awaicu » Hibernal Den » Teska

Teska

(#29941504)

Somewhere, even now, there is rain | she/her

Familiar

Grouse Basilisk

Energy: 50/50

Personal Style

Apparel

Skin

Scene

Physical Attributes

Battle Stats

Measurements

Length

4.5 m

Wingspan

5.44 m

Weight

687.89 kg

Genetics

Metals
Cherub

Metals
Seraph

Orca
Glimmer

Hatchday

Jan 09, 2017
(7 years)

Breed

Adult
Pearlcatcher

Eye Type

Light
Common

Level 1 Pearlcatcher

EXP: 0 / 245

STR

AGI

DEF

QCK

INT

VIT

MND

Lineage

Parents

Offspring

Biography

T E S K A^♫

THE REMEMBRANCER

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I N F O
Gender: Female
Mate: Exclusive
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R E L A T I O N S

_MATE

_{PEARL THIEF}
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Between thwarted lust and wounded pride
When I see your absence everywhere I look
And even when I close my eyes

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“Hey, Teska—wait up!”

The Pearlcatcher hatchling paused, her talons scraping against the marble floor. She turned and waited for her sibling to catch up, and then the two of them huddled in an alcove against the wall. They exchanged grins, their eyes sparkling with excitement.

Despite the golden eyes that marked them as natives of the Light Flight, Teska and her sister, Lustreia, did not belong here. Their birth clan hailed from the Nature Flight, where they dwelled in the shade of the Behemoth. The clan had wished to have hatchlings imbued with the Lightweaver’s blessing, and so they had sent Teska’s and Lustreia’s parents to the Sunbeam Ruins.

They had been accommodated by the Cathedral of Eyes. Many other clans had commented enviously, “How lucky you are! It’s a splendid place, and only the most privileged clans are allowed to glimpse its interior. For you to be allowed to stay there, you must be very special indeed!”

But other dragons, wiser and well-read ones, spoke of it in low voices: “A strange place, and certainly an eerie one....It is host to other things as well, magic and beings we don’t understand. You will be treated kindly....Nonetheless, you must take care.”

The parent Pearlcatchers were firmly in this second camp. They’d received similar warnings from their own clan. When their two daughters had hatched, they’d started making arrangements to leave as soon as the children were strong enough to manage the journey.

Teska and Lustreia were told that this place was not their home. Soon, they would leave...they would have to be careful while they were here. But perhaps the hatchlings didn’t listen closely enough, for it wasn’t long before they were clambering out of their chamber. Outside, the Cathedral of Eyes was as vast and dazzling as a galaxy. Such glorious artwork, marble and gold...It was not likely they would see anything like this in the Gladekeeper’s lands. They didn’t want to forget this beautiful place. They would take memories of it home!

So they roamed up and down the halls at will. Never mind that the place was too quiet, and that there seemed to be too few dragons in such an enormous lair. The hatchlings had eyes only for the dizzying colors and beauty of the Cathedral. Even the shadowy parts, halls that led down into the darkness, beckoned them onwards. They were young and fearless; nothing could keep them from exploring. And nothing could scare them away.

Lustreia had inherited some of her parents’ caution. Teska, on the other hand, was headstrong and curious. It was she who led the way whenever they managed to slip out from under their parents’ noses. While her sister lagged behind, Teska was always on the move, her pearl held high to capture memories of the Cathedral. The splendor of the hallways was reflected on the surface of her pearl, where it clung, seemingly adding to the pearl’s luster and sheen. At night, usually after having been thoroughly scolded by her parents, Teska would hold the pearl close and shut her eyes. The darkness would melt away, and then she would be out in the corridors again, freely exploring the Cathedral’s nooks and crannies. She always smiled at this. It always made the scoldings worth it.

Teska couldn’t understand or appreciate why her parents insisted they remain in their chambers. She had been told that the Cathedral was dangerous—but where was the danger? They did encounter some of the inhabitants, but only very rarely, and those dragons were always civil. And so despite her parents’ remonstrations, Teska learned not to fear them. She grew bolder in her explorations of the Cathedral, even leaving her sister behind at times; her pearl became her only constant companion, always ready to capture a memory at a moment’s notice.

It was inevitable that she would run into trouble, although it wasn’t obvious at first. On a dreary afternoon, as rain lashed the walls of the Cathedral, Teska flitted away again. The patter of her footsteps was masked by the thunder outside, and it was a while before even her sister noticed she was gone.

The Cathedral was enormous—bigger inside than out, it seemed....Though Teska had explored it every chance she’d gotten, there were still many areas she had yet to even glimpse. For now, though, with the rain and wind outside, she would settle for someplace warm. And it looked like there was one up ahead....She could see a golden glow.

She imagined a warm fire, but there was none. Instead, there was a statue atop a gleaming plinth. Teska stared in awe; she’d never seen so much gold in one place before. And what consummate artistry! The statue looked so lifelike—

It opened its eyes and stared down at her.

Teska gawped back. Those eyes...Brilliant gold, brighter even than the room. They shone with intelligence and awareness—but there was no warmth in them. Teska’s gaze locked onto the pinprick pupils, and for a long, awful moment, it felt as if the perspective might shift and she might tumble into them....

The moment passed, followed by a blinding bolt of pain that raked through her head like a jagged saw. She retreated, keening in agony; even so, she heard another sound: a faint, grinding crack.

The next thing she knew, she was in the hallway outside, and her sister was shaking her, asking what had happened. Teska stammered, “There was a dragon...” She trailed off as she turned to look.

The room had disappeared. Where there had been a doorway and a warm golden glow, there was only a blank wall. Teska stared in disbelief; she was about to touch the wall when her sister pointed out something more alarming.

Her pearl. The once-perfect rainbow surface was now marred by a hairline crack. “I must have dropped it,” Teska gasped.

“Dropped it?” her sister asked incredulously.

“Because there...” She paused. “There was...” Another pause. Images fragmented in her mind and then whirled away, like leaves before an autumn breeze. Instead of the Spiral, she had only fleeting impressions of brilliant gold....

Her sister tugged her back to their parents. It wasn’t long before the family packed up and left the Cathedral of Eyes.

Life was difficult for Teska after that. Like many other dragons, as soon as she was strong enough to travel, she was sent away to another clan. Her new home was in the Southern Icefield, the bitter, winter-locked land of the Icewarden.

It wasn’t just the change of environment that made things tough—her pearl had sustained permanent damage. The hairline crack had grown longer and wider over the years, and Teska’s memories began leaking out of it.

So each night, for many years, Teska would spend time hunched over her pearl, patiently committing important memories to her own brain. The pearl was supposed to serve as a more efficient backup, but she no longer had that option. Instead, Teska used its now-feeble magic to help press important memories more firmly upon her mind, at the cost of those that she deemed unimportant. So while she could remember clanmates’ names and abilities, she forgot simpler things, such as jokes they’d made earlier or idle snatches of song.

There was another problem, one that was more difficult to deal with. As the crack widened, Teska would awaken with peculiar memories, ones that could not possibly be hers: battles she had never fought, spells she couldn’t even pronounce, and places far removed from the Southern Icefield. To her horror, she realized that her pearl, perhaps in an effort to replace the thoughts it had lost, was now siphoning away the memories of other dragons.

Was it merely copying the memories, or had those other dragons lost them completely? Teska sought help from sorcerers and thaumaturges. Many of them were Pearlcatchers, and they were quite surprised at this turn of events. “Never heard of a pearl doing that before,” they muttered. “I didn’t even think it was possible.” They wanted to experiment on the pearl but were also reluctant to do so, in case their memories got sucked away.

They agreed on one thing, though: Leaking out memories and then stealing away others’ was not something any pearl should do. They suggested that it was due to a hostile enchantment, something that was eating away at the pearl from the inside. “How long has it been like this?” they asked Teska. “It’s a long shot—but can you remember?”

Teska couldn’t, not anymore, but there were others who did. She wrote to her parents and sister, asking for help. Her parents had remained in the Viridian Labyrinth, but Lustreia had found her way back to the Sunbeam Ruins and had become a powerful fighter in another clan. It was Lustreia who proved to be most helpful: She recounted how she and Teska had hatched in the legendary Cathedral of Eyes. Teska’s heart quickened its pace as she read how, one day, she had wandered off. And her sister had found her sitting, slack-jawed and motionless, in the middle of an empty corridor. The pearl had been cradled in her paws, not sitting on the floor. She hadn’t dropped it. But that was when the crack had appeared....

Teska’s parents’ clan had ties to the Cathedral dragons, and they agreed to help her. Her Ice clan also decided to let her go. They had done all they could for her. It was up to Teska now.

It was a dreary day when Teska arrived at the Cathedral of Eyes. She followed a lonely road that wound up a series of jagged cliffs; more than once she had to tear her eyes from the waves dashing themselves to tatters upon the rocks. They were mesmerizing, but one careless slip, and...

The Cathedral loomed ahead. The entire building appeared to glow, like an ember left in a dying fire. It looked warm and solid, and normally it would be enticing to travelers, but Teska shivered. Something about that warm golden glow...It made her uneasy.

She knocked on the door and had to fight back the urge to cower as it opened: the doorkeeper was an Imperial many times larger than she was. He looked down at her with incurious scarlet eyes. After a brief glance, his glare sharpened. “You carry no invitation,” he rumbled. He flowed out the door, heedless of the rain, and spread his rose-wreathed wings.

Teska barely managed to keep from sprinting away. “I am Teska. I was born here in the Cathedral, along with my sister. My parents have had dealings with this clan.”

She cringed as the Imperial bent low. His breath wafted over her brow and ears, and then he took a sniff. And with a grudging grunt and a toss of his head, he indicated that she could come inside.

Teska found the Cathedral much changed from what she could remember. She still had vague memories of the cavernous, echoing halls and the infrequent inhabitant gliding past. Now, in the distance, she could see more dragons; the hallways rang with laughter and gaiety. The interior was still extravagantly furnished and decorated—that hadn’t changed.

A trim Skydancer detached herself from the bustle. She glided over to Teska and then gave her a quick, knife-sharp glance an instant before dipping into a bow. “Welcome to the Cathedral of Eyes, fair lady. I am Canadensis, the Concierge. I trust your journey has not been too taxing?”

“Were you expecting me?” Teska asked after a moment. She recalled what the doorkeeper had said about not having an invitation.

The Skydancer smiled gently. “Those who start their lives here are welcome to return—within reason.” The last couple of words was nearly a whisper. Before Teska could ask what Canadensis meant, the Skydancer exclaimed, “But my goodness, you are sopping wet! Let us see to some dry clothes for you, and then we shall help you settle in.”

And that was how Teska found her way back to her birthplace. She explained why she had returned and that she needed the Cathedral’s help in understanding what was wrong with her pearl; although the dragons she spoke to could not provide an explanation any more than others had, they offered to aid her in her research. In returned, Teska agreed to cooperate with them, to share her own findings in a mutual exchange of knowledge.

Knowledge. The word snaked through the Cathedral like a thread of song, reaching certain ears. Knowledge...about a mysterious pearl, one that had gathered myriad memories. And now the Cathedral dragons, together with Teska, realized: when the pearl latched onto another dragon’s memories, it didn’t copy them. It actually took them—whatever memory it siphoned would be completely forgotten by that dragon.

Teska was not as horrified by this discovery as she normally would’ve been. She had grown close to Korpiklaani, another Pearlcatcher, and had built a nest with him. Soon, their eggs would arrive....The Cathedral was no longer the sepulchral place from Teska’s childhood. It was brighter, more cheerful. And it felt safer. Perhaps it would be a better place for her children to live in.

One night, Teska awoke. It was in the small hours between midnight and dawn....She lay in the darkness, listening to her mate’s breathing, and then she instinctively reached for her pearl.

The next instant, she was fully awake, tossing back blankets and cushions. Her mate stirred, asked what was wrong. Teska clung to him with a stricken cry—her pearl was gone.

“Nonsense,” he answered automatically—his pearl was exactly where he’d left it. But Teska’s own orb had disappeared.

The dragons living nearby were roused by her cries. They padded out in their nightclothes, wondering what was wrong. As soon as they understood, they rallied, vowing to retrieve their clanmate’s pearl, but it was hopeless. The thief, whoever they were, had managed to slip in and out unnoticed, and they had taken Teska’s pearl with them.

The Pearlcatcher wanted to go and find it. Its absence burned against her like a knife in her heart. But she was heavy with eggs and couldn’t travel well, and even if she weren’t, where could she begin looking?

She was afraid, deathly afraid....Without her pearl to help her focus, over the next few days, her memories began slipping away again. “Do you remember me?” Korpiklaani asked her. He showed her the apartments they lived in, their newest clutch of eggs. “These are our children; they’re waiting to meet you. Try to remember, Teska.” He was almost pleading.

Teska wanted to remember. The dragons of the Cathedral had been so kind and helpful; she had a mate and...her children. She would not forget her children!

She threw herself into her research with a will. She studied new ways to store memories and recover what she had lost. She was aided in no small part by her new clanmates. They had grown to care for her and her gentle, cheerful ways. Together, they uncovered another way she could go on living: With the aid of a special kind of magic, Teska could store her memories in various objects that came to hand.

There were rules, of course. All magic has its rules. “I want to remember this,” she told herself when her eggs hatched. Almost immediately after her first hatchling broke its egg, she scooped up the shells. She clutched them in her paws even as she stared, wide-eyed, at her new children. As they pushed their way into the world, the shells in her hands glowed, absorbing the memory. And there they stayed: the memory of her children’s birth, imprinted on the first object she’d managed to grab at that time.

“I want to remember.” She imprinted memories onto statuettes, roses.... “Let me remember....”

When her children went to play in the gardens, she looked at them, at their carefree and laughing faces, and her heart smote her. The Cathedral was not as safe as she had thought. Her children could not stay here. “But let me remember...” She reached out blindly, touched something soft. A chicken. It squawked in alarm, but as it started to absorb her memories, it quieted down. When she was finished, it looked up at her with steady yellow eyes. Teska couldn’t help smiling back. Even after the hatchlings were done playing and it was time to go back inside, she carried the chicken with her.

In place of the pearl, the chicken became Teska’s chief holder of memories. It could not leak them out or siphon away others’ memories as the pearl had done—and better yet, it actually seemed to understand its new owner. When Teska looked at it, more often than not, it was able to pass on the memories she needed right at that moment, sometimes even before she knew she needed them. It might have been because, like Teska, the chicken had been a mother, too....The Pearlcatcher smiled gently. Friends could be found in the strangest of places sometimes.

She let her children go. They promised to keep in touch, and after they had left, Teska picked up her chicken and walked back into the Cathedral. Her place was here now, with her mate. Studying memories and strange magic, trying to pick up pieces of the past...Perhaps answers would come to light. Perhaps not. She couldn’t be sure.

One thing was certain, though: Her pearl was still out there. Teska could feel it; it was almost like seeing the faintest ray of dawn peeking from behind a mountain. Whoever had taken it had known that it was defective, might have even taken it because it was defective.

But did they know what it could do? And if they did, what would they use it for? Memories leaking out, memories being sucked back in...Whose memories did her pearl now hold?

~ written by Disillusionist (254672)

Artwork by Carrotss

Layout by Kintsy

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Exalting Teska to the service of the Lightweaver will remove them from your lair forever. They will leave behind a small sum of riches that they have accumulated. This action is irreversible.

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