Blackwater Islands Pure intention juxtaposed

He made his way through the fog and nightfall, guided only by moonlight. The demon was looking for @The Listener. Since he and his brother had returned, Alduin's sickness dominated his thoughts. He had many other things to be thinking about, but this demanded his attention first. Tulok needed to bring this out into the open with the prophet. 

He wondered how much she knew already; he wasn't so stupid as to think she wouldn't notice something by now; Alduin wasn't exactly discreet. But the raven always seemed to be a step ahead. He always felt as though she were keeping the full scope of things unknown. And she enlightened them little by little, only when it was needed.

It was needed now.

the blackwater islands had gone silent. their listener, withdrawn into seclusion; given entirely to the task set before her by the unnamed god. the new druids thrived. the prophet knew contentment in all but her dreams.

visions plagued her. promises of things to come, slivers of violent memories not yet written. horrors, she thought one morning as she woke. the druids were not ready.

the speaker would find his listener at the narrow black-pebbled beach of the spiritglade. she stood alone in the deep shadow of a single twisted tree, wreathed in tendrils of fog which seemed to glow under the moonlight. sensing his presence, the prophet acknowledged him with a cant of her ears, a glance stolen in his direction. the sweet green aroma of herbs was sharp in her fur.

tulok. you have done well in my absence. speak.

written to reflect the current date, as agreed <33

It didn't take the speaker long to find her; he tracked her earthy scent to spiritglade where she stood near the water.

He came stand beside her. The listener complimented him, but praise was not necessary. He did what was expected of him for his own reasons. Of course, he had not minded picking up the slack in her absence; Tulok knew the children were important for the future of the druids. 

My brother, he answered after a moment of silence. He is sick, and he has told me that you have a plan to rid him of that sickness. He wanted to know the details and he wanted to know how long it would take. The demon wanted his brother back.

tulok was direct. he spoke of the cursed one. alduin. the listener's presence grew cold in the manner of one reminded of a great crisis in their life for which there was nothing to be done. that was precisely the case, after all.

i did, the prophet gave her answer freely; tulok was her speaker, among the most trusted of the druids. now i do not. he cannot be cured. but his suffering can be eased, and i intend to find out how. we have healers among the druids; they will try, but i believe they will fail.

she turned to tulok. he is cursed. it is not his body that we must tend, but his soul.

The demon didn't like her answers. If anyone could have cured her brother, it was her, and now he was left with no solution. She said they could ease his pain, but—That is not enough. Easing his pain did nothing for their future. Of course, he didn't want Alduin to suffer, but more than anything, he needed his brother at his side, sound of mind. 

How are you so sure there is nothing to be done? He knew the sickness was held in his soul; there was no denying that if anyone had seen the way the ailment painted his actions and emotions. But he was finding her answer difficult to accept.

perhaps predictably, the hellwrought speaker rebelled against the finality of her words. the listener understood little of the attachments between wolves, but at times such as these she found herself thinking back to that day on the sacred mountain of ursus. she had fought. she had rebelled against the finality of her own loss.

the prophet held carefully the slivers of empathy she found scattered among the diamondscape of her mind as she spoke next. when alduin came to me, in the forest shadowed by the sacred mountain of ursus, i was drawn to him by the whispers of the spirits. they sang to me of him. they said that we were the same, how ignorant she'd been then. i did not truly know what they meant until he came to me again. until you both came to me.

i bear my own curse, and i have learned to find power within it. i have learned to leave my suffering behind. i will see to it that alduin learns as i have, the listener sought her speaker's gaze, her own eyes aflame. and so will you. we will combine our efforts to bring him peace.

He had only ever heard the story from his brother's perspective. He knew there had been something between them, but he had never really understood. Now the demon had a better idea. It seemed forces beyond themselves had brought them all together, something that was easier for him to grasp now that he had spent time with the listener and started teaching the druids. 

His anger began to ebb the longer the dark priestess spoke. She told him that she held her own curse but that she had learned to live with it; maybe they could help Alduin not be so tormented by his own.

The speaker nodded. You are cursed? he asked. He hoped she was willing to be honest with him given his role and importance to the the listener as well as the druids. He would always offer her the same.

anger faded to acceptance; denial brightened to curiosity. the listener merely nodded at first, when tulok asked after her curse.

then the prophet turned, beckoning to her speaker. i will show you, she said, and led him to the cave behind the waterfall. her den, where her precious children slept and her altar shimmered and hummed in the darkness.

upon her altar, the bloody skyrock gleamed under a stray shard of sunlight.

this is my curse. when it first came to me, each moment was painful. each breath. and when i killed... when i took a life, even that of prey, i felt it as keenly as if i had taken my own. the pain still surfaces, at times.

she gazed on it impassively, this thing which had brought so much destruction and so much power to her.

but in it lies my connection to the unnamed god. it is the source of much of my power.

She would show him; his curiosity grew. The demon followed the listener to her cave, the place where her children slept. She trusted him enough to be there, and it was surprising for some reason. Maybe because he hardly stopped to think about the bonds that were forming here. He was resistant to forming bonds because he didn't need things to make him weak. It was bad enough he felt responsible for his brother. But it seemed sometimes, he didn't have as much control over his life as he thought he did.

She brought him to the altar where the stone sat. He had seen her clutch it close that day when the ocean returned her to them. Tulok hadn't known how important it was until now. It was both her curse and her source of power. How did you overcome the pain? he asked.

the listener closed her eyes, recalling that first night when she had entered the realm of spirits with a vivid intensity seldom experienced without the touch of eldritch berries. head bowed, she spoke. i walked among the spirits. i found the unnamed god. and i was given purpose.

her head lifted, mismatched gaze seeking tulok. alduin's curse... he is followed by a demon of many names. the king of demons. there is no power to match his — none but the power of the unnamed god.

he was chosen for this burden, as i was chosen for mine. i believe we were chosen because our god knows we are strong enough to carry it.

The unnamed god had given her a purpose; he could understand how that would help one deal with the pain of a curse. He wondered what Alduin's purpose might be concerning his own. 

The listener finally put a name to the sickness that consumed his brother. The king of demons. The speaker wondered how it had found its way to his brother. She explained that it's power was only matched by that of the unnamed god, and Alduin bore the weight of this burden because he was strong enough. 

The demon knew there was truth to his listener's words, but his stubborn logic rebelled against them regardless. What if this demon's purpose for Alduin conflicts with his purpose in our family's misison? he asked. Am I to let him out of his agreement? It was clear this was not something he wanted to consider. Tulok was a rigid and unforgiving man; he was not in the habit of relinquishing others from their vows, not even his own brother who often saw his more lenient side.

in his demands, tulok revealed more of himself; he was a wolf bound to his word, an expectation he held his peers to as well. the listener saw herself in his reflection.

it will take time. he must learn to balance his mortal needs with those of his immortal soul, the listener spoke softly. but your mission was always meant to take time. in order to truly defeat ursus, we must be more cunning than the bruin-witch. we must create stability here, and an image of benevolence to our neighbors, so that when the time comes ursus will have no friends. if we are to have stability, we must bring peace to alduin. come.

she turned, beckoning once more for her speaker to follow. this time she led him deeper into the cave, through a narrow tunnel hidden among the craggy stone walls. the tunnel split at its conclusion, the mouths of two caves yawning into the darkness. a soft glow radiated from within one of the chambers; it was this entrance the prophet chose. within, a hazy fragment of paradise lay hidden. sunlight gleamed through the broken ceiling, illuminating the lazy fog which danced and coiled in the small space. a small stream cut through the carpet of deep green moss beneath their feet, a silvered rush which disappeared through a wide crack in the stone at the cave's far end. mice scuffled and squeaked among the greenery.

tulok was the second to see this place. she had been the first.

there are more like this. too many to be counted. they are only a few of the wonders hidden in this sacred place. these islands hold many secrets; perhaps among them, we may find the answers we seek.

It will take time. It was the answer he needed. He had been so worried about the future that he hadn't been thinking about everything they needed to do in the present. Nothing worth doing was easy or timely—a lesson he had been taught by his mother and still sometimes struggled to grasp. He was normally patient, but the mission had taken him over and made him rash, something he could not afford. You are right, he offered, standing to follow when she beckoned. 

She led him farther into the cave and down a tunnel he had never seen before. When their path split, the listener chose the cave that illuminated the darkness around them. As they entered, he realized the light came from the sun that peaked through a crack in the ceiling. The ground was covered in soft, green moss and around them was a thin fog. His eyes followed the stream as it moved along its own winding path out of the other side of the cave. It was a sight, and if the demon noticed things like beauty, he would certainly attach the word to this place. 

When she spoke, his gaze found its way back to her. He knew there were secrets here that even he didn't know; there always would be. He also knew it meant something that the listener brought him here. Tulok nodded. I hope so, he answered after a moment. His tone was softer than it usually was, partially out of respect for the prophet, but also because this cave seemed to demand that from him. 

The speaker released a soft sigh. Thank you. He bowed his head towards the listener. There were many things he was thanking her for—his brother, his purpose, her help. He was certain she would know all of this without him needing to point out every reason he was grateful for her.

tulok spoke, and the silence shattered under the weight of a million whispers as the spirits of the dead woke.

thank you.

and they shrieked.

the prophet stepped forth not of her own volition, but at the behest of the dead; their teeth in her fur, snagging, pulling. their breath at her ears, their song. its words were lost to her. she knew only the pull, the need. tulok had been brought to her. given to her.

the first speaker.

you are my speaker. my first, her voice, scarcely above a whisper. i chose you.

she reached out to touch his face, satinsoft. and i am yours, as you are mine.

Faint whispers were all he heard at first. The listener was pulled forward by some unseen force as it glued Tulok's paws to the moss and stone beneath his pads. He wasn't alarmed, though, as he might have expected. He felt something click into place—something he hadn't even realized he was waiting for. He could hardly even put the feeling into words. 

Her words sounded like they were created by the whispers still caressing his ears. He had known something more had brought him here and kept him loyal to the prophet and the druids. He was grateful she had chosen him. 

It was then that he felt the soft touch on his face. The demon's eyes closed. Touch was not something he often allowed, but with the listener there didn't seem to be the usual lump of discomfort in his gut. Her touch only made things seem more balanced within him.

And I am yours as your are mine. His eyes opened then; his gaze was typically cold and calculating but neither of those could be seen now. Only reverence. He felt changed somehow. Tulok leaned forward to touch his forehead to hers. He could find no words, but he knew they weren't needed.

tulok did not shy from her touch, and in his acceptance the listener felt the brilliance of the heavens; all the mysteries of the universe. the spirits trilled and fell into awed silence. in this sacred bond, she felt closer to completion than she knew was possible. there were pieces missing still, she knew.

she thought of the wispmother, who she had once believed to be one of those pieces, only to learn that she was not. like the keeper, her existence was interwoven with the listener's own. they could not be separated except through death... and in the next life, they would meet again.

the prophet shared a different bond with her speakers; one that could be torn away, burned, forgotten, replaced, yet as fierce and necessary as those she shared with the chosen. her own eyes closed, only fleetingly. for a long moment, silence reigned.

then she drew away. there was much to be done.

i have named the four smallest islands within the druids' claim; those unsuitable for habitation. they may yet prove useful in their own way. it would please me to show you these islands, if you have no pressing tasks to attend.

this can be concluded if you'd like <33

The listener pulled away and told him of the smallest islands that were unclaimed. She wanted to show him. 

The demon had nothing more pressing than this, though even if he did, he would have followed. He nodded once. Show me, he told her. If she thought there might be something to find there, then he trusted that. She knew far more of the world than he could ever know. 

ending here works for me <3