Terminus: Eye For An Eye I

[19:20] A presence..

He enters the room, bare feet scraping upon tiled flooring, as sienna hues gaze about the environs of the shrine. It had been some time since he was up here, and the last time had resulted in a brief lesson.

Yet this time, the Ookami came not for a lesson.
But to assuage an avenue of thought. An idea that germinated in his mind, and t'were voiced.

A step towards the chemical laden waters of fluid that undulated alike smudged ink bubbling. An aging voice, spills from mouth as the Ookami entreats.

"Usque Terminus. I come beseeching for a boon. I desire a way to assist Antefinem more concretely. Studying tomes, grows wearying." There's a pause, afore the aging voice resonates once-more speaking. "Perhaps, I can be of assistance in gathering alchemical herbs about the mainland more ably, well if I knew where such foliage were locatable."
(Erenthius C. Meeksworth)
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[19:39] From the depths of one's pool lied the husk as it always did... Sensing the approach of yet another.
Magus-type -- A familiar aura about them, yet it was not yet clear until their voice reached the ears of the clergy. It was through their minds, that it came clear -- even before Erenthius' mind was pried into in kind.

Their intent was clear...
They wished to excel within Antefinem, beyond that of their current standing. No longer an idle guardsman, but an invaluable asset to the settlement.

Plenty of alchemical herbs and reagents proved scattered across the mainland. A troublesome scour high and low for the commoner, and only slightly less so for those experienced.

The psionic connection from beyond the veil was finally established with the Magister, and the voice of the patron came through clearly now. Every mind within the proximity of the shrine, from that of meditating clergy or the Maledictus across from Erenthius -- amplified the telepathic broadcasting of the Patron.

"The Eyes are the window of the Soul. The Heart begets its truest Nature.

You wish to see to a boon, and I am willing to provide... Should your Will match the nature I sense within you.

Tell me Magister... Seer borne of my blood... When you look into the depths of my shrine...

What do you see?"
The surface, was vantablack, likely to lack visible imagery beyond its surface. Though, an unseen force silently backoned at Erenthius… One, that suggested they stand at the edge, to accept the subtle pull that'd lean one over... To... Fall into its depths.

The fluid may've proven mildly acidic to the touch at first, but the burn would swiftly fade, proving familiar to the attuned -- cold, and dark...
Presuming they had managed to go this far, they could continue their slow float to the bottom, to explore both physically and mentally the inquiry of the Patron, on what it meant to them.
(Etheric Presence)
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[20:02] A cant of head given, as lips twisted in brief thought, worrying before straightening into a flat line. It was true, he desired to provide more to Antefinem, just being a guardsman, and a magister..wouldn't cut it anymore.

No matter his forays into studying, and working to practice some of the magic's within the Litany. Which he'd have to try once more.

Sienna hues cast upon the pool at feet. The burbling smudges of ink that writhed ever faintly, as footsteps carried the Ookami towards the ledge of frothing inked depths.

A whispering cadence blossomed, before strengthening into the familiar crawling if insidious voice of Terminus. Brushing forth upon psyche, pouring forth from a veil. Yet amplified, bolstered by the various folks that attended to the shrine being present within the room.

"I see.." The Ookami mused lightly, as he felt a tug. Form falling towards the pool. A tugging at form, and a splash resounds. There's a slight burn, yet the feeling fades, it wasn't unfamiliar, akin to the burning of innate circuitry felt once occultism was summoned forth from vessel. A thought transmits as he hits the water.. "(Familiarity..)"

Darkness, it burned upon his eyes which opened underneath the waters of the Shrine. Light..such did not exist within these waters. All that suffused upon vision was oblivion.

Like his eyes were shut and all that he saw was an absence of color. An absence of the world around himself, it was like that ancient time ages ago once his occultism had been unlocked. Only there was no being of shadow, no being of negativity that entreated upon his being alike a nurtured seed that festered his descent into being able to wield the occult. All that remained was silence.

Was Null.

As well, as a sense of waterlogged ears. Muted sounds, they ebbed from above.
(Erenthius C. Meeksworth)
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[20:49] Down within the depths... One could feel the subtle cold of the substance around them. The light was inept down here... As gravity sought to pull one further into the darkness.

Erenthius was a Seer...
Surely, he could see the bottom, if only they tried... Right?
Could they not see the end of the pool?
Could they not see the husk of Terminus that lied upon the bottom?

The deep murmur of bass hummed through the waterlogged domain, rumbling through the fluid and body of Erenthius-by-extension.
The voice of the Patron spoke out to his mind once more:
"The world beyond the horizon is unknown to all that wander the surface, even to the birds high above...

To be a Seer Of The End... One must peer beyond that barrier...
Beyond that horizon...
All are limited to the End... But to be its Seer, is to gaze beyond that."

The sensation of countless hands reaching out from the shadows to cradle at the Ookami's body could be felt. Cumulatively they slowed their descent, crawling with their reach to eventually rest upon their visage, and subtly stretching their left eyelids open to force them to gaze into the abyss that encompassed them.

"I shall help you... I shall lend you a sight that pierces the very realm around you." The feeling of digits slowly prodding at the seams of the socket, applying tension to the eyeball and stretching at the optic nerve with a fleshy squelch -- a sound that would only ever be heard by Erenthius himself.

"But first... I must change... A piece of you.
Should your will prove adamant... Then, such a boon shall boast just as unrelenting."

At any point, they could deny the endeavor, scream the intent to recant within their very mind, even flail with enough magical affluence to deter the umbramancy that was imposed upon them. Though, should they deny it -- perhaps, they would avoid the pain that would come their way... But, what was to know of what boon could be returned in kind?
(Etheric Presence)
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[21:19] Down in the frigid depths, down in the coldness that sapped upon form. Ink hung, like tar.

A pool of writhing waters danced, as the Ookami was dragged deeper.

Down..

Down, unto the depths. Sienna hues peered within, ignoring the stinging touch of water. Though this fluid wasn't truly water, even if it seemed to be but a twisting parody of such. The bottom of the pool. He floated within watery confines, could his gaze see the bottom? It could not.

Erenthius wasn't blessed with night vision. Even the husk of Terminus, wasn't discerned to opened gaze. All that was discerned was an all consuming, if encroaching darkness. It blanketed the environs of the pool, akin to furtive night absent light that would cast illumination upon the environs.

Yet would light even pierce this darkness? Erenthius thought not.

A rumbling is felt, even amidst the sensation of weightlessness that cocoons around form. Muteness persist, yet that only applied to his hearing as of this moment, due to the waterlogged domain he was suspended within.

Muffled murmurs heard from above, as the Patron's voice resounds upon psyche. "To become more worthy of being a seer, by gazing upon the horizon beyond.." A low timbre resonates, own mental voice flowing alike silk.

Even as Terminus's voice pressed upon being, yet such was but the prelude.

A sensation of hands, shadowed limbs with long spindly phalanges pressed upon form, slowing descent. The limbs crawled however upon entity. They reached for face, even as the mental voice of Terminus spoke further. The Ookami's mental presence reverberated henceforth, a hiss of noise.

"To see beyond this realm.." A grunt slips forth, as shadowed hands reach for his left eye, digits pressing upon the orb within his socket. Slight tension felt, as a faint squelching noise is heard. "Change is good, if I did not desire to change myself, to be of furthered use to the community here, I wouldn't have come asking for such a boon." The Ookami retorted mentally.

He notably does not resist the actions of Terminus.
(Erenthius C. Meeksworth)
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[21:36] The strain intensified, as the etheric energies slipped between the slight gap between eye and socket... For the fleshy prism behind it. To encompass the optic nerve that proved stretched, strained even, yet still connected to the brain behind it.

The shadows refined an edge from the very abyss it was enveloped from, splitting the nerve from the brain and blotting out vision outright. Surely, it would fire off, immediately countered by the plaguing of the occult upon the mind to distract the violent collage of anguish that would likely follow, if even briefly.

Telekinetic prowess sought to paralyze appendages in total stasis presuming one had enabled themselves victim to such a procedure.
It was soundless.
The immediate unswelling of one's sense of feeling around the region, and the eye vanished into the very dark that encompassed the Ookami.

Only the aquatic swirl of the organ slipping away swished at the ears. A mana nexus -- parted from the cognizant channels of one's anatomy; a piece of a magi oft claimed irreplaceable. For what gift nor supplement could ever amount to the power of Sight?
"This pain is temporary...
But the mortal body is limited.
"
The Blood of the Patron slipped into the slit of one's eye socket, likely proving uncomfortable but as soothing as the darkness that one could delve their emotions into. Where one's wrath and spite fed into it? So too, did it coddle them in such stature -- a sickly comfort that'd indulge the perversions of Man to their inner most vices.

A telekinetic force swiftly overtook the Ookami, drawing them for the surface. The rapid coalescing of bubbles brimming at the skin, tickling on their passage downward -- outpaced by the faceless force that sought to launch one for the shimmering aquatic ceiling. Throughout it all, the voice of the Patron pressed onward:
"Time is required to perfect this endeavor...
Wander the isle... And once you return...
Your boon shall be ready as desired."

The breach, splashed for all nigh, to suspend droplets above and offer Erenthius a flex at their abdomen.

Alas, they could breath, if even just by invasive force. With the stasis field surrendered, gravity would slowly take the Ookami in their aerial arc for the pool's edge.
(Etheric Presence)
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[21:38] {Won Restrained RPB against Erenthius C. Meeksworth}
[21:40] ** Etheric Presence has inflicted an injury upon Erenthius C. Meeksworth. ("
Eye Transplant
", "
Eye Removed

Where an eye should be, lies an empty fleshy socket. The eyelids are collapsed shut, as nothing but exposed nerves and brain matter lie beneath them.
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The effort seemed oddly precise. The nerves were severed, as though done by a scalpel, despite the impossibility of typical surgeries enabling such an effort. At least, not without requiring to sever into the skull, or damage the eye in the effort.", "Permanent", "Severity: MINOR (-5 VIT)") **
[21:47] Upon the surface, what one would bare witness to -- would be that of a quiet congregation of clergymen meditating as they oft did. There didn't seem to be anything outwardly strange about this circumstance, in fact, inviting to those unsuspecting...

Though, without much warning, a sudden eruption of the alchemical fluid would play out before Euxenos' gaze, revealing the image of an Ookami from its depths. They were ejected from the pool, as though slingshot from below, and wrought to stumble out the exit without so much as an introduction.

From there? The occasional glance but otherwise? A swift return to meditation...
At some point, someone was going to return to clean the slipping hazard of the alchemical preservatives on the cobblestone floor. Though, it wouldn't be right this moment, it'd seem.
(Etheric Presence)
[14:38] The Ookami was held within a grasp of shadowed hands, floating within inky darkness of the waters that surrounded the unfathomable depths at the near bottom of the shrine's murkier depths.

A wince were given, as etheric energies slid betwixt the finitely small gap of eye and parting eyelid, into the socket of whence the eye rested. Energies sought perchance the prism beyond eye. To grasp and prod forth upon optic nerve, yet such a sensation gave way to an edge of sorts.

The edging of refined mana t'were quick to twine, to snip and errantly split the optical nerve from brain. Immediately a throb of agony assailed forth, as a muffled moan escaped closed lips.

The Ookami wanted to thrash in agony, yet held within grasp of shadowed hands and telekinetic prowress, he could do little other then twitch spasming. Occultism pressed upon the remainder of the wound, as the eyeball along with part of the nerve t'was plucked from socket.

A sense of unswelled feeling. Of lacking something within socket, that was once present. The sound, it entreated upon ears that of an organ swishing through the darkened waters, ferried away to parts unknown. Well he knew where the eye was going, to Terminus.

Even if he could not see the orb depart, nor the shadowy limb or hand that carried it away. Truly, was this a foolish endeavor, a loss of mana nexus.. parted from cognizant channels of his anatomy. Divesting him of vision, save instead for one eye to remain? The voice of Terminus resounded, pressing forth upon Psyche, even as blood.

A twisted ichor invaded upon his ruined, if empty socket.

Yet, there was no time to consider the vital essence of ichor. Nor to grasp from it the remnants of darkness, hospitably utilized to channel emotions into. For with telekinetic force, was he carried upwards, towards the surface. Pushed beyond the darkened waters, and breaching of their surface. Light from nearby torches casted about the rippling surface of the pools waves, even as Terminus voice flows freely upon his mind once more.

"Agh.."

Amidst voiced pain, a stumble towards the exit of the room, brushing past Euxenos. A hand pressed over ruined socket, to shield it from view. Would wandering the isle truly detract from this experience? How long would he be required to wait for the boon he sought?

A day? A day might suffice.. A hiss of air escapes lungs, as he turns the knob, exiting the room.
(Erenthius C. Meeksworth)
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