Tetra of The Fall

54 - Their Founder's Children

Double doors, ten feet in height and a hand's width thick pressed softly, coldly at the flesh of each palm. A cloaked figure, though without the hood, formed the subject of the doorway's mural, the romanticised inlaid carving depicting a woman of fair white skin. Curly, silvery lengths of hair trailed and twirled from her imagined scalp, extending downward, guiding the eye to the glittering silver cross clutched at her chest. Red painted nails, bold against each pale fingertip, appeared to squeeze about the cross's lowest prong. Arms thin, fingers exact and with a straight but playful expression, she displayed her faith, devotion, counterset by a characteristic 'cockiness', an overconfident attitude behind each eye. Where her ribcage would end, a lightened panel contrasted against her charcoal cloak, words in both Serennian and Sohng forming a scripture that would send shivers down my spine...

Among monsters and men, she is herself a nightmare.

At her behest, thy nations shall fall.

A spot of darkness among the glimmering light of hope.

May her wretched claws veer from your soul.

Pale as porcelaine, her heart dark as night.

Her reddened nails bear blood and bite.

A lifelike incarnation, a beastie long lost.

Aliciase Culgrim must be avoided at any cost.

At her bosom, a forgotten cross.

Deception of a nation, whole cultures now lost.

Once a charlatan, now a champion of men.

Aliciase Culgrim shan't belay again.

Her gaze in the darkness, the mist, we falter.

Her demands are simple, desires shan't alter.

I am the revenant, my hands reek of blood.

Begone nonbeliever, may you meet your god.

The gemstones inlaid in each eye appeared to gleam then, reflecting midday light to form a glaring red shine.

"Whoa!" At my side, Nihilla observed with academic glee. Propping the injured Culgrim up by the shoulder, her gaze seemed to follow each and every groove in the wood's surface, hungry eyes drifting closely, intimately at each small detail. "That's their founder, right? Aliciase?"

"Yep! The strongest Culgrim there is!" At my other side, Emirah's hands landed energetically to her hips, her eager gaze flicking to Nihilla as a palm upturned. Despite the closeness of her latest fight, she seemed perfectly able, as if the short rest we'd offered was enough to qualify for a full sleep. She is betrayed, however, by the darkened ring present at each eye. "And a terrifying lady she was... I say this with complete respect"

"Tentapus and the Porro pay respect every day!" Porro added her piece with gleaming joy, Tentapus clutched at her hand as her steps seemed to wander. Drifting far then close, she played as we took our time, the occasional spaced "Pew!" and "Ka-chew!" sounding softly amongst her foot's dampened but rhythmic thumping.