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The
Tainted
A friendship lost and a new understanding received.
Standing in the Marble Dale Park,
Ailith was helping others in need of advice. Still saddened by the departure of her good friend Shoeps and growing
increasingly concerned with the strange developments in the east, her thoughts were troubled and uneasy. When Granos,
one of her oldest and best friends in the realm, came to the park to ask her if they may speak in private, she thought nothing
of it, save for concern for the welfare of her friend.
Taking him to Sage Keep, they began to talk. and Granos told
Ailith that he was suffering. He said that the gauntlet was not working properly and that he needed to remove it. Fearing
that, in his changed state, he would do something bad with the gauntlet, he wished to give it to her for safe keeping. Lady
Ailith accepted, concerned with his welfare.. he had never given her cause to doubt their friendship, which had always been
so strong.
Granos removed the gauntlet and passed it to her, and she in turn put it in her bag. As this happened,
he whispered the words 'forgive me' and he reached for the Spectral Shard. Her eyes wide with disbelief, Ailith looked at
Granos and started to back away. He lunged at her, tearing the flesh of her arm deeply with it and muttered something
about the taint. Ailith, now terrified, struggled free and ran out of the keep to Willow's Walk, clutching her bleeding arm
and sobbing at the thought of the betrayal of her old friend. Diving into the waters of Willows Walk, she reverted to her true
form, which comprises of a bright blue vital energy, in an effort to heal the wound. Returning to the shore and into her
landwalker form she was amazed that the wound had not healed itself.. could it be that the immense shock of her old
friend's actions had prevented her from healing, or was it something more sinister?
She ran, in deep shock,
towards the path of loneliness where she met Asterdai and Sparrhawk. Asterdai tried to speak to her.. unable to focus on him,
she frantically asked for Zleiphneir, another of her oldest and greatest friends.. but he was not there. Asterdai suggested
finding Grido and she ran to the Gazeebo of Equilibrium but... there was Granos, smiling and behaving like he had done
nothing. Realising something was very seriously wrong, her mind locked into a state of terror and she moved away from
him.. to the path of loneliness and then to the howling gates.
Overcome with grief and terror, she began to sense
some kind of call from the gauntlet in her bag. She took it and weakly tried to return it to Granos, but he refused. Sparrhawk
knocked it from her hand and she lunged to pick it up, all the time with Asterdai pleading for information ot explanation
from Granos. Lady Ailith, against her rational will, placed her wounded arm in the gauntlet. The immediate reaction was for
her to revert to her true form and reject the gauntlet, but it was too late.
She opened her eyes, once bright blue,
now grey and the gauntlet acting like an anchor, keeping her in landwalker form. Her skin grey and pallid and her voice
dark and changed, she spoke to others with disdain and dersision. Friend after friend appeared at the howling gates,
attempting to ascertain what had happened and what could be done for Ailith.
Time passed and she walked
away to the Gazebo of Chaos, resting there in the darkness, rational mind still overcome with shock and her being overcome
with the effects of the traces of liquid dust in the gauntlet. yrthilian was among the first to visit there, wanting to find out
what was happening and starting work on a cure or a way to help his friend. Raven appeared and, as he did throughout the
rest of these happenings, stayed close to Ailith or Granos.
Granos then set about stabbing more people.. AkenEX,
Mya Celestia, Lady Renata.. the list was beginning to grow. Under the influence of this darkness, Ailith attacked two people..
Necromancer Mortis and Guybrush. Now gaining a little strength, she was fighting the taint. Knowing that her blood was
different, weaker in the taint, she tried to warn Mortis that her blood was different. Her warnings were taken as being
threats, so she worked on finding a way to fight back, to prevent her from attacking the innocent.
During an
attack on zalabar, she found the strength to pull herself into a cocoon of energy.. fighting the taint, the darkness and gaining
some kind of control. While she was in the cocoon, yrthilian laid out five crystals which energised themselves from the
energy given off by it.. some time later he collected them, unnoticed by Ailith. The influence of the gauntlet was such
that she had to call on a part of her that was deeply repressed.. Chaos.. a symbol of her aggressive, hateful and unpredictable
side that she brought to the fore. She now spoke against Granos and the tainted ones... something that her friends recognised
as her fighting back.
Those that did not know her, or took things on face value, thought her still to be the taint.
She was not.. she prevented herself from attacking others and even spoke to those who showed concern and caring for their
friend with her old voice.. the message was always the same.. 'have faith'. Grido stayed by her side constantly during her time
in the Gazebo of Chaos, supporting her and watching over the actions as they unfolded.. for that she will always be
grateful.
To those that did not abandon her, she referred to her current form as the sword, and her old self the
shield. She used the sword to keep others away while she, the shield, regained her strength. She spoke of destruction, pain..
the things that she forsaw would happen to the realm's society if Granos continued.
Those that knew her
understood.
As she regained more strength, she began to reside under the willow at Willow's Walk.. staring out
to the water and pleading to the spirit of her father for help. To Lady Ailith, her father, who was a great warrior, symbolises
strength and power..
She asked Firsanthalas for help.. she needed a container for when she took off the gauntlet as she
needed to keep it to find a way to put it back on Granos. He gave her his faerie box and told her that it should be safe in
there.. yrthilian presented her with the five crystals that he had charged while she was in the cocoon and a belt with five
loops to secure them..
One night as she felt her power recharge, she leapt into the water and began to tear at the
gauntlet, freeing herself from the gauntlet and reverting to her natural state. Putting the gauntlet into the box that
Firsanthalas gave her and throwing it in her bag, she set about healing the damage... The power from the crystals yrthilian
gave her flew towards her to capture the swirl of black that was present deep within and contained it.
Closing
her eyes she dived backwards into the water and disappeared under the water.. Some time later, when she re-emerged, she
had reverted to her original state, with only two physical differences... the grey flecks in her blue eyes and the swirl of
darkness she keeps imprisoned within.
The blessing of Morpheleus be upon me
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Bless the psyche split in
twain
Help me unite that before and created
Order and chaos combined
I will release myself from
pain
My impending transformation fated
Shield and sword intertwined.
After releasing herself from the gauntlet at Willow's Walk, Ailith entrapped within her nymphly form the residue of the liquid dust and the remnants of the taint that remained. A being of energy, the crystals that yrthilian prepared for her allowed her to encase the dust, protecting herself from it with the love she has for the realm and the people in it.
Becoming the Transient Watcher, she started to continue her work as peacekeeper and started to try to revive the Dimensional Shifters guild on behalf of Shoeps. The tainted issue was gradually put to the back of her mind and she worked hard.
One day she received a message from mcvitie, representative of the GG alliance stating their intent to attack necrovion and asking if the DS would help. Concerned by this, Ailith replied that she would not and wanted to speak to yrthilian on the matter. He contacted her through otherworldy means and confirmed that he wanted to attack Necrovion.
In an effort to stop this, Ailith approached Jester and asked him to clarify his aggressive announcement. He stated that he wished to improve combat situations and hold agreed alliance versus alliance or one to one combat challenges. He believed this would make the realm more attractive to newcomers as well as helping others to improve their combat skills.
She called a last minute assembly of as many alliance leaders as she could find so that they could talk to each other about this. Hostilities grew and people walked out, still angry about past wars. She then tried to communicate Jester's ideas to yrthilian herself, but he expressed his intent to attack anyway.
Ailith became heartbroken, she foresaw great troubles ahead and went to Loreroot to think. Meeting Firsanthalas, he saw that she was troubled and asked her the matter. She replied that she may have made made the wrong choices and continued on her way. Unbeknownst to Firsanthalas, she was referring to a crisis of faith with regards to her peacemaking.
She walked to Wasp's Totem and dived into the water to seek solace, under the water she thought things through and came back to the shore refreshed. No sooner had she done so did she hear of the invasion of necrovion and the taking of Marvolo as a hostage. Instantly she messaged yrthilian to tell him of her intention to go to the Well of Tears and care for Marvolo. Standing at the Howling Gates she removed her armor and weapons, positioned a tree on defense and went to the well.
There she could not believe her eyes as she realised Marvolo, whose psychological state she had been worried about for some days, had been pushed down the well. As soon as she greeted all, she received a threat:
Liberty:oke... ailith, rules are like this, ya can throw food down the well to marv, but if he escapes regardless if its your fault or not ya get axe on your neck
.Ailith.: *looks at Liberty* I come here in peace, please do not threaten me
Liberty:we came in here in war and we wont tolerate missing prisoners
Death Ring:hehe
.Ailith.:Then you should guard them
Liberty:who says we dont
.Ailith.: *smiles* then there is no problem *looks down the well again* .
Liberty:ya see we dont trust ya much since marv will most likely get executed.... and in war those peace helpers usually help prisoners to escape, so yeah i have prejudices
.Ailith.:I see
Little did she realise but Liberty had sparked an emotion that she rarely felt... anger. Though not apparent at that time, something stirred within her and the barriers around the darkness within were weakening. The longer she stayed and watched the mistreatment and taunting of Marvolo, the more intense this feeling of anger was. She started to feel the defences she put up weaken and wandered around necrovion in a little pain and confusion.
The next day, the pain became worse.. and as she rested under an arch at the House of the Tainted Times, the liquid dust broke free. She was now unable to control her emotions.. the feelings inside her became a reflection of the rage and hatred that was sweeping this part of the realm. That night, as Peace emerged wearing the badge of the Guerrilla Golemicarum, asking for her tree on defence, she did not hesitate to help. With this single action, she realised she was changed forever and took off the badge of the Dimensional Shifters, instantly feeling relief as if a great burden was taken from her.
Another day passed and during this time, Ailith accepted her fate. She asked Jester if she may become a Sentinel and he agreed. With this, she had to make her final sacrifice... she willingly wore the corroded gauntlet once more. Consumed with a mixture of the taint and the liquid dust from the gauntlet, the anger within her grew further.. her emotions enslaving her. She sacrificed so much, yet is not able to feel regret.
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