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- >Who are you?
- >Where are you?
- >How did you get here?
- >These thoughts and more float in head as you feel yourself soar on unseen currents through this waterless sea.
- >Wait…
- >There it is.
- >A purpose.
- >It’s vague, but it’s there.
- >You need to find something, or someone.
- >But what exactly is it that you are looking for, and why?
- >Your unvoiced queries echo off into the eternal distance.
- >You wish you weren’t stuck in this.. place.
- >You can’t move, can’t see or feel.
- >But something in the back of your mind tells you there is one thing you can do.
- >You flex incorporeal muscles you didn’t know you had.
- >They flow through and around you like snakes, ready to enact your will.
- >You think.
- [Show me where I should go.]
- >And they do.
- >Out of the nothingness they come.
- >Sights, sounds, smells, all of it at once.
- >Visions of foreign places and unrecognized faces.
- >...
- >You see her.
- >A girl, working feverishly on some mechanical contraption.
- >She’s in a small, dark, and dusty workshop.
- >Old tomes and mistreated manuals litter the tables and shelves around her, where the space isn’t taken up by drawings and other little machines.
- >A half eaten pastry sits forgotten on a dingy little desk on the far side of the room, next to a mug of coffee that has long since gone cold.
- >The girl herself looks like she’s seen better days.
- >Or maybe not.
- >Her hair is dirty and unkempt, her clothes are lightly dusted like the room itself.
- >The girl herself is incredibly pale and likely hasn’t seen the light of day in a long while.
- >She mutters to herself as she continues to work on her “thing,” whatever it is.
- >A small crystal on the contraption begins to glow softly.
- >She lets out a small gasp before muttering with even more intensity.
- >As she tinkers with the thing when suddenly the glow from the crystal begins pulsating rapidly.
- >”No, no, NO!”
- >There’s a muffled poof, and the crystal shatters.
- >”Argh!”
- >She takes the thing and throws at the other wall, before sighing and slumping down, face in her hands.
- >...
- >You’re in the countryside now.
- >A young woman is attempting to till her fields, but it doesn’t look like it’ll do her much good.
- >The ground is dry, practically dust.
- >It’s not just this farm.
- >The surrounding countryside looks to be in a state of drought.
- >There might be a famine in the near future, if it hasn’t started already.
- >But still, on and on the woman works.
- >The sweat and dust on her brow and some scratches in the dirt are the only reward to her hard work.
- >She pauses for a second to look off in the distance.
- >The road is empty.
- >She gives a forlorn sigh before turning back to her work.
- >...
- >A city appears before your eyes.
- >It’s streets bustle with the activity of what must be thousands of people.
- >Gleaming spires and boulevards paved with what may as well be marble.
- >The vision shifts.
- >Clean, beautiful squares and tall buildings built to please the eye make way for narrow streets beneath wooden shacks built one on top of another.
- >There is people here, no less than before, but everyone is dirtier and shiftier.
- >In one of these streets a young girl sits.
- >She huddles in shadow of the crowd, covered with a threadbare shawl.
- >In front of her is a beat up tin, in which lies a single coin.
- >The crowd passes her by, few even deigning to look at her.
- >She stares at the ground, a sad look on her dirt smeared face.
- >...
- >You see a small town.
- >While nowhere as ostentatious as the city, it is quaint.
- >Small parks and humble buildings make for a pleasant atmosphere.
- >A shopkeep sits in her small work area, looking bored.
- >She fiddles with some cloth before setting it on top of a small pile of similar pieces.
- >Her face momentarily shifts to one of worry as she looks at the window of the shop.
- >Several holes mar the surface of the otherwise pristine glass.
- >They seem to be recent, but have since been covered up.
- >Seems like there was trouble recently.
- >The shopkeep looks from the window to a small painting on the wall.
- >It’s of a noble couple, sitting on a bench with a mansion in the background.
- >A wistful smile crosses her face before it promptly leaves.
- >A small bell jingles, the sound disturbing the young shopkeep’s peace.
- >She rushes to greet her potential clients.
- >The scenery changes again.
- >...
- >A cottage sits on the edge of the forest.
- >It’s empty.
- >Your focus shifts elsewhere, into the forest itself.
- >An animal shrieks in pain.
- >There’s the rustling of leaves, then silence.
- >In a clearing, a figure is hunched over a huge white stag.
- >The animal is clearly in pain, and blood has wet the grass around it.
- >The figure is movements are quick and erratic.
- >They try to staunch the wound and soothe the animal.
- >It’s no use.
- >There’s too much blood.
- >And there’s something else at work here.
- >The stag coughs out blood, and its eyes cloud over.
- >The figure doubles their efforts, but it’s too late.
- >The stag gives a final ragged breath before finally succumbing to its wound.
- >The figure pauses, then embraces the animal, as though to say they’re sorry.
- >They finally look up.
- >They is actually a she, and she peers deeper into the woods.
- >Tracks lead off into the deep forest, strange ones.
- >She has worried look on her face, but it quickly turns into one of determination.
- >She gets up and sets off.
- >...
- >Pastures in an idyllic hill country.
- >Sheep graze as a young shepherdess plays around with some rocks.
- >She juggles them, sometimes throwing one out, then hitting it mid-air with another.
- >It’s quite a sight.
- >She hits every single one of them without fail.
- >When she runs out of rocks, she takes a large stick from the ground and begins to play around with it.
- >She duels with imaginary foes, hacking and stabbing the air.
- >The sheep occasionally pause their grazing to look at her, unimpressed with her antics.
- >Jumping onto a small boulder, she brandishes her weapon at her invisible adversaries, as though daring them to challenge her.
- >A yell startles her, causing her to lose her footing and tumble off the boulder.
- >Another shepherd waves at her frantically, obviously distressed.
- >That’s when she sees it.
- >A pillar of black smoke on the horizon.
- >”Not again…”
- >She rushes off to follow her compatriot.
- >The sheep watch as they leave before returning to their grassy meals.
- >They aren’t going anywhere.
- >...
- >A desert stretches out to the horizon in all directions.
- >The occasional mesa juts out of the ground in the far distance, stretching up to meet the sky.
- >A young woman sits in the shade under a tree.
- >She looks out to the horizon, as though she were expecting someone.
- >She’s haggard, but otherwise calm and peaceful, and her clothes and pack, though somewhat dirty and worn, are well maintained.
- >There are scars on her face and hands.
- >She’s obviously had a hard and violent life, as young as she is.
- >Behind her, a cloud of dust grows closer.
- >Someone is coming.
- >She looks back at it, then continues to look forward.
- >She occasionally looks up at the empty sky, then down at her wrist, at a crude time telling device.
- >What could she be waiting for?
- >Whatever, or whoever it is, it seems as though they’re late.
- >The vision fades, as do your senses.
- >These are what you must find.
- >You must gather all of them.
- >However, you can’t be in seven places at once.
- >So where should you start?
- >You think for moment, before deciding.
- >You see it in your mind.
- >You want to be there.
- >And so, there you are.
- >The desert sun shines upon you, it’s heat warming your skin.
- >You look around.
- >It’s just like your vision, except now you’re in it.
- >In front of you is the young woman from earlier.
- >She sits there, giving you a blank stare for a second before finally recoiling in surprise.
- >You probably weren’t who she was expecting.
- >The dust cloud from earlier is even closer now, but the figures within remain obscured.
- >The woman briefly looks back at it before picking herself up off the floor.
- >Grabbing her pack, as well as some odd looking materials that lay in front of her, she makes her way over to you.
- >She slows down as she nears you, before coming to a stop a short distance away.
- >She has a nervous look on her face now.
- >”Are you the one they told me to meet?”
- >Who?
- >You look at her in confusion.
- >”You know what, we can talk about that later. Can you help me?"
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