Fanwalker Friday - Kyveli
Next fanwalker is a warrior from Setessa. Like last time - description first, and then backstory below the cut :)
Kyveli is a highly skilled warrior from Setessa. She has rich, deep brown skin that contrasts strongly against the strange, smooth marble of her prosthetic legs. Her long hair is pulled up into a series of thick braids that fits through her intricate leather helm.
She wears lightly tanned armor leather armor and wields a shield and shortsword. Her shield has the head of a gorgon affixed to the front of it that she can animate briefly with her (previously secret) necromantic powers, turning opponents to stone or allowing the venomous snakes of her hair to bite at those standing close by.
Her first walk after her spark ignited was to Zendikar, where she was able to put her skills to use dispatching eldrazi. Since then she has wandered between planes, no intention of ever returning to Theros, helping the outcast by killing what keeps them oppressed.
She’s basically mono-black - she does things to “defend” and “Help” the outcasts, but it’s all to justify her killing whatever she deems a worthy hunt.
And now her story (it’s a really long one again - you’ve been warned)
Setessa was home to many strong and powerful women - warriors, hunters, and even priestesses and acolytes had their own strength. They found harmony with one another by striving to grow stronger, better, and more self sufficient. Kyveli understood this desire, but she learned all too soon that they only appreciated growth and strength that looked like their own.
While the other hunters spent time honing their skill with the bow, she favored the shortsword. Many of them thought the weapon too barbaric for hunting - a shortsword was for battling and whittling the opponent down, where as hunting was about bringing your prey down quickly and efficiently. This... difference of opinion, led to Kyveli’s exclusion from a number of hunting parties - all but one.
Chara was a skilled archer, and gifted with healing poultices. Whenever Kyveli got in over her head hunting a beast too large for her to handle, Chara was always there to help finish bringing it down and to see to her wounds. It was embarrassing at first - Kyveli hated seeming weak, especially in front of someone so kind and beautiful. But Chara never backed down, and frequently joined Kyveli on her hunting trips.
They shared much of their time together, between glorious hunts through the day and intimate moments through the night. Chara would stay with Kyveli every hour of the day if she could, but Kyveli always kept some distance between them - not only was she worried about damaging sweet Chara’s reputation among the Setessans, but she was worried about what Chara would think of her if she knew her real secret.
She wasn’t only a skilled fighter, but a skilled necromancer. Not that she was aware of this - necromancy wasn’t really a thing, as far as she could tell. But when she killed a creature, she found she had a connection with it. At first she thought it was just strong empathy. But over time she found she could draw power from it - the more powerful the beast she had slain, the more power she could take from it.
And so she began to seek stronger, more potent creatures to bring down, and did her best to keep Chara away. She didn’t want her to be caught in her own pursuit of power and glory, no matter how much she loved her. Until the day she desperately needed help.
She had lost sight of her surroundings while tracking a hydra - a small one, comparatively speaking, but a worthy foe nonetheless - when a viper had struck at her from the shadows. She hadn’t even heard it, hadn’t realized it existed, until its fangs sunk into her ankle. She went to stomp on it with her other foot, gaining yet another wicked bite, before the serpent seemed to disappear into the shadows, a starry shimmer in its wake.
She didn’t have time to contemplate how strange it was before she was collapsing to the ground, her legs refusing to move. Her veins were turning black, and her flesh begin to sink in on itself. “I have to be stronger than this” she told herself, and used her necromancy to keep the spread of dead flesh at bay. Unable to walk, she crawled.
Finally, she crawled her way back to Chara’s door. It was late, and she was exhausted, but the sight if Chara’s warm body made her fear dissipate. Kyveli was brought inside, where Chara inspected the damage.
“latria mu I’ve never seen something like this... what have you done to yourself?” Kyveli bit her lip as a wave of pain raced through her legs again. They were worse now - she could see places where the muscle had become visible and was succumbing to necrosis.Â
“A... a snake. It bit me while I was hunting. It happened so fast” she felt tears beginning to rise as she considered that due to her carelessness, this may be the last time she would see Chara. She reached out, taking her hands, and whispered. “I’m so sorry”
Chara’s gently pulled a hand free and stroked Kyveli’s thick hair. “Don’t apologize. Rest. I’ll go see the healers in the Winter Nexus” Kyveli wanted to argue - Chara had always avoided the dark magic Pharika offered, even though it had the potentially to bring power to her healing. And at night like this...
“It’s too dangerous. You can’t go alone” Chara smiled as she finished putting on her armor and grabbed her bow.
“I don’t have to be alone. I will gather a party quickly and make my way there” she kissed the wrinkles of worry that were still forming between Kyveli’s brow. “I know you like to be the strong one. But please, just this once, let me be strong for you.” And with that, Chara was gone.
By the next evening, Kyveli found herself pushing her way through thick, rope like vines deeper into gorgon territory. Her legs were more than half rotted away by now - far beyond saving - but that only meant her magic had more power over them, enough to keep her upright and moving.
Only one hunter had returned from the tip with Chara. They had gone to hunt a gorgon, to harvest the means for a cure from its blood. But that had failed. And Chara was gone.
Kyveli refused to believe this. Refused to accept it. And so she went after her, against the protests and warnings of those around her. It’s all their fault she thought as sh cleaved through the plants blocking her way. None of them cared about her like I did, none of them were strong enough for her. If I had been there, if... if I hadn’t gotten hurt to begin with... She shook her head and pressed forward. She would find Chara, and bring her back.
When she reached the bog of the gorgon they had faced, what she found turned her blood to ice. Frozen forms of many men and women littered the land - some fresh, sparkling like marble and others half sunk in the muck, crumbling with age. But one stoney form stood out.
She saw Chara, collapsed on the ground near a tree, her bow broken and scattered away. The tears of fear frozen in immaculate white stone upon her flawless face.
No
A shadow moved from behind the trees, slithering towards Kyveli. She closed her eyes - to block out the gorgon, to block out the image of Chara, to block it all out.
No
She felt a ripple in the thick water as the gorgon moved closer, her serpents hissing, preparing to strike. Kyveli’s grip tightened on her sword.
NO!
The gorgon seemed to lunge for her as a scream of agony, rage, and sorrow ripped itself from her chest. She hacked forward into the gorgon, ignoring the serpents that latched into the flesh of her shoulders as she did so. She hacked again, feeling blood spray over her as something sharp sliced across her abdomen. She hacked again, and again, and again, her body numb to the pain, her mind consumed with grief and anger.
She collapsed to the ground, sobbing, her eyes still shut, as she hacked apart the lifeless form before her. She wasn’t sure how long ago she had managed to kill the gorgon, how much of the blood she felt coating her body was hers or its. Eventually, her arms gave out, and she dropped her blade. She opened her eyes, wincing at the rays of dawn that had begun to peer through the leaves.
She saw her hands, almost black with blood. The gorgon lay on the ground, nearly hacked in two from Kyveli’s brutal assault. Her face was twisted into an expression of rage and pain. And Chara... Chara was still there, on the ground. Beautiful. Cold. Gone.
And suddenly, Kyveli didn’t feel close enough to death. She felt the coldness swallow her, as she realized there was nothing she could do. She was gone. And if Chara was gone, she didn’t deserve to live.
She felt her despair rise up within her, a cold void consuming her being. She practically begged Erebos for relief as she curled in on herself. She felt as though she was sinking into the mire below her, drowning in blood and mud. She was scared to face this alone, filled with hatred for herself for allowing Chara to leave, sickened by what she had become. She allowed the darkness to crawl over her, begging it to make her disappear, to rid her of this inescapable ache deep in her chest.
And then she found herself gasping, shooting up from the muck. No... this is different. It’s cold, and dark, and wet... but the statues are gone. The trees were different.
She didn’t have time to comprehend what she was looking at when a strange being scuttled down a tree and began to advance on her. It had long pointed legs and clawed hands, and seemed to vibrate with an energy she didn’t understand. It had two branching growths that extended from the side of its head, along with two long pieces of a similar looking materials levitating above those growths.
The creature reached for her, and instinctively she blocked with her shield, going to ready her sword, but found it missing. In a panic, she tried to scramble away, but couldn’t find the energy to make her legs work - it was as though the mana she had become accustomed to using was suddenly gone, drained away. The creature batted her arm to the side, exposing her, and reached towards her, energy pulsating around its hand.
She saw the world distort around it as it plunged into her, and she felt searing pain as suddenly she too became distorted. She felt herself being drug from the fabric of existence, her body trying to unravel. She felt something familiar in the chaos around her, and clung to it, desperate to be rid of this creature. And like that, she found herself back in the gorgon’s bog, just as she had left it. Her missing sword was still lying within the cavity she had carved out of the gorgon.
Shaking, Kyveli processed what she had seen. What she had felt. She knew that wasn’t home. Somehow, she had gone somewhere new. She had left Theros... and come back. Her magic hadn’t worked there, but perhaps she could find somewhere it did. Somewhere she could get powerful enough to bring Chara back to her.
Her hopelessness being replaced with resolve, Kyveli took up her sword, and crawled to the head of the gorgon. With a stoic face, she sawed the head off, and used her belt to strap the head to the front of her shield. You took what was most precious to me She thought So you’re going to help me get it back. She then pulled herself to the statue of Chara. She bit her lip, and left a serene kiss on her forehead, before searching for the feeling of that other world again. She allowed herself to sink away, to return to Zendikar.
Kyveli eventually found a friend who was skilled with Lithomancy. When she learned that she could fashion working prosthetic for her from stone, Kyveli returned to Theros for the first time in awhile. She found the statue of Chara, and carefully removed the legs from it. The Lithomancer helped her remove her legs, and replace them with Chara’s stone ones, allowing Kyveli to keep Chara close in her travels.
She travels from world to world, hunting down beings in order to gain power, in hopes of one day having the power to recall Chara from the dead.Â
