Re: Venturing into Nasiim's Tower - Ch. 1 (Quest)
Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2021 1:53 am
Something about that stung. Rationally, the prince himself had not been at her trial. He would not have known the deal of what all she had faced and what had lead to her march toward the Warrens. Or even of what had happened when she’d found her way out. But it stung. The show of compassion had never been extended to her once in the last two years of her life and yet — a nameless stranger, bound in impossible chains was far more important. Only made worse by the intimacy of the pair. She knew of the prince, but not of the other man who had who seemed so connected with him.
Intertwined. Tangled. A sharp intake of breath and she knew as easily as she breathed that they were in love. And that great bloom of unrest sitting her chest threatened to steal her breath because she was in love, but she was alone. Alone with a wraith and a ghost of her own creation who could not love her. Not the way Jieun had. Not the way she did. One breath turned into two into three as the pace of her breathing picked up once more.
Turning her gaze away, she looked to the man that the great prince had been so determined to free. Only, he wasn’t there entirely. Not anymore. He fell to pieces like a crumbling cookie. Smaller still, sifting through the floor like grains of sand falling to the other side of an hourglass. She blinked, brain sluggish as the panic clawed deeper into her.
Perhaps, really, the man had never been there. Perhaps he had just been another part of her imagination and this whole thing was her mind trying to escape from the Warrens. Some slithering, slimy thing was likely taking chunks out of her right this very moment and her mind had fled to some distant fantasy to preserve herself in this single, dying moment. Beyond this delusion, she was breathing her last and being turned into something’s meal. The sputtering start of a giggle left her as she turned, a grin stretched out over her lips.
“He was never real.” The words were said with awe, the way a child might react to a magic trick for the first time. “He was never here.” How else would one explain what she had just seen? That she was crazy? No, she didn’t believe that. She was sane — had always been sane. Had been sane when she’d seen those wraiths following them and even when Feia had pushed her off that cliff and they’d chased her down. Because she had been sane and right and if she were dying now, this would make all the more sense.
It could only mean, then, that she was right and that beyond this — through to the chest — was the way out and the way home. It hummed within her that, oh yes, she would open the chest and all would be right again. That Jieun would be right there waiting for her and that blathering, scummy man would never have married. And it would just be the two of them. Her giggles turned into full-blown laughter as she hurried to the chest and threw it open.
Intertwined. Tangled. A sharp intake of breath and she knew as easily as she breathed that they were in love. And that great bloom of unrest sitting her chest threatened to steal her breath because she was in love, but she was alone. Alone with a wraith and a ghost of her own creation who could not love her. Not the way Jieun had. Not the way she did. One breath turned into two into three as the pace of her breathing picked up once more.
Turning her gaze away, she looked to the man that the great prince had been so determined to free. Only, he wasn’t there entirely. Not anymore. He fell to pieces like a crumbling cookie. Smaller still, sifting through the floor like grains of sand falling to the other side of an hourglass. She blinked, brain sluggish as the panic clawed deeper into her.
Perhaps, really, the man had never been there. Perhaps he had just been another part of her imagination and this whole thing was her mind trying to escape from the Warrens. Some slithering, slimy thing was likely taking chunks out of her right this very moment and her mind had fled to some distant fantasy to preserve herself in this single, dying moment. Beyond this delusion, she was breathing her last and being turned into something’s meal. The sputtering start of a giggle left her as she turned, a grin stretched out over her lips.
“He was never real.” The words were said with awe, the way a child might react to a magic trick for the first time. “He was never here.” How else would one explain what she had just seen? That she was crazy? No, she didn’t believe that. She was sane — had always been sane. Had been sane when she’d seen those wraiths following them and even when Feia had pushed her off that cliff and they’d chased her down. Because she had been sane and right and if she were dying now, this would make all the more sense.
It could only mean, then, that she was right and that beyond this — through to the chest — was the way out and the way home. It hummed within her that, oh yes, she would open the chest and all would be right again. That Jieun would be right there waiting for her and that blathering, scummy man would never have married. And it would just be the two of them. Her giggles turned into full-blown laughter as she hurried to the chest and threw it open.