The Eye of the Storm.
For all his faults, many though they were, Nir'wei knew when to keep his mouth shut. Discussions around Winston raged and ranted, attacking each-other and the Immortals that listened, and Nir'wei remained silent, glad to be otherwise removed unless his usefulness as a tool of their greater plan was brought forward. Cassion's ruse, his crafty reveal, Saoire's rebuke and more; he just found it too... complicated. There were bigger problems to focus on. None of which would be solved by sacrificing Winston. Nor by banishing Woe.
What mattered was fixing the problem once and for all, for the good and safety of all of Scalvoris. Whatever that meant doing to himself.
Saoire's words were the first to bring him back into focus, speaking of how his actions as the counterpoint would somehow strengthen, or change, or bind the Induks closer together. He didn't quite understand how, but that was to be expected - but he really didn't seem to understand what this had to do with the weapons beneath Scalvoris, or Chrien's wrath. A by-product of his single-track mind, but he was beginning to feel like he was being put towards more ulterior motives than just the common good he'd agreed to work under. At least until she mentioned Chrien, the portal she would create, and the weight she would shoulder alone. She seemed quick to turn that around. He didn't entirely know how he felt about it, though he respected Saoire's willingness to put herself on the line as much as everyone else. It was, after all, only right. It was the one fault he felt could be laid at Woe. If they were going to do this, their lives, all of their lives, would be just as much at stake as anyone else.
Cassion spoke next, but it wasn't to anyone else in the room. Even far away, so very far away, he could feel Cassion's eyes on him as though he was standing right there. "You have an odd sense of timing, Taleweaver." He only thought to bring this up now that Nir'wei had agreed to it, not before? What did he mean, to say that this was a possibility he had put in place long ago - did that mean he had ulterior motives? "Make no mistake. This story you write is mine, not yours." He didn't share in Cassion's smile, not then. There was something inscrutable behind his eyes, with old cogs turning. Just what would happen then, when he brought the wolves into their next chapter?
They spoke as though this would be some grand changing point. How his actions had changed the course of events and opened a new path. But, while he was certainly happy to hear he could be of use, he still felt... confused. Had Qylios known of this, when she'd accepted the terms of his favour?
They'd all seen what he'd done. Yet they each spoke with such hope for the future he'd bring about, the betterment he'd bring for everyone. As though this would become his redemption.
Saoire and Cassion had warned him that this would hurt; as raw, inscrutable power seemed to force itself through his back, narrowing and condensing into a pin-prick within the core of his chest and drew free like silken thread, he felt compelled to agree. His fists balled tight, until his nails embedded in his palms. Teeth rattled with the effort of holding back a scream. His body was alight with energies, Mortalborn, Miasmic, Spiritual all at once. It pushed him to the limits of
focus and
resolve. He held by nothing but a thread. Yet surrounded by his wolves, many and myriad, he was held together by their concentration long enough to reach within himself and activate the Forest Orb yet again.
The pain of such immense energies coursing through his body was growing stronger still, but he bore it. The Orb pulsed its resonance within the Misty Miasma, and found itself home; returned back to its source and suffused with its power. His body, filled with Miasmic energy, channelled through the Orb, took in more, empowering it even further. Nir'wei exhaled slowly, letting it thrum, until its power vibrated the thread of energy that still hung from his chest, like a string plucked by invisible fingers.
The edges of his vision were clouded with colours as the pain swelled further. This was not the first time that he had taken powers upon himself that he should not.
The Creature and its power, too much for a mortal to bear, had consumed him from the inside out while he watched. He'd touched energies too enigmatic for most mortals to grasp, at the
edges of creation, and wielded them as needle and thread. He'd
sacrificed parts of himself that most would shudder to give away, for even the hope of restoring a shattered world. In a moment of pure, intense might, he'd even taken the lost fragments of the domain of an
Immortal itself into his soul, to wield as his own.
Nir'wei could taste blood. "This is my chance." It was not the first time he'd stood upon the precipice. In that moment, he felt many such times, almost flashing before his eyes. In Rharne. In Scalvoris. In Emea. In Rynmere. "To make a difference. To do more. This is my chance. I have to take it." There was almost... desperation to his words. To not be the burden that Varlum should have killed, the fool that Vega pitied. "I have to take it." Scalvoris,
exploding. Rynmere soldiers
falling dead on their boats. "I have to take it." Balthazar, Elisabeth, Ralgar and Tor'ree
disappearing behind rubble, their cave collapsed from outside. "I have to take it." Alyssia and Ari'sora,
buried under the rubble of Smooglenuff Manor, along with the Baron, his staff, everyone. How could he look upon the deaths caused by his failures, and say that he'd done enough?
Archailist sat upon his left shoulder, face twisted with worry. Sage burbled on his right shoulder, head cocked in concern. Around him, his seven wolves had arranged themselves into a circle, but it was Greyhide who's eyes Nir'wei met when he looked up.
"This is my purpose. The reason I was made, and I will do it. I will bring them all together. I will do it.
I... I will unite them all."
Nir'wei spoke the Ancient Tongue, and awareness linked them all. Not just Nir'wei, and Sage, and Greyhide, and Archailist, but in that moment he chose every wolf and mount he'd brought with himself. Wrapped together into the links he already shared with the Velduris wolves, he expanded his consciousness even further, sharing their senses, sharing their emotions, sharing their thoughts. Together with him, they would all be Part of the Pack.
Then his fingers touched his own bare chest, where the Forest Orb still thrummed. Just as it had during his
first touch. Just as it had when he'd first felt it seated within, six arcs ago, by Thetros himself. Finally, he felt as though he understood it, in some strange and inscrutable way. Filled with so much Miasmic energy, he applied Conjunction to the Forest Orb... and sucked in a deep breath. Gestalt Soul.
CRACK.
A glowing Fracture Scar opened on the right side of his skull, just above his ear. Reopening the wound that Faith had opened the first time that she'd saved his life - performing keyhole surgery on his very brain, just to purge the incurable infection he'd harboured unknowingly for arcs. It was a horribly sublime pain, somehow outshining even that of the energy buzzing through his body.
His other hand reached up to his shoulder, where Archailist sat. His voice of
restraint and control, even in the most dire and confusing moments. One he'd had to
learn to listen to. One that ultimately seemed, at times, to know him
better than he knew himself... even if he had a rather infuriating way of showing it, the smug little prick. They
didn't always agree. He knew that Archailist didn't approve of what he did now, too. He'd always thought that one day, he and Archailist would agree on everything - but the truth was, that wasn't really unity. That was the idealised version he'd always held in his head. As he discarded it, and pressed a finger to the spirit-squirrels forehead. Gestalt Soul.
CRACK.
A second glowing Fracture Scar opened, a horizontal slash across his torso and passing straight through his navel. It was where a blade wielded by an Iron Hand soldier had disembowelled him, leaving him to bleed out and pass, surrounded by the broken forms of his familiars, on an unnamed boat, far from home. His last memories had been Faith, reaching out to him, while dragged back through a portal before she suffered the same fate. She'd chastised him for his lack of self-preservation, but shown herself to be even more reckless at times.
He reached across and touched Sage. Initially, nothing more than a
means to an end, across a vast star-scape. An
uncontrolled monster, tethered by nothing but sheer willpower at times. Yet, there was something else. Fear, of
greater things still, and desire to overcome them. The haunting urge to return to its natural habitat and escape the strange and unfamiliar lands of solid ground and air-thick skies. Feeling
drawn to such terrible acts, and
used when convenient, like a sword drawn from its scabbard. With no small help from their mind-link, he felt it all. Alien and mysterious as a true-blood Emean might be, their journey together was no small feat. Sage pressed into his touch. Gestalt Soul.
CRACK.
A third glowing Fracture Scar opened, a splintering set of cracks pushing out from an origin point at the middle of his chest. Where The Creature had consumed him from the inside out, turning his body into a prison that could hold it still long enough to be starved out. Not even the full power of his own kind could have held it at bay. Kura and Ralgar had shared enough of themselves to keep it inside, but he alone had taken the price.
Finally, both hands reached up to Greyhide's muzzle. What he'd thought was just another common wolf,
saved from angry farmers eight arcs ago. Faithful, through his
worst moments. Redeemed, by the grace of
Karem herself. A constant
companion, even if there were no others left by his side. With him, there was no barrier, no hesitation. Though Nir'wei thought himself worthy of his Loyalty powers, he found in that moment that they were sorely lacking. He was simply blessed with the unwavering loyalty of others, so much more deserving. "Good boy." Greyhide's muzzle quirked into a familiar, wolfish smile, and Nir'wei cupped his face in both palms, staring into steely-grey eyes that matched his own in every way. Gestalt Soul.
CRACK.
A fourth Fracture Scar opened. A sweeping mark that crossed the bridge of his nose, running from just below the hairline of the left corner of his forehead and down to the opposite cheek. It was the final, and most brutal marking of his soul splintering under the weight of his powers.
It was not enough to merely provide balance, and energy. To act as the focus, and the counterpoint. In that moment Nir'wei took the Miasmic, the Spirit, the Immortal-Bound and the Emean within himself, joined under his Unity powers of Coalescence, Conjunction, and Gestalt Soul, all wrapped in one. With every fibre of his splintering, chimeric soul he harmonised with the energies that flowed through him. Miasma. Induks. Immortal. The chaotic power of Emea itself, all drawn through the Mortalborn, with every splinter left. He was one man, stood in the middle of a raging river and trying to control its stream with his bare hands. But he also wasn't just one man. He never had been.
Sovar was the first to throw his head back, and howl. Cold joined next, and Myrth after him. Squeak, and Castile, and Kin. Aed, Cian. Bran, Kech. Daire, Finn. Neas and Llyr. Gwyn, Uthyr, Taran. Soon even his other creatures joined with their own harmonising sounds, Vabina and Traveller, Arle and Bachu, Nox and Peace. Every beast. Every voice.
"Karem." he asked, his voice carried on the howls of twenty-two Velduris.
"Do you hear it?"
This was his culmination. In that moment, Nir'wei squeezed his hands together and twisted the beam of light. Seeking to draw the energies not just into
balance, but into something
greater still.
Unity. True Unity.
Tea Time.
Then, it was gone. Everything was gone. He was still on his feet - how, he could not tell. But he stood. Staring. Waiting. As if preparing for the worst.
"I had to take the chance," he told them all in a quiet voice, seeming to stare straight through Horatio Thunderbussell as though he wasn't there.
"I had to do it."
Nir'weis Actions
1. Nir'wei uses Part of the Pack to link minds between himself and everyone else in the Misty Miasma in the moment (that wasn't already linked to him via other mind-share powers).
2. Nir'wei uses Gestalt Soul 4 times (it can only be used 4 times before Shattering occurs). Linking his Forest Orb, Archailist, Greyhide, and Sage with himself, permanently altering his mind and body to match the energies being passed through him by Cassion.
3. Nir'wei attempts to enhance the bond created through being the 'counterpoint' by replacing balance with unity.
4. Nir'wei does stay for tea.
