The Reality of Illusion (Akari)

[Fallacy]

Alluvia watched her, a small smile gracing her features as she contemplated what was to come. Hearing the question she took a moment to look behind her, as if there was something there. The candles would flicker again, but this time it would last longer until they regained composure. The shadows they cast danced a little in the light brought by them. There was an ominous air about the place, and even though they were surrounded by the guard still an uneasy feeling would creep into the room. ”Will you be alone?” she asked still thinking on the question herself, ”No, you will not be. Allen will go with you to the place where illusion stands still.” she said hoping the reassurance of a companion would comfort her somewhat. Hearing the rest of what was to be said by Akari the Triad member could only laugh, ”My dear girl,” she started, her calling Akari a girl seemed a little odd considering that they looked about the same age, ”Im not quite sure either.” there would be a big grin on her face, the light in her eyes shining just a little bit brighter with joy, the realization that she was just as clueless as the rest. That fact alone sort of brought Alluvia Lighting of the Azure Triad down to Akaris level, ”That is why Im sending you.” she brought the tea cup back up and sipped from it again, but there would be a disgruntled look on her face when the cup would reach her lips. Taking the cup back she looked in it, empty. Turning the cup over no liquid came pouring out. Shaking it slightly, still upside down, not even a drop of tea hit the table. Frustrated she ‘calmly’ set the cup down, the sound of glass hitting glass a bit louder than usual this time. ”I see…” she muttered to herself. ”It seems our time here is growing to an end.” she would say a worried look on her face. The candles would start to flicker again, more violently, before they altogether would start disappearing one by one. Soon in the chaos of the light show the entire house would start to shake, the tea cups wobbling and toppling over, rolling over the edge, but before they would hit the ground they too would be gone. The house seemed to grow transparent, and soon it would look like a thick moss would be growing on the wood before the wood altogether would turn to grass. The only remains of what used to be were the guard, standing around the perimeter of the used to be house, the desk and both of the chairs. The guards themselves would look quite shaken, some even broke formation in an attempt to get closer to Alluvia, but a quick and stern look would send them back to where they came. Now all around them would be a field, hills cropping up, followed by patches of trees. Around Alluvia and the desk were slightly taller plants, wild grass, and even the purple flowers. With a sigh the woman would get up, her fancy chair disappearing now as it was no longer willed to be. ”See? She asked turning, looking past the guard and into the valley of grass, ”This is what has been happening. It seems even my power can only stall its progression for so long.” she said turning to Akari, ”It seems Lhex has a funny way of pushing things along.” her arms crossed she ordered Allen to present himself, a younger member of the guard stepped forward. Sporting only light armor at most, and having a sword at his side he went to Akaris side, ”Now, it is your mission to go into the heart of this,” she pointed in the direction of where the field spread as far as the eye could see, ”And figure out what is causing this and how to stop it. Then the rest of your mission should be simple, you come back and report your findings to me.” Just like that Alluvia started to walk away, the guard, or what remains of it, formed around her as she made her way out of the grassy field. Now all that remained standing there was Allen and Akari; the endless field seemed to stare at them, the reality of what they were assigned to do just now dawning on them. It was up to them to figure out how to solve this problem and then go back to Alluvia. Where were they going to start? At the beginning, right? OOCIf you want a good picture of how the landscape looks please reference the picture posted at the beginning of the thread

[Akari]

Akari tried not to look worried. As Alluvia turned, the candles flickered again. Coincidence? Maybe. Akari had not noticed anything herself, but the woman sitting across from her was much more in tune with the city than herself. She trained her eyes on the nearest candle. Still there was no breeze, yet it flickered for quite a time. Something shifted in the air as the candles stilled, some sense of foreboding, and she fought the urge to shiver.

Relief sparked in her eyes as a response finally left Alluvia’s lips. She had no idea who “Allen” was, but if it meant she would have company she didn’t care. Akari noticed then, for the first time, that the woman spoke as though she was decades older than she appeared. Another mystery of the City of Illusion no doubt. However, her curious gaze vanished quickly, to be replaced yet again by worry. Even she does not know?! Alluvia seemed oblivious to her sudden panic though, her attention suddenly fixated on her teacup. Puzzled, Akari watched as it was examined, tipped upside-own and shaken before being forcibly returned to its saucer. The girl was about to offer her own tea when the first candle suddenly vanished.

Anything Akari had been about to say died in her throat. The candles flickered more violently than ever, some disappearing altogether. Panicked, Akari stood, glancing round the darkening room. She took a couple of hurried steps back from the table as the last candle vanished and the walls began to shake. The walls appeared to be growing transparent, becoming less and less real until they were left in a field. An endless field with a desk and a handful of people in its center.

”See?” Akari stepped quietly over to Alluvia, standing as if the table were still between them. She didn’t understand what was happening. Had the whole building been an illusion? And the tea? How can one drink something that isn’t real? It baffled the girl. She spared the guard, Allen, a quick glance, before looking to where the woman pointed.

As Alluvia left without so much as a backward glance, Akari turned to Allen. ”I guess… I guess we should start walking.” She had no idea what could possibly be ahead of them. She had a feeling Allen didn’t either. All the same, it wouldn’t do any harm to ask. ”Do you have any idea what we might find? I don’t even understand the first thing about illusions…” For now, all the pair could do was walk, so Akari set her eyes on the horizon and trudged on.

[Fallacy]

“Uh, yeah, we should start walking” He laughed dreading this assignment. Was this payback for all the pranks he pulls in the quarters? It wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t take his job seriously and now, well, was assigned this impossible mission by Alluvia. It was to get back at him, wasn’t it? Alluvia was trying to get rid of him, and he only had just started his official duties. Looking at Akari he tried to smile, smiles always helped lighten up any situation and are needed to keep up moral, especially when an unknown force is slowly warping the illusion and changing it to, well, Allen looked out at the seemingly endless expanse of field, this. ”Do I have any idea?” he asked, repeating the question as to give himself time to think, ”I have no more idea than you probably do. Although I do understand Illusions somewhat having grown up in Alvadas, I’ve never seen a transformation quite like this.” he bent down and swiped a hand at the grass, pulling some from the earth, ”As with the buildings and all advanced Illusion,” he rubbed the grass between his fingers before discarding it to the ground, ”it feels so real…” he almost whispered it. ”Its kind of scary when the Triad don’t even know what is going on.” he laughed again, nervous as they made their way deeper into the field. ”I don’t know what she expects us to find. It just looks like a normal field.” he said putting his observation skills to use. The grass was green and extending seemingly endlessly before them, lush wild flowers blooming and it came complete with bugs, yes bugs, the nasty kind of bugs that fly around and annoy, buzzing and even biting. That little addition made this illusion less than perfect warranting the occasional swat at the air to dispel the vermin. The deeper they walked into the field the more seemed to change. The grass was slowly, if one was observant, getting a darker and darker shade of green and the bugs were less common, but seemed to be getting bigger and bigger in exchange. Soon a mosquito would be the size of a small coin. When the wind would blow grass would rise up and drop several feet away in a wave-like fashion and the sky, well, it was now a dark violet compared to the normal blue. Everything was changing and becoming more weird, and twisted, and standing at the edge of it all, standing at the border of normal and insanity was Allen and Akari. The guard looked at the woman who he had been assigned to help the smile now faded and in replace a look of both horror and wonder. What is happening? ”You sure you want to do this?” he asked feeling that working at his parents shop wouldn’t have been such a bad thing after all. It looked like Ionu was having a play day. Gathering his courage he took a step into the waves of grass. The ground under his feet felt both solid and unfounded at the same time, shifting and moving, but not. It was a really disorienting feeling the first steps gave him, and he stumbled letting out a little yell as he tried to regain his balance. Almost face-planting he stopped; his walk looked silly now, like a ducks, because of how awkward the new earth felt under him. ”Now this is really weird.” he said almost getting blown over by a wave of grass, the blades bouncing harmlessly off his armor and surrounding him before replanting themselves at his feet. Funny. He paused and watched the process again and again, the grass waves coming and replanting, up and down, and up again. What was this?

[Akari]

Akari was grateful for Allen’s laughter. Somehow, it made the fact that the pair were stuck on a seemingly impossible task that little bit more bearable. She let a small smile grace her mouth in return to his. Though she was more scared than she had ever been before, her steps across the endless plain were firm. If she was ever going to become a Shinya, she would have to learn not to outwardly show her fear. What better time to start than now?

”Well you have more knowledge of illusions than I do, that’s for sure.” That was something at least. She watched with a frown as he examined the handful of grass. Was it an illusion? Allen didn’t seem to know, which only confused her. Something must be real. The building had vanished around them so that had definitely been an illusion. If the grass was too… then what were they really standing on? It hurt her head to even try and figure it out.

Allen had mentioned the Triad, a term she had heard a few times tonight. ”What is the Triad, Allen?” Alluvia was part of it, that she knew, so there were obviously two others involved. She absently swatted at a tiny bug while squinting ahead of the pair. The field before them seemed to grow darker the further back it stretched. The bug buzzing near to them was growing irritating too, and she flicked her hand at it once more. This time she hit it, and started in surprise. It was big, much bigger than it had been earlier. Akari was about to tell Allen, when a gust of wind came out of nowhere, taking her quite by surprise.

All at once, apparently triggered by the wind, the grass before the duo lengthened and the sky darkened. She stopped dead in her tracks, the guard by her side. What in the world… She had thought that things could not get any stranger. Yet here they were. She swallowed and looked over at Allen. ”I don’t think we have much of a choice…” She hung back and watched as he braved the first step. He looked rater comical, and she decided to follow him.

It was the strangest feeling she had ever experienced. The grass rolled beneath her feet, though they didn’t appear to be moving the same way they felt. It was extremely disorienting, and the usually sure-footed human lost her balance. Falling backwards, she was given a clear view of the angry purple sky that stretched above the pair. She struggled back to her feet; her long coat did nothing to help her with it, but eventually she managed to stand next to Allen once more.

Slowly, she managed to find some sort of odd technique of walking over the waves of grass. She undid her coat, enabling her to stretch her legs forward to give her a larger step. ”This is perhaps, the strangest thing I’ve ever encountered…” She fixed her eyes on the horizon again, and resumed the effort of walking onwards. “Lets try and get across this place as quickly as we can.”

[Fallacy]

”What is the Triad?” he asked the question as it was asked to him. He smiled at her briefly before going into the explanation, ”The Triad are the three leaders of Alvadas chosen not by the people, but by the city and Ionu themselves.” he nodded, ”They have the final say on anything regarding the many departments who serve under them. The Womiyu, the guard of Alvadas directly report them also, there is no middle man. So you can imagine how busy they are without the added stress of this” he suggested, ”Alluvia might not look or act like she is, but to be so young in such a high position of power, she must be pulling her hair out every night.” he mused the idea refusing the idea that one third of his leaders were as cool, calm, and collected as she is all the time. She must have some way of venting. After stepping into the unstable ground rippling under him, the waves of grass coming forward and splashing him almost made him lose his balance again, but he looked back and saw that the woman was following him. Good to know that he was no alone in this. Though he did laugh a little when Akari fell backwards into the sea, and moved to help her up, but she picked herself up and was able to stand beside him. ”Yeah…” he nodded laughing more at her technique of walking across the sea of grass, but it did work and was better than anything he had going so he did respect her for being such a quick thinker. ”This is strange.” he said walking beside her, or trying to, sometimes getting caught up in a grass wave held him back, but he tried his best not to fall behind. It was imperative that he not fall behind. What would happen if he drowned in a field such as this? Surely that is a fate that no one would ever want. As they continued the bugs all but disappeared, but the grass was getting longer and longer, taller and taller, until it was towering over them. Each time the wind would blow towards them grass would break off the taller stalks forming littler and littler strands as they blew away, until they were about an inch tall. When the flying lawn would land it would plant itself and the stalks would grow again to annoyingly preposterous heights. A wind would blow, and the process would happen all over again. An observant person could guess that is how the field is spreading across the city. Though what was causing it? Laughing at the size of the grass they encountered he looked up as the blades seem to cover the sky preventing the purple sky from entering and shrouding them in a dark green light. ”This just keeps on getting stranger and stranger…” he whispered as he observed another gust of wind blowing off part of the tall blades of grass to form into smaller ones. The next wind they would face would sound more like a low murmur, and feel slightly warmer than other winds which passed their way. The next moment there would be a rumble and a shaking of the earth beneath them. Allen would look back and see the… the earth was caving in on itself, falling into a dark pit. Taking a moment to collect his words he turned to Akari and yelled ”Run” as the earth under them threatened to give away into the darkness as well.

[Fallacy]

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