Roleplay in Dolor with Ruby/Balgor attempting to Scry
Balgor makes his way across the lush fields of Dolor, sniffing and breathing deep the fresh, crisp air. The sun is waning in the west, and he continues to contemplate his plight. In his musings, he crests a small hill and sees Ruby at work picking various flora from the grass. "Aaaah, Miss Ruby!" He approaches, a good bounce to his step. "How do you fair this fine evening?"
"I'm good, Balgor, doin' well." She stands, placing her flowers into carefully sized, brown paper packets in her satchel. "You seem cheery today."
"Can't be too cheery. I haven't killed a thing since The Rift!" He smiles broadly, obviously joking. "No, but I have been contemplating a great many things. I have also been wondering...since magic isn't broken here, would you like to glimpse what I glimpse?"
She blinks, closing her satchel slowly. "How do you mean?"
"To see across the stars...to be able to scry from one place to the next. To look through the eyes of a God."
"I..." she trails off, looking out along the horizon, then to the sky. She contemplates this for several long moments. "To have that kind of knowledge... It seems... overwhelming." She looks back, somewhat timidly and scared.
"We can certainly start small. I wouldn't want to overwhelm your mortal mind with the far-seeing that I am capable of. We can look at the state of your homeland, or we can merely see your friends here. We can see The Rift, if you wish. Tell me," he says, eyeing you carefully, "what would you like to see first?"
Her eyes widen, and her hands shake a little. "Can I see... My homeland? Certain people?"
"Why yes, you can. Now what would greatly improve our scrying activity would be if you had a picture of these certain people, a lock of hair, a garment, a document in their handwriting...something by which I may somewhat familiarize myself with them. Have you any of these things?"
Ruby fumbles with her satchel, retrieving a gray notebook bound in soft cloth, and tied with a matching cord. Her hands still trembling, she carefully opens it to the first page. An envelope slips out, and she hands it to Balgor. On the front says, "To Miss Ruby Pennington" in very script-like writing.
"This is from...Luther, my old employer. A letter he wrote me encouraging me to stay the course for him." She mumbles.
"And..." she flips to the last page, tenderly unthreading the binding on the back seam. Once undone, a hidden pocket peeps open revealing a waterproof pouch. She slips this into her hand, then opens it.
"This..." she says as she hands Balgor a fine silver chain necklace, attached to which is a silver, flowery locket, "...Is my mother."
She eyes him imploringly. "Even if I can't see them, can...you tell me if they are safe?"
Balgor smiles kindly at her. "I will let you see them. I will let you see them all. I must warn you, however, Miss Ruby, that you may or may not like what you see. Scrying is a delicate art, and to share it with another requires an even more delicate hand. I am sometimes not the most delicate person in many things, but in this, I have much experience. But I will admit," his smile turns wry, "never before have I shared my scryings with a mortal such as yourself."
Balgor approaches you and studies the trinkets you gave him. Eyeing each one carefully, his eyes turn red. They remain that way for some time as he studies and looks over each item one at a time, carefully, thoughtfully. After a few minutes of silence, the color of his eyes return to normal, and he looks at you, his face an unreadable mask. "A word of warning, Miss Ruby."
She looks nervously at you, her mouth dry.
"I am the God of Slaughter. You may see...images that may...scar your eyes. Because you will be seeing things through my eyes, you will seeing them through my filter of sight. It may not be...comforting at first....It may be frightening and even downright horrid. Because I am allowing you to enter into my mind, you may see some of my...'fondest'...memories. But...in the end, you will see what you have been desiring."
"If..." she licks her lips, thirsty for the knowledge of her loved ones, "If I can see them, and it is indeed real, I...what do I need to do?"
"So brave...so very, very brave..." He comes up close to you, and takes your face in his hands. When you look up at him, his eyes are glowing bright red, and his mouth is slightly open, revealing sharp, snaggled teeth. His voice, though low and in a whisper, is gravelly and dark. "Look into my eyes, and focus there. Do not waver, young one..."
Ruby stands still, hypnotized by his terrifying expression. Her notebook slips from her hand and thuds softly against the grass, unnoticed. She looks hard into his eyes, pining to see...
At first it starts slowly. You are taken across stars and systems of stars as they float across your vision. Then you are taken to this world, but much more ancient. You find yourself as if flying across landscapes, castles, kingdoms, and powers. Your vision seems to swim through the annals of time and space itself, as if moving from one space to the next.
You feel yourself being dragged now this way and that across battlefields, ancient and modern, and you see horrid and gory images of death and slaughter as men fight violently against men in war, or slay one another silently in back alleys, or nobles stabbing one another cruelly in the back. You see scenes of intense violence and unspeakable gore. You hear one voice through it all:
"These are some of my fondest memories..."
Finally, the memories fade away, and you begin to see Alwyn form before your vision. It zooms in on the state of Dewar, toward your mother's villa, inside the villa. You see an older woman sitting at a table with a cold cup of tea, pensive and staring off in the distance.
"That is your mother, is she not?"
"Y-y-yes..." Ruby stutters, tears staining her cheeks. Her body shudders with the overwhelming, overflowing emotions of what she's been seeing; possibly even the slaughter of her friend's families, or their own fierce destructions. She forces her gaze deeper, heart-wrenching as she sees her mother.
Your vision races from there to a large military facility, like an academy or a training facility of sorts. You do not recognize it, but for the Rhenese flags and banners. Inside, you see dozens upon hundreds of new recruits drilling and training. One of the new recruits you recognize instantly, and you gasp, your gut wrenching as you see....
"Do you have a brother?" asks Balgor through the din.
Ruby can't seem to find her voice. She just aches, physically and emotionally. Her head gives the every so slightest of a nod. Mortified, fresh tears come and her fists clench tighter, her nails digging into her flesh. Bright red drops of blood fall to the brilliantly green grass. Shaking, she wills herself to keep to keep looking.
"So very brave..." Balgor's gravelly voice echoes in your mind. "You will see more." The landscape shifts westward to Cyron, to Haven City. You see him, Luther, in a new office, in a new building, chained by his ankles cruelly to a desk. He still wears his top hat, and wears his signature tuxedo. He does not look happy, but he looks determined. He works furiously.
Her eyes widen still, full of hope. "He...he's alive??" She chokes out, her voice cracking. She struggles against the swirling speed of the scrying to take in the chains, the office, the papers on his desk; willing herself to commit everything to memory that she can...so she can find him.
"It is enough," sighs a weary Balgor, and you and he are returned to the Floating Island of Dolor. His face returns to normal, he lets yours go, and he slumps to the ground, weary from the effort.
Ruby's eyes refocus on Balgor's face as he lets her go, seeing the age of what feels like eons etched in his countenance. She claspes to her knees. Shaking terribly from horror and exhaustion, her body racked with sobs. The visions of her family. Of Luther. Of torturous slaughter, blood and gore. She holds her arms tightly, smearing blood, as if trying to hold herself together.