Succubi's Thrall & The Witches Wonder

Six Months Prior...... The soft waves of blacks, blues, and greens, wavered before Kithelia’s eyes as she watched the tumultuous ocean beat against the shoreline. She watched the colorful waves crash against the rocks, depositing sand and other oceanic debris. The ocean looked surreal. It wasn’t the normal cerulean blues, teals, and turquoise that is normally seen in the highest peak of day, nor was it the dark blues, heavy greys, and whites of the tips of the waves as it was at night. The whole ocean looked as if it was a being of its own. An entity and energy of its own creation. She stood there on the shore and was mesmerized by a beautiful melodic song. She swayed in time to the lyrics as if in a trance and stared longingly out at the ocean. The melody hauntingly beautiful, still she felt nothing but longing and sadness within the melody.  The ocean, the water, the very sea life was calling to her. She heard the song. She heard the haunting melody and she wanted to be embraced once again by it. She found herself wandering ever closer to the shore line attempting to hear the hidden words in the song. The melody changed slightly and another voice lent its timbre to the melody. She heard the haunting voice of a woman, the notes pure, and strong, and the new voice, that of a man, a deep baritone, that sounded as if it would not fit with the woman’s voice but indeed it did. She watched the notes formulate into colors and symbols in her peripheral. She knew they were out there. She knew the message was for her. She knew it was a warning, the chords striking deep in her soul, and could feel the fear swelling within her as she watched the waves swell to a fevered pitch. She looked to the sky and saw the clouds rolling in. A storm was coming she saw it on the horrizon. She felt the energy of the deep change. One moment she was on the shore listening to the melody of the two beings, the next moment she was walking through a long corridor. She found herself both frightened and awestruck at what she saw. This was a new place of the aether she had never been. She often disappeared to the aether to gather messages or during use of certain skills she possessed. The corridor had no walls, nor floors, no windows, nor doors. It started off pitch black and slowly her eyesight adjusted. She gasped as she realized what the walls were. The walls were the ocean itself. She watched as the corals and seaweeds swayed with the swell of the waves, unseen below the surface, yet still there to behold. She was underwater, in the aether, that had never happened to her. She was shocked to discover that she was actually breathing in the water. She gasped in fear at a large shark swimming dangerously close to the corridor barrier even though she knew that it would not harm her. There was something dark and ominous about it. In that moment she recognized it was part of the message she was to receive, an omen. She did not even falter in her step as she continued on feeling the pull to continue moving. It was as though an invisible force wa pushing her from behind and pulling her from the front. She felt the two energies trying to indicate to her where she was needed. She glanced down and noticed her feet barely made a stirring of the sand on the ocean floor and furthermore the floor of the corridor was the bed of the ocean, it closed in around her holding her softly with the warmth of a mother's hug. Choosing her steps with care so as not to damage the plant life she continued in. Nothing but the sound of the waves and the peaceful quiet of the deep assaulted her ears making it seem as if she were in a deeply sacred space, which she knew she was. It was odd she thought, musing for a moment, she was under the ocean and yet the waves still had a sound. A moment of panic set in before she was able to calm herself when she realized she was back where she came from, her home. She nearly wept with joy at the sudden realization that she was in the deep, she was a part of the deep, and she belonged there, she felt as though she had been called home, even if only temporarily. She continued looking around, absorbing the details of her surroundings. The gentle sway of the vegetation, the movement of the sea life, the thrum of magic in the deep. She stopped and watched the different sea life swim before her eyes and reached out her hand tentatively, as if to test, that she was really in the depths. A sting ray lovingly swam beneath her hand, brushing its back against her palm, the rubbery consistency of its grey skin made Kithelia gasp. The energy and vibration she felt from the stingray, nay of all the ocean life, moved her to the very depths of her being. She wept silently as more sea life gathered around her. She identified some of the life around her as sea turtles, dolphins, a variety of small fish and sharks. She felt something bump against her foot and glanced down to see a starfish slowly crawling up her leg and a sea horse, swimming circles around her calf. The fear of only a moment ago was gone and was replaced by awe, joy, happiness, and an overwhelming sense of divinity. She brought her attention back to the voices and realized with surprise that she was singing. It was her own voice and not someone else’s. She stopped singing and let it sink in. She always longed to be able to sing with beauty and grace but felt she croaked more like a frog. The male’s voice stopped just as suddenly. The sea life started to retreat into the darker depths as she continued walking down the oceanic floor which she had previously been a corridor. As the sea life retreated she waited for the male’s voice to sound again and was too afraid to begin singing on her own. The fear crept down her spine and she couldn’t understand where it came from. It made her skin clammy, chilled, and she shivered a little, only then realizing that she was not clothed. The lighting that kept her able to see what was around her started to dim and she became aware of something dark, massive, and deadly stalking towards her. The fear was palpable. It was sinister, whatever this energy or being was. Kithelia could feel it in her heart. She tried to tell herself it was only a dream even though she knew better.That was how she always soothed herself whether she was actually asleep or sojourning in the aether.  Kithelia started to walk backwards towards where she thought the shore had been. She realized that was silly because one moment she was on the shore and the next she was in the depths but she could feel the energy of the in between, the shore line and the sea, behind her. She also knew that as she turned to run to it that whatever was there stalking would have access to her back. At least as she faced it she could watch it with her eyes and senses. If she ran it would not bode well for her or her safety. She stepped with purpose, ever watching the limits of her sight for whatever was waiting in the dark for her. She realized with a start the energy felt like some of the council member’s yet it was different. This was an energy she knew but she kept telling herself it was her imagination. The counsel had no reason to harm her. A new melody began, drums in the deep, they reverberated through her chest, making her cringe in fear. She knew it was coming. The drums in the deep seemed so frightening compared to the haunting melody that she heard and knew from before. She heard a whispering and strained to hear what was being said. It was several voices all chattering at a whisper. She knew these voices yet kept denying it to herself that is was persons known to her. She heard it then, thousands of voices, yet only one real voice. She felt it, she knew he was there, she knew the message was about to be delivered, as it had been many times before. He was waiting for her, a word of warning for what was about to come. She knew that his energy and the energy of the stalking predator in the deep was not the same. A tear escaped her eyes as she knew the message would hurt, as it always had. “Beware that which seems like friend but is truly foe.” The whisper a thousand voices yet not was heard next to her ears. She knew it was futile to turn to try and glimpse the owner of the warning. He had never truly shown all of himself to her. Yet, he was always there to warn her of lessons about to be learned. He was always the bearer of messages that had rather traumatic consequences in her life. She already knew there was no way to avoid the lesson, no way to decrease the significance of the consequences, and no way to avoid the pain and agony she was about to experience. Her attention snapped back to the stalking, dark mass that was much closer than it had been. She tried to make sense of what she was seeing but was frustrated that she could only see an outline of some nebulous shadow. The shadow seemed out of place in the ocean, it seemed as if made of many, yet only really made of one. She knew better than to ask questions but the part of her that knew better was not at the forefront of her mind. “How bad will it hurt this time?” She asked the ocean around her. She gasped in surprise as the males voice responded “each betrayal begins with trust.” It was then, that Kithelia knew the betrayal would be more than traumatic this time. The betrayal would be life changing. She wept silently watching the dark mass stalk closer. The energy around her stifling, painful, forcing the tears from her. The tears glittered in the water like a foreign substance. She knew it was coming, and she suddenly knew who it was. The betrayer was more than one person. It was many. She wiped the tears from her eyes, trying to put up a metaphysical barrier between her, the energies and emotions that were being instilled by the shadow, and it's stalking presence. She envisioned a bubble surrounding her and watching as the bubble made itself whole cutting through the energies visibly until she was cocooned within it. The tears that remained glittering and floating in the water seemed to glow slightly brighter and she offered up a prayer. “Protect me in the ways that you can and how you deem fit.” She watched the glittering teardrop disappear as if being carried away by an invisible hand. She blinked and reinforced her resolve. It was in that short space of time while her eyes were closed that she felt a sudden shift. The energies were gone, she opened her eyes and in that moment she found herself back on the shore and gone from the aether. The storm had arrived, it was no longer in the distance on the horizon, it raged around her now. It was an indication that she was in the aether longer than normal. The wind, rain, the waves, all violently making their presence known. She stood in the torrential downpour, shivering and recognizing that she was cold. She heard a final whisper from the ocean as she shivered, regaining her bearings. “Know, this too shall pass.” She took a moment to recenter herself and tapped into the deepest parts of her where her magic dwelled. She whispered the words "Down is up, up is down, take me deep into the ground, deliver me well, the place you know, grove palace as above so below' She felt the thrum of her magic and opened her eyes. She stared into the fire a moment before taking stock of her surroundings. The dreams, her dreams, were always prophetic. If they were not the prophetic variety they were the stuff of nightmares. She knew it for what it was, an omen, a message, a warning of things yet to come to pass.The flickering of the fire in the hearth of her palace room was providing a soft amber lighting and warmth to the room. She watched her hounds, visible only to her and one other council member at that time, pacing the perimeters of her room. She thought about the sorrow, grief, fear, and betrayal about to befall her. The emotions nearly enveloping her being. She knew what was to come. This time she received a warning and started to reinforce her personal protective wards in preparation. She wasn’t sure who to trust but she needed to speak to someone. She vowed to herself, at her next rendezvous with Kurandia, to try and confide in her.She out of everyone within the palace seemed to be the most trustworthy, She got up and went to her desk and was about to write in her precious books when she realized that even the books were not as they once were. Someone had been in her rooms and touched her belongings. She felt an energy that was not her own over her books, texts, and tomes. She knew then it was time to start protecting herself with renewed force and vigor. She let herself get comfortable and was becoming lax in her palace rooms. She wrote for a short period of time on a loose piece of paper, warded it, and then chanted softly under her breath. She watched as the paper floated to her most trusted hound, her spectral half-skeletal friend and confidant. She watched the paper shrink and wrap itself around his neck. The paper then turned black and faded into a collar. She knelt down and looked into her hound’s eyes.  “If anything should happen to me my friend please make sure this missive finds its way to Kurandia.” Kithelia hugged her spectral hound knowing that it had no corporeal body yet it seemed as if it did under her arms. She imbued the hound, with no preferred name, with her energy, more specifically with her emotions and the need for haste, saying simply “What is mine is yours until time is undone, be safe my friend, trust no one.” The power of her words glowed around her hound in purple and teal hued ribbons, settling around the hounds fur, creating new markings on the animal. He gave a huff acknowledging that the proper protections were now in place. Kithelia walked slowly to her bed and knelt beside her other hound, Gwynnyn. “My sweet, strong, trusting Gwynnyn, even though we seem to be in danger yet again you must continue being who you are else they will suspect something is amiss. Carry on as normal so we are not discovered.” Gwynnyn nodded in understanding, intelligence shining in his eyes. He laid his massive mint green head back down on the soft duvet and watched her silently. As Kithelia laid on the bed, slowly drifting back to sleep she felt Lyrr, walking in circles, trying to find a comfortable spot on the bed, and she smiled softly. Lyrr, as if sensing she was watching him, left his circling at the end of the bed and walked to her side. He laid down, resting his massive cerulean blue head on her abdomen. Kithelia fell asleep with her hounds surrounding her. Lyrr snoring softly, Gwynnyn panting and running in some imaginary race in his sleep, and her nameless hound staring out into the night over the city.