@Cythia:
You begin to cast the spell but as soon as you tap the strong current of mana around you in order to gather the usual amount, a significant amount more than your used to is released. You try to shape it and mold it in to the pattern the spell calls for but it fights your attempt to bend it. Mercedes notices your knees buckle a little and she asks if you're ok but you know you're not. You finally lock the last little piece together in your mind but as the mana flows through, it singes your nerves and just as the barrier of sound is set up around you you feel yourself getting nauseous. You tell B.B. to grab the medkit and as the silence sets in, you close your eyes for a second as you lean your hands against your knees.
You turn to your left looking toward the north along the road which brought you here. The street lamps all long burnt out and shattered. The street is familiar, as if you'd dreamt of it already, and as the rain subsides, the clouds open up revealing a clear night sky. As the calm settles in, the only light which illuminates the silence around you is the light of the silver moon. Peering even deeper into the darkness of the road which brought you here you see a figure approach, it's outline draped by a delicate dear-skin robe adorned with eagle feathers and intricate bead-work. When the figure finally approaches you, you make out the face of an elven woman and it's like looking into a mirror. She is identical to you save for her face paint and you take a step back at the shear surprise of seeing yourself. Then she speaks in Sioux, which you always had trouble understanding, but hers you understand perfectly. "It is your time. You have come to the place you were not yet ready for. She tried to stop you," and the robed figure lifts her hand up towards the moon. "So she sent me to take your place. Do not fear, for in the end we are ALL one. I am merely a temporary replacement which improves upon your design and I shall take your place until an even more powerful replacement one day can again be found to serve our lady. Just as your time here was temporary, so will be mine. Now run along, I have a job to do."
You stare incredulously at her, but her unwavering eyes make you bow your head. Then you remember, the drops of moon dust...the spiders thread....you suddenly remember....a long long time ago, how your lady carefully sewed every last little eyelash to your eye-lid. How she crafted you from pure nothingness and sent you out into a world which strives to devolve into nothingness. You remember, and as tears roll down your eyes you run away....back up the road which brought you to this bank and shoal of Redmond....back out towards the light. You turn around once more, and look far off towards your friends, the robed woman standing with them, all four of them facing the church.
"Walks!...are you ok? talk to me girl..." You suddenly awaken as if from a day dream. Standing in front of the church, Mercedes' hand on your shoulder asking you if you're ok. The surging astral signature still tingles at your spine. You nod and clutch your taser a little tighter. "Nice face paint girl, i didn't notice it on the way over here from the Pearl Tongue." B.B. strolls back over to the group with his medkit and nonchalantly smirks, "Yeah, nice face tatts Walks, looks pretty bad-ass......but since when you start taking fashion tips from a wired two bit whore?"....B.B. chuckles a little and focuses his eyes back on the church and what the next move should be. Mana crackles at the microscopic level in between your synapses.
