The Summit Road Campaign Thread

Vishal notices he doesn't connect with River at first, as if blocked by something, before she allows the link to be created. She then sits at the table and waits for Murephan to connect to them as well.

"Great," Murephan grunts before closing his eyes. The sigil on his forehead glows a brief white (unlike Luunkashtai's blue), and his face turns the closest thing to peaceful you've seen it so far.

Vishal:

River:

Starting with Vishal, each of you feels your mind get pulled.

One moment you're sitting around a table, the next you're all standing on a flat black plain with the others. Murephan is there as well, looking exactly like he did in the physical world. Behind him is a kalashtar in white, who looks...off. Her appearance is a little too perfect, like an image of a kalashtar rather than the real thing. She has long white hair that falls free, and pale irises that nearly blend in with the whites of her eyes. Her skin, too, is pale as snow, and she wears a plain tunic and leggings that almost look like pale smoke. She sweeps a distracted gaze over the six of you, giving River a slight nod. Her gaze pauses on Vishal for a moment, and she gives him the slightest of nods as well.

Murephan grunts. "Right, we'll go do some psychic tracking on that message while you six talk," he says bluntly.

After a brief moment of thinking, River finally pipes up. Her voice is raspy and strained from years of disuse - though not as bad as it had been the first time she attempted this - and sounds exactly like one would expect the voice of a young girl to sound. Without knowing, one might assume she was simply a little human girl.

"Right, um... Well... I was only expecting mister Vishal, so this is... intimidating..."

She kicks her feet slightly, casting an unsure glance towards Druhdaar before taking a deep, steadying breath.

"I... There's a lot that I want to explain... I don't know where to start... I guess... Do you have any questions? I know mister Druhdaar has a few..."

As Vishal looks around the room and hears River’s voice he gets very excited and asks, “Is that your voice?!” 

She nods slowly, her gaze lingering on the floor.

"My kind are cursed because of our ancestors. We still have our own voices, but they're locked away. I don't know why I can talk here, but I don't want to look too deeply into it."

Vishal super excitedly runs and gives River a tight hug. “This is so amazing! I love it! So much! Guys isn’t this wonderful!” 

Caelius smiles, shadow eking out of his clothes, "It's nice to hear your voices." His rich Syrk accent clear in his words.

River is surprised by the hug but doesn't fight it, slowly wrapping her arms around Vishal in return. When Caelius speaks, River jumps.

"C-Caelius? You can talk too?"

Caelius grins, "We're all speaking telepathically, yes. I can't normally, I promise I haven't been holding out on all of you."

Vishal jumps as well and runs towards Caleius pulling him into a giant hug too. “Your Voice! You can talk here! I have to learn to do this!” 

Caelius chuckles, "Alright Vishal. It's all very overwhelming. You all make a lot of noise."

Taran stares at everyone, his nervous fidgeting sharp and jerky in this new world, "Th-Th-This is a-a-a-amazing," he says, "I-I'm, um, I'm g-g-glad to h-hear b-both of you. B-B-But, um M-Miss R-River, if it i-is t-t-too much, I-I c-can, um, w-walk away? I-I d-d-don't w-want t-to m-make th-things harder f-for you..."

"N-No... I want you all to hear this... I'm just overwhelmed... I don't really know where to start..."

Vishal smiles and quiets down some as he says, “Why don’t you start from the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start.” 

Caelius gives River a reassuring smile, "You can do this, it'll get easier as you go. I think beginning with how you got involved with Him is a good place to start." 

Akuma seems to join the others after a moment and listens in to their conversation. She seems to be emitting a form of a light aura around her body and is shifting a little uncomfortably but crossing her arms nonetheless, keeping her back away from everyone. However, shadows lick up her arms along her tattoos, stopping at her elbows. Anyone close enough hears her mumble quietly with a smirk. "Impressive." 

"I... Well..." She takes a deep breath again to steady herself. "My family wasn't very well off, so when I was eight years old I started to work with some... less-than-desirable people. As a group, we lied and we stole and we did what we could to make as much money as possible."

"One of the jobs about a year after I started, I stole a strange sword. After that, I started to have dreams of a man in a skull mask. He was large and dark and powerful. Every part of him made me afraid, but he promised me great things; He promised my voice and he promised wings, but it had to come at a cost. He asked me to slay my family... and... and I did it..." She sniffs, fighting back tears. "But he lied. He wanted more souls. He wanted me to kill more people. He promised to bring my family back when he was strong enough, so I agreed." 

She finally lifts her head to look around at the group. "He wanted me to kill all of you..."

Taran's hands flicker more rapidly, like still frames touching and adjusting an endless number of minor items. In the stunned silence, he quietly asks "Wh-Why d-d-didn't y-you? A-Are w-we th-that im-important to y-y-you?"

Vishal’s face turned serious at River’s words, unable to believe what he is hearing. “You...you killed your family? For a voice and wings. And.....are you going to kill us too River?”

"I was manipulated and I made a terrible mistake." She responds quietly, very obviously crying beneath her helmet. "I tricked him into giving me the power to heal you... And in return, he asked me to kill you when you're at your most powerful. I thought about it and I tried to justify it to myself for my family's sake but I can't do it... You've all been so wonderful to me... I understand if you hate me now but I couldn't keep it secret from you... Even if mister Druhdaar didn't threaten me, it would tear me apart to keep lying to all of you... I'm sorry..." She falls to her knees and hangs her head, loudly crying and shaking.