[Open] The Mark of the Herald

[thewatchers]

Mark of the Herald Part I
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Despite certain disruptive events and ominous visions in the preceding month, August is seemingly still free of any problems.

That’s quick to change, however. Starting from the third of the month, strange, circular marks begin to appear on human students around the school - and, indeed, humans around the world. Those affected begin to feel incurably drowsy, something that no magical or mundane solution can seem to cure or relieve; eventually, they’ll fall asleep entirely, whether they want to or not, and enter a state of magical stasis. Not even nonhumans are immune, though whether they’re marked seems to be much more erratic.

Those who remain awake or are otherwise spared by the mark are free to do as they wish - the Academy won’t ask them to do more than keep themselves safe. But where each marked person falls in slumber, a portal will form; a strange tear in reality, offering glimpses of a surreal, nightmarish plane that differs vastly from individual to individual. One thing is certain; the cause of a victim’s seemingly endless sleep and these portals are linked somehow, and the only way to find out exactly how is to go through...and the only ones capable of doing so are those who are still awake.

This log can be used as a catch-all for event-related threads. The information for this event is here.

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[silksoul]

[ The constant crunch of her own footsteps echoes back at her; she quickly tires of it. Rather than try to light something to see by, she kneels and reaches her hand down with a grim resolve to see this through to the end, if there is an end. ]

[voidbug]

[Hornet can likely guess what these were based on touch alone, the shapes were distinctive enough.]

[Even though this was a place completely devoid of light some things do start to become visible over time. Be it because sight was beginning to adapt or other senses were mapping things out instead. But it should've been clear now what she had been stepping on. Skulls, or shells rather; though their purpose was more or less the same. The remains of what had been thousands of Vessels at one time.]

[Why would anyone have such a dream about a lifeless place. What sort of memory could this possibly be?]

[Unless somewhere in this pile of corpses there was a body that wasn't dead, not yet anyway.]

[silksoul]

[ Even before her eyes begin to seemingly adjust in this lightless place (or, perhaps, the dream beginning to adjust to her), she thinks she understands the meaning inherent in this dream, or at least the origin of it.

She had never seen this dark pit herself. It had been sealed before she was old enough to walk, to explore, to do things for herself, but she knows of it, and that alone is a weight on her heart.

Finding anything will be a matter of endurance, rather than speed or finesse, so she - very carefully - begins to dig her way into the grave, pushing cracked masks out of the way, searching for any signs of life. ]

[voidbug]

[One could probably spend hours, days, perhaps years and still not find much of anything down here. Especially if they were digging. The pile of masks just keeps going.]

[But possibly due to Hornet disturbing them, small wisps of void was seeping through the openings, like it had finally been rustled free. Several of these come through, and meld together to make one larger wisp.]

[Which eventually took a shape, a familiar shape with white eyes. A Shade. A Sibling.]

[It does not stay around for long. Instead, it flees. A few more just like it were also heading somewhere too. Supposedly, all towards the same location.]

[silksoul]

[ The sight of the little shadow makes something twinge in her chest. She grips it tight; sentimentality is still a dangerous thing, especially in a dream.

She follows, carefully picking her way through the rolling, broken shells. Trying as best she can to remain light-footed and balance, attempting not to break them any more than they've already been broken. ]

[voidbug]

[The Shades keep going, whether or not they were intentionally trying to lead Hornet to somewhere. But they eventually stop when they reached to a new corpse. A fresher looking corpse at any rate.]

[They stare, unable to do much of anything else, while the body was being slowly pulled down deeper into the pile. Carefully getting tangled up in a black, vine-like substance.]

[silksoul]

[ She knows this substance, or at least she thinks she knows it. The trappings of that primordial sea from where her half-siblings were born chill her to the bone; she cannot merge or meld with it the way they can. It may harm or consume her.

But she grits her teeth and reaches forward, holding her breath as she tries to dig them out of it, to pull them free. She was unable to do anything for them, back when there were any of them to do anything for; this is, in itself, a kind of atonement. ]

[voidbug]

[Another force was tugging them on the other side. It is as though there was someone else here. For whatever reason, this caused them to wake up a bit.]

[They had inevitably given up. Accepting the fact that they will eventually be consumed by whatever thing laid far beneath, as they presumed happened to all the others, as sooner or later they would be next. But now, it seems they weren't actually alone anymore. How?]

[The tendrils seemed 'upset' that Hornet refused to let go. And if she continued to get in the way, then they will have to suffice with dragging her down too, by extending and wrapping further.]

[Both of them would surely die at this rate. Though thankfully, another one of them finally had the will to fight again. Except, they had no way to reach for their weapon.]

[...Or did they really need it?]

[Another pair of tendrils jutted out, but this time it was from them. A bit sturdier and sharper, they were just enough to cut through the main part of the void keeping them bound. It should be enough to allow the two of them to escape, albeit for a time.]

[...]

[No they aren't going to question how they knew to do that or how they knew it would work, let's just dig now.]