"He was very beautiful, but his time in the Scarred Wasteland has not been kind. Scales once golden are now a little greenish and dull with affliction."
- Helveca, the Illuminated
Shade-Touched
Knight
Mate: None
Previous Mate: Volamena
Lore: by Minstri
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Exile
Minseok had been branded a thief of the worst sort. He fled the Sunbeam Ruins with two possessions of extraordinary value. The first was an ancient scroll taken from a deep Inverted Tower below The Hewn City. The Tower had been home to a clan of Pearlcatcher Monks whose holy mission was to safeguard relics and knowledge of great value.
The scroll had been requested by an old Imperial, and Minseok had the job of escorting two of the Monks who carried the scroll to the Imperial's clan. The three arrived in the Imperial's lonely abode, a single shack built upon a much older foundation, which long ago would have supported a far grander structure. The Monks entered while Minseok remained outside, standing guard. After nearly two hours he heard a low, brief argument between the dragons within. It was not his place to observe, but he had been waiting a very long time, and it was his job to ensure the safety of the scroll and the monks.
Sliding up to the window he looked in and was witness to something chilling. One of the Monks stood by holding the scroll open, reading something from its length quietly while the other stood beside him watching the Imperial perform an evil deed. Set on a long table before the ancient withered Imperial was a row of eggs, which he was inspecting slowly. There had been five eggs on the table… three had been cracked open, their light and vitality destroyed, leaving behind only a glass-like shell and the ectoplasmic remains of unformed dragons. Minseok watched as the dragon prepared to shatter the fourth egg, and leapt in through the window, cracking the sill and frame, and shredding the curtains with his claws.
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The Monks had said the eggs needed to be destroyed, that the scroll contained a prophecy of doom, and that any one of the resultant children might have fulfilled it. Minseok was unconvinced. He was not fast enough to save the fourth egg, but he had managed to seize the fifth by the end of the confrontation. He walked out of the now ruined shack alone holding the last remaining egg and the accursed scroll. None followed.
The Child
Minseok cared for the egg until it hatched into a marvelous golden Coatl. She was tender and beautiful, and he loved and adored her. The Monks were wrong; no evil could come from this child. It had been his intention to find a distant secluded clan where she would not be found and leave her in the care of other dragons, but he could not bear to part with her.
But in his care, she could never be safe. One of the Monks he had left in the shack survived, and reported his betrayal and his theft. He was soon hunted by them and their allies, and even by freelance hunters, hoping to gain some bounty by his death or capture. He fled the Sunbeam Ruins, the glittering hills of Light's Domain, with the tiny coatl clutched to his chest, and the cursed scroll in its case slung over his shoulder.
The Clan of Singing Blood
Minseok was invited to the Clan of Singing Blood by Helveca, an old scholar he had once known, before she departed the Domain of Light, holding only hate in her heart for the brilliance of her God. Minseok did not know what caused her to leave, but after his experiences, he could not blame her.
The Scarred Wasteland was a brutal place, well deserving its name, and he was not so certain he wished to have the child, Vola, raised there. However, it was protected, and he would scarcely be welcome anywhere else now that he was branded a murderer and thief, with a considerable bounty for his head, as well as Vola's.
He quickly made himself useful. His skills were grounded in violence, and the Clan of Singing Blood had plenty of need for them. He was a Warrior and found great favor in that role. Vola grew older and more beautiful. She shone like the sun, and the corruption and grimness of the Scarred Wasteland was unable to touch her. Minseok did not fare quite as well. The Scarred wasteland dulled his brilliance, and while he was never sick, there came to be an aura of illness to him. Minseok had long ago hidden away the sealed scroll case among his belongings, and in time forgot, not its existence, but its significance.
Minseok had never been as present as he had wanted during Vola's growing up. He would fight and hunt at the command of the Queen and slay those she wished slain. He became trusted and was her stealthy and deadly assassin. Vola meanwhile studied mostly with Helveca and alongside Finnigan's children. He was surprised still when she came to view him as her knight and savior and courted him as a mate.
The Knight
Years passed and Minseok came to be Volamena's faithful mate and companion. He was still not around as often as he liked, but their time together was all the more a relished delight for its rarity. Rumors circulated from time to time that Volamena was unfaithful, but such was the sorry reality when you were bound to love one so beautiful. He was withered by comparison, at least in appearance, and gone so often that is wasn't any surprise that people would talk. He did enjoy correcting them, usually violently. The wildest such rumor he heard was that he was in love with the King, and pursued him. Volamena though was far too restrained and proper to have entertained such a notion.
Minseok had never realized that the hidden scroll had been lost and relocated the library until Volamena came and showed it to him. She had it for years and had been working to see its passages fulfilled. She had engineered the fall of the King and the destruction of Ayna and her Frozen Prison. Volamena read from its passages and translated its secrets in a manner which seemed impossible. He might have been disturbed by the whole notion if he had not seen them for himself the true subject of the scroll's prophecies. Tucked into her golden feathers was a multitude of eyes, glittering like jewels. Eyes which saw everything, and consumed everything they saw. He bowed to her and to that which she had come to serve, for he knew in his heart the true folly of the Monks, and that she could bring no evil into the world, but only holiness and glory.
For her, he abandoned everything once more. The clan which had taken him in after his exile became his enemy, for they would destroy her works and the works of the God which had come to reside in her plumage. He fought her battles with everything he had and was blessed by her God with great power and invulnerability. He did not see how the influence of her god only withered him more, for it made her more brilliant with each passing day, and so long as he could serve her, nothing else mattered.
Collapse
Volamena and Minseok left the clan quickly and quietly as chaos erupted in clan following the release of their God from its prison. Volamena began to search for the next prison where more aspects of their god were secured, while Minseok made to sabotage the Queen's agents at every turn. The released god had found shelter with a clan on the edge of the Tangled Wood in a place called the Bonewood Refuge. The dragons there had gladly taken it in and protected it as it recovered from its draining imprisonment.
All was well until Minseok returned to their hideout with Susan, one of the clan's foremost warriors, and set to attempting to convert her to their side, while Volamena extracted as much knowledge as she could from her. With Susan captured the Clan of Singing Blood attacked the Bonewood Refuge, thinking that they had been the ones who had attacked her and the ambassador she had been escorting to their lair. By the time they had discovered this was not the case, it was too late; the conflict had escalated into a war between the two clans.
Volamena and Minseok had prepared a trap for the Clan of Singing Blood in the Refuge, but their plans were undone when the King managed to track Susan to their lair, and very nearly killed Minseok in spite of his power and blessings. The two were forced to flee and were no longer able to serve their god as they planned.
Volamena watched in horror as the plan she had laid for years and years crumbled like the pages of a burned book. She had done well with subtlety and patience, but she could not serve her master as a warrior. She was at a loss and was destroyed by the sudden failure of everything. Her faith was shattered.
Minseok could not bear to see her agony, and he had not lost faith. Everything they had done to this point was for a clear purpose. If they were tested, they were tested, and he would continue to fight. He swore to face the Bloodsinger dragons, and that he would return in victory, and restore Vola to her golden brilliance.
Minseok only managed to crawl out of the refuge, dragging himself along the ground when he failed and their god was Bound by magic, and Minseok stripped of its blessings and power.
He never again saw his love. Vola had taken the scroll and gone.
Read 'The Shade's Witness' for the full story.
Forward
Minseok dragged himself through the Scarred Wasteland to shelter, waiting and searching for his love, but knowing she would never come. As time passed, the grip of the old god within his mind faded, and he was left with uncertainty and choice. Not yet sure if he regretted his actions or just his failure. Perhaps in time, he can find peace or redemption. Perhaps he will seek out other prisons and try and force them open so that he can reclaim Volamina from wherever she has vanished... or attain retribution on the Clan of Singing Blood.
Or just a new home... where he can regain control of his own thoughts, and come to terms with all which had been done in the name of mercy and love...
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