Session Start: Sat Apr 06 15:33:59 2002 *** GMAmy changes topic to 'Grandia: New Horizons | Chapter 24.3: Jalanda Lude | Location: Tenkali Village, evening, July 4 | Lude Start' ==Session Start== The rainfall is a steady pounding on the roof of the cosy treehouse were Jalanda has been offered lodging. Filled with a hearty meal, she makes ready for sleep as darkness closes about the Tenkali village... * Jalanda tries to find sleep in the gratefully offered bed, girding herself for what she fears might come as her consciousness drifts away... The fact that the previous night's rest went undisturbed is encouraging, but Jalanda is particularly sensitive to the feeling of foreboding that pervades the air. She reaches for the Spirits' will, but their response is faint. As sleep closes around her, Jalanda feels that the air is heavy and close. For a time her sleep is silent, but gradually she becomes aware again... There is a strange sound and an oddly familiar aura emanating from outside Jalanda's door. * Jalanda tries to focus upon her goals and the order of things that is her charge, but as time wears on, she slowly opens her senses once again, looking across towards the door of her chamber. A strange, dark, purplish light filters in from under the door. * Jalanda mumbles faintly to herself, arising from the bed to investigate. As the door to her room creaks open, Jalanda sees the purple light streaming through the hallways. Out the windows, it is still dark outside, however. The light seems to be coming from one side of the tree cottage in particular... * Jalanda peers at the shafts of eeiry light, padding through the hallways in her robe towards it's source. Still bleary-eyed in the semi-darkness, Jalanda bumps into something. Looking up, she sees one of her hosts, a young man, staring out the window. He has been turned completely to stone. * Jalanda takes a step back from the statue, the mere touch of it chilling her and bringing her perceptions to a full alertness in shock. * Jalanda tries to look away. "...no...no, you are just another tainted vision..." The statue seems real enough, as does the eerie light coming from the west side of the house. Jalanda can hear the door creaking, swinging open in the wind as rain pours into the house... * Jalanda looks back at the petrified man, still remaining there in front of her... she remains still for a long moment, staring. Suddenly she hears a muffled shout from outside.... * Jalanda shakes her head, to clear it, then spurs into motion towards the door to see who is shouting. Below, Jalanda sees a huge, whirling, two-dimensional circle of purple light, hanging suspended in the air, about twice the height of a man. A strange wind blows through the air, seeming to pull things toward it. Nearby, she can see Mitsuo hanging onto a tree with both hands, the winds plucking at his clothes. * Jalanda gasps out into the troubled air, furtivetly seeing Mitsuo's predicament and the hungry abyss. "...no, stop this..." Jalanda feels something inside her pulled toward the whirling light. Her feet start to skid slowly across the floor in its direction... * Jalanda staggers at the force that grabs her, convulsing once and raising her voice. With a grimace she tries to make her way to Mitsuo. "...you shall not have me...!" Mitsuo reaches out an arm toward her. "Jalanda! What's going on?" * Jalanda tries to grapple Mitsuo and the tree, her teeth clenched. "It is the harbinger of nothingness and despair.. the taker of life... do not let it drag you away!" "I'm trying!" Mitsuo grips the tree branches as hard as he can, but his hold is slipping. Finally, with a yell, he releases the branch and goes hurtling toward the distortion... * Jalanda calls out, trying to grab him before he falls away with a desperate intent unlike her... Jalanda manages to grab his foot, but she is pulled toward the vortex as well, something in her hungry for the swirling darkness and light before her. * Jalanda cringes, feeling like she is being pulled apart in the struggle, the pale hand around his feet, and the warm one about the tree's trunk, slipping slowly. "Grrar.. You who hunger for all... you have had enough of this world..." Let him... go... vile shadow... I am.. the one you truly want... Jalanda's grip loosens, until finally she and Mitsuo are swept away together, plunging into the vortex! * Jalanda screams in agony as she's ripped from her anchor, mustering what conscious effort she can and gripping Mitsuo close to her before it swallows them both. "No! Not another! Not again!" They are pulled into the vortex, and reality is turned upside down. There is no sense of direction anymore, only an aimless floating. Mitsuo struggles in fear. Looking at him, Jalanda can see a darkness streaking through him like veins in rock, a shimmering purple-black light that flickers on his exposed skin. He pants heavily. "Jalanda, what's happening?" * Jalanda tries to keep her grip upon him, lest he be lost forever. "Mitsuo... don't give in to Gaia. Don't become... part of this place. Your destiny can't end here..." * Jalanda tries to summon her inner powers to control the immediate distortion of space around them, to push back the chaotic forces... If anything, the chaos calls to Jalanda, seeking out the parts of her that are incomplete. She feels almost as if she is being torn in two. Mitsuo himself is silent now, his eyes wide and his mouth open as if in a soundless scream. Suddenly he is still, and Jalanda feels her grip on him go cold and hard. He appears to be encased in some sort hard, clear substance, his features twisted and distant now. * Jalanda 's face contorts in horror, sadness, anguish, and a host of emotion, her grip upon the smooth substance that is now Mitsuo's eternal prison. Looking around, Jalanda can now see the floating crystalline remains of her other friends. Feray, Erellisae, Nathan, Mikari, Cassidy...and Dylan, with Dill perched on his shoulder, tiny claws gripping his shirt frantically. And behind them... More familiar faces. Villagers she knew long ago. And...the torn and anguished faces of her parents, locked in eternal torment. * Jalanda grabs her head, rife with inner conflict, shutting her eyes. "..no.." This is not the true thread of fate, this is not the prophecized end... stop... stop THIS! * Jalanda starts to get tears in her eyes. "...don't take them away from me again..." Suddenly, the scene around her shatters like glass into a thousand shards, and she is dropping away into oblivion. All is muddled an faded for a time, and then...slowly...light. Sound. A reassurring sense of reality, harsh but uncorrupted by Gaia's lingering effects... There is a steady drip and flow of water nearby. The air tastes heavy and damp; the only light is a dim gray. Jalanda feels a dull ache in her side... * Jalanda intones the "stop" several times reflexively, before coming to awareness, trying to open her eyes. * Jalanda also reaches a hand down to her side, to check the pain, or perhaps to confirm her existence... The pain seems to be a simple bruise, from where she slammed her hip into hard stone, probably from falling. She feels solid enough... * Jalanda makes another effort to take in her surroundings, and to get to her feet. All around her is ancient stone; from behind streams the misty light of the twilight before dawn, from a narrow entrance into the chamber. Water drips from the walls and runs in rivulets along the floor, from the heavy rain. The interior of the chamber is dark and silent with the age of centuries. * Jalanda whispers quietly. "...another place borne of ether?" Jalanda now feels a reasonably unshakeable sense of reality. Whatever came before, this, at least, is not a dream... * Jalanda tries to ignore her soreness, and follow the misty light... Her footsteps echo in the ancient chamber as she begins to explore... * Jalanda pauses a moment, looking at the water running along the floor. She bends down to run her finger along it, shaping it into a familiar ball. The water comes to her hands, floating above her palm in a crystalline sphere, awaiting her command... If this is truth, then Spirits guide me to that which I must see... Darkness forms in the sphere, and soon she can make out the dim corridors of the ancient ruin. Figures walk cautiously along the hallways, each alone, and each approaching something dark and mysterious at the center of the ruins... * Jalanda stares a few moments into the depths, nodding. "It is the omen of seperation made manifest... I will go, then. For my fate lies with theirs." * Jalanda begins walking slowly out of the chamber with that... ==Session End== *** GMAmy changes topic to 'Grandia: New Horizons | Chapter 24.3: Jalanda Lude | Location: Tenkali Village, evening, July 4 | Lude End' Session Close: Sat Apr 06 17:06:03 2002