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 Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 7:56 am
She had to fix this.
It was the only thought that thrummed through her mind as she slipped past the pride borders. She wasn't likely to be seen out in the wastes of the Motoujamii. If she had been thinking logically, Elcca might have done some legwork and brought along someone who actually knew where they were going in this god forsaken land. Maybe that shivering Hongshan, Adiel. At least she understood that there was more to this earth than just what you could see. But there was little logic to her actions.
Braab sabbott, I tiddar vai louo.
Yoan was alive. But it wasn't right. It wasn't right at all. Elcca might have been oblivious at times to the bridges she burned, but she knew when she was wrong. She'd done this, so it was her job to fix it. Most lions would simply be forced to accept their fate. Elcca didn't believe in this. If there existed powers she could use, she'd use them. Moral high ground be damned, she wasn't honorable. Not like Yoan.
Accavs srek kocrekeca, ur kkesa ka duvm.
When she was sure she was far enough away to escape peering eyes, she waited for a good hour before continuing. It didn't bother her so much that the Motoujamii might know what she was up to- but she had no interest in Yoan finding her here. Not that it was likely, as she'd walled him up with a rock in one of those little alcoves the cubs like to play in. But she wouldn't have loved him if he wasn't every bit as tricky as she was, so even then, she wasn't entirely sure if she was in the clear.
Praoka, raor ka muv suddakk.
After the hour had passed, she went about work. The red lioness had learned more than her fair share of strange things in her days of travel. She drew out some runes in the sand. The north lands had a lot of information, although they were not always forthcoming with it. Still, Elcca had always excelled in getting what she wanted. Why should magic be any different?
When the runes had been completed, she rather carelessly bit into the skin of her arm. It hurt like a b***h, but, there were always prices to be paid. She wasn't afraid of paying in her own blood if it got what she wanted.
"Cuka dokmes. I roqa o rapiaks uk aeui, kveres."
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 8:25 am
It was a terrible rush.
Uuni could feel her feet begin to tingle, spreading upwards to her teeth. It tugged at her a little bit of a time. The large, glow-pelted female took a sucking breath, letting it out in an elongate sigh. The tug became an irresistible jerk which inevitably ripped her from talking with a rather handome, ambitious young mortal male. He would probably never figure out what happened.
Kveres was cut short as the world split. The rumble in the air was visibile. It shook, warping and quaking. The light change, a shadow formed, and Uuni's paws touched sand.
Ew.
She wrinkled her nose and wiggled her toes. Eyes flicking up, she found the source. Blood dripping down the back of a joint to the dirt, red-pelted, and likely shock-eyed was the next desperate entrepreneur. She was cute. Nevermind. She wanted something.
But, Uuni did not say a word. Three, two, one. . . the sound caught up with the light. The sky sounded as though it had cracked open and then rumbled past.
"I was expecting more blood," she admitted immediately, before her eyes shifted to the runes shoved out in the sand. "But someone seems to know what they're doing."
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 8:51 am
This wasn't the first time that Elcca had been in the presence of a god spirit. But even with that knowledge, the sound of the air seizing around her caused her withdraw. Power crackled around her. Power Elcca did not command. She was ambitious, but not a fool. At least not until she had the upper hand.
Not that that having the upper hand on a god had ever given Elcca what she wanted.
When the initial shock wore off, her mind started to churn. She had seen this ritual once before, in a cult where the priestess had begged for the downfall of their enemies. The sacrifice had been severe. But it had left an impact. An emergency option. In the back of her mind, she remembered Yoan spitting at the thought of foul magics. Had it occurred to him that she had been just as horrified, but all the while committing it to memory?
"I'll pay whats needed," she said once her voice returned to her. Blood still sluggishly dripped from her arm. But for the moment, she pressed it to her other paw to slow. Was blood a thing to haggle? "But I only have so much. Better to know how much it actually takes to get your attention."
Sparing one glance at her bleeding arm, she returned her eyes back to the goddess. Her brow furrowed in a kind of ill-advised determination. "I need you to break a curse. Can you do this?" She stopped short of saying that price was not an issue. She wasn't fool enough to play that card yet. Gods were cruel things.
But if it came to it. She knew there wasn't a limit to what she would do to make this right.
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 9:11 am
Would she? Uuni raised a skeptical brow as the red one began to speak. It was hard to pay attention, as the words started to veer off towards 'I've heard it before'.
Where the hell was she? There were too many deserts on this damn planet. Looking over her rambling companion, she squinted her eyes. A few rock formations jutted out almost as red as the sand. Oh.
Uuni's eyes flicked back down.
"Huh?" She was pretty sure she had heard the word attention. The young lioness was frowning at her.
"Hm," she wittily began, in a manner which surely answered all of Elcca's questions. "It's possible." Please be a standard curse, please be a standard curse. Some blood, a little bit of something else, and she could be on her way. Not that she really had anywhere else to be. It was the principle of the thing.
"What kind of curse is it?" Time to find out which god she would be pissing off. Uuni, I cursed that mortal for good reason! Uuni, now you owe me a favor! "Well, hurry up. I don't have all day." She sort of did.
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 9:31 am
s**t. Elcca had been hoping explanations wouldn't be needed. She had envisioned a mostly impersonal transaction. A curse to be removed, and a price to pay. Simple barter system at work. The only danger she faced was paying too much. Not that she was unwilling, but if she could avoid damning herself that would be ideal.
"Uh..." she started. Her eyes darted away. Thinking of the best way to sum up the situation she had created for herself. The chaos that had become a large part of her life. "It is kind of...elaborate."
Actually, that was putting it mildly. If Uuni was concerned about pissing off gods, Elcca had created a venerable chain of gods that loomed over her like weights. It was something of a miracle that she still lived, all things considered.
Still, this was for Yoan. She wasn't about to run off from a little shame. "I don't know if there is a short version of this. I suppose the easiest way is to say I need to break a transformation. My friend has been turned into a bird. I'd prefer he wasn't. So I need that removed," she paused. That sounded simple enough, didn't it? Unfortunately she knew she couldn't risk not continuing.
"And there may be another... minor .... death curse involved," she continued.
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 9:48 am
Elcca had her full interest now. Uuni was staring at her. Ears flicking back, Uuni let her eyes roll up as the 'Uh' began.
"Oh, really?" she feigned interest as the other began. "Just how elaborate?" What she was really asking was how long she'd be stuck working on this problem. The things mortals got themselves into! It took gods hundreds of years to get so muddled and twisted, but mortals could manage great feats in a manner of days.
There were a lot of them. Swarms of them. Thankfully, they also had poor memories. Usually. Every now and then, one would catch her by surprise. Like this one, with her elaborate rituals.
"A transformation break sounds too easy," the goddess began to say. Ah, ********. There it was. "What the hell did you do in your lifetime?" The flick of her tail symbolized this wasn't important.
"Minor death curse." Uuni smacked the words around her mouth, clacking her teeth together. Mortals had such intricate ideas for how things worked.
"What? You want me to wiggle my nose and make it better? You know, being a bird isn't so bad." A pause, as if Uuni were waiting for some sort of humour to sink in. "And this minor curse, is it on you, or the bird?" Hopefully not a third party. "You can't kill two birds with one ritual." Ohh, that was a good one.
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 10:18 am
She was glad the question about her life had been rhetorical. In a remarkably short amount of time, Elcca had made herself a list of enemies that long since ceased to be impressive. All in the pursuit of knowledge and the unfortunate idea that she could change things. A laundry list far too long to entertain a goddess with.
Particularly one with a sense of humor. The last goddess she had spoken to carried much the same sense of ease. Elcca had mistook that ease for kinship. She wouldn't make that mistake again.
"I'm sure being a bird is fine. If it had been me that was turned into a bird, I wouldn't bother with some ritual and flap around all day," she retorted. "But I won't let someone else pay for me. The curses are all on the same person. But they aren't his curses."
She caught herself before she went too far. Desperation would get her no where. "I'm not asking for an easy path. I just want things to be right. If they were meant for me, they shouldn't be on someone else. How many rituals does it take to make it right?"
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 10:30 am
"Oh boy."
It must have been nice to run around with the martyr flag. What she wouldn't give to be a bird right now. She could fly away, and eat a worm, maybe. That sounded like a very good thing to do with her day.
"You're a terrible liar," she instead retorted with all the ease of someone with endless confidence.
Uuni took in a large puff of air, sniffing deliberately as she considered. "A lot," she answered. "But, it doesn't matter."
Her tongue went sweeping over her teeth, searching for a distraction. The mortal wouldn't want to hear it. "I could, I suppose, transfer all the curses to you." Up goes the hope.
"But, in removing one, the other would take effect." And, down goes the hope. Maybe she should stamp on it a little. "And you have to remove them in the opposite order they were placed."
The goddess clenched her muzzle and squinted one eye, looking Elcca down from head to toe. "You seem smart enough to figure the rest out. Though maybe your pretty clouded up your logic at some point on the way. I don't have to tell you when something might be a bad idea, do I?" Honestly, it was like she was offering counseling services.
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 10:52 am
For a moment, she sat there. Thinking of disputing the goddess's claim of lying, but in the end, it didn't matter. Even if she took the curse, Yoan would die. And she'd be a bird. That was a high price for getting nothing. She'd heard there were relics that could cure anything. But could she risk that? Amaret was a powerful goddess, and Yoan's life wasn't worth a gambit. It was beginning to sound like an extremely elaborate suicide. And that was pretty much the opposite of ideal.
Elcca sighed, bowing her head in dejection. She hated to think this was her emergency plan. What would she have after this? Only a scarce handful of leads, and most of them would end up fruitless. Worse still, Yoan didn't even seem interested in looking. He seemed happy enough just to be alive.
That wasn't good enough.
But if Elcca was anything, it was determined. After the moment, she could still smell the coppery scent of her own blood in the air. She righted her posture, her eyes scanning the goddess and her own handiwork. Well. Damn, she'd still summoned a goddess so this wasn't a complete loss. "Alright. Well...let me think of something else. What can this get me?"
She wasn't bleeding all over the place for a consult.
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 2:07 pm
No screaming? No anger? No attempts to murder her? No breaking down and crying?
Uuni was momentarily stunned by the lack of reaction. It wasn't often that blood magic was the work of the casual. Perhaps she should just be thankful for the change.
Both their eyes turned to the runes in the same moment. On second sight, they were not as perfect as she'd first assumed. There was no large communal gathering that appeared to be guiding the pretty, red lioness, but the nature of the ritual made Uuni's skin itch. This lion, however, she was having trouble recognizing.
Maybe the daughter of someone who had stumbled over blood magic. Or a sister. Or maybe the now-bird had some knowledge of it. Funny. There weren't birds. The hair on the back of her neck raised. Hopefully this wasn't a 'kill the god!' ambush moment. That would really put a stick in her day.
"It can get me to listen." Because she was curious and because she was stuck there until terms were accepted, negated, or the blood dried and the flow stopped. "It's a summoning ritual, not a solve-this-problem spell. What do you want?"
Maybe if she encouraged certain behaviors. "Power, fame, strength, food? Sex?"
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 5:13 pm
Elcca flicked her ear. None of those things were of much interest to her. Had she been more altruistic, maybe she would have thought to ask for rain. Or protection against enemies. Power was handy... but she doubted her vision of power matched up with what the goddess had in mind.
She needed time to think.
"My mother once said never to ask for something you could get yourself. So, no. I don't need any of those things," she started. Tzora wasn't abounding in pithy knowledge... but at least that particular lesson had stuck. "This was kind of my emergency plan so I'll need a second to think."
As if it was somehow Uuni's fault she'd made an immensely complicated situation for herself.
She could ask for information, she supposed. Ask about Amaret. Perhaps learn where she was. What she was. Could she beg the goddess to remove her curse? Elcca narrowed her eyes. Had Amaret simply been a cruel creature, she might have considered it. But Amaret's machinations were not worth betting her life on. She couldn't solve Yoan's problem if she was dead.
Then what could she ask for? Knowledge of some way to cure him? That wouldn't help if he was still a bird. Goddamnit.
Elcca paused for a moment, a thought ghosting across her bright eyes. "When I find a way to cure him. Will this ritual work again?"
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 7:48 pm
Uuni waited with forced patience as the red lioness slipped into thought. Usually one of the five basic wants were requested by lions, even if they protested to their peers that they would never pine after something so shallow.
A breeze shifted through, the goddess pulled in a long breath, and then her captor spoke.
It was fair. Uuni could answer it with no price, but she wouldn't. On the off-chance this crazy lioness found a way to achieve her obsessive plan, the goddess didn't want Elcca summoning Uuni for every little thing.
"The price is also information. Who placed a death curse on this bird of yours?"
That should have been sufficient enough. It wasn't blood. It wasn't even life.
"If you choose not to answer, I will be free to go," she added. Couldn't have this one getting cold feet! Assuming her magic-user found what was wished for, Uuni rather preferred she knew just who she'd be pissing off in the future. There were a lot of gods, and death curse did not sound light and fluffy no matter which way it rolled off the tongue.
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 8:15 pm
That was the price? Well, hell. She was glad she hadn't mentioned her name already! It wasn't exactly a closely guarded secret. But it gave her pause. Was it something she should be more cautious with? Gods likely had allegiances of their own. Perhaps the two were friends, and she'd kill her in retribution.
Would make an interesting way to find her body at least, surrounded by dark arts and strange patterns. She wondered if Yoan would feel sorry, or simply exasperated.
"Her name is Amaret," Elcca chanced. Her jaw lifted slightly as she spoke. Unfortunate as the situation was, she wasn't ashamed. Not many could say they angered a god and still lived. A bright spot on what was otherwise a very dark coin. "I don't know what circle she professes to be in power of. Only that she can kill and she does it well. There's no dark thing that would surprise me."
Further explanation was probably not needed. But perhaps being forthcoming could get a little in return. She'd need this goddess someday, even if she didn't yet know how. "A group of lions worshipped a relic of hers. Wherever it went, people died. But they kept it, guided by their religion or just foolishness. I discerned the relic was the cause. So I stole it and burned it in a fire."
"We weren't exactly friends after that," Elcca concluded.
That part wasn't exactly true.
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 8:36 pm
It was more information than she'd asked for. It was like stabbing a a bruise engorged with blood. Information flowed out, unstoppable, until it pooled in a worthless puddle. Someone might come by and gawk at its mass, or grimace at those foolish enough to share.
"Well." Uuni was hard pressed to hold back a bark of laughter. So, she simply didn't hold it back. She recognized the name. But, who wouldn't know Amaret's name?
The goddess really was a plague. One that was eating carefully away at Uuni's free time, in this case.
"Meddlesome," she remarked. "She could always just recurse you. Or, your friend, rather." An ear flicked back, nonchalant, as she raised one shoulder in a shrug. Friend, hah. Her fine a**.
"The ritual will work again." The other shoulder rolled. "But the cost of whatever you request will be doubled." It kept her followers from getting greedy over large rituals. They sucked up blood and magic like it was a back-country addiction. Usually it killed them, but sometimes it didn't.
"I'll tell Amaret you said hello."
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 9:14 pm
"She might," Elcca said, her voice suddenly stony. She spoke the next words like a dare: "Maybe the second time she'll be mad enough to pick the right person to curse."
And the part about the doubled price? It drifted over her head, seemingly unheard. Price had never been an issue. Her words had not been chosen carelessly. She'd pay whatever it cost, and then some. The only thing that occupied Elcca's mind was how she'd make this work. How she would find the missing piece. If she could get it that far, there was nothing more she needed.
She took a slow breath, curling her wounded paw against the fur of her chest. At least this way she had something in guarantee. One part solved. She did love puzzles, didn't she? "I will call upon you again," she said. Enthused with a bit of confidence.
But she wasn't about to slight anyone just yet. She bit the inside of her mouth and bowed her head low before the goddess. She wouldn't know it, but there had been a time when Elcca had professed to never doing such an act. But she knew. For Yoan, she'd play the reverent.
"And you may tell her I still have what she wants."
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