Private Tales The Coming

[Niandra Ne'Demir]

It all started with rumors - morn talks of disembodied voices and feelings of unease throughout the Llynn Rhosyn Chateau. Then there was talk of horrid nightmares, from both staff and guests. No one expected the first death - a staff member who didn't appear for dawn gathering. When the wing overseer went to retrieve her, she was found dead in her quarters. Evident to have died in her sleep. Even the coroner failed in providing a cause of death. The woman was young and healthy. her heart simply... stopped.

To Niandra, her death was all too familiar.

Unknown to anyone at the time, this would not be an isolated incident. Only a few days later, a second death was reported. Another staff member. Both cases identical, and both cases occurring in the West wing. It didn't make sense.

By now, Ni's suspicions were growing... as well her concern. The Chateau was supposed to be protected. It was built upon Holy ground and was highly esteemed by visitors. Nothing ever happened there aside from an occasional altercation between drunken guests. This was a problem! Unexplained deaths cannot interfere with the operations of Llynn Rhosyn - too many relied on the safety of her walls.

But the third death was reported merely a day later. This time, it was a guest. An elder who had celebrated his 620th birthday, but didn't live through the night to tell of it. Again, same circumstances. Same wing. The coroner tried to claim the guest had simply died of old age, but the wife heavily objected. Ni too was convinced that something else was at play. What was it? Was it a gas of some sort that suffocated people in their sleep? Perhaps a poison. There had been no unfamiliar plants or food introduced to the Chateau. Food? Could it have been something they ate? She'd have to inspect the entire kitchen - the pantry, cold storage, dishware; Hell, she'd even check the chickens. She had to find out how three people turned up dead within a week.

It was the following night, some time during deepdark, that Niandra experienced her own nightmare; though, it felt more like a warning. Her late sister, Alyjandra, appeared before her in the front court of the Chateau. She spoke not a word, only stared at Ni with a stoic expression. Frozen in time. When Ni approached, Aly turned her gaze toward the Chateau, looking directly at the West wing. Ni stopped. She tried to speak out but no sound resonated, and Aly did not divert her gaze from the West wing. Perplexed, Ni followed her sister's gaze. Her eyes immediately locked on the upstairs corner window.

((Image Source: The Woman in Black, 2012))​

Something was up there. Not someone... something. Through the paned window, Ni could see a shadowy figure staring down at her. It looked Human, but it was no Human nor Elf. It was nothing Ni had ever seen before... and it frightened her. Right down to her bones. Tall and sickly thin with long black hair... was it hair... or was it darkness? It was hard to tell. The creature appeared female, with hollowed eyes and an emotionless expression.

Ni nearly bolted for the front door, determined to investigate the creature in the window, but a strange gargling sound distracted her. She immediately broke her gaze from the window and looked back at Aly, only to find the eerie figure from the window now standing in Aly's place. The moment Ni focused on it, the creatures face began to change. Its ashy flesh withered and tore as it detached from muscle and bone, exposing the decayed remains of a corpse. Ni grimaced, but no sooner than the last scrap of flesh fell to the ground, the creature lunged forward with her bony arms outstretched...

The same dream came to Niandra nearly every night... for days. She was exhausted and running out of excuses as to why she couldn't sleep. Ericnox had been watching her closely, questioning her odd behavior, she never could hide anything from him, but she remained tight-lipped. It wasn't until the creature actually grabbed her during the nightmare that Ni would finally break. The creature was wearing her down, and Ni knew what would come next.

Ericnox needed to be apprised of the situation... before it was too late.

 

[Ericnox]

When all of this was happening, Ericnox was doing his best to investigate. When it came to things magical, for the most part, he was out of his depth. If it was magic, and it had a living body? Oh yeah, he could kill the sins right out of it. If it was something else that was magical, that was a different story altogether. Still, it was a matter of simply looking at the nature of the bodies. Ericnox had long been a soldier in the field, he had done so most of his life at this point, so really... It was a matter of looking them over and seeing what he could learn with each one.

Each body was different in terms of age, background, and standing, but all had died in the same way, in the same wing, only a short time apart. If he was perfectly honest with himself, he felt that something was out of place here, that something simply was not right. The West Wing always had a... Feeling to it. It was rather difficult to explain. Like something was always just outside of his ability to see or understand. Something always seemed to whisper in a way he couldn't quite understand. It was like listening to a distant war cry, but of a language you didn't know.

Still, he had to try. He was the one who moved the bodies out when they where discovered. In order to minimize the chances of any kind of infection. While he was one of the youngest people there, Eric had a hardy body. Human biology had some advantages after all, and he made use of them. With each body removed, he would examine them on his own, but it was the same as the doctors. No signs of attack, no signs of poisons (as those would leave marking on the body or discoloration), and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. With each one, he would preform a simple ritual when it was over, one to cleanse himself on the spiritual level, the other to clean himself physically.

Then would tend to his beloved and his child. Ni was getting... Restless. She was not sleeping well, she made various excuses, trying to throw him off in order to not make him worry, but... Well, this was not helping things at all. The more she rebuffed him, the more he started to worry. He rarely slept on the bed, instead sleeping with his back against it, while sitting upon the floor... And this most recent night, Ni sat up with a start... Something was very, very wrong.