Vault of Fire

"I dare you to come...and see the world through my eyes..."1

Beyond...2

"The eclipse is arising, Elven," A voice, with the resonance of black silk, led him to the exodus of his dreams. He awoke from where he had been mindlessly tracing his tattoo--one of two Koi fish gyrating around each other, symbolizing yin and yang. An ultraviolet tigress emerged, her ample limbs rippling with energy, a midnight rabbit struggling in the cavity between her fangs. Blood trickled from its wound, and perspiration caused by it's wild throes of attempted escape, caused it's fur to thrust upward in onyx abandon. She dropped the rabbit at his feet, where it lay, paralyzed, it's tiny chest heaving, it's ears flattened in panic. For a moment, he let his eyes fall on the tigress, and her prey, but revelation bespoke that small things do not matter in this world.3

"It is rare," she said, pawing the rabbit's broken body towards him in offering, as if his lap was an alter of the gods. He sighed, and for the second time in one moon, he let himself stray to less important matters.4

"You are a temptress, Syn." he said, taking the dying creature from it's bed in the dirt, and running his thumbs across it's fragile spine to calm it, before ending it's misery with a quick jerk.5

The tigress watched him with grim satisfaction, before imploding into a legion of pyreflies, and lapsing into view as a human.6

As he had since broken the seal of manhood, she was nearly a woman, the slim lines of virginity the only thing cordoning off her breach of maturity. Dark skinned, her face was framed with wild, lightning-stricken violet hair, but soft, calm, dove gray eyes resided, sailing beneath eyelashes of platnium. She was: the complete opposite of him.7

His thoughts delved into the concept of what she had first said, and he gazed into the sky, where the dual moons encircled each other like the Koi fish of his arm. There was no sun. The moons each gave off their own light and heat, Ervine--the biggest moon--gave off an etheral jade aura, and cold luminescence, while Tygra--the smallest moon--surged with volcanic power, and sent forth riptides of blistering heat, and blinding light. Only the cool demeanor of Ervine could shield this world from such chaos, or, to soothe the chaos that had already claimed it. He watched as the moons began to gyrate faster, before seeming to collide in a heaven that was ever-twilight. The evensong of their carousel of lights was at first an eerie whir, before cascading into a sound like the faerie-inspired vibes of wind chimes, before a deafening roar. Then...silence. The two moons clashed together, enticed by the allure of each other's gravity. Like metallic discs gliding through water, they coalesced, saturated in liquid-energy, expelling a diffusive glow like that of magic.8

"Phantasmorgia..." Syn whispered, twirling a jay's feather against her lips. The markings of her skin had began to ignite, the swirls of heliotrope flaring up in reverence to the radiance of the eclipse.9

Elven gutted the rabbit, watching her movement, which had become slow and liquid, as if she too was crystallized in such, arcane, power.10

"Syn..." he murmured.11

"Do not let go...please, hold on...don't let go..." 12

He knew it was no use, for soon he would follow suite, loosing all control of his practical mind, and unleashing the beast inside.
To a man of little values, the loss of a girl's childhood upon the eclipse, it was a nigh time to take advantage of her. But Elven was not a man of little values, and he turned stone-cold to ignore the spark of fire in his loins as he gazed at her convulsing body.
He gripped the bejeweled hilt of his dagger as sweat trickled down his forehead. He began to dig furiously at the rabbit's flesh with the blade in effort to keep himself stable, until all that was left was ragged remains. The eclipse spun into it's apex, and he found himself not able to hold on himself, let alone control her.
Syn, morphing into the barbaric creature of her womanhood, was the last sight he saw before falling into ice-cold oblivion.13


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