Adrift

[Caira Ayryn]

A New Beginning, Tomb Within the Nexus 2/3

Caira gasped for breath as her ribs crashed into the ground, which was strange because its mere existence soothed and reassured her of life once more. In its crippling effect it had on her with its protrusion, it was strangely accepted with her own arrival. There was an instantaneous change in scenery. From black to white, as if life were that simple, but the contrast was notable. The room certainly glowed enough to rouse Caira, whom had just fallen into the floor of the Nexus, and heard the rushing of water and a stampede of feet and a comment made by a distant voice about the eight gates leading into other Verses. A trickle of pain split in her skull, and down her spine. The source was the heavy sense of gravity immobilizing her limbs, she opened her eyes seeking to conclude her inundated confusion.

Her purple eyes searched the room with awe. It was marvelously colorless, the light filled her intrinsic sense of sight. But her movement seemed somewhat lethargic, and her neck couldn't turn quick enough when she discerned a strange noise that seemed to oscillate and shriek in the same synchronized rhythm, she had a quick second to analyze her surroundings because the noise grew as it neared her. The great white room had expanded before her, as though she was in the belly of a pearl, with eight gates far in the distance, marking the perimeter and she had been transported to the very middle. There was a legion of soldiers, she identified by their analogous uniforms, all standing in attack position, with their weapons and stances all aimed at her.

Caira's eyes widened with shock, her stance became low, structured and ready for any advance the blockade would offer.

"That's not-!" Shouted one of the men, whose height presumed authority over the rest, before something was thrown in her direction that cut off his speech. A blurred shape billowed forward, she could not make it out, but she darted backward in an enthralled frenzy, disregarding gravity's cruel burden. She had barely moved fast enough, when the ground grew black beneath her, and the disk thrown had become a shadow-like puddle, the energy emitted from it was threatening, a fear unlike anything else became her.

Every muscle in her body could be felt with rigid horror. She was staring at the shadow of an ending and yet.. remained less afraid, despite sensing it was the ultimate threat as it exuded a heinous energy, one that stirred her soul. Promptly, something fell, about the size of a person, roughly in the blur of motion, appearing as a bound coffin, and had been transported to the same location she had landed, next to the fountain. The centralized location seemed to entail danger, confusion, and capture. It was a corpse.

Caira was captivated by the events, and quickly dodged out of the way of the cage set by the soldiers as she did not seem to be their primary concern. Before their eyes the person whom had fallen from the transient location was captured by falling into the circular puddle. Before she knew, she witnessed a tragedy that evoked the same pain that split her skull. The expression construed by the man was only anguish and fear, which was warped with a forlorn destitution she had never before witnessed. It caused an empathetic response to induce within her, she almost reached out, but found her toes on the edge of the perimeter, and found herself only able to watch in horror as he seemed to be eaten alive. It vanished, having consumed its nourishment, and a wave of relief and shock cause her to nearly collapse in its density, as the danger had not engulfed her with its disappearance.

"What was that!?" She exclaimed, for she had no words to describe the threat that had nearly enwrapped her. Some of the soldiers eyed her with dismay, she continued "Who are you, and why did you do that!" Caira spouted out before her mind cognitively reassessed the situation.

Their leader, List, scoffed with authority, hidden under a shielding face-mask, after just praising some of his men for the capture of their target. "It would seem that you are new here, this is the Nexus, a place where Primes respawn. That man was one of the most inimical criminals, one that deserved a fate worse than death, and so, he was banished to the Underverse. You have a lot to learn before you can question our authority." The man warned in a deep voice.

Caira found a thread, submerging in her thoughts, an answer to the question of immortality, So that was it, Omni offers freedom, but not without consequence. Not of this kind. She had assumed the twist of immortality to be a tad different, Banishment from this deathless place... What did it all mean?

Still, for the man's cry of agony resounded within her, she desired to discern judgement and punishment, and whomever drowned him that puddle, she would hold him accountable for their actions and mainly their misfire.

"That's not what I meant! You almost did that to ME!" She interrupted, wanting him to realize his folly and she looked back to the fountain, and found it only to be a sight of residual horror.

"I recognize you were in the way, and caught in the crossfire, but it was merely a case of bad timing." He began.

Caira was enraged, his excuse-filled response infuriated her. He offered no responsibility or good graces! Fury ignited within her and she wore an insulted expression of a prideful cat, her posture stood tall after recoiling from her own initial reaction. Ferocity grew quaking in he undertones of her voice, "You are gravely mistaken. It was a misdirection of command that-"

List cut her off, "You do not know who you are speaking to girl, I warn you, do not say anything you may regret."

Caira was silent for a second, she didn't even know who she was, minus her name, but maybe that was the beauty of it all. "I'm afraid, you do not know who you are speaking to." Her eyes turned a menacing glow of violet, onlookers were distracted by the light in her eyes, because they beamed with a flash of color, contrasting from the unpigmented room. The soldiers turned, bracing for attack but that was far from Caira's thought.

With authority, List sneered, "Enlighten me." Challenge surmounted in his voice, one Caira would not surrender to. She was about to give her name, but quickly thought of the consequence, without the particulars of whom she was, it could endanger her later.

"Sure," she offered, settling on it, and smirked with a vicious delight, her mind immediately constructing an identity that would be sure to obstruct any sane emotion he had, and undermine his challenge. After all, it was his responsibility.

"I am Ayryn, a bounty hunter, and after going through all the trouble of tracking and chasing him to this confined location- which proves to be the ideal bait, as it offers an illusion of the safest and most opportune for my prey. I tricked him here, the opportunity to escape from my grasp was incentive enough, whilst I prepared a worse fate... Well that was before you stole my reward and almost banished me to the Underverse!" She had used prior information she overheard on her arrival, about the eight gates, despite that she did not know what they meant. Her lie swayed them, under authority that she didn't register, authority she was speaking to a group of Secondaries, and she, a Prime.

Some of the soldiers were aghast and shifted their weight within their suits of armor. Caira hoped that the story she had comprised, despite being somewhat convoluted, was interwoven with enough facts to trick his truth. This was a climacteric story, one built with some information to establish a false sense of familiarity. The opportunity he had wagered out of arrogance was just enough of a chance for her to demonstrate the significance of mere words. She recounted the story, and now demanded, "I believe apologies would have been in order, but now, seeming how you have defaced my reputation and continue to belittle me, and my skill, you owe a debt.." Her eyes skimmed upon his uniform, "Soldier of the Camelot Army."

There was a reaching, the impact of her words became one that she could hear and savor, in the expression of eyes. Through the mask, as he tried to wrap his head around, and recount what had happened enough to piece in the fragments. Perhaps they would prove to be just sensible enough that her grain of truth could string through.

Had he asked the convicts name, the masquerade would be up. List began, "So you mean to tell me, that you have been here before? When you came down from there, you seemed very disoriented, as though it had been your first." He said in a reproachful voice.

"Ah, I was merely surprised at how your own authority undermined my action, and it remains quite evident, the struggle with this one was quite taxing.. And perhaps, just perhaps, your powers of perception aren't on the level you deem them." She felt her lips move with a quick riposte, she could barely translate them in her thoughts, despite the fire of anger had simmered, her words still tore through and burnt what was touched by them. She did not validate that, in her own story, List had beat her to the punch and captured him first.

In vice, Caira thought his powers of perception were rather accurate, he probably had experience in the Nexus, to base this observation from. She wouldn't let her expression waver, and feeling fierce with rebirth she tilted her head and visualized what a bounty hunter might do. Something that would solidify any doubt and convince them of her identity before she could be tested further. She demanded payment. Though she felt some guilt for putting herself in this situation, she did not blame herself for taking the challenge given to her, after all, the upheaval he had almost caused was apparently a banishment worse than death. In her judgement, someone was to be held accountable, and somehow she would be compensated. Perhaps some falsely targeted anger, even for being put in this place...the Nexus, the Omniverse, this world.

Her expression, she allowed, reverted to the man's perishing authority. "Pay up."

Now. The events that would follow could very well land her in prison (if they had that here), as she had, by her own story, endangered all the transient and unsuspecting people in the Nexus, or by demanding payment for her own life being endangered, would be challenged at the rule a bounty hunter might know too well, in that world it was mainly finders keepers, which very well might end in her death. However, lucky for greenhorn Caira, nothing along those lines seemed to happen because bounty hunters and soldiers each lived by discrepant creeds.

In fact, List whom had previously snarled at her, suddenly laughed in her face. His men appeared perplexed but anticipated what would come next, something Caira could not forsee. She liked them as soldiers and they appeared competent enough, it was quite evident they might just be the best in this place.

"Alright then, earn it." He handed her a sword, which she reached to take from him, but it slipped away from her fingertips and clattered to the ground. "Ah the mighty huntress is unable to hold a sword!" A voice reproved her. With narrowed eyes she regarded the mocking as somewhat childish, and picked up the sword from the ground. The cold metal hilt chilled her fingertips and felt unnaturally heavy, but as she quickly learned, it would become an extension of her arm, power, skill and reputation.

"Three touches, chest. Match. Five to appendages. Match." List said and it was then Caira realized he was setting rules! This sounded particularly like fencing. She was glad to recall something, she knew of fencing.. Or so she thought she did.

As gravity's weight oppressed her joints, she stretched from the compounds of her own repose. With willpower and Omni's promise, she would survive the duel, even to the death.