EVENT #18: EMERGENCE - IC EVENT LOG

[abraxasmods]

Event #18 - Emergence

OOC Plotting Post ⦁ Pre-Event Info ⦁ Setting Descriptions

Whether voluntary or by force, you find yourself transported to the Singularity's crater. There probably aren't many resistors - officials have taken great pains to convince you to come voluntarily, reserving force as a last resort - but it's clear that everyone is required for this to work. It takes multiple mages to stabilize the portal, but you make it there in one piece. If you cooperate, you'll be asked to walk towards the ancient relic. If you resisted, you might be forced to do so while restrained. Regardless, a heavy fog soon descends around the area, obscuring you and your vision.

If you have thoughts of turning back, it's too late: for some of you, the second you step across the threshold, a force pulls at your chest and absorbs your psyche at once. For others, a mystical call beckons you to walk a little further before the same effect takes hold. And for a rare few, the call brings you to the Singularity itself, where you're compelled to touch it - and are subsequently swallowed up like the others.

The Horizon doesn't greet you like you might expect. Instead, something far stranger awaits.

Please communicate with your fellow players as needed! We also recommend discussing with us if you plan on a major environmental upheaval. As a rule of thumb, you should avoid changes to the landscape that will significantly alter the established map.

We've also posted comment sections for WORLDBUILDING and HANDWAVED submissions. Instructions can be found at the respective links.

Year 20,879

When you open your eyes, it feels like you've only blinked. If your body has transformed or you're someplace that shouldn't exist, it doesn't strike you as odd. You were always here. Everything around you was always here, and your physical alterations and new abilities - while perhaps not originally there - have been a part of you for a long, long time.

The world of Abraxas isn't completely foreign. Familiar territories remain, as well as the familiar faces of those with long lifespans. But a lot has changed in 800 years, too, especially where the Gods are concerned. Alongside the Old Gods of the Ancient Pantheon and the Cardinal Gods of the New Order, a third class of deities formed from you and your fellow Summoned: the Ecesis Gods of the Iterum Pantheon.

Politics, People, & Gods

Abraxas's political landscape remains complex, with continued tensions over land, worship, resources, and power. Nonetheless, since the Free Cities is no longer intent on destroying the Singularity, conflict over the ancient relic has lessened. All territories agree that the Godlands - and the Singularity - belong to the Gods themselves.

Beliefs and Gods

The active presence of the Summoned confirms the existence of the Gods. As a result, most Abraxans turn to the Summoned and other Gods for aid or protection. Extreme reverence exists in certain areas, especially on the Isle of the Lost and in parts of Solvunn. In other places, though, the Gods are merely acknowledged as a facet of life - a force that helps or hinders depending on temperament and should be respected, much like the sea. The Gods play a crucial role, sure, but so do the rain and stars. This is particularly true in the Feywilds, the Nether, and the Free Cities.

Small pockets of non-believers actively denounce the Gods. They claim the Summoned should be wiped from the world and the Singularity destroyed to prevent future invasions. Labeled dangerous heretics by Thorne and Solvunn, and "regressives" by the Free Cities - whose scientists and philosophers liken such thinking to be as foolish as declaring the sun unworthy or the earth to be flat - these people are shunned from society. In Solvunn, the consequences are more severe: heretics are exiled to the Barren, where they are subsumed by the desert, the Maw, or whichever Gods may punish them.

At the other end, some sects revere the Godlands so much that they believe feeding themselves to the relic will enhance Abraxas' good fortune for generations to come. Such cults are quite rare, but there are reports of mortals throwing themselves into the Singularity's crater and disintegrating as a gesture of their devotion to the divine.

International Relations

Due to the combined change in their priorities, Thorne and the Free Cities are less at odds. The Free Cities believes in protecting the Singularity; Thorne no longer seeks to control it. Nonetheless, mistrust flares on occasion.

While things are peaceful during these three months and have been for a few decades, Abraxas hasn't found a cure for war in the Gods. Conflict has broken out in the past and will again. Eyes are on the Nether as it grows in power, and who knows how long Thorne will be content with its losses? Will they convince the Velan Republic to reunite and turn against the Free Cities? For now, though, the territories have found their stride and appear more interested in progress than fighting.

Magic & The Singularity

Magic is relatively unchanged and is a vital part of Abraxan life. The small kingdom of Thorne continues to practice Academic Magic. Meanwhile, Wild Magic plays the same important role in the Velan Republic (formally Nott). Meanwhile, the Free Cities has developed New Magic further. The goal of decoupling magic from technology is less of a focus. Instead, researchers are eager to find new ways to fuse magic and innovation, including aspects of the Gods. Portable shrines, for example, are popular with traveling merchants.

High Magic no longer exists as a specific school of magic now that offerings, pacts, and requests to the Gods are a part of everyday life across Abraxas. Solvunn has returned to its roots, using the ancient Academic Magic practiced by the Lunae for standard tasks while turning to the Gods for greater blessings.

The Singularity has been relatively stable for the past two or three centuries. While occasional disturbances rumble, for the most part, the presence of the Summoned has strengthened it, alleviating its displeasure and ensuring that Abraxas - and possibly the universe itself - continues to exist. Indeed, academic writings from Thorne and the Free Cities across time suggest that the Singularity's devouring of the world has considerably slowed. It is now as much of a threat as the eventual collapse of the sun, something that is bound to occur but not for eons.

Of course, this could quickly change if the Summoned or any other Gods provoke the Singularity by rejecting its connection or denying its magic...so all should take care not to upset the nature of things.

Old World, New World

The map of Abraxas has undergone some notable shifts, although many names and places are the same.

Setting descriptions are HERE for your reference.

Mechapolis, the Witchwood, and the Barren/the Maw contain prompts related to the event itself. Information about those areas can be found under "Exploring the Land" in the section The World as the Divine (Month 1-2).

Month 1-2: Submersion

What do you last remember? Well, that depends. You might recall most things perfectly clearly. You might have new memories that don't feel new at all. Or, you might only remember the most recent year or two. Regardless, there is something missing: an important face, a handful of key events...maybe you don't remember having ever lived anywhere except Abraxas. You might find this unsettling, or you might accept it as just the way things are.

You've transcended those old memories, anyhow. You feel a little distant from the person you were centuries ago, and you most likely look different, too. Perhaps you've sprouted giant wings, become a formless void, or you're now a shapeshifter with no permanent appearance. You've gained a substantial amount of power and influence, the type that people of this world attribute to the Gods.

The first half is a more sandbox-like environment designed for scenarios that emphasize CR and personal character moments. Active conflict between the emergent reality and the world will not arise until the second half.

The World as the Divine

The mortals have bestowed you with a title and possibly a new alias. Do you know your mortal name anymore? Some of you might've taken on a new identity, or you might have held very tightly onto who you were. Regardless, your abilities have grown. Your new powers and appearance are as unique as your dominion, influenced by your interests, subconscious desires, or personal relationships.

While in your full God form, you'll move through the world unperceived. Only when you're sought by a mortal - followers, believers, cultists - can you consciously make your complete divine presence known. To be seen freely by all, you'll have to take on a less overwhelming shape to the mortal gaze. Those who have met the Old Gods or Cardinal Gods in the past finally understand why they seldom reveal their true selves, often arriving in hazy visions or speaking through animals.

Exploring the Land

◎ The Witchwood

As the Summoned continued to ascend, their power began to coalesce, creating a new ecosystem never seen before. The dense woods, originally a temperate climate, warmed and grew into a thriving jungle. The air is humid and heavy with magic, the sky locked into an eternal sunset. Reds and oranges filter through the thick canopy. Birdcall and animal cries echo throughout the jungle. Trees and rocks seemingly move at night, meaning the Witchwood is impossible to map. Foolhardy souls who venture too deep are rarely seen again - unless divine intervention prevents a tragic fate from befalling them. Perhaps one of those intervening Gods is you?

The most dangerous beasts in the Witchwood are the demigod spawns. Creatures born from the Summoned, demigods are powerful enough to affect the world around them should they ever leave the magic-encased forest. See Impact & Consequences for more details on the demigods and how, as the Summoned, you can help maintain Abraxas' ecosystem.

◎ Mechapolis

Heartwood Syndrome persisted in Fomalhaut long after the quarantined population died out. The port city stood as a monument to loss for nearly a century until about 200 years in when the Summoned gained notable influence as Gods. This resulted in a slow but steady acceptance of the Singularity's power as a positive force for potential advancement. New Magic boomed, leading to increased sophistication in technology and the refinement of automatons.

Originally designed to clear and guard Fomalhaut, they were eventually used to rebuild it. Fomalhaut became known as the City of Machines and was renamed Mechapolis. Although humans are barred from entering for safety, the automatons gather soil and air samples for study and perform fishing duties. The clockworks require routine maintenance and must return to a hub city or outpost for recalibration. Clockwork birds are used to communicate with Mechapolis. They can broadcast through the Free Cities's primitive "radio" towers.

You can enhance clockwork performance, boosting the towers or providing additional energy to the automatons. Scientists often have "rituals" when performing maintenance or experiments to earn the Gods' favor, hoping this will prevent their inventions from breaking down.

◎ The Barren/The Badlands

Once contested territory between Thorne and the Free Cities, the Badlands was split into two by a large ravine shortly after Thorne retreated to Hayle. With neither side able to breach the gap, Solvunn naturally laid claim to the western half while the Free Cities retained its eastern half. On the eastern side, the chasm swallowed several well-known bandit camps and the presence of a new entity further drove them away. Bandits now occupy the mountains northeast of Aquila. Due to the entity's threat, the Free Cities increased its military presence in the Badlands to keep careless or foolish travelers from straying too far.

Meanwhile, Solvunn has named its portion of the wasteland the Barren and sought the Gods' assistance to form an enchanted forest. Those who enter are lost forever. Meant for more than just protection, the forest and the Barren serve as a place of exile. Heretics are taken into the woods and left to wander towards the Barren's harsh desert. There, they will face the elements, be devoured by the waiting Maw...or encounter a God.

As a God, you can lead the exiles to their salvation or doom, but choose carefully: the Maw is hungry and must be fed. These exiles want you dead. They don't care for you, and should their lack of faith spread, they might revive attempts to destroy the Singularity - and with it, your home. Is it so wrong to leave them to their fate? On the other hand, saving them might convert them by demonstrating your kindness.

◎ The Maw

The Maw lurks beneath the chasm dividing the Badlands. Named for its gaping jaws, the Maw waits at the widest part of a jagged canyon, mouth open and salivating in the desert heat. Rows and rows of teeth as tall as a man spiral downward into a bloodshot throat. When sated, it retreats deep into the gully, barely visible aside from the shine of a tooth. When hungry, it draws closer to the surface. Hot and heavy winds often carry the putrid scent of its half-digested meals.

Solvunn is not the only territory that uses the Maw. The Free Cities will occasionally march criminals and bandits in that direction, as well, tossing them into the gaping mouth, although this method of execution is much rarer. Desperate exiles from Solvunn will try to cross the chasm despite the danger. None ever make it - at least, not without divine intervention.

Horizon, "Death," and Dormancy

Your domain in the Horizon is no longer constrained by size. How it's changed depends on you. The more detached from your mortality, the more likely it'll have surrealist elements: bizarre statues, physics-defying architecture, odd visual or psychological effects. The Horizon feels like home to all Gods, although you ought to take care not to heed its call beyond reason. Shutting yourself off from the physical world can result in unintended consequences...but completely refusing to enter the Horizon will do the same.

Additionally, Gods are beyond true death, but that doesn't mean you can act with impunity. Engaging in an exhaustive battle with other Gods can weaken you into dormancy. In this state, you will enter an ethereal void inside the Singularity. As you heal, you'll slowly be able to return to your Horizon domain and then the physical world once more. Depending on the extent of the damage, this process could take anywhere from months to decades. For instance, losing your head could take a few months, total dismemberment might take a year, and being vaporized into atoms can take a few decades.

Mortals cannot achieve this level of damage, even if they seemingly "succeed" in striking true. Only a God can weaken another God into dormancy. If a mortal removes your head, you can merely pick it up and put it back on.

Impact & Consequences

In the early years of your ascension, you might've wondered why the existing Gods seemingly intervened so little. Why did they not demonstrate their powers more blatantly over the thousands of years? Is it apathy? A desire to watch rather than act? As you come into your abilities, you realize that the Singularity and the universe are significantly more delicate than you thought. You begin to understand why the Gods have behaved the way they do.

Of course, whether you care to keep the world (and yourself) in balance is another story, but to be sure, some of the other Gods and the Summoned do - and you may have to defend your choices.

The equilibrium mechanic is described in OOC terms HERE. The Singularity and a character's ascension will not inherently sway them one way or the other. Any temptations will result from individual personality and development.

Instability Effects

To maintain the universe's equilibrium, you need to be cautious of when and how you interfere when using your status to alter the state of the world. Conversely, you'll also need to take care not to withdraw entirely. Several Gods have undergone periods of instability, though others haven't. Which category you fall under is up to you. It depends on who you are, your experiences, and your desires.

◎ Should you refuse to ACKNOWLEDGE your Godhood or enter the Horizon, you'll find yourself losing time. You may forget how you got from one place to another, or names you knew yesterday slip your mind. Lapses in memory or time can be temporary or permanent, but one thing they are is certainly confusing. With magic building inside you and nowhere for it to go, your power will begin to spill over, causing the Singularity to exhibit bursts of power that spawn demigods in the Witchwood.

◎ Should you give into the temptation to OVERINDULGE your Godhood or retreat to the Horizon for excessive periods, you'll lose more of yourself and your history. You may make decisions that feel unlike you, forget larger chunks of old memories, or struggle to distinguish what's real. Unrestrained use of magic will cause you to absorb yet more power, causing the Singularity to lose power in brief spurts, which can spawn demigods in the Witchwood.

These effects can be halted or even reversed in some cases. You might need someone's help to bring you back or convince you there's another way, or maybe you're the one seeking others out to assist. What you do soon understand is that your ability to manage your powers and stabilize your connection to the Horizon directly affects the Singularity and Abraxas...something that may have been true the moment you were summoned.

Demigod Spawns

Under the red haze of the Witchwood, monstrous creatures known as demigods or spawns emerge from crimson waterfalls and claw their out through the mossy soil. Born out of instabilities caused by careless actions from all Gods, they're usually contained to the Witchwood. For the most part, the older Gods - and the Summoned, if they choose - keep the demigods from leaving. However, now and again, one or two might escape, damaging towns, destroying villages, or causing ecological destruction in ways that are similar to natural disasters.

Demigods are not sentient. How they look can vary, but their appearances are often corrupted and disturbing: twisted animals, amorphous blobs, or alien-like parasites. They may resemble a monster you recognize from home.

Defeating one is possible but a challenge even for the Gods. Most crucially, you cannot kill your own spawn. Another God must deliver the killing blow, so working together is imperative. Should too many demigod spawns be allowed to invade the Witchwood, they will overwhelm and disrupt the Singularity further. Culling them is the only way to maintain stability.

You can submit demigod spawns you create to the WORLDBUILDING section if you want. Similar to using character powers, just keep the scale of destruction at a reasonable level.

Hearing Echoes

Echoes are a form of prayer that resonates through your connection with the Singularity. Solvunn has dedicated a monument to where the "First Echo" was heard, though the accuracy of this is debatable. Like the Network, you can hear an Echo regardless of where you are and can shut them out with concentration. However, your ties to Godhood may compel you to listen every so often. Mortals can entreat you through more formal methods (rituals, offerings, seasonal ceremonies) or in a moment of duress or desperation. They may seek you specifically or call to any God who will listen.

You can answer or ignore these cries for help as you like, but your choices carry consequences. Answer too many too eagerly, and your increased interference in mortal lives can upset the world's equilibrium - and the Singularity. Ignore your impact on the world, and your refusal to accept your ascension will equally destabilize the land as prayers go unheard.

Interacting with Other Gods

The Old Gods and the Cardinal Gods are an equal part of this world. For the most part, you coexist peacefully, though personal pacts and tensions can play a role. Each of you is aware of the impact of your actions on the Singularity: extreme displays of power are reserved for substantial transgressions, considering the price it carries.

Further, the older Gods have also walked the earth for centuries before you came. To them, you're still young, and rising against one of them won't end well for you. Nonetheless, many older Gods are more interested in giving advice or guiding you, ensuring the health of the Singularity and the universe so as not to doom all of you - Gods and mortals alike - to the void.

You can REQUEST AN INTERACTION with a God. Interactions will be brief but informative.

You will not be able to request a specific God. For logistical reasons, we have curated the list of Gods available ahead of time. However, we'll do our best to pick one from the pool that suits the purpose of your request.

Month 3: Awakening

Over the past 2 months, you've existed in the emergent reality without question. As you enter the third month, however, everything you've known over the past many centuries begins to shift. You might decide to investigate further, wondering if there's more out there that you aren't seeing. Alternatively, you might choose to ignore it, believing that your awakening is damaging the world and your life.

Catalysts

A catalyst can occur at any time through any circumstance. Do you see a familiar face you've forgotten in the eyes of a stranger? Do you recall a moment in your past while watching the mortals? Has a friend approached you specifically to try and remind you of the things you've forgotten?

With each memory returned you'll gain another piece of yourself. Depending on how much you've lost and how hard you'll cling to this reality, the effect may be clarifying or it might cause you distress and confusion. You might begin to encounter temporal cracks: buildings or areas that normally don't exist will flicker in and out of existence, or your reflection will briefly show an image of you from before your transformations took hold.

If you allow yourself to doubt your abilities or divinity, you might have trouble controlling your powers. If you've made alterations to your Horizon domain, it might start to revert to its original design.

These cracks are difficult to ignore, but if you bury your head, you can make them disappear - briefly, at least.

Shattered Skies

The effects go beyond the individual. As more of you and your fellow Gods reawaken, the sky also begins to form cracks that spread like broken glass. Through the fractures, you glimpse flashes of lightning and a swirling fog. The fissures only grow larger.

Soon, you realize you can see the Singularity itself, reflected upside-down in the crater. Disconcerting though it is, it may serve as proof that something is very wrong. Of course, you can also refuse to acknowledge this disturbance, closing your eyes to the crumbling sky. Doing so will let you remain unaware to the very end, but your friends who are seeking the truth might find your denial distressing.

The sky won't hold, though. Eventually, it does shatter completely - and you awaken abruptly, your body and others scattered several feet away from the Singularity's crater as if you were physically thrown out. The fog begins to dissipate. The lightning has stopped, the unrelenting storms fading across Abraxas. Whatever you went through, it seems to have done exactly what the territories hoped: stabilize the Singularity.

Characters will be returned home afterward. They will be thanked for their assistance regardless of if they cooperated.

Resistors will not face any consequences, as long as they don't cause excessive trouble upon their return. Officials will issue an apology for the heavy-handed action, stating that they saw no other way to keep the world safe. With the portals and weather returning to normal, it does seem to have worked...even if characters may not find the method agreeable.

---

Comments

[vixening]

[ it is not that godhood comes easy for yennefer - but rather, the particulars are something she is prepared to accept. magic, chaos, power, in all its forms both bidden and unbidden, yennefer adapts to understand. her own years, decades, time started to fade into each other, started to become eras, times, seasons. many of those are spent with faces she became familiar with in the castle, the familiarity of students who come to her for hope, for release, for control. she starts to understand what it is that tissaia found so attractive about the title of headmistress, starts to understand how someone could fall into a life like that. could see that as a future.

yennefer learns, over time, that she is not tissaia. and then, as more time continues to pass, she starts to lose grasp on what the name tissaia means at all.

instead, she keeps up with her own studies, learns the limits and bounds of chaos, and then everything else. the magic of abraxas is more than what it had been back in her own sphere, and she devotes her time, her attention, to that. part of it comes from her lessons, her connections, with her students - other times, it is days, weeks, months spent studying and pressing and curiously experimenting with istredd in the safety and confidentiality of the horizon. of the singularity.

the whispers of godhood are on the wind, just as promises of something different for thorne are being made. yennefer knows that the tides are changing, will change, and she will be prepared for them.

but what she doesn't realize is that her first real tide, her first real storm, comes in the form of a girl she has become more than simply attached to. river has become most of what yennefer sees for their future, a transformation from broken pieces to a whole picture, a whole person, river. they have made strides, things have been good, she has been good - and the girl who comes barreling towards her now, all but stumbling over her own feet in an effort to hold onto a bowl of sand, some part of yennefer knows what this is.

a moment, a purpose, a time, a definitive breath.

( she won't know for another century or two herself, that this was one of her first callings. one of her first moments as the herald. instead, yennefer chalks it up to river, to her dedication, to her pain in seeing the - her girl - so terrified. she will chalk it up instead to knowing she would do anything for river, anything for cassian, anything at all. ) ]

River? [ the smoke has not quite dissipated before yennefer is there in river's space, her hands at the other woman's, providing a second wall around this bowl of sand. she doesn't quite know what is happening, doesn't know what she is supposed to help with at all, but the tears on river's cheeks are enough to have yennefer moving - walking them both back to the desk that yennefer had been seated at - to a table space that is suddenly clear. ]

What happened? [ she asks, her eyes on as her hands remain solid, strong - this 'bowl' of sand is held together by their hands, yes, but also the chaos that yennefer calls to her. a protective wall, an invisible solid force, keeping everything controlled and in place. ] What is this?

[thoughts]

[ the moment yennefer's hands join river's to stabilize the bowl, to keep it safe when the whole world is contained within it, it's like something releases. her fear of dropping it, of losing him, of never being able to come back from this moment - knowing that they will be irrevocably changed nonetheless, if they survive it at all, if they can somehow bring him back.

the weight of it all sags in her body and she weeps, hoping yennefer's hands will stay steady for her. ]

It's Kassa - Cassian.

[ it's a whisper, a sob. his name is said like a prayer, the fervent desperation that this will not be his end. her brother ( the only one she knows or remembers ) and the center of her galaxy. river's throat closes and she shakes her head as she continues, her words becoming more frenzied, the loss of control that would come to define her seeping into her vision as past and future blur together. ]

Or, i-it's most of him. The rest is gone. Missing. Here but not here, scattered to the wind. Our stardust will return to the universe when the time comes but the sun hasn't fallen yet.

[ she's not making sense. she never makes sense. a tremor shakes in her body and the ground, the windows in their frames and the tables and chairs across the room. there's a quiet chink! beneath the low rumble as a crack spiderwebs along the side of the glass bowl holding cassian's remains.

yennefer's magic keeps it from breaking as river's control slips and the chaos spills forth. her eyes turn gold and stay gold, a fiery intensity like the molten core of the earth or the stars, and she does not speak with the desperation of someone rejecting grief but a certainty she can't yet explain. there is divine magic swirling within the bowl and in the air around them. ]

It's not his time. He's not dead, Yennefer. I have to find him.

[vixening]

[ her hands do remain steady, holding true to this bowl of sand that river's presented her. there is chaos to the very air around them, but yennefer remains a constant in it, a part of it, adapted and comfortable and as much a part of the unpredictable uncertainty that is everything around them as she is in the moment itself. they may be in the physical plane, somewhere that no longer matters in this time, but they are also elsewhere - river is elsewhere, losing her grip on the physical, losing her control. as if to combat it, yennefer's magic reacts against it, making this room, this desk, this place more concrete than it had been just moments before.

yennefer has had years, decades now, to know how to bring some kind of balance back into river's extremes. at first it hadn't been natural, but the understanding that this is what is new, this is the change in their circumstances, it sent yennefer down a new path. this path. one where- one where kassa is now a bowl of sand in her hands, and river is a trembling, indistinct mess before her. ]

How- do you know? [ she isn't making sense, but she also is. yennefer and river have spent years finding a kind of middle ground, where yennefer's understanding of chaos and river's true form to it collide. she doesn't need to understand river's words to know what she means by it, doesn't need to understand the whole of it to know that there is reason to why river is here, why river brought this to her.

cassian. cassian. where panic starts to rise in yennefer's stomach, she swallows it down with the knowledge that she can- no, she will, find a work through this. all of their abilities have been changing, all of their connections to the singularity, it was bound to cause issues. to change the very nature of their existence.

river cracks, then. not completely, not fully, but the force of it shakes the room they're in. yennefer feels it through her feet, through the air, and just as spiderwebs shoot through the bowl and windows and glasses set upon her desk, yennefer's balancing the force - keeps each and every piece from stretching too far, stops each crack from finishing its course. the majority of yennefer's attention is on the bowl, and with her focus, even if river's magic chose to shatter the bowl itself into more pieces than numbers can make, nothing would happen to the sand, no movement would shake a single grain. ]

River. River. [ gold fashes in river's eyes, and yennefer - confident in her own control, in the shape it holds around the bowl - reaches out with a single hand, palm cupping the side of river's face. where river's eyes burn molten gold, yennefer's light up in violet, her own chaos taking hold of the room and steadying the air. if river fights her in any way, yennefer's thumb will snake out, will grip at her chin to keep her eyes on her. ]

He's not dead. [ it does not matter what she sees, what river feels. no matter the truth, the fact, they will make this so. ] But you must breathe. If we're to find him, you'll need to focus. Can you focus?

[thoughts]

[ this is precisely why river went straight to yennefer. from the moment she first saw her in castle throne's ballroom, almost a century ago now, river saw power and confidence and stability, an unshakeable and unforgiving presence. yennefer has been more than just a teacher or a mentor, even more than something as paltry as a mother and daughter.

there's something deeper than that - a sisterhood of sorts, a kinship in their understanding of chaos and how it flows through them, how it shapes the very world around them -

how they are meant to use it to shape the world themselves. this moment is a monument to yennefer's mastery, to the unbelievable power she wields that holds this very room together as it threatens to crumble. things should be shattering or falling apart, but do not, because she will not allow it to be so.

it's incredible. yennefer is an icon, a beacon of strength and control. river always hoped to become like her some day. and she tried. for a hundred years, she worked hard and did her best.

this moment feels like failing. now, the chaos is breaking her.

they stand together at the precipice, two witches facing the point of no return - mirror reflections of who they are, who they have been, who they could be in the future. yennefer places her hand on river's cheek and she falls apart. even when she's making no sense, there is no one in the world who could understand her more. ]

What - what do I focus on? It's all there. Everything is moving backward and forward, it is and it isn't. Things that have happened, that haven't but will. It's soon. It's now.

[ her eyes are wide as she trembles and rants, but her gaze is unfocused from yennefer as though she's seeing things that aren't there and keeps getting tugged in different directions. she tries to focus, tries to breathe. tries to hone in on the warmth and the weight of yennefer's hand on her cheek, to let physical touch ground her to her body the way it has a thousand times before.

but it doesn't work. not the way it used to. river's body feels wrong and her mind is different. instead of coming back inward to find her breath and re-center, her emotions spill outward, a deep sense of dread and anguish darkening the room. yennefer may have the mental defenses to resist its influence, but anyone less magically adept might find themselves affected by it.

even still, river tries to focus on yennefer. she commands the room. the steady rock in a rippling pond. she tries so hard to hold onto that lifeline, but her fingers are slipping. ]

I - I don't know what's happening. It's too much. I'm scared, Yennefer.

[vixening]

[ river may feel like she is the one failing, when in reality, it says more about yennefer's own failing. about yennefer's own lack of control when she should have provided more. river sees her as this beacon of strength, unfaltering pillar amongst the chaos that fills the room around them now, when the truth is so much further from that. yennefer knows how to steady the air because she had spent so much of her life as the chaos itself, picked up and shattered by the movements of the air, the decisions of others, her own mistakes.

it has been centuries since, yennefer now somewhere in her second, or was it third, century of life. and where yennefer is, who yennefer is, has changed with it. she has had to become something steady, something controlled, if she wanted to help any of those who turned to her for help. if she wanted to be anything at all, if she wanted to help anyone at all, she needed to change. she needed to adapt.

a rebirth.

yennefer knows that river's potential, that river's power and her access to it, is something she could never truly reach. but what yennefer has grown to understand, what yennefer has grown to be, is not an emmulation or rival to river's power - but a guidance to master it. their bond is more than mentor and student, more than mother and daughter. river is the epitome of yennefer's purpose, of who she has chosen she needs to be.

a guide.

river trembles, she rants, she asks what to do and tries to put words to the feeling yennefer can pick out from her thoughts. it is and it isn't, it's soon, it's now. yennefer holds her hand to river's cheek and lets her continue, lets the words spill forth, and she settles. firm. constant. the sand does not budge, even as river tries to ground herself and fails. emotions, power, force - it explodes outwards, in every direction, pulling at yennefer's clothes, whips both the girls dark hair around their faces. dread weighs on the air around them, and even yennefer can feel the shift, can tell how much more energy it takes to take a breath.

but this feeling, this loss - yennefer is no stranger to the fear of it. the only difference is that this time, with this, she can do something about it. ]

River. Wedd. Look at me. [ it is only when yennefer has river's attention - not just her eyes, but her focus. however fractured or splintered, yennefer only needs a moment. a sliver.

when she gets it, yennefer reaches forward - her telekinesis not quite changing what is going on in river's mind, but in a sense, giving that steady rock an extension from the pouring in the room up to the rapids in river's mind. it is only a moment, but like a clap of thunder, it breaks through the onslaught if river has it in her to reach for it.

at the same time, she presses her forhead to river's - there is a kind of force, perhaps tighter than it needs to be, in yennefer's grip on river's cheek. if river cannot find the pillar to recenter, yennefer will rise to fill the larger space. ] It is not too much. But you must focus.

[ she cannot begin on kassa, on cassian, on the sand that remains still and unmoved in yennefer's hand, until she has river's focus. it doesn't need to be whole, it does not to be complete, but she needs to have more of it than not. ] On me, first. On this, here, right now. You have nothing to fear.

[thoughts]

[ perhaps they were always meant for this. change is inevitable, that goes without saying, but this more than just a change. if it's a rebirth or transcendence, that which they may not understand now but will come to define them in their imminent godhood - that will consume them whole and steer them down separate paths while still walking in parallel in their own ways - it isn't clear and it doesn't matter.

something is changing, and river is doing her best to hold on. to her rationality, her sanity, her grasp of here and now. the future stretches out before her while the past is blinding.

but yennefer is here and now. you have nothing to fear. her magic slices through the chaos in river's mind, parting the ocean to create a path forward, and at least for this brief moment in time, the way is clear. yennefer has always been the way for river, so perhaps it only makes sense that she becomes her anchor now.

with their foreheads pressed together, river closes her eyes and releases a long, shaky, sobbing breath. the tremors in the room begin to settle, a tenuous calm like the center of a hurricane lingering over them now. it is too much, it will always be too much for as long as she may live - but the solid ground that yennefer creates for her is enough for now.

when she opens them again, her eyes are back to brown, but they are no less lost or confused or reddened by tears. she stares at yennefer and does her best not to look away, not even for a moment. ]

I'm here. F-for now, I -

[ it's hard to know when she'll slip again, feeling the weight of it all pressing down on her from every angle. but she tightens her grip on the bowl held between them and looks to yennefer like her lighthouse in the storm. ]

We're here. Where do we go next? What are we supposed to do?

[ how can they fix this? they must fix this. even if river is lost to the chaos forever, they must find a way to bring cassian back. there is no other path forward for her. ]

[vixening]

[ something is changing, they are changing, but they aren't doing it alone. that is what has kept yennefer who she is for as long as it has, her connection to others, their grounding force in her life. the worst moments of her life were when she believed herself to be alone, when she fell victim to the push and pull of the chaos as it swirled. but yennefer found her footing, her foundation, her anchor. and now she has molded herself into one.

tissaia - a name that right now yennefer still holds, still carries, even as it is actively slipping away from her as the years move on - had been the first for yennefer, too. the first moment where she was convinced she'd found something that would not budge in the storm. and now? now yennefer refuses to move, lets river's panic, her worry, the sheer force of every emotion she can call to mind, whip around them.

but she will not budge. and she forces that steadiness in river's direction, guides her to reach for it, to trust that it will be still once she is able to keep her hold. river sobs, but river breathes, and yennefer slows her own for river to have something to match. yennefer waits, her eyes on river's face, until she sees the brown of her eyes looking back to her. it is not perfect, it is not complete, but it is enough.

I'm here and yennefer smiles, relieved, proud of the work that river's done, the things she's accomplished. it is heavy, and their link means that yennefer can feel it too - only a fraction of what river is holding, only a fraction of what she is pushing through, but it is enough to remind her to keep moving.

where do they go? yennefer's mind whirls, ideas and thoughts and theories spinning through faster than she's able to bring words to. still, it is something that is possible, something they can do. ]

We go back. We rebuild. [ river's hands are steady on the bowl, so while yennefer keeps one solidly against it, her other reaches out to the room - collecting ingredients, summoning tools. none of it will be used directly in this process, in this magic, but they will be of help to center her and river's chaos. will be what they need to complete this task.

it feels... impactful. important. like a bell has run and a new era has been ushered in. still, yennefer knows what it will require of them, what it will change in them, but she does not hesitate. ] We lead him down the path of remaking, and herald his return.

[ a breath, as something shifts in the room. it could be the tools, it could be yennefer's subconscious shifting the area around them. she creates something still, something neutral, a blank slate that takes away the classroom and replaces it with something else. something more.

her eyes close, and she recites an incantation under her breath, steadying all that is moving, all that is changing. when they open again, the violet of her eyes seem to glow, the colors and light almost reminiscent of the ring of the singularity itself. ] You will have to anchor him, River. Do you understand? You will not be remade, but to do this, to be this, you will not be as you were once before.