[♜] ━ shadows of mysterium

[ʞ ɔ ǝ ɹ ʍ d ı ʞ s]

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A war is being waged in the land of Mysterium. The forest is being destroyed at the hands of umbraculi, the shadows that have invaded the crimson canopy for an unknown reason, causing the tension between the two dominant species to snap. With both species of purebloods wiped out, the halfbloods are left to defend themselves against the artificial army the native purebloods left behind. A different species has been introduced to Mysterium in the natives' wake, brought to the world without memory and gifted with strange abilities, taught from the start that the halfbloods are their enemy. In the midst of war, an entirely new problem will arise: an ungifted young man. Without an ability to replace the piece of him that was lost, he finds himself at the mercy of the shadows as well as his forgotten past- not to mention the halfbloods on their tail.

[ʞ ɔ ǝ ɹ ʍ d ı ʞ s]

chapter one - it ain't easy
chapter two - who what when where and sometimes why
chapter three - judgement day
chapter four - safety first
chapter five - the inevitable rise of conflict
chapter six - the shadow of a celestial
chapter seven - cornered
chapter eight - breaking the ice
chapter nine - completely and utterly lost
chapter ten - going nowhere
interlude - sacrifice
chapter eleven - this little light of mine
chapter twelve - a mother's voice
chapter thirteen - other end of the spectrum
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name (pronunciation) |sketch| gender . ability . status
__________________________________________________________
Rune (roon) |x| male . unknown . temporary evasive
Säde (SAY-dee) |x| female . light manipulation . intrusive
Eirian (AIR-ee-an) |x| female . pyrokenesis . offensive
Halvard (HAL-vard) || male . stone force field generation . defensive
Alair (al-AIR) || female . energy conversion . intrusive
Thayn (thain) || male . mimicry . subjective
Atohi (Ah-TOH-hee) || male . concussion beams . offensive
Veda (VEE-duh) || female . empathy . intrusive

The Videna (vih-DEE-nuh) || female . telepathy . seer
Ficiem (FEE-see-em || male . earth manipulation . instructor
Celeres (seh-LAIR-ess) || female . physical perfection . instructor

Duxo (DOO-zo) || male . mind control . halfblood leader
Tyan (TIE-an) || male . plane jumping . halfblood scholar
Sana (SAH-nah) || female . healing . halfblood priestess

[ʞ ɔ ǝ ɹ ʍ d ı ʞ s]

just look at this sad coding
reserved just in case
so have more epic fantasy stories
chronicle arcane
the sun and the moon
lysterac
and I also drew this thing
and whatever this is

have a stamp
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Code: Select all

[url=http://i.imgur.com/eOwgfgw.gif][img]http://i.imgur.com/eOwgfgw.gif[/img][/url]

[ʞ ɔ ǝ ɹ ʍ d ı ʞ s]

He woke feeling empty. Lying on his back, his body screamed in pain. He shifted his arms in an attempt to gain some kind of feel for his immediate surroundings. They dragged through leaves and twigs and a breeze touched them. A chill reached his spine and he realized his torso was bare. Suddenly feeling horribly exposed, his eyes flew open but squinted immediately against the harsh light.

A shadow suddenly bolted across his blurred vision. In a rush of adrenaline, he shot up into a sitting position and felt something swing against his chest. Breathing heavily. he looked down and noticed that not only was he without a shirt, but his jeans were singed to the knees. His body was riddled with burn marks as well, which explained the pain. However, he noticed something else.

A thin leather string hung around his neck. He reached up and touched it, examining the charms. One was a crudely made, thick copper colored ring that was very obviously not for wearing on a finger. The other was a chipped and worn stone colored tag with black engravings on it. However, the symbols were strange to him. He held it up to his eyes, peering at it closer but could not make sense of them. A stray piece of black hair fell into his face and he dropped the charms to brush it away in frustration. They hit his chest and he winced, looking down to see that they left their own burn marks, worse than the others.

He leaned back on his hands and looked around as his vision focused. He was at the edge of a forest with vibrantly colored leaves of oranges and reds, towering high into the sky. He was uncertain what he saw from here was even the top of them. His gaze traveled from the forest and he looked down at his seared legs. A thought crossed his mind and he paused.

Who was he?

He realized every piece of himself he looked at felt new to him. His eyes traveled up his legs and he leaned forward and looked at his hands. They were strong and callused, his fingers long, but tender with burns. He flipped them over and over, taking them in with growing panic. He then followed them up his left arm, where he found another peculiar thing. On his shoulder were black markings, much like the branches of the trees in the forest. They continued to his back and he reached around, twisting and pulling at his shoulder with his right hand trying to see where they were coming from. However, no matter how much he contorted himself, he could not see the rest of the design. He tried to rub it off, but it would not budge.

He snapped back into a normal position, his heart continuing to pound though he kept himself composed. He reached his hands to his face and ran his fingertips along it to get a feel of how he looked. It felt long; soft cheekbones, straight nose, small chin- he grunted in frustration. He could feel his features but could not piece together an image in his head. He moved on and ran his fingers through his hair. It was smooth and straight, though the edges were frayed with burning. Despite this fact, it was still fairly long, thoroughly covering his ears.

A quick shadow once again flew past the edge of his vision. His head flew to the side, trying to catch the suspect. It was short lived however, when a numbing cry split the distant air. His head flew to his right and he noticed for the first time a large castle that must have been white in it’s glory days. He could not make out details from the distance, but the screaming continued and appeared to be coming from the structure. He simply sat, refusing to believe this was all happening until a plume of fire escaped into the air, the wailing of a woman’s voice continuing.

Instinctively, he scrambled to his feet. On wobbling legs, he made his way as fast as he could towards the castle. He stumbled only a few times as he regained strength. About two-thirds of the way there, he paused, his lungs burning, and proceeded to walk the rest of the way. The screaming had died down into nothing and there were no flames to be seen.

In fact, there was nothing to be seen.

Upon reaching a high arch in the side of the building, he stopped and looked up at the rounded top of it, craning his head back with a puzzled expression. That's when another thought began to nag at the back of his mind.

Where was he?

Looking back down, his hazel eyes flickered across the floor, standing dumbly in thought. He didn't know where he was, or who he was- he had no memory. To be honest, he didn't even know what he was. Panic began to settle in the pit of his stomach, but before it could take it's hold, his head jerked back up at the sound of distance screaming once more.

Before he knew what he was doing, he found himself running at full speed down the empty corridors, footstep echoing off the crumbling stone walls. He skidded to a stop at an intersection, breathing heavily and listening closely until he heard the cries again and followed the sound.

The calls of distress ultimately lead him up a spiral set of stairs in a tower. He had to stop a few times to catch his breath, basically wondering why he was chasing the echo in the first place, until he remembered that he had nothing better to do. He sluggishly made his way up the last few steps, out of breath and slightly dizzy from the spiraling stairs. He hung his head and groaned, running a hand through his hair that always seemed to fall in his face.

It took until he reached the top of the staircase to realize he had not heard the screams for a while. reaching the top, he padded to a stop and looked around, blinking in an attempt to see in the darkened chamber. Walking ahead before his eyes had fully adjusted, he very quickly collided with a stone wall and stumbled backwards with a small yelp. Instinctively, he raised a hand and pressed the heel against his head, squeezing his eyes against the pain. Giving it a quick shake, he let out a breath and tentatively reached out. His fingers touched cold stone and he pressed his hand to it, circling the room. That was it. There was nothing but stone walls. With a loud groan of frustration, he let his head fall against the wall.

Almost immediately, there was a sound of stones rolling and he pinched his brows together. Before he knew it, the wall before him gave way and he fell forward with a small cry, hitting the ground on his forearms. Dazed, he squeezed his eyes shut and rolled onto his back, teeth bared in pain. He paused, however, when confronted with a new sound altogether.

"Who the hell are you?"

The voice sounded weak yet demanding. Eyes flying open in surprise, he scrambled to his feet and turn to face the source. Before him, a young woman who had been sitting against the wall was pushing herself up, illuminated by surrounding torches. Her wavy brown hair clung to her sooty, sweaty, freckled face, stopping short just above her shoulders. Her eyes were a shocking amber and blazed with hesitation and accusation. He simply stood and stared, that is, until she spoke again.

"Are you going to answer my question, or stand there like a dumbass?" She snapped, casually leaning against the wall.

Taken aback, the boy's brows pinched and he straightened up. "Who am I?" He repeated curiously, pausing at the sound of his own voice. It was strange, though he figured it shouldn't be. It was only odd that any sound would escape him, especially anything that made sense. He didn't understand how he knew what she said, or how he knew how to respond, but he didn't have time to dwell on it.

"Yeah, what are you, dense?" She asked, folding her arms over her chest. "Why are you up here?"

He paused in thought before meeting her eye again and shrugging. "I heard screaming-"

He was cut off by a bout of obnoxious laughter, causing him to frown at the antagonizing tone of it. "You don't say!" She snarled before holding out her arm. "See this?" Indeed he could. Her wearing only a battered tank top, her freckled shoulders and upper arms were exposed- but it was her forearm that caught his attention. It was black and charred with cracks in the surface; veins of orange glowed and sparked, distorting the air around her arm with waves of heat. Fairly certain it was not normal, he looked back up at ehr once he was able to free his sights, mouth agape, and nodded. "Well it doesn't exactly feel like cotton balls and sunshine," she spat, gritting her teeth against the pain. She then paused and let her arm drop back to her side, looking him up and down. "I haven't seen you before," she stated. "Where did you come from?"

He snapped his mouth shut and shrugged before looking around. "I... I don't know," he answered.

There was a flash of fear and confusion in her eyes before she hastily changed the subject. "So you have no idea what you're doing- what did you think you would achieve by coming up here?"

"I just thought I should help," he answered honestly. She let loose another laugh, a sound that had already made him cringe automatically.

"What are you, some kind of hero?" She asked accusingly. "I don't need your help." She pushed herself off the wall and shoved past him, making him stumble as she rammed her shoulder into his. She walked towards the entrance and stood beside it before turning to face him. "Get out," she demanded.

His expression hardened, and he didn't know what possessed him to say it- perhaps out of a subconscious desire to spite her- but the next word out of his mouth was simply, "No."

The girl's eyes grew dark and the sparks on her arms began to fly from her charred skin. "I said get the hell out of here," she repeated.

This time, he was scared enough to listen. Eyeing her cautiously, he hastily left the room. Soon after walking out, he heard the stones slide back into place and looked behind him to find the wall once again in tact. Letting out a huff of air, he frowned and headed back to the stairs. The building was so big, there had to be something better to do.

Halfway down the second spiral, he paused as the sound of voices and footsteps approached him from below. his first instinct was to run, but common sense made him stay frozen to the spot. There was nowhere to go if he did run, so why bother? Instead he stood dumbly until the light of a torch flickered off the walls and two men came into view.

As soon as they saw him, their conversation and steps came to a halt. "What are you doing up here?" One of them demanded in a gruff voice.

The boy only shrugged, slipping his hands casually into his pockets.

The other man marched up the stairs that separated them and grabbed the boy's arm, yanking it forward and turning it around. "Hey- he ain't got a mark," he said in surprise before looking up to meet his eyes. "You'd better come with us," he said dangerously.

"This wouldn't happen to have anything to do with my lack of clothing, would it?" The boy asked innocently, though the intention to be snarky was obvious. As soon as he said it dread filled him- why had he said that? He'd spent less than five minutes speaking and it was already apparent he would be better off without. The large man growled and shoved him forward so he nearly stumbled down the stairs. Alright, so perhaps he deserved that.

The rest of the descent he kept his lips shut tight, his expression pure bitterness aimed at the way he was being shoved and restrained. Then, about halfway down the tower, the screaming started again.

.......⋨ ⋩

[ʞ ɔ ǝ ɹ ʍ d ı ʞ s]

[ʞ ɔ ǝ ɹ ʍ d ı ʞ s]

Once they made it to the base of the tower, they wandered the corridors only to climb the spiraling incline to another. This tower, however, was not nearly as tall and small windows were scattered along the wall, letting in the streaming light of day. Playful colors danced through the stained glass and and dotted the opposite wall.

Still, the boy's head hung. His lips pressed into a thin line, he focused on the ground before him, his black hair swinging before his eyes and the necklace he wore against his still bare chest. He admitted silently that there was enough chill in the building to be uncomfortable- a chill he had only noticed after leaving the warmed chamber with the burning girl. Goosebumps raised on his arms, though he wasn't sure if it was from the cold or the unsettling strangeness of the freckled brunette he'd run into. True, he didn't know much, but something about her was... Wrong. If catching fire was normal, wouldn't everyone be able to do it?

Thoughts occupied with her, he didn't notice that they approached a door until he was jerked to a stop before running into it. Twisting his face in resent, he looked up and gazed upon the door, made of dark wood and cast iron hinges and handles. He was sure it was the only thing he'd seen so far that hadn't been made from stone.

The guards on either side of him stood long enough to make him glance at either of them in confusion. Then, just as he was about to open his mouth and say something that no doubt would only make his situation worse, one of them stepped forward and pushed the door open.

With yet another shove, the boy stumbled inside and bit back a sharp remark, if only because he didn't remember the definition of the word he was about to use as an insult.

Looking around the circular room, he was only mildly impressed. Half of the wall was decorated with a curved stained glass window depicting... He got bored before he tried to figure out the intricate colors and lines. Turning his head, he noticed the other wall was draped with tapestries. The entire room was washed in a flurry of colored light and if he were to be honest, he found it slightly overwhelming.

Distracted by the decor and busy lighting, he only noticed the unnecessarily long desk in front of them when a figure stepped out from behind it and began to approach the three. He did a double take and suddenly felt very small. The elegant figure was that of a woman draped in red robes, complete with intricate designs and silken sashes. He only knew it was a woman by the curve of her body and the sway of her hips as she walked forward, for a heavy hood shrouded her face in shadow, save for white lips and blended perfectly with the small amount of pale skin that could be seen. She rose higher than even the guards, hands folded before her as she stopped only a short distance away.

She parted her stark lips only slightly, drawing a breath to speak that sent chills down the boy's spine. It was not a shiver of admiration, but rather like a cold frost that made him on edge. He didn't trust her.

"What ails you, unmarked one?"

Her voice sounded exactly like she looked- cold and smooth, like moonlight or a veil in a breeze.

It made him cringe.

Shifting on his feet with a sniff, he collected himself and steadily looked up to find her head turned towards him, though the red hood still covered the upper half of her face. "Nothing," he said with a small shake of his head before casually glancing around. "Lovely room, by the way," he commented. "Did you decorate it yourself?"

Before she had a chance to reply, he was met with a smack to the back of the head by one of the guards. "You will speak to the Videna with respect."

Lurching forward, he reached up and brought a hand to the back of his head, sucking in a breath through his teeth. "The what?" He asked breathlessly. Looking up, he saw the woman make a subtle gesture with her hand. After a moment of hesitation, each guard took a step back. Glancing around, a smirk reached the boy's face and he straightened up and crossed his arms. "Thanks for that."

The woman called the Videna remained still and silent until he began to fidget uncomfortably. Then, suddenly, something strange happened.

"They call me the seer."

The cold voice that had escaped her before was suddenly echoing through his mind. With a jerk, he looked around and ran a hand through his hair before peering at her. "Was that you?" He asked cautiously, his voice shaking slightly as his heart raced.

"You have been here naught for a day and your ignorance already blinds you."

He rolled his eyes. "Thanks, but ignorance kind of came with the package of not knowing a damn thing about what the hell is going on here," he pointed out bitterly.

"Fair enough," she admitted cooly. "What would you like to know?"

He paused in surprise and eyed her cautiously. "Who am I?" He rasped.

"Whoever you choose to be."

He scoffed. "Helpful. Alright, fine- where are we?"

"Mysterium."

He waited expectantly for her to continue before gesturing with his hands. "And what is that?"

"It is this world," she answered, her lips unmoving as she spoke directly to his mind. "You have been brought here for divine purpose, as have the rest of us."

He nodded slowly, though remained skeptical, certain he wouldn't be able to get a clear answer. "Alright, one more thing," he said, crossing his arms once more. "What's all this nonsense about a mark? or... No mark?"

She was still a moment before turning her head to one of the guards. "He will replace the lost evasive."

"But madame-" tension crackles as soon as the guard decided to argue. "we don't even know what he can do," he hissed in a low voice.

The Videna only turned and walked slowly back towards her desk with a wave of her arm, dismissing them with one last answer.

"He can do nothing."

.......⋨ ⋩

[Asherwy]

waahhhhh so weird and interesting and woah
the videna reminds me of my sister
i'm really curious about that girl behind the wall
i wonder if they know she's there
or if she's hiding
or if she's a prisoner
eerrrrhggg i wish the boy asked about the girl
but then if he did and she was hiding then that wouldn't be good
arhg

also for some reason i really like the guards
ANYWAY
I like it
as always captain, you killed the 'well-written' category
amazing
good job ^^

[ʞ ɔ ǝ ɹ ʍ d ı ʞ s]

Thank you! :D
And I almost had him ask about her buuuuut...
He would have just been ignored anyway
The next chapter will be great though
I'm just tryina limit to one a day xD
sorry it took so long to reply but
I actually did try to oekaki
but when I tried to save there was a jAVA ERROR
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
... luckily I was smart enough to screenshot
-runs off to add pic to swindle gallery-

[raey]

yep...definitely going to stalk this...

I really like the girl - totally the kind of people I like xD
and the cheeky moves of the boy is really cool too, I like how you draw his character
About your writing I don't really need to say something, you know I love your stile - it's totally on a novelist-level

curious for the next chapter

[Asherwy]

@captain - oh must be because java was updating
i just updated mine today
I shall be anticipating the next great chapter
yes

@nan - you and I must be known for our stalking skills by now x3