bloodandaschers (bloodandaschers) wrote in pastarillius, @ 2008-06-20 06:53:00 |
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Who: Lira Ascher & Her Children - Isleen (28), Morana (18) , Nisha (13), & Kleio (8)
When: Some twenty years after the Death of Dayon.
Where: Thadius, Beyond: The Ascher Manor.
What: Lira is on her deathbed and it seems that betrayal runs in the family. The Death of Lira.
Warnings && Ratings: PG?
She had been feeling a little under the weather for a few weeks, but Lira assumed that it was nothing. It was entirely possible that she was just tired from being up for so many hours in the dead of night or perhaps her husband's jester-like attempts to seduce her had paid off once again? Either way, she dismissed it all as natural and, therefore, not a threat. It really wasn't until she found herself feverish and waking from a night of delirium that she realized there may be something very wrong. How could something get to her though? She was the great Matriarch of the Aschers - always so careful, always so cautious. Enemies of the Merhite demons feared her name just as they feared her masters. None would try to destroy her because she would crush them without thought. Her power was too great for them and so she, instead, tried to fight this illness that had it's grip on her. She tried many different potions and brews, all supposedly guaranteed to take away the fever and pains that took her body as the sun set. None worked and the once unbeatable woman began to wither beneath her cloak. Her children watched her a she withered away to almost nothing, those sweet little angels who took up the slack as she laid in bed for longer periods each morning. Each one would bring her something to try to make her feel better - some food here, a potion there. None were helpful and she finally had to assume that this was the end. But the end meant crossing over and facing those she had betrayed. No, Lira could not do that. She could not face her mother and sister in death. Kleio had been laying with her today and reading her mother stories from her book. This same book that Lira had rewritten just for her. Her youngest daughter had been granted the same gifts as her sisters, but none were as skilled at crafting the bone as she. Even at such a young age, she tried every day to give her mother little bone charms in hopes of helping staving off death just another day. She doted on her mother and tried to keep her happy for as long as she stayed awake. "Kleio," she whispered to her child as she took the book from her and closed it, "I need you to do something very important for me." The little girl looked into her mother's eyes and nodded. She was such an intelligent child, quiet yet full of something that one couldn't help but to see. Determination probably. "Go gather your sisters for me and tell them to bring Mother's books with them. Can you do that for me?" The little girl nodded again and crawled down from her mother's bed so she could rush out of the room, her own book clutched tightly against her chest just like when she had first received it from Lira. Oh, that was a wonderful day. Kleio had always wanted a book like her sisters' and she got one when she turned five because Lira just could not wait to do it. The little girl was too bright to be without it. Eventually, all the children were gathered though it was Isleen who was the first to speak. It was always Isleen. She was the oldest and the most opinionated after all. "What's wrong, Mother?" Lira gathered her children around with a wave of her hand and bid them to lay with her. Kleio crawled back into the woman's lap while the others simply gathered around the bed and seated themselves. She could feel another fever coming on again as the day was getting late so she needed to do this quickly or she would be talking nonsense again until tomorrow. It would have been easier to discuss this with just Isleen and Morana, but her children knew death firsthand and so such a conversation would be easy or even their youngest to handle. "I do not think that I will be able to stand another bout with this illness that has taken me," her once powerful voice was so quiet and weak. Kleio buried her head into her mother's chest and Lira stroked her dark hair softly. "Is that why you called for us?" Morana seemed to be interested in the conversation now. She had rarely seemed interested in anything at all until Lira became ill. After that, it was as if she was a changed woman - taking on more family duties and tasks, helping Lira with whatever she could, and even making the brews that she asked for even if they didn't work. "Yes," she held out her hand and nodded, "I wish to write something new into your books so that I will never be forgotten by my children. The final chapter of my life that will lead into the first chapters of your new ones." New because they would be without a physical mother though she had plans for her spirit. Plans that might help keep her out of harm's way if she was correct about it. The girls stayed with their mother until her madness took her again. She had only just finished writing with her very own blood in their books when her eyes seemed to glaze over as if she'd lost something from deep within. Lira was finally forever trapped in another world where she screamed of goddesses and elves. She cursed a great number of names that none of her children had ever known, but they only assumed she was lost in a land of death and not the past the she'd hidden beneath blood. Eventually, Isleen took Kleio away kicking and screaming though Nisha seemed to wander off, clutching her book to her chest as she mourned the loss of her mother. Morana alone stayed by her mother's side to dab the sweat away and listen to the stories she told. Fantastic tales of things that couldn't possibly be true though they were amusing to her ears. "I'm so very sorry, Mother," she whispered as she watched her sink ever deeper into madness. "I would not have done as Isleen asked if it wasn't for the fact that we thought it for the best." Lira seemed to stop screaming and panting long enough to focus on her dear daughter if only ever so briefly. She dabbed at the woman's neck once more and pulled a vial from the pouch at her skirt. "You've lost touch with reality, thinking yourself better than the mistress and master. We are forever their servants and our name cannot stand for more than theirs." Morana was a bloodwitch and so her skills with potions and poisons came naturally. She poured the vial into a goblet of wine and held it to her mother's lips. She was so parched and mad from the fever that she never realized what was going on. The woman simply took in what was given. This poison was more powerful than the last doses, meant to kill her before the sun rose again. "You will be honored above all others, Great Mother," she was mumbling bits of her mother's own hand-written death rites as she watched her finish the goblet. "And may your hand ever be upon us." |