The Ruins of Past (Open)

[J'Kar Ezri]

Images and memories flood back as J'Kar returns to this cursed place. This place where death has had a firm unflinching grasp. This place where he watched his love die ... where he died. Searching for the very spot he continues his yearly pilgrimage in remembrance of what was lost. Searching for the statue with the outreached and upturned hand. The very statue that he laid before with his dead lover when darkness embraced his soul.

So long ago but still he could walk straight to the spot for it called to him or was it that he longed for it. Desiring to know what had occurred during that night so very long ago. Not knowing what had happened to his lovers corpse. Longing to know if she had ascended, had become death, or had been consumed. He could feel the answers were there in the walls, in the ground, in the hand of the statue there for the taking.

He knew the dangers of the place and knew there were few living fey that ventured here. He knew his presence would be an invitation to those that scavenge here. But he cared not of his own safety for the desire of the truth that he sought was stronger than his self-preservation.

On arriving at the statue J'Kar placed his melody stone in the upturned hand of the statue and sat before it facing the spot where they had laid. Hoping the stone could pick up on the secrets the statue kept and would remain to keep from him and the stone. The stone would search every year and every year it would only find the sorrow that was within J'Kar's heart for his love. The stone would play the saddest of song echoing throughout the land. Calling out for the soul of J'Kar's love. Being easily heard by the dangers that were always close by.

J'Kar waits under the evening sky as the streaks of red, blue, and yellow stretch out above him as watercolors dripping down a fresh canvas. Waiting in hopes that his love will return to him. Knowing that as the night came the threat of the place grew strong but still he remains...

[Evette]

Evette was saved from this drowning of color where the hues of sky clashed with earth, for she saw no colors, only a great ultra violet that went on forever. The sky was like a black sea, with nothing in it, no clouds that held thunderbolts, or a sun that was disappearing behind the horizon's curtain. Evette could only see the bones of the earth that lay below, illuminating with static energy, dancing as though the very dead earth was instead alive with false vigor.

She thought little of the land she scoured below, only feeling above it all, quite literally. Evette flew onward, her great machinery of wingspan stretched out far and powerful with each flap of wing. Her masked gaze dozed the surface of the Fissure, filled with a lack of taste for the place, it was only when the wave of electricity that ruled her vision seemed to pulse toward a central point did she finally grow interested. A living thing, or perhaps a Death Fey, she knew not, but her annoying curiosity commanded her, and like all beings slaves to their whims, she obeyed.

As she fell toward the earth, she could see the electricity that danced on the lips of a stone statue, across sightless eyes, and solid hair. The lithe figure stood fragile and calm, and held out by a feminine palm was the centralization of the pulse. At first Evette thought this strange and enigmatic statue was grasping a living, beating heart, and the beast that was Evette's curiosity thirsted for more.

Finally, only a few feet away, she flapped her Wings in reverse, slowing down her descent, she outstretched her long legs to land upon the statue, first one bare foot and then the other. She delicately placed her weight on the head of the woman, as though weighing nothing, the great machinery of her light weaved wings were slowing down, though remaining full to keep her balance. She bent herself at the waist to peer over thoughtfully at the statue's hand, unsure of what it was.

And then, as though off handishly, she noticed a man, his crouching form gave the air a taste of some lost tragedy. He, unlike the statue, was very much alive, and seemingly in worship of the memoriam. She arched an elegant eyebrow behind her mask, her pale cerulean gaze lacing the man, noticing his heart beat was much weaker than it should have been. Sadness, Evette knew, had a way of killing a heart.

She crouched onto her knee, peering down at the man, her wings towered over them and her shadow stretched across the dead earth and enveloped the man's form. She didn't let the silence hold much longer before her voice called to him. "I find that sadness heralds nothing and anger heralds change. Perhaps you should find some spite before that little heart of yours stops beating all together." Evette tilted her her head upon her neck crookedly, her words strangely cutting.

[J'Kar Ezri]

Unaware of the trespasses upon his location, the beats of wings hidden by the song of the melody stone, J'Kar was set aside himself when the statue appeared to speak to him. He quickly saw his own shadow over-casted by that of another and he knew he was not alone in this place. But by the time the phrase was spoken J'Kar had recognized the voice as being familiar from long ago but of a different tone than once was. The voice not of an enemy but of someone who once put trust in him.

"There is truth in your words, misguided as they are. For in anger comes recklessness but change does follow. Your voice tells that change has followed you as much as it has myself. Surely, sorrow has followed as well?" J'Kar stated while remaining in the position he had been in for the past few hours.

[Evette]

Evette stared at the man, his form dancing with white currents over his skin. She took in his features, the squareness of his jaw, the crease in his brow and after a moment, she saw a familiarity in these features. The same current she had seen some years before, perhaps a life time ago. She had died and been reborn since their last meeting, echos of the past vibrating in her memory.

The song crept into her ears, a majestic and sad orchestra to set the moment. She realized as once it was coming from the thing she thought to be a pulsing heart in the statue's hands.

"Does my voice give so much away?" She asked curiously, knowing that while her voice had grown stronger with her sadness, his seemed to grow weary. Yes, she recognized that voice. "Sorrow, I am afraid encircles us, don't let it drown you, friend, for only you can save you, and I am but a sad bystander that will be forced to watch."

[J'Kar Ezri]

"Your voice says more than the words upon it but not nearly as much as the song of your heart. Our sorrows must sprout from similar roots for, otherwise, the song that sounds would have changed upon your approach." J'Kar stated while wondering how the other kept such pain from the surface.

"Sorrow...To know sorrow enhances the sincerity joy. One would not be appreciated without the other. Unfortunately, to know true joy and loose it is to know true sorrow. It is consuming in its effects but only momentary in contrast to this long life." Realizing just how far gone J'Kar let himself go he changes focus from the site and changes position to set his gaze upon the over-looker.

What an amazing site to see one perched upon the head of a statue with wings spread before the colorful sky. To feel just how small one can seem in this position was dwarfing. But looking past the silhouette cast by the evening sky and seeing the site before him a truly gut wrenching feeling overtook him as he saw that the magnificent wings were completely lifeless. J'Kar hung his head "I see that torment follows you as well."

[Evette]

Evette felt the webs upon her heart, the very sorrow that commanded her wings, the mechanical parts that drove her. She was given a purpose, unlike the once Warrior of Light, she had found some resolve to work the machinery that was her being.

Her eyes lowered at his words, though showed no sign of being effected by them. What chord he struck, was deep within Evette, not touching the careful surface of her atmosphere. This was where they stood, Evette high above her sorrows, while he was succumbing to them, buried beneath. She understood this better than anyone else, understood what it meant to lose ones self to such tragedy.

Her voice fell to a whisper, speaking to him, hardly over the statue's requiem. "I have lost my joy, just as you have. Perhaps you can identify, that the world we live in now is simply an echo of what it once was, a falsehood, a mockery, but even so, we may have lost our souls, it is up to us rebuild them with these broken parts."

A revelation came to mind, as her eyes laced the strange nature of his black wings, unable to see the color - she could tell the static that danced over the man's Wings looked strangely off, like a negative pull, trying to consume all light. He had changed, just as she had, though, he was much more pure, much more himself, much more likely to be saved.

Taking off from her stoup on the statue, she glided down, Wings far behind he, she folded them. The humming of the gears and white metals was calming, the light weaving evident. Evette lowered her form, pertinent to see eye to eye with this man, she no longer wanted to be above him, but equal.

"J'Kar Ezri, how tall you once stood," she commented, taking in the currents of static that danced over his eye lids, nose and lips. She remembered him, the Warrior of Light, the only man she ever tried to warn of the Fissure of Woe. She had tried to change fate, oh how she had paid for it, and apparently he as well. And just as well, she did not let this knowledge falter her features, but oh how she felt it, in the distance, awaiting her. Ready to devour.

[J'Kar Ezri]

As Evette came closer the stone's siren succumb to silence in the conflict of emotions. For on top of the feelings they shared the stone picked up on J'Kars unsettledness. To be near someone, anyone, was so rare that it was nearly uncomfortable for him to allow his position to be intruded upon further. He knows that this fey means him no harm but the sensations remain yet unacted upon.

Vacating his stance J'Kar stood and faced Evette for fear of appearing rude remaining on the ground. Looking upon the face that seems so unaffected by her surroundings yet every word from her mouth saying otherwise... the two seemed not to go together, as if her body was dead and what was left of her soul spoke from within.

"We are indeed mere fragments of what we were, as is this world. How thus could we build a whole. To do so would leave gaps and instability. Is it not better to accept we are simply the fragments and not who we were. Or have you a better way? Have you found more fragments to fill the gaps? Or simply found purpose in search of such?" J'Kar thought aloud.

With the silence of the stone J'Kar was able to hear Evette's own song. One of gears, hinges, and other mechanical devices clicking away. Seeing how lifeless they were yet bonded to her as solidly as if they were her own. Able to move without command and subtly and naturally as he could his own. Curiously he wondered since they exist if life could be brought to them, if they could posses a soul under the right conditions. Could her wings be fragments that help fill some of her gaps or simply a futile search to replace what was lost.