Blood of my Blood

[Gabryal]

Kathryn stood on the high precipice looking down on the valley an impossible distance away, heat flowed around her as if the barest moisture had long ago abandoned this place. Hot breezes blew her behind her like a banner.

She looked at herself impassively, she had become used to the perfection of her beauty, though in this place she was mildly surprised to find herself standing in her nudity. The setting sun cast it's last rays on the precipice and she watched the light pass slowly over the valley before.

"Kathryn" a voice boomed above her "Free me!" A huge red scaled head came into her line of sight and behind it the beautiful red body of her Great Grandfather. "You are my kin you have no choice!" The voice boomed.

Kathryn stood strangely impassive, and watched as her Great Grandfather raged in his prison of death. He flung his head back and flames flew to engulf her but instead of incinerating her the flames met an invisible barrier and spread around her a circle. She looked up on the being who at one point had been her last hope of finding Kin, finding it ironic that the Genocidal Hands of Mundus, had at least once, ended his life.

"I am of the Blood" she stated simply "You may kill me Great Grandfather, but no Dragon will submit willingly to another's will" Her voice was even, calm even serene.

"No!" The dragon scream cut the air around her adding to the heat whipping it into a fire storm around herself "No you are mine! You will pay for betraying me! You will not defy me!"

Kathryn looked up at him impsassively, she felt her blood flowing in it's veins but with it mixed something else, some power or feeling that gave her power all her own, not bound to the fate of where it came from. "Goodbye Great Grandfather" she spoke calmly "May Bahumut forgive you"

The world spinned crazily and darkness fell before her eyes as if she was flung into a dark pit she sensed the feeling of falling and the scream of rage and hate that came from her dragon kin. Downward she fell and inside there was a peace, a balance of the flowing energies that made her uniquely her. She whispered to the darkness around her "I am Kathryn Blake, and Kathryn Blake I remain"


....Kathryn awoke slowly, opening her eyes in a languid movement to inspect the ceiling of her room at Zukir's Rest in the Thayan Enclave, looking to her left she found Eira's cheek rested against her shoulder, the beautiful woman's arm around her stomach. Kathryn smiled that she hadn't awoke her. Lovely Eira, her perfect companion. "Bahumut" she prayed softly "Bahumut protect us" She silently analyzed the dream for any meaning or anomoly that set it apart from the one's she had since the day she had first met her Great Grandfather, dead now twice over. And decided that nothing about this dream was terribly different than the others, different places, different circumstances. The result always the same. Rejecting to submit to the will of an creature of evil will.

"Very well" she thought. "I reject him, but I am of the race of dragons, and perhaps one day, Bahumut willing, I'll find someone who I might proudly call kin. Until that day..." She held Eira closely listening to her even breathing "I am content, and all knowledge is worth having, despite what the Hands of Mundus say. The Price of knowledge may be knowledge, but that doesn't mean it's not worth knowing. " She sighed a happy sigh with this thought and closed her eyes stealing a few more moments of sleep, before Eira awoke and they set upon the tasks required of saving a nation...

[Lollercide]

"...Bahamut, bear witness to this act. The slaying of and then harvesting of its remnants for the cause of the greater good." the Tormite speaks raising his blade to the massive corpse before him. The skin on his face was acid-burned exposing patches of pink and bloodied raw flesh as he looked toward Sol, "Where?"

The robed figure gestures toward the bulk of it apathetically. The Knight nods dropping his blade down upon it...

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His eyes opened staring into the white abyss of the snowy climb. Strands of his hair broke free from its hold and flapped in the biting wind. He had been numb long before this point and time and could feel ice crystallized over his brow crack and break away as he changed expression.

Kneeling there with his hands wrapped around the hilt of his blade - The blade buried in the snow for support. Through the blizzard he could barely make out the feint glow on the runes of Bane Slayer, which was but a few inches away from his face.

"Overwhelming..." he thought to himself drawing in a long breath. The cold air burned down his throat and into his lungs. "...This isn't over. I wouldn't dare to think that it is. Mizrahi was right - We need to support and look out for each other, but on the same token.. There's things that I'm simply not capable of. I am, as I always will be... Just a humble Paladin."

The Paladin cast his eyes down the blade reciting the praises through his mind. He leans his forehead against the blade and begins to chant under his breath... All words deafening by the blistering wind tearing through the mountains.

He could feel it. Just like before. It was oh so familiar now, so familiar.. So warm. The words worked through him, parting from his lips with ease this time. The Divine pulsing through him once again, burning... This feeling, once so distant, so confusing, but had always been so familiar to him.

Finally - The cornerstone was firmly within his grasp.

The gold light flickered from his finger tips and the runes on Bane Slayer began to burn brightly in response, its humming now piercing through the whistling of the blizzard. The light shot out from his finger tips, bending and wrapping around the Paladin's skin. The roar - The distant roar trembling through his being was no longer so bewildering. In fact, he welcomed it.

The light moved across the Paladin's skin working to encase his entire body as formed a feint pattern resembling scales. Melting away the cold, resuscitating his feeling with it's warmth.. He could feel it touching him, the Divine, in both body and mind.

The Knight stood to embrace the blizzard while lifting his sword from the snow. The golden light fades, but leaves the Paladin covered in a platinum sheen. "Bahamut!" the Knight cries out to the skies despite the blizzard.

"Your kin, the majestic creature, the silver dragon whose name would be lost in the sands of time!" He calls out once again, then falls into silence looking through the snow for some kind of response. The Knight grits his teeth and turns his gaze upwards. "I will find who did this, I will honor his and your cause for the greater good by bringing them to justice for such a crime - Such a sin! May your kin rest in his well deserved peace, for I will see to it that he does."

The thought of it.. The thought of what was done, the thought of Karthus all weighed heavily in his heart causing him to tense up. "I will see to it he receives proper burial and I will see to it the actions that lead to his undoing are met with righteous retribution in turn. May my past actions be proof to my conviction, He who values actions over words for praise, for while I am a humble Paladin.. I understand that I can not hope to endure this alone." He relaxes himself while closing his eyes. Kathryn's name escapes his lips before he continues. He collects himself, knowing what he must ask - To find the wisdom and guidance needed to aid both her and the fallen silver dragon.

"It's by that I humbly make such a bold request..."

...