Dreaming of Braxia
She had been there before, not entirely sure how but the
memory was there and it was fresh and real.
There were dogs barking in the distance and a few stragglers walked here
and there in the shadows. It was a melancholy
night and the streets were shining with reflecting water and a smell heaved in
the fog like moist coal. She could hear
noises in the street, some were small like a rat running to a gutter and others
sounded like a pail of water being dumped from a high window. She wasn’t positive but she thought she had
emerged in a dream here before and that this was not a new experience. Behind her there was a blank grey wall, with
no real character other than a basic empty perception of being abandoned. If she touched it, she had the distinct
impression it would take her life, spirit, soul and she would be gone from this
place in an instant. Her eyes stung
thinking about leaving because if she was correct this was the one place that was
the perfect fit, the one place that was somehow right in ways she didn’t
understand. There were details she could
imagine that reached her deepest desires, worries and fantasies. Here she was once again and now she was
afraid to move. Taking a deep breath,
she filled her lungs with the icy air and turned her face toward the road on
her left. There was a fountain in the
square, it had water spurting from a horse’s mouth and the rider was a man
wearing a captain’s hat as he pointed his sword toward the sky. The sword was lit up in a sapphire blue and
the handle had the word Gladius
engraved on it. The stone that comprised the horse and rider was a large milky marble cut from a single mass. Water shaped like tiny droplets soared
downward as time seemed to slow down.
She got caught in a magical thought as she reached in her pocket to pull
out a cigarette. She remembered she
didn’t have anything to light it with so back in her pocket it went.
Quietly, she slipped down the silent road into the mysterious
and wondrous night. She passed a street
sign, she could’ve sworn it said ‘Goodbye Street’, but it all seemed blurry and
distant. Her ears were ringing a bit and
her mouth was dry. Her body felt sore
and overworked and possibly a tiny bit damp. The chilled air didn’t move but it choked her
in its deathly stillness. She continued
to walk. Each step hummed a song in her
mind that gave her life purpose. It was
a song that drove her to love life and to hope for a time when it could all be
laughter instead of trepidation. She
missed the days of gentle living but this life also offered mystery that a
boring life could never give her.
The night sky was getting lighter and the stars were
starting to slowly disappear. Silhouettes
of buildings and homes started to form on the fuzzy horizon. Her heart beat a little hurried because it
was real, it was here and she was too!
This could be the most exciting time in a girl’s life, being able to
explore a foreign land and have total independence.
Morning perpetually felt
like a mystery, like she was stepping out of a book. The pages were full of color and life, her
breath was heavier and deep inside her body was waiting to burst forth. You rarely have to look at your real life and
wonder if you are dreaming but in dreams you invariably wonder if you are
dreaming. That is how Tempest felt but
she was usually afraid to wake up. The
sound of a train in the distance made the baby hairs on the back of her neck
stand up as she dodged briefly behind a large oak tree. She ran her exposed fingers across the trunk
and the bumpy bark created imaginative walk ways under her finger tips as they
ran over them, almost reading them and she thought she could tell their
story. She was exhaling loudly and felt
a grim shadow engulfing her mind. She
had to think, try to recall exactly why she was here again. It was somewhat like a dream but it was too
certain, too absolute and she could feel the moisture on her fingers as they
tightened and trembled. Slowly the sounds
of the Annex were coming alive.
It became hard to breathe as her heart swelled, she fixed
her leather corset as it was digging into her sweaty shoulder blades and
pushing her swollen chest into her throat.
Her long fur skirt was revealing her muscular legs on both sides and
exposing two brass Storm Brakkers, strapped on each leg. Her boots wrapped her legs like snakes, but flat
metal looking snakes that had nuts and bolts holding them together. There were brass buckles and chains holding
the boots in place. The color of the
metal changed with each step and the gears twisted and tightened or loosened as
it needed to so it was consistently tight enough but not ever too tight. The fur skirt was fascinating because it was
almost alive and holding on to her hips as they shook with each step. Her waist was small and formed just like her
corset and she filled in the bust like liquid.
She had nothing on her arms but they were glistening in the new sunlight
with dusted sparkles and a tiny taste of shimmering powder. On each hand was a black fingerless glove, stitched
on her hand to stay forever. Her nails
were short and silver, perfectly manicured and yet those fingers could inflict
a lot of pain if provoked. Tempest’s
hair was orange and wiry, at least in this place it was, just to her shoulders
and on top of her head sat a fascinator, just tilted a tad to the left, with a
tasteful feather and a leather strap much like the material on her corset. On her neck was something that was hard for
others to understand but it was common among Transcendents. Tightened like a cuff, was a thick black
choker laden with gears and chains that served to keep Tempest’s status known
to all, she was a warrior and this is what warriors wore. She didn’t realize how completely exclusive
she was. She didn’t know how unique she
was. After all, she was a Transcendent. For that reason she was created and chosen to
use her blood circle to converge the Legion of Ages in order to find the
Emerald Lights.
It was in that moment as she surveyed her curves and gear
it dawned on her that she was actually in someone else’s body, because it appeared she wasn’t a Transcendent at all, but rather a Lingermancer. At least in this incredibly convincing illusion
she was a Transcendent warrior and there was no denying it. This body, this being, was a different race
all together. She was now intrigued at
where this was all going so she continued on.
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