Cervato - Rise of the Phoenix (Part 2 of Cervato's Saga)

Lost: Sin & Virtue

Wake up.

Rain fell upon the dirty cobblestone street within the city.  Rolling thunder  followed dancing streaks of lightning through the dark clouds overhead.  The cool drops of water landed upon the woman's face, body laying prone in the middle of the square.  Their bronze and silver breastplate was torn apart near their abdomen, fractured and splintered through even the leather under layer to reveal a grotesque wound.  The rain carried the blood from the wound to leech outward from her form as it created a spiderweb of crimson between the cracks in the road.  The woman's normally warm brown skin had taken on a gray tinge, graying as Grenth surely was coming for her and not even the rare raspy intake of breath was going to lift her chest.

Another figure in a white cloak knelt by their side, observing the woman who had fallen from the sky from beneath their hood.  Contemplating what to do with this dying stranger, a smile touched their full lips, before placing their hand atop of the armored woman's wound.  As she began to whisper words aloud in a sweet and gentle voice, the rain ceased to fall atop of them, instead collecting into thin streams of water that began to weave around the woman in white as it took on a golden glow.  Slowly, the water wrapped itself around the woman's hand, feeding itself into the body beneath it.  After a moment, the woman released a sigh of relief before moving to wipe her brow, pushing raven tresses away from her gaze.

Not yet.  We've still so much to do.

~

Pools of water collected around Cervato's form now as the sun began to fall in rays between the clouds over the city.  A small groan sounded from the woman's lips as her limbs slowly began to move, testing ground beneath her.  Upon opening her sienna gaze, she found a particularly bothersome sunbeam blinding her enough to block it out with a palm.  The dullest ache settled into her bones as she tried to determine where in the Shiverpeaks she could be.

Yet, there were buildings above her instead.  Statues of griffons and angels in granite.  There were no snow-capped mountain peaks but red shingled roofs and vines climbing the outside of towering district homes.  Rurikton. 

The memory of what transpired before she had blacked out returned.

Sitting up suddenly with a gasp, the sapphire cloth of her armor held a musky scent of being in water for far too long.  Cervato however was more concerned as she pressed her left palm to where that tendril had pierced through her body.  Her armor was still torn apart, but there was no sign of the wound.  Running her fingertips in a circle on where the thick entity had once been, her heart rapidly began to beat as fear formed.

Artemis.  Artemis was somehow corrupted akin to a Branded.  Her former mentor now long dead somehow was responsible for pulling her into a Rift and away from the rest of the Tyrian Accord within that strange cavern.  Were they alright? 

Though even more bizarre was how empty the district was.  Rurikton even in the dead of night always had someone on it's streets whether it was a beggar of a Seraph patrolling the capital of Kryta.  Yet there was no one in sight.  Shakily, she rose from the ground, hand moving to the sword Penelope had forged for her and finding relief that at least she was not completely defenseless.

The Maiden's Whisper stood off to the side and the fountain of Rurikton continued to babble as it always had, the centerpiece of this old Ascalonian district.  Regaining her bearings, she decided to head towards the small tavern in search of someone or something.  A bell at the door chimed as she passed over the threshold and suddenly a multitude of voices filled the air.  The jovial laughter of men busting their mugs of beer against one another.  A barmaid calling to the kitchen for a late order.  A strange relief filled her as she felt that perhaps the strange Rift that Artemis had pulled her through had somehow delivered her home. 

No one appeared to take notice of the woman's bloodstained armor or her haggard appearance, lost in their own conversations.  Slowly, she found a seat upon a stool at the bar, watching as the tender made their rounds collecting new orders and filling them just as quickly.  While waiting for her own turn, she took in the people around her once more, crossing over mostly the human crowd with a sparse collection of the other races of Tyria inside the tavern.  The glint of blackened armor and a rifle on a man's back caught her gaze.  An Elonian Ebon Vanguard soldier was toting a loaf of bread wrapped in paper to a small collection of women at the far side of the counter, sharing a joke as a couple laughed in turn.  Each shook their head as apparently the bread was offered to them before something caused Cervato's blood to chill.

Cervato was watching herself.

Nearly six years ago seated on that stool, sipping at a glass of moscato wine before the soldier offered her a taste of the bread loaf.  Arching a brow at the man, she politely declined, before watching him take his exit.  That smile was impossible to forget.  Zarek Stone.  The young teenaged Sergeant passed by without as much as a glance as he left the tavern.  Skin prickling beneath her clothing, she suddenly rose from the stool, and no one appeared to notice.  Turning left and right, before looking upon her younger self once more, recognizing her old choice in clothing and the way she wore her hair.

The stunned Commander stumbled before leaving the tavern quickly.  "What's happening?" She gasped, running a hand along her chest as if trying to calm her heart.  Now in the street, the sun was shining brightly and the puddles of water from the earlier storm were gone.  People were going about their day in Rurikton Square.  Seeing a merchant at their apple stand, she approached them.  "Excuse me, what day is it?"  She asks, trying not to alarm anyone else.  But the merchant stands their dully, staring through her.  "Hello?"  Waving a hand in front of their bored expression yet their eyes did not follow her fingertips.  Trying to touch them, she exclaimed in shock as her digits passed through the man. "Gods!"  Backing away from them.  As she marched towards the fountain, her anxiety tightened it's hold upon her mind.

"Calm down, calm down..."  Talking to herself aloud as she watched the city's people continue about their daily lives.  A dog ran through her legs and she cried out again in shock.  "This isn't real.  This...is...not real."  A cold realization dawning upon her.

She was not home.  Cervato was trapped within the Mists.  Or at least, that's the best guess she could even wager.  Somehow, Artemis had accomplished this.  Meaning that surely somewhere, Artemis must be watching.

Leather boots with spurs on their heels clicked along the cobblestone street as Cervato stood at the base of the steps of the Fountain at the district's center.  Their owner's built frame moving towards Cervato's back.  When she noted the shadow overlaying her own, turning, she expected someone to just walk through her again, but their dark golden eyes were focused entirely upon her.  The Elonian's heavily dreaded hair hung just to shoulder length as golden piercings decorated his ears, nose, and brow.  A peculiar top hat, black velvet with a purple band rested upon his head as he bowed in the patched vest covering his muscular frame.  Tattoos decorated his dark skin but her eyes darted to the scimitar at his waist before lifting back to his.

"Pardon me, miss, but you appear a little out of place."  A warm deep voice noted down at her as he revealed a wide smile and extended a hand to her to shake.