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1 | >Who are you? | |
2 | >Where are you? | |
3 | >How did you get here? | |
4 | >These thoughts and more float in head as you feel yourself soar on unseen currents through this waterless sea. | |
5 | >Wait… | |
6 | >There it is. | |
7 | >A purpose. | |
8 | >It’s vague, but it’s there. | |
9 | >You need to find something, or someone. | |
10 | >But what exactly is it that you are looking for, and why? | |
11 | >Your unvoiced queries echo off into the eternal distance. | |
12 | >You wish you weren’t stuck in this.. place. | |
13 | >You can’t move, can’t see or feel. | |
14 | >But something in the back of your mind tells you there is one thing you can do. | |
15 | >You flex incorporeal muscles you didn’t know you had. | |
16 | >They flow through and around you like snakes, ready to enact your will. | |
17 | >You think. | |
18 | [Show me where I should go.] | |
19 | >And they do. | |
20 | >Out of the nothingness they come. | |
21 | >Sights, sounds, smells, all of it at once. | |
22 | >Visions of foreign places and unrecognized faces. | |
23 | >... | |
24 | >You see her. | |
25 | >A girl, working feverishly on some mechanical contraption. | |
26 | >She’s in a small, dark, and dusty workshop. | |
27 | >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. | |
28 | >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. | |
29 | >The girl herself looks like she’s seen better days. | |
30 | >Or maybe not. | |
31 | >Her hair is dirty and unkempt, her clothes are lightly dusted like the room itself. | |
32 | >The girl herself is incredibly pale and likely hasn’t seen the light of day in a long while. | |
33 | >She mutters to herself as she continues to work on her “thing,” whatever it is. | |
34 | >A small crystal on the contraption begins to glow softly. | |
35 | >She lets out a small gasp before muttering with even more intensity. | |
36 | >As she tinkers with the thing when suddenly the glow from the crystal begins pulsating rapidly. | |
37 | >”No, no, NO!” | |
38 | >There’s a muffled poof, and the crystal shatters. | |
39 | >”Argh!” | |
40 | >She takes the thing and throws at the other wall, before sighing and slumping down, face in her hands. | |
41 | >... | |
42 | >You’re in the countryside now. | |
43 | >A young woman is attempting to till her fields, but it doesn’t look like it’ll do her much good. | |
44 | >The ground is dry, practically dust. | |
45 | >It’s not just this farm. | |
46 | >The surrounding countryside looks to be in a state of drought. | |
47 | >There might be a famine in the near future, if it hasn’t started already. | |
48 | >But still, on and on the woman works. | |
49 | >The sweat and dust on her brow and some scratches in the dirt are the only reward to her hard work. | |
50 | >She pauses for a second to look off in the distance. | |
51 | >The road is empty. | |
52 | >She gives a forlorn sigh before turning back to her work. | |
53 | >... | |
54 | >A city appears before your eyes. | |
55 | >It’s streets bustle with the activity of what must be thousands of people. | |
56 | >Gleaming spires and boulevards paved with what may as well be marble. | |
57 | >The vision shifts. | |
58 | >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. | |
59 | >There is people here, no less than before, but everyone is dirtier and shiftier. | |
60 | >In one of these streets a young girl sits. | |
61 | >She huddles in shadow of the crowd, covered with a threadbare shawl. | |
62 | >In front of her is a beat up tin, in which lies a single coin. | |
63 | >The crowd passes her by, few even deigning to look at her. | |
64 | >She stares at the ground, a sad look on her dirt smeared face. | |
65 | >... | |
66 | >You see a small town. | |
67 | >While nowhere as ostentatious as the city, it is quaint. | |
68 | >Small parks and humble buildings make for a pleasant atmosphere. | |
69 | >A shopkeep sits in her small work area, looking bored. | |
70 | >She fiddles with some cloth before setting it on top of a small pile of similar pieces. | |
71 | >Her face momentarily shifts to one of worry as she looks at the window of the shop. | |
72 | >Several holes mar the surface of the otherwise pristine glass. | |
73 | >They seem to be recent, but have since been covered up. | |
74 | >Seems like there was trouble recently. | |
75 | >The shopkeep looks from the window to a small painting on the wall. | |
76 | >It’s of a noble couple, sitting on a bench with a mansion in the background. | |
77 | >A wistful smile crosses her face before it promptly leaves. | |
78 | >A small bell jingles, the sound disturbing the young shopkeep’s peace. | |
79 | >She rushes to greet her potential clients. | |
80 | >The scenery changes again. | |
81 | >... | |
82 | >A cottage sits on the edge of the forest. | |
83 | >It’s empty. | |
84 | >Your focus shifts elsewhere, into the forest itself. | |
85 | >An animal shrieks in pain. | |
86 | >There’s the rustling of leaves, then silence. | |
87 | >In a clearing, a figure is hunched over a huge white stag. | |
88 | >The animal is clearly in pain, and blood has wet the grass around it. | |
89 | >The figure is movements are quick and erratic. | |
90 | >They try to staunch the wound and soothe the animal. | |
91 | >It’s no use. | |
92 | >There’s too much blood. | |
93 | >And there’s something else at work here. | |
94 | >The stag coughs out blood, and its eyes cloud over. | |
95 | >The figure doubles their efforts, but it’s too late. | |
96 | >The stag gives a final ragged breath before finally succumbing to its wound. | |
97 | >The figure pauses, then embraces the animal, as though to say they’re sorry. | |
98 | >They finally look up. | |
99 | >They is actually a she, and she peers deeper into the woods. | |
100 | >Tracks lead off into the deep forest, strange ones. | |
101 | >She has worried look on her face, but it quickly turns into one of determination. | |
102 | >She gets up and sets off. | |
103 | >... | |
104 | >Pastures in an idyllic hill country. | |
105 | >Sheep graze as a young shepherdess plays around with some rocks. | |
106 | >She juggles them, sometimes throwing one out, then hitting it mid-air with another. | |
107 | >It’s quite a sight. | |
108 | >She hits every single one of them without fail. | |
109 | >When she runs out of rocks, she takes a large stick from the ground and begins to play around with it. | |
110 | >She duels with imaginary foes, hacking and stabbing the air. | |
111 | >The sheep occasionally pause their grazing to look at her, unimpressed with her antics. | |
112 | >Jumping onto a small boulder, she brandishes her weapon at her invisible adversaries, as though daring them to challenge her. | |
113 | >A yell startles her, causing her to lose her footing and tumble off the boulder. | |
114 | >Another shepherd waves at her frantically, obviously distressed. | |
115 | >That’s when she sees it. | |
116 | >A pillar of black smoke on the horizon. | |
117 | >”Not again…” | |
118 | >She rushes off to follow her compatriot. | |
119 | >The sheep watch as they leave before returning to their grassy meals. | |
120 | >They aren’t going anywhere. | |
121 | >... | |
122 | >A desert stretches out to the horizon in all directions. | |
123 | >The occasional mesa juts out of the ground in the far distance, stretching up to meet the sky. | |
124 | >A young woman sits in the shade under a tree. | |
125 | >She looks out to the horizon, as though she were expecting someone. | |
126 | >She’s haggard, but otherwise calm and peaceful, and her clothes and pack, though somewhat dirty and worn, are well maintained. | |
127 | >There are scars on her face and hands. | |
128 | >She’s obviously had a hard and violent life, as young as she is. | |
129 | >Behind her, a cloud of dust grows closer. | |
130 | >Someone is coming. | |
131 | >She looks back at it, then continues to look forward. | |
132 | >She occasionally looks up at the empty sky, then down at her wrist, at a crude time telling device. | |
133 | >What could she be waiting for? | |
134 | >Whatever, or whoever it is, it seems as though they’re late. | |
135 | >The vision fades, as do your senses. | |
136 | >These are what you must find. | |
137 | >You must gather all of them. | |
138 | >However, you can’t be in seven places at once. | |
139 | >So where should you start? | |
140 | >You think for moment, before deciding. | |
141 | >You see it in your mind. | |
142 | >You want to be there. | |
143 | >And so, there you are. | |
144 | ||
145 | >The desert sun shines upon you, it’s heat warming your skin. | |
146 | >You look around. | |
147 | >It’s just like your vision, except now you’re in it. | |
148 | >In front of you is the young woman from earlier. | |
149 | >She sits there, giving you a blank stare for a second before finally recoiling in surprise. | |
150 | >You probably weren’t who she was expecting. | |
151 | >The dust cloud from earlier is even closer now, but the figures within remain obscured. | |
152 | >The woman briefly looks back at it before picking herself up off the floor. | |
153 | >Grabbing her pack, as well as some odd looking materials that lay in front of her, she makes her way over to you. | |
154 | >She slows down as she nears you, before coming to a stop a short distance away. | |
155 | >She has a nervous look on her face now. | |
156 | >”Are you the one they told me to meet?” | |
157 | >Who? | |
158 | >You look at her in confusion. | |
159 | >”You know what, we can talk about that later. Can you help me?" |