A thought came to her before she could even see where she was. This was a familiar place. A place Korin was sure she'd been to thousands of times before. Not now. Not her, this Korin she was right, but perhaps who she once had been.
Her eyes shook as the world focused in segments and swatches. A brilliant gradient of orange and lavender lit a deep expanse of sky that shimmered, stars cast upon it like delicate lace. Giant curling clouds lazily crept through the still air, awash from a setting sun that couldn't be seen from any discernible direction. Marble pillars that held up the sky sprawled in a perfect grid in every direction, never ending. Lush wispy grass carpeted the ground and tiny white flowers growing from thin stalks speckled it all. It was a scene truly ethereal.
Korin was so in awe of her surroundings that it took her a while to comprehend that her legs shuffled beneath her. One step, two steps. One step. Two Steps. This was odd as she did not tell her legs to move. They seemed to do so on their own.
As soon as she made the observation her feet quit moving. The world came to a stand still with her. The clouds rolled to a halt, the twinkles of the stars froze. It was utterly disorienting.
Her arms drug upwards through air that felt touchable, like water without its signature wet. She looked at her hands, flexing her fingers. They were hers for sure but she felt disembodied from them. She knew they were hers, long and thin and a little dry from constantly kneading dough, but it was as if they were held from her mind by puppet strings. Her fingernails bit into the flesh of her palms and only a whisper of pain was felt.
Korin flinched as a groan sounded from deep beneath her feet.
A vibration rocked through the ground causing her teeth to clack and her legs to stumble. Then like a dog shaking water from its fur, the world careened back and forth. Korin threw her arms out, rocking her balance from one foot to the other in order to stay upright. Her equilibrium rattled for a few seconds more after the quaking stopped.
A more high pitched churning came from the distance. Korin looked back and forth in confusion before whipping her body behind her to see the pillars begin to rapidly slide into the ground. Or was the ground pulling itself up the columns?
And like a wave, the ground rolled forwards, rapidly growing into a tsunami of earth and grass. The rising slope met Korin and pulled her up before she lost her footing and began to slide. She surfed through the grass, cool thin strips slipping through her fingers as she fought to take hold of something. It was a never cresting wave that rolled over just enough not to pitch her forward. Just carried her off in the cup of its grassy hand.
Everything happened so suddenly that all Korin could do was gasp, her stomach fluttering, as the clouds became larger and the world rolled up to meet the sky.
Eventually she slid to a stop as everything flattened, panting in exhilaration.
Above her the clouds and stars resumed their stand still but it was suddenly as if she were on the lens of a telescope. Rays and streams of light burnt into the air, trailing near from not so distant stars. Clouds bubbled and bloomed in their frozen masses. Everything was massive and the world curved and faded out on the horizon.
She sat up to discover herself in an ocean of grass. Nothing to be seen but grass. Behind her was grass. To the left and to the right, empty, only grass. All around her was grass. It felt daunting. Like being shipwrecked and adrift.
The grass shivered without a breeze and soon a rush of noise came up from being Korin. She jumped as the grass snaked across her skin before falling limp as a wave traveled forward. As it went it flipped forward, the silver undersides of the blades giving it a liquid appearance.
Korin looked behind her as another wave blew into her. Her eyes widened a little in shock. An entire forest now stood where she was sure nothing had been a moment ago.
The wave stopped mid way before reverting course and lapping towards the forest. Another wave followed suit as Korin pushed herself to her feet. How peculiar. As soon as she saw the forest the wave changed direction, almost like it had caught her attention. Another wave rolled in, with a little more force, and it was as if the field said, Go!
And so Korin went.
Waves of green and silver ushered her in, growing in longer as she moved forward. When she reached the edge of the forest, all that remained behind her was a thick tangled wall of grass.
The grass rustled. Go on, it said.
The forest echoed, come in, it said.
Korin wanted to question its motives but the words wouldn't form and her feet pushed her forwards.
Pewter barked willows with dainty thin silver leaves and wispy birch covered in gnarled eyes littered the forest. A dangling mass of branches and beams. More soft grass carpeted the floor in sheets and mounds. As she walked through natural tunnels and archways occasionally the grass would billow and the elegant branches of the trees would shake in an invisible wind. Rippling forwards moving her in the direction of its desire.
When Korin would slow, in awe or wonderment, the plants would lash out a little more urgently. Everything remained still except for the occasional usher of the vegetation. It wanted her to leave so it could go on and the stars could twinkle and the breeze could blow and the clouds could crawl. But she was there and her foreignness caused this world to hold its breath.
Finally she emerged from the forest to another field that terraced down. Five terraces in total that led down to a giant, intricately decorated door. The grass shimmied again and it sent her towards the door.
She walked the width of one terrace, feet heavy and wading through thick grass, and carefully climbed down the several meter slope to the next until she stood in front of the door.
Nothing existed on the sides of the door. It was just blank and white. To Korin it looked like nothing but a white wall but it didn't catch the shadows and somehow there was no discernible top or bottom.
Swirling foliage and sharp petaled flowers carved of obsidian decorated the archway of two massive doors made of thick planks of pitted and grainy black oak. Gold facets and black metal brackets held the doors together. Korin was dwarfed as she stood in front of them.
The wave of the world rolled forward again. It seemed exhausted as it told her once more to leave. Tired and disgusted.
With a soft click one door cracked open just enough for Korin to slip into.
So, she, the unwanted visitor, left.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Darkness had completely taken the mountainside and right now, away from the eyes of the villagers of Imore, two men were succumbing to utter lunacy.
The shorter of the two was pulling at the hair of his boxy head as he bent forward then back in jerky motions. Tears streamed down a panic stricken face. " I can't... I can't-….I don't…" He continued to huff out cracking sobs, repeating that he 'couldn't' as he ripped little pieces of his hair out. His actions grew more and more frantic by the second as his taller friend tried to stop him. Soon he was jerking back and forth in arching seizure, tearing at his hair.
His friend desperately gripped at his arms. "Stop that, man. You're freaking me the fuck out!" He attempted to remove his friend's hands from ripping out more of his hair, which was rapidly becoming sparse. Large bald patches formed on the side of his head, raw with dots of blood and scratches.
The two struggled for a moment before the short one, with a strangled roar, shoved his skinnier friend and sent him sprawling across the ground. "NO!" His eyes frantically darted around before they landed on the woman whose dark hair, in the navy of night, blended in with a slowly growing pool of blood. Faded and dim teal light silhouetted her eerily still body and the man began to scream. " I CAN'T… I CAN'T…" He stuttered as he suddenly scratched across eyes. "I CAN'T LOOK AT WHAT I'VE DONE ANYMORE!" With a final wail, driven mad by terror and panic that scratched at his bones and choked him, he plunged his fingers into the socket of one of his eyes.
Blood and fluids gushed forwards and his eye made a sickening pop as he pulled it from his skull. Nerves and tendons tethered the ocular orb to its origin and his body fell to the ground like a crumpled leaf.
The skinny one stared, mouth slack in horror.
He had only wanted to shove the girl down to teach her a lesson. Her creepy big eyes and her straightforward blunt words had pissed him off and he just wanted to teach the weird little bitch to watch her mouth. But accidents happened in accidental fashion, which is abruptly and unexpectedly, and when the girl stumbled back, her heel caught a ledge in the uneven cobble and she careened into a small boulder. Her head caught most of her weight with a sickening crack.
After smashing her head she had pulled herself up in a rush, managing to stumble forward a few steps before blood began to pour from her wound, coating her cheek and soaking her shirt. Time seemed to slow after a few rapid blinks that she dropped down. Body falling like a marionette cut loose, the thud carried away in the soft howl of the wind.
They had both stared for a moment, processing what was happening,
The ominous 'hooing' from an owl traveled through the forest when his now maimed friend began to panic. Everything had spiraled into madness from there.
They had been involved in some of the shadier goings on within the convoy, but they had never brutalized a woman in such a manner. Maybe ruffed one up here and there, but grave brutality wasn't something one did in Ipahn. Very rarely in history had any gone about killing. The consequences were laid out clearly. The woman who lay in a still heap looked kinda dead to him, and when the 'mind your own business' etiquette was broken, 'an eye for an eye', 'a life for a life' was enacted.
The woman, if she wasn't dead already, was as good as dead and his friend was close to it. Exit strategies and ways to cover up the mess began to run through his head as he wobbled to his feet. Should he leave his friend? If he left it'd look like the man had been out alone and had attacked the woman. And in a fight they had killed each other.
But that was only if they both died.
What if one of them lived and reported him?
Where could he find a place to dispose of the girl and a back street doctor to heal his friend? But he did not know this mountain and its hiding spots and what if someone sought an explanation for the critical condition of his friend, or noticed the missing girl before he could get his friend out of the village? Should he just dispose of them both and flee? Could he intentionally kill not only the woman but his friend as well? His mind reeled with potential solutions that played over the repetitive track of his pounding heart.
He felt it then, an emotion that traveled through him, strong and not from himself but from the air around him.
"Eeeeeeeeeee…"
A panic overtook him so tangible his eyes bulged forwards and he ground his teeth until they cracked. It spread from beside him and his head ticked towards the girl in increments.
She sat up rigid and staring into the night. Her round eyes had become voids of darkness and looked somehow larger. Chunky half coagulated blood curdled on her face and a low creaking noise came from her mouth, "eeeeeeeeee…."
The man stepped back, rustling leaves and grass and in a blur the woman's head snapped to the side. Large pits of eyes now set upon him. He froze in place, swallowed by her gaze as that same retched sound came from her lips.
Air violently dragged in and out of his lungs and the hair on his arms and neck bristled. Like a deer, his muscles locked for a moment, coiling to spring, before he turned to flee.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mikhail was elbow deep in dishwater. The goopy flour in the sink kept sliding through his fingers and he was constantly holding back a gag. Etan paced into the back for the fourth time.
Etan had to teach Mikhail the proper way to wash dishes after the young man had sheepishly admitted he'd never washed any before. The baker snorted and gave him a look of indignation when he heard this. Based on Mikhail's subtle mannerisms Etan was fairly certain Mikhail had come from a wealthier background, but having never washed a dish before seemed absurd.
After mostly scolding mixed with a little direction and demonstration, Mikhail was left to do the job. Only briefly though. After he had burnt a good bit of bread Etan was more watchful of the trainee. He returned to the kitchen every ten minutes and peered over Mikhail's shoulder to assess the quality of his work.
Mikhail was about to reassure his boss that he was doing it just how he was taught but Etan spoke first.
"Korin isn't back yet." Etan drummed his fingers on the counter, a light coating of concern etched into his face. He was among the few villagers who didn't feel upset when Korin was in their presence. Etan had felt awkward when he had first offered her the job but he eventually began to find her calm company enjoyable. "I'm worried."
"Where was the delivery for?" Mikhail dried his arms with a towel. His heart jumped forward and his demon fluttered awake. Something interesting is happening.
The doorbell rang and Etan politely called from the doorway, "I'll be with you momentarily." Then he turned back to Mikhail. "She went up to Ms. Menias'. Can you go check on her."
"Yeah, of course." Mikhail readily obliged. "Do you think she may have gone home? Ms. Menia is her neighbor after all."
Etan shook his head. "No. She said she would return quickly and she's always kept her word."
From what Mikhail had experienced thus far he knew that that was true. Korin did exactly what she was told and exactly what she said she was going to do. Never in dramatic fashion, high or eager for accomplishment, but in a thin gray kind of compliance. Not eager to please but never able to displease. It was almost reassuring enough to make the mystery of her thoughts bearable for Mikhail. She was open, she was honest. But only almost.
"I'll go find her."
With a nod from Etan he immediately went for the door and stepped into the back yard. Muted conversations could be heard from the few people who still roamed the streets as the village and its guests began to settle in for the night.
He found his way to the edge of the yard, where the trees began and chopped wood for the ovens concealed him from the streets. In the shadow of the bakery Mikhail took a long and deep breath. He had been watching Korin all week and he knew she wouldn't have walked along the main road. Only when she had walked with him to the tavern two days prior had she used the main roads. When she left on her own she took deer trails that cut directly through swaths of forest and up hills.
The air around him began to churn with thick waves that distorted his image. Holographic scales brushed out of his skin with a cicada like rattle. The air warped and fluxed around him as he willed the demon into his eyes. It readily came forward with an excited shiver and Mikhail's pupils contracted into slits so thin they could hardly be seen. His spring eyes roiled and blazed to life dripping with an inner glow, looking out across the small yard.
He could see traces of Korin so strongly, her presence carved glowing lines of satiny fabric into the air around him. All the places she'd occupied and traversed stained the mountain in a rolling wine.
He was momentarily stunned then, the corner of his lip slightly tilted up with intrigue.
He had seen her trace lines, trails, before but they had never glowed with such strength. The color had previously been more muted and subtle. Her trails had always looked different, like velvet, soft and thin, while the strands of those around her looked like ropes of linen and wool.
Thick and deep pink, they had become even more foreign in the web of trails and immediately reminded him of the oracles apparitions. The demon happily buzzed with this new development. The pieces of mysteries being put together.
Mikhail's thoughts began to churn and the demon kept brushing to his surface. Like a moth shedding, thin obsidian scales pushed up his skin before blowing away and dissolving into the wind. Mikhail drew in a deep breath and shoved the entity away. His demon typically thrilled at the suspense of a mystery, a lover of puzzles and problems, but on rare occasions it became uncharacteristically impatient, and Mikhail didn't like that.
Mikhail appreciated mysteries as well, because of course, the largest factor for being demonborn was characteristic compatibility. But he preferred to approach problems with rationality, taking his time to solve them in order to procure the most favorable outcome. While the demon, if he found the potential reward enthralling, would gamble.
With his demon, control only went so far. The being wanted compromise, promises, and contracts and it'd ruthlessly fight for it like a lawyer with a stack of evidence in hand hounding after the promise of a fat payout.
The demon lashed out pricking Mikhail's insides, demanding that he speak its language. Okay, okay. Mikhail hissed at the being.
He pushed his hand through the weave and took hold of her ribbons. Touching the webs was special, a skill few demonborn had possessed before him. It wasn't just an imprint of the people of a land, it was a weave that offered global transportation through the travels of others if one knew how to use it.
For a moment they were cool and soft then they began to cling to him while barely visible fuzz embedded itself in his hand. Like an assault of tiny bees, it stung him leaving behind a tingling sensation. When Mikhail went to pull his hand away the ribbon gripped harder, sucking it back into its folds. Warmth enveloped much of his arm as her traces of stinging licks began to pull him forward. It tugged at him with an awareness of his presence.
He flexed, jaw tightening and eyes squinting at the call of her trail. There was consciousness inside her trail he had not noticed before, but that was secondary as he wasted no time dissolving into smoke. Sucked into the weave, he seamlessly shot along her clinging trails as they effortlessly pulled him up the mountain.
As he had suspected it was a trail that strayed away from the main streets. The desolate path, wrought with her ribbons, seemed like a testament to Korins isolation.
She never seemed to display any emotion about it. He was entirely unsure of what she felt at all, so he couldn't figure out how to approach her. He had always interacted with others on an emotional level. Using others' feelings to shape his relationships. She gave him nothing to work with and the uncertainty made him hesitant in their interactions. He hated it. The caffeine addled bitter coffee of the unknown was a fuel for the demon glutton, stuffed on creamy and rich mysteries. The demon was drinking him up in an effort to quench its curiosity.
A little past the tavern the smell of blood hit him.
He struck away from her traces that clung to him with static as he arrived on a dark road. Fast moving clouds, quickly filing in from the sea, caused muted light to shutter in slow captures from distant moons. Two men lay on the ground shrouded in darkness, the lazy strobes of light flashing over folds of clothes, planes and curves of skin, glossy patches of wet .
Her trail brought him to their destination and expelled him from its traces. Mikhail rematerialized; he focused through the darkness on their forms. One man's eye lay beside his crumpled body and the other took shallow breaths, his body cut up and his limbs bent at awkward angles.
Korins ribbons moved and curled around the bodies then twined forward and led to where she stood, tucked away from the road. Her face tilted up to the sky. The air around her felt hot and thick. Her presence had become even more tangible.
"Korin." Mikhail gently called for her.
She did not answer and he took another tentative step towards her and then another. Hair on his arms rose, and the demon perched just below his surface, watching with bated breath.
"Korin." He called again, this time closer.
She lowered her head and tilted her gaze over her shoulder. Shadows cast over deep set eyes hiding them in darkness
He took another step forward. "Are you alright?"
…
A small, unmistakable sob came from her and it made Mikhail falter.
" No." Her voice rolled up his bones and seemed to echo in his mind. "I am not alright."
She raised her head, dim light finally illuminating her face. Her eyebrows pinched up in despair, her lips quivered, and fat tears dropped from the deepest black eyes he ever saw. It was the first face he had ever seen Korin make and it was horrible; a face twisted and filled with agony and it made him incredibly sad.
In a stunned silence even the demon faltered. The eyes that stared at him now were not Korins pastel yellow ones, but widened round pits deeper than the night. When the demon did finally react it surged forward with guarded interest, fear and the thrill of danger. Of course the demon basked in Korins development, but she did frighten it.
Korin frightened Mikhail too. That raw expression of her face, the way she cried audibly yet quietly. How it felt oh so like an act. It was true sadness trying to break free from a mask melded to its skull, pulling and pushing the features desperate to send the world a message from beneath its surface. It was unnerving but also gut retching and he strangely wanted to comfort her. He didn't want her face to look like that anymore.
"Ko-" He took a step forward, her name once more on his lips.
She fell forward. Face relaxing and body finally crumpling before he could even finish saying her name. Mikhail rushed forward, barely took hold of her as they both sagged to the ground.