Death, dreams, and revival

[cerulean delta]

last thing millian remembers is being one of the last standing, a strange prism creature digging into her giving her a blistering headache…and then black

next thing she knows is opening her eyes and pain, pain everywhere her smile turning into a wince. Pain and utter exhaustion. After being checked on to make sure the spell went through and she was alive, she was once again left to her own devices, she wanders around the guild leaning on the walls and falling occasionally not exactly sure where she’s even going. Eventually she wanders far enough to find herself under a large tree in the grove where she finally passes out, the already extremely limited energy depleted

as she sleeps she dreams of the empty fields of her home, seeing her clan hunt, fish, and live off the land. Another dream she’s a teen and begins participating and pulling her weight in the clan aiding in gathering food and participating in raids on small local villages. As she gazes at her axe seeing her reflection in the limited clean parts of the blade. She smiles, when was the last time she smiled so much? She can’t seem to remember then she turns to her father seeing him engage in a battle with a warrior from the village. Blades clinging and blood flying until one drops, he looks down seeing a blade pierce straight through his abdomen sliding off as he falls to the ground. She screams, charging towards the warrior. She feels tears blend with blood as they run down her face she doesn’t register them anymore than her smile that didn’t disappear.

she wakes up a bit shifting position as she drifts back asleep dreaming once more. This time she’s older, maybe 16 her first few days in camor trying to blend in and learn more about her curse. She’s at a makeshift stand trying to scam so random locals into playing dice with her. A wealthy looking elven noble happens to stop and plays with her. She’s done this con before they both bet the number total the set of dice will get, she wins, again, and again until the nobles sighs and shakes his head. He says something to her in eleven that she doesn’t understand, he gestures to her to follow and she does

a shift, the night grew cold though she’s slept in the wild like this before so she simply curls into a ball and sleeps some more. This time as she dreams she’s a young adult a few years later dressed in fancy, shiny plate armor as she follows the same elf from before around scanning for potential dangers until the make it to a library where the elf noble pulls out a few books on the feywild and their curses “so we’ve managed to pin down that this affliction of yours originates in the feywild and is written into your genetic code somehow” he says in elvish, her trying to follow along with both the magic, science, and new language she’s only recently learned “there tends to be some way to break these things, summon the echo once more please” she does as commanded and he studies it, eyes bouncing from echo to book back and forth, as he’s done countless times now

she wakes again still aching and rolls over drifting back again as the dreams take her back I time to burying her father, this time she is conscious of her inability to even frown. Her clan members not paying her any mind as they light the funeral pyre and watch it blaze higher. She stands there wanting to frown, muscles twitching and flexing as she tries to force her expression to change. Then she grows dizzy, the world spinning more and more until she falls down neither conscious nor unconscious, instead elsewhere. She looks around seeing plants of various vibrant colors but also some with none just dingy shades of gray. Suddenly, as if poofing into existence a face right in front of hers whispering…she leans in to hear better then it shouts at her a poem long since forgotten

“Vel’thrae na shor ven’kai,
Thael umbrae vel nor’vai.
Mor’kai, dren’thal—na vel shi,
Umbrae vael… naethra li.
Kor’thalen, vel en’vrae,
Esh’kara ven—na thae.
Velith’rai en nox’thal ve,
Eko shae… naeth’kai se.
Sael’vyr thae, quel’na fai,
Thyra ven en dul’vai.
Saen’kor… vel drae thu,
Thalen’root en varu.
Vel’kai thrae—en thira kor,
Quel’esh vae… en’thal mor.
Sael en’vyr… vel en’sha—
Thrae sol… ar hal’kra.” she stumbles back, startled from where she was standing she looks up and sees an ethereal copy of her self still staring at the being, cowering, seething, and frowning somehow all at the same time. The being smiles and claps it hands as she startles awake under the tree, head pounding but alive and gathering her bearings as the creatures words pound in her head over and over. She stands up stumbling around the grove

[cerulean delta]

after a bit of wandering, some trees looking the same as she walks aimlessly mumbling the words to her self as she holds her head. she stumbles upon a grave sight of someone burying some bodies “who is there?” she calls out weakly, eyes not fully functioning

@winter lodge

[winter lodge]

As she approach the clearing, the first things she sees are, well, badgers. About half a dozen of them, all standing on their hind legs. Some of them holding torches, with two in particular holding open a book too large their size. There is clearly a hole in the ground, about 4m x 4m, with a small soil hill on the side. A pair pops up, being the obvious culprit.

By the side of these badgers are some corpses, all wearing dull-colored robes, none of which looks like their from the guild

And in the center of the spectacle is a familiar human, this time wearing simple black garments, her hood put down. Ms. Snow demeanor was much different from when the two met... much more serious. She begins reading from the book held by her furry friends

At the sight of the newcomer, the badgers kind of shift awkwardly. Ms. Snow sighs, having heard the news of the party that needed a rescue, and replies softly.

"You seem lost, Red..."

[cerulean delta]

she holds her head more, leaning on a tree struggling to take on the whole scene before her. Even for the guild and her delirious state this was alot

the words continue to echo in her head as she blinks, doing her best to take in the scene and ensure she’s not dreaming again. Nope, this is real

she stares at ms snow, millian herself in full adventure gear. She answers weakly though she tries to stand taller still leaning on the tree “well..I’m not dreaming anymore…I think” she looks to the bodies “do I want to know what I’ve stumbled upon?” she stands not lost in her mind as she had no real direction she was going in the first place

[winter lodge]

Ms. Snow waves her hands as the badgers close the book and give it to her. They then begin to regroup and start carrying the dead bodies into the ground.

The human (?) moves her gaze to the sight of her summons. "No... this is very much real." She signals the torch-bearing badgers to act, as they put the torches down in a circle, slowly forming a bonfire.

"They're dead cultists. I secured them in one of my jobs. Only fair that, though they have much questionable plans, they deserved to be burried properly... and y'know, not let to rot in the ruins."

She looks at the human "You on the other hand... are a dead-woman standing. And by the timing of things... I doubt you had much rest afterwards." Some badgers look to the redhair before looking to Ms. Snow. She in turn tilt her head.

"They were wondering if you needed help getting out your gear. Would be quite the burden to wear here in the grove... at 3 in the morning."

[cerulean delta]

she watches the ritual in confusion as best she can, the fire bringing back the dreams from earlier of her own clans funeral processions.

she thinks about cultists, wasn’t her last job meant to stop cultists? Though she never even made it to the point of interacting with any probably. She shakes her head, slinking slowly down the tree “what makes such dead worth..anything?”

she snarks and spits a bit of dried blood from her mouth to the ground “so you’ve heard of my failure then? This one even worse than the last” a tear or to shines on her face as it falls mixing with dirt and dried blood though still her smile persists. Behind the tree you can see the edges of the echo, placed purposefully as millian refuses to look at it in the moment, a reminder that still echos with every split of her pounding head

she shakes her head no, falling into a sitting position leaning on the tree “I am fine, slept in more and worse” truth sure, but the weight of the gear clearly weighing her tired body down

Death, dreams, and revival

[winter lodge]

She shrugs “Why wouldn’t I bury them? They’re different from monsters… and it’s only fair that I bury them so.” She answers half-truthfully (Deception 11).

“Not everyday you hear a team wipe-out in the guild.” She answers without much thought. “You were very lucky that they took prisoners… and that the Golds that did the interception were very capable.” She looks at the redhead and her armor. She sighs as she stands up.

“It’s either the me or the badgers to do it…“

[cerulean delta]

she tilts her head, even in exhaustion she can see theres more than being spoken here "indeed, they arent monsters but...theres somthing else happening here too" (insight 13)

she nods, picking at some damp grass under her balling a bit in her fist "we were careless and i grew over confident thinking i was stronger than i was." she had gotten too complacent in her recent missions, deciding to PU to a silver mission right after being promoted to copper "i dont intend to have it happen again and clearly ive more to learn" theres clear frustration in her voice but also determination and maybe even excitement at the possibility of growing stronger

she looks at the clear fey badgers and the seeming human in front of her, a fellow guild member is more worthy of her trust it would seem "fine, do as you must"

she winces, holding her head as the throb returns again

[winter lodge]

For a which moment, Ms. Snow raises an eyebrow. "Well yes... but there are more pressing matters to attend to it seems." She says as she kneels to meet her face and begins helping her take off the bloodied gears.

"Well maybe it's also cause the clerics in your team was... off?" She comments absentmindedly, not much thinking about throwing shade. "You should let me know if you're planning to go to another Silver job. Never had a person die on my watch. If anything... I'm the one that dies first." smile

The badgers decide to get this awkward exchange of the corpses over with as they slowly and respectfully chuck each body into the ground, laid neatly besides one another. 8 bodies total. They then begin to push back the dirt into the hole.

"And your wounds have healed, yes?" She says as she use the opportunity to check on Red's condition (Medicine 23).

[cerulean delta]

she sighs, relaxing more into the ground and against the tree moving so that removing the armor isnt too hard "i dont really care what you are doing with these bodies, more just general curiosity" she lets out a light chuckle that turns into a cough

she shrugs "maybe, they didnt really get much a chance to do anything before going down to the spell caster that only seemed to grow stronger each time one of us got knocked down" she nods "im sure youd be very useful in a mission, though as the front liner me and the echo are ideally the first to go down" slightly bloody smile "maybe thats what went wrong this time, i was basically the last to go down, i cut the things up as best i could before then though" she winces as she sits up slightly to help remove the chest piece

she eyes the badgers doing their work but ignores it for now, ms snow will explain it when shes done surely "the severe ones yes" ms snow sees multiple deep cuts and dark bruises throughout millian body but the active bleeding has stopped from them, her strong constitution already working to heal them. she sees a few spots where lightning struck her, the telltale pattern in their markings. dried blood under her nose and in her ears where no doubt it was flowing heavy prior. but now at this point most of the damage gone or healing the rest is pure exhaustion in millians body and movement "the rest will heal in time, hopefully the head ache will fade as well" as she speaks she winces again, both hands balling and pushed into side temple and brow bone, again the words echo in her head

[winter lodge]

She takes the armor off as she turns to give it to two attending badgers, where they take it and plop it down on the ground next to them. A few more pieces of bloodied gear come off as each are stacked in a pile before Ms. Snow waves her hands and water slowly seep from the ground and pool around it. The badgers begin to take some of the armor and begin rinsing them.

Next, she notes the wounds mentally as her hands begin to glow a soft green light, regenerative efforts slowly accelerated. “You would be surprised at what I’ve done in the face of danger. Though the amount of times I needed to take a beating is a bit too much from comfort.”

She hums before furrowing her brows. “Head ache? That’s probably not a good sign. Have they checked for internal bleeding?”

[cerulean delta]

she sighs contently as the healing sooths some of the aches, allowing her more ability to chuckle at the scene and being attended to "you sure you wont get married one day? you probably would make a better wife than i" *she admits, knowing some of her own flaws" she takes a deep breath, deeper than shes been able to take since being revived "if we ever party up, just be sure to leave the beatings to me and help me up after like this alright?" smile "ive taken them basically my entire life"

she lifts her shoulders in another shrug, this time much of the pain not present "whoever was in the temple did a quick check up and just reccomended a lot of sleep, which ive gotten some"

she rests her head back against the tree "seemed to have seen parts of my life flash before me post-death this time" she goes to chuckle again until her face scrunches up again as the words throb in her head just as the pain does, this time the words whisper out of her mouth, her not even understanding them "Vel’thrae na shor ven’kai,
Thael umbrae vel nor’vai.
Mor’kai, dren’thal—na vel shi,
Umbrae vael… naethra li. Kor’thalen, vel en’vrae,
Esh’kara ven—na thae.
Velith’rai en nox’thal ve,
Eko shae… naeth’kai se.
Sael’vyr thae, quel’na fai,
Thyra ven en dul’vai.
Saen’kor… vel drae thu,
Thalen’root en varu. Vel’kai thrae—en thira kor,
Quel’esh vae… en’thal mor.
Sael en’vyr… vel en’sha—
Thrae sol… ar hal’kra.” the words coming out in a chanting whisper

[winter lodge]

She shrugs “Again… we’ll have to wait and see~” She takes a look at the remaining badgers burying the dead. Hole is covered up now, leaving a fresh patch of dirt. One of the badgers begin to wave Ms. Snow’s staff as white and violet flowers spring to life, the strong scent of honey emanating from them. You can tell that they’re not native of this plane.

“I’m afraid who gets hit isn’t up to us. A lot of monsters have enough intelligence to deduce who is healing the team. Or who is conjuring all the spirits in the battlefield.”

She blinks a few times as the human starts babbling, her memory sharp. “You uuh- started learning Sylvan?” She tilts her head

[cerulean delta]

she blinks the pain away and nods “that is true, I’ve learned to take advantage of my abilities to be in both the front and back to cover more area” talking about fighting helps to distract her so millian is happy to talk about such things

she sniffs the air, hard to hate the smell but the flowers strike some more memory from her dreams, maybe not exactly the same but similar “ok really what are you doing here?”

she realizes she said the words out loud, the language not even clicking in her head through the pounding “huh? What did I say? I only speak common and elvish really, I know a few random words in sylvan but nothing of real note”

[winter lodge]

“What? Even the dead needs flowers laid to rest with them” She chuckles a bit. “Besides, you cant get these anywhere here… grown only in the Feywilds.”

She raises an eyebrow at the last part. “Well you were saying about your echo? And your blood bargain or something like that.” She says before turning to the badgers “I can try to write it out if you want.”

[cerulean delta]

she eyes the working badgers with confusion “and they require bodies to grow? Or is that just your magic touch?”

her eyes widen slightly and she slowly nods “if you would please…maybe something good will come from that experience after all” with less weight and the extra healing she already begins to feel better though still moves slowly as she tries to sit up a bit more to get a better view of where ms snow decided to write

[winter lodge]

“…don’t all plants need nutrients to grow?” She asks back quizzically in light jest as she reaches for her book and flip to the last page.

Lucky she was using her headband, as she managed to capture the ordeal word for word, scibbling it in Elvish before handing it over to read.

[cerulean delta]

she chuckles and nods lightly “I suppose so but I thought you were giving them proper burials?” she asks quizzically, curious just want the ‘human’ was doing

Millians reads over the whole word and looks up confused “the first part I think I get based on how the curse affects me…any ideas for the second half?” she asks, to ms snow as she’s the only one there but more so just out into the air and out loud

[winter lodge]

"I am." She hums in thought "the nearby plants will soon uproot themselves to prey on the corpses. Who am I to not make the process quicker?"

She looks to the remaining badgers, now taskless. That means it's playtime. They begin to do other, more 'normal' badger things "Find a place where you first left? Would that be your clan?"

[cerulean delta]

she slowly nods “and..these flowers are special then?” she watches the badgers, badger “are they food for the badgers?”

she shakes her head “that can’t be it, that’s where I was after this and I’ve gone back before coming here…” she winces slightly, the headache still not fully subsided “in my dream…when the creature shouted this at me I was in a weird forest there was colorful plants and flowers like those but also…gray ones?” now she looks back to ms snow “does that sound like the feywild or something?”

[winter lodge]

“No they’re regular flowers… just from another plane. And… no?” She looks concerned “Badgers eat meat not flowers but erm- these ones don’t really eat since they’re spirits.”

She shrugs “Sounds exactly like it… I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it once or twice on my last trip back.”

[cerulean delta]

she blinks slowly, accepting the flowers to be a version of normal but remembers the book "what was the book by the way? this seemed a bit more...ellaborate than a normal funeral for past foes" she shrugs, she doesnt know what badgers eat, normal or otherwise

her eyes go wide "really?! ive been to there once or twice since joining the guild but not that area yet...how on earth do i find this specific space?" she doesnt know what answers would be there but maybe...its her only lead "at the very least that creature might be there and i can get more answers from it...or at least kill it"

[winter lodge]

“It’s my notebook” She hesitates on how exactly she’ll phrase it.

“Mostly the spells from my training days.. though more recently I’ve used it to note research on magical items~”

Ms. Snow gets a little poke as the last working badgers have completed armor washing and walk over to their friends “oh thank you- anyways I’m sure we can find a Fey crossing someplace closer to the woods.”

[cerulean delta]

she stops and thinks more trying to piece things together "hmm so does that mean this might be something to do with a spell or magic item then?"

she nods but then hesitates and bites her lip, body still aching from the previous mission "maybe..but i think i need to grow stronger before i think to attempt to challenge that creature" she sighs and bumps her head against the tree "if its strong enough to put on this kinda curse id make a wager that its strong"

[winter lodge]

“Yes. Now enough questions- this isn’t about me~” She deflects as she claps her hands and the badgers go off to bully a sleeping Bronze or something.

“Then i guess it’s all the more reason to stay in the guild for longer.” She says before adding “Or I can take you on a field trip?”

[cerulean delta]

she watches as the badgers all scurry off and smiles “maybe not, but the distraction is helping” she admits, she begins to massage a shoulder stretching it out to improve some blood flow to it

she nods “indeed, I’ve grown considerably stronger in the short time I’ve been here and I don’t see that stopping at this rate” she pauses considering deeply, take slow breaths “I’m not sure about that, if I’m going to the feywild I might be on a warpath” she managed a hearty chuckle “though maybe that’s what you want and this is you trying to recruit me to your friends mission out there?”

[winter lodge]

“We don’t need more people” She rolls her eyes as she stands up for a stretch “and hey seems like I’m much more productive today than i thought.”

[cerulean delta]

she chuckles “sure you guys don’t” she remains seated, gathering her things a bit closer to her “yeah weird cult ritual and helping a comrade” she chuckles some more “not bad”

[winter lodge]

"I'm not a cult. That implies I have followers..." She giggles a bit before picking up her staff. As she bends down, you can see a new pendant hanging around her neck, resembling a tiny dragon curled up like a snail.

"Now if you excuse me" Ms. Snow says as she waves her stick some more and mumbles something as roots from the nearby tree slowly move towards the freshly patched soil. "There... all done. Now shall we go to someplace cozier?"

[cerulean delta]

she chuckles, a little louder this time “is that not what the badgers are?” a jest, a token of comfort she’s growing with this fey based ‘human’

she tilts her head “cozier? Where do you mean?” she blinks at the moved roots “and I guess I shouldn’t ask more about whatever you just did?”

[winter lodge]

"We opened up a hole in the ground, disturbing trees." She shrugs "It's only fair they get their share of nutrients quicker."

She kneels on both feet, meeting eye level "Besides- in the dead of night, a place so far away from help, and just recovering... seems dangerous for you don't you think?" smile

[cerulean delta]

she shrugs, that’s plausible and she keeps forgetting ms snow is a druid. Not quite as obsessed as clerics perhaps but the same idea. At least druids she can understand more. “such is the circle of life I suppose”

with the extra healing her body responds better as she pushes her muscles even as they scream to make her stand up “I could take on wolves or whatever even in this state but alright” she stands upright stretching her back, sore from both the death and being curled for so long “lead the way” she doesn’t admit that she is in fact lost

as they begin to walk she pauses, and takes a breath. Ms snow hasn’t proven fully trust worthy with how in touch with the fey she is but..maybe enough to at least know her name “millian” she pauses “my name is millian sultour”