ElFewja
2nd Level Red Feather
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2007
- Messages
- 1,296
- Points
- 38
The Trial of the Shrieking Tower - */f feet
She climbed. She climbed the even, narrow steps, her hand running along the black obsidian wall as she circled around the outer edge of the tower. She climbed, her boots clicking solemnly as she stepped into the threshold of the sky, into the black mists that circled the towers top. She climbed as the thick clouds consumed her, blocking her sight, blinding her, yet her legs carrying her straight and true, knowing their way, her feet feeling the blocks through the raised heels of her boots. She climbed, the ground below disappearing as she entered the forbidden realm. And then the steps stopped and she crossed onto the small, circular arena while lightning flickered and rumbled around her.
In eight directions the black gargoyles rose, facing inward, towards the center where she marched, her chin high, her duty known. A path lit into a radiant white before her, guiding her to the center, ushering her footfalls into the slight decline. As her boots left the twisting stones behind, the path of inconceivable triangles and sharp turns snuffed out. All the while her eyes were pinned forward, towards the glowing red red gaze of the prime gargoyle, its exposed fangs and wicked tongue glaring back at her. Striding ever onward she felt the lights burn out faster and faster until only a single, circular stone remained alight, and as she stepped onto it, the light blinked then fizzled away, the night sky consuming her.
Raising her arms out to her sides like great wings, she raised her chin upward, challenging the lords of the ethereal realm. The clink of metal chains echoed around her before the sound of steel shooting through the air wrapped around her. In an instant cold metal looped around her wrists before shrieking up her arms then around her torso. Her gaze dropped back to the prime gargoyle, and she spied a smirk within its stony, unmoving face as the hammering of a blacksmith's hammer rang from behind her. As she felt a tightness pull her ankles together, she nodded, her eyes flickering with a fiery light to equal the gargoyle's, and even as she was tugged to her knees, her feet dragged behind her and her bottoms drawn away from underneath her, she never broke her gaze with the unflinching fiend.
The beast's eyes flashed brightly, sending out a shock wave of crimson light that hid the world from her. A bright ruby metal ring formed at her chest, and slowly more appeared, leading towards the demon in front of her. She felt her chest pulled tight as the links began to quickly appear with a light thud like pebbles falling, and just as the chains reached the mouth of the beast, wrapping around its teeth, the chain began to pull away from within her. Though she didn't move, she felt her very being tugged free of her while a rosy haze formed in front of her as the chains grew lax, tugging towards the ground before finally clattering altogether. The smoke came together, forming a human like shape as it twisted and contorted, smoothing into features she recognized as her own. It smiled, and its glowing purple eyes ratcheted over her.
She could feel herself move behind her body as she began to writhe back and forth, wiggling her toes within her boots as she became aware of the trial. The monster's thoughts echoed within her mind, and she saw images of her boots drawn from her, her soles laid bare before the terrible things the demon thought to inflict upon them. A trivial thing, she retorted in her mind, and yet she felt within her that it wouldn't be. She would be tickled, endlessly, relentlessly, her soles stroked and abused until she was entirely broken from the endeavor, then tickled until she was rebuilt and made stronger, able to challenge the Lords in her new form. Her breath shivered as she drew it in, her chin firm in its placement as the mist huffed behind her. In an instant she felt her feet lifted gently into the air, and then cold mist lingered across them while the rain drops plinked away her bare flesh, rolling down her skin and between her toes. The boots flew through the air, over top of the prime gargoyle and down the side of the tower as she thought to herself that she would not break, that she would best this trial.
The attack appeared before her mind; she saw her feet as she clenched her toes just before shadows rose from the floor, pulling them back to it. With its misty hands, the creature plucked at her feet, running its fingers down her soles as though they were a xylophone. She gasped, feeling the itch of what was to come, then thrust her head over her shoulder, her eyes glued to her soles as she clenched her toes. Just as in the vision, the gunky shadows stuck to her like slime, pulling her back. Squirming back and forth, she wiggled her toes, watching them pull up then fall back in line obediently, their wrinkles rippling as they struggled.
In the pit of her stomach she felt a swirling mix of roiling emotion that bubbled and boiled. An eager, viscous dread oozed along the surface, its icy tendrils prickling at her skin. Earthy anticipation quaked beneath the black waters as each rain drop touched her, sending shivers down her spine as she awaited her fate. Then there was the hot, blood-red desire that churned beneath it all, the desire to suffer, the desire to see herself suffer. It burned at her, sending spikes through the others that dug into her, soothing her with its warmth and temptation. She could feel the creature's grin carve itself into the back of her neck and she felt herself drawn to her feet again, bracing for the assault. The mists slivered around the edge of her ear, folding a dangling strand of hair behind it, and she felt goosebumps crawl from her neck down her arms at the ghostly touch. As her mind darted back to her ear and focused on the center of her neck, her soles suddenly sang wildly as heat washed over them.
Dropping her chin, she let her jaw hang open as she closed her eyes and shrieked. As she thrashed her head back and forth, she felt her own fingers wiggle in tune with the monster's as they delved against her skin; she could taste the touch of her soft and delicate flesh weaving through her fingertips. Her toenails beat against the stones as her feet trembled back and forth, the touch melting against her like volcanic ash, searing her with its heat while burrowing through her, pulling sensations from her. Howling, she laughed loudly and honestly at her plight as the creature reached into her, dredging her ticklishness from her like tight harp strings, plucking at them and sending the sensations stretching through the tops of her feet.
Thoughts of all the other acolytes poured through her as they returned downwards, barefoot, their cloaks in rags and their heads hung in shame. She felt their ear piercing screams scratch at her backside now more than when she had first sat, on the grassy hill, listening to them with earnest jealousy at their dedication. Taking in a shaky breath, she thought on how long the moon hung in the sky before crashing down while the maidens screamed and as the tendrils titillated her, and as she howled, she felt fear bead against her forehead. Beating the oozing sensation away, she embraced the heat, hugging onto it for dear life.
The fingers swept back and forth, their fine touch coursing down the centers of her feet while brushing down her arches. She felt her toes buckle once and her eyes shot open as she felt the monster's thoughts breath down her backside like the breath of the lightning that flashed around her. In her mind she could see her feet cowering before the red fingers as memories of former friends and lovers painted over top of her feet, washing her soles with hues of pinks and reds. She saw, there, her own ticklishness and she thrust her head over her shoulder, staring down as her toes trembled. Compulsion stirred through her; she had to look, had to watch. She could feel the incoming assault in her mind and heart, already fluttering against her like a bird's wings.
An urge to beg buttered her lips as the burning, unbearable itch seared warm, liquid like pathways to her toes, but she gulped it down, the outer edges of her eyes tilting downward and growing wet. She felt the creature smirk as it slowed above her toes, pressing its fingers deeper into her skin, sawing through her and sending convulsions of shocking sensation through her. Shrieking, laughing, she felt her neck try to pull her head away, but she focused her gaze downward, watching as the tendrils crawled back upwards. With a cough she heaved in a quick, huffing series of giggles as she stretched her fingers outward, wiggling them in tune with the beast's while they crept ever upward, planting and divulging their sinister sensations into her arches and up the exposed centers of her soles. Twisting her feet towards one another, she lifted them upwards then cried out in agony as the itch soared through her feet. As she dropped downward, pressing into the stone so hard she swear she felt it cracking, the creature, too, delved deeper into her, sinking its misty hands into her, searching for the bountiful sensations it knew to grow there.
She felt her breath leave her, turning into the howling winds that surrounded her while lightning buzzed and crackled and the mist-creature cackled in tune with her. They laughed in unison, and within her heart she felt it's life blood beating and pulsing along hers, its agony, its fear and its great need to make her scream. Pinching her toes, she felt the creature dig her own claws through the stones as the fate it inflicted upon her mirrored back to her, then back again, magnifying each time the sensations brushed over her. Long after the beast's hands mowed upward, she could still feel the lingering ghostly tingle of the phantom sensation that had prodded her mere seconds ago. Each heated breath, each laugh, each touch though instantaneous and gone in the blink of an eye stretched on as the world slowed to a waltz around her, allowing her to focus on each singular bead of the mist, of each bead's needs and desires, of the wanton destruction it crept into the crevices of her wrinkles. For long minutes she meditated on an individual beadlet, enjoying its mission before moving on to the next, and then afterwards savoring the various combinations as she indulged their demands of her. Gulping, she thought on the word savoring, shrugging it off as she raised her shoulders to her ears, tugging at the chains as she did so.
The two banshees cackled and cried as silver stringlets wove through the miasma, dousing her in radiance. She saw herself through the creature's eyes, crazed mirth and pained laughter streaking her face, her form wild and beautiful, draped in pewter moonlight for a lingering second before shadow wept over her, consuming her once again. A pang pulsed in her heart and her eyes stretched wide as a divine breath creased through her, the light within palpable, flooding her with joy. Pleasant heat streaked through her body and her limbs grew limp as her laughter flowed freely like a flooded river, pouring over the sides. Stretching her head backward, she felt a tightness in her shoulder blades as a horrendous thought wiggled against the back of her neck; that she was enjoying her suffering, and that she didn't want it to stop.
The thoughts practically bubbled against her mind, and though she sought to banish them, to smother them from existence she felt the gargoyle pawing at her mind, dredging them upward. The phantom smiled and she knew that it, too, felt those thoughts within her. As the maddened thought seeped through her mind, she felt the strikes against her soles sweep back and forth, intensifying as the brushed up and down the same pathways, tilling her skin and leaving her ready for more and further attacks. At this point even heavy rain that fell against her tickled, as if the world had truly turned against her. She could feel the winds of the storm lick between her toes as the water dripping between her wrinkles scoured her for the source of her sensitivity, and all the while each touch grew bolder and braver as the thought nestled in the back of her neck: this is fun.
She thought on the crack at the gargoyle's claws and felt her mind trace through it as though she ran fingers along it. The tips of her fingers could feel the depths of its crevice and the uneven chips and cracks that pulled at her skin. She could feel the gaping maw impress itself into her chest, growing wider and deeper with each shriek that ripped through her throat, and as she thought upon the broken stone she meditated upon the trial. A cruel sentence formed within her, and she could feel the gargoyle before her and the mist-monster behind her cackle with the realization that the breaking was not meant to be through a need for surrender, but rather through the realization of her weakness and desire, needing more, much more suffering; that her former psyche would be shattered and that she would be left a crumpled wretch begging for more.
All at once she wanted to cry, scream and laugh as fire consumed her heart and her will to resist melted away alongside her ego. Puddles formed around her as the rain drops grew large and a wall of rainfall swept between her and her adversary. Through the shield of black water she could see its glowing eyes grow brighter as the torrents washed away her thoughts. She felt the chains grow lax then puff away while the murk that pinned her feet to the tower dissolved. A hand of eternal night stroked her heart as she realized she need only move or ask for an end, yet as she laughed she found herself forcing her feet to endure their torment and her body complied.
Laughing, crying, she searched within herself for the strength to resist yet found that no such will remained, if it ever existed. Even as the mists behind her began to stitch a curse into her feet, knowing full well that the beast would carve a rune of eternal sensation into her, she wept at the thought of an end, of the delirious rapture that cooked her from within vanishing. Trembling, she cried as the first suture tightened against her, nuzzling and kissing her with sharp, ticklish agony.
Rain streamed down her face, mixing with the salt that bubbled at her eyes. An image of her obedient toes danced before her and the black miasma that spun within her stomach let its oily tendrils coat her ribs. Her chin dropped to her chest, and she smiled as the mists ensorcelled her toes, covering them with its terrible desires while all around her sank into a delirium of wonderful suffering.
For hours the world spun around her, shifting from the accursed night into a waning dawn, and still she laughed, her heart demanding more and more of her until at last the terrible sun burned at her face. Blinking, she pushed herself up, her arms trembling as she unbent her elbows, rising from the dry stones. With a groan she shielded herself from the light, her gaze wandering off the edge of the tower and towards the not-so-distant mountain line that toiled away, marring the horizon as it faded over the rolling valleys and rose above, then merged with, the great swaying forest. Lifting herself to her knees, she tucked her feet beneath them then planted her hands on her knees, bowing her head towards the sun and muttering, "I am not worthy." She rose, hobbling towards the stairs. As she descended, she set her hand against the tower's side, leaning into it while the heated stones soothed her toes for their betrayal while urging them to return again. Pressing her hand over her heart, she gripped her fingers into a fist and rapped her knuckles against her collar bone. Extending her fingers, she streaked them down her chest, pawing at the cloudy shadow that rumbled within her. Unable to dispel it, she felt her heart simultaneously sink within her chest and leap upward at the same time, water blustering over her glazed eyes at the thought of the curse she had all too willingly accepted.
She climbed. She climbed the even, narrow steps, her hand running along the black obsidian wall as she circled around the outer edge of the tower. She climbed, her boots clicking solemnly as she stepped into the threshold of the sky, into the black mists that circled the towers top. She climbed as the thick clouds consumed her, blocking her sight, blinding her, yet her legs carrying her straight and true, knowing their way, her feet feeling the blocks through the raised heels of her boots. She climbed, the ground below disappearing as she entered the forbidden realm. And then the steps stopped and she crossed onto the small, circular arena while lightning flickered and rumbled around her.
In eight directions the black gargoyles rose, facing inward, towards the center where she marched, her chin high, her duty known. A path lit into a radiant white before her, guiding her to the center, ushering her footfalls into the slight decline. As her boots left the twisting stones behind, the path of inconceivable triangles and sharp turns snuffed out. All the while her eyes were pinned forward, towards the glowing red red gaze of the prime gargoyle, its exposed fangs and wicked tongue glaring back at her. Striding ever onward she felt the lights burn out faster and faster until only a single, circular stone remained alight, and as she stepped onto it, the light blinked then fizzled away, the night sky consuming her.
Raising her arms out to her sides like great wings, she raised her chin upward, challenging the lords of the ethereal realm. The clink of metal chains echoed around her before the sound of steel shooting through the air wrapped around her. In an instant cold metal looped around her wrists before shrieking up her arms then around her torso. Her gaze dropped back to the prime gargoyle, and she spied a smirk within its stony, unmoving face as the hammering of a blacksmith's hammer rang from behind her. As she felt a tightness pull her ankles together, she nodded, her eyes flickering with a fiery light to equal the gargoyle's, and even as she was tugged to her knees, her feet dragged behind her and her bottoms drawn away from underneath her, she never broke her gaze with the unflinching fiend.
The beast's eyes flashed brightly, sending out a shock wave of crimson light that hid the world from her. A bright ruby metal ring formed at her chest, and slowly more appeared, leading towards the demon in front of her. She felt her chest pulled tight as the links began to quickly appear with a light thud like pebbles falling, and just as the chains reached the mouth of the beast, wrapping around its teeth, the chain began to pull away from within her. Though she didn't move, she felt her very being tugged free of her while a rosy haze formed in front of her as the chains grew lax, tugging towards the ground before finally clattering altogether. The smoke came together, forming a human like shape as it twisted and contorted, smoothing into features she recognized as her own. It smiled, and its glowing purple eyes ratcheted over her.
She could feel herself move behind her body as she began to writhe back and forth, wiggling her toes within her boots as she became aware of the trial. The monster's thoughts echoed within her mind, and she saw images of her boots drawn from her, her soles laid bare before the terrible things the demon thought to inflict upon them. A trivial thing, she retorted in her mind, and yet she felt within her that it wouldn't be. She would be tickled, endlessly, relentlessly, her soles stroked and abused until she was entirely broken from the endeavor, then tickled until she was rebuilt and made stronger, able to challenge the Lords in her new form. Her breath shivered as she drew it in, her chin firm in its placement as the mist huffed behind her. In an instant she felt her feet lifted gently into the air, and then cold mist lingered across them while the rain drops plinked away her bare flesh, rolling down her skin and between her toes. The boots flew through the air, over top of the prime gargoyle and down the side of the tower as she thought to herself that she would not break, that she would best this trial.
The attack appeared before her mind; she saw her feet as she clenched her toes just before shadows rose from the floor, pulling them back to it. With its misty hands, the creature plucked at her feet, running its fingers down her soles as though they were a xylophone. She gasped, feeling the itch of what was to come, then thrust her head over her shoulder, her eyes glued to her soles as she clenched her toes. Just as in the vision, the gunky shadows stuck to her like slime, pulling her back. Squirming back and forth, she wiggled her toes, watching them pull up then fall back in line obediently, their wrinkles rippling as they struggled.
In the pit of her stomach she felt a swirling mix of roiling emotion that bubbled and boiled. An eager, viscous dread oozed along the surface, its icy tendrils prickling at her skin. Earthy anticipation quaked beneath the black waters as each rain drop touched her, sending shivers down her spine as she awaited her fate. Then there was the hot, blood-red desire that churned beneath it all, the desire to suffer, the desire to see herself suffer. It burned at her, sending spikes through the others that dug into her, soothing her with its warmth and temptation. She could feel the creature's grin carve itself into the back of her neck and she felt herself drawn to her feet again, bracing for the assault. The mists slivered around the edge of her ear, folding a dangling strand of hair behind it, and she felt goosebumps crawl from her neck down her arms at the ghostly touch. As her mind darted back to her ear and focused on the center of her neck, her soles suddenly sang wildly as heat washed over them.
Dropping her chin, she let her jaw hang open as she closed her eyes and shrieked. As she thrashed her head back and forth, she felt her own fingers wiggle in tune with the monster's as they delved against her skin; she could taste the touch of her soft and delicate flesh weaving through her fingertips. Her toenails beat against the stones as her feet trembled back and forth, the touch melting against her like volcanic ash, searing her with its heat while burrowing through her, pulling sensations from her. Howling, she laughed loudly and honestly at her plight as the creature reached into her, dredging her ticklishness from her like tight harp strings, plucking at them and sending the sensations stretching through the tops of her feet.
Thoughts of all the other acolytes poured through her as they returned downwards, barefoot, their cloaks in rags and their heads hung in shame. She felt their ear piercing screams scratch at her backside now more than when she had first sat, on the grassy hill, listening to them with earnest jealousy at their dedication. Taking in a shaky breath, she thought on how long the moon hung in the sky before crashing down while the maidens screamed and as the tendrils titillated her, and as she howled, she felt fear bead against her forehead. Beating the oozing sensation away, she embraced the heat, hugging onto it for dear life.
The fingers swept back and forth, their fine touch coursing down the centers of her feet while brushing down her arches. She felt her toes buckle once and her eyes shot open as she felt the monster's thoughts breath down her backside like the breath of the lightning that flashed around her. In her mind she could see her feet cowering before the red fingers as memories of former friends and lovers painted over top of her feet, washing her soles with hues of pinks and reds. She saw, there, her own ticklishness and she thrust her head over her shoulder, staring down as her toes trembled. Compulsion stirred through her; she had to look, had to watch. She could feel the incoming assault in her mind and heart, already fluttering against her like a bird's wings.
An urge to beg buttered her lips as the burning, unbearable itch seared warm, liquid like pathways to her toes, but she gulped it down, the outer edges of her eyes tilting downward and growing wet. She felt the creature smirk as it slowed above her toes, pressing its fingers deeper into her skin, sawing through her and sending convulsions of shocking sensation through her. Shrieking, laughing, she felt her neck try to pull her head away, but she focused her gaze downward, watching as the tendrils crawled back upwards. With a cough she heaved in a quick, huffing series of giggles as she stretched her fingers outward, wiggling them in tune with the beast's while they crept ever upward, planting and divulging their sinister sensations into her arches and up the exposed centers of her soles. Twisting her feet towards one another, she lifted them upwards then cried out in agony as the itch soared through her feet. As she dropped downward, pressing into the stone so hard she swear she felt it cracking, the creature, too, delved deeper into her, sinking its misty hands into her, searching for the bountiful sensations it knew to grow there.
She felt her breath leave her, turning into the howling winds that surrounded her while lightning buzzed and crackled and the mist-creature cackled in tune with her. They laughed in unison, and within her heart she felt it's life blood beating and pulsing along hers, its agony, its fear and its great need to make her scream. Pinching her toes, she felt the creature dig her own claws through the stones as the fate it inflicted upon her mirrored back to her, then back again, magnifying each time the sensations brushed over her. Long after the beast's hands mowed upward, she could still feel the lingering ghostly tingle of the phantom sensation that had prodded her mere seconds ago. Each heated breath, each laugh, each touch though instantaneous and gone in the blink of an eye stretched on as the world slowed to a waltz around her, allowing her to focus on each singular bead of the mist, of each bead's needs and desires, of the wanton destruction it crept into the crevices of her wrinkles. For long minutes she meditated on an individual beadlet, enjoying its mission before moving on to the next, and then afterwards savoring the various combinations as she indulged their demands of her. Gulping, she thought on the word savoring, shrugging it off as she raised her shoulders to her ears, tugging at the chains as she did so.
The two banshees cackled and cried as silver stringlets wove through the miasma, dousing her in radiance. She saw herself through the creature's eyes, crazed mirth and pained laughter streaking her face, her form wild and beautiful, draped in pewter moonlight for a lingering second before shadow wept over her, consuming her once again. A pang pulsed in her heart and her eyes stretched wide as a divine breath creased through her, the light within palpable, flooding her with joy. Pleasant heat streaked through her body and her limbs grew limp as her laughter flowed freely like a flooded river, pouring over the sides. Stretching her head backward, she felt a tightness in her shoulder blades as a horrendous thought wiggled against the back of her neck; that she was enjoying her suffering, and that she didn't want it to stop.
The thoughts practically bubbled against her mind, and though she sought to banish them, to smother them from existence she felt the gargoyle pawing at her mind, dredging them upward. The phantom smiled and she knew that it, too, felt those thoughts within her. As the maddened thought seeped through her mind, she felt the strikes against her soles sweep back and forth, intensifying as the brushed up and down the same pathways, tilling her skin and leaving her ready for more and further attacks. At this point even heavy rain that fell against her tickled, as if the world had truly turned against her. She could feel the winds of the storm lick between her toes as the water dripping between her wrinkles scoured her for the source of her sensitivity, and all the while each touch grew bolder and braver as the thought nestled in the back of her neck: this is fun.
She thought on the crack at the gargoyle's claws and felt her mind trace through it as though she ran fingers along it. The tips of her fingers could feel the depths of its crevice and the uneven chips and cracks that pulled at her skin. She could feel the gaping maw impress itself into her chest, growing wider and deeper with each shriek that ripped through her throat, and as she thought upon the broken stone she meditated upon the trial. A cruel sentence formed within her, and she could feel the gargoyle before her and the mist-monster behind her cackle with the realization that the breaking was not meant to be through a need for surrender, but rather through the realization of her weakness and desire, needing more, much more suffering; that her former psyche would be shattered and that she would be left a crumpled wretch begging for more.
All at once she wanted to cry, scream and laugh as fire consumed her heart and her will to resist melted away alongside her ego. Puddles formed around her as the rain drops grew large and a wall of rainfall swept between her and her adversary. Through the shield of black water she could see its glowing eyes grow brighter as the torrents washed away her thoughts. She felt the chains grow lax then puff away while the murk that pinned her feet to the tower dissolved. A hand of eternal night stroked her heart as she realized she need only move or ask for an end, yet as she laughed she found herself forcing her feet to endure their torment and her body complied.
Laughing, crying, she searched within herself for the strength to resist yet found that no such will remained, if it ever existed. Even as the mists behind her began to stitch a curse into her feet, knowing full well that the beast would carve a rune of eternal sensation into her, she wept at the thought of an end, of the delirious rapture that cooked her from within vanishing. Trembling, she cried as the first suture tightened against her, nuzzling and kissing her with sharp, ticklish agony.
Rain streamed down her face, mixing with the salt that bubbled at her eyes. An image of her obedient toes danced before her and the black miasma that spun within her stomach let its oily tendrils coat her ribs. Her chin dropped to her chest, and she smiled as the mists ensorcelled her toes, covering them with its terrible desires while all around her sank into a delirium of wonderful suffering.
For hours the world spun around her, shifting from the accursed night into a waning dawn, and still she laughed, her heart demanding more and more of her until at last the terrible sun burned at her face. Blinking, she pushed herself up, her arms trembling as she unbent her elbows, rising from the dry stones. With a groan she shielded herself from the light, her gaze wandering off the edge of the tower and towards the not-so-distant mountain line that toiled away, marring the horizon as it faded over the rolling valleys and rose above, then merged with, the great swaying forest. Lifting herself to her knees, she tucked her feet beneath them then planted her hands on her knees, bowing her head towards the sun and muttering, "I am not worthy." She rose, hobbling towards the stairs. As she descended, she set her hand against the tower's side, leaning into it while the heated stones soothed her toes for their betrayal while urging them to return again. Pressing her hand over her heart, she gripped her fingers into a fist and rapped her knuckles against her collar bone. Extending her fingers, she streaked them down her chest, pawing at the cloudy shadow that rumbled within her. Unable to dispel it, she felt her heart simultaneously sink within her chest and leap upward at the same time, water blustering over her glazed eyes at the thought of the curse she had all too willingly accepted.