Lasutro opened their eyes to a scene both uncomfortable and familiar. It wasn’t the ground or the trees that made them sure of the place she was nor the warm winds or the silent storm that made its way over towards them in the distance, but the waning moons and the white sky that paradoxically darkened the lands that surrounded them in addition to slight disorientation she felt. As she pushed off the ever sinking ground that pulled at them, she found their memories of the visions she saw on their previous visit fill their mind once more. Only some of the faces that previously had none partially filled by their fellow new students, Daarkiz and even Uras. While an unsurprising change to the vision, it still shocked Lasutro.
As Lasutro pulled themselves from their revelation of their previous vision, she was overcome with a familiar urge to run despite the fact the storm that pressed toward them seemed unable to get as close as it had previously. Though she felt some suspicion toward the feeling, given the results of the last time she had in the increasingly familiar dreamscape, Lasutro ran into the forest filled by trees with fungus-covered bark and dead wood overtaken by thick moss. By the time Lasutro realized that the urge that brought them deep into the wood had subsided, she found themselves in front of a small lake as clear as glass even when she disturbed the water with a tap of their foot. As she looked within, she eventually found themselves walking into the waters, their curiosity pulling them deeper and deeper, before the sight of the lake bottom came into view.
Beneath the ripples borne of Lasutro’s movements, lay an untold number of aged and battered skeletons bound in golden chains. Each of the chained skeletons reaching up toward Lasutro with an impossible united expression of agony. As Lasutro looked down at the sight a different urge struck them, the sudden need to drink of the lake’s water an impulse that was followed shortly by a fear of what would come after. Nonetheless, their hands broke the surface of the impossibly clear waters of the lake, tugged along by some intangible force down then up towards their face.
While a part of Lasutro’s mind was distracted by the consequences of the impulse that pushed them into drinking the strangely warm waters, she couldn’t bring themselves to stop their hands as they pulled the waters into their mouth. As the water passed their tongue, its subtle and unnatural acidic aftertaste biting the inside of their mouth, Lasutro found their eyes suddenly drawn to the surface of the lake. Peering down to ghastly remains below, Lasutro stared once more at the almost entirely smooth surface of the lake, unable to turn away or blink.
As she stared through the lake to its ominous bottom, she watched, despite their surprising stillness, as the water that had remained impossibly clear even when she entered, gradually turned cloudy and its previous visibility was lost. Yet, while there was nothing to see anymore within the lake, its surface became reflective, and so Lasutro, who had yet to blink since she was overcome with the compulsion to look upon the lake, stared into their own slowly forming reflection. A short moment after its completion, Lasutro locked eyes with themselves at which point their reflection began to move independently of Lasutro’s own actions. As it slowly reached out towards them, Lasutro couldn’t help but watch as its arm, a near perfect recreation of their own, pierced through the veil without disturbing the water around them at all, before gently grasping their shirt all the while staring into their now watery eyes.
An instant after their reflection grip solidified upon them, the first of Lasutro’s tears fell onto the reflection, and instead of being dissipated by the ripples as she expected the reflection simply blinked. Nearly instantaneously, after it did so, Lasutro found themselves being pulled into the water face first by the reflection, and as the panic of drowning filled their mind she squeezed their eyes shut hoping the action would wake them from the sudden terror. When Lasutro opened their eyes again, instead of the grand pile of skeletons she had expected to see, their vision was greeted with the interior roof of a fanciful hallway before being carried forward onto their feet by no longer visible arm of their reflection.
Following a quick cursory examination of the decidedly empty hallway that they found themselves in. Within the surprisingly bright hallway, under the rays of the sun Lasutro searched for a way out of the space before deciding to attempt their exit via the closest of the large wooden doors that sat either end of the hallway. Shortly after she began their approach to the presumed passage away from the space she had mysteriously appeared within, she realized that she was unable to get any closer than a couple meters toward the first door she had walked towards, and found a similar effect when she tried for the opposite door. After several more attempts on both doors and finding themselves in the same space, no matter what direction she traveled, Lasutro began to contemplate on other methods that might let them exit the hallway. While she worked through some of their less orthodox ideas in their head, the light that once filled the hall with light gradually dimmed,far faster than the sun should have set, filling the hallway with darkness that was only illuminated by the low light of the stars beyond its tall windows. When Lasutro glanced out the nearest window in curiosity, the sudden darkness pulling their focus from their plans of escape, she found themselves transfixed on the space beyond the windows.
An empty plain of tall grass as unnatural as the clarity of the lake that she, to their surprise, wished to return to, if only to escape the constantly “wrong” landscape she had unwittingly wandered into again. As she looked out at the endless fields of grass, Lasutro watched unblinkingly as the darkness of night faded and the sun returned to sky only to fall soon after and the night return, a cycle that repeated itself a total of nine times before slowly coming to its end with the sun not far from its apex. With the cycle’s end Lasutro’s thoughts filled with questions of why, and the meaning of the cycle itself. Thoughts that distracted them thoroughly enough that she failed to notice the far entrance to the hallway opening and the individual who followed behind it. It was only when the echoing footsteps of the individual became impossible to ignore did Lasutro turn to face the unfamiliar woman.
The first thing that Lasutro noticed about the young human woman was not her fanciful robes that had been modified to appear as if they were an elegant dress that a wealthy noble might wear to a ball, nor the frustrated expression her face was twisted into. It was the confidence that radiated from them, a confidence that demanded reverence from all things in such a natural manner as to not be arrogant but humble. As the woman came closer and closer, walking through the hallway with purpose, before coming to an abrupt stop in front of Lasutro. Suddenly finding themselves unable to speak as the woman, clearly of high nobility stared at them for a moment before stepping through Lasutro as if she was simply air.
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Unable to remove their gaze from the woman, as if doing so would prevent their escape from the space they found themselves in, Lasutro stepped aside and watched the woman inch closer and closer to the window with a look of curiosity on her face stopping just short of leaning on the long glass window. The moment the woman shifted her balance in an effort to get a better view of the distraction that had drawn her attention, Lasutro watched as a figure of withering shadow and an ever shifting face stepped out from an area of perpetual shadow. As Lasutro recovered from the figure’s sudden appearance she was unable to do anything as it ran up behind the woman she had been watching without a sound, and shoved them through the window.
Despite their previous inability to touch the woman, Lasutro rushed to catch them before they fell out of reach only to arrive a moment too late, and be carried by their momentum out of the window with the woman. As the pair hurtled toward the ground surrounded by the shattered glass of the window, fear filled Lasutro's mind even though she knew that somehow, that when the inevitable impact came she would feel nothing, and she would remain uninjured. The instant Lasutro hit the ground,in place of the impact she found themselves rolling into a dark room, sparsely lit by torches that illuminated little besides the sconce they hung in or the hand that held them.
When Lasutro’s momentum came to an end, she remained seated on the cool masoned floor, as she began a quiet inspection of their new surroundings, which was absent of both the woman she had failed to save and any other sign of the previous space she was in. While the darkness of the chamber would have normally been bright enough for them to see clearly for at least a few meters, Lasutro was unable to see anything that was out of arm's reach with the exception of the few ineffective torches. With their low levels of visual perception, and no noticeable sounds or smells besides those one would expect in a cold chamber of stone, Lasutro stepped quietly to the largest gathering of torches.
As she made their quiet approach, she watched the shapes that previously alluded to their perception gradually came into view and with it a sense of dread. First the stone stairs that marked a way up to a group of kneeling figures just out of view, and the second a pair of figures who stood on either side in full armored regalia, each holding one of the many torches Lasutro had seen. However the thing that pushed them forward, in terms of their own fear and curiosity, towards the sinister miasma that permeated from the space in front of them, was the familiar shadows that seeped from helmets of the pair of guards.
When she reached the top of the stairs the purpose of the chamber became clear, it was a throne room. Ahead of Lasutro, upon the grand stone throne that ruled over the uncountable number of kneeled soldiers and nobles, sat an incredibly thin man adorned in long fanciful robes, who, after a moment of observation, clearly had similar features to the woman who Lasutro had followed out the window. As Lasutro approached the throne she kept their eyes upon the man who was seated there, looking down at the nameless kneeled individuals in front of him with a sadistic grin, as she got closer the man’s skin seemed to tighten against their face, until it eventually became skeletal. Despite this change the man’s sinister smile remained, and when Lasutro stepped past the last of row figures before him unbending, the thought of doing so having not crossed their mind given their inability to be perceived in the space she was in previously, she felt their blood freeze.
As the chill seeped into their bones, Lasutro watched as the now nearly skeletal man, his eyes replaced by the smallest orange spark and a familiar wafting of black shadow energy, stared at them. His impossible grin grew as he slowly lifted a boney finger up towards the ceiling before snapping it down to the ground, at which point Lasturo found themselves pushed onto their knees with such force to draw blood, after which she was then pushed, by the same force onto their face. However, instead of the mouthful of teeth, iron and cold stone she expected, Lasutro instead felt a rush of air and the familiar warm taste of water from the lake she had recently drank from. And when she attempted to look around to identify their location, finding their invisible restraints gone, she saw that she was indeed in the same lake that she had entered earlier, though returned to its previous clarity.
With whatever spell or curiosity that drew Lasutro into the lake broken, she made their quick return to shore. And while she had no real need to, Lasutro found themselves breathing heavily as she leaned against one of the many soft, moss covered trees that filled the forest that surrounded the lake. There, with their head resting upon the tree as if it were a comfortable chair, she relaxed, their paradoxically warm and dry clothes bringing thoughts of rest to their mind in between moments of reflection upon the two strange dream-like visions she was pulled into. Though she attempted to remain awake through what they hoped to be a short rest of sorts, Lasutro found themselves pulled into the familiar darkness of sleep.
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When Lasutro awakened from the now somewhat familiar dreamscape, she did so slower than she had before. Instead of the near instantaneous awakening she had previously that practically tore them from their sleep, she found each of their senses returning to awareness independently. First of which was their mind, and as a result gifted Lasutro with an experience she found uncomfortable if only because it occurred without their intentional pursuit of the sensation.
The experience of consciousness with the absence of any other sense to know the world, stuck in a pit of darkness filled by invisible psychic constructions and the knowledge that their other senses are still there, but always out of reach. When the sensation ended,or rather when another of their senses returned to them, Lasutro was surprised by their own desire to experience the peculiar state of mind and senses once more, if not so suddenly and in a more controlled manner. Following the return of their mind from sleep, Lasutro tasted the somewhat dusty air of the room she fell asleep in, a taste that was soon accompanied by a hint of a perfume that lingered on their tongue, which was only moderately unpleasant.
As their senses slowly returned to them, Lasutro’s mind began to transition from its groggy state, and she pushed themselves to get out of bed. An effort that was largely ineffective, their body far more exhausted than she predicted it would be. However, just as she was about to give up, and explore the academy grounds on their own another day without the guide Daarkiz had notified them of the night before , she was shaken by a figure that remained unseen to their still tired vision. As she was shaken, she heard a familiar voice call for them to wake up, and tell them what she was thinking of giving up on doing. A statement that was just enough to pull forth a previously exhausted energy forth from Lasutro, pulling them out of bed with a vigor that even surprised themselves. After which Lasutro quickly changed, preparing themselves for the day ahead, and when she turned to face the voice that had pushed them to wake up she found nobody, just a few scattered belongings of their mysterious roommate.