abraxaslogs | EVENT #7: THE SIGHT

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EVENT #7: THE SIGHT

Event #7 - The Sight

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The night before APRIL 18, your dreams are disrupted by a vivid image of the same eclipse that occurred last month. The black sun seems to be an endless void in the sky, growing ever darker - until it suddenly opens into an eye that stares straight at you.

When you wake up, much of your night seems a blur except for the vivid dream of that eye. Whether you find it unsettling or try to ignore it, the image is something you cannot get out of your mind. If you ask, you will discover that none of the locals of your faction saw another eclipse. Speak with your fellow Summoned, however, and you may learn that while there was no eclipse that formed over the world, you were not the only one who had this dream.

Of course, dreams don't need to mean anything. You can't feel or see any immediate effects, and nearly everyone around you is going about their day as usual. Maybe you should do the same.

The Awakening

It might happen that very morning or a day or two later. You could be discussing the dream with a fellow Summoned or perhaps you simply brush shoulders with them as you walk by. Whatever it is, as soon as you make brief physical contact, one of you is struck with a sharp pain in your temple that grows into a terrible headache. It's disorienting and painful as the world around you shifts to someplace you may or may not recognize. Like an old film reel, you watch the events of the past play out before you: the past of the other Summmoned. It might be something they would rather hide, a moment of failure or despair, or something they are immensely proud of and brings them great joy - or even a jumble of several images over the course of a person's life. But you see it as if it were real and right in front of you all the same. When you come to, you'll likely find yourself on the ground or bent over, possibly with one or more people around you to see if you're okay. It'll take you a bit to gather your bearings, and the subsequent pounding in your head could last from minutes to hours.

Or, maybe you aren't the one who receives the vision. Instead, as you watch, another Summoned might grasp their head and crumble in front of you. They may go silent or groan in pain. They'll be impossible to shake out of their stupor until it's over. If you ask what happened, they may be inclined to tell you the truth - that you, you were what happened to them.

Or, if your Arcana signs happen to line up in a specific way, you'll see each other in the shared memory itself. You may also find that for certain Summoned, you can help soothe the effects, calm their emotions, or help draw them out of the memory before it consumes them for too long. It's not entirely clear what determines which effect, but one thing is for certain - within each memory, every Summoned as they appear in the past seems to wear the mark of their Arcana somewhere on their person.

For some, they might experience this only once. For others, they might experience it multiple times: with the same person, with several other Summoned, or with a different memory each time. Over the next 7 days, you'll find the Summoned around you are all receiving a glimpse into each other's past, as if the Singularity has awoken an eye within each of you.

Flee for the safety of the Horizon if you want, but you'll find that in there, it's much the same. In fact, inside the Horizon, the other Summoned don't even need to be anywhere near you - just existing in the Horizon space itself together will be enough to possibly set off a headache-inducing vision.

The Factions

What has occurred between the Summoned will not go unnoticed within the factions. While it's difficult to say how faction officials have picked up what's happening, it'll be obvious they do know.

In THORNE, characters will be asked to remain in the castle walls until further notice. Characters will not be allowed to leave the castle grounds, not even to go into the surrounding city, and anyone who is already outside will be requested to not leave again as soon as they return. If asked, they will be told it's for their own safety, given the Singularity is behaving unpredictably and the Summoned have a unique connection to it. Soothing potions and healers are on hand to offer assistance, if anyone is particularly suffering from ill effects.

In the FREE CITIES, characters will find the army by the outposts show more activity than usual. A higher number of guards will patrol the streets throughout the event, particularly in areas frequented by the Summoned. Anyone who publicly and visibly experiences the effects of the memory share (pain, doubling over, etc.) will be offered assistance by the guards. They are generally there to help, but they are also there to maintain order and ensure anyone behaving erratically due to this incident is properly contained. This might include confinement for a day or two if anyone is especially posing a risk, but no one will be punished except in the most extreme cases, as the locals are aware this is not within the control of the Summoned.

In SOLVUNN, the locals will be watching what's happening with a mixture of trepidation and curiosity. Host families and neighbors will be on hand to help with charms meant to offer protection, as well as general care and assistance (soup, blankets, and so on) if your character seems to be especially under the weather or afflicted by the event. Towards the end of the event, more elders and mages will be out and about to check up on the Summoned to make sure they're doing okay. If asked, the mages will say they aren't sure what's going on, but that they are currently divining with the gods and hope to have a definitive answer soon in the upcoming days.

None of the factions appear to be doing much more than keep a watchful eye on the situation - but as the week comes to a close, officials will start making a decision as to what they want to do and how to handle the Summoned who have demonstrated this unforeseen connection to the Singularity.

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"It burned." The answer comes bluntly, but quietly. A statement of fact. "All knowledge burned with it."

The last few of their kind, in other words. He doesn't say it, though maybe she can infer. It isn't important. In this world, he's the only of his kind, always will be, and perhaps that's for the best.

He considers her words for a moment. Were, had. He can recall the warmth in the memory and he can see the...it's hard to say. A longing? A loss?

Fuck. Maybe he's looking too closely, with feelings tangled up in his own.

"Not anymore?"

She breathes out a soft, "Oh," unsure of what else to say to that. The implication is big enough to see, but he seems... adjusted to it. Long-since gone. The far-off past that is not forgotten, but no longer a sharp knife between the ribs it may once have been. She longs for the parts of her past that still feel that way to be dulled. Never forgotten, but just... less important, no longer ruling so many parts of her. Once, she'd thought escaping Heleen and The Menagerie would have been enough to start that process, but the last few years with Kaz and the rest of the Crows has proven that she is not far enough from it for that to be the case.

There is something heavy in her first statement, a deeper story behind it that complicates it more than the words do. "I was separated from them three years ago. Just before I was pulled into this world, I had finally been reunited with my parents." Thanks to Kaz and Saints knew what he'd done to find them, or how he'd convinced them to come to Ketterdam.

Yeah. Oh. If she were to ask, he would only be able to tell her it's a matter of time. A hundred years go by and eventually even the deepest cuts scar over.

His gaze softens a hint. Separated. He does hear the story in that one word, but he doesn't ask yet.

"Hard to leave your family behind." He wants to say he was the same—on his way home and never made it—but now he's got memories of making it, of having gone home to Kaer Morhen, to his own brothers, after all. Of having found Ciri. Which makes the entire situation complicated. What counts now, as the period in which he was whisked away?

A beat. "I've seen you about as of late. You're new to Cadens?"

"It was not a choice," she says, her tone still soft, but this time there is a sharpness to it as well. Choice was something that had been stolen from her for so long, it was still hard to accept she had it back some days.

She nods at the question. "Relatively. I switched here from Solvunn during the Summit."

"No," he agrees. He adds nothing more. She's seen his memories, growing up. They say enough about his experience with choices.

Not a lot of that to go around, these days or otherwise. But they have choices to make still in between the ones they were denied. Sometimes that has to suffice, when there isn't anything else.

His brows draw together; a sense that he's beginning to put a few pieces into place. He considers the conversations he had during the Summit—a number of them, somehow, more than he'd normally seek on his own. Flowers braided in his hair and a layer of shimmer dust might've made him more approachable. Who knows? A decent opportunity to gather information, in any case.

After a few seconds, he hazards a guess. "You're Jesper's friend."

So many times during this strangeness that is going around, those memories of the morning she was stolen from her family’s caravan were handed to people, with no warning, no approval from her, and it has made both the thought of it, and the emotions attached to it, bubble so much closer to the surface again.

She won’t explain it to him, but there’s no doubt that something stirs in the back of her mind I’m the silence that falls between them for a drawn out moment.

She feels the words a little bit like an accusation for a brief second, but only for a second, and then she lets out a soft huff of amusement. “Saints, has he told everyone?” Better yet? Is there anyone in the city Jesper hasn’t met already? She nods, “I am Inej.”

"He mentioned a friend moving from Solvunn." His amusement matches hers—because yeah. He's met Jesper a few times and the boy almost never shuts up. Reminds him of someone else he knows.

Really, it's a wonder Jesper hasn't tripped into trouble yet, but Geralt managed to convince him to stay in the city, at least. For now. And he knows Sam's keeping an eye on Jesper.

He nods. "Geralt. We spoke. About the old gods."

Oliver, specifically. It was some time ago. Nice to put a face to the name, though.

"Of course," she shakes her head, the remnants of a fond smile on her lips. He's her family, through and through, but he is tiring to keep up with sometimes.

Her eyes light up with a little recognition. "Ah. Yes. Unfortunately, I never did get to speak to the woman you suggested I did. Though, Himeka knew plenty of things herself." She can't imagine how anyone could trust Thorne at all, and wonders if the people that reside there knew the things they'd done to the people they summoned in that first round. And if they did know, what did it say that they stayed?

"I'm still looking into it, though. The Old Gods. It's hard here, I think, because," she gestures vaguely, to indicate the city as a whole. They aren't as wrapped up in religion and superstition here, Solvunn had a plethora of information from the library to the locals, but she just hadn't been there long enough to gather as much as she might have liked.

"She's been in Solvunn some time." From the start. Himeka is his closest contact in Solvunn. Anything about the commune's people, its gods—he knows Himeka would've told him if something important cropped up, which suggests nothing of concern has occurred yet. At least, nothing of concern in her eyes.

Might be time to check in, all things considered.

He nods. The Free Cities aren't exactly building shrines in their deserts. Thorne hasn't much, from what he recalls. Jaskier had told him no names of the gods could be found in their library.

"It's unusual," he says. "Back home, even in places where the gods have little hold, they aren't altogether absent."

People still know: names, stories, where the temples are, whether they believe in it or not. But this feels as if the gods were deliberately erased or buried—or that the borders between these territories have held firm for so long that the details simply couldn't spread.

She nods her agreement. "Even the least religious people I know back home have some vague idea of the stories of the Ravkan Saints or the basic ideas of Djel are understood, even outside of Fjerda. It is very strange that there seems to be so little evidence of their existence anywhere across these nations."

Solvunn's people were still deeply religious, entrenched in rituals and superstitions alike, but even there, finding out actual information about the gods was like pulling teeth. "I'm still looking into it, but it's a pretty slow-moving side-project, at this point."

These are foreign terms, but the context behind them is plenty clear. Saints and gods. Nothing strange. Every world has them, to some degree.

"I haven't got much for you since we last spoke," he replies. Solvunn's one place he never set foot in. He's been in Thorne, however limited his access. He's beginning to know the Free Cities well. All anyone can tell him about Solvunn are vague rumblings of gods, shrines, and farming. And goats. Can't forget the fucking goats.

Cheese is good, though.

"Aquila and Libertas both appear to be looser run than Cadens. You might find more in the next city or two over." Not an especially long trip, but not quick, either—couple of weeks there and back by wagon, or more—but if she's intrigued enough, she might find it worth the effort.

She shrugs a little. Expected, given everything being the way that it is. "Not your fault they're so few and far between on answers." Even the libraries are hard to parse. She's been making her way through a lot of mind-numbing academic texts lately, but it's taxing and taking longer than she'd like.

"Do you know much about either of those cities?" She hasn't looked into them much, personally. But it could be an idea to keep in her back pocket, once she feels she's exhausted all her research options in Cadens itself.

"Mm." He rests his fingers on the edge of his mug. "Only Aquila. Haven't found reason to make my way south. The market's larger. More trade."

More people to talk to, perhaps. It isn't a topic he's been looking into in particular, so he can't say much else to it, if anything of value can be found. He went to Aquila with Jaskier, mostly to take his friend on a trip. The music and art is varied there even more so than Cadens. Reminds him of Oxenfurt. Brighter, though. Hell of a lot bigger.

He'd enjoyed it. It isn't suited for him, but when is any city? He's long used to moving from place to place without belonging to any. In truth, it's among the Summoned where he feels as though he can most settle. They are not all his own solely by virtue of being dragged to the same world, but he's grown close with a handful now.

"What are you hoping to find?"

She nods a little and makes small mental notes about that as well. Perhaps, she could talk Jesper into tagging along with her to one of the other cities in this territory. Do some exploring for a bit somewhere else.

"I don't know... originally, I was just curious about it. My faith is important to me, and I wanted to know what sort of beliefs they hold in this world. But what I found in Solvunn made me think maybe there's more to it." Maybe it's nothing, and she's wasting her time trying to dive deeper into it, but it had been the only thing giving her a sense of direction for months, and now she's too invested to simply give up the search.

She props her chin in her hand, considering it all again. "Everything seemed to point to the idea that Singularity came before the Gods, though. It makes me wonder if the Gods were not of this world originally, like us."

He lifts his hand in a small gesture—not entirely dismissive, more noncommittal. A sense that this is a topic he's spoken of before, and neither cares to have his thoughts changed nor change anyone else's. "Folk will call anything a god given half the chance. If it's rooted in truth, I doubt the truth is anything grand."

If the Singularity is a monolith as he thinks, then creatures and entities must've crawled out of it at some point, long ago. He's not certain they were particularly like the Summoned are now. It could easily be some monster, a demon, a creature that people could not understand and began to tell tales of until it grew and grew to become an entire people's faith. Maybe they believe the Singularity is a god itself. Who knows? Faith is faith. It's not a concept he holds for himself, but he knows people who do—was taught by a priestess for part of his childhood—and if it brings them some comfort, who is he to dissuade them? But there's a difference between praying at a temple for guidance and believing in sacrifices and blood spilled. (In abandoning your child because Destiny claimed it had to be done.) He's walked through too many villages who subscribe to the latter, when their god is little more than a monster lurking.

He supposes, when a beast will claw away your children no matter what, it feels less painful to believe it part of some greater plan. Where Solvunn is concerned, he'd prefer if it were merely a matter of harmless shrines and rituals. But it's difficult to say one way or another.

"Perhaps," but she will keep an open mind to whatever possibility might decide to present itself during her personal searches.

There weren't as many myths and legends of beasts as they have here, which seem to exist in such a rampant way in other worlds as well. Mostly, it was the Grisha that people feared like that, labeled evil, witch, monster, demon, or soldier. Sure, there was Rusalye the sea whip, and Sankt Juris slayed a dragon, but overall they were rare if seen at all.

"If there's a truth in it, I'll find it." She's persistent if nothing else.

"I'm sure." They could all do with more truths than not. The uncertainty has been their biggest obstacle in this world: what the Singularity means, what the territories are hiding, what else lurks out there beyond these three sets of borders.

If there is anything beyond the seas themselves.

Geralt slides a few more coins across the table, for the barkeep, before rising.

"Be careful out there, Inej." He needn't specify what he means by that, nor does he give her room to answer—just slips out the door with little ceremony.

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EVENT #7: THE SIGHT

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wrapping!