I'd like to begin this post by thanking everyone who's taken a part, big or small, in Marsuveus' story. I hope that my writing has been a fair tribute to those who have written with me along the way. Without you guys, there would have been no story. I'd also like to thank those of you who've read, and commented on my writing along the way, I'm happy that a humble story of good and evil could have interested anyone besides myself. Marsuveus' story has gone beyond a simple tale of light and dark, for me. It's become a personal crusade to bring about the element of redemption to a certainly undeserving villain, and I have loved every moment that I've been able to watch my character's journey.
It's been a long time in coming, so here it is.
Decadence of Darkness
Part III: Darkness' Salvation
Teshia leaned softly backwards against the tree’s strong trunk behind her, as she listened to the Fenki’s tale. As she listened, and occasionally responded her fingers slowly turned a blackened ring around her thumb, as idle and innocent a gesture as any.
The armor-clad Fenki standing before the seated Ylian began to pace back and forth steadily, accompanying her words with sharp gestures as she related her tale. Red-rimmed eyes, and a baleful expression added an obvious underlying sense of sadness to the Enkidukai’s words.
“He took him from me, Teshia!” The Fenki swore bitterly for a few moments, her otherwise attractive features contrasting sharply with the tone and content of her voice. “And taunted me with it!”
Turning her gaze slowly up from the ring around her thumb, Teshia spoke softly, as though choosing her words with care. “I know the pain is still fresh for you, Mariana, but you know that I will continue to protect Marsuveus..” Her eyes glinted, a powerful mixture of determination and sadness, “Even from you.”
Still pacing angrily to and fro, the Fenki before Teshia continued to speak, anger and sorrow fused together as one, “The Dark One seeks six to be completed, but fears when Three come to undo….” Mariana halted her pacing, and turned back towards Teshia, voice raised in frustration, and sadness. “What does that even mean, Teshia?!!? Those were his last words!”
Teshia narrowed her eyes softly, the afternoon light glinting softly from her gaze as the memory returned to her, as vivid as though it were only last night, rather than nearly a year hence.
…“There is no good in me!!” The figure’s hot, angry breath exploded against Teshia’s face in sharp relief, “None!!!” the voice said, volume and pitch raised to a cavernous roar.
“You are right, there is much evil and darkness,” Teshia heard herself say, “And I am not so foolish as to think that all have good within them. But I know there is good within you. And you hate it.” Teshia saw herself stepping closer to the leviathan figure, mere inches from the shadowy figure’s monstrous frame. “You hate it. You try to burn it from your very soul.”
The figure’s hooded head lowered slowly, the edges of the tattered black cloak billowing with the force of the shout that followed: “Good is dead! I killed it!”
Teshia saw her hand slowly reach up, and into the inky blackness under the figure’s hood, finding cold and rough flesh to greet her inquisitive touch. “Do not lie to yourself, Marsu, even if you insist on lying to me.”
The faintest glimmer of brown glinted from Marsuveus’ eyes, barely visible underneath the blackened hood, as he spoke his next words. “Whatever good was in me, died with me.”
A metallic snap, and a whirl of tattered cloak and cloth followed Marsuveus’s words, as he pulled away from Teshia. A small, blackened ring fell from his outstretched hand, just before the faint glimmer of brown slowly vanished from his eyes. The massive cloaked figure slowly turned away from Teshia, and walked with liquid precision back towards the shadows whence he came…[/b]
Mariana’s next words snapped Teshia back to reality, the last strands of the dream fading back away into the ethereal. “He killed Erythros, Teshia!” she shouted, as though discovering the event in her mind’s eye for the first time.
Teshia exhaled slowly in a soft sigh and gently eased herself to her feet, dusting her legs off quietly. “I know, Mariana. I know.” The Ylian said, as she turned to walk away, lost in thought, and leaving the Fenki, now in tears, to herself.
Minutes turned to hours, and hours to days. All was quiet, for the moment.
Teshia sat in the merciful shade of a tree, leaning against her husband as the pair slowly partook of a meal. The evening was fading, and the first tendrils of night began to creep across the landscape, like long, groping fingers.
A flash of darkness, and a rustling of feathers interrupted the couple’s quiet meal with the suddenness of a bullet. Surrounded by errant black feathers, a small scarp of parchment slowly drifted to the ground, its deliverer vanished, or invisible. Teshia slowly reached for the paper, as though already knowing its content, and began to scan the parchment’s short message while her husband looked on.
The Ylian turned her honey-colored eyes slowly up to her husband as she set the scrap of parchment down. “I have to go to him,” she said, as the Menki nodded his quiet understanding. Teshia stood, and whistled for her drifter as her husband beside her did the same, after helping Teshia into her mount’s saddle.
“He’s at the Eagle, Caraick,” Teshia said slowly. The Menki nodded, and spurred his mount forward, as his wife followed.
The Consumer uttered one last, painful scream as a blade skilfully entered its abdomen, and exited with the creature’s life. The Fenki wielding the blade slowly stood back, and wiped the odd-colored blood from her otherwise spotless sabre. As she turned, looking for her next hunt’s target, a flash of dull light, and a quiet rustling of feathers from behind her caused her to halt her progress, and turn to investigate the sound with interest.
A small tattered scrap of parchment slowly floated to the ground, the inky handwriting on it much too familiar to the Fenki. In scrolling, spiky text, the message read: “This ends tonight, Mariana. Showdown at the Eagle.”
Mariana narrowed her eyes to dangerous slits, her eyes glittering with anger, and fermented sadness, and she sheathed her sabre with a vengeance. The Fenki quickly turned, and began the long run to the Bronze Doors, taking each step with increased haste.
Teshia and the Menki beside her slowly pulled their mounts up at the entrance to the great fortress. A sole figure stood resolute at the edge of their vision, on the small aperture on top of the great Eagle in front of the fortress. The Ylian darted for the stairs, and began the ascent to the top of the fortress.
Standing like a great leviathan from some lost child’s most freakish nightmare, the great Ynwnn slowly spread his arms, the tattered and blackened cloak extending from them appearing as though a pair of nightmarishly large bat wings. “Hello, Teshia,” he spoke, each syllable driven in like a nail.
Teshia looked down at the worn stone floor, reaching back for her husband’s paw as she spoke softly. “You knew I would come, Marsu.”
The terrifying figure’s gaze flicked briefly towards the Menki next to the Ylian, eyes glittering in annoyance, at both the man’s presence, and Teshia’s use of his abbreviated name.
“You were meant to come, Teshia. That is the only reason that you now stand before me,” Marsuveus said, voice the very definition of icy precision, and cold-hearted venom. “It ends tonight, human. All of it.”
Teshia reached up with her opposite hand, and quietly pulled her hood from her face, speaking quietly and carefully, as she sadly raised her gaze to look over the Ynwnn’s form. “Yes. It must end, as all things must come to pass. You cannot live in this half-life any longer.”
Mirroring the Ylian’s gesture, Marsuveus slowly reached up, and shrugged his hood from his head, exposing his scarred and twisted features. “This half-life ends tonight with your life, and this cursed torture,” he snarled, voice venomous, “Give me the ring now.”
Teshia slowly raised her hand, palm down; the blackened ring nestled on her finger, still. “Come and take it, then,” she said, sadly. “Take it, and my life as well, for they are one and the same now.”
His lips curling in a snarl, Marsuveus spoke without stepping nearer, or making an attempt at the ring. “It’s ending around us, Teshia. The very fabric of the world will twist this night.”
The sounds of heavy breath, and clanking armor announced Mariana’s arrival. The Fenki bent at the waist, breathing as though she had just ran halfway across the Dome to be here, and she waited to raise herself until she caught it, straightening with an odd sort of grin. “You’ve a flair for the dramatic, don’t you, big guy?”
If either Teshia or her husband were surprised by Mariana’s arrival, they did not show it, and continued to watch the hulking Ynwnn, with growing interest, as he began his next move.
Moving with all the purpose and finality of some great avenger released from the darkest pits of the abyss, Marsuveus began a slow circle around a pentacle-type etching along the edge of the Eagle. Holding his arm to the side, a wicked black-bladed falchion faded into view, grasped in his hand as though it had simply always been there.
As rapidly as a striking snake, Marsuveus slid the blade into the stone, along the outside edge of the pentacle. His voice spoke with the finality of a death bell’s toll “Kauwela. One.”
The great figure’s steps carried him a little ways further along the outside of the pentacle’s edge, and a second wicked blade appeared in his hand, before shortly being stabbed into the pentacle. “Dannae. Two”
A third blade found it’s place at the opposite edge of the pentacle from the three gathered. “Shadow. Three”
Mariana shifted slightly, and spoke without turning her piercing gaze from the Ynwnn’s actions, who seemed dead to all except whatever dark ritual he had engaged himself in. “If he’s casting some kind of, oh, magical evil ritual, shouldn’t we, oh I don’t know, do something?”
The grating sound of a fourth blade pierced the still night air, accompanied by the Ynwnn’s dead voice. “Mishka. Four.”
Teshia shook her head softly, her sad honey-colored gaze watching every detail of Marsuveus’ actions. “He cannot complete the spell…” she said, as though brought to full understanding of her words’ meaning as she watched.
The final ringing of a fifth blade sliding into the pentacle brought an end to the hushed whispers of the three. “Erythros. Five,” said the icy voice.
Marsuveus slowly turned to face the three once more, and slowly raised his arm, a black-handled knife clutched in his grasp, balanced on his palm. A slow, twisted grin formed on his face as he spoke, voice echoing with dark finality. “It all ends tonight, Teshia. You are the sixth, and the last. And you will fall. Just as the others have.”
The dark Ynwnn’s gaze slowly turned towards Mariana, grinning with a sense of dark and disturbed amusement. The knife turned in a high, slow arc as Marsuveus tossed it over to Mariana, the blade flashing in the dying light of the day.
Reaching out with honed precision, Mariana caught a hold of the knife by the handle, and slowly looked back to Marsuveus, eyes glinting dangerously.
“Kill Teshia with that knife, and Erythros will walk above the surface once more,” the demonic Ynwnn said, with chilling precision, and barely contained excitement, as though this moment had been long awaited.
Caraick’s expression turned immediately to his wife, eyes narrowing in worry as his wife calmly unbuttoned her cloak, and slipped it from her shoulders. Teshia turned towards Mariana, and smiled slowly. “Go ahead. Be reunited with him, he needs to be released.”
Mariana’s jaw slowly dropped, and for a few long moments, the Fenki simply stares down at the blackened knife. Raising her gaze to Marsuveus, her eyes narrow to nearly imperceptible slits, before dropping her gaze back to the knife, simply holding the blade with a distinct scowl.
Expression rapidly darkening, Marsuveus’ voice raised to a snarling roar. “End her, Mariana!”
Teshia glanced back towards her husband for a quick, brief moment, and simply dipped her head in a quiet bow, smiling serenely.
Struck by indecision, Mariana glances back to Teshia once more, before dropping her gaze to the blackened knife blade. She slowly raises her arm, the knife clenched tightly in her paw, gaze lowered, as though stricken internally. Without any further warning, Mariana turns from Teshia, and hurls the blade over the side of the Eagle, the gleaming blade falling without a sound far below. “What kind of memory would I leave him if I spilled blood in his name?” she spoke, as though asking herself, rather than the nightmarish Ynwnn. “He was so like you, you know. Lost by things he couldn’t control. But he changed, he believed in redemption, and I will not tarnish his goodness by giving in to you,” she declared, voice steadily growing, conviction strong and evident.
Marsuveus’ expression faded rapidly from snarling frustration, to simple disbelief. His blackened eyes glittered with the intensity of an explosion rearing to be set off. His right hand, though gloved, began to tremble visibly at his side.
Teshia softly stepped closer, feet padding gently on the worn stone ground, voice gentle and quiet “Do one thing for me, Marsuveus…”
The great Ynwnn’s massive frame trembled, spasming a full three seconds before any semblance of control took over. His hand trembled and twitched at his side, as though the shadows underneath were tossing and turning. “What is that, human?” he spat, voice venom.
Smiling serenely, Teshia calmly stepped forwards once again. “Kneel.”
Marsuveus slowly looked down at the much small frame of the human before him. “I will die first,” he spit.
“You will die if you do not, Marsu,” Teshia replied, voice as gentle as a summer breeze.
“You will die first, human!” Marsuveus roared, voice primal and animalistic, hot breath beating at Teshia’s face.
The Ylian standing before the terrible Ynwnn sighed softly, and dropped her gaze. “Will you give me nothing in return for all the pain you have caused, Marsu? One simple moment?”
Marsuveus slowly stepped closer, his marred and tattooed face merely inches from Teshia’s. His eyes flashed true black, dark as blackest midnight, and his voice spoke as though coming up from a great depth., trembling in unison with his body, and hand. “The ring, Teshia.”
Teshia raised her gaze once more, meeting Marsuveus’ lifeless gaze with a serene, slow smile. “Kneel, Marsu,” she spoke. “Take my gift.”
Slowly, as though his very body rebelled at the action, the great Ynwnn slowly began to bend at his knees, lowering his massive frame slowly. A faint glimmer of brown began to take a hopeful hold in his eyes, and the dark figure’s body continued to lower. As though every muscle and every nerve in his body repelled the action, the Ynwnn dropped his gaze, as his knee slowly touched the ground.
Teshia drew a deep breath, and slowly reached out, taking a hold of the terribly maimed face of the Ynwnn, cupping it tenderly in both of her hands, holding it delicately, as though afraid to break it.
At Teshia’s touch, Marsuveus froze, as though rooted to the spot. The faint seeping of brown in his eyes slowly grew to a deepened, soft brown, nearly pushing the last tendrils of black from the Ynwnn’s lifeless eyes.
The two Enkidukai looked on, quietly, watching the interactions with fascination. The Menki slowly stepped forward, a mere pace or two behind his wife, and looked down at the Ynwnn, pity evident in his eyes.
Teshia smiled, gently, as her fingers gently traced the various scars and tattoos marring the great Ynnwn’s face. “What do you see, Marsu?” she asks, voice a soft whispers.
Marsuveus’ breath leaves him in a soft, long gasp, and he drops his gaze, as though warring internally. “L…Light..” he slowly says, voice strangled, caught in a place between softness, and harsh spite. As though unaware, the Ynwnn makes no reaction or movement to the paw of the Menki which now rests on his shoulder.
“Mariana,” Caraick said. “Come.” Teshia smiled gently, trusting her husband to address Mariana, while she gently held the Ynwnn’s head in her hands, continuing to tenderly trace his various scars.
Mariana slowly stepped nearer, though raised her paws, a brief flicker of compassion passing through her eyes. “I-I can’t..” she says, paw hovering over the Ynwnn’s shoulder, without making contact.
Teshia smiled serenely, her gaze still directed down at the Ynwnn in her arms. “Let it go, Mariana. You must.”
The Enkidukai reluctantly, and slowly lowered her paw onto the Ynwnn’s shoulder, turning her face away from the scene, and clenching her eyes shut. Teshia leaned forward, slowly, and gently brushed her lips against the Ynnwn’s forehead, just as the scarred figure spoke, without raising his head. “H…Heal.. me,” he said, slowly, voice a strangled, layered whisper.
The Ynwnn closed his eyes shut, his head bowed in Teshia’s hands as a bright Crystal glow began to flow from the Ylian’s hand, against Marsuveus’ face. The blackened ring around Teshia’s hand began to vibrate violently, and a slowly stream of white energy seeped out of the ring, mirroring a black smoky substance that continued to exit from above the Ynnwn, increasing as the energy strengthened from the Ynwnn.
Teshia closed her eyes, but augmented the energy flowing into the Ynwnn, tears rolling freely down her face. “Marsu….Marsu…” she whispered, painfully.
Marsuveus appeared as though one transfigured, his arms straight out at his sides, and his head raised back. The black smoke poured from his body, seeming to be exchanging with the increasing amount of white energy emitted from the ring around Teshia’s hand.
A small, dull concussive sound escaped from the ring, as a ring of white smoke curled around the Ynwnn’s face, out of the ring. The last of the black smoky substance poured from the Ynnwn’s mouth, and slowly disappeared into the blackened ring around Teshia’s hand, which vibrated once more, then was still.
Caraick and Mariana watched, the Menki’s vision blurred with unshed tears, and the Fenki’s with amazement. They slowly raised their paws from the Ynwnn as the last of the energy dissipated, and stepped back, in unison.
Teshia gasped, looking down at the Ynwnn, dropping her hands to her lap. “Marsu…”
Marsuveus fell forwards, slowly, regaining his breath in a sharp, deep gasp. The Ynwnn appeared like a man allowed to breath freely for the first time, and took several deep, shaky breaths, head lowered, and eyes closed. Slowly, but surely, the great Ynwnn began to rise to his feet, his head still lowered, and eyes narrowed so far as to be shut.
Trembling slightly, Teshia slowly looked up at the Ynwnn, who seemed a shade of his former self, his body seemingly reduced from its former nightmarish bulk. “Marsu…. Are you with me?”
The Ynnwn slowly raised a hand towards Teshia, his tattoos faded visibly, and offered it to the Ylian, who sat with her gaze lowered. Teshia slowly reached up, and takes a hold of his fingers, looking up towards the Ynwnn’s eyes, almost hopefully.
Soft, gentle brown eyes greeted Teshia’s inquisitive gaze, devoid of any hint or shade of black. Their owner slowly looked down to Teshia, and offered an expression so pure, so genuine, as to extract tears from its owner. A smile.
The Ylian chokes back a sob, and slowly pulls herself up with the Ynnwn’s help. “Be free…” she says, voice quiet. She trembles slightly, under the emotional strain, and the toil from the magical efforts. “Caraick….Mariana…” she says, to the two standing behind her.
Caraick slowly stepped forward, nearer to his wife, ready to offer support should she need it. Mariana watched warily, her eyes wide, though she remains at a close distance.
Teshia looked deeply into the Ynwnn’s eyes, holding onto Marsuveus’ hand, warm flesh, alive to the touch, greeting her grasp. “Wh…What will you do now?” she asked, softly.
Marsuveus stood quietly, his eyes glittering in soft and silent thought. Slowly, the Ynwnn looked past the Ylian, towards the Fenki, standing on her perch, wary. “I took something of yours, Mariana..” he said, voice reluctant, and sad.
Teshia reached back for her husband’s paw, tears still flowing freely down her cheeks, gaze downcast, content to simply listen.
“Teshia… Let me do this.. Please,” the Ynwnn said, slowly. “He could return, would the Lady but have one to take his place.” His gaze flickers briefly to Mariana, then back at Teshia, soft brown eyes softened by pain, and sorrow. “I know….it cannot all be taken back… But let me…have this.”
Teshia spoke without looking up, tears still streaming steadily down her cheeks, gripping her husband’s paw tightly, as though holding on for dear life. “You are a free man, Marsu. Free to live as you choose…Or die as you choose.”
The Ynwnn slowly stepped forward, and reached out for Teshia’s hand. “Remember me….Like…this?” he asked, voice strangled, and shaking in sorrow.
Teshia slipped her hand from her husband’s gentle grasp, and took Marsuveus’ hand gently in both of hers. “One cannot love the rainbow without respecting the storm.”
Marsuveus slowly began to step backwards, his warm hand slipping from Teshia’s hand lingeringly. The Ynnwn smiled softly, as his steps carried him to the edge of the Eagle, a small shower of rocks falling from the great precipice.
Teshia reached back again for her husband’s paw, gripping it tightly. “Never give up hope, Marsu.”
“There is always hope,” came the quiet reply from Marsuveus. “Live well, Teshia. Live as a light.”
The Ynwnn closed his eyes, spread his arms, and slowly leaned back, still smiling. His cloak billowed around him in the wind as his body fell from the great Eagle, almost in slow motion. Teshia let out a strangled sob, and rushed to the edge of the Eagle, tears staining her face, as she watched Marsuveus’s smiling face, even as he fell.
A new sound, never before heard from the Ynwnn, escaped from his throat, as though kept within for a thousand years.
A laugh. Light, and clear.
