Mevi drifted in and out of fitful visions. Ideas, dreams, and memories clouding or crashing together. What was real or what wasn’t could not be comprehended. Only that she was commanded, by a dark-golden god and obeyed. But what was its will? What was she doing floating is the dark abyss of empathic thought? She grasped at her memories, vainly attempting to retain something of herself and what was happening. The ocean of empty, formless, dark was surrounding her, battering her against what little she could recall. The endless void threw her to and fro in its endless waves of chaotic confusion.
In the darkness Mevi struggled, and reached out for anything to grasp and understand. The god-like figure her only salvation of thought and mind. She writhed against the desire to give in and accept her salvation. She didn’t know why, but this shining beacon of black horror felt wrong and she fought against its inky tendrils grasping at her. In her fitful state she reached in all directions hoping for something or someone that wasn’t her proclaimed salvation. A dim light beaming under the inky ocean waves. Away from and without the figure looming, reaching, and strangling her. Mevi strained against her own instinct, knowing that her surroundings were wrong and can’t be accepted. The straining, the reaching, and fighting pushed her away from the salvation. Away from where her mind echoed that she should accept fate. She flew away and through the dark maelstrom spiraling her mind into incoherent thought. Fought to reach and grasp the only source of light in the abyssal plane she lost herself in.
Mevi grasped the light. Suddenly tearing her eyes open, breathing heavy and fitful. Moving to sit up but straining against something. Her eyes blurry, bright beaming light completely blinding her like the Baes sunrises she waited so longingly for. Mevi couldn’t see, and she fought against the binds that held her to something hard and cold. Muffled voices echoed around her, a shout stabbed pain through her ears. She struggled for freedom as her vision slowly adjusted to the blinding light.
Mevi could see, wanting to cry and in a panic. Was she tied to some sort of table? Bright lights filled the room she was held in, golden walls shine with brilliant radiance in the overwhelming light. She suddenly craved the dark again, she could faintly make out figures wearing similar robes of gold, silver, and black, as to the Emissary. Less godly and without covered faces, but her eyes were too blurry to make out features. She was trying to yell, but something was covering her own face and mouth. She looked closer, and tried to inspect her surroundings. As she looked outward she noticed a faint blue haze encapsulated her, she was looking through something. Or she was inside of something?
The realization filled Mevi suddenly, she was inside of some kind of, sarcophagus made of glass and steel. She was tied and unable to move and couldn’t scream for help. Her horror of being led to her death was beginning to be realized. Trapped in her own mind again, and being carried away by the Emissary of death in her own personal grave. Mevi gave up struggling, straining against her bonds would probably only anger her captors and not likely to promise escape. She watched, in the blurred vision and blinding light, as figures moved performing unknown tasks and burdens.
Mevi watched for a while, unwilling to return to unconsciousness for fear of the consuming dark. So she waited, and tried to strain her vision and senses against the light and blue haze.
Mevi wasn’t sure how much time passed, but she felt as if nothing in the world had moved for a long time. Even on Baes she could mostly feel the slow movement of the moon beneath her, as the strong forces in the system and planet tore at the colony at all times. But here, in her demise, all things were quiet and still. An unsettling feeling that alerted her to every insignificant movement and muffled sound. She wasn’t sure how long her purgatory lasted, but eventually a clear bubbling sound reverberated around her. A current downward? Indeed it felt as if liquid of some kind was streaming across her skin and through her robes. Only when she looked up and saw a waving breach in the blue haze did she realize she was submerged.
The blue liquid she resided in started to slowly drain downward. Strangely, as the substance passed over her, she didn’t feel wet or any sensation like there was any residue remaining on her. The liquid drained away, leaving her just as dry as she was at the selection. Her vision cleared all but for the bright lights still shining into her strange capsule. A sudden suction of air as the last of the liquid drained, and a pop when her prison opened. The front glass being pulled upward and revealing an unobscured vision of the outside. A strange circular chamber, with odd cylindrical capsules made from gold, with wires and tubes stretching behind and into the black hull of the room Mevi resided in. Her eyes still adjusting to the overwhelming light, she could see a feminine figure in front of her, bearing a light-born halo as she protected Mevi’s view from the overpowering aura with her form. They seemed to be looking at something, deliberately looking towards the floor with their eyes quickly scanning back and forth as if intently investigating something. Mevi wondered if something was wrong, if this figure was here to sentence her permanently. But the figure soon dismissed their intense investigation and looked up into Mevi’s face and their eyes met.
Mevi was panicked and scared, not sure what was happening and this silent investigator said nothing to her for comfort or explanation. The woman spoke strange words to her, and without understanding their meaning Mevi could only look on confused and concerned. The woman continued to speak, in a slow deliberate way, enunciating carefully and loudly. The sounds rang in Mevi’s ears, and she winced in pain. But as the woman’s voice continued on some of the words began to make some sense. ‘Understand’? ‘Calibrate’? ‘Working?’ The words flooded in fitfully but she could understand them, though not all she could decipher correctly. The woman’s voice continued, and eventually Mevi could understand, “should be working soon. Its calibration takes a few moments after initial application. But soon you should be understanding me. The device should be working soon… Its calibration… Seems to have finished.” With a smile the woman waved her hand in front of her, and with the motion Mevi’s bindings came loose and she tumbled to the ground.
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Looking up at her savior, as strange as the circumstances were, Mevi was almost relieved. Despite her black robes, with gold tabard lined with silver sigils, the woman looked normal. If you ignored her orange-red hair.
“Good, you are coherent. Your eyes will adjust to the light soon. You are commanded by his lord, the Magi, to attend to him. I will show you the way. You will follow me.” The woman commanded.
Confused, but still getting up and clamoring after the woman, Mevi asked, “The Magi? What is a Magi?”
The two pass through the chamber filled with, to Mevi’s horror, the children that were given to the Emissary as they sleep in the strange capsules. The both of them pass into a long corridor with a short ceiling and coal-colored walls curving into a sort of tube. The woman’s pace is quick, and with no other people around, Mevi has little choice but to follow as fast as she can behind.
The woman speaks up again as they pass through the corridor, that seems to have no end, “The Magi are our lords and masters. You follow their will and do as you are told. You do not question, speak only when spoken to, and show the utmost respect. If you do this, nothing will happen to you and you may be rewarded.”
Mevi is still confused, “I thought the Barges were in charge?”
The woman scoffs, “The Barges are controlled and operated by the Magi. Their will is absolute, and your survival depends on if you can submit to them as they demand. Whenever they demand.”
Mevi’s realization started slow but soon came to the forefront of her thoughts, “Was.. ‘The Emissary’ a Magi?”
“Yes. He is known as lord Falcier. Fal-si-er. Always address him as, ‘My lord Magi’, ‘My Lord’, or ‘Lord Falcier’. Unless told otherwise by him or another Magi.” The demanding reply ending as the woman turns suddenly and the corridor’s wall stretches to open like a yawning mouth.
Mevi yelps, and stumbles backwards and stammers, “What was that, how did that happen? There was no door there before, no seam or sign!”
The woman waits for only a few moments before rolling her eyes and turning to walk through the opened passage, “Get used to it. Also, control your noises and yells. The Magi do not appreciate outbursts.”
Mevi quickly darts into the gap, “I am sorry. I will do my best not to displease.”
The two were now in a more open room. A hallway of sorts winding around a large open space, held aloft several meters above the floor below. A pulsing light of a dim pink glows all throughout the floor below them. Giving the entire room, and the hallway the pair walked, a strange tint.
As the woman continues their walk, unimpeded by awe or curiosity, Mevi’s temptation wins and she asks, “Ma’am, what is your name? You are… helping me, and I don’t know what to call you.”
The woman stops for a moment to appraise Mevi, “Hmmm… Ma’am is fine, has a nice ring to it. But my name is Kalesi.” Her stride resumes immediately after.
Mevi is emboldened, few have ever given her real responses or conversation, “Kalesi, ma’am, where is everyone else? We wonder these halls and I haven’t seen a single other soul. I remember seeing several figures in the chamber before you retrieved me, unless I imagined them.”
Kalesi seems to pick up her pace as they have made it to the other side of the large pink room, another door opens and they both walk through, “The others are around. Most are below, with the Sentinels, doling out Mana. We haven’t left yet, not until our supply is delivered.”
Mevi isn’t sure of the answer she received. She yearns to talk more, this Kalesi, seems to be mostly pleasant. At least she is respecting Mevi, however firm and commanding she is. Yet Mevi can’t think of any clever conversations or additional questions. The overwhelming nature of the situation has her mind straining to come to grips with her surroundings. Mevi can’t even fathom where they are or how they are there, she can barely comprehend the doors of this strange… building? Could Mevi possibly be aboard the large ship that stopped above the colony?
Before Mevi could gather herself for additional questions, they had already passed through several winding hallways and doors. The appearance of sudden entryways less surprising but each time making her flinch. Suddenly Mevi walks into a stopped Kalesi. Apologizing and backing up, she is steadied by Kalesi’s firm hands grasping Mevi’s shoulders.
Kalesi looks serious and down at Mevi, who notices suddenly how she is quite a bit taller than her, at least two or three heads taller than her. Kalesi speaks in a hushed tone, as if sharing some important secret, “Listen girl. Do well to listen and obey. Whatever the Magi says, is law. You must tell me you understand this.”
Mevi is almost worried, “I… I understand. I won’t disobey him.”
Kalesi corrects her, “No. Only obey. Do only what you are asked. Stand where you are placed. Speak when commanded to speak. Listen at all times. Do you understand?”
Mevi is remembering the intimidating presence of the Emissary, now known as Falcier, “Yes. I will do only as I am told… But, what do I do when I go inside?”
Kalesi shows kindness and care for the first time, looking down at Mevi like a small animal that is doing something adorable but silly, “Just step through the door. Stand there, just past the threshold and wait for a command. Even if the Lord Magi isn’t in the room. Wait and do not move. Try your best to not look around, and don’t touch anything.”
Mevi gives a short nod in understanding. Kalesi turns and places a hand on the blank wall in front of them. Her eyes dart back and forth as if reading or looking over something like they did before. After a few moments the maw opens wide, and a pitch black interior is revealed. The misting darkness almost seems to drain the light of the hallway. Kalesi looks to Mevi and gestures with her head for her to enter. A few steps forward and the door suddenly shuts, with a slam the others hadn’t displayed before. Only unpierceable darkness remained.