Piercing Shadows
The midday sun burned brightly at the peek of a busy day. The Schorlwood Vilage had returned to a very satisfying normal routine once again.
“This sucks.” Vwyx was once again in her workshop, complaining about her work. This time though, she was not alone. On the other side of the workshop, her younger sister was also hard at work with her own wood project. Vwyx’s newest project was to work on a ladder, something with flexible moving parts, but designed in a very simple style. Her sister meanwhile was trying to shape sheets for a table, something that would have been so much easier if she was allowed to meld the wood. At least, it wasn’t going to be her problem, but her sister wasn’t exactly thrilled by such a difficult project.
Vwyx went to her collection of metal bolts, important for binding the ladder with the mundane solution. She reached into her supplies to find it empty, so wandered off to get a refill. At the storage shed, she found their overall supply was running low. She had no idea how long it’s been since the last delivery, but hopefully it would be soon. She returned and found the requisition form completed already, so they were expecting a delivery any day now. Returning to the ladder, she started carefully setting the bolts into the wood. Even after a year that had passed to her in the span of a collection of days, she still knew what she was doing. Her sister however was still struggling, making her feel bad. Worse, her sister was noticing just how much Vwyx was not struggling, frustering her further. Rushing to get more progress done, she suddenly catches the sawblade in the wood at an angle and forces it into a mighty torque, causing the metal to snap in half.
Vwyx put down her tools and went to go lend a hand. She knew that making such a mistake was going to land her sister in big trouble, replacing such a blade would be difficult, especially if they had only just sent out a request for supplies. The special saw blade she was using was designed for careful shaping, specifically for rounding complex edges, and as such was the only one of its kind that they had. Her first concern though was if her sister was alright. Fortunately, while the blade had snapped, it had safely remained embedded in the wood. Vwyx looked at the problem with concern, looking to see if there was any way they could repair the broken blade. She saw no natural solution for the problem, it would require someone skilled with metal to reshape it, or maybe to even replace it. She was herself very familiar with the instrument, but her talent was with wood, something like this was beyond her.
Despite all sense of reason or logic, she continued to inspect the broken blade. It was a clean break, all too obvious that things would be better if this piece were capable of melding into this other piece like.. that? Vwyx fell back in surprise as the broken blade took in it’s other shard, and was now fully repaired. She hadn’t even used her melding instrument, something she’s needed in the past for any other wood melding. But.. it wasn’t the first time either, she could still remember melding Khyzae’s broken fibers together, which was also neither wood nor did she have her instrument at that time either. It was sorta concerning where this sudden talent was emerging from.
Vwyx gave the instrument back to her sister who accepted it with some degree of surprise. Both of them then resumed their work as if nothing had happened. With just a bit more work, her ladder would be complete and she could look for something else to work on. In the meanwhile, while her sister was able to resume her work, she would still need much longer to complete her current table.
Sryine was sitting in the town square across the street from her home, her lunch already finished. Even surrounded by people, none of them were approaching or including her, she was effectively alone in a crowd. Worse was that no one felt conscious about talking about her within her hearing. “Isn’t that the chief’s daughter?” “Yeah, I guess she finally did get better.” “They had her stay at that creep of a doctor’s place, the poor girl.” “No wonder it took her an entire year to get better.” For once, people were actually talking all about her, but she really didn’t like the topic of conversation. It seems everyone was thinking of Khyzae’s family as a doctor, but they weren’t holding such in high regard. She thought about it and realized the village didn’t have an actual doctor, Khyzae’s family might actually be the closest thing to such in the entire village. Having taken such good care of her, she would rather people thought of Khyzae’s family in a more positive light.
A little boy approached her as she sat there in contemplation. It was the same boy from last time, now a full year grown. Sryine smirked at the irony and turned to the pond, setting an illusion of a monitor again, with the same musical concert scene from before, like it was leaving off from where they had been interrupted. The boy had completely forgotten the whole thing after an entire year, so turned to look over the illusion anew. However, he wasn’t quite as amused as he was the year before.
“It’s just an illusion though, isn’t it. What’s the point of it if it’s all fake?” “It might not be real, but stuff like this can be pretty important. Like a book, the lessons you learn from such things can continue even without being left with the real deal.” “But, it’s a silent concert, isn’t that like missing the most important part of a concert?” The boy had a point Sryine could not refute. Her choice of an image was seriously lacking at this. But she had no way to use her gift to generate sound, she didn’t even know the first thing about it. Actually, that was wrong, she did remember the book Vwyx had given her about music boxes, it did cover some of the same concepts, but that was still far beyond the capabilities of her gift. An illusionary sound would require her to generate a sound from the origins of her focus, then to influence the air from that location in vibrations that emulated the generation of sound normally, in the right pattern for such a measure. More than an illusion of sight, it was an illusion of sound, impacting even further senses of those around it.
A faint melody started to play in the air near them, suddenly drawing in a small crowd. Sryine didn’t even notice at first, but eventually clued in to what was going on. Her illusion of a concert was generating the melody, emulating her perception of what their efforts would sound like. Having never heard such things for real, she had no idea how authentic it actually was, in fact she generally suspected there might be a lot of errors, but no one around her knew what it should sound like either, leaving the performance a very believable realism. Even Sryine was getting lost in the performance her gift was generating, absorbed in wonder at how she had even accomplished this.
Vwyx had as measured completed her ladder fairly quickly.. and had found herself without anything to replace it. Her sister really had things under control here, the only thing affecting her performance was her envy of Vwyx’s ability on the other side of the room. Her sister was still occupied with the table, though she had made some decent progress in the meanwhile. Having setup and tested the ladder nearby successfully, Vwyx had then turned to the music box she had tried to make a while ago, something she could never complete because she couldn’t meld everything properly. It had her attention now because her gift had made some pretty sizable progress. Sure, it wasn’t unheard of for a person’s gift to change over their lifespan, but it usually took some pretty diligent study over a very long period, not a one year nap. Still, if something had changed, she was curious what exactly she might be capable of. She looked over the incomplete music box, trying to figure out how she might be able to complete it.
She recalled passing a book on the very subject to Sryine, thus regretting not having taken the opportunity to read over the contents for herself. Without any real sense of insight, she had no idea what she was lacking in the process, not specifically. A lot of complex metallic parts, sure, but she couldn’t even visualize anything about them. She was uncertain exactly how much her gift might be capable of, but was keenly aware that her obstacle at this point might simply be how much she knew. Meanwhile, the company she had kept before, they were filled with knowledgeable resources, and plenty of room for further improvement. Even Sryine knew quite a number of things. Her thoughts were simply reminding her of how lonely she was getting.
While only half paying attention, Vwyx took account of her sister’s actions. Her sister had actually started to get angry again, watching Vwyx get lazy relaxing with some silly toys. Rather than setup the tabletop safely to pierce some holes in for its legs, she had left it rather loose and precarious. A slight error, and the drill-like instrument would be going through anything else nearby in addition to the table. If they were slightly unfortunate, that could ruin any of the nearby equipment. If they were even more unfortunate, it could pierce something more important, such as a support for some of the larger and heavier racks and tables nearby, or even her sister’s legs. This was a seriously dangerous situation.
Vwyx dropped the music box and dashed under the ladder towards her sister. The ladder crashed down behind her, snapping on impact with the stone floor and some metal equipment that had cut through it, but Vwyx wasn’t going to trouble herself over that. She went to stop her sister from continuing, but her sister flailed at the interference. In her wild motions, the instrument she carried slashed along Vwyx’s right forearm. Vwyx screamed out in pain, bringing her sister back to the current situation. She dropped focus on the instrument, shutting it down instantly, and went to help Vwyx. Vwyx’s right hand went limp, the critical wound was far too deep. Her sister panicked further, having no idea what to do in this situation. Admitting to her failure, she screamed for her parents to come to her aid, Vwyx herself having already lost consciousness.
Sryine’s musical presentation was still going fairly well, but her crowd had simply started to fade as they had other things to draw their attention. Sure, it was interesting, but now it was just a continuation of the same thing, it was time to move on. The boy himself had also already left of his own volition. Sryine dismissed her illusion, still impressed at her own accomplishments. Maybe she had underestimated just how much she was capable of, just how much some silly illusions could actually do? She started giving the inquiry some honest consideration as her thoughts were interrupted by nearby conversation.
“It seems the Bhyiqiexhaez family had just had a nasty accident. It was the same girl they had over at the creepy doctor’s. Seems her arm got slashed something nasty.” “It must be some kind of curse from the doctor, to bring people back over and over.” “Maybe, but I hear her family isn’t going to let that happen. Not even with such an injury, her family is still refusing to call upon any more services from such a doctor.” “So, what are they going to do?” “Why do you think someone like me heard all about it, they are trying to search the village for anyone else who could help out.” “Oh, best of luck with that, I don’t know anyone who could help with something like that. Maybe the poor girl should just accept her misfortune and realize her future might be without one of her arms.” The conversation going on around Sryine made her go pale instantly. It didn’t take much to figure out they were talking about Vwyx being seriously injured. Worse, no one was willing to get her to the right help.
Sryine got up and left the town square, only to find her brother right away, frowning upon her. His posture passed all the messages she would need, she wasn’t going to be allowed to go anywhere. This was infuriating for her, she had endured enough loss helplessly as it was, she didn’t want to suffer being so helpless any longer. Frustrated, she stormed into her house, trying to figure out a plan. Her brother allowed her to enter the house, standing watch outside over the growing crowd growing restless in the town square. Sryine pressed her thoughts for some kind of plan. She wasn’t going anywhere while she was being watched like this, not without having a way to slip past unseen. As an elf, her brother already had really sharp senses, sneaking around wasn’t exactly much of an option. If she kept out of sight, she would be heard. She wasn’t even going to question his sense of smell, all of his keen senses could be engineered against her.
However, her thoughts drifted back to her achievement just recently, an illusionary performance showing an illusion of sight as well as sound. If that was possible, just how many senses could she fool. If she could present something that wasn’t actually there, could she then hide something that actually was? Sryine however would have some problems with such an illusion without any real focus for it, something she could carry fairly easily. She dashed to her room and searched for anything suitable. Her searches uncovered a fairly simple generic sapphire ring her brother had left her with for her sixteenth birthday, trying to treat her in lack of any book. Given the circumstances, she couldn’t even dream of anything more fitting. She slipped the ring on her right hand and made her way to the door. On the way, she put her focus into the ring intent on an illusion that enveloped her in a shroud that made her look as if nothing, sound as if nothing, smell as if nothing, feel as if nothing, even taste as if nothing. She would put absolutely nothing up to chance.
Looking upon herself, she found nothing there at all. Even her own illusion left her feeling like she didn’t really exist anymore. As she approached the door, she also focused her illusion upon it. She needed it to also make no sounds, and appear shut through the whole process, even though she would be opening it. The door remained closed as she blindly found the doorknob, not actually being able to see her own hand in the process. Her illusion held as she made her way silently outside, her brother standing just outside not even reacting to her presence. She carefully made her way past him, and successfully passed around the corner. She made sure to sustain her illusion, in the off chance that anyone else would notice her presence and pass the information to her brother. She fortunately still remembered exactly where she was going, having guided Khyzae’s mother to the exact same location before. Having quickly arrived, she slipped through the open doorways, quickly scanning around for her destination.
It didn’t take much more for her to find where Vwyx was being kept. Her parents had gone out in search of help, but staying with her through the entire process was Vwyx’s younger sister. This would make her undetected rescue much more challenging. The girl was trying to follow her parent’s instructions of the proper use of wrapping the injury in clean cloth, to stop the bleeding, but there wasn’t much else she could do for her sister, the same sister she was responsible for injuring. Intent on her sister, the girl was surprised to find a ball suddenly bouncing around the room suspiciously. The ball bounced up near her and passed through her hand when she tried to deflect it.
“Oh, it’s you again. Sorry, I don’t have time to play with you this time.” She didn’t even turn away, was this really the same girl she worked with a year ago to track down the exact same sister? The change in maturity was unreal. If the girl was going to be mature about it, Sryine wasn’t going to play games either. Sryine took down the illusion, taking a more direct approach.
“I don’t have any time either, neither does your sister. Just like last time, I’ve come here searching for her. She needs help, someone needs to help her.” “Of course I know that, but who could possibly help her? I hope you don’t mean that stupid doctor, it’s their fault all of this happened in the first place.” “Do you know anything else we could do? Will you just abandon your sister to suffer, or will you allow me to bring her to get some real help?” “I.. no one will allow it. The village chief is adamant at keeping everyone away from the mansion, your own family makes this impossible.” “Then I’m the only one who can make things right. Will you allow me this one chance?” Sryine was getting nervous just how bad things were getting, but Vwyx’s sister eventually reluctantly nodded.
With the help of Vwyx’s sister, they managed to get Vwyx outside and loaded into a nearby cart, all safely behind the cover of fences. “I.. I can’t go with you, I’ll get in trouble. I’ll have to say that I went to wash my hands and found sis was already gone. Still, I have no idea how you plan to bring her that distance without anyone noticing.” “Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan for that. Thanks for your help. I’ll be certain to make sure your sister is properly taken care of.” Vwyx’s sister jumped back startled when Sryine reactivated her illusion to cover not only herself, but also the cart and its occupant. As far as the girl could tell, all of them had just gone, as if they had maybe teleported. Sryine honestly wished she had something as convenient as teleportation, it would reduce all the hard work she would have to endure dragging the cart such a long distance. Vwyx had made the distance herself too, with a much heavier load, but she didn’t need to do it while sustaining such an impressive illusion, and Vwyx wasn’t exactly an elf.
After considerable effort, she managed to bring the cart to the mansion. As she approached, she had found Khyzae had rushed outside concerned, running right up to the still invisible cart. “What happened? Why are you invisible anyway?” Of everything else that had occured, this took first place in being the strangest thing to have happened. Even on top of the strange searching Sryine had witnessed Khyzae perform earlier, being able to just tell Vwyx had been in the kitchen, this was still worse. Being able to know in that moment that the two of them had happened to be arriving, but more than that, it was as if she knew exactly where they were, with all five senses blocked.. there was no way that should have even been possible.
Still, there was no time to worry about such a thing, Vwyx was still seriously injured. After taking down the illusion, the two of them worked together to make sure Vwyx made it inside the mansion safely.
Luminaeris 