Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tarketh laughed and unfolded, rising from the ground like the blossoming of a flower. He reached down, his clawed hand seizing the man's arm, wrenching it up so that the blood from the palm slid down over his talons. He said something low and gutteral in his own language, almost sounding bored as he did so. He had Bound many many humans in his lifetime. This one would be no different.

His will flowed down through the blood, the dragon-magic almost a poison of its own. The dragon's chanting became faster, more liquid, and a sense of pressure grew in the human's mind. Tarketh's will infected him, spreading throughout the blood, raking nerves against sheer power, flaying open the mind and laying every thought and emotion bare. Tarketh skimmed through them, his family, the people he saw die, his hopes, and for a moment the pressure relented, a sense of indifference sweeping between the two. Tarketh didn't care about his past. It was just something to rifle through, to define who was the master.

Then Tarketh let go. The aftereffects remained, a shuddering sort of ache, and a growing pain on the shoulderblades. Muscles protested as heat built up.

"It will take a couple hours for your wings to grow," Tarketh said, "They will be shaped by magic and despite what you feel, you will not die. Use them to get out of the pit and I'll consider you my Bound."

All contact with Tarketh's mind was gone. Its influence remained there as a subtle reminder but Tarketh's own thoughts and emotions were securely locked away. The dragon turned and walked away, taking the light with him as he did, leaving his new Bound to grow his wings alone.

((I have no more plans for the two. If you wish, feel free to make a last post and from here out you now control Tarketh's Bound. Congrats? Let me know if you need Tarketh himself to show up in a roleplay.))

There was a painful crack, followed by a bright flash of white light...

The chilled stone beneath her cheek was the first thing she noticed afterward. A shiver ran through her body and she realized that there was less of a weight about her. Her cloak and armor were gone, leaving her just the basics: the shirt on her back, pants, and boots. Or at least she thought she still was wearing her boots. Maybe her feet were too cold to tell.

Then the throbbing kicked in. Jay groaned as she lifted a hand to press at the back of her head until her wrist was jerked to a stop. Slowly her eyes fluttered open, her fuzzy vision directed toward her hand hovering in the air in front of her prone form.

She grumbled some as her vision cleared and she could see the chains that cuffed her... as well as the mage standing not far off. Quietly she pressed her hands to the floor and tried to push herself up, discovering the chain's short length as she tried to wobbly straighten up. The disarmed ranger jerked on the chains in a short burst of fury before quickly residing to the fact that breaking them by pure strength alone was just not in her repertoire of skills.

Silently she sat down on the floor, crossing her legs, staring maliciously back at the mage who was in the room with her.

The woman seated on the floor said nothing in reference to her name, the mention of Avalene, nor toward any sort of meeting.

That however didn't mean that any of it wasn't on her mind. Avalene had made it sound as if she had been caught once before and somehow had gotten away. It was just too bad that she had not gotten to explain how she pulled off the latter.

Had this been how they treated the girl? Jay let herself wonder only a moment before she forced herself not to think of it. It was probably best to avoid thinking of that past event all together right now. If that other mage could read her past, who knows what else could be done by the whole lot of them now.

"Don't give me that 'Fate' dirt. Only fools afraid of their own choices use it as their crutch and god." The ranger leaned forward while still sitting. "So take your Fate and your book and go hang yourself."

She swore to herself as she had completely forgotten she had that blood-stained orange scrap. With her luck, the damned thing probably had Hammand's name stitched in as well somewhere. She'd have to conjure some excuse for having that on her, but she wasn't going to give anything for now if she wasn't pressed.

Jay jumped to her toes until the chains clanked and held her back.

"Just as your kind are cowards behind your words. Remove the chains and we'll see who comprehends what," she said as she put more weight on her feet and lowered herself into a crouch so the chains weren't as tight, her hands held protectively at her sides.

"I'd let Yvette's right hand have me far before I'd listen to you, mage," the captive taunted during his whispers until she felt her shoulders being pressed inward. Her eyes scoured the area around her as the tension grew. By the time she saw the mage's hand, she was already on her knees sucking in air, the pain from her chest overriding nearly any other thoughts in her head.

Then there was a loud crack and Jay cried out as her left arm gave way, the bone snapping in half.

The ranger's head hung downward, pained, as she could feel as well as hear the effects of the pressure on the rest of her bones. It was making a music of their own with a song that was playing in her head, one that she didn't recognize but felt she should and struggled with her memories as to why that was.

Did she want to remember though? the rest of her asked as her body gradually began to quit struggling against the pressure, simply giving in. She'd be dead soon anyway if the mage kept up the way he was going. Lotta good that would do him, something else inside her laughed despite the circumstances.

'I... I...' the ranger's mental voice stuttered, lifting her head to watch the mage after he drew blood. She had felt the blade cross skin but it was more of a sting compared to the throbbing that was beneath the top layer.

Jay's face went from one of pain to one crossed with revolt as she watched the mage's eyes lose their color only to become something akin to what she had seen happen with Sain.

'Can't let him... no, no, no...'

What if he learned something of Avalene? Or the Dragon Knights? She didn't like dragons, but if something were to happen to them through this...

"Stop! Stop it!" she shouted at the mage.

'Dead!' she yelled in her head as she made a new effort to struggle against the chains, biting her cheek against the pain shooting from her arm. 'Damned mages!'

The ranger was about to respond to the voice that had been in her head when suddenly everything swirled around her. Pictures, sound, feeling, smell, all turned about, became wrong and right at the same time all before it went blood red. She opened her mouth to scream but it was cut off as the spell went off...



...and then there was nothing but the song.

It was a song she had never heard before in her stops at taverns and camps. A song that washed away all songs that she had ever heard. There was a sense of peace that came with melody. She felt a tug on her soul to move along, but the song was entrancing; it had enraptured her. As the song trailed toward the end, it was not the peaceful melody that now held her still, but the trumpet calls to continue on.

Then she heard the words from the Swan itself.

Voiceless, the air filled with fiery agreement that rushed about where the Swan stood beside the broken body of the ranger on the floor.