Born from a Wish
Some may have noticed that all of my other posts related to Drae's story have been deleted - that is because this is the absolute final version (which is more lore-friendly) and while I don't play Istaria anymore, I thought I'd put it up anyway. It's a tad gruesome, so you have been warned.
Prologue
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One more soul to the call, for all, in silence
Comes two more souls to the call, for all, and in time!
Three more more souls to the call, they fall
Unknowing that four more souls to the call won't be all, and you know it!
- One More Soul to the Call, Akira Yamaoka feat. Mary Elizabeth Mcglynn
Sometimes evil lurks in the most unexpected places.
For centuries, the Temple in the Middle of Nowhere was viewed as a holy place to honor the deities of old. The occupants were hermits living in a tight-knit community, but nothing bad was ever suspected of them. There may have been the occasional passer-by that wondered what went on there in the deep woods and in that lonely secluded temple, but most never thought anything of it.
But one question remained unanswered: What deities did they look up to so? No one thought to ask. This was a grave mistake.
One clear night inside the brightly lit temple in the middle of nowhere, a small meeting between two women took place.
"Dear sister, I know how much you care for Laura, but you must understand. The Withered Aegis is growing steadily stronger by the day. We need to see if she is Gifted. We need a new warrior."
Xiira stood silent, about to protest but thought better of it. She knew this day would come.
Diella continued, "I know this is hard for you. She is your first child, but I can sense something about her. Something special."
Xiira finally broke her silence, furious. "You say that to every mother here! You know very well that Gifted among us are so rare as to be nonexistent! If you hate the Aegis so much, just go out there and fight yourself!"
"And you know very well that we can't risk it! Have you looked around during Prayer lately, Xiira? Our numbers are growing thin and going out there would be foolish."
"Whose fault is it that our numbers are growing thin? What can you possibly expect when you sacrifice every child on the whim, with the hope that she might be Gifted?"
The priestess took on a look of utter shock, as if this was the most ridiculous and naive question to ask.
"Don't question the gods, dear sister. The ceremony will be performed tonight. Laura would be most upset should you not attend."
Part I: Born from a Wish
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The crowd that night was devastatingly small. Whereas at one point in time you could take all day counting even half of the people, now there were no more than a few dozen. They were all standing solemnly around a large platform in the middle of the room, with Laura tied to a stake, her mouth tied shut, in the center of it. Her black cat (named, perhaps ironically, Aurora) was tied down next to her. It had always been the belief of the people that if a child was Gifted, so too would be her pet.
"Brothers and Sisters, we are gathered here today to behold a new Beginning. This child will be our new warrior in the years to come."
Everyone around the platform simultaneously fell to their knees, bowing their heads. Xiira reluctantly followed suit, choking back tears of defeat as two robed men held her down.
"In unity, we make this sacrifice."
The crowd chanted in unison, "Unity."
"In fire, a new deity will be born."
"Fire."
Diella brought the torch she had been holding closer to the stake where Laura squirmed, crying silent tears. It was then that her mother attempted to get up, but the people around her prevented her from escaping. "NO! Stop! You can't do this, not to my baby!"
But it was too late; Diella had lit the surrounding hay on fire.
Slowly the flames built up, licking menacingly at Laura and her cat.
The People of the Temple began their long and complex chant, in a language long since forgotten.
Her mother tried so hard that night to save her, but she couldn't. Minutes ticked by as Laura's flesh and Aurora's fur seared beneath the flames, melting them.
Laura died in anger that night, and perhaps that is the reason why she rose again as a Dragon... or perhaps there was a sorcerer in the Temple that night.
Part II: Deadly Whispers
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Several years had passed in Istaria. Every day and every night, Draexiira was accosted by the will of her sacrifice. She was bound to it entirely, going to mission after mission to kill the Withered Aegis at Diella's command.
But one day this cost and destroyed her sanity.
It all started when Draexiira, like so many other times, went into Blighted territory. She would repeatedly yell out taunts to the undead hordes and to its leaders, daring them to just try her, to just try and defeat her. Horde after horde would fall under her bloodied talons, until suddenly a booming voice resounded both from nowhere and everywhere.
"DRAEXIIRA!"
A terrible sensation that chilled her to the bone rushed through her at that moment, and suddenly Drae knew she had better get out, and fast. Too hurt to use her wings, she ran as fast as she could until she was paralyzed from the pain. She couldn't move, only stand there as one by one her brilliant crimson and black scales fell from her body with a sickening plop. Slowly, tainted and Blighted ones bubbled up from her exposed flesh while her eyes froze in their sockets and shattered, only to be replaced by ones that didn't work.
She couldn't see and she couldn't feel. She couldn't smell and she couldn't taste. But then, moments later, she could. Her senses were far sharper than before and she knew immediately that they were somehow being imposed on her. As she gained mental sight of her surroundings, she just as soon wished she didn't have.
Everywhere she looked, hideous things resembling people, but with no faces, moved in a slow and decayed manner. The ground below her was muddy and rotten, while the sky was pitch black. There were trees, but they were no better off as they seemed to twist in upon themselves, and she thought she heard groans emitting from within the spongy bark itself. This world of horror was nearly silent, until It spoke.
Draexiira.. Draexiira, my dear. I have been watching you. Yes, yes I have. You are strong, and indeed a worthy opponent. However, I do not wish to see your efforts go in vain. Join the Aegis, do as I say, and gain power. Treasure. Fame. Whatever you wish, as long as you complete the task I am setting for you.
The world then turned into something near beauty: the sun shone, live trees danced in the wind, animals frolicked. But on closer inspection, the world was just as horrible as before. The sun had a faint, grimacing face on its surface. The birds had human faces, the animals extra limbs and extra heads.
The task is this: There are several black gems scattered around the realm of Istaria, and I only know where a select few are. They have been stolen from us, from ME, and I want you to retrieve them. They are in the possession of two you know well. Do whatever it takes to get them back. Got it? Because if you don't get me these gems, these precious stones, my dear Draexiira, you will suffer. Yes, you WILL suffer. I can only reward those who obey me, I am sure you understand. The remaining gems, the ones I can no longer detect, you will have to find these. But know this: the longer you take, the more you will suffer. NOW ON WITH YOU!
And the voice vanished. Her surroundings once again turned to normal and Draexiira was left on her own.
From that point on, the voice of Diella had been replaced by the terrible thing in Draexiira's head. And to make matters worse, every so often she would change.
Like the first encounter with the thing, her crimson and black scales would fall off, only to be replaced by sickening blighted ones. Her eyes would likewise change, and everything she viewed was twisted in ways too terrible to describe; friends became enemies, enemies became friends. It would get worse and more frequent with each passing day she did not succeed in finding what It asked for. But her will was strong. So strong, in fact, that the thing's voice eventually faded. Not entirely, but enough so that the prayers of her true family rose to the surface again.
Should she do as they asked, and destroy the Aegis? Or should she give in to it?
I have given in too much already. Diella and her followers are cowards and fools.
Part III: Retaliation
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"You see Sister?! See! Laura is Gifted! Truly Gifted!"
Diella looked remarkably young for her age. Her sister, Xiira, was not so lucky. She looked haggard, old, and she was frail.
She scowled at her sister. "One right. You've got one right in several decades". Xiira shuffled to a nearby window and looked out into the graveyard, where numerous tiny headstones were erected.
"One is better than none, my dear! Now the Withered Aegis will pay, you can bet on that! They gave us so much trouble..."
Xiira shook her head and sighed, tuning out her sister. You are almost as bad as the Aegis, dear Diella...
There was a flicker of movement outside. Diella, too absorbed in herself, didn't notice.
"Diella..."
"... our warrior, our savior..."
"Diella!"
"... Should have listened to me the first time! You know we can't fight this battle all by ourselves...!"
A crimson shape that Xiira took to be a dragon landed several yards away and came trotting toward her window at an alarming speed, but all that could be heard was the whistling of the wind and Diella's voice. She turned to say something but was startled to a muffled scream at the sudden appearance of a giant human eye glaring right at her.
Diella still didn't notice.
With a pang of recognition, Xiira realized that this was the eye of Laura she was staring at - only one hundred times bigger. And then she noticed the gigantic dragon head that it was attatched to.
Escape, mother!
It was Laura's voice. Xiira jumped, looking around.
No, look back out the window.
She did as she was told and was overcome with utter disbelief as she realized that the dragon was Laura.
You must get out of here. Don't ask, just do it.
The giant human-but-really-a-dragon's eye retreated, and Xiira thought she saw an upright cat follow soon after.
She took off running.
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It was nearly dusk when the screaming started.
What sounded like hundreds of children were banging at the Temple doors, frantic and crying. Diella stood looking absolutely baffled, her followers taking on a similar expression.
"Maybe they got lost and are looking for shelter..."
Diella quickly looked around her, looking for agreement. There was a mass of relieved faces and nodding heads. The Priestess nodded to herself, smoothed out her robe, and walked toward the doors.
The crying grew louder, louder as she approached...
"Please, let us in! Let us in!"
She opened the door...
...And there was no one there.
"Well, who is it, Diella? Are there children out there?"
She looked back at her questioning followers with a confused look on her face.
Suddenly, they just appeared. Hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of short and mangled bodies ran into the building. Some had heads, some didn't. Some had one arm, some had zero. Others still had no legs and were running with their arms instead.
"The Aegis! The Aegis! Grab any weapons nearby! The..."
And then she glanced out of Xiira's window and noticed the dug up graves and the mangled children that were still escaping them.
"Xiira is a necromancer! Find her! FIND HER!"
It took only a second until Diella realized just how absurd this command was. There was nowhere to go and the children were taking over fast.
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The anthropomorphic cat - a Saris, in Istarian vocabulary - looked up at Draexiira with a wicked feline smile. It widened with each scream that was emitted from within the Temple.
"Laura-Draexiira coo-white crrruel."
The dragoness returned the grin, looking at Xiira perched on her back before looking again at the Saris. And now, Aurora, we go in.
"Awww, but Aurrrora was hoping we could cont-win-new watching the carrrnage!" The Saris was looking eagerly inside a well-lit window about ten feet away.
All the more enjoyable to be a part of it, sweetheart!
Aurora's face lit up even more as they strode purposefully toward the Temple.
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"Die! DIE!!"
"Diella, they're already dead!" An oddly feline-sounding voice.
Without warning, the tiny bodies all around them fell to the floor in a heap.
"Well... what do you know!" The Priestess smiled satisfactorily, looking around. That smile was wiped from her face as soon as she saw that half of her followers were dead.
"Diella!"
It was her sister's voice.
The Temple doors were smashed down, half of the ceiling falling soon after.
Diella and her followers that were still alive - but barely - screamed and shielded their eyes from the falling debris. Several moments went by before she was brave enough to look to the source of the destruction.
"A... a dragon?! You ate my sister! Spit her out right now!"
The dragon kneeled down, letting her mother off of her back. Aurora, the Saris, steadied her on her feet.
"What in the name of..."
The beast stood back up. "Diella, you are a coward".
Draexiira's Dragon voice was a horrible, almost genderless booming growl that sent even more debris falling down. Diella and her followers were so startled that they lost their balance and fell backward on the floor, much like the children's corpses did.
"You're Gifted! Look at you! You are a "god" yourself!"
Desperate to show her followers - and perhaps herself - that she was brave, Diella got back onto her feet, trembling like a leaf in the wind. Her voice was much the same.
"B..but I..I..I w...wo...would h..a.."
"Have to die, I know. So you yourself admit that you were too much of a coward to fight the Withered Aegis yourself, so you kill innocent children to see if they are Gifted instead!"
The Priestess was about to speak, but Aurora hissed her into silence.
"They say that the Gifted cannot die. But they can suffer from a more - shall we say morbid? Hopeless? - fate."
Aurora held Xiira's hand as she raised her sorcerer's stave in the other, shouting incoherant words into the air. One by one the children's corpses rose again.
What followed was a gruesome massacre of the remaining non-Gifted members of the Temple (who, quite pathetically, didn't put up much of a fight). Draexiira raised them back up as Aurora rested the children back down - and directed their energy into Xiira.
Diella's own followers turned back on her that night. Perhaps some of their intellect remained and they realized that they had been fooled by the one they trusted the most, or perhaps it was just Draexiira's command. Either way, they killed her - and Draexiira resurrected her before the Gifted ability could.
Diella then became a walking corpse; a zombie; a lost soul, that would remain behind forever to experience what Draexiira did for so long.
The destroyed Temple remains somewhere in Istaria to this day. Some say that the Wicked Diella wanders the forest nearby and, jealous of the Living, attacks them on sight.
i really liked it absolutely stunning.. i should really write Agua's Story someday... and my saris's Lolayas 
