♬ ♩*♫•✩•♪*˚༺𝒜ℯ𝒹𝓇𝒾𝒶𝓃𝓃𝒶 ℬℯ𝓁𝓂ℴ𝓃𝓉ℯ༻˚*♫•✩•♪*˚♩♬
Time had always been a fickle thing.
Sometimes it slipped through trembling fingers before one even realized it was gone. Other times it stretched endlessly, forcing every painful heartbeat to linger far longer than it should. A year of memories shared with someone dear could vanish in an instant, becoming little more than fragile bubbles swallowed by the sea. Bonds of trust and romance could burn away beneath the weight of revelation in mere seconds.
Time rarely cared what mortals wished of it.
And as the earth vanished beneath Aedrianna’s feet, time slowed once more.
The last several weeks had been spent carefully, almost delicately; trying to rebuild what had once existed between herself and Noelle Nishi. Somehow, impossibly, the siren had lost memories of the friendship they once shared together. Torn away. Stolen. Left hollow in places Aedrianna still remembered vividly, now that her own memories had been returned.
Yet even without those memories, Noelle had still smiled the same way.
Still listened with that familiar patience.
And slowly, piece by piece, Aedrianna had convinced her to travel together again. To wander. To adventure. To place distance between herself and Lord Stormcrest after learning the truth surrounding his benefactor.
Noelle had simply become the perfect reason to leave.
They had been walking through a market in one of Ryke’s smaller cities only moments ago. Browsing trinkets. Comparing foods. Laughing quietly between stalls beneath the afternoon sun.
Then the world broke. Stone collapsed beneath them with a deafening roar. Aedrianna barely had time to gasp before gravity seized her.
The sky vanished.
Wind screamed past her ears as dirt, shattered timber, and broken stone tumbled alongside her into the abyss below. Her body twisted violently end over end through the darkness.
Feet down.
Then head down.
Then sideways.
Again.
Again.
Her stomach lurched sickeningly as the world became a blur of crystal light and shadowed stone. Loose strands of pastel-streaked hair whipped wildly across her face while the rushing air tore the breath from her lungs.
For one horrifying moment, instinct threatened to overwhelm her. Panic clawed at her chest. Her eyes squeezed shut as she forced herself to breathe.
In.
Out.
Focus.
There was no ground in sight. That realization alone sent ice through her veins.
Still falling. Still no end. At least that meant she still had time.
Aedrianna forced herself to spread her weight outward, flattening herself horizontally against the violent stream of air in hopes of slowing the descent even slightly. The pressure buffeted against her limbs as debris whipped past from every direction.
A wagon wheel spun past close enough to shatter bone.
A beam of timber tumbled end over end beneath her.
Something large screamed somewhere deeper below.
"NOELLE?!"
Her voice vanished almost immediately into the roaring shaft, swallowed by distance and rushing wind before it could properly echo back to her.
Blue violet eyes snapped open again as she twisted sharply aside, narrowly avoiding a jagged slab of falling stone. Another shape passed nearby.
Not debris.
A bug.
A massive one.
Her heart seized violently as memory flashed through her mind, hittering tunnels, the Queen’s nest, suffocating heat and bodies writhing through the dark.
For half a second she froze. Then her jaw tightened.
"...I hate bugs." [Bugged]
Light gathered instantly along her fingertips, brilliant against the darkness as mana surged through her hand in radiant strands of gold and pale blue. Her eyes locked onto the nearest creatures spiraling through the descent alongside them.
And then she fired.
Actions:1. Gather bearings and slightly slow descent by spreading weight horizontally against the airflow.
2. Avoid debris and nearby hive bugs while falling.
3. [Light Arrows] - [Magic] B, [Affinity: Light] F, [Magic Range] D, [Selective Magic] D, [Magic Targets] F
Aedrianna fires 10 concentrated light arrows from her fingertips toward nearby hive bugs within range. (Grade B, Cool downs 4 posts)