To Julie's surprise, it's actually not difficult at all to find "the door", if she continues the metaphor. It's pretty easy, all things considered; wherever it is inside her that her magic lives, she can form and grab the edge of the door with no issue. The problem lies in opening it. Like a bank vault, simply knowing where it is just isn't enough to get through the entrance. She has to be able to heft the weight of the door, too.
Her concentration grows deeper and deeper as the minutes pass, grows more intense. In her mind, as she struggles to force open the portal, she can feel the Singularity's building desperation for her to stay. For her to turn around and walk back into the crater. And Jesus Christ, she wants to. She wants to build a house in the safety of the crater and live in the shadow of the monolith forever with her horse and her rabbit and her family, but she can't, and it hurts. It hurts both of them.
As she fights to harness the power to create a portal from nothingness, she also fights with her ever present companion. It does not understand why she has to go, and she cannot do more than withstand its waves of pain and anger, like facing down a tsunami on her own. Between the two of them, dark clouds build overhead, accompanied by the sound of rolling thunder and the crackle of lightning.
Julie's whole body trembles under the strain of her effort, but also with the surge of magic that she draws off the Singularity. More than she should, more than anyone should. Julie is human, human without even environmental exposure to magic beyond the past few years. There is no doubt that human bodies were not meant to channel so much power; much like when she fought the morbol, blood begins to trickle from her ears down the sides of her face. The rose colored aura that generally encases her hands seems to start traveling up her arms through her veins, glowing through her skin.
Please, please, please, she thinks desperately, wildly, and she doesn't even know who she's talking to. Every muscle in her body aches, including many that she doesn't even think should be involved here. Her eyes, screwed shut, open as a scream seems to force its way out of her lungs entirely unbidden, squeezed out by the tightness of the rest of her; blood seeps from the corners of each eye, the whites stained crimson with burst blood vessels.
The vault door lifts on its hinges. Swings open. The portal sticks, at least for the moment -- the other side is not the waterfall she envisioned. It's actually much closer to the mines Geralt will soon become more deeply acquainted with, but the glimpse through the gap is clearly more of a Cadens area landscape than anywhere else.
Julie falls limp to the ground with a whimper. The portal's wavering edges hint that her hold on it is highly tenuous.
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Her concentration grows deeper and deeper as the minutes pass, grows more intense. In her mind, as she struggles to force open the portal, she can feel the Singularity's building desperation for her to stay. For her to turn around and walk back into the crater. And Jesus Christ, she wants to. She wants to build a house in the safety of the crater and live in the shadow of the monolith forever with her horse and her rabbit and her family, but she can't, and it hurts. It hurts both of them.
As she fights to harness the power to create a portal from nothingness, she also fights with her ever present companion. It does not understand why she has to go, and she cannot do more than withstand its waves of pain and anger, like facing down a tsunami on her own. Between the two of them, dark clouds build overhead, accompanied by the sound of rolling thunder and the crackle of lightning.
Julie's whole body trembles under the strain of her effort, but also with the surge of magic that she draws off the Singularity. More than she should, more than anyone should. Julie is human, human without even environmental exposure to magic beyond the past few years. There is no doubt that human bodies were not meant to channel so much power; much like when she fought the morbol, blood begins to trickle from her ears down the sides of her face. The rose colored aura that generally encases her hands seems to start traveling up her arms through her veins, glowing through her skin.
Please, please, please, she thinks desperately, wildly, and she doesn't even know who she's talking to. Every muscle in her body aches, including many that she doesn't even think should be involved here. Her eyes, screwed shut, open as a scream seems to force its way out of her lungs entirely unbidden, squeezed out by the tightness of the rest of her; blood seeps from the corners of each eye, the whites stained crimson with burst blood vessels.
The vault door lifts on its hinges. Swings open. The portal sticks, at least for the moment -- the other side is not the waterfall she envisioned. It's actually much closer to the mines Geralt will soon become more deeply acquainted with, but the glimpse through the gap is clearly more of a Cadens area landscape than anywhere else.
Julie falls limp to the ground with a whimper. The portal's wavering edges hint that her hold on it is highly tenuous.