[Crescent Lake, Storyline] Waking Up After the Party...

(Note: this is a storyline thread, with Admin understanding.)

Telira groaned as she rolled over in her bed. Her head was a pounding, throbbing ache and she was afraid to open her eyes because she wasn't certain that it was going to be any better. Unfortunately, the sound and the movement attracted attention from the person sitting in the corner of her cabin.

"Awake, finally? I was wondering how long you were going to be sleeping off all that over-indulgence. " Soren shifted his position on the chair he'd set in the corner of the room, standing up and walking over to place something cool and wet on Telira's forehead, bringing a moment of absolutely overwhelming relief.

"How…" her voice was a croaking sound and she paused to clear her throat, wincing slightly in pain. She tried again, keeping her voice a low whisper, "how long was I out?"

He had the kindness not to laugh at her. "Most of the day, actually. We got back here close to dawn. You had quite a night, Tel." She could hear the scrape of the chair as he moved it closer to her and then the creak as he sat down again. "How much do you remember?" There was a slight waver to his voice, but she wasn't sure what to make of it. It almost sounded like he was afraid of the answer… but had to ask the question anyway.

She held the cloth he'd given her over her eyes for a moment as she struggled to put the fragments of memories together again, but it was difficult. Mostly because she was getting the events of the night before confused with events from her dreams… or at least she thought that's what was going on. "I remember dancing, I think. There was this green stuff in there somewhere… but mostly I just remember dreaming."

He sighed. "Tel, I don't know what you've got going on in your dreams, but last night you took to dancing and flirting with every pair of pants that'd give you a second glance, and you were drinking enough to even make me wonder about your tolerances."

She turned a deep red and groaned in utter embarrassed humiliation. "Ohhhhh kill me now and get it over with."

"That's not even the worst of it. I was doing my best to keep an eye on you, but I lost track of you for nearly two hours there." That waver again, fear and something else… she wasn't sure what. "Very nearly lost what sanity I've got left looking for you. When I finally found you again, that's when I decided to call it a night for you and bring you back to the ship. So you'll have to excuse my concern about what happened during those two hours." Heat in his voice, frustration and worry.

She swallowed carefully, taking a moment to use a touch of curative magic to ease the headache enough so that she could sit up and blink her eyes open. Soren was sitting in a chair beside her bed and the worry in his eyes was quite plain to see, a long wth the paleness in his complexion that said clearer than words that he hadn't slept yet himself. "I'm not sure what happened, Soren. I can't… I can't tell what was real and what was dream."

The worry and concern spiked. "Are you alright, at least?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm alright." She glanced at the windows of the cabin, looking out at blue skies beyond. "Where are we?"

"I had the ship land near Crescent Lake. I figured you'd like to go swimming in the lake for a while. Clear your head from everything. We're on the opposite side from town, so we'll either need to fly across or simply walk the long way around if you decide you want to go shopping."

"Yeah, I think some swimming might be in order." Neither of them talked about how the perfectly holy waters of the lake were said to cure any illness. It was the only precaution they could take, in case she'd run into something during her intoxication.

She started to sit up and abruptly realized that the blanket was all she was wearing, and blushed a deep red. "Soren… where are my clothes?"

He looked away from her. "There was no saving them, I'm afraid." He paused for only a moment, expressions that she couldn't quite understand flowing across his face. "I'll get you a swimsuit and a robe, if you feel more comfortable that way." He paused again. "I'll have a fresh outfit waiting for you when you finish your swim."

Telira was confused. Something was going on and she didn't understand what Soren wasn't telling her.

---
The waters of Crescent Lake are filled with Holy energy. The water there could cleanse illnesses from the body and corruption from the soul, or so went the stories. Telira'd never had reason to put them to the test before and she really didn't know how much was true… and how much was storytellers being creative.

Still, she felt a strange tingle in her body as she walked into the water, leaving the robe on the bank behind her. She still wore the crystal shard that was her keepsake and her burden. The waters were magic, that much was absolutely certain, and so it made her a little more hopeful regarding the tales of storytellers over the generations about the wholly Holy water. She continued into the water until it was up to her knees, then her waist, then her shoulders… and then she let herself sink completely into the water.

She dove slightly and kicked her legs to take her further down towards the lake bottom and then she let herself float there, peaceful in the quiet of the depths. Calmed by the holy magic in the waters.

As she floated, her crystal drifted away from her body, though still connected to her by the mythril chain that she had strung around her neck.

Soren watched Telira walk into the lake and sighed sadly to himself. He couldn't even imagine the turmoil her mind must be in, not being able to remember what happened last night, or what she'd done. Still, as awful as the not knowing must be, he thanked the Crystals that she didn't know.

He knew enough to want to scrub his mind clean of the memories, if he could. But there was no erasing some memories. He couldn't tell her that he'd found her, curled on the ground in an alley, her clothing nowhere to be seen. She was bleeding, and covered in bruises, some of them darkening in a way that made him think they were far older than the two hours she'd been missing. He'd covered her with a blanket he kept in zip space and carried her back to the Airship so that no one would see them.

No one other than the Commodore, that was.

Injuries like that… and the unmistakable evidence of at least some of her activities… they were enough to make him want to retch with sick horror. How could he have let her leave his sight like that? It was his fault that she'd been victimized so terribly, brutalized that way. He'd failed her, failed the only clan he had left.

To the dwarves, clan is everything. The clan protects each other and they protect their females doubly so. A clanless man was less than nothing to them. No father would give him a precious daughter to wife; he had no standing, no value, nothing. Soren had known the price he'd pay for leaving the Mountain, leaving his clan. He'd paid the cost willingly. He left to find Ilserun.

And he'd found her, against all hope. And she was whole, healthy, and stronger than she'd been as a sheltered girl in Mount Duergar. It made it all worthwhile.

But along the way he'd found Telira and she… well, she wasn't a lover, not of his anyway, but she had become his family. In her he'd found the standing he'd lost when he left the Mountain. In her he had a clan again. It didn't matter that she wasn't a dwarf, to him she was the precious treasure of his clan.

And he couldn't even be certain of what happened because he hadn't seen it, and she couldn't remember it. He knew that she'd been flirting at the bar, knew that some men took such things far more seriously than might have been intended on her part. He didn't even know if he could make guesses about what might have happened because there were simply too many possibilities, too many variables.

He just didn't know. He had just started to turn away from the lake when something caught his attention and pulled it back to the water where he'd seen Telira sink below the surface.

---
Telira had her eyes closed, listening to the sound of her heartbeat in the silence of the water when she felt a sudden pulse of energy pass through the water with a low beat. Her eyes flew open and she saw the crystal floating in front of her, and it was glowing brightly, shining even brighter than it usually did. It was dark underneath the water, but the crystal glowed with steadily rising green-white light.

It pulsed again and Telira felt her body tense as the magic in the water around her suddenly intensified, like the light of the crystal was pulling it in, drawing it into her.

The crystal pulsed a third time and energy rushed into Telira focusing in her midsection. It was overwhelming, startling in the intensity, and then, just as quickly as it started, it was gone.

She looked around in the water and saw nothing out of sorts, nothing that could explain what had just happened. Confusion running rampant in her mind, she kicked herself towards the surface and swam to shore, stumbling onto the bank to see Soren already running out to her.

---
The flare of magic had been painfully bright, lighting up the whole of the lake with green-white light, and Soren had been running almost before he realized what he had seen. As reassuring as the Holy magic of the lake was… it was terrifying to consider that something had caused it to react like that.

He grabbed up the robe that Telira had left discarded on the sands and had it around her shoulders, catching her as she nearly fell when her legs gave way beneath her. "You alright, Tel?" She had to be alright. She was his clan.

She nodded quickly. "Yeah, I'm alright." She coughed, adjusting to the difference between breathing true air and breathing through oxyale. "I'm fine."

He was already helping her back to the airship. "Let's get you dried off and into some new clothes, and then we can go flying somewhere, maybe explore some cave system on one of the other worlds, okay?" He was trying to reassure her, keep her from panicking, even as his mind gibbered madly at him with possibilities and scenarios, each one darker and more terrifying than the one before.

She nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think I'd like that."

It started, really, as a random thought, something meant to get the teenagers thinking about the consequences of their position. Black Mage threw the idea out like it was nothing, really, and that was all they thought it was at the time.

"There's nothing to stop us, once this is done, from dividing the world up into four quarters and setting ourselves up as rulers over everything. I mean, really, we're going to save it, why shouldn't we enjoy the just rewards afterwards?"

Warrior didn't believe that it was right to be so self-interested. Monk was more interested in other things. Red Mage… well, Telira didn't think that she'd make a good ruler, but what did she know? They were all so very young. They'd acquired the crystalshards by chance and circumstance, orphans of tragedies wracking their world. What did any of them know about leading a nation, much less a world?

Later, when they discovered just what they were going to have to do to save their world… well, no one was thinking any more about what they wanted to do afterwards. There wasn't going to be an afterwards for them anymore, and that hurt too badly to want to remember the innocence of the thoughts they'd had. Particularly when the future that Telira had dreamed of having was simply the freedom of the skies and a family of her own.

All their hopes and dreams faded into ash as the four heroes held each other for the last time, said their final farewells with the Chaos Shrine falling into ruins around them after their defeat of the enemy. Time was restored and they paid the price for their heroism.

… But worlds have a strange way of always needing their heroes. The Crystals had never failed, the Fiends had never been sent forward in time because Chaos had been defeated before he could set all things wrong. But the world was not without threat or danger.

The Universal Multiplex had created a threat the likes of which even the Circle of Seers and Lukahn himself could not foresee. Telira was in Pravoka, the only one of the four still on the world of her origin. Warrior was locked in endless combat in another dimension, fighting to keep Chaos from breaking loose again and destroying everything. No one knew where Monk and Black Mage were.

But strangers were starting to come to the world and with them came technology that was mind-boggling to those who observed them. There was such potential for learning and development… and there was potential for evil and despotism should their world be targeted by one of these Outworlders for conquest.

Lukahn saw threat after threat in their future, shadowy possibilities alongside incredible opportunities, and he knew of only one way their world could possibly stand against outside forces.

They needed a leader, one who would be respected by all and who would serve as the focus for negotiation should it be necessary. The world needed a Champion just as much as the Crystals needed them. So he journeyed to each of the Nations and gave to them a Prophecy.

"In this time of turmoil and confusion, a Champion will rise, bearing a shard of one of the great Crystals, to stand in authority and to stand guardian over all. When that one rises to answer the call, they will require the aid and support of all."

No sooner than Lukahn finished speaking than there was an incredible light seen from the waters of Crescent Lake. The Seer merely smiled to himself and said that the Crystals had chosen their Champion. Then he left the Seer's enclave outside the city of Crescent Lake and walked towards the airship setting on the ground on the opposite side of the water.

Telira was just getting her new outfit settled when Lukahn arrived at the Airship. Soren looked at the man with suspicious eyes, but he escorted him to the main cabin where she was waiting. Telira looked up at them as they entered and her eyes narrowed with instant, unmistakable, emotion. She remembered him from the dreams of the time that had been erased, knew that he was a Seer, knew what he had told her to give up in the name of saving the world… For a brief, stiletto sharp moment, she hated him, and it showed.

"What do you want?" Her tone was sharper than she intended, because as much as she hurt and ached for what she had been told to do, she couldn't really blame the messenger for the message… no matter how much she wanted to. The fact that she was still shaken from the events in the lake and the unknown of the night before didn't help.

"You're angry with me." There wasn't a question in the words, just a calm acceptance of the truth of them. "This is the first we have met and you harbor anger and resentment towards me for something which has not happened."

She couldn't even look at him. "Is there a point to this meeting or are you just looking for random people and reinforcing your own self-image by being annoying as shyt?"

Soren made a sound suspiciously like choking and had his hand over his mouth as he stood leaning against a desk built into the wall of the cabin. His eyes, though, as he looked at Telira and met her gaze, shone with humor. He approved.

"You bear a Crystalshard as a chosen Champion of the Crystals."

Those words were not what either of them wanted to hear. Telira trembled. Crystals damn him… had she not been through hell enough already? She pulled the crystal from around her neck, held it in her hand… part of it stuck out the end of her grasp, pointed enough and sharp enough to do damage if she stabbed him hard with it…

She simply growled low and glared at him. "So what? What have you come here to take from me this time?" There was deep anguish in her voice. The memories of the time which had been erased were growing sharper and clearer with every day that passed ever since she had met Gilgamesh and Simon. She knew what she had given up. She knew with lancing clarity what she had lost. And that was almost more than she could bear.

"Champion, I have taken nothing from you. I am here to ask you to shoulder a burden no one else is able to."

She could scream. It was happening all over again, only this time she was alone and empty. Damned Seers and their damned Prophecies and their damned quests to save the world… and damn her because she couldn't just tell them to sit on a sharp stick and rotate… She felt sick inside as she turned away.

Soren took a step forward. He had to intervene, Telira was his Clan. "Be very careful with your words, Seer. Neither of us are very pleasant people right now and I would hate for something unfortunate to happen."

Telira looked at Soren, met his eyes with a silent plea for support. Then she spoke, directing her words to the Seer, though she didn't look at him. "What is it?" She couldn't keep the sound of her despair out of her voice.

"You have dreamed of only freedom, so help your world maintain its freedom for the benefit of others. Gateways have opened to other worlds, bringing wanderers from places very different, bearing magics and technologies unknown to us. We require a leader, a single voice of reason and one all can trust as guardian for the people. We require a Champion for our world itself."

She blinked for several moments in complete and utter shock. "You're offering me a throne over the whole world?"

He nodded. "It is a terrible burden, I know. Leadership is not something which is sought by those wise enough to shoulder it safely. It will not be easy…"

She interrupted him with the one thing he could not have predicted. She laughed. It was a sound that surprised him, being composed of irony and pain with the fragile edge of madness. She had not lost her mind… but it was a very near thing, and that worried the hell out of Soren. She continued to laugh for several minutes until finally she was able to regain control over herself and looked at Lukahn. "Of all the things to offer me… you offer the one thing that means nothing to me. I care nothing for thrones or power."

"And so you are ideal for the role. You are a Champion. Your world needs you; the Crystals have called you forward to protect the world in this hour of need. This is your destiny." He paused. "There can be rewards for obeying the necessities of destiny."

He couldn't have known… even Seers have their blind spots… there was no way for him to know that those were the exact wrong words to say. Telira didn't even think. She was beyond thought in the rage that filled her. She reached out a hand and grabbed the aged Seer by the throat, pushing him backwards until he stood against the wall of her house. She was fast enough that she even caught Soren by surprise.

"I should kill you now and be done with it. I have done as your 'destiny' required and it cost me everything that meant anything to me! Time was rewritten as you said it would be. Peace was restored as you said it would be. But it cost me and my friends everything! I still can't even remember their names!" There were tears in her eyes as she glared at him. "Damn you… I was going to have a family of my own before you sent us to our destruction."

Hearing the words… caught Soren unexpectedly in a place that still hurt very badly. He knew what it was like to hurt that badly, to lose family and all you'd thought would one day be. He'd felt that the day Nerrick collapsed the land bridge and Ilserun was on the other side.

Neither of them expected to see him start to shake, not like he was doing. It looked like some form of convulsion, but there was the clear smell of magic in the air. His voice, though, was firm as he spoke in a strangely double manner that she remembered from some of Black Mage's spells. "Receive the blessing of Crescent Lake, holy waters of the world. You have made the sacrifice without expectation of reward… let the reward unexpected rain blessings upon your head. Believe again as you did as a child and know that you are not forgotten by the Crystals."

He collapsed, then, weak as a newborn himself. She caught him, kept him from falling, and Soren was at her side in a moment. Cursing her soft heart, Telira helped him to a seat with Soren's aid until he could recover from the unexpected Seeing.

"Alright, I'll do it. But don't expect me to make everyone happy. I'll stay out of people's business as much as I can, but if there's something that's gotta be done, then it's gonna be done whether they like it or not."

He nodded. "Arrangements will be made quickly made for your official coronation; all that remains is for you to choose a Ruling Seat. Where would you like your palace to be located?"

She chuckled. "Nowhere. Everywhere. This'll be my flagship and use this as my palace. That way I can pick up and move to where I need to be. That way everyone gets to keep their castles and I'm not hemmed in."

He nodded in acceptance. "Very well."

There would be other details to make certain. There would be mountains of adjustments to be made, ceremonies arranged and celebrations held… but for now the fact that she was willing to accept the role was enough. The world had a leader to protect it and somehow everything would be well.

For his part, Soren wasn't certain what to make out of the developments, especially so soon after the events of the night before, whatever they might have been. All he knew was that Telira was his clan. He'd support her in anything she did and he'd protect her to the ends of the earth, this one or any other.