Nevla’s Dreams
Interlude…
"Dala?"
The older Eladrin woman looked across at Nevla with puzzled recognition, then the gantry that held her and Varal and the other Obs twisted and fell, plunging them into the depths as the mighty construct ripped its way upwards through the hill above them.
Nevla let loose a wordless cry to the receding form with confusion and loss lending a tremor to her shout, but this time as her colleagues tried to rouse her into action, her legs were as lead, and she couldn't loosen her grip from their own gantry. Paralysed, she felt the structure buckle underneath her as the others had no choice but to run and leave her; she tumbled into the darkness, screaming in terror as the light above her receded to a pinprick.
* Nevla? *
It was almost pitch dark and she lay on her back; the pinhole of light grew, then receded, then repeated that pattern of waxing and waning. It seemed to be coming from high up in the distance, almost on the edge of the nothingness, and reminded her of something she couldn’t quite recall. Suddenly she was stumbling toward the remote beacon, a sense of desperation growing inside to get there before the only other thing in the oppressive void also disappeared. Before she did too…
A door…?
She found herself climbing steps, and the steps opened up onto a platform where a lantern pulsed a strange purple light, which made her feel nauseous and dizzy; she teetered on the lip of the platform and fell into the dark again, her entire being spinning like a rusty old wheel…
* Nevla! *
She woke with a slight jump in her bedroom with its familiar (* Huh!? *) green walls; just another half-forgotten dream, she thought as she rose for the day, ignoring the tiny voice in the back of her head…
* It's happening again Nevla, this is- *
"Dala! I need you to come down to breakfast immediately; you know I have to go today, dear..."
"Mother...?" It was more a question to herself than the voice coming from down the hall; she paused for a moment, then shook her head and called that she'd just get dressed first, then pulled on some fresh clothing and a pair of sandals that she'd set out the previous evening and breezily set off through the house, humming an old tune as she went.
She sat down on cushions with her mother and someone else she couldn't immediately recall, and selected some pieces of fruit from the bowl in the centre of the low-table.
* Oh, I recognise her... wait a minute, that's- *
"There you are: I was hoping to see you properly before I left." Her Mother lightly touched the back of her daughter's outstretched hand for a brief moment and the shock of the touch almost made the young woman drop the apple she held. "Oh, my dear child, you're trembling! Is everything alright?"
No, it's NOT alright, Mother: you fell! You were there! This isn't right; this place, it isn't right, somehow... or is it me that's not right? I can't remember…!
But her lips said something different :"Where are you going again, Mother? I-I don't… I’m not sure about-”
Her mother moved closer to embrace her, and began to stroke her hair like she did when her daughter was much smaller, and it seemed to calm the young woman, somehow: "I already told you, Dala: I have many important things to do in the coming months; I may be away for a while, so I need you to keep practicing while I'm gone, okay?"
The girl nodded, and looked over at... she looked over at the other person, and her eyes slid off them, as if they (or she) wasn't really there...
Wait, I'm not really here, am I…
* No, but see what you c- *
She reached out for her mother and the older woman slipped through her fingers and faded from view. In fact, the whole room was becoming less distinct, smoky somehow; there was a familiar smell that had been in the background that pushed its way to the forefront of her senses.
"Mother!" she coughed, and tried to cover her nose and mouth, but she was paralysed with her arm outstretched as the ashy cloud billowed round her and a dry chuckle filled her ears…
* Nevla!!! *
"... Nevla? Nevla! There you are; Delft wants to see you..."
Nevla woke with a jolt and a fit of coughing, and her shoulder protested at the sudden movement. I'm back in the present, she realised wearily, and yawned as she stretched out the kinks in her frame, vigorously rubbing at the tingling in her right forearm where she'd been using it like a pillow; she'd fallen asleep at the desk in the evidence locker again, poring over case notes and items linked to Kasvarina Varal, hoping to glean some hitherto undiscovered clue or new lead.
"I'm coming," she croaked to the duty officer who had stuck their head round the door, and cleared her throat of the accrued sleep-drool; "I'll just tidy up here," she managed in a more normal tone. She shuffled scraps of paper and clothing into an evidence crate and filed it all back on the shelf where she could easily retrieve it later. "For naughty word's sake, just when I was getting somewhere-" she muttered more to herself, and her hitchhiker.
* It's ok, you got further this time; past all the looping golem stuff, at any rate... Nevla, are you sure you're her? Dala, like what Kasvarina called you? *
"Mmm... Probably? Maybe? It seems to fit the evidence: I'm from somewhere, somewhen before the Malice, Kasvarina recognised me, and I know she had family… There are details in that house, Xambria: about me, about her, that I'd be hard-pressed to make up... and it definitely felt like this event wasn't too long before that nightmare about the monks. And after when I was practicing cantrips. I think…?"
* You'll get there next time, Nevla. *
"I'm... not sure I want to, Xambria; I'm- maybe I really won't like what I found, or..." Nevla sighed: "Otherwise, why wouldn't I be able to remember all this more easily?"
* But- *
"When I first started getting these... visions? Dreams, I- I got so... tired... I ran myself into the ground from the stress and very nearly ki-" Nevla took several breaths, "ended up dead from falling off a balcony.”
* What!? I... didn't know... * In Nevla's mind's eye, Xambria looked genuinely shocked.
"No-one does, apart from my foster-parents, Teras, and now you. Maybe Delft: he's canny enough to have done some background checks on me before I got hired. I'm not sure I even got around to telling Gale the worst parts, and certainly not my work colleagues. I'm not sure I meant to do it, but... Well, Teras was there when it happened, and, and stopped me... well... luckily they knew someone who could get through to me. It's why I ended up following the teachings of Vekesh to a greater extent than a lay-eladrin might. It kept me sane, or at least saner, I guess."
* But surely burning the candle at both ends isn't helping; I mean, if you get sloppy, careless, due to poor sleep again? It's not just you that loses out... I know I can be pretty obsessive about the case sometimes, and want my payback, but frankly, you're no use to me dead. *
"I know," Nevla’s whisper was tinged with guilt. "In a way I'm glad you're here. I've said it before, but it can't be fair on you, being saddled with me and my hang-ups..."
* It is what it is. * Xambria shrugged. * And if the chance comes that we can actually separate...? We'll deal with that if or when it happens. But we need to get you fixed first. *
If that's even possible, Nevla thought to herself.
Giving the evidence room one last glance before leaving, she noticed she had missed a slim book that had probably fallen under the table while she slept, so she reached underneath to drag it out by its edge; it had landed open on a page where someone had copied a (since destroyed) stained glass window where a stern and terrible Eladrin female in an aggressive pose fought with several monks in gold robes. (It was quite possibly Kasvarina, which is why she'd chosen the book to begin with, being an eclectic throwing-together of diverse scribblings and incomplete remnants from the Eladrin/Clergy Wars by a group of scholars “who half the time couldn’t differentiate between a wedding dress and a nightgown”, as Xambria was wont to say.)
One of the robed monks had an arm outstretched, and a symbol of a hook was (crudely) painted onto the forearm where the robe had fallen back. But under the table in the shadows, their clothing had only looked pale, not particularly any colour...
She stared at the book for a few seconds, holding her breath, then expelled it and gulped in more air when she became aware of a tight sensation in her throat and chest.
* What? What is it? *
"I saw them by moonlight. I didn't realise because I saw them under a clouded moon..."
* And that's supposed to mean what, exactly? *
"I may be able to see better in dim lighting than you're used to," she began, "but when there isn't much light to see by, even though I can see further, the colour still bleeds away somewhat."
* So... the monks in the picture- *
"-could be the same monks from my other nightmare. It was so fast at the time that I didn't register it, but the main monk might have had a tattoo like this one...?" She pointed at the hook, remembering the muscular man who swatted her broom away like it was a brittle twig...
In her mind's eye, Xambria peered over her shoulder at the painting.
* These are Godhands, according to the description. That means a group of them were sent all the way into Elfaivar to that - to your - house. But were they after Kasvarina and settled for you, or- *
"I don't know; maybe they wanted to get back at Kasvarina for some reason; if they were watching the house, then they'd likely be able to figure out she wasn't there. She did fight them in the wars after all..."
* I sense a "but"... *
"But, that means that when I exhaust what little information I have here, I might either have to go see our resident devious Crisilliyran about a Godhand, or end up going to Elfaivar itself. Maybe finding the house would help me remember more.... But it will have to wait until I find out whatever Delft wants me for."
* Not for too long, I hope...? *
Nevla put her new lead aside for the moment; it wasn’t prudent to keep her boss waiting…
--*