Solo Alone With A Fear

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The Diamond of Kalea is located on Kalea's extreme west coast and called as such because its completely made of a crystalline substance called Skyglass. Home of the Alvina of the Stars, cultural mecca of knowledge seekers, and rife with Ethaefal, this remote city shimmers with its own unique light.

Alone With A Fear

Postby Saiyin on July 28th, 2018, 12:06 pm

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82nd Summer 518 AV
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Nighttime...

Saiyin awoke with a start. She was a light sleeper, something she'd seemed to develop in her early adulthood, but the boom that broke around her house would have woken anyone. Her eyes were full of sleep and she rubbed them furiously to wake herself up as she slipped into her daytime clothes and padded through the dark hallway to the kitchen, where the biggest window was. There was a pitcher of water on the table and she gingerly poured a cupful into her hand to splash onto her face. It was refreshing, of which she was thankful, but she wasn't focussed on the mundaneness of the pitcher, and the table, and the kitchen. Outside in the darkness, something howled. The hairs on her arm stood up and Saiyin's eyes opened wide with alarm, then boom, again. At almost the same time, perhaps just a tick before, a brilliant brightness bloomed into the place which the usual, persistent fog rested.

The world was crimson.

Full of unease, the woman hurried to find the flint and tinder that lay beside the hearth. She patted around in the dark until she found the precious light-giving tool, and then fumbled to find her lantern. She brought her attention to the light, carefully striking the flint and tinder until she had mustered a spark bright and large enough to catch the candle inside the lantern. It needed no shelter from wind, although it was clear that outside the protective atmosphere of her house, the wind was raging. Another flash of lightning illuminated the mist, and Saiyin saw the mist whirling and twisting in huge, great billows where the wind had taken it and pummelled it.

She sat on the chair with the lantern on the table, simply looking out at the raging storm and trying not to worry. Saiyin doubted she would be able to sleep, but there wasn't much for her to do. Ordinarily, if she had some free time she would do some gardening, but that idea was laughable. There was no way that Saiyin would be leaving the house, not until the storm had passed over. The red mist could be an entirely natural occurrence, but this was Lhavit, and Saiyin was well-educated enough to know of magic and the dangers of the natural world. It wasn't as terrible and terrifying as the Djed storm some years ago, but she remembered the feeling of the storm. She remembered being terrified, and that feeling hadn't gone as far away as she had thought.

For a while, the young woman went about the house tidying and cleaning. She took the lantern with her wherever she went, so she didn't look into the dark corners of the empty house and see something she didn't want to let her mind imagine. Saiyin was a rational being, but even the most sane and sensible of people can be afraid of the unknown. As the storm continued in the same horrible intensity, she tried to go back to bed, but sleep wouldn't come. She fiddled with the strange muffin tin she'd been given, but she couldn't focus on trying to study it.

Instead, she opened it and ate the muffin inside, or at least tried it then spat it out. The muffin tasted uncannily like soap. She put the broken muffin on the table top, and knocked back a cup of water to rid herself of the taste, and in the middle of putting the cup back down on the table, she heard a different sound. Knock, knock. A series of rapid knocks on the door. She froze, and hesitated. Should she ignore whoever it wa..-

"Please help me!"

The voice was hard to distinguish against the other sounds that tore around the Sesr family home, but the voice was also a scream, and also a child. Saiyin leapt up from her chair and walked over to the door, her eyes wide and curiously scared. Her hand clasped around the door handle, and again she paused as thoughts clamoured in her mind, telling her nothing but a jumble mess of abstract worry. She steeled herself, and before the child could knock again, she pulled open the door and ushered the soaked shadow within, before slamming the door shut again with a gasp.

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Alone With A Fear

Postby Saiyin on July 28th, 2018, 12:37 pm

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Already Saiyin's knees were wet with dark patches of rain where the storm had tried to barge its way into the house. But there was something, someone else in her home now. Not a storm, but a child. A little girl from the looks of the dark hair curling out from underneath her hood, and she was crying in juddering little breathy shakes that broke Saiyin's heart. She rushed to the girl to take off her sodden coat, trying her hardest to smile and make her feel welcomed, although she was finding it hard to keep the surprise and deep-seated worry out of her eyes.

"Hey, hey hey, it's okay, you're safe now. You can shelter here until the storm's over, it's safe in he..- oof!" The last part was knocked out of her lungs as the girl lunged into her to wrap her arms around the suddenly still Saiyin. She was still a damp ball of darkness, her mess of hair caught in tangled, long strands. Her face was all scrunched up, and Saiyin slowly wrapped her own arms around the sobbing frame of the girl. They spent half a chime kneeling on the floor, each seeking solace in the other for the same reason- they were no longer alone.

Before long, Saiyin pulled her arms away and began to turn her mind towards the girl's well-being. She would catch a cold before long, especially wearing the soaking wet clothes she had on, but before she could rummage into the small pile of logs beside the hearth to light the fire, the girl tugged on her sleeve.

She turned to look at her, ready to explain, with a smile of encouragement, but the girl's dark eyes were full of frustration and worry. "What is it, little one?"
When she spoke, her voice was full of the same frustration that echoed across her eyes. "I'm Sadie, not little one, and it's my mum! She's still out there, you need to help me!"

Saiyin paused, with the flint and tinder in her hands. As if to remind her that it still existed, the storm burst with several flashes of thunder and lightning in quick succession, seemingly straight overhead and bright enough so that the young glassblower could see the vicious, knife-like slashes of energy cutting through the bloody fog. She slowly put down the flint and tinder as Sadie looked up at her, at once begging and demanding. Saiyin was glad the girl hadn't been entirely alone out there, because that thought was terrifying, but to be asked to go out in the storm herself...

Yet, how could she refuse the girl, and maybe find herself responsible for something terrible happening? She would never be able to forgive herself if a child lost her mother,although she hoped the situation wasn't as bad as all that. In the dimness and tense atmosphere of her cottage though, her mind was already flooded with pictures of a dark-haired woman, ankle twisted and unconscious, drowning or being burnt to death with the fire from the sky, or being blown off a cliff. Any number of terrible, terrible accidents that the natural world could throw at someone. It wouldn't have to be anything dramatic. All it would take was one slip up in the dark and in the storm and that would be it.

Equally, could she find it within herself to pluck up the courage to leave her home? A young life would depend on her to keep her safe and watch out for her. Saiyin was not a mother. If Sadie became injured, she would be held accountable, and she knew with certainty that she could look after her at home. They could share a muffin, or even cook something more substantial to warm her bones. She could light a fire and dry her off, keep her safe until the storm blew over.

Sadie stared up at her, amber dark eyes filling with worried, angry tears, and Saiyin knew she had no choice. "Come on then Sadie, tell me where your mother is. We'll find her and bring her inside." Perhaps she could tell herself that it wasn't as bad as she thought.

Perhaps it would all be okay.

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