"Engraved When I Was Young." - Part 4 (I think) - “Song Of The Sirens, Broken Souls Standing At The Crossroads.”

[A Former User]

Prismtone had set aside and spent a few days preparing herself for what she was going to do.

The time had come.

Prismtone was going to carry out a life-essence sacrifice to try and breathe life back into Nol-i Teul.

It was an act that would put her life in danger trying to breathe life back into Nol-i Teul this way, but Prismtone had chosen to accept the possibility of accidentally killing herself.

It wasn’t because Prismtone was troubled or anything else of the sort. She did have a will to live, but no actual raison d’être. No, we’re not talking about Raison D’être the Gryvila. Prismtone did not have an actual raison d’être- no actual reason to live.

Prismtone had set aside the requirements for this life-essence sacrifice: five blood-red threads with needles tied to them, two hanging from the ceiling, and a pair of prism shards. She wasn’t necessarily too hopeful that this was enough, but she still had some hope. Despair certainly wasn’t going to get her grip on Prismtone so easily.

Prismtone tied the two prism shards to the ends of the first two threads, tucking the needles beneath Nol-i Teul’s hands. She then laid the third, longer thread around the lifeless form of the Playground Matron in the shape of an oval, setting down the needle in front of Nol-i Teul’s head.

Prismtone was more than just determined to make this process happen. She then held the prism shards linked to the first two threads in her mouth, and tied the last two threads around her arms. She willed these threads to hoist her into the air, similarly to the scenario in which she needed to think deeply about something. But there was one final, horrific step to completing the preparations for this sacrifice.

Closing her eyes, Prismtone sank the shards into each of her paws, drawing blood from each of the wounds. Unlike that of most of her kind, Prismtone’s blood sparkled in pastel shades of the rainbow, a feature unique to her, and to her alone.

Her blood oozed from the injuries, traveling down the threads and down her arms as well- some of it dropping onto Nol-i Teul’s lifeless body, a chime ringing out with each droplet that landed onto the Playground Matron. A faint prismatic mist broke out in two rings around Prismtone’s body, as she began to weaken and breathe more life back into Nol-i Teul.

She had already succeeded- but Prismtone continued on with the life-essence sacrifice, draining herself further.

Prismtone then threw her head back, pain coursing through her body.

<Gisei’s point of view>

Gisei and Illella had both noticed that Nol-i Teul’s body was missing from where it had laid- they’d enlisted the help of other creatures in order to track it down.

But they hadn’t found anything.

”Maybe the creature who took it was close with her, and wanted to send her off personally,” Illella had theorised. But Gisei was fretting because she also wanted to get to send off the Playground Matron herself.

She was now sprinting across Tundra in search of Nol-i Teul when she heard a chilling, resonating howl, almost like a siren’s song, from far away. Her mind figuring that something might be going on, Gisei headed off in the direction of the howl, eventually coming across a small opening in the side of a mountain, hidden behind a large, forest-coated rock.

Barely being able to slip through the opening, Gisei found herself traveling down a long, winding tunnel. If Nol-i Teul’s in here, I wonder how the creature who took her body even got her down this tunnel…

Gisei finally got out of the tunnel and into a massive cave with myriad glimmering shards scattered about it.

Lying stretched out on the ground of the cave was Nol-i Teul, a thread laid around her and a needle slipped underneath each of her hands. An odd, shimmering substance, in pastel shades of the rainbow, was splattered about the two threads connected to the needles and in small droplets on the Playground Matron’s body.

Who or what is leaking this stuff? It smelled awfully like blood- but no creature or individual Gisei had met had this particular colour of blood.

Gisei eventually got her answer when she looked around her, behind her, and then up- the moment she laid eyes on the source of the substance, she leapt back out of shock, her heart skipping beats, her mind a whirling mess. Gisei couldn’t believe what she was seeing- or rather, who she was seeing.

Prismtone.

Gisei had just made herself the first creature ever to meet or see Prismtone up close.

And she was beautiful.

Looking closer, the Last Sacrifice realised that the Uninhibited, or Nishikawa as she was now known as- was no longer the only known member of the mysterious species that had been confirmed to exist on Sonaria. Prismtone also was a member of that species.

But something was wrong with Prismtone. It sounded like she was in pain. Prismtone threw her head back and let out the chilling, resonating, siren-song howl Gisei had heard earlier. On instinct, Gisei’s eyes followed the threads attached to the needles under Nol-i Teul’s hands- and met with a sight with caused her heart to lurch with horror.

Prismtone’s arms were also bound in threads. The threads connected to the needles had their other ends tied around prism shards- and Prismtone had sunk them deep into her paws, drawing out the shimmering substance from earlier.

Prismtone’s own blood.

Gisei could not believe that Prismtone was doing this to herself.

At last, Prismtone noticed that the Last Sacrifice was present, gasping softly and narrowing her eyes. “Hello, Prismtone,” Gisei whispered, somewhat still in awe at getting to meet Prismtone face-to-face.

In response, Prismtone struggled to scribble Sonarian letters into the ground in front of the Last Sacrifice in a quiet attempt to speak with her, her tail-tip trembling with pain as she wrote two words:

Hello, Gisei.

-“To Be Continued…”-

[A Former User]

Can’t wait for part 5