The North Sea

[+Ark1002]

Araha felt something in her mind break, seeing Damaya like this. "No, no Damaya." She walked up to her, grabbing her friend's hand, looking in her eye. Making sure of it. "If we have to kill him, we can, and I will support you. But I think there is another way." She grinned, weakly. "Please, you know I wouldn't hurt you. betray you. I am your friend." She held out her arms, as if for a hug. "Remember?"

@Sorana

[+Sorana she/her]

Damaya nodded, smiled at Araha, tightening her grip on her friends hand.
"What is your plan? We don't have much time. I won't allow him to kill the two small islands."
She didn't hug her, made an excusing gesture towards her staff and Rotcennoc. They could hug later.

@#Voidapple

Edited January 28, 2019 by Sorana

[xinoehp512 he/him]

Nogard pulled the power along the connection, feeling it filling him. With a start, he realized that the gemheart in her hands was full of untapped power. He reached out and began to pull on that through her. Taking the power, he pushed out and formed a connection with Rotcennoc.

Silver light flashed across the cavern.

~~~~~~~

Rotcennoc felt the attack, unexpected and devastating. He struggled, trying to turn his weave on his attacker, but he was too slow. The weave backfired on him, draining his energy until he had almost nothing left. He staggered, falling to the floor. "No..." he whispered.

~~~~~~~

High above, Kate felt herself begin to succumb to the call of the island.

[+Sorana she/her]

On 28.1.2019 at 6:16 PM, xinoehp512 said:

With a start, he realized that the gemheart in her hands was full of untapped power. He reached out and began to pull on that through her.

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She wasn't holding it in her hands, and if I remember right the gemheart was destroyed? But it doesn't really matter, as the little island is still there and I guess you need the island for it to work, not neccessarily the gemheart.

Damaya walked over to Rotcennoc, ready to use her staff should he try anything, again careful as to not disturb Nogard's line of sight.
"Stop it. Whatever you are doing stop it right now."

[+Ark1002]

Araha quickly switched into battle mode. Damaya was right. Ran, in shardform, followed, glaring at the man. "I won't kill you unless I have to. But if I have to..."

@xinoehp512

[xinoehp512 he/him]

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He didn't destroy the gemheart, only the soul inside. And, in fact, not even that, since it had bonded to you.

Did she drop it? I don't remember that part.

Rotcennoc began to chuckle. Gradually he began to laugh harder, a bitter crazed sound. Nogard glanced at him uneasily. Rotcennoc didn't even have a weapon; he was no match for three Radiants. Wasn't he?

The man stopped abruptly, still kneeling, chest heaving as he panted for breath. "You fool." He jerked suddenly, glove flashing weakly for a brief second. "You have no idea what you've done, do you?" He tried to pull himself to his feet, but failed, collapsing to his knees again.

With alarm, Nogard noticed that the irises of his eyes had turned a deep black. Even deeper, somehow, than the pupil it surrounded. Nogard felt uneasy. What did that mean? 

Whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

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I just realized. I have two more posts before my 666th. This next post is going to be long. So.

@#Voidapple @Sorana @Archer

Edited January 30, 2019 by xinoehp512

[+Ark1002]

Araha looked at him, alarmed. "Damaya? Nogard? Do you know what's going on?"

@Sorana @xinoehp512

[+Sorana she/her]

"No. But I am in favour of tying him up and putting someting over his eyes and mouth. So far he always gestured when he used investiture."

She leaned down and pulled of his glove.

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No she stuffed the gemheart into her bodice to have both hands free for her staff.

 

[xinoehp512 he/him]

Rotcennoc knelt on the ground. He saw darkness begin to spread throughout the glove, unstoppable now that he was no longer keeping it in check.

He felt the power bearing down on him, an oppressive force that sought to break his soul, consuming and destroying him utterly, killing him beyond any hope of resurrection.

He knew that power well.

Even before he'd killed his first island, he'd felt it, a hidden shadow in the heart of his home, so different from the connections he saw from people to other people or the island. He didn't know then what it was; he could barely even sense it in the energy that composed the majority of the island's power. He'd been far more interested at first in the connecting power, childishly shunning the other as "evil". During his Initiation, he had worked up the courage to ask the island how he might control the power, entranced by the possibility that the ability would grant. Dezino had declined to answer the question, saying he was too young, but suggested that one day, perhaps, an answer could be given. Rotcennoc had left the cave less than satisfied, but there was nothing he could do but wait.

So he waited.

Three years had passed by in what seemed like a flash, now. He had hunted, and fished, and helped build, and many other things. He had been good at them, too; although he wasn’t quite as strong as the others physically, none could match him in intellect. This quality earned him the respect -but not the friendship- of his peers.

Then, one day a small boat had landed.

Many moments after that had been pivotal. He marked this one, though, as the one that had shifted his path, changing it from what it had been to what it had become. Many times after the fact he had wondered what would have happened if things had been just a tiny bit different.

What If the boat had never landed?

What if, instead, the young woman on the boat and her infant brother had fallen prey to those who had hunted them?

Or drowned in the sea before reaching their island?

Or had died while his mother nursed them back to health?

What if, when they had recovered, they had left the island instead of staying with his family?

What if he hadn’t fallen in love with her?

What if she hadn’t reciprocated?

What if, three years after their marriage, the hunters hadn’t finally caught up?

What if the island had let him touch the power then, as he desperately cried for help?

What if he’d been able to save her?

The what-if’s weighed on him heavily. Could he have changed any of them, knowing what he know knew? Would he have? Surely, his cause now was worth more than any simple life on an island. And he knew that if any of those what-if’s had gone the other way, that’s what he would have got, even if Dezino had let him touch the power eventually. By the time he had left, he had realized that unless he grasped the power himself, he would never truly wield it. And so he had formed an alliance with the shadow-birds, taking down one of the other islands. Then, he had set his birds loose upon the island he had once called home, wearing it down until he could kill it, steal the gemheart, and add it to his glove. Everyone he had once known had died in that disaster. The only survivors besides him were his allies, the birds; a baby island produced by Dezino only a day earlier; and his six-year old brother-in-law. He had left the boy in the Pass of Dreams, trusting that the reputation of the pass would keep him from danger until he could return. He had set a small portion of his birds to chase the island across the North sea past the Wall, attracting the attention of two Alleycanes. He had taken the rest of his birds to hide out in the cavern of Royeta, whose desire to fly once more had made her desperate enough to accept anything he offered.

Things had worked perfectly. Kodeka had come back, as predicted. The alleycanes had fallen for the bait, as predicted. Royeta had been strong enough to force him to create the new gemhearts through Nogard, as predicted.

What he hadn’t predicted was Nogard’s companions. He had begged the island to chase them away, kill them, anything. He’d even gotten her to poison one and almost drown another. But both had survived, and both had accompanied him to the cave anyways.

Of course, that had been a mere distraction to him at first, just one more thing he had to deal with. He hadn’t expected just how much trouble they could cause. If it hadn’t been for them, he would have gotten all three gemhearts in his possesion. Nogard would never have been able to steal any away from him, not when he was drowning in pain. He would have stolen the power of the gemhearts, incorporating them into his glove, and turned on Royeta.

After that, nothing could have stopped him. He would have moved from island to island, killing them and stealing their power. With that sort of power, he could do anything. He could erase mountains. Change seas. Even warp the very fabric of space and time itself!

He would have been a god. And he would have acted as he thought a god should, making a world without pain or suffering, healing whatever he saw broken.

He had been so close. But Nogard and his friends had stopped him. Because of them, his plan had failed. In what was supposed to be his moment of greatest triumph, he was lying on the floor, helpless, as the shadow slowly took over him.

He felt Damaya pull at the glove and felt a sudden surge of hope. Might removing the glove stem the tide of darkness? It was worth a try. But the glove was fused to his hand; he would have to break the bond somehow.

An idea came to him. Could he reroute the shadow back into the glove? With weakened will he reached out with his mind and gave a nudge.

With a sudden crack, the glove shattered and gave way, falling off in Damaya’s hands. Rotcennoc stared at the place where it had been and his heart sank. On his forearm remained specks of shiny black gemstone, melted into the skin. The shadow had not faded. He would not be free.

Rotcennoc closed his eyes. There was only one thing left that he could do. He could let the power take him, but guide it so that all it destroyed was spatial location. It would take him away from here, sending him to somewhere random. It would hopefully offload the tremendous power that weighed on him. With time, perhaps, he could even earn back his glory.

But it would be painful. Agonizingly painful. The mere thought almost broke his will entirely.

If he refused it, though, he would die. His work would be left unfinished. All he had paid would have been paid for nothing. And when put like that, it was no decision at all.

With resignation, he said a silent farewell to the island. Then he reached out and nudged the shadow again, letting it shear through him, sending him into the darkness.

Space twisted, pulling inwards, erasing him from reality. There was a dark flash.Then all was still.

~~~~~~~

High above, Kate gathered the last of her power into one last strike. It wasn’t much compared to what she’d had. But it was enough. She felt a tug, more powerful than ever, and tied it to the cloud, ready to release only moments after she let it go.

The last of her resistance spent, Kate fell, the pull of the gemheart too strong. But she fell satisfied, knowing that she and her brother would be avenged.

Far below in the cave, Nogard felt his gemheart awaken.

 

And then the lightning struck.

~~~~~~~

Royeta felt the bolt hit her gemheart, flooding it with power. Time seemed to slow as the power enhanced the speed and depth of her thoughts. For the first time in a long, long while, she saw clearly.

What she had been doing was wrong.

What she had let Rotcennoc do was even worse.

The visitors had unstabilized her, it was true. But what she had done in her own mad longing to achieve the sky again had been unforgivable.

And she would die for it.

She could already feel the structure of her gemheart beginning to give way. Every island gemheart had some shadow in it, and the lightning would stress those impurities, forcing open cracks. Once the cracks had formed, power would rush out through it in a massive explosion. She could only hope that those in the cavern would not be too badly hurt.

As the flaws began to expand, she finished a few last things she could do. She cut herself off from the island itself to prevent collapse upon her death. She prepared one last unlikely hope. Then she sent a message to Nogard, including everything that she knew about what had led her to this moment, including what she knew about Rotcennoc. Hopefully he would understand.

Her last tasks performed, Royeta relaxed, feeling the cracks give way.

Goodbye, she whispered as the gemheart exploded.

~~~~~~~

Nogard blinked a few times. Had Rotcennoc just vanished?

In his arms the gemheart awoke suddenly. He looked down at it, stunned.

Without warning, a blinding flash and a deafening crack split the cavern. The gemheart exploded, throwing him backwards into a stalagmite. He slid to the floor, stunned.

With the explosion came a flood of information that made his head spin even more. What had happened? What was going on? What…

Nogard! The voice echoed in his mind. Are you there?

Nogard breathed out a sigh of relief. Kodeka.

He opened his mind to the island, sharing the message from Royeta. Then, energy spent, he closed his eyes and fell unconscious.

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666th post. Also almost certainly the longest so far.

 

Edited February 14, 2019 by xinoehp512

[Sherlock Holmes he/him]

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5 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

He would have been a god. And he would have acted as he thought a god should, making a world without pain or suffering, healing whatever he saw broken.

That reminds me of someone...

Darkstalker.

 

[+Ark1002]

2 hours ago, AxeliustheGreat said:

2 hours ago, xinoehp512 said:

 

That reminds me of someone...

Darkstalker.

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I'd argue it was Hellbent...

 

[+Sorana she/her]

Damaya let the glove fall to the floor, when she saw what was beneath it. Rotcennoc vanished and suddenly a lot of things seemed to happen at the same time. Lightning struck again, then the gemheart exploded.

She was thrown backwards through the cave, painfully hit a wall, before falling to the ground.

For a long moment she simply lay there, her body using the remaining stormlight to heal at least a part of her injuries. Then she slowly got to her feet, leaned against the wall for support. Her eyes fell on a bag on the floor and she recognized it as Klasten's. Picking it up she looked around. She didn't see Araha, but Nogard wasn't too far away and so she limped over to him, sat down next to him. He was still breathing, and so she simply sat there, tried to understand what had happened. The place where her eye had been hurt, and when she lifted her fingers, they came away bloody. She stared at the blood, unable to really grasp what it meant. Exhaustion pressed down on her, heavy and almost irresistable. Closing her eye she rested a hand on Nogard's shoulder to feel if he stired and leaned her head back against the wall. Hopefully Araha was alright. She should look for her, but she couldn't imagine getting back on her feet right now.

"Keep watch Coru."

She asked her spren and he buzzed in reply, before leaving her arm.

[Darth Woodrack he/him]

Sarah arrived, "Oh, am I to late?"

[+Sorana she/her]

11 hours ago, Darth Woodrack said:

Sarah arrived, "Oh, am I to late?"

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Yes and no

That's still Era 2 actually, we didn't finish in time. So either you find them all bruised and beaten as described above before the timeskip, or you give us the time to finish and drop her in afterwards (which shouldn't be too long now).

No matter what you decide, it's great you decided to move her to this thread!

========================

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I'd be fine with a shorter timeskip for Nogard to wake up. Damaya isn't able to really act right now as well.

@xinoehp512

[Darth Woodrack he/him]

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Sarah technically existed in era 2 as well.

"Well, I'll be back in a year!"

[xinoehp512 he/him]

8 hours ago, Sorana said:

I'd be fine with a shorter timeskip for Nogard to wake up. Damaya isn't able to really act right now as well.

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What do you mean?

Kodeka hovered over the island worriedly. He could already see it beginning to sink. If Nogard and his friends didn't get out of there  - fast - they were all going to drown. Nogard needed to wake up soon.

He made a decision. After a brief moment of mental preparation, he sank down into the hole above the cavern where the gemheart had previously resided. Then, he pushed out his connection, fusing himself to the remnants of the island. It wouldn't work for long, but he thought that he could keep the island from sinking. 

It would be draining, though; luckily, all the people below needed to do was fly straight up. He could take it from there.

[+Ark1002]

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So, come era 3, I'd like to start a plot on the other side, the North Pole, and I think this is the proper thread. Is that okay?

Araha could feel the island. And it was dying. She grabbed each, one by one. Then lashed them into the sky. As an afterthought, she lashed the bag, which was suprisingly heavy. Then she followed, a smile on her face.

@xinoehp512 @Sorana @Archer

[+Sorana she/her]

1 hour ago, xinoehp512 said:

What do you mean?

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Not neccessary anymore.

Damaya screamed when she suddenly flew upwards and tightened her grip on Nogard and the bag.

When she opened her eyes she saw Araha, heard her laugh. Hopefully Araha had a plan.

[xinoehp512 he/him]

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Sure! I'd like to coordinate, as I have a few events that are going to take place here, but that sounds good. What did you have in mind?

I think the thread should probably be renamed to The North Sea or something like that. (Mods can do that, right?)

1 hour ago, #Voidapple said:

Araha could feel the island. And it was dying. She grabbed each, one by one. Then lashed them into the sky. As an afterthought, she lashed the bag, which was suprisingly heavy. Then she followed, a smile on her face.

@xinoehp512 @Sorana @Archer

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I'm a little confused here. What exactly is she grabbing and lashing? Presumably Damaya, Nogard and the extra gemheart. Is that it?

Also, you neglected to mention why she would do this. I'm going to write a brief scene that should explain things; is that okay?

@Archer@Voidus

Kodeka pulled with all his might, but it wasn't enough. He was just too inexperienced in using the power.

And Nogard still hadn't woken up. Without him, he had no way to communicate with the people in the cavern. Unless...

Kodeka hesitantly reached out and touched Nogard through the connection. There was no response. He prodded again, holding on to the thread and begging him to wake up.

There was still no response, but the realization began to dawn on Kodeka that he didn't need to wait. Nogard was out; there was nothing stopping him from stepping in, using Nogard's mouth to tell the others what to do. One of the others was a Windrunner; she could take things from there.

After a moment of indecision, he decided to act. It was better than having them die. He thought a silent apology to Nogard as he reached in and took control.

"Windrunner," he said through Nogard's mouth. "My name is Kodeka. I'm Nogard's friend, and I am here to rescue you. Can you Lash the three of you and the last gemheart up? I can take care of it from there."

The Windrunner immediately sprang into action, lashing upwards Nogard, the other lady, the gemheart, and even the bag that he belatedly realized must contain the other male that had been with them. They fell upwards, into the hole that he had opened in his gemheart cavern just for this purpose.

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He can catch them with moss, or you can just dismiss the Lashings.

[+Sorana she/her]

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How do you want to go on with this thread in general regarding finishing the plot?

I'd hoped to find the time for Damaya to ask Nogard about her gemheart and what she is supposed to do with it, and what it means for her - but as that's solely about my char, I'd be fine if you tell me about that so that I can rp it correctly. So that we can move faster to era 3. And I need a place for her to pass the timeskip.

@xinoehp512

[+Ark1002]

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We could have the group meet the underwater parshendi society and say they lived there. I could make a google doc for us to write a scene.

 

[xinoehp512 he/him]

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Well, after this Kodeka is probably going to help you reconnect the baby island with the gemheart. After that, he's going to connect the gemheart to pieces of land he took from Royeta and teach them about island stuff. At that point, they're going to be pretty much the same intelligence level as the other characters.

Beyond that? Nogard's going to be part of the expedition that explores the rest of the other side, but until then he's not doing anything. Visiting the underwater Parshendi sounds fun; I have a few ideas on how the society in the North sea would differ from those in the Eastern Ocean. If you want to go take down one of the shadow-bird islands, you could do that. That's one of the events that leads to later things happening. But I'm open to whatever you feel like.

 

[Voidus]

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Did you mean to tag me? If so i might be missing some context.

 

[xinoehp512 he/him]

4 hours ago, xinoehp512 said:

I think the thread should probably be renamed to The North Sea or something like that. (Mods can do that, right?)

 

[+Ark1002]

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You should probably tag archer, it was his thread.

@Archer