Vervain/SybilVisions

Sybil's Visions

Sybil, as has been pointed out, knows very little about anything. But this is, in brief, what she experiences shortly after her Exaltation. It's incoherant, of course, and yes I did write it in quite a stream-of-consciousness way which isn't easy to follow, but honestly? I'm writing this for the player's reference, so she's the one who needs to understand it, and she can prod me as much as she likes until I either elaborate or giggle evily.

First

High-roofed chamber, naturally lit, twilight sun filtering down, falling across the face of a man standing close to her. The room, large, more like a hall, hung with brilliant wall-hangings, golden thread glinting in the last of the light. "I'm sorry..." he says, and she replies, with a voice which is hers-but-not-hers, "For what?" and there is a long pause, almost awkward, before he shakes his head and...

Second

...it all fades and she is alone, and running, robes swirling around her legs, almost tripping her, smooth black paving-stones beneath her feet providing little grip, her delicate feet sliding in her light slippers. It is unclear why she runs but she knows she must not stop. A sense of betrayal. She realises that it is the docks she runs towards and a ship that waits there and she approaches and there's Mikhail and he beckons her to hurry and...

Third

...who is Mikhail? She doesn't know any more. She is a child, on a boat, but a different boat, and the seas are so high and she was glad to be there at first but now it's cold and the spray makes everything damp and salt-covered, and she's scared, and she wishes she'd stayed at home, but it's too late. A wave washes over the side of the boat and drenches her and she starts to loose her grip, and...

Fourth

...it's no good, that memory won't hold in her mind any better than the rest, and now she's adult again, old, older than she imagines a person could be, and Mikhail (she knows who Mikhail is again now) hands her a wrapped bundle and she takes it, feeling a familiar weight, and she lays it on the table and Mikhail leaves and she opens it and changes and now she is not the priestess (I am a priestess? a little part of her asks), she is the warrior, and she steps outside in her shining armour and Mikhail says that it is fitting, and says that they shall take their stand at...

Fifth

...at where? It faded too soon, but Mikhail is still there and it's so hot, and she wonders how he could stand this place for so long but she's glad, because it's hidden, and they're hidden, but from who? And the person she is now isn't sure, because the person she was then is confused and scared and she tries so hard to be strong but there's something she's wondering desperately about and doesn't dare put words around even in her own mind, and she's about to...

Sixth

...but the water is so cold, and the salt burns her eyes and throat, and she wonders if she's about to know what drowning is, until a strong hand takes hold of her, roughly, and drags her upwards, and it hurts, it hurts, but it's taking her back to air, and she gasps a lungful before another wave washes over her and she has to close her eyes again...

Seventh

...and when she opens them it's to see the room darkened and Mikhail standing silently in the corner and she wonders if he even slept at all and she stands up because she can't sleep either, and she wonders what happened to the others and she wants to know about him especially, and maybe that's the thing she couldn't put words around earlier, and then...

Eighth

...he's telling her not to, don't do it, but she has to know and so she goes and she steps outside and it's not him there but it's one of his servants and he looks at her with fear and sadness and she says, "what message does he send?" and the servant shakes his head and reaches for something and it's her sword and she starts because she'd thought it was lost...

Ninth

...and it's disorientating because this is somewhere else and sometime else and he's there and he hands her the sword and tells her it's a present and she can only stare at it and then at him and it's beautiful and he's beautiful and she feels joy that he gives her a gift but it reminds her of...

Tenth

...battles and battles and battles, and she was at the forefront of them, and wasn't that what she was made for after all? And a part of her wonders briefly what that even means and who this is now, it's someone else again, someone prouder and far stronger but still she's bleeding and she can stop it but new gashes come and she bleeds more and eventually she begins to sink down into blackness and...

Eleventh

...the servant closes his eyes for a moment and holds the sword like he's going to offer it to her and then his grip tightens on the handle and it darts forward so fast, it was always so fast wasn't it? And she could try to avoid it but why would she if it's come down to him and this and not even his own hands, the hands of his servants dirtying themselves in his place and there's so much blood and someone shouts something on the edge of hearing and she thinks it's Mikhail but maybe not, it's all getting so dim, and the servant says something and she thinks he says that she's a monster but then Mikhail is there and he strikes the servant and the servant bleeds too and falls to the ground in front of her as a headless body, and she's already on her knees and her robes are soaked and the blade is still in her and she can see the hilt on the sandy ground in front of her and the shimmering silver-gold blade has done its work and Mikhail is shouting to her but it's too late and he was never a healer anyway and then there's...

Awake again

...just the one of her again, almost alone in her head, and there's sunlight. So much sunlight, she can tell even through her closed eyelids as she kneels on the sandy ground, and so she opens her eyes, a hand clutching her stomach, feeling the unbroken skin where her mind told her there should be a gaping hole left by a silver-gold shining blade, and there's the blade on the ground in front of her, and it's covered in blood; but it's not her blood, at all, it's the blood of the bodies that lie on the sand all around her. She wonders briefly what happened, but soon she's too busy throwing up to wonder anything for a while, and when she's done she realises she's all alone, and she realises that she doens't know who she is, and she realises she's almost certainly just killed people; and she realises that this isn't another vision, but real. She's really here, and she's really, truly, lost and alone.