Fable - Ask The Graveyard that was Vel Janix

[Chasmine]

The Ruins of Vel Janix

It was a wasteland. There was no kinder way to describe what had become of Vel Janix. Not a single structure of the once thriving city remained. Not a single living thing walked what had once been its busy streets. Wood and stone blackened by fire, flattened by the hoard of countless goblins, orcs, ogres, and giants, was all that now remain. The church tower had once stood as a beacon on the road, calling weary travelers and traders in by day and lighting the path with constant torches by night.

The only reason anyone might be able to find Vel Janix now was by sheer dumb luck, memory, or the lonely sign still bearing its name several miles down the road that somehow escape the holocaust.

She'd attached herself to the golden brooch pinned to Junius' cloak, the latest in fashion among the upper echelons of society no doubt. Haunted accessories - carry your dead comrade with you wherever you go and look amazing while doing so. It didn't help that the brooch did look rather fetching on the boy, glinting golden like his hair in the sun. A far better fit for Junius than it would have been for Edric, who had been tasked to join them on this mission as an extra set of eyes and hands.

And an extra means of death should they find Vel Janix not so abandoned.

Edric also had personal familiarity with the city and what had happened here.

He was to take the two of them to the center of the battle, where the majority of the chaos, death, and destruction had occurred. It would be his memory that would serve Chasmine the best in accomplishing what she had set out here to do.

Edric Junius Alfort

 

[Edric]

Edric walked without much of a word about anything.

He had figured that most of this journey was less about him, and more about the others. The only reason he had gone along at all was because of Chasmine. Despite what...might have happened, he figured that he owed her one for what she'd told him.

Truth was Edric still wasn't entirely sure how to...deal with any of that, but he knew that Chasmine had been honest. There was something within him, some small voice in the back of his head, that told him he'd not told him a lie.

As much as he might have wanted to deny it.

In his heart he knew it was true though, and thus in his mind a small debt had been created.

That was why he had come along. There were no missions with Gilram, not really, but Edric was here all the same. As strange as it was to walk again in this graveyard. His mind still able to pull the very vivid memories of what had happened here.

Of what he'd done.

Goosebumps drew over his flesh as they walked among the ruins, his lips pressing to a thin line.

 

[Junius Alfort]

Vel Janix, a place Junius hadn’t personally been to, though he had heard of it. When Junius fought, he was rarely in visual range of more than a few enemies and Vel Janix had been the site of a place where a rather large group of enemies had showed up his colleagues quite badly. He was not so vain that he thought he could have turned the tide by being here. The ruins of the once thriving city painted a bleak picture, a picture reflected in its stark cruelty across the lands held by Vel Anir, one that showed that the Republic was hardly holding onto many portions of what the monarchy once held in an iron grip.

Oh well, that rarely mattered to Junius nowadays. He had thrown himself into research; research on Chas, research on his puppets, and other subjects that interested him. Performing tasks for Gilram was the only distraction that took up his time. Now here he was, with Chas attached to a particularly stylish brooch that they had acquired from an overly generous young nobleman. The cloak it was holding was probably the nicest travel cloak Junius had ever worn. He did try to dress stylishly at least sometimes, though this occasion didn’t exactly warrant it, the brooch certainly did. The cloak made the brooch appear far less out of place.

After a long day of travel, they all walked down the cold, dark main street of the once bustling town as the sun was slowly sinking towards the western horizon. Junius favorite puppet, Vanir, walked noiselessly beside them under the invisible command of its master’s threads, the insulated joints and armor providing defense against those listening for clanking armor and the massive great sword strapped to its back providing offense. Vanir had been a proctor at the academy who had been particularly fond of heaping abuse on Junius. The boy had been sure to take Vanir with him when he left during the revolution, though in a much different form.

He stopped in the middle of the road, turning to Edric, whom he really did not dislike, nor did he mind him tagging along, especially in a mission like this where anyone they meet could be killed off with no repercussions. “So, where do we go from here Edric, Chas?”

Edric Chasmine

 

[Chasmine]

With an outward sigh the coldness attached to the brooch sifted away, relieving Junius' sternum of the frigid presence he'd dealt with the entire ride here. Between the two, a shape shimmered into view, but only just. Like an errant mass of fog that lost its way during daybreak and decided to linger, it hovered between the two young men, formless and hazey.

For some time a silence hung in the air following Junius' question, as if the brief moment could offer something to the miasma of death that clung to the fabric of the city's ashes. From her point of view, Chasmine could see the skeletal structures of every building - spiderwebbed across her vision within the spirit realm. Lost and gone from the living, but unforgotten as of yet among the dead. There were spirits everywhere, clinging to the carnage of their last memories.

Fear and anger permeated the air.

Chasmine's haze shivered from it then seemed to shift as if recognizing Edric and the pain that tied him to this place still.

"Edric," her voice said gently, "will you lead us to the battlefield?"

 

[Edric]

Some might have thought that Edric's silence was born of reflection, introspection into what had happened here.

But Edric was simply waiting for Chasmine to speak up.

There was no doubting he had made many mistakes in his life. No doubting that he was as vicious as half a dozen reviled Dreadlords both living and dead. There had been many mistakes, and there would be many to come, he was sure.

Vel Janix wasn't one of them.

He had fought, and died here. He had done everything possible to slow the coming tide of the horde.

There was not an ounce of shame for him, not even if they had technically lost. "Sure."

Edric said, and then slowly turned on his heel. He knew exactly where the battlefield was, having spent hours buried beneath corpses there. Leading the other two quickly through the ruins of Vel Janix, the three exiles found themselves walking through the scorched ruins of the gates.

Once through Edric gestured forward, not sure what else to say.

 

[Junius Alfort]

Having not been a part of the battle himself, Junius whistled as they stepped through the gates into the ruins of what once had been Vel Janix. “Well this raid was certainly thorough. Your resilience is impressive and fascinating as usual, Edric, to have survived this one. I can see many did not, though.” Junius was of a similar practical mindset to Edric, losing battles was part of war, provided you didn’t lose the only battle that mattered, the battle to stay alive.

A tavern sign held up by rusting chain links squeaked in the wind, hanging suspended on a pole next to a ruined building. Several houses lay decimated, the stone portions the only thing left standing. Wood, stone, and human remains lay scattered all over the ground, no one had even been left to bury the dead anyway. Sadly, they were skeletal at this point, meaning they were of no use to him, and impossible to identify at a glance. He uttered a quiet phrase and the ruby pendant around his neck began to glow, an inky black smoke pouring out of it, slowly forming into the shape of a body.

As the smoke dissipated, the form of one of his puppets revealed itself. Junius called it Jasper, and that had been the name that it had went by in life. Jasper had been one of his tormentors at the academy. Right before the graduation exam, Jasper had cornered him one night intending to do away with him before Junius had surprised him with several daggers he had been controlling remotely. He had turned Jasper’s empty shell into one of his first puppets. It had been somewhat unnerving to several of his exiled colleagues when they had first seen their former classmate as a puppet.

Speaking an incantation, and moving up behind Jasper, a soft, dim red light emanated from them as he phased into the puppet. It was the ultimate form of puppet magic which he used for situations where he could not control his creations from a distance, since he was weak physically compared to most Dreadlords. Junius could only hold this form for a few hours before he was required to sleep a full night and regain his strength since it was a taxing spell. The now Jasper-Junius worked his arms and legs before turning towards the other two. “Well, Chas, Edirc, shall we continue?” The voice, unnervingly, was no longer that of Junius but that of the now deceased Jasper. Junius kept many physical traits during the conversion process.

 

[Chasmine]

Edric had always been one of few words and Chasmine did not and had not ever minded this trait of his. He spoke only the things he felt were worth the effort, or so she believed. Which had always struck her as curious when thinking back to the things he'd said to her at the Academy dance. Why he had found such things worth the effort to say baffled her, though they no longer stung in the way they had that very night.

She followed his lead through the detritus of the city, feeling the wax and wane of spiritual energies as they walked through the countless many that still clung to this place. Their presence beget a feeling of solemnity in the geist, broken only but the curiosity of Junius and his puppets. First Vanir, and now through his magic that of ... someone she was only peripherally familiar with from the Academy.

As they came to settle between the decimated gates that had held against the onslaught during battle, Chasmine could feel a swell of ethereal power from the field ahead. The hillside was still littered with untold dead: ogres, goblins, humans, and otherwise. Too many souls flooded the area, too much residual emotion, it was a fog so thick she could not see through it as she was. For her to find the centerpoint of what she felt here, she needed more clarity. Needed to see what had happened here first hand.

"Junius," said the haze of her presence, now slowly building visual shape as the young woman that was Chasmine Grey, "I sense somewhere near the precipice of the hillside there is an artifact with spiritual domain. It is not of human origins. Will you look for it, please?"

Then the ghost turned to look up at Edric, "Edric there is something I believe you can help me with but it involves something I have not tried before."

"When I take possession of a living person, I am given access to their most recent memories of the last few hours to a day. I would like to try and merge spiritually with you, while you recall the memories of this battle in your mind. This should grant me access to what you saw and experienced that day, so I can understand the source of the spiritual nexus here."

 

[Edric]

Edric stared flatly at Chasmine.

"You want to possess me?" He parroted the words, though he wasn't entirely sure that he understood the concept.

Maybe it was the fact that he wasn't entirely sure, still, what it was they were doing here. What he did know thought was that he didn't like the concept of anyone combing through his mind. Especially though he didn't like the idea of Chasmine looking.

Lips pressed into a line. "I can tell you all about this place."

He said.

"But Janix was more than just a day ago." Edric argued. "And...I don't really want you in my brain."

For more reason than one. "Can't you just like...use my description?"

 

[Junius Alfort]

Junius whistled as they came upon the hillside, which was littered with piles of desiccated corpses of all different races. Oh, how he would’ve loved to have been here when these were fresh, having had never made an ogre or an orc puppet. It would be a new challenge, a new hill for him to conquer. How similar was their anatomy compared to that of a human, he wondered? But, sadly, missed opportunities happen every day, and this was no exception.

With senses not attuned to the afterworld like Chas, Junius waited for some instruction as they neared what he thought might be their destination. "Junius," Chasmine stated as she began to coalesce into a more corporeal form, "I sense somewhere near the precipice of the hillside there is an artifact with spiritual domain. It is not of human origins. Will you look for it, please?"

He gave a playful bow, the materials that made up Jasper’s joints flexing with a slight creak. “At once, my lady, I will locate it for you.” Turning away, he frowned slightly at the thought of the joint creak. The fibrous material he crafted using a combination of magic and chemistry from wood fiber should be completely silent. Junius determined he would later take Jasper apart and tune the joints. His creations had to remain flawless, after all.

Stepping over the various corpses, large and small, he expanded his senses, trying to detect any trace of magical energy. The area was bereft of it, of course, with everyone being deceased and these common foot soldiers and civilians never received magical weapons and armor as they weren’t important enough for such things. Junius continued to search for about five minutes or so until he felt a slight twinge to his right. There, on the ground, resting on the skeletal finger of a robed individual, was an emerald ring.

Reaching down, he slowly pulled the ring off the finger, Jasper’s magically enhanced vision appraising the item.
It certainly did emanate some form of magical energy. Not being a spirit like Chasmine had its downsides, he supposed, since he was not sure if this was what she had been sensing. Returning to the group, Junius held the ring up between his thumb and index fingers for his companions to appraise. “Was this what you were looking for, Chas?”

 

[Chasmine]

"You want to possess me?"

"Yes ... and no." The concept was not entirely clear to her, either. Chasmine had only more recently begun testing out possession at Gilram's gentle nudging. If demons could do it, why couldn't she? But demonic possession was not the same as what she did or could do ... at least she didn't think it was. The learning process was more challenging than expected, namely because she didn't like possessing people to begin with.

It was an invasion of self that sat on similar grounds as sexual assault in her mind - and that concern seemed to have caught with Ed as well. The geist blinked, her head tilting in thought.

"I am not in your brain as such," she gently explained, "I cannot truly read thoughts or sift through memories. Most people as they exist at any given moment are often thinking about the things most relevant to their day ... I have only ever seen these relevant thoughts and most often they only appear to of more current events. But I believe if you were to actively recall the memories of your time here during the battle, it will help me to understand what caused the significant nexus of spiritual energy I am sensing."

Junius ... Jasper? Juniper was on his way back.

"What I am feeling has saturated these lands like an ocean and I am not able to find the origins of its current easily. But I do not wish to cause you discomfort," Chasmine's typical wistful gaze had taken on something far more somber as she moved forward to meet Juniper on his approach, "we can try your way."

The ring she gave a curious look, but she knew without having to even get close that it was not the item she could sense, "It is not," Chas replied as she inspected it where he held it up, "but it is a nice ring. Perhaps you might find use for it."

Edric Junius Alfort

 

[Edric]

Edric listened to Chasmine's words carefully.

His lips pressed to a thin line as he considered, wondering about just what Chas would be able to see, and if she did see it...would she tell Gilram? The Archon could still eviscerate him within a heartbeat. Edric was certain that the man's magic was capable of killing him, if not permanently, then at least over and over again with naught but a whim.

He cast a weary glance to Chasmine, then to Junius as he returned.

If she learned the truth it could put his life at risk, but at the same time...Chasmine was almost beloved by Gilram. Everyone knew how the man doted on her. If Edric managed to get his former classmate what she wanted then it would surely get back to the man and cement his place even further.

He weighed the options silently as Chasmine inspected the ring.

"Okay." Edric said finally. "You can do it."

The Rogue Dreadlord said, apparently ignoring everything about the ring entirely. "You can possess me."

He would just have to focus on the then and not the now. Memories from before Graduation, before Gilram. According to Chas, if he did that...then he should be alright. Hopefully.

 

[Junius Alfort]

Junius frowned as Chasmine declined the ring, stating it wasn’t what she was sensing. Oh well, at least he got a cool magic ring of an undetermined effect. Should he just put it on? It really should be examined first. It could be cursed, for all he knew. Jasper held up the ring and a strange inky black smoke began to pour out of his mouth. Since Junius was wearing the amulet and not Jasper, the spell had another body to get through to get to the object. The smoke surrounded the ring and dissipated, receding back into Jasper, and the ring was simply gone.

Junius listened to the nearby conversation with some interest. Chasmine’s abilities were always interesting, possessing people. He wasn’t fully sure of the mechanics, but Gilram had encouraged them to explore it. She hadn’t offered to possess him yet, but he wasn’t opposed to it. “Oh hey, I never expected you to agree to this, Edric. Should be interesting to learn the history of this place from your interesting perspective.” Jasper went over to a nearby half destroyed ox cart and sat down on the end, waiting expectantly for the possession to begin.

Edric Chasmine

 

[Chasmine]

The ring was a curious thing indeed and not even Chasmine could ignore the intrigue of it. Watching it wonderingly, Chasmine's gaze swam back in Edric's direction as he rather unexpectedly changed his mind. Indeed, she had not believed he would consent to the idea either and had said as much to Gilram during their discussion about the mission. Yet Edric continued to surprise.

"Very well," she replied at length of her own thoughts, took a moment to glance around their immediate surroundings, then slowly moved forward to an area not so cluttered with debris and bodies, "come," she turned to face Edric and beckoned him with a gesture of a translucent hand, "stand here in the clearing."

As he moved to do so, Chasmine looked to Junius where he now sat for the show, "Keep your distance, Junius, I have not done this before with another mage" Truthfully she had no experience in the possession of magic users and Chasmine could not help the thought that she might gain access to Edric's powers. It was not something she was intending but the possibility remained that she could accidentally activate them and ... well, Junius was rather close for comfort and she had grown to like his presence among the exiles.

"Edric," the geist had circled around him to his back and he would feel her presence there in the chill of his spine and along his skin, "close your eyes, breath slowly and deeply, try not to speak or move."

She waited a moment for him to comply and then stepped forward and into him.

The sensation would be an all-encompassing coldness that sank into his bones first and radiated outward. It was like a cold plunge and it permeated everything tangible and not - spreading like the pins and needles of a brain freeze at first. Like countless millions of bubbles of energy coalescing within his being, prickling against the confines of his mortal coil. It was as strange for her as it was for him, given the vacancy of any surviving soul of his own to have to compete with. She need only fill the void that already existed there and the very act of it would much later on give her a great deal to think about.

"Just breath slowly," Chasmine's voice hushed into his mind and the very word sent a slow and tangible flush of curious warmth throughout his body, "I must harmonize with you."

 

[Edric]

Edric glanced over his shoulder towards their third companion. "Really keep your distance."

He insisted, not because he disliked the boy or anything, just the opposite. When his magic went rampant he knew it's effects could be far reaching and often cataclysmic. There was not much life left in this accursed place, and he did not want to drain the marionette masters vitality.

His eyes slowly followed Chasmine as she circled around him. Lips pressing into a thin line as the anxiety of what was about to happen slowly began to set in. Goosebumps prickled over his flesh as she drew nearer to him, though it was not because of the cold. A breath dragged into his lungs, seizing him, and causing his fingers to furl into fists.

In an instant his eyes darted wide open, and his lips were left parted as he froze.

Words passed through his skull.

Soft.

Quiet.

Familiar. A feeling that he could barely remember. Something so distant, something...his eyes seemed to force themselves shut, his head tilting down ever so slowly. Every muscle in his collar and neck seeming to strain, as though Edric were pushing against something. "I..."

His lungs began to burn, instinct, something inside him fighting for a brief moment. Pushing and gnawing at his very being, as if desperately trying to tear him away from that familiarity.

Just...breath. Edric reminded himself, a slow breath drawing into his lungs. That frantic clawing of soulless rage flowing away. A sensation of calm reaching out and greeting him.

A tranquility befalling him. The breath dragging into his lungs like a knew life.

 

[Junius Alfort]

Junius stepped back as he was instructed to. Edric’s power was certainly not one to be trifled with and Junius had no interest in dying. He turned back towards what once was an outdoor forge. The awning-like structure that had provided shelter for it was still intact and it provided an acceptable place to wait for the ritual to finish. Junius decided to test and work on the joints of the puppet while he waited, which consisted of the puppet adjusting the various little screw like knobs that held the joints together and controlled tension.

He watched out of the corner of his eye as both of his travelling companions began to synchronize their breathing. Junius had never seen Chas possess someone in a way that wasn’t aggressive for forced. This would be interesting.

 

[Chasmine]

For several long moments there was silence and only the rhythm of Edric's breathing in tune to the slow beat of his heart. The frisson of spiritual energy within peaked briefly like a high tide as it filled every extent of his being. The surge reached its limit and then like a sigh began to settle deeply and fully into his core. Chasmine drifted there another breath longer until Edric's lungs were her own, his heart her own, his mind her own - possession only in the overlap of perception.

Edric would feel his fingers move first as Chasmine gently touched thumb tip to the tip of each other finger on his hand. They curled next until each finger pressed against the inside of his palms. His weight shifted, swayed, one foot to the other. He would feel his toes grip the insoles of his boots.

Another deep breath drawn in, not necessarily of his own accord but also not against his current rhythm.

For whatever reason, the warmth of the sun and the breeze through the city felt particularly poignant to him, as if he'd not felt it in years. Then his body stilled. No further movement beyond that as Chas handed the figurative reins back to him.

"Do not be alarmed," she said in his mind, "open your eyes."

When he did so, he would see Vel Janix and even the entire world in a completely new light. As if someone had pulled lenses over his inner eye that allowed him to see the invisible and underlying essence of the spirit realm. In the same vein he could see Chasmine as an apparition, he now could view every ghostly structure of the once Vel Janix around him. Buildings that had been decimated now stood as ghostly structures like a faintly glowing web of an after-image that wove its way through the entirety of the city that had been.

Within them various shadows moved. Some large, some small. Some darker and some more akin to Chasmine. None of them were fully manifested, merely present and seemingly caught in a routine of a life they'd lead day in and out before the reckoning of them home. If he happened to look back toward Junius, he would see the boy where his own spirit sat within the body vehicle. Junius gave off a pale red glow that was distinctly different from everything else in his surroundings.

"Focus now. Think about what you remember of what happened here."

 

[Edric]

When Edric took his own breath, when he opened his own eyes, his gaze swept slowly around the graveyard. He blinked at first, as though the spirit sight would wisp away. When it did not, his head tilted, eyes flickering over the broken city.

He glanced down towards some of the weeds on the ground, noting their wilting. The slight drain upon the life around their spirit. A frown touched Edric's face, but he supposed it made sense enough. A soul didn't change his magic.

Consciously, as always, he ceased the draw. Placing a dam upon the tide.

His head shook, but he focused on what Chasmine had said.

Eyes shut once again, knowing he would find it easier to picture that way. A breath drew into his chest, and he thought about the battle, the days before, the feeling of hopelessness, the sound of the horns. Memory after memory flickered through his mind, all of them surprisingly clear, stuck in his mind.

On his leg he could almost feel the scar where he had been run through. The wound was long gone, and Edric did not scar, but sometimes, sometimes he could swear the ache was still there. He took a breath, his eyes opening as he remembered something else.

"I saw her there." He said. "For the first time in a while."

Edric noted, though didn't explain.

 

[Junius Alfort]

Junius watched in silence as the possession occurred in front of him, a moment in time passing as both Chas and Edric got used to the sensations that they were both feeling. Chas probably remembering what it was like to be alive, and Edric likely experiencing some sort of foresight or vision into the other side that Chas claimed to possess. Junius had never been possessed and he couldn’t verify either way, but this was certainly interesting to observe, as it always was, and he would make note of what Edric did for his own research.

He moved closer, listening as Edric began to speak after pausing a moment to reflect. “Who is the “she” you’re referring to, Ed?”