Beloved Kurasai

[Jaxriel]

Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright

Tiger, Tiger, burning bright, in the forest of the night,
What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder and what art could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And, when thy heart began to beat, what dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? What the chain? In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp dare its deadly terrors clasp?  
When the stars threw down their spears, and water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see? Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, Tiger, burning bright, in the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

~ William Blake (1757-1827)

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The Journal of Jaxriel:

I come from a line of high elves, and while most of the old houses are revered by their peers as honorable houses of dignity and achievement, me family's house is not so. The deFafnyr line is a house hiding ill-will, greed and debauchery. We kept slaves, some of which are not merely purchased but gathered on “safari” trips by me Dah. He collects slaves like other people would collect rare animals and then he has them whipped into servitude, valuing the most exotic slaves he can domesticate.

There is evidence that me family line comes not of Telon but of another world, and that members of the root of me family tree spread out from our mother-world in search of a secret goal, each member of the family’s pact arriving on different worlds through a portal created in great standing mirror known as the Mirrors of Eisabeau. Me family has such a mirror though its glass has always remained covered with great warnings by me Mum to never let sunlight strike that mirror’s surface.

I am not like me Dah. I do not seek to capture and domesticate the most exotic of races to serve as servants and slaves. In truth, however, I could have very well become a daughter after me own Dah’s heart, a cruel mistress that me Dah would have been proud of, had I not fallen in love with one of my father’s exotic slaves. I no longer consider meself Jaxriel deFafnyr, the heir of House deFafnyr. I am for now and evermore will be, Jaxriel Kurasai.


Beloved Kurasai

She lay next to the large slumbering Kurashasa, listening to him rumble as he breathed. She pushed herself up, wiping her golden hair out of her eyes and winced. Dear Goddess Gloriann, she was sore. She turned to look at him. Wasn’t he the same Cat she’d grown up with? Why was she now both afraid…and in love with him?

She remembered being so young when father brought him to their estate, something Father had captured and kept during a safari trip to Qalia, presenting him to Jaxriel like a toy or a pet for her to play with. His name was Mugura and he was just a cub among his kind, young and soft and furry, but still bigger than the little elven Jaxriel. The boy-cat stood watching her that first day, with those cat eyes, subdued by the collar at his throat. He refused to play with her at first. She remembered being spoiled and not caring when father whipped the Kurashasi cub to force him to be nice to her and do as she bid. At the time she thought it served him right, impudent slaves needed to be whipped when not obeying.

She couldn’t remember when things began to change or if there was ever a defining moment. It seemed like for years she treated him as her plaything, dragging him along on a leash, making him play with her. Sometimes he seemed to actually enjoy it. Was it when they were entering their teen years? The wrestling and playing at pounce became rougher. Jaxriel still enjoyed their play but Father took Mugura away from her, said he was too big to be a toy anymore and moved him to spend more time with the other slaves doing hard manual labor and started training to be an enslaved house-guard. She missed the heated afternoons when the house got sleepy and quiet, long afternoons curled up with her Cat-boy for a nap against his soft fur.

She remembered Father being angry with her and she didn’t understand why. It was just Mugu, her pet. They always wrestled together. They always napped together. Why did Father want it to stop? She didn’t understand it then, but she understood it now. Mugu often gave her hungry looks from the guard’s station where he worked learning sword play while being hit by the whip for each mistake. She looked hungrily back, felt the longing, the tingle in her body missing the feel of him next to her during those innocent naps.

Why did they have to grow up? Why did things have to change? Her eyes welled with unshed tears at the memory, everything was so confusing then. Father pushed elfin noble heirs at her. She was forced into dresses with tight waistlines pushing up her newly formed breasts to attend parties she didn’t want to go to.

Mugura had stolen away to talk to her, was angry at her for enjoying such frivolous things such as party dresses and letting uppity elfin boys leer at her cleavage. His anger made her defensive and she lied and pretended that she liked such things and stuck her nose in the air at him. She rebuffed him to his face, while inside she sunk with sadness. Mugu was caught talking to her and was dragged off and whipped…yet again. She pretended not to care. She pretended it served Mugu right for disobeying. He was the most stubborn of all of Father’s slaves and got whippings more often than any of them and his furred body bore the scars to prove it.

She wanted to stop the whippings, but she couldn’t raise her hand against her own father could she? “Gods, Mugura, just obey and the whippings will stop!” But he would not listen to her, and now they were kept apart. They only saw each other from a distance, turning her head so he wouldn’t see her admiring his back when he swung an axe or a hammer in practice, feeling his eyes on her when she practiced at her bow or sword training.

She had just been promised to marry an heir to a friendly nobleman’s son, a good match joining their two houses, when the uprising struck. Mugura had secretly been inciting the servants, plotting and planning until on the very day of the announcement of her engagement, by that evening the estate was in full battle, servants against the family’s house-guards, some of those guards turning on the family and joining the servants against Father’s cruelty until finally there stood Mugura with a sword at Father’s throat.

Jaxriel pleaded with Mugura to not kill her father. Mugura gave plenty of reasons why he should, but in the end he relented on condition…that Jaxriel be given to Mugura as hostage and wife and that House deFafnyr never take a slave again. Father stammered at that. House deFafnyr had always had slaves…why…they’d have to actually pay wages…the thought was unthinkable to her father to have to pay for help rather than enslaving them. Mugura tightened the sword against her father’s throat. “NO!” Jaxriel shouted. “I will go with Mugura. Father do as he says! The bloodshed must stop.”

And so a truce was formed. Some slaves left House deFafnyr. Some stayed but as paid servants. House-guards were put on payrolls. And to Lord deFafnyr’s shame, a priest was brought and his daughter was married to the freed Kurashasa, Mugura.

Her memories glossed over the repercussions of her broken engagement to the noble’s son and to her family’s disgrace at everything that had happen. Now she was here on the Isle of Dawn on what should be her honeymoon, getting used to the fact that now it was Mugura who was in charge of her life and not the other way around. And now on long afternoons they would once again nap, not as children, but as a Kurashasi male and his elven wife.

(to be continued)


   

[Jaxriel]

Journal of Jaxriel

When Mugu demanded that me Dah give his only child to him as hostage and bride, I agreed to it with some trepidation. There was little choice in the matter iffen the bloodshed was t’stop. Otherwise I have no doubt the rebellion Mugura caused among the slaves of House deFafnyr would have destroyed the entire estate and burned our beloved vineyards to ash, not t’mention the silk plantation. The most valuable however, are the grapevines. They are irreplaceable as they are from a stock hundreds and hundreds of years old brought from our Mother-World through the Mirror of Eisabeau. It is the family’s great secret and the very reason why the flavor of our wines are so unique, as the secret is these grapes are of a stock that is not native to Telon.

So I agreed t’marry the large Kurashasi. Mugura was my best and greatest friend as a child, though that too was a secret. I could nae let me Dah know how much I cared fer Mugu, and because of it I also had to hide me feelings from Mugu too. I could ne’er give him hope as I grew up knowin’ it was me duty t’marry someone of me Dah’s choosing to make our House stronger.

Well, now things are all turned around. I dinnae know if Mugu was makin’ me marry him fer revenge, ta take Dah’s most precious procession away from him, or iffen it was t’deny me Dah his child the way Mugu’s family was denied having him when me Dah captured and stole him, bringing Mugu all the way here to forced slavery and the whip. Or was Mugu makin’ me marry him because he was so angry that I snubbed his friendship when Dah separated us and stopped letting Mugu be me pet, moving Mugu to labor wit the other slaves? But what else was I supposed t’do? Were I t’act like I cared, it would have angered me Dah and he’d just take it out all the harder on Mugu and I could nae stand t’see Mugu’s whippings as they were, let alone be the cause of more of them.

So I became Mugu’s wife, and we spent a time of adjustment on the Isle of Dawn. Mugura was cruel t’me as I’d expected he would be. He was so full of anger and revenge. I dinnae know when things started t’change, mebbe it was that we were finally alone wit each other and no one looking over our shoulders t’disapprove, but eventually the closeness that Mugu and I once shared as children started t’rise again through all the anger and pain and resent. He’d slap me with his great paw like he used to, and I’d slap him back, wit no one looking over our shoulders to whip him. It was just he and me, fighting it out like the days when I’d push him to his limits, forcing him t’sit among me stuffed animals at me little tea-parties.

Me fondest childhood memory…it was the first tea party that I pushed Mugu over the edge. He sat scowling at the little table in me nursery, stuffed bears and all me dolls in little chairs around him and me forcin’ him t’act like a living stuffed toy animal havin’ tea wit me and me toys. The Kurashasi cub had reached his limits wit me and bounded over me little table, paw at me throat. I think he expected me t’react the spoiled princess and cower and cry. It’s what me Dah would have expected of me. I guess I’m not really deep down what I’m supposed t’be because what welled up in me jus’ soared in the fight with Mugu. I punched him. He punched me back. We rolled across the room and beat the living hell out of each other and luckily Nanny was no where t’be seen t’break it up or surely Mugu would have been whipped yet again.

But Nanny wasn’t there, and Mugu and I fought until we had no more fight left in us. We just sort of collapsed in a heap t’gether on the rug and fell asleep, me leg wrapped around his in a wrestling hold, his paw on me throat, and that nap was the most peaceful sleep I’d ever had in me life.

Mugu was the one person in the world other than me Dah that would nae back down from me. Mugu always told me what he thought, ne'er lyin’ to me t’gain me favor, and because of it and that honesty I grew t’respect him and cherish our friendship as it grew. When that friendship grew t’love as we grew up, it was with an aching heart that I had t’hide it from him to protect him.

And now here we are, married, and after all that time with no one around t’break us up we fought as soon as we reached the Isle of Dawn and kept fighting until the fight was out of us and I could look him in the eye and tell him that I love him with all of me heart and soul. O’course that doesn’t mean we’ll be stoppin’ the fightin’. I dinnae think Mugu and I will ever stop arguin’ and fightin, but it’s something that I do treasure in him. We be honest wit each other, painfully so, quite literally. But now that we’re together again, I won’t be lettin’ anyone come between us again, not me Dah, not the world, nor the very gods themselves. That furry Cat be mine an’ I’ll not be givin’ him up of fer anythin’.

[Jaxriel]

Beloved Kurasai

((**Note: The rest of this story is being written as it is roleplayed in-game, with very little scripting at all. From here on out, we are beyond background premise and what follows will be the storyboard written after the events take place, mostly in the form of spontaneous roleplay from within the game.))

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The plan was to leave the Isle of Dawn once they’d finished reacquainting with each other and to arrive in Qalia, heading to the homeland of Mugura’s family so he could reunite with them. And so in Qalia, they did arrive. But they did not stay for long, and they never did make it to his family. Jaxriel didn’t know if Mugu had sent a message to his family or not that he was alive and would be coming home with an elven wife in tow. Before they could travel much beyond Khal, their plans took a drastic turn.

Word that a representative of the human king at Targonor wished to speak with Jaxriel was covertly brought to them and their curiosity over this covertness was too much to ignore. What did the humans want to discuss with the elven Jax? She wasn’t nobility, far from it. Her father was only a land owner, but not royalty. Basically House deFafnyr was no more than a family of over ambitious vintners owning lands capable of sustaining the alien grapevines that made exceptional wine, and the mulberry trees upon which the silkworms thrived.

So to Targonor Jax and Mugu went, where they unexpectedly found themselves in private consultation with King Baran Targanor Furth. It was a minor matter for the King, but a major one for Jax and Mugu, for it was revealed that Jax’s father had his hands in an illegal shipping ring that the King was finding difficult ferreting out of his city. DeFafnyr wines and silks were shipped out of Thestra through Targonor’s great harbors to the rest of the world, but it wasn’t only wines and silks that Gantt deFafnyr was shipping out and into Thestra, and King Baran wanted Gantt deFafnyr and his circle out of his port city.

Word had come to the King’s spies of the trouble at House deFafnyr, between Gantt deFafnyr and his daughter, Jaxriel, and knowing that Jaxriel was on the outs with her father, the king wanted to see if she truly stood against the man and if she would help the King with his little dilemma with the circle of crime Gantt deFafnyr had his fingers in under Targonor’s seedy underbelly. The king’s bets leaned on the hopes that Jax would help to work against her father, and would perhaps have the help of the ex-slave and Kurashasa that was now her husband..

Jaxriel had no idea what her father had been doing on the business end of their family’s holdings. She only knew of his illegal trade in slaves, so it was a surprise to her to find her father dealt in a lot more illegal activity. She asked Mugura how he felt about it. Did he want to continue on with his return to his homeland to start their new life or did he want to aid this king in doing something about her father? Mugura was quite happy at the chance to cause ruin to Jaxriel’s father, and to do so at the request of someone powerful just sweetened it for Mugura.

So to Leth Nurae the couple went, both setting to work making themselves known in diplomatic circles. There was risk here, not only in the trouble she would be causing with her father, but also in the fact that there was still a very powerful man in this city that Jaxriel had spurned when she failed to marry his son as agreed upon with the engagement contract that was broken when Jaxriel married Mugura.

Jaxriel set to work undermining her father in the royal circles, obtaining the Scepter of the Rose for her effort while Mugura strengthened his reputation among the soldiers of the city. Jaxriel offered the entire silk plantation to the Queen should Jaxriel succeed in her bid to take her inheritance from her father, promising the silk plantation as payment for the crimes of her father and in back payment to the taxes he evaded with his underworld business dealings. When the final deal was struck, the Queen Ilyia and King Antael commanded that if Jaxriel could succeed in undermining her father and bringing him before them in chains, the vineyards, winery and the silk plantation would remain in Jaxriel’s hands. Jaxriel would, however, have to accept heavy taxation, and to this Jaxriel and Mugura agreed.

...to be continued...

[Jaxriel]

Jaxriel’s Journal

Well I spent a lot of time in Leth Nurae’s royal court. Me Mum always wanted me t’be a diplomat. Likely because she thought the life of a swordswoman was no life for a Lady and that’s what her ambitions for me were, t’be a Lady. And if Dah failed t’find me a good match for a husband with a nobleman’s son, then at least as a diplomat I’d be runnin’ in the circles that Mum dreamed I would travel.

The thing is…I do enjoy it, not so much the dance of words but in the unmasking of the hypocrites. Sometimes I get such a perverted pleasure at twisting their own words and force-feeding them back to them that until they are vomiting the truth.

Now for example…I sought the forgiveness of Queen Ilyia t’clear me family name t’be applied as soon as I was able t’get me Dah out of the reins of me family’s holdings. The motivation was to do the honorable thing. I wanted t’clean out the cancer that is me father upon me family and then rise it back up t’make DeFafnyr Wine & Silks honorable and all legal and above-board once again. Honor. Well what honor can I think t’have if it be given by a Queen that has no honor in her own House with her traitorous daughter Megalla? Instead of being able to accuse Princess Megalla for stealing the fabled Bow and then implicating the Royal Dragoons, I’m being forced t’sweep it under the rug? And the Bow was t’be used for an assassination?!? Well how is that any different than me Dah sweepin’ his slavery, drugs and illegal shipping activities under the legitimate business me family conducted? I’m asking the dishonor of me family’s cancer t’be forgiven and restored by a royal hand that has itself its own leprosy?

And the Princess Megalla is only a thorn in the difficulty in that kingdom for me. Now there is the danger of the man I was supposed t’marry and his father. It is…painful…for me to even think of what happened t’me at the hands of the Honorable Mindbender and his son, me former fiancé. Not once but twice they assaulted me and in the second event they stole the mind of me own husband t’hold me down while they did their vile things t’me. Had I been a weaker woman, I’d have been broken by it.

So now we come to a crossroad, me and me husband, Mugura. Before this all started, when we were just freshly married and were off t’Khal about t’embark on a quest t’find his family, we met in with some people, The Cabal they call themselves. We joined them. We’ve made friends and we firmly believe we cannae be in any finer company. I think on them now for two reasons while I sit here and write in me journal. One, Mugu an’ I are about t’begin our “Nit” or Initiate Trials with the Cabal. I have begun with the Trial of Spirit and I think it is a good task that will lead to learning more of the spirit of the members that Mugu and I now be a part of. The second is I have begun t’open up about me and Mugu to them. I even went on a bit of a tirade against the High Elven royalty this morning and their hypocrisy at the royal court. And the Cabal are beginning t’open up t’me. There appears t’be a few darker spirited ones among us and I find that a welcome really. It’s important in the ways of Balance. Everything in life needs Balance, but I’ll not get into me philosophy on that right now. There be too many other things going on for me t’record in me book of thoughts at present.

One woman among the Cabal seeks t’take down someone that has done something evil t’her. Now a goodly person would advise a woman in her position t’turn the cheek, or t’remove the evil from society but t’be merciful t’the evil one. I have seen so much pain and hurt that a person can do. Does evil really ever learn from mercy? I think nae. I have seen the dishonesty and the lies that evil hides beneath a coat of false nobility. Nobility…born nobility is not at all the same as real, true nobility. And I suppose the true noble would say t’take the Higher Road. Glad I am not noble, either by birth or by deed, for my only advice I could give this woman in the Cabal, and the advice I be given m’self over what has been done t’me at the hands of Tylindial and Yaelondial Thosi’Shadi, is rather than turn the other cheek, might be best t’just stab an eye for an eye.

The goodly and the self righteous can afford t’take the higher road for I do nae believe any of them have traveled any roads as dirty as the ones traveled by those that need revenge. First let them, the self-righteous, wear the Robes of Grief and Bloodshed aimed nae at those around them but aimed right at their own pious hearts, and we shall see just how goodly the self-righteous can remain while bearing the weight of that heavy Robe. No one’s eyes can truly be open t’such pain unless they bear the weight of that Robe themselves.

So back t’our crossroad…Mugura and I turned away from the hypocrisy and lies of the Elven court t’take the road leading t’King Baran Targonor Furth. Now this king, his motivations in regard to me Dah involves nothing of false-honor or taxation or the restoring the glory of being a Hoity Toity Elf. This human king merely wants an illegal shipping business that has its hands in slavery, murder, racketeering and extortion t’clear out of his city. Me Dah is one of several boss rats in this coterie mucking up the underbelly of Targonor. I count it lucky that the King here does nae lay the blame at me own feet, yeh know, Sins of the Father and all that, and instead this human king has agreed t’give me and Mugura a promise of protection and a place t’live in his human lands if we work t’help clear out this mess out brought on by me Dah.

So now….to the plans…




(to be continued)

[Jaxriel]

Jaxriel’s Journal

Sometimes I wonder if other High Elves notice the difference between me family and their own race. These portals and the Kaon invasion gets me wonderin’ about it. I guess the elves here in Telon came from a dark elf master-race and then were divided up into the wood elves and the high elves. They were turned pale by Haelufir as a curse when Vol Tuniel divided the elves.

Now where me family came from, our original elven race, it was the other way around. A god named Innoruuk took a couple of high elves, a king and a queen and slowly tore them apart both physically and mentally over the course of 3000 years. He then took the quivering pieces of these beings of light and rebuilt them in his own dark, sadistic image and called his dark elf creations Teir’dal. Dal...that’s word fer “elf” in me grandparent’s home-world. Teir’dal are the dark ones. Fier’dal are the wood elves. Koada’dal are the High Elves. Me family comes from a mixture of all of them, there on our home-world. The deFafnyr’s are a mixed breed of all of them “dals.” Tha’s right. Even on our own home-world we be a far cry from nobility but dammit all iffen we do nae make the best wine in a dozen worlds.

Now all this makes me wonder at things. The Mirror of Eisabeau, the portals me family used t’go forth into the universe t’find the key t’the Pact they made…our side of the universe the elves where light and then cursed with darkness. Here on Telon the master elven race was originally dark, and later cursed with lightness. Is me family’s Mother-World the opposing balance t’ Telon? Our worlds are opposites as far as elven creation goes. I wonder how many other things are opposite and cast a balance between Telon and the world me family originally came from.

Me family has never associated tightly with the elves here on Telon, keepin’ t’ourselves, likely t’keep from being scrutinized. The lilt we speak with is more pronounced. I’ve heard some speak with the lilt, though not as heavy as me own accent, but I must say it warms me heart immensely when I hear it comin’ from others. DeFafnyr elves are tall in this world where in our home world we are short compared to our brethren. Our skin is not as pale as the High Elves here but we are nae as dark and sallow as the woodelves of Telon either.

Me grandparents brought the vine stocks with them when the came here through the Mirror, planted in lands on Telon that were at the edges of elven space t’ fit in, but stayed quiet and low while searching for the Key that brought them here with the mission of the Pact. They got the worms busy on the mulberry trees planted on the hilly and rockier land we claimed fer ourselves while the flatter lands with better drainage got worked t’ sustain the rows and rows and unending rows of grapevines nurtured with the druidic magic by me grandmum’s hand. With the vineyards and the silk plantation started, next they built the winery t’process, cask, age and bottle our wines and set about finding buyers fer the spinnings of our worms fer someone t’process into silken cloth.

Now…all this leads me t’me own plans. I cannae trust the elves t’ follow through with helpin’ me take me lands from me father. I might as well give up on plans t’take back deFafnyr Wine and Silks. So what am I goin’ t’do? The king has promised me and Mugura land and protection iffen we clear me Dah and his syndicate out o’Targonor. So now I be thinking that me first move right after I finish studying all the cards in place, is t’get stock off me family’s vines and plant them on land given t’me and Mugu by the King and find me some druidic hand like me grandmum placed upon the vines t’coax them to quicker production, and I then I need t’ get trees planted that will sustain the silkworms we’ll be “appropriating” from me family lands, enough t’recolonize the worms. And then…then I’m gonna choke me Dah out of business, right here where his neck is stuck out, right here in Targonor.

Now fer the cards. Now it seems that deFafnyr Wine & Silks has been shipping through a contract with New Horizons here in Targonor. New Horizons is the House that handles the foreign trade in and out of Thestra. Iffen they are legit or not I have nae discovered but they are thick as thieves, literally with House Vermach, whose denizens are well known as Targonor’s house of thieves. More disturbing I find is me Dah’s connetion with another ally of New Horrizons, House Hilthorn, also known in certain circles as Black Dahlia. There are many dark elves there who openly flaunt their undead minions.

I’d a thought t’infiltrate these houses, make meself friends with them but I think that an unhealthy move and perhaps a dangerous one. Me Dah would jus’ alert them t’nae trust me and me Kurashasa husband. So I’ll be seeking backing and service with either House Reminol fer the power I can wield there diplomatically, or perhaps smarter still, with the mercenary House that Mugura and I have been renting a home within, House Shrike. House Shrike is allied with House Reminol. Lord Dominic Shrike is a famous mercenary captain and that can only be good t’have on one’s side when trying to start a new business intent on suffocating me Dah’s out of existence. A thought occurs t’me…Houses Shrike and Reminol are allies. What if instead of swearing allegiance t’one or the other, I swore allegiance t’one and Mugura swore one t’ the other? Hmm, a thought I will have t’ bring up t’me mate and see what he thinks.

Me Dah called me a traitorous child during the vows I swore to the priest that bound Mugu and I as husband and wife. I wonder if all the deFafnyr’s across the span wherever the Mirrors of Eisabeau reach will feel the same way about me. It’s been so many years since one of them came through that Mirror, never in me own lifetime. But I be thinkin’, jus’ in case…when I make me move t’steal cuttings off the vines and a supply o’them silkworms, that it might be prudent t’steal that Mirror as well.