This is going to look like a gigantic excerpt, which it kind of is (kind of? It is. What am I talking about?), because it's a giant (well, not that giant) retelling of a really old RP thread from the perspective of one of the characters involved. On that note, I'll say a few things now: Yup, this is the result of a good deal of rewriting, splitting and supplementing, and splicing and editing. Yes, it was originally put together for a role-play, and the part of the thread this takes place can actually be found here (NOTE: You will want just the bottom halves of our posts) if you're interested in what else is going on.

Pretty much what I did here was I took everything that I rewrote in the first place and pulled it all back together. I likely would have pulled out the supplementing I had originally added for the thread as well, but unfortunately I'm horrendously attached to that and couldn't bear to not leave it in. :< So I edited out what would make no sense and ruin the continuity any more than being in the middle of something already does. ...On that note, I'll happily answer questions regarding pretty much anything.
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“Ah, yes. That was when Cosmos and I first met. There were four of us in that ordeal. I was dreadfully ill with a cold, and while the finer details elude my memory, I regret that the girl, Raya, was the only one whose face I cannot remember,” Iaeruki found himself saying as he continued scanning pages and indexes, a plaintive frown etching slowly into his features at the cover of a particularly old and foreign work. “Though we had only known each other for all of a meager number of minutes, we protected each other as though our memories had shared the same childhood.”

With a twitch of his ear, the insipid young prince turned and set the aged tome atop the second of the now three new stacks on the table, pausing in the midst of turning back as a convulsive shudder racked his frame. His face lightened slightly while quaking hands took another book to sift through, something strangely composed finding him along the way. “That was the first time I had ever seen a lass so zealously strangle a healer to death,” he remarked calmly.

“It did not last long,” the man began without even a moment’s thought. “Or at least, I do not believe it did,” he amended barely a breath later. Leaning over his new stacks of books to combine the old ones, Iaeruki furrowed his brows slightly in pensive reminiscence, taking a volume off the combined pile, where he went only so far as straightening to look at it, before his expression collapsed, and for a frozen instant he paled at its cover.

A brief flicker, and then a sudden flash, ripped across the back of his mind. A sickening weight filled his chest, and disembodied voices began to dance around his ears, seemingly punctuated by wooden scuffling and thumping. A terrible burning seared into his throat, and for just a brief moment, he saw a stained floor with red-tinged vision, table legs, chairs, bloodied and partially corroded fingers, feet—two pairs, one bare and shifting for ground and leverage, curling small toes into the floorboards. A cold dampness lingered against his skin around the edges, making abruptly immobilized limbs all the heavier.

Conscious reality betrayed gravity with great fervor, and without any further warning flittered speedily away from the edge of existence, leaving the foundation for panic to bubble up from the deep and creep towards the surface. The flight was cut short, however; a pair of blood crimson beacons brought everything to a complete stop, before sending it into a hurried scramble towards the reverse.

From the corner of his eye, Iaeruki finally noticed Eltevedt staring intently at him. His face twitched. Then, chasing away the decadent apparition from his thoughts, he finally turned to look at her.

A curious, thoughtful blink met him, the dark Taekimous’ ears perked, alert, and her hands idle atop the pages of the encyclopedia the man had given her. He only locked up for a second, but she still caught it—a pang of alarm, something old, haunting. Their eyes met, but only long enough for the dragon to quickly turn away, and though she did not realize it, it was due to the perceptive ember in her gaze.

“And yet,” Iaeruki began, resuming as though nothing had been disrupted at all, “despite everything, I do not recall if we ever did find out why they came to assassinate us.” Trembling hands fussed with the book in them, soon setting it into one of the three stacks he had been slowly building. “Rokuro was the one that had the premonition. That morning he rushed through the building with such fervor that by the time I rose to coherency, he was outdoors in the mud, panic-stricken, in tears. The realm of dreams had showed him our deaths.

“Cosmos and Raya had followed him out while I was still rising from my table. When I made it to the door, he was telling them to leave.” There was a slight pause; scarlet-tainted gaze blinked pensively at a damaged index page. “Cosmos immediately argued, and expressed his point with such fervor that his tone bordered on shouting. He would not leave; he would stay where he was and fight. Raya turned to make her way back inside without a word, save only to request that I let her through.

“For a lost moment Rokuro looked at me, and that was when I saw the terrified grief in his face. I was… bewildered, to say the least. Then, resolutely, he rose, forced Cosmos around by the arm, and with clenched teeth stressed the severity of the situation. He could only disclose vague details of the premonition, but he made this much clear: There were four coming, and if we did not leave, we would surely die.” One hand set a book onto one of the new stacks, the other reaching to take a volume from the combined pile.

“Everyone was shaken by it.” The silver-topped man paused halfway through pushing the hardcover open. “…Save for myself. When I let it sink in, I at first thought, maybe, this was the time. Perhaps, this was the time I could let it come, let it push me off the coil… let this piteous husk of a creature finally die, but, no…” His tone seemed to lose strength, a dim wistfulness pulling at his countenance. “How would I face her in the afterdark, knowing that I could have done something against it? How would I face her if I did not at least try and help the others first? To die selfishly is far more terrible a thing than one could ever do in life, and I would not have that taint sitting atop my soul.”

Pausing again, Iaeruki flipped through gold-leafed pages, furrowing his brows, and looked up, blinking at his youthful companion. “Ah, but,” he chuckled wanly, trying a smile for levity, but it fell short, feeble at best, “it is not me you are interested in, is it, lad? No, forgive me, sometimes I stray a little.”

Shutting his eyes, the Ryuakurei lifted his shoulders back, drawing in a long, quiet, pensive breath. He gave himself a moment to search his memory, paying no mind to the otherwise disruptive twitch jerking his frame. Where was he…? Ah, yes, that was it. “Everyone was shaken by Rokuro’s prediction, save for myself,” he reiterated, picking the loose end off the table. “With Raya, I felt it—her face was a mask of flustered discomfiture—but,” scarlet-shot emeralds drifted almost serenely open, rising towards the ceiling with an absent inclining of his head, “Cosmos… he began to exhibit tell-tale signs of panic. His eyes widened, his breathing became weighty, and there, somewhere in the middle of it, a prick of fear spiking with his backward steps. Despite my cold, I could smell it.

“He sought the ground, and then the sky, and for a long moment the silence that befell us thickened, until a spark flickered in his eyes, and he began to call out to the sky. Admittedly, I had lost myself in deeper thoughts at the time, and do not recall what he may have said, but the roaring howl that jarred me from their clutches was enough to understand that it had been a declaration, a vow, and the brandishing of his sword to the sun solidified the notion.” Letting his head sink forward again, Iaeruki absently regarded the books on the table, reaching out for the smaller of the three stacks.

“Rokuro found no assurance in it, and as I tried to prompt him for any further details to the situation, I was fiercely reminded of my illness. My lungs began to lurch and heave, and I was quickly reduced to a hunched and quivering mass of miserable coughing and blood-riddled hacking before I could inquire anything of him. I had considered the prospect of relocating, but before I could suggest it, I needed first to know if anyone in the vicinity would be harmed in our absence. Rokuro’s response…” pale features contorted in a reminiscent wince as feeble hands slid a dusty volume free, “was… not particularly heartening.

“Raya wordlessly slipped past me. Cosmos accused him of lying and began back to the door; whatever else he said, unfortunately, was mostly drowned by a new spell of coughing before it reached my ears, but I at least gleaned that he was referring to a recent promise. Then he called attention to my illness as Rokuro ran past me, and though his suggestion in any case was a prudent one, I had decided that I would not rest until the situation was resolved, regardless whether the virus killed me—or spared me—in the process, and I told him precisely that as I returned inside.”

Cautious fingertips lightly brushed the aging hardcover as clean as they could, before Iaeruki paused to courteously turn away, and then lean forward to blow the rest of the dust away. “Cosmos let the door close behind me,” he began as he straightened, an awkward grimace racing across his face with another abrupt jerk of his frame. “Raya was tearfully gathering her belongings while I crossed the floor to begin preparing the only treatment I knew would keep me on my feet. By the time she began for the door, Cosmos passed through it, and within the next few moments she had gone.

“Soon everyone else had left as well, and only then did it become apparent that Rokuro had come to terms with our alleged fate. He turned to discuss the circumstances with Cosmos, but they only had time enough to exchange anxious reassurances before our worlds twisted into a terrible, ravenous atrocity.”

A sharp tremor rippled through the ailing prince’s body, shoving a hand out to swiftly catch the table. A curtain of silver fell into his face, obscuring the bewildered blinking he sent its edge, before a wet snap cut into the silence, squeezing a quiet grunt from his throat. Another tremor raced down his form, a dull creak straining out of his ribs, and then a muted crackle sounded, before twisted threads of black danced off his side, thickening, and then arcing with a sharp crack. Tweaked, feeble shaking gradually swallowed the man’s frame as he carefully pushed himself upright, a quaking hand rising toward his lip, into which he loosely cleared his throat.

“Raya burst through the door so suddenly that it slammed against the adjacent wall,” Iaeruki began, his voice a slight croak until he paused to clear his throat again. “Her eyes were wild, the air around her roiling thick with terror as she backed away from the door—I could have choked on it, but instead I nearly choked on the remedial tea I had been drinking and broke into another fit of hacking. When I found the chance to look towards the door again, there were four standing there.

“My mind reeled; it was far too soon. I began to lose track of my thoughts, even as the first of them spoke. He was meant for Cosmos, a magus of holy,” slender fingers rubbed at his upper lip a moment, “the energy emanated from his presence in much the same manner the smell of rot would from a days-old carcass. The next that spoke was a mountain of a man, a barbarian. Raya had made her way to my table then, I vaguely remember the touch of her sleeve rubbing the blood from my lip, and she spoke to me, but,” the man frowned, running his hand absently across the cover of the book in his other arm, “most of what she may have told me passed through without ever reaching my mind.

“Sluggishly I rose from the table, and Rokuro began to call on the wind. Cosmos seethed, exchanging few words with the magus before advancing. A sharp gust pushed itself at our assassins, kicking dust into the air and shoving all but the largest of them back a pace. Rokuro turned to Raya, and we learned then that the barbarian had been sent for her. It was baffling—to slay a lass so small? As he shifted to inform me of the healer intended for my own demise, Cosmos lunged to charge, and as he turned back he quickly redirected his winds in a valiant attempt to stop the lycanthrope from barreling headfirst into his own tomb.

“Cosmos collided with a table, and while I tried to understand the new details to the situation, as well as precisely what was happening in the first place, I suddenly felt the inexplicable impulse to move closer to my table. The moment I had, a sizable blur hurtled past my head, which I turned to follow, and then quickly found myself staring at Rokuro in a large hole in the wall. Then I heard Cosmos roar—I whirled my head around to look as soon as I registered from whence it came—and saw him swinging his blade for the holy mage, one of his hands mangled, bloodied,” unearthly emeralds squinted in strained reminiscence, “useless, before he suddenly fell back, preempted, floored. At times, it is almost appalling how easily the undead can be repelled by anointed energies and images.

“His eyes widened, and just as I jerked around to regard the barbarian, I heard his assassin address him personally. I did not think anything of it—I question whether I could have, the world had become a nigh incomprehensible blur—and glanced to Raya, and then Rokuro, who was extracting himself from the wall, summoning earth as he did so. Within the moment a boulder had been launched at the beast of a man, and the impact sent him toppling to the floor. As he broke free and prepared to retaliate, a reprimanding snarl cut him short, and for the first time I caught true sight of the man sent to kill Rokuro.

“His energy was distinct, far different from the basic elemental nature of most living creatures. He was a weapons mage, a specialist in conjuring blades ranging across a vast spectrum of diversity. I barely had time to derive even that little detail before my vision was washed white, and my eyes ignited with fires akin to the infernos of Catholic Hell.” Iaeruki’s free hand drifted subconsciously aloft, his brows furrowing as pale fingertips pressed reflectively into the respective eye. “Thoughts, feeling, perception, and cognition burned away, and I had quickly forgotten everything but pain, even as my body recalled rigidity and motion. Soon my hand was burning as well, my vision had turned crimson, and the voice of a dragon echoed through my ears. As conscious thought returned to me I was throwing a woman, the healer, haphazardly into a table.”

Wandering fingers began to rub both eyes, gradually sliding down to run along the pale dragon’s high cheekbones instead. “The force of the impact broke it, bringing the count of damaged furniture up from one to two, though I did not see the extent of what I had done until long after the skirmish was over. My body shook as I checked the burn left on my face—I may as well have been splashed across my eyes with acid and Greek fire for the reaction it caused. They wept blood, as did my fingers, and keeping them open had become a battle in itself. Sound twisted into a horrific beast; I could no longer understand the din of the room beyond pounding clatter and thunderous noise. With my olfactory and auditory perception rendered useless to me, I began to realize the new importance set on my damaged eyes.

“I tried to find the healer, but within a heartbeat I had forgotten I was doing precisely that and instead attempted to survey the vicinity again. Cosmos was still on the floor, agape, and for a moment he seemed paralyzed, until he gradually rose to his feet. As I began to turn away, I saw him snatch at the holy mage’s crucifix with his disfigured hand, but what he may have done further was lost to me. I had found Rokuro then, pressed against the wall, a conjured dagger at his throat, and one of his hands at the weapon mage’s chest. In the instant it took me to begin shifting my attention again, an incredible force erupted from his palm, pushing him further against the wall, while the man on the other end of his arm was sent tearing across the floor through the air.

“I sought Raya, and though I regarded her for naught but a second, my subconscious latched to her presence, for what purpose I cannot be certain, but I knew then that I had to watch over her. I had to protect her, even if I could not support myself.” A rattling cough suddenly tore itself from Iaeruki’s chest, lurching his shoulders forward, as though he’d been struck in the solar plexus. He backed away from the table, pushing the tome he had in hand precariously on the edge, and curled an arm high across his middle, turning away as the other pressed a shaking hand over his mouth.

Clotted, desperate coughing racked his frame, twisting his features in a distressed grimace, even as the short-lived fit came to a stop. Taking a moment to recover breath, he once more resumed posture, rubbing the heel of his palm against his lip as a feeble “sorry,” slipped from his tongue, and turned towards the table again, peering at each of his companions in turn. “A twinge wrenching deep into my gut forced my focus around from Raya after that fleeting moment, and as I strained to focus and discern why, there, halfway across the chamber, barreling towards her, was the barbarian. My illness had leeched so much of the life from my body that it wanted nothing more than to collapse where I stood, but, with what stubborn will I could muster, I pushed myself into motion. I reached into my blood, strained for the chaotic energy laced within it, and my feet carried me unsteadily across the floor to intercept him.

“He was nearly upon her when I mustered the strength to lunge, and with a howl, I threw myself at him. I gave myself enough altitude to pull his head around and grasp him by the face, but I had enough velocity and momentum that I barely had time enough to push my chaotic energies forth and flood his body before I went flipping over his head and tumbling to the floor. An agonized cry rent through my thoughts, and the thud of his collapse sounded as my haphazard rolling came to a stop.” The previously aloft hand once more drifted skyward, a few slender fingers rubbing into the man’s temple.

“The world spun. For what seemed an eternity I could not discern where the dimensions of our reality lay, but eventually I recovered my bearings, and as soon as I had, I looked up, and I was greeted with a forbidding sight. The healer stood over me, silently incensed, and this was all I could understand as my thoughts were viciously interrupted by her fingers yanking me aloft by my tunic, while her other hand clasped tightly around my neck. It burned through my throat, even into my chest; again, I had forgotten everything save searing pain, but this time, so had my body. I could not see, could not breathe… I could not even scream, and the best efforts my vocal cords could manage were choked, voiceless… but I could hear, and what picked its way into my mind singed itself into my memory—she had addressed me by name and rank, before making it clear that she alone was my concern.

“Reality began to twist, mutate, its edges fading to blackness, until unfamiliar blood caught my senses by surprise, and I soon came to the realization that I was flat on my back. My body turned on its side and curled in on itself, my hands fought amongst each other over which would take to my throat. Breathing burned. The urge to cough was nigh overwhelming, but I did my best to suppress it with feeble success. As soon as I was able, I forced myself around to my hands and knees. A glance across the floor enlightened me to the slowly rousing form of the barbarian, and with great reluctance, I dragged myself towards him, reasoning desperately with myself as I drew my dagger, and then plunged it through his larynx. Whatever the cost, I could not allow them mercy.

“I did not look to make certain he was dying; the horrific gurgling was well enough to understand what I had done to him.” Dark brows knotted together, Iaeruki’s unearthly eyes narrowing disdainfully into the distance. “I shudder to imagine the expression that may have been on his face. I did not contemplate long on that matter, however, when I turned around to find Raya, and discovered that she had taken to the healer and was determinedly strangling her.

“I thought I had a moment to tend to my neck, so I sought to do precisely that. Unfortunately, I was direly mistaken, and within the next few moments I had been bound to the floor, and the chaotic energies laced through my blood began to rise in protest. My thoughts raced, my senses floundered, and I quickly lost perspective of just what was happening. My spirit began to writhe, and in the same time it took for my very being to being reacting, everything came to a crashing halt. I can only assume the healer was slain, but as I rose, I saw without perceiving, and felt without comprehending. The last thing I recall was the terrible sound of screaming, desperate, horrified, anguished screaming, chilling to the very soul, until everything blanks out, and my next memory thereafter is of waking in the same building in which we had fought.

“Had I been of better health, perhaps I would know more today, but I never found the nerve to question what else transpired among any of them. It may have been for the better; my slumber had been haunted in deeper phantasmagoria by greater demons after that.” Weary eyes blinked at the faded cover of the tome balanced in his hands, bits of silken silver slipping forth to settle before them. “But no matter,” he abruptly added, as though in afterthought, vainly trying to shake his hair from his eyes. “I have yet to even begin my research, and here you have already made well on your way.”

that was the most interesting one so far, only cause it left me wanting to learn about the character's backgrounds; your style of writing is very well suited to action scenes

Thank you. :3 I think I've been told that once, though sadly my battles are few and far between. I do more with tormenting people. ._.;

i've noticed that, you haven't posted a story so far where a person is actually well off
but it works really well for you , keep it up

also, you mind telling me what the name means?

*keff* Hi, I'm a sadist. : D; *sheepish wave* I have... one, I think, that had just silly shenanigans going on, but I would seriously have to rewrite that one to death before I put that one up, because it's so old it was posted on FictionPress, and I never look at anything that was ever posted on FictionPress. Ever. ._. They're just that horrible.

The name, "Ist Fas" means, "One Life." It's loosely based off of the point where Iae trails off into wistful abandon and mentions that letting himself die would the most horrible and selfish thing he could ever do to someone, even strangers, and he wouldn't let himself do it.

heh...i don't blame you for being a sadist cause it's pretty damn fun
and i can understand what you mean by looking at past works, but sometimes it's fun to go back and redo it cause you can gauge how far you've come

Absolutely! 8D I could probably try writing something new that's silly, though I've found that my best humor comes out in collab. =/ It's probably because I get nigh-instant gratification when I throw funny into a collaborative work (and I do it every chance I get, oh man), whereas there isn't so much such a thing when I do it in an independent run.

i've never done a collaboration before , is it fun?

It's lots of fun. =D Depending on how you decide to do it with your partner, it's either exactly like a role-play, or it's similar with slightly different rules. When the rules are different, it's because everyone's taking control of the same characters and trying to hold them to the same mold, rather than sticking to their own. Usually we tend to be lazy and just stick to our own characters, and then fix any flow issues later.

that's good to know, do you prefer writing or art collabs?
also, do you have any more pieces up your sleeve?

sorry for all the questions

I tend to do writing ones more than art ones, though that's more due to accessibility than anything. It's a lot easier to write things with me on the internet than draw things with me for, well, a number of different reasons. o.o;

I'm sure I have some sitting around somewhere. n_n And if I don't, I can always try to finish something I have lying around in my files. I have a few incompletes that could stand to be finished; one's a work that's actually an attempt to rewrite something I posted on FictionPress ages ago. Originally I was just going to edit the crap out of that, but then I looked at it and just had to scrap the whole thing. ._.

I don't mind the questions. =D It helps keep the conversation going, doesn't it?

on that note, if you ever want to do an art collab let me know
and how can i find out what happened to the other characters?

I'll keep that in mind. :3 Hopefully I'll actually get some of that arting ability back sometime this year.

The fight that Iae's talking about is from a very old thread from an equally old board that's still around. The writing by now in that is pretty *so-so gesture* and embarrassing, but it's still public, so I'll link you. We never got around to finishing it, so by the end of his retelling, I'm pretty much filling in the blank. =/ Cos (the other participant of the current thread) and I figured more of the ordeal's end would probably end up being covered between Iaeruki and Cosmos at some point when they get back from the library (it's almost definite that prince-laddie is going to ask something about it now that it's come up).

Here you go. I started you out on the day the ordeal starts. I'll apologize in advance for the verboseness and some of the monotony. ._.; Five years is pretty damn old. I'll also apologize for the comparatively s***ty quality of my posts (the grey ones). D: My god, my brain tried to poop out carnation fields back then. The board moved while the thread was still active, and it ended up here. Unfortunately, after Cos and I posted, that was it. No one else replied back. We were actually quite pissed. =_=