TheEmma

The Realm of Men

Miriam
Chapter 33: The Riders of Red and Black

Something was wrong. Miriam recognized the absolute dark she floated within. She'd been afforded with its suffocating calm several times before, each time forced into it by outside forces and each time she seemed to have been sinking further into its tranquil pitch. This time she was falling, fast. Shot like out of a catapult she soared through the sightless realm of dark like a projectile without a goal. This was different and she knew that it was wrong. She must have said the words wrong, she must have failed in some aspect, she must have forgotten the owl. The bird appeared in front of her then, still within its cage it seemed to fall at her exact speed as her with the same befuddled expression in its large amber eyes. She hadn't seen it before then but now it seemed obvious that'd it would be falling with her. Miriam hoped that wherever she would fall to next would have less wizards, less monsters and more sky. She was wrong on most accounts. Her escape was sudden and forceful, as if someone had hooked onto her like a fish in a stream, and then yanked her out with one fierce tug. She tumbled out of the darkness and recognized the feeling of hitting the stone floor shoulder-first. The clattering sound of her bird-cage followed as the owl as well had been yanked out into this existence. Miriam hoped it was her existence. Voices spoke, men, hoarse, malicious. Their language was not the tongue of the Northlands, in fact it was no language Miriam had heard before. It was vulgar, snappy and throaty but juxtaposed with complex rolls of certain letters. Miriam groaned, after her venture into the Outlands with Walter, after having traversed a dead world and met its monstrous inhabitants, after having been the prisoner of a gigantic fowl when her task had been to acquire a smaller one. All she could do was groan. The voices, there were two of them, spoke again in reply to her sounds. Miriam heard one pick up her bird-cage and the owl she was to get to Valentus hooted viciously, shaking its cage in more wild protest, like it had done so many times in the other world. The second voice picked her up by the collar of her ornate white and red Midway coat. Miriam saw her own body hang and noticed she was no longer glowing white. Her own world then, at least. Then she looked up and had a start. It was a skull that looked back at her. No, she realized, a mask. Miriam had begun to protest and shake, giving the large skeletal suit of dark red armor a solid few kicks. He laughed raucously, the sound hollow and echoing behind his skeletal facemask. His companion did not laugh. The giant that held Miriam like an insolent cub said something and the other replied angrily, looking at the owl within its cage. Miriam, by now accustomed to being the prisoner of forces she didn't quite understand tried to mediate.
"Who are you?" She asked where she hung. She noticed that her voice came off more clear than it had done in the Outlands. Also that she had lost the sick in her throat she had had before going there.
The two skeletal giants did not reply in any tongue she could understand. The first shook her by the coat and laughed again as she jiggled.
"Fuckin' stop that!" She cried and tried to kick at him again. His armor took the brunt of the damage, which was none at all. Even so her protest seemed to have gained some support as the giant did stop tussling her. He even put her down and Miriam quickly pulled on her weathered coat and grunted. She felt heavier than she had in the Outlands too even though she was probably as small as she'd ever been. To the two skeletal armored soldiers she must have seemed a child up to their waist if even that. And even though these heavily armored, armed and undoubtedly intimidating beings were upon her and her owl Miriam felt no fear. She'd been the puppet of Dark Mages, survived trolls and the Black Marshes while barely even awake. She had seen the Outlands and all of its terrors. She didn't fear these two and even though she could not see their faces past their masks, she knew that they knew. That knowledge did not disgruntle them however and they began to lead Miriam along, one pushing her in front of him while the other walked ahead of her, holding the protesting fowl. They streamed out of the room she had been dragged into and went through a wooden door, much too small for the soldiers who had to bow their heads to pass. They entered a hallway, made of the same stone and fitted with a nice carpet down its aisle. Torches blazed alongside the walls and guided their walk through the hallways. Miriam looked over her shoulder, she was convinced now that she had either spoken Walter's spell faulty or he had tricked her here. She had never seen a Valentian, besides the old wizard but she seriously doubted this was them.
"I'm magic, you know." She told her captor. He flicked his eyes down upon her, grunted something in his own language but did not stop her.
"That's right. I'm practically a princess. See that bird?" She asked and gestured her head forward to where the owl was kept.
"It's like, a Spirit. Or something. I was the only one who could get it because I am so special. You've captured someone very important but you can't even understand what I'm saying!" Miriam grinned back at him. The fact that he didn't understand what she was saying and the fact that her babbling annoyed him amused her.
"You see, you're not e-.." He interrupted her, not with words but rather by grabbing the tiny huntress by her waist and slinging her upon his large armored shoulder. Miriam noticed it was cold to touch and she gasped.
"Let go!" She struggled but there was no point to it so as their journey continued down the hall she eventually stopped kicking her feeble feet at his clinking set of armor and swaddled into her escort. It wasn't long after that that they had reached their destination. The first soldier knocked on a new wooden door, also too small. And then opened it to enter. Miriam's escort bowed down and struggled past the arch with the small human in tow. He turned, shut the door with his free hand and then plopped her down unto her feet harshly. Miriam hit the ground, her eyes raised up as the soldiers spoke their language to the person in front of her. Miriam blinked, confused. The woman turned, her skin pale, wearing an immaculate dress of the same colour code as the soldiers and her vibrant eyes agleam with dangerous intelligence. She smiled, sweetly, stretching from her puffy, painted lips to the flowing, adorned hair of her perfectly shaped head. Miriam knew this type of flower. The prickly roses of Northland Nobility were well famed for their duality and toxic personality but this flower wasn't a mere rose. And this woman wasn't a mere noble. Miriam felt in her chest a familiar taste of fear, one she had not granted the giant men. She held her breath. And the Queen spoke. Even before her words formed Miriam knew that it would be in the Common Tongue.
"Well now. Where did you come from, little Kitten?"

The Realm of Men

Miriam
Chapter 32: Deliverance

The foundations of the terrace had given way, Miriam's grip on sanity, logical thought or general laws of physics had become nothing more than a memory gnawing annoyingly at the back of her mind. The young woman, garbed in her Midway clothing and surrounded by a white aura, carrying the gilded cage with a ruffled owl inside scrambled quickly. She cowered inside the entrance to one of the askew buildings and was about to turn to observe the duel outside when a sudden explosion flared outside in the streets. Dust, ash and the remaining bits of flesh from the creatures of the Maw was flung up and out, hitting the uneven walls of the houses on either side of the demonic ashen street. Miriam pushed the door open with her shoulder and stumbled inside speedily. Outside the street flared up with another bright light and loud cacophony of violent magics. Miriam quickly went inside the house, which was similarly askew and decrepit as the rest she'd been in so far. She sat the owl in its cage upon the ruined table and headed quickly for the window, opening its shutters with first a failed shove, and then a forceful kick. She cowered her head behind its edge and peeked out.

She saw Walter first, the elderly man was dressed in his long brown coat, his feet skidding backward and his wrists moving in that spellcasting kind of way. Suddenly he flicked his right hand forward, causing a tremendous shock wave to materialize from his movement. It sent its pressure through the air, causing Miriam to fumble back. She was quick to her seat again and looked outside. She spotted Walter's combatant, the Dark cloaked, slithering creature with its black scythe and gleaming malice. The creature was easily thrice Walter's height when stretching its serpent's body but Miriam noticed that it was reeling, its black cloak that shrouded its human half had been damaged, torn and its fury was more prevalent than its dread now. It exchanged some movement and spread its invisible authority at and around the wizard it fought and even though Miriam could not see the details of their battle, its aftermath was evident. Wherever their power met, sometimes halfway, sometimes closer to either fighter, holes appeared. Black, lacking gaps in the very seams of this world's reality. Their darkness so complete and so pure that Miriam saw them shine like mirrors. She realized, even though she did not understand, that if any of these attacks exchanged between monster and man hit, it would mean certain death. Flames shot out, suddenly a firestorm surrounded the malevolent snake and Miriam snapped her eyes to Walter, whom with his hands raised to the sky and his arms spread controlled the vortex of fire. Miriam saw in it her past, and also a possible future. Walter shouted, while still containing his flaming vortex, its fires licking and scorching the already wasted buildings of the street.
"Miriam! Get the bird! Speak these words! The grizzled man strained, the slithering creature throwing out its body in a show of strength, its scythe sweeping aside the flames as if they were a sheet of cloth. Walter managed to parry the following swing of the scythe, the very air around him becoming physical while still without form. A barrier of unsightly power. Walter continued to bellow.
"Edra gi'es Moran!" Speak those words Miriam, and get the bird to the Queen of Valentus, none other! Do you hear me?!"
Miriam poked her head out of the window to shout back.
"What?! What about you?!"
"I'll meet you there!" Walter shouted back, not sparing her the look. "Edra gi'es Moran, Miriam! Go!"
She hadn't any option. Miriam turned away from the tug of power between wizard and monster and ran back toward the center of her house. When she reached the table where she'd put the fowl the wall suddenly gave way, following a distinct cutting sound. The wall exploded in dust and mortar, the scythe of the Black Snake having cut through it like paper. Miriam grabbed the cage with the owl, held it closely, shut her eyes and screamed the words. "Edra gess Moran!" Everything went dark.

Into the Abyss

My Hider

youtube.com/watch?v=8a3-1TgyB6k

Year 2555. First contact.
Star: Wolf 359
Planet: D-3353
7.9 Light Years from Earth.

"Things are far more serious than I suspect you've been told - P-people are dying up here...."
"And that isn't the end. Well how did this all happen?"
"We've been completely cut off from earth! -... Any chance of restoring contact?"
"Very little, sir. We've lost all direct communication."

Doctor Carlisle bobbed her head gently in tune with the light beats of early 21st century artist Deca. One of the many musicians from that long bygone age which appeared on her spinning record. They could get no radio waves this far out so most on the Samurai played their music on manual recorders. Re-creations of ancient technology which played music recorded live and kept in dimples and scratches, rather than the data cloud. Jane had come to prefer it over the perfect imitations that the music player in the lobby made, or perhaps it was the solitude she enjoyed more. The three year trip across the Milky Way and its LPP's (Life Probability planets) was admittedly spent in stasis and sleep the vast majority of the time but whenever the crew on the Samurai reached one of the planets, like they had now, they woke and excitedly set to their projects and tasks. The Captain and his lieutenants were all scientists and astronauts. Trained, specified and quite literally bred for the task of space travel they commanded engineers, technicians and pilots who scuttled across the narrow spaces of their vessel to ensure the cold choke of Space was not at risk tearing everyone apart or that there was no course of collision in either dense packs of dust or some moon, planet or asteroid torn apart by the pull of gravity. There were geologists, mathematicians, astronomers and even military journalists. These were all busy as well, mingling and sharing the findings of their probes which combed the Wolf Solar system while they had been asleep. Recording their findings and submitting them back to the Samurai's research center.

Cornering the vast and modern system of science and math was a lonely cranny cramped with books, papers, sunflowers of every size, the casual beats of musicians decades dead and finally the interim Doctor of Anthropology; Jane Carlisle of Scotland. Carlisle sat hunched over a flippable writing pad, bobbing her head by natural instinct to the music while writing her limited report on the blue shining screen on her desk. There was a keyboard to use built inside the clean sterile white desk but she preferred the graphic pencil when writing and during her fifty years of working as both a researcher and professor of anthropology all of her studies and papers had been made by human hands directly. A fact she proudly flaunted in a studious culture which became more and more reliant on machines to do their work for them by the year. - Especially archaeologists. Carlisle had avoided most contact with her fellow researchers since the post-waking briefing and now sat in her little corner of the ship, humming along to the tunes which sounded in her cramp office.

My Hider

youtube.com/watch?v=t6a3Wy1aOPQ

As the song finished and the record scratched faintly in changing song Jane kicked her feet back from the desk, watching her pad from a distance. The report was theoretical only and contained nothing of great interest. The biologists and herbalists had their findings from the last two planets, rich with flora and simple organisms but Carlisle as the only anthropologists on board had absolutely nothing to show so far. Not that it bothered her much. She knew that the chance of finding sentient life, or life at all on any planet in our galaxy was far too slim. Hardly large enough a chance to warrant her being here at all but here she was. Almost eight light years away from planet Earth and all of its people, culture and wonder, all in the vain hope that someday, somehow their vessel would stumble upon life worthy of researching in any way. Or at least note down. Jane let her chair swivel. Spinning around the center of her small office slowly. She saw her many pots of sunflowers, her plain yet comfortable bed tucked inside the wall, her stacks of human literature and the shelf where she had both her record player and a small plastic figure of her favourite 21st century icon; Godzilla. King of Monsters. Jane planted her slipper-wearing feet down on the ground and watched the figure while blankly listening to Bowie jerk his guitar off with that nonchalant and gritty suaveness his brand of music created. The lizard looked straight ahead, dead plastic eyes locked on some distant past where it was from. A past which Carlisle had researched and studied beyond most anthropologists her age. It was in thinking about these cultural steps of history that Carlisle so often found herself since there was little actual purpose to her being on the ship in the first place. *BEEPRI-BOOP* chirped a soft alarm from her right - Without pausing her playing music the doctor turned on her swiveling chair and faced the small outlet on the wall which made the chirping sound. Jane patted the round peg with her hand and received the call.
"Doctor Carlisle?" Said the male voice from within the outlet. Jane did recognize the voice of Captain Nadir though even if she did not the outlet had displayed caller ID and rank already. Jane blinked in minor confusion at the call and for a moment wondered if the captain had gotten the wrong Doctor Carlisle. Bowie extravagantly flaunted in the backdrop of her room and her mind.
"Doctor?" Nadir repeated in higher tone of questioning. Jane immediately corrected her uniform, or she would have had she worn one. Instead she corrected the white wool sweater she wore and set her face closer to the outlet.
"Aye, Cap'n?" She said. They'd told her to say 'yes' but she would not betray her cultural heritage just yet and not so easily.
"We need you up here. You've five minutes." Nadir stated in command and the moment Jane could mutter her incoherent reply of:
"Eh-.. Oh-.. Alright then..." he spoke once more.
"Good." And then the captain shut the link off and left Doctor Carlisle to herself again.
Jane scooped up the closest lab coat of white and blue, designated to all scientists of the vessel and threw it over her casual wear, she tied up her gray frizzy hair in a pathetically prompt bun and exited her office. Which soon blared with the sounds of Michael Jackson.

The Realm of Men

Miriam
Chapter 31: The Hand of Death

Beneath the smoldering black sky among the ruined city which hangs in faded reality walked a girl; weary, bruised and lost with a white glow to sign her aura and carrying the gilded cage of a resting fowl she traversed the wide ashen courtyards and broken pathways of the tattered city in search of the wizard who had first abducted her to this place. Behind her stood the hollow citadel of those that had once ruled here and around it in wide soaring sweeps flew the monstrous owl, its silhouette a shadow against the black, infinite sky. This girl was named Miriam Marsh, born of the frigid and silver northern mountains, wearing attire and colours of the eastern Midway in its red adornment and silken innards, abducted by powers beyond her comprehension. She walked the mazes of the citadel's closest buildings, staying beneath roofs, ceilings and sprinting between shade to avoid the eye of the bird which hunted her, she made distance slowly to a location she didn't know. The streets of the city still made no sense in their structure or style but Miriam had grown used to the confusion of this world by now and focused instead on getting out of it. She walked down some tall, thin steps that seemed similar to some she and Walter had traversed earlier and made a sharp left turn past some wall that seemed more holes than it did bricks. She suddenly paused with a sliding foot, gulped and turned back to hide behind the wall.
"Shit." She murmured and peeked out past the wall again. Down the next road she glimpsed the monster she'd spotted. She couldn't make out what it was precisely but it seemed twice her size and furry. Sat in the center of the path it looked like a ball of shaggy fur. Miriam observed its back with a strange curiosity, trying to make out what it was supposed to be when the cage she carried suddenly shook. The owl within cooed and rustled the cage.
"Wh-.. Cra-.." Miriam said and looked down at the irate owl and then to the furry ball. It swished its tail to the left and seemed to rise. Miriam was about to hide but the peculiarity of what she witnessed caused her to stay: What had first seemed like the back of the beast suddenly unfurled, the fur of the monster unfolded like eyelids and in disgusting slowness streaked backwards. As the fur was shed behind the beast it undid its jaw which spread the entirety of its round shape and while opening its mouth to show its many rows of jagged teeth it rose up on two spindly legs. Its fur and the tail had moved to the other side and the monster now stood at full size but the large maw was all Miriam could make out of its face for it had neither eyes nor any other facial feature than the full mouth, as if the creature was nothing but mouth and legs. Miriam 'eeped' and sprung quickly back behind the wall, clutching the gilded cage in her arms. She heard the beast begin to drag itself toward her. Miriam looked around, spotted the closest door which barely hung off the hinges of its building and without second thought she rushed for it. She pushed her shoulder against it and hurried through the door, kicking it shut behind her - Unfortunately the sudden movement was more than the ancient wooden door could manage and it promptly flew off its hinges and landed with a dusty thunk against the ground. Miriam blinked and looked with disbelief at the door where it lay, then rose her vision to watch the Maw which now stood by the wall she'd first hidden behind. It swished its furry behind and in a hazy breath opened its maw. Miriam froze where she stood for a moment of pure disgust and fear when she and the monster stood ten feet apart and then she let out a whimpering: "Eeerh." And turned to run further into the shelter of the house. She was smart to have run since the Maw crashed through the doorway a mere moment after, tearing a hole in the doorframe and leaving a trail the shape of its round head. Miriam turned on one foot and sped up a rickety flight of stairs to the second floor of the cramped house, from what she could hear the Maw was in hot pursuit though she could not focus on its place on her trail right now. She hurried through the small room on the second floor, carrying the cage with her all the while and looked for a functional exit. A moment later she squeezed through a small window, dragging the cage with her and fell a small distance to the ceiling of a terrace which stood on this side of the house. Miriam rolled one lap on the black wood of the ceiling before quickly rising to her steady feet, she stopped the cage with one foot, having learned it could take a lot more damage than she could she wasn't very concerned about the safe keeping of the owl inside who hooted and shook in wild protest with all the flurry of movement. The house from which Miriam had just escaped shook with the sounds of the Maw ravaging its insides but it seemed it could not find a way to follow her now. Miriam smiled to herself in achievement and turned, ready to climb down the terrace to the next street... Which was crammed with large round balls of fur, seated on the ground.
"Oh COME ON!" Miriam exclaimed and then winced in regret. The dozen or so balls that sat huddled on the street beneath her twitched and then began to unfurl just like the Maw had. Miriam groaned and stomped on the spot.
"Whyyyyy!" She cried as the Maws rose up on their legs, opened their mouths and began to approach her terrace, dragging their furry layer of shed protection behind them. They were barely tall enough to press the top of their round bodies against the ceiling where Miriam stood and even though they moved slowly they had surrounded the terrace in no time at all. Miriam considered going back through the window but it was too high up now to reach and she would be walking into the mouth of the monster either way. She sat the cage up and stood in the center of the tilted ceiling looking down at the monsters who leisurely pushed, gnawed and kicked at the supports of the terrace. She wouldn't have much time before they collapsed the terrace and would gobble her up completely. She looked around, frightened but not in panic for some kind of exit. She could try and jump over them, land on the path and run for it but there'd be no way she could outrun them then. She could may-... The air was cloven through with a whirring boom and a rush of air and it paused Miriam's train of thought. She looked toward her left down the narrow street from where the boom had come from and blinked in confusion. Then ducked in cover as she realized whatever it was was headed this way! She shut her eyes and hid beneath her arms, feeling the push of air pass above her body as if a torrent of it had been pushed like a wave of water through the street. She heard limbs break, blood spurt and bodies thud against the ground. The creatures made no sound as they died but gurgled on their own blood as they lay bloodied, battered and tattered on the black floor. Miriam peeked at their ruined shapes from her terrace and grimaced. They'd been grotesque before but now with their skin torn apart by the boom of wind and their insides splattered on the floor Miriam saw the pity and pathetic desperation of these creatures. She huffed and rose up. Just in time to witness what had saved her: A figure approached down the narrow path, it looked like a man but wearing a black cloak with its large, shrouding hood drawn far over its face. In its right hand it carried a tall, slender scythe which ended in a pristine, glistening edge - contrasting the dreary blackness of the world it sparkled in a mirroring sheen. Miriam was transfixed on the approaching robed figure who walked - no, slithered - so calmly down the street. The figure stopped, turned its hooded face to look up at Miriam's terrace and she looked back. Witnessing the figure twist its body, coiling together the black serpent's tail that dragged behind it and then use it to rise into the air until it was level with Miriam herself. The figure was that of a man's even though the plain black robes and hooded cloak's tattered ends surrounded the long serpent's end. The figure turned its scythe in both hands, gripping it in an idle stance as it adjusted their swaying elevation. It hung there, its shrouded face pointed directly at her and she stood transfixed, staring straight back. Time seemed to stand still, Miriam lost her senses, she was not afraid, nor even surprised. She opened her mouth to speak but there were no words to be said. As she stared into the blackness that was the gap in the figure's hood she saw the same blackness she had once become lost in - in what seemed like a lifetime ago in Lowburg when she and Ellie had been overcome by the creep of a cultist and his dark tendrils. She recognized the endless black space that had seemed so comforting and assuring in its utter lack of change and disorder and she slowly rose her arm, reaching out her right hand toward it. Close enough to touch...- What broke the spell was the shout of a familiar voice coming from far out of her peripheral hearing.
"Miriam!" Walter's voice had broken the fixation she had had on the serpent-man and now in rapid panic she noticed just how close the shrouded creature had come! She jumped back in reflex and the serpent did as well lunge backwards with a slithering sway of its deft body. It turned its head to peer down the other end of the street and Miriam turned as well. The aged wizard adjusted the sleeves of his brown coat, rolled his spell-casting wrists in test and sighed tiredly.
"This'll be tricky..."

The Realm of Men

Miriam
Chapter 30: Den of the beast

The hooting woke her up.
She felt the gravel, tasted it even. With a pained wince and exhaustive groan Miriam rolled her face out of the muddy floor. She let her arm fall limp off to her side and briefly recoiled at the pain in it. With forced determination she moved her aching body up and turned her stale neck to look around. Her hands were caked with mud and scraped with cuts and bruises but they still shone that strange white hue she'd been granted when Walter first took her here, she pushed her thick and wet hair away from her vision and looked around at the room she was now hosted. It looked similar to the rest of the ruined city: Its columns and walls were dark ruins plastered with sheets of ash and burnt soot but the pillars surrounded her in implication of where there might once have been a ceiling. The floor was covered in the same amount of soot and ash as the rest of the ruined city but Miriam noticed the many shards of glass that littered the floor around her. She sat up, letting out a grunt at the ache in her body from when the giant owl-monster had squeezed her and carried her away. She sat on a rug which ran thin and long through the center of the room and ended in a small regal staircase, which at the end of stood a large throne. Its frame was shaped round with jagged thorns jutting out of the top in a pattern which looked quite uncomfortable. Miriam gave the room a second scan, wiping some mud off of her face. The giant owl was nowhere to be seen which she was glad for but she'd no clue now how far it had carried her away from the wizard who was her only way back out of this infernal hellscape of a ruin she'd found herself in.
"Terrific.." She mumbled quietly for herself. Too weak to be properly upset at the moment. Not that there was anyone around to be upset at either way.
"Hoo-hoot!" It sounded off in the short distance. Miriam walked toward the similar chirping of the owl, toward an old tapestry which pattern and design was lost to both time and fire for a long time. Miriam pushed the drapes aside and beneath them found the small gilded cage she'd been abducted by the wizard to get. Inside of it sat the ruffled owl whose echoes had spoken to her about blood, kings and treachery. Miriam sighed and picked up the cage, looking at the owl who looked back and sounded a tweet of general annoyance. It didn't echo in this building and somehow Miriam doubted it would even speak to her outside of that dome-building where she'd first gotten it.
"Hey there." She said regardless and carried the cage with her as she went back to the large round room more central. There were walls around them but they had fallen apart to reveal the ruined spires of the city and the noncoloured backdrop behind them. Miriam carried the cage inbetween her arms and by instinct walked toward the prominent throne that stood at the end of the room. It wouldn't be a way out but she might as well investigate. Halfway there she stumbled on something hidden by dust and nearly tripped over. Jumping on one foot she cursed and looked down at what had clinked. From what she could tell it was some sort of large manacle, attached to a link of sturdy chains. Miriam bent down and sat the cage next to her briefly to grab the dusty chains to pull on. They rose from the ground with her tug and she noticed they ran from this manacle to the other side of the rug in symmetry. Miriam assumed it was meant to cage or contain something very large. Maybe the owl that had stolen her away. With a tired sigh she got back up - picking the cage up with her - and headed for the throne. Walking up the steps she noticed the throne itself was strangely large. Larger than any man's butt would ever require, though she took that as just another sign that whoever had lived here once were as arrogant as they were opulent. Miriam sat the cage with the owl on the Obsidian throne just for the irony of it and smirked for herself.
"You're a king now, Birdie." She chuckled though the fowl only looked back at her with its predatory eyes. Miriam looked around idly.
"Wonder who lived here...Oh." She noticed a large pile of bones lying just next to the throne, she'd been unable to see them before due to the angle but could now perfectly look at the human bones that lay in a desperate heap of old clothing. Miriam bent down to pick at the clothes. Raising the dusty cape to inspect and so on. The skeleton was larger than any man she'd seen and his clothes were a wasted hauberk of when dusted a little silver embroidery. Miriam turned and twisted the bones without much decency and inspected the supposed king's royal attire. Silver rings, crystal armbands and even a crown made of a deep gray metal. It seemed more a helmet than a crown as it covered the head and sides of the skeleton's large skull. The left hand seemed different though. Miriam lifted it to look closer.
"Hmmm?" She hummed as she inspected the large gauntlet. The hand gear was covering, strong and made of the same metal as the crown. Miriam was about to pry it off when she suddenly heard a gust of air strike through the room. She looked around and saw the outline of her bird-captor approach.
"Shit." She cursed and quickly left the dead king to hide behind his throne. Her own owl sat on the said throne, hooting its protest against the gusts that arose with the monster-bird's landing. Miriam peeked out from behind the throne. The bird had landed and was ruffling its four wings and chirping in shows of annoyance and frustration. From its massive beak it dropped a corpse of some kind. For a moment Miriam feared it might've been Walter though quickly noticed it was just another kind of monster. Looked like a swamp croc' to Miriam though it was hard to tell by this distance. The monster-bird pecked at its prey briefly and snipped a piece of it to gullet before it began looking around the room. Moving its large head in snappy and attentive motion just like any regular owl would. It let out a minor craw and then returned to eating out of its capture. Miriam looked around the room again from her cover and pondered. If she ever wanted to get back to her own world she needed to find Walter, and she needed to give him the owl she'd gotten and to do that she first had to get away from that monster. From what she could tell from her new vantage point the room had three exits: The first and most noticable was to her left where the wall had collapsed but she guessed that led to a drop since the owl undoubtedly lived high up. The second was to her right in a small arched doorway that stood slightly behind the drapes she had first found the cage at. The last was the large door just behind the monster which had blown open a long time ago and stood as the most prominent exit out of the throne-room. Miriam decided that the right exit would be her best bet. While the owl still fed she picked up the cage and its inhabitant who cooed a protest.
"Shhh!" Miriam hushed and clutched the cage closer to her chest. She looked over to see if the monster had noticed. Not yet, it was still nipping its bloody beak into the reptilian prey. Miriam sneaked her way down the stairs and with quick, quiet steps headed for the right side of the room. Then the monster looked up, flicking its predatory eyes to Miriam and let out a large roar of a bird noise. Miriam let out a pathetic "Eep!" And sprinted into action. Running straight for the closest exit behind the drapes. The bird reacted quickly as well, leaping across its current prey and spreading its set of smaller wings while approaching with deadly speed. Miriam didn't look over her shoulder as she slipped in behind the drapes and through the exit, she turned once she'd passed through the arch, looked back at the monster and quickly fell down a flight of stairs.
"Ah! OPH. OWOWoowow!" Shoulder first she fell into the spiral staircase that descended quickly into the darkness beneath her feet. She rolled over her own back and lost her grip on the cage which went spiraling down the stairs at its own pace. The owl at least had some kind of protection while Miriam tumbled down the staircase with all the momentum she'd had from running away from the monster. She stopped after it felt she'd broken her arm at least five times more and opened an eye, looking up into the darkness. She could still hear the monster squawk and roar from above her, it seemed like it couldn't reach her here.
"Ow..." She complained and with some sliding down the stairs made to rise. Her body hurt and bumped with aching pains and her butt which had acted as her final cushion felt broken entirely. With some ragged stumbling Miriam followed the chirping complaints of the caged owl down the steps, finding the bird at the end of the staircase. It looked beat up just like her but the cage it was held within seemed as pristine as it had when she first picked it up.
"I hope Freda and Ellie are having it real cozy someplace right about now." Miriam complained while narrowing her eyes to adjust them to the darkness of this new hallway.

The hall was slim compared to the throne-room above it. Miriam hadn't been in any castles before but it reminded her of some of the fancier estates she'd come across during her travels. The walls were lined with paintings and drapery but they were just as burnt as the ones above and Miriam couldn't make out what they were supposed to depict. Instead she carried on through the hallway with the cage in arms, walking at a slow pace to test her bruised joints and bopped head. She traversed another set of stairs down another level and found that the similar hallway had had its wall collapsed. She peeked out through the hole and looked out over the ruins of the city far below her. To her disappointment she couldn't spot the dome shaped building where she'd last seen Walter or anything else she could recognize either. Her vision was suddenly overtaken by a brown feathery flash which caused her to both yelp and take a cautionary step back. Watching the monster-bird pass by her and the hole in the wall Miriam halted her breathing. The fowl had flown by so fast it couldn't possible have seen her but better safe than sorry Miriam kept on through the hallway past the hole to get out of sight again. She heard the monster screech out there and her growing anxiety was hardly settled knowing that it was now circling the spire. Miriam pressed on through the ashen halls and ruined estate of the spire, heading downward always through rooms of leisure, service and living. They seemed endless and they were all as equally ruined as the houses outside had been. Lit by Miriam's unnatural shine the pathways linked together with the staircases in strange and illogical ways just like Miriam noticed the walls changed from bricks, to cobblestone and to metal fluidly. She started to doubt she was even descending at all when one of the stairs took her to a room far different than the rest. It had only one door which she had come through and the walls were lined with bookshelves. The center of the room stacked with tables and strange baubles of alchemy and science. The room was strangely enough not burnt like everything else was but still held many layers of dust and aged crust. Miriam walked to the center and noticed something strange in the dust on the floor. Footprints. She bent down to inspect them.
"Footprints? Shoes. Large but with heels... A woman? Not particularly fresh. Hmm." Miriam trailed the prints to a very prominent desk. Upon the desk stood a small wooden altar which looked like it ought to hold a book of some sort though now there was none. "Dust here is disturbed too." Miriam explained to her bird companion who had taken to nurturing its own bruises while being carried around by Miriam. "Someone's been here." She concluded. Miriam looked around once more and noticed another skeleton.
"Oh. Didn't see you there." She told it and approached the large skeletal body which sat in one of the chair by the desks with its skull planted against the wood. Miriam pushed it back to inspect. The skeleton was large and as old as the one upstairs but this one was dressed in robes of some kind. Miriam spotted that the skeleton had been lying untop of a book. She pushed it aside and took the tome. It was written in a language she'd never seen before. "Typical." She murmured and lay it back on the table without further concern. She picked up the cage once more and left the strange library. It was another great amount of staircases before Miriam reached what she believed to be the bottom floor. There was a large doorway at least and a courtyard which to Miriam seemed typical of castles. There were more skeletons here. They lay scattered and broken on the ashen ground and since they were so seperated and busted Miriam could not count of many there were exactly though they were a lot. She passed by them with as much respect for crunching noises as she could bother with and then headed through a smaller archway that stood next to the large entrance. Finally she'd made it to the bottom of the spire and exited. Looking around she stood on a courtyard surrounded by similar large buildings that like previously meshed together into a melted shape of gray and black and seemed to imply housing more than it actually was housing. Behind her the spire stretched far into the colorless sky and Miriam assumed she'd started at the very top of it. There was no sight of the monster-bird for now so Miriam gripped her cage tighter, chose her path forward and carried on!

The Realm of Men

Miriam, Chapter 29: The Owl and the Kitten

"Who are you...?" The owl asked her. Naturally the fowl did not speak for it had no vocal chords - It was a bird. But instead it hooted and the sound bounced between the dark walls of the dome shaped building and became the sentences that Miriam heard, the result was an oppressive and unnatural voice which seemed animalistic and strangely regal. The connotations of the bird's original sound still permeated the echo but she had no trouble understanding it. She just had trouble getting a grip!
"Please stop that." She murmured, low enough not to cause an echo at all. The owl hooted.
"Who are you...?" It echoed its own echo now. Miriam had gotten over her original freak-out and wouldn't allow the magical and nonsensical to frighten her any longer, she was magic herself, wasn't she?
"I can't believe I'm doing this." She groaned and rolled her head before looking over at the owl who sat perched on its seat, feathers puffed for comfort and amber eyes staring at her with a predator's gaze. Miriam had sat the cage down next to her and sat herself against the rigidly closed door. The room around her was dark still except for the blue light that shone on the pedestal where she had first found the cage.
"Why did the door close?" She asked the air. She wasn't going to start talking to the owl just yet. There was a limit to the insanity and she rose her voice so that it could bounce across the walls and form an echo. Which as she had expected replied.
"...Door close..." Sounded her own voice. "..Close... The Door closed. I closed... The door closed." It was her own voice, distorted to speak the words her captor wanted it to. Miriam frowned and held a balled up fist against her mouth while sighing.
"Why?" She spoke resoundly, wanting the echo to catch her words.
"Why... Why...Why, to serve Fate. Of course." Miriam's echo replied. It didn't have emotion in its voice, no more than Miriam's original voice had had but she still found it amusing the way it formed sentences, whatever -it- was. Miriam opened her mouth to speak again but the owl hooted once more.
"Hoot!" It echoed. "Hoot... Who... Who are you?"
Miriam felt compelled to reply now, if only to get on some terms with whatever kept the door shut.
"I'm Miriam." She said. And looked around for the echo that vibrated to reply.
"Miriam. ... Miriam... Miriam's Marsh... Marsh the Profound... Marsh the Elucidated..." Her echo said.
"I don't know what that means." Said Miriam once the echo had died down.
"That means... Means... That means of blood... Means of daughter..." Her echo said. Miriam replied once more before the echo had died off completely. "..Daughter.."
"Are you going to let me out of here now?" Her voice blended together with the previous echo.
"Daughter...Now... -er.. Here... Let Daughter out... Dau-..lter.. Walter Here..."
"Yes. Walter is here. I'm taking this owl." Said Miriam, looking around the room at her spacious conversational partner.
"This owl... This owl..." The echo began to falter. "This owl..." Miriam looked around, it didn't seem as if it had anything more to say, or at least with that echo.
"Hello?!" voiced Miriam. "Hello... Hello... No..."
"What do you mean no?!" Shouted Miriam at the room. "No...! No...!"
Miriam angrily scrambled to her feet, her Midway coat fluttering about her as she got up.
"Screw you. I'm getting out of here." Her voice created an echo but if it was a reply wasn't important, Miriam ignored it and turned toward the shut door. She pushed against it but it would not budge an inch.
"Mpfh." Huffed Miriam and blew up at her black hair. She then threw her hand forward in that way she had seen the Black sorcerer do when he used his shadow vines. There wasn't a response. Miriam fluttered her hand about randomly as if imitating a spellcaster then thrust her arms forward. "Magic!" She said loudly and it echoed.
"Magic... Magic... Magic..."
Nothing happened. Miriam adjusted the sleeves of her coat and then flung her hair back. Looking around the dark room for a moment.
"I order you to let me out!" She proclaimed and then flicked her eyes about. It was worth a shot.
"Let me out... Out... Me out... Out of time." Her voice echoed. Miriam groaned and surrendered, instead she looked over toward the owl in its cage. It looked back at her with its round eyes and blinked once. She bent down and picked the cage up. Then the silence of the dome room erupted in a tremor and rumble of stone that had come from the wall. As if something had hit its surface.
"What the..." Said Miriam before suddenly the round wall exploded in a showering hailstorm of coloured bricks that clattered with great momentum against the floor. Out of the large plume of dust that came with the destroyed wall was a large figure that flew, no, fell through. The huge figure crashed roughly into the center of the dome and destroyed the pedestal. Miriam clenched the handle of the cage and the owl within fluttered anxiously.
"What the hell?!" Miriam exclaimed and looked over to where the wall had busted. The dust shot into itself and shaped into a singular, collected sphere of dust and plaster and there was a whirring sound of air before the large sphere suddenly shuddered and flew forward, exploding once it hit the large figure that had previously flown through the wall. Miriam smartly made some distance, still carrying the cage with the owl while looking back at the large hole in the wall. She wasn't going to try to flee until she knew it wasn't going to explode again. There was a screech and Miriam looked back toward the center, skidding to a halt. The head of a humongous bird peeped up from the cascading dust that filled the air, its beak long and pointy and its colour brown with white spots around its eyes that ran in a long stripe around the dome of its large head, almost like a circlet or a crown. The owl stretched its wings out toward its sides and Miriam noticed it had not two, but four wings. A second smaller pair that sat just beneath the regular set of wings. Due to the size of the fowl the wingspan covered almost the entire building. The bird screeched again and moved its bendable neck in recoil as a flurry of the ruined bricks were being flung toward its head. It then threw its four wings back together again and Miriam immediately lost her footing, the air pulled out from under her. She was dragged a few feet with the sheer power of the draft but could scramble up. Her owl hooted violently and shook about in its cage that was rolling speedily in motion with the wind. Miriam quickly got up and grabbed the handle, she glanced toward the monster owl who was now pointing its craning head forward, beak opened in screeching protest. Miriam ran toward the exit, it would be her best bet! And there in the still settling dust she noticed the Wizard, who when noticing Miriam stopped his hand motions and in the blink of an eye appeared out of thin air just by her.
"Miriam!" He said loudly above the screeching of the monstrous owl.
Miriam was a bit baffled to say the least and flicked her eyes from the wizard to the owl.
"Y-yeah?!" She stuttered nervously. Walter saw the cage she held.
"Get out of here! And whatever you do don't let that out of its cage!" He ushered her away and she felt more than compelled to obey. Running toward the large hole in the wall. Walter had turned back to face the gigantic bird and seemed to be flinging some spell against it, Miriam didn't pay much attention and ran straight for the exit instead! She rushed through the dust and ruined bricks and exited onto the square from where they had first come. She turned but couldn't see anything but dust inside, still making some distance. There was a sudden gust of air that exited the hole and then she spotted a large pair of amber eyes that glared into her directly. Miriam blinked and the owl in its cage purred a growl. The monstrous owl immediately shot out of the building and in one motion tapped its talons against the ground in prancing, spreading two of its four wings wide. Feathers flew about it and the creature was badly scruffed from being thrown into buildings like it had but it did not lack in speed. With no time for a reaction Miriam found herself squeezed into the grip of a talon and she lost her breath. Suddenly she felt the pressure of gravity and draft of air as a deafening woosh sounded from four giant wings being fluttered at once. Miriam clenched her eyes and her grip of the cage and felt her heart drop into her stomach as the sudden rush of elevation sprung against her. When she opened her eyes again she could see the dome building below, and the rest of the ruined city. Miriam gasped and moved for something to hold onto but found herself entirely locked in the talons of the large bird, oppressed by its grip but safely kept within. Her own owl hooted wildly and thrashed about the cage in displeasure. Miriam looked up and saw the brown feathers that were her sky now. The bird soared deftly in the black sky, occasionally using its smaller set of wings to keep it adrift. It screeched, some of its body bruised and hurt from the beating. Miriam gulped down heavily and clung to the iron cell of her fellow captive. Looking down at the sprawling ruins beneath her that were quickly becoming blurred. She would have screamed for Walter but the distance was already so large and the wind deafened all of her protests.
"Well. Shit." Said the prey.

The Realm of Men

Miriam, Chapter 28: The God of Aspiration

The staircase had become thinner as they went down it, the rows of sturdy, mashed together houses seemed to hang above their heads in twisted, distorted angles. Walter strolled a few paces before Miriam, taking the occasional turn through some criss-crossed street. She had grown somewhat accustomed to the impossible sky and improbable space around her and could focus her attention on the vague wizard instead.
"So who are you. Really?" She asked, casually rolling her once broken arm in further attempts to assure herself it was now perfectly healthy.
"Just an old coot trying to fix things, I'm afraid." Walter replied, tracing the steps of some invisible pathfinder he had while absently not looking back at Miriam.
"So you're not going to tell me." Miriam concluded drolly.
"Precisely." Said Walter gaily. "This way."And he went down another set of stairs. They'd been gradually descending and Miriam noticed that the further down they went the more claustrophobic the streets became.
"Alright. Then what about these... ancestors of mine? You said they'd made a deal with this spirit we're looking for?" Miriam frowned, asking these questions bothered her. The fact that she had to ask for Walter to explain, and the fact that she cared enough to do so to begin with.
"I said that, Miriam. Because it is the plain truth. A very long time ago the forefathers of your blood made a pact with this spirit. I had been looking for people of your... lineage... For some time already when I came across you in that cabin." Walter pondered something, then added quite glumly. "Twists of Fate, I suppose." And he sighed.
Miriam murmured and shifted her lips in general irritation. She made a turn as Walter did and they passed beneath an arch. Going further down.
"And my magic?" She asked.
"Also like I told you before, dear. Because of your family's lineage you keep a certain strength that others do not. It must have activated automatically when you were in mortal peril."
"I've been in 'mortal peril' before." Miriam sarcastically imitated the wizard.
"Another mystery to the list, then." Walter chuckled and shrugged. "Ah - We're here." He pointed as they turned another corner. Miriam stopped in her tracks to observe the building; It was round, whereas most other buildings were square with pointed roofs this one was a dome with a brass colour that stuck out of the ordinary mesh of gray buildings and black sky that had surrounded them so far. The buildings was twice as large as the regular house and stood solitary in a square which made it seem more important than the honestly simple architecture would allow. Miriam however, who had never seen a building of any real grandness beyond ancient ruins and Monarch's rise from far away thought the brass dome to be quite appealing to the eye. Very homely, she concluded. The wizard and the huntress stopped in front of this building, looked up at it and then back to one another.
"So... What do you need me to do?" The huntress asked.
"Just step inside. And get me something." Answered the Wizard.
"Get you what?" Asked Miriam. Confused and irate.
"You'll know when you see it." Said Walter, condescending and patronizing.
Miriam groaned but earned no sympathy from Walter whom simply ushered her forward toward the large wood door. When arriving at the entrance Miriam spared a brief moment to inspect it. It was made of a dark wood and it looked not only thick but without a handle of any kind. Miriam puffered a breath up at her raggedy bangs, which shone a faint blue as well, and she tried pressing her hand against the door. Noticing the door wasn't dark coloured but rather covered completely by ash she frowned, thoughts again straying to the cataclysm that must once have happened here. There was a sudden creak, by simply touching the door it seemed Miriam had opened it and she skipped back two steps while the door was slowly grinding its way open. She looked back to Walter who spared her a smile and then again airily gestured her forward. Miriam groaned and stepped inside.

It was dark at first, pitch black, in fact and once Miriam had walked inside she looked back; Noticing the door was shut again without her even taking notice of it moving. She sighed and turned forward. Blinking a few times in the darkness. There was a sound, a sort of wooshing whistle and suddenly a light appeared out of the ceiling. Illuminating the center of the dome building. There was a circular base in the center and upon it stood a pedestal, covered with a cloth. Miriam shrugged and assumed the pedestal to hold whatever Walter wanted her to retrieve. With a few wary steps she approached it, looking around served little purpose. The edges of the room were still shrouded in darkness and it reminded her of the manor in the ruined town and the undead noble. She frowned at the thought but then shook it out of her head. She'd appeared before the pedestal. Stopping and blinking her dry eyes she scratched her thick hair and then brought her hand forward. Wiping the cloth off. She blinked. The bird blinked. It had turned its neck to face her and now looked at her with wide, amber eyes. The fowl moved its talons on the wooden perch where it sat inside the dome shaped cage that stood on the pedestal and now faced her completely. Miriam opened her mouth.
"An owl?" She asked in utter disbelief, and her voice echoed through the large, empty hall. "... Owl... Owl... Owl..."
"Walter dragged me here to get him a damn bird?!" She groaned. "This is unbelievable." And her voice echoed again. "...-Believable... Believable... Believable..."
"He's going to pay for this. As soon as he brings me back to the real world." Miriam went to grab the handle that hung on the top of the owl's cage. Her voice echoed still. "... Leia... Leia..." Miriam paused. She was certain she hadn't said that. She looked around in silence. Gulped and then decided it'd be best to experiment.
"Hello?!" She shouted and waited for her echo. "...Hello... Hello... Hello Miriam." It said. Miriam froze. Her hand clutching the handle of the cage tightly. The fading echo continued as long as it was bouncing between walls.
"... Miriam... Evening... Twilight... Midnight..."
"Stop that!" Miriam shouted. "...That... That... Which you do not understand... That... That which you own..." The echo was making its own sentences with her voice!
Miriam clutched the handle of the owl's cage and quickly turned, running briskly back toward the door. The heels of her shoes clicked against the parapet floor. "Click-clack... Click-clack... Cling... King... King's Blood... King's Wayward soul..."
Miriam panted, terrified at this point. She ran to the door and pressed against it. The fowl made no objection or sound in its cage. Miriam couldn't find a knob or handle on the door. She pushed and grunted.
"Nnh...! ... No... Know... Know your Fate... Know your right..." The sound echoed. Still in her own voice.
"WALTER. OPEN THE DOOR. WALTER!" Miriam banged her free hand against the door. "... Walter..." Her voice echoed. "...Walter... Andalus... Traitor... Rebel... Usurper..."
Miriam felt the echo whisper over her shoulder, she banged against the door. Feeling her eyes dampening and her heart pounding. She resolved not to say anything more and instead slid down with her shoulder against the door until she fell against the ground. She put the cage next to her and the owl turned its head to look at her. Tilting it one way, then the other. Miriam blinked sadly and inhaled to combat the tears beneath her eyelids. The bird ruffled its feathers idly. Then hooted once. "Hoo'!"
Miriam gasped in fright.
"Hoo'..." It echoed. "Hoo'... Who.. Are you... Who..."

The Realm of Men

Miriam Chapter 27: No-where

Walter quirked a furry brow and smiled thinly, his head tilted to peer at the mute huntress and he blinked.
"Miriam?" He asked, leaning in to observe her deadpan expression.
She snapped out of it and looked at the wizard alertly. Then she blinked forcefully and looked around.
"Where am I?" She asked. A valid question, considering last she could recall she was standing inside the cabin of her wrongly presumed father on the side of the Halvfors mountain, and she had now found herself inside a stone building of a design she could not recollect. It was a dark room and she couldn't make out any furnishing inside. Neither could she locate her dog.
"What did you do?!" She pointed a finger in Walter's direction accusingly and made to rise, having just noticed that she was sitting down on the stone floor. Miriam stopped and refocused her gaze away from the wizard to the finger she'd just pointed with. Now glowing a faint shimmering white. She jumped half a step back and rapidly shook her hand out.
"Walter! what the actual-...!"
The wizard didn't chuckle but his amused expression spoke more of his enjoyment than any laugh, the whiskers on his elderly face curling into a smug smile.
"Where? I honestly couldn't tell you the location, I am afraid its true name is lost to the likes of us." Walter began, speaking calmly but with a certain authority and smug knowing. "What I did? I took us here, don't you remember?"
She didn't. The last thing that she could remember was Walter entering the cabin with a swoop of snowy wind. Miriam was inspecting her glowing hand, getting used to the shine of it.
"No-... Why am I glowing?" She replied and then asked begrudgingly.
"I'd gladly explain the details of it, dear but I'm afraid we don't have that time. For now you may consider it a... aura. A distinguished part of your soul. So to speak." Walter nodded and stroked his beard, Miriam now took notice to the wizard, who didn't have a glow of his own, appearing just like he would normally.
"I've taken you here, dear. Because I have a certain need for your help. Now that you have been made aware of things."
"What? No!" Miriam argued. "Where are we and how do I get back?!"
Walter sighed tiredly and brushed off his large brown coat some.
"Oh dear."
"Take me back!" Miriam demanded. Now that she'd realized she had some hand in what was at play. He needed her help. So she had the power to make some demands.
"I'm afraid I can't do that."
"Why not?!"
"I need you to do something."
"Well I'm not doing anything until you tell me what's going on!" Miriam folded her glowing arms up and scowled.
Walter sighed again, shaking his head.
"Let me show you something." Walter nodded his head back, pointing toward a window at the far end of the empty stone room they were contained in. Miriam followed his gestures and went up to the window while glaring at the wizard.
"I need your help, Miriam dear. Because if we do not act this is what will happen to our world."
Miriam tip-toed and peered through the sooty window. She saw the sky first but quickly came to realize it wasn't a sky at all, there was no horizon to it and even though it was pitch black without a light there were no stars that dotted its length. The black sheet that lay over their location was distinguishable only because of the red, pointed fire that licked and danced around the edges of where the horizon would have been, but rather than looking like some faded sunset it was as if the darkness itself was on fire. A marvel beyond true description. Miriam stared at the impossibilities of space and logic with an expression of disbelief. The wizard must be playing some mind trick on her, she couldn't believe this was real. She turned to look at him next to her. And he only nodded back outside, a grave countenance and harrowed look. Miriam looked outside again. There were other stone buildings beneath the impossible sky. Just outside of the window was a city street with faded gray houses and the ruins of houses just like it that crowded the cobbled ground thickly. Many of the houses seemed built on top of each other or built into another. Standing askew and disproportionate to the neighboring estates. Miriam had to slit her eyes to make out the formations of these strange buildings and the longer that she looked the more they seemed to merge into a single gray mesh of stone with tiled roofs sticking out as corners. She had to look away and with a breath and a sudden headache stepped away from the window. Walter left her to the silence but she could feel him rearing up to speak. She beat him to it despite the growing sick she felt in her throat.
"What is all this?"
The wizard sighed out of his nose and scratched faintly through his beard.
"A cautionary tale. A testament to the cruelty of Fate. And an end you can spare our own home. If you're willing to help me?"
"I never wanted any of this..." Miriam complained quietly and shook her head in disbelief. Walter frowned, looking out through the window again.
"I'm sorry." He said, and nothing more. Guilt-stricken and saddened.
Miriam allowed the silence to pass by them as she looked down at the white glow that surrounded her body. After a moment of it she shook her shoulders out and grunted. Turning around to face the man.
"What do you need?"

They were walking across the ruined streets of the city, Miriam skipped from one cobblestone to the next as the stairwell has long since fallen into ruin. She looked up at Walter who was expecting her at the top of the stairs. Past him were the large gray ruins that stood in their huddled mesh against an outline of burning black. The sight had a certain beauty, one that was difficult to look away from but she couldn't spare staring at it. The void dark wasn't a sky, it was a veil over the city that lay flat and unmoving. Its edges aflame in the far distance and the longer you stared at it, the greater your headache became. Miriam found it difficult to focus on actual things on the ground, like rocks or old ruined debris after she'd looked at it too much. She reached up and took the hand of the wizard who helped her the last jump of the ruined stairwell. He had explained their task about as well as he could and Miriam knew that she didn't have much choice in doing it. They would travel through the city and acquire some magical artifact that Walter needed to "Save the world." As he had put it.
"But why do you need me?" Miriam had asked.
"The artifact belongs to a spirit you have a certain... connection with." Walter had said before they had left the house. Miriam now brought the subject to light again as the road stretched easily before them.
"This spirit." She said.
"Hmh?" Hummed the old man.
"I think I did magic a few weeks ago..." Miriam pondered. "Does it connect?"
Walter nodded, then stopped to think. Then he shook his head.
"A bit of both. Magic isn't necessarily inherited but in our cases bloodline does matter profoundly. The spirit we are pursuing now once made a deal of cooperation with your ancestors, as such; You can claim its belonging. As for your own magical attunement... It's only natural." He made an airy gesture with his hand, as if making light of his own analysis.
"So you knew about it." Miriam also considered asking how he had located her but figured that asking the man who could bring you to an entirely different world how he had found your location was a bit pointless.
"Not really. I could only assume after our first meeting. And hope, I suppose." Walter shrugged where he walked ahead of her. He was very nonchalant about traversing the ruined city while Miriam still expected some monster akin to the troll she and Freda had met to crash through some building's pillars, despite Walter's assurance of their safety. Miriam grunted a sigh and looked down the long path that winded down into the thick of the city. Any thoughts about her parentage, abilities or why any of this was going on had to wait. For now it was just her, Walter, and the task. One that she could at least feel some familiarity to: Traverse an empty town. Find the valuables. And leave. This. She could do.

Meanwhile...

Lars stooped down to a squat and inspected the spot where Miriam had just now stood. Scratching his cheek he pondered, then rose and went to shut the door that had been flung open mysteriously.
"Miriam?" He called out, but to no avail. Leia circled around the spot he had just been inspecting, the dog whimpering a whine with her bushy tail drooped. Lars went up to the dog, placed his hand upon her head and ruffled the shaggy dog's mane
"This is why I live alone, y' know." Said the grizzled mountain-man. Leia breathed a response with a lolling tongue and a quizzical look.

The Realm of Men

Miriam
Chapter 26: Homecoming

My Hider

youtube.com/watch?v=Mx6xkyi5Ij8

The door opened with a forceful push, grinding snow into the white wooden floor beneath it. It creaked as Miriam pushed it open with her operable arm, her broken, wound up in cloth and pressed tightly against her chest constantly was of no use. Leia slipped through the spring of the door first, eager to enter a building after their long trek through the woods and their shorter, yet more tiring trip up the foot of the mountain. They hadn't come far but Miriam hoped, they had come far enough.
"Hello?" She started, feeling her own voice hoarse and strangely thick with sick. She didn't feel feverish, though she hardly felt anything as powerful as she felt the constant ache of her broken arm. She looked around the room. It was lit with a few candles, a small amount of light that barely revealed the contents of the room: A hearth lay to her right, charred logs smouldered passively within, a chair and a small wooden table lay to her left, above it a tapestry of woven cloth and furs. She looked ahead, a wolf's skin carpeted the entrance, its saddened expression facing the door and any visitors that entered, Leia sniffed it briefly before seating herself upon its center, letting her tongue loll out as the dog panted somewhat wearily, a content look ever plastered upon her face. Miriam walked further inside, feeling the crunch of the snow beneath her well-crafted boots as she stepped unto the wood. "Hello?!" She repeated, somewhat louder. She looked around again, there were two doorways, from one of them shone a mild light. There had to be someone in here... Her eyes flicked to her left again, to the second doorway where a shadow suddenly appeared. It rose its arm threatingly, in which she quickly spotted a plain axe. Miriam rose her functional arm in a gesture for peace.
"Woah. Okay... Hello there!" She said nervously. The figure stopped and lowered its weapon, it then stepped out of the shadows, revealing itself to be a man. Bearded, grizzled and pale white of both complexion and hair. He looked like the mountain itself; ancient, unwavering and immobile. The man folded his arms up, looking between Miriam and Leia, who went up to sniff the man's pantleg.
"Who in the bloody Outworlds are you supposed to be?" The man grunted, not giving Leia a second of attention.
"I'm sorry, I should've knocked..." Miriam began.
"Asked y' a question, lass." The man grunted. Miriam shook her head, and then promptly nodded.
"Sorry. Miriam. I.... I used to live here." She admitted, somewhat unsure how believable that was, and why even she doubted it.
"I was born in this house, missy. So was my pa', so I properly doubt tha' you lived here." The man grunted, again.
"No. I mean-.." Miriam swallowed sickness. "I lived further up the mountain. Years ago. With my mother, and my brother..." She knew it would have to come out, though talking about it was weird. All of her life she'd run away from it, now she was back, and she doubted her reasoning. The man understood, however, his face contorted into something more mild and with a grevious sigh he lay the axe away, gesturing for her with an arm.
"Close up the door, would'ya."

Later

Lars gave her a blanket, it was woven with wool and Miriam, with one hand struggled to lay it over herself. She wavered a smile toward the man from where she sat, grateful for the gesture.
"Thank-you." She said. He grunted, then sat himself in the opposite chair, grabbed his poking stick and used it to poke at the fire he'd recently started in the hearth. Leia lay between them, curled up close to the fire with shut eyes, her furry chest moving up and down in peaceful rest.
"Didn't imagine you'd ever come back." Said Lars, after a short silence.
"Neither did I." Miriam admitted, with a blank gaze locked on the fire in the hearth.
"So. Why did you?" The gruff man asked, his gray eyes moving toward her.
"I..." Miriam wasn't sure she could answer that. Ever since she'd left Freda and Eliana she'd been walking north-west, hadn't she? Even before she broke her arm she'd been coming this way... But why. To find her own life? To return to solitude? She honestly couldn't tell her own thoughts anymore. "I wanted to find my father." She said, at last. It had been the thought that made the most sense to her... She looked to Lars with an inquisitive glance. Could it be him? She'd never known her father, neither had her brother. It hadn't mattered to them, it hadn't been important. Mother knew, of course, though she never talked about it. It had to be him... There wasn't anyone else. Lars looked back at her, then he shrugged his broad shoulders. Miriam blinked.
"What?" She blurted out in question.
"What?" Grunted Lars.
"You're-.." She continued.
"No. I'm not." He replied. Looking back to poke the fire. Miriam sunk back into her chair, clutched her blanket closer so that she could sink into it, hide away from her embarassment. What an absolute idiot she was! She pursed her lips tightly and sunk into the blanket in silence.
"Listen." Said Lars. "I remember your mother. And I remember the tragedy that happened up there - I remember that mountaineer that came by, who picked you up. Isn't it him you're looking for?" Lars asked in a reasonable tone.
"I don't know." Muttered Miriam beneath the blanket.
"You were just a child, I remember it... My wife wanted to take you in... Bless her." Lars shook his head in sorrowed rememberance.
"You didn't." Muttered Miriam in short reply.
"No. I didn't." Admitted Lars, glancing back to Miriam again. "I don't know the man you're looking for. Always thought it weird for a woman to live by herself, that far up the mountain - Whoever he was, he hasn't been back. Not since that day he picked you up." Lars shook his head meaningfully. "How about you take some time... Rest up here - We can fix that arm up for you." The old man smiled, having leaned over some in his chair to look at her through the gap of the blanket. Miriam took a moment to muddle this, though she knew what she had to reply. She had no place to go, no resources or any way to make a living other than the gold she'd been given by Freda. Not until she'd gotten better again.
"...Alright." She said finally.
"Just one thing you gotta do in return." Said Lars. Miriam twitched her eyes toward him.
"What?"
"Answer a question..."
"What question?"
"How -did- you survive that fire?"
Miriam could not answer that. Though recently, she'd begun to guess...

Her days with Lars were quiet, the man lived alone in the building, once he was dead there would be no one to take over after him, Miriam asked once if he considered moving but he said he'd always lived up the mountain, and he always would. The old man tended to her arm, bandaged it, refitted it and then he took care of her fever. Soup, hot water and time in bed. Miriam felt like a child during her days here, perhaps it was the nostalgic mountain air or the fact she was so plainly being coddled. She did find that she enjoyed it. She needed it even. Whatever was going on in the world outside of this mountain was no longer important. Snow fell every day and Lars worked resoundly to save them from being snowed in completely. Meanwhile Miriam lay in bed, or sat by the fire. Every time she looked into the hearth the thoughts came back to her. The visions of her mother and her elder brother... The fire that had engulfed them and their house - Miriam looked at her hand, with which she had performed magic - Could she have done it? She didn't remember the scenario completely, only being saved by the mountaineer, whoever he was. Lars didn't bring up the question again, though by the look on his eye Miriam could tell he had his assumptions. She couldn't explain it to him even if she wanted to. Even if she owed him. In the end, she wished that she had... As one night, during a particularly viscious snowstorm, the door suddenly flung open. Miriam looked to the open door from where she sat, wind and snow bellowed inside with a mad fury only the mountains could provide. Wailing and howling visciously. Lars quickly got up and went to close it again, to bar it - Though he stopped in his tracks and looked on in absolute surprise, as a man walked over the treshold of the door. He rose his hand and he tapped the top of the door twice in a gesture for good luck, removed his hood and smiled a familiar smile through his round, gray beard.
"Ah. There you are." Said Walter and looked past Lars as if he was air, directly at Miriam, who could only stare back with appropriate disbelief...

The Realm of Men

Miriam
Chapter 25: A long way to go

Miriam walked slowly through the forest, the snow was heavy beneath her feet and crunched as she stepped across it. She had had to stop often, her breathing was rapid and she often paused to wince and curse at the infernal pain of her arm. It was back in its original place but that only meant pain for her at this point. A raw and blatant aching of every nerve of her arm, it was strained and the constant pain wore her down into a sorry state. Miriam could not hunt in this state, as she walked she found frogs frozen and hibernating beneath logs, and she found eggs in nests low enough to pick. This sustained her for a few days as she walked but it did so barely, following the directions of the stars and the sun as she traveled further north. She could not risk going back south, the undead hunters must have been made aware of what had happened now. Miriam found herself concerned with what had become of the person she... performed her magic upon. She still had a hard time believing she had done it at all, it seemed like a lucid dream now. Maybe it was. - She found herself thinking about the panicked look in his eyes, the fear that had come over him as the magic had stopped his every muscle. Miriam did not need to imagine that fear, or that pain, she knew it already.

Leia came often when Miriam was resting against a tree or a stone with a dead squirrel or some other creature in her maw which she dropped in front of her wounded partner with a happy pant and a proud wag of her bushy tail. With due effort and only a operational hand Miriam made up a fire every night, by which she cooked her meals, warmed herself and slept. It warded off whatever animals lived in this sparse forest, she hadn't seen anything but birds and small beast. This close to the western shoreline the wilds were less ferocious, peaceful even and Miriam doubted she would come across anything more dangerous than wild boar.

A few days passed like this, in silent wandering through a peaceful and white forest. Miriam's thoughts left threats and magic and instead she came to think of the people she had left behind, the possibilities. If she had stayed with Freda, if she had taken her offer, what would have happened then? What had happened with Ellie? Didn't she say she would ensure she was safe? What had become of Lowburg and Anathema? Miriam found she depressed herself with these thoughts and tried to think of other things, but the weight of the past was still heavy on her mind. Every time she found herself thinking about these things she shook it off as sentimental and useless. With a determined scowl she carried on, forward and onward.

Eventually she found a path in the woods, the path surely lead out and eventually became a road, the road changed from dirt, to gravel and eventually it became paved with stone. Miriam looked down it, then up, Leia stood by her side, the dog had not left her side for the day and now walked by her side with less of a defensive air and more of her usual calm gait. Miriam walked down the road and as she did a memory came back to her, one she hadn't thought of for a very long time: She'd been here before, she had walked this road but to the other direction, a frail and lost child she had been, whose only possessions were what she carried with her. A singed scarf lay around the miserable child's neck, it had belonged to her mother once. Next to her there had been a man, he was a mountaineer, he had seen the fire and came to help. It had been too late to save anyone from the fire, but under the rubble had had found her, miraculously unscathed from the firestorm with not a scratch or a burn on her soot-covered body, and he had taken her away to his own home. The scarf was all that had been saved from the remains. Miriam touched an absent hand to her scarf and clung to it. It wasn't the same, this had been given to her by Freda, she knew that. With an anxious sigh Miriam stopped on the road and looked back again, Leia stopped and glanced back to Miriam who hesitantly chose not to move.
"I'm scared, Leia." Said Miriam, before she could think of a reason she had said it aloud at all. Leia barked and came trotting over back to her master, letting out a happy pant as she circled her once. Miriam looked down at the pooch and sighed.
"Okay... Let's go see him." She turned and walked up the road, in the far distance mountains began to stretch into the cloudy sky. Their white peaks reaching far beyond the clouds themselves, stretching endlessly to the sky above as if hoping they could all become one at last.