Skara Braens

Part 29

Part 28 Vote Tally

Option A: 0
Option B: 0
Option C: 3

Really? Okay, then! Onward!

"Later," you say.  "Right now we need to figure out what to do now."

"We burn the bodies and fix the village," Siona says, scowling.  "Starting with the walls."

"Alright," you reply.  "That sounds reasonable.  But what about Shapinsay."

"We're not discussing that," Siona replies, clearly irritated.  "It has already been decided."

"What about Shapinsay?" Drest asks.

"It's not important!" Siona snaps.

"It is important," you reply, trying to keep your voice calm.

"Fixing this mess is important," Siona answers.

"This mess will keep happening unless we do something to stop it!"

"What about Shapinsay?" Drest asks again.  His quiet voice is nevertheless commanding and everyone turns to him.  His silver eyes seem inhuman as they shimmer in the sunlight.

"I had a dream," you begin.

Siona snorts derisively, and you clamp your mouth shut, pursing your lips in an unconscious display of irritation.  Drest is unruffled, keeping his eyes on you with a strange intensity.  You swallow with discomfort.

"In this dream, I was an eagle.  And a woman addressed me, calling me Eagle of the Stones.  Anyway, the point is she talked about what she called the Plague of Undeath."

Drest's brows rise.  You notice that now even David is listening, his anger apparently spent.

"The thing is, this woman, she was wearing a white robe.  And there were other people, too.  They were wearing furs and leather."

The psionic caught on immediately.  "You think this dream was a vision of the distant past."

"The Plague of Undeath, Drest.  What is that if it's not what happening now?"

"It was a dream," Siona said.

"The stones I landed on in my dream.  I think they're on Shapinsay.  It's not much, but clearly this... whatever this is... has been defeated before.  It can be defeated again.  We just have to find out how.  We might find some answers, or at least clues, on Shapinsay."

Drest observed you a moment.  "Will you let me examine you again?"

Taking a slow breath in, you nod.  Drest nods in return and steps forward.  "Don't resist," he reminds you.  You nod again, and then find yourself literally falling into the psionic's hypnotic silver gaze.

You relive your dream, sort of.  Images of the the undead crowds, shuffling and lost near the cliffs flash through your consciousness.  The child in fur rags, the tall woman with an undead baby clutching at her leather-clad chest.  The tall skeleton wearing maille and carrying an impossibly large sword strapped to its back.  The more recent victims - the service men and women in their dark green uniforms.

"Help me," the child whispers, turning to you to stare up with empty sockets.

"Help me," another undead thing wheezes.

And then you fall off the cliff.  Suddenly you are on top of a stone, preening your feathers.

"Hello, Eagle of the Stones," a woman's voice says.

You turn your head and recognise her.  But this time, she looks different.  Her skin is sunken and sallow, a deep gash across her chest.  The blood had stopped some time ago, leaving the front of her white robes covered in dried blood, brown and crackling.

This was not what you had dreamt.  This was different.

"You carry two souls this time," the woman notes.  She shifts her gaze slightly to look at your other eye.  "Hello, Breath of Sky."

Breath of Sky? That thought belongs to Drest, you're certain.

"I have not long before... Before I change.  I can feel the plague working through me already.  Soon my mind will go, and I will become a slave.  My arts have delayed the process but - " the woman erupts in a fit of thick-sounding coughs.  "I haven't time to tell you all I know.  I have tried."  She coughs again.  Tears escape her eyes and trickle down her cheeks.  "That hurt."  She looks up at you again and you can see the awareness fading from her eyes.  "Eagle of the Stones, it falls to you.  Defeat this plague.  Save my people.  Please.  Help me."

And then she is gone.  Just like that, the woman is replaced by a shambling creature with no mind.  It stands upright, wavering like a reed in the wind before hunching over and, after a brief pause, shuffling away.

You scream, hearing in your ears the shrill cry of an eagle.  It changes, and suddenly it's your voice, screaming into the afternoon air.

"Shh," Drest soothes, wrapping you in his long arms.  "Shh, shh.  It's alright.  It's alright."

From the tightness in his voice, you get the sense he is also shaken.  You stop screaming, but cannot stop the sobs that wrack through you, beating against your ribs until your lungs feel bruised.  You close your eyes.

"What was that?" you hear David demand.

"I don't know," Drest answers him.

"Psionic," David says, a deep warning in his voice.

"I don't know because it's never happened before," Drest says.  "What I saw.... What we experienced, it was not a memory."

"I don't understand." Mordina has joined the conversation.

"Alright, Iolaire," Artair says.  You feel his strong arms against your sides and you willingly go with him.  Drest lets you go without complaint.  "Alright.  Come with me now.  Come on.  Have a seat."  He guides you to a rock and gently lowers you down.

"What did you do to him?" Siona snarls.  Despite yourself, you smile.  Siona is nothing if she is not fiercely protective of the people she has accepted.

"Nothing!" Drest says.  "Something happened, though."

"What?" Mordina, Siona and David demand altogether.

"I am a psionic.  I can access people's memories.  But what just happened, what I just saw was not a memory.  I... I think it was a vision."

"Give me a break," you hear David mutter.

"I was seen, David," Drest says.  "The woman, she saw me.  She spoke to me directly.  She called me Breath of Sky."

"Explain," Siona demands.

"We were a bird, preening on a stone.  A woman addressed us, or rather, the stranger here.  She greeted them as Eagle of the Stones and then she said, 'You carry two souls this time.' Then she addresses me directly, somehow, calling me Breath of Sky."

"Then?"

"Then she changed," you whisper.  "She changed into one of those things."  You point at a headless body.

A long silence falls over the group.

"Now what?" David asks.

Option a: Food and rest. You're going to need your strength.
Option b: Shapinsay. As soon as possible.
Option c: Repair the village. You'll need a base of operation.

This was darker than I intended when starting out today. Oh well! Voting ends 10 February, 2017 at midnight.  Good luck, Adventurers!