Post by brooke on Mar 16, 2006 23:11:40 GMT -5
((I'm sorry. I hate doing intros. I just needed something to get the ball rolling. I know it's awful. 
; ))
Rhaine sat outside, struggling over homework. She had less than one hour to be at school, and it still wasn’t finished. How on earth was she supposed to know all the depths of each jewel when she was about as weak as any jewel could be.
She groaned in frustration and buried her head in her hands, the only thoughts passing through her mind being ‘What am I going to do?’ ‘I’m going to fail…’ and ‘They’ll make fun of me for dragging the class down…’
The truth was, she was very bright and most people in the class didn’t understand jewel-depths, either. She was simply too low on self-esteem and too high in self-pressure.
With a sigh, she stood, hooking her rusty hair behind her ears. As she started walking down the dirt path, her white jewel flashed a small fire of power from its silver setting around her neck in notice of a man behind her.
“Excuse me, miss?” he said, smiling and putting a hand on her shoulder to show the sapphire jewel on a golden ring.
“Yessir?”she asked warily.
“I’m trying to find a certain School of the Blood. The Dark Jeweled, specifically.”
She looked the man up, and then looked the man down. His hair was blond and eyes gray. He seemed to be a boy-next-door type, very sincere and honest, so Rhea ignored the feeling of ‘no’ screaming in the back of her mind.
“Well, Warlord, it is just down this path here, but it opens in less than an hour. If you’re looking to meet with someone you’d best hurry.”
He smiled and swept up her hand, kissing it lightly as his eyes met hers.
“Thank you mi’lady.” he said, smiling with the charm of any aristo rather than the merchant’s son he seemed to be.
Quickly, he left her grateful that he hadn’t noticed her face flush. She shook her head, and kept walking along the path, the man seeming to be gone long after her. It wasn’t until she actually arrived at the school (late, as she was daydreaming about her earlier encounter) that she noticed how wrong she had been.
The school was burnt to ashes, bodies were everywhere. Charred skeletons and clothes were scattered, embers still burning. The only way she didn’t see this less than half a mile away would be by craft. Someone must have put a sight shield around the carnage to prevent anyone seeing it and coming to investigate. But this many dark-jeweled instructors and students.
It seemed impossible. No one could do this much damage. Jewels shattered so that no one could make the transition to demon-dead and seek revenge. No one left. All the dormitories destroyed as well.
Her parents were all the way across the realm and Rhaine didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t stay, that was for certain.
Once she realized how much she had lost, Rhaine broke down. She dropped her books and bag and started clawing through all the rubble and bodies, her white jewel glowing steadily.
She wasn’t satisfied until she was covered in soot, ash, and who knows what else that there was nothing left at all. No books, no survivors, and no sign of the man she had met earlier. It made no sense. She spent hours crying, smearing the soot that made her pale skin dark and puffy before picking up her books and walking away into the forest to find the nearest Blood village she could to enlist help and get informat
; ))Rhaine sat outside, struggling over homework. She had less than one hour to be at school, and it still wasn’t finished. How on earth was she supposed to know all the depths of each jewel when she was about as weak as any jewel could be.
She groaned in frustration and buried her head in her hands, the only thoughts passing through her mind being ‘What am I going to do?’ ‘I’m going to fail…’ and ‘They’ll make fun of me for dragging the class down…’
The truth was, she was very bright and most people in the class didn’t understand jewel-depths, either. She was simply too low on self-esteem and too high in self-pressure.
With a sigh, she stood, hooking her rusty hair behind her ears. As she started walking down the dirt path, her white jewel flashed a small fire of power from its silver setting around her neck in notice of a man behind her.
“Excuse me, miss?” he said, smiling and putting a hand on her shoulder to show the sapphire jewel on a golden ring.
“Yessir?”she asked warily.
“I’m trying to find a certain School of the Blood. The Dark Jeweled, specifically.”
She looked the man up, and then looked the man down. His hair was blond and eyes gray. He seemed to be a boy-next-door type, very sincere and honest, so Rhea ignored the feeling of ‘no’ screaming in the back of her mind.
“Well, Warlord, it is just down this path here, but it opens in less than an hour. If you’re looking to meet with someone you’d best hurry.”
He smiled and swept up her hand, kissing it lightly as his eyes met hers.
“Thank you mi’lady.” he said, smiling with the charm of any aristo rather than the merchant’s son he seemed to be.
Quickly, he left her grateful that he hadn’t noticed her face flush. She shook her head, and kept walking along the path, the man seeming to be gone long after her. It wasn’t until she actually arrived at the school (late, as she was daydreaming about her earlier encounter) that she noticed how wrong she had been.
The school was burnt to ashes, bodies were everywhere. Charred skeletons and clothes were scattered, embers still burning. The only way she didn’t see this less than half a mile away would be by craft. Someone must have put a sight shield around the carnage to prevent anyone seeing it and coming to investigate. But this many dark-jeweled instructors and students.
It seemed impossible. No one could do this much damage. Jewels shattered so that no one could make the transition to demon-dead and seek revenge. No one left. All the dormitories destroyed as well.
Her parents were all the way across the realm and Rhaine didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t stay, that was for certain.
Once she realized how much she had lost, Rhaine broke down. She dropped her books and bag and started clawing through all the rubble and bodies, her white jewel glowing steadily.
She wasn’t satisfied until she was covered in soot, ash, and who knows what else that there was nothing left at all. No books, no survivors, and no sign of the man she had met earlier. It made no sense. She spent hours crying, smearing the soot that made her pale skin dark and puffy before picking up her books and walking away into the forest to find the nearest Blood village she could to enlist help and get informat
