Vyra was looking forward to going to bed.

Now she wasn’t sure quite what to think.

The bit of the conversation that the Demi-Human had heard remained cemented within her mind, her thoughts as much racing whilst the desire to sleep was held at bay.

What was the Nightmare that the Sisters had alluded to? Was it actually that there may have been something that was tied to Vyra that they could sense? If it were something that they were familiar with, how had they encountered it? Too many questions swarmed throughout, none of which gave Vyra reason to feel welcome any more. Sure, the Sisters had for a time allowed her within their church, but would they have ever dared to provide such kindness had whatever they had seen within her been realized sooner?

She shuddered to think about how futile her situation would likely have been if that were the case. The fear ran through her of the likelihood that her situation was about to become just as poor in actuality.

If these two Sisters were adamant enough in their fear that Vyra may have been something related to this Nightmare that they described, would this be her last night within this bed?

Would they be willing to go to even greater risks to rid themselves of whatever taint Vyra seemed to carry within her?

Laying within the bed, the prospect of sleep – though enticing – suddenly became the furthest thing that she wished. Any sort of detachment from the conscious world, it seemed like the last thing that she would dare hope for at this point.

And yet, she could not help as her sight waned, as darkness built around her, and the feeling of the night’s embrace wrapped around her, dragging into inevitable sleep.

[297/2000]

As her eyes opened, she had expected that she would have awoken within the room, the bright sun glistening through the lone window of the room. The dull hues of unpolished wood that seemed to make up the palette of the room brightening versus the heavy shadowed colors that had encased her just before.

That was hardly what Vyra saw.

To call it nothing would have been an easy, albeit false impression of things. Where the Demi-Human was, it was impossible to quite say. From every angle, it seemed that the lands dragged on infinitely, her standing alone within an endless abyss. But throughout, there was an eerie feeling, one that lingered, feeling as though it slithered up her entire body, penetrating through her very skin.

Something nasty.

Something evil.

She could taste the blood beginning to coagulate within her mouth, her body feeling heavy, her mind going blank for a moment only for her senses to return, now seeing the world around her having become all the more frightening, if not more disturbing.

A smoky hue penetrated through the ground. Not quite that of a mist, nor that of a miasma, but something else. Something that she could not entirely understand, but only recognize that it seemed wrong. However she may have looked upon it, with each step, with any breath taken, things felt wrong. It made her long to return back to the world, the uneasy feeling that she had having fallen asleep still being a far more envious position than remaining here.

A voice called out, one that she struggled to adequately hear, sounding as though it were torn asunder and ripped throughout, leaving nothing to the Demi-Human other than its existence.

[582/2000]

Vyra wandered, going in no particular direction, there being no indication of where she may have been even if she had a sense of things. All around, the miasma, fog, and wicked tendrils that had begun to penetrate through the ground seemed to all but encompass everything before her. Even looking above, the empty black sky left no sense of location, no idea to where she may have been, the only thing that gave her a sense of her location was the limited recollection that her own pathing took her, the occasional glance looking back leaving as much doubt to what was there as there were moving forward.

It seemed to drag on, the time that she walked for. Seemingly miles upon miles of steps taken with no meaningful progress anywhere in sight. More of the warped tendrils ripped through the ground like that of weeds and vines, none of them having a consistent discernable form, but all appearing horrid in nature, not unlike that of anything else within this place.

She sought to use them perhaps as some method of figuring her location, though through the miasma it seemed all but impossible to adequately tell one thing from the other. Had the tendrils she passed by moments ago been the same as the one just before her? Or maybe that of the one she had seen a little bit ago? Even that sense of direction seemed fruitless, all the more reinforced by what she saw as she turned her head.

The tendrils moved.

The realm shifted. It was subtle at first, but as time went, it became all the more apparent.

She was travelling through what seemed like a perpetual labyrinth with no clear indication of anything, neither the route nor the walls that enclosed her.

[879/2000]

“At some point, perhaps you’ll realize that there’s no hope.”

A voice echoed throughout whatever realm Vyra was in, a chill running down her spine as her mind began to formulate just who it was that it may have been.

Memories reflective of that fateful night, the night she first discovered her Magic, when she had first entered into whatever the realm was that her mind had been entrapped to, they all rushed back to her.

The voice. The condemnation. The atmosphere.

If she didn’t know better, Vyra would have felt that she was reliving the very same nightmare that had taken place on that fateful night.

And yet, it was different.

In a way worse.

“Now you’re starting to get it,” the voice radiated out again, less ethereal in nature but sounding as though it were more human. More intimate.

And then it finally dawned upon Vyra as she felt the color rush out of her body, turning around slowly to see the woman standing just before her, the wicked smile upon her face.

“There we are. Did you miss me?”

Before Vyra stood Vyra. Or at least, what she thought to be Vyra, or her other self to be more accurate. But there was something different about her now; about all of this. When they had met until these similar circumstances, Vyra had thought she was looking at her own self, as though speaking with her reflection, albeit one driven wicked.

If it were her, Vyra could not get over how different she seemed to look. The blue hair was gone, replaced instead by similarly lengthy locks of crimson. And the horns even, the goat horns that Vyra had as much assumed part of her identity as well as a condemnation were not quite the same, instead looking thin demonic tendril-like horns, almost like those of tree branches or those of the veins within one’s arm. A far departure from the look that Vyra had for her own self.

“What’s wrong, lost for words?”

The glint in her eye erased any sort of doubt in Vyra’s heart. As before, she was staring before her other self.

But unlike last time, she wasn’t the shy, scared girl anymore.

“No. Just wasn’t expecting… this… you…” Vyra barked back, emboldened.

While she may have hoped for some sort of surprised reaction out of her other self, the only thing that she found herself met with were the eyes of a predator. Eyes looking right through her.

“So, little goat girl finally got some bite. Only took you how long? A decade? More?” She moved towards Vyra, an outreached hand gently caressing the Demi-Human’s shoulder, causing her to recoil slightly. “You seem a little tense. Having a bad dream?”

“Yeah, so how about you get out of here?”

“Cute,” Vyra couldn’t help but gasp slightly out of surprise as she felt her other self reaching forward, the caress felt only a moment ago instead turning into a forceful grip around her bicep, then pulling forward, bringing the Demi-Human’s face only a few inches away from the wicked persona. “Time with that bitch has really eroded away where you stand. Maybe you should appreciate your own little playground.”

Peering around, Vyra could almost see the realm shifting around them, the tendrils that had begun to penetrate through the ground seeming to grow in size, the vines instead turning into massive structures protruding, a hellish hue of blacks, reds, and colors not entirely clear persisting throughout the miasma that only seemed to linger.

“What did you do?” Vyra stammered out, as much in awe and panic of what was materializing around her, believing it to be much the same fault as before to her other self.

The other Vyra simply chuckled, “I wish I could take credit for this, but this, this I don’t know where came from, but I’m starting to like it.” She could see the horrified look upon Vyra’s face, able to only draw forth a wicked smile, “Give it some time, you’ll come to appreciate it too. One way or the other…”

As suddenly as she had grabbed her, the other Vyra released the Demi-Human, the suddenness of it causing Vyra to nearly lose her footing. Frustrated, she could not help but bark out at the woman, “Why am I here? What did you do!?”

The laugher was uneasy, how it radiated throughout the realm, as though infinitely echoing. As it died down, so too did the echo, eventually the booming laughter dwindled down to the faint waning chuckles of the other Vyra, “Because this is your dream. This is your nightmare.” The wicked smile lingered upon her face as she stared down Vyra like an animal hunting a wounded prey, “And soon enough, it’ll become your reality, whether you like it or not.”

A crackling erupted throughout as more and more of the massive tendrils began to break through the ground all around, the area all around Vyra collapsing as the miasma become thicker and thicker, turning black and red as eyes began to appear all throughout, all of them staring at her.

Then the Demi-Human opened her eyes.

[1739/2000]

And then, just as suddenly as she had disappeared within the terrors that existed within her dreams, Vyra was back within the bed, a layer of sweat having coated her effectively, leaving her a mess.

But a mess within her own sense of the world was better than being a prisoner within whatever she had just endured.

Her breathing was heavy, overwhelmed in part by everything that had taken place what felt like a long time ago, though likely having only been a short while. The memories still fresh within her head of what just happened, the recollections of the conversation between the two Sisters, Vyra quickly found herself venturing into the church, hoping to find them. Hoping that they would be able to provide her with some answers. She approached the room, hoping to find them asleep, but instead found it empty, beds sprawled open as though both of those sleeping were awoken by something.

She instead proceeded to the front, hopeful to find one of them, Talia or Mara. What she had found though were both of them, seated upon one of the pews whilst a figure conversed with them. Though at first from her angle she could not see just who it was, as the Demi-Human stepped more into the main hall did she see them, or at least the towering Ser Gholston, hunkering over a figure that was otherwise shrouded. After a moment though, the figure removed their hood, revealing the Countess, a distressed look upon her face initially that almost seemed to lighten up at the sight of Vyra.

“It’s you… Just the girl I was hoping to see…”

[2013/2000]