Kiunyki was shoved forward and forced to the ground, her hands bound painfully behind her back. The Sisters that had captured her – for that was what they were, Alkidikes like herself – didn't care that she had seen the way to the village, or had seen their faces. Their intentions were clear – they wanted to kill her.
Kiunyki didn't know why she was afraid. Perhaps it was because she had nothing to lose anymore. Perhaps it was because she felt she had some inkling about what came afterwards, and didn't fear it. Perhaps, even, she was just tired. She had, after all, journeyed a long way to find this place, and she had found it. If death was how her journey was to end, then maybe that was just how things were supposed to be.
Or, perhaps, she wasn't afraid because they hadn't killed her yet.
She saw before her – when she dared to look up – a village. There were many familiar faces here, all drawn and tight from the harsh realities of survival. They stared at her suspiciously, and she wondered if any of them recognized her too. Whispered words soon sent a prentice – Kiki's age exactly – running to find someone, and she was forced to wait, surrounded by scrutiny, with her doom hanging over her head...
Not what she had expected to find at all.
elyessi
I don't think I can play some of the important NPCs so I entrust that to you
Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 12:31 pm
The matron was focused on the great tree these days, listening day and night for the guiding words of the new mother. Since the tree began to grow at an alarming rate, the matron hid near the roots, listening and waiting. Many had thought she were crazy, most had ignored her, but few had watched and waited for the next sign. They all had been blessed when the sign came in the form of three lotuses that began to bloom.
Faith had been restored, and the Matron had become so focused on Elzira that she was hardly bothered with such activities like what was occurring now. Instead, the elders were called to the center of the camp, raising their arms up and silencing the sisters as they looked down at Kiunyki. There were only a few, the numbers small, but each was stoic in nature and clearly unwilling to relent.
It was clear that a trial was about to begin.
"Outsider. You come to our land after forsaking our cause during the great war. Your chance for redemption, for true guidance, was back on that battlefield. So why is it you decided to come to us, a year later."
The matron was short and to the point, and her voice held no room for argument. She wanted answers, and all three judged the young girl accordingly.
From the crowd, a petite body moved through, settling behind Kiunyki and out of her immediate sight. Lumikani looked different, her face set and her clothing dark, but she still was the small girl who fought aside the sister on trial. She may not speak up yet, but Lumikani knew from their minimal correspondence why Kiki was here. The girl had seen the light, and she had come to the right side once more.
Yet, Lumikani did not immediately speak up. It was not her place, and not her time. No, it was time for Kiunyki to attempt to plead her case for why she had journeyed to this island.
It sounded so epic in my head, but somehow I just couldn't summon that epicness here... didn't want to keep you waiting though
It was her. The Matron. Kiunyki felt a mix of feelings that could only roughly be classed as terror. There was also relief - this was the right place - Anger - why should they treat her this way - and something else. Something solid and cool, a strange calmness that stilled her. It was that emotion that kept her from shaking, or begging, or screaming, or crying.
They hadn't killed her yet, which meant there was possibly a way to survive. Where there was a way, there was hope. And if they did kill her, so what? She had found them. The exiles were alive, which meant the powers of the world were behind them, despite the odds. She was validated. She was here. Kiunyki had come all this way, and she had nothing to lose anymore.
She could answer whatever she pleased, an honest answer, and they would judge her accordingly. The sisters who had brought her already had, and the curl-antennae'd child had as much as called her a traitor. It was time to lay things out, and be judged.
She swallowed, once, and shifted so that her back was straight, ignoring the pain. She had to do this. She had to make her case.
"My mother held me back." she said. She knew it was a lame excuse, but it didn't matter. The truth would set her free, one way or another. "I wanted to join you in exile, but I wanted her to come with me." She forced all emotion out of her voice - honesty was one thing. Weakness was another. "She can't, now. Her light is gone from this world."save for in the sunrise... she thought.
They could kill me she thought, I could join her.
"So I came. Alone. And honor her memory." Whether her mother would see it that way, Kiki didn't think so. But her mother had always told her to follow her heart, even if it led her to stupid things.
She watched the elders, tensely. She was expecting questions. She was ready to give answers. She was hoping not to die, but if so...
So be it.
Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 9:43 am
The face of the matron and her council was set, with little sympathy as they waited for the young sister to speak up. This was the first case of an outsider making her way to the boundaries of the lands, and had Kiunyki been anything but an Alkidike sister, she would have been killed on site. It was her blood alone that permitted her to stand trial, but that only got her here, before the council three.
They showed no reaction to the fact that her mother was dead, although some in the crowd whispered about it among themselves. In fact, a few of the more extreme sisters all but cheered at the thought of one of the weaklings being dead. Lumikani kept silent, eyes sharp as she watched Kiunyki plead for her life. There was no time for cheering, not with how serious this moment was.
A long silence filled the air as the three waited, the Matron with her pursed lips and thoughtful gaze.
"You join us to honor your mother, who refused to see the true ways of the sisterhood?" the voice of the matron held a sneer, as if unbelieving, and she shook her head as if in pity, "You are misguided to believe that such an act would permit you in this camp."
The matron turned her head away, and the two others whispered between the three as if in deep thought. Many of the sisters in the tribe knew what the verdict would be, death. They had a new world to protect, one that involved a race that was still beginning to bloom. Yet, the Matron wasn't unreasonable, and she too knew that there would always be value in expanding their sisterhood, as long as the individual was right for the place.
Turning back, the Matron rose her voice and spoke to the crowd.
"Can any sister speak on behalf of our prisoner?! Speak now, before our judgement stands!"
A whisper flew through the crowd. Some recognized the markings of the girl, and remembered the wild sister who fought against their cause. Others remembered her as well, but were blinded by the fact she had turned her back on them. One, however, recalled the battle that sent them here, and moved forward.
"I can, Matron."
Lumikani, the Earthling-sized Alkidike, had stepped forward to speak for Kiunyki.
Kiunyki tensed at the way that some of the Alkidikes reacted to the news of her mother's death. They cheered it, all but celebrated it. The ropes that bound her dug tightly into her arms as she tried to keep her composure. Their whispers, barely heard, stabbed into her like a knife, driving deep into her heart, but hadn't she known that something like this would happen? That some of the Exiles would feel this way?
Perhaps she hadn't realized just how deeply the others had believed. Longing mixed with rage. How dare they say such things about her mother... but how dearly she wanted to believe in something as they did. In what they did.
"She told me to follow my heart, and so, I followed my heart here. In this way I honor her, even though I don't take her path." she said finally, a little frantically. "I... I accept that I might die here. A possibility that was growing more and more real as they conferred. But I do not believe that it guided me wrong... So... so..." But they had turned away to judging her. Her pleas would fall on deaf ears.
Her heart beat in her throat, fear and anger and a strange sense of wild peace rattling around within.
She was fine with this. She wanted to live, but death would be fine, if that was what was judged. There was nothing she could do, if that was so.
That they would call on her sisters surprised her, though the surprise lessened as Lumikani stepped forward. How had she forgotten about her friend? The person who had encouraged her to come, to follow her heart and meet her fate. Was that fate now in Lumikani's hands?
