There's only darkness. A crushing, all-encompassing darkness. It could be an endless void, or a closed coffin. All I know is that I'm enveloped in it. Suffocating. Too aware of my own breath.

"Lola?" I whisper so quietly, quieter even than the heartbeat in my ears. That's how deafening the silence is. I can feel the quiet seeping into me. "C... Caesar? A-Arthur?"

I stick my hand out, to see if I can, and my fingers trail through darkness, invisible, but unfettered. I hold both hands out now, waving them in circles, taking small steps. I'm trying to catch something, trying not to run into anything... or anyone, while I walk blindly, trying not to trip or fall down to who-knows-where.

My unsteady steps crunch on something. Gritty, grimy, it grinds under my heel. I stand frozen, heart pounding, breath held. I take another step. Something's pulling at my feet. Each step kicks through mounds of it. And I feel it, working its way inside my pants leg, my shoes, my socks. Scraping at my skin.

“What?” I reach down to swat my ankle, then slide my fingers under the band of my sock, feeling the tiny grains work their way under my nails. "What the fuck?!"

I stumble away from that spot, lose my footing, fall…

Into a pile of tiny little things. They crawl along my arms.

"What is this?!"

In through the sleeves of my shirt, across my collarbone, and under the band of my bra. I punch into a pile of... whatever it is that's trying to swallow me. I scrape my knuckles, grab a handful, throw it, throw another, and the last I hold in trembling fingers. It's in my braids now. It’s all over, from head to toe. Stuck to me, I can't get it off.

I feel a scream building up. I want to cry out, to throw this last handful, when I notice the dim light, shining through my fist.

I open my hand. I can see my palm now, barely. And a handful of glowing dust, trickling through the gaps between my fingers. It spills down on my knee and to the ground. There's more radiance, rising around me, nearly too dark to make out. The littlest puddle of light where I lay. But as I watch, it grows brighter.

By the time I stand, I can see my leg up to my calf, in the light of the dust. Glowing footprints surround me. I take a few tentative steps, and look to see that I leave a trail of light.

It glows in a rainbow of colors, vibrant, gentle, and soothing. Growing brighter, and blooming, until the luminous patches are pushing out the dark, the light covers the floor, and begins to climb the walls, then vaulted ceiling above.

At last, I'm left standing in the center of a prismatic chamber. Shadowless. Full of soft light.

I bend to scoop up handfuls of the strange dust. No. Not dust. It's...

"Sand."

Gently glowing sand. I carry it high and watch it sprinkle back down.

I try to approach the room's wall, but it seems to get farther away as I do. I try the other way, but I can't reach the edge. I'm trapped in the middle.

So I take off running, kicking through piles of rainbow sand. Unafraid, for some reason. Almost... excited.

"I asked for magic..."

I slide to a stop and watch the sands of the wall get brighter. I realize then, the chamber of shifting sands is moving to keep me in the center.

But why?

I look around myself. Down. Up. There's nothing here but me.

"Hello?!" my voice sounds quiet and dull. There isn't even the slightest echo. All sound that hits the sand is swallowed up. "Guys?! Lola?! I'm here!"

I get the urge to wave my hands, to jump and shout, but that would be stupid. How would they see me through a wall of sand?

I stand on my tip toes to peer around. There must be something. Anything.

"Is anybody..." I cup my hands around my mouth and shout: "Why am I here?! Why did you bring me here?!"

I get no response.

I take off running again. But this time, I push myself. Faster. I run until the wall in front of me dims. I run through sands that haven’t brightened yet, and I get closer, a few dozen feet away. I push until my whole body is burning, straining. I'm close to ten feet behind the wall. Then less. Close enough to hear it shifting out of the way. And then it's gone.

"Oh fuck!"

I dig my heels in, fall and skid towards the opening of an enormous chamber I can only see the beginnings of.

My fingers claw at the ground, leaving long trenches. I feel my feet slip off the edge. My legs slide, and I pull at the sand with everything, breaking nails and bruising flesh, trying to swim against gravity.

I come to a stop with my waist jutting out. My body tilts with the smallest movement, like I'll tip over with too deep a breath.

For a moment I stop all motion. I listen to the grains trickling away. There’s a muted roar, like a waterfall far below. Don’t slip, I think. Don’t let go.

I try to push myself up, but that just slides me back another inch. Already my fingers don't have enough traction in the sand to hold me. I dig down with my chin and wiggle. I slide again and kick my legs by instinct.

I feel the balance turning, body falling backwards. I push up with all my strength and throw a leg over the edge. I plant as much weight as possible, while sand tumbles down below.

My body is rocking, on the verge of slipping off, But I'm still there. I roll, every muscle straining, and find myself back on solid ground.

I roll a few more times for good measure before getting to my feet. I stumble a few steps away from the edge, then look over the massive chamber. It stretches so wide, so high and so far down, that I can't make out the details of the walls.

Stolen story; please report.

I see holes… tunnels all along the surface, growing indistinct in the distance, until they become just more glowing sand. What seems like slabs of the glowing grit break of and tumble down. Luminescent curtains cascade from up top.

I brave the edge to see the bottom. Far below, rainbow sands are swirling: a rapids built on a million shades, glowing with every color I've ever seen and more, converging at a point in the middle. It would've been a deadly fall, to be crushed in the whirlpool at the bottom, and shat out who-knows-where.

"Well that was close..." My quiet voice is lost just after it leaves my lips. I spend a second scratching at my scalp, then ask the important question: "What now?"

***

I wander endlessly. I don't know for how long, but more features reveal themselves out of the sands as I go, balustrades stretching down crumbling stairs, balconies above vividly endless falls, bridges shifting over rivers of rushing sand, galleries lined with dwindling columns and variegated walls.

These things and more, I see. Floors seem to slip in different directions. Halls twist with rainbow bands. Rooms sink as I enter. Walls part as I pass.

There's no rhyme or reason. It's as I'm skiing down a slide of sand rushing so fast it's only a blur that I realize. I can put a name to what this place is.

It's a sandcastle, of course.

A chromatic palace. One that grows more elaborate, more defined and 'alive' as I go. More personal. More... magical. I feel like some part of me is controlling it. I just doesn't know how yet.

Eventually, I stride up a set of circular stairs to stand in a tall chamber with fluted walls. The dome overhead, the wide open space- it feels like some kind of observatory. In the center is a short pedestal, with something on it.

As I get closer, I see it's a book, bound in brass and burgundy leather, with a fractal design, like snowflakes etched across its face.

"What is this?"

I flip the pages.

There's a note on the inside cover:

This Grimoire belongs to Mariah Ajani Diallo,

Native Earthling of the early twenty-first century.

The book's contents are separated by thick sheets of leather and inscribed tabs. And they're the thickest, richest paper I've ever held. The sound of them turning is crisp in the silence.

The first section I turn to is called Condition. It holds a handful of pages. The first is taken up by a drawing: a female version of the Vitruvian Man. Below it is some text:

Sanity: Sane

Corruption: 13%

"13% corruption? Since when?" I say. And then, "a sanity mechanic? We're fucked."

I shake my head and turn more pages. The next few are obvious just by their names, yet they sill raise questions…

Afflictions,

Mutations,

Curses,

Phobias,

Manias...

All these pages are entirely blank. No pictures. No text.

There's nothing to actually read, but I can't help believing what I'm seeing right now is important to me. I'm just having a hard time connecting the dots.

I flip to the next section.

It says: Aspects. A single page, with a short list on it:

Resilience: 0%

Ingenuity: 0%

Insight: 0%

Clarity: 0%

Obscurity: 0%

Influence: 0%

Permanence: 0%

The next section doesn't have any pages at all. The tab is called Arts.

After that… Paradigms. There are two entries:

The Watcher.

The Blind.

The second one is crossed out.

The last section just says Missions.

There's nothing written in it.

"What is all this?"

I look around the observatory, but all I see is emptiness, empty as the pages of a useless book at the end of a pointless dream quest. My voice seems to fade before it's even left me.

"What does it all mean? What am I looking at?"

I trail off. This was the moment. I was supposed to get answers. Instead I'm handed another puzzle with missing pieces. Another fucking mystery.

"I'm tired of this! Hello?!" I slam my hand on the book. "Explain! Tell me something!"

I'm tempted to heft the tome and toss it through the air, but I start to hear a faint noise. There’s a subtle scratching sound coming from between the bindings.

I let go and watch as it flips open on its own. This time, there's tiny script penned across the vellum, sentences finishing even as I watch:

* This Grimoire belongs to Mariah Ajani Diallo, native Earthling of the early twenty-first century.

Note: This Grimoire may be bound to an object, allowing interaction with the Sequestrate at any time.

Warning: Protect a Bound Grimoire at all costs.

Condition

Sanity: Sane

*This denotes the degree to which otherworldly influences have influenced your mental condition.

Corruption: 13%

*This denotes the degree to which otherworldly influences have saturated your mind, body and spirit.

Hint: Corruption does not necessarily lead to mutation, damnation or insanity. It can be cured, if action is taken soon enough.

Afflictions

*This denotes some of the ways corruption has altered your sanity.

Mutations

*This denotes some of the ways corruption has altered your physical form.

Curses

*This denotes some of the ways corruption has altered your metaphysical being.

Phobias

*This denotes that which you have a supernatural repulsion for, due to otherworldly influence.

Manias

*This denotes that which you have a supernatural attraction towards, due to otherworldly influence.

Aspects

Resilience: 0%

*This denotes your ability to resist insanity.

Ingenuity: 0%

*This denotes your capacity to evoke otherworldly energies.

Insight: 0%

*This denotes your capacity to analyze and understand otherworldly influences.

Clarity: 0%

*This denotes your capacity to observe otherworldly influences and entities.

It also denotes an ability to detect interstices, which bridge the Earth and other dimensions.

Warning: high clarity often abjures one of high obscurity.

Obscurity: 0%

*This denotes your capacity to avoid detection by otherworldly influences and entities.

Warning: high obscurity often abjures one of high clarity.

Influence: 0%

*This denotes your ability to impact otherworldly influences and entities.

Warning: high influence often abjures one of high permanence.

Permanence: 0%

*This denotes your ability to resist corruption, curses and mutations.

It also denotes an ability to resist being drawn into interstices, which bridge the Earth and other dimensions.

Warning: high permanence often abjures one of high influence.

Arts

*You must discover the powers of this world.

Paradigms

The Watcher:

You cannot help what you cannot see.

You have chosen to unlock your third eye.

You have obtained extreme clarity.

You have become completely abjured of obscurity.

*Beware. Some visions cannot be unseen. Some doors cannot be unfound. There are Others out there, those who only wait to be spotted, those who hunt for the All-Seeing Eye, ready to pluck out your powerful sight.

Beware, Watcher… and be wary.

The Blind:

You hide very well. But while they cannot see you, you cannot see them.

Become invisible to the occult.

You have obtained extreme obscurity.

You've become completely abjured of clarity.

*Beware. There are those who are greedy for the Obscuring Skin. Greater entities may still hunt you. They will tear their prize off of you to better hide themselves.

*Note: You are incompatible with this paradigm.

Missions

*You currently have no mission.

Note: Missions will arise as your heart seeks success, as you face threats and as you weather changes.