Timestamp: ????
Seer Kova, her body transparent, the edges a bit blurred, as she stepped into one of the many intersections along Tullus Urso Mercutius's heavily woven branchworks of Destiny. The man was a recent refugee in the Commonwealth and like so many that came, was burdened with much turmoil. And the Seers of Galetira sought to ease their suffering. Kova had been working with Tullus for weeks now, and was finally beginning to see some genuine progress. And so, she was venturing along his branches, to discover more that she might help the man.
And now, she found herself in a world of sunshine and sun and sand and stone. A quick glance around indicated that she was in the Solunarium capital. She watched as Tullus stood there, a middle aged man whose age was difficult for even humans to discern behind the scraggly beard and thick head of messy hair. She wondered when she was. It mattered not. She looked over her shoulder, spying a great pyramid amidst a wall, the Templum Solis Radians, its peak shining bright, blinding her temporarily, the great mountain dwarfing it in the background.
Casting her aetherial eyes back to Tullus, she saw he was running toward a building, frantic and desperate. Curious, she followed after him, running easily to keep pace. He seemed to know where he was going. His home perhaps? She knew he'd been a moderately wealthy merchant in Solunarium. And when he'd fled, he was able to get himself and his children out, but was unable to get his wife to follow. Kova assumed he was seeking her out.
But still, something was nagging her as the winds ripped through her, her aetherial form unphased by the physics of a world that might never exist. He turned a corner, coming upon an ornate, gated building, a courtyard garden locked away behind gilded iron. Tullus scrambled for a key on a chain around his neck, unlocking his home and dashing in, calling out his wife's name.
There was panic, fear in his voice.
Kova looked around and her eyes widened. There were no other people here. She strayed from Tullus and his house, hearing a pained wailing that told her what she already knew he'd find, or rather, not. She walked through the ornate homes tucked against the wall. She heard no laughter of children, no parents speaking, no merchants haggling, no one telling stories. There was no one here.
She did not understand, she'd visited Solunarium in her youthful days and empty was never a word one could use to describe it. She made her way to the wall, and stopped. There, carved hastily into the plastered stone, the words, a warning. "His judgment is swift and cold."
Her mind tugged at her, and once more, she cast her gaze to the temple, a hand to shield her eyes from the sun glancing off of it. There, she saw Him. Hovering above the peak of the temple, surrounded by, engulfed by, and exuding Light. All Seers knew of Him. Most in the Commonwealth knew of him.
Arcas.
Fear began to grip Kova's heart. What exactly was she seeing? What had happened here? In her robes and sandals, she ran through the Sorokyne district and never found another person. Far enough away, she saw no guards upon the wall, came across no humans, no elves, no military, no lowborne or high. There was no one around her, save for the god above the temple. Kova had a duty, one that she prayed would not get her killed before she could. She was to bear witness to whatever was happening here. She ran through the empty streets, trying to find anyone, anything, to indicate what was going on.
And back upon the spot she'd witnessed Arcas, a shadow slipped through a crack in this world-that-was-not-yet. The spot where fear had wormed its way into one of Galetira's Seers. A shadow that was growing, spreading in thin tendrils, reaching out to steal the natural shadows from the buildings and walls around it.
There might not be any people in this district, but they were certainly not alone.
