[OPEN] Dark dream world / all alone.

[minrathousian]

WHO: [OPEN] Atticus Vedici + Anyone!; [CLOSED] Petrana de Cedoux, Sina Dahlasanor
WHAT: After being attacked by his apprentice, Atticus is alone in the Gallows now.
WHEN: Spanning the middle of August, after this thread. (Petra's thread is set the same afternoon of the attack.)
WHERE: The Gallows dungeon; the library.
NOTES: None currently, will update as needed.

I.  [SINA]


The black sand, murky sea, and green sky of Sina's dream is familiar to Atticus now, though it is strange to reconcile the sight of the glowing spectre in the water with the young girl he'd seen in the dungeon.

This visit, he doesn't bother to shroud himself from her view; she knows who he is. He comes to stand just beyond the reach of the tarn-like surf.

He has no pleasantries for her, or sympathy:  "How much time," he begins, straight to the point, "do you believe you have left?"



II. [PETRANA DE CEDOUX]


It has been some hours since Benedict's ill-fated attempt at hexing his mentor, and the violent fall-out that occurred shortly thereafter--enough time for a Tranquil mage to see to the angry gash in Atticus' eyebrow rendered by Ser Coupe's knife. In a different cell now, Atticus stands with his back to the cell bars, fingers gently inspecting the proud flesh rising up around his sutures; a scar will be inevitable without magical intervention, and he has few expectations of receiving that here.

Decorously arranged on the meagre workstation that has been provided to him, his books and parchment are open, quill in an inkwell. It seems he has paused his work only to pace his cell, grimacing with discomfort both at the state of his injury, and the shackles that continue to rub his wrists raw.



III. THE LIBRARY


Research without the aid of an assistant is tedious business, but it isn't as though there is a great deal else at his disposal at the moment to occupy his time. (At least, not in the waking world.) If he is occasionally pensive or distracted as he works, the root cause could be anything: the disruption to what little routine he's been able to establish, now that Benedict is no longer tethered to him; some question he is toying with answering.

At some point he gets up to stretch his legs--a bit difficult, with the shackles on, but he tries.
 

Comments

[eolasemah]

Once awakened, the shard doesn't go back down easily. The dream shifts almost imperceptibly with each flicker, a greenish tint filtering in, the pastoral grass and trees giving way to rocky cliffs and black sand, the repetitive rush of waves in the backs of their minds. Even a somniari can't keep this at bay.
Sina, at least doesn't change to how she was when they first met. Instead she looks around with a grim expression, her eyes beginning to glow green as they had before, but this seems only to magnify her disappointment rather than make her frightening.
After a moment's thought, she turns to meet Atticus' eyes directly, her gaze penetrating for a split second before they both wake up. In her case, there's coughing and wheezing, and likely a trip to the infirmary.

[minrathousian]

He can't keep it at bay yet.

His displeasure evaporates as he witnesses the shard's efforts to preserve itself in its host, turning some where they both stand to regard with dark appreciation how the waves wash in again, the sand a gritty presence under his heel. How marvellous this object is, even as it saps the life out of the girl who holds it.

Atticus turns back to her in time to catch her penetrating gaze--and then he, too, wakes up to early morning sunlight that he cannot stand to look at. He stumbles out of his cot and over to the wash basin in his cell, catching himself on it roughly, and wills himself not to be violently ill. While he succeeds in that, the steady drip, drip, drip of blood from his nose takes some time to abate.