[center][h1]The Warden Seeress[/h1] [i]Before the trials of Ea Nebel[/i][/center] “Sycrae!” This time the dryad sentinel just groaned. “What is it?” She grumbled, hoping it wasn’t another squirrel, fox, badger, rabbit, fawn, or bird that was dying and Withoa just had to save. The first time it happened it was endearing to Sycrae. The seventh time she felt like her patience was seeping away. Whitoa, the young dryad, had to learn sooner or later that death was just a natural part of life right? “You really have to see this! It’s super important!” Whitoa said as she started pulling on Sycrae’s arm to get her up. “Really it’s very important!” She kept insisting. There was a strange kind of urgency in her voice but then again, she had been urgent about the dying rabbit as well. Sycrae just groaned and kept laying down. The sun felt too warm on her skin right now. “What animal did you find this time and how hurt is it?” She asked, rolling her eyes behind her eyelids. Why couldn’t she just get a few days to bask in His radiance? She was quickly regretting taking the role of leader. “It’s not an animal… I think. It’s… warm.” Whitoa said as she kept tugging. “Like painfully warm.” It was just intriguing enough for Sycrae to open up an eye. As she did, she did smell something faint in the air. “What is that I'm smelling?” She asked. Quickly she got up to look around. There was an orange glow far off in the distance. “What is [i]that[/i]!?” She then exclaimed. Sycrae turned to look at Whitoa, who just looked confused at the sentinel. She didn’t know what it was either. The two dryads started running up the incline of the mountain. Other dryads began to stir across the forest as well. Sycrae heard their calls upon the wind. “What happened?” Sycrae asked Whitoa as they both kept going up. “I’m not sure!” Whitoa almost yelled out of growing panic. “One moment I was playing around with some rabbits and then I heard this big loud bang from the sky. The next thing I know there’s like a line of black clouds growing in the sky and something orange came falling down. It fell down really close to me and suddenly all the trees started burning!” Sycrae reached a higher plateau. Parts of the forest were on fire. The flames were spreading. Luckily they weren’t spreading too fast, but still at this rate quite a bit of what the dryads called home would go up in flames. The growing number of nymphs that were flocking to Sycrae were looking at her with pleading eyes. Either the critters living in the forest here were their friends or the burning trees were. Either way, they started to realize that their close ones were suffering. But this was exactly the kind of thing the Sages warned her about. This too was part of nature. The wanton destruction was meant to make place for new life. It was easy to hear it but a lot harder to see it happen in reality. Her eyes turned towards the expectant nymphs, then she locked eyes with some of the sentinels that were gathering as well. “Get all the dryads to safety.” “What about the forest!?” Some of the nymphs exclaimed. Sycrae swallowed deeply to gather her courage. “This too is part of the cycle. We have to go, this doesn’t have to be our time yet!” Saying that today was a lot harder than just believing it yesterday. [center]~[/center] A raincloud saved most of the forest in the end. Sycrae called it fate but only to placate the distraught nymphs who cried over their lost friends. The sentinels walked through the blackened woods with grim faces. There was a lot of pain here. Unlike the nymphs though, they were here on a mission. Something had fallen from the heavens: the domain of the Monarch. They had to find out what it was. Eventually, they found the crater. It was big, bigger than Sycrae’s grove. It was perfectly circular as well which felt very strange and almost unnatural to the sentinel. She and her entourage descended along the slope towards its heart. There a boulder lay half-covered by ash and burned dirt. The sentinels gathered around it. Carefully they brushed some of the dirt off, revealing the pale stone beneath. “I’ve never seen such stone.” Said one of the sentinels. One who preferred to stick closer to sparse woods higher up in the mountains. “Be careful with it, it might be a gift from the Monarch.” Said Sycrae who gently removed her hand. A finger accidentally brushed up against it. Sycrae’s vision flashed for a second but it was too short to see anything. She stopped. The other dryads turned to look at her. “Are you okay?” Asked one? “Yes.. Yes, I think. Something is happening.” The dirt on her side was mostly removed and she could see the white stone beneath. Her hand inched closer and closer to it. Almost as if it called her. For a moment Sycrae wanted to pull her hand back but she banished that thought. She was never one to ignore the call of destiny. So instead she put her whole hand on the white rock. The moment she touched it Sycrae felt her body being sucked into the stone. One moment she saw the white stone, the dirt and the burned wood around it. [indent]The next she felt as if she was bathing in the great void. She turned around, only to face the moon before her. It looked far larger than the moon looked in the sky back home. Here and now she could see the many scars and craters upon its surface. She blinked and the vision shifted again. She saw a lush cradle of green, nestled in the safe bosom of rising stone and covering wood, vibrant with life and the bustle of flowing water, both from whipping rain and a wild river. Each day and night lasted only for a moment. A square pattern of endless pillars dominates the cradle, black as the night sky and alien to the otherwise serene valley it was standing in - towering above all reason. Indifferent to seasons and elements, impenetrable and unyielding. Yet the pattern was distorted. Where the center should be is rubble and a cracked black stone base. Where pillar would be was something else. A metallic and unnaturally straight. It was tall and weathered after years in the rain. Black as the stone it was born of. Feeble hands grapple at its handle, weak shadows clamoring for the immobile prize. None could muster the strength, the shape, to grasp the hilt and pull it loose. The blade called, whispers a mocking challenge as it watched. A promise of power, always in sight. Never given. Then the rain relents - the brightness of the flame and sun dispelling it as it blinded the world. The light took the shape of a sharp-eared man with hair like daffodils and eyes like the sun. His presence warped all he graced, and black pillars rose into the sky until they touch each other, all connected like a dome-like cage. The man ascended the black stone to face the blade. Man and blade contested each other, neither relenting. Each as tall, each as stubborn. A rustle of stone, then all the world was consumed by light. When the light receded Sycrae found her again floating in the void but this time the moon was further away and moving further still. "No!" She shouted, reaching out with her hand. The vision looked so real! There was no part of Sycrae that doubted its veracity but it was not what she wanted to see. She was sent here with a duty and for weeks now she had been agonizing on how to do fulfill it. This stone, the moon, the visions, this was her answer! So she reached out with more than just her hand. From inside her chest she felt a power welling up. She blinked, and her vision shifted again. For only a split second she saw Keltra. Not from a distance as she had seen it before. She saw it from above. The vision moved as if she was flying. It raced straight for the fortress and then inside. Like the wind it raged through its halls until it suddenly stopped, showing Sycrae a bright flame.[/indent] Then the vision was gone. At first, she saw nothing but darkness but then she opened her eyes. The sky was a bit cloudy but otherwise normal. A smokey stench still hung in the air. Nymphs were gathered around her. Why was she laying on the ground? "We pulled you back, you were shaking!" Whitoa said as she rushed to Sycrae's side. "Is everything okay? Are you ill?" "No." Sycrae said as she slowly got up. "I just saw... a lot." [hider=Summary]Sycrae is woken up by Whitoa again. She groans but still gets up only to realize that the forest is on fire. According to the nymph something came falling from the sky. Sycrae decides to save the dryads and let the forest burn. Believing that it too is part of the cycle. Flash forward until after the fire burned. The nymphs are mourning the death of their friends while the sentinels investigate the meteor. They brush off the dirt and ash. By accident, Sycrae touches it and almost sees a vision. Not being one to back down from fate she puts her whole hand on it and sees a vision. The vision is about impossible pillars standing in some green vale. There is no central pillar where one should be. Instead she sees some long, metallic object. And a sharp-eared man that pulls the item out of the stone through great effort. That's not what Sycrae wants to see though. So she uses her own internal power to force the vision to shift to something she wants to see: Keltra. The vision flies her through the fortress until she sees - for only a split second - the Eternal Flame. The vision vanishes because the nymphs, afraid, pulled her away from the stone.[/hider] [hider=Spirit] Sycrae starting spirit: 2 + 1: Featured in a post + 1: Focus of a post - 2: Forcing the vision to show her something she wants to see Sycrae ending spirit: 2 [/hider]