Written Wonderland

Sage looked beseechingly at the stranger, hoping they might have an answer that would satisfy Jaz. Sage's flowing, woven robe, light and blue in color, blew in the breeze.

"This one, whoever they are, called to me by oath--an oath shared by bloodkin. I do not know them, but my spirit does."

Sage pulled her brows together and stared at Elk with some confusion. She didn't know what the stranger meant by "bloodkin." There was certainly some unanswered questions about Sage's own lineage, but she didn't know about any mysterious, ageless stranger who could translocate more effectively that she could. Even with Jaz in tow, apparently.

Turning to Jaz, the stranger said, "When I met you, Jaz, just moments ago, I uttered the phrase '...and longer still, since I last saw one of my own kind...' It seems the universe and its builders saw fit to make a fool of me just moments thereafter. I am, truthfully, just as surprised as you are. I do not remember the last time I was oathstruck. I cannot remember the last time this happened; before today, I did not know this could happen.

"My memory is in tatters, much like my clothing. I awoke less than a week ago, wearing this.” They gestured to themselves and, Sage was beginning to suspect, not just meaning their clothes but their body as well. How utterly strange. What had she done in asking for help? It was standard practice to ask for guidance when harvesting for the dreaming ceremony--no stranger had ever appeared before as a result. But, Sage thought, this is not just any dreaming.

"I intended no binding effect," Sage said, hoping that she could sort things out with Jaz later, if needed. For now, there was a spirit of some kind that needed attending. "If what I have done in asking the spirits for aid has trapped you in any way, may you be free. I only wish freely gifted help."

--

Having listened to Elk and Sage speak, Jaz could hardly make heads or tails of any of it. She wasn't accustomed to feeling so out of the loop.

She tried to formulate an intelligent question. "Did the oath transport us somehow?" Jaz asked Elk, her eyebrows clenched in confusion.

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“Yes,” the stranger answered quietly, “it most certainly did. I can assure you that I did not intend or expect for this to happen… There are things my brain cannot explain that my body knows. My memory has holes, & it is particular about what it does and does not remember.”

Sage watched as the figure furrows their brow, searching. In the meantime, the marks on their body--blue and black in nature--began to glow, even in the waning light of the day.

“These marks, they answer to you. This is how I know your tribe--how I recognize your blood,” the stranger said, gesturing toward Sage. “You cannot release me from the oath--that, Jaz, is what transported us both. I do not know why it would’ve transported you with me.”

Though the marks across the stranger's skin do call to her and look familiar in a way she cannot understand or describe, Sage's belly curdled while listening to the words spoken. She had no desire to have someone oathbound to her. It was, in fact, the furthest desire from her mind, and she could not for the life of he understand why her actions would have caused this.

Sage sighed heavily, the blood inside her skin suddenly feeling suspect.

She tried to pull her thoughts together, and she had half a mind to attempt to banish the stranger, but... at the end of the day, they had a dreaming to perform, and the world of dreams always worked in mysterious ways. If the spirits of the plants sent this stranger to her when she asked for help, perhaps she should at least hear the being out.

After a moment, the stranger continues, “Jaz, may I ask you a question?"

--

The markings on their skin were glowing. Which didn't make Jaz want to touch them any less.

But their words still sounded like gibberish to Jaz. And none of it made sense. What kind of oath would Sage make by accident? Why would that have transported them? Her head was beginning to hurt.

“Jaz, may I ask you a question?" Elk asked, and Jaz instinctively nodded, stretching her arms behind her back.

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“Your people--do they have a special affinity for the elements?" It was a gentle question, but Jaz looked at Sage, uncomfortable about speaking on behalf of everyone in the tell, if that was, indeed, whom Elk was referring to. Jaz herself had only been there a year. Sage had spent her whole life in the tell, as far as Jaz knew.

But then Elk continued. “I remember very little, but what I… what my soul recalls is that this only happens when someone is very attached to the land & thus an ancestor of the covenant.” Elk sighed, cocking their head. “My skin, it glows in response to my being oathstruck--it teleported me here and brought you with me, to face this person who I assume is your friend. I suspect this means that there is more to you than meets the eye.”

Sage looked more sour than Jaz had perhaps ever seen her, with hard eyes and lips pressed together. Typically, the priestess was more composed and serene, but she looked like she had just tasted a bad fish.

Still, Elk had asked Jaz the question.

"I mean, we tend the land, if that's what you're asking." It was intentionally vague. Jaz didn't exactly feel like spilling her entire life story now... that typically waited until after the first round of sex, at least. Still, she supposed she should give Elk something. "And, yes, this is Sage, one of the priestesses of our tell. I'm staying at the Guest House. We have quite a few travelers coming through, even being on the old road." Jaz paused for a moment, unsure how to help Sage.

"And Sage, this is Elk. We only just met."

--

Sage closed her eyes, trying to listen to Elk's words and make sense of them. They were using concepts that were foreign to her and felt very far away from the nature of her vows. If Elk recognized some kinship in her, she didn't feel it. Not yet. Not as such. But there was an ache in her chest for something. And there was the clarity she felt in her sky mind--clouded now and difficult to access in her attachment to her own confusion--not to mention close company.

She didn't like that Elk didn't have any memory earlier than last week. It meant they were some kind of an orphan in time. A wild card. Possibly a spirit with many repressed emotions, thoughts, and actions only to come to light later. In fact, that was the most likely outcome. Perhaps this person was what the dream was trying to warn them all about. Who could know?

Sage looked sternly at Elk. "There are several in the tell who are fae-touched," she finally said, choosing her words carefully, "but few would take kindly to being recognized as such." Sage stole a furtive look at Jaz, uncertain how much Elk was coming to suspect about her. Then again, Sage herself didn't fully understand Jaz's history.

"While we have shared customs and abide by our vows and traditions, we are known for being accommodating to guests for as long as they care to stay. You'll find the people in the tell to be a diverse group, as such."

Her belly was beginning to unclench, but in the back of her mind, she could not stop thinking, this being has sworn an oath to me. This being has sworn an oath to me, making her ever more eager to resolve their agreement and be done with whatever cosmic arrangement the gods had in store.

((OOC: Watching Sage lose her shit bc this is exactly the thing she tries to avoid with being aromatic is honestly kind of funny.))

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“Thank you both for your answers--for humoring me, as it were. Let it be known that to me, being fae-touched is not a curse or a burden--it is an honor, it is a responsibility.

"I exist in this world to maintain, manage and keep peace--to hold all things in harmony. When they find themselves in disarray, the Universe conspires, and I find myself embodied. If I have been brought here to answer to you, Sage, and to unintentionally abscond with Jaz, circumstances are more dire than any of us presently know.”

Sage didn't like the sound of that. Not at all. And she didn't want to have anything directly to do with what was depicted in the dream herself. She was only a priestess. She was here to guide and direct, comfort and listen, not to collect beings indebted to her for some purpose she could not yet fathom. And to pull Jaz of all people into all this...

Sage was tired. Her vigil was beginning to catch up to her. She really should have taken more time to rest after the passing, and yet. The dream. Even now, it was with her.

A shifting across Elk's skin shook Sage from her thoughts. As she watched, the lines on their skin move. And then, suddenly, Elk hissed, their skin momentarily becoming rougher like the bark of a tree before smoothing back down into something more recognizable.

Sage was decidedly unsure of her relation to this creature.

Peace, priestess, Sage heard in her mind. Perhaps her own inner voice, perhaps a spirit. It was difficult to tell the difference when she was in company. She took a deep breath.

"You arrived here before I made my request," Sage said, trying to recover and venture forward with more generosity. It is what the gods would want of her. "What has brought you to our tell?"

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Sage nodded as Elk explained their own experience of the dream the priestesses had shared. That much, at least, made sense to her. If Elk was a spirit who had come to be embodied for this purpose, it was right that they would also have experienced the dream.

As they spoke, their skin shifted and settled, their face becoming younger with fewer lines and more softness. What a strange thing, indeed, Sage thought.

"The others who have taken vows will want to meet you," Sage began, not quite ready to explain the collective dreaming ritual to them herself. "Early dark approaches. We should return." Sage looked at Jaz, and a wave of emotion followed, bringing water to Sage's eyes. This was not at all how Sage wanted Jaz to discover her sky mind. But maybe something about this experience would be salvageable. Sage couldn't, after all, control everything. Still, the reality of the situation burned in her chest. She should have invited Jaz into the sect sooner or more seriously. She shouldn't have waited so long.

Thankfully, Jaz seemed oblivious to Sage's near-tears and said, "So, by foot? Or is one of you going to transport me again?"

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