Even In Death

DENY NOTHING BUT DOUBT EVERYTHING

The world was still no matter how much the world turned, it was always in one place, day in and day out. Leaves changed color as they always did when the warmth turned to a cool breeze, a season she used to love but had long lost that glimmer of excitement in her eyes she once carried at the prospect. The magic in the world, it felt like it was fading away one pin prick at a time and it was making each idle day repetitive and cruel. War had made free travel a nightmare, caging her to the North, even Melrose not a sanctuary to flee to anymore. It brought with it an odd comfort to know the world was ending, everything the cherished was vanishing from the sun’s light in a way she could only begin to fathom. The kings would not fall, the land would never be free and it sunk her stomach as much as her mind.

Marbled lips twitched with an agitation, blood also like usual painting a slowly aging frame that was treading closer and closer to that of an elder. A huff parted those lips before a smile replaced the agitation, feeling the wind pick up and swirl around her in a beautiful dance. Mystery and the world may no longer be mystical but the playful fae always made her remember why she was still here, why she continued to strive forward with each dainty step of a pixie herself. Even they had failed her, though she was not so quick to allow such a thought to enter her mind, not when she had more important things to do than seek self pity.

Carefully she made markings within the soil, a collection of bones, herbs and flowers decorating the scene. Releasing a sigh, she would come to the center of the circle, propping her front half on that of a deer skull, coating it in crimson markings that meant things perhaps to only her. “Belladonna,” she breathed out, her ears twitching as she gazed upon the grave of her old coven tucked away under a tree and far from the Mainland’s grasp. Elwynn and Zoltan, if only they still existed in the same divide. The witches of these times were insufferable at best, and it brought forth a burning agitation to have let any of them live.

Yvaine had been a liar.

code by claerie

Elwynn Blackwood

It was a bizarre feeling that nagged at the edges of her very being, like she was being called somewhere.

She materialized beneath the trees, her usual dark figure transparent and lifeless, but her eyes... they held that same glimmering energy in life even in death. And they looked upon the woman who uttered the scent that wafted from her ghostly figure with a certain glee not felt in ages. She looked upon the woman, draped over the bloodied skull of a deer and her heart began to flutter in her chest. Or was that something else, for she had no beating heart any longer. Zoltan, her beloved son, had robbed her of that so long ago. Nearly a year ago, if she was to remember right but time was a funny thing where she was now and it mattered little anymore.

"My darling Wisteria," she purred as she moved through the trees. Her scent played upon the wind and she inhaled slowly, eyes closing as the memories ignited within her mind. She came closer, but stopped at the edges of Wisteria's circle, her lilac eyes peering ominously down at her former friend and lover. "Oh... how I've missed you," she said sweetly, her voice like warm honey.

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DENY NOTHING BUT DOUBT EVERYTHING

Her head would rise as the smell of the very name she spoke of played in the air, taunting her with a gleeful childishness that she could say was akin to the entity. Ears would flick forward, not sure where the scent was coming from at first until a presence started to take form, like that of the joyous fae wanting to come and pull on a sleeve to guide one to their own demise. A smile pulled her lips at the thought that they would go that far, that she too may have taken a step out of their desires for her and were coming to drag her down like they did the rest. She liked to believe she had been truly faithful to her religion, the perfect shaman that knew exactly what the celestial bodies wanted from her but there had been plenty of times she had been greedy. Just as Elwynn she used her faith for a means to kill and get her way without consequence. She had not been the holy body all deserving of immortality so many others seemed to have been harvesting as of late, Caspian one of those with an ever youthful glow.

How she loathed him now. How she wished to see his end and yet something stopped her from ever being the widow that sought that end. It couldn’t have been love. She refused to believe she held any feelings toward him who denied her everything the last they met and she obeyed as if he had any power over her.

A shaken breath would trail from her lips as the woman taught her this path would take shape before her but not breaching the threshold that illustrates a ritual. She didn’t think it would work, her calling to see her venomous beauty again and it caused her heart to patter with an excitement she hadn’t felt since killing her husband. No, it wasn’t quite the same. It wasn’t the excitement to see blood spill and paint the very hearth she rested upon, it was something far more visceral and disarming. A comfort that was equally scary as she raised from the skull with a newfound longing in her potions that were as hungry as they were desperate for this to be as real as she had always believed it to be.

“Wynnie, my love,” she said on a bated breath, paws still on the skull but they would start to slide down as she leaned her weight forward. As her paws hit the crimson soil, she was surprised not to see her vanish, starting to wonder if it wasn’t the ritual that summoned her here. Moving toward the dark woman, she was far more bold to reach past the threshold, her tail stirring with glee and adoration. That desire to feel her, for them to share the same body wouldn’t be granted as their forms were not on the same plane of existence, finding herself becoming a part of her in an entirely different way. Phasing into one another. She still a whine from wanting to breach the surface.

“How I’ve missed your touch… your everything and even now with you before me, it is deprived,” she whispered, closing her eyes while taking in the floral notes.

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Elwynn Blackwood

Wynnie, my love," she crooned, and Elywnn's ears would flick forward, her eyes gleaming with an unknown emotion not usually present in their piercing depths. The dark woman's gaze dropped from one beauty to the next, from Wisteria to the skull at her paws, before sliding back up to meet the gaze of the woman she'd come to feel quite the bond with in life. Was it love? Possibly, that was the closest thing Elwynn could describe it as. A feeling of fondness and companionship-- a swelling in her empty chest that she could not quite describe otherwise.

Wisteria's paws slid down the skull as she leaned forward. As they dipped into the crimson liquid around her, Elwynn's nose twitched. She'd missed the smell of blood, the taste of it, oh how he called to her so. She ran her tongue over her black lips and continue to watch as Wisteria drew nearer. Her tail swayed happily behind her as she leaned into touch Elwynn but just as their figures would collide, she phased through her and they were both left wanting.

Disappointment would fill the witch in that moment.

“How I’ve missed your touch… your everything and even now with you before me, it is deprived,” she said somberly. "It is unfair..." she whispered softly as she tilted her muzzle downward.

Emotions tugged at her very being, ones she was both familiar and unfamiliar with. She looked back up, her lilac eyes seeming to glow in the dim light of the forest that surrounded them. "What if I told you we could be one again," she said softly, drifting closer. Their bodies mingled as her visage blurred and a coldness enveloped her. She wanted to feel warmth again, she wanted to feel Wistera again. Maybe there was another way...

code by claerie

DENY NOTHING BUT DOUBT EVERYTHING

When touch was betraying her, her mind would go on a voyage that would not meet her lips but flicker in her gaze for at least a few moments. There was that mild urge to ask her what had transpired, how both her and Zoltan ended up separated from her world at the same time. She was fairly certain she knew how Elwynn had perished, having seen the marks along her neck, the blood that had pooled and stained the snow. The way they had been encased in the winter snow, perfectly preserved that she could have feasted without worry of any illness to taint her soul but she wouldn’t consume that of her own kind. She was keen to the taste of blood, that decident iron but not the flesh of canine. She was only partially demented afterall. There was that second that her lips parted, about to mutter the boy’s name upon her tongue, curious if he was with her now hiding among his friends the trees. Never did she think she would miss the slobbery child but in this event where lust couldn’t be sated, he was at a strange forefront in her mind.

“Zol-” she started in a moment of weakness to know but would silence herself before his full name could touch her lips. It wasn’t important now and if he was lurking with this summons then she cared very little what he heard or saw for that matter. It wasn’t like he could bound over and soak her cheeks as a spirit, a true fae child.

Amethyst, tired and searching were restless as Elwynn spoke equal exasperation in a siren’s call. How she missed that voice perhaps even more and she was eager to get her to continue, saying anything and everything she wanted to hear. There was no point in trying to do as she had a moment ago and yet as the ghost moved even closer, surrendering any space, she couldn’t help but close her eyes with anticipation that she would be solid. How wrong she would be. Though fur and flesh did not stop movement, there was a presence she could surely feel, intoxicating as it drew goosebumps along her skin with anticipation. “As cold as winter winds, your claws coil within,” she chuckled, feeling as though the season had changed in a second as the other body entered hers.

It would take a few seconds for the question to register, so focused on trying to find warmth in the abyss of a soul. Her eyes would open, seeing the faintest outline of the other’s body around hers. They were already one in a sense right now but she glanced down with a whimsical chuckle. “Is it my time, darling? Does she call for me?” she humored, assuming Elwynn meant to join her in the afterlife. “Impress me, show me the celestial gift and steal my soul then, to bind us to the same plane. I need to feel your teeth again. Your every carress.” A light playful challenge, curious how her friend -her lover- could even kill her if they could not touch.

code by claerie

Elwynn Blackwood

"Zol-" the unfinished name echoed between them and Elwynn smiled gently, knowingly. She was certain Wisteria longed to know what had happened and she would tell her, in time, but not right now. This moment was for them and them alone.

“As cold as winter winds, your claws coil within," she said, that little chuckle on her lips drawing Elwynn ever closer. She felt such a longing to be with Wisteria again that she could not stop herself even if she wanted to. “Is it my time, darling? Does she call for me?” "She does. I do." she whispered as her body enveloped the woman. “Impress me, show me the celestial gift and steal my soul then, to bind us to the same plane. I need to feel your teeth again. Your every carress.” It was all the invitation she needed.

Elwynn's very being sunk deep within Wisteria and suddenly she felt flooded with warmth.

A gasp left her jaws, only they were not her own.

She drew in, sucking the cold air greedily, then exhaled slowly. Oh, how she'd missed even breathing. "Can you feel me, my love?" she said, though it was not only her own voice that drifted now through the air.

There was a moment where she did nothing, said nothing, but only stood there relishing in the warmth and comfort Wisteria's body provided her. She missed it so, but she knew they could not stay this way forever. She would be called back sooner or later and she wanted to make sure that when she was she took her lover with her this time. She turned toward the skull on the ground, encircled in ritualistic sigils and blood. She gazed down at the long, sharp antlers and a rush filled her.

"Hold onto me, don't ever let me go." she growled softly. There would be pain, she was sure, but she and Wisteria had never shied from such things. Slowly she stepped forward, careful not to break the circle she thought which bound her here. She leaned forward, pressing the jagged point to her chest and and letting her muzzle wrinkle ever so slightly. "Hold on," she whispered lovingly as she forced Wisteria's body down, down, down...

...

Delicious blood boomed from her wounds and Elwynn could feel her hold fading. She knew that with each drop, her lover's life force was slipping and soon... soon they'd be together again.

The dark woman finally relinquished her hold in the last moment, her ghostly form materialized again and stepped from Wisteria's body and into the circle. She turned to look at what she had done and her gaze softened as she smiled. "Come back to me," she whispered gently.

code by claerie

Warning: death

DENY NOTHING BUT DOUBT EVERYTHING

Maybe she had been far too harsh of a critic on who Elwynn had been, knowing back when she was alive Wisteria wouldn’t have hesitated to kill her thinking the worst as she did everyone. No one had been a safety blanket, Elwynn had been the closest thing to one but her paranoia of being hurt again had kept her as a view of a plaything until it had been too late. It was as they say, you don’t realize what you have until it's gone and that has been such a heavy case here. It took losing her to realize she loved her and with each word, some of that agony was both tapped down and expanded upon as only a chill instead of warmth came from the figure. She swallowed, her ears burning as there was a part of her that wanted to cry in both joy and sorrow that the ritual had worked to see this goddess one last time.

A chuckle came from her throat when Elwynn emphasized she was the one that wanted to take her, finding herself getting all the more anxious like a lovestruck teenager. Those words tickled something she never had felt before and it had her tail wagging, happy even in death she was wanted perhaps. She couldn’t be sure.

More claws of ice swam along her body as she was filled with another soul, her breathing becoming a bit erratic as she shivered, feeling like her body was already dying just from the other presence alone, certain she would die of hypothermia if they lingered like this for too long. It was all in her head certainly, a ghost wasn’t literally cold but maybe that is exactly what Elwynn was aiming for until suddenly she couldn’t control her body anymore. She couldn’t speak to answer the question presented but she certainly could feel it all, every internal caress of a soul melding with her own that gained power over her. She found it humorous enough that she was able to break the hold enough for that to bubble from her real chest. The only answer she could manage to give as a hostage in her own body.

If only she could connect their minds and speak to one another inside their shared dome. Instead, she was a curious prisoner, not fighting to regain herself at all. She wanted to know what the other would do and she would be stuck waiting longer than she anticipated as the other seemed to relish the situation, stuck in place in silence for a while. She was growing impatient, wanting to tell her to stop acting like a reminiscing old hag. She wondered if Elwynn could feel the age worn into her bones, come to think of it, being two years older than the other had been in death.

Things stopped being still, observing from a glass as the other looked around and it didn’t need reading a mind to know what the other was thinking as the skull came into view. The thing to summon her she would use to summon her to the afterlife in return. How poetic. Just as that thought surface, pain would surge into her chest, feeling every slow agonizing puncture that would be pierced into her very heart. Blood would pool into her mouth well before her body was released from the other’s hold on her, not only losing blood at an astonishing rate but drowning from it as well. By the time she had control again, her body truly had started to grow cold, her world fading as she gazed up at Elwynn with a loving smile. “You’re beautiful,” she mused, blood flowing past her lips, the closest thing to an I love you the other might ever get.

-----

The world would go black and cold for a little while until like thread being pulled from the skin, she would surface again.

She lived? Was it all just a dream? A cruel pining dream?

Come back to me.

As her eyes opened to the sweet call, she would realize something was truly off. She couldn’t feel the terra, the pain was still there but not so sharp and her lungs felt so empty yet full all at once. There she was, clear as day. She made no delay to close the gap between their spirits, coiling into her and parting a kiss upon her neck, basking in the ability to touch once more.

Her ears twitched as a sound that seemed familiar reached her, turning her head toward where the world was warped to the realm of the afterlife. “I think Zoltan is calling us,” she chuckled, headed toward the voice with Elwynn at her side certain she saw his silhouette on the horizon.

-exit wisteria for the last time, returned to her coven forever more-

code by claerie