Sung In Blood (Open)

[Water Sleeps]

Cold eastern winds blew as he climbed to the top, his hair dancing wildly like madman's mane. The clouds were black, ladden with a storm ready to be unleashed. Thunder was already starting to rumble in the sky, the whispers of an angry god. The wind chilled to the bone, a dread wind, but the air itself was static with strange hit.

Deimos used a long walking stick to support himself, his every breath weighing heavily on his exhausted lungs. For how long had he fled running across the mountain range, casting glances behind him to see if that horror from the caverns had finally caught up with him? His bones shook at the thought. The mind might be clear of terror, strong as it was, but his soul was weak with fear from the horror his hundreds of foul sorceries had given birth. It had seen too much. The mind and the heart can be made of iron, but the soul will always be fragile.

He had gone beneath the ground in search of power promised to be there. He had not been lied to. But, intentionally or not, he hadn't been told the whole truth either. Things older than man and demon existed there, to guard so that nothing came in.

Or out.

Some died by his sorceries. Others from fell power bestowed to him by his heritage. A few by his sword, the ones that earthly, material weapons could destroy. The rest fled in fear, their sense of duty paling in front of the white-haired sorcerer and the things he unleashed from the world beyond. They fled because they felt dread before him. Or so he thought.

The shapeless horror that came after them could not be fought. It was all Deimos could do to marshall the pieces of his half-mad mind and run out, trying not to scream like a little girl and empty his bladder. He ran like mad across the mountains, slaying a group of bandits on the way and raising their corpses to stall the horror as long as they could. He didn't linger near them to find out what happened to them.

So, now, he reached the top, too tired to keep on running, the stick in his left hand a testament to his exhaustion. Here he would rest, among the tortured sky, where his sorcery would be more powerful. If the horror had indeed followed him, it would find him and fight him here, not in the darkness of a cavern, but on his chosen ground.

[Amaya]

Amaya did not to see the action to know that something was happening. She could feel it. Being the only Konjou Ryuu in the area, and possibly the strongest one if there were more than one alive after the "ruling family" of the spirit dragons had mysteriously died years ago, Amaya sensed that things were not well in her lands. The cold winds whipped through her bound hair and clothing, somehow testifying to the disturbing events taking place. Amaya would not have cared if it was not happening in her lands, and if the powers were far less powerful. At her side, Kenkon rattled in its sheath.

What is it, Kenkon, Amaya mentally asked her sword.

She placed her left hand on Kenkon, as if she was attempting to silence the sword's rattling. Amaya stood there, head turned slightly, as if she was studying what the spirits were telling her. In the end, Amaya made her way towards what may be the source of all the seemingly evil in the air. Amaya did not know who it was, or what powers that person had, but she did know that this person had to be powerful enough to make her feel it where she was now.

Amaya did not like any sort of that power in her lands; Ryuu controlled as they were. She lost her own family to some sort of evil power, Amaya will not have all of her lands and tribes be lost to another type of power.

[Water Sleeps]

The heat soon became staggering. The wind kept blowing, but he could not feel it. His skin felt dry and drained, the blood thick inside his veins. An occasional stab of pain happened behind his eyes from time to time, disturbing his focus. Was the heat rising from inside him? He did not know.

Deimos felt truly afraid. Maybe he should've kept running. He didn't have a heroic bone in him for this kind of situations. The only thing keeping him going was his ambition and greed, desires so intense that outweighed his lack of bravery.

He shook himself awake from his pathetic attempt at concentration and stood up. The moment he did so the smell spirits leave overwhelmed him. It was like burning incense mixed with dry wood and gravegrass. He looked around, hoping to appraise the situation.

Had the bandits he had ressurected caught up with him? No, it couldn't be them. Otherwise the air would've stank with rotting flesh and decomposing tissue. Animated corpses didn't last that long. Especially when they were thrown against arcane, shapeless horrors guarding caverns best left alone and forgotten.

So, it had to be something else. Deimos only had to look down the mountain to find it's source. A woman, with long silver hair and in posession of a sword. A demon? A shaman? Both? Either way, the aura of a spirit summoner or necromancer hanged above her. Maybe she was a traveller. Maybe she was a threat. Only one way to find out.

"You there!" he called at her, bringing the words of a spell to his mind, in case things were going bloody. "Woman! Who sent you here?"

People rarely travelled on their own free will in this land. Unless they were of the ruling class.

And no lady would travel like alone over the mountains now, would she?

[Amaya]

Amaya looked and saw a lone man straggled and struggled over the mountain's curve, a long sword on his back. She felt spirits in the air, perhaps they had resulted from the man she saw now. She posed no threat to him...yet. But to Amaya, the man was a threat to her and her lands. The winds still whipped at her clothing and her hair, Kenkon rattling at her side more urgently. This man, whomever he is, was the source of the reason why Amaya came here in the first place. Upon hearing him yell to her, Amaya turned fully to face him.

"No one sent me," she called back. "I came on my own accord to seek out the source of the spiritual disturbance in my lands!"

Amaya may not look like she was of the ruling class, which was fine with her. But she did have the air of grace about her, which would probably be picked up by one who was smart enough to spot it.

"What matter of creature are you!? You who summon spirits who will do harm!"

[Water Sleeps]

"No one sent me. I came on my own accord to seek out the source of the spiritual disturbance in my lands!" the woman said, anger in her eyes. Well, she should've been insulted. Them nobles ones are too easy to irritate. Getting under their skin is effortless. Even in accidental situations, such as this.

But he could never take her for a leading figure. True, her voice had the weight of one who was used to the authority his words carried, but walking up the mountain alone didn't look very 'royal'. Probably because back west each minor lord came with his entire retinue of armed retainers and armoured to the teeth, even in festivals where people did nothing but drink themselves to death. Here, things were different, it seemed. People didn't want to show their power off, apparently. Which was a nice change.

"What matter of creature are you!? You who summon spirits who will do harm!" she kept saying. Had she smelled the corpses he had animated? Probably. She reeked of spirits as well. Devil's blood, but she was one to talk.

"Your lands, lady? I have barely seen an outpost or an armed patrol in all my days here," he told her "Methinks you'd need to watch your lands more closely" That was contradictory. If she didn't, she wouldn't be in front of him here now, would she? He cursed his stupidity the moment he uttered the words.

Deimos started flexing the fingers of his right hand, discreetly, in case he needed to hurl a spell at her. Hope for the best, prepare for the worse, as people used to say back home. "And I did not disturb anything serious. Just some minor sorcery, nothing to kill yourself over." Should he tell her about the thing hunting him? "The mountains are not safe as it is"

[Amaya]

"There are other youkai tribes who patrol these parts of the Eastern Lands. For many territories of the youkai tribes overlap," Amaya replied. "I am keeping a close watch over my lands. Why else would I be here? For is that not one of the duties of a ruling youkai?"

Amaya knew she had no real claim to speak for the other youkai tribes who's lands overlapped in these parts. Anyone who came from outside of any of the Eastern youkai tribes, for there were several different types of youkai, who were not the bumbling fools, tribes. Amaya knew where those invisible territorial boundaries lay. This one may not.

"As for not disturbing anything serious, minor sorcery may not be something to kill myself over. But if it threatens all of my Ryuu tribes and kinsmen, and the lands they hold..." Amaya shrugged, as if leaving the rest for the man to figure out. "The mountains may not be safe, but do not doubt what I can and cannot content with."

It wasn't a challenge, although it sounded like one. Amaya had no will to do battle with the one who just admitted to doing sorcery, no matter if it was minor or major.

[Water Sleeps]

"The mountains may not be safe, but do not doubt what I can and cannot content with." the woman said. Deimos's didn't doubt her. Messing with one's fiefdom and serfs was usually the quickest way for a man (or woman, in this case) of power to take a dislike (or blade) towards you. Seems that he was heading this way. Adding one more potential enemy to the ever growing list.

I swear, if this keeps going on, one of these days they'll gather in a group and stomp me. BAM, the annoying sorcerer is no more his thoughts drifted. That reminded him also of the thing hunting him. He could not feel or smell it's presence, neither in the air or in the Other and it worried him. Where the hell was it lurking now?

"Listen, lady, whoever you are" he told her "but your mountains are not the bit least safe right now, and I am mostly to blame for it." Once he realised how he said it, he desperately tried to rephrase himself . "Well, not directly responsible. I kind of...accidentaly, of course, unleashed...something...in your mountains..."

He forced a nervous smile up his lips. He could feel the abomination in the Other by then.

[Amaya]

Amaya raised her eyebrows in response to his admission to the unsafe mountains. She did not like how he admitted to making this area of the mountains unsafe, even though he quickly tried to rephrase the statement. Amaya lowered her eyebrows back to their previous position and began to walk towards him in a non-threatening way.

"Directly responsible or not, you are to come with me and undo what you have done," she said in what seemed like a threat.

Amaya could feel something in the air and something unworldly. She didn't like it. Whatever it was, she had to deal with it.