Fate - First Reply A Corpse In the Blight

[Siraj]

Blightlands - Blighted Plateau

Siraj slowly stepped forward, the bottom of his feet cracked, his skin broken, and his lips already bleeding.

He could feel his blood thinning, his head aching. Everything hurt and it appeared as though he wasn't going to be able to take another step without utterly collapsing. Fingers tightened slightly, though to call it any sort of grip would have been a lie. The truth was that a breeze could knock him over at this point, and he would have welcomed it.

It felt as though he could hardly take another step.

Everything ached. Everything hurt.

Siraj didn't know what he was doing or where he was going. He had broken free from Molthal, he had left behind the dungeons and the torture offered to him by the son of Menalus. Escape, death, was enough. That was what mattered to him, that and that alone would be how he took care of himself. He would not die in those dungeons.

He would not die within those walls.

If his fate was to pass within the blight, then at least he would return to where he had come from.

 

[Fraeya]

She could hear their snickering even as they dragged through the dirt and ash. The fae were heartless asses and selfish pricks. Just another debt she owed them. And they were really enjoying the sport of it. Making scenarios that she could barely survive.

All because she'd wanted a goddamned apple.

"Survive thiiis," one hissed against her ear, "and your debt will be paaaaid. If not," a click of her tongue, "then the one you're promised to probably won't misssss you." More cackles as they left her, hands bound behind her back and blindfold over her eyes. They left her in the blightlands and quickly disappeared with their ancient magic.

 

[Siraj]

Siraj continued.

His steps were labored, his breath bare, his entire being hating the thought of going on. Yet it was all that he could do.

He did not want to die. He did not want to pass away within the blight. He did not want to lose himself within this place. There was anger, pain. That was what drove him forward, that was what carried him onward and towards something else entirely.

Even as his vision swam, as the last of his life flowed from him, he saw something. At first he was not sure what it was. The sight was so unfamiliar, so foreign, that he was not entirely sure that it was real. Even as he drew closer, as his labored steps took him forth, he was not entirely sure what he was seeing. "Are..."

His voice was a dry rasp.

"Are you real?" Siraj asked as he collapsed onto the floor before the bound girl.

 

[Fraeya]

She tensed as she heard a voice that definitely wasn't them. Not fae. At least she crossed her fingers and wished to the bent-winged fairy that it wasn't fae.

"Who are you?" She ground out, twisting on the ground. Trying to unpick those knots of the cloth that bound and cut into her wrists behind her. Head pushed against the rocky ground, trying to get that blindfold off her eyes. She succeeded in getting it half off her face. Squinting through one eye, she looked around her.

Truth was the place wasn't much brighter than having it on.

"Where am I?" She grimaced, tasting ash on her tongue.

 

[Siraj]

She was real. At least seemed it. He watched as she wriggled around on the ground and kicked up small patches of dust, catching the scent of earth and ash as it filled his nose.

She was real. "The Blightlands."

Siraj croaked.

It was not an answer that most people would want to hear, he suspected that she would not either. From the looks of her she did not belong her, most certainly not in fact. There was a strangeness to her clothes and her skin was far too light.

"Where did you come from?" His voice was strained, the lack of water and his wounds weighing on his tongue.

 

[Fraeya]

Errggguuuhhggg.

This gods forsaken blindfold. Head twisted toward the voice. An outline of someone she couldn't tell how old he was. He seemed small. But it was hard to tell him apart from this landscape.

"The fae-lands," she managed finally, grimacing again. Neck twisted. "Can you help unbind me?" There was a clip of impatience in her tone.

And she noted he didn't bother to answer her first damn question.

 

[Siraj]

Siraj looked down at his gnarled hands. During his captivity they had been broken and healed a dozen times over, not always set to the right place. Lips thinned for a moment but he slowly nodded. "I can try."

The young tribesman said as he slowly stepped forward and knelt down.

His fingers were neither deft, nor quick, but he worked at the knots that kept her bound. Progress was slow, not aided at all by her wriggling. Eventually though he managed to slip the bindings free, pulling away the rope and letting it fall onto the ground.

As soon as the rope fell away Siraj took half a step back.

He did not trust people easily anymore, and she was no exception. It was silly really. She had been bound and laid in the middle of the desert. Even the sons of Menalus could not have created such a trick. Yet two years of torture made one paranoid, and Siraj could not stop himself from feeling fear.

 

[Fraeya]

A shuddered relief as her wrists were unbound. She sat up slowly and peeled off her blindfold, letting it settle around her neck like a cursed scarf. Fingers came up to push around her eyes, taking in this landscape.

Taking in him.

Her fae-overlords were real pricks.

She was surprised she'd survived them this long. And she had no desire to be dragged back there so a part of her hoped she wouldn't survive this. No, NO. She couldn't think like that. That's how they wanted her to think.

"What...who are?" She asked, verdant eyes like the jungles around Nagai darted around the dismal landscape. So different from where she'd grown up. So different from anything she'd seen. And she couldn't get that ash taste off her tongue. It already coated her mouth after being here for only a few hours.

 

[Siraj]

Lips thinned for a moment. I..."

It was a good question.

The answer was not exactly one that he could conjure on his tongue, not one that came to mind even as he stared at her. Lips thinned for a brief moment. He could remember his name, could remember his tribe a little, but...who was he?

His people were dead, his mother, his father, all of them had been slaughtered. As far as he knew he was the only one still living. So what did that make him? An empty shell of a man. A boy really.

"I don't know." Siraj said quietly. "But I can't stay here long. I-I have to keep going."

His head turned slightly, gaze shifting to make sure no one was on the horizon.

 

[Fraeya]

She nodded along. It was very clear they couldn't stay here any longer. It felt like there wasn't any life. How was there even a place like this? How was this....ash of a person even living in a place like this? How did he not know who he was?

Friend or foe?

Friend or FOE?

Right now, it didn't matter. He'd untied her. He was friend for the moment.

"I'll come with you." Another nod as if what she said settled things. "You wouldn't happen to know if there was a portal stone around here, would you?" A hopeful swivel of her head.

 

[Siraj]

"Portal stone?" Siraj croaked the words back at her, clearly not understanding what she was talking about.

Such things had never been talked about in the Tribe. The Blightlands had been their home for thousands of years, why would they ever try to leave it? Portal stones were myths, legends whispered about around the campfire.

Nothing more.

Unbeknownst to Siraj of course there was a Portal Stone, though not in the blightlands. It lay a thousand miles to the south, over the great river that split the Blight from the Wylds. One of the Elders might have known, but Siraj certainly not. "No...I don't know."

"I have..." The words failed him for a second, a bloody cough racking his lungs. "I've been imprisoned for..."

How long had it been? He could not remember.

 

[Fraeya]

Fraeya was truly out of her depth. Here was some po-dunk backwater tribesman in some crazy-ass part of the land covered in ash and tones of grey. He was hurt. And a prisoner.

She should just leave him.

Try to figure it out on her own.

Try to figure out a way out of this hellhole.

But looking around, he was the only one around. And he did help her. She rubbed at the back of her neck as he coughed, unable to help. She didn't say anything as he coughed and as his voice trailed off. She didn't know what to say.

 

[Siraj]

Siraj continued to walk, continued to trudge onward.

There was a part of him that forgot Fraeya was even walking with him, that she even existed. All that he cared about was...getting away. He did not know for how long they walked, for how long they made their way through the Blight.

Yet eventually he stopped. "Here."

There was a rock outcropping, a cavern that lead into complete darkness.

"There's water down there." He told her. "A moss you can eat."

Siraj looked at her for a moment, then continued into the darkness.

 

[Fraeya]

She blinked into the darkness. It seemed a huge maw to swallow anything that went inside. With the fae it had always been about light. The forest. Only the court of night seemed to thrive in darkness and they were rumored to be the cruelest fae of them all. Her already dry mouth went dryer still.

"I won't be able to see. I can't see down there." She murmured.

Perhaps this guy was going to murder her after all.

 

[Siraj]

Siraj looked back at her for a few seconds, lips thinning. The odd glow in his eyes seemed to linger for a second even as he turned his head, staying within the air as he frowned and looked towards Fraeya. "I can't make light."

The words were almost stupidly simple.

"I'm sorry." The way that he said the words he almost seemed to shirk away from her, as if the failure was going to render some form of punishment of beating. He shied back just a step, but looked into the cavern.

"I can go first." Siraj offered. "But I do not know another place with water, not for miles."

Not on the plateau.

 

[Fraeya]

"No I wasn't ask you to," fingers came up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Never mind. Can I just...put a hand on your shoulder and follow behind as we go down?"

Verdant eyes usually so bright darkened as she looked beyond him into the depths of the tunnel they were about to travel further into. He seemed so fragile and small. She was worried touching him might...shatter what was left of him.

 

[Siraj]

Siraj seemed to balk at the question for a moment, his expression shifting between fear and discomfort. He had been tortured and broken down for the last two years, twisted and ripped apart piece by piece.

That was the only touch he'd felt.

It was the only touch that he could remember. Everything else...was gone. The hugs he'd received from his mother, the pat on the shoulder of pride from his father, the kiss of a girl he had once met at the festival of sands. All of it was gone.

Forgotten and replaced by pain. His eyes seemed distant for a moment, so far away, and yet here she was asking something so simple.

After a long moment Siraj nodded. "Okay."

It was all he could manage.

 

[Fraeya]

"Okay," she echoed and as he turned to go in the tunnel, she'd reach out. Hesitantly. Fingers resting lightly and curling around the curve of his right shoulder. She exhaled slowly, shuffling behind him, keeping her eyes on the ground.

She could do this.

Right?

This wasn't beneath the mountain of the night court where prisoners never saw the light of day again. Where screams echoed through the cave of those long dead. She could fricken do this.

Soon enough, she blinked and found she couldn't see anything at all. And when she looked back toward the entrance, it too was swallowed in complete blackness. Her mouth became dryer than it already was.

"Okay, just don't go so fast okay?" Her fingers tightened ever so slightly on him, terrified that if she lost him, she'd be lost forever. Her second hand went out, finding the curve of the stone wall that she couldn't see. Some comfort in that.

 

[Siraj]

Siraj walked slowly, as much following her instruction as being incapable of actually going any faster.

His steps were deliberate, finding the right purchase and moving along the darkness of the cavern at a steady pace. His hand's remained at his side, the slight sway of his body showing just how weak he had become over the last few years.

Time seemed to shift within the darkness. It would have been hard to say if they walked for an hour, two, or even five.

Within that cavern all seemed to be lost. Eventually though the sound of running water began to echo out. At first a trickle, then a slow rapid that roiled over buried rocks. As they turned the corner a subtle light began to cast from the walls.

It was not as bright as the stars, nor the moon nor sun, but enough to give vague outlines to those who could not see.

Glowing moss clung to the walls nearby a small stream that trickled through the center of a massive cavern.

 

[Fraeya]

As the first bit of light caught her eyes, she loosened her grip on his shoulder. Fingers uncurling until she gently released him entirely. It was enough light so that she wouldn't face-splat on the ground.

"Wow," she breathed in wonder, head tipping back to look at how the ceiling opened up. Or perhaps it had always been open as they walked and she just hadn't...known. This place made her feel very...small.

"I've never seen anything like it," her voice was a whisper, still scared about what things might lurk beyond the ring of light she could now see in. "So you said...this stuff you can eat erm, drink?" Finger pointed to one of the glowing moss-thingies.

 

[Siraj]

Siraj didn't answer her. In the moment he was utterly lost to the world, forgotten, pushed away. As soon as her hand slipped from his shoulders Siraj shambled forward. Like a ghoul he stepped over the rocky ground, shambling directly towards the stream.

There was a second, just the briefest second of hesitation, and then he tumbled into the waters.

A loud splash echoed through the cavern, water splashed upward and a few droplets fell upon Fraeya's clothes. The water rushed and shifted within the stream, and then suddenly Siraj breached the surface with a deep gasping breath.

Then she would hear it.

It was a clear sound, crystal and smooth, and pleasant.

Siraj didn't recognize it at first, it was so foreign to his ears, so long forgotten that he did not remember what it sounded like.

He laughed.

 

[Fraeya]

He was a very strange...lad.

But that laugh of his, it made her own face lighten. Her own worries ebb a little off her shoulders. Her face untighten. Just a tiny bit.

Still.

Very STRANGE.

She supposed there were worse things than being stuck in a deep, dark tunnel with a strange, crazy person. Looking down, her fingers brushed those droplets of water off her dirty clothes. Stepping to the glowing moss stuff, her finger reached out and poked it experimentally.

 

[Siraj]

The moss did not move apart from the press of her finger. It seemed to pulse for a second with light, then simply shifted back to where it had been before the press of her finger.

Siraj dipped himself within the water for a few more seconds, letting the cool calm of it wash over him. Eyes closed, and the sores and wounds on his body seemed to pulse with a pleasant pain as he swam within the water.

"Tear it from the rock." He called to her.

His voice was more steady now, though there was still a rasp to it.

He knew that his body was damaged on the inside an out, the torture he had endured would leave it's mark for years to come. Yet the water he had drank beneath the surface, the soothing coldness of it's touch now revitalized him. If only a little. "The taste isn't good, but it will sustain."

That was what his mother had always said.

 

[Fraeya]

Green eyes widened as the moss responded to her touch. She was about to eat a glowing piece of wet moss. Shoulders shrugged. She'd seen stranger things with the fae. Things they tried to trick her to eat all the time. They'd magic a pile of fire ants to look like steak and potatoes.

Those bastards.

Picking the moss off the wall, she plucked it into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. Hm. Tasty slightly...minty. Like minty dirt. But not horrible.

"You never answered a lot of my questions," she said between hesitant chews. Coming over to the lip of the river, she squated down on the rocks and looked at him.

 

[Siraj]

The tattered rags which adorned his body shifted as he pulled himself out of the water.

Even here deep down below the earth warmth still permeated the air, the volcanic movement beneath the blightlands scorching even it's underground. Siraj pulled himself up from the cold water, pulling himself onto a rock.

His muscles were bare, almost non-existent really, but he managed to perch himself upon the boulder as he looked down at her.

Those strange glowing eyes seemed a bit brighter within the darkness. "I was half dead."

Still was.

"I did not even believe you were real until you touched my shoulder." It was the longest sentence he said to her, and speaking that much hurt his throat.