Blue light falls upon your perfect skin
Falls and you draw back again
Falls and this is how I fell
And I cannot forget
And I cannot forget
Come on home
- Franz Ferdinand

Longden Castle
Present Day

Viki went east, in expectation of a new sunrise, though the kind she sought had very little love for the sun. This was a new road, and a new place. She half hoped her steed Sullivan would be awaiting her arrival, but the unicorn was lost ever since the original castle crumbled to the ground. She recalled how much he hated being confined, and wondered if he escaped to the surrounding forest, avoiding the attack altogether.

The new Longden Castle sat along the cliff side like a sore thumb. It seemed to the girl that it stretched several stories higher than the original, and Viki couldn?t quite help displacing her feelings of foreboding upon this fresh menace.

She knocked loudly and was immediately received.

?I want to see my cousin,? said the seer to the nondescript servant at the door. ?Please hurry with fast feet and do naut fetch anyone else!?

Thoughts of David. Her paranoia was evident by her wild mannerisms and hurried singsong demands.

The servant looked blank.

?Her name is Tara Longden-and-a-bunch-of-old-last-names-from-flames- she-snuffed. Why do you stand so still and do naut move and do naut fetch the cousin!??

( Author's Note: I was waiting a while to see what would happen with certain players in certain situations and etc etc etc. Anyway, since Tara's departure, this thread has no point, so I will end it accordingly, and as always, adapt things IC for things OOC. Fortunately, the behavior of my character is often erratic, so adaptation comes easily. Thank you Gaida-player for your participation. I apologize for the delay. )

Distorted maps of reality
Are tearing us apart
Fan the flames of fallacy
And watch the truth depart
- Assemblage 23

Longden Castle: The Study
Present Day, more or less.

"I'm Gaida Serin, the Longden's valet. Please, come in out of the cold hallway. We have a nice fire going in the public study and you'll be much more comfortable there to meet your cousin."

The study. Do we remember what happened last time you were in a certain Count's study?

"Please, have a seat and make yourself at home. May I take your cloak and get you a drink?"

The warmth of the room was indeed welcome, though the girl wrapped her arms about her middle, tugging the fabric of the overcoat tighter, revealing angles in her outline that were more evident in the summertime. Her shoes, unfit for the weather, did their best not to track in the mud from the road. Etiquette aside, the seer was loathe to leave a visible trail for trackers.

Many trackers, little beacon.

Aqua eyes slipped side-long to Gaida, the woman who greeted her and ushered her in. Then her attention was turned to the study itself, to the books on display and the shelves where they sat. The pieces of parchment bound within each spine was of particular interest to her, so much so that she wore her silence for a long time, and stared.

The reason we are here?

"Must tell Tara..." Viki began, speaking at last in her usual singsong, calming with each word spoken, but still not entirely at ease. "Tell her that..."

Something hummed - electrical interference? Was there a storm on the way?

"Ilta m'ranndii zhah ul'kas."

Realities began to bend. The floorboards beneath her feet moaned in seeming agony, and spirits that slept with the earth took flight and form, grabbing at her hair, her wrists, her ankles... With one high-pitch squeal of surprise, the seer spun, and, with her arms crossed over her face in defensive formation, ran from the study and from the hall and from the castle itself, leaving the poor valet to account for her strangeness in the best way she could.

-------

Translations:

"Ilta m'ranndii zhah ul'kas."
Her husband is called.