Afterimages

Lost

Nameless, her Lover, and the Stranger huddled together in the burnt-out husk of a ruined building, ash and smog thick in the biting, frigid air.

They spoke in what were probably hushed voices, but there was no sound, as ever.

Nameless and Lover cuddled together especially close, their mutual affection easily apparent.  Lover was a small, slim, but fiercely beautiful and protective woman, someone Nameless loved and admired with heartrending intensity.  Stranger was an older man with dark, haunted eyes, whom they had met only recently.

The three shared around some sort of chalky dried food, but as awful as the stuff was, they were grateful to have anything.

Lover was the first to react to the approaching danger.  A lone figure, armored head-to-toe in bulky equipment that obscured all human characteristics.  He or she encroached on the trio's meager shelter with quick, jerky movements, aiming a large, heavy rifle at them.

All three survivors stood, and seemed to say something imploringly.  The armored figure apparently replied and gestured with the weapon, which caused the three a great deal of distress.

The intruder approached more aggressively, and the group broke.  They fled out through a toppled wall, into a world choked in snow, ash and grey.

The two women ran, hands desperately locked together, while Stranger had a limp, and lagged behind.

A shower of bullets raised little puffs in the freshly fallen snow where they struck, marking the aim of the deadly weapon trained on them.

Stranger fell, his face contorted in anguish, a splash red smearing vividly onto the grey and white of the earth where he landed.  Nameless wanted to stop and go back for him, but Lover shouted something, her pretty face pinched and desperate.  The two ran on.

What had clearly once been a thriving town was now a maze of abandoned buildings, most torn open and looted, while others were almost completely leveled.  But the labyrinthine ruin was to their advantage now, and soon the pursuer had been left behind.

Out of breath and unable to continue, Nameless and Lover at last found a sheltered place where two mostly-intact houses had been built close together.  They huddled down, panting and clutching each other, clinging desperately to the very last thing either of them had.

Nameless wept, face buried in Lover's shoulder, while Lover held her.

======================================

Nerissa woke from her dream.  Her physical body was fully restored, surrounded by the deep, cool, reassuring waters of the ocean, her new lungs taking their first breaths of refreshing sea water.

Nerissa always knew when she was dreaming.  She had heard that this was not often the case for others, but she always knew.

Sometimes her dreams were pleasant.  Of some place filled with natural beauty, plants and water, with someone she loved close by.  Sometimes they were strange and surreal, with events which held no logical order, but were somehow heavy with emotion.  Other times, her dreams were not dreams at all.  She dreaded those the most.

She experienced the last sort most often when her body had been destroyed or otherwise lost, deep in the ocean while her spirit-form regenerated her physical aspect anew.

These not-dreams were heartbreakingly vivid and crystal clear, so utterly removed from the fuzzy abstractions and disordered randomness of her 'real' dreams, that there was no mistaking one for the other.  There was never any sound, and they were always about the same thing – a gentle, nameless girl and her beautiful, fierce lover, clinging to survival in a world shattered by war.

She had experienced countless little glimpses of Nameless and Lover over the years, lived them through Nameless's eyes, her feelings and sensations.  Even with no sound, and no names, Nerissa felt she knew them as well as she knew anyone.  And she knew, on some deep and unquestionable level, that what she saw and experienced was every bit as real as her own life.  It had not always been terror and desperation for them, either.  They had lived simple, peaceful lives before things had turned . . . gone to an institution of learning together . . . exchanged symbolic gifts of love and devotion . . .

Nerissa had no idea where in the universe this tragic place was, no clue how or why she was being subjected to these experiences of heartbreak and desperation.  But she was grateful for them.  More grateful than she was for almost anything in her life.

However painful the window into that other world was, however helpless she was to offer comfort or protection to the hurt and sick people within, the insight she had gained had changed her forever.  Now she knew.

Life was precious.  All life.

Doing her best to shake off the melancholy mood that always came with not-dreams of Nameless and Lover, Nerissa kicked off against the ocean floor, her new body sliding smoothly up and up through the water towards the gleaming rays of sunlight penetrating the ocean's depths.  The rapid change in pressure might have been harmful to a creature of flesh and blood, but Nerissa's body adjusted instantly and automatically, requiring barely a thought from her as she ascended to the surface.

She broke through to the world of air and light with a gratifying splash, tiny glittering droplets sprinkling out in her wake.  The magnificent surface of the Topazial Sea stretched out from her in every direction, an endless plane of deep blue water.  It was one of her favorite views in all of Felarya.

She took a few breaths of the air, enjoying the contrast of the thinner, though somewhat less nourishing, feel in her lungs.

She felt . . . good.  More free, and less weighed down than she had in ages.  Perhaps it was just that fresh feeling that came with occupying a newly formed body.  Or the reconciliation with Naora, even after all their differences had finally exploded into the open.  Regardless, she felt amazing.

Despite all the undue suffering and heartbreak, the world was a beautiful, magnificent place.  And she was a part of it, just like everyone, and everything, else.  And that was beautiful too.

============================

Found

Night insects chirped their discordant song all around the small group, thick, shadowy foliage pressing in around them like the will of some dark tree-goddess.

Empyria knew she had nothing to fear, but being back in the deep, wild places of Felarya left her nearly trembling with pent-up anxiety.  The last time she had been in this spot, she had stood before a live, full-sized dryad.

The dryad was long gone, of course.  The place where she had uprooted was now a deep, wide depression in the earth, the upturned soil already home to newly sprouted ferns and weeds.

Empyria stretched out her senses, and could still easily perceive the residue from the very special magic that had been worked here.  A wide eldritch ring had been stealthily painted around the dryad, and infused deep into the soil, so as to suppress her ability to contact other dryads at a distance.  It had almost worked, too.

Of course, that failure had resulted in over a dozen people being devoured alive by the dryad and several fairies.  And Empyria had come very close to sharing that fate.

"Can you track it?"  A familiar female voice said softly, firmly.  Utterly without fear or apprehension.  Empyria shivered despite herself.

"I'm sorry, no,"  Empyria said, turning to where Bodicia stood.  Despite looking for all the world like a slender, statuesque elven woman, she remained undaunted by the terrifying night forest.  "It's been too long.  Any trails are long gone, and even my magic has proved ineffective against dryad camouflage."

Bodicia's jaw clenched in barely-visible frustration.  "So we begin searching for a new dryad then."

"Perhaps not,"  Empyria said carefully.  "There is something I would like to try first.  It may take a few minutes, and I will need the assistance of the other clerics . . ."  Empyria gestured to the rest of the group, most of them her subordinates in the Order . . . a few she had recently tutored herself, to replace those lost.  Though less than thirty years old, Empyria was a savant in the field of divination magics, easily outclassing masters with double her years.

"Proceed.  No harm will come to you,"  Bodicia said simply, stepping away to let them work.

Empyria obeyed.  She took the lead as usual, allowing the others to lend their power while she directed and shaped the magic.  It was a very precise, subtle sort of magic, one intended not to create an effect, but instead extract information.

She focused down upon the ring of magical residue which had failed to silence the dryad, and with painstaking slowness examined it for any breaches, working her way around the circle bit by bit.  At first there was nothing, no hint of what had gone wrong . . . and then she found it.

A tiny sliver of a breach.  So fine and minuscule it was stunning a dryad could project anything through such a small space, let alone communication.  Putting aside her awe at the power and subtly of dryad communication, she enhanced her focus upon the imperfection, until she had found what she wanted.

Empyria ended the ritual with a surge of victory.  "I found it!"  She was feeling so giddy with success she could almost forget the deadly jungle all around them.

Bodicia turned her beautiful green eyes upon Empyria.  "What have you found?"

"What went wrong.  The dryad was in the middle of an active communication when we tried to cut her off.  The spell does stop them from reaching out, but can't break an already-active communication."

"That's quite a flaw.  Can you modify it to work correctly next time?"

"I think so.  But it gets better!  The breach isn't just a breach.  It's an arrow!  Assuming dryad communication is sent in a straight line from one to another – and everything we know suggests it is – we now have an arrow pointing right to the other dryad she was talking to!"

"Direction, but not distance?"  Bodicia said, but looked pleased nonetheless.

Empyria swallowed uncomfortably.  "Umm, that's correct.  We have no idea how far away it will be, and with their camouflage . . ."

"So long as we can get close enough, I will be able to identify the dryad.  We may be in for a rather long journey however, so I hope everyone is up for a bit of hiking?"  Bodicia said.

Empyria hadn't quite considered that aspect, but nodded anyway.  It wasn't like she had much choice in the matter.  But at least this time her odds of being eaten alive by some nude, improbably-proportioned giant woman-creature were pretty much zero.

Sooner or later, they would find the other dryad, and once they had her secured, they could get the hell off this crazy world for good.  Everything was going to be fine.