My Goddess... (Ashiva/open)

[Valirion Thorn]

:: My eyes cast down, I entered into the waiting room of Empress Ashiva. I had been warned that Ashiva had no patience sometimes and that she had a particular liking for women above men. Even so I had headed on, my desire for divinity and pain driving me on.
My armor completely covered my body due to some wounds from a recent fight with another vampyre, My body had sustained critical damage and my armor hadn't been spared either. We were a mess and my thoughts were not completely my own but words exchanged throughout the fight had put the goal of seeing Ashiva in my mind. I couldn't see anything for the moment, only what my armor saw, my own eyes had rolled back in my head and I think my body was incapable of moving by itself while I used the armor to keep the dead weight moving. It was healing me slowly but seemingly not fast enough.
As much as I would have liked to be in perfect condition for such a meeting, my own driving desires could care less. I wanted to see my Goddess. The one whose name was screamed in the darkness of the Shrine, when the shadows reached from the corners they called out to her and when the forsaken sun would never rise, a glorious chorus could be heard singing to her.
My hand slowly twitched as I became increasingly aware of the noise, like drums. My eyes rolled back from my head and I looked about the room with my own eyes, nothing wrong yet. It was like a masive heart right in my ears, beating strongly, pumping darkness instead of blood as it beat. Was it my own? Or hers? I would find out...::

Goddess... Empress... Ashiva...

[Empress Ashiva]

Ashiva sat in the chair that had held her still form for millennia. Her eyes gazing into the distant corners, that writhed with shadowed movements. Her green eyes were not inactive as they had been before. The Mother had awakened, and she had no intention of slipping back into her beloved memories.

Her body fairly thrummed with the power of the darkside. The Queen Vampyre's body that had been inactive for so long had taken on the sheen of marble. Only her eyes spoke of life. Ashiva had lived countless years, ruling over her fledglings, protecting them from even her husband. He had met an untimely end at her hands. Soon she would need to sacrifice once again to keep them all safe.

The eerie green eyes flickered to the door, a slight smile tugged at her full lips. If one did not see the slight change they would think it had always been there on the cold, serene face.

There had not been many new fledglings that had dared approaching her. Alana and Tatiana she had called to her side to impart a small amount of her blood. There had been another that she had embraced, and given the full elixir of what she housed in her veins.

The one who dared now did not want her blood but instead wanted a moment of her time. She had felt his need and called to him. He would not have been able to step into her domain without her express permission. Pandora would have slaughtered him where he stood had he searched for the mother on his own.

"Valarion Thorn, enter and speak." Ashiva’s voice rang through his head, causing him to stumble back. She knew why he wanted an audience with her. The Queen of the Damned wanted to hear it from his own lips.

[Valirion Thorn]

:: The doors had opened and I tried to regain myself enough that I retained more of my noble formality and manner, but my body was still healing and my desire to see her was too strong to be held by my will. I entered, my armor curling spikes from my shoulders and arms, trying to make itself look more impressive as it took in the sight of the statue before us. I saw with the armor's eyes a statue, or what it seemed to be, as my force sense took it to another step.
She was no statue but to me looked as if she was the source of the darkside. The very power that turned the whell of fate and rained down destruction and doom on the lives of mortals and immortals alike. My armor stopped its foolish boasting with a harsh word at my command. It did not matter, nothing could come close to her glory... I sighed, not a mortal sigh but a sigh from my black heart. This is what I reached for in my ambitions. This was my goal. The power Goddess Ashiva wielded was the power that had severed Heaven from Hell and made the purgatory we live in now.
I fell to a knee and my mind came back to me slowly out of the awe. She had commanded me to speak also... to speak, didn't she know my love for her held me speechless, the desire I felt for left me nothing before her gaze, her green eyes that burned with a fire in every vampyre's eyes were ablae and I felt myself being drawn into them. She knew everything I felt, everything I knew, she knew me because she was there, omnipotent and omnipresence. My head slowly lifted my helmet staring back, the demonic visage upon it grinning maniacally as I shared my feeling with the armor.
But the helmet peeled away to show my real face, my night black hair falling down and my violet eyes slowly pulling from behind my head. They rolled forward and I saw her with my own eyes. I didn't need to see the sun ever again I had decided, she was good enough, better. I laughed and slowly began to speak.::

You know why I have come Goddess Ashiva... I come seeking godliness, transcendence, and you... the symbol... of everything I have tried to become. Your beauty... and the twisted gracefulness of the vampyre...

:: I paused and quickly looked down as blood flew from my mouth and upon the floor. My armor warned me that I had not fully recovered from the fight with Dalamar but I pushed it away. I would speak to her with my voice and see with my eyes... I looked up again, blood slowly dripping fromt he corner of my mouth.::

[Empress Ashiva]

Ashiva's eyes never moved from the ruined warrior before her, his body broken and torn. She listened to his words, his need for all she was filled his every thought. Her eyes did not fill with pity, nor did they look on him with compassion. His pain and suffering was a testimony to her and to himself that he must attain more power.

Ashiva had survived millennia; she had seen the worlds change. Some with a gentle push and others with a violent rush. All things that happened were for a reason, and the only thing Ashiva looked on with worry was that her race, everything she had created would survive. The Mother approached the young Vampyre, who remained bowed before her. She paused before him, curious as to why he wore the living armor.

Ashiva ran her cold, hard fingers over its silken surface, feeling it quiver at her touch. "Are you not able to remove it?" She questioned her lips unmoving but her voice clear in his mind. The mother of all Vampyres slid her hand under Thorns chin, tilting his head back so he could look on her unyielding face. "You do not even think to ask me to heal you." Her lips pulled into a dark and troubling smile.

"It is good, for had you asked I would have made you suffer all the more." An ancient tongue, never heard by the young one filled the room. Darkness gathered around both of the figures. Valarion's eyes shot wide as he felt the tendrils of the darkside sink into his body, knitting together what had been displaced. It was a painful experience, unlike the healing touch of the light. When it was done he would be unmarred in body but in sprit he would find a deeper darkness than he had thought existed.

When his eyes opened from the shadowy recesses of his mind, Ashiva was no longer before him. She stood at the open window of her room. "It is almost time young one. Prepare yourself, be more than what you brought before me this day..... If you wish to survive." Her words though soft were never the less biting...

[Valirion Thorn]

:: My violet eyes stayed wide as the armor statistically reported the repairs to me and then continued to silently tell me of what had been mended without a slight amount of effort on the armor's part. I smiled slightly. The thought of her healing me had never entered my head, the fear and respect of her powe had been my only care but whatever she had done, I was grateful as I ever would.
Aside from the status report my armor still quivered now. The remembrance of Ashiva's fingers were sending ripples along the liquid metal. The amor rippled more and then with a silent noise like silk against silk, the armor was drawn into my skin and I knelt before the Empress in the tattered rags of what Dalamar had left me in. She was not facing me, she was staring into the darkness of Roon. I kept my eyes lowered but I slowly stood, the pain had been for an instant but the ecstasy of the after effects of the darkside, my eyes closed, reaching for the darkside that was there. They opened again and my fangs slowly bit on my lips. The darkness from my own heart had seemed to pick up closer to the rhythym of Aksha's. How sweet! The garments I stood n were hardly garments anymore but I didn't care, my white skin was without a mar and a sense of my ambitions soon coming to fruit was as good as bloodlust. I was no good at foretelling but the image of Ashiva was prophecy enough. I nodded my head to Ashiva and took a step back.::

Time shall bow before the Shrine my Empress, and I am your knight Empress. I do as you please and my power shall be far from just survival...