» every broken promise

YOU WERE STITCHING UP THE SEAMS
ON EVERY MANGLED PROMISE THAT YOUR BODY COULDN'T KEEP

It had gathered in the East for a few days now, the scent of power, a metallic taste in the back of your mouth—something was happening over there, but whatever it was, it was slow. It took its time. The shadowy wall blocking the Eastern Flats from the unveiled parts of the Rift looked just the same as any other, smelled the same, sounded the same.

But slowly, it had begun to change. That smell of magic, unbound and raw, the feeling of it crawling over your skin as you went a little too close to the wall of nothing, only to realize.. it wasn't in the same place, or it wasn't as thick, because with each passing day, you had been able to discern more and more. The Rainforest Cliffs tapered out into what seemed a mossy slope, and then there was the hint of a ridge on the other side—a valley.

And with the thinning of the veil along the Scint had come the whispers.

They were very faint at first, barely audible, something you noticed only when you moved away and they grew silent. Whatever force held the East in its forgotten, hidden state was weakening. Perhaps it would yield soon. Perhaps it had you waiting by its border, too curious to leave, or perhaps you only checked in on occasion, to see if anything had changed.

So perhaps you were that day when it did not rain, and perhaps you weren't.

He was, though—a tall creature made of shadow and shifting parts, a mind ever-spinning, a heart with four chambers and none of them originated in the same body. He waited patiently, even though his body did not. It churned and morphed, never quite the same as the second before, but the beast within was still and silent. He answered no questions, and he returned no looks, but it was obvious that he was up to something, for he carried things with him. They were half-hidden in a fold of magic and flesh.

Then, with a hush, the whispers grew louder, and the black veil pulled back. Yard by yard it revealed a mist-shrouded valley, with a placid river running down its center; it came from somewhere far to the north, lost to a gray horizon, and kept going far to the south, likely ending in the Southern Seas.

Kisamoa's head rose higher, and on the tail of the retreating shadows he strode forward. The river came closer and closer as his legs swallowed the distance with improbable speed, until he finally stood upon its banks. The veil crept beyond the ridge on the other side, then hung there. He scowled at it for a moment before turning to any mortals who might linger near him, and when he spoke, his voice echoed the length of the river. These people were strangers. They did not know the dangers of the Scint. "Do not step into the river," he warned them, his unnatural voice too loud. When he spoke again, it only carried to those nearest. "And do not knock over the bonelights."

And with his warning delivered, he pulled the first of the strange objects from where he carried it half-fused to his own body, and set it in the soft bank. It was a bone, free of all flesh and sinew and cartilage, unmarked in every way, and at its tip sat a Solar Flower, casting both light and warmth.

Kisamoa stepped into the river, and placed another of the bonelights, and another, and another, in a seemingly haphazard pattern covering both the shores and the river. It was not a circle, it was not a star, it was not anything in particular, yet he seemed to know exactly where to put them. And with every bonelight pressed into the earth, the scent of power grew stronger, the wind more cutting, until he drove the last light into the ground and stood within a small storm. It reeked of magic, a surge in the atmosphere that was likely felt far, far away.

The river began to run stronger. Faster. Deeper. The whispers rose to cries, wordless whimpers, shrieks; the teal lights in his eyes pulsed as he inhaled.

This was it. He scanned the mossy, windwracked slopes, to see who had come—to see if he, the root of all this, had come.

beauty in darkness
kaos in light

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Rounds will be variable in length, but likely 3-5 days each!