I Dream of Seldan
Log Info
- Title: I Dream of Seldan
- Emitter: Andelena
- Place: Somewhere in the realm of dreams / Temple of Daeus
- Summary: Andelena dreams with intention to explore Deliverance, her sword, which has felt and acted different in recent days, and unexpectedly meets Seldan. The Silverguard gives her a message and information regarding Kol, and he offers some input and aid about how to connect with Deliverance as the blade awakens. Andelena faces a hard decision to make once she wakes--but is greeted with an unexpected surprise as she does.
It's an odd thing to do, to dream with intention. No matter how often she'd heard Dolan talk about it, it was something that she felt she could barely wrap her head around--and yet, she is here in a dream-facsimile of the Temple of Daeus, out by the altar where she and Dolan had rejoiced in his triumph of steps and strength.
Deliverance is in her hands. In reality, it's somewhere else in the room as she sleeps, but here, somehow, it feels less like steel and more like something that... is alive. That thinks. There's no logical reason that one can feel those things, but it's what Andelena thinks of as she stares down at it.
"What are you?" she murmurs. And then she thinks of Seldan. Seldan and Reunion. Seldan's advice, Seldan's words.
The result is - unexpected, and a touch odd. Unexpectedly, Seldan - appears, but not in his usual war kit and armor that she has always seen him in. No, it is far more intimate than that, and a touch embarrassing, for he is shirtless, and sporting a rather spectacular array of tattoos that cover much of his upper half, front and back. It is a collage of things. The arches of Bryn Myridorn, flags a-flying. A mountain on one shoulder. A furry tail wraps around his bicep. Faces, places, things, each wrought in detail and coming together to form an intricate collage. Reunion is not present.
He blinks, looking around him, quite confused.
Andelena's first instinct as she sees a shirtless man in front of her is to startle, and she almost raises Deliverance up to prepare to defend herself--but then she sees the arches and flags of Bryn Myridorn, and then she realizes this is Seldan, sans shirt. She has a moment where she's visibly grappling with the immensely awkward situation, but then she just sighs, bringing Deliverance down to her side.
"Well. Uh. Hi, Seldan. Kind of didn't mean to bring you here in your britches," she says, obviously embarrassed. "I was looking at Deliverance here in the dream, because something... feels weird with Deliverance again, and I thought of you and Reunion, and--"
She cuts herself off. "Bry was right, this dreaming shit is powerful. Sorry."
It takes Seldan a moment to digest what must have happened, and he blinks. "Ah. Sunguard Andelena." From the way his eyes lower, he, too, is a touch embarrassed, but raises his head, and finally meets her eyes. "You do not offend, although I do not fully understand. Am I speaking to you, or do I but dream so? This is the doing of the statues?" He blinks a few times. "I have experienced the statues' effects before, of course, but not in this way. A strange thing."
He looks around him, then back at her, as if searching for and not finding something. "How might I be of aid?"
"You're speaking to me through the dream," Andelena replies. "The totems--they allow people attuned to them to manipulate the dream a little. I know, it's really fucking weird--"
There's a noise that comes from Deliverance as Andelena cusses. This time, however, it's not a buzz. It's a hum. Like the displeased sort of sound that comes from the throat of a lecturer who is upset to find her student has not been paying attention. Andelena stops dead in her tracks.
"That," she says. "The sword--it's not... buzzing anymore when I cuss. It hums. Like it's got a voice. And it feels... different when I hold it. It started doing this after Bry and I were basically locked in the room."
She looks up at Seldan with an almost panicked look. "Is this what happened with you and Reunion?" she asks.
"No, though you should not fear it, and it is well that you are both safe." For some reason, Seldan relaxes, a definite expression of relief, at the mention of the two of them being more or less locked in. His eyes go, then, to the humming Deliverance. "It grows in power, even as you do," he explains gently. "It awakens. Have you sought to speak to it? Learn more of its nature? I do not doubt that it shall tell you its mind. Remember, though, that in the end, the power is yours. It does not have hands, and it has no right to command you."
Andelena looks at Seldan and at the expression of relief on his face--and while she looks a little quizzical at first, she eventually brings her gaze back down to Deliverance. "It awakens? I..."
She gulps at the thought of that. "Maybe this had to do with the talk Bry and I had. I don't know why else it'd awaken otherwise. I, umm..."
It takes a moment. Something about this is clearly unnerving, even though Seldan told her not to fear it. Andelena lifts up her blade, inspecting it again, and then she says: "Hello, Deliverance?"
There's a moment that passes. And then the blade begins to glow. Andelena somehow manages to not throw the sword, even though the surprise is written all over her face. She looks at Seldan, steel-grey eyes wide.
Seldan, meanwhile, merely watches the blade begin to glow, a small smile on the steady and even features. He seems to have entirely dismissed his state of dress, his entire attention focused on the sword. "I know not if this will work in the Dream Realm," he begins, "But it seems to have, at the least, begun. I shall not speak to the blade directly, not yet, for this fight is yours. It will attempt to command you. Guide you into doing as it wishes. Do not allow it to do so."
He assumes a parade-rest pose, standing right where he is in the grass of the Temple, and merely watches. "I have news for you as well, that Zeke should relay, but I know not when the weather here will abate. It is not safe for him to return, until it does."
The blade continues to glow with light, and Andelena seems comforted by both Seldan's smile and his words--although the part about it commanding her seems to trouble her again. She considers the words for a moment and nods. "To be honest," she admits, "part of the reason I was dreaming about Deliverance was because I hoped the dream could help. And... y'know what, maybe it did." She offers Seldan a small smile.
The smile disappears quickly afterward when he mentions both news and that Zeke should have it--and that they appear to be together in the real. "News? Go ahead, tell me. Is the Sunguard okay? He left quickly and had extra guards posted. We're not taking any visitors at all."
GAME: Seldan rolls will: (6)+32: 38
"That is well." Seldan nods his immediate understanding. "It is my hope that it is of help to you, although I fear that I cannot come to you at this time. Zeke is well, and he is indeed here. Kol Demontry attempted the city," he warns seriously. "He is obsessed with a man he refers to as "amber-eye". He sounded - lovesick. Spoke of desperate need and a promise he made. No other purpose or care, does he have for any other, and he knows me not."
His gaze is steady and sober, deadly serious. "He is being commanded, although not, I think, fully controlled, for the voice threatened to part ways with him. It is in my mind that I have driven him back, and that I was seen. I know not how long they will wait."
The idea of Kol trying to enter the city in search of Dolan clearly staggers Andelena. The light that illuminates her from the sword she holds makes her terrified face a rather clear and crisp image. For a moment, there are pairs of green eyes and fangs all around them in the shadows--
But then the hum comes again from Deliverance. Even more than before, it sounds like a voice, but this time, it's a gentle one, like an older woman holding a child that they are comforting into sleep. And Andelena shakes her head. "Right," she says. "I control the dream."
She looks more firmly at Seldan, her resolve renewed. "That... sounds like he's looking for my Bry," she says. "And he's definitely different from before when you knew him? And he's being commanded?"
Andelena grinds her teeth together for a moment. "It must be... those people. Our little furry f--fellows," she says, correcting herself at the last moment. "They're in control. Someone's puppeting him. Which means... if we find out who, and we take them out, maybe he won't be a problem anymore."
"He is not unwilling, I think." Blinking uncertainly as the dream manifests green eyes and fangs, he merely drops his parade-rest stance and offers her his hands, a steadying presence. "He has some of his memories, and not others," he warns. "If anything, he is stronger still, and faster, although calling upon Reunion's anchoring may serve me better, the next time we cross swords. It is in my mind that Kol will do what it takes, to provide him with that which he desires. What that is - what he is after -" His eyes lower. "That can I not say."
he pauses, then, hesitating, as if he wants to say more, but only shakes his head.
The green eyes and fangs fall away. Andelena looks more steadily at Seldan now, nodding. Still holding Deliverance in one hand, she reaches out and takes Seldan's offered hand, squeezing it.
"I think--I think I know what he wants. I've..." The words pain her to think of, to even say aloud. "I didn't need for it to be said to me to know what happened. And I don't begrudge Bry for it. Not even a single bit. I couldn't."
She squeezes Seldan's hand again as her eyes flutter shut. "I can't declare that monster dead with a snap of my fingers. All I can do is to continue to walk in His light. To live up to the moniker of 'Sunguard' and to give that light to others. To stand, to fight--"
And she opens her eyes again as she looks at Deliverance. "--in His light."
And the sword hums again in that peaceful manner.
Seldan's hand squeezes hers, then gently releases, dropping to his sides. "One thing is now, as it was before, Sunguard. He cannot be vanquished by one alone. It needs all of us together. Zeke shall return, when the weather clears, and I shall return as soon as I may, a day or two more at the most. It will need all of us together to undertake this task, but know that when we do, you will be known to those with whom he partners, and you must be prepared to strike swiftly."
He lowers his eyes and hesitates again, but this time, he speaks, carefully. "I am loath to suggest this," he begins.
Andelena's hand returns to Deliverance, one hand on the hilt and a hand on the flat side of the blade. She nods soberly. "We are one, then," she replies. "We act as one under one banner and work in concert together. I will be prepared."
But then Seldan lowers his voice, and she looks at him for a moment. But then, she nods. "Please, go ahead," she urges him. "Whatever you have to say, I won't judge you for."
This time, Seldan's eyes close, and his eyes remain lowered. "I would not even speak this thought, were it a lesser foe, but we may need all the advantages we can muster. I would have you consider who, among all that you know, might know the most of Kol, and ask that person the question that I have asked."
There. It is out. He lets out a deep breath, clearly deeply uncomfortable and uncertain. "Not lightly do I dare the question."
Andelena closes her eyes, breathes in, and... she nods, letting the air flow out of her. "I know," she says. "I... I agree. I just don't know if it's a good idea. If he's ready. It could... set him back so far." There's a pain in her voice. "I don't want to hurt him. But--But I know him. I know what we agreed to. No more protecting me anymore. I need to know."
She opens her eyes, and she lowers the blade so that it is at her side, still glowing like a small beacon. The resolve in the steel-grey eyes is as hard as the edge of the metal that is the same color as her irises. "I'll be ready, Seldan," she says.
Unbidden, a tension leaves Seldan's frame. Good. She understands what I am getting at. The eyes remain lowered, though, though this time there is a touch of sadness to it. "It is not for me to choose," he says suddenly. "No more shall I say on the subject. I shall aid you in this hunt as I may. Tell the Mourner that she will need the dimensional anchor."
"I will let her know," Andelena replies. She looks like she's about to turn away, but she looks down at her blade again, before looking back up at Seldan with a soft smile.
"You should probably go back from where you came," she says. "I, uh--you know what. I'll just wake up."
There's another hum that comes from the blade, a gentle one again.
Again, Seldan blinks in confusion at the words, but studies the blade again. "As you will, and Her light upon your path," he says absently. "You should confer with the blade when you wake." He simply stands there, then, as if not quite understanding her intent.
It's an awkward arrangement, but Andelena closes her eyes in the dream--
And then awakens in the real. It takes a few bats of the eyes for her to be aware that yes, she's back in reality, and that she's still in the healing room with Dolan, whose bed she is using.
"Well, that was weird," she mutters to herself. "But productive."
And then she casts a glance to Deliverance by the bedside, where she'd left it before dreaming with the intent of connecting with the blade. "Good morning, Deliverance," she says. It's not shining anymore like it was in the dream. It's just a blade.
"Good morning," replies the sword in the voice of an older woman.
That is enough to make anyone wake up.