Fledgling Phoenix

Fledgling Phoenix
Date of Scene:	31 December 2012
Location:	Hollow Bastion - Library
Synopsis:	Katyna discusses her desire to be a Shadow Lord with Seith - as well as her haunting dream about a fledgling phoenix..
Cast of Characters:	Katyna, Seith

---

No title. (2012-12-31 - Now) No description.

Katyna has posed:
Katyna has been wandering around the halls of Hollow Bastion castle for a while now. After a brief meeting with Riku and later on with Hati, she still hadn't found Seith. And that unicorn's horn was pretty heavy and pokey..Where were his headquarters anyways? This place is like a maze...So annoying! When Lord Fessner was here, she didn't venture much beyond his headquarters..Now it seems she's doing all sorts of errands for people all the time. Bleh!

She pulls off her helmet, feeling quite hot and sweaty after all that fighting, wondering if she took a wrong turn somewhere down here. Again she comes to that creepy place where Riku had done that creepy thing and shivers, peering intently into the darkness as if something might just pop out and stab her in the heart again.

"Careful Kit, you're becoming paranoid.." She chuckles nervously to herself. "Now where's that darned Shadow Lord.."

Seith has posed:
Seith's 'headquarters' is his library. Of course, he has a room in the castle, but he only rarely visits that place lest he needs to sleep. But - of course - there is always the chance that he is out and about watching the Shard Seekers do their thing. Recently, he'd actually visited Leida and discovered her little 'deal'. Either way, Katyna finds the man within the Library - seated on one of the comfy couches with a book on his lap. It's a rather... /huge/ book.

"You're doing it again." His voice calls out towards Katyna. "Talking to yourself, that is."

Katyna has posed:
Katyna blinks and nearly jumps when she realizes she's not alone. Where'd that voice come from, it sounds familiar! Ohh, Hey, that looks like the library..And that sounds like that annoying Seith..Well, at least she can dump that annoying horn on him, it kept poking her when she tried carrying it in her belt, which was extremely annoying..

"Heh, was I?" She chuckles nervously, scratching the back of her head as she steps into the library. "Sooo, this is where you spend your free time, huh? You're a really difficult person to track down sometimes, y'know that?!" But that thought is quickly quelched when she sees that big book.

"Ooh..What's that?" Kat attempts to peek at the contents of the book over Seith's shoulder, hoping it's not that crazy magic, which makes her head explode, usually..

Seith has posed:
"Yes, you were. Now which particular Shadow Lord might you be looking for? Have you managed to get a hold of Riku yet?" Seith doesn't keep that much track of his direct surroundings, and the Shadow Lords in it. He's far more interested in the outside world after all. Not that one could tell, with how much time he spends in the library. "As for how difficult I am to track down..." He grabs a little phone from his pocket and puts it on the endtable besides his seat.

"Welcome to grab my number from that thing..." Doesn't look like he knows his own number. He's kind of one of those old types who isn't /that/ happy with the whole new fangled technology. Too many buttons for something that's supposed to just let two people talk. "I keep trying to figure it out, but instead there's these birds you have to fire at pigs... Manhattan was a strange world."

The man then turns his attention back to his book. "As for this." He opens it wider so she can look. "This is a book on dreams - or rather, their meanings. Including beautiful paintings of some of the imagery presented within. That's why it's so big." He flips a page, allowing her to see that the pages themselves are quite thick as well. The paintings are beautiful.

Katyna has posed:
Katyna nods. "Yeah, I saw Riku. And he showed me what the darkness was.." She shivers a little, hugging her arms at the horrific memory, "...It's a cold, painful thing full of emptiness and nothingness, but..That's only if you get lost in it." Her eyes narrow, glaring back at Seith defiantly as she clenches her fists now. "I...Wont get lost, if I can help it.." But, she already felt so lost as it was.

When he drops his phone on the table, she grabs it, adding his number to her own small list wordlessly, not even skipping a beat. "Cuz if I had that power, I wouldn't have to be afraid of these goody goods ganging up against me and beating me. I wouldn't be afraid of failing everyone and being weak. That's why I dont care what the price is, I still want you and Riku to teach me how to control it better.."

For a moment, Kat seems less..Cheerful, less energetic. Maybe she's just tired. She's still recovering from that nasty scar Angantyr gave her, and exhausted from arguing with Riku all the time. Riku..Why was he so reluctant to teach her? Why'd he seem so empty?

"Sorry, but..I failed. I only succeeded in making Angantyr and Avira's hit lists...I couldn't turn 'em..LEXUS was wrong! Ugh!" She clenches her fists, slamming them into the table that holds the cellphone, causing the little gadget to shake and nearly fall off the edge of the table.

She seems to calm down a bit when Seith distracts her with a shiny book full of pretty pictures, dashing to his side to chance a peek at it. "Ooh..How pretty! These are all dreams? Wow..Do you think there's any truth to 'em?"

Seith has posed:
"You say that, but you hesitate, don't you? To control the darkness requires a strong heart. Even I don't delve deeper than I know I can handle, for my heart is not as strong as it could be." He's suffered so much loss in his life after all. Morgan, his wife, his daughter. He watches her adding his number to her own phone, and then looks up again as she speaks once more.

"You are wrong though. The more darkness you have within you, the more that the Light will harm you. That much is certain. Of course, Darkness also gives strength." That much he'd found out himself. "But you must train yourself as well. You must grow strong yourself. Not just here." He reaches out and tries to touch his fingers to her arm - her muscles. "But also in here." He then touches just above her heart... and reclines once more.

"And it was only a suggestion LEXUS made. It was to you, the task of thinking it through and seeing if it was a good idea. But I think the better question is... what do /you/ /truly/ want, Katyna?" He quickly snatches his phone before it goes wobbling off of the table. The man then looks at the pictures. "These are pretty... but just wait until I hit the Nightmares part of this book." He grumbles. "Still, there is truth to them. That I know. My magic is that of Dreams and Illussions."

Katyna has posed:
"Aah!" the phone! She quickly reaches for it before it can fall off the table..But Seith snatches it first. Phew.."Heh. Sorry about that!" She grins sheepishly, scratching the back of her head as she flops down on the sofa next to the dark lord, still peering over his shoulder at the strange book.

"I guess nothing comes without a price, eh? I...I'm just not sure if I'll be able to pay that price. But, I have to. What else can I do?" When he lectures her about strength, Kat only nods impatiently. "Hey, I've been practicing a lot. Lord Fessner mostly focused on sword play, delving very little into the darkness. But..Strength of heart? What exactly does that mean anyways? Courage? Determination? Bravery? Because I have all those things. I know I do. Is that not enough? Why does everyone think I'm not ready, that I cant take this? I KNOW I can.."

As for LEXUS' suggestion, she nods again and sighs. "I suppose. Hey, I'm not blaming him. Still, I had hoped that things would have turned out differently. People are so difficult to predict, especially when they go around calling themselves 'heroes'." Kat makes a face when she says that last word. Honestly the word annoys her.

"I mean..I thought that I could show her the errors of her ways, to convince her that depending on others will only lead to her destruction. But in the end, it didn't matter. Afterall, she wasn't alone, she was surrounded by friends. They were always there, helping her up when she stumbled. I guess that's what makes a lot of people strong, being surrounded by people who will back 'em up even in the darkest hour. But y'know, those friends wont always be there for you. They might just die trying to protect you. And then what?"

She smirks, "I suppose...If I had actually killed that girl.." But no, Katyna simply could not bring herself to do that. It MAY have caused her to snap, or it may have simply driven her mad with fury and hatred, and a desire to kill Katyna. "I wonder at what point, does that hatred become darkness? Now that they both hate me and want to kill me..What prevents that hateful feeling from blackenning their hearts? Is it simply..Hope?"

She clenches her fists, glaring down at her hands. "But that's the difference between them and me, see? All my friends died..So did my family. I cant depend on anyone but my own strength. And so I practiced sooo hard. But..In the end, that wasn't enough to protect my friends, or to defend myself against the heartless. You ask me what I REALLy want? It's just to be strong enough that no one can ever hurt me like that again. Is it so wrong to seek a powerful weapon to keep yourself from falling, from living every day in fear, as long as you have the skill to back it up? If the heartless are the ultimate power in the world, why should I try hopelessly to fight against them with something that isn't nearly strong enough, knowing that in the end I will die? Doesn't it make more sense to join them and learn from them rather than try to fight a hopeless battle?"

She glances back at the book again thoughtfully and smiles contemplatively. "Hmm, I had an interesting dream once.."

Seith has posed:
"Nothing comes without a price. It's not about whether you CAN pay the price, but whether you are READY to pay the price. It's not one giant chunk payment. It's a payment over time. Just make sure your wallet contains enough to pay it." Really, Seith may be going a little too far with that analogy there. "The Strength of Heart is all of that. Courage, Determination, Bravery, but also Wisdom." So the man explains. "The ability to face your fears, and most importantly, to be true to yourself."

The man then suddenly closes the book in a moment of trying to be dramatic, and lay it onto the now empty table. "If you'd killed her, you would have ended up in far worse of a state." Seith suggest, "Or so is my assumption." The man slowly gets up from his chair. "But hatred does become darkness. Yes. But it takes more than hatred to make a person fall." He reminds her. "Not that I know the exact details. But someone like Angantyr has plenty of anger in them. Yet, Darkness has yet to take him, right?"

The man walks along the library to the upstairs, and ends up leaning forwards on the balustrade. "They can depend on people. Even now, aren't you trying to depend on me?" Seith offers. "It matters little. If you wish to learn how to control and use the darkness, I will teach you. But first - tell me about your dream."

Katyna has posed:
Katyna frowns, nodding slowly to his words. "Yeah, yeah I know. It's a long term thing, right right." Honestly, she sounds quite impatient. "But to tell the truth, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain from it. It's not like I have a lot of things I hold precious that I would be giving up in exchange for this, right?" She smirks, "But I do have a crazy egoistical freak whose determined to kill me on sight, inspite of me sparing the life of his friend Maira." That would be Angantyr of course.

"Honestly if I DONT do something to defend myself against that mad man then I'm screwed. I'd prefer to at least know I have a way of defending myself. Of course, the only reason he hasn't fallen into darkness is because he has friends. And he has the power to protect them.." The last part is said rather bitterly, as if reminded of a similar experience in her childhood in which she lacked the power to save her friends.

"However, I guess it's true, I need your help to learn how to wield the dark magic, but after that I can do it on my own. It's not like it's something I like. Sure you can depend on a person for a short time, but they wont always be around." They'll always let you down eventually, she thinks.

She pulls her legs onto the seat, sitting comfy cross-legged as she continues to peer at Seith's book of dreams and sighs tiredly, resting her head against the sofa back. Kat's looking less and less like a fearsome Shadow Lord, and more and more like just a naieve kid.

"I had this recurring dream see, ever since Lord Fessner disappeared. I dreamt of a little black bird who was caught in a blazing, destructive fire. That blackbird fought with all its might but it was eventually consumed by those deadly flames and faced certain death. However, even as it was reduced to ashes, it was reborn into a beautiful, fledgling phoenix, with brilliant glimmering red feathers that shone like burning embers underneath the sticky black ash that still covered much of its body. It struggled out of the ash, spreading its young wings as it sought to fly into the sky."

"The sky was dark and cold and black, but a brilliant silver moon hung in the sky. The phoenix tried to fly towards the moon, guided by its light, but the moon's light was so brilliant it blinded the phoenix's eyes and it hurt badly. The phoenix tried to retreat to the comfort of the cold darkness, but it soon became lost in the dark, unable to find its way around. I...Never saw how that dream ended.." She finishes with a little tired sigh..

Seith has posed:
"So you think you will outlive me, do you?" Seith asks Katyna, raising his head and looking down upon her form as she states that people won't always be around. He knows what she means, but he still says this to make her ponder her own words. "I'm not sure just learning darkness will help you against someone like Angantyr though." The man erects his posture and moves further along the balustrade, looking down upon the massive collection of books.

"A strange thing you dream of though. You speak of the Phoenix indeed. I am not sure how such a dream would end either. But those who embrace darkness indeed are often blinded by the light, and those of the light seem to fear darkness greatly. But I do not believe that such a phoenix could not get their eyes to slowly get used to light once more." Seith points out. "It is, after all, but a /young/ phoenix." He points out.

"Perhaps your dream suggests you are afraid of the darkness. Afraid you might lose your friends perhaps?"

Katyna has posed:
"Hah!" She laughs, "Of course! You're an elf, and you look young, but I'll bet you're really an old geezer. Of course I'll outlive you, I'm just a kid afterall!" A kid who seems to think she's invincible the way she runs headlong into trouble all the time.

"I know, a powerful weapon and skill. I guess he's just more experienced than me, but.."

Another shrug. Right now, she's more interesting in listening to his interpretation of her dream. "Hmm, I wonder what it would take for that phoenix to light up in beautiful flames again? I wonder if it's possible to stand in both the light and darkness..." She bites her lip as she tries to figure this out.

"I had a mentor see, an honorable Templar Knight, sir Kasrillen..But when he died, Shadow Lord Fessner took me under his wing. Recently I encountered Kasrillen's ghost, and he told Maira and Avira and the other VALKYRIE to 'watch over' me. But..."

"With Lord Fessner missing, I still wanna find him. I feel...Kinda torn..Between Fessner and Kasrillen. Riku tells me, what would Kasrillen think of the things I've done? But..I wonder what Fessner would think? Afterall they were both my mentors, but they were trying to teach me different stuff...Ooh, it's sooo confusing!"

Kat hesitates again, when he suggests she might with to protect her 'friends.' Suddenly she falls silent, hands clenched as she turns a way a little. "Friends, huh? I...Dont really have any friends..."

Seith has posed:
"I am old. But I will still outlive you. For you are but human." Seith reminds Katyna, smirking at the girl and shaking his head a little. "Still, to walk the balance of light and dark? I don't even know if such a thing can be done. Darkness is hurt by light, and the light is hurt by the dark. To walk in between?" He shakes his head. "It sounds like a fool's talk to me." He notes.

He continues on to listen about her mentrs, and crosses his arms. "So both mentors are gone now. And all you have left now, is me..." Seith notes. "To think of what two conflicting people would think of you in a certain situation is needless. What is more important is what /you/ think." He raises a hand and points at her chest - where her heart lies.

"You don't need to make others happy right now. Right now, you need to figure out what you - yourself - want." The man then continues to shake his head. "And to say you have no friends... I feel that miss Hati might be upset you suggest such a thing. Or do you not see her as a friend?" He asks.

Katyna has posed:
"Hah!" she smirks, "You must have had a million facelifts then! What are you, 900 years old by now? I'll bet your older than Morgan though!" Of course, she knows from her friendship the elfin girl that elves tend to live very long and seem to have an ageless beauty. Why, it almost makes her jealous.

As for her mentors, she pouts a little, nodding. "Yeah, I guess so. Who knows, maybe Fessner's dead by now, but I cant give up yet! still, I cant give up on finding him yet! Kasrillen might be dead, but I still have hope for Fessner, just as Hati does for Serrak!"

But, hearing that all she has left is Seith doesn't exactly cheer her up. She barely knows the guy, and isn't particularly fond of him..NOt yet at any rate. "Ooh, aren't I lucky?" She quips with considerable sarcasm. "And I wonder if a Shadow Lord like yourself, who abandonned Ledia to her own fate can really be trusted? Still...I supposed you saved me once or twice in the past. Gotta give you credit for that at least!"

Lucky Seith, he actually gets a slightly appraising smile out of Kat for that one! "By the way I guess I gotta make a report to you about stuff...."

Ahh and then he mentions Hati, and Kat frowns again, nodding, "Of course, there is Hati. I suppose, she is the only one who knows my heart better than anyone else. Her and Reize are the only two people dear to me." Although she was starting to grow quite fond of Riku in a weird, annoying sort of way. Grr..

"But the others..Eh..." Kat stops herself right there, however. IT would do not good to tell him how she respected and admired Avira and Maira, even though they had officially declared themselves enemies of the Shadow Lords. And what of Angantyr? He was a wild card who seemed to waver between the Shadow Lords and the VALKYRIE. Hah! What a crazy guy!