#starsfall

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Khira woke with a start, arm flailing out and knocking over an empty bottle as she jolted upright. She took more than a moment to survey her surroundings, blinking away the blurriness of the world to reveal her mess of a workshop. The Keeper woman groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose as reality set in and the land of sleep and dreams faded away.

“Ugh… another dream, another glimpse into the past. Not something I’ll ever get used to…”

As she pulled herself up from the couch that was her makeshift bed she glanced around the room, eyes settling on the ominous sword suspended above her workbench, a flamberge covered in small rifts and fang-like protrusions.

“Still no change. I admit I was half expecting you to turn back into a normal sword once Starlight was destroyed and yet here we are a moon later and nothing.”

Ever since she had returned from that incident her mind had been abuzz with nothing but more questions, some justified and others bordering on paranoia. Was the blade /really/ just created as a prank or did Starlight have an actual goal in mind?  Did she know it would be effective against her to the point of piercing her own defenses so utterly? That it would be brought against her? That she would die while impaled on it? Khira closed her eyes as she played the scene over again in her mind. The childish voidsent cackled with laughter as that very blade ignored her attempts to block it and plunged through her stomach and into the snow behind. No screaming nor crying just… playful laughter. Moments later, unable to bear an ally’s pugilistic assault, she disintegrated into nothingness. They had all seen it, felt it even, the end of a life. Khira shook the memories away and moved over to the weapon, peering at it hesitantly.

“Could it be possible I wonder… that you somehow managed to survive after all of that? I mean what am I even saying!? You were just a child, there’s no way you could have known that the circumstances would have aligned. She never would have raised it against you, or any weapon, so even if it was possible that this sword could be some sort of fail-safe phylactery of sorts there was no reason to ever think that…”

She shook her head, hands clenched as she let out a frustrated growl.

“No… no, enough. The thought of something like that is little more than paranoid speculation with no basis at all. Besides… I’m sure the Whiteseer would have known if something like that had occurred anyway. No, this is nothing more than a void cursed sword that eats aether and that’s final.”

“And so, the pages of this final chapter turn, the long-awaited end of this tale finally approaching. All the preparations have been made, all that’s left is to wait… and pray that all goes as it should.”

 Khira shivered as she mused to herself, forever at odds with the natural chill of the icy wastes of Xelphatol. The Keeper woman shook her head and rose from the hard ground beneath her, gazing once more around the ancient cavern she found herself in, known simply to her as The Crucible. Her skin tingled, a sensory reaction to the aether in the air, its unnatural nature only amplified by an underlying twist of something… wicked. She had spent numerous bells studying the place now in tandem with Zaphir, and although she felt she now had a far greater understanding of the place, it still left her feeling uneasy. Pulling her heavy coat tighter, she wandered away from her resting spot, albeit without a specific destination in mind. She just seemed to think better while pacing.

 “For all the headway we made with our research, I still feel as if we’ve only scratched the surface of this place. Of the power the sleeps here. Figures that the Nymians of all peoples had to be the creators, always making things so obtuse and esoteric. Still… I think we found enough in the short term to serve our purposes.”

 She stared out towards the exit path, sighing. Her colleague had since left to participate in the final confrontation with X’zarann, along with many more of her friends. A part of her yearned to be there with them, to aid them in that shared fight, but she knew better. She ultimately elected to stay behind at The Crucible, continuing her own study of it. They had found answers in their research, but as is often the case they also brought on even more questions. The biggest surprise to Khira was that the fiend that was Starlight had somehow tampered with the place, though she still wasn’t sure to what ends.

 “Hrrmph. It all leads back to you doesn’t it. A spectre that haunts this tribe, even after your… hmm...”

 Her words trailed off with her thoughts, back to her workshop. She had contemplated bringing the living sword with her, to keep watch over it in case something happened, but decided against it. In the event that her paranoia bore fruit, this was the last place she wanted to bring that cursed weapon. Instead she’d had it locked away in her workshop in Vylbrand.

 Her steps slowed as her thoughts drew back to the present, the sound of her own footfalls echoing about the cavern becoming apparent to her.