Fantasy Midnight’s Legacy (Vaylen and Syntra)

[Sarevok]

Theme Tune
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She pushed through thick brush and scrub. Panting heavily, the girl ran forwards. For how long she had run now was lost to the dark miasma that enclosed her mind. Time, the world, everything….it was as nothing now to her, one bleeding into the other to become nothing more than a painful blur of imagery and sensation that mattered little to her in the painful fugue of her interminable existence. Indeed, in truth she had been running for so long now that a life doing anything but was but a distant dream that, try as she might to cling onto it with outstretched fingertips, was an impossibility. One step, then the next, again….and again. This was her life now, her existence. To run, and run as fast and as far as she could before the twisted ones claimed her for their own.

Overhead, the blue sky was obscured by the treetops surrounding her. The tops of the great oak trees blocked the sun from shining down on the world below them. Around her, she was surrounded by dark, impenetrable shadows. Shadows, that she believed as she looked out from the corner of her eyes, reached out to entwine her within their incorporeal embrace.

And yet she continued to run, casting a panicked glance behind her, to where she saw nothing but the dark, shrouded woodland trail that she had been fleeing down.

Her lungs started to burn as she gasped in short lungfuls of air. Then….. sudden pain, shooting up and down her leg. Wincing, the girl fell to her knees, sprawling onto the dirt path. Rolling onto her back, she raised her hands up to ward off the attack that she was sure was about to come.

An attack that never did fall.

She was alone.

Around her, the woodlands were silent. There was not even the sound of birds chirping to keep her company on her panicked flight.

Astra. My name is Astra.

Closing her eyes, she took in deep lungfuls of air. Her name was Astra, and for as long as she could remember, she had been running for her life. A life that had long since ceased to take any sort of meaning for her, it had been all about survival. Survival in a barren wasteland of an existence that once, long long ago, had been worth more than the emptiness that now consumed her. Astra gasped as she closed her eyes.

There Is little worth in living a lie, and watching as the world slowly bleeds of its colours into a silhouetted tapestry. There is little worth in persisting a falsehood as the grains of sand trickle down in the hourglass and the days bleed into each other as part of an empty vacuum.

Around her, her body ached, sending small needles of pain lancing up and through her. Blood trickled from innumerable cuts and scratches. Groaning, Astra slowly climbed to her feet, ignoring the burning agony in her left leg. Right now, her need was more immediate than running from the demons she believed pursued her. Right now, she simply needed to survive.

Astra had seen terrible, terrible things with her own eyes. Ghostly whispers, and terrible, twisted beings who hunted her for what she had and what she knew. Dark shadows who could take form with taloned claw and sharp fang to rend and tear flesh from bone and heart from chest. Limping over, Astra picked up her oaken shortbow, and shrugged her backpack onto her shoulders.

She had to survive. There was nothing else left to her, even as her life slowly withered away from her.

The grains of sand trickle down in the hourglass and the days bleed into each other as part of an empty vacuum as it all dwindles Into nothingness.

Turning, she limped onwards, unable to put weight on her wounded leg.

"I am Astra and I will live. I am Astra and I will live. I am Astra and I will live. I am Astra and I will live. I am Astra and I will live."

It became her chorus. Her mantra. As she took one pained step after the next, the words became more than a litany to her. They became her only link to reality. As the hours continued to pass, and as Astra continued to breathe and survive, the chant warded off the terrible, hallucinatory images that threatened to destroy her. Terrible, screaming banshees leapt at her from the shadows, conjured up by her own fractured mind. They looked to devour her heart, destroy her soul. And all of them.....every single one took on the twisted visage of…..

Finally the vegetation and the foliage began to recede, and it was the appearance of the sun that finally banished the demons that were assailing her shattered mind.

Astra came forth. She came forth into the light of the sun, beating down on her.

Sun.

Was this terrible, unceasing nightmare about to end?

The road angled down gently, leading to a collection of simple thatched huts. It was no more than a dwelling, yet to Astra’s tortured eyes, it was the most beautiful sight imaginable. Limping slowly forwards to life……blessed life once more, out of the darkness of her world and her broken mind and soul.

She saw….saw the people going about their daily business, blissfully unaware of the fact that their lives were about to be turned upside down. And as one, they turned to regard him with widened eyes.

She held out a shaking hand, and her broken, whispered voice carried forth,

"Help......me....."

She could not see who it was she had asked. Her grasping, trembling hand reached out…almost as if she was reaching out for salvation itself.

Then she collapsed, for the earth to claim her once more.

 

[Syntra]

So very often, mornings brought new things. New winds, smelling of beginnings; new crops, raised by the pale sun; new thoughts, hatched from dreams. And, of course, new annoyances as well. Or maybe you could say old annoyances, reincarnated from the corpses of arguments you'd murdered yesterday? If you wanted to be dramatic about it, which Seren very much did. (It made things a little more bearable, after all. A little more meaningful. Slaying a dragon was more worthy of her time than, say--)

"Seren, get yo' ass here!"

Not bothering to lift her gaze from the piece of fabric she was working on, Seren gave a long-suffering sigh. Couldn't she give her ten seconds of peace? Five seconds, then? No? Obviously not. It wasn't enough that the world was coming apart at the seams-- that a tiny pull was all it took, really, for it to be torn to shreds. That every time they opened their eyes was a blessing, even if it probably would be better for them not to. You know what this set up was missing? The presence of a huge, huge bitch. To, uh, spice things up! Or something. (Look, don't ask her to explain it. Seren was seriously lacking in the 'relating to other people' department as it was, and the whole bitchiness factor made it even more off-putting than it usually would have been.) "If you need something, Della, then come here and ask me. As you can see, I'm quite busy."

To be fair, all of them were. It wasn't like Seren had any interest in maintaining an illusion of fairness, though-- for that, she was a) far too hungover, b) far too beyond caring. Living in the Grinder just kind of did that to you, she guessed. (Each and every day, it was the same old song. The lyrics may have changed from time to time, but the melody? The melody didn't. Still, still it crawled beneath her skin, a whole colony of fiery red ants, and stung, stung, stung, in places she couldn't scratch. 'Be thankful,' they'd told her. 'Not everyone has what you have.' And... well, yeah. That was the entire point, with the walls that stood tall and proud around their village, both a shield and a cage. More of a cage, if you asked her.)

"What did ya say?!" The other woman flared, and Seren could imagine her blue eyes narrowing in disgust. Heh. Good! Maybe she would, you know, stop fucking bothering her? A foolish hope to cultivate, definitely, but maybe planting anything at all in this soil was naive in the first place.

"You heard me," she snorted. "Either shut up or at least try to behave like the stick up your ass is not tree-sized."

Gradually, without Seren realizing it, everything in the room had come to a standstill. Hands had stopped moving, conversations had fallen wayside, and, before she knew it, everything was shrouded in oppressive, oppressive silence. Everyone just stared at her, almost as if she had grown a second head. (She should have known. She had, in a way. Della was older, after all-- older, and thus blessed with wisdom. Supposedly? ...well, the woman had managed to survive for this long despite her general insufferability, and Seren could sort of admire that, in this wildly theoretical way. You know what she didn't appreciate, though? The way one of the Aunts grabbed her by her hair and yanked at it, making stars explode behind her eyelids.

"Seren, Seren, Seren," she pursed her lips, and shook her head. "One would have thought that you'd know better than this. Seems it's someone's turn to go collect Whispering Grass, eh?"

Oh, fuck.

***

And the grass did whisper, indeed-- secrets both alluring and horrible, right into her ear, in low, husky voices. (Somehow, they tasted of the sea. How did she know, when she'd never even glimpsed it? ...better not to think of such things, really. Better not to think of anything at all, as far as you could get away with that.) Don't listen, Seren reminded herself. They're just going to draw you in and never let you go. Many had been lost to the promises, threats and everything in between, and--

"Help.... me...."

Seren's eyes widened. A... woman? Where had she come from? And, more importantly, did she not know to keep her fucking mouth shut?! (The blades of grass swayed in the wind, except that they didn't. For that, they would have to follow its direction, you see? And instead, they headed towards the stranger, in a silent plea. Suspicious liquid glistened at their ends, red like rubies. Rubies, or--)

The smart thing to do would have been to run. Of course, Seren wasn't exactly famous for doing the smart thing.

Without thinking about any of that, she leapt at the woman's side. One calloused hand she pressed against her mouth, and the other she put in front of her own lips in a universal gesture for 'psssht.' "Quiet," Seren whispered. "Don't speak louder than this. C'mon, let me... let me guide you to safety. What happened to you? What's your name?"

 

[Sarevok]

On her knees, Astra closed her eyes from the agony that lanced up and down her body, emanating from her left leg. She was not aware that there was someone there until she felt the sensation of someone placing a hand against her mouth. The touch, a sensation of skin against skin, awoke something inside the shattered girl. Images, a dizzying cacophony of images passed through her mind, one after the other. What was this? What were these?

Falling to her knees, her ears barely registered the sound of steel clattering to the floor as her curved blade fell from nerveless fingers. Looking down to the cold, wooden floor that was even now stained with the blood of another, the girl stared from dead eyes. The eyes of a body, once so bright and full of energy were forever dim, staring at her killer through lightless, dull orbs. They would never see again. Blood oozed from a gaping hole in the body's stomach where a blade had pierced it. Around her, the stillness and silence was almost unnatural in its intensity. They were alone. Here in a small wooden cabin so far away from civilisation, no-one would see or hear them.

She stared from hollow eyes.

She would not weep though. She would not afford anyone that indignity in death. That her actions were not her own was an unimportant detail in the grand scheme of the unfolding tragedy. She had been here, and that had been enough. That her own body had been ripped from her control was only the final, delicious irony within this tapestry of misery.

Trembling hand reached out, she closes the dead girl's accusing, staring eyes, trying to futilely ignore the growing pool of blood under her body. Smiling grimly, she knew what it was that she had to do. A shaking hand reaches out to grasp at the curved blade lying by her side. She closes her eyes as the blade is lifted and turned inwards. Yet little did she realise as she plunged the blade forwards in one smooth motion and as she slumps forwards, the last of her breath exhaling from her cooling body that even in this she would be denied.

***​

Her heart beating frantically in her chest, Astra closed her eyes again. What.....what was this? What were these horrific images that assailed her mind? Nonsensical, horrific images that were beyond her comprehension.

"Quiet," she heard the voice whisper to her.

Astra opened her eyes, reaching up to grab the hand by her wrist as she stared upwards in confusion. The first, and most striking thing about the girl standing next to her was her hair. Locks of shiny red-golden hair fell past her shoulders as she gazed at Astra with eyes of deepest blue. A gaze that Astra caught in her own dark eyes and held fast, locking it inside a prison of her own creation. The girl wore the marks of a life of labour, her form caked with dirt, her hands marked with callouses.

"Don't speak louder than this. C'mon, let me... let me guide you to safety. What happened to you? What's your name?"

She moved her hand away from Astra's mouth, allowing her to speak. Astra looked the stranger over with an inquisitive gaze as she stood slowly. A look that quickly changed from appraisal to pain as she attempted to put weight on her left leg. Lancets of pain pierced through her and she winced, stumbling as she attempted to catch her balance, favouring her right leg as she did so. She shook her head.

"Not here. Here isn't safe."

Then it took her. It began with a slight trembling in her body. A trembling that intensified, until her entire form began to shake. She gasped, her eyes rolling upwards as she reached out desperately to grab the red-haired girl by her wrist. Staring at her.....staring through her even, almost as if the girl in front of her was nothing but a dark, incorporeal wraith who did not really exist beyond the deepest reaches of her consciousness.

Perhaps she did not.

"Shadow's end, shadow calls,
In the palace of beyond,
The living monolith comes forth,
As the rock of ages burns,
The golden scrolls they seek,
The darkest of all shadows,
The hunter in black,

Flame haired, heart stealer,
I see you, I kill you.
The hunt begins,
With the spirit,
The flawed one kneels
They turn to the dead
Accepting their love,
Only then will the hunt end."

With a heaving shudder, the dark-haired girl gasped, licking her broken lips. Her eyes shut as she shuddered again, losing her balance now. Falling forwards, she would have slumped to the ground had it not been for Seren around her, holding her up. Her face turned up to the heavens, as if imploring them to take her from this dark land, to a place far far far away from here.

"The fates are not done with me yet I see. I am nothing but their empty vessel.", Astra started to laugh but stopped, coughing weakly instead. "I....I must go. Far far away from here," she gasped weakly, looking to Seren. "I....I am a danger to everyone here. I cannot stay."

Shaking her head, Astra fell silent for a second, looking to Seren.

"As are you. I am sorry."

 

[Syntra]

Well, fucking duh! Of course it wasn't safe here. Did the girl have more breakthrough discoveries to share, such as, you know, the sky being blue? No? Then she could, in Seren's esteemed opinion, shut up and get in with the plan. Considering that the plan revolved around saving her miserable life, the stranger couldn't even complain! (...she had to be a stranger, Seren was sure. Her face was unfamiliar, her eyes a little too bright, and... well, let's just say that that was the thing the Grinder took first. Your fire. Either it went out, she had learned, or it reduced you to fucking ashes. The ones that stayed behind were corpses, only fueled by... shit, gods knew what. Seren certainly didn't. She didn't even know why was she still-- still--) Shaking her head, as if to get rid of the obsessive thought, she grabbed the stranger's forearm.

"You're right, it isn't. Will you go with me, then?" Because that, in Seren's head, was the logical outcome. There wasn't any world in which 'it's not safe here' translated to 'let's stay and chat!' (Especially not with the grass dancing, whispering, changing before her very eyes, once green and once... not. A shiver ran down her spine when an ancient echo reached her ears, telling her of... what, exactly? No, no, no! She couldn't listen. Couldn't. In that direction only lay abyss, deep and bottomless, and looking into it would have been like stitching her own eyes closed. Didn't she remember what Eyrill had ended up like, after all? Eyrill, and Lana, and all the rest? ...she did. In vivid colors, too, and maybe that was part of the problem.)

"Move," Seren encouraged her, impatience leaking into her tone. "What, you want it to devour us?" And, hey, maybe she did! Because her legs were doing the opposite of what they should have been doing, namely running the fuck away! (That wasn't it, though. Instead, it turned out it may not have been up to her at all. The stranger shook, much like leaves in autumn wind, and instinctively, Seren offered more support. Did she want to help, or just prevent her from falling and making too much noise? And was there any difference between the two? ...aw, shit, the Grinder had twisted her spine as well. Still, what didn't bend broke, and Seren was rather proud of not being broken. As long as she didn't examine the other part of the equation, the one that described what had happened to her, she would be fine. Heh!)

"Hey. Hey, are you..." What? Okay? Since she clearly wasn't! Some sort of a fit, I guess? Slapping her might work, and, yes, the thought did flash through her mind. Seren even raised her hand, determined not to hold back, but... what? She raised her eyebrow as the stranger spoke and spoke and spoke, weaving words into sentences, and somehow not making a lick of sense. (Shadow's end? Monolith? Heart-stealer? Yeah, the girl might as well have been speaking in a different language entirely! Too bad that Seren didn't have the time for a lesson, though. Both of them didn't have it, judging by the way the blades reached for their ankles and--)

"Shit." With one swift movement, Seren brandished her sickle. The steel gleamed in the morning sun, and, for a fragment of a second, everything was fine-- the thread was severed, the danger gone. Except, was it really? (It was like trying to empty the sea with a teacup, really. Like trying to drink it, maybe. You could devote yourself to such a task, but to what end? To make an even bigger fool out of yourself? No matter how much water you removed, it always, always returned-- with enough force to fucking drown you.) "Run, I'm telling you!" Seren shouted, shoving the girl roughly. To hell with fates, and to hell with vessels. Only pretentious fucks with too much time on their hands cared for these things, and, lemme tell you, they could not afford that status at the moment. "Yes, 'far from here' sounds great. Now start working on it!"

Something behind their backs stirred, which marked the 'oh shit' moment. This is what I get for sticking my nose where it doesn't belong, god dammit! But then... "What? Me? Why?" The statement wasn't enough to drain the adrenaline from her veins, or even to stop her from running, but still, still Seren had to ask. To her detriment, perhaps?

(On some level, she felt like she knew already. Perhaps she'd always known. The shadow was sleeping deep within her, dreaming its dreamless sleep, and while the presence was felt more than it was seen, Seren... couldn't really deny it. Not to herself, anyway. The monster was extending its claws, reaching for... for something? For her? And, somehow, this stranger had glimpsed it. A closely guarded secret it was, and yet her gaze lifted the veil, seemingly without any effort at all. Who was she?) "You still haven't told me your name, by the way. Why... why should I believe you?"

 

[Sarevok]

Astra moved, or rather she was pushed in a certain direction. She did not notice the movement of the grass, lost as she was inside the dizzying cacophony of images that flitted in and out of her consciousness. She had felt, rather than seen, the dark presence that was beyond the edges of her vision and her mind’s eye. And she was not the only one. They were pushed on, running from the presence, the dark shadow at their back that threatened to consume them both whole. The grass parted at their passing, and it was almost as if it was beckoning them forwards into whatever lay ahead. The cool breeze which, under normal circumstances, would have been invigorating against the incessant, apparently relentless heat, did not touch Astra with its soothing sensation.

For she knew it was a harbinger, and that something was coming with it.

“It is not about belief, or believing me Seren,” Astra stopped where she was, the corners of her mouth turning upwards in the slightest of smiles.

“You feel it too. The monster. The one that exists beyond the waking world. The one that exists in our sleep….our dreams. The one that waits beyond the veil.”

She turned, looking back to the forest that lay beyond the swathes of grassland, a dark and ominous looking thing, all twisted shadows and gnarled trees. Then, her eyes flickered up to the sky.

“A storm is coming.”

The sky was clear and blue, with nary a cloud appearing over the horizon.

As she spoke, a voice echoed in her mind. One that she knew very very well.

You see, when you pledge yourself to my service, it is an oath I take both literally and figuratively.

The voice was as insidious as it is soothing.

Whilst I still have use of you, you cannot rest. You will not rest.

She turned around to face Seren. Her face, almost porcelain like in it’s alabaster otherworldly beauty was particularly pale. Deep shadows lay under her eyes, dark eyes that were almost haunted in their expression. Inside them was something……something wordless, something unspeakable.

“There…..there is nowhere to run. You have the gift, and it will come for you,” her voice was barely more than a whisper. “I….my name…..”

It was almost as if sense returned to her, lucidity perhaps coming to her broken mind, even if only temporarily.

“Astra. My name is Astra.”

A loud crack echoed in the air, suddenly shattering the peaceful illusion of serenity that had permeated the almost idyllic looking farmland on which the two stood. Yet Astra knew better. She knew that this paradisical looking illusory visage was exactly that, a falsehood upon which beneath the surface lay a deep-rooted decay, one that was not necessarily the fault of the people that dwelled here. No, it was a rot and decay that persisted because of the creature that lay at its heart, one that even now spun its webs of deceit and chaos.

Today, today was a good day to die. She ran, springing into action despite the burning agony in her leg and the exhaustion that held her inside its grasp.

“Where? Where is there a safe refuge? Walls Seren, we need walls that are defensible.”

***​

This was not a journey she had begun alone.

She, and she alone, bore an unspeakable burden as she struggled through the forest that led here. She had travelled alone, for many days and weeks, the last survivor of a group sent east. The others though, they were expendable. Their purpose was to see to it that she made here safely. Each of them had believed when they were selected that they were going to die, and that of them all, only Astra would survive.

They had believed, but Astra had *known*. She knew that none of them would make it to the end of the journey save herself, and even her fate at the end of it was unknown, hidden as it was under a shadowy veil. As the journey began, Astra had committed each and every one of these lost souls to her memory. She engraved their faces, and their names to her heart, etching them as one would carve a name into a stone tablet. So she did for each and every person that she saw die in a future that she could not change. This was Astra’s curse. To see the future, and not be able to change it. And so she carried with her the memories of all those she watched die in those visions. And so she carried their burdens with her for the rest of her days.

Martha. You will be avenged.
Quorin. May you rest forever in peace my friend.
Helgad. You will not be forgotten.
Marianne. Your loss is a void in my heart.

And so it continued. For each of the fallen, a name. An identity, and for Astra at least, a blood oath sworn to honour them, and to avenge their loss. So it was. One by one on the long journey eastwards, they fell. They died.

***​

Putting their names, their faces to one side, Astra spoke as she ran, looking behind her one last time.

“It comes.”

 

[Syntra]

The girl, Seren decided, was fucking crazy. Off her rocker. Entirely marble-less. (...also right, somehow. How many times had she woken from a nightmare, gasping for breath? Gasping for breath and knowing, deep inside, that the mosaic of the world contained some nasty pieces? One of them bore her name, and it was coming from her, a funeral hymn on her lips and death in its stride. 'Don't say such things,' her mother had chastised her. 'Misfortune clings to those who speak it into existence.' And so she'd stayed quiet, and, in turn, the monster had remained in the shadows. With golden eyes, it had been watching, watching, watching, never moving, never leaving. It was just there, as a bitter reminder of how not normal she was. A fiery brand, searing in the depths of her mind. Then this girl, this Astra, went on to break the pact, as if it meant nothing at all! In naming the thing, she had granted it a form. How did she know? How?! Under her inquisitive gaze, Seren felt... well, vulnerable. Strangely exposed, as if the other woman could see her-- not the face that she showed to the world, but real her, buried under... ah, it didn't matter. It never fucking had.)

"Beyond the veil?" Seren whispered, trying (and failing) to sound doubtful. "What's next, the terrors lurking in the forest or monsters stealing children in the middle of night? None of this is fucking real." It couldn't be. It couldn't! Reality did whatever it wanted, regardless of... of... her fantasies.

('Oh, silly Seren. Do you believe that to be true? Don't you know that covering your ears will change nothing?')

The grass, she told herself. Just the grass, filling my mind with nonsense. If I let it bloom, my head will pop. That's why you don't fucking listen to that bullshit!

('Yeah, you keep telling that to yourself. I'm sure that you can build a pretty little castle out of those lies, to shield you from the coming storm. Or not.')

The storm, Astra had said. The storm was coming, and, for some reason, Seren didn't doubt that it would take her away. It just felt natural, you know? An assumption as natural as expecting that, say, rain would fall downwards. (Always, they'd told her she was cursed. Always, Seren had believed that, although for reasons different than the likes of Della might have imagined.)

"I don't have a gift," Seren hissed, outraged beyond reason. "I'm just... Seren." Yeah, real fucking convincing! "I'm Seren, and you, Astra, are delusional." Madness and greatness-- two sides of the same coin, they said. Seren had an inkling she knew what side Astra landed on, and she did not like the implications. Not at all.

The clouds were gathering, covering the once serene sky with a promise of danger. Something was coming, indeed; something more than a mere storm. (You know how, sometimes, an old injury could warn you of weather change? It was like that, and it wasn't. More was than it wasn't, really. The wound just happened to be in her mind, covering her brain in shattered glass, and she could fucking feel it-- the footsteps of something greater than she was, echoing through the corridors. The whispers of her name, Seren, Seren, Seren, quieter than a heartbeat but still there.)

"Yeah," the girl snapped from her daydreaming. "We can... return to the village." Delusional or not, Astra was right that they should retreat-- or, as Seren liked to say, run the fuck away. Had a better ring to it, eh? "Come."

Panic was rising in her chest, rising like a tidal wave, and perhaps that was why she reached the gates faster than she usually would have. Gasping, Seren looked up, and... saw them closing?! (The sound they made, a loud rrrup, reminded her of the lid of a coffin being shut. Oh, shit.)

"You stay right there," Della, the fucking rat, shouted from within. "Y-you haven't completed your mission. And, besides, if we offer you two to the thing, it might leave us alone!"

"Have you lost your fucking mind?!" (Actually, considering the fact it was Della they were talking about, it was far, far more likely that she'd never found it in the first place. Not that Seren enjoyed her witty one-liner now, though.) "Let us inside, you dumb bitch, or I'm going to tear your head off!"

"You do realize you aren't making a compelling case here, right?"

"...fuck." Abandoning all hope, Seren slid down into the mud, leaning on the wooden gate. "Well, there are your walls," she gave a dry chuckle. "A damn pity we're on the wrong side of them, though. Any bright ideas?" Right now, Seren would love to get in touch with her dangerous side-- mostly because, y'know, it seemed wise to counteract danger with more of the same. Still better than being a sitting duck, wouldn't you say?

And maybe, just maybe something heard the stray thought. That something picked up on it, in the same way a kitten might grace a ball of yarn with its attention, which... shit. What the hell was that? Seren sensed it before it truly came, the pain of flesh being turned, and twisted, and shaped-- of being shoved into a forge, kicking and screaming. (It was a good thing she was already sitting, because the shock would have sent her onto the ground anyway.) An ear-splitting scream tore its way out of her throat, and then-- then her arm melted? Into a cloud of darkness, floating in the air like smoke. Oh. Oh, so she was delusional, too. Fucking great.

"What..." she managed to say, through the veil of pain. "What the fuck?"

 

[Sarevok]

Every step was agony. From her leg, the injury she had suffered sending burning pain spiralling through her every time she put her foot down. From her lungs, already pushed to exertion by her panicked flight through the dark and twisted forest, pursued by monstrosities that only she could see. Dark, fleeting images that weaved in and out of the shadows at the edges of her consciousness. Her nightmares, taking form and root in twisted imagery borne out of the remnants of her fractured mind. Her own body, pushed past the point of natural exertion. Bright white lights exploded across her vision, obscuring her sight and making her head spin round and round and round.

And through it all Seren still…..still she contained to deny that which she could not. Not to herself at the very least, not the truth that only she could admit to herself.

“None of this is fucking real.”

“I wish it were not real Seren. But it is. It’s as real as day follows night follows day,” she gasped between breaths, wishing as she pressed forwards that the ground would open beneath her, that it would swallow her whole and that she could pass into blessed, deep dreamless sleep.

Yet it did not, and she could not. “The terrors beyond the veil are as real as the people you see each and every day of your life, Seren. That they do not have form do not make them any less real, and in some ways worse than that which you can see….can touch.”

And the clouds did gather suddenly in the sky. From where only seconds before there was only the clear blue sky and the sun, shining down on the world below in its absolute supreme majesty, dark clouds spring into existence seemingly from nothingness. Dark, thick, angry clouds. They gathered, and they came forth, covering the sun under a grey shroud that obscured all under them in their ethereal pallor. The wind picked up now, buffeting the two as it gained in both strength and intensity.

It was then, with the village in sight that Astra fell. Landing hard on her knees, she cried out in pain. A shard on the ground sliced through her already injured leg, drawing blood. Astra watched in fascinations as ruby red beads drew a sharp line up and down her leg. A line of crimson it coalesced and slid down, mixing with the mud beneath her knee as it pooled.

“No,” she spoke through gritted teeth. “Just Seren is more than you think it is.”

It gnawed away at her internally. To tell her that she would never go home, worse, that she would not find a home. That they would die, and that no one would ever know their sacrifice. Astra closed her eyes. Involuntarily, her gaze moved level with her right arm. The arm that was covered under black fabric. The arm that even now….her skin withered and died. That this would only be the start. She swallowed, committing faces to her memory one more time….even as she knew that this tale, this story she would not see the end of.

Yet I will tell your story. I will make sure that the world hears what we have done. This fate, I can change. This fate I will change. They will know us for who we are, even if we die alone.

Astra climbed to her feet, forcing herself upwards once more. Forcing herself on, one foot in front of the other at Seren’s urging. Even as she knew it was pointless. She already knew how this would end.

How it must end.

When they reached the village and were denied entry, Astra was not surprised. This was something that had played out inside her mind a thousand times over. Always, it ended the same way. Seren slid down into the mud, hope and belief seemingly evaporating out of her. As Astra looked on impassively, Seren looked up at her, asking, imploring her even for something…..anything.

And then Astra watched calmly as Seren’s arm……disintegrated, seemingly dematerialising in front of her and becoming nothing more than a ghostly appendage. A cloud of inky darkness, pure ethereality…..nothingness itself.

“What...What the fuck?”

Swallowing, Astra turned away from Seren, knowing the pain and terror she must be feeling. Just as Astra had known her own, the day the first visions came, flitting in and out of her consciousness, one after the other. A dizzying, maddening cacophony of insanity. Astra’s vision blurred as she reached up a hand to brush away the tear that formed, that empathetic feeling as she watched, from one who had suffered to one who was about to…..as her life was about to be torn from her.

“I’m sorry. Truly sorry.“

Astra’s voice was no more than a whisper as she turned her gaze back to the dark forest. Back to what she already knew was approaching from within its depths.

At that moment a low growl echoed from that direction, causing Astra’s hairs to stand on end. In the shadows, cast by the dark clouds now obscuring the sky overhead, two pinpricks of bright, gleaming red shone from the overcast deathly grey pallor. Trying to stand still favouring her bleeding left leg, Astra glanced towards the eerie red light as the source stepped forwards. A great silver wolf stepped out from beyond, its eyes burning red as it regarded her with something that appeared like almost human-like cunning. It opened its mouth in a strange expression that resembled a smile, revealing row upon row of razor sharp teeth. Its eyes glowed redder, brighter still. Then a terrible, scratching sound reverberated around the area. Astra’s eyes opened in shock. This.....creature, whatever it is......it was laughing. And then it spoke, its voice booming terribly all around.

"Once, many centuries ago, humankind, in their arrogance reached for the gods themselves. One amongst their number, the most powerful of them, demanded the gods help them in their fight against evil and hatred. This....being, they demanded in their pride and their arrogance that which lessers would fear to ask."

The wolf took another step forward.

"Humanity dared to reach out and touch the heavens themselves. They dared to open a gate to another world, into a world that they had not the intelligence or wisdom that they could even comprehend. And what they saw....it terrified them. It twisted and blackened their souls. What humanity could never understand in its foolishness is that when you reach for the sky, you will burn. But once the door was open, these people, in fear and horror, tried to slam it shut again. But it was too late. The beings of the world beyond, they saw the gate. They came through.....we.....came.....through."

It took another step forwards.

 

[Syntra]

So she was sorry, huh. For what, though? Had Astra somehow caused this to happen? Was this a curse that had spilled from her lips, meant to… do what, even? Fuck with her? Make her realize just how awesome hands were, now that she was technically missing one? Yeah, no. The reaction just didn’t correspond with what had happened. It was like… like lamenting that a storm was going to destroy their crops, and she apologizing. A nice sentiment, Seren had to admit, but totally useless! And, yes, she may have been running in circles mentally to sort of distract herself from whatever it was that had seized her arm. So what, though? You would have done it as well! (Especially if you were aware, just like her, that nothing had actually seized it. No demon had emerged from the depths of hell to devour her flesh-- no spirit had possessed it, no ghost had stolen it. This, she knew, was right. How things had always been meant to be, before the world had forced a blindfold over her eyes. It felt that way, you see? Akin to taking your shoes off, and realizing, for the first time ever, that they’d never really fit in the first place. The pain, too, had worn off. What stayed behind wasn’t pleasant, but she wouldn’t call it unwelcome, either-- bitterness, yes, but with a fresh aftertaste to it. Something addictive, almost.)

(‘Indeed, this is what you are. What you both are, beneath the shell that you call your skin. Do you enjoy it, Seren?’)

(Yes. No. Yes and no, and no and yes, and, really, if you repeated the two enough times, you’d discover that they stopped meaning anything at all. The boundaries between the two concepts were far more blurry than anyone dared to admit.)

(Magic, some other, far more concerned part of her, realized. This isn’t fucking normal, and you’re a goddamn freak. Well, duh! Seren had sort of expected to make a discovery like that, if she were to be honest with herself. Always, always there seemed to be a barrier between herself and the rest of the world, invisible but very much present-- like a wall of glass, it shimmered and reflected sunlight, but didn’t let anyone through. Wasn’t it natural, then? To assume that there was something wrong with her, and not the others? In a way, this only confirmed what she had sensed all along. No, the real surprise was… well, Astra. The fact that someone like her existed, and not just in her fucking head.)

“Oh, gods!” Della shrieked, doubtlessly pointing her finger. “Look at her, will you? She’s a witch! I’ve always said that she was--”

A witch. That was one way to put it, and not the kindest one, though Seren supposed that arguing semantics wouldn’t do her any favors here. Actually, paying her any attention at all was a capitulation of sorts. “Less apologizing,” she gritted her teeth, turning to the terrified Astra instead, “and more explaining. Don’t you know something about this?!” And if she was going to spout more cryptic nonsense instead of concrete, specific answers, Seren would… uh, she didn’t know what she was going to do, come to think of it, but she was also pretty sure that Astra would regret it. Speaking from experience, you know?

Yeah, except that all the experience in the world wasn’t worth a broken bone when literally everything refused to conform to the usual script. For example, Seren very much didn’t know what to do when giant, demonic wolves leaked into their dimension from… from gods knew where, really. This must be a bad fucking dream. Please, tell me it’s a bad fucking dream? That would have been too beautiful, though, and that alone raised the chance of it being true by about 50 percent. (What was it saying, even? Humans were too greedy? Something about them touching the sky? Those were words, certainly, but they refused to compile into anything meaningful in her brain.)

Instinctively, Seren took a few steps backwards… towards the gate. The gate that, by the way, very much remained closed. Shit! She was so fucking dead that they might as well have dug the grave for her already, but something within her refused to accept it. Her stubbornness, maybe? Anxiety was hammering in her chest, along with her heart beating in a wild staccato, yet still, still Seren decided to try.

“That’s… sad, I guess, but I have never personally touched an inch of sky. So, I can’t help but think that I am not responsible here. I promise that I will let you know if I ever meet any sky-touchers, though. What’s… what’s your name? So that I know who to seek out.” Not really convinced by the weight of her own arguments, she scooted closer towards Astra. “Hey! You know what this is all about?”

 

[Sarevok]

When the silver wolf appeared, Astra watched it intently. For all intents and purposes, it looked like a larger version of a normal wolf. Except that she knew better. If not for the burning red eyes, the glint of human-like cunning that appeared inside of them avowed Astra of the motion that this was anything but a normal wolf. Her dark eyes glimmered with something unspoken....nay something unspeakable as she stood there. Indeed the girl froze for a moment....froze there as the sands of time continued to pour through its hourglass, transfixed by the deadly majesty of this creature. And the creature, as she continued to stare at it, continued to advance. She did not answer Seren's question.

"Get out of here. Go. Get out and go as far as you can away. I will buy you the time you need to escape."

The rustle of grass could be heard from its passing as it parted, and still it came forth in its ghastly splendour. With padded feet, the silver wolf came forward. Its thick fur was sleek, and its ears were pointed into the air. Its mouth was open, revealing rows of razor sharp teeth. And then it spoke.

"I have expended much in the way of time and energy to find you both. You possess something that my master desires, and it is time for me to collect." It ignored Seren's question disdainfully.

Then, it stopped where it stood. It eyed both Seren and Astra up, one by one, and although there was no way of telling, it certainly bore the expression of one that was unimpressed with what it saw. "Weak mortal fleshlings, it does me a disservice to have to waste my power in slaying you. You are weak. You are slow. You are no match for what I am, an alpha predator. I am faster. I am stronger. I am tougher. I am the apex of evolution. You should be honoured to die beneath me, as I rend your flesh with my claws and devour you with my fangs."

Its eyes gleamed with malice and hatred. Turning its baleful eyes to Astra, the wolf's mouth split in a ghastly, grotesque grin. "Yes, you know more than the other, but you are still doomed. That I will tear the skin from your bones and devour your heart and soul. My master sends you a message. He would bade you know that the hunt begins once more, and that he comes for you and your friend. It pleased me when I devoured your friend, and it pleases me even more to know that even as we stand here and speak, ultimately the blood will leak from your veins and you will die."

A hideous, crackling sound echoed around the area. After a second, it became obvious that it was the sound of the creature laughing. Its burning red eyes turned to Seren as it glanced to her shadowy arm.

"Little creature. I sense the power within your veins. I wish to feast on the magic. Let me taste and drink of your blood, and I will perhaps let you live. What will you do? Fight, or flee? Stand, or die? "