MysidiaDrakkenbane

Mysidia had followed Sabre around all night, visiting various memories. She visited her graduation from the ShadaczarAcademy with her half brother Kryimsson and oath brother Xerbius. She remembered how proud her mother was. It was a great honor to graduate from the Academy. Mysidia’s mother did not and Mysidia was the first woman to ever graduate from there.

She continued to wander through her memories and briefly stopped into the one where she had met Machene. Mysidia was captured by the Splitpaw Commander in Blackburrow and sold to the Dervish Slave Trade. She had befriended one of Machene’s dearest friends while in captivity. Machene’s clan had disrupted their transport from the Commonlands to the Deserts of Ro. Chaos ensued and Machene came to her rescue; the first of many.

Who knew then, that the bond between Machene and Mysidia would grow to be so strong? Strong enough to feel each other’s pains and joys, and simply just “know” when the other was around?

Mysidia sat at a distance watching the tiny battle unfold around them. She remembered everything, including the detail where she remembered a wolf cresting one of the dunes the night before Machene’s clan (guild) rescued them. Her eyes widen and she turned to Sabre.

“That was you!”, Mysidia exclaimed.

Sabre lowered his head as if almost embarrassed about being caught. “Yes, Mysidia. I thought you would have known by now.”

“Known what?”, Mysidia asked confused.

“I am your guide and have been since the day you were born. Your Purpose is simply too great to merely let Fate cast the stones. Tunare was given leeway in helping you so, She sent me.”, Sabre said looking at her.

Mysidia looked down feeling the weight of the world, again. “Everything in my life was…planned?”

Sabre placed a paw gently on hers. “No, merely pushed in a certain direction. Tunare can’t make the decisions for you. She merely shows you the path and you have to choose which one is the right one. And for the most part, you have.”

Mysidia looked up shocked. “Most part? What have I done wrong??”, she said worried.

Sabre sighed choosing his words carefully. Sabre was an instrument of Tunare and what he knew could unravel the tapestry that Tunare has tried to weave back together, if he had given too much. “Your hatred for the Iksar, for one.”, he mentioned.

Mysidia flattened her wolf ears and looked at Sabre helpless. “They slaughtered my people. As far as I know, I’m the last full blooded Rydian left. Anything left of my heritage lies in half breeds, glimpses in bloodlines, and faded pages in history books. If it weren’t for them, I could still be sitting on the throne.”

Sabre snapped at Mysidia. “Don’t be naïve, Mysidia! Kingdoms rise and fall with the setting suns. Sooner or later, Rydia would have fallen with or without you on the throne. The Iksar merely accelerated the Prophecy. It is a good thing that you weren’t on the throne when the Iksar started their attack. You might not be here today to serve your Purpose.”

Sabre let his words sink in for a moment before continuing. “The Iksar have done an evil thing, but not every Iksar was there the day of The Rise. Races’ ideals change as the world changes. The Iksar, as a whole, have abandoned their barbaric ways. You shouldn’t punish the whole for what their ancestors did. If you do not let this hatred leave your heart, Mysidia, you will never finish your Purpose.”

Mysidia had returned to her bipedal form. She sat with her knees pressed to her chest and her head resting on her knees. “But… I… remember…”, she began to say as the tears freely fell from her cheeks.

The image before them changed to the Lake of Ill Omen. Fire was running ramped all around them and the various choruses of screams could be heard. In the distance, a platform pyramid stood and its steps to the top were covered in blood. So much so that it ran like a river to the bottom. A fiery cauldron stood at the base of one of the steps and the stench of burning flesh choked the air around them.

Sabre knew the vision they were witnessing and his heart hung heavy with Mysidia’s. Mysidia was old enough to remember the slaughtering of her parents. Mardock had an Enchanter place a block on her memory so that the horrifying images weren’t burned into her mind. But dams can only hold back water for so long before erosion gives way and the floodgates open, and like any floodgate would, Mysidia’s memories came crashing back to her, before the Rendering. She never blamed Mardock for what he did. She understood why. She just wished that instead of breaking forth, they would trickle back like a starting stream.

The young adult version of Mysidia was crouched on her knees before the pyramid, screaming on the top of her lungs. Her screams, however, were completely drowned out by the painful shirlls coming from the altar. Mardock was dragging her back by her tunic, egging her to leave. Tears fell freely off of the adult Mysidia as well as the child. Her mother’s body was laying grotesquely over the stone altar and a crude hole was cut in her chest.

The child screamed as Mardock dragged her back. “Come on, Mysidia. If they catch you here, you will join her. We have to go.” Mardock wasn’t cold hearted, he grieved along with the child, but he was to see to her safety just as he promised her mother.

“How can I forgive them?”, Mysidia asked softly, the nightmare playing out around them.

“Use this as a stepping stone to get Rydia back to what she used to be, not as fuel to fan the flames of hatred. Tay’lan proved to you that the Iksar have changed and not everyone fed into the bloodlust traditions.”, Sabre said.

“Drin-Sha stated that those traditions are alive and well in some of them.”, Mysidia noted, wiping her face.

“Every race has had their dark days, Mysidia. Or have you forgotten your own bloodlust?”, Sabre reminded her.

The time Sabre spoke of was when Mysidia was fresh out of the Academy and leading her mother’s armies. There wasn’t an Iksar encampment that was safe from Mysidia’s rage or blade.

“It was justice!”, Mysidia began to seethe.

“What you call justice, they would call murder. The Iksar you slaughtered abandoned their barbaric ways. You just refused to see it or acknowledge it.”, Sabre chided.

“My mother and father were slaughtered like common cattle! Their bodies, tossed aside, as refuse!” Mysidia began to rant. “I had every right….”

“Did you?”, Sabre cut her off.

The image changed again in front of them and a small burning village lay began to shimmer into view. The screams they heard were dry, like two scales rubbing together, but full of pain and misery. Hundreds of bodies, Iksar bodies, littered the ground and soaked the earth in its blood. Mysidia, now older than the younger image, sat on top of a large black mount. Her leather armor was blood stained and smeared and her blade dripped crimson red.

Various Rydian troops were scattered among the chaos, chasing the unarmed Iksar. Women and children made up the majority of the village, yet none were safe from the burning fire in Mysidia’s heart.

One of the officers had an Iksar child by the scruff of his neck and shoved him in front of the horse mounted Druid Queen. “What of this one, your majesty?”

Mysidia held a very hard and cold look on her blood spattered face. She looked at the Iksar boy crying at the horror around him. Mysidia casually looked at the officer and said, “Kill him.”

The officer hesitated. He even flinched at her words. “But your majesty… He is merely but a boy…”

“Which grow older to become the problem you see. He will be the problem that kills your children and your children’s children. I said, kill him.”, Mysidia said cold.

The officer hesitated again and shook his head slightly. Mysidia, fed up with the disobedience of her lesser, dismounted and gave a quick movement. The child’s head toppled off its freshly killed body and rolled towards Mysidia’s feet. The eyes didn’t have a chance to close and the look of shock still clung to the head’s face. The officer widened his eyes.

“When I tell you to do something, I do not expect it questioned. Do you understand?”, Mysidia snapped.

“Y…yes, your majesty.”, the officer said and bowed his head in respect.

“He was a child, Mysidia. You never gave him the chance to choose his own path. You chose it for him.”, Sabre said in a serious tone.

Mysidia wept. So many Iksars have fallen to her blade and how many more under her order? Sabre was right. No one was safe from the darkness of their soul.

“You must let go of this hatred, Mysidia. If you will not let it go, it will consume you.” Sabre finished and got up.

“Where are you going?”, Mysidia asked looking up sniffling.

“I am finished here and so are you. You have seen all there is for me to show you. It is time.”, Sabre said and began to walk away.

“Time for what?”, Mysidia called out after him.

Sabre turned his head and grinned slightly. “To wake up.”

…And so she did…

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