The Keep, Ebon Askavi, Kaeleer, Dawn (Kaeleeran Time)

[glacial_witch]

Karla was deep in the Abyss--or deep inside her Self. It was impossible to tell, honestly. She was perched on a thread of the Sapphire, peering down at the glimmer of Ebon-Gray far below her. Past the Red, past the Gray, so distant that she could only see it by concentrating on the darkness that was not Darkness. She had no idea how much time she

Comments

[glacial_witch]

Just as dawn was staining the sky outside the windows, the giant doors leading to the Dark Altar opened and Karla...

Well, she would like to have said that she'd strode through, tall and proud. But she was pretty damn exhausted, so it was more like a happy plod.

So, Karla happily plodded through the doors, footfalls loud enough to wake anyone who had fallen asleep, cradling a Jewel in her hands. She paused briefly in the room, then opened her hands to show the assembled the Jewel that had been left on the Dark Alter next to her.

In her palms lay an uncut Ebon-gray Jewel.

"I did it!"

[trigons_child]

Was running for a happy hug the proper etiquette for this sort of occasion? Raven didn't care.

"Karla!" she said happily. "Congratulations!"

[glacial_witch]

Karla reached out and hugged Raven back, still clutching her Jewel. "Thank you!" she said. "Thank you so much! You don't know how much I owe you. I couldn't have done this without you."

[trigons_child]

Raven drew back and gave her a puzzled look. "This was all you, Karla," she said. "All we did out here was wait."

She took Karla's hand in hers and looked down at the jewel she held. "That is Ebon-gray, is it not?" she said. "The darkest you could obtain?" See, she'd studied!