They returned to their lovemaking, and with each movement the pressure inside her grew, each growth compounding upon itself. With a sudden flash of panic, she wondered if her body could handle the sensations driving through it. She would know soon. Synk sighed into her ear as he finished, and the threshold broke. Pleasure fell away into pain. Her skin prickled inside a tide of ice, leaving behind trails of rotten blackness along her flesh. The cold seemed to penetrate deep into her bones, burning her from the inside-out. She tried to shriek but found no sound left her throat.
She never woke up: all at once, she simply realized she was not sleeping. She would not need to sleep ever again. The night-bathed anchoress cell that once consisted of her entire world reeled under her, and when she righted herself she rushed over to a mirror. Good God, she had been frozen alive: surely her skin had decayed. Or had it been a nightmare? Keirella collapsed against the little desk, sending one of the holy books clattering to the floor, but she caught the hand mirror before it fell and shattered to pieces. She dragged it over her, inspecting her skin for ice-burns.
There were no burns, but her hair shocked her. It had turned silvery-blue, almost white. Her once-hazel eyes were now an iridescent blue. Her hand shot up to her cheek in a gesture of horror, but she could not feel a thing.
Death—-Synk—-had taken her humanity away, leaving behind an empty soul. She had never emerged from her cocoon: her real self had died inside, and what she lived now was the dried husk that remained. But the shock was leaving her. For some reason, her emotions did not seem to want to be working the same as before, because she was accepting this new change of status quickly. She felt full of love and admiration for Death, just as a retainer does for their master, and she felt full of substantial power.
Without knowing what she was doing, Kierella phased through the wall--and nearly made a mistake that would have caused her to phase through the floor forever, deep into the core of the world. She didn't know anything of her newfound being, so she traveled to the opposite end of the continent, to less populated farmlands. Through her short travels, she learned that she had lost the need for sleep, eating, or drinking--and she couldn't even taste, smell, or feel warmth or cold. She had no interests in once-tempting human pursuits: the desire for wealth, power, and love, among others. In her transformation, her brain had somehow connected with Synk. She could not directly communicate with him, but sometimes her decisions and actions felt uncontrolled, guided by some supernatural call to show appreciation for Synk and fill his needs.
One such "uncontrolled" action was to become a mercenary. She began training with a sword, but even in the early stages of her training, she was a formidable opponent: she felt pain, but it was dulled, she could use magic to some degree, she did not tire easily, and she enter a battle with such determination as to attack without remorse. She worked through the ranks of the Mercenary's Guild quickly, shocking the guild leader. She became adept at use of the sword and moving in armor faster than many of her comrades had been able to.
part 7
She never woke up: all at once, she simply realized she was not sleeping. She would not need to sleep ever again. The night-bathed anchoress cell that once consisted of her entire world reeled under her, and when she righted herself she rushed over to a mirror. Good God, she had been frozen alive: surely her skin had decayed. Or had it been a nightmare? Keirella collapsed against the little desk, sending one of the holy books clattering to the floor, but she caught the hand mirror before it fell and shattered to pieces. She dragged it over her, inspecting her skin for ice-burns.
There were no burns, but her hair shocked her. It had turned silvery-blue, almost white. Her once-hazel eyes were now an iridescent blue. Her hand shot up to her cheek in a gesture of horror, but she could not feel a thing.
Death—-Synk—-had taken her humanity away, leaving behind an empty soul. She had never emerged from her cocoon: her real self had died inside, and what she lived now was the dried husk that remained. But the shock was leaving her. For some reason, her emotions did not seem to want to be working the same as before, because she was accepting this new change of status quickly. She felt full of love and admiration for Death, just as a retainer does for their master, and she felt full of substantial power.
Without knowing what she was doing, Kierella phased through the wall--and nearly made a mistake that would have caused her to phase through the floor forever, deep into the core of the world. She didn't know anything of her newfound being, so she traveled to the opposite end of the continent, to less populated farmlands. Through her short travels, she learned that she had lost the need for sleep, eating, or drinking--and she couldn't even taste, smell, or feel warmth or cold. She had no interests in once-tempting human pursuits: the desire for wealth, power, and love, among others. In her transformation, her brain had somehow connected with Synk. She could not directly communicate with him, but sometimes her decisions and actions felt uncontrolled, guided by some supernatural call to show appreciation for Synk and fill his needs.
One such "uncontrolled" action was to become a mercenary. She began training with a sword, but even in the early stages of her training, she was a formidable opponent: she felt pain, but it was dulled, she could use magic to some degree, she did not tire easily, and she enter a battle with such determination as to attack without remorse. She worked through the ranks of the Mercenary's Guild quickly, shocking the guild leader. She became adept at use of the sword and moving in armor faster than many of her comrades had been able to.