Aiedai Nasazura's Story

The air in the Monastery Library stirred. Dust lifted from the tomes upon a shelf against one of the room's walls as the ancient wood creaked into motion. A bright glow emanated from the cracks between the books as long dormant runes made their magic known. The bookcase rotated aside to reveal a swirling portal in the wall behind it, a doorway surrounded by dozens of glowing protective runes.

A lone figure stepped out of the portal, long white hair falling down from a red hood. She lifted her silvery eyes to gaze upon the room, flexing pale fingers. Something dark had taken up residence within these halls, she could sense it.

The graceful figure of Aiedai Nasazura stepped lightly away from the portal even as the bookcase swung closed behind her and the light faded. The protective wards that had stood against constant assault for the duration of a war resumed their vigil.

The girl drifted towards the staircase down towards the main monastery, red cloak trailing behind her.

Down the steps the beautiful girl trod, seeking the source of the corruption. Her pale skin seemed almost luminescent in the light that broke through the windows in the wall on the way down.

Aiedai stepped out into the main Monastery, lifting her hands to gently lower her hood and bare her face to the world. The spirits within her stirred, anticipating danger as she moved without fear into the open, away from the stairwell.

"What evil taints this place?" her voice echoed throughout the chamber and those beyond, resonating throughout the entire monastery as a challenge. "Who would defile the resting place of she who saved this realm from the void through her sacrifice?"

There was a depth to Aiedai's voice that was unnerving to the ears. Though it was unmistakably the voice of a teenage girl, the whispering hint of other voices fell with every word - old, powerful voices.

"Make yourself known to me, defilers - this is not your place, nor shall it ever be."

A swirling mass of shadow materialized from the darkest corner of the room. The figure was clad in a tattered cloak blacker than the darkest night, and a hood shrouded his face in the same darkness, revealing two ghostly gray eyes that eyed the woman before him. There was an air of authority around him - of charisma and confidence.

Overall, the figure projected an air of friendliness, serenity, and peace. The darkness that shrouded him was like a swaddling blanket.

"Hello... Aiedai." the man said softly. His voice was calming yet invoking, like spiced honey. "My name is Baelin Alshadow. I lead a humble order of monks that have taken residence here from the exasperating persecutions of the outside world. How may I be of service to you?"

"Do you really think to deceive me?" Aiedai challenged, narrowing her eyes. "You defile this place with your abominable rituals - I will not suffer an order of cultists bent on human sacrifice upon the burial grounds of heroes. Do not think that I have not seen."

She gestured commandingly towards the exit, "You will leave, and you will not return. Find somewhere else to conduct your dark rituals and perhaps I will spare you the alternative."

Baelin seemed unfazed by the woman's rantings. He could feel her irritation however - her anger and rage. It strengthened and empowered him.

"We are merely souls that seek enlightenment through delving into the darkness - the origin of all things. My brothers, sisters, and I come here to meditate on the boundless eternity of the Abyss and to be swallowed in its everlasting shadow. Our god has commanded us to establish this place as our holy sanctuary.

"I truly apologize, but we cannot leave. The altar that has been erected in the name of our god requires constant attention - and fuel. If it grows hungry, its divine power may overflow and destroy this region."

Aiedai smirked, a low chuckle coming from her face. "You needn't worry about that," she said, "I learned everything I know from someone who led a war against a dark god. And won."

The young girl spread her arms, beginning to radiate bright light, "You will leave, the altar will be cleansed, and sanctity will be restored here. You were warned."

As Aiedai spoke, her voice distorted further, to the point where the echoing resonance of multiple voices drowned hers out as she spoke. "Leave!" she demanded, her voice at once commandingly powerful and serenely tempered.

As the light radiated from her, the prophet stood straighter and glared down at the woman. His shadow crept across the floor and walls, draping them in a pure darkness. It was darker than the blackest night, more sinister than the deepest cave, and deeper than the longest trench. This was a living darkness formed in the lowest depths of the Abyss - the purest of all darkness.

"Ignorant woman!" he pointed a gloved finger accusingly at her. "It is we who have cleansed this place of its foul pagan symbols. It is we who have cleansed this place of the poisonous accursed light!"

The shadows drifted forward towards the light like long slender fingers. In the shape of ethereal tendrils, the darkness stretched out and seeped into the light. Slowly but surely the living darkness devoured the light.

"BEGONE HEATHEN!" thundered the head cultist as the writhing swirling mass of darkness slid across the floor to the woman like ravenous black sludge. His voice echoed through the shadows. The man's robes ignited in flames as his being was consumed by fiery rage towards the pagan. "This place has been claimed and cleansed by the God of Gods, the Master of the All Consuming Darkness, and the Unweaver of Existence! You have no authority here! Begone!"

Aiedai narrowed her eyes, the amulet around her neck lighting up and beginning to glow brightly. "By the line of Sylvire Nasazura and the Light-given authority of the Patronus, you will not take this Monastery nor will you take me." she replied, the echoing voices of the spirits within her adding a chorus of strength to her words. As the darkness approached, the starry shape of a rearing stallion took form behind her, radiating light.

The brightness burst from her like an explosion, ancient astral power meeting the creeping shadow and driving it before it. "Your god cannot help you," she intoned, "There are greater powers who would take issue should he directly intervene, and I fear no avatar."

The young girl smiled faintly, spreading her palms and unleashing torrents of burning, cleansing white spiritual flame towards what had once been Baelin. Even if his physical form did not exist, the flames held the potential to sear an ethereal or otherwise spiritual target. "I carry not only the strength of the line of Nasazura with me," Aiedai said, "But the very fury of the stars. You would be unwise to challenge me."

The writhing darkness surrounding the prophet lurched at the sudden explosion of light. Instead of shrinking away in terror, however, the mass stretched towards the light like roots guzzling water from a pure mountain spring. The darkness writhed as it devoured the feast before it. Baelin cackled with a sinister laugh.

"Naive fool..." his voice echoed as his body dematerialized into the shadows. Plastered against the wall, his two-dimensional silhouette completely evaded her psychic grip. "You contend with the All Consuming Darkness - a force born to feed on Existence itself!" the man continued to laugh as the darkness took on a life of its own, acting independent from the cultist's will, and attempted to choke out the light before it by swallowing it hole. Like a tidal wave it soared to the ceiling and cascaded to all sides, forming a cage around the woman and her steed.

"My faith is unwavering... My dark hatred and fiery rage eternal! None can withstand the mighty power of the Unweaver of Existence, the Ender of All Things, the Destroyer of Reality!"

The light burned strong through the darkness as Aiedai stood, unmoved. Her cloak fluttered about her ankles with the rush of power ebbing and flowing around her. "We can." were the only words she uttered, eyes entirely swallowed by a silvery glow now. No longer were the star spirits that inhabited her in the background, now they spoke through her.

"You are not your god. You have his arm, his granted strength, but we are the stars. We can see every last trickle of power, of god-granted strength in your being, and we deny you."

Aiedai's mind spread outwards like a wave, seeking Baelin's consciousness within the darkness. When it found him, physical form or nay, it would collapse in with the weight of billions of years. Her psychic powers sought to rend everything that the man was and shatter him to the point where he could no longer funnel his gods powers, to leave him dead in all but body - mindless.

As the flood of cosmic power surged through the room against the prophet, the darkness quivered and receded. There was simply too much for so little to devour. It continued to fight against the energy, consuming and erasing what it could from existence. They slowly gave way and revealed the silhouette of the prophet, who lifted his hands to shield his eyes from the penetrating light.

The power pressed against him, but he did not falter. It divided like the Red Sea around his form. Draped across the prophet was an otherworldly aura that superseded both space and time. A shield, crafted from a timeless and impregnable power that transcended Existence and the Void that preceded it, enveloped Baelin and protected him from the onslaught.

"If you are the stars..." Baelin finally spoke, straightening himself within the aura that gave him sanctuary against the cosmic maelstrom. "Then you above all have reason to fear my god. His existence spans beyond time, beyond a thousand cycles of this temporary Multiverse, beyond the Void wher all things are formed! Now begone, heathen, for you stand against powers beyond your comprehension! You stand against the chosen instrument of the Beginning and End - the Alpha and the Omega!"

"Your god is not here." Aiedai stated, "Perhaps we would have reason to fear him, but not you. You are a messenger, a prophet. You recite tired and old promises that are nothing to us. When your god walks this realm, then you may preach to us. Until then, we have no interest."

Aiedai's mind sought to not to break through Baelin's protective aura, leaving it untouched even as the cosmic powers swirled around it. She searched inwards, for the part of Baelin that was human, the part that supported his god's powers, to bring to bear the overwhelming presence of the spirits on his mind and crush it like a bug in an effort to leave him too braindead to wield his god-given strength. A prophet was only as strong as the weakest part of him - the man he had been before.

The spirits had claimed their host young for that reason. In merging fully with an undeveloped child, they had been able to forge her into a being strong enough to carry them and wield their power to its full potential. Human she might once have been, but no longer. She was as much a celestial entity as they, now.

"He is always here..." he groaned. "He is within every shadow, every soul, every heart and every mind. He is your passion, your hate, your sorrow and suffering, and your rage. He is the Beast Within. He is us, and we are One."

When Aiedai attempted to delve into the prophet's being, she was greeted by a maddening silence, a pure everlasting darkness, and an unblemished void. It surrounded her like a placid sea of Nothingness. In truth, Baelin was little more than a construct, crafted from the purest of dark energies and patterned after the shattered and tortured shell of a forgotten and nameless soul. However, it was a construct crafted to be a vessel and conduit of great power - the power to warp minds and win hearts... The power of a cosmic being that existed beyond the Multiverse and its incarnations.

Then a Voice ruptured the silence. The voice echoed with unnumbered and countless souls writhing in eternal agony beyond the scope of Existence. Behind the Voice was a supreme authority and iron will that could shatter worlds and gods with a mere thought. With an amused irritation, it chuckled darkly at the nonentity that had the misfortune of crossing its path.

The dark void churned and gave way to reveal a massive crystalline ice shard that pierced through reality itself. From within, a dark shape shimmered at the being's approach. Large weathered wings, black as night, flexed open. A powerful weight pressed upon Aiedai's shoulders as a gaze that was immeasurably ancient, terrifyingly powerful, and darker than the deepest trench of the Abyss glared at her with sadistic amusement.

"State your name, temporary nonentity, and why you have placed yourself against my servant." he spoke with a voice that rattled the foundation of Existence.

Aiedai's mental representation was substantially different to her physical one. Rather than appearing as a mere girl, the true formation of her mind was shown - girl, dragon, phoenix, lion and horse, all entwined together in one starry spirit. As a mere psychic projection, pulled into this visual representation of Baelin's mind by the entity's machinations, she did not fully exist within it, instead seeming foggy and insubstantial. "Our names are unimportant. Your servant chose his base of operations poorly, and came to our attention. We deemed him an intolerable presence and act to remove him." she projected back at the being that presented itself to her. She seemed unfettered by the visage before her, unthreatened.

"You will find that there is far more standing in your path than us. We interfere with your mortal construct for that is within our reach, for we can remove him. We are not gods, we make no claim to command the power necessary to face you should you reach our realm." She paused, gesturing around, "But this is not our realm, it is what qualifies as the mind of your servant. And you have more barriers than mere immortals to pass through before you have hope of taking the realm of man for your own. You are not the only god, and there are rules even for you."

She spread her arms, the four animalistic representations of the stars within her rising, "So do as you will, removing this extension of us will not harm us. Your full power cannot be brought to bear against us through your mortal construct, and we are confident we can overcome him."

It was in the dead of night that what appeared at first glance to be a star detached itself from the sky and flew for the Temple. Upon a steed of silvery, twinkling lights a pale young woman descended towards the temple like a spirit. The night sky was unusually clear, a brief calm between the storms that had assailed the peaks for the last several weeks. She was quickly spotted by the various watchers of the Temple, but she was recognised by most, and no shouts of challenge went out.

Upon her horse formed of stars, she descended outside the temple like something out of a dream. Slightly ethereal white robes flowed around her form as though she were underwater. She glowed in the dark of the night in her own right, dismounting from the celestial steed gracefully and touching down on the stone like a feather. She spared a few moments to brush a hand over the neck of the stallion, whispering to it softly, before it faded, joining with her and disappearing from view.

She turned, then, to assail the steps of the temple. The amulet around her neck stirred as though touched by something nearby that it yearned for. No words passed between her and the guards, but they let her pass into the building unhindered.

The luminescent figure of the young woman passed into the grand chamber that was the Vestibule, footsteps barely making a sound as she made her way through its pillars and statues, across the hall.

Her silvery eyes rested on a tall, prominent statue of a robed elven woman carrying a staff, pictured in a pose of heroic defiance. The amulet stirred further.

She reluctantly passed away from the statue of Sylvire, making her way further in to pause hesitantly outside a locked and barred door. It quickly became apparent to her it was all-but impassable.