Lily, one peculiar day at Radz-at-Han would suddenly find herself tasked with the responsibility of outlining the drafts of an interesting piece of technology - a warding scale that would keep those traversing the void from sucummbing to the harsh aetheric corruption enshrouding the Thirteenth following Y'Shtola Rhul's blind experiment at the newly-created voidgate. As the Warrior of Light and his companions required a means of protection from the mysterious influence of the void, she would be presented with a dragon's scale generously provided to her from one of her Thavnairian peers to begin creating a prototype.
Toiling away through four days, and four restless nights, her peers would forge the first prototype warding scales fit to protect it's bearer. It would be time to put the fruits of their labor to the test. Lily, and another trusted colleague, Daisy, would visit the voidgate to give their newfound prototype it's first field test. Off to the voidgate's sealed chamber she, Daisy, and other Thavnairian chirurgeons and knights marched to.
"I would like you to come with me, Daisy. Safety in numbers, right?" Lily snickered towards her companion as the two stood before the temporarily-opened voidgate.
"Certainly. You're always finding yourself in so much trouble and I'd be a fool to let you go in there all by your lonesome. Our objective is clear, yes? We go in, verify the effectiveness of the prototype, and leave; We will not stay longer than we need to." Daisy insisted.
With formalities out of the way, one of the knights would hand Lily her Manatrigger.
"Use those rounds sparingly." the knight firmly urged her. "In and out - got it?"
"I've heard you both the first time...! Were this gate just a little bigger, I'd reckon you lot could come with us. Alas, Miss Y'Shtola requires more time to research expanding it, there's only enough scales for two dashing Lalafell here, and you're certainly not one of them." Lily would playfully retort with a wink. "Back in just a spell."
The excitement of seeing the other side of the portal filled both Lily and Daisy with a uncanny feeling of dread, and excitement all the same, for they would be amongst the first to lay eyes upon a world seldom described in detail by anyone amongst their numbers, or Etheirys for that matter. With the prototype scales around Daisy and Lily's necks, they would take a deep breath before traversing the portal hand-in-hand with one another. What they saw beyond the rift they could hardly find pleasant words to describe.
A land eradicated of life, buildings that once stood tall toppled over in it's own rubble, a lifeless sky, and a chilling howl coursing through the air. Not nary a living soul before them.
"I... I would never believe in all my years in this field... I would lay my eyes upon a place so lonely... so desolate..." Lily said with a coldness in her tone.
"It's harsh. It's as if people once lived here." Daisy added. "Did the Flood of Darkness really do all of this?"
"We don't know the whole picture, really." Lily shuddered, an nervousness detectable in her tone of voice. "How are you feeling though - how is your warding scale?"
The prototype scale resting upon Daisy's bosom continued to maintain it's shining luster upon it's core.
"It looks okay, as does yours." Daisy said with a forced smile.
"Wonderful - great preliminary start, I'd say!", Lily would smile back at Daisy in a unspoken effort to quell her uneasiness, before walking further off from the portal they hailed from.
"Where are you going?" Daisy exclaimed. "What happened to 'in-and-out'?"
"You visit an otherworldly place that none of your peers have ever set foot in and you want to leave?", Lily snickered. "The scales are doing their job; Let's just look around for a little bit. Surely we can bring something useful back to study so Miss Y'Shtola isn't hoarding all of the work. That... harlot." Lily sneered in disdain."She would have your rear if she heard you call her that..." Daisy chuckled.
"And I trust you'll keep that a secret! Leave some work and research for the rest of us, why don't you? C'mon, there's work to be done, dear Daisy!" Lily laughed and proceeded to venture forth.
The two would continue their foray deeper into the unknown land, taking in the desolate sights of the Thirteenth, collecting samples of the dead soil and plant life that littered the land.
Ere long, some time had passed. The two would fill their phials and containers of just enough samples to bring back home. Lily would fill her final phial and carefully rest it inside Daisy's large backpack.
"That should be enough." Lily confirmed with a gentle smile towards Daisy. "One sec' Daisy, let me make sure your pack is all closed up."
Daisy, getting increasingly nerve-wracked about the two Lalafell alchemists overstaying their visit, kept her sights on the distant voidgate from which they came.
"Today, preferably...", Daisy sighed.
"I know, I know...", Lily retorted.Carelessly setting her Manatrigger aside on the ground floor beside them, Lily would continue tightening up the samples in the backpack.
"There you are. Payload secured. Now, let us leave this unholy—", Lily outed before amidst the silence, a blast of concentrated darkness shot towards the two, the impact sending the two women off their feet and tumbling violently across the field. Writhing in pain, unawares of what had struck them, Lily looked around her surroundings slowly regaining her composure to find Daisy thrown across the field, motionless, unconscious.
"D-Daisy!! Lily yelped before she would attempt to get up, unknowingly learning that upon her violent impact, she had broken her left arm.
"F-Fuck...!" Lily shrieked in pain, picking herself up to quickly grab her grounded Manatrigger. From a distance, a shadowy figure floating a distance from her let loose a feral screech. A voidsent had caught the scent of both Lily and Daisy aether and was quickly closing the distance between the two. Lily rushed to Daisy's aid, rolling Daisy on her side only to make the terrifying discovery that the impact had shattered Daisy's own warding scale. Her blood vessels beneath her skin would slowly glisten an unsettling purple, slowly encompassing her body and creeping towards her neck.
"Your scale! Shit, no, no, no.. Daisy, hold on!!" Lily panicked, before struggling to take her own scale off to wrap around Daisy's neck. Her dearest friend had begun to succumb to the unknown atmosphere of the Thirteenth; Daisy had slowly begun starting to turn voidsent.
With Lily's scale now upon Daisy's chest, she unsheathed her Manatrigger and aimed towards the floating figure closing in on them, firing multiple magicked shots to buy her more time, struggling to properly aim the weapon."What.. ARE you!?" Lily said, fear-stricken.With each fire, a violent shriek emerged from the creature before the figure fled in what seemed like it sustained an injury. The Manatrigger made a distinct click; Lily would run out of rounds, and not have the means to reload it with her critically-injured arm in preparation for another attack. Tossing the empty Manatrigger aside, she grabbed Daisy by the backpack's handle and begun dragging the two slowly to the voidgate from which they came. Between this panic, Lily's eyesight in her left eye worsened, and begun to feel a weight behind her beginning to slow her down."I'm getting us... out of here. Daisy... stay with me..." Lily struggled to mutter with a otherworldly duality in her voice.For what seemed like an eternity, she dragged Daisy and herself towards the voidgate and both of them out of the treacherous rift.
The two now free from the other side, Lily stumbled out of the portal with her friend in stow behind her, only one of the two with a scale around their neck."... By the Twelve!", a Knight exclaimed, as he and his companions took in the sight of the two injured Lalafell. "Lillith!?""Help her, please...", Lily would struggle to say before collapsing aside her companion. She lost consciousness aside her friend. The markings and ominous glow that threatened Daisy's wellbeing had subsided with the aid of the warding scale, but Lily's exertion and lengthy exposure to the Thirteenth's raw atmosphere had already begun to take it's toll on her.The natural brown hair that rested atop her head had turned an ill-shade of purple, Lily's left eye had transformed from the gorgeous shade of green to a sickly magenta, and upon her lower back an unusual extension grew: a scaly, beastly tail with a frightenedly sharp tip now attached to her. With the darkness overtaking her unconscious mind, a voice called out to her."Ap..hra..."
Things got dark. My body felt heavy and weak, and after crawling out of that voidgate that Daisy and I traversed through and came back to our own world, my body gave out, I felt all of the expected symptoms of aether poisoning and that was the last thing I remembered before dropping out. At first it felt like I heard voices shouting, and then was met with brief moments of a warm, all-encompassing feeling before it would be taken away from me, and once it did, I could feel my body kicking, screaming, yearning for more. When this warm feeling came, my body felt a certain peace, and when it stopped, it felt like an unscratchable itch kept coming on.This feeling went on for... well, I couldn't tell you how long it felt like. But one peculiar time, it was different. The warm feeling came back, and it was resplendent and full-feeling like usual. It could only be described as what it feels to bask in a pool of aether. But suddenly it felt, overwhelming - like I was drowning in it and I wrestled to reject all of this warmth that felt like it was poisoning me. I shouted against this force with all my might, my fists clenched, a wicked power felt like it jolted my body and my eyes shot open. My ears rung, my vision blurred before I reawakened, on a... soft, medical bed..."Oh goodness, miss, are you alright? Holy hell, look at this place!" an oddly familiar male voice exclaimed."Gosh, well they were right..." a female voice responded, she looked like she was picking herself off the ground. "The macro-dose of normal aether sent her body into shock and made her have an outburst..."I couldn't make sense of this conversation, but with my vision slowly returning, I could make out the tall colorful buildings with exotic shapes and bright colors outside the window: this was Radz-at-Han."It's just what Master Matoya feared though." the female voice explained, as she was picking up the loose sheets of paper and tomes scattered across the room. "She develops symptoms of being akashic with too much aether, but I can only imagine what happens when she stops receiving it for too long."The panicked nurse and her accomplice caught my attention, but I found myself very quickly smitten with tears running down my face. The head alchemist of my team, a bulky, fatherly-figured doofus Roegadyn I call my superior: Grehfyst Ahldfalk, was here in my room!"Grehfyst?" I struggled to out. "What're you doing here?" I would reach my hand out to have Grehfyst come to my side, before I noticed how abnormally large my fingernails had become, in addition to being this sickly black color.Gosh, how long was I out for these to get like this?"I'm sorry, can we trim these?" I raised a hand and brought attention to my newfound handy weapons."I'm afraid that's not very possible, whether you wish to believe that or not." the nurse explained before approaching me closer."I... don't." I said with mild frustration. "Make it make sense, I can't run around like this.""Miss Thea, do you remember much of what you've been through before today?" Grehfyst said calmly.The amount of questions being asked of me was testing my short patience and I could feel something unusual welling up from within my being. I clenched my fist in a short temper and then I felt a wicked, pained feeling in the palm of my hands that felt comfortably familiar. I primed dark magicks. I studied black magick in my youth, but this was different - this was a different element I was calling upon and I don't know how I'm doing it. I could see the blood vessels in my arm glowing a sickly color though my skin."Wh-what is this?" I stammered, bearing witness to this energy in the palm of my hand. I trembled in a panicked fit of anxiety.Grehfyst gently gripped my trembling wrist to ease my mind. "Do you remember this?" he said gently before showing me the prototype warding scale I was tasked with putting through a field test. "Only one of these came back after the expedition you and your companion Daisy embarked on."Daisy! My heart skipped many beats before fighting Grehfyst's grip and my eyes widened."Where is she?!" I argued. "What about the mission?""Stop, Thea. You need to see to yourself, first. You're tired, angry, and panicked. Breathe." Grehfyst explained.The nurse passed Grehfyst a small handheld mirror from the nearby countertop, and he released my wrist calmly. My right eyes glistened a bright and unnatural magenta, and my hair had grown so long, and wasn't my natural-born color. All of my hair turned a sickly purple, eyebrows and all. How does this even happen?"I've instructed your colleague Daisy, much like yourself, to take an extended leave from her professional duties while she recovers from the injuries you both sustained crossing a voidgate into the Thirteenth, as your superior has informed us." the nurse explained."Thea, your cartridge belt was exhausted. You shot every round in there, and more importantly, you got Daisy out of there with seemingly the only warding scale left on her person. You were a sight for sore eyes on the other hand when you came out with her, and you blacked out then, according to the knights' reports at the voidgate entrance." Grehfyst pressured. "Thea, you were out for a little over two weeks. Lass, every blood vessel in your body was shimmering through your skin like a lighthouse, much like now."I set the handheld mirror down in my lap, as the nurse approached me as well."I know a lot of this doesn't make sense now, but you must calm down." the Raen nurse explained. "One of your peers, Master Matoya took one look at you and concluded at the time of your arrival, you were suffering from severe aetheric imbalance. Had you lingered inside there any longer, you would've turned completely."The nurse's tone of voice turned somber. It's like she wasn't telling me the full story."We did everything we could to restore the aetheric balance in your body, but we can't fully undo the damage. Master Matoya determined that you would be fine for a few days, but so much of your cell structure was so rewritten that you are now acutely voidsent." she continued to explain.Me, a voidsent? It would explain why I could so easily use dark magicks..."We unfortunately know far too little of your condition, Miss Thea. What we do know from observing your vitals over the last few weeks in our care is that it does not appear you are absorbing the natural aether in the air any longer." she elaborated. "When you were brought in initially, you were nearly devoid of all natural aether and needed a transfusion."The knowledgeable nurse approached me and calmly begun the same treatment with curative magicks against my forehead. I could feel the tiredness and weight encompassing ease away with time."We know too little of your condition to make the best recommendation of what to do next, ma'am. If your superior here approves it, I will release you back into the open under his supervision, but you must be extremely cautious with yourself and we'll need to constantly monitor your condition." the nurse warned as she concluded her brief session of curative magicks against me."I see no problem with that. Miss Thea here knows all about self-control." Grehfyst jested."I almost fundamentally died and you're still making jokes?" I snapped back."But you didn't die, did you?" Grehfyst retorted.Well, I guess he's right.The nurse lightly snickered to our childish bantering. "Oh, goodness; At least you both seem quite excited to reunite with each other. Alas Miss Thea, your change of clothes will be over here on the counter. While I'm sure you two are excited to reacquaint yourselves, we should prepare to have Miss Thea here released, first. Mister Ahldfalk, if you would come with me please?" the nurse requested briefly before both walked out of the room and shut the door behind them.I removed the comforter covering my body, and began to step down from the stepstool aside my tall-standing medical bed. My right arm felt just a bit sore as I stretched it about for the first time in two whole weeks, according to Grehfyst. I took another look outside, greeted to the lively sights of Rads-at-Han and it's residents up from above, still amusingly shocked that I had brushed death.I approached the countertop with my change of clothes, and took a good look at myself in the mirror next to me. I couldn't believe just how long my hair had gotten; what was once just shoulder's length was all the way down to my buttocks and far from what I would consider well-kept. I stared at myself, bosom to my toes and realized just how much of a mess I completely looked. How do I even explain to all of the people I know why I look the way I do? I turned to my side to see how the rest of my body fared following the excursion and noticed what looked like a tiny tail coming out of my bottom.Holy crap, I've grown a tail. I'm a Lalafell with a tail...! It was only perhaps three or so inches in length, but growing out of my backside nonetheless! Gods, I can only imagine all of the adapting all of my clothes specifically tailored for my Lalafellin body now needing to have adjustments made.Off came the hospital gowns. I tied my mess of a hair into a simple side-ponytail, and put on the attire my caretaker left for me. Time to get out of here.Some time later, I stepped out of my room, and found Grehfyst speaking with one of the receptionists of the infirmary. I approached him with gentle salutations and fibbed a smile alongside a waving gesture."Well aren't you looking spiffy!" he chuckled, most likely commenting on my positively riveting, none-the-worse-for-wear field gear."Never better, arsehole." I crossed my arms and couldn't help but chuckle. I glanced up at the old fart and couldn't help but smile."Thea, I've 'gotta say you're much easier to read after all of this, 'lassy. Sometimes, I couldn't tell whether you're upset with me or being kind to me, but now your new little 'nubbin is telling me everything I need to know!" Grehfyst chuckled."My 'nubbin..-- Grehfyst what the heck did you just say to me...?" I asked with a dumbfounded look on my face. I had no idea what this man meant, until it clicked.Good god, my stupid tail is shaking. My stupid little nub is wagging in front of my boss."Huh!? S-shut up!" I exclaimed while grabbing the uncontrollable short stub with my hand and turning away. The receptionist was giggling alongside this chuckster — the nerve!I couldn't help but blush, but still ultimately make light of the situation and crack a smile. The situation I'm in couldn't be described any more than just a mess, but I'm just relieved to see some of the closest associates in my life alive and well again after sitting in what felt like an endless chasm of darkness."Miss Thea, your caretaker is prescribing you with a starter dose of medication to help you regulate your aether balance." the receptionist mentioned. "You should only drink a small amount of this phial if you are beginning to feel weak in the body, and your urges start surfacing - basically when the natural environment isn't enough for you and what your caretaker described as being irritable, Miss.""She's always irritable." Grehfyst added."Not now, old man." I snapped with a sigh.I snatched the phial from Grehfyst's big hands, big smug smile on his face and all."We will be expecting you in a week's time to monitor your bodily changes, Miss Thea. Please take care of yourself and do your best to not overexert." the receptionist smiled warmly, waving the two of us off.Grehfyst walked with me towards the plaza of Rads-at-Han after finally being discharged from the chiurgeon's office. Most of the residents and travelers didn't seem to think anything of me, but it felt like others were commenting on this unsightly extension on my behind."Grehfyst, will I be alright to resume my work anytime soon?" I asked, glancing up at my tall colleague."Don't you think it's a little soon to be thinking about work, Thea?" Grehfyst commented. "I'd reckon we should get you home and maybe fully gather your strength again before anything.""You still never told me how Daisy really is. She was in that mess with me" I reminded him."Thea, she is fine. The scale she was wearing protected her greatly, and I daresay it proved the field test was a success." Grehfyst reassured. He got down on his knees to level with me, eye-to-eye. "If it's any consolation, the little damsel told me that it was you who gave that to her. You put Daisy before yourself and saved the both of you. As an studying alchemist, I'd call you reckless, but as a Crowsguard I'd call you damn well brave, Thea. I'd be very upset with myself had I lost the both of you."Grehfyst took his big burly hand and rested it atop my messy head in a gentle reassuring gesture. Aww - 'the old fart. 'So loving."You should get home and perhaps talk to her. Ah, here. The knights gave me your linkpearl and I think it's much better in your hands." he added."'Shucks, thanks. You're good for something after all, old man!" I sneered.Grehfyst and I caught up a great deal with my over-two-week absence and filled me in with my team's latest developments as we rode with a Chocobo carrier back to the Yedlihmad docks to catch the next ferry back to Old Sharlayan. After which we sailed back to home, and he walked me back home safe and sound. I'm happy some normalcy is returning.I washed up in my Sharlayan abode, finally taking a much-needed bath after how long, and put on my freshest pair of pajamas. The sun had set, and the day was spent just catching up with what I had missed out on. I had better tell Daisy the news that I'm awake. We have a lot to catch up on, her and I. With the linkpearl on my ear, I attempted to establish a connection with her."Daisy?" I asked."Lily? Is that really you, dear?!" she shrieked estatically."Daisy! Yes, hun, yes! I'm here, in the flesh!" I responded. Daisy's voice! I couldn't believe I was hearing it again!"Dearest! I was so worried about you! Are you home? Stay there! I can't believe you're up and about again!" Daisy stammered with excitement."Me too!" I responded "Come, come, I can't wait to--"And weirdly then, I felt dizzy and sick. That voice from earlier came back and I froze.Aphra... my dear... you must come back...Goodness, where's the phial? I need that phial, now.
![Lily [9:52PM]: freshly showered! come take a look!](assets/images/gallery05/5d8a1615_original.jpg?v=54840307)
