Chapter Text
A falling feeling in which she felt like she was drifting through the world.
The world reversed and I saw from above a time long past. All I bore witness to, was an ancient city reduced to rubble where only those beneath rats dwell. The walls were carved out of stone, the city lowered into a giant pit with seemingly no escape.
[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your First Trial…]
Gyaaaaaah!
‘Ah what a weird feeling.’ My sisters had told me to expect such a thing. I had gone in with what I thought of as clear expectations related to that. But still, experiencing it with my own soul was all in its own a much harsher reality.
Then my eyes opened.
Gyaaaaaah!
My head, everywhere I looked the system screamed at me, words flying through my mind over and over again. Jerking my head away, it screamed at me even more. I couldn't understand the words, I couldn't see nor hear any of it. Not like this, closing my eyes the screaming at last stopped.
But the headaches remained as I sucked in breathe after breathe. Ah that was far too painful.
Luckily I didn't make any sound in real life. Ha take that! All my sisters constantly said I'm too quiet, even holding my voice in while in pain. Well now it just saved my life. But what even happened? And why did it happen?
I sat slumped against a ruined wall in the corner of an ancient city. I couldn’t quite gather much in the way of information so I decided to simply sit still. A few seconds passed and other than a few groans of pain and the silent shuffling of a figure a few buildings down, nothing. When the time was flowing back, I could have sworn there was more to it than this.
Was everyone here a slave? That didn't make much sense, no one here seemed to be working on anything. And there was no one to force the people here to work on anything. If there was the people here wouldn't be spread out in the way that they were. Were the inhabitants unable to leave? Was leaving this pit the way to escape this Nightmare?
After triple checking to make sure I'm safe, not daring to open my eyes. I opened my runes as was taught time and time again by my older sisters.
Name: Hiro
True Name: ---
Rank: Aspirant.
Soul Core: Dormant
Memories: ---
Echoes: ---
Attributes: [Appraisal] [Mark of Divinity] [Child of Spiders]
Aspect: [Follower of the Spider]
Aspect Description: [The Spider has always been closely tied to the strings of fate. Following, and even being taught by the original Weaver, the Spiders gained followers of their own. Blessed by the spider those followers gained nothing more than a chance at bearing witness to such weaves.]
"Tch.' Pausing in surprise at my own outburst, she rechecked her surroundings. Luckily nothing was drawn her way. Taking a silent breath she reread the runes in front of her.
This… This was hardly good at all. What does that description even mean? Well maybe it could be useful in other ways. Thinking back to my siblings, none of them had such vague descriptions for their aspects. I wasn't really sure if vague was good or bad in a case like this.
But bearing witness? No, not even that. Only gaining the chance to bear witness to such weaves as it says. That makes it sound like nothing can actually be done or applied with my aspect, right? That's just great!
To be honest I also had no idea anything about Weaver other than he was a Daemon. Many would say the worst of them all. Following Weaver was hardly a good sign in my eyes. And yet I'm apparently a follower of a follower of Weaver. I'd much rather just be a follower of Weaver instead of by proxy.
But perhaps the spider could be related to my mother, who held the Beast lineage herself. Who's to say the dormant ability won't be any good?
Aaaah this is too much…
No, no. That didn't matter right now. I should focus on the attributes, right. One of them could prove very helpful. That must be true, definitely.
[Appraisal] Attribute Description: "Turning your gaze on anything or anyone can help you gleam even the greatest of secrets."
[Mark of Divinity] Attribute Description: "You bear a faint scent of divinity, as though someone briefly touched by it once, a long time ago."
[Child of Spiders] Attribute Description: "Spiders recognize you as one of their own."
…
…
WHATTTTTTTT? WHY IS IT ALL SO VAGUE?
I am so doomed! None of these could be used in a fight! I'm going to die!
Okay, okay take a deep breath. To be fair, Appraisal was pretty easy to understand. I could already think of a few ways to test it right now if nothing else. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's the whole reason for the headache I have.
Which means testing is going to more mean limiting what the Attribute tells me. Oh please any of the gods, grant my wish that I can do such a thing.
But the other two?
Mark of Divinity was seemingly useless for me. After all from what I could see, there was nothing here that could lead to me using sorcery which it's supposed to help. Perhaps there's a sacred place in this nightmare that it would allow me passage to but that's wishful thinking at it finest.
Regardless immediate benefits are none at all. So it'd only be useful if I survive and even then not many people have uses with it their entire lives. The few that do obtain it.
And lastly, Spiders recognize me as one of their own? What, do the bugs on earth love me now or something? What good was that?
Sure there were the nightmare creature spiders of many different types, but what good could that be? Nightmare Creatures were just as likely to eat their own if no humans were around so it's especially useless.
They might not eat me immediately I suppose, but eventually I'll still be eaten!
Okay, okay. Despite all that and (seemingly) no combat capabilities to speak of I needed to plan something. Anything. As much fun as it was to sit here doing nothing, I couldn't just sit here doing nothing forever.
Yet I am scared of opening my eyes again. Okay just focus. Picture not seeing anything extra such as information about the walls and floors.
I breathed in then out, and at last opened my eyes once more.
The world was cold, dark, the sun above was covered by a thick cloud. The pit I'm in only making the darkness worse, as the shadows from the 4 walls hanged over all. Hmm nothing, I had a faint headache still but nothing popped up. No words struck into me. I focused on the wall and what I wanted.
[A regular old stone wall.]
Wow. So wise.
And then it was gone, a buzz was faint in the back of my head and I knew for sure it was passive but I could block it out. Perhaps it's about shifting focus, but even the voice isn't active so it was hard to be sure how it worked. Oh well, trial and error I suppose.
The darkness was not too bad either, not too suffocating. My vision is good from all my time spent with my older sister who stays far from the sun but not this good.
Child of Spiders perhaps? That'd be a neat side effect, it's not so good that I can see into the darkness of a building across from my own. But good enough I'd be able to see a shifting person should there be one.
Standing up I began moving. Slowly, not quite shuffling like the aimless figure I will be sure to avoid. But not going fast, as to look like I'm up to anything. As to look like I am abnormal. Obviously I don't know the norm here nor what is out of it but hey. A girls gotta try.
1st Nightmares are usually pretty short, average being less than a week total, which means the goal can't be so insane such as gathering all these boney looking people for some sort of armed revolution. I feel that'd be straight up impossible.
In fact some of my sisters finished theirs in just a few hours. So here's hoping it's that simple, then I can go home and shower. Eat some good food. Only unfortunate part then would be having to actually prepare for the solstice.
The ruins of this city are surrounded on all four sides by straight walls. Carved out of the stone but in seemingly rough shape. Yet from above I could see that the walls reached further than just the surface. It was hard to tell by how much but it was quite a bit. Meaning of course that, even should I somehow climb all the way up. I would still have to climb all the way down.
I can't do that.
Looking atop them reveals… Nothing, not a guard in sight. Are we really not trapped here? Then why…
The person who's body I am inhabiting is skin and bones too. In fact I can't tell what in this place these people are eating.
But in seemingly better state than most of those around me. Was this body brought here recently? The rags I'm wearing act as a cloak, even going so far as to have already been wrapped around my head. Dirt covers me head to toe which is more than a little bothersome to my own psyche.
There is however, nothing nearby that I can gather looks like a landmark. The buildings all look the same bland color, none of the people stand out either. The closest to a landmark would be the towering walls above. But I couldn't see any staircases so its quite a mute point, isn't it?
Huh?
What?
I couldn't see any staircases on the walls, me? This city is massive, the furthest wall is miles away. I'm only close to one side. Yet I can see the furthest, and even make out detail of them.
Is this Appraisal? Perhaps helping my eyes is a side effect of allowing me to read into things. Or maybe it's Child of Spiders again? How good is a spiders vision anyways?
This is really good. I'm only a aspirant and its this good? I mean its not better than those with aspects related to vision. I can't see pin point accuracy of everything. But my vision still has further reach than it did before.
Aahhhh I'm so thirsty. Poor me, poor little old me. A sigh and then I continue walking. I wish I had an attribute for water, rather than eyesight. Damned be how amazing it is.
I don't particularly want to climb any of these shabby building. None of the people scattered throughout react to my movement, sure. Maybe climbing would change that though. I avoid looking at them though, I mean who knows if they're even people.
I have been told before, looking directly at something or someone could make them notice you. No matter how well hidden you are. Keeping anything, especially Nightmare Creatures in the corner of your vision is the best way to go. So I don't want to look at them. It's far too scary a prospect.
Even if appraisal can tell me something useful, it'd be pretty useless once I'm dead.
The part of the city I'm in sits at a decline, and I couldn't tell if it was natural or caused by perhaps an earthquake. As I walk up a hill I can finally see the full expanse of it's buildings. From the far end to the very center.
I can also see the lower sections of all 3 walls that I couldn't before. No markings, no openings seemingly. Just bare walls. There must be something though, otherwise how on earth did all these people get here.
The center however is different. There's nothing special about it, not really. It's surrounded by clear space on all 4 sides, a building that very clearly resembles what one could call a landmark. But even so there's nothing about it that really draws attention to it. It's a plain, ugly building like all the rest in this city. It's not any taller or shorter. Not wider or thinner. In fact it's quite small compared to other buildings.
Yet looking at it sends a shiver down my spine, something screams at me to stay far far away. There's no people in the cleared space, none that I could see within it's confines.
And just like that, I know it's where I need to go.
Hm, that's very annoying... I really would prefer running away after all.