Novaris. Octus (August). 902. AGC.

At Rose's behest, Jasmine was taken to the Temple of Sol. This particular choice confused Jasmine a bit, especially after Aunt Emy relented so easily. The entire thing was a huge breach of tradition, as anytime anything was wrong with someone in the orphanage, they were always taken to the Temple of Zefree.

Aunt Emy had simply explained her decision as wanting to get a second opinion. After all, everyone in the orphanage was taken to the Temple of Zefree once a year for a check-up, and if they weren’t able to find out what was ailing Jasmine at the time. Then she wasn’t sure they could figure it out now.

This particular realization also came after Jasmine once again told them about all the differences she had experienced throughout the years. She had done this once more, hoping that whatever enchantment everyone had been under would now be broken. And to her surprise, they had all remembered everything the day after she had explained everything again.

So, the little entourage had headed to the Temple of Sol and was quickly seen by one of the clerics, who also concurred something was definitely going on.

Skip to a couple of hours and a handful of rituals later, and to everyone’s shock, they couldn’t find anything wrong. Granted, all the rituals were only High-tier, but that was more than sufficient if any fey at or lower than A Rank was fooling about. After all, the chances of an S Rank or Monarch-level fey deciding to mess with a simple mortal were nonexistent. Such fey had more important tasks than playing a prank on a non-ranked mortal.

The other issue and why they couldn’t do a Divine-tier ritual was that the current Grand Cleric of the temple was away with a Paladin of Sol investigating some divine matters. So, having no other options than to wait for the cleric’s return, the High Cleric did the second-best thing. She gave Jasmine an enchanted necklace bearing a symbol of Sol. The necklace was supposed to protect its wearer from any magical influences.

Having no other real options, Jasmine and her small group accepted the necklace, hoping that it would be the solution to their problems.

Novaris. Undecir (November). 902. AGC.

Jasmine’s 15th birthday had come and gone, and to her happy surprise, her hair and eyes showed no signs of change. They hadn’t reverted, but at the very least, their progress had stopped, which, to her, clearly showed the necklace was doing its job.

Sadly, her joy did not last very long, and not much time passed before something new began bothering her. This time, however, it wasn’t an external problem but something within. This new nuisance manifested as a constant probe in her thoughts. And to her, it felt like a second presence was pushing against her psyche. The most terrifying thing was that she could feel her thoughts go astray as whatever it was attempted to integrate and change them.

Obviously, she didn’t say anything, fearing everyone would think she was going mad. There was also the fact that she could actually fight back, and when she did, the presence would vanish for a while before returning once again, which that alone gave her a sense of control over the situation.

Outside that particular struggle, Jasmine’s life was going rather well. She and Rose met a few times a week, and they would talk about whatever topics or events were relevant at the time. This often included stories from Rose about her fellow initiates and the pranks they would pull on each other to explanations of all the new things Rose was learning about the world. Naturally, they would also talk about rumors they had heard going around the city, and Jasmine would often add on about the crazy stories she had heard at the inn.

Whether those stories were true or not was a whole different topic, but at the very least, they were entertaining. After all, Jasmine really doubted the claims about this particular fellow who said he had fought off a poop golem while working in the sewage. Either way, she was glad to have heard the story because after learning of his work, she was very careful not to make any contact with him.

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Novaris. Unus. 903. AGC.

A new year came, and with it came a different sort of change. This change did not involve Jasmine’s hair or her still ongoing yet ungrown mental probes. The most noticeable changes were the usual new year festivities, which celebrated having lived another year and welcomed a new year as spring returned. With these celebrations, however, came work, especially for Jasmine, who was working herself to exhaustion.

This exhaustion also meant she spent more time resting, which in turn didn’t let her notice how scarce her time with Rose had become. On the other hand, Rose had become burdened by her studies, which didn’t allow her to notice the slight drift that began to appear in their relationship.

Novaris. Quattur (April). 903. AGC.

The last month of spring marked the beginning of a new stage for Jasmine’s problems. First, the small rift between her and Rose grew. Both of them were at fault for this, yet at the same time, neither of them were.

They were still best friends, of course, but at this point in their lives, when they were genuinely becoming independent, there was a need and want to expand their horizons. Rose, for her part, found new friends in her initiate class who were more voluntary and up to speed on the things that interested her. Not only were they her type of people, being more than happy to muck about when out of duty, but they were also her future companions in battle. She didn’t have this in Jasmine, who needed to be coaxed in order to do much of anything, even if she had gotten much more active lately.

In turn, Jasmine remained the reserved individual she had always been. Although this had changed over time, she still preferred staying inside and reading a book rather than running around the city or wilderness doing whatever came to mind. So when Rose stopped pushing her as much as before, Jasmine didn’t really bother to seek her out either.

Still, the two had been friends for pretty much all of their lives, and a bond like that was hard to break. So, every so often, the two would meet up and continue to share their lives with each other.

The other more problematic issue in Jasmine’s life was the dreams, or the dream to be exact.

She would find herself floating in a medium-sized dark stone room that was dimly lit by small braziers burning with black flames. In the room was a relatively bare-bones bed that held what had to be a pregnant woman who was almost entirely nude.

The bed was next to a stone counter, which held a bucket of water and towels. Also in the room with the pregnant woman were other figures whom Jasmine could only see outlines of as the rest of their forms were hidden in darkness. Yet they must have worn similar clothing as their outlines looked similar to one another.

The dream then attempted to show the woman giving birth. However, as the birthing progressed, the dream became distorted until it finally seemed to collapse without revealing much of anything.

After the collapse, the entire scene shifted, and she would find herself looking at the Free Spirit Orphanage in the dead of night. Afterward, the image would flicker briefly, and a basket seemed to appear out of thin air in front of the orphanage's door. Then, finally, she would hear a loud knocking sound that reverberated throughout the orphanage. The issue there was that no one was knocking on the door. Either way, after a minute or so, a person who had to be a younger Aunt Emy would open the door and would quickly bring the basket inside. Then, as the door closed, the dream would fade into darkness.

Once the dream faded into darkness, Jasmine was left stranded in some sort of pitch-black void before also fading back into deep sleep.

The whole thing freaked her out for many reasons. The first was that the dream almost matched the exact scenario Aunt Emy had told her about her divination. Except no one had left the basket in front of the orphanage. In her dream, it had simply appeared.

Then there was the weird birthing scene, which, if she had to guess, showed her mom giving birth to her, but she couldn’t be sure. After all, maybe the dream was some sort of sick joke by a fey, or perhaps it showed her brother's birth instead.

The next thing that worried her was that her darkness ignoring power, hadn’t worked in her dream. It was her dream, after all, so shouldn’t she at least get some control over it? However, she could still live with that fact since many just excused weird dreams as just weird dreams. Well, unless the person was some sort of clergy, then they believed it was a vision from their god or whatever.

The last thing on her mind and by far her biggest concern was that it had been her first dream.

Like ever.

She didn’t know why she hadn’t questioned it before, but thinking back on her life, she had slept nice and peacefully every night for the past 15 years.

What did it say about her that-that was her first dream. The whole thing really bothered her. At first, she had really thought it had been a fey playing about, but what if it wasn’t? What if her parents had somehow cursed her or something? After all, that birthing scene really seemed like some sort of cult ritual.

Novaris. Sax (June). 903. AGC.

As if there hadn’t already been enough issues with the dreams she kept having. Her iris decided that it was time to begin her complete makeover, and had turned fully grey. They even decided to include her skin tone as her already light skin began to get paler. The only good thing about it was that it was a healthier kind of pale, not the tone often seen with the undead.

This change once again began gradually, but by the end of the month, it had been completed. And naturally, she was once again taken to Sol’s Cleric. However, this time around, she was less inclined to go as she was beginning to get over the whole color-changing thing. Like, what did it matter if she gained a new look?