Vijaya's Biography: Spice and Blood Makes the World Taste Good

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[As imaged on in one of the major noble houses of her family back in Sri Raji.]

Vijaya was born in a noble household with not a brother at all.  Some believed her mother was cursed only to have girls and only to have one girl.  Vijaya's father went off to war and to serve in the bloody battles of Kali.  Many in Barovia do not know this though she has been there for quite some time.  They equally do not know what or who she serves or why she serves it.  The commoners just see another outlander while the outlanders see when they find her out of who exactly she is and what exactly she serves to be corrupt and evil when it is in the place of her people.  Vijaya never meant to be born within the city of Sri Raji.  Like all beings they never choose how or where they are born.  Yet a picture still stands on an old wall in the hallway of her slowly rotting household in Sri Raji.  While Vijaya has been away, her mother fell ill and died.  Now it is in the hands of her uncle.  An uncle whom is in charge of a sect in the temple of Kali.  And sometimes he stares upon this picture and wonders what happened to his niece.  He wonders...what befell her.  Is she now a bloated corpse in the bay, skeletal and fallen to the bottom where the crabs feed from her?  If Kali wills it...if Kali wills it.

But Kali had decided a very different fate for Vijaya.  A test.  To what Vijaya believes is a test.  She has lived in this land for a long time now, to what feels like years.  Vijaya has met many people along her journey in Barovia and the land of the mists.  She has met many creatures too, both powerful and dangerous that is respected by her.  And then there are others that are weak that Vijaya does not look on as disgusting, but as ones who found Kali's forgiveness and mercy due to Vijaya finding it in her heart, and not killing them.  But the most influential person in Vijaya's life right now: one that she looked up upon.  One that she respected and he accepted her for who she was for so long.  Friends, lovers, and comrades.  Marius was his name and Marius is the person whose face she had seen recently in so much disappointment.  And non-acceptance when he came back from his leave.  Men to Vijaya do not deserve her love or her likeness.  And due to that she has built a tomb of stone around her.  She might smile and laugh and speak her wise words..but in Barovia, in the Land of the Mists love is impossible to attain and impossible to catch.  Even if there are those that desire her.  They might have her, but they will never.  Vijaya has too many important things to worry about, such as money...or her prayers to Kali.  That same prayer that forced bad directions onto her.  That now her skin is blue, like depictions of Kali.  As she is blue in her heart and she bleeds for Kali whenever her enemies draw that upon her.  With each month and each year she lives in this land, she grows stronger and stronger and stronger.  What will happen when she learns everything there is to learn of this land? And nothing will be able to stop her from ultimate sacrifice.

Though Vijaya respects power and respects those that are greater than her; they are looked upon with discredit sometimes from the decisions they have made.  However, there is only one man that Vijaya respects more than any other.  She has seen him three times and every time she has known fear from looking into his eyes.  Every time whether it be a friendly meeting or a insidious one.  Vampire, man, Barovian: Bojan.

Vijaya looked out a window of the Blue Water and moved a hand along her lips, massaging them in thought.  Vijaya thought of Bojan in the night time hours.  How not only two weeks ago she saw him.  In a way, she wanted him to destroy her.  How beautiful it would be.  How glorious.  He is epiphany of what Kali describes and every day she tries to achieve to be like him.  Vijaya would not want to be what he is, but if Kali willed then she could turn into something beautiful.  Be reborn like the dogma of Kali into something...incredible.  But this was Vijaya's mind wondering about things that would never be and could never be.  So why even think about such things? Because she was merely nineteen years old...and her mind wondered of fantastical things, fantastical visions.  Some came true, some did not.  She did not know what the future lead to, but she always supported it, even if it meant her own death. 

She would see this through.

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Vijaya Maharaj waited at the edge of the Balinok mountains and looked up at the rainy sky.  The thunder enveloped nearly all the mountains in light.  Her hood stuck to her face and her black hair as if she was one with it.  Her clothing and the flat men's armor that held her breast in place and protected her dripped and tinkled with the hard Barovian rain.  And yet she stood there, waiting.  Wishing.  For something.  Her blue and cold skin ran with the rain.  And yet at the same time this early spring cold rain did not bother her.  Or she was just numb to it, like when skin is already so cold that one cannot feel.  She took out a book, and held it lightly within her cloak so only a few drops could hinter into it.  And she wrote the words into it with a quill and a barbaric ink pot on the book:

There once was a woman.  And she wanted to be alone.  So she went up to the mountains. *Raindrop*  The mountains were so beautiful this time of year.  The Baratak mountain range.  And it was so foreign from what she was used to in her Rajian landscapes.  *Raindrop*  So she found her way to this abandoned farmhouse and there she slayed all of the undead within it back to death.  Her Lord Kali was happy at such a sacrifice.  But the fates decided that she was not over.  That this...was not over.  Fate sent a cold relic in the middle of the night to remind the Rajian woman to not get too comfortable.  She tried to run from the lost souls touch. *Raindrop*  But its cold fingers found purchase of her shoulder, and her skin turned an icy blue as it sucked the warmth from her body.  Until there was nothing left.  This is where a woman would have died ad her soul to would have joined the lost soul in his forever wondering and seeking of warmth.  But she lived.  And she survived.  She was strong....The Rajian gathered herself and walked down this mountain, then she ran down the rest of the way when he strength was gathered.  Taking this such thing as Divine intervention, as her own dear Kali who's skin was a blue and whose hair was black.

Vijaya stopped writing when the rain stopped and put her quill and corked the bottle on the ink back.  Vijaya never questioned what she did, and why she did it.  Why was she at the base of the mountains.  Why she was waiting for night of course.  And she was waiting for it to consume her with whatever Lord Kali and the fates decided of her.

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Vijaya held a spear in her hand that had just been impaled into a smuggler's eye hole.  Brain matter was dripping and oozing out the backside.  And yet, in her sweaty exterior she felt nothing.  The death of these enemies meant nothing to her because there were so many of them.  And they were all trying to harm her and a woman named Sylvonas, or was it Sylvanos.  Vijaya forgot such names sometimes, so she just kept referring to the female that accompanied her in these journey's today as 'miss'.  It was afterall the right thing to do.  The polite thing to do.  Vijaya shifted her spear into a way that the skull of the former man slowly slide from it in a splatter.  This was murder.  So any outlander that came here found murder here in the streets at night of Dementlieu.  And in workhouses like this.  Right?  All the while they were mindlessly murdering these men who were really just bandits hiding in a safehouse, soon to be re-confiscated by another branch of bandits -- the great upheaval.  She had read about it only today when she was in the Drain.  She had read how Sri Raji was the first place to really come out of the nothingness that now created this land.  As well as the Wilds and another land.  So why could the Vistani not take her there?  Were they somehow blocked?  In a way Vijaya didn't think that the outlanders nor Barovian's could handle more than just one Rajian.  Vijaya tripped on the messed carpet in the workhouse around the end, and it lead to one of the smuggler guards pummeling his hard hammer into her breast plate, causing Vijaya lips to spurtle with the blood of her ancestors.  Hot blood dripped out and she ran out of the battle for a moment.  That is when she heard the lady say, "Let me teach you how to fight!" Was she talking to Vijaya or the smuggler? Nothing could be taken to heart in such a battle.  Eventually the blood hardened and dried quickly on her cold skin.  Would Vijaya ever find her warmth again?  She could not worry about such meager things than her looks.  Though there were many downsides.  She had to keep covered and away from guards.  Her arms might be exposed around the upper forearms but that was only because a person might think that is part of her dress.

Once they were done with gathering bounties for the Port they parted ways, just like that.  Vijaya found herself wondering the noble quarter.  Even if she knew the name of the quarter there was not a way that she could pronounce it.  There were far too many gutteral words in the high Mordentish speech.  She did not take off her hood even though in the Port, it was safe.  Once set in her ways, habits were hard broken.  Vijaya's long black braid swayed in the new sea wind that was not so far off.  And she smiled at the salty smell.  It reminded her of home, but the atmosphere was different.  People she walked by were speaking a new language here.  Every now and again she wished to speak Rajian.  And in fact, she might be well losing a few words, or remembering what words were in Rajian.  How sad.

On another note, plans within plans fall together for Vijaya, one by one.  Like coins placed to fall off a table.

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Vijaya stood in the sewers, her dress covered in sludge and the filth of the city above her.  In the darkness, the smell of the enclosed noxious smell clung to her skin now.  Perspiration was upon her blue skin.  Vijaya was not doing anything, but simply..standing there.  With the sewage seeping into her shoes.  Tired eyes reflected how she felt within the utter blackness of the underworld.  She had had a very interesting conversation, one that she would remember and dwell on for a while.  The key to survival here, was to act as if you were unimportant.  How utterly delightful.  Vijaya smiled then and began to move to the sludge.  She had talked all night with this person, a person she had never thought she would come to be friends with.  Vijaya crawled like a bug out of the sewers through the gates.  Barovian bystanders would stare at her with a strange look in their eyes.  And of course, Vijaya smelled horribly bad.  Like everyone's chamberpots to be sure.  A squishing sound on rainy and grey morning streets as she walked along the way.  Up not to the Blue Water, no she was much too dirty for that.  Today she went to Tigan's.  Usually local shady types were in this tavern.  Not to mention the tavern keeper was a stout Barovian woman with a hard metal exterior.  Even that specific female innkeeper stared at her, took her fang and sent her up to the baths and a room.  If she was lucky there would be no bugs in the beds.

The Rajian quickly bathed with stilled water and she moved to her room. The room had a desk in it with only a few few stains on the floor.  One bloodstain was on the wall, but that was good compared to some rooms that she had stayed in.  Vijaya sat down delicately in the chair and stared at the candle flickering next to the bed.  These quiet times of night are when she thought the most.  Dreamed the most.  Carried wishes the most.  Where would she be? What would she be doing in the years to come?  Nevertheless she took a book out of her pack and started to write in it with her quill and dipping a few in the ink well.

Friends: Betrayal or saviors.
Enemies: Betrayed or matyrs?

1....2.....3...

For Vijaya had already fallen well and fast asleep against the book and against the paper.

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Time passes by Vijaya as if it is no meaning at all.  The more and more she thought of what she had become, her position in this society of strangers, the more she was ashamed.  Her Lord would want her to become something more.  Something more than what she was and who she was.  Vijaya must transgress to the next level.  To pull back and then move on.  Her friends told her she would be alone, but she knew if she followed Lord Kali's wishes that she would not.  For there will always be a place for Vijaya if she followed Kali's steps in which way she guides Vijaya through the land.  Vijaya's skin is no longer blue, but a dark grey brown.  It complimented her mood.  Sometimes Vijaya became confused and uncertain.  But there was something of the way of his eyes and the way his lips moved from his mouth that made her certain.  As Vijaya looked in the candlelit mirror, sitting down in a chair and braiding her freshly sewn locks together and down her shoulder she looked at herself.  And thought all of these things.  She thought of her day, and what it had meant to her.  This indeed had been a monumental day in her life.  One she would remember for a long time.

For Vijaya there was nothing to read about, nothing to write about.  She wanted this time to reflect who she was.  A murderer, a killer, a healer and a savior to those who were dead.  To be a bringing of life where there was none.  But who was she really? On the inside in her guts and in her core?  A young girl just growing out of her teenage years.  A woman gone cold from the bitterness of this land?  She stared into her own dark eyes in the mirror, trying to see what she could see.  But all she saw was a nineteen year old Rajian girl, looking back as if she was trying to see something that might not even be there.

That night she dreamed of a forest, but it had no color.  And it was dark and long.  As if she would never reach its end.  Covered by moonlight the forest was alive and shining.  And instead of leaves she was stepping on the gore and the guts, the maggoty insides of a battle long since dead.  They squished threw her sandals and onto the ground.  And then she looked into a mirror then and there she saw herself, bloody, reaper of the battle.  Running and afraid.  The dream would not end but go on.  And on and on until the morning hours.

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Vijaya remembered clearly that night that she had arrived to Barovia, as she stood by a half frozen river within the southern forests, just south of Vallaki.  Vijaya slipped off her sandals and unbuckled her armor that made it what it was.  But under that armor there was a woman underneath.  A muscled woman with hardly any scars to count for what she had been through.  Or what she had done.  It was in the evening time when she had arrived on that first day as it was now here.  She placed her bare feet into the pool of water. Any animals or humans could be looking and they could look to their hearts content.  She had a blouse like man Rajian women did.  Half of the blouse was cut off just above her chest line.  It was blue of course, like the rest of her outfit.  With careful bangles she scooped up water and doused her face with it.  The coldness of it made her feel alive with the pain and tingles it brought.  She closed her eyes.  Breathing out steam from the night air.  Distant howls and a settling of a mist just over the water gave an eerie feeling.  But Vijaya reveled in this.  In the dangers that it brought.  Her hair was next.

Vijaya completed her makeshift bath.  And then she stared into the darkness.  And she walked across the frozen portion of the stream to get back to the shore.  Those brown eyes of hers had remembered a dark figure that had greeted her that night. And then like a ghost it was gone.  She had praised that figure ever since that day.  To choose her above all else.  Everyone else in the land seemed to be trying to leave.  But Vijaya found this to be the perfect opportunity to serve her god.  If Vijaya had a choice she would never go back to Sri Raji.  Though she missed it dearly, she decided this is where her Lord Kali, the Black Mother wished for her to be.  Wished for her to belong.  And so to the night Vijaya raised up her hand and she drew it down her long flowing hair, "Thank you." She said to the night in finality.

On another note, Vijaya was finding herself to be more and more desolate in her attempts to find others that worshiped the Black Mother, in fact there were none.  No Rajian's for that fact either.  They would come..if they were here they would come.  Vijaya smirked then with her wet lips into the night where she knew creatures lurked.

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Death....Some say death rides on a pale horse.  Some say he rides in the form of a blue Lord Kali.  The death of a friend however feels hollow.  Not worse than a child's death by any means.  But the blood will remain forever in my eyes.  And I will remember...

What to do, what not to do.  But in the end we are nothing but dust anyway...

Kali has willed this to happen.  And sought for the unmerciful death.  The battle great but it was not won.  Still more death needs to come from the ax before it is destroyed.

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Vijaya felt the wind on her face from the cold mountains that she had been residing in.  There was no real thought to why she was here and yet there was.  Something in her gut wanted her to stay here.  Wanted to keep her in a safe and secluded place.  But this place was anything but safe.  Vijaya would often stay up in the monastery for days and days at a time.  She took up residence there, washed her clothes and cooked there now.  She would skewer the crag cats and have them for breakfast lunch and dinner.  Something seemed empty though, without.  Something was on her mind and it had been for a while now.  She had come up here because she felt she was a failure or that her god had left her.  She had failed to kill a crazed person, a vampire she used to believe was a man she could follow.  He had attacked her weeks ago it seemed.  And her healing powers had no effects on him.  So in her depression she sought refuge in the shadows of mount Baratak.

She enjoyed the quiet and the solitude of the lonely mountain like many other creatures.  When the dark would come she would remain in the cold and outside.  The biting wind would catch her hair and twist the braid that was on it.  A crackling fire was at her feet usually.  She did not like going inside the monastery however.  There was something about it that felt oppressive.  As if it had once witnessed a horrible tragedy.  Often she had sensed such things, or thought it.  Her being a priest of Kali, she felt she had a greater connection to things such as that.  The realm of the dead.  In fact she might as well be the only living person that worshiped her Lord.

Her body felt like a cage that she could not escape from, and her soul wanted to sore into heights of the night that she never could.  And her eyes would look up in the night to the storming and thundering sky that was just above her.  And be reminded that she was not home.  Her furs that she was wearing would blow against her face lightly.  But Kali was not to blame for her not able to kill her old friend, the old boss.  It was something about him...something that stopped her from affecting him in such a manner.  And it bothered her.  Kali willing, the Lord would help her figure it out.  And if not...then Vijaya would do it on her own as she often did.

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Under a stormy sky that crackled with thunder, an umbrella over the danger beneath upon a high jagged mountain, a young girl waited and thought.  Though the mountain was dangerous that didn’t seem to matter to the young priest.  On this mountain violent storms raged like an angry mother, biting and scratching with the cold that seemed to sting the flesh with vengeance from an angry spirit; through vein and muscle – right to the bone.  This is a place where dangerous creatures reined like kings and queens and where untold wars repeated themselves in ghostly countenance.
Deadly creatures such as the white furred crag cat and giant spiders, defaced felines or experiments gone wrong, wolves and ghosts that take your warmth from you in the old night.

Werewolves usually stayed on the lower hills of the dangerous mountain, possibly for warmth or they knew the game of deer and other warm animals remained where the grassy hills were.  Or they simply knew through animalistic instinct that they were not supposed to seek beyond a certain point.  It was always thought by the Rajian woman that the cold bothered the werewolves.

Vampires dominated the mountain in the dark and the deep.  On cold black nights they always seemed to come out, paying homage to old night through blood; sometimes violently.  Often though, old night had a mind of its own as if itself was an entity who sought fit the fate of any nighttime traveler.

***
Vijaya, who was upon this mountain, foreign to the land and its inhabitants, alone in the dark amongst these dangers; one might think the night had made a secret pact with her so that she might survive.  Most if not all the time she was alone as she had been since the first time she had stepped on the moist mist stained soil of Barovia.  Once in a while it a was healthy finding solitude from the business and the drama of the city below.  And with the drama including foreign evil men, wishing only for her healing touch or with many plans to kill her.  But sometimes too much solitude can be a terrible experience for anyone and mostly everyone with the exception of the already crazed.

But even being alone wasn’t so bad because she felt as if someone was watching her, perhaps even watching over her.  Vijaya did not know.  All she could do was feel. 
Vijaya got up from where she had been sitting on  log next to a crackling fire.  Atop the fire was the leg of a crag cat, her kill and so she was cooking it.  Bones laid on the side, half inside a satchel, intent on being disposed.  Other things such as sleeping mats and cushions had been put out.  Though, Vijaya could have gone inside, into the monastery that she had been staying, something had told her that the cold would be more well suited for her than dealing with whatever dark entity that the inside had to offer her.  It was almost as if she felt ill whenever she would step close to the door and that the door grew larger while her body shrank.  As if something brooding was coming.  Leaning down, Vijaya put freshly fallen snow on the fire with her gloved hands.  And she cleared her throat.  She had not spoken to anyone for what seemed weeks by now.  But it would feel like that.  A small waterfall hung to the side of where she had been staying with hardly anything alive under the water.  Only the blackness and the ice that nearly encrusted it.  And it was only summer.  It was not high time for Vijaya to migrate back to the valley where she had come from.  But in a way she had enjoyed staying at the monastery.  She might come back another time and find out this secret.  Either way, the emotions were felt stained on the walls of the cursed monastery like a poison sprayed disease; it would try to leave its mark on her if she here for too much longer.

After gathering her few things she had and dousing the fire on the ground and putting away the fire to show that little activity had been here, but the trained eye of course could see she had been there from the indentions of a body on the ground where her sleeping mat had been.  Vijaya traveled out the front gate, a small figure that was dwarfed by the large gates of overhead.  Those brown eyes of hers looked up and her long braid seemed to bob on her chest with each step.  Snow was still falling pretty hard on her black hair.  She pulled a cowl up and over her head at this.  The darkness of the night was overwhelming and she felt exposed at the elements.  But at the same time she was protected by her god, her god which probably was not watching over her.  But she still had faith. 

Usually Vijaya would take the chance and scathe the ledges of the mountain so as to avoid the spiders and the skeletons fighting in a certain area as well as experimental horrors from the lich tower.  Vijaya would sometimes stand from above and simply watch if she could risk it.  The Kali side of her wanted to join in the battle, but the human side of her feared death.  CRUNCH! An abomination seemed to crunch the head of a skeleton in two and then eat that skull.  The skeleton fell with no hesitation. 
Fear.  Everyone had fear.  Vijaya had fear and it did keep her alive.  It kept her surviving from one day to the next.  But it was all in the mind to Vijaya.  And yet, had she known true fear?  She did.  She feared the night, fearing the loss of ones she cared for but never loved.  Fearing the loss of her life without a true ribbed satisfaction with life in her stomach  But if she was fearful, if she showed fear all the time and acted on it then she would not be where and what she was today.

Upon moving down the mountain with little to no effort, she found herself in a glen.  That special part of the mountain going from rocky highlands to slow moving and rolling hills of the lower plains.  It began to rain on her instead of snow as it often did  in this place.  It was a cold rain though, nothing pleasant about it.  Going across this sparse forest threw the rocks her feet found much purchase to mud, and nearly slipping every now and then.  Her dress was dirty from the short expedition.  And she knew when she stepped foot in the lowlands from the mountains she would be faced with the wolves that she had fought off many times before. 

Out of the woods, the small woman traveled with her now sleek figure from the rain and brooding because her sandals were now wet and muddy as well with small pieces of gravel in them.  So in her misery there was some part of her that was enjoying the moment, feeling alive and feeling like the coldness was not so empty.  Her wet face turned to look up at the dark cloudy skies upon walking past an old mountain side graveyard.  Though she did not hear them at first, she knew they were watching her.  Sharp yellow eyes watched her from the brush and then a loud growl come from behind her.  She turned her head like anyone would and saw the yellow eyes.  Nearly instantly when she saw it, and recognized it, it leapt at her.  Vijaya took off down the hill, sometimes rolling down it as she slipped in the mud, but the wolves were very face.  Their claws dug into the dirt to bound toward her.  When she got to the bottom of the hill, as she had done on several occasions she quickly took the old wooden pike out of its holster and held it up at an angle.  The first werewolf that came bounding at her was met with the sharp protrusion of a spiked end enveloping its brain.  When the second saw this it ran away with a whining yelp. But the third, a bigger and darker creature came down, slowly and baring its teeth at Vijaya.  The storm persisted in the distance and thunder crackled just enough for Vijaya to  make out its rows of yellowed sharp teeth and long clawed fingers as well as its wiry hair.  The ears of it were laid back

Upon quickly pulling out the pike from  the wolf, blood sprayed all over the ground.  And when the other wolf saw this he leapt at her too.  Its snarls conjoined with the wolfish howls in the distance.  The pike took a slash across the creatures face.  The creature whined but instead of running away it came after her. 

***


[Portrayed on the mountain - Vijaya is not portrayed in this image.]

***
“*Muffled* -- bare me a child.” Blunt, very blunt.  So blunt that Vijaya blocked the first part out of her memory.

Vijaya could not stand the rudeness, the self-confidence that Zidonne held within him.  She had only been back for a very short while from the mountain and to come back and hear this sickened her.  Vijaya was balancing her weight on her pike much like a walking stick.  At first her thoughts were to jab it right on threw his eyeball.  But then she decided to just take a swing at his head.  It came into contact but didn’t of course do as much damage as what she thought to her disappointment.  His own reciprocal attack was much much worse, but then again he was wearing metal gauntlets.  He took his own hand and he thrust her with a backhand, or a forward handed slap? Either way Vijaya was unsure and she even blacked out for a moment.

There were a few onlookers that didn’t even try to prevent it.  She fell down right on the ground, right on her side, blood and a few back teeth fell out of her mouth.  It took her a moment to rise simply from the confusion in her head now.  A bruise was forming on her dark skin, black and vicious.  Blood ran down her front teeth and her lips and along her armor now in its dripping.  A white blaring noise was in her ear, but eventually that recovered itself as well.  And when she was righted again she glanced in his eyes to see a new coldness.  And Vijaya managed out a sentence.
“Your far too emotional for me…” And she turned to leave.  Vijaya has not been abused in such a way in a very long time if ever.  Zidonne was a friend, and she trusted him.  But no more.

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Vijaya walked near the Fisherman's lodge after a very long day behind her, in fact a long week in general. She had done things, questionable things that she thought she might never do but in her dreams.  And when she did them she held no remorse accept for what she lost and not the act itself.  Often she would find herself pondering over the water, over words shared to her in the days past.  Her time was shared by an individual.  Often Vijaya kept her private life separate from the city and from what she did with all.  Something about this situation made her want to protect this aspect of her life and this secret that she now found herself engrossed in.  She would rather die, rather kill, rather maim and sacrifice than let it be known to the world.

The Rajian woman was along in this world and she was trying so hard to grasp what she might think were friends or a place to belong in this world of Barovia and in the Core.  Not matter how hard it snowed on her head and rained on her, the woman was patient and kept her vigil at standing outside even in this cold like she was now.  Vijaya realized that she had not been with a man for a long time, too long for a woman, a young and growing woman like her.  But it was alright.  Everything was fine this way and she liked it.  Because something ended up happening this past evening.  And Vijaya realized right then and there that she could not be in any sort of relationship, courting or any of the any of the  like with a man ... or with a woman.  Lest they find her privacy unveiled and this would end up in much bloodshed, her own blood.  So there was only one place to go.

Vijaya remembered the sincerity in his gray eyes and upon his noble tongue the many guidance he had given her.  Even as the two were conversing in this vague setting along the Lake Zarovich she would find herself rather lonely and asking this old and nobleman...very silly questions.  Vijaya knew she needed to learn restraint in many forms.  But ws this her fat? To be forever alone and to live with the consequences of the friends that she eviscerates?  Everytime she thought of it, it sent a lump in her throat.  She did this.  It was her fault that she had less than a friend.  And as she stared out at the gray water this evening time, with the lacking of the noble individual at her side, she would find herself feeling unfulfilled if she were to die this night.  She would find herself being at fault and just listening to the distant wolves howling.  Yowling for the blood of their next victims, squirrel or human.  Was she sad? It was hard to say.  Because she had done the right thing, she had completed her part of the bargain but at what cost?  At just that night, she felt herself changed forever and her fate fixed onto one thing.  So she had better get over very quickly being lonely.  Vijaya had the idea of putting this out of her mind, she would most certainly put this out of her mind and find within her a hobby to do.  Some other form of hobby that she would enjoy doing.  Or whether it would be just giving advice like she had always done, or healing others when they needed it.

The woman finally turned from the lake and began up the mountain as she always had.  Under the veil, nothing could be told that she had ever been there but her feminine smell that came from her.  She had only just freshly washed anyway and her clothes had been turned into something else than they were before.  She liked her clothing much better now.  And then she saw the blood when she reached the flattened area around the old graveyard.  And she glanced down at the place where it looked that others had been slaughtered.  She stared at it for a very long time and then leaned down to inspect it.  Never one to linger in such a place, she moved on quickly to her place up the mountain in the small glen where she liked it.  It was near fresh drinking water afterall and she would have her dinner there, dinner of deer or whatever else that seemed to run along to her.

Vijaya was never in a hurry, but the thoughts of eating dinner like this alone was not comforting to her.  When s he could have been eating with Dumas, her friend.  He had always been a good friend and never anything more than a brother.  It was the small things like that that she was missing.  And when she sat down on the all too familiar log and looked in the water at herself, she looked at her own dark underlying skin from here eyes.  She looked tired.  She looked changed.  She looked different than the person she used to.  But her eyes were still the same.  But now they looked sad, as if a tragedy had occurred.  And this all dwindled down to one thing.  She would do whatever he told her to, and she did not even know clearly as to why....

[greeneggs]

In the evenings, Vijaya found herself very tired.  The day before she had remembered the life and death experience of falling from the Tser falls, screaming as her head smashed on rocks and her ribs breaking inside of her armor, causing her her spew blood on the one last tumble down the falls.  Thankfully she missed one of the many jagged rocks in the river beginning.  Her blood traveled down the bank and so did her unconscious body.  Black hair in a braid laid across and down her back.  How this had come to happen might be a mystery for the moment.  In that moment of an unconscious state she found herself in a black dream.  As black as the cave that she had been in just moments before.  A voice came inside of her head, in that dream, "Wake up!" It whispered loudly.  She knew there had been a figure there, she had felt he was angry, or a representation of being angry or annoyed.  And she found herself heaving blood and also retching what felt like bucket fulls of water she had taken into her mouth and swallowed.  And ever since that, she remembered how cold and how afraid she had been in that descent, and falling down the river.  She was lucky the ruler of the castle didn't hear her screams in the night. 

Vijaya trudged up the hill to the old inn, unable to carry herself hardly another mile on foot.  This place had always been desolate whenever she came here.  And it reminded her of a few hiding spots she had in the past.  The door creaked from the rusty hinges as she entered and closed the cold air behind her.  Had one seen her come in?  Possibly, but she did not care.  She was far too tired to argue with her own thoughts and her mind.  A fire did not smolder in the fireplace, everything was dead here.  And she turned herself to walk up the stairs, feeling drained.  More drained than when she had her blood taken by a blood eater in the night.  But not all o the 'blood eater's' were bad.  Little did most of them know that she too drank blood on special occasions, Kali called for it i fact.  Her feet fund their way up the stairs, she turned to close the door once more and then headed up to the room.  She checked all the other rooms which were messy.  The one at the beginning of the hall had to be pried open with her spear in the dusty, quiet hallway.  Vijaya saw in the blackness there was a candelabra standing a few feet over the bed.  An old carpet made the room look cozy and not so cold. 

Vijaya moved over toward the light and she took out a flinty and tender and lit the candle, when one candle was lit she put her flint and tender back in her bag and made sure each and every candle in the device was lit.  It comforted her in a way, a light in the darkness that would guide her back to consciousness in the morning light.  She turned her back to the candle to see in the light a crib over by the wall.  It was long since abandoned and she frowned.  And walked over to the bedding.  It had sheets on it, small sheets for an infant.  And she crouched down to place her hand on the bedding.  It was cold and yet the sheets smelled of a sweet babe that was once there.  Vijaya's brow furrowed.  If there was one thing that would make her hart moan it was the suffering of a small child like this, if it ever did suffer.  Vijaya rose slowly and turned to glance over toward the bed with her honey brown eyes in the light.  She untwisted her braid and took off her chest plate by unstrapping and unbuckling it.  Now, the only thing left was her silks which she wore to bed often.  Taking out a brush from her pack she ran it down threw her hair, while at the same time heading to the door and just placing one clove of garlic by the door as she had been told to do.  Though if there were any spies, they could look inside but possibly not come in and attack her.  Once she was finished brushing her long black, thick hair she moved to the bed.  The bed was mildewed and dusty.  And probably infested with lice or fleas or some form of bug that would cause her harm and injury.  But she didn't care, she was just..too tired.  After letting out one cough in hopes of getting the fluid of the Tser Falls out of her lungs she laid down.  And as she laid down she thought.

Vijaya had alot of inner thinking and monologues, and there was so many ways in which her mind and brain worked.  She stared up at the flickering wooden ceiling however, her hands on her stomach and the covers were at her waist.  There was a bloodstain on the pillow next to her, but again she didn't care.  And she found her eyes growing heavy, and heavier until finally the silent and cold air along with the injury she had sustained days before caused her to fall asleep.  And again, a dream came to her, this one was far more disturbing than the one she had when she was unconscious. 

This night the priestess of Kali found herself alone and in a crypt.  Of recollection she didn't know how she got there as it was a dream, and often when one dreams they do not remember such things as if it were a spell.  The crypt was not a normal one.  Its walls were breathing and covered in spider web type veins that pulsated in a rhythm.  It smelled of mildew, but then a strange and bodily odor filled it like years of rot that the crypt had been harboring.  Curiosity found its way into Vijaya's mind as she approached the slowly gasping wall.  With a dark hand she reached out and felt compelled to touch the sleekness of it.  A middle fingertip grazed it.  It was cold to the touch but wet.  Something seemed to stir under the fleshy wall.  A face, but it was not one that she recognized.  The face was all wrong though.  Its mouth was on its forehead and one eye is where the mouth should have been and the other eye was on the ear, or rather where the ear should have been.  Vijaya wanted to back away and scream.  But she didn't, her eyes were fixated on the face.  its deformed lips opened as it was borne from the flesh.  And blood spewed out of its mouth.  Expecting to get hit by it, she did.  Blood now formed over her dress, making it red with a stain and stench.  And then it spoke to her in a vile tone as if it might hate her:

"I am your rage, feed me with your desires.  I am your despair, and that which binds you to this world.  I am your hunger, that which you can never quench."

And just like that, Vijaya opened her eyes with a gasp and almost a scream, but she was too hoarse to scream.  It was as if her breath had been running ragged and sweat dripped from her dark forehead.  She looked around the room and saw nothing.  Her mouth opened in her breath and she labored to right herself.  One thing had been for sure of the last few days, it had effected her immensely.  Whether it be conversations..or falling from a high place and nearly dying.  But Vijaya was strong and soon...very soon..she would do what she had to do.

[greeneggs]

Vijaya could have been in better sorts the days following.  She could have been bathing in moonlight in a forest glen or bathing in the blood of another as dictated by Kali.  She could have bee dining with a noble but instead I was dying for something that she loved.  She saw the reddened blades and felt her body falling and falling and falling as that sinister pointed sneer of the assassin watched her.  How could she be so careless? How could she be so foolish as to open the door?  Perhaps there was a hope it was someone who paid her some mind and attention that her own friend had lacked her.  Her only friend.  He was far too busy with another girl right now likely, or so thought Vijaya.  And she felt her head crack finally on the hard mountain side.  Something warm ran over her eyes and made everything red.  She wasn't aware of anything else after that, only waking up with a very bad gut ache and head ache, and the face of this friend of hers whom had some how managed to find her. 

Yet Vijaya remembered that sinister smile of the woman, she might as well never forget it.  Her friend wanted her to share her frustrations but she would not, she could not bring herself to doing such a thing.  Never before had her friend asked how she was doing, no one ever did but he which cannot be named even in her mind. Perhaps that is why he left such a lasting impression on her.

And to make matters worse she was told she was not attractive in the same night...but it didn't get her down too much.  If she was not beautiful on the outside, then surely one day someone would see what colorful tastes she was on the inside. 

[greeneggs]

Vijaya ran into the woods...she was bloody from her own failure.  Vijaya thought she was going to die.  The feelings of upset came to her like waves of pain.  Her dress was covered in blood and yet she had been healed fully the very person that did this to her.  The nineteen year old had merely been defending her faith, in her own eyes.  Warden Arndon said that her faith was worthless...that her god did not exist.  And this was the god of her mother, the god of her grandmother and many many more generations before that.  Her faith was immovable as was her actions.  When she had initially stood up for her faith, she was told to leave.  And when she would not, Warden Arndon called a very large and brooding man to remove her.  When she tried to fight him off of her when he had grasped her throat, he took his halberd to it.  A halberd that had sunken into her flesh, ripped her dress and torn at her shoulders and neck.  The final blow might even have hit her somewhere along the head.  Her blood splattered like a fine red paint.  It splattered across the grass.  Her memory is now very splotchy of the event, but she knows of what Arndon said, and of what he did. 

She does not know who attempted to raise her back into this world.  Vijaya was sure that the Ezrites would just have her bleeding on the ground and die from that.  But no, they had other plans for her.  A punishment.  Once she was standing again, the Warden Arndon took her by the neck in the evening lights.  Weakly, threw Vijaya's bloodied vision she saw the stars.  Though they had a very red tint to them.  Due to her own sight being the way it was.  Her eyes were half lidded and she was dizzy from the loss of blood.  Several times she had fallen down on the ground in weakness.  And those several times she gathered herself up from the Warden's vice like grip.  Like any other 'heathen' to the Ezrites, she was about to be punished like a pig.

She was thrown down on the ground in the woods, so that few could see what was going to happen and her hand was cut off before she even knew what was happening.  She just felt the metal on her skin as if it was kissing it and then she felt nothing.  She watched her hand squirting blood out, the last blood that she seemed to have in her.  But then a very bright course of light came upon her, and healed her hand....into a contorted stump.  Her left hand.  In shock, she just stared at it.  They left her in her own blood.  In her own filth, without an arm.  She smelled burned flesh from afar, likely the Warden burned her hand or something...so she could not retrieve it back. 

And then...in her weakest hour an entity came and offered its help.  It told her to feed its vengeance like a fuel.  But Vijaya knew that vengeance comes at a price.  And yet, she was too far into shock to do anything else, other than to stand up, and search for the dark part of the world so that she could hide.  Vijaya was sad, and she felt useless now.  She had been punished by the same person who told her, that her god didn't exist.  Warden Leonar should be punished. 

Vijaya ran into the woods, weakly and wobbling.  She caste herself with a concealment so no one could see where she went, and off she ran, very deep into the Sullen Woods.  And when she came to the place that was so memorable to her, she passed out in the crook of her special tree.   The tree that she had special roots to, that she fed a long time ago it seemed.  And in its roots she fell..tired and wanting help with something that she could never accomplish.  And she cried and sobbed at the loss of her hand.  There was nothing else to do.

[greeneggs]

Vijaya's life had been very difficult lately and she even didn't know why.  Perhaps she was living it all wrong.  Perhaps her mind had taken a turn on her.  And yet her mind had always been strong and adept.  As she was left there in the rain she looked on the path that had been taken by her friends and stared at it for a long moment.  The mist of the land swirled under her feet and about her boots.  No one cared.  Perhaps it was better that way.  Perhaps it was best to just..let them go and let them to their own devices.  Her long braided hair hung wetly down her back.  Did no one admire her any longer?  Did they not respect her anymore? Her dear companions.

Somewhere inside Vijaya she felt a tinge of understanding in her veins.  Her wet hand moved up up to her moistened and dripping face from the rain and it held her own cheek.  Strength held her tight and held her face to where she was.  Now, Vijaya was missing something.  Something that just was not there anymore.  There was less color in many things now.  It was more dark and grey in tangents.  Tasteless, lifeless, colorless.  But this was all apart of the growing process.  She glanced down at the muddy ground and then her feet sucked as she moved on.  Even on the muddy grounds she must move on or forever become stuck in one position.

[greeneggs]

What do we become in the darkness of the night?  What do we become in this place?  From the woman that Vijaya once was to the woman that she was now..it seemed so far away to achieve what she once had come here to be...away from it all.  And now her very escape seemed to consume her.  But it didn't at the same time.  After everything she ha been threw, why was she still alive and living? Breathing the air around her and feeling the cold rain on her skin and in her black hair.  The rain fell upon her as she stared up into the leafy black tree's that blanketed over the sky.  The clouds rising just over top.  Her cowl around her face, clinging to her dark skin.  A single strand of silver hung just over her ear.  A new found vestment from a mistake.  One mistake that can take ten years off of one's life.  A price to pay.  Everything had a price.  Vijaya let that rain run down and tinkle and patter over her metal armor.  And yet, with all of this, all that has happened she felt so empty inside.  And treasured every small conversation she had.  As menial as it was.  Often shunned by the older crowd in the land and of course the different Barovians.  Yet she resided here still.  Lingering in the forests of the world land on the mountains like a forgotten spirit.  Vijaya made a step with her tough boot in the mud, and then another.

A growl came from the forest behind her.  She could almost hear it coming from the inside of their guts, the wolves.  She knew their growls and their hungers for her blood as well as any other creature.  What did they want? Everyone wanted something, everything wanted something as well.  Vijaya had spilled much wolven blood, no matter what they were, werewolf, wolfwere, or just a regular wolf.  Was it really they who hungered for her blood, or her that hungered to destroy their bodies.  This had occurred to Vijaya once before and twice before.  But she never regretted what she did.  Vijaya knew that in Barovia, she could defeat the wolves.  And so she turned her body from them, even when she heard them padding near her in the darkness.  But she was so close to the outskirts now that she could see the light from the Lady's Rest, perforating the mists and the cold rain.  But that was never Vijaya's destination.  She always walked in the darkness of things, in the darker side of light now.  A place where there were no stars and no moon.  But when the moon did come to greet her face on those nights, it was too bright almost.  The moon was to goad, her, to mock her for what it was here.  A gentle reminder that the stars were not all aligned for her.

In this place, darkness had a heart.  And thought Vijaya had not figured out what it was yet, she did not doubt that it came in the bowels of the very hearts and souls of the occupants who lived in Barovia.  Herself included.  When a man is faced with a blight rather than see it threw he is swiftly put out of his light and life with a hammer or a mace or a spear to easier solve a problem rather than live for all days in consequence of his actions.

Vijaya continued to walk on into the night and near the Mountain Baratak where she enjoyed the cold and the smell of the woods nearby.  But in this weather she couldn't see a thing and it was likely to be a blistering cold.  But the foul breath of a creature of the night was more inviting than the mouths of the new found outlanders.  Or was it really a problem with herself? Would she rather face a cold deathly mouth of the mountain before her than see another persons face?  Even her own comrades?  Was she becoming far more desolate than she could have ever imagined?  One thought seemed to keep her together.  And that was of a pale mouth speaking to her, the mouth of a male.  Telling her things, and she would do them.



A majority of Vijaya's life was fairly uneventful unless she wanted it to be so.  With a wave of her hand and a prayer to the almighty Black Mother Kali, "Black Mother, my wish is to only uphold your words and to be your loyal servant.  To offer you a bridge of destruction upon this world in the order of flames and blood - so let my voice be heard in the darkness and let this blood run from me as a sacrifice and payment for the actions...." And with that she took out a katar she had been gifted with a bit ago and she dragged it over her scarred palm.  Drawing up red liquid.  And she placed it down upon her face, raking her face with blood.  Crafting herself invisible with this prayer.  And with this, she went unseen into the night and in the darkness under the raining skies.  So many people had wronged her in the past -- and from the inside it seemed to b broiling upon her very blood.  The hatred and unkindled flames of it.

Once she had reached the bunkhouse, that sometimes she remained at and was commonly used on the road, though no one was there now, she shook herself of the spell and shook the now freezing cloak out.  Her breath came out in a steam from the air around her.  The mountain was high and it was cold.  Alone.  Just the way she liked it.

[greeneggs]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0NFGgl7Cqs[/youtube]

Vijaya found herself looking  at the smolders and an old cross favored by a woman whom was not a friend but a strength to Vijaya.  There was nothing left as she looked over to renewed one and another's black shoulder.  A strange smell assaulted her nose, even burned it a little in its flavor.  This was no longer a place of fond memories but a tomb to a time that Vijaya would never forget.  Vijaya stared at the faces of companions, allies, friends.  And said nothing.

Vijaya Maharaj, priestess of Kali had found herself on a mountain side within the snow.  A place where no one went now days -- it was a hidden place behind the old farmhouse that had long since been abandoned.  And in the snow she had a candle placed on a plate, a bit of venison she had cooked on her own with some foreign nuts.  This food would freeze on Mount Baratak.  But here she held her vigil for Sabel.  Though she was not close to Sabel as some were, she remembered that night.  The night not so long ago where the smell of burning metal, smoke and wood.  A battle looked to have taken place in her tomb.  The tomb that now held her ashes, what was left of them.  Sad faces, blank faces, pale and stony faces is what she saw.  Vijaya's own demeanor was not faceless.  She was shaken.  Shaken that one of her own would be murdered like this.  Vijaya, for some reason, expected to see a body but instead there was nothing.  Nothing left at all.  "And from the ashes, we all return."

And so Vijaya said "From the blood we shall rise, and from the hard dirt and clay of the earth we will form in our childhood and learn to mold ourselves only to be returned to the very earth from whence we came.." And a glint in the moonlight showed a dagger, a katar from her homeland, gifted to her by the person of importance in her life.    She placed the katar in her mouth, the edge of it even enough to cause a bit of blood and she moved her teeth against the weapon.  Clamping down so it would not move.  And she took both gloves off of her hands.  Vijaya, at this point cared very little of whom was watching her, friend or foe.  They could watch her mourn, they could watch her cry.  She cared little in the ways.  This is how she dealt with loss.  This is how she dealt with pain.  Off her gloves went onto the snowy ground.  Only now....the snow turned into rain, much was a regularity this time of year.  It may have been sleet but it set the mood for Vijaya.  Her dark hair was unbraided and it was in thick strands down her back past her waist.  She rarely ever put it down.  Once her gloves were off, she took the Katar in one of her brown hands with skill.  Her hair puffed in wild strands around her face and she slit her wrist.  She sliced threw her hand in various parts as if  she had picked up broken glass.  The blood welled up onto her hands, quickly on her wrist.  She did the same with the next hand. However, instead of sliding the blade along her wrist elongated and endured her own death, she slit it horizontal, so she may only heal herself.

{[OOC NOTE: Graphic Text Below]}

And with both of her wrists and hands cut to bits, Vijaya dropped the Katar she so loved and held her hands up above her head, looking up on them as the blood cried from her body.  Blood would come in slow ribbons.  across her face and roll down her cheeks like tears of the body.  She felt her own warm blood and her own tear mixed in, "Why...?!" She screamed up to the mountains, "We did nothing to you!" She was screaming at Rue, the Rue that was not there.  And she threw her arms to the snow and over the small shrine she had built and she fell to her knee's, "Why did you do this to us.....? For a man? For....for a reason that which we don't know...." Her eyes still welled up with tears, and they shed down her cheek.  She let the arms of hers lay on her dress...staining the blue to red, a deep crimson red, "I -will- .... find vengeance and its sweet sister justice." Using the words of before.  "I will trail your organs from one part of the mountain to the next.  And I will put your head into a basket.  I will bake the rest of you into goods, pies...cakes....and deliver you back to your 'people'..." She said this with some degree of spite.  Her lips quivering.  "You have broken the bond.  Your death will be sweet."

[greeneggs]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKJ_6HOhKFI[/youtube]

The water surrounded Vijaya....in the fire that she was in, in the darkness that she remained.  When would she see the light of the moon again and the stars in the sky, shining on the lake like it was a hole into the heavens? 

She had no regrets.  She was in the fire now. 

[greeneggs]

*Written in a small journal in Vijaya's possession.*

Something comes.....from the light to the darkness...once again. 

Blood will flow, once more.