Exalted Fic: "A Dream"
Alright, so I have been really creatively stifled for awhile, which has sucked. The past few months have been hard. I am hoping to get some of the stuff that has been lying around unfinished back in the works, and for the first time in awhile I am feeling inspired again. Most of you that follow my writing do it for the HP fanfic, so this won't make any sense to you guys. It is fiction for the Exalted roleplay that I do IRL with sagedarkwoods. Recently our game took an insane turn as one of the major NPCs, my character Kay'lin's grandmother Mnemon (one of the most powerful women in this world) was assassinated, and died in his arms. Here Kay'lin has a dream shortly afterwards, which was somewhat inspired by the episode of Buffy where her mom dies. Anyway, normally I don't post the writing I do for Exalted in my LJ, but I'm really happy that I've managed to write again, and I think it's rather good, so here we are. Forgive my rambling.
Exalted: A Dream
Kay'lin sleeps alone for the first time in years. Even at the Heptagram there were servants who were always eager to share the bed of an attractive Dynast, as well as some of the other students, and since then he has never been without Kyo or Yuki, or, lately, the twins. These past weeks, though, he has not been able to bear anyone in the room with him at night. Sleep does not come easily anymore, and it is a fickle visitor, for it leaves on a whim as well.
He dreams.
~
Mnemon looks down upon the Deliberative with growing satisfaction, speaking quietly to Kay'lin of her grand plans for the future of her Realm. Every so often she glances back at him, and gives him the smile that he remembers from that day, so long ago now, that he Exalted. That smile that says everything will be good from this day forth, that she is so proud, that she sees great things for his future. His hand comes up to brush against the hearthstone that she gave him the day he returned from the Heptagram, to get a glimpse of the wonders the future holds for them.
The stone trembles in his grasp, vibrating in a way that he has only felt once before. His mind flashes back to that horrible day at Elsafa, when the stone insisted that it was near, that the akuma had found a weakness in his armour and was jabbing its knife at his heart over and over. His gaze is drawn to the floor below, and Mnemon's voice becomes a distant buzz. He sees the senators milling about, waiting as each presents their newly drafted bills to the floor, their clerks standing at attention to them. One senator, a richly bedecked and smug looking scion of Ragara, is reading out his proposal to the floor. Behind him is his clerk, who leans back and whispers to another senator briefly, just once. That second senator raises his hand for attention, and with that small motion, begins to dissect the first's law, destroying it before his eyes.
"Kay'lin, you are not paying attention."
Kay'lin comes out of his trance and glances first at his Grandmother, who glares at him with disapproval, and then at the scribe girl, and he knows. He sways as though dazed, brushing against the girl for support. His fingers cling briefly to her shoulder, and he channels that small amount of Essence and searches her soul.
Darkness.
He looks up and meets the eyes of the girl, and they recognize in each other the truth, and Kay'lin's hand jabs out at her. All the rage that he has felt against this creature and its master, all the anguish it has caused him, all the hopes he has had for the future that are now dangling on the precipice of this moment, all of these are poured into that blow, his Essence swirling around his fist in a glow of pure gold.
The thing is flung back against the wall of Mnemon's balcony, gasping for breath. In the brief few seconds he is given, Kay'lin looks at Mnemon and says only, "Akuma."
Mnemon does not even question him. Demons materialize all around them, a thick cloud of creatures that descend upon the akuma, who is trying to make for the edge of the ward marked with glass. Her path is blocked, though, and they rip into her with fang and claw and tentacle and word, and she is trying to spit out her own words but too many fists are being shoved into her mouth. Then a flash of white Essence and steel, and a flying guillotine has swept through the fray and taken its head. Mnemon stands with her hand outstretched, looking for all the world like a statue of the Empress. She lets out a snarl and then looks at Kay'lin. "Kikochiyo," she snaps.
Kay'lin hurries outside the ring of glass and summons a Messenger with a quick gesture. "Kikochiyo, whatever you're doing, stop. Your scribe was the akuma. I have just fought her. She has been using you. Do not do anything until I have reached you." The cherub cocks its head as Kay'lin dictates, and then takes off in a puff of blue Essence, heading into the chamber and then out the door. Down below all the senators are staring up at the balcony, a loud susurrus of concern rising up from them.
"Will Kikochiyo listen to you?" Mnemon asks, her lips barely moving as she speaks.
"Yes," says Kay'lin. "He trusts me."
She nods tightly, her hands clenched in fists as she stares at the pummelled ooze that had been the akuma. "This was not how this was supposed to go," she murmurs, and then she looks back at Kay'lin. "But luckily you saw through her. It is only a minor setback, and we shall just have to adjust our plans accordingly. We should depart from here and think of -"
~
He is in a room that he has never seen before, filled with darkness and starlight. Everywhere around him, stretching as far as the mind can see, are wires of light. Some are as thick as the trunk of a millennia-old tree, and others as fine as a wisp of spiderweb.
"Do you see?"
A hand points towards the center of the web, and he begins to walk.
~
"This was not how this was supposed to go," whispers Mnemon as the Deliberative begins to dissolve below them. The senators are screaming at each other, scribes are clinging tightly to the scrolls that now mean nothing, and those few guards by the doors are looking at each other for orders. In the midst of it all is Kikochiyo, the satisfaction on his face slowly starting to melt into horror as he realizes what he's done. "Kay'lin, take me from here."
Kay'lin looks at the scribe and motions with his head for her to lead them. She hurries to the wall and pushes at a secret door which opens into a dark tunnel. "Go ahead of us," Kay'lin tells her, and then he is murmuring quiet reassurances to Mnemon, who looks for the first time that he can remember, frightened. He has to look away from her as they move into the corridor, unable to stand the sight of her face. He looks at the walls of the tunnel instead, and then he sees something.
"Grandmother, did you put those wards there?"
Mnemon stops and her gaze snaps to the wall as well. Her eyes narrow, and the despair in them washes away under the familiar and reassuring look of suspicion that Kay'lin recognizes so well. "No I did not," she mutters, looking at them more closely, and then recognition sparks the suspicion into rage. She turns her head to look back up the corridor to see the scribe girl hurrying back to them.
"We must hurry, my lady," she begins to say, and then stops as she sees what Mnemon is standing next to. Mnemon does not wait, though, and she throws down her hand at the ward that rings the tunnel, and emerald light shatters the Old Realm sigils into meaningless scribbles. Her other hand is pointed right at the scribe.
Demons rush forward from the ether around them, slavering as they hurl themselves toward the girl. The girl sighs, and then suddenly she is not there. Kay'lin's mind tries to insist to him that no one was ever there, that there is a perfectly logical explanation for the horde of demons attacking the air, but he exercises his will and holds on to the truth of what just happened. He recalls Kuvaya warning him about the skills her people possess, about the Kata they use when they wish to have never been somewhere, and then he knows who the girl was.
"Kay'lin," hisses Mnemon, her anima silently vibrating around her. "You and I are going to hunt that thing down, and I swear by Pasiap's bones that it is going to pay for what it has -"
~
His gaze is drawn to a place in the web where the weft and warp are in tatters. It is as though a terrible claw has rent a tear in the fabric of this place, a deliberate and malicious act of vandalism that mars what should be beautiful.
"Do you see?"
He sees a wire that is darkening before his eyes, its end sheared off where the rip in the fabric is. In the strand he can see her face, her life, her story, all unfolding before him in a single instant. He does not try to retain it all, knowing somehow that what is important is the sense of it, not the facts.
He looks above it.
~
The daiklave slips up through the scrollcase and into Mnemon's body, and she gasps in shock. Everything seems to slow around Kay'lin in that moment, and he can hear his heart beating so loud it seems it might drown out the world in its anguish. He sees the glittering blade pressing into his Grandmother's body and sees it tearing at everything he has worked so hard to build these past two years. He sees the look of triumph on the akuma's face, the look of triumph that he knows the Ebon Dragon also wears, and he feels his blood boil in outrage.
For the first time, he does not think.
Kay'lin flings himself across the ward and kicks off the wall beside him, launching himself just high enough into the air to feel the stone brush against his hair as he swings his leg into a blow against the akuma's head. He pours the Essence of the Golden Janissary into the kick, snarling and demanding with all his soul that the Sun echo his rage.
The Sun does.
A blast of gold light accompanies the blow, lashing out at the darkness that infects the child of the stars, and the akuma is flung back against the stone wall, stunned from the blow. In those precious few moments he is given by this tiny victory, he flings a counterspell at the ward, and Mnemon's demons rush forward to aid him. They leap atop the winded akuma, and she screams as dozens of attacks fall upon her in seconds.
Kay'lin wants to rush in with them, to continue beating down the creature that has vexed him at every turn, but he tears himself away from his rage and kneels down beside Mnemon, who has slumped to the ground. She is fumbling in one of her pockets.
"The goblet," she gasps.
He reaches into the pocket and pulls out the golden goblet, and he undoes the clasps that keep it sealed. Blood sloshes in it as he tilts it to Mnemon's mouth, and she drinks it down greedily. The weeping wound in her chest stops bleeding, and Kay'lin can see it begin to knit itself back together.
"It is dead?" Mnemon asks between gulps of the blood. Kay'lin glances to the side and sees that the demons have stopped now, that all that is left of the akuma is a battered corpse, and he nods. "Good," she whispers, and lets the empty goblet drop. "Oh Kay'lin, thank you," she says fervently, more emotion in her voice that he has ever imagined hearing. "I thought that it had me, that everything was going to come undone, but you stopped it. Thank you. Thank -"
~
Above the dying strand of light is another, this one glowing almost so bright that he cannot look at it. He can see that this second strand had been wound very tightly around the first, but that the attack only managed to sever the first somehow. This second strand now swings and sways wildly across the gaping hole in the fabric of the web, briefly touching thousands - millions - of other threads, but never resting anywhere. There is no story that he can discern in this strand, just a sense of urgency, as though trillions of eyes all around him are staring at it too, waiting to see where it will land.
He sees his face reflected in its shine, streaked with tears, staring back at him.
"Do you see?"
He nods.
~
He awakens, and though he is still alone, his weeping is not unheard.
Exalted: A Dream
Kay'lin sleeps alone for the first time in years. Even at the Heptagram there were servants who were always eager to share the bed of an attractive Dynast, as well as some of the other students, and since then he has never been without Kyo or Yuki, or, lately, the twins. These past weeks, though, he has not been able to bear anyone in the room with him at night. Sleep does not come easily anymore, and it is a fickle visitor, for it leaves on a whim as well.
He dreams.
~
Mnemon looks down upon the Deliberative with growing satisfaction, speaking quietly to Kay'lin of her grand plans for the future of her Realm. Every so often she glances back at him, and gives him the smile that he remembers from that day, so long ago now, that he Exalted. That smile that says everything will be good from this day forth, that she is so proud, that she sees great things for his future. His hand comes up to brush against the hearthstone that she gave him the day he returned from the Heptagram, to get a glimpse of the wonders the future holds for them.
The stone trembles in his grasp, vibrating in a way that he has only felt once before. His mind flashes back to that horrible day at Elsafa, when the stone insisted that it was near, that the akuma had found a weakness in his armour and was jabbing its knife at his heart over and over. His gaze is drawn to the floor below, and Mnemon's voice becomes a distant buzz. He sees the senators milling about, waiting as each presents their newly drafted bills to the floor, their clerks standing at attention to them. One senator, a richly bedecked and smug looking scion of Ragara, is reading out his proposal to the floor. Behind him is his clerk, who leans back and whispers to another senator briefly, just once. That second senator raises his hand for attention, and with that small motion, begins to dissect the first's law, destroying it before his eyes.
"Kay'lin, you are not paying attention."
Kay'lin comes out of his trance and glances first at his Grandmother, who glares at him with disapproval, and then at the scribe girl, and he knows. He sways as though dazed, brushing against the girl for support. His fingers cling briefly to her shoulder, and he channels that small amount of Essence and searches her soul.
Darkness.
He looks up and meets the eyes of the girl, and they recognize in each other the truth, and Kay'lin's hand jabs out at her. All the rage that he has felt against this creature and its master, all the anguish it has caused him, all the hopes he has had for the future that are now dangling on the precipice of this moment, all of these are poured into that blow, his Essence swirling around his fist in a glow of pure gold.
The thing is flung back against the wall of Mnemon's balcony, gasping for breath. In the brief few seconds he is given, Kay'lin looks at Mnemon and says only, "Akuma."
Mnemon does not even question him. Demons materialize all around them, a thick cloud of creatures that descend upon the akuma, who is trying to make for the edge of the ward marked with glass. Her path is blocked, though, and they rip into her with fang and claw and tentacle and word, and she is trying to spit out her own words but too many fists are being shoved into her mouth. Then a flash of white Essence and steel, and a flying guillotine has swept through the fray and taken its head. Mnemon stands with her hand outstretched, looking for all the world like a statue of the Empress. She lets out a snarl and then looks at Kay'lin. "Kikochiyo," she snaps.
Kay'lin hurries outside the ring of glass and summons a Messenger with a quick gesture. "Kikochiyo, whatever you're doing, stop. Your scribe was the akuma. I have just fought her. She has been using you. Do not do anything until I have reached you." The cherub cocks its head as Kay'lin dictates, and then takes off in a puff of blue Essence, heading into the chamber and then out the door. Down below all the senators are staring up at the balcony, a loud susurrus of concern rising up from them.
"Will Kikochiyo listen to you?" Mnemon asks, her lips barely moving as she speaks.
"Yes," says Kay'lin. "He trusts me."
She nods tightly, her hands clenched in fists as she stares at the pummelled ooze that had been the akuma. "This was not how this was supposed to go," she murmurs, and then she looks back at Kay'lin. "But luckily you saw through her. It is only a minor setback, and we shall just have to adjust our plans accordingly. We should depart from here and think of -"
~
He is in a room that he has never seen before, filled with darkness and starlight. Everywhere around him, stretching as far as the mind can see, are wires of light. Some are as thick as the trunk of a millennia-old tree, and others as fine as a wisp of spiderweb.
"Do you see?"
A hand points towards the center of the web, and he begins to walk.
~
"This was not how this was supposed to go," whispers Mnemon as the Deliberative begins to dissolve below them. The senators are screaming at each other, scribes are clinging tightly to the scrolls that now mean nothing, and those few guards by the doors are looking at each other for orders. In the midst of it all is Kikochiyo, the satisfaction on his face slowly starting to melt into horror as he realizes what he's done. "Kay'lin, take me from here."
Kay'lin looks at the scribe and motions with his head for her to lead them. She hurries to the wall and pushes at a secret door which opens into a dark tunnel. "Go ahead of us," Kay'lin tells her, and then he is murmuring quiet reassurances to Mnemon, who looks for the first time that he can remember, frightened. He has to look away from her as they move into the corridor, unable to stand the sight of her face. He looks at the walls of the tunnel instead, and then he sees something.
"Grandmother, did you put those wards there?"
Mnemon stops and her gaze snaps to the wall as well. Her eyes narrow, and the despair in them washes away under the familiar and reassuring look of suspicion that Kay'lin recognizes so well. "No I did not," she mutters, looking at them more closely, and then recognition sparks the suspicion into rage. She turns her head to look back up the corridor to see the scribe girl hurrying back to them.
"We must hurry, my lady," she begins to say, and then stops as she sees what Mnemon is standing next to. Mnemon does not wait, though, and she throws down her hand at the ward that rings the tunnel, and emerald light shatters the Old Realm sigils into meaningless scribbles. Her other hand is pointed right at the scribe.
Demons rush forward from the ether around them, slavering as they hurl themselves toward the girl. The girl sighs, and then suddenly she is not there. Kay'lin's mind tries to insist to him that no one was ever there, that there is a perfectly logical explanation for the horde of demons attacking the air, but he exercises his will and holds on to the truth of what just happened. He recalls Kuvaya warning him about the skills her people possess, about the Kata they use when they wish to have never been somewhere, and then he knows who the girl was.
"Kay'lin," hisses Mnemon, her anima silently vibrating around her. "You and I are going to hunt that thing down, and I swear by Pasiap's bones that it is going to pay for what it has -"
~
His gaze is drawn to a place in the web where the weft and warp are in tatters. It is as though a terrible claw has rent a tear in the fabric of this place, a deliberate and malicious act of vandalism that mars what should be beautiful.
"Do you see?"
He sees a wire that is darkening before his eyes, its end sheared off where the rip in the fabric is. In the strand he can see her face, her life, her story, all unfolding before him in a single instant. He does not try to retain it all, knowing somehow that what is important is the sense of it, not the facts.
He looks above it.
~
The daiklave slips up through the scrollcase and into Mnemon's body, and she gasps in shock. Everything seems to slow around Kay'lin in that moment, and he can hear his heart beating so loud it seems it might drown out the world in its anguish. He sees the glittering blade pressing into his Grandmother's body and sees it tearing at everything he has worked so hard to build these past two years. He sees the look of triumph on the akuma's face, the look of triumph that he knows the Ebon Dragon also wears, and he feels his blood boil in outrage.
For the first time, he does not think.
Kay'lin flings himself across the ward and kicks off the wall beside him, launching himself just high enough into the air to feel the stone brush against his hair as he swings his leg into a blow against the akuma's head. He pours the Essence of the Golden Janissary into the kick, snarling and demanding with all his soul that the Sun echo his rage.
The Sun does.
A blast of gold light accompanies the blow, lashing out at the darkness that infects the child of the stars, and the akuma is flung back against the stone wall, stunned from the blow. In those precious few moments he is given by this tiny victory, he flings a counterspell at the ward, and Mnemon's demons rush forward to aid him. They leap atop the winded akuma, and she screams as dozens of attacks fall upon her in seconds.
Kay'lin wants to rush in with them, to continue beating down the creature that has vexed him at every turn, but he tears himself away from his rage and kneels down beside Mnemon, who has slumped to the ground. She is fumbling in one of her pockets.
"The goblet," she gasps.
He reaches into the pocket and pulls out the golden goblet, and he undoes the clasps that keep it sealed. Blood sloshes in it as he tilts it to Mnemon's mouth, and she drinks it down greedily. The weeping wound in her chest stops bleeding, and Kay'lin can see it begin to knit itself back together.
"It is dead?" Mnemon asks between gulps of the blood. Kay'lin glances to the side and sees that the demons have stopped now, that all that is left of the akuma is a battered corpse, and he nods. "Good," she whispers, and lets the empty goblet drop. "Oh Kay'lin, thank you," she says fervently, more emotion in her voice that he has ever imagined hearing. "I thought that it had me, that everything was going to come undone, but you stopped it. Thank you. Thank -"
~
Above the dying strand of light is another, this one glowing almost so bright that he cannot look at it. He can see that this second strand had been wound very tightly around the first, but that the attack only managed to sever the first somehow. This second strand now swings and sways wildly across the gaping hole in the fabric of the web, briefly touching thousands - millions - of other threads, but never resting anywhere. There is no story that he can discern in this strand, just a sense of urgency, as though trillions of eyes all around him are staring at it too, waiting to see where it will land.
He sees his face reflected in its shine, streaked with tears, staring back at him.
"Do you see?"
He nods.
~
He awakens, and though he is still alone, his weeping is not unheard.