#tips and tricks with Rayna

[emojiburst]

A reminder that not everything works great as an emoji. Some of them work better as Discord stickers!

Here's an example. The small one is an emoji because Discord emojis are absolutely tiny and sad.

Adding them as an emoji works better for things like faces. But for things that are bigger or have words, stickers are way better.

[shaelashaela]

Before You Were Born, ch. 11

[cw] blood, physical violence, death/murder [reading time] 4½ mins.

When the night of appointment arrived, I waited stoically by the front door. By that point, I was more afraid of how I would explain to my father that I tricked him than of Ixion. I fidgeted with a strand of my hair and wished time would pass faster.

After what felt like eternity, I heard the characteristic polite rap of my father’s knuckles on the door, and I leapt up to answer him. “Papa! Come in.”

My father strode in confidently. He was an imposing figure, an entire head taller than myself. Thankfully he had a kind face. He also stood out wherever he went, as he refused to wear human clothing. I remembered one time when a stranger mistook him for a Japanese dignitary since the traditional, layered robes he wore looked similar to a kimono. The one custom he did adopt, however, was cropping his dark hair close to his head instead of wearing it long. He appreciated that it did not get in the way of his work anymore.

He leaned down and planted a kiss on my forehead. “Sylvie, you look tired. Have you slept well?”

I attempted a reassuring smile. Admittedly, I had not slept at all. “You know how it is: busy, busy, busy! Just trying to keep up with my studies.”

He beamed at me in a way that I interpreted as pride. I averted my eyes; now it would be even more difficult to disappoint him.

“Your mother tells me that you have students of your own now? I had no idea you were interesting in teaching.”

Another half-lie that I was going to have to explain. “Oh, it’s nothing. It helps me understand my own craft better if I can explain it to someone else.”

He nodded thoughtfully, his dark eyes looking off into the distance. “Yes, I feel much the same way. I do miss working with you on the daily. It always filled my heart with pride when you accomplished some new task you set your mind on.” He turned his gaze back to me. “Your mother mentioned you were teaching a … human, though?”

I pursed my lips, momentarily forgetting the business with Ixion. “Yes. Is that a cause for concern, Papa?”

“Oh no, oh no… I just question the dedication of such a short-lived people. You are welcome to teach whomever you like, though.”

Now I was truly annoyed. My father could be very prejudiced when he wasn’t thinking about it. “Rayna is very dedicated, Papa. I think she’s a fine student of the art.”

I succeeded in making him uncomfortable, and he actually tried hard to avoid my eyes. After a brief pause, he lifted the small wooden box he carried in his hands and offered it to me. “Well, I brought the Stone of Anra as you requested. Where is this experiment of yours?”

The momentary clarity of our conversation began to fill me without doubt. Maybe I should just come clean. “Papa, about that…”

Every hair on the back of my neck stood on end. What happened next took a mere second, but for me it felt like a never-ending scream into the void. The ward placed on the balcony door alerted me to a presence, something dark that bounced up against it twice. Then the shadow breached it, announced by the bursting of glass. Shards flew all over the room and peppered my back. Before I could react, it zipped past me. Scarlet drops of blood flew toward me, splattering on my blouse. My father fell forward, and I caught him in my arms.

Not that I was strong enough to hold up someone of his size. We both crashed to the ground, and the wooden box skittered across the floor. I wrenched my head towards him. The tip of a blade stuck from his chest, just below the sternum. Red hot tears burned in my eyes, and I cried out in despair. How could I have been so stupid, so short-sighted? Ixion didn’t care about the stone at all. He just wanted to lure Papa somewhere unsafe!

The dark elf towered over us, a triumphant, serrated grin across his face. He appeared as he really was: a gaunt elf with long, dark hair, dressed in robes similar to my father’s, though his were tattered and dirty all along the hem.

My father looked up at his assailant and spoke in a raspy voice. “Nox?”

The shark-toothed elf cackled. “Now is the hour of my victory, dear Vance! I’ve waited forty years for this moment! And before the last of your life drains from you, bear witness: Sylvie is finally mine!”

He turned his dark eyes on me. I shuddered. My mind raced, and I tried to anticipate what he might do next, what possible defence I could muster. He took one menacing step toward me, and then another. No doubt he enjoyed prolonging my fear.

Another shadow flew through the room, and it descended upon him in a frenzy of claws and teeth, hissing and yowling. A cat? Ixion swore loudly and grabbed the creature by the scruff of the neck. He hurled it to the other side of the room where it slammed against a shelf of books and fell to the floor. Tiny rivers of blood ran down his forehead and trickled over his chin.

That distracted the dark elf and gave me time to regain my senses. I struck my fist on the floor three times, activating the backup defences I’d put in place. Golden light emanated from the many sigils drawn into the floor, and Ixion howled as thin strands of light shot through his arms and legs like harpoons and pulled him downward. It was only a brief respite, however. Even as I watched, he fought back against the alchemical entrapment, struggled against its pulling ropes of magic—and he was winning.

There was one last option, not one that I particularly favoured, but I had no choices left. Papa always carried certain reagents with him in case he needed them. I reached into a leather pouch tied to his belt, and quickly I retrieved three small vials filled with multi-coloured metallic powders. On their own, they were harmless. But once I mixed them together…

I pushed myself up to one knee and threw the tiny glass vials as hard as I could. They struck against Ixion’s torso and shattered, and sickly green flames swarmed about him like angry bees. The dark elf frantically attempted to smother the flames with his hands, but they only grew more intense and spread from his chest to his arms. With a screech of frustration, he shifted into a penumbral form and fled the room out the balcony door from whence he entered. A trail of tiny green flames followed in his wake.

I put a hand on my chest, trying to catch my breath. Hopefully the worst was over. Someone moaned nearby, and I looked toward the shelves. Rayna laid on the ground and favoured her arm. Of course! She was the cat. I should have known she would not let me leave her out of this no matter how hard I tried.

My father’s voice broke my thoughts, weak, barely a whisper. “Sylvie…”

I leaned closer, unsure of what to do. I dared not remove the knife, and the awkward angle of the wound would make it difficult to apply pressure correctly. I took my mobile from my pocket and dialled emergency services.

“Hold on, Papa. I’ll get help.”

“Sylvie. Listen… I am sorry to involve you in this.”

“Involve me in what? This was my fault!”

He shook his head a little. “No, it’s not. Just… tell Cinlai I love her. And I love you.”

My mouth hung open, unsure of what to say. I watched, helpless, as the life left my father’s eyes in front of me. I could hear a voice on the phone trying to get my attention, but I had no sense left in me, only sobs and tears.

“Papa! Papa, noooooo!!”

[cilly-the-writer]

Untitled wip | Excerpt | Teo and Rayna | 1,055 words

CW: Violence and blood

--

     After following the gray stone trails and the local townspeople’s word of mouth, he had finally found her: Rayna, the merciless conqueror of magic. She was standing in the middle of a forest with both arms out. She had just begun drawing the earth’s magic toward her. It all streamed towards her like an aurora borealis of lights. Teo just watched in a mixture of awe and contempt at first, unbeknownst to her. 

     He’d come here to stop her though.

    So Teo held out his hand. In an instant, the aurora borealis of lights froze in place. Like time itself had stopped. Then the light shattered like glass and burst into a colorful, sparkling dust. The dust fell to the ground slow, reabsorbed into the earth's minerals. Almost as slowly as Rayna turned her head to seek out the offending magic user.

     She recognized him instantly. And the silent rage in her eyes wasn't enough warning for what came next.

     She drew something from her suit and whipped it at him so fast, that he only caught the glint of the knives flying at him before they pinned his jacket to the tree behind him. He tried to shake himself free, but she had nailed the tree too fast and hard. He was stuck.

    As she approached him, it was just now registering that he'd never considered her abilities without magic.

    "Shit." he whispered to himself.

    "Where did you get that?" Rayna asked on her way toward him. He wasn’t holding anything. But she knew. She knew he had something.

    "Get what?"

    Rayna wasn't in the mood for mind games. She drew a dagger from the other side of her suit swiftly to his neck.

     “Whatever you have that just stopped what I was doing.”

     A drop of blood ran down Teo’s neck from the tip of the knife. He gulped very slowly and carefully.

     “Oh. That.” he said, the pitch of his voice giving away his fear. “That’s a funny story.”

     Rayna moved a hand to his forehead. He wasn’t expecting the touch or the purpose for it–so it was too late to negate her magic by the time the memories flashed through his thoughts. Rayna had already seen the beach and the caves. She had already seen Teo in a vision of the past, nearly drowning as he panicked underwater. Swimming against the tides. They had pushed him back deeper into the caves several times before he could resurface and breathe again. All for a few more pieces of white crystal.

     “Hm. Not a particularly convenient location.” she said. “Where are they now though?”

     Teo let the crystal do its trick this time. He negated her magic and Rayna realized it quickly. She pulled her hand away from his forehead and frowned. She couldn’t read his mind. That was alright though. She could easily search his pockets.

     But as soon as she grabbed at his jacket, he vanished. Leaving a trace of colorful dust in the air and leaving behind the four knives lodged in the tree without him or his jacket. Rayna spun around just as Teo reappeared a few yards away. He was wide eyed and bewildered at the fast changing scenery. His hands shook as he held them in front of himself. He was just piecing together what had just happened. He had never teleported before.

     “Teleporting. Oh, thank god.” 

     He was still looking down at his hands when Rayna pulled one of her throwing knives out from the tree and threw it at him. But he looked up just in time to teleport out of the way. When he reappeared the second time, he was even more thrown off balance. Teleporting was more disorienting than he anticipated.

“Well, that’s not really nice of you.” Teo said.

     But Rayna merely grunted as she pulled the next knife out and threw it at him too. This time it grazed his forearm as he barred it from striking his face. Leaving a sharp, stinging line of blood. His instinctual reaction was to strike her back with a blast of dirt, but telekinesis didn’t work here. 

     Instead, he just looked foolish swinging his arm through the air for no reason.

     “You don’t even know what magic is available to you here.” Rayna said. “Which is strange, seeing as you rely on it so much.”

     Teo grit his teeth at her insensitivity. He could take the jab at his own poor hindsight, but that didn't justify taking everyone else's magic. Teo took a deep breath in. He had another theory to test out… He teleported once more, appearing right in front of Rayna and then grabbing her arm. It was either the bravest decision he'd ever made or the most reckless one. He'd find out soon enough.

     Rayna grabbed him back, taking his arm and yanking his body backwards so he flipped over onto the ground. Like a body slam. He shut his eyes hard on impact. Rayna came for him with her dagger next, and Teo opened his eyes just as it headed for his gut. He teleported the hell out of there and her dagger pierced the ground like a stake instead.

     He stared in near-death horror after he reappeared a few yards back. 

"What did you just do?" Rayna asked, her voice low in anger.

     Maybe it wasn't a good idea to answer her. There was a tight feeling in his throat as she reached for her dagger with a lot more speed than she had before. She raced to throw it at him before he could teleport again, but she knew he'd seen it coming before she even threw it. He disappeared and the knife struck the tree behind him in his absence. It was merely a show of anger at this point.

     But Teo didn't reappear anywhere in sight this time. He had sensibly disappeared, teleporting somewhere safer. Because he knew exactly what he'd done. Rayna exhaled. She held a hand over the ground and waited for the magic to stream toward her fingertips again. But just as she had feared, nothing happened.

     These types of effects were only temporary. But a sense of defeat washed over her face anyway. A magic negating crystal certainly presented a challenge. She'd have to stomp it out.