Solo Dangers and Lights

[Sayana]

Winter 35, 515 AV

When Sayana awoke, the first thing she realized was that her hands were tied. Or more appropriately, her high hands, the ones that matched the zith’s illusioned hands. “Really Malice?” She called out, yet there was no reply. It was still rather dark in the room due to her gradual shift to more nocturnal activities, and she squinted around trying to see if she was indeed alone. With a sigh, she gave a firm tug of the wrists, but she shortly reached the end of the rope. Unless she wanted to spend the rest of the night in the crude bed provided at the Wolf’s Cave, she’d have to get herself free.

Sayana was glad that Malice had forgotten to look past the illusion and remember that she was still an Eypharian. Sometimes she even wondered if he remembered or cared at all about her true form. Yet it meant she could slowly start working on the ropes that bound her. What she originally thought would be a simple task turned into a twenty to thirty chime struggle against the ropes. Not only were they tied tightly but it was awkward to get her low and mid hands in the proper position to untie the bonds when her highs were tied above and behind her head. She kept hearing a flapping of wings that would make her look up, but she realized that it was probably just an extension to her illusion. After straining against the rope and breaking a finger nail while she was at it, she managed to entirely undo one of the bonds and loosen the other just enough for her hand to slip out.

She dressed quickly then left the room with words already upon her lips. “Malice! I told you to stop playing tricks on me. I know you think they are funny and that they keep me on my toes but…” She stopped as she reached the common room that was filled with zith speaking in raised tones.

“He’s gone. Lost I tell you! And if you go after him, they will take you too.”

“But this city is just illusions. Nothing real could have happened to him. He just needs help finding his way back.”

“You weren’t there when the cave collapsed. I was trying to get out, but all I could do was hear his scream. And if I hadn’t been fast enough, that would have been my voice too.”

Sayana quickly looked around. Who were they talking about? Had something happened to Malice? The two who had been speaking were not zith she knew the names of. “Malice?” She asked anxiously when she couldn’t find him. Her question was drowned out by more arguments of dissent, but a claw soon found its way to her cheek.

“Right here, honey.” There was a playful smile upon his face as she blinked with surprise and then relief. Yet soon that smile faded as he returned to situation at hand. It had been strange the first few days playing mates and lovers with the zith, yet already she was finding herself oddly attached to him. She still embellished the act and brought him into a deep kiss but she could tell he was distracted. Even though he kept to the sidelines, he was just as concerned for the missing member of the colony.

Sayana speaking Zithanese

[Sayana]

She adjusted her low arms as she pushed into the circle that had formed. Her illusioned wings ruffled at the movement and the stir caused several zith to part out of the way. “I’ll go after the missing zith. I promised to protect and seek out the source of the danger. I’ll find him and bring him home.” She looked around at the members of the colony. Some seemed hopeful but others were distrustful.

“Home? This is not our home. Our home is in the mountains of Kalea.” The first zith spoke and finally Sayana recognized her. Venom was small like the other female zith of the colony but she was young, fit and probably among the hunters. “Besides, you can’t even fly. How are you going to find Wrath without using your wings? We should leave this cursed city of illusions while we still have the chance. Before more of us are lost.”

“And where will you go?” Sayana countered. “Back to the mountains from which you fled? On a boat to some unknown city? Your kind is not well liked and you’d first need a ship willing to take you all. Do you even have coin to pay the fare? And if you think you can simply threaten the sailors, they might take you somewhere you really don’t want to end up.”

Venom had to pause to consider what options they really had, but Sayana didn’t give her time to respond. “I’ll go after Wrath and find him. And from now on, whenever you go out, always bring someone along. But I’ll need help, at least from one of you. And I’ll need to know where he was last seen.”

“Where.” Venom scoffed. “This city isn’t about ‘where’. It changes every night.” “I need to know what it looked like so I can track him down,” Sayana pressed. “So I can find clues, hints, some sort of indication as to where he might be.” Reluctantly Venom explained the details regarding the cave in. Sayana couldn’t quite tell if it was a house that had looked like a cave, or a cave that looked like a cave. Still, at least it was something to go by.

“And someone to help me?” Sayana scanned the crowd of frightened faces. If she could just find someone she could nudge in the right direction and give them hope that Wrath was still out there and in need… But someone beat her too it.

“I’ll go.” Several heads turned towards the zith who spoke. He was thin and lanky, not the sort of build one would expect of a fighter.

“Don’t be an idiot Poison. You’ll get yourself killed too.” The female zith’s words were harsh but also protective.

“She said she needs help. I can scout around for her. And you know, see stuff.” He replied stubbornly yet his eyes averted away from the female’s gaze. Sayana could tell from the subtle body language that there had been conflict between them in the past. Perhaps that was his reasoning for helping Sayana. She beckoned him over and he hesitantly made his way into the circle. Even as he approached she tried reaching for her djed. Perhaps it was just an excuse to use it one more time but he really seemed like he could use some confidence. Plus she’d benefit if the colony had confidence in both of them.

The magic was always there, it just had to be nudged out. Encouraged to do her bidding. Momentarily she closed her eyes as her fingers drummed against her leg, but swiftly she opened them once more, not wanting to reveal what she was doing. Like drawing honey from a pot and coating it with a sense of pride and confidence, she guided the djed in his direction using her warm words of praise.

“He won’t get himself killed. He’s smart and knows what to look for. But most importantly, he has courage. Together we’ll find Wrath. We won’t abandon him.” As she spoke, she willed the magic to seep into her new comrade. Instil a sense of self-worth. It helped that he was in close proximity to her and more than once she looked directly into his eyes as she willed the djed onwards.

A brief smile formed upon his face and he spoke with slightly more assurance. “I might not be able to hunt, but I can still help. We’ll get him back.” Although his words mimicked much of what Sayana had said, she was glad of it. Now they just had to do what they had promised.

Sayana speaking Zithanese

[Sayana]

No one else volunteered, but it was probably just as well. Sayana suspected that she’d have a lot to teach the zith and if anything truly dangerous did turn up, it was better only needing to look out for one other. She quickly packed a few belongings into her black vest then set out with Poison into the streets.

“So you’re really on our side now?” The zith asked hesitantly. She turned to face him full on. She could see traces of anxiety lining his expression. She could use it one more time. But even as she started to reach for the djed, she started to taste blood. The tinglings of magic faded and she resolved not to use it this time.

“I am. The Seamstress gave me a chance to redeem myself, and I will. I won’t let myself fall into her clutches again.” Her answer wasn’t necessarily the most straightforward but it was the truth. She didn’t want to feel that sense of helplessness again and if it meant helping the zith for a short duration, then she could manage. Gods knew who else she could speak to.

It was dark out and not many wandered the streets. When had Wrath last been seen? Had it been a few bells or a whole day? She probably should have asked more questions but Venom had been hard to pry out any sort of useful information. Speaking of… “Poison, what’s between you and Venom? You sounded like…” You were trying not to grovel. “Like you’ve had difficulties in the past with her.”

“She’s my sister,” Poison replied. “But she thinks she’s better than me. That I can’t hunt like her. That when I find useful plants and poisons, that it means nothing. Since I didn’t kill it with my own claws. And that I had to use ‘alternatives’.” He was both bitter and resentful. His words came out quickly as if he had been waiting a long time to say them, and to actually be listened to.

Sayana nodded slowly. “Perhaps you’d be interested in teaching me a little about your poisons sometime.” He looked momentarily startled, but then grinned with a nod. However, before anything more could be said, Sayana caught sight of a pile of rubble. Stones, bits of wood and a lot of dirt piled in a seemingly random location in the middle of the street.

“Poison, why don’t you take to the skies and tell me if you see anything. Even if it’s small, it could be important. Especially if it looks like an illusion. I’ll investigate on the ground.” Her voice was one of authority and he immediately leapt into action. In this case, rather literally as he took flight. Sayana rushed over to the rubble in hopes of finding something but she doubted it was the cave-in that Venom had described. She shifted earth and rocks out of the way but it only turned into a muddy mess as she neared the bottom of the pile. Muddy… was water part of this illusion? How real was it? It felt like a season ago, but she recalled Doddel’s words of caution. Question the illusions. Question reality.

Sayana speaking Zithanese

[Sayana]

“Sayana! I found something!”

She looked up quickly to see the zith pointing to strange lights flickering, no flying, through the air. They darted this way and that, then one of them shot down towards the ground level and Sayana could see it more clearly. It was a strange glowing light, but just as quickly it darted away up into the air once more.

Strange… but did they mean anything? Were they connected to the cave-in somehow? From above the zith called down. “What do you want me to do with them?” Sayana paused. They didn’t seem dangerous per se, but they might lead to more information. “Just watch them for now. See if they form any patterns or behave in strange ways.” They were easy to spot in the darkness. Bright glowing orbs that darted or lazily glided through the air. Leth helped light the streets but in the night it was easy to overlook details if she wasn’t careful.

Moving on from the pile of rubble, she watched the strange lights almost mesmerized. They reminded her of a rare bug that could fly and glow in the dark. Sometimes they clustered and sometimes they were spread far apart. She was too busy looking up that she nearly walked into a wall. Stopping suddenly, almost inches from the brick surface she looked around. Petch. A dead end.

“Poison! Where are you?” “Over here! There’s a beautiful bridge and a river and a…” “Just be careful of the bridge! I’m coming. Just give me a chime or two.”

She couldn’t see him but she assumed he was on the other side of this brick wall somehow. She had heard rumors of bridges collapsing and didn’t trust this one no matter how beautiful it might look. Sucking in a breath, she looked around to find something to make it easier to scale the wall. There, a window ledge and on the other side of the street was an empty wheel barrow. Not the best sort of thing to be standing on, but it would help. She wheeled the wheel barrow over so it was under the window ledge and climbed up onto her make-shift ‘stool’. She pulled out her leather gloves and her climbing resin, and put them on before coating some resin onto the gloves.

The wheel barrow wobbled slightly from under her and when she bent her legs and jumped for the window ledge, the wheel barrow tipped over to the side with a clatter. But she had managed to catch the ledge with her mid hands, and used her highs and lows to pull herself upwards. There wasn’t much space on the ledge and she almost immediately used the resin on her gloves to grip the brick surface of the wall.

“What’s taking you so long? Oh.” Came a voice from above. He clearly hadn’t though much of his ability to fly, and her lack of that ability. The rest of the climb was shorter, due to the head start she had made by reaching that ledge, but it was slow as she used the resin to grip the surface of the wall. Her arms strained with effort as she finally managed to get over the top of the wall to a flat surface. Panting, she looked around and noticed that Poison had landed on the roof next to her.

The view was surprising. The rooftops seemed to wind this way and that with several dead ends in the streets. She could see the bridge he had been talking about. A picturesque stone bridge crossing a river. Yet it took on a menacing look due to the darkness of the night. Up here there were more of the glowing balls of light too.

Sayana speaking Zithanese

[Sayana]

“I think I’ll stay up here for a while. Better vantage point.” Sayana said, still a little breathless from the climb. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to struggle to get back down just yet. Carefully she began walking along the rooftop. There was a bit of a slant but not too drastic, but it meant she had to watch her step. “So you said you’re interested in poisons?”

“Oh yeah. Bits of this and that. Some of it makes you feel all funny inside. And it can be slippery slimy ooey gooey stuff too. Sometimes I poke at something just to see what happens.” He seemed rather pleased with himself as if there was nothing more fun than poking slimy gooey things.

When the roof ended, she noticed a gap of about a foot or two till the next one started. Taking a good run, she jumped the small gap and landed on the next roof, quickly adjusting for the slant it had. “There’s different kinds too,” Poison carried on. “Some you dig up from roots, others can be made from mashed up vines, some are oozey oozes. There’s one I know that makes the world go all spinny. I tried it on Fury once and it was funny to watch her try to fly.”

“What was that one called?” “I don’t know, but I thought it was a pretty ‘close call’ for Fury. The root makes a yellowish paste.” Sayana chuckled at his play on words. He seemed to also be more at ease talking about what he liked and now that they were away from the others in the colony. Perhaps those who felt like ‘outsiders’ were more inclined to trust others that were outsiders.

“So how did you learn all this? Did someone teach you about these poisons?” She asked curiously. There must be hundreds, thousands of plants out there and surely not all of them were poisonous.

“Sometimes I met a zith who knew a poison or two. Other times I watched animals that were behaving strangely and then I figured out what they had last eaten. And after I learned a little, I even tried out new plants on myself just to see what would happen. Only… uh, twice did it end badly.” He paused, not elaborating on the effects. “But I got better.” He added brightly.

“Tell me another. What’s one of your favourite ones?” She asked encouragingly.

“One of the first ones I learned, Lost Tongue.” He answered excitedly. “I learned it from a zith. He was collecting various vines in the forest. Fairly distinct ones with red and striped leaves. He showed me how to get the oil out of them and I went back to the cave we were at and spread the oil about. After a little while, almost my whole colony couldn’t talk. And most importantly, Venom couldn’t talk back at me.” He grinned ear to ear at the last statement. With new energy and enthusiasm, he leapt into the air and continued the search.

Sayana speaking Zithanese

[Sayana]

Back on track, Sayana continued moving from house to house, occasionally landing rather precariously when she jumped from one to the next. However, she was noticing her path would soon run out. The glowing lights still intrigued her and there were strange pockets where there were no lights at all. Like, for example, several paces in front of her. Whenever a light would dart towards the spot in question, it would blink out. And it didn’t just happen with one glowing light, but several of them. What was so special about that spot?

She approached slowly and then… CRACK! The rooftop broke from under her feet and she found herself dropping, falling. Out of instinct her arms reached outwards to grab a hold of something, anything. Fortunately she hadn’t strayed too far and managed to cling to a snapped wooden beam. She hung there for several ticks, expecting it to close up again as suddenly as it had appeared, but this time it didn’t. Petch. Awkwardly she walked her hands along the beam, trying to hold herself up so she wouldn’t fall into the hazardous debris caused by the collapse.

A creak in the wood made it clear that it wasn’t going to hold up forever. Quickly she glanced at the ground for a safe landing and released her hold on the beam. She braced herself for the contact with the ground, but it was still jarring as she bent her knees to land. She scrambled out the building as quick as she could, not sure whether the rest of the building would stay up. While it didn’t immediately crumble, she was glad to be out of there.

“Poison! I think I learned something!” There was a flap of wings and the zith curiously circled the disaster before joining Sayana on the ground. “You know all those lights? They are illusions too. But when they flicker out, then there’s something wrong with the illusion. Like something wrong with the ground or the building. If a place can’t maintain the illusion of the lights, then it can’t maintain the illusion of the scenery too. I don’t know if the lights are meant to guide us and protect us, but I think there’s a better chance that the path is safe if there are those little lights floating around. As for finding Wrath… we need to seek out those places where the lights mysteriously disappear.”

Sayana speaking Zithanese

[Sayana]

She had hardly gone two steps when the rush of water upon rocks caught her attention. Water. Hadn’t there been water in that pile of debris? It was a long shot but it was worth something. “Poison, we’ll follow the river. Fly above and search for any areas that are strangely vacant of the lights.” She began jogging along the river bank, her eyes continuously searching, scanning. They had a lead now. Wrath might still be alive and if they could just find him…

Her heart sunk. There was a whirlpool in the middle of the river. Gushing, swirling, it sucked up pieces of wood and it ripped leaves and branches off the surrounding plantlife. It didn’t seem like there were any of the glowing lights, so her guess was right so far. But what if Wrath had found his way into that whirlpool? No, she couldn’t think that. She had to keep looking.

Sayana continued to run along edge of the river, her eyes straining in the darkness and looking for those little lights, or lack thereof. Up ahead there looked to be a cave of sorts. Was that the same cave Venom had talked of? Except it glistened in the moonlight. There were patches of white and she saw one of the lights blink out near it.

The dark shadowed form of Poison swept in. “Sayana! The cave!” He called out excitedly. “Don’t get too close! Don’t--” There was a crack as the ground split. Sayana threw herself at the zith, trying to keep him from getting trapped in the cave. She caught him by the legs and they rolled, tumbling to the ground. Then they rolled and rolled and… When she realized they weren’t stopping, she stuck out a leg trying to slow their descent down what appeared to be a huge hill or valley that had opened up.

At the giant crack, the land had split open to form a gorge. The water from the river cascaded downwards in a rush and the ‘cave’ hardly looked like a cave anymore. The only remote signs of it were the stalactites of ice at the entrance. Finally, she and Poison stopped their tumble down the steep slope and a faint voice called out. “Here! Over here!”

With fresh scrapes and a couple of bruises, Sayana leapt to her feet to find the source of the voice. Half buried in the rocky slope was a zith’s head. “Wrath?” “Yeah, finally came back for me? I’ve been stuck here all night.” “Wrath!” She dashed over and started trying to dig him out. But the more she pushed away the dirt, the more he seemed to get covered up.

“I already tried that, doesn’t seem to work,” he commented. She stopped her work and looked at him curiously. “What do you mean?” “I mean I was buried. I have no idea how I could still breathe but I tried digging myself out but nothing worked. Then after a while, I got incredibly thirsty. It all felted cracked and dry. After I could hardly stand it anymore, there was an explosion and I could see the moon’s light again. Then it got cold, so incredibly cold. And now I find you.”

Sayana speaking Zithanese

[Sayana]

It was a strange story. Alvadas was meant to be strange but he seemed to be experiencing disaster after disaster all in one place. What if the danger zones were fixed locations? Or generally fixed and he happened to just be stuck in one of them? The illusions… was there a pattern to them apart from all being dangerous? “You said it started with a cave-in, then it got dry, then an explosion?” She racked her brain. What did these have in common?

Then she reminded herself of what Doddel had said. Question the illusions.

“Wrath, can you move your foot?” “I told you, I was stuck.” He retorted back. “You said you were able to dig yourself out a little, so you must be able to move just a bit. Wiggle your toes. Flutter your wings just a tad.”

The zith was disgruntled at her words. Surely after spending bells being stuck he knew that he couldn’t get out. But reluctantly he obliged. He found if he concentrated hard enough he could move just a little. “Now close your eyes and imagine you’re swimming.” “Swimming?” “Yes, like you’re in water. Maybe fishing. You can feel the water pressing against you but you can still move in it.”

She continued describing the feelings and the sensations. Could this merely be an illusion that was tricking their minds? How much of it was real? “You’re swimming but you’re near the surface. You can breathe and if you try hard enough you can pull your wings out from the water.” Slowly but steadily he seemed to move his wings impossibly out from the ground.

“Yes, yes. Kick just a little more with your legs. You can get your whole body out from the water, back on dry land. There are much better things to hunt than fish. Like… rabbits.” The imagery and the thought of food suddenly gave him the encouragement needed to squirm out from the ground.

“Rabbits? Rabbits? Where?” He asked hungrily, now on two feet. He appeared mostly alright apart from many scratches over his body. Poison, who had been watching the entire time seemed fascinated by the demonstration. How could it be? He was both baffled but curious by the illusions. “Poison, could you take Wrath back to the Wolf’s Cave? I want to investigate this further.”

Sayana speaking Zithanese

[Sayana]

Once the two had departed, Sayana found a safe place nearby the zone of destruction. Close enough so she could watch but far enough that hopefully she wouldn’t be in harm’s way. Cave-in, dryness, extreme cold… She puzzled over the events. Yet how real was each incident? Was there always some way to escape? They seemed so random yet it all seemed to happen at the same place. Or multitudes of places.

She watched the place for chimes, maybe even a whole bell. Yet nothing seemed to change. A ravenous hunger seemed to come over her but she wanted to find out the answer. She wanted to know the pattern. Not only for her sake but so she could relay it back to Doddel. Cave-in, dryness… or was it a drought? A drought would make sense. Caked or cracked earth from lack of water. Cave-in, drought, explosion, cold…Why was she so hungry?

She let out a scream of frustration. She didn’t have the patience for this. There was no rhyme or reason to these illusions. She was about to go when suddenly the landscape sucked inwards at the deadly hotspot. Trees fell, dirt got sucked away, rocks clashed against each other, and it was all she could do to keep standing as the earth shook beneath her. Oddly though, her hunger was gone. Vanished without a trace. Had that just been an illusion too?

Cave-in, drought, explosion, cold, crack, hunger, implosion? There was something strange about the words as she listed through them in her mind. Some odd familiarity that went back to her childhood. What if cold was not ‘cold’ but ‘freeze’ or ‘frozen’? C, D, E, F… G. Valley? Her eyes gleamed when she thought of a synonym. Gorge! She felt a strange sense of achievement. Clearly the ‘A’ and the ‘B’ disaster had already happened and maybe she was just reaching at shadows or ‘illusions’, but there seemed to be some vague connection.

Quickly she left to relay her findings. After a long struggle with a pen, ink and parchment (and a few re-writes) she managed to compose the following message:

Doddel,
Lites gide. If they vanish, beware. Their mite be danger.
Their are patterns. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I…. These illushuns apeered in one place. Cave in, drowt, exploshun, frozen, gorge, hunger, imploshun.
If you no a place is dangerous, it may repeet.
Also, some are just illushuns. Beleeve something else. Use your head. Your imaginashun to get free.
Place letter heer if you need to contact me.
Sayana

As she placed the letter at the foot of the door to the Scholarly Abode to Intellectual Pursuits. Little did she know that Doddel might look upon her with disdain due to her poor writing abilities. But after a long day she had not only rescued one of the zith but also found clues to the illusions of the city.

ReceiptBlank book - 3gm
Quill - 5cm
Ink - 1gm

Sayana speaking Zithanese

[Kaleidoscope]

Sayana

Skills:
Acrobatics: +1
Climbing +2,
Escape artist +1
Hypnotism +1
Investigation +3
Leadership +2
Poison +1
Tracking +2
Writing +1

Lores:
✦ Poison: ‘Lost Tongue’
✦ Alvadas event: The consequences of following lights
✦ Always question the illusions

Notes: Hi Sayana, I just wanted to point something out. Please forgive me if you have already, but I’ve noticed that you’ve used several of these NPCs- namely Malice in more than one thread. Have you applied for them at the Help Desk? If they’re in your SS thread, then I apologise, as I can’t read that. But if they’re not, could you please submit them to the Help Desk- any that you’ve used more than once? Thank you!

Enjoy your grade, and please don't forget to delete/edit out your grade request. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to send me a PM.

Stay weird,

-Beautiful boxcode credits go to Aislyn!