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[Natalia]

Date: 22nd Day of Winter
Location: The Valkalah Library
Time: Early Evening

The time Natalia spent on her days off were to be cherished as they were scarce in number ever since winter had begun. Her work had started to overwhelm her to the point of utter exhaustion. The medical center had been in chaos ever since The Leadership of Riverfall acknowledged something was afoot in the city. Hordes of hypochondriacs stormed the hospital thinking the announcement had something to do with them when in reality they were all overreacting. For three days straight Natalia was pulled from the upstairs ward to "diagnose" the citizens in the emergency station. In truth, she had only encountered one person who actually had shown signs of an abnormality... herself.

Strange things had begun to take place early in the season. Everyone was experiencing it to some degree, Natalia to no exception. The first time she realized something was out of the ordinary, she was at work making a simple house call. She lay her hand on the expecting mother's tummy and suddenly her senses were flooded with the baby, in the womb, calling for help. She wasn't sure if she was imagining things or not, but was cautious anyway. She sent the women into the medical center right away, and sure enough they found the mother's cord wrapped tightly around the fetus's neck. It only got more curious from there.

The next day as she was trying to tend to a newborn in the ward, it happened again. As Natalia carefully lifted the fragile human to her chest, a distinct image quickly flashed into her mind. The picture was foggy at first, but as it came into focus she could distinguish a piece of cloth - a diaper. As the baby gazed into her eyes, she could tell it was coming from him. She raised him to her nose, and yes, in fact he did need to be changed. Later on in the day when she picked him up once more, it happened anew. A face burst into her head. A women, the baby's mother. It wanted it's mother. It all seemed surreal. She didn't know what was happening.

In attempt to find out more information about what was going on, she decided it was time to take a trip to the library. There had to be some sort of explanation as to why this was going on. At first she thought it had something to do with Syna blessing her with another ability, but when the announcement was made, it was obvious it was happening to other people. She was determined to find some answers, and the first logical place to stop first had to be the library.

She was happy to be out of the cold and into the warm rooms. She shrugged off her thick cloak to reveal a plain outfit - a white cotton shirt and tan pants. Her tall boots were a staple in the winter; she could barely function in the cold while in her human form.

The Valkalah Library was carefully sectioned according to subject, yet Natalia didn't know where to start. She made her way over to the magic section, a region with a couple rows dedicated to the art. Honestly, with no incantation on where to begin she scrolled the bookcases for a couple moments before choosing a completely random piece of text. The binding was brown and had gold lettering embedded into it. The title read, The Magecraft Manuscript. Odd, but nevertheless she found a comfortable spot nearby and commenced paging through it. After a couple of long minutes she realized this had nothing of substance for her questions so she chose another.

After about a bell of flipping through pages of random books she grew frustrated after not finding even an inkling of a clue. The thought dawned on her to perhaps inquire with a librarian, but how would she even explain what she is looking for? Instead of this being her relaxing day off, she grew frustrated. She tried to slow herself when she knew she was having these feelings, but she couldn't. Mood swings were all the more likely while she was in her human form. She wasn't sure if her anger grew from that, or real confirmed impatience.

Thoroughly fed up with the situation, she took a break and instead went to the medicine bookshelves to give them a try, but no. She couldn't keep her attention long enough as she pondered the events of the season. She looked up from her book, sighing. She fiddled with her long brown hair as she sat in deep thought, a million miles away from the real world.


OOCWord Count - 1,582/50,000

[Wikus]

The world of books was unexplored by Wikus until this day. Being illiterate and not quite introduced to the notion of gathering knowledge throughout books had kept the drawn symbols a secret. The idea of storing a person’s thoughts away in a piece of paper seemed ridiculous; exploring far lands with a couple of parchments seemed like a jest. As he was taught, everything a man needed to know as to be found in his hands throughout sweat and hard work, nothing ever coming close to a purer form of knowledge. Now that he finally saw the vast collection of books the city held between these four walls, he partially began wondering if his stance on literature was mistaken. Walking slowly and warily, he felt quite guilty of being in this place of knowledge when he was quite ignorant himself. Perhaps someone would inspect him or question him about what he was searching for, and he’d be forced to answer with the plain truth: no idea.

Bare feet slowly advancing through the wooden floors, the library felt more like a tomb than a place of knowledge. Nobody spoke, ate or laughed but instead they watched almost hypnotized the pages as if they found something inside that absorbed all their attention. The silence was absolute, but powerful and calm as if each of the readers were meditating. Nevertheless, Wikus wasn’t here to learn the secrets of the books, to decipher the symbols drawn inside or to write his own story. He came here exclusively for the ink, as it was that what he had found his body had started to segregate the last days. As strange as it may sound, it wasn’t just one the occasions that came to mind in which he found himself partially or even completely bathed in ink. His tattoos swayed with the winds whenever he wasn’t paying them attention, his clothes were occasionally stained in black, even finding his own mouth full of the black substance. He was very scared. Having only kept his tattoos throughout the years, even if they had lost their meaning in the eyes of his people, he still wished to retain them. Waking up to find them gone with the same wind that swayed them once could be his worst nightmare.

His silent footsteps advanced forth into the unknown section of the Academy, the lack of boots or any protection on his feet granting him complete stealth. His light clothing, which consisted exclusively of his black pants, wasn’t quite minded by the concentrated readers as the section was quite well heated, most coats or heavy clothing being removed by most of them. Dubious at first, he approached a shelf and quickly looked sideways. Nobody was looking at him, so he wasn’t doing anything wrong. Still unsure, he raised a hand to lay a simple finger on the book’s cover. No reaction whatsoever. Going all in, he’d finally pull out the book and take it to a nearby table, which despite its long size hosted very few people. With a deep sigh, he’d rest on a chair as he stared into the book cover of the book. He almost feared that once he lifted the cover whatever wonders laid inside the pages would jump him. This was not the case, as instead he found a page with nothing else than senseless symbols drawn in ink. The page was somewhere in the middle of the book, and the idea of thousands of more pages with their corresponding number of symbols being held in the book hazed him.

This was a bad idea, he thought. Why did he come here when the books couldn’t tell him anything? Just because a book holds ink doesn’t mean he was to find answers from it, just as a knife dripped in blood couldn’t tell whom the victim was. His hand reached for one of the book’s halves in order to close it, but just as his fingertips touched the paper he felt an intense irking on his flesh. The pain lasted no more than a tick, but it was enough for his lungs to gasp for air. Looking down at the finger tip, he found no trace of damage whatsoever. Once he looked down at the book, however, his confusion reached a whole new level proper of a newborn seeing the world outside its mother’s womb. A word of the text had simply vanished, erased forever where his finger had touched the paper. He knew it wasn’t a misprint, he knew the text was complete before he laid a finger on it as he almost fell asleep under the uniform layout of the symbols.

Suddenly, at the back of his mind something had appeared, like a splinter under the skin. It was pleasant, yes, but also bizarre for its sudden appearance. Once he tried to dig it out, his mouth automatically opened to say one word. “Hemorrhage.” He said, confused and astonished at the sudden whim he had apparently befallen to. The mental splinter was still stuck, however, and so he tried to get rid of it once again, the word repeating itself through his voice thrice more. Perfectly pronounced in Common despite him being unaware of its meaning, someone shushed him from a distance. Bringing the book closer to him, he’d lay a finger on the next word which brought yet another sudden ink on his flesh and the word ‘however’ to his lips. “Hemorrhage however, hemorrhage however…” he’d repeat, whispering to himself every time he tried to release his mind of the words he now spoke.


Word CountWord count: 931