#tzeentch

Tzeentchian viper

Summary

Kellaran finds herself betrayed, and in a very sticky situation. The world she arrived in begins to crumble at her feet — will she be able to make it back to reality, and even if she can, is there anyone there that she can trust?

Warnings: Magic-assisted fight scenes, vague allusions to human sacrifice, strong language

masterpost

one | two | you are here | four

From The Snare to the Loom

She awoke, uncomfortably, on the table in the centre of the room.

The people in robes, she blearily realized, were standing around her, whispering a chant in a language she couldn’t understand. Through a headache, she vaguely noticed a blue light in front of her, and tried to sit up so she could see it better.

She couldn’t move.

The blue light lowered. She groaned, panic rising as she tried to get up, only managing to writhe fruitlessly.

All the lamplights were blue now. They had been yellow before. Her breathing quickened.

It was as if her wrists and ankles were locked down onto the table in invisible cuffs. She thrashed, her voice and muscles straining.

The light in front of her reached the stone.

A line of cold blue fire encircled the table, burning not with heat but with some unfamiliar magic. The surface beneath her faded away as her body began to float in the air.

A deep breath. A chant – this time, from her lips.

I hope this works.

A flash of light burst from her chest, and the cultists were thrown backward. She scrambled free, reaching behind her ear for her staff. Behind her, some dark energy began to churn above the table; already the cultists were regrouping, closing in.

The blue flames turned out to just be magically-imbued fire, which meant they were easy enough to gain control over. She flung them in an arc around her, driving the cultists away though failing to set their robes ablaze as she had hoped. Still, it bought her time: with a few quick breaths, she managed to get her bearings somewhat straight.

I was betrayed.

I was almost sacrificed.

She patted her waist.

They took my sword.

“Okay,” she panted to herself. “Where’s my sword?”

Frustratingly, nothing gave an answer. She scuffed the ground with her boot, coating the floor in slick ice – but one of them pulled hard on her braid, taking advantage of her opening.

“Fuck!”

Gritting her teeth, she stabbed backward with her staff; the cultist stumbled, but stubbornly – frustratingly – refused to let go.

I’m not going to be able to grab my sword.

“…Shit.”

She turned as much as she could to flick a magic bullet into the cultist’s face. That finally got them to let go as they clutched their bloody nose; she sprayed more ice in their direction, and summoned a minor spirit to help.

“Grab me my sword. Oh, and my bag too,” she ordered. And just in time – another cultist kicked her down and stared into her eyes, their own aflame with terrifying visions. She was forced to look away, but managed to hurl a spear of ice in their general direction.

She conjured a few more powerful spirits to help the first, realizing it would be defenseless on its own, and flicked a few more bullets in the cultists’ faces. It didn’t slow them down much, but it at least bought her time.

Buying time… seemed like the most she could do in this situation.

Somehow, they were all still chanting in unison. Her ears were filled with their whispers – forbidden knowledge and dark pacts – as the floor began to crack and split apart beneath her. She dodged a bolt of electric black energy and returned with a few pieces of the unravelling floor, thrown like makeshift slingstones.

Jumping between the rapidly-forming platforms to reach the spirits, she managed to pin one of the cultists to a wall, promptly encasing them in ice before another bolt of energy hit her square in the stomach, sending her flying. She gasped for air, creating a wall behind her.

Ow! Shit!

A bit of healing magic supported by some air-bending did the trick. Back on her feet but still in an inconvenient amount of pain, she used the wall she had made as a springboard to launch herself toward the spirits, who met her in the air so she could snatch her things.

“Thanks!” she called, dismissing them with a wave. “Now I’m even more dangerous,” she mischievously added to herself – right before she found herself caught in a web of black magic, hitting the ground hard.

The one who ensnared her was near the altar she had been laid out upon, and the whispers in such close proximity threatened to drive her mad. Equally concerning was the dagger pointed directly at her chest, threatening to bite deep. That part was nothing a strong blast of wind couldn’t fix, but the snare took a little more effort: fighting off panic and insanity, she found she could loosen it just enough to gain some movement.

Rearranging her things into their proper places attached to her helped regain some sense of calm, but once that was done she wasted no time in drawing her own dagger. With some finagling, she managed to get a hit in on the cultist’s stomach, though that did come at the price of a small cut on her cheek.

And they were still chanting. And closing in – fast.

Another pulse of fire, hotter this time so that maybe they’d burn. Small flames erupted on their clothing, but it wasn’t enough. Or maybe too much: the flames turned blue, and the cultists scooped them up in their hands.

“Uh-oh.”

She jumped up high in the air to escape them – sending a spray of ice behind her for good measure – but they aimed the blue fire right at her, forcing her to dodge downward.

The move did succeed in saving her life – but as reality fizzed out of focus behind her, Kellaran realized she had only traded one predicament for another.

Notes

Summary

Kellaran gets answers, but doesn’t gain friends. Instead, she finds herself caught in a net woven by unknown, unknowable gods.

Warnings: There is a cult, not much other than that though I think

masterpost

one | you are here | three | four

A Changing of Ways

The stranger led her to a small, candlelit room tucked away from the crowd. At their request, she sat across from them at a kind of coffee table, sighing with relief. As they did the same, they folded their hands with a calculated poise.

“What would you like to know?”

Kellaran thought for a moment. “What’s… going on out there?”

“Life,” they answered with a shrug.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That is the way things are on this world, as on many others,” they explained. “People are born, live, and work themselves to death in service of a god who will never see them.”

“That’s awful…”

“Isn’t it? And many waste their and their children’s lives on journeys to this world, because this is where He rests.”

“Their god?”

“Yes. Their Emperor and false god, entombed here on a golden throne. If He has done anything for them, He is the one who made their lives this way. And yet they worship Him as if he will come again to save them.”

“I see…” Her words were hollow with empathy and sadness, and she sighed, thinking of nothing else to say for a long moment.

Before she could finish thinking, they put forward their own question. “You wish to change this world, don’t you?”

She was startled by the suddenness of it, but the answer was clear. “Of course I do! Anyone would.”

“There are many of us who feel the same way,” they replied, their smile now full and warm. “Would you like to join us? The others know just as much as I do, and we can answer any question you may have. I feel you have the potential to do quite a lot of good for this world.”

She hummed, thinking for a long moment. The request was sudden, and by that as strange as their expectant staring. But then again…

She remembered the writhing crowd, the way the people swarmed the street like insects. She remembered the pain of seeing their starved, frightened appearances… their hollow eyes…

“Hm… I’d like that, I think.”

“Good,” they replied, standing. “Come with me, and I’ll introduce you to the others. You may keep asking questions on the way, if you wish.”

She smiled, following their lead.

A question did in fact present itself as they walked through a narrow corridor to another room. “What’s that symbol on your brooch? Is that something to do with the god you mentioned?”

“No,” they answered, laughing gently and pointing to a double-headed eagle on one of the sconces on the wall. “That is the Imperial symbol, the aquila. This,” they touched the flame-like carving of the pin, “is the sign of the god we worship.”

She hummed. “So there are multiple gods here?”

“You could say that. Their god is false, and capable of nothing — we worship a true god, who soon will bring forth the sacred thing that will change the whole galaxy for the better.”

“I see. Do you know what that thing is?”

“No, only our Great Changer knows yet. But that is our goal. Do not worry — we will show you.”

Despite their reassurance, she found herself growing uneasy; at the same time, however, she grew ever more curious. At the behest of the itch in her brain, she resolved to keep following, just to see what would happen.

They brought her to another room, this one larger with a great stone table in the centre. Other figures in similar blue robes turned to watch them enter, and she waved anxiously as they looked her over. The door shut and locked behind her.

“Is this the one?” one of them asked in wonder.

“I believe so,” answered her guide.

Another. “She does not look like us.”

“She is not.”

Another. “Where is she from?”

Her guide seemed to slip deep into thought. “I… I do not know.”

“I’m not from this world,” she answered, trying to keep her wits about her. “I — ”

“I sense deep meaning in her words,” yet another of the strangers remarked, cutting her off. “I believe she is just what we have needed, though we have known it not until now.”

“You may be right,” they all responded.

Her guide, still smiling, placed an ice-cold hand on the back of her shoulder. “I was right to choose you. I think you will be capable of great things.”

They turned to their fellows as the cold spread across her back. “All hail the Master of Fate!”

“Hail!” they responded in unison, just before the world went dark.

Notes

meant to post this earlier, sorry eheh..