Beautiful artwork made by Randompeephere <3
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As the sun sets behind the array of mountains that hold Kilead, the group has already gathered in the Kirix Fortress with Evgenia Val'Kirix and her Court Mar, who is casting a projection on the stone wall using his Mind Magic linked to the spell he put in Lavern's mind before he and Nesosa left to where the Warrior's Test is taking place.
They see from the projection that their two absent party members have arrived at a dungeon of sorts. Some kind of old crypt that has been altered over time to have three sections, each befitting to the stages of the trials that the Warrior's Test entails.
Admittedly, they're all rather on edge about this whole test thing. But it's kinda hard to stay disheartened when they're now seeing exactly how often Lavern apparently stares at Nesosa's tits when no one is looking. It's certainly making this a bit easier to watch, as they are all now being subjected to watching Nesosa's tits. Once again, Malachi is left flustered and forcing himself to look away while everyone else watches intently.
The memory of what happened in Arkala with the whole Exer'Valan thing is still lingering in everyone's minds, making them worry about the fact that Lavern is once again in a rather dangerous position. But Nesosa is with him, and the test is focusing on her and not him, so Lavern should be fine.
They find it kind of hard to worry about Nesosa. She's always so strong in everyone's eyes that they have no doubts about her ability to get through this test unscathed.
They can't imagine how Jerair is feeling right now. As Nesosa's family, he and her brothers weren't allowed to watch as Nesosa goes through the trials. A possible layer to the test is keeping in mind that her family doesn't know if she will survive until she does. They just have to hope that she'll be alright. Though it's doubtful that Corb and Todo are all that worried.
So for now, they watch.
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The stone walls of the dank crypt have withered through the centuries, and Lavern can't help but stare at them with imminent apprehension.
"Are we sure this place is structurally stable?" he asks and has to jog to keep up with Nesosa's power walk as she speeds through this place as quickly, but also safely as possible. He also has to keep in mind that he is here to watch Nesosa, and not the walls while he ponders on the integrity of the dungeon they were tasked with running through for Nesosa's 'Warrior Test'.
Nesosa doesn't answer and keeps her eyes on the prize, which is getting the fuck out of here as soon as possible and with the fragment and their lives intact.
The walls aside, the main thought on Lavern's mind is why Nesosa chose him to come here with her for her test. It could be because he's a Cle and can avoid traps and enemies pretty easily, but he gets the feeling there might be more to it than that.
He and Nesosa have known each other for just over a year at this point, and the time wasn't exactly spent on emotionally bonding. It was spent on jobs and getting paid. He needed her help to retrieve a valuable item from a group of Latyrs on a job for the Cle'va Guild, and she was down so long as the cut was split. He may or may not have bullshit her on exactly how much was 'half', but they worked well enough together that they kept doing jobs.
But this Warrior's Test seems far more personal and not at all lucrative. It's a test that will determine what kind of person Nesosa is seen as amongst her people. He doesn't consider for a second that there might be a chance she trusts him. And honestly, he's not entirely sure if he trusts her. Not as in he's uncertain of where her priorities stand, but more of a genuine curiosity of not knowing what to make of Nesosa Val'Dernak.
But aside from being uncertain of Nesosa's intentions, he also has an uneasy feeling that makes his stomach tingle. And it's a feeling he knows rather well but never likes. "Do you get the feeling we're being watched?" he asks and glances back over his shoulder only to see that nothing is behind him other than the cobweb-addled hallway.
Nesosa sighs and keeps her attention forward. "Lav, we are bein' watched. Through yer eyes," she deadpans and keeps marching onward.
He may have let that slip his mind for a moment, but even with that thought to reassure him, the feeling doesn't go away. As a Cle, knowing when he's being watched is almost like a sixth sense. He's learned to always trust his instinct above all else, so he doesn't let himself drop it completely from his mind.
He suddenly walks into her arm which snaps him out of his thoughts to see that she has halted at the edge of a nearly pitch-black room. Nesosa scans her eyes over the room but isn't able to make out much of anything.
Lavern isn't entirely sure what counts as 'assisting' for this test. He was specifically told to watch and observe - nothing more. So despite he himself being able to see just fine due to his werewolf sight, he has to simply stand and watch her do this on her own.
Nesosa contemplates how to go about this. The room is certainly larger than the others they have passed, otherwise the light from the dimly glowing torch sconces would bounce off of the walls from the other side of the room from where they're standing.
With the option of sight off the table, Nesosa closes her eyes and cautiously begins to walk forward, being careful of each step. If she feels a stone on the ground that seems slightly out of place, she makes sure to avoid stepping on it. If there's a string strung across the ground around the height of her ankles, she lifts her hooves to step higher. But oddly enough, she doesn't feel any pressure plates or tripwires.
She stops once she hears what might have been movement. The thought that it could have been Lavern doesn't even cross her mind. Another perk of bringing a Cle for something like this is that if she happens to hear something, she knows damn well it wasn't him.
Instead of turning her face towards the sound, she turns her head so her ear is directed to where she thinks it came from. It came from her immediate right. It didn't sound terribly close though, and there may have been a slight echo, so that gives her another hint of exactly how big this room might be.
She hears the movement again, and grimaces as it sounds rather... fleshy. And not in a good way. There's an odd rattling that sounds like bones, then a ringing noise that is unmistakably the sound of magic being cast in some way.
Through the blackness, she sees orange specks of light swirl up around a shadowy figure, then a few more to follow. They raise the figures up off the ground, bringing them to stand on their feet. But as she peers closer, she sees that the silhouettes resemble the shape of centaurs. Four to be precise. Two larger ones and two smaller.
Lavern also watches what's happening with something between fear and curiosity. With his ability to see in the dark, he can see the malformed flesh constructs make up what has the shape of centaurs but not the appearance. Like pieces of flesh woven together to make what an approximation of a centaur would look like. In summary, they are basically very poorly taxidermied centaurs.
But Nesosa is unable to see exactly what they look like. To her, they are just clouded silhouettes. She slowly approaches, her mind instantly piecing together who these figures are supposed to be. Two larger and two smaller. All of them with what are seemingly male builds. Her family.
She knows they aren't real, but a haze crosses over her mind and makes her believe they are in the moment. That everything in front of her is real in this moment. She stops herself from approaching them as she suddenly feels guilt in her heart that twists her stomach into knots, which she instantly wants to quell by doing what she always does and killing the first thing in sight.
But all she can see is what her mind wants her to believe is her family, and Lavern who is a few feet behind her and watching from the dimly-lit hall.
She shoves the feeling aside to the best of her ability and instead of trying to get rid of it, she questions what made her feel this guilt in the first place. She isn't guilty for anything involving her family. At least, she doesn't think she is.
She resumes slowly walking towards them, but the closer she gets, they begin to move. They turn their backs on her and she starts moving a little faster to get over to them but before she can, they suddenly vanish into the darkness in a burst of orange light that spirals around the entire room, finally letting her somewhat see that this room is dome-shaped and has a few pillars around the center of it.
But the haze comes over her again, when she realizes that this isn't the room she's in. Looking past the stone walls, she sees that sitting behind them in rows are more shadowed figures, sitting in the stands and watching the show.
She's in Arkala. The Exer'Valan arena.
Lavern sees that the illusions in the stands are now perhaps even more disturbing than the centaurs were. Now they are poorly taxidermied people. Humans and Adaliaens. This may be a test of Nesosa's courage, but he feels about ready to haul ass out of here.
Nesosa stands a bit off to the side from the center of the illusionary arena. In the center is another shadowed figure coming to form. It's still just a silhouette, but she can already tell what's going on and who this is. This shade is an apparition of Anahella Dev'Alrich.
And when Nesosa turns her head towards the floor of the arena a few feet away from Ana, she sees another silhouetted illusion that's laying on the ground. Lavern. He's still breathing, so he hasn't been killed by his sister yet. But she knows what's coming up.
Lavern feels sick once he pieces together what he's watching. Seeing himself and his now-dead sister be portrayed as fleshy meat puppets in this morbid display makes him strangely wish he had gotten stuck babysitting Nesosa's brothers.
Nesosa watches as the shade of Ana starts to slowly approach Lavern where he lays unconscious on the stone floor. She instantly draws her greatsword and charges at the shadow of the girl.
As she makes contact, the figure merely fades out for a moment to let Nesosa phase through it before putting itself back together and continuing to approach Lavern as if nothing had happened.
Nesosa feels her rage boiling so she takes a swing towards the figure, but again her blade simply passes straight through it like air. She makes a few more attempts, desperation quickly setting into her heart and it's not long before her rage turns into nothing short of raw fear. Fear of not knowing what she should do.
No. This is a memory, so it's not what she should do. But instead, what she should have done.
But was too afraid to do it.
Hoping to not be completely fucking this up for herself, she forces herself to throw her greatsword to the side and gallop towards the scene again. Only this time instead of running at Ana, she runs to Lavern.
She can't interact with the shades in any physical way, so she can't grab him and run. So, she does the only thing she can and positions herself between them, throwing her arms out at her sides to block the illusion of Lavern from the lightning strike that she remembers comes next in the memory.
She closes her eyes and holds her breath as she waits to be struck down. Her heart beats violently in her chest and her hands are shaking. She waits, but the lightning never comes.
Cautiously, she opens one eye first to check if the shade is still there before opening the other once she sees that it's gone. Glancing back, the illusion of Lavern has vanished as well and the room falls into darkness again.
The walls of the room suddenly light up with flames on the torch sconces, now illuminating the room as all the others had been before. As though this were just another normal-ass room that hadn't just assaulted Nesosa in the feelings with angry meat puppets.
Across the room from the hall is a large door that is etched with runes that dimly glow a faint orange light. Nesosa looks back towards the hall to see Lavern sitting on the ground with wide eyes that stare blankly at the stone floor. He's not crying, but he's rocking himself back and forth like a kid who got jump-scared in a haunted house. He somehow seems more mortified by the experience than Nesosa does.
But maybe it's a different kind of fear.
She walks over to him and offers her hand. He shakily looks up at her and sees the confidence on her face. She may be feigning it, but he doesn't bother stopping to try reading her as he takes her hand and lets her help him up.
After giving him a moment to pull himself together, the two make their way over to the large door and Nesosa leans forward to examine it. The runes are in the language of centaurs. She's damn well not very well-versed in her own people's language, but she knows enough.
The runes read; 'What is your greatest fear?"
Nesosa sighs and looks down before she glances over to see Lavern retrieve her greatsword, then he immediately drops it as he remembers that he's not supposed to help and he just stands next to it and watches her anxiously.
She closes her eyes and lowers her head.
"...Selflessness," she utters.
The dim orange runes on the door blink and then flash white. The door rumbles, shaking dust and rubble loose from the walls and ceiling around it, and the door slides open in three panels, revealing another torch-lit hallway that leads deeper into the crypt.
She passed the first trial.
Lavern groans as he walks over, glaring at the next hall with a huff. "Yay... Now we can go deal with the next extremely pleasant thing this dungeon has to offer..." he mumbles.
Nesosa takes a deep breath and walks over to her greatsword. She grabs the leather grip of the handle and as she lifts it, it suddenly feels heavier than it ever has before. The weight is not only in the sword, but also in her heart. She just stares at the blade and it surprises her how bright the silver still shines.
In the end, blood always cleans off with a bit of polish.