail. All she knew was that dragon orbs were involved. That was a whole other issue, too. She was using the dragon orbs to give herself power and further her own ends. That meant that she, Suluksati, was behaving no differently than the dragon hunters she opposed. Seren's light, she had killed dragons. It had been self defense, but she had killed them. What did that make her?

It made her a hypocrite.

Did she, thus, deserve the power that the ritual would give her? Did she, a hypocrite that killed for a cause that she didn't fully follow, deserve any power at all?

Perhaps not. Perhaps she didn't. Perhaps she should just open her eyes and tell Rhazes that she could not go through with this after all.

That is a stupid idea she thought, admonishing herself, Whether I deserve power isn't the point.

She needed the power in those dragon orbs to unlock the power inside her, otherwise she would forever be a hypocrite. If she was powerful enough, she could protect the dragons. She could stop the hunts. She could destroy the Mara. She would be able to do whatever she wished and she wouldn't have to be a hypocrite anymore.

She remembered that she was supposed to be clearing her mind, and focused on that thought and that alone.

I want power... she said, like a mantra in her mind, I want to protect. she said it over and over in her mind until, finally, she opened her eyes.

“I am ready.” she said, and she believed it.

He stretched. “Took you long enough.” he said, beckoning, “Well, come this way. Bring those dragon orbs.”

~~~

“This is the ritual tent.” Rhazes explained, pointing to the clothen structure, odd among the cavernous lairs of his clan. “What you do, is you go inside it, set out your orbs, hold one of the orbs from a dragon of your element – Aedaun, obviously, in your case – and focus on putting your energy into it. Just pour it in.”

“And...?” Suluksati asked. She shifted her wings nervously, rearranging her feathers. “What then?”

He smirked, a cruel, sharp smirk. “Then we'll see.” he opened the flap to the richly decorated tent and made a shooing motion. “In with you, Suluksati, unless you're opting out...”

Suluksati stilled her nerves and, puffing up with pride, strode into the tent, trying not to shudder as the flap closed, leaving her in half darkness.

She began to set out her orbs, taking out each one. She remembered where she had taken each one from.

The flock of Ayrala who had been such bullying fools and had flung themselves at her in waves trying to torment and kill her and a companion. She remembered how they had danced in the air, and how they had twisted the air beneath her wings and forced her to work harder to stay in flight. They had been beautiful and fierce and, she admitted, stupid.

She arranged their orbs together, as they had been in life.

The lone Ysali orb in her colleciton. The poor thing hadn't been able to get away from the hunters, but she had reaped the spoils instead. Was it a shameful thing to steal a dragons soul from its murderers? She knew one of that clan of plants and poisons and life. She wondered how that dragon, with its Silx companion, fared? She placed the orb away from the Ayrala, where it would be safe.

The many Kiandri orbs... She could barely remember each instance, each dragon she had fought. She remembered their strength, though: how they ambushed from behind the sand dunes, how their electricity made her feathers stand on end, how their bodies gleamed in the sun. She remembered, too, how a khehora had died. Because of me she thought, saddened, Because of my interference. Yes. The death of the khehora had been her fault. So many deaths had been her fault. Not anymore, she hoped.

She scattered the kiandri orbs among the Ayrala orbs, like lightning in a storm.

The Aedaun orbs... their origins were very clear. She remembered the battle with the Oblivionite, and mourned for his lost youth. It had been him she had saved from those dragons long ago, and him she had talked to by the lake, and it – too – had been him that grew up to be a warrior like the rest. A failure, like so many others she had seen and spoken to.

She set the orbs in their own space, keeping one under her claws.

She would fail no more. She would protect the dragons from being hunted, and she would protect the children from hunting the dragons, and she would do so because it was an intrinsic piece of her magic. She could shield them, and so she could protect them.

She took out the final orb.

The soul of the Aiskalan dragon glittered in her hands. He had had an idea to return the world to it's wild, natural state. Killing the Magescans would work: The world would be in harmony, with only magic and ferocity to rule it. Suluksati, though, believed that it was possible for harmony to exist between Magescans and the dragons, and would not give up on it.

She placed the cold soul on its own. “I promise you...” she said quietly, “The result will be the same.”

She looked over all of the dragon orbs – all of her failures and mistakes – and rumbled quietly. “I will not fail you again.”

~~~

Suluksati closed her eyes and began to pour her power into the dragon orb in her claws. She could feel the magic inside the orb grow brighter as her own magic joined it until, finally, it exploded in a burst of power that suffused the air around her with raw, wild magic.

It filled the tent, bouncing off the walls. She opened her eyes to see that, all around her, the dragon souls were glowing, brighter and brighter, absorbing the energy around them before bursting, one by one, with a shattering chime.

The magic in the tent became unbearable, churning like a storm, crushing her like a physical thing. She struggled to breathe, finally managing to take a deep breath, a breath that felt like it kept going and going. Suddenly, magic began to flow into her, first to her lungs, then to her stomach, then to her entire being.

It screamed through her nerves, her muscles, and her veins, and she knew she was glowing, though she could not see it. How could she not be, as light magic tore through her displacing her physical self in a rending, enlightening agony. It was beautiful. She was sure she was dying, dissolving away into the magic.

Memories began to appear, chaining her, holding her back from becoming light itself.

Her sister and her, play battling in the sun.

The rain of Peisio orbs as the duels of dragon and khehora clogged the sky

Her mother, loving and beautiful and so very soft

Arguing her case in front of the elders, unacknowledged and unanswered

Fighting with her sister and leaving her behind

Meeting Samael and Carrion under the hell of the Blood Moon

With each memory, she felt herself solidify and, finally, she realized she was no longer dying. In fact, she was more alive than she had ever been before.

She opened her eyes to an empty tent. The orbs were gone, and only she remained, lying sideways on the ground. Things seemed larger, somehow, more than they had been. As I am she thought. She felt lithe and amazing, more able to take on her quest than before. For the first time in her whole life, she felt that she had a chance to succeed.

She suddenly became aware of intense differences in her sense of her body: She was lighter and thinner, with finer feathers, but that wasn't the main thing. She was different – she was moving differently.

She sat up to look at her arms and legs, marvelling in their strength and delicate structures.

She was a two legger now.

She had passed the ritual.

The power flowing within her was real.

She stood up, shakily, and walked out to face the world.