saga Death of a Rose biblical even 040316 ... Death of a Rose and today we have the continuing saga of ........... 040331 ... pete ... Sidrok of the Nordya. In the days gone by Sidrok was the hero of the Revolution of Ladark. In silence he bore his duty, lost his love, and diminished to silence. His word was always respected, his voice never waivered when asked for, but no more did he project himself. In the battle which lifted the siege she fell at his side, the calm healer, the woman he knew more than himself. She fell to the blade of one he could not kill first. Her dying words saved his life. "Look up dear Sidrok, look up and fight. For us you pressed the nine, and then the seven, and then us all. Do not let that blade fall!" And onwards the battle went, and with it the years of his adulthood's youth. From twenty-three to sixty in the span of an hour. That night he wept at the pyre where she was set to rest amid her comrades and enemies, all her brothers and sisters without exception. He wept until the monument of skulls was built from the bodies, and the blood stained clothe of Miranda hung from its pinnacle. He showered the ground with his tears, and there grew a hope to vanquish this killing. Two years passed until the next great challenge. Sidrok was unanimously elevated to his position as general, and the world wept as he led that final charge. Too many innocents had been lost for a city, and too many more would fall before it ended. Yet he retired to the Forest of Baruk where he hoped to live a silent life, as the beast the Jaguar was defeated in the first campaign by Sidrok himself before the betrayal of Mirkas's kin. In his wanderings he stumbled upon Nibariuk. The Hamlet of Baruk. It was protected from the gails of November, but it saw not the sun until afternoon. The people were shades, the children sad souls. Sidrok here wept again, and a sapling began to grow. Over the ages it would take root and be the tree of darkness, which took its light from the stars and the moon, which always hung above sad Nibariuk. Sidrok soon returned to the city of Ladark, now the walls had fallen and the limits burnt to a crisp. The last war was the last war, and the people made sure by destroying all they fought for and returning to the land, living among their brothers and sisters as near equals. Siobhan, his young friend, welcomed him to her home where they grew together, though their ages a decade removed. They had three children, Yaleth (after Siobhan's father), Miranda (after she who died), and Bariuk (for the forest where Sidrok hoped to die). They each lived long lives, though their deeds were peaceful. Sidrok left his wife, his children, at the age of seventy and returned to Baruk, never to be seen, but it is said he can always be heard when the wind brushes through your ears and whispers some long hidden truth. Sidrok of Baruk's deed are here told in short, but length is not needed when peace is at hand! 040331 ... pete ... Miranda of Ladark The sky wept crimson tears on the day Miranda of Ladark was born. Her mother's faced was covered with this blood, and the baby came into the world clean of it. A priest of the Mother came to make the first rites, and of this happening he said: "This child is cursed. Born on the day blood fell from the sky, produced with none on it. She will die in a bath of what she has been born without." As a child she'd steal food from the House Li'Man and give it to the lepers of Amarda, where she was born and raised. Over time her love for the afflicted developed into a talent for healing, and it is said that once she removed the cloth from a burned man's wound after smiling at him, with the burns healed. Light and night and days and years passed, and Miranda joined the Guild of the Healers in Corinkal, south of Armada and North of Ladark. Quickly she become more powerful, and was able to heal the lepers who she had showed compassion to first ten years before. From there she was captured and tried as a theif and a witch by House Li'Man's Priest of the Father. In those days Armada was trying to suppress the Nordya religion, as they believed it was the banner which the Nordya rallied to during their many rebellions. She was raped and beaten by her captors before the trial, so when she appeared on the stand no one could bear look at her scars and she was declared guilty and sentenced to death by switching. During the punishment she told each man beating her that she loved him and forgave him. Again and again she screamed this out, tears stun the cuts on her face. At noon a raven flew into the courtyard where the beating was taking place. The men, all devotees of the Father ran fearful of the Mother's wrath. They left Miranda unattended. At this moment Talmin of Ladark sprung her free, as he was a merchant in Armada and was so trusted he had access to all parts of the Palace. They left quickly, through the sewers, to Talmin's house, where his wife cared for Miranda. That night they left for Ladark inside the Nordya convoy headed there. No one suspected a thing, and the men who ran from the raven believed that Miranda had turned into one and flew away. They told their superiors that they threw the body in the river. For five years Miranda worked as a healer out of Talmins house, and in the fifth year she was granted the Snake-biting-its-own-tail tatoo of the Mystics and Healers on her hand. At 19 she was the youngest to ever had recieved such an honour. After a small uprising of the Nordya of Ladark she healed, in secret, a young man of her age named Sidrok. They slowly fell in love and saught marriage after two years. At 21 they were both denied this, as it required the couple, especially a Nordya couple, to be 25 to marry. They did not let this get in their way, and the two stayed together, kept eachother alive, and loved eachother dearly. Two years later Miranda and Sidrok were members of the Council of Nine and were archetects of the Revolution of Ladark. Conditions had become worse and worse, so when the pair light the straw it was immediately engulfed in flames. Miranda fought with her fellow Nordya, and healed after the battles. On her last day she woke up and smiled at Sidrok, whispering "Goodbye" in his ear and left to prepare for the assualt on the Army of Felix's forces. Sidrok caught up to her in quick time, and they colead their comrades into battle. It was a bloodbath. After an hour of fighting Miranda fell to a blade that Sidrok could not block. He was stunned and fell to his knees beside her bloody, bloody body and prepared to give up his fight. "My love" she strained to say, "Look up dear Sidrok, look up and fight. For us you pressed the nine, and then the seven, and then us all. Do not let that blade fall!" She died as his first tear fell onto her face. Such was the life of Miranda of Ladark, the Healer from Armada! 040403 ... pete ..upon the death of Miranda she underwent catersterism, and lives now among the stars, where her tears can heal the earth. 040420 what's it to you? who go blather from