I'm Back (～￣▽￣)～
Also, I wasn't entirely sure if Cassie directly experienced the events of her vision or if they just got implanted in her head, but since she feels emotions while having them, I thought that my interpretation wouldn't be too far from the actuality.
Hope you guys enjoy!
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[Cassie POV]
Huh?
My vision sputtered to life like the engine of an old, weary car on a cold winter morning.
I "blinked", each "blink" clearing up my vision more and more.
I could see, but oddly, seeing was the only thing I seemed capable of.
It was like I was trapped, being forced to observe the scene before me.
Unluckily, I wasn't surrounded by flowers and rainbows.
Before me were seven seals.
Seven majestic locks holding back- no... imprisoning something.
My eyes began to tremble as I gazed at "it".
My mind scrambled, trying to define, trying to understand, the inexplicable construct.
What...
Is that?
Words darted around my consciousness.
A boundless darkness.
An eternal black.
An unfathomable inky ocean.
However, that wasn't all...
To my utter dismay, in that endless abyss, something began to churn.
Something horrifying.
Something terrifying.
I didn't know what was swimming around in the abyssal darkness, and I wasn't exactly eager to find out.
If I saw whatever that thing was, if I saw whatever horror was meandering around in the inky tides, I don't think my mind would come out of it unscathed.
Unfortunately, almost as if on cue, the seals that held back the dark began to shatter one by one, putting my grim hypothesis to the test.
I could only watch on in terror as the encroaching dark tide pushed its way past the seven seals, ripping them apart with a voracious vigor, the once majestic locks crumbling away like sand.
Well... shit...
After the last lock broke, my mind fragmented into a kaleidoscope of visions, the vast myriad of scenes bombarding my mind with grim premonitions of the future.
A castle drowned in fire, rivers of blood flowing from its halls.
A corpse in golden armor sitting on a throne.
A woman wielding a bronze spear, drowning in an endless tide of monsters.
An archer trying to pierce the falling sky with their arrows.
The images flashed through my mind like some kind of twisted collage of apocalyptic scenarios.
And then, in a rather unfortunate turn of events, the fragments coalesced into a single twisted scene.
At the base of a terrifying crimson spire, seven severed heads guarded seven locks.
And at the top...
An angel and a figure cloaked in shadows fought.
They exchanged blows, brilliant light combatting the suffocating shadows, suppressing the encroaching darkness as best it could.
It was a brutal struggle.
But
Unfortunately
The blinding incandescence of the angel's light was swallowed by the towering, hungry shadows.
The angel bled.
The shadows rejoiced.
I don't know why, but my heart ached, a wave of negative emotions washing over me as I witnessed the harrowing scene.
Sorrow.
Pain.
Rage.
The sight of the angel's blood filled me with an indescribable sense of loss.
It felt as though something precious was being taken away from me, as if I was losing something that held a position of absolute significance in my mind.
It was a profound emptiness, a crushing nothingness that made my heart ache with inexplicable pain.
This is torture...
This had to be torture...
A scream built in my nonexistent throat, the overwhelming emotions proving too much for me to handle.
I struggled against my imaginary shackles.
Beat at my conceptual cage.
It was a meaningless resistance, a futile struggle, and yet I couldn't stop.
The dregs of my sanity began to dry up, my last string of reason coming dangerously close to snapping.
I was drowning in despair.
But then,
Suddenly-
The sky lit up.
Ten flawless stars burned intensely in the darkness, utterly overwhelming both the shadows and the angel.
Platinum light suppressed the voracious shadows and pacified the brilliant incandescent light.
But...
It was strange...
The starlight felt oddly... reliable.
It felt intimate and familiar.
I basked in the gentle glow of the stars, and the overwhelming tide of negative emotions receded.
The platinum light numbed all the pain and misery, but in its place, a new feeling welled up from within the depths of my being.
It was an unfamiliar yet immediately recognizable feeling.
My fragmented mind pieced itself back together as I regarded the new emotion that was gnawing at my heart.
Under the pure platinum starlight, I felt indescribable, unrelenting guilt.
And with that guilt came endless confusion.
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[Sunny's POV]
I had slept like an absolute baby.
Yawning a bit as I sat up, I rubbed my eyes out of habit.
My body felt well rested and refreshed, something that I havn't felt in a long, long time.
The usual ache of my eye bags was noticeably absent, and the wounds I had sustained from my encounter with the carapace scavenger had faded to a gentle throb; a testament to the quality of my sleep.
Closing my eyes and taking in a rather deep breath, I started my morning in a rather good mood.
Though, upon a quick scan of the rest of the group, I seemed to be the only one who'd had such a pleasant rest.
In the center of our camp, Audun was preparing breakfast.
His movements were efficient and precise as he constructed our meal, that trademark stone face expressionlessness gracing his radiant features.
Yet, if one looked closely, they'd be able to see a hint of fatigue in his eyes.
Sitting nearby, Cassie didn't seem to be that much better.
Her pale blonde hair was disheveled and messy, her eyebrows and mouth drawn tight in silent contemplation.
Not to mention, her entire body was incredibly tense, her shoulders seemingly accommodating a newfound imaginary weight.
And Nephis...
Well
Nephis was Nephis.
In contrast with her name, Changing Star had remained completely unchanged since yesterday.
An inexplicable weary tension mixed with an awkward aloofness, the three oddballs creating a rather strange atmosphere.
Sighing to myself, I walked over and plopped down next to Audun.
The purple eyed sleeper's gaze didn't move from his task, but his feathery white companion began to dance in the air in front of me.
You sleep well?
I simply shrugged
"I slept quite well, better than the rest of you at least..."
I had attempted to lighten the mood a bit with a small joke and failed quite miserably.
A small bitter smile wormed its way onto my face.
Not even acknowledging my remark, Audun simply handed me a portion of food, and went right back to what he was doing before, idly turning and stirring the contents of a pot.
An awkward silence took hold, all of us eating in absolute quiet.
Damnation...
This sucks.
My eyes darted all over the place, searching for some kind of stimulus, but eventually, out of reflex, they focused on the clearly disturbed figure of Cassie.
I didn't know what was running through Cassie's mind, but her confused, haunted expression somewhat bothered me.
I grew a bit worried.
My eyes flickering between Cassie and our resident introverts to see if the other two shared my concerns.
But...
Nephis was staring blankly at her food, eating silently, whereas Audun's eyes constantly flickered between Cassie and his task, the slight scrunch of his eyebrows indicating his apprehension.
Ah.
Right.
Audun and Nephis were two similar yet distinct flavors of socially inept.
Audun, from what I could still recall, was a stuttering mess of a person, someone who hid their true feelings behind a mask, though on occasion, would show a variety of complex emotions.
But Nephis was a bit different.
As we continued to travel together, I've come to realize that the real Nephis was quite a bit different from the cool, mysterious Changing Star I had seen at the academy.
Well...
That cool mysteriousness was more of a misinterpretation on my part.
She was just awkward, hilariously so.
Her intonations were more often than not quite wrong, her tone never really matched what she was trying to say, and she often struggles with constructing sentences, covering up her mistakes by simply falling silent.
Her expression and her emotions often acted independently, her cold, neutral expression completely disconnected from the stream of her emotions.
Her demeanor and awkwardness gave way to intense misunderstanding, a misunderstanding that I had unfortunately fallen victim to.
Was this some kind of rich problem I was too poor to understand, or was it just another interesting facet of the Changing Star?
I digress.
They were both clearly forces to be reckoned with, regardless of their flaws and social ineptitude.
Well.
They clearly weren't going to say anything, so it was up to me to speak up.
Clearing my throat, I tried to approach the situation gingerly.
"Hey uhm... Cassie? You ok? You look a little out of it..."
Jostled to attention by my words, her contemplative expression grew dazed for a moment, and after a few seconds she responded.
"I'm fine."
Thinking for a moment, I shot back a question.
"You sure...? Was it another vision? We're all ears if you need someone to talk to."
A part of me desperately wished that my guess was wrong...
Her haunted look couldn't have been a result of a pleasant vision, and I think I could probably go without any grim premonitions of a bleak future.
She paused for a moment, hesitating, before saying:
"I... don't know. Maybe it was just a nightmare."
Audun, Nephis and I shared a look, our collective intuition screaming that what she saw definitely wasn't "just" a nightmare.
All of our eyes locked onto Cassie's hesitating figure as she continued.
She spoke of a sealed darkness breaking free.
A castle drowned in flames and blood.
A corpse, An archer, and a woman armed with a spear.
Then, as her expression contorted into a mix of what looked like pain and confusion, she continued, explaining the contents of her last vision.
"In the end, I saw this massive crimson spire. At the top, an angel and a figure wreathed in shadows fought to the death."
Her voice grew a bit quiet.
"The shadowy figure eventually came out on top, and as their hungry shadows began to consume the dying angel, I felt this indescribable sense of loss, as if something extremely important to me was taken away."
With a slightly odd expression she finished:
"But before the shadow could kill the angel, ten stars li-"
Out of the corner of my eye, Audun stiffened visibly, eyes wide in surprise.
"-t up the sky and drowned everything in this pure platinum light. The starlight suppressed the shadows and seemed to... uh... I don't know how to describe it."
Cassie shook her head, still looking a bit bothered.
I offered whatever comfort I could, however, mentally I was trying to make sense of her "nightmare".
It was riddled with ominous symbolism and uncertainty.
There was a lot to take in, but I couldn't shake off a suspicion snaking it's way through my mind.
Audun seemed to know something.
His reaction earlier was probably the biggest emotional response I'd seen from him on our journey thus far.
He still looked shocked, his hand frozen mid action, his entire body still as a sculpture.
I shot a glance at Nephis to see if she had also noticed it, but her eyes were locked onto Cassie, concern visible in her grey eyes.
I sighed quietly, burrying my suspicions deep in my heart.
Despite the rather eerie prophecy, we cleaned up our campsite rather fast and got ready for another day of travel.
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(A/N: Hey guys!
it's been a while.
I'm finally back from milwauke and am ready to continue writing.
I'm still trying to get back into my rhythm, so tell me what you think of the chapter.
I tried my best to pick up where I left off, and I hope it was cohesive.
Are you guys happy with my portrayl of the characters so far?
Thats lwk been my biggest concern for the fic.
I'm pretty sure I understand the characters well, but at the same time, there are a lot of nuances to their speech and personalities that I struggled to capture in my writing style ;-;.
I also only just got off my flight a few hours before I started writing the chapter, so be a bit lenient on me in regards to spelling and grammer.
Anyways, thanks for the continued support, and drop a comment telling me what you think!
See you in the next one!)