Welcome to Gaia! ::

"well until we get there this is all just talk... so... just to refresh my memory... why are we heading towards the forest and the lands beyond?"

Sin asked looking ahead as if he could see the forest from where they were.

"I think you told me... but I can't remember..."

"hey I haven't turned back yet I'm not going to now.... why? are you trying to hint at something?"

Sin smiled at her, chuckleing softly.

"so how far away is the forest?"

"On horseback it should only take a day and a half to make it there counting the night that we will take when we make camp at the river." she responded.

"And no I was not inferring anything...I simply don't see the purpose in someone going to such great lengths without a reason. So I hope you have reason enough Sin."

Issildia merely offered a slight smile at Khastur's comment, glad that at least they managed to find some humor in this.

Niobe listened to the two's conversation intently. Her smile had faded now, leaving her face expressionless. She had no idea what they were talking about, having worked by herself for the majority of her life, she never paid attention to politics. Niobe did, however, understand three things : 1) this wench was not the person they had come to meet, 2) she was trying to stop them from seeing that person, and 3) she had just threatened Lord Azrielle. Niobe unlatched her whip from her side and let the ends plummet to the ground. With the handle gripped, the other hand slid down the tails until there was a nice length of the whip between the two and the ends no longer touched the floor. She waited for the woman to make any movement, Niobe was sure she would, and when she did she'd kill her.

((bleh its all rather pointless...))
~Days before~

Kishoku sighed as wandered through the forest. He was still particularly irritated with the man named Sin who had followed them. His concseince felt guilty considering he was no more a stranger than him. He knew nothing of any of them and it was only circumstancial that he came to be with them. He shrugged and continued to walk slowly as he absent-mindly picked at the new would he had received back in Meradea.

He was just short of a mile, away from the others and the cabin. He stopped, gazing skyward through the treetops at the darkeneing red sky. It was a cloudless night, yet the sky seemed empty of the thousands of stars that usually blanketed its mass. I should return soon his voiceless words crossed his mind.

why go back to them?

They might be worried.

Worried.. about a stranger?

But they're my...

..Friends? Why would they be your friends? They don't even know you or anything about you, or even if they can trust you. Heck! you dont know anything about you.

He sighed, having lost the ridiculous arguement with himself. It was true. He knew nothing of himself truly, but merely everything that occured since his soul entered this body. The memories of him occupying the vessel even before birth ran through his mind. The body had not truly been his. His own, what seemed dark soul, strangled the infant soul that briefly occupied the body. He shook his head at himself, to stoop so lowly but, it was the past and it could not be unwritten. It had become his vbody, his vessel. His flesh.

During these thoughts he had taken no notice of the small runed twin that hung at his neck as the runes began to move and shift around the small objects circumfrance and spiral up and off it only to reappear again in a cycle starting at its base. The runes began to glow dlimily at first yet, as their spiral's pace quicken along its shape the light became greater as Kishoku's attention continued to be elsewhere in the past.

He let out a yell in pain, as flashes of images wisped through his head. Images he wasnt able to recognize of anything he had seen in this life. He yelled again as the pain carried with them caught up. Causing him to drop to his knees as the madden images continued to plague his mind. "Stop!" His yell echoed through the forest. The images and memories were driving him mad his mind and nerves becoming numb yet the pain continued to seem unbearable. His voice became hoarse as his horrible yells continued mistaking the searing pain for another. The small necklace's light began to sear his small amount of skin it touched, darkenning and reddening it unknown heat. The small twig seem to appear as if it were embedding itself into his chest . The runes stopped suddenly, their white glow becoming a deep red as the same red glow began to emit from them, as runes and symbols began to engulf his body. Each string of symbols and markings originating from the small twig at his chest, each searing themselves to his skin. Sweat ran down his face and back, his form still kneeled low with pain as the unbearable pain increased spreading across his body. Kishoku's ears became deaf to his own screams as they continued relentlessly, echoing through the forest. After several moments the the small twigs glow dimmed, the new symbols and runes across his body continued to remain their searing red color. After what felt like hours and hours of maddening pain, the blurred images and the pain they casued slowly became subdued. His body was stiff and sore, his exhaustion reaching his mind as its numbing weared off. Unbalanced, he collasped to the ground on his side. Kishoku lay unconcseince in the soft dirt, disturbing nothing, as if his existance meant nothing.


~Days later/now~

Kishoku's eyes opened softly as they pivoted in teir sockets to survey his surrounding. Slowly he rose to his knees then to his feet. Though his body was no longer sore it was quite stiff because he had been in the same position for days. He began stretching to loosen his sore joints as he sighed heavily his mind still fogged as if nothing had happened. He stopped suddenly, in mid-stretch, his eyes becoming wide as they took notice of the flesh ofhis body. It was now covered in runes of an unkown, or dead language. The symbols were primitive and strung out across his body connected to each other. Two larger symbols were swirled with smaller runes and strings of markings upon each of his shoulder, a third identical one also resting in the center of his chest under the small twig that hung by thin thread around his throat. Kishoku gazed down at his hands and forearms, instpecting the curious new dull colored markings. His eyes narrowed slightly as he nodded softly in if in understanding an unheard non existant voice.

"Kegawa" His voice trembled slightly as he whispered his name as if Kishoku had never existed."...Of the flesh."