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 Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 6:52 pm
The world around Nyomi began to settle, the familiar feel of the cold wood below her oddly comforting her. This was nothing new. She had done this almost every night since she could remember. Probably since she was born. It wasn't so long ago. She could still feel the fear that had crept up into her throat every time the sun started to sink in the sky. How she would constantly keep her eyes on it long before the dipping made the clouds change a pretty pink and orange. Nyomi wished she could, just once, enjoy the sight without the lump in her throat threatening to choke her.
And, yet, she was finding she was becoming less and less afraid. In no way did she enjoy or look forward to her trips to the Dream Mansion where all those hostile ghosts of her mother's past resided. But it was becoming a familiar routine. Something to get used to. She knew the way it went, now. What to do.
Getting to her feet, Nyomi lifted her head to sniff at the air for any shifting of dust, her ears swiveling all around her. The first thing was to check your surroundings. The distant sounds of whispers and creaking reached her ears. The normal sounds. Nothing was close to her. Nothing had realized her presence. Yet. If she was lucky, nothing would. That, the youngster knew, would be a huge stroke of luck. The chances of her encountering something was far too high to wish that.
Once she knew she was alone and where she was, Nyomi began the second step: Moving in search of the only other individual here who was not a ghost.
Her mother.
Sometimes Kyouka was aware of who Nyomi was. Sometimes she was not. Regardless, it gave the adolescent comfort to have the older mare near her. To have another sane Star in this madhouse of a Temple.
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Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2012 5:44 pm
 Not too far from where Nyomi materialized into thin air, a white pair was navigating the roof above an open courtyard. Above her, the sky was a deep blue, exactly as it had been on the last night the residents of the temple had been alive. The snow fell around her softly, without a bit of breeze to swirl it around her body. It fell onto her black mane, making it sparkle in the moisture when it caught the light of a stray candle. There was no longer anyone to keep the candles burning, but still they remained lite, frozen in time with the ghostly inhabitants of the temple.
The white hooves of the mare made soft sounds on the narrow wood she was walking carefully and slowly on. She kept one brown eye trained on below her, where the vision of a filly was standing with a stake in her mouth. If the stake wasn't an indication something was wrong, the fact one could see through the filly would. Kyouka could see the scattered pebbles of the courtyard below the torso of the filly.
The name of the filly escaped the older mare. She had seen her around during the glory days of the Kuze temple. She was one of the four handmaidens. Kyouka wasn't sure what her job was or who she had attended in life. Kyouka had been attended by the one named Shigure.
Thinking about the handmaidens brought Amane to her mind. Amane, her second child and first girl. She had attended to the Tattoo Priestess in life. She had brought the man into the Chamber of Thorns and released all this death upon them all. It was the fault of her own body that all this was happening.
But she could not blame the filly. She had only done what she thought was right. Taken pity on the young lovers. Kyouka wished life would take pity on her and give her back Akito. Wherever he had disappeared to.
The figure down below moved a few steps in the opposite direction Kyouka was moving. One of her rooms was over this way. She wanted to get to it and check the drawers for something she missed. Since this was a duplicate of the real version, it must still be in the drawer. As she was beginning to think she was in the clear, a stray rock on the beam fell as her hoof grazed it, landing with a few bounces to the floor below. The ghost that had previously been paying little attention to the mare now looked up.
"Do you wonder what it feels like?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2012 7:19 pm
Nyomi pushed a door open with her nose, holding her breath as a cloud of smoke billowed out under her muzzle. So much dust had accumulated in the days of seclusion while the Rift slowly spread closer to engulfing the entire temple and manor. With everyone either hiding, taking precautions, or performing rituals to contain it, there had naturally been no time for cleaning. The floor was covered in the same layer of dust, thin enough to see the color of the floor beneath her hooves but thick enough to leave her prints behind. The house creaked and moaned as if rejecting her presence.
Or welcoming it. As a Kuze girl, this was where she belonged. She could already feel the comfort these strange walls gave her. Like they had been calling her back home all this time and now she was here. This place was as familiar to her as if she had lived in it in the waking world.
Hoof prints on the floor attracted her attention. They were split down the middle, not her mother's prints at all. Or her own. She didn't know anyone with hooves like that. Though she had never seen her father or brothers, she knew they were all normal Stars like herself and her mother. This meant someone had gotten in Kyouka's way and found him/herself in the manor. Nyomi wondered if he/she was still here.
She was about to go follow them when a sound broke her thoughts. Head turning back the way she had come through the now open door, she heard a cry for help. A cry that was quieter than a help cry usually was, like the speaker was trying to keep from being noticed.
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Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 4:32 pm
The handmaiden swooped down, sharp point of the stake in Kyouka's direction. The white mare tried to recoil backwards, only to have her hoof slip on the boards beneath her feet. It was fortunate she did, because the motion kept her out of harm's way. It was also fortunate she managed to gain her footing back. While the ghost was circling back around for another strike, Kyouka shuffled as quickly as possible to solid ground. She felt the sting of the sharp wood on her back flank as her front hooves reached the other side. She was unsure what the touch of a ghost would do to a stranger, but to her it hurt. Just like if the handmaiden had been alive and scrapped the wood against her skin.
No blood was drawn. This was all she had to be thankful for.
Behind her, the filly taunted her. "Does it hurt?"
Hooves scrapping along the roof, Kyouka rushed towards the door to one of her rooms in this huge Manor. She pushed it open, than kicked it closed with her hind foot. For some strange reason, the ghosts rarely followed one from on room to the next. Perhaps this was a sign that some humanity still remained within them. That they could still be saved.
Kyouka, unfortunately, didn't think she had it in her to break the curse. Ghost Reika scared her. For good reason. If the Tattoo Priestess touched her, she would die.
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Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 4:30 pm
Nyomi, having been down on a lower level, broke out into the courtyard from below, where the handmaiden had started from. She stumbled from her crash through the door, her ears ringing with the bang of the door against the wall.
The courtyard was empty. This was where the sound had come from, but it was empty. As she listened harder, she noted the screams were also gone. Panic set in, fearing the ghost had gotten her mother, when a whisper from above brought her back to reality. She was in a haunted and dangerous manor and she had just created the loudest noise possible without purposely banging a shovel against the stones. Whatever ghosts were nearby had obviously heard that and would now be coming down upon her. How long did she have to get away before they saw her?
Nyomi's hooves moved in the direction of the door on the other side of the courtyard at the same time the handmaiden from above swooped down on her.
"Stay longer and play with me."
The orange mare didn't allow herself to turn around and see which it was. She knew the four handmaidens by sight, but the only name she could remember was that of her sister. Amane was not hostile. This wasn't her. Nyomi had no interest in knowing which it was unless it was Amane.
Pushing the door open, she kicked it with her back hoof. The sounds of the handmaiden continued to follow her from behind the closed door. She had little time to reflect on her escape when a more terrifying sound entered her ears from up ahead. It was a static sound, joining sometimes by a deep grunting. That sound only meant...
An Engraver!
Probably her least favorite ghost, aside Yashuu, in the whole manor. An Engraver were the tattoo artists for the shrine. They had spikes in their hands so they could share in the pain of the Priestess and were blind. Blind for the same reason as Reika, Nyomi was sure. It wasn't really their appearance that scared the mare. It was the sounds they made.
To turn back meant the Handmaiden. To go forward meant the Engraver. The choice was simple.
Nyomi turned around and picked the Handmaiden.
Through the door she hurried, kicking it closed. The filly ghost greeted her by her taunt of pain. Nyomi ignored her and continued going straight through the still open door. Once closed, she now faced an empty hallway. But an empty hallway with sounds slowly getting louder. Nyomi hurried past it, dodging around another ghost and burst through another door. This time she remained alone. No sounds but the floorboards greeted her once more.
She could go back to worrying about her mother's whereabouts.
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Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 4:44 pm
Now alone in one of her rooms, Kyouka lay sobbing on the floor. Every night, ever since the Unleashing, she had been plagued with this nightmare. While her body roamed the waking world as a ghost, bringing more victims for the Manor to feed off, the Manor got to have a ball with her. There was nowhere to hide. Any room, including her own, could have a ghost in it. Though it was uncommon to find one other than the handmaiden who had served her in life, it was still possible. The ghosts, as all ghosts will do, were more attracted to the areas of the Manor they called home.
Most of them, anyway. Yashuu and Reika never seemed to stay in the same spot. Always on the lookout for whatever it was they were searching for. Even her mother as a ghost seemed to think another Tattoo Priestess would save them all.
Yashuu Kuze. Always doing her duty, even in death. Did she feel pain over what she had done? Murdering that poor stallion in front of Reika and causing this all? What harm would it have really done to let Reika awake for just a little bit? To say goodbye? Far as Kyouka was concerned, none. Just let her go back to sleep. It wasn't required she sever ties with the living.
Kyouka stood up. The room around her started to shiver, the patterns on the kimono spread on the back wall shimmered. The scenery and animals came alive. The mare cowered at the sight.
Then she dropped to the floor.
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Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 4:57 pm
Far away, in another room all alone, Nyomi leaned against a wall while her own world shimmered. Not as frightful as her mother in this place, she waited for the moment the world would settle. Knowing when it did, she would awake. Then she would truly know what had become of her mother. For that had been her scream, without a doubt.
The world blacked out on that last thought. The mare dipped her head towards the floor and closed her eyes.
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The chirping of the birds woke her. Blinking her dark eyes open, Nyomi stood and stretched. She didn't feel like she had gotten a full night's sleep, even though she had been 'out' long enough to be counted as one. With a person's mind running through the halls of the Manor, one could never rest peacefully.
She looked all around her, her ears turning this way and that for the rustling of her mother's cloak. For a moment, the world was silent save the birds and other animals waking. Then she heard it. Far off in the distance. Cloak shaking as the wearer shook themselves. With her heart beating wildly in relief, Nyomi rushed over.
And there she was, standing in all her beauty covered by the cloak. Kyouka's eyes were closed as if in pain. The cloak billowed in the wind around her legs. Nyomi walked slowly up to her mother, reaching her muzzle towards Kyouka's head, wishing to rub it against her mother's soft nose. But that would just be met with nothing in return. In the waking world, Kyouka's mind seemed so much more aware of her losses. She never seemed to realize the gifts she had.
Nearby, Nyomi could see the other mare she shared her journey with. Reika Kuze. The last Tattoo Priestess. The Tattoos nearly blended into her darker skin. She, too, seemed too focused on her misery to notice poor little Nyomi.
Nyomi hung her head. Maybe one day her mother and Reika would notice her.
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