#c.riza

[stoneward-princess]

@rebelliousrizareyes​

Everything seemed... weightless... when Josefin woke up. That might not have been the right word either. It didn’t feel like the waking world, she didn’t feel the pain coursing through her body, filtering through her nervous system though the poison kept her immobile and paralyzed. But that... hadn’t seemed entirely real either. She was too afraid to open her eyes and see where or what she’d gotten herself into.

Then, all at once, she realized, her eyes were wide open. There was just... nothing. Eternal darkness. “Is this the After?” Her voice finally broke, absorbed and bounced around in the void with no walls, no plants, no life to dampen it. It felt like swimming in darkness, floating in it perhaps. Flying? She didn’t really know what that felt like. And she curled in on herself. Believing that she was entirely alone. Mumbling her apologies through sobs, Josefin wanted to scream, she wanted to rage, but she kept thinking of her family, of Alek and Adaline, of Theo and Ber, of Alaric... her parents... Kirian. How she’d never see them again. How much she’d let them down.

Slowly, light began to filter around her. And it was as if she was watching her own memories, through some kind of lens... they were being pushed and pulled around, prodded open, then closed again. Was she... was she watching her own life. Was that what they meant when your life would flash before you as you died? It also felt too specific, as if they were being searched and toyed with. Pulled out of her like illusions. So Jo yelled then, cursing whoever was doing this to her, screaming at the invisible hands throwing her memories around like letters. And she started running, or she thought she was running. She ran through her memories, reliving each of the moments as if she was back in them. She stopped when she was surrounded on all sides, as if they were happening all at once, projected by some magical force. She stepped forward to the middle, a box in the middle of everything, it seemed warm and it held something... glowing? But it was locked up tight. As she went to reach for it, she was suddenly transported to the libraries in Glasswater. But... they were shifting and non-corporeal. They didn’t seem real. And she could hear laughter and books being put on shelves but it sounded vague, like this was what someone imagined the library to look like.

“Hello?” She called out, stepping out from between the stacks which seemed to tilt and shift with every step. “Is anyone there?”

[stoneward-princess]

@rebelliousrizareyes​

It was strange, to be seeking help from someone who had invaded her mind. But the past few weeks had led Josefin to try and seek Riza out more and more. Any time she slept, she wanted to train. It still seemed that the only time she could communicate from her end with the woman, was when she was sleeping. But she had started to make slow progress. She was certain Riza had seen the ritual with Kirian too but she’d said nothing of it so far. And Josefin had still not brought herself to tap into that spark of magic, to let it loose. She was still too afraid of what would happen, even if she’d traded some of hers and shared some of Kirian’s. She had boxed it all up, both of theirs. And now they were both linked too, but at least Kirian wasn’t in her mind like Riza was.

Stepping into the room was like coming back home, only the house had been sold and there were new tenants bustling about. Josefin wanted to believe that Riza wasn’t changing things drastically and leaving her with holes in her memories or digging too deeply but in all honesty, she couldn’t be sure. And she needed her to teach her how to block others. The magi at the magaesterium hadn’t been able to find any solutions yet, although there were a few telepaths looking into the situation, but they’d yet to really make headway.

She was standing in the middle of what was the center of Glasswater, at least how she remembered it. It was intact, the fountain bubbling, though there were no people about, only Josefin. The libraries above them were intact as well and the dome and occulus had not been damaged. It was possibly the most magical looking and feeling part of Glasswater, and it was one of Josefin’s favorites. But it was still all in her mind. “Riza?” She called out, not knowing if she’d be there or not. There had been a few restless nights where the woman hadn’t bothered to communicate with her, she likely had far more important things to do. “Are you there tonight?”