TFW - The Fallen World

{{Permission granted by Seth to continue this so that we can continue upon his return, which is soon. - Flash foward will be done within this or the next post.}}


From: Here

After Seth assure that Zita knew to stay until he returned and that he would return soon, he would leave and head to replenish that which he needed for survival. While he was able to push himself farther than even many of his own Nation, he was still dangerously low in the blood he needed to function and survive.


For a while Zita stood there looking at the closed doors that Seth had walked through. She didn't move, not even at the urging within her mind from Ulna to rest. While they had come a long way already, the two minds were not in sync enough yet to protect the host body from what it would incur should it be left alone to fend for itself. Zita had very little understanding of how to control what was within. But finally, though one could not tell the time it would take, but most assuredly more than an hour, Zita would move back to the bed and continue to rest. But her rest now was much different, short bursts of rest until something either in her mind or out in her surroundings would awaken her. The next night would find her irritable and edgy, something she hadn't been, and the spirits that had left the moment Seth had entered the Culling had returned.


This time though, they were only watching her. It was as if she were a toy to them. The Wraith Culling, its leader Jacob, had yet to learn to speak to them. One of the servants within the Nation had been sent to tend to Zita, to help her bath if necessary, to see that she received fresh blood if she needed it, though not through feeding from her, and to help her dress in something comfortable and appropriate. Ulna did most of the communication with the woman as Zita retreated within to try to ignore the ghosts around.


Unfortunately, and what she would find out as the servant was leaving and seeing that she would once again be alone so she could come forth, was that only upset the ghosts within. It was then that the ghosts began their incessant chattering. Even after she begged for them to give her some peace, for they were wanton of things that she could not give them because of their lack of training or refused to give them like possession for even a moment, Zita grew agitated again and feeling as if the walls of the huge hall she was in closing in on her. For one that needn't breathe, she needed fresh air. Being of two minds was not totally a bad thing and there were things she had already learned, a bit of their language, though translated in her mind to Romany, and many of the pathways in and out of the domicile/stronghold she was now housed in.


It was already a few hours into the night and no sign of Seth, and no sign of relief from the eyes and mouths of those of the spirit world seemed to come to her. "Go away.' She had said numerous times before she finally donned her sandals and moved out into the hall from the behind the closed doors. There were those about she needed to avoid. Her mind was open, and with Ulna's expertise she started to hear thoughts of others without even trying. Lack of control. She was however able to tell that the louder the thoughts were, the closer those holding them were. Her feet began to move silently as did her body. Slipping into and out of corridors she would start to make her way to the surface recognizing symbols even if she couldn't read them.


Harsh whispers left her lips every now and then, "Leave me alone, I cannot do anything more. The words you spoke have been given. Trust them..."


She had done quite well, until she came near the hall that led to the corridor to the surface. "NO!" She spoke loudly enough to the impatient spirits vying for her attentions. "Go back to your MASTERS! LEAVE ME BE!"


The words shook through the spiritual center and many of the spirits left suddenly being rebuked. Her eyes showed anger and she could very well be their mouthpiece. Most had the sense to leave her alone before that anger closed her off to them completely. It was the Elder Spirits with much more to gain by making her lose control and making her more susceptible to their own will that stayed with her. Three such of these beings... Three that were instrumental in a great many of the Wraith Cullings workings. Their lack of presence had not gone unnoticed... And their attempts, no matter how futile, had just gained the attentions of those within the Wraith Culling and with haste... They would find just how much attention they had gained.

Within the Wraith Culling, Jacob had been working on finding out more information about the one that Zita had spoken to Seth about - the Vampire that had escaped and made it to Rome and was in hiding and potentially in danger. As Zita had awakened however, there were a great many that had lost "focus" and stopped doing what was expected of them. It wasn't until the three most "reliable" had vanished and went elsewhere that queued Jacob into knowing something had gone awry. The Culling was only able to pinpoint that their spiritual servants were still within the protected boundaries but not their exact location. This began a search. Attentive they were to the cold spots, but it took them far too long to find them. But the scene they came upon, some of the younger of the Culling set them to a standstill in awe.


The spirits were truly, in their sightline, communicating with the one they had heard was brought with The Lost One - The Chosen One. Jacob was immediately summoned and informed of what was transpiring and came to the scene to hear Zita order the spirits and many of them vanishing as if she were truly a threat to them. He was definitely aware of her proximity to the outside as well. He did not have knowledge of all that had transpired since Zita had come into the Nation's stronghold, in fact he barely knew her name. But he did know that if she were here and under the protection of the one that brought her and not in his presence, the last thing needed was for her to leave and be caught. Just her finding the way out could lead to a potential invasion if she fell into the wrong hands.


The stress in her voice and which was coupled by the stress within her features had Jacob move forward and take her under his wing. He spoke words of command in a tongue that didn't quite match any that Zita had heard yet, but then again, she was untrained to do anything other than commune with them and that was self-taught for survival. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders he would begin to guide her away from the entryway. His voice became quiet, even if he was giddy within for actually seeing someone he could potentially learn from how to do one of the only things that the Wraith Culling had yet to learn: Communing with the Spirits in a manner that wasn't controlling them. "Come, we shall make sure they don't bother you any longer. I apologize."


Zita would find herself being led into another area of the Culling Houses. "Let us speak a while so I can better understand perhaps why they are bothering you again. It will help us keep them from you."


Zita didn't know any better and was more than willing to find a way to keep this overbearing ghosts away, so she followed Jacob into the Wraith "house". She would not find just how much of a mistake this was... for with her ability... which she didn't know how to explain to them... she would find herself in another interrogation: To last the rest of the day and well enough into the next night for the return of the Chosen One.

Question after question... 20 questions was more like 20 million by the time that Zita was ready to fall to sleep from exhaustion. A mental push went through her mind, so very quiet and exhausted into that of the one she had linked to through blood, though not thralled to, of <"help me, I am so.. tired..."> It was not done in the Lhaka tongue but that of the Romany. In the mind of the one receiving, it would be in the most natural of languages, though switching after the first word or so.


"How is it that you come to speak with them and they with you?" A question asked of her in more than several dozen ways trying to give Jacob a potential answer to what he needed to know.


"I don't know Jacob. I was born this way. I am tired, I need to rest... I can tell you nothing other than I have always been this way. The tell me where trouble is. They tell me how to keep hidden from those searching from me. They tell me things that others need to know to protect those that have a hard time protecting themselves. No one else hears them or sees them. Or at least that has been my experience. It makes it seem as if I have some prophetic ability, where I can foretell outcomes. But I cannot. I demand nothing of them or they me... until now." Zita's head bobbed slightly as she tried to keep herself awake. Being rude was not something that Zita ever liked to be if there wasn't a call for it. She was pushing herself well beyond her own limits She was not low on blood, but that didn't matter when the energy she was exuding was Will.


It would be only a moment or two later that Zita seemed to fully awaken. Her eyes came open and her voice became filled with anger, but it wasn't Zita in the forefront. "Oui femm mad ran ku nacd huf, Zylup. Oui yna lyicehk suna tysyka du ran dryh oui naymewa!" {1}


Jacob didn't notice the change at first and responded without thinking of what he was saying in Lhaka tongue. "E haat dra yhcfanc E caag du aqbyht uin ypemedeac. Ev oui keja dras du ic, drah fa haat hud cbayg yho muhkan."{2}


This got a growl from Zita's form that Jacob was not expecting. "E femm pnehk Dra Lrucah Uha pylg du bnudald ran ev oui tu hud mecdah. MAD RAN NACD PAVUNA CRA LYHHUD kU UH YHT OUI RYJA DU YHCFAN DU ~RES~." {3}


That shrilled voice, though Zita's, would be able to catch the attentions of a great many within. But it would come to the ears of The Chosen One as he realized that Zita was not where he had left her... missing from his hall.


But it was more to Jacob's surprise when Zita's arms thrust forward and knocked him back 10 feet and brought him to the realization that she was speaking in the Lhaka Tongue. As he shook off the stun from the telekinetic blow Ulna had mustered through Zita's body he looked to her, speaking in a common tongue, but not their own. "How did you do that? And HOW do you know our language and you are not one of us?" Jacob's tone showed his displeasure in the last question. What laws of their nation had been broken for her to know such?


Ulna responded in kind however. "You know nothing of this one Jacob or you would not tamper with her mind to get your answers. In the body I was once... I was Ulna... Leave her be, before you break down all that has already been done to give her peace of mind with what I had to do to protect the Nation! You are worse than the spirits that have been pestering her since she arrived!" Though not as loud as her shrilled anger, it was not so quiet as those coming to see what the matter was wouldn't hear within a good distance.


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1] "You will let her go rest now, Jacob. You are causing more damage to her than you realize!"


2] "I need the answers I seek to expand our abilities. If you give them to us, then we need not speak any longer."


3] "I will bring The Chosen One back to protect her if you do not listen. LET HER REST BEFORE SHE CANNOT GO ON AND YOU HAVE TO ANSWER TO ~HIM~."


{{Tag the rest of the Lhaka that would get involved and Seth, or whoever comes in at this point}}

The night before the meeting would come to find a great many things being paid attention to. Zita, having gathered her things to move out and look for Seth, her prayer beads included, tipped off a few to her anger. A minor showing of the anger that was building within would come to find its way to show above Rome in the night sky. Flashes of lightning, presumably from the unseasonal heat and dryness they happened to be having at this time. It was not as if it were summer, and luckily the crops had already been pulled in for the most part, butit was still warm enough at night, that no shawls or coats were truly needed.


There had already been a message upon the winds to another within Rome, planted so very adeptly in the service of the Emperor, whom would soon find out, at least in part, how long there had been a worry that the Marakai might be able to breach through the barriers that only a few could traverse.


There would be no rain but the threat of it. Clouds would form in a way of a haze to cover the stars from the sky, but not in the thickness of storm clouds. A masking perhaps to hide things that were truly happenning in and around Rome, or setting upon the 'Wings of Hermes" the messages that had not been able to get through.


The smells of the ocean breezes would seem to change for a time during this night before the meeting that had been arranged between the Supernatural and the Natural. Thick crisps scents of cleanliness, then blood and charred things, then again the washing away. Whom was causing this it might not be known to a great many, at least those within the boundaries of Rome.


Messages passed... Emotions filtered and noted... Yet there was no direction to indicate where these things were being passed or held to the naked eye. As anger filtered through the prayer beads... a low rumbling could be heard in the distance, which sounded like thunder. But to those who might remember... might... this was no thunder... but a release of anger... should they hear it. But whose anger was being released? The Priests of Rome would awaken halfway through the night as the 'thunder' began to let itself be known and those whom served Jupiter would rise and begin their ritualistic prayers to appease the Father of the Gods. For all the good they hoped it would do, they would seek answers to the anger they sensed.

The annoyance that had come to the mind of the childe protected by in part by the Fallen that knew the secret and what had made her walk away, had grown great enough to make her act. She had known on the last visit, that her former charge had been found and was supposed to be protected by the Lhaka, but the mental state that was fed through the beads of the former great Prophet Mani was too chaotic, too exhausted. Dinai had no idea what had been occurring since Seth and Zita's arrival and now, it didn't matter to her. She would have to place her elsewhere until her mind could be straightened out.


Dinai made her way back into the Lhaka stronghold in the Northern Theatre that had been abandoned for some time. She would do so undetected by outside eyes, but after she was within the hall, she did not hide the fact she was there by any means. Her form would uncamouflage as she walked up the corridor that Zita had almost walked up and toward where the feeling was strongest. Her eyes were the only thing that showed any sign of emotion, dangerous for one that was trying to go undetected by the brothers and sisters within Rome, as well as the counterparts in power. Luckily, there were no Archons yet in Rome, but Dinai figured there soon would be with the power that was being exuded here. Her dark eyes came to look between Jacob and Zita's form before they would settle upon Jacob. "The torture is enough. You will not break her... Lhaka... If an Archon could not break her as a human... I will not allow you now..."


Her hand moved toward Zita and motioned her to come closer. Her hand was palm up and curled upward and inward so that it be seen as a peaceful movement, instead of an aggressive one. It mattered not that Zita was not in control. Dinai had been around Rome enough scouting that she had a very good idea where to place her. It would only take her reaching to the one she needed to to remain undetected... And if all worked out... by the next evening... Zita's mind would be mended enough to do as needed of her. "Come. You need to rest. This is over."

Jacob went on the defensive not realizing at first why he was attacked. The Wraiths suddenly were no longer in a talkative mood, having seen the Culling leader pushed back by what seemed to be Zita's mind. As the argument and heated information session continued however Jacob calmed tremendously, realizing this was not the woman's intention that the body belonged to. He moved toward Zita's body and looked directly into her eyes speaking to Ulna. His voice was stern though quiet, "You will calm yourself child or I will have your copy removed from her mind and placed into one of your own Culling then punish you for your insolence. Protection or not, you know better than to strike an Elder."

Ulna's consciousness was divided, but she heard everyone of Jacob's words. She was trying to awaken Zita so she could coax her back to Seth's hall before he returned as well as calm herself so that she didn't get Zita, and now herself, in more hot water. Her eyes blinked quickly a few moments after Jacob's words had stopped. "It wasn't out of disrespect I pushed you away, it was out of necessity. I cannot wake her to get her in control and The One warned me of this. If he sees me in control and realizes she is too weak, he will not be ... easy to deal with. He left here near starved and she ... she worried for him..." The last of the words seemed hard for her to say, especially trying to convey the sentiment that was there for Zita and not herself.

"Be that as it may..." Jacob began before Dinai interrupted. His eyes moved from those Ulna was using to Dinai's. "It is not torture, or should not have been Fallen..." There was warning in his voice at her interference, but that was an expected reaction... another's was not so expected, which would make Dinai think even more so that something very wrong had happened to the descendant.

A high-pitched set of words slipped through Zita's lips, though it was Ulna's tonality that came to the ears of those there. The voice she had heard before in Zita's mind, but this time it was not filtered. Inflections within, although the voice was now female and not male, were the exact same.  "By the Dark Mother... Mani?!?!?" It was both a question and an exclamation. Needless to say, Ulna was the one that took a single step forward at first, then hesitated in the surprise that riddled her, leaving her still within arms reach of Jacob, who watched the interaction between the two, a slight bit of curiosity now rising within him as he watched the ghosts and the Wraiths keep there distance and Dinai's still form not even reacting to what he knew she could most likely see, hear and interact with, should she choose.

Dinai would not move, though she motioned for Zita's body to move forward again. "I will not hutr you, I only wish for the body to rest as it needs to so that the owner can reclaim it. The body needs rest for the mind was not put through this turmoil when being attacked by the Archon I have referred to."

Her eyes would move to Jacob. "We know what both sides can do. She knows little of how to control her abilities because her family had not before had encounter with such. They were seers... prophets... not ghost whisperers." She paused a moment, "I did not state you intended your actions to be torture, but she is not Lhaka, and she ~is~ young, therefore her training is not like your own. Give her rest before any more damage, as your own within her states there can be. I will emplore you before I must be a bit more emphatic, which I do not desire to be... And trust me... as I know She... It is quite difficult even for me to control the protective manner in which We care for the children within our scope of influence. And no... She is not of my seed but of another's who cannot be here to protect her or her descendants."

She would wait to see what the outcome would be. Her voice had softened as she was able to see that there was no true intent of harm, which did in fact calm her anger. Now it would be up to them to decide what the next course of action would be.

Ulna would stare blankly between Dinai and Jacob. Jacob was an Elder, therefore she was somewhat at his mercy of all things, and though she wanted to get Zita back to Seth's hall before he returned, Jacob could stop that. And with as angered as she had made Jacob, she wasn't sure that even Dinai's reasoning skills would help any. She would look back to Jacob speaking very softly, "Please Jacob. Punish me later for forcefully trying to protect the body. I only used enough to get your attention, I know our Laws and would not, especially as I am now, go beyond that."

Jacob's eyes would narrow as he took in all the words. He was not sure what Dinai was saying was true, but he also could not find falsehood with it either with all that Zita had stated. Ulna had angered him greatly, and Dinai's interference was not helping matters, but it was perhaps the one thing that stopped Ulna in her tracks from making a trajic mistake. His silence would be almost deafening for a great many moments, before he turned around and stated in a gruff but quiet tone, "Go. But you will see if she has the answers in her mind Ulna and if she does, you will give them to me so this does not happen again."

He was not joking in that. Ulna had done enough to get that copy of her consciousness ripped out of The One's favored's body. He walked farther into the Culling Hall ignoring anything and everything that was said to him for now as he calmed himself.

Ulna moved Zita's body forward, but she would not touch Dinai. She was unsure of the woman. She would skirt around her and head back toward Seth's Hall, looking over her shoulder to see that Dinai was in fact following, hoping that she could get Zita's body back into the hall, and without Dinai before Seth returned.

Dinai would indeed follow the body of Zita being commanded by Ulna all the way into the chambers in which Zita had been resting. As they passed the threshold she would slow for a time then move back to her former pace. She would speak to Ulna as she had not felt Zita's consciousness awaken.

"My dear, you need to make sure that the beads are not on her in times of turmoil. They are what has kept the lineage safe, but I do not know why she has them again. They were to go to her descendants. Perhaps you will find how they were returned to her after I removed them from her more than a century ago."

She would help Ulna get the body ready for rest.

"You must do what you can. In my snooping I have found that there is to be a meeting in the next eventide. She will be expected to be there and meet with the Emperor. If this Chosen One has not returned, I will escort you there. She must be able to control that which I feel you can do with your mind, or you must attempt to keep it locked from her consciousness for that time. I do not know the Rulers of these Times well. Some will tolerate outbursts, but not grand ones, others will not tolerate them at all."

She could only do so much, but with Zita under the Lhaka protection as well she was also bound to uphold what she knew. Unless she was endangered by them, she could not interfere or she would draw too much attention to Rome and them before the timing was right.

"Rest well. I shall be around. Call for Mani should anything go wrong."

She would place the beads next to the bed after she drew the linens over her. Then she would begin to pace for a short while Ulna set the body to rest and went to work on melding their consciousnesses once again.

Ulna was annoyed slightly that Dinai had follwed her back to the Hall, but as she heard Dinai's words, she realized just how pressed for time they were. "I will do what I can ... Mani ..." She would state as she would lay down and be covered up by Dinai.

"It would be best if you were not within these chambers when the Chosen One returns. This is his home... his territory... and they have a connection... so I do not know if ... he knows what happened......" The body was getting tired and overwhelming Ulna. The excitement had died down and as like a human in battle losing all the adrenaline when the fight was over.

The eyes would finally close and the body would come to rest. Finally, perhaps now with the Fallen there, until Seth returned, Zita would get some rest, and Ulna could make as much headway as possible in the blending of the two consciousnesses, before the meeting with the Emperor the next evening.


{{If Seth does not join this thread before the Meeting post takes place, Zita and Dinai will be removed and this thread will be closed.}}

The Fallen before Seth as the door opened would stop and follow his eyes back to the sleeping form of Zita. Her eyes would come back to his feeling the tremendous amount of souls in him and one, perhaps, she had encountered before. She would wait for him to move out of the pathway she would need to take to complete her task of leaving his chambers.

Her words would be a quiet set as she took upon the mantle of leaving as he desired it to be. "As you wish Chosen One." She spoke in her 'native' tongue, of the lands that she had once guarded well for her former 'employer', Sumerian. It was a test to see if she of course was feeling things about him correctly, though she could not currently place the face in her mind of the one she felt, the essence was very much the same and the strength of a 'sister' that she had lost to the anger of her former 'employer'.

After she passed him she would continue her quiet speech in the tongue of the area, Roman Latin, "She will be fine if the second consciousness can complete the task handed it. Perhaps she will allow the Mani child to know what occurred to get the body away from the Elder that was summarily attacked, though from what I could tell, not a powerful push from the reactions, but one to get the attention of the Culling Master of the Spirits."

Her eyes would come back to Seth as she stopped walking and gave a quarter turn in his direction about 20 feet away from him. "She called for you before I arrived." She could feel the connection but didn't quite understand it. It seemed different on both Seth and Zita's side, though a common link of adoration was there. "But her stubbornness and worry for you, led her to attempt to leave before whatever task the second consciousness needed to complete was done. Within what I could gather, strong spirits and the consciousness could not stop her... The spirits tend not to like being around me, and I know the reason. They are not within. I do hope the explanation I gave to the Culling Master of Spirits will make him understand the reasoning behind Zita's not understanding of her abilities with the spirits. Her tribe ... it was not well looked upon to have such a talent without the talent of prophecy."

She spoke more than she had intended, though the hope to quell the anger within him about the situation was there. "I do hope the second consciousness can complete its task before she is expected in the next eventide to meet with Caesar, as I have been watching and accessing the potential force to be lead against the Demons given a much easier way unto this earth and cast many as their puppets. This aside from my Fallen sister, whom I have not seen in a great long while."

[FONT=Comic Sans MS]Zita did not reaction t all to the goings-on around her as Seth came in. Ulna was distracted by the task that had been told to her, knowing that if Zita were to ned to go out as soon as the next evening, much more headway would need to occur than what had already. Se would not feel any sense of acknowledgement to his entering, or even his closeness. The body and mind were 'dead' in essence, but not in an ill-manner, other than Zita's complete exhaustion. It wasn't Ulna's fault in the least that it had gone as far as it had, Zita had refused to let her take over and without putting assunder what had aready been done, Ulna was ell-pressed not to rip through and take control, virtually doing more damage than good. Her 'lifeless' body would lay in its place, not even rapid eye movements as Ulna di her best to work wtih the consciousness to complete thetask enough to help Zita gain control so the minds of all the others didn't drive her 'mad' in front of the Roman Leader. [/FONT]

Dinai looked toward Seth with his words in Sumerian to her. She had not been the one to give Zita the problem, in fact she had only picked up the information from the conversation she was able to hear and a partial connection through the beads. She watched how Seth was in one mind with tunnel vision. Before he began as he was laying down, she would answer him, "I would expect no less of the one her heart and soul calls for."


As his hands went to Zita's head, Dinai would move to the door and pull it to. "The one within knows how to reach me when she is safe." The door would close to her touch, ever so softly and Dinai would say nothing as her eyes would watch as those that were waiting at the opening to the hall scattered. Her hands would come upward and place her hood around her head once again and as the darkness would come around her, Dinai's form would vanish as she employed her ability to camouflage herself.

Seth did not have to even speak, for the moment he had laid beside her, Zita's body and mind would begin relaxing. Ulna in essence closed her eyes and stilled completely before Seth even spoke and remained as such as Seth put up the blocks that were needed to give Zita enough peace to be prepared for the next night. Ulna spoke nothing wihtout being directed to, which she was not... at least not by Seth as she had heard what Dinai said as Dinai closed the door.

As the tension melted swiftly away in Zita's mind, she would curl toward Seth and begin to slumber. She mumbled, though it was truly within her sleep. "You have returned. You are safe..." Her head came to be tucked under his chin, as her body was more limp than it had evre been in their travels together. Though she had no nee to feed, it could have been beleived shehad been near drained of blood with the weakness her body seemed to have. But luckily, though mentally exhausted, what Seth could sense, Ulna's actions, though quite aggressive, especially in Zita's terms, had saved any damage from happenning.

Hours passed and Seth was seemingly asleep. Zita awoke again at dark and moved out of the bed and bathed, something she rarely got to do on the road. She mended her clothing and donned it once again. Zita moved out once again and looked upon Seth before slipping her items within the hidden pockets of the folds of her skirting. She would slip on her sandals and walk quietly out of the hall.


<"You should not leave his side again. He will be angered."> The voice in her mind spoke, Ulna though was near silent now as there was much more control that Zita had now, since the crash she experienced after encountering the Wraith Culling.


"He will know where to find me. But we know what is to come. The ghosts speak of it." She would whisper as she vry quietly closed the doors to Seth's hall. "His mind will be able to find me when he awakens. He needs rest, much more than I do, and I need to be present at the meeting with Caesar this night."




Her feet would move quickly and she would find herself soon at the doors that would lead outward and keep the hiding place of the Lhaka safe from the 'know'.


Zita would inch her way out of the entry and find an obscure way to enter into the city proper to make her way toward the palace. Her head would hurt, but not as much as if would have if she had made it out the night prior.


<"You will hear their voices in your mind. When they grow too loud, concentrate on mine and they will fade. You must do this until we finish the blending, which... is near completion."> While teaching her, Ulna did not want to give Zita false hope, but it was certainly true, she was learning quickly.



Off to the city proper....


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