Private The Prince & The Priestess

[Aries Creed]

Location: Illyria, Temple of the Silma
Time: Late Evening
Tags: Nimue

I should not be here.

The words kept echoing in his mind again and again. As the obsidian pyramid grew closer and closer Aries had to work to keep his mind shielded from any who wished to delve into his thoughts. After all, even on the surface he could not help but think of the timeline he'd come from.

As he grew closer to the temple he could see the robed figures who stood watch as the daylight turned to darkness. They did not worry him.

The Silma employ their students as sentries. They are eager to please and remain vigilant, however they are also more naive and easier to slip past. His father's words echoed in his mind as he stepped up the cobble steps leading to the temple. Three of the sentires stepped forward, blocking his path with their hands raised to halt the man. "Trespasser." One of them spoke out, causing Aries to turn his eyes to the woman. The Silma were gaurenteed autonomy from the other Noble Houses. They paid no taxes and were forced to raise no levies or produce any crops. They were, however, still answerable to the Crown. Aries pulled a pendant from around his neck, a Phrik pendant with the seal of Illyria upon it.

"I'm here on business for the King. Step aside." He commanded them.

For a moment the three paused. A moment too long. Aries knew he had shaken their resolve enough that...

"Verywell." The woman said, causing all three of them to nod and return to their posts. Aries pulled his hood up over his head, exhaling before moving deeper into the temple. From the moment Aries stepped inside of the temple he could feel the never ending shift of the Dark Side. It flowed over him and caused him to exhale in a sense of relief. The Force was powerful here. He was here for one thing however, the archive of the Silma. It had a very prompt dictation of the known past...and even some tomes claiming to reveal the future. Aries moved through the halls, his black boots echoing out as he moved with a deliberate pace. He didn't care to be stopped once again. As he moved through the obsidian halls he felt the Force guide him. It told him exactly where he needed to go and just when to take a turn.

 

[Nimue]

Aries Creed ​

The sisters of the Silmä, over everything, praised silence.

In silence there is peace, and where there is peace to be found, there is knowledge to be uncovered. In the sanctuary of their archives, spread over a table of carved ivory, lay several ancient tomes bound in tarnished leather with cracked spines. Scripted on their yellowed pages, formed from the skin of man and beast alike, were texts of an even older origin. The ink had flaked and the edges of the pages had frayed from centuries of use, they looked as though one forceful turn or clumsy hand would render them dust, but mixed in amongst them were tomes with a fresher appearance.

Nimue, the high priestess of the Silmä, sat on a throne of obsidian rock, leant over the crisp sheets of a new tome. Willow fingers floated through the air lazily, directing a feathered quill of gold in a frenzied dance across the page. This was where the vampirika felt most at ease, where the words of the past, and of the future, could flow easily with no consequence. Once immortalized, the visions could be forgotten. A blessing for not just Nimue but her sisters as well, for heavy was the burden of knowledge not meant to be discovered.

Silence had held its reign over the archives for so long, that when a gentle tap, tap, tap echoed across the halls, Nimue was almost startled. A frown formed, coupled with the furrow of her brow that formed soft lines in between them. Nobody was supposed to disturb her during the entombing. Nimue rose, making no sound as she slid out from behind the desk to follow the source of the sound. The archives were vast, if it had been any of the other Silmä, they likely wouldn’t have even heard the footfalls, but Nimue had been blessed by more than the Oracle.

Stopping dead for but a brief moment, the high priestess sent dark strings of force through the archives. They wound down the aisles, through the gaps in the tomes, underneath the bookcases that stretched from floor to ceiling. Hunting. When they found what their mistress sought, they reeled back in revulsion. It was not a sister of the Silmä. It was a stranger. By the time they had whispered of their findings to Nimue, she was already seething, the addition of it being someone unknown to her only escalated her rage. What stranger dared walk their hallowed halls with such disregard?

A deafening crack filled the archives, likely alerting whoever it was of her presence, but that wouldn’t matter. Nimue raced between the towering bookcases, no longer a solid form but a blur of grey and black smoke. He would have no time to react, no time to scream, no time to defend himself. The high priestess halted before him, materialising only her face from the wisps of smoke that poured endlessly from the centre of an endless ebony pit.

Tendrils of moonlight hair drifted through the stale archive air, as though she had submerged herself under water. It whipped and lashed in quick, entrancing patterns until it almost entirely encased them both. “You should not be here.” She hissed in a poisonous, etheral tone, so close to him now that he would likely see the roaring fire of anger in her orange glare. “Who are you?”

 

[Aries Creed]

The archives were dark and quiet. Aries appreciated the fact that the Silma valued such a calm way of living. He'd never known them to indulge in things like socialization. As Aries moved through the archive he let his eyes wander from shelf to shelf. Leather bound books lined these shelves, giving a rather thorough telling of the history of Illyria and more. But he was not here for a lesson on his heritage, he was were for something far more important.

"Not the past..."

The future. He finished the thought in his mind as he stepped into the next section. It was in that moment that he felt the Force flow over him, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to rise in anticipation. Something was coming. The thought was a flash in his mind just before the hall became enveloped with living shadow. Wisps of white and black flowed over him as a woman's voice rang through the archives. Her power of the Force was impressive, especially in the pit of the archives where the Silma's power was so focused. When confronted with the woman who seemed more an apparation of the Force than a living being Aries' eyes cut as he gazed into her own orbs.

"It is my right to be here." Unphased he remained standing before her. He allowed her shadows to swallow him whole as his chocolate eyes stared directly at the woman who stood before him.

"...and it is my business who I am. Now step aside, Lady Nimue." he spoke her name with a familiarity, but he did not realize it himself. He knew this woman. He'd met her, time and time again at the side of his father or in his studies. Her most skilled sisters had served as Aries' advisors and tutors, but in the years he knew her he'd hardly broken a word to her. At least, that was how things had been in their own timeline. It seemed already things were turning out to be very different from his own timeline. Is that a good thing? He wondered.

Nimue

 

[Nimue]

Aries Creed ​

Nimue laughed. A deep, harrowing laughter that bounced from the archive walls, echoing eternally into the depths of the vast library. “Your right?” An arm encased in flesh the colour of moonlight shot from the tendrils of smoke, curling around the phrik pendant that rested on his chest. “You think this gives you leave to wander my corridors freely, to sift through our knowledge with no permission?”

Before he was able to formulate an answer, he continued with something Nimue did not expect. The casual use of her name. Snow white brows furrowed in the center as she withdrew her arm, allowing the pendant to fall heavily back onto his chest. It was true that the Silmä did not see everything. Even Nimue, who had been practicing the craft for far longer than her sisters thanks to her vampirka heritage, could not know the future for certain. Normally what foresight they did possess was enough, but in moments like this Nimue cursed the Oracle for leaving her in the dark.

Despite the fact that he now had a small advantage over Nimue, it did not seem to quell her anger. The spindles of smoke withdrew suddenly, pulling back to create the finally tangible form of Nimue. “It is my business in every way. Not only do you disturb my sisters and I, you have disrupted the entombing. If you really were Illyrian royalty you would understand the seriousness of your actions.”

Nimue stepped closer this time, now a physical form her body came so close to Aries that she could hear the steady thump of his heart. “I shall only repeat myself once more…” Her orange gaze fell onto the chocolate brown orbs glaring defiantly back. There was something familiar about them that Nimue couldn’t quite put her finger on, and the same could be said for the shape of his face, the gait he had used to stride between the bookcases. Each pass her eyes did over his body brought forth a frustration of immeasurable degrees. Not a soul alive could claim they enjoyed forgetting things, but for the Silmä this was doubly true.

“Who are you?”

 

[Aries Creed]

When Nimue's lithe hand wrapped around Aries' pendant, the man spoke easily. "It was your word to the Crown. All of the knowledge of the Silma was made available to the Royal Family in exchange for the Silma's guaranteed autonomy." He said, his eyes leveling on the woman as she formed flesh and blood in the place of smoke and shadow.

"Apologies for disrupting. However I needed the Silma's knowledge now, it could not wait." He told her, while his eyes delved into the darkness behind her. He looked to the woman. Nimue. She seemed so different from the way he remembered, almost as if she was a completely different person.

Aries took a moment before finally exhaling. "You've made a quick visit into an ordeal. You need to let me pass so I can leave." He told her. Aries did not know what costs his temporal displacement came with. Aside from the fact he now had a pounding headache there seemed to be no consequences, but he was not sure how long that would last.

Nimue

 

[Nimue]

Aries Creed​

Nimue could only scoff at him. Yes, she had made a promise to the crown of Illyria to allow them access to their knowledge, but it did not come with an allowance of free reign. Besides, this… demanding child standing before her was not royalty, or at least not Illyrian royalty. The High Priestess had spent time around Illyrian royalty, and there were only a handful of them all together. This man, she had never seen before in her life. But then why did he feel so familiar?

“The chain around your neck does not make you lllyrian royalty. How do I know you’re not some petty thief who managed to change upon some good fortune?” If he was Illyrian royalty, he would have been more aware of the ways of the Silmä, but this man clearly knew nothing. Another thing that left much to be desired was his attitude. Nimue presented him with an incredulous expression in response to his tone. Nobody had spoken to her like that since she’d first chanced upon Adron.

The High Priestess said nothing. Instead, she advanced. So suddenly and so quickly Aries wouldn’t have even had a chance to take a single breath. A willow hand shot out from beneath her raven robes, entangling her spindle like fingers around his wrist. Her grip should have been firm, it should have threatened to snap his wrist, but the Silmä did not need physical strength to defeat their foes. Nimue’s grip was delicate, her skin barely grazed him. He could break out if he wanted too.. But if he did know of the Silmä he would know that that decision would be the last he would ever make.

“Y-..” Her painted lips parted to begin, but something cut her ethereal tone short. The flame in her eyes faded quickly, turning entirely black until peering into them felt almost akin to peering into the centre of a black hole. It was brief, if Aries had blinked he would have missed it, but when they returned to their usual hue, the priestesses tone changed.

She withdrew, suddenly, as though his wrist had suddenly burst into violent uncontrollable flame. “Foolish boy.” She seethed out. Now she knew why he looked so familiar. Now she knew why his tone had reminded her so sorely of Adron. Now she knew why he had used the Illyrian seal with such brazen confidence. The High Priestess glared, needing no more words than the few that slipped from her lips in a hushed tone of dismay. “What have you done?”​

 

[Aries Creed]

The moment that Nimue's slender hand wrapped around Aries' he could feel a surge in the Force. It surrounded the two of them for a shallow moment, pulling at the very fabrics of space and time. Seconds became minutes, minutes became hours, and hours became almost twenty years. He could see it all so vividly. A galaxy descended into a hellish chaos that it had never before seen, a world on fire, and all sense of reason gone. It was a painful memory. When Nimue withdrew from Aries the hellish visions ended, yet there was a staggering pain in the back of his mind. He pressed his head to his temple before exhaling softly. "Don't....Don't do that again." He told her.

The pain did not subside before he glanced back down the hall he'd come down. He looked back to Nimue before grasping her shoulder and leading her down one of the aisles of the library. "I didn't do it." He told her, before rubbing the side

He turned his eyes back down the hall before exhaling. "I don't know what did it I just know it happened. I came here because I thought maybe there would be some knowledge on it, not that I believed that too dearly." He said.

Aries pulled the hood up from his cloak before looking to Nimue. "You need to forget you saw me. No one can recognize me." He told her, before shaking his head. "I'm leaving, you need to forget this, My Lady."

Nimue

 

[Nimue]

Aries Creed ​

Her head shook, enough to disturb the fine curls of white hair nestled on her shoulders. “Do you know anything?.” Everyone who knew of their nuances in the force knew that the Silmä could no more control their visions than a beast could control the instinct to hunt. “I do not choose what the Oracle allows me to see.” The point was moot, and beyond what they should have been discussing, but for the first time in her unnaturally long life, Nimue was surprised.

The high priestess did not enjoy the feeling. Their visions of the future and of the past were meant to be infallible. Something as big as the son of the high king travelling through realms and time should have been something the Silmä were aware of.

A firm hand grasped her shoulder would have normally caused Nimue to snap whoever it belonged to in half, but dynamics had changed now. There was no doubt that she still viewed him as beneath her, even if he wore a name gilded in a royal crown. However, now she was aware of its presence treating him like he was beneath her was completely out of the question. Still, she sneered at the presence of his hand on her shoulder, even if her feet did willingly walk where they were guided.

“This Silmä have no knowledge of this.” She spoke the final word as though it had been branded across his forehead. “Time is not linear…” When they reached the furthest the aisle would allow them to go, Nimue snagged her shoulder back and turned to face him. “But we do not believe in travelling through it to change it ourselves.” Her orange eyes flared up once again, as though the very idea bristled her soul. When he once again demanded something of her, in response Nimue folded her arms across her chest and glared definitely at him.

“I will do nothing. You, on the other hand, will return to the castle and inform your father and mother of your existence.” She paused, but only briefly enough to swallow a fresh wave of incredulity. “You can’t be seen, or be recognized, so where do you go? To a temple housing witches who gaze through time. Foolish boy.”​

 

[Aries Creed]

Once the two had found some manner of privacy, Aries glanced back to the woman and shook his head. "I came here because I was out of options. It's not just me being here it's..." He decided against speaking of the vicious headaches and pains he'd suffered since being here. In fact he was realizing that the more they spoke the more chance they had for things to go south. He could not see his parents, especially not with the way it had gone for Aries and Nimue. Already his brain felt like it was in a blender from touching the woman and he'd barely spent any time around her.

"No." He told the woman, shaking his head. "No, I can't risk that." He told the woman before glancing back behind him. "I have to find out why I am here alone. The Force is so...fuzzy here. It's almost like something has broken my connection to it. Even the Dark Side is quiet in me...uneven." He muttered.

"Besides. It's too close to the time of the Great Madness. If my father's attention is divided from The Confederacy then the outer Rim will fall even sooner than it did in my time...Look, you have to help me by keeping this a secret. If you truly have loyalty towards Illyria then you must safeguard it by keeping quiet...please, Nimue." He said, for the first time speaking to her more as an equal than someone who was below him.

Nimue

 

[Nimue]

Aries Creed
​

He denied her again, and Nimue responded by folding her arms across her chest, shooting him a look that could only be described as a scornful matriarch.

Yet, when his words formed to declare his failing connection to the force, she somewhat softened. When you were party to the dark power that swallowed the Silmä temple, many felt uneasy. Many felt as though they were unworthy of it, but so far none had expressed feeling distanced from it. Her arms unfolded, and one of her hands reached out to snag Aries’ arm. Her fingers pressed lightly against the inside of his wrist, where she could feel the blood pulsing through his veins. “I can feel it.” She said abruptly, not removing her gaze from Aries’ face. “I am hardly surprised. The force is present in all realms, and across every timeline. Some are more aware of it than others, and some do not acknowledge its existence at all, but it remains regardless.”

She dropped his hand, allowing his wrist to fall back to his side. “However, there is every chance that the connection to the dark side in your realm is much more powerful than that of this realm. There may be less of a connection to it here. Your crossing is like moving from a bath filled to the brim to one only half full. Shocking and disturbing…” She narrowed her eyes as she spoke her next words. “...and painful, for any who are used to something more.”

The Great Madness? Nimue tilted her head as her face fell. The Silmä had seen it. He knew more than he had originally let on, but that still would not change her mind. Time travel, especially time travel across different realms, was a dangerous pastime. Even the Silmä were unaware of the effects it had on the mind, and on the body. She had no way to send him back to his rightful time, and no desire to slaughter the man that would potentially become the next king of Illyria.

There was only one other option left.

“My loyalty to Illyria does not permit me to keep secrets of this scale, and my vow to protect and provide aid to Illyrian royalty stretches beyond time and across realms.” She said with a tone of seriousness that could not be doubted. True, the Silmä still considered them to be barbaric relics of a time long since passed, but they had given their word. “You will tell your parents, or I will tell them for you.” There were nuances to this situation that could have allowed Nimue to turn her head, to pretend that Aries only existed as the young prince, still too tiny to even walk… but to the Silmä there was nothing more important than their word.​

​

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[Aries Creed]

It had appeared that the priestess was content to stick to her own beliefs. Not that the man could blame her but it did not make things any easier for him. Still, women seldom did. He looked to her and arched a brow. "Then what?" He asked with some curiosity. "My fathers power can't send me back, not for several more years at least. You would have me stand next to a baby version of myself and play pretty prince?" He scoffed before shaking his head. "You know this is different. This is something that even the Silma would take exception of. Whether it is a natural work of the Force or not, it cannot be undone. I'm tethered to this realm like a prisoner." He said, before clearing his throat.

"If you're so intent on telling my parents, then do as you must. But you're a seer, you should be able to see that nothing good will come of that." He warned her. The man ran a hand through his hair before glancing around then turning to look back to her. "Or." He said abruptly. "Help me. I am your Prince, aren't I? Help me mend my connection to the Force and try to find out why this realm is so different than mine." He said.

"I was already able to use my knowledge to get a position in the Knight's Obsidian. Far removed from my father and well protected." He said.

"Nimue, you have to help me. My father told me the Silma are the eyes of Illyria. I am the Illyrian Prince, aren't I? Be my eyes." He asked her.

Nimue

 

[Nimue]

T A G S | Aries Creed​

Nimue shook her head. “No. They cannot send you back. Nobody can. But he can offer you protection that even I cannot. A father’s bond with his son goes beyond the magik and the force that we can control and see. He will protect you.” She huffed slightly, folding her slender arms across the curve of her waist. He was even more stubborn than the man he took after, which was saying something. Much to her dismay though, the young prince was right. He was tethered to this realm.

A realm he did not belong in.

Nimue was curious to know how he had even managed to survive this long, let alone long enough to find himself wandering the corridors of the archives. At least he had done something for himself. Joining the Knight’s Obsidian was not as honourable to Nimue as joining the Silmä was, but it was something to occupy his mind, and perhaps something that would prove fruitful for him in time. She wasn’t aware of Adron stooping so low as to join something like the Knight’s Obsidian. Perhaps this was where this king would differ.

She stiffed just a little as he once again asked for her help. There was no denying the fact that she could swing this situation any way she saw fit. Either she could behold herself to her promise to his father, and tell him… or she could behold herself to the promise she made to Illyria and help him. There was only one option she could see that would eventually benefit both the Silmä and her. “Fine.” She said stiffly, clearly not overly pleased about the idea. “I will help you.”​