abraxaslogs | Horizon Event Wrap Up + Mystery Trial

Entry tags:

Horizon Event Wrap Up + Mystery Trial

Success!

The expedition to the Singularity has been deemed a success by Ambrose! Upon the return of the prisoners and honored guests from their adventure, the High Mage appeared visibly pleased and wholly unsurprised by the events that transpired. While having no idea of exactly what happened within the Horizon, the reappearance of the - now altered - guests and prisoners seemed almost expected. While Ambrose offered a general, token, sentiment of appreciation, there were no speeches or concern showed for whatever may have happened within the Horizon.

And unfortunately no further explanations were offered either, and there was little time for questions or discussion in the immediate wake of the return. All were quickly escorted back to where they'd started from - either the castle proper or the dungeons below. All privileges - or lack thereof - still in place.

It looked as though life for the displaced in Castle Thorne would return to what passes for normal...

Days after the return, a stone faced guard makes her way to the dungeons, straight to Relena's cell, and unlocks the door. She takes the woman by the arm, her expression and body language implying quite clearly that no protesting will be tolerated.

"Come on, then. Time for your trial."

Two other guards are waiting at the stairs, to escort Relena out of the dungeons.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Her time in Horizon hadn't been wholly unpleasant, but she still felt she needed a mental rest. Returning to her cell was not ideal, but at least there was time for a talk with Estinien, a check in with Himeka, and --

"A trial."

She stares at the woman as she's taken by the arm. So they really are being tried and, potentially, not just doomed to rot in the belly of this castle. Maybe this means she'll get more of an idea about just what they think she'll do.

She's a threat.

Okay.

But what kind of threat? Just what actions do they think she'd take to cause the downfall of everyone? She's not getting her hopes up, but maybe some light will be shed upon her situation.

She opts to be obedient and quiet for now, following the guards with her eyes forward and her head up. She might as well act dignified as she approaches her fate here.

Rather than any courtroom, Relena is taken to wait outside the very first room she - or anyone brought to Thorne - ever saw.

Inside the room of the Summoning Well, Queen Ellya Galdwin and Apprentice Mage Grigory meet. Both solemn faced, the latter with a touch of nervousness in his eyes, they're accompanied only by a handful of royal guards. The air in the room seems heavy and thick with an unspoken tension. One could imagine more shadows cast on the floor than there are, as if a darkness encroached on the little party gathered. It seems almost an entirely different place than the vibrant, energy filled hall where the summonings had taken place.

The card of Death hangs above the well.

"Is all prepared?" the queen asks Grigory, breaking the weighted silence. Her voice is severe and heavy in tone, and she doesn't look at the apprentice.

"It is, your Majesty, but...."

"There's no more to say on the matter. And you will keep this between us." Her attention turns to one of the royal guard stationed by the entrance. "Tell them to bring the prisoner in now, please."

The doors open and Relena's guard escort is beckoned inside, Relena between them. The doors close behind them immediately.

The room that started everything for them lies in front of her as she waits with the guards. Relena knows better than to let anxiousness well in her throat, so she breathes through her nose and holds her tension in her curled fists. She can't be sure what this room has to do with her trial, but perhaps they will simply dispose of her in the well if she 'loses'. There's no guarantee they'll always want to keep them living and accessible as prisoners.

Her breath only catches in concern when the door opens and they are beckoned into the room. The door shuts behind them and she feels her fingers flex and teeth set firmly together. The weight of the world inside this room rests on her shoulders. Something feels wrong - something is wrong - but perhaps it's only the expectations this world had set for her so far coloring her view. The mood in here feels too heavy to host a situation in her favor. It isn't the first time she's felt this, but this is not Romefeller or White Fang. These are not the devils she knows.

She spots her sign hanging over the well and creases her brow, curious but wary.

Then, Relena looks at Grigory briefly before turning her eyes to Queen Ellya. For now, she decides to be silent and wait for one of them to speak. She doesn't want to set the tides completely against her by letting her aggravation slip through from word one.

Relena is given only a glance from the woman presiding over this affair. It's unreadable, Queen Ellya's face a solemn mask that offers no insights to the inner workings of her mind. Her attention turns again to Grigory.

The guards stay close, one on either side of the prisoner, watching her closely.

"And the volunteer," the queen continues. Grigory looks as though he's about to speak but thinks better of it, mouth opening then snapping shut. The apprentice mage looks resigned to whatever's happening here but hardly enthused. He moves to stand by the Summoning Well.

The doors open once more, this time what looks like a local citizen from town is escorted in. There's only a single guard accompanying the man and he appears to be here of his own free will rather than hauled in as a prisoner.

"We thank you for your service." The queen addresses the man identified as a volunteer directly. She gestures for the man to approach the well, to kneel in front of it. He hesitates only a moment before taking his place.

The guards on either side of Relena grasp her arms and haul her to join him.

"Volunteer?" Relena asks herself, voice quiet. Until a moment ago, she thought she might have to plead her case to these two, but now...

Relena shifts her gaze to Grigory, as well. What would they need a volunteer for in a trial? Just what were they intending this trial to be? She watches Grigory's mouth open then snap shut, as if holding back in a moment of better judgment, before a man is ushered into the room.

He kneels by the well and suddenly, she's nabbed by the arms and pulled forward. This time, she tries to resist, but she's a small girl and there's not much muscle to her for her to put up a decent effort. She looks at Grigory, trying to coat her nervous confusion in sternness as she stumbles along in the guards' hold.

"May I at least ask what is going on here?"

She know she could very well get nothing by asking, but she supposes she should try. Clearly, there will be no jury... but will she at least get to defend her presence here? She is sure she has every reason to doubt it.

The guards maintain a tight grip while getting Relena into place. They hover once she's kneeling, lingering, as if unsure whether they should remain close or not.

It's the queen that answers. Whatever is happening here, it's her that's in control.

"What is going on here is an attempt to help our kingdom. I realize you believe you are here to participate in a trial and I suppose you are of sorts. What we do here today could have stupendous impact on the future of Thorne, the Singularity and the world."

Queen Ellya's voice remains grave and serious as she illuminates the situation Relena is actually in.

"As you are aware, our own people cannot approach nor interact with the Singularity in the manner you can. We aim to change that. We will begin in a few moments, please do not attempt to disrupt the proceedings. For your own safety."

The guards are gestured away but remain at the ready. The queen withdraws to stand by the wall, giving the well and mage and kneeling figures a wide berth.

The alarm bells in her sound louder and louder as she finds herself kneeled down in front of that blasted well that dragged her here to begin with. She glances at the volunteer, almost more concerned by how calm he is about this than she might have been if he was panicking.

The queen speaks and she looks at her, concern fully filling her expression. 'For your own safety' really punctuates the situation.

Heero won't save her. Her brother won't save her. She's on her own here.

"So I have no say in this at all, right ? As it's been with everything else?" She asks, raising her voice and hating how some level of desperation leaks in. She doesn't understand things like magic or the supernatural. She can't even guess what is about to happen.

The queen and the guards back fully away... Relena looks down at the floor, wondering how hard she should brace for the mystery she's about to be struck by.

At least it's her. At least it's not a more useful person like Himeka or Estinien. If nothing else, at least she alone has to suffer this right now.

"As I have already said...there is nothing more to say on the matter. It has been decided."

The queen's voice is hard with finality.

"We will have silence now. Begin when you are ready, Mage Grigory." She gestures to the apprentice mage.

It doesn't start at once. Apprentice Mage Grigory takes a moment to steady himself or prepare his spell or gather his thoughts. Whatever it is, he stands there as the seconds tick by with his eyes closed in some sort of concentration.

Then his hands lift. An incomprehensible incantation, spoken quick and low, begins. The air buzzes with magic and a wind begins to stir in the sealed room. There is a tingling that comes with it, deep under the skin. The sensation hits Relena first as the spell's magic touches her and seeks out the power within her.

Relena is torn between a need to be defiant and a need to pay attention to Grigory to see just what he was planning to do here. The volunteer hasn't made a single sound. Is he really okay with this ? Is she overreacting here? But the words 'for your safety' are hanging in her head and she feels confident that her alarm bells are not falsely sounding off here.

Grigory is concentrating, or maybe even hesitating, in silence and it's almost maddening to watch him. She can't help but open her mouth again, stress getting to her.

"Would you just tell me--"

She's cut off by a sensation running deep into her. She looks down at her hands, perplexed. It's like the hum of electric down in her bones. It's not painful but not pleasant: an invasive feeling that makes her skin crawl.

She looks to the volunteer beside her once more, to see if he's feeling this as well. Maybe he'll be as calm as ever, but maybe she can find some comfort in his response if he's just as troubled by this foreign feeling buzzing through.

Beside Relena the volunteer is breathing heavily. That he feels something is clear. The air grows heavier and more charged as the spell builds. The buzzing sensation intensifies and the volunteer lets out a sharp gasp.

The room remains silent aside from Grigory, Relena and the volunteer. It's as if no one dares make a sound.

The buzzing turns to something more painful. A sensation like something inside is being pulled and tugged at, but there's no way to pinpoint the feeling to any one part of the body. Before the well the volunteer lurches forward with another gasp, pained this time, shoulders hunching and head dropping downwards as he catches himself with his hands. Little sparks of golden light jump around his form, almost as though they're leaping out of him. His body almost appears to bulge, his back swelling and receding.

The spell does not stop.

Relena can not take her eyes off the man. She can feel the low crackle of magic running through her, but other than nerves, she doesn't yet seem to be having a time as rough as he is. Her shoulders feel weighted as the spell continues and she ends up with her hands on her knees as the discomfort grows in her. She suppresses the urge to jump when he gasps, eyes widening as his struggling persists.

But the static under her skin turns over into pain, making her whole body tense. She's not as used to pain as most of the people she knows. It feels as though it's radiating everywhere, rattling through her. She tries to anchor herself to the ground by letting her weight rest on her palms.

"W-Wait, what's --"

He's gone from worse to far, far worse. It's all of her will to not reach out and try to tend to him. She's trying to heed that warning she was given, fearing her attempt to help him would make him far, far worse. She feels miserable just watching him, though. It's a powerlessness she's familiar with and one that reminds her of what Estinien was telling her days ago.

If she were able to fight or willing to, would any of this be happening at all?

She cannot tear her gaze away, even when his back starts to ebb and flow with swelling. She can't imagine the pain he's in.

"W-wait, isn't something wrong?"

She has a feeling she won't get an answer, but she can't stop the words from spilling out.

The chanting has stopped.

The spell is set in motion, there's nothing to be done now. It needs to run its course - whatever that is.

Beside Relena the man cries out in pain as his body twists and convulses. Rigid limbs swell and jerk in unnatural directions as the magic works through them both. The prisoner may find herself feeling weakened and drained.

Under the sounds of pain and distress the voice of the queen can be heard.

"...still too unreliable. What happens here must not leave this room."

Then comes the sound of tearing flesh. Golden light bursts out of the tormented Thornean's body and he screams again. Before there's time for anyone to do anything he lurches forward, still screaming and with light still pouring out of his body. Gasps of onlookers are drowned out in those pained screams. Lurching, somehow able to force himself to move, the Thornean volunteer rushes to the Summoning Well itself...

And pitches himself into it. The screaming is silenced by the sound of a body hitting water.

Relena has seen people suffer and even die, but nothing like this. It's like his skeleton is trying to escape his skin, jerking and twisting him around unnaturally. She's lost all strength in her arms and legs. Keeping herself upright is taking up all her energy. She can't even try to grasp the poor man's hand through his agony.

Is this how they use their people? Just how can anyone be convinced to do this? Are they really all at this point of desperation?

And yet the queen seems indifferent, as far as she can hear, or maybe she has to be. She can't fathom it, watching what she's seeing and not responding.

It's the rending of his body that finally draws a shout out of her as she flinches backwards, stuck facing him now with her arms barely supporting her body.

The light is bright and almost painful to look at. She tries to shift herself around to make an attempt to reach for him, but soon he's rushing forward and hurling himself into the well.

She's wide eyed and short of breath. She's never bore witness to something like this, and it takes a moment to shake the shock from her bones. Her energy is depleted and her body is sore, but at least she can raise her voice.

"Why... Why would you do something like this to him? To one of your people? I could never-- I could never imagine doing something so terrible to my people ! I could never..."

She's barely got the power in her to maintain her rage, so her voice tapers off, staring at the well. Was he the only one? Would there be more? And just how long would she be here? If she didn't prove useful, what's next for her here?

The queen declines to answer, simply staring solemnly at the well.

Relena's vision begins to go dark, and exhaustion will soon consume her. The last thing she'll feel is a great and powerful force yanking her limp body as if she had a rope around her chest, and then -

- she will awaken, some few days later, at the boundary of the Singularity. A man stands over her, tall and with long, flowing hair. His eyes are pale and ancient, and he never blinks. The same feeling of power that radiates from the Singularity pulses off of him.

"My, my. They sure did a number on you," he says, his voice calm and monotone, "You're lucky I found you in time. Can you stand up?"

Relena feels the whole world spin and the world goes black. Her body hits the for, all the rage snuffed out of her before she feels a force yank her and --

A voice speaks and her eyes open, slowly rolling herself onto her back. She's startled briefly by the presence of the man above her. Something feels powerful and drawing about him, but his voice is calm and doesn't shake her. She watches him warily - she hasn't forgotten the event in that room that feel just minutes ago - but she sits up slowly.

As far as she remembers, he was not in that room. There's no point in pointing her anger towards him. He doesn't yet feel threatening.

"Oh, you-- yes... Yes, I think so."

And she tries, getting to her feet like a baby deer, wobbly but at least mostly upright.

"That room... How did I get here, if I may ask?"

She pauses, drawing in a short breath of realization.

"Ah, pardon me... I should thank you for finding me."

She's not immediately accepting that he's telling the truth, but if he's lying, she can confront that when its apparent.

"I pulled you here," he says, nodding in the direction of the Singularity, "Before your connection to the Singularity could be severed. They've drained a lot of it out of you, but you'll recover soon enough."

He smiles ever so slightly, but the look in his eyes doesn't change.

"You're welcome," he says, "This may be obvious, but I don't suggest you return to Thorne. I can take you somewhere else, if you'd like."

"And what happens to us, when our connection is severed?" Relena asks as she looks towards the Singularity. "I assume that light or energy that was bursting from that man was in me before, but I'm not sure what it is, exactly."

It was all new and troubling to her. If she's to recover, that means that energy is replenishable in them, at least. It's something their bodies can restore.

Then she looks back to him and smiles almost apologetically. "I understand why I shouldn't, but there are people there I don't want to leave behind in that place when they're still imprisoned. I know it's dangerous, but I don't want them to worry about what's become of me. Besides... I'm not sure where I'd go in this world to be all on my own."

She straightens out her posture and watches him for a moment. "My name is Relena. May I ask who you are? How did you know to find me? I thought most here avoided getting so close to this place."

Edited 2021-08-15 06:22 (UTC)

"If your connection was severed you'd be like they are, unable to approach the Singularity and forever trapped in this world. You may well have died; people like you aren't meant to be disconnected like that. It was foolish of them to think that one of them could inherit your power so easily, but they are desperate. Almost everyone here is, and desperation is far crueler than wrath."

Which is to say, he doesn't blame Thorne any more than he blames anyone else here, even if he's not overly fond of them.

He's silent when she mentions the other prisoners. As sure as he is that no one will ever perfect the spell needed to fully transfer a newcomer's power to a native, he doesn't want to risk it. Who knows what any number of other failed experiments would do.

"My name is Oliver. The Singularity chose me when the world was new," he says, "Approximately how many others are they holding in cages?"

Relena assumed as much. She felt like she'd been drained of all her energy at that time. She still feels weak, putting all her focus into staying on her feet.

The desperation, given all that she'd heard so far, was understandable, though the methods... From her own political standpoint, it was something she couldn't accept.

"I see... I've seen that before in my world. What that desperation can do to people. Still, I can't imagine, watching something so horrible happen to a civilian in my kingdom, desperate or not. That was a horrible way to die. That poor man ..."

She lets out a sigh. She doesn't have time right now to dwell on it, as much as it burns in her chest. She can't stop her anger towards the queen and Grigory right now, not when the rest of the prisoners were so close to the same danger she'd faced. If attempts on her were a failure ... If she had nearly died, she knows that the others are likely to suffer similar risks.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Oliver. But, chose you?"

So, what does that make him and his old does that make him? He is definitely not a normal human, but that's not so odd now that she'd been rooming with an elf and a woman with a lizard tail.

"It was a little over twenty, if I remember right. Is there something you're able to do? Please, if there's a way you can help them, I'll do anything you want in exchange. I don't want them going through the same things I did."

"Yes, chose me. I am its first and last disciple."

He perks up and stares directly at the Singularity, as if listening to a sing that only he can hear. He's silent for long enough that it's an awkward pause in the conversation, but he doesn't seem aware of that. At his age, time seems very quick and a few minutes pass like seconds.

At last, he turns to her again.

"I will help. You may return with me and reunite with them, if that is what you wish, and then my confidant and I will show you all the way out of Thorne," he says, "I will summon her, we will gather up the necessary resources and then go. All I ask is that you relay my message the others so that they do not fall into the same desperation that has already consumed this world: there is nothing to fear, the future is bright."

It's disciple. There's so much she could ask, but time feels so short.

"Amazing... I'd love to speak to you about it sometime, Oliver, to learn more about it when times are less desperate. It's so beyond my understanding in some ways. I'd love to learn as much as I'm able to about it... what it is, what we are to it..."

But this is perhaps not the time to demand answers from the person who just saved her life. She doesn't think it would be prudent to do more than ask for an opportunity.

She turns her gaze towards the Singularity as he does, puzzled. He seems distracted by it and she wonders if it can speak to him. What it might be saying that she can't here or what it might be showing him that she can't see. That kind of connection with it, she thinks, would make him an important connection in the future should he ever be willing to appear before her again.

"I'll come with you, of course. I want to see this through with them and with you, as well," Relena replies, finally looking determined. A smile comes onto her face for the first time and she almost reaches out to grasp his hand in relief and gratitude but restrains herself, hands balling against her knees.

"Of course, Oliver, I absolutely will. Thank you... thank you so much for this."

Opening a portal with raised hand, Oliver escorts Relena back into the far corner of the dungeon, away from prying eyes. He only takes a step on the other side, seeing that she is safe before he bows his head with a gentlemanly air.

“They won’t know you’re back yet, of course. With a bit of luck, they won’t have any time to take notice of you, so long as you don’t make a fuss.”

He quirks one side of his mouth, the tiniest bit of amusement actually reaching his eyes this time.

“I’ll see you shortly, Relena.”

The portal closes.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Horizon Event Wrap Up + Mystery Trial

Trial Time!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

2/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject