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Dudrina O’ Tinyssos
Curu Nulema*
It'll never work
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3 years afore Lord Ninthalor’s ascension
And the start of the First Era
The massive six-island complex of Cydonia Cazan,
Coal Isle,
Urma Port
(Only port facing the gargantuan Nasto Cas** Gulf of North Mistland
over the Unknown Ocean)
>
> * A mage’s pupil had the tutor’s name incorporated into her/his name. The word Curu translated as -a witchcraft practitioner- and old-school wizards used it before their moniker. Here Nulema, which means the Black Sorceress because her school of Magic was considered unsanctioned and delving in the Black Arts which the Coven of Witches shunned and it was later forbidden/banned outright in the Imperium. It was not for her race (A Zilan-Mori) as it was later erroneously believed by many bigoted Zilan historians.
>
> ** Pro-Imperial language still used by the Aken, translated -Beast’s Head Gulf
[https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7vswhcN0VExD7aUkS4MtQy6O9drk-gaQuxHReTYUwhrkqsodkcHrT0AZN5hLRKNNvUkejdgMyIAQGWfIg4zTI9qW15NmmnqwolOBGfyhyR3Ds7Lb5Y39jejyUsAsz8lvOTH3nJbYcpB9Yj3puQv_C96eiDrt5fgeyZxNoLSsVG2-WFEV0eIlnxDlWg3g/s3373/Kaletha%20Triarchy.jpg]
big map, distances not on scale (for practical reasons - the ocean is much bigger in reality and some things are impossible for any artist to get right which is more on me for making stuff complicated). Right-click to open fully. Mistland isn't part of this saga and the story isn't focused there, but since it's mentioned... there it is a portion of it's northern shores
It wasn’t working, Dudrina thought anxiously and doused the fire with water, the smoke and acid vapors making her eyes tear up. Allhells fire on my tits! She coughed, her throat hurting and lungs burning, and pulled away at first, then ran outside her laboratory to breathe.
Tinyssos found her tearing at her smoking clothes doubled over a bench facing the docks and pale as an old marble.
“I appreciate the offer,” he told her in his raspy voice, long white beard braided with ivory buttons down his dark face. “But I’ve just had lunch with an Aken merchant so I’ll pass.”
Ugh?
Sure.
Dudrina gathered the loose green robes that had presented her naked backside to her tutor but had to stoop again to get a pebble that had lodged between her toes.
So she unwittingly gave him another show.
“Ah, the youth are so eager,” Tinyssos murmured pursing his mouth.
“I was working on the mixture,” Dudrina started her mind on the work she'd left behind, but he stopped her with a sober stab at the ground with his staff.
“I told you to drop it. I have a bad feeling about it,” her tutor admonished her.
“Eh, it's probably the food. Was it shellfish? Anyway, my Gnome started talking,” Dudrina blurted out running after him, as he had turned around and was walking towards their villa again.
“A spell?” Tinyssos asked half-interested, which was his way of showing her the subject she’d picked was dreadfully boring to him.
“The potion,” Dudrina explained and ducked to avoid the backhand the old Zilan-Mori launched at her without looking her way.
“Didn’t I just say to drop it?”
“It worked,” she said rolling away from him, showing a bit more arse in the process. Dudrina had used half her inner tunic as a filtering agent for her brewing. The rest she had forgotten to put on. “I told you!” she yelled after him forcing the older Zilan to stop.
Tinyssos sighed and pursed his mouth again thoughtfully.
“How much?”
“A quarter of the vial used for a healing potion,” she showed him her dirty index finger to help him visualize the size. Tinyssos was lousy with vial sizes and rarely used them believing he could determine the correct amount without guidance.
“Mmm,” Tinyssos murmured while she tried to clean the finger on her robes. Wow, it's like charcoal! “It lives still?” Her tutor asked.
Eh, did I let it out of the lab?
Hmm.
Fuck it.
“Aye.”
“How many days?”
“Three?”
“You need to wait a week, then write down the changes and the added ingredients,” he told her. “So it gave it speech?”
“I think it made it smarter?”
“Can it write?”
“No.”
“Can it sing?”
Who can really?
“Mmm. Nah.”
“Can it read?”
“Eh, no.”
“Does it know that it speaks?”
Dudrina licked the front of her teeth unsure. “Ahm, I think so?”
“Come back in a week, I’ll look into it myself,” Tinyssos told her. They had reached their villa’s front gates and walked through them. A Gish slave ran fast to notify them they had visitors.
Ouch. Right on the nostrils.
Dudrina helped the Gish up as Tinyssos backhand hadn’t missed this time and cleaned his split lip with the help of her increasingly dirtier robes.
“You’ve let them in?” Tinyssos grunted. “In my house!” He started chanting under his breath and she rushed to calm him down. “Step aside pupil!” He blasted her hoarsely. “Just yesterday I chased that bastard thieving kid Nulanos out of a window! This is why you are not accepted in the Coven,” he continued, smacking the Gish upside the head once with his staff, swinging it behind her back. Dudrina grabbed his arm and got slapped in the face for her troubles. “Other than that you are right stupid sometimes! You’ll defend him?”
“Just hear him out,” Dudrina croaked her ears ringing and her mouth tasting like a sewer. Which was strange since she hadn’t chewed on anything too nasty since the other day.
Or had she?
Hmm.
“Raza Sapthan is here master,” Drolix said in his funny accent. “He walked in with the Elderblood.”
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“What?” Tinyssos snapped in shock. “You should have told me immediately!” He shoved her out of the way and rushed inside lifting his robes with a hand not to trip on them on the three steps before the entrance.
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Dudrina had taken a moment to clean herself up some, slapped at her robes to get the nastier stuff out, which made it worse, and crushed a flower to rub her face and armpits with it. Drolix stared at the jingling full breasts as she worked on them. Her body was full of intricate tattoos of power words and protective drawings she had made herself, so they were relatively accurate. She could visit a professional but it was expensive, the talk ended in a trade of sorts, which meant all sex and no painting in the end.
Not her fault.
“They are black,” the Gish said with that creepy smile he had on when he was aroused.
Eh, dark caramel but sure buddy.
“It’s just a skin color,” she explained not bothered by his ogling stare. “Like humans have red hair or blond.”
“No black skin though,” Drolix said and picked up another flower for her. “You still smell,” he explained.
Bad he meant.
He was being nice.
Aww.
“Coal Isle,” she told him and stooped to gather a bit of the rich black soil before the stairs. “For the mountain, for its soil and its Spirits of the earth.”
“It’s rare,” Drolix told her impressed and she shrugged her shoulders.
“Not really according to our visitor,” she’d answered him afore heading inside, fixing her messy black hair as best she could.
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This is the handsomest Zilan that had ever graced this witch’s path, she thought her gaze kept low, but also kept the nicely dressed, gorgeous male specimen in her peripheral view, which was a skill she'd learned from a wild deer.
Until Raza spotted her that is.
“Dudrina,” he said in his whispery voice. “You’ve grown.”
For centuries but thanks?
“She’s very skilled,” Tinyssos admitted glancing her way. Dudrina gathered her very dirty toes into her worn sandals to hide them. “I’m doing all I can master.”
“Hmm,” Raza said, his cold washed-out green eyes –the color of dying grass- staying on her appreciatively. Then noticing her interest was elsewhere he frowned. “Unclothe yourself,” he ordered. “You shouldn’t wear a mage’s robes, if you are not ordained yet.”
Dudrina gulped down nervously but got rid of her robes fast.
“She’s dirty as a pig rolling in the shit,” Raza commented. “Smells as one too, though I sense other odors in the mix. What are you working on child?”
“Nothing,” Tinyssos intervened blinking once at her nakedness as if it was her fault. Dudrina glanced at the handsome Zilan hopefully but he was clearly not interested.
“You’ll finish what you started,” Raza told her. “And bring it to him. He’ll know if it works and then you’ll know as well.”
“Of course, Master Raza,” Dudrina replied dutifully.
“Come here.”
She approached him slowly and Raza reached to cup her breast. Worked on it for a while staring at her uncomfortable but watching tutor.
Raza knew how to work a nipple. There's skill and then there are professionals.
“The Patriarch had enough with the Triarchy of Kaletha,” he told him.
“Who are they exactly?” Tinyssos asked unsure.
“Matter’s little,” Raza cut him off and worked his hand down her flat stomach. Played with the agate gem on her navel appreciatively for a moment afore continuing. Every girl needs one piece of jewellery at least. “By the time they finish with them, Ikete, Sessi, and Irde would be unlivable, or gone. Good riddance. It’ll also make you lot special… in a sense.”
“That sounds rather terminal,” Tinyssos commented unsure how to take the information. No one had traveled as far as Raza, nor had seen as much.
“In the meantime, we’ll have another system here, more organized,” Raza continued working his fingers into her moist folds, which she didn't expect but had to pause again his explanation after he’d extracted his digit to bring it to his mouth in order to slurp at the juices. Goddess help him. He grimaced and smacked his lips. “Still, better than an Aken,” he praised her sort of. Dudrina wanted to pee badly, but she held it in, her left leg shaking a little. “This system Sintoriela has in mind is rather restricting for me. The king will be more accommodating.”
“Can’t you order her to comply? She’s your student,” Tinyssos argued.
“Not really and not since her beginnings which is what counts. She’s reluctant on some elementary stuff. Weak-willed, dreamy, and too sentimental. It’ll create a record also and I’ve my reservations there as well. You never know who might read what after stumbling on it in the dark a couple of years down the line. Or a thousand.”
“I wouldn’t describe her that way.”
“You’re a coward so you’re easily intimidated,” Raza replied indifferently. “Your student isn’t,” he said looking at her. “You’ll do well Dudrina. You keep pushing them fancier cunts and not back down. Finish what you started, and credit it to him if they give you too much trouble. You’ll be fine.”
Tinyssos made to argue but he stopped him grabbing at his mouth with the hand he’d used to dig into her loins. The mage protested with muffled cries at the abuse and Raza let him go, her tutor’s lip split by his large steel ring with the razor protrusions.
She hadn’t noticed it on his middle finger.
“You’re bleeding,” Raza elucidated and she felt blood trickling down the inside of her thighs. What in allhells? “But you took it all without noticing, do you want to know why?” He asked as she stumbled back, the ache in her sensitive area sharp like she’d stuck a knife in there.
Ouch.
“An Illusion,” Dudrina croaked in shock and hurting, but not so much as not to ask. “How?”
“Elementary stuff,” Raza explained. Pompous fuck. “I can have you live inside your mind as a rabbit and you wouldn’t know, or put you in a hole and you’ll dream of being in the jungle singing with the monkeys.”
Dudrina gulped down nervously.
“He’s the finest creation the Patriarch had ever seen,” he explained. “Made by a like-minded individual that thought he was building something else, afore I took over and finished it for him since the artisan died on the job in a manner of speaking. So you can also say the male you so crave is a half-orphan now. I did it as a test.”
“What do you mean?” she asked intrigued because Dudrina was such a person and Raza smiled pleased with her curiosity.
Just don't give me another finger.
“The Patriarch never knew what it was,” Raza explained. “It was such a pleasure watching them getting outplayed in their own game, I fucked a Matriarch that night. Almost died in the attempt, which was fortunate since in my death throes I had this vision,” Raza continued pausing to glance at the Zilan watching them indifferently. “If you die in Galith their elders say,” he pressed his mouth tight turning his eyes on her. “You are allowed to interact with the living as long as Eatoth gives permission. Their Elders do it, bring shards of souls back to bind them into their constructs. Dogs on a leash, what happens if the leash breaks?”
“You talk of dark gods and foul arts Raza,” Tinyssos said anxiously. “You’ll bring bad luck on us.”
“Don’t be an idiot atop of a coward, you can see the gnome’s games from a mile away and avoid them,” Raza admonished him. “Turn it in your favor even. All you need is skill and paying some god-darn attention! Plus you’re missing the point, right girl?”
Dudrina winced, a hand between her legs where he’d cut her to stop the bleeding.
“A Lich is partially free, but is more a demon than a person, un-whole, forever cursed and un-living,” she said through her teeth and he stood back, a tall Zilan, over a head taller than her but nowhere near as tall as the Aken.
“Why?”
“It has no physical body and if it finds one, it won’t be its original or a close copy.”
“On the inside,” Raza added.
She nodded.
Can I have a healing potion now?
Stitches?
“The body won’t hold and it’ll break down eventually, continue dying after the Lich’s magic is exhausted. You can’t remake the same person without all its parts. As you said a soul shard will forever be missing along the proper body. Its thread held by Eatoth in the Between Realms,” Dudrina said since she was pretty good on all topics.
“You’re paying attention,” Raza seemed pleased.
“Not always,” she admitted with a grimace of pain.
“Dudrina!” Tinyssos barked angrily.
What?
“Does the God let go?” she asked the Traveler and he smiled a gnarly smile.
“When the soul moves over eventually, Eatoth loses interest and lets us go,” he revealed. “It’s a tiny light, it flickers out of existence in a sea of darkness with many other tiny lights, easy to miss and then you’re free.”
Eh, that is nowhere near as simple as you make it sound.
“And fully dead,” Dudrina argued and the edge of Raza’s mouth crooked upwards lightly in something that was either a smirk or a sneer.
Nah, it'll never work. How do you hide from a god? She wondered intending to look into it after she had healed herself, but she forgot all about it. Then Raza Sapthan would leave them some years later for another one of his journeys after the King’s coronation and no one would ever see him again.
Four hundred years later an Aken that had washed ashore near Lai Zel-Ka would tell them how he died. The King who read the report was more interested in the Aken spreading about on the nearby Plague Isles looking for more recourses. The war that had engulfed their homeland was still raging on and it had split them in factions. The king sent a secret envoy to Galith to demand an explanation from their Council.
The Aken replied in a rather big leather scroll made out of the Envoy’s skin that since their deal was with Raza and he had been conveniently dead for some time now, they had no reason to stay on their side of the ocean. Sure they had no ships, but they could work around that apparently.
As Lord Onas had commented coolly to her six months later when she was visiting Elauthin looking to find sponsors for her work, ‘I guess we’ll fight them for Sibara. We could use a skillful Witch Dudrina, I don’t mind yer color lass. I’ll talk to Lady Edlenn.’
Dudrina had politely declined after a night of passion with the Hoplite leader.
She didn’t care for war but wasn’t about to pass on a member of the Imperial Phalanx.
So Dudrina went back to her Isle to continue her work and Lord Onas had traveled with the Phalanx and the Hallowed of Lord Anfalon to fight the Grand Sire of the Aken in the Plague Isles. The war would drag on for centuries and then the Coven of Witches would join in as well, but by that time Dudrina had stopped paying attention to what was happening in Elauthin.
It wasn’t intentional.
She was dead by an assassin’s hand and all her research and breakthroughs along with that of her Tutors -both of them- left behind in her abandoned villa and underground laboratory, had died with her in a sense.
Lost under a mountain of ashes and a hundred meters of ocean water.
At least.
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