You squint at your phone as you see close to a dozen missed calls, voice mails and text messages, all from the same person. After viewing/listening to a couple, you quickly come to the conclusion that they all basically have the same gist, the caller really, really wants you to get in contact with him ASAP. You let out a sigh and dial his number. He picks up after one ring.
"--Nessa?"
"Teddie, why are you blowing up my phone?"
"Nessa. Look. Are you back in town yet?"
"Yeah, for a little while - Teddie, I just needed you to bring in my mail and feed my cat, what could possibly go wrong in just a couple days? Did a pipe explode or something? Did something happen to Puck?" You gasp as what is, to you, the worst case scenario crosses your mind. "Did something happen to my stuffed animals?!"
"No, it's -- why did you sound so much more worried about -- no, nothing like that! Just...look, if you're back in town, can you just come back to your apartment? I don't know how to describe this over the phone!"
"Goodness, fine. I'll be there in a bit." You hang up and resume heading home with a little bit of extra speed. You can't imagine what happened that's so serious, but Teddie isn't an easily rattled individual, so you're inclined to give some credence to his urgency.
"Alright, I'm home," you say a short time later as you open the door to your apartment. "The place seems to still be intact and relatively un-exploded, so I'm waiting for an explanation on - oh."
Your eyes find Teddie standing next to your couch - sitting in your easy chair is a black-haired young woman, couldn't be older than 18 or 19. You quirk an eyebrow as you toss your purse on your couch.
"Who's this? Your niece?" You ask.
"No -- look, Nessa. She showed up, and she said she doesn't have anywhere to go, and she--"
"Oh, Teddie." You let out a sigh. "That's very empathetic of you, but we're not social workers, we're educators. There's proper systems in place for this kind of thing." You reach into your purse. "Which, luckily, I have bookmarked, so I guess it was correct to call me after all," you murmur as you get out your phone and start flipping through it. You pause to jab Teddie in the chest. "But you should have them bookmarked too!"
"Nessa, that's not what I'm saying, she's--"
"Teddie, don't worry, I'll handle this from here," you murmur, only half-paying attention to him at this point. "Darling, what's your name?"
"A-actually, it's Nell," she says in a quiet voice.
"Okay, and what's your last name?"
"I, um." You're looking at your phone, so you only catch the grimace on her face out of the corner of your eye. "I don't. I don't have one?" You let out a little sigh and look at her.
"Nell, darling, everybody has a--"
It's only when you say the name yourself and make eye contact with her that it actually sinks in.
"....what did you just say?" The girl averts her eyes from yours and stares at the ground.
"I..." She swallows and raises her eyes back up, looking at you. "My name is Nell." Your breath catches in your throat. You and the girl stare at each other for what feels like a very long time, her waiting for some kind of reaction from you, you waiting for.....you're not really sure? For Teddie to laugh and declare that he got you good. But you're pretty sure Teddie hates pranks and...there's no way he would know that name anyway.
"....Nell," you repeat. "Nell...as in...?" You don't finish the sentence. The girl seems to get the gist anyway and gives you a couple nods, her lips tightly pursed.
"F....from Grandmother Lilith's c--"
"Shhhh." You react very quickly to that name, putting a finger over your mouth. Because, despite how absou-freaking-lutely not prepared for this situation you are, you do know one thing. Teddie is still here. You turn your head to him. "Thank you, Teddie. You were right to call me. I can handle it from here." Teddie, up to this point, was just looking between the two of you.
"So...she's really your family?" He asks. A grimace slowly spreads on his face. "...are you sure you want me to go?" Dammit. It must be really obvious how distressed you are on your face. You try to get back to some measure of neutrality, but even you know it's forced.
"Yes. She's my cousin. I can't go into it right now, but she has a difficulty family situation and it's been a very long time since our families have spoken. If you could just..." You gesture. "Let us have the room, please."
You know Teddie doesn't fully believe that explanation, but just the same, he knows he's just intruding now, so he concedes.
"...okay. Call me if you need me, okay?"
"I will. I'll call you in a little bit." He starts to leave, you reach out a hand and stop him briefly, touching his shoulder. "Teddie....thank you. Really." He gives you a nod and continues out the door, closing it behind him. You let out a breath and toss your phone on your couch again.
"N-Nessa, I--" The girl starts to get up from the couch.
"Stop. Sit back down."
Before you even know what you're doing, you've raised your hand, -11- primed a Void Bolt and pointed it right at the girl's head. She immediately obeys, dropping back into the chair.
"I'm going to ask one time. Who are you?"
"I'm..." The girl was already anxious and is clearly growing moreso. "I'm...I'm Nell?" She repeats.
"That's not--" You really want to start yelling, but you really don't want anybody to overhear this, be it Teddie in the hallway or one of your neighbors and you know you don't have any sound dampening or anti-detection fields around your apartment right now. "...if you're Nell, you know that that has to be very hard for me to believe."
"...yes. Yes, I do," the girl says, sounding almost apologetic. "Is there any way I can prove it to you? If there isn't, I..." She looks down again. "I can go."
The way she says that gets you to lower your hand and dismiss the Void Bolt, at least. Every single fiber in your brain is telling you to tell her to leave, but...
"Tell me something only Nell would know."
She looks up at you. She looks a little surprised that you said that. The feeling's mutual, frankly.
"Ah...ah, okay." She blinks a couple times, clearly trying to think of something. Her eyes widen a bit when she does. "Do you remember when we would race?" She asks. Now your eyes go a bit wide. "We would start at the trees behind your house and...we would run in a circle around the village. But...we would always stop and go really slowly when we got to Esmau's house so she wouldn't hear us and catch us. It just, um. Never occurred to us to not go by her house..." She trailed off. "There was also that tree by Gale's house...I was too scared to climb it, but you kept trying to, I remember one day you almost made it to that big branch that was really high up...which I guess, would probably just be in arm's reach today..."
The girl is so deep in recollection at this point that she hasn't noticed that your arms are fully at your sides and your mouth is hanging open. She just continues on as she stares at her own hands.
"And...you took me into your mother's room and showed me the book she kept under her bed and Aunt Lyra caught us reading it, and she told me to keep it a secret because nobody was supposed to know about it, and, um. Aunt Lyra knows about that, because she found us, but...she didn't know that we had already read it together a few times before that, and..." She's looking back up now because she's noticed that you've started walking towards her. She's not sure what to make of this, given you almost attacked her just a moment ago. "I...I know that's just a couple things, but um, I can come up with more if--"
"Shh."
That's all you say before you throw your arms around her.
"That's enough. Just...sshhhhh."
Nell's arms are stiff at her sides at first. But eventually, she brings them up and hugs you back. She lets out a breath that you realize she had probably been holding in since you came through the door.
"I really missed you."
You don't respond right away, but. The feeling is mutual.
You've been awake for a while now. A couple hours. You know because the only thing you can really do right now is lay in bed and read the clock. Every time you try to sit up, your body just hurts and you fall back. If you try to talk, nothing comes out. With some effort, you raise your hand up and touch the thing over your mouth and nose. It's clear. There's a small tube going from it to... ...something you don't even know how to describe, next to your bed. The Something Next To Your Bed, you think, is putting air into The Thing On Your Face and it's helping you breathe. You feel like you would have a pretty hard time breathing if it wasn't there, so...you hope the Something Next To Your Bed understands that you're grateful for its presence, even if you can't actually say it right now.
It's not much, but. You prefer looking at the clock and trying to communicate with the Something Next To Your Bed. Because if you weren't doing those things, you would probably be looking at your chest and seeing... ...
You close your eyes and turn your head. You don't want to go back to sleep. But you also just...don't want to see it right now.
The door opens. You open your eyes back up and look. For some reason, you get your hopes up for a second --
...it's not her.
You don't know why you got your hopes up.
"Good morning, Nessa," the woman says in a very soft voice as she approaches your bed. Something is in her hand, which she puts down on your bed and places a hand on your head. "How are you doing? Did you sleep alright?"
She's asking if you breathed the entire night. With the help of the Thing On Your Face and the Something Next To Your Bed, you did, but. You still didn't really sleep well. You nod anyway. The woman seems to pick up on it. A small grimace crosses her face.
"...did you have a bad dream?" She asked. You don't know how she figured that out, but. You nod again. "...do you want to see mother?" She asks.
You start to sniffle. You nod again. The woman reaches down and wraps her arms around you. You try to stop sniffling. You can't. Before you know it, you're crying. The woman just holds you a little tighter.
"I know. I know, Nessa," she says. "I'm trying so hard to find her. I miss her too."
The woman... ...
Your older sister. Agnis.
She has the same white hair as your mother, and the same purple eyes as you and your mother. But she has a patch over one of her eyes.
She doesn't let go of you until you've stopped crying. She wipes your eyes clean with her sleeve. She very briefly lifts The Thing On Your Face off so she can wipe your nose too.
"Do you want some water?" She asks. You nod. "Do you want to try holding it?" After some hesitation, you nod again. She places the cup into your hand and very gradually guides it to your mouth. Your grip on the cup is very, very tenuous but you try your hardest to keep it in place as you drink out of the cup. Once you're done, Agnis puts The Thing On Your Face back on.
"Do you want to get some rest?" She asked. "Or..." She holds up what she brought in with her. Your eyes widen. "I brought some books I thought you might like."
You arm feels so heavy, but you raise it as fast as you can to point at the books. Agnis smiles and sits down on your bed.
"Okay. Here we are. Chapter 1, an Unexpected Party..."
---
"The mother of our particular hobbit...what is a hobbit? I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays, since they have became rare and shy of the Big People, as they call us. They are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded Dwarves. Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off." Agnis reaches a hand out and lightly touches your stomach when she says 'large stupid folk'. You think she was expecting a smile when she did that, but you just furrow your brow a bit. Hearing that these 'hobbits' don't have magic doesn't do a great job of endearing you to this story. You want to ask Agnis to tell you a story about witches, the kind mother told you, but...you can't ask her for much of anything right now, so you just keep listening.
---
"Thereupon the twelve dwarves - not Thorin, he was too important, and stayed talking to Gandalf - jumped to their feet and made tall piles of all the things. Off they went, not waiting for trays, balancing columns of plates, each with a bottle on the top, with one hand, while the hobbit ran after them almost squeaking with fight -- please be careful! Please, don't trouble! I can manage! But the dwarves only started to sing. Chip the glas..."
Agnis pauses. She looks at you, as if checking to see if you're still awake. You are. You wonder why she stopped. You want to hear more about....well, mostly just Gandalf. You've decided fairly quickly that you like Gandalf. Agnis looks at the book, then looks at you...she stands up and clears her throat.
Then in a very animated way, she starts moving back and forth and singing.
"Chip the glasses and crack the plates! Blunt the knives and bend the forks! That's what Bilbo Baggins hates- Smash the bottles and burn the corks!
Cut the cloth and tread on the fat! Pour the milk on the pantry floor! Leave the bones on the bedroom mat! Splash the wine on every door!
Dump the crocks in a boiling bawl; Pound them up with thumping pole; And when you've finished, if any are whole, Send them down the hall to roll!
That's what Bilbo Baggins hates! So, carefully! Careully with the plates!"
During all of that, Agnis did things for punctuation such as splashing some of your water on the door and kicking one of her shoes off across the room where it smacked into the wall. She's so animated that by the end of it, you can't help it. It's exceptionally weak, but, you let out a couple of laughs. You see Agnis smile as she notices you smiling as well. She rubs the top of your head a couple times and sits back down to continue reading.
---
"It was very dark, and the wind howled horribly around her, but Dorothy found she was riding quite easily. After the first few whirls around, and one other time when the house tipped badly, she felt as if she were being rocked gently, like a baby in a cradle."
After a while, Agnis stops reading you the story about Bilbo and Gandalf and the dwarves. You were disappointed, but she says she thinks you'll like this story too, about a girl named Dorothy.
"...but soon she saw one of his ears sticking up through the hole, for the strong pressure of the air was keeping him up so that he could not fall. She crept to the hole, caught Toto by the ear and dragged him into the room again; afterwards closing the trap-door so that no more accidents could happen."
You blink a couple times. Your eyes had closed for a few seconds there. It takes you a minute to realize that you had almost fallen asleep. Agnis glances up from the book at you. She seems to have noticed, too.
"Hour after hour passed away, and slowly Dorothy got over her fright; but she felt quite lonely, and the wind shrieked so loudly all about her that she nearly became deaf. At first she had wondered if she would be dashed to pieces when the house fell again; but as the hours passed and nothing terrible happened, she stopped worrying and resolved to wait calmly and see what the future would bring. At last she crawled over the swaying floor to her bed, and lay down upon it; and Toto followed and lay down beside her. In spite of the swaying of the house and the wailing of the wind...." Agnis closed the book. "Dorothy soon closed her eyes and fell fast asleep."
Agnis leans over. She briefly puts her hand on your forehead, then she strokes your head a couple more times. She's definitely noticed the way you're having trouble keeping your eyes open by this point.
"Why don't you get some rest, Nessa," she says. "We'll read some more later." You give her a nod. She leans in and gives you a kiss on the forehead. Then she leaves, closing the door behind her.
As you drift off, you think about the books Agnis read to you. About Bilbo, who hated adventures, but wound up going on an adventure with Gandalf and the dwarves, and of Dorothy, who was away from her aunt and her uncle and her home, but was trying not to be scared.
...
hhhhhhh...
...
hhhhhhh...
You tell yourself....to try to not be scared....and you turn your head to look at your own chest.
You see it. The soft violet glow surrounding it. All of the lights sparkling inside of it.
For a few seconds, you stare at the glass bubble embedded halfway into your chest. You don't know what else to do. So you just stare at it, quietly breathing in and out until your eyes slide shut and you fall asleep.
You tug on Dimitri's collars after lessons. He turns to face you and grimaces.
"Hi, Nessa." He tilts his head. "How's your cheek doing?"
"It's bruised. It hurts," you say flatly, your eyebrows falling. During lessons today, you messed up an incantation. Esmau didn't like that. And now you have a bruise on your cheek. You know Dimitri's just trying to show concern, but asking about it isn't gonna make it hurt less. Anyway, that's not what you wanted to talk about. "A...anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk about."
"What is it, then?"
"Um...." You look around. Gale is talking to Nell. Ben and Fran are a short distance away (Ben and Fran are always hanging around Dimitri....), watching the two of you. You lightly put a hand on your older cousin's shoulder. "Can we talk...away from everybody else?" Dimitri doesn't seem to like that, but...he looks over at Ben and Fran. He gives them a simple nod. The two twins nod back and walk away. Dimitri then follows you away from them, behind one of the houses.
"What?" He asks. "Do you want some help with the lessons? If you just study harder, Esmau probably won't get so mad at you..."
"I don't need help studying...!" You say with a huff. "And Esmau will find a reason to get mad at me, no matter how good I do..." You grumble. "I just. Wanted to talk to you. About something..." You fidget a bit, wringing your hands together, before forcing it out. "...do you ever think about what it's like outside?"
"I...guess?" Dimitri says. "It's getting colder. We're probably gonna have to start doing lessons in the temple once it starts snowing."
"No...I don't mean like, outside here! I mena...outside the forest!" You wave your arms as widely as you can. "I..." You look back and forth to make sure nobody is watching. "I've been thinking about what it's like, outside the forest..."
"What? Why?!" Dimitri exclaims. "That's against the rules! That's the most important rule! Grandmother Lilith tells us, we can never go outside the forest! Outside the forest, they hunt and kill witches! Geez, Nessa, don't you even pay attention to anything Grandmother Lilith says?!"
"I do...! I just...some of it doesn't make much sense to me! If it's dangerous outside the forest, then...shouldn't we know more about it? So we can understand how bad it is? But Grandmother Lilith doesn't even want us to ask! She won't tell us anything except that hunt kill witches! She won't even tell us who 'they' are, doesn't that bother yo--"
"STOP!" Dimitri waves his hands emphatically. "Nessa, just stop! She doesn't tell us because we don't need to know! All we need to do is listen to her and become witches like her!" He runs his hand down his face. "No wonder you're always messing up in lessons if you're thinking about stuff like this..." He shakes his head. "I'm gonna do you a favor and not tell Esmau or Grandmother Lilith any of the stuff you were just saying. Just...forget all of that, okay, Nessa? It doesn't matter."
"...."
You sniff once and look at the ground.
"Okay," you say in a very small voice. Dimitri sighs, and then for lack of anything better to say, just walks away. You bring a hand up to your eyes and rub it a couple times. Except for the part where he said he wouldn't tell Esmau or Grandmother Lilith, that went about as badly as it possibly could've gone.
He stood up straight, then immediately fell backwards with a splash. He scrambled in one direction, then another, sending water everywhere. Eventually, as he came to a stop, the sounds of the water stopped and he was left with nothing but the sound of his own rapid, harried breaths.
He looked around. It was pitch black. All he could tell was that he was in a knee-deep pool of water. The only light he could see was a purple light a short distance away from him. He squinted at itHe pulled himself onto his hands and knees and crawled towards them until he saw that the lights were orbs. They were heavy looking wooden beads. Beads in...a necklace.
He realized recognized that necklace.
“…g….” He swallowed. The word died in his throat.
“….grandmother….?”
“Hello, Dimitri.”
“What…what…what happened…N…Nessa and…my…my….” Dimitri looked around. Besides the light coming from the necklace and the water, he couldn’t see anything or anyone.
“There will be time to talk about that later. Rise, Dimitri.” Dimitri was silent for a second. He stared into the darkness without moving, until the voice said a second time, “Rise, Dimitri.”
His eyes fell. He slowly rose to his feet.
“You’re all that’s left, Dimitri.”
His hand came up to his chest, beneath his neck. He stared down. Embedded flat in his chest, he saw a glowing purple shard of glass.
“Your family needs you.”
---
"You're ready."
Lilith held up the list. She folded it and placed it in his breast pocket.
"You need to retrieve everything. Then, return here. Try to do so undetected. But it is more important that you get everything than it is that that you do so without being seen. If need be, we can move to a different place. "
Dimitri heard the instructions, as he had multiple times by now. But he's just staring at his pocket, and the piece of paper in it.
"Grandmother..."
She stops busying herself adjusting his clothes for a moment, then looks at him.
"When I get these materials for you....?"
"We'll start rebuilding our family, Dimitri. Without our Heart, I only had enough Spark to bring you back. When you do this, I'll have enough to bring the others back as well. You'll be able to see Nell and Ben and Fran and Gale again." She placed a hand on his shoulder. "...I've already told you. I won't be able to bring your parents back." Dimitri closed his eyes. "The damage Nessa did to their bodies was too severe."
"....Nessa...."
"You have to stop her, Dimitri," Lilith said quietly. "She stole our Heart and destroyed our family. We can't be whole again until you get it back from. You and your cousins will be able to. I'll teach you how."
"...I can do it myself." Dimitri looked up and met Lilith's eyes.
"Yourself?" She asked.
"You don't need to bring them back." He tried to set his jaw and sound confident. "I'll get the Heart back from her myself and bring it back to you. Teach me how." Lilith regarded him for a second...then slowly shook his head.
"No, Dimitri. It needs to be all of you. Alone, you won't be enough to fight the power the Heart gives he--"
"Please!" He said, more forcefully. His hands made fists at his sides. Lilith raised an eyebrow.
"Dimitri...what are you saying?"
"I can't...." He shut his eyes. "They died years ago...they're at peace, now. I can't force them to come back just to make them fight. Please! Please just let me do it!"
"You can't?" Lilith asked. "Dimitri. You must do this. You must bring them back." Dimitri shook his head, pulled the list from his pocket and dropped it at her feet. Lilith heaved a sigh and closed her eyes briefly. She slowly brought one hand up to her necklace. "Please pick up the list, Dimitri."
"I can't...." Dimitri said weakly. His eyes were tightly shut. Tears were starting to fall from them. He knew what was coming. Lilith sighed again. She picked up two of the beads of her necklace and knocked them against each other. A purple spark of energy traveled from her necklace to Dimitri's chest and the shard embedded in it.
Dimitri's eyes snapped open. He let out a blood curdling scream as his head snapped backwards. It took all of a couple seconds for him to collapse onto his side, grabbing at his chest with both hands.
---
"--mitri!"
You shoot up into a sitting position. Your head and your eyes snap back and forth, looking around wildly as you take in rapid, fearful breaths. It takes you a few seconds to remember the feeling of blankets and sheets on your body and a mattress underneath you. You grope around in the darkness for a few seconds. Your hand eventually finds Puck, curled up next to, like he always is.
You're in bed. You're in your bedroom. You're in your apartment.
Your hands come up to your face, which is covered in sweat. You slowly pull them down.
Still half in a daze, you kick the covers off of your legs and get out of bed. You stumble out of your bedroom and down the hall, to the bathroom. You drink some water, then splash more of it on your face.
You stare at yourself in the mirror for a long few minutes. Your hand eventually reaches at the collar of your nightshirt and tugs it down, exposing the small glass bubble embedded in your chest. It's lit up with a purple glow, hundreds of twinkling lights appearing in its center. Your breath slowly becomes steady as you stare at it.
"Why are you waking up....?" You mutter. You always put it to sleep before you go to bed. Why is it waking up on its own? Two....three? Is it three times, now? Why is it making you have these dreams?
You run your finger over the front of the bubble. For several long moments, your eyes are locked on a series of marks in the glass, where a number of shards are missing. You slowly close your eyes.
You tap the bubble once with your index finger. It goes dark.
You drop a book on your desk. Next to that, you have your laptop open, to several articles, all about the same subject: lucid dreaming. The book is a spellbook about dreamwalking, which is essentially the same thing, but with magic. Dreamwalking is Harmony magic due to its mental aspect, which you're not capable of. There have been attempts to come up with Void-aligned versions of it, mostly with limited success. You're hoping you can fill in the blanks with some of this research on lucid dreaming.
You don't know if this is going to work. You know you have to try something, though. You can't just tolerate the Voidheart waking up on its own and giving you constant nightmares about your... ...cousin.
You refuse to be a prisoner of your own past. So you're going to figure something out, dammit.
You spend hours researching dreams and how to control them, both the magic and non-magical methods. Lots and lots of reading and note-taking later, you think you have a plan. That night when you're preparing to go to bed, you do something you've never done before.
You let out a breath. You pull down the collar of your night shirt. You look down at the Voidheart, its surface currently darkened....you give it a single tap and it wakes up, all the lights inside coming to life.
You get in bed. Not too long after, you're falling asleep.
...
...
...
...
Dimitri is standing on an empty street. It's night time. Rain is falling on him. He has a hood, but he's not pulling it up, so the rain is just falling on his hair and face. He's staring across the street at a building. It looks like a store that's closed for the night but his eyes are locked on it, unwavering. He eventually brings up his hand and his breathing quickens. Purple sparks crackling around his palm and travel up to his fingers. He makes a fist. His breathing quickens further and he takes one step towards crossing the street --
"Dimitri."
He stops. He looks up, his eyes wide. He looks around.
"Dimitri. Right here."
You do something you haven't been able to do up to this point. You reach out and touch his shoulder. He looks down at your hand. Then at you. His breath catches in his throat, like he's seen a ghost.
"Nnn. Nessa?"
"Yeah," you say and give him a little nod. You can feel the rain hitting your face now, too.
"What're you doing here?"
"...looking for you, mostly." You look across the street. He does too.
"I have to go--"
"Go in there and break in to the secret room in the basement, get into a shootout with a bunch of criminals operating outside the Order's purview, steal their Spark, kill one of them while you're trying to escape, so you can take the Spark back to Lilith, even though you don't want to do any of that?"
Dimitri stares at you, eyes wide, mouth hanging open.
"How do you--"
"I've seen this one a few times," you say, sadly. You reach out and grab his hood, pulling it up to cover his head. "Why don't you come with me this time instead?" You take his hand and without waiting for an answer, you walk away with him. You walk down the street and turn a corner - you're suddenly in Manchester on a street corner you visit every day on your way to work. You guide him into a building and sit down at a table. You're inside your favorite hibachi restaurant and two bowls of udon are being placed in front of each of you. He's looking around like he has no idea what's going on. You give him a tap on the shoulder and a smile.
"Just go with it."
"I don't understand." You let out a breath. Well, you guess you owe him some explanation. Might as well be the truth.
"....I just got tired of having nightmares. Not because they were bothering me, but." She looked at him. "I was sick of seeing the messed up things my mind was doing to you."
"So I'm...just a dream of yours?" Dimitri asks. You give a little nod. "....huh." He looks down for a few seconds.
"I really wish you weren't," you say, softly. "I...really miss you." You put a hand on his hand. He turns his hand around and clasps yours. He keeps looking down, a pensive expression on his face.
"Honestly...maybe that's fine. If I'm just your dream then that means. I'm not actually doing any of this stuff for Grandmother. Which means the others aren't going to get dragged back just to fight for her." He closed his eyes and let out a sigh. "That's kind of a relief, honestly."
"If there was a way to bring you all back..." You take in a breath. You dab at your eyes a bit with your hand. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry all of me. Bloody hangs-up and survivor's guilt wound up manifesting in a way that sucks so much for you." And Dimitri actually lets out a low, wry laugh.
"Well. If I'm just a dream of yours, it'd be pretty weird if I didn't forgive you, so. Apology accepted, I guess." He looked around. "Now that you're here, I don't have to go back to that cave where Grandmother is, do I?"
"Are you kidding?" You scoff. "I've already mastered the art of dreamwalking - after just one night of trying, no less!" You wag a finger. "No, no, no. We've broken free of the curse of my subconscious guilt. We're having a night on the town, now!" You stand up from your seat and take his hand again. "Come now. I believe our limousine to the red carpet premiere is waiting outside."
"....limousine?" He asks, quirking an eyebrow. "Red carpet?" You grin at him.
"You should've listened when I brought up the outside, before. You've got a lot to see."
You won't wake up for a good several hours. For now, you're sleeping soundly in your bed. For now, at least, you're content.
"Nell?! Nell, for God's sake, pick up! I spent three hours teaching you how a phone works, PICK UP!"
You scream fruitlessly into your phone and almost spike it on the ground when she doesn't pick up. You're really starting to panic now. You know why she's not picking it up. You start running a bit faster. A black hand creeps out of your shoulder.
'It's likely she's been waylaid by the same group that's been trying to harass you.'
"I know," you groan. "This can't be possibly be anything but a targeted attack at this point." You blow out a breath through your teeth. "It's her. It's Lilith."
'It's been over a decade since the last time she sent someone after you.'
"She's never had a problem playing the long game. She's on the run from the Order, I'm not surprised it took her 13 years to finally scrape together enough to hire some decent assassins to come after me."
'If that's true, then if they are attacking Nell right now, and that's why she can't answer her phone, you know it's a trap meant to lure you in.'
"Yeah." You narrow your eyes. "I don't much care."
'I agree. I will prepare as much Spark for you as possible by the time we get ther --- Nessa, look out!'
Your head snaps up. The hand suddenly tries to expand in size to intercept what you're only just now realize is a very large amount of Void energy heading directly for your side. Your eyes widen. You bring your hand to your chest. Too later. The energy collides with the hand, now significant larger, barely managing to keep it from striking you. You look in the direction the energy came from. You see a figure in a black cloak with a hood pulled up standing a short distance away. One of their hands is up, lightly bouncing a violet sphere of pure Void energy in their hand.
You narrow your eyes and tap at your chest. The Voidheart wakes up and you immediately start pulling Spark from it into your hands.
'Nessa...'
You look at the hand. Your breath catches in your throat when you see violet light crackling and sparking off of it.
"Volatile Spark....!" You murmur. The attacker pitches the sphere at you. It strikes the hand and the energy crackling over it explodes, hurling you off the ground. You slam into a wall and crumple to the ground. Your ears are ringing and your vision is swimming, but you're vaguely aware the attacker is coming closer.
"C...Cornelius...are you okay....?" You murmur as you try to get your bearings back enough to bring your hands together.
'My physical form on your body was destroyed by the Volatile Spark.' His voice is more distant than normal. 'To reconstitute, I'll need five.....I'll try to make it three minutes.' This is about the most urgency you've ever heard in his voice. It underlines that you're in a very bad situation right now.
"Come on, come on, come on....!" Your hands are shaking as you try to make the right signs. You're growing more and more aware that the attacker is getting closer. You manage to strike your right hand against your left wrist in the right cadence - two purple circles with runes inscribed in their surface burst to life upon your wrists. You snap your arm in the direct of your attacker and basically blind fire a Void Bolt. It's enough to get them to dodge away at least. You shove your fingers onto your temple next and after a very unpleasant jolt runs through your entire body, you feel your vision clearing up and are able to get back to your feet. You raise your hand up at them.
"...you shouldn't have gotten involved with someone like Lilith," you snarl out, feeling what you're pretty sure is bloodlust building up in your stomach. It feels horrible. "I won't be responsible for what I do to you if you've done anything to my cousin."
"..."
The attacker doesn't advance, or retreat. They bring their hands up to their head and pull their hood back to reveal a dark-skinned face with purple eyes and white hair. The hair is longer and less maintained, the face is more mature and the eyes have more rings under them than the last time you saw them, but...you recognize all of them. Your hand falls.
"...Dimitri...?"
He stares at you without saying anything. Then, you feel the anger within you welling up far, far worse than before.
"So Lilith is willing to stoop even this low, huh?!" You vaguely hear Cornelius' voice distantly tell you not to rush in. You ignore it and, well, rush in. "STOP WEARING MY COUSIN'S FACE!" You scream as you charge in, firing more Void Bolts at him. He weaves around them as a Void Barrier builds around his arm. He sinks his Barrier-covered fist into your stomach and knocks the wind out of you with one punch. You crumble to the ground again, clutching your chest.
"So I'm just wearing your cousin's face, huh?" He asks. You almost cover your ears when you hear that voice. He leans down next to you. "Tell me something. Is Nell just wearing your cousin's face too? Or do you actually believe that she's really Nell? Because I have bad news for you. Whatever you believe for her, you have to believe for me too."
You try to crawl away. He doesn't pursue you yet. You look back at him.
"Dimi....you're really....you're really Dimitri?" You ask. And the question you never were able to bring yourself to ask Nell comes out. "H...how?!" Dimitri stares at you for a second. Then he opens his cloak and pulls down his collar.
You immediately recognize it when you see it in his chest.
It's the Void Shard you saw in your dreams. Implanted in his chest, exactly like it was in your dreams. Dimitri puts his cloak back in place and glowers down at you.
"All five of us. Ben, Fran, Gale, Nell and me. We were all brought back to life by Grandmother Lilith, using shards of the Voidheart." Without you realizing your hand was on your chest, your fingers find the place on the Voidheart you've touched hundreds of times, where it's missing those shards.
He runs at you, raising his Barrier-covered arm again. You try to conjure a Barrier of your own, but he punches right through it and socks you in the cheek. You stumble backwards and try to fire a Void bolt at him, but he smacks it out of the air with his bare hand and punches you again. Every attempt you make to defend or counterattack with your own spells is hasty, unfocused and easily turned away.
"You're the one who killed us, Nessa! You used the Voidheart to do it!" Dimitri yells out. "Grandmother Lilith revived the five of us for one reason. To take the Voidheart back from you!"
Your hands completely stop moving. You just stand there, too stunned to even defend yourself. Dimitri punches you in the stomach, then square in the nose. You drop backwards and land on your back. Your hands come up and cover your nose. He stands over you and raises his arm up, and in that second, you know, he's about to do it. He's about to rip the Voidheart right out of you.
You don't think you can stop him.
You don't know if you should even try.
Before he can do anything else, a giant black fist shoots out of the Voidheart and punches Dimitri square in the jaw and, due to its size, most of the rest of his head too. He flies backwards before landing on his feet and skidding backwards a few more feet. He rubs the side of his head, which has a quickly summoned Barrier on it that, after that punch, is mostly in pieces. He dismisses it and lets out a sigh. He clearly was trying to get this done before Cornelius reconstituted.
He then looks off to the side. He touches his hand to his ear.
"I'm here."
...
"Where?"
...
He looks back at you. He narrows his eyes. Between having to deal with Cornelius now and whatever's happening on the other end of that call, he clearly doesn't like this situation anymore. He turns and starts to walk away. Cornelius' only priority is to protect you, so he does nothing to stop him. You on the other hand.
"Dimitri, wait!" You cough, a hand on your chest, blood pouring from your nose as you basically try to crawl after him. "Dimitri, stop! Please!" He does stop and glance back at you.
"Nessa," he says shortly. "The only way the five of us can survive...is if you lose the Voidheart."
A purple aura covers his body and he phases through a wall, vanishing from sight. You stare at the wall for several seconds.
Then you just collapse onto your back and stare up at the sky.
You think it's safe to say you're losing control of this situation.
You managed to find Nell, but that's about the only good news you have. You were attacked by Dimitri. She was attacked by Gale. You know at some point you're going to have to talk with her about what happened, what's happening and what's going to happen, but you....really just don't want to. When you get home, you just stand in the kitchen and stare at the inside of the fridge for a while. Nell is absentmindedly playing with Puck in the other room. Neither of you say anything for a while. Eventually, though, you hear steps entering the kitchen.
"Nessa?"
You glance towards her. You don't say anything for a few seconds.
"Yes, Nell?" You eventually say.
"Um." She hesitates, then pushes forward "I...I should look at your n...." She looks off to the side. "N...nevermind." She walks back to the living room.
Your nose, hell, most of your face hurts. You imagine by now it's pretty clear how bad Dimitri throttled you. You realize you've barely checked Nell to see how hurt she is. You think about taking a look at her. You walk towards her.
You're the one who killed us, Nessa.
You walk right past her, into the hallway. She notices and looks at you.
"A...are you going to bed?" She asks. You don't turn back.
"Yeah...yes."
That's all you say before you head into your room and close the door. You run your hands through your hair and down your face, holding them over your eyes for a few seconds.
You don't know what to do. You don't even think there's anything you can do right now. You just want to rest. So you get in bed, throw your head on the pillow and try to sleep.
---
"What happened?"
"Everything is going according to plan, Grandmother."
Your eyes widen. You look around. You gasp and then cover your mouth.
You can see Dimitri standing in front of you. But between you and him is someone else...a woman, with both black and white hair. She's just a smoky wisp, a conjured image used for communication, but...you recognize Lilith anywhere. For a second, you think you're going to have to fight, but neither of them move.
You reach a hand out and swipe it through the smoky Lilith. It goes right through. Well. It would've done that anyway, but neither one of them react to it. You don't...think you did any of your lucid dreaming prep before you went to sleep, so you don't know what to make of this. In retrospect, you don't know what to make of any of the dreams you had about Dimitri.
"Where is Nell?"
You stop thinking and your head immediately tilts up. Dimitri breaks eye contact with Lilith for a second, then looks back at her.
"She's undercover, with Nessa, like you told her to." You bite down on your lip and close your eyes. You can't believe this. You don't want to believe this.
It really was all a goddamn trick. A plan to take the Voidheart from you.
"She's still supposed to check in," Lilith says. "Why has she taken so long to do it. You said you had come up with a plan to get her guard down and Nell would finish the job."
"I did. There were...difficulties," Dimitri says. "We've had to adjust on the fly."
"Then everything isn't going according to plan, is it?" Lilith raised a hand to her necklace. "I'm calling Nell right now. I want to hear what she's doing."
"I don't think she can answer without compromising her cover, Grandmother," Dimitri says. "Nessa's very suspicious of her. She watches her like a hawk. I think if Nell does anything out of the ordinary, Nessa will throw her out."
You blink once. Your brows knit in confusion as something about that doesn't make sense. You've spent plenty of time with Nell, but you've also given her plenty of space since she moved in. She has her own room and you've had to leave her alone in the apartment for a while more than once.
Is Nell lying to Dimitri or....is Dimitri lying to Lilith....?
"If it's compromised, then it's compromised," Lilith said. "Time is not a resource we have in infinite supply. Prompt brute force is better than lengthy subterfuge at this point. When is the last time you spoke to her, Dimitri?" She asked.
"Two weeks ago, grandmother," Dimitri says without missing a beat.
Another wispy trail of smoke appears, and after a few second it gradually takes a human shape that eventually settles on...
"H...hello, grandmother," Nell says, unable to make eyecontact with Lilith.
"Nell. You haven't checked in. I've grown concerned for your safety." Nell bows her head.
"I'm so sorry, grandmother. Th-there's...just been some difficulties in carrying out my duties."
"Dimitri says that when you last spoke four days ago, you told him that Nessa is rarely in her home. She spends her days surrounded by people and doesn't tell you where she goes at night." Dimitri's eyes widen. He looks at Lilith. Then at Nell. His mouth hangs open for a second, but he knows he can't say anything. "Is that true, Nell?"
Nell looks at Dimitri briefly. Then...she nods. Dimitri tries not to make his reaction too visible, but you can see a grimace form on his face.
"Yes, grandmother. It's...it's just hard to get her alone without any witnesses. B-but. Um. D-Dimitri has a plan where we make it so she falls asleep at home before she can go anywhere else. W-we just need a bit more time to execute it."
Lilith looks from Nell, to Dimitri, back to Nell. She nods.
"It sounds like you two are doing your best," she says. "Do what you must to bring this plan to fruition." Nell visibly lets out a breath of relief. Dimitri looks more anxious than ever.
"We will, grandmother. We promise. F...for our family."
"For our family. Goodbye, Nell." Nell ducks her head and the smoky projection of her vanishes. Lilith snaps her black, empty eyes to Dimitri.
"I told you that I was trusting you to keep control of your cousins, Dimitri. When did you lose control of Nell?" Lilith asks. Dimitri doesn't answer. Lilith raises a hand to her necklace. Sparks crackle along Dimitri's chest, where his Void Shard lay. "I asked you a question, Dimitri."
"Right after she moved in with Nessa." The words spill out of his mouth. "She stopped contacting us regularly. When we finally were able to get her to talk to us. She said was refusing to do it. She...she wants to live with Nessa. She's. Sided with her." He swallows. He closes his eyes. "I think...I think she may have been with her from the very beginning."
Lilith lets out a sigh.
"This was always a possibility. Nell was quite taken with her when they were children. It's of no matter." Lilith takes another bead of her necklace in her hand. "Calm yourself, Dimitri. I'm not going to punish you for trying to protect Nell. She is your family. But you realize I must give Nell proper instruction." Dimitri blinks once.
"O..of what kind, grandmother?" He asks.
"If Nell won't do her duty...then she must be made to."
Lilith taps the bead on her necklace a couple of times.
"We will either hear that she's completed her assignment soon, or...she's dead. Either way, we'll know what we must do next."
Dimitri is clearly forcing himself to not panic while he's still talking to Lilith....but you suddenly see his eyes change. He's not looking at Lilith anymore. He's looking behind her. At you.
"Call me when you know what's happened."
"Yes, grandmother."
Even as he speaks to you, Dimitri keeps staring at you. You blink once.
...oh, shit.
You point a finger at yourself and mouth,
'Me?'
He nods.
Oh, shit!
You put your fingers on both sides of your temple. You feel a jolt run from your fingers, into your head, through your whole body.
"Whuh!"
And you snap back awake. You look around. You're alone in your room. You get out of your bed. You're about to call for Nell, when--
"Nessa......!"
You hear a pained sounding cry coming from outside your room. You swallow. It's Nell, of course. You look at the window and despite how high up it is, boy, you're really thinking about jumping out right now. You swallow and do the opposite, leaving your room and heading back into the living room.
"Nessa....!" Nell wails again. She's hunched over in the kitchen. You walk towards her.
"Nell...?" You ask as you slowly walk through the living room, towards the kitchen. Nell sniffs loudly. She slowly turns around.
"Nessa...."
Tears are falling from her eyes. And a blade of Void spark is attached to her wrist. She's trying to force it down with her other wrist. She's trying to pull herself away from you, but her body is very clearly not listening to what she wants.
"Please....please, run!"
And she lunges at you, blade pointed towards your throat.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
voidhearts) wrote2023-01-23 07:50 pm
TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUEST: THE COUSIN
01
You squint at your phone as you see close to a dozen missed calls, voice mails and text messages, all from the same person. After viewing/listening to a couple, you quickly come to the conclusion that they all basically have the same gist, the caller really, really wants you to get in contact with him ASAP. You let out a sigh and dial his number. He picks up after one ring.
"--Nessa?"
"Teddie, why are you blowing up my phone?"
"Nessa. Look. Are you back in town yet?"
"Yeah, for a little while - Teddie, I just needed you to bring in my mail and feed my cat, what could possibly go wrong in just a couple days? Did a pipe explode or something? Did something happen to Puck?" You gasp as what is, to you, the worst case scenario crosses your mind. "Did something happen to my stuffed animals?!"
"No, it's -- why did you sound so much more worried about -- no, nothing like that! Just...look, if you're back in town, can you just come back to your apartment? I don't know how to describe this over the phone!"
"Goodness, fine. I'll be there in a bit." You hang up and resume heading home with a little bit of extra speed. You can't imagine what happened that's so serious, but Teddie isn't an easily rattled individual, so you're inclined to give some credence to his urgency.
"Alright, I'm home," you say a short time later as you open the door to your apartment. "The place seems to still be intact and relatively un-exploded, so I'm waiting for an explanation on - oh."
Your eyes find Teddie standing next to your couch - sitting in your easy chair is a black-haired young woman, couldn't be older than 18 or 19. You quirk an eyebrow as you toss your purse on your couch.
"Who's this? Your niece?" You ask.
"No -- look, Nessa. She showed up, and she said she doesn't have anywhere to go, and she--"
"Oh, Teddie." You let out a sigh. "That's very empathetic of you, but we're not social workers, we're educators. There's proper systems in place for this kind of thing." You reach into your purse. "Which, luckily, I have bookmarked, so I guess it was correct to call me after all," you murmur as you get out your phone and start flipping through it. You pause to jab Teddie in the chest. "But you should have them bookmarked too!"
"Nessa, that's not what I'm saying, she's--"
"Teddie, don't worry, I'll handle this from here," you murmur, only half-paying attention to him at this point. "Darling, what's your name?"
"A-actually, it's Nell," she says in a quiet voice.
"Okay, and what's your last name?"
"I, um." You're looking at your phone, so you only catch the grimace on her face out of the corner of your eye. "I don't. I don't have one?" You let out a little sigh and look at her.
"Nell, darling, everybody has a--"
It's only when you say the name yourself and make eye contact with her that it actually sinks in.
"....what did you just say?" The girl averts her eyes from yours and stares at the ground.
"I..." She swallows and raises her eyes back up, looking at you. "My name is Nell." Your breath catches in your throat. You and the girl stare at each other for what feels like a very long time, her waiting for some kind of reaction from you, you waiting for.....you're not really sure? For Teddie to laugh and declare that he got you good. But you're pretty sure Teddie hates pranks and...there's no way he would know that name anyway.
"....Nell," you repeat. "Nell...as in...?" You don't finish the sentence. The girl seems to get the gist anyway and gives you a couple nods, her lips tightly pursed.
"F....from Grandmother Lilith's c--"
"Shhhh." You react very quickly to that name, putting a finger over your mouth. Because, despite how absou-freaking-lutely not prepared for this situation you are, you do know one thing. Teddie is still here. You turn your head to him. "Thank you, Teddie. You were right to call me. I can handle it from here." Teddie, up to this point, was just looking between the two of you.
"So...she's really your family?" He asks. A grimace slowly spreads on his face. "...are you sure you want me to go?" Dammit. It must be really obvious how distressed you are on your face. You try to get back to some measure of neutrality, but even you know it's forced.
"Yes. She's my cousin. I can't go into it right now, but she has a difficulty family situation and it's been a very long time since our families have spoken. If you could just..." You gesture. "Let us have the room, please."
You know Teddie doesn't fully believe that explanation, but just the same, he knows he's just intruding now, so he concedes.
"...okay. Call me if you need me, okay?"
"I will. I'll call you in a little bit." He starts to leave, you reach out a hand and stop him briefly, touching his shoulder. "Teddie....thank you. Really." He gives you a nod and continues out the door, closing it behind him. You let out a breath and toss your phone on your couch again.
"N-Nessa, I--" The girl starts to get up from the couch.
"Stop. Sit back down."
Before you even know what you're doing, you've raised your hand, -11- primed a Void Bolt and pointed it right at the girl's head. She immediately obeys, dropping back into the chair.
"I'm going to ask one time. Who are you?"
"I'm..." The girl was already anxious and is clearly growing moreso. "I'm...I'm Nell?" She repeats.
"That's not--" You really want to start yelling, but you really don't want anybody to overhear this, be it Teddie in the hallway or one of your neighbors and you know you don't have any sound dampening or anti-detection fields around your apartment right now. "...if you're Nell, you know that that has to be very hard for me to believe."
"...yes. Yes, I do," the girl says, sounding almost apologetic. "Is there any way I can prove it to you? If there isn't, I..." She looks down again. "I can go."
The way she says that gets you to lower your hand and dismiss the Void Bolt, at least. Every single fiber in your brain is telling you to tell her to leave, but...
"Tell me something only Nell would know."
She looks up at you. She looks a little surprised that you said that. The feeling's mutual, frankly.
"Ah...ah, okay." She blinks a couple times, clearly trying to think of something. Her eyes widen a bit when she does. "Do you remember when we would race?" She asks. Now your eyes go a bit wide. "We would start at the trees behind your house and...we would run in a circle around the village. But...we would always stop and go really slowly when we got to Esmau's house so she wouldn't hear us and catch us. It just, um. Never occurred to us to not go by her house..." She trailed off. "There was also that tree by Gale's house...I was too scared to climb it, but you kept trying to, I remember one day you almost made it to that big branch that was really high up...which I guess, would probably just be in arm's reach today..."
The girl is so deep in recollection at this point that she hasn't noticed that your arms are fully at your sides and your mouth is hanging open. She just continues on as she stares at her own hands.
"And...you took me into your mother's room and showed me the book she kept under her bed and Aunt Lyra caught us reading it, and she told me to keep it a secret because nobody was supposed to know about it, and, um. Aunt Lyra knows about that, because she found us, but...she didn't know that we had already read it together a few times before that, and..." She's looking back up now because she's noticed that you've started walking towards her. She's not sure what to make of this, given you almost attacked her just a moment ago. "I...I know that's just a couple things, but um, I can come up with more if--"
"Shh."
That's all you say before you throw your arms around her.
"That's enough. Just...sshhhhh."
Nell's arms are stiff at her sides at first. But eventually, she brings them up and hugs you back. She lets out a breath that you realize she had probably been holding in since you came through the door.
"I really missed you."
You don't respond right away, but. The feeling is mutual.
QUEST: THE SISTER
01
hhhhhhh...
...
hhhhhhh...
...
hhhhhhh...
You've been awake for a while now. A couple hours. You know because the only thing you can really do right now is lay in bed and read the clock. Every time you try to sit up, your body just hurts and you fall back. If you try to talk, nothing comes out. With some effort, you raise your hand up and touch the thing over your mouth and nose. It's clear. There's a small tube going from it to... ...something you don't even know how to describe, next to your bed. The Something Next To Your Bed, you think, is putting air into The Thing On Your Face and it's helping you breathe. You feel like you would have a pretty hard time breathing if it wasn't there, so...you hope the Something Next To Your Bed understands that you're grateful for its presence, even if you can't actually say it right now.
It's not much, but. You prefer looking at the clock and trying to communicate with the Something Next To Your Bed. Because if you weren't doing those things, you would probably be looking at your chest and seeing... ...
You close your eyes and turn your head. You don't want to go back to sleep. But you also just...don't want to see it right now.
The door opens. You open your eyes back up and look. For some reason, you get your hopes up for a second --
...it's not her.
You don't know why you got your hopes up.
"Good morning, Nessa," the woman says in a very soft voice as she approaches your bed. Something is in her hand, which she puts down on your bed and places a hand on your head. "How are you doing? Did you sleep alright?"
She's asking if you breathed the entire night. With the help of the Thing On Your Face and the Something Next To Your Bed, you did, but. You still didn't really sleep well. You nod anyway. The woman seems to pick up on it. A small grimace crosses her face.
"...did you have a bad dream?" She asked. You don't know how she figured that out, but. You nod again. "...do you want to see mother?" She asks.
You start to sniffle. You nod again. The woman reaches down and wraps her arms around you. You try to stop sniffling. You can't. Before you know it, you're crying. The woman just holds you a little tighter.
"I know. I know, Nessa," she says. "I'm trying so hard to find her. I miss her too."
The woman... ...
Your older sister. Agnis.
She has the same white hair as your mother, and the same purple eyes as you and your mother. But she has a patch over one of her eyes.
She doesn't let go of you until you've stopped crying. She wipes your eyes clean with her sleeve. She very briefly lifts The Thing On Your Face off so she can wipe your nose too.
"Do you want some water?" She asks. You nod. "Do you want to try holding it?" After some hesitation, you nod again. She places the cup into your hand and very gradually guides it to your mouth. Your grip on the cup is very, very tenuous but you try your hardest to keep it in place as you drink out of the cup. Once you're done, Agnis puts The Thing On Your Face back on.
"Do you want to get some rest?" She asked. "Or..." She holds up what she brought in with her. Your eyes widen. "I brought some books I thought you might like."
You arm feels so heavy, but you raise it as fast as you can to point at the books. Agnis smiles and sits down on your bed.
"Okay. Here we are. Chapter 1, an Unexpected Party..."
---
"The mother of our particular hobbit...what is a hobbit? I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays, since they have became rare and shy of the Big People, as they call us. They are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded Dwarves. Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off." Agnis reaches a hand out and lightly touches your stomach when she says 'large stupid folk'. You think she was expecting a smile when she did that, but you just furrow your brow a bit. Hearing that these 'hobbits' don't have magic doesn't do a great job of endearing you to this story. You want to ask Agnis to tell you a story about witches, the kind mother told you, but...you can't ask her for much of anything right now, so you just keep listening.
---
"Thereupon the twelve dwarves - not Thorin, he was too important, and stayed talking to Gandalf - jumped to their feet and made tall piles of all the things. Off they went, not waiting for trays, balancing columns of plates, each with a bottle on the top, with one hand, while the hobbit ran after them almost squeaking with fight -- please be careful! Please, don't trouble! I can manage! But the dwarves only started to sing. Chip the glas..."
Agnis pauses. She looks at you, as if checking to see if you're still awake. You are. You wonder why she stopped. You want to hear more about....well, mostly just Gandalf. You've decided fairly quickly that you like Gandalf. Agnis looks at the book, then looks at you...she stands up and clears her throat.
Then in a very animated way, she starts moving back and forth and singing.
"Chip the glasses and crack the plates!
Blunt the knives and bend the forks!
That's what Bilbo Baggins hates-
Smash the bottles and burn the corks!
Cut the cloth and tread on the fat!
Pour the milk on the pantry floor!
Leave the bones on the bedroom mat!
Splash the wine on every door!
Dump the crocks in a boiling bawl;
Pound them up with thumping pole;
And when you've finished, if any are whole,
Send them down the hall to roll!
That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!
So, carefully! Careully with the plates!"
During all of that, Agnis did things for punctuation such as splashing some of your water on the door and kicking one of her shoes off across the room where it smacked into the wall. She's so animated that by the end of it, you can't help it. It's exceptionally weak, but, you let out a couple of laughs. You see Agnis smile as she notices you smiling as well. She rubs the top of your head a couple times and sits back down to continue reading.
---
"It was very dark, and the wind howled horribly around her, but Dorothy found she was riding quite easily. After the first few whirls around, and one other time when the house tipped badly, she felt as if she were being rocked gently, like a baby in a cradle."
After a while, Agnis stops reading you the story about Bilbo and Gandalf and the dwarves. You were disappointed, but she says she thinks you'll like this story too, about a girl named Dorothy.
"...but soon she saw one of his ears sticking up through the hole, for the strong pressure of the air was keeping him up so that he could not fall. She crept to the hole, caught Toto by the ear and dragged him into the room again; afterwards closing the trap-door so that no more accidents could happen."
You blink a couple times. Your eyes had closed for a few seconds there. It takes you a minute to realize that you had almost fallen asleep. Agnis glances up from the book at you. She seems to have noticed, too.
"Hour after hour passed away, and slowly Dorothy got over her fright; but she felt quite lonely, and the wind shrieked so loudly all about her that she nearly became deaf. At first she had wondered if she would be dashed to pieces when the house fell again; but as the hours passed and nothing terrible happened, she stopped worrying and resolved to wait calmly and see what the future would bring. At last she crawled over the swaying floor to her bed, and lay down upon it; and Toto followed and lay down beside her. In spite of the swaying of the house and the wailing of the wind...." Agnis closed the book. "Dorothy soon closed her eyes and fell fast asleep."
Agnis leans over. She briefly puts her hand on your forehead, then she strokes your head a couple more times. She's definitely noticed the way you're having trouble keeping your eyes open by this point.
"Why don't you get some rest, Nessa," she says. "We'll read some more later." You give her a nod. She leans in and gives you a kiss on the forehead. Then she leaves, closing the door behind her.
As you drift off, you think about the books Agnis read to you. About Bilbo, who hated adventures, but wound up going on an adventure with Gandalf and the dwarves, and of Dorothy, who was away from her aunt and her uncle and her home, but was trying not to be scared.
...
hhhhhhh...
...
hhhhhhh...
You tell yourself....to try to not be scared....and you turn your head to look at your own chest.
You see it. The soft violet glow surrounding it. All of the lights sparkling inside of it.
For a few seconds, you stare at the glass bubble embedded halfway into your chest. You don't know what else to do. So you just stare at it, quietly breathing in and out until your eyes slide shut and you fall asleep.
QUEST: ???
01
You tug on Dimitri's collars after lessons. He turns to face you and grimaces.
"Hi, Nessa." He tilts his head. "How's your cheek doing?"
"It's bruised. It hurts," you say flatly, your eyebrows falling. During lessons today, you messed up an incantation. Esmau didn't like that. And now you have a bruise on your cheek. You know Dimitri's just trying to show concern, but asking about it isn't gonna make it hurt less. Anyway, that's not what you wanted to talk about. "A...anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk about."
"What is it, then?"
"Um...." You look around. Gale is talking to Nell. Ben and Fran are a short distance away (Ben and Fran are always hanging around Dimitri....), watching the two of you. You lightly put a hand on your older cousin's shoulder. "Can we talk...away from everybody else?" Dimitri doesn't seem to like that, but...he looks over at Ben and Fran. He gives them a simple nod. The two twins nod back and walk away. Dimitri then follows you away from them, behind one of the houses.
"What?" He asks. "Do you want some help with the lessons? If you just study harder, Esmau probably won't get so mad at you..."
"I don't need help studying...!" You say with a huff. "And Esmau will find a reason to get mad at me, no matter how good I do..." You grumble. "I just. Wanted to talk to you. About something..." You fidget a bit, wringing your hands together, before forcing it out. "...do you ever think about what it's like outside?"
"I...guess?" Dimitri says. "It's getting colder. We're probably gonna have to start doing lessons in the temple once it starts snowing."
"No...I don't mean like, outside here! I mena...outside the forest!" You wave your arms as widely as you can. "I..." You look back and forth to make sure nobody is watching. "I've been thinking about what it's like, outside the forest..."
"What? Why?!" Dimitri exclaims. "That's against the rules! That's the most important rule! Grandmother Lilith tells us, we can never go outside the forest! Outside the forest, they hunt and kill witches! Geez, Nessa, don't you even pay attention to anything Grandmother Lilith says?!"
"I do...! I just...some of it doesn't make much sense to me! If it's dangerous outside the forest, then...shouldn't we know more about it? So we can understand how bad it is? But Grandmother Lilith doesn't even want us to ask! She won't tell us anything except that hunt kill witches! She won't even tell us who 'they' are, doesn't that bother yo--"
"STOP!" Dimitri waves his hands emphatically. "Nessa, just stop! She doesn't tell us because we don't need to know! All we need to do is listen to her and become witches like her!" He runs his hand down his face. "No wonder you're always messing up in lessons if you're thinking about stuff like this..." He shakes his head. "I'm gonna do you a favor and not tell Esmau or Grandmother Lilith any of the stuff you were just saying. Just...forget all of that, okay, Nessa? It doesn't matter."
"...."
You sniff once and look at the ground.
"Okay," you say in a very small voice. Dimitri sighs, and then for lack of anything better to say, just walks away. You bring a hand up to your eyes and rub it a couple times. Except for the part where he said he wouldn't tell Esmau or Grandmother Lilith, that went about as badly as it possibly could've gone.
02
He stood up straight, then immediately fell backwards with a splash. He scrambled in one direction, then another, sending water everywhere. Eventually, as he came to a stop, the sounds of the water stopped and he was left with nothing but the sound of his own rapid, harried breaths.
He looked around. It was pitch black. All he could tell was that he was in a knee-deep pool of water. The only light he could see was a purple light a short distance away from him. He squinted at itHe pulled himself onto his hands and knees and crawled towards them until he saw that the lights were orbs. They were heavy looking wooden beads. Beads in...a necklace.
He realized recognized that necklace.
“…g….” He swallowed. The word died in his throat.
“….grandmother….?”
“Hello, Dimitri.”
“What…what…what happened…N…Nessa and…my…my….” Dimitri looked around. Besides the light coming from the necklace and the water, he couldn’t see anything or anyone.
“There will be time to talk about that later. Rise, Dimitri.” Dimitri was silent for a second. He stared into the darkness without moving, until the voice said a second time, “Rise, Dimitri.”
His eyes fell. He slowly rose to his feet.
“You’re all that’s left, Dimitri.”
His hand came up to his chest, beneath his neck. He stared down. Embedded flat in his chest, he saw a glowing purple shard of glass.
“Your family needs you.”
---
"You're ready."
Lilith held up the list. She folded it and placed it in his breast pocket.
"You need to retrieve everything. Then, return here. Try to do so undetected. But it is more important that you get everything than it is that that you do so without being seen. If need be, we can move to a different place. "
Dimitri heard the instructions, as he had multiple times by now. But he's just staring at his pocket, and the piece of paper in it.
"Grandmother..."
She stops busying herself adjusting his clothes for a moment, then looks at him.
"When I get these materials for you....?"
"We'll start rebuilding our family, Dimitri. Without our Heart, I only had enough Spark to bring you back. When you do this, I'll have enough to bring the others back as well. You'll be able to see Nell and Ben and Fran and Gale again." She placed a hand on his shoulder. "...I've already told you. I won't be able to bring your parents back." Dimitri closed his eyes. "The damage Nessa did to their bodies was too severe."
"....Nessa...."
"You have to stop her, Dimitri," Lilith said quietly. "She stole our Heart and destroyed our family. We can't be whole again until you get it back from. You and your cousins will be able to. I'll teach you how."
"...I can do it myself." Dimitri looked up and met Lilith's eyes.
"Yourself?" She asked.
"You don't need to bring them back." He tried to set his jaw and sound confident. "I'll get the Heart back from her myself and bring it back to you. Teach me how." Lilith regarded him for a second...then slowly shook his head.
"No, Dimitri. It needs to be all of you. Alone, you won't be enough to fight the power the Heart gives he--"
"Please!" He said, more forcefully. His hands made fists at his sides. Lilith raised an eyebrow.
"Dimitri...what are you saying?"
"I can't...." He shut his eyes. "They died years ago...they're at peace, now. I can't force them to come back just to make them fight. Please! Please just let me do it!"
"You can't?" Lilith asked. "Dimitri. You must do this. You must bring them back." Dimitri shook his head, pulled the list from his pocket and dropped it at her feet. Lilith heaved a sigh and closed her eyes briefly. She slowly brought one hand up to her necklace. "Please pick up the list, Dimitri."
"I can't...." Dimitri said weakly. His eyes were tightly shut. Tears were starting to fall from them. He knew what was coming. Lilith sighed again. She picked up two of the beads of her necklace and knocked them against each other. A purple spark of energy traveled from her necklace to Dimitri's chest and the shard embedded in it.
Dimitri's eyes snapped open. He let out a blood curdling scream as his head snapped backwards. It took all of a couple seconds for him to collapse onto his side, grabbing at his chest with both hands.
---
"--mitri!"
You shoot up into a sitting position. Your head and your eyes snap back and forth, looking around wildly as you take in rapid, fearful breaths. It takes you a few seconds to remember the feeling of blankets and sheets on your body and a mattress underneath you. You grope around in the darkness for a few seconds. Your hand eventually finds Puck, curled up next to, like he always is.
You're in bed. You're in your bedroom. You're in your apartment.
Your hands come up to your face, which is covered in sweat. You slowly pull them down.
Still half in a daze, you kick the covers off of your legs and get out of bed. You stumble out of your bedroom and down the hall, to the bathroom. You drink some water, then splash more of it on your face.
You stare at yourself in the mirror for a long few minutes. Your hand eventually reaches at the collar of your nightshirt and tugs it down, exposing the small glass bubble embedded in your chest. It's lit up with a purple glow, hundreds of twinkling lights appearing in its center. Your breath slowly becomes steady as you stare at it.
"Why are you waking up....?" You mutter. You always put it to sleep before you go to bed. Why is it waking up on its own? Two....three? Is it three times, now? Why is it making you have these dreams?
You run your finger over the front of the bubble. For several long moments, your eyes are locked on a series of marks in the glass, where a number of shards are missing. You slowly close your eyes.
You tap the bubble once with your index finger. It goes dark.
03
You drop a book on your desk. Next to that, you have your laptop open, to several articles, all about the same subject: lucid dreaming. The book is a spellbook about dreamwalking, which is essentially the same thing, but with magic. Dreamwalking is Harmony magic due to its mental aspect, which you're not capable of. There have been attempts to come up with Void-aligned versions of it, mostly with limited success. You're hoping you can fill in the blanks with some of this research on lucid dreaming.
You don't know if this is going to work. You know you have to try something, though. You can't just tolerate the Voidheart waking up on its own and giving you constant nightmares about your... ...cousin.
You refuse to be a prisoner of your own past. So you're going to figure something out, dammit.
You spend hours researching dreams and how to control them, both the magic and non-magical methods. Lots and lots of reading and note-taking later, you think you have a plan. That night when you're preparing to go to bed, you do something you've never done before.
You let out a breath. You pull down the collar of your night shirt. You look down at the Voidheart, its surface currently darkened....you give it a single tap and it wakes up, all the lights inside coming to life.
You get in bed. Not too long after, you're falling asleep.
...
...
...
...
Dimitri is standing on an empty street. It's night time. Rain is falling on him. He has a hood, but he's not pulling it up, so the rain is just falling on his hair and face. He's staring across the street at a building. It looks like a store that's closed for the night but his eyes are locked on it, unwavering. He eventually brings up his hand and his breathing quickens. Purple sparks crackling around his palm and travel up to his fingers. He makes a fist. His breathing quickens further and he takes one step towards crossing the street --
"Dimitri."
He stops. He looks up, his eyes wide. He looks around.
"Dimitri. Right here."
You do something you haven't been able to do up to this point. You reach out and touch his shoulder. He looks down at your hand. Then at you. His breath catches in his throat, like he's seen a ghost.
"Nnn. Nessa?"
"Yeah," you say and give him a little nod. You can feel the rain hitting your face now, too.
"What're you doing here?"
"...looking for you, mostly." You look across the street. He does too.
"I have to go--"
"Go in there and break in to the secret room in the basement, get into a shootout with a bunch of criminals operating outside the Order's purview, steal their Spark, kill one of them while you're trying to escape, so you can take the Spark back to Lilith, even though you don't want to do any of that?"
Dimitri stares at you, eyes wide, mouth hanging open.
"How do you--"
"I've seen this one a few times," you say, sadly. You reach out and grab his hood, pulling it up to cover his head. "Why don't you come with me this time instead?" You take his hand and without waiting for an answer, you walk away with him. You walk down the street and turn a corner - you're suddenly in Manchester on a street corner you visit every day on your way to work. You guide him into a building and sit down at a table. You're inside your favorite hibachi restaurant and two bowls of udon are being placed in front of each of you. He's looking around like he has no idea what's going on. You give him a tap on the shoulder and a smile.
"Just go with it."
"I don't understand." You let out a breath. Well, you guess you owe him some explanation. Might as well be the truth.
"....I just got tired of having nightmares. Not because they were bothering me, but." She looked at him. "I was sick of seeing the messed up things my mind was doing to you."
"So I'm...just a dream of yours?" Dimitri asks. You give a little nod. "....huh." He looks down for a few seconds.
"I really wish you weren't," you say, softly. "I...really miss you." You put a hand on his hand. He turns his hand around and clasps yours. He keeps looking down, a pensive expression on his face.
"Honestly...maybe that's fine. If I'm just your dream then that means. I'm not actually doing any of this stuff for Grandmother. Which means the others aren't going to get dragged back just to fight for her." He closed his eyes and let out a sigh. "That's kind of a relief, honestly."
"If there was a way to bring you all back..." You take in a breath. You dab at your eyes a bit with your hand. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry all of me. Bloody hangs-up and survivor's guilt wound up manifesting in a way that sucks so much for you." And Dimitri actually lets out a low, wry laugh.
"Well. If I'm just a dream of yours, it'd be pretty weird if I didn't forgive you, so. Apology accepted, I guess." He looked around. "Now that you're here, I don't have to go back to that cave where Grandmother is, do I?"
"Are you kidding?" You scoff. "I've already mastered the art of dreamwalking - after just one night of trying, no less!" You wag a finger. "No, no, no. We've broken free of the curse of my subconscious guilt. We're having a night on the town, now!" You stand up from your seat and take his hand again. "Come now. I believe our limousine to the red carpet premiere is waiting outside."
"....limousine?" He asks, quirking an eyebrow. "Red carpet?" You grin at him.
"You should've listened when I brought up the outside, before. You've got a lot to see."
You won't wake up for a good several hours. For now, you're sleeping soundly in your bed. For now, at least, you're content.
04
You scream fruitlessly into your phone and almost spike it on the ground when she doesn't pick up. You're really starting to panic now. You know why she's not picking it up. You start running a bit faster. A black hand creeps out of your shoulder.
'It's likely she's been waylaid by the same group that's been trying to harass you.'
"I know," you groan. "This can't be possibly be anything but a targeted attack at this point." You blow out a breath through your teeth. "It's her. It's Lilith."
'It's been over a decade since the last time she sent someone after you.'
"She's never had a problem playing the long game. She's on the run from the Order, I'm not surprised it took her 13 years to finally scrape together enough to hire some decent assassins to come after me."
'If that's true, then if they are attacking Nell right now, and that's why she can't answer her phone, you know it's a trap meant to lure you in.'
"Yeah." You narrow your eyes. "I don't much care."
'I agree. I will prepare as much Spark for you as possible by the time we get ther --- Nessa, look out!'
Your head snaps up. The hand suddenly tries to expand in size to intercept what you're only just now realize is a very large amount of Void energy heading directly for your side. Your eyes widen. You bring your hand to your chest. Too later. The energy collides with the hand, now significant larger, barely managing to keep it from striking you. You look in the direction the energy came from. You see a figure in a black cloak with a hood pulled up standing a short distance away. One of their hands is up, lightly bouncing a violet sphere of pure Void energy in their hand.
You narrow your eyes and tap at your chest. The Voidheart wakes up and you immediately start pulling Spark from it into your hands.
'Nessa...'
You look at the hand. Your breath catches in your throat when you see violet light crackling and sparking off of it.
"Volatile Spark....!" You murmur. The attacker pitches the sphere at you. It strikes the hand and the energy crackling over it explodes, hurling you off the ground. You slam into a wall and crumple to the ground. Your ears are ringing and your vision is swimming, but you're vaguely aware the attacker is coming closer.
"C...Cornelius...are you okay....?" You murmur as you try to get your bearings back enough to bring your hands together.
'My physical form on your body was destroyed by the Volatile Spark.' His voice is more distant than normal. 'To reconstitute, I'll need five.....I'll try to make it three minutes.' This is about the most urgency you've ever heard in his voice. It underlines that you're in a very bad situation right now.
"Come on, come on, come on....!" Your hands are shaking as you try to make the right signs. You're growing more and more aware that the attacker is getting closer. You manage to strike your right hand against your left wrist in the right cadence - two purple circles with runes inscribed in their surface burst to life upon your wrists. You snap your arm in the direct of your attacker and basically blind fire a Void Bolt. It's enough to get them to dodge away at least. You shove your fingers onto your temple next and after a very unpleasant jolt runs through your entire body, you feel your vision clearing up and are able to get back to your feet. You raise your hand up at them.
"...you shouldn't have gotten involved with someone like Lilith," you snarl out, feeling what you're pretty sure is bloodlust building up in your stomach. It feels horrible. "I won't be responsible for what I do to you if you've done anything to my cousin."
"..."
The attacker doesn't advance, or retreat. They bring their hands up to their head and pull their hood back to reveal a dark-skinned face with purple eyes and white hair. The hair is longer and less maintained, the face is more mature and the eyes have more rings under them than the last time you saw them, but...you recognize all of them. Your hand falls.
"...Dimitri...?"
He stares at you without saying anything. Then, you feel the anger within you welling up far, far worse than before.
"So Lilith is willing to stoop even this low, huh?!" You vaguely hear Cornelius' voice distantly tell you not to rush in. You ignore it and, well, rush in. "STOP WEARING MY COUSIN'S FACE!" You scream as you charge in, firing more Void Bolts at him. He weaves around them as a Void Barrier builds around his arm. He sinks his Barrier-covered fist into your stomach and knocks the wind out of you with one punch. You crumble to the ground again, clutching your chest.
"So I'm just wearing your cousin's face, huh?" He asks. You almost cover your ears when you hear that voice. He leans down next to you. "Tell me something. Is Nell just wearing your cousin's face too? Or do you actually believe that she's really Nell? Because I have bad news for you. Whatever you believe for her, you have to believe for me too."
You try to crawl away. He doesn't pursue you yet. You look back at him.
"Dimi....you're really....you're really Dimitri?" You ask. And the question you never were able to bring yourself to ask Nell comes out. "H...how?!" Dimitri stares at you for a second. Then he opens his cloak and pulls down his collar.
You immediately recognize it when you see it in his chest.
It's the Void Shard you saw in your dreams. Implanted in his chest, exactly like it was in your dreams. Dimitri puts his cloak back in place and glowers down at you.
"All five of us. Ben, Fran, Gale, Nell and me. We were all brought back to life by Grandmother Lilith, using shards of the Voidheart." Without you realizing your hand was on your chest, your fingers find the place on the Voidheart you've touched hundreds of times, where it's missing those shards.
He runs at you, raising his Barrier-covered arm again. You try to conjure a Barrier of your own, but he punches right through it and socks you in the cheek. You stumble backwards and try to fire a Void bolt at him, but he smacks it out of the air with his bare hand and punches you again. Every attempt you make to defend or counterattack with your own spells is hasty, unfocused and easily turned away.
"You're the one who killed us, Nessa! You used the Voidheart to do it!" Dimitri yells out. "Grandmother Lilith revived the five of us for one reason. To take the Voidheart back from you!"
Your hands completely stop moving. You just stand there, too stunned to even defend yourself. Dimitri punches you in the stomach, then square in the nose. You drop backwards and land on your back. Your hands come up and cover your nose. He stands over you and raises his arm up, and in that second, you know, he's about to do it. He's about to rip the Voidheart right out of you.
You don't think you can stop him.
You don't know if you should even try.
Before he can do anything else, a giant black fist shoots out of the Voidheart and punches Dimitri square in the jaw and, due to its size, most of the rest of his head too. He flies backwards before landing on his feet and skidding backwards a few more feet. He rubs the side of his head, which has a quickly summoned Barrier on it that, after that punch, is mostly in pieces. He dismisses it and lets out a sigh. He clearly was trying to get this done before Cornelius reconstituted.
He then looks off to the side. He touches his hand to his ear.
"I'm here."
...
"Where?"
...
He looks back at you. He narrows his eyes. Between having to deal with Cornelius now and whatever's happening on the other end of that call, he clearly doesn't like this situation anymore. He turns and starts to walk away. Cornelius' only priority is to protect you, so he does nothing to stop him. You on the other hand.
"Dimitri, wait!" You cough, a hand on your chest, blood pouring from your nose as you basically try to crawl after him. "Dimitri, stop! Please!" He does stop and glance back at you.
"Nessa," he says shortly. "The only way the five of us can survive...is if you lose the Voidheart."
A purple aura covers his body and he phases through a wall, vanishing from sight. You stare at the wall for several seconds.
Then you just collapse onto your back and stare up at the sky.
05
You managed to find Nell, but that's about the only good news you have. You were attacked by Dimitri. She was attacked by Gale. You know at some point you're going to have to talk with her about what happened, what's happening and what's going to happen, but you....really just don't want to. When you get home, you just stand in the kitchen and stare at the inside of the fridge for a while. Nell is absentmindedly playing with Puck in the other room. Neither of you say anything for a while. Eventually, though, you hear steps entering the kitchen.
"Nessa?"
You glance towards her. You don't say anything for a few seconds.
"Yes, Nell?" You eventually say.
"Um." She hesitates, then pushes forward "I...I should look at your n...." She looks off to the side. "N...nevermind." She walks back to the living room.
Your nose, hell, most of your face hurts. You imagine by now it's pretty clear how bad Dimitri throttled you. You realize you've barely checked Nell to see how hurt she is. You think about taking a look at her. You walk towards her.
You're the one who killed us, Nessa.
You walk right past her, into the hallway. She notices and looks at you.
"A...are you going to bed?" She asks. You don't turn back.
"Yeah...yes."
That's all you say before you head into your room and close the door. You run your hands through your hair and down your face, holding them over your eyes for a few seconds.
You don't know what to do. You don't even think there's anything you can do right now. You just want to rest. So you get in bed, throw your head on the pillow and try to sleep.
---
"What happened?"
"Everything is going according to plan, Grandmother."
Your eyes widen. You look around. You gasp and then cover your mouth.
You can see Dimitri standing in front of you. But between you and him is someone else...a woman, with both black and white hair. She's just a smoky wisp, a conjured image used for communication, but...you recognize Lilith anywhere. For a second, you think you're going to have to fight, but neither of them move.
You reach a hand out and swipe it through the smoky Lilith. It goes right through. Well. It would've done that anyway, but neither one of them react to it. You don't...think you did any of your lucid dreaming prep before you went to sleep, so you don't know what to make of this. In retrospect, you don't know what to make of any of the dreams you had about Dimitri.
"Where is Nell?"
You stop thinking and your head immediately tilts up. Dimitri breaks eye contact with Lilith for a second, then looks back at her.
"She's undercover, with Nessa, like you told her to." You bite down on your lip and close your eyes. You can't believe this. You don't want to believe this.
It really was all a goddamn trick. A plan to take the Voidheart from you.
"She's still supposed to check in," Lilith says. "Why has she taken so long to do it. You said you had come up with a plan to get her guard down and Nell would finish the job."
"I did. There were...difficulties," Dimitri says. "We've had to adjust on the fly."
"Then everything isn't going according to plan, is it?" Lilith raised a hand to her necklace. "I'm calling Nell right now. I want to hear what she's doing."
"I don't think she can answer without compromising her cover, Grandmother," Dimitri says. "Nessa's very suspicious of her. She watches her like a hawk. I think if Nell does anything out of the ordinary, Nessa will throw her out."
You blink once. Your brows knit in confusion as something about that doesn't make sense. You've spent plenty of time with Nell, but you've also given her plenty of space since she moved in. She has her own room and you've had to leave her alone in the apartment for a while more than once.
Is Nell lying to Dimitri or....is Dimitri lying to Lilith....?
"If it's compromised, then it's compromised," Lilith said. "Time is not a resource we have in infinite supply. Prompt brute force is better than lengthy subterfuge at this point. When is the last time you spoke to her, Dimitri?" She asked.
"Two weeks ago, grandmother," Dimitri says without missing a beat.
Another wispy trail of smoke appears, and after a few second it gradually takes a human shape that eventually settles on...
"H...hello, grandmother," Nell says, unable to make eyecontact with Lilith.
"Nell. You haven't checked in. I've grown concerned for your safety." Nell bows her head.
"I'm so sorry, grandmother. Th-there's...just been some difficulties in carrying out my duties."
"Dimitri says that when you last spoke four days ago, you told him that Nessa is rarely in her home. She spends her days surrounded by people and doesn't tell you where she goes at night." Dimitri's eyes widen. He looks at Lilith. Then at Nell. His mouth hangs open for a second, but he knows he can't say anything. "Is that true, Nell?"
Nell looks at Dimitri briefly. Then...she nods. Dimitri tries not to make his reaction too visible, but you can see a grimace form on his face.
"Yes, grandmother. It's...it's just hard to get her alone without any witnesses. B-but. Um. D-Dimitri has a plan where we make it so she falls asleep at home before she can go anywhere else. W-we just need a bit more time to execute it."
Lilith looks from Nell, to Dimitri, back to Nell. She nods.
"It sounds like you two are doing your best," she says. "Do what you must to bring this plan to fruition." Nell visibly lets out a breath of relief. Dimitri looks more anxious than ever.
"We will, grandmother. We promise. F...for our family."
"For our family. Goodbye, Nell." Nell ducks her head and the smoky projection of her vanishes. Lilith snaps her black, empty eyes to Dimitri.
"I told you that I was trusting you to keep control of your cousins, Dimitri. When did you lose control of Nell?" Lilith asks. Dimitri doesn't answer. Lilith raises a hand to her necklace. Sparks crackle along Dimitri's chest, where his Void Shard lay. "I asked you a question, Dimitri."
"Right after she moved in with Nessa." The words spill out of his mouth. "She stopped contacting us regularly. When we finally were able to get her to talk to us. She said was refusing to do it. She...she wants to live with Nessa. She's. Sided with her." He swallows. He closes his eyes. "I think...I think she may have been with her from the very beginning."
Lilith lets out a sigh.
"This was always a possibility. Nell was quite taken with her when they were children. It's of no matter." Lilith takes another bead of her necklace in her hand. "Calm yourself, Dimitri. I'm not going to punish you for trying to protect Nell. She is your family. But you realize I must give Nell proper instruction." Dimitri blinks once.
"O..of what kind, grandmother?" He asks.
"If Nell won't do her duty...then she must be made to."
Lilith taps the bead on her necklace a couple of times.
"We will either hear that she's completed her assignment soon, or...she's dead. Either way, we'll know what we must do next."
Dimitri is clearly forcing himself to not panic while he's still talking to Lilith....but you suddenly see his eyes change. He's not looking at Lilith anymore. He's looking behind her. At you.
"Call me when you know what's happened."
"Yes, grandmother."
Even as he speaks to you, Dimitri keeps staring at you. You blink once.
...oh, shit.
You point a finger at yourself and mouth,
'Me?'
He nods.
Oh, shit!
You put your fingers on both sides of your temple. You feel a jolt run from your fingers, into your head, through your whole body.
"Whuh!"
And you snap back awake. You look around. You're alone in your room. You get out of your bed. You're about to call for Nell, when--
"Nessa......!"
You hear a pained sounding cry coming from outside your room. You swallow. It's Nell, of course. You look at the window and despite how high up it is, boy, you're really thinking about jumping out right now. You swallow and do the opposite, leaving your room and heading back into the living room.
"Nessa....!" Nell wails again. She's hunched over in the kitchen. You walk towards her.
"Nell...?" You ask as you slowly walk through the living room, towards the kitchen. Nell sniffs loudly. She slowly turns around.
"Nessa...."
Tears are falling from her eyes. And a blade of Void spark is attached to her wrist. She's trying to force it down with her other wrist. She's trying to pull herself away from you, but her body is very clearly not listening to what she wants.
"Please....please, run!"
And she lunges at you, blade pointed towards your throat.