[Door of Mysteries] Adventure Awaits... (Paonna)

[Gossamer]

Continued from here. TS: Summer 27th, 512AV Questioning the door never got anything done nor anyone anywhere, and certainly not a Konti. Instead, telling it secrets did. So as Paonna spoke, nothing at all happened. No lock clicked swinging the wrought iron gate open and inviting someone to walk through. Birds continued singing throughout the city. The sky continued to house Syna's warm light with no cloud in sight for relief. In fact, nothing at all changed. It was like the door was just a door and nothing more.

[Paonna]

Nothing happened. She looked at the door. She must've done something wrong, for the door to not respond. Nothing around her changed, and everyone around her were still going on with their daily lives. Some threw curious glances her way, but Syna was still shining and the birds were still chirping. How did the others get through? Paonna ran her fingers along the iron bars, wishing she could reach the blue door that lay behind. Adventure, she wanted adventure. She had always lived such a dull life, and she craved to do something like in a traveler's tale. See the dark-skinned, cannibalistic warrior people from the savage jungles of Falyndar, or the delicate spider-like people from the midst of Kalea. Anything different, anything new. Her own tale to tell, to spin and recite to friends and strangers alike. Had they all lied, the rumors? Was there really nothing special about this door other than it was built into solid wall? But she had seen some go through, so it must be true. Perhaps it ran on secrets? Secrets were such powerful things, able to change someone's life if they got out...and this was a powerful door. Perhaps a secret was the key to the lock on the iron gate? She searched her mind for a secret, for any secret. Something not even Uyu knew. There must be something, must be something hidden in the smooth expanse of her mind, something locked away forever. "I would like a child of my own." She whispered in Kontinese, thoroughly doubting this secret was enough to unlock the door. Perhaps it was something easy to guess? But no one really knew how much she wanted a child...she helped birth many children, but she was never able to have one of he own. She wanted a daughter to raise. Why hadn't she acted on this before? She was just barely considered an adult now...perhaps all Konti wanted children of their own. But this was the only secret she could excavate that not even Uyu was aware of, and a secret wasn't a secret if it were shared with someone. It was the only thing she kept to herself, how badly she wanted a child. Perhaps that was why she raised Uyu herself, no matter how quickly she grew. She loved having someone, something that depended on her.

[Gossamer]

With her simple uttered words, the lock on the iron gate clicked and the wrought iron swung open invitingly. One might have expected a sharp sound or a squeal to accompany the moving metal, especially since it swung open so rarely. But it was silent, as if the very Gods themselves kept the gate hinges oiled. Once the gate was open, the door beyond was accessible. The golden orange keystone around the bright blue of the door seemed to glow as the handle on the blue door itself shone as if the sun sparkled off of it on purpose. A sudden urge struck Paonna. Without conscious thought her arm reached out and her hand grasp the handle. Paonna was able to reach forward, grasp the handle, and push it wide open. There was no scene before her once the door swung open, nothing but darkness of a void. The door revealed nothing but the blackness of space outlined with stars behind it. There was a swirl of color, faint, against the backdrop, but the emotional pull to the door was so strong it was impossible to resist. The konti took a step forward. Then another. Finally another. Until she was standing in the nothingness and everything behind her disappeared. Then, in an instant, a rush, she felt herself falling. She dropped straight down as if someone had dumped her into a void, tumbling head over heals over head over heals, uncontrolled, so nothing or no one stopped her. She could scream if she needed, but there was no sound in the void of stars, no mechanism to carry music or fear or joy. She fell a long time, longer than she had been thus far alive, until she slammed down to the ground and felt as if her entire soul crash landed into something else, someone else, and merged. There was pain, pleasure, and a blending of senses. She opened her eyes and dug her hands into the wall she stood next too overlooking a pristine valley. Her hands were blue, so dark they looked back, with pale nails that were elegantly shaped and glossed. And yet strangely her hands looked female, not male, as the color should have been in the world she was used too. She looked around and an imposing city stood behind her and around her made of gleaming ebony rock veined thickly with jeweltones and crystal that almost let the light through it. Akalaks were everywhere, walking, mingling, shopping a market stretched out in a street behind her. She was on some sort of promenade overlooking fertile fields planted as far as the eye could see. Two people stood with her, both women like her, and one smiled kindly. "Tomorrow is the big day. How do you feel about this being the last day of your freedom, Mesana? I cannot believe we are standing here, on the verge of your wedding, and we have nothing left to do." The other woman laughed in agreement. "That's because we started years ago. Mesana always knew she'd marry Kegal. Always. She's been planning this since she came of age. There was very little work left for us to do." The other woman said, equally gorgeous. They looked like female Akalak. Not Akontak, but pure Akalak, something that should not have existed at all.

[Paonna]

She didn't remember what had happened a few ticks after the gate swung open. The next conscious moment, she was falling in an endless void. Was this what the door really was? Just an endless portal to the void? It seemed plausible, for the moment. Her eyes were wide open, but there was no discernible up or down, left or right. It was like looking up in the sky at the night, the starry night, but it was all around her. She couldn't manage to look down at herself. It was as if all she were was a pair of eyes falling through a vast nothing of colour.

And too suddenly she crashed into something solid, but not with her body. It was as if her soul was being ripped and forced into something, someone else and combined. Merged. Was this what it was like when a twin soul surfaced for an Akalak? She blinked. Her face felt different. She felt...taller. Stronger. Her hand was a dark blue, digging into the wall beside her.

Blue.

But it was a female hand. Female. Her hair around her shoulders was black. She wasn't Akontak. She blinked a few times, and women started talking to her. Could she regain her senses fast enough to reply? They were both beautiful and both Akalak. And so, as she quickly glanced around, was everyone else. It was like an odd alter-universe.

Wedding. She -- this Mesana -- was getting married. Tomorrow. She didn't know where she even was! But these two women didn't seem suspicious of anything being...wrong. She gritted her teeth. Gritted them to force her to come up with a lie to give her more time to realise where the petch she was and when.

"I'd like to see the city one last time as an unmarried woman." She added a smile and a giggle to that for emphasis. Praise Rak'keli, Avalis and Laviku for being able to adapt quickly enough.