[centre][img]https://i.imgur.com/qNmApkD.jpg?1[/img][/centre]

The cityfolk of the Upper Azumai, it is rather safe to say, were not too fond of death. At the heart of everything they did and were lay the constant need to savour all that life held - in many ways, it was a desperate race, a constant endeavour to uncover life's joys and pleasures and taste each and every one. A life well lived, after all, is a life enjoyed to the full. The ancients had declared - and the ancients were in all ways wise - that [i]the eye of death can never bring such joy[/i]; when the ghouls consumed your husk at last all happiness was come to an end. And so those cityfolk of the Upper Azumai, as though to prove that ancient declaration true, all sang with a collective spirit: [i]before we'll let that Dead-eye drag us low, we'll perish in the wine cup's afterglow![/i]

The Shade, a deepborn spirit of ink and dirge, had distantly noted the region as it flowed in the sunlit empyrean high above the strange world it had been birthed into. Basking in the mesmerising song of the flowing clouds against the strikes of the sunrays, only the premonition of a truly wondrous song and dance could hope to tear the Shade from such exquisite sight and sound - and the song and dance that reverberated from this small valley nestled away amidst the mountains of the northwestern Hreelcii was just that. And so the song-gripped Shade descended from the coloured heavens and congealed into a swirling ink blot that streaked across the skies and took in the artistic geography of the region - and why, there was a richness to it! This was a land that reverberated with an unstilling song; here, it was all too clear, was a place where the eye of art knew no sleep.

Countless tributaries gushed down from the forested hills and mountaintops into the verdant valley, and there the hushed song of the flowing waters mingled and intermixed into the mighty Azumai; whose song encompassed the whole valley and called to the far mountains and crooned at the rolling skies. And from those skies came squealing zephyrs, their laughter ringing everywhere as they brushed the tops of trees and rained kisses and flirtatious words down; and the trees giggled and sighed and brought their leaves and branches about them in embarrassment and pleasure. All about the great valley forests gave way to bare plains, which then again gave way to jungle and more forest, which gave way here and there to wetland. And at the heart of it all was the great Azumai that snaked its way from the far mountains, through the valley, and to the sea; where it formed up into a complex delta and poured its waters and sediment into a bay of not inconsiderable size.

And there was life aplenty here - that, the airborne Shade could hear. The grasslands were home to herds of strange bovines boasting hides of sharp quills and to sheep that leapt to absurd height; and here and there a flame-headed deer could be spied dashing across the plains and between the hills. The wetlands and the jungles alike were home to all manner of deers and monkeys and blinking leeoli wisps; and there were big cats here and so too on the plains, though no creature could boast the size and magnificence of the winged leons that stalked the grasslands all across the valley. Where verdant hills gave way to rock and mountain, the Shade could hear the lazy, bubbling song of the rock-eating salamander. The shade sighed, a small sound bubbling through its form and escaping into the whirling worldsong in the form of a moan. It rippled gently yet powerfully through all things, brushing and embracing the song of the butterflies and the bees, wetland and jungle snakes, and the jaguars lazing in the trees. Here and there it went breezing by tapirs and tatous slumbering peacefully beneath their armour. Gorillas sat in the thick jungle undergrowth turned their heads, blowing their lips out at the song that tickled their spirits, and great crocodilians bathing on the riverbanks and drifting in the great Azumai drew open their reptilian eyes momentarily before closing them again. Herds of [url=https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/693584085184151592/693586184022130688/land_shark_by_milkyliu_d7cputv-fullview.jpg]hammerhead landsharks[/url] that lazed in and around the Azumai and in the wetlands, as well as packs of [url=https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/693584085184151592/693586183065698384/dbdkhkw-2c3efecb-ab70-437a-9d45-1ac159e39f63.jpg]their smaller wolflike cousins[/url], observed the passing of the rippling moan with dull resignation and energetic yapping respectively. Falcons and kestrels screeched in union with the flowing song, and high above the glorious harpy eagle rose and rode the canvass of the skies alongside the gentle wave of soulsound.

And yet it was not this life, alone, and the vibrance of the worldsong emanating from it all, that drew the song-lured, deepborn Shade - for it had flowed in the deeps of the world and heard the song of all that dwelled beneath the waves; endless corals teeming with melody, rumbling with canorous song, pulsing and rippling and bursting with musical vitality. Those living things above the ocean waves were beautiful, of that there was no doubt, but they could not hope to match those of the deeps for sheer volume of life. Though be that as it may, the song of the shrimp and the song of the termite alike were a wonder to behold; and beneath the waves or above them was the worldsong a thing to shake and waken souls slumbering in the depths of unsweet, suffocating nescience.

No, it was not the taut strains of the hunting jaguar that drew the Shade, or the nervous airs of the dashing mara in the grass; but it was the collective song emanating from the sapients dwelling here. It was an exquisite, deeply rooted thing, refined over unknown aeons by generation after generation of feasters and revellers and singers and dancers, generation upon generation of inkweavers and performers and musicians. Oh it was a song that constantly praised and saluted the endless beauty of life and clung to the joys contained in that too-often tragic and swift-fleeing thing; a song that hailed the coming of dawn with the sunrays and wept for their passing away when the hand of dusk carried those prancing things into the gaping maw of night.

The Shade slowed in its descent, sighing past solitary branches and congealing at the bank of the great river, where the moans of the flow welcomed the shade of ink & melody. But at that very moment it was no more a shade, but a dark humanoid of broadly masculine form whose surface was a gently shifting kaleidoscope of colours. 

The Shade looked around, and found that it had landed amidst a motley band resting beneath the tree, who were staring at the Shade with great wide eyes. They were all disheveled, with long wild hair that reached their shoulders. Some wore pieces of cloth on their heads, kept there by a string of grass, while others had timeworn rags rapped about their foreheads with tufts of hair spilling out above and below. A few had straw sandals on their feet, though most of them were barefoot, and beside a loincloth or shoddy kilt they were largely unclothed. While the majority were seated, there was one man with small bells wrapped about his wrists and ankles standing. Each of them held an instrument of one sort or another - stringed instruments, drums, cymbals, flutes. 
A few tense moments passed, and no one moved or made a sound, and so an inky hand reached forth and pried a tiny [url=https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1814/0429/products/plucked-strings-others-dotara-deluxe-bass-dark-purple-1263903703081.jpg?v=1575933204]two-stringed instrument[/url] from the hands of one of the frozen men. It plucked one string, paused, then plucked the other. Tremors of colour swept through the Shade, and there was a giggle as bright eyes widened and looked at the men gathered about. The Shade kicked the earth and brought the instrument to bear, and its liquid hand swept across the strings to weave into being a high-pitched strumming that brought immediate energy to all those gathered around. Their fear and confusion was immediately swept aside, cymbals sounded and drums were beaten; and alongside that one of the men began to speak slowly and melodiously.

[centre]'Oh how fantastic
weere the olden daaays.
Oh how fantastic
weere the olden daaays.'[/centre]

Then the single standing man began to move, slowly at first. With his movements, the speaker's words became more melodious and transitioned into a dance song. The dancer beat the earth and shook his hands, his bells ringing high and true and his hair spinning beneath the singing sunrays. And the Shade beat its feet against the earth too and swayed with the rise and fall of the singer's voice, strumming the two strings in union with the growing song and dance. And the singer was joined in song by the dancer, and each of the musicians began singing too so that the melody swirled and blossomed before them all.

[centre][youtube]https://youtu.be/M-1IGEigyq0[/youtube]

Oh how fantastic
weere the olden daaays!
Oh how we frolicked
with the bright sunraaays,
there in the city where the priestmage praaays.
There we once sang out with the god that swaaays!
Oh how fantastic
weere the olden daaays!

The journey homeward
split us on our waaays,
there on the boat home
singing of bluejaaays.
And then the thunders joined our flowing laaays
and jealous raindrops leapt to join the spraaays!
Oh how fantastic
weere the olden daays!

Oh that cruel mem'ry
trapped me in its maaaze
And all day I think
of those far off daaays;
The city's gone now, never on my gaaaze
Oh bring that joy now, rid me of this craaaze!
Oh how fantastic
weere the olden daaays!'[/centre]

As the song rose and the dancer intensified his movements, he began to move off, spinning and dancing his way along a beaten path on the riverbank. The others rose too and went dancing after him, clanging their cymbals and beating their drums still, sending their voices out to the wide heavens. The Shade leapt after them too, his fingers dancing still across the two strings. And they went on like that, unstilling and untiring, for hours; until at last they reached a gathered crowd and silence fell upon them. 

The crowd parted and made way as they trundled through, and they found that everyone was gathered about a strange woman, smiling while tears flowed from her eyes. In one hand she held a one-stringed instrument, not dissimilar to one held by a member of the Shade's motley band, and at her side was a small drum. She was strumming the instrument, and from time to time moved her feet here and there and walked about and spun slowly so that the bells about her ankles shifted and clanged and her great ankle-length dreadlocks spun around her as though they were the far-flung arms of the cosmos and she its heart.

[centre][img]https://i.imgur.com/u9lUivZ.png?1[/img]

[i]At the Heart of the Cosmos[/i][/centre]

She stopped and her eyes fell upon the tall Shade of shifting colour, eddying melodies sloughing off of it and whirling into nothingness away. She trembled on seeing it and seemed unable to look on it for long, however, though the song that emanated from the Shade seemed to inspire her to heightened fervour and an intensity of tears. 

[centre][youtube]https://youtu.be/tNh2kjmSzPw[/youtube]
[sup][i]Parvathy Baul sings a love song to Krishna, Kabir Project Sep. 2011[/i][/sup]

[i]Place your love deep, for a few days,
Deep in your secret heart,
And don't misspeak a word or phrase
Of love for Hulaiya;
Speak in hints, with mystery praise
So none may hear or know.[/i]

When your heartpond stirs with mem'ry
And tears fill up your eyes
Go and run barefoot in the grass
And take your fill of skies;
Spark a flame when night arrives
And watch smoke surge and rise.

[i]Place your love deep, for a few days,
Deep in your secret heart,
And don't misspeak a word or phrase
Of love for Hulaiya;
Speak in hints, with mystery praise
So none may hear or know.[/i]

Go wade in Hulaiya's river,
Bathe to your heart's content;
But while you swim take extra care
That your clothes not get drenched!
Take joy and drench yourself in her
But why get your clothes wet?

[i]Place your love deep, for a few days,
Deep in your secret heart,
And don't misspeak a word or phrase
Of love for Hulaiya;
Speak in hints, with mystery praise
So none may hear or know.[/i]

And if you have packed for travel
And are going away,
When people ask 'where do you go?'
Don't be too quick to say!
For if you will be going north
Point south and say, 'that way!'

[i]Place your love deep, for a few days,
Deep in your secret heart,
And don't misspeak a word or phrase
Of love for Hulaiya;
Speak in hints, with mystery praise
So none may hear or know.[/i]

You may have drunk the beers of spring
And beers of Fenn'hamel,
But here's a song that lovers sing
Its wines they alone drink.
How can the ones with broken wings
And dry hearts understand?

[i]Place your love deep, for a few days,
Deep in your secret heart,
And don't misspeak a word or phrase
Of love for Hulaiya;
Speak in hints, with mystery praise
So none may hear or know.[/i][sup]1[/sup][/centre]

She continued to strum her strange instrument and beat her drum for a few moments after the last verse left her lips, and then she spread her arms wide and began to turn slowly, causing the bells at her feet to release a great cacophony of sound. The sound of bells mingled with the continued strumming of the one string, and the tearful woman raised her head skyward and let out a melodious pained cry that rose and fell as he spinning grew faster and faster and her great dreads of hair spread further and further.

The Shade trembled and moaned as the spinning grew faster and the strumming quicker and the bells louder and louder yet, beginning to strum at its instrument too. Her cry rose and her spinning reached a climactic constant that caused the world to seemingly erupt when she came to a sudden halt, facing the Shade, and all sound ceased at once. The memory of the awesome sound and the jarring enormity of the silence seemed to mix at once, and the Shade let out a sob and fell to its knees before her, prostrating itself low.

It was only then, when the world had fallen silent and the spell of the song was finally broken, that everyone gathered took a moment to register the odd being among them, giving it a wide berth. There were murmurs, and then the word 'itralla' was mentioned, causing fear to blossom in their hearts and songs. Sticks were brought to bear against the Shade by some, others turned about and put distance between themselves and the strange beast, and others yet - dishevelled and with instruments at hand - looked on with a mixture of curiosity and bemusement. Some of those the Shade had danced and sung with raised their voices in protest, but it did not stop the sticks from landing on its inky form and its melodious cry of pain and fear to rise.

As the blows landed again and again, the Shade looked up at the woman who had been singing. She was observing it with distant eyes, her song now flaring and now quieting. She stepped forward at long last, reprimanding those who beat the Shade.

'But [i]adi[/i] Rinaas, if we let this itralla free it consume entire villages and towns and cities!' One of them protested.

'And if he could consume entire villages and towns and cities, what is stopping him from consuming you who have humiliated him?' Came her question. 'Do you think your sticks have beat him down? Your shouts and growls and frightful frown?' She sang. 

'Yes [i]adi[/i] Rinaas, you must be right!' One of them said, nodding vigorously, 'maybe the sticks and the frowns did it, and when you danced as well that made it cry and fall down! The itralla hate joy!'
'And they hate the Hulaiya's light!' One of them added, pointing at the sun, 'that's why we always light the fires at night!'

'Then consider this, my zealous friend, and mend your way - why is he out among us here if he fears day?' Rinaas sang, her eyes growing distant as her voice gave way to the tune. The members of the impromptu lynch mob frowned at one another, and a few of them mumbled something incoherent and moved off.

'So...' one of those remaining said with brows furrowed in thought, 'this itralla must be especially dangerous because it doesn't fear the light,' he looked down at the Shade and shook his head at it, 'it's good we caught it before it attacked a village.' A few of the others nodded with varying levels of enthusiasm, and the Shade whimpered as the sticks began landing again.

'And would great Hulaiya let evil dwell beneath her sky? Does not corruption cry in pain before her glare and die? So if it walks among us here the reason's one of twain - it may be something good, so then why should you cause it pain? Or it may be Evil great that not even light can tame - think what will be of you, who brought such Evil pain and shame!' The lynchers looked at the Shade with sudden fear and took a few steps back.

'O- oh! F- forgive us!' One shouted, and then joined those who had chosen to wordlessly flee. Rinaas watched them go with an absent-minded smile, and then she turned back to the Shade and extended her hands to i- [i]him[/i]. The Shade looked up at her, the little rays that had passed for eyes until now forming up and shifting until there were defined eye-lids and inky lashes, and within them chromatic irises formed and pale sclerae. He took her extended hands in his and placed his forehead upon them in humility and submission to the mistress of lovelorn song and dance, and where he touched her ink slipped and flowed into her, twisting and curling across her arms and neck before concentrating in a tiny spot at the centre of her forehead, just above her brow. There, it formed into the shape of an [url=https://i.imgur.com/yuUwekq.jpg?3]extended hand[/url].

The woman looked down at him for a few moments more, and then she gripped his hands and pulled him up, and he rose as she bid him and he looked once more into her face - it was not aged, but the creases here and there betrayed that youth had long passed, and the odd streak of white in her dreads sang lowly that the white wave was soon to sweep the black shore for eventide. And yet, for all the death of youth, did the Shade find the resplendence of beauty all in her, and he wept some ink tears and bowed his head once more.

'What is your name, fellow songknower?' She asked him. The Shade brought a finger to where a mouth should have been, and where his finger touched lips formed up and he took a breath, then sighed.
'Mi- mistress,' he trembled, the words coming heavy, 'I- I don't kn- know.'
'Then I will call you Ganisundur, Beautiful Song,' she told him. A smile spread across his newly formed lips and he bowed his head.

'Th- thank you... ah, [i]Adirinaas[/i]?' He looked to her questioningly. She laughed - revealing a small gap between her two front teeth - at his confusion, her black eyes twinkling.
'Rinaas [abbr=daughter of]hli[/abbr] Awqar is my name; there should be no titles between friends,' she told him, and he smiled timidly and nodded.

'I- I wish to learn,' his grip tightened on her hands slightly, 'to do as you do.' She smiled widely and freed her hands from his, gesturing to all the others who remained.
'We are all learning, Ganisundur,' she began, and then her words picked up tune - erupting from her as though the mere act of speech broke the dams holding her melodies at bay, 'learning never stops! We walk the way to find and weave all of wisdom's dewdrops. Of arrogance we've purged our hearts and never deign to mock the wisdom of the labourer or worker at the dock; the merchant who comes sailing up the Azumai from far may carry words more valuable than all his riches are, and strangers who come bowing low, seeking to learn our ways, may yet in time teach us to dance and great poetic lays,' and with that she began to walk away; and all those dishevelled young men and women - for, indeed, they were all young and looked upon [i]adi[/i] Rinaas as disciples did upon their master - picked up their instruments and began to follow in tow.

The Shade - now no longer the Shade, but Ganisundur - stared after them for a few moments, and then he picked up the two-stringed instrument he had dropped and went walking after them.


[list][*][hider=Summary][indent][sup]1[/sup] An adaptation of Vipuli Rikhi's translation of [i]Kichhu Din Mone Mone[/i] (For a Few Days), as sung by Parvathy Baul.[/indent]
The Deepborn Spirit of Ink & Dirge, Meghzaal's avatar, travels over the Hreelcii Isles and is attracted to go down and explore it by the beautiful song being emitted by the sapient inhabitants of the Upper Azumai. On descending, he comes across a dishevelled band of travelling musicians and, after some initial fear, they go off singing and dancing together. In time they come across a great mystical singer and dancer, called Rinaas, who has a great following of disciples. She sings and dances before a great mixed group of people, and when she is done they notice the Shade. Some believe it to be a creature known as an itralla and try to beat it with sticks, but Rinaas eventually sees them off. The Spirit converses with Rinaas, who completely assumes his gender and gives him the name Ganisundur, meaning Beautiful Song. He makes known his desire to learn from her, and she more or less - in so many words - accepts him into her band. Then they all set off.[/hider]
[*][hider=Might]| 4MP and 1DP | 1MP & 3DP towards Wards | 1MP towards Puppetry | 2DP towards Acting | 2DP towards Inspiration | Next Domain: Art |

1 DP to Consecrate Rinaas as a Hero
[indent]Of the Open Hand I: The tattoo of the Hand of Ink & Poetry, downside up, lies between this person's brows; alongside the other powers of the hand, her one also protects all those who hear her song from violence or harm and physical harm. The effect of this weakens quickly after her song is over. (+1 to Wards)[/indent]
3 MP to claim the Wards portfolio.

| 1MP and 0DP | 1MP towards Puppetry | 2DP towards Acting | 2DP towards Inspiration | Next Domain: Art |[/hider]
[*][hider=Prestige]+5 Points to Rinas hli Awqar (~22,000 chars.)[/hider][/list]