Esiré was holding the Oaken Branch to a still crying Auriëlle. The war was still raging, but the magic of the sorceress had been stilled. “It’s not working.” Esiré said, her lip quivering in panic. How could it not be working!? The branch had to be broken. Something was wrong with it. It always healed the Prophetess and anyone else! She needed certainty. Auriëlle needed the same certainty. With the blade of her dagger, she cut her hand open, not caring about the wretched pain that shot through her, and then rested the gnarled end of the oaken branch to it. The wound healed instantly, but Esiré’s heart stopped. The blindness could not be cured. “Prophetess.” She said with a shaky, trailing voice. What could she possibly say? And then, in a flash of chromatic light, Auriëlle was gone. Nothing left behind of her. Esiré’s eyes turned wide as she fell to her knees, patting around on the ground. The assault was already failing at the breach. People were retreating. She couldn’t. “Prophetess!” She cried out, but others of the Cult noticed the sudden disappearance. Some had broken from the front lines, survivors of that terrible battle up close. “Esiré!” One said as he came close, pulling her away right before an arrow dug itself into the earth right where she had been standing. “Priestess we have to go.” He said again, but Esiré was kicking and screaming. The Prophetess was gone and blind! How could she leave her like that!? “We have to leave! We have to live.” Esiré knew the words to be true but didn’t want to accept them. In the end they had to drag her away back into the forest. [hr] At one moment the noise of battle and carnage had been all around Auriëlle. There was still the distant heat of fire and the sound of arrows digging themselves in the earth. That all just vanished. Replaced by the gentle chirping of birds and a cool breeze giving the occasional break from a warm sun on her skin. Where once she smelled smoke and battle, she now smelled grass and the scent of flowers - she assumed - that she had never smelled before. It felt like a soft and pleasant place. Except Auriëlle was utterly terrified. The only glint of light in her life right then, the guiding voice of her friend Esiré was gone. She was in an utterly strange place and no way of knowing where she actually was. With trembling knees, she rose up slowly. With shaking arms she reached around her, trying to find something touch. “I was told you were going to come.” The sorceress unleashed a bolt of lightning in a split second from where she heard that noise. She could hear its impact and smiled a little. She wasn’t yet beaten. All she had to do was find where she was and how to get back to the Esiré and Carn. Slowly, carefully, she took a step. Then another. Then another. And then she tripped over a rock couldn’t know was there. On the ground she turned around on the ground, carefully feeling where the stone was until she had it in one of her hands. A second later it was nothing but sand. “Impressive.” Again she unleashed a bolt of lightning towards where she heard the voice. Again she heard it impact, but this time she wasn’t so sure she had defeated that which was clearly watching her. She tried to listen. To hear the footsteps or maybe feel his movement on the wind. Maybe she could smell him? Her senses let her down though. She had to see him. So she willed the light into her eyes. Trying to break whatever curse was laid upon her. Trying to force her to see! For a split second, she felt a burst of heat on her face. Like she had been in the midsummer sun too long. It vanished again, but she still only saw black. “I don’t think that will work.” Again she unleashed a bolt, but this time she never heard it hit anything. In her other hand, she prepared fire. Whatever was toying with her, they were going to rue the day they chose Auriëlle as their little plaything. She would make them suffer. Make them bleed from within. But nothing happened. There was no counter-attack. No humiliating laughter. Nothing at all but the soft breeze. Auriëlle tried to move around again. More careful now. She felt grass underneath her feet. “You’re learning.” She didn’t release the fire she held in her palm but she did aim her arm at the source of the sound which seemed to move soundlessly around her. “Where am I?” she commanded. “Far away from anywhere you know.” “That’s not an answer.” She snapped back. “Tell me where I am or I will burn you where you stand.” But as she said it, she felt the imbalance in her stance. Slowly, awkwardly, she moved her foot. Trying to stand more centered. “No, you won’t.” The voice came from a completely different direction. The sorceress turned to face it. Then moved slowly backward. Trying to be mindful where she’d put her feet. The fire in her hand almost begged to be unleashed. “Tell me where I am or I will burn you and everything around me!” She yelled as she summoned another flame in her other palm. “You could try.” Another direction again. She turned, jumping backward. Wanting to keep her distance. She tripped. As she fell, she unleashed her fury. She felt the heat of the fires she summoned on her skin. The smell of burned plants hit her nose, replacing the fragrant scent of flowers. It wasn’t enough. She reached out with her magic to any of the stones nearby, not caring where they were, and threw them around. Certain she’d hit something. Anything! The wind was whipped into a frenzy around her as flames and fire lashed out everywhere around her. She moved around, tripping and falling many times over her own wrecked environment which couldn’t let her stand balanced, but getting up every time. She raged like that for what felt like hours. Ruining everything around her. Not caring what it was. And then she collapsed. The fires of rage faded. Replaced by pain and sorrow as she laid on the ground. Sobbing. She was blind! How could she continue on? Whatever toyed with her, whatever had been taunting her, it had won. She waited for the end. To be killed. Nothing changed but the warmth of the sun overhead. It turned soft and almost pleasant. With nothing to do but to die she only now realized how good it felt. Maybe it was fitting. That she would die far away from any home she had known. Acadia was a terrible place in her opinion, but she still had her family there. Would they ever accept her back? Probably not. Then there was Nalla. Gods she hoped Tekret wouldn’t punish her for breaking her promise. She wanted to go back to Nallan. She really did. It was easy there. Comfortable, safe. The queen had her weird mind manipulation for sure, but she still let the sorceress do what she wanted. In perhaps her own weird way she cared for her. Then her mind wandered to Esiré. Loyal Esiré. The girl must be freaking out right now. Her and the others of her strange cult. It was only now, in a moment of forced serenity, that she realized how much they all looked up to her. And then there was Carn. Would she ever see his face again? Taste his lips on hers? There was nothing left to do. What could be broken laid broken. What could burn had burned. It never mattered. A tear fled from the corner of her eye, running quickly down the side and falling off. She tried to calm herself. Breath slowly in and out. It didn’t really help. “Finally at peace?” Pouring all her hatred into it, she launched everything at the source of the voice. Rocks, plants, ash, fire, lighting, the blood seeping from her scraps. Everything! She could hear the wave crush everything in its path. It wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. The fires flared in her chest as she cast one more spell. Total annihilation made manifest. It would reduce everything that could burn to ash, and all that couldn’t to flash-molten slag. She knew this as she knew how to breathe. It was a certainty. Whatever had been taunting her had to be dead. “Your father warned me about that.” The voice came from behind her before she could react a roaring gust of wind she never heard coming knocked over. Throwing her back down again. Where the ground silently seemed to consume her. Stone and sand wrapped around her. She screamed for her life. With a touch, she rendered the stone that gripped her to sand. Only for new rock to rise from under it. It bought her time though. She jumped up. Wind aiding her. Yet she had no idea where to go. For a second she felt weightless. Afloat in the air. Before she felt the fall in her gut. With a heavy thud, she dropped down again. The punishment her body was taking became too much. “It’s… better if you stay down now.” The voice sounded almost concerned. Auriëlle didn’t care. “I won’t… die with my face in the mud.” Her voice was as strained as every muscle in her body. Still, she got up. As fast as she could, which was still slow. She reached out again and unleashed flame. Even from the heat, she felt how small it had to have been. Her arm fell down beside her body. It felt as if acid coursed through her legs. Her breathing was ragged. “Sit down. Rest. It is over.” “No!” She yelled at it. Casting out her hand again, fighting as much against her own body as she was fighting the stranger. Scorching heat exploded from her hand. Heat radiated across her hand, and then the pain came. Not the dull, aching, insistent pain of fatigue but a stinging, burning one. Something hot and wet ran along her hand. The rush of fire was the last though. Her mind fogged. Turned black. She tried to remain awake. Alive. She couldn’t. The last of her power expended, she fell on her knees and then on her side. She woke up. The warmth on her skin was softer now. It had to have been later in the day. Slowly she tried to get up. Something was wrapped around her hand. She could feel it. Then the stiff pain coursed through her, forcing her to lay down again. With nothing else to do, she did just that. Time passed. She couldn’t know how much. Five minutes? An hour? Two hours? Never in her life had she realized how much she depended on her eyes to know the time of day. “I see you’ve finally calmed down.” The voice was close now. Very close. “Are you here to kill me?” She asked, not masking her complete resignation to powerlessness. It was like the tales they told everywhere around. The higher you climb, the lower you’ll fall. “Me? Kill you? Gods no. Why would I kill my own ward? Others might though, for destroying the moss-stone garden.” Was that a joke? Well, that was one clue of where she was. The moss-stone garden. Though she had never met anyone who kept a garden of mossy stones. She sat upright again. For a while she was quiet, and it would appear the other… thing either left or remained quiet as well. She could almost hear the sound of the wind now. Blowing through the gaps and around the jagged stone she’d made. “Stand up dear.” She did as the thing said. Its voice was distinctly unhuman. But she could decide if it was perhaps troll or something else. A hand took her non-burned arm, gently. Though she’d swore she counted only four fingers on her. Slowly whatever it was led her somewhere. Telling her when to mind the cracked and the broken ground around her. Eventually, she felt soft - assumingly green grass - under her feet again but they kept walking. Slowly, though with every step Auriëlle gained a bit more confidence. Until he bid her to stop again. “Can you feel the tree before you?” She reached out with her hand. No, she couldn’t. Maybe it was further away? But the entity beside her kept a gentle but firm grasp on her shoulder. She wasn’t supposed to move. Maybe if she reached out with her magic? She tried it and… nothing happened. Again and again, she tried to reach out with magic but it felt as if something sensory did come back, it was chaotic and impossible. “I feel it.” “You’re a terrible liar.” She felt insulted. Years of habit made her face him. Only for her to realize that facing someone now meant nothing. She couldn’t see their face, she couldn’t see whether it was joking or stern. She just… couldn’t see. Yet she heard the wind rustle, a sharp crack, and something came flying for her. She ducked, but the sound passed her by about six feet she guessed. “Careful. This will help.” She felt something wooden be laid in her hand. With both hands, she tried to grab it. It was thin and rough. The bark was still on it. She tried to bend it, see if it would break, but to her own surprise, it was pretty strong but bendable. It was, by now obviously, a stick. “What do you want me to do with this?” Auriëlle asked. “Touch around!” The strange creature seemed strangely excited but the sorceress did as he bid. She poked down in front of her until it touched something. She tried to grasp some details. Maybe pressure or something like that. It didn’t really work. She just knew there was something, presumably dirt or grass, in front of her. At least she could feel ahead of her now. “Come, come. Let’s head inside. You must be famished and someone must tend to those cuts and bruises.” Once more she was taken by the harm and gently guided away. With the stick, she kept poking forward. Trying to know where to go and where there were things in the way. It worked, if only a little. But it made her a little more confident about walking. Then suddenly she felt the ground underneath her harden. Soft grass was replaced with sun-soaked, flat stone. A road or path, but one she hadn’t seen before. No place in the highlands was so extravagant that they could use flat-cut stone just for a path. “You still haven’t told me where I am.” She eventually said. The creature seemed to remain quiet for a little while. “You’re in the Omniversity now, dear.” [hider=Summary] Esiré, tries to heal Auriëlle with the Oaken Branch with little success. She even tests it on her own to see if it isn’t broken. Meanwhile the assault at the breach is starting to falter. Then suddenly the Prophetess vanishes. Leaving a desperate Esiré who has to be dragged away from the battlefield. To Auriëlle, the chaos of war is replaced by soft grass and the smell of flowers. Slowly she gets up. Only be taunted by someone, though she can only pinpoint the voice. Several times she tries to kill her supposed taunter with lightning. Failing every time as she can’t seem to find her target. Eventually she unleashes her rage. After feeling burned and spend, the stranger seemed to have returned and helps her up. They take a stroll through what Auriëlle learned to be a garden. The stranger gives her a stick to help her feel where to go as both of them head inside to find some food. Upon which Auriëlle learns she’s in the Omniversity now.[/hider] [hider=Prestige] [b]Post Length:[/b] +10K Characters +5 Prestige >> Auriëlle +5 Prestige >> Cult of the Destroyer +5 Prestige >> The Magic Headmaster [/hider] [hider=MP & DP] [b]Qael'Naath Start:[/b] 5MP/5DP -1 MP >> Teleport Auriëlle to the Omniversity [b]Qael'Naath End:[/b] 4MP/5DP [/hider]