Commander St. Peter sat in her ready room, smiling as she stared down at the PADD in her hands. On it, a picture of the three girls smiled back up at her: herself, the other Jessica, and Anafenza. They’d taken it just the day before, that night in Hurricane Hal’s, as they waited to return to their homes. She’d let the other Jess take the photo, and then gave a printed copy to Anafenza to keep along with her communicator. Since the linkpearl had been fused to it during their rescue, it was inoperable…but it did make for a nice amulet of sorts for the woman. Temporal Prime Directive be damned, she thought; no one would be able to trace it anyway. If anyone even believed the young au ra’s story anyway…
Her door chimed, and she looked up. “Come in,” she called, and the doors parted to allow her first officer and science officer into the room. Both wore concerned expressions on their faces, but Sano, her trill science officer, looked the most concerned. “Dossu, Nizeri…what’s going on?”
Obruz Dossu looked to the other woman and nodded, the bajoran deferring to the science officer. Nizeri Sano cleared her throat. “Commander, there might have been a problem…”
“A problem?”
She nodded. “We based all of our calculations on the assumption that the women were using our reality as one anchor, and that they were tethered to their own realities. Every reality has a unique quantum signature; anything that originates there bears that same signature, and anything that comes from outside will have a conflicting signature. The other Jessica and Anafenza had different quantum signatures, which we identified and based our calculations on.”
Jessica nodded. “Ok, right. Makes sense. So what’s the problem?”
“We didn’t know about you!”
Jessica blinked, taken aback. “Excuse me?”
Obruz cleared his throat. “We discovered an anomaly in your quantum signature. And when we researched it more we…began to realize why the Andromeda mission – the one you and Wirstowx originated from – is classified at such high levels.”
“My signature is different…because I was born in the Andromeda Galaxy?” Jessica shook her head. “That doesn’t make sense…”
“It wouldn’t, no. Because, it shouldn’t make a difference. There would be some variance owing to location within the universe itself, but it would be similar enough. No, yours is completely different.” Sano shook her head. “Yours has a known match, too. You’re from the ‘Mirror Universe’.”
Jessica went wide-eyed at this, then turned to Obruz. The bajoran first officer nodded. “We checked with Admiral Scott; he confirmed it to us, after we pressed the importance of understanding why this went wrong. The Andromeda mission didn’t just go to a different galaxy; it crossed the universal barrier as well.”
“He couldn’t give us access to the reports from that time, but he did explain a certain…’quantum inversion’ that occurred as ships passed through the gateway Starfleet used to get to Andromeda. It wasn’t until the Aventine tried to meet the expedition using its conventional slipstream drive that the inversion was even discovered and studied. But by the time we began to understand it, the expedition ended. The ships returned home, and all of the data was classified.”
Jessica shook her head, her thoughts racing with implications. Still, they hadn’t explained the problem to her. “Alright…but how is this a problem? What happened to the other two women? What happened to Jessica and Anafenza?”
Sano shook her head and sighed. “The calculations we used to anchor them here relied on our quantum signature. Before we realized you were acting as the tether to them. If we had been able to modify to match your quantum signature, it would have worked. We believe, when we inserted you into the equation, the navigational sensors used your unique quantum signature and anchored the women in the mirror universe.”
“Meaning?”
“We discovered a similar inversion during the transport process.” Sano looked apologetically at Jessica. “And before you ask; no, we can’t lock back on and rescue them. We’re too far out of sync now. They are where they are now. I’m sorry.”
Jessica stared down at the picture of the three of them, then back up to her officers. “So…where did we send them?”
“Near as we can tell,” the science officer replied, “some form of a parallel universe similar to their own reality.” She bit her lip and frowned sadly. “I’m…really sorry Jess. If we’d known…”
Jessica shook her head, picking up the PADD again. Her cheeks felt hot, and she feel tears forming. “Please…get out.”
Once the door shut behind them, Jessica tossed the PADD to the side and, burying her face in her hands, began to sob.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in time and space…
The transporter effect subsided, and Jessica St. Peter blinked, looking around at the city buildings surrounding her. She expected to be deposited back in her home on Cap Au Diable, but perhaps the convergence and the transport technobabble she’d been subjected to didn’t have quite as accurate aim. She stepped out from between the buildings, looking around. That’s when it hit her.
All the banners. The gold stars. The images of an emperor standing victorious and benevolent, not towering over his minions with outstretched claws. She wasn’t in the Rogue Isle. She wasn’t even in Paragon City…
“Oh shit…” she said, with terrifying realization. She immediately took to the skies with a whirlwind around her, making it harder to see her. She passed a banner and saw in large writing her fear’s confirmed.
Praetoria.
“I’m on Praetorian Earth,” she said, cursing again. “I can’t be caught here, not if he is still alive here. I need to get back, how to get back…”
She scanned the streets for the tell-tale ramshackle armor of the Resistance. If anyone knows how to get back, she thought, they would know. Just gotta bust a few heads…
Elsewhere in time and space, further still…
The twinkling of chimes subsided, but the blinding light still filled Anafenza’s vision. She squinted, looking around in confusion.
She was on a small hill, covered in bright pink and purple flowers. Small roofs poked up out of the ground, the huts seemingly built built into the hills. In the distance, on a small lake, rose a large castle with beautiful filigree wings spread behind it. But the sky…the sky was nothing but blinding light. No clouds, no sun – not even warmth, she noted, as she shivered in the breeze.
Small giggles echoed around her, and whispered, child-like voices from unseen speakers surrounded her. “What’s this? A mortal!” “She just came from a pillar of light!” “It’s a mortal! Here!” “Is she a sin-eater?”
Anafenza spun around in confusion. “Who’s there? Where am I?”
“Doesn’t know where she is? Poor thing…” “I want to play!” “No, it’s my turn!”
A cacophony of “my turns” smothered Ana, and she dropped to the ground in a panic. The dark aether began to seep from her side as she slammed her eyes shut, the voices ringing in her horns.
Then, there was silence, and a small finger poked her in the nose. Ana opened her eyes a smidge.
The small faerie-like being grinned at her, dark eyes regarding her playfully. “Well you’re definitely not a sin eater,” it said with a happy giggle. “I’m Eo Aenc. We’re going to have fun but first,” they looked up, then with a flutter moved forward to tug on Ana’s horns. “We need to get moving! I don’t want to turn my new friend into a leafman right now; mortals are so few in our realm. Come, get up! They’re coming!”
“What…who…who is coming?” Ana scrambled to her feet and took a few staggering steps forward, turning to look behind her.
Large, grotesque creatures bounded towards her, their hides porcelain white, eyes dark and devoid of life. The auras around them brightened the air, making it difficult to even look upon them.
Anafenza screamed, taking off after Eo Aenc into the relative safety of the realm of the fae, Il Mheg...
The women were gathered in the small room – the “transporter room,” the Commander had called it – and exchange final goodbyes. All had been a giggling mess of nerves since they woke up that morning, though Stormy seemed a bit worse for wear; claimed she had an “accelerated metabolism” that allowed her to drink copious amounts of a drink they called “tequila,” she had woken with a splitting headache. A quick visit to the sickbay had helped relieve the pain, and the blue girl had spent a tender moment with Doctor Dubois, sharing stories of a woman who they both knew a version of. The Commander just watched the exchange silently, but Ana knew the expression was melancholic, as she and her Doctor remembered their fallen lover while talking about Stormy’s alive one. Stormy and the Doctor parted with a soft kiss, and then the trio had gone on one last tour of the ship before arriving at the transporter room.
Inside, a low din of activity greeted them as many of the Commander’s officers worked to finalize the calculations that would send them home. “It’s funny,” the Commander remarked, watching them before turning to Anafenza. “How strange this must seem to you. All this technology, science, generations ahead of your world.”
Anafenza nodded. “We have technology – the Garleans make full use of it – but this…is almost…”
“Indistinguishable from magic?” Stormy smirked, winking at the Commander.
Anafenza shrugged and nodded. “That would…be a good way to describe it, yes. But I’ve seen magic,” she continued with a wink. “If you can call down a meteor from the heavens, then I’ll believe it.”
Stormy chuckled, but the Commander winced for a moment, her eyes going distant to some memory she didn’t want to think of. She shook her head to clear it, before smiling again.
The “Trill” woman, Sano, cleared her throat behind the Commander, and all three turned to look at her. She nodded, almost sadly, clearly not wanting to break up their group. “Ma’am, it’s time. If we want a shot at getting them home before the window closes…” She trailed off, leaving the implications hanging in the air.
The three woman took in a deep breath, turning back to one another. They smiled, before moving in to embrace one another together.
“This was…quite an experience,” the Commander remarked.
“It will certainly be a story to tell,” Anafenza continued on with a small nod.
“No one will believe us,” Stormy countered with a small laugh, and all three laughed together. They hugged again, Stormy turning her head to plant a kiss on first the Commander’s cheek, then turning to Anafenza to do the same. Then, Stormy and Anafenza stepped up onto the illuminated pad. Ana gave the blue woman’s hand a quick squeeze, before they parted, standing on opposite sides of the device.
Commander St. Peter smiled at them both. “Good luck, and whatever gods you believe in protect you. I am so blessed to know you both.” She winked at Stormy playfully, but gave Anafenza a genuine smile. “You’re going to do great things, Anafenza of the Ejinn.”
There was a long pause, as the three just stared at one another for another moment. Then, the Commander turned her head to her crew. “Energize!”
The light on the pad began to brighten, and a chiming filled the air as swirling motes of light enveloped the two women. Anafenza giggled a little, feeling ticklish.
There was an alert on the panel, and Sano began shouting to her team. “Engage the chronometric navigational sensors!”
“They can’t get a positive lock! Something is throwing the entire equation out of sorts, and the transport can’t engage.”
“It’s not that ‘aether,’ is it?”
“No, we have a positive fix on that. But there is a quantum imbalance in her signal and the other St. Peter’s. The buffer is having a hard time maintaining their patterns, like another variable is missing…”
The lights died down, and the chiming subsided. Stormy and Ana looked at each other, then at the crew working.
The Commander frowned, shaking her head. “Something is missing…but the numbers all check? We have good locks in both time and space?” Her crew was nodding and agreeing as she rattled off things Anafenza could not comprehend.
Stormy snapped her fingers, looking at Anafenza. “Something isn’t missing. Someone is…”
The Commander paused, blinking, then smacked her forehead. “Of course…the computer can’t make a firm lock on either of you…”
“Unless you can serve as an anchor,” Anafenza finished. “And a beacon.”
“Just like in the pocket dimension.”
The Commander hopped onto the pad and took the center spot. “Alright Nizeri, try now.” She nodded. “Energize!”
Sano turned to the controls as the officer there worked the panel, and the lights and chimes began anew. She smiled, continuing to direct the officers. “Positive lock engaged, they can make it to the pattern buffer! Engage the scanners!”
The light overtook Ana’s vision, and the chiming deafened her.
“I’ll always…remember you…both! May you walk…in the light…of the Crystal!”
“A tavern…on the ship. I’m not sure the ships of Limsa have a dedicated area to drink. Granted, pirates tend to just drink wherever…”
The Commander chuckled and took a sip of her drink. “Do you always talk so much when you’re nervous?”
Stormy giggled, while Anafenza just tilted her head. “I’m…I’m sorry?”
“You’re in an unknown place, drinking after your life was in danger, on the eve of your life either being in more danger or the threat of you being stranded. It’s ok to be scared.” She took another drink. “We are too…”
Ana just shook her head. “I think I’m more just overwhelmed. I’d imagined other worlds, and I’ve heard stories but…this experience? Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I’d meet other aspects of myself. Or, rather…” She paused, frowning and looking away. “You’re not me.”
The women looked at each other with concerned expressions. Stormy finally reached forward, putting a hand softly on Ana’s back. “I…don’t think that’s true.”
“I’m not Jessika. Jessielle. Whatever her name was, she was the missing aspect of you, not me.” Anafenza shook her head. “I feel…guilty that I denied you the opportunity to meet her.”
The Commander shook her head. “That may be…but you’re you. And you still have that piece of her inside you that connects you to us. You’re one of us now.”
Stormy smiled and nodded, then wrapped her arms around the smaller auri and hugged her tight. “And we’re going to miss you a lot. I wish we could have gotten to know each other better.” She let go of Anafenza with a small giggle. “Without the threat of looming erasure from existence hanging over our heads.”
Anafenza and the Commander rolled their eyes. Ana continued. “I’m serious though…”
“It happened a long time ago,” the Commander countered. “And you weren’t in control. It’s sad, and I won’t lie, we both didn’t want to trust you initially. But, what you did? The connection you have to us, to your Jessika? It helped save us.”
Anafenza took a drink. “I wish I knew how to control it all better.” She shook her head. “She was a warrior. She could use these powers. And then the two of you.” She nodded to the Commander. “Captain of a…a ship in space. A leader, in the middle of a war, protecting your people. And you,” she put her hands on top of Stormy’s wrapped around her and squeezed. “You can make it rain wherever you please. You’re a hero, protecting the innocent.” She shook her head. “I bake sweets and cook breakfasts. The last time I tried to pick up a sword, I no longer felt as if it were an extension of me. I feel off balance…”
“What, that large sword you were holding in the cave?”
Anafenza glanced over her shoulder at the blue woman. “I beg your pardon?”
“When you allowed more aether to flow out of you,” the Commander continued for Stormy. “A large sword appeared from nowhere in your hands. We assumed it was part of this aether you store, connected to your Jess.”
Anafenza shook her head. “If I did…I didn’t do it by trying. This is news to me.”
The other two women glanced at each other in some confusion. Finally, Stormy gave the auri girl another quick squeeze, and Ana felt her plant a kiss on the back of her head. “Maybe it’s this ‘bloodvine’ power you received? Maybe that’s why normal weapons don’t feel right anymore; because you have a weapon inside you now instead.” She let Anafenza go so the woman could sit back up, before wrapping an arm around her shoulders and bringing her into a side embrace. “I’m sure you could learn to use that to help…”
The Commander nodded. “I didn’t exactly earn my command in a traditional sense; I was selfish, trying to protect another ship that had my friends on it. The rest of the command crew was dead – they’d been killed by, well…it’s hard to explain what they are.” She blushed apologetically. “Unless you can imagine zombie-like creatures that are part man, part machine?”
Ana shook her head. “Not really…”
“The Borg. It’s not too important; what matters is that, when another ship was in danger, a ship I knew had my two closest friends on it, I risked my ship and the survivors on board to defend my friends.” She shook her head. “It was stupid, and it went against all sound judgement…but I was rewarded for rescuing that ship. And I was given the Rafale.” She sighed. “Sometimes, when we don’t expect to or maybe for the worst of reasons…we find that we have that strength, that power, inside us. I’m sure you have the same, Anafenza of the Ejinn.” She smiled encouragingly, raising her glass. Stormy did the same, and Ana joined after a moment. “To your future adventures, Ana. We know you’ll do amazing things.”
Anafenza smiled, grateful. The women tapped their glasses together and then downed the drinks. Stormy giggled as she put her glass down, then tugged on Anafenza’s hands. “Let’s go dance, c’mon!”
The Commander watched as they left the quiet confines of the Captain’s “VIP section” of the ship’s bar, otherwise known as “Hurricane Hal’s”. As the doors opened to let them out, the bass and high notes of the electronic music blared in from the outside bar, and she watched the two women join the small gathering of crew on the floor of the Category 7 club.
Anafenza was still gawking in awed silence when the three women stepped off the lift and onto the main control room of the ship – the “bridge,” the Commander had called it – as the other officers sat at their positions, preparing the ship’s systems to send them home.
Ana had since changed into a similar jumpsuit as the Commander, though it was completely black with no special color. She’d tried to ask for pink, but that wasn’t an actual color for a uniform. Still, she had the top off, the arms tied around her waist, and was sporting a pink “sports bra” the Commander had decided to compromise on and allow her to wear. The badge with her linkpearl pressed to the center was pinned on one of the sleeves around her waist.
She moved along one side of the bridge, stopping behind a Miqo’te man seated there. “This is Lt. M’Ral, my operations officer. He’s tying our chronometric sensors to the transporter in hopes that we can send you to your appropriate time periods using the residual aether…”
“He’s a Miqo’te!” Anafenza exclaimed in surprise, smiling wide.
The three others looked at her in surprise. M’Ral looked slightly confused, then shook his head. “Er, no. I’m a Caitian…I’m not sure what a Miqo’te is…”
Anafenza bit her lip and shook her head. “Sorry…it’s a race on my world. You look…very similar…”
The man nodded. “That is alright; I’m not offended.” He pointed on the screen. “Right now, there is a large flow of this ‘aether’ that we are still able to detect. It is branching from a central location along three distinct paths. We’re working out how to use those paths to transport you to those physical locations…”
A woman in a blue-shouldered uniform stepped forward. She had a pattern of spots that went from her temples down her neck. “And we’re using this ship’s chronometric navigational scanners to help transport you to your proper times.”
The Commander nodded. “Ladies, this is Nizeri Sano, my science officer. And…yeah, that’s the plan we’re developing. It’s nothing we’ve ever tried or even considered trying before…”
“And if it fails?” Stormy asked.
Sano shook her head. “We would maintain our lock and pull you back to Rafale. You’d be stranded here most likely…” She tapped the panel on the wall, bringing up a new display for the women to look at. It showed the aether trails, ending at three distinct dots. “Right now our present location, Earth, and your world are equidistant from one another…both in space and in time. This is a phenomenon that just…should not be possible. That all three of you would also be existing and have these connections, and wander to these specific locations at the same time is…a once in a lifetime experience. But…” She tapped the display, and it began to move, showing a passage of time. “We are drifting out of this sync phase. The longer we go without executing this plan, the greater the risk of you not making it home. If we don’t do this by tomorrow night…”
“Then we’re stranded in your universe,” Stormy finished. Her face fell, her excitement now crashing with a reality of not getting home. Anafenza felt a similar pain in her chest at the thought of not making it home.
The Commander must have noticed this. She smiled a little, then patted them both on the back. “Well, if we only have till tomorrow night, let’s go celebrate. C’mon; we’ll go to Hurricane Hal’s.”
Anafenza awoke with a start again, her body feeling sore like she’d been swimming for malms upstream. She was lying on a bed, just big enough for her body to fit on top of, her tail uncomfortably folded under her and pushed to one side. An extra pillow was folded and under her neck, helping to support her head so that all the weight wasn’t on her horns. She was covered by a scratchy, wool blanket, and she could feel clothes covering her body, only adding to the discomfort. There were bright lights above her, and she could tell she wasn’t in the disappearing cavern anymore.
Did…did it work?
She shifted, trying to move, and groaned a little as her sore muscles screamed in protest.
The rest of the space was sterile white walls and a plain grey carpet. More of the beds were lined along the wall next to her bed, and over the head of each one on the wall was a dark glass window. Most were off, but the one over her bed blinked and flashed with white characters and squares of varying shades of blue. As she pushed herself up to rest on an elbow, one of the blue boxes flashed and turned red with a triangle symbol inside; she looked at it curiously, before turning to look around more.
There was some shuffling, and then a soft voice called out from around a corner. “Oh! You’re awake!” A petite woman stepped around the corner, wearing an outfit similar to the Commander’s except that it was mostly white. She had the same badge on her chest as Jessica, too. Her light brown eyes smiled along with her wide lips. “How do you feel, Ana?”
Anafenza coughed and shook her head, sitting up all the way. “I know I’ve felt better. Where am I? How do you know me?”
She smiled again. “I’m Doctor Dubois; you’re onboard the Rafale. You came with Jes- Commander St. Peter.” Her cheeks went a little pink at her near misspeak, but Ana didn’t try to understand the reason for the embarrassment. “When you materialized on board you collapsed on the transport pad; we brought you here to the sickbay. It’s sort of a…hospital.”
Anafenza nodded. “How long…have I been sleeping?”
“You were out for most of the day,” came a familiar voice, and Ana turned her head to see both Jessicas step through a double door that had separated with a whoosh. Stormy looked like she was still excited beyond belief to be living in this fantasy. The Commander moved near Dubois, and the two shared a silent look and a smile. “Thanks, JD.”
The Doctor nodded and stepped back around the corner, leaving Ana and the Jessicas. The Commander cleared her throat. “We’re not sure if it had to do with the ‘aether’ in the cavern, or if it is unique to your race, but the scar grew while we were being rescued.”
Anafenza pulled up her top to check underneath, not minding when the two woman glanced away for a moment as she flashed them. Sure enough, the snaking, ivy-like mass of scales reached up beyond her collarbone now, just resting at the base of her neck. It wound down further past her waist; a quick check of her legs rewarded her with more of the scales down nearly to her left knee now. She sighed and shook her head. “I do not know; it’s nothing to do with my race, I know that. The curse expanded?”
“I don’t know about curse, but it certainly helped,” Stormy chimed in, hopping over and settling down at the foot of the bed. She put a comforting hand on Ana’s leg and gave her a small squeeze. “The Commander’s crew says that their transport system was able to find us easier and rescue us because of the beacon you became. It was like you said; you guided them to us.”
Anafenza smiled. “I’m…glad it helped. I don’t know what happened, but I’m glad it helped?” The three of them laughed a little.
“Now to get you two home,” the Commander remarked, and the other two nodded. “We have a theory for how, but we’re still finishing the final simulations. Until then, you’re guests on the Rafale, and I’d like to show you both around.”
Stormy smiled wide and nodded, before suddenly pausing and shaking her head. “Wait…when do you wipe our memories? Don’t you have some kind of ‘temporal prime directive?’”
The Commander shrugged. “We’re willing to make an exception to the policy. Too much has happened, and if I want to remember it, I’m sure both of you would like to as well. I don’t want to take that away.”
Anafenza nodded. “That would be nice, yeah.”
Anafenza tugged on the small jewel embedded in her horn. She twisted it and tugged, feeling a small pop in her horn as the pearl came free, chipping away some of the horn as she did so. She handed is to the Commander, who was pulling out her scanning device – the “tricorder.”
“Alright, that takes care of the two of us.” The Commander looked up to the other blue woman. “Your phone; it’s still getting a signal, yeah? That should help locate and isolate your signal as well.”
“I can do you even better,” Stormy grinned, pulling the slender, black, rectangular device from her pocket. “It’s tied to the medicom system; when it detects my lifesigns are hitting critical levels, it activates the emergency transport beacon to send me to the nearest hospital.”
“It’s tied to a system on Earth in your time with a full reading of your vitals!” The Commander smiled wide and nodded. “That’s great! Let me pair it to my tricorder.” She began tapping buttons on the device, then paused and looked up. “Um…do you have a ‘blue tooth?’”
Stormy snickered, tapping the device’s screen before handing it over. “Bluetooth is enabled; you can pair it to your tricorder?”
The Commander shrugged. “It should be sending the correct signal? Oh! There we go. Yes.” She took the phone and began tapping on the screen, then set the two aside with her badge. “That takes care of those. Now how do we fit the linkpearl in?”
“I could…” Anafenza began, thinking aloud. “What if I activated it, and then we meld it to your badge, like a materia?”
The other two women looked at her with an expression that told Ana they had no idea what she just said. The auri sighed. “We attach it to the badge after I activate it.”
Stormy raised her hand, starting to ask “what is a materia-“ when the Commander elbowed her to shut up, then nodded. “Alright, let’s try that.”
The women gathered around, as the Commander looked at the pearl in one hand, and her comm badge in the other. The badge was gold and silver, with a thin wire bent around in the shape of an arrow, and two gold strips behind it. She shrugged, then shoved the pearl between the two gold strips in the center of the badge.
Anafenza and Stormy chuckled a little, and the Commander just looked up and nodded, satisfied with her work. Her tricorder beeped then, and she picked it up to read off the screen. “It’s Rafale; they think they have a solution and said to contact when we’re ready to try it.”
The three women all looked at one another. Stormy spoke first. “Well…if it doesn’t work…”
The Commander shook her head. “It has to work.”
“If it doesn’t, alright?” Stormy shook her head. “I do feel a little bad we didn’t…really get to learn more about each other. But this was neat. A very…interesting experience.”
Anafenza nodded in agreement. “I..am sorry Jessika could not be here to share this with you. I think she would have enjoyed meeting you both. I certainly have.”
The Commander sighed and nodded. “Would love to be able to share this with the scientific community if we make it out of here. Not just proof of parallel universes but even parallels across time as well. This was incredible. I just wish the circumstances were better.” She smiled. “Are we all ready?”
After they all nodded, the Commander took a deep breath. “Jess, activate your medicom; Ana, your linkpearl. Then, Jess, take the badge, and charge up.”
Stormy tapped her phone, while Ana took the badge and pressed the pearl in the center. She felt the small tug of aether as she activated it, connecting it to the lifestream, before handing it to Stormy. The blue woman held it tight, powering up her electricity again, then pressed the badge. It chirped.
“Rafale, St. Peter. We’re ready! Go with the plan!”
“We have you Commander. M’Ral tied the navigational chronometric sensors to the transporter system; we were able to trace the link to the tricorder, now we’re switching to the comm channel…” The woman on the other end gasped. “Whatever you’re doing over there, I can pick out all three distinct signals for you. Keep it up: M’Ral, prepare to initiate transport!”
Stormy screamed. “Whatever it is, hurry up!”
Anafenza looked around; the creeping Nothing was closing in faster. Even the tree in the center was starting to disappear. She grit her teeth, her scar suddenly burning.
A gravelly voice came across now. “Positive lock through the aether interference, initiating quantum transport in five…four…three…”
Anafenza shrieked, the burning was far greater. She could see the dark aether begin to roll off of her body now, in the same way it was rolling off the tree before. Her vision blurred, and she felt like she was reaching out in the lifestream, her aether chasing something unseen, searching…
“Two…one…energize!”
Ana screamed over the sound of chimes in the air, and a swirling vortex of lights wrapped itself around each of the three women. Her vision was consumed with light.
“Is that…is that your starship?” Stormy asked, her voice giddy as she clapped her hands despite their circumstances.
The Commander nodded with a small smirk. “Yeah, she can hear us. That’s good…”
Anafenza tilted her head in confusion at this. While the Commander tried her communicator again, she turned to Stormy. “’She’ can hear us? That sounded like a man on the other side?”
“She meant the ship can hear us. Ships are always girls.”
“Ships…are always girls.” Anafenza blinked a few times but shrugged. “I assume this is an Earth thing?”
Stormy shrugged. “I suppose it is. Sorry if that’s confusing.”
The Commander groaned in frustration. “There’s too much interference here, and we can’t get far enough away from the tree to cut through.”
The other two women turned to look. Sure enough, as the Commander had implied, the cavern was smaller now, an odd gray nothingness taking the place of the stone walls around them.
Stormy snapped her fingers, then beckoned for the badge. “Gimme.” The Commander and Anafenza hesitated, not understanding what she meant. Stormy huffed, beckoning for the device again. “It’s simple, right? How do you cut through interference if you can’t build a better transmitter?”
The Commander squinted, her thoughts racing. “Change the frequency?” When the other woman simply nodded, as if coaxing her to keep trying, the Commander shrugged and shook her head. “Um, more power? I don’t –“
Stormy snapped her fingers again and grinned, interrupting. “More power!” She held the device in her hand, and Anafenza saw threads of electricity start to wrap around her arm, snapping and crackling as the woman manipulated the environment around them. As she watched, a thick fog began to form above them.
Stormy looked up to the Commander. “Ready?” When the other woman nodded, Stormy grinned. “Here we go!” She concentrated a burst of electricity right into the device, then tapped it, eliciting the chirp again.
The Commander practically leapt forward, enthralled by the woman’s powers and forgetting for a moment to speak once the device was activated. “St. Peter to Rafale! How do you hear us now?”
There was a curse on the other end of the transmission. “Prophets! LOUD and clear, Commander, how do you read?”
“Same, Rafale! I’m trapped in a collapsing pocket dimension with two other people, are you able to locate us with the signal from my commbadge and my tricorder?”
“Standby…” There were more voices in the background now, as more people began to talk over one another. Anafenza struggled to hear them all, until finally the first man came back onto the channel. “We’re locked onto the tricorder now, but there is still a large amount of interference. Whatever you labeled it when you scanned it – ‘aether?’ – it’s masking your signal. Sensors are picking up three faint life signs but they’re all registering as you.”
The Commander shook her head. “Yeah, it’s a long story, but you’re picking the three of us up just fine. You can’t transport through the interference?”
“We’re having trouble getting a positive lock…”
Anafenza shrieked then, pointing. “Jess, look!”
Both women looked up, then to where the auri was pointing. The Commander gasped. “Rafale, we have a problem! The dimension is collapsing faster than before!”
A female voice broke through then. “I just picked up a massive disturbance in your tricorder readings, Commander! The link we created here is punching a hole through your dimension and causing it to destabilize at an exponentially faster rate.”
“You can’t get a lock, Nizeri?”
“Negative; M’Ral is coming up with a plan but we can’t make it happen in the next ten seconds. Cut power; use your tricorder to send data bursts. We’ll send you a message when we have a good idea what to do on our end. I’m sorry, ma’am!”
The Commander looked at Stormy, then swatted the communicator badge out of her sparking hand.
The grey Nothingness slowed its progress consuming the cavern, and the women all let out the collective breath they’d been holding. Stormy shook her head. “Now what?”
Anafenza spoke up instead, certain of the answer. “We come up with a way to get out of here.”
The Commander nodded. “Boosting the signal definitely helped, but we need a quick solution. While they work on a way to lock onto us, it would help to make it easier for them.”
“A beacon of some sort,” Stormy said, and the Commander nodded.
Anafenza looked at the other women. “If the aether is causing the interference, what if we gave your ship a way to better navigate the flow of it to find us?”
“Not just a beacon, but a map?” The Commander tapped her chin and nodded. “How would we do that?”
“My linkpearl.” Anafenza brought her hand up to her horn, feeling for the small jewel embedded there. “It uses the flow of aether to communicate; your ship could use the flow the linkpearl uses to break through the conflicting aether here and find us easier.”
“That just might work,” the Commander said. “Alright…let’s get to work, ladies.”
Anafenza stared up at the tree and shivered. She pulled away from the Commander’s comforting embrace. “I…I don’t know what else,” she began, shaking her head.
Stormy interrupted. “You mentioned a curse. The vines choking out your tree. They’re red vines, bloodred vines; what is this curse?”
Ana shook her head. “When I killed her – the other Jessika – I wasn’t in control of myself. I was under the control of these…other mages that call themselves ‘Nemesis.’ I was trying to parley with them; I didn’t want more of my friends to get hurt, and so I approached them using an amulet of theirs we had confiscated.”
Stormy blinked in disbelief. “Nemesis.” She shook her head. “It’s always a Nemesis plot…”
The Commander looked over at her. “You recognize the name?”
Stormy laughed once, humorless. “Yeah,” was all she said, and left it at that.
Anafenza continued. “I just wanted peace…and they rewarded me for my troubles by using magicks to gain control of my mind, convince me the only way to peace was to silence my friends, starting with Lyta. I was attacking her when Jessika got in my way and I…” Ana trailed off – they’d heard this part already. “I was still trying to kill Lyta when Jessika expired; this cloud of dark aether erupted from her body and surrounded me, subduing me and breaking the magicks that were driving me. I woke up later in the infirmary…I knew what had happened, I was aware of everything.” She wiped her eyes – she hadn’t noticed she’d started to cry – and continued. “I woke up with this scar on my body, the same scar Jessika had born. Her ‘bloodvine,’ as it were. Since then, I’ve…heard a strange song…I’ve seen her memories…I’ve begun to use strange abilities she could use…and I’d swear I could feel her presence with me.”
The Commander tilted her head. “What is aether?”
Anafenza nodded towards the tree. “That dark fog rolling off the tree? That is aether. It’s…what everything is made of. Aether flows through everything, everyone. It channels to us from the lifestream.”
The older Jessica furrowed her brow. “That would explain the strange energy readings, then. This aether, do you have your own signature of it? A pool of aether that is unique to you?”
Anafenza nodded. “That’s how I understand it.”
The other woman nodded. “Ana, this strange energy reading everywhere, this ‘aether.’ It is very similar to your own. That makes sense; you likened the tree to your own life force.” She pulled out her scanning device, waving it near Ana. She held it over the girl’s scar; the steady beeping and whistling of the device suddenly increased in frequency. “And the scar you ‘inherited,’ it’s practically leaking this aether into the chamber.”
Stormy snapped her fingers. “She inherited that bloodvine curse from her world’s Jessika!”
“Exactly. And with it, it would seem, a very large chunk of that Jessika’s aether pool…which would then help anchor us all to this pocket dimension.”
Anafenza looked stunned. “You mean…I really have had a piece of her with me this entire time? I thought I was going insane…”
“And it was that piece that allowed you to come here and join us,” Commander St. Peter continued. “Whatever this aether and lifestream are, they must have reached out to similar aetheric signatures and pulled us all together.”
Stormy shook her head. “Like the stars just aligned just right?”
The Commander shrugged. “Maybe? But now…we know it’s that ambient aether signature that is sustaining this bubble. Maybe we can use that to lock on to and get out of here…”
“But how do we get out? We’re somewhat limited on the resources available in here,” Stormy pointed out.
“We are, yes. But I think I know a way.” She tapped the arrowhead on her chest, and the small brooch chirped. “St. Peter to Rafale, come in…”
There was static, before the three women began to just barely hear another sound cutting through. “…ter, this…have you…and unread…are you?”
The three women looked at one another, their faces immediately reflecting the same emotion: hope.
“So if we don’t find a way out of this…we go back to our homes, yeah?”
The Commander shook her head. “No, I don’t think that’s how it works.” She looked around the small cavern, then turned to look at the dark tree in the center. “This dimension will just continue to shrink until it completely collapses in itself.”
“And if we’re inside, we just…disappear.” Anafenza stated this as a matter of fact, to which the Commander nodded in confirmation. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Ok…how do we get out then?”
The woman shook her head. “Maybe it’s as easy as just finding a portal of some sort…somewhere that connects directly to our dimensions. Otherwise? I…really don’t know.”
Stormy was standing closer to the tree. She reached out to it, fascinated by the clouds of dark fog roiling off of it. “What is this?” She turned to the other women, then looked at Ana. “You said you recognized it? It represented your soul?”
Anafenza nodded. “I…have seen it before in dreams, yes. I had taken to interpreting it as my life force, my soul. The vines…are the curse I bear, choking out my life, taking control.”
They gathered around it, looking at the massive trunk that reached to the top of the cavern, branches spreading outward just before hitting the ceiling. “How poetic,” the Commander commented, pulling her scanning device out again. She waved it around the tree, frowning. “I…am not picking up anything except…an energy that my tricorder can’t identify. I can successfully scan the rocks in the cavern and the two of you but this…it’s as if it’s not even there.” She snapped the device shut again before reaching a hand out to feel the tree. Stormy did likewise, though Ana stayed away from it, as scared as she was of it. “It’s cold,” the woman commented, feeling the solid surface of the tree beneath her hand.
Stormy pulled away and turned again to Anafenza, crossing her arms over her chest. “Something still isn’t adding up.”
The other women looked at her curiously, waiting for her to continue.
She motioned to the Commander. “Both of us are ‘Jessica St. Peter.’ We look nearly the same, we have nearly similar histories, abilities, quirks, personalities. But why are we all here? If this pocket dimension was formed because we all have something in common, then why, specifically, are you here, Anafenza?”
Anafenza winced, and shied away from the girl’s withering gaze. “I…I don’t know. I knew a woman who called herself Jessika at one point…Jessika Saphir. Her real name was Jessielle though, I think.”
The other two Jessicas looked at one another and nodded. “It’s a start.” Stormy turned back and pressed more. “Why did she use a false name, do you know? Were you close to her?”
Anafenza bit her lip and shook her head. “I…don’t know all the details. I know her family had been accused of…heretical activities in her home city of Ishgard, and they fled to avoid being killed. Her house – Vingesang – doesn’t even exist anymore because of it.”
“Vingesang?” The Commander looked puzzled. “That’s…an odd name.”
“Familiar sounding, yeah,” Stormy commented. “French?”
“It sounds like it, yeah,” the other woman confirmed with a nod.
Anafenza just shrugged. “It is an Ishgardian Elezen name.”
“Another race on your world?”
Anafenza nodded. “Tall, long-limbed, pointy ears. Very regal.”
Stormy smirked, before looking at the Commander again. “My French is not that great; my JD has been trying to teach me but, sadly, I haven’t picked up too much. Do you know what it means?”
The Commander shook her head, but instead pulled out her tricorder, tapping a few buttons, and then repeated the word, “Vingesang.” She held out the device’s screen for Stormy and Ana to see. “Vine of Blood…Bloodvine?”
Stormy recoiled, her eyes wide, and stared at Anafenza. “You have got to be kidding me…Bloodvine?!”
For as surprised as Stormy was, Ana was equally confused. “You…know this word?”
Stormy nodded slowly. “It was…the name of the boarding school my…my girlfriends went to, in the Isles. The Bloodvine Academy.”
The Commander laughed, smiling bright. “There’s one connection, then. Bloodvine, and this other Jessika. But that doesn’t explain why you’re here, Anafenza. Were you two lovers?”
Anafenza shook her head. “No…I hardly knew her. I…I mean…” She fidgeted, fretting over telling these women the real reason why a third Jessika wasn’t here with them. “It wasn’t my fault! My mind was taken over, I couldn’t stop myself!”
The Commander nodded slowly, her eyes showing she was putting the dots together. Stormy, however was having a harder time. “What did you do, Ana?”
“I killed her,” Anafenza admitted flatly, and she winced to see Stormy pull away from her, eyes wide, electricity dancing across her fists. “I was trying to kill someone else and…Jessika was in my way. And I killed her for it. This was…years ago.” Ana wiped her eyes, feeling more tears come out of shame.
Stormy looked to the Commander, then back to Anafenza. “Are you here to kill us too, then?”
“Jessiy!” The Commander chastised her, moving towards Anafenza. “She’s just as confused as we are about all this…And she was being brainwashed to do it.” Still she looked to the auri girl with a slight hesitation. “You’re free now, right?”
Ana nodded, and the older woman moved closer to embrace her. “Alright…so another connection, albeit tenuous. But even then, you shouldn’t be here with us. But you have to be the key to this; what else are you not telling us, Ana?”
Stormy took a deep, calming breath. “Why is she the key?”
The Commander motioned with a nod of her head to the tree in the center of the cavern. “I don’t recognize that, do you? She did; it’s tied to her. There is something that binds all three of us together, and it’s obviously not just our names or histories. This third Jessica had a connection to us through ‘Bloodvine,’ what else could there be I wonder? Anafenza has to be the key to this.” She ran her hands softly through the auri’s hair, comforting and soothing. “And I think, if we can begin to understand how we all fit together, we can understand how to leave this place before we die here together.”
“So let me get this straight. You’re me…from the future?”
The elder Jessica – who, it had been decided upon by the three women, would be called “Commander” – shrugged and nodded, as if that wasn’t the best explanation. “Future Earth, yes, but I’d wager I was from a different universe, too. I have no idea if a ‘Paragon City’ even exists in my universe, but I’m pretty sure we don’t have living comic-book heroes in my world.”
The younger of the two – who asked to go by her hero name of “Stormscream,” but settled for “Stormy” when the other two women refused – shook her head. “I mean, sure, we have comics too, who doesn’t?” She ignored Ana raising her hand at this. “But you pretty much leapt right out of the television screen of one of my favorite science fiction shows!”
Anafenza struggled to keep up with the women, who spoke of a whole different world they both knew well: Earth. It was a planet, which she likened to her own Hydaelyn, though the majority of people there were “humans;” the Commander had called up a picture of one on the hand-held device she carried, and Ana had recognized the Hyur immediately.
Commander St. Peter had catalogued it as another similarity between the three women. The list was, admittedly, small. More was in common between the two Jessicas beyond their appearance, they discovered; both were orphans, both were adopted by a man named Jason, both loved the rain, they had similarly-named lovers. It was far too fantastic to be pure coincidence. Now they were comparing differences.
Commander St. Peter came from a future Earth, where she served in an exploratory service called “Starfleet” as a ship’s captain. She was an alien, adopted by a human, and was currently in command of the starship Rafale, a spaceship. Before waking in the cavern, she had been in her office on her ship, going over recent scans of a nearby system.
“Stormscream,” meanwhile, was nearly ten years younger, and already a registered hero in her home city, on a version of the same planet nearly four centuries earlier. She was a hyur, but what they called a “mutant” in her world. Anafenza listened with great interest and delight to discover it was this Jessica she’d dreamt of flying through the city and holding command over the weather; the girl was able to control the weather at will, and used her ability to call forth lightning to power her gauntlets and turn the energy into powerful blasts of sound. Unfortunately, the girl had just laid down to sleep herself as well; she was dressed only in loose cotton pants and shirt, without her armor and gauntlets.
Then it was Anafenza’s turn to talk. She swallowed hard. “I’m Anafenza, like I explained. My tribe is the Ejinn. I come from a world called Hydaelyn, the continent of Eorzea. I…am not anything really special,” she continued, and noticed both women eye each other skeptically. “Honest, I’m not. I bake, I clean, I love to swim, I can hold my breath for over a quarter bell, I love my friends but I can’t do anything to protect them…and for the past few weeks I’ve dreamt about both of you.” The other two just nodded at this revelation, taking the wind from Anafenza’s sails. She looked at the two of them in confusion. “You don’t…seem concerned by this?”
The Commander shrugged apologetically. “Truth be told…I was having dreams as the two of you, too.”
“Same,” Stormy admitted, blushing a little. “Which is why I thought this was still a dream.”
“Maybe it is,” Anafenza replied with a shrug. “Maybe we’re just figments of each others’ imaginations?”
“So who’s the dreamer?” Stormy asked.
Commander St. Peter sighed and shook her head. “Before we go in-depth in the psychological analysis of this, let’s just assume we’re all awake and here with one another…” She tapped the device in her hand – a “scanner,” she’d explained, and frowned. “It’s still pulling information from my ship’s computer…fascinating…”
Ana leaned towards Stormy. “Computer?”
“Yikes…you don’t have much technology where you come from?”
“Only the Garleans and ancient Allag…most of my people rely on magic and aether.”
“The computer is a piece of technology that can store, recall, and display information,” the Commander explained. “It’s a library, but it’s all stored in…energy, basically, instead of books.” She bit her lip, still reading her scanner, before snapping it closed. She tapped the arrowhead on her chest, eliciting a small chirp from the gold and silver brooch. “Oh, that’s a good sign.”
“What is,” Anafenza asked, confused.
She tapped the brooch again, and another chirp came out. “No error sound.”
Stormy snapped her fingers. “Your ship is still close enough to be received.” She pulled a black rectangle from the pocket of her pajama pants and tapped the front of it, making it light up. She blinked. “I…have a signal too, on my phone. It’s roaming, but I have a connection.” She looked up in confusion.
“Curious.” The Commander turned to Anafenza. “You don’t…have anyway to communicate with people on your world, do you?”
Ana tapped her horn, where a small pearl was embedded in the scales. “Linkpearls. They let us talk over distances with one another.” She tapped the pearl again, hearing it ring as it activated. She shook her head quickly in surprise. “Gods…it works!”
“How are all three of us still in range of wherever it was that we came from,” Stormy asked.
Commander St. Peter shook her head. “The only thing I can thing is that we’re somehow trapped in some sort of…pocket dimension. That exists simultaneously near all three of our starting points in time and space.”
Anafenza shook her head and huffed. “Speak plainly, please?”
Stormy giggled. “Pocket dimension, kinda like the nightclub? The Pocket D?”
The Commander and Anafenza both stared at Stormy; she lowered her head in awkward silence. “Apparently not…”
Commander St. Peter shook her head. “I have no idea why or how you could build anything in a pocket dimension. They’re highly unstable and short-lived.”
Anafenza didn’t like the sound of this. “Meaning?”
“Meaning, we only have a few hours, if even that long, to get out of here before this dimension collapses in on itself with us still inside.”
There was a stunned silence in the cavern, until Stormy cleared her throat. “Well, shit…”
Anafenza awoke with a start. She blinked her eyes, looking around in confusion. She wasn’t in her bed – the fact that she was dry gave that fact away, since she’d long ago submerged her cot in the tub to sleep in. She slowly sat up, taking in her surroundings.
She could hear a steady drip from overhead, echoing through the space she was in. Stalagmites and stalactites filled her view, so she knew immediately she was in a cave of sorts. Turning her head more she saw and recognized a sight that made her think she was still dreaming. Shrouded in darkness, a large tree choked out by a blood-red vine that disappeared among the branches.
“Jessika’s tree,” she murmured, half-asleep still. “Am I still dreaming?”
“If you are, this is one helluva weird dream,” came a voice beside her. Ana jumped, whipping her head around. A blue-skinned woman sat up, blinking sleepily. Her face was speckled with bright-blue spots, and her long blue hair fell down behind her and onto the ground. She looked around, and Ana could see her pointed ears for a moment, reminding her of an elezen. Though, this woman didn’t have the same lankiness to her; if anything, she was a blue hyur with pointed ears. Yet, Ana thought, she seemed familiar…
“Where are we,” she asked, looking at Ana again. “And why are you naked?”
Anafenza sighed and rolled her eyes. “I’m always naked. You still have clothes on, don’t worry.”
The other woman looked down and back up, nodding, then looked back around the space. “Fair. What is this place?”
“I’ve only ever seen it in my dreams,” Ana admitted, still looking around. “I thought the tree represented my soul, and the vine was…a curse I had inherited.”
The blue woman’s eyes widened, and she gave a low whistle as she looked at the tree.
The two women sat in silence, not sure what to do next, not sure if they were dreaming or if this was real. Finally, Ana cleared her throat.
“Anafenza.”
The blue woman turned and looked at her in confusion. “I beg your pardon?”
“My name,” she replied. “I’m Anafenza. Or just Ana.”
The blue woman nodded in acknowledgement, then offered a hand to Ana. “Jess. Jessica St. Peter, but you can call me –“
“Jessiy,” came a third voice, and the two women turned to look as a third woman stepped from behind the tree. Ana gasped – she was wearing black pants and a black top, the shoulders of which were white. A familiar arrow-shaped pendant was attached to her chest. But most striking was her resemblance to Jessica: blue skin, bright blue spots, blue hair and eyes. If not for the noticeable age difference, Ana would have guessed they were twins.
Jessica noticed the similarity too and gasped. “How…who…who are you?”
The third woman took a breath, offering a small smile. “Commander Jessica St. Peter.”
Anafenza and the first Jessica both went wide-eyed. The second Jessica shrugged.
Finally, the first Jessica – the younger of the two – coughed a laugh. “Well…if we’re not dreaming…what the hell is going on?”
Ana’s eyes were glued shut, her expression pained as she dreamt.
Dreaming, of late, had been a whole new level of fantasy for Anafenza of the Ejinn. Some nights she was in her own memories, which was nothing out of the ordinary. Some nights, she was in front of the dark tree and hearing the mournful, enraged notes of the Dragonsong – she’d started having these dreams after she’d killed the elezen Jessika while she was brainwashed (but that is a long story for another day). But now, her dreams began to bleed into the wondrous: she’d dreamt she was flying, calling wind and rain and it obeyed her! Or that she was commanding a group of people bustling around some sort of control center, the floor shaking beneath them as explosions rocked them and she stared out at an endless sea of night. She’d even had a few where she and the other two “hers” interacted with one another, before she was jolted awake.
And then the dreams of everlasting light – a field of pink flowers, with child-like giggles floating on the breeze around her. There was no warmth, no sun in the sky – just light glaring down upon her, and voices.
“Aenc tyr,” they’d say. And another, “Open the gate.”
But this…this dream was new. It was a memory, but not her memory. As Anafenza looked around the small room as she paused her frantic packing, she knew it was not her own. The simple wood hut; the longbow leaning against the wall by the door; the roiling sky, filled with the great red light of the falling moon...
The falling moon… She quickly went to the window to look up and gasped. She had seen Dalamud in the sky as it fell years ago when she was still living in Othard, and her people had seen it as an ill omen.
"Quickly, Jessielle, quickly! Get your bow, come, come!"
Ana turned around, confused, before moving to the satchel of personal effects on the bed, nearly crammed full of trinkets and clothes she was trying to protect. Her family had finished ensuring the last of the villagers who were seeking shelter were in the catacombs, Anafenza thought, though she wasn’t sure how she knew this.
Once the last few villagers trickled in, the family returned to their own home to prepare. She assumed it was to gather what they could and hide as well, so she was in her private room, gathering mementos of her life, when her father came barging into her room, shouting her given name.
Anafenza froze, realizing the knowledge she’d just come to know. Father? Jessielle? These are Jessika’s memories! But why…am I in them?
There was a loud crack outside, and Ana and Jessika’s father turned to see, out the window, a plume of fire where a chunk of the moon had fallen. "Come Jessielle...there is not much time," he said, his crisp and proper Ishgardian words flowing gracefully out, despite the urgency.
"Père, what..." She heard herself saying, before finally looked at him, noticing the man was clothed in heavy, black leather armor, armored gauntlets with intricate gold and blood-red patterns winding over them. His legs were clad in armor as well, the same gold and red filigree snaking up the armor like ivy. "Père, what are you wearing?"
Her father – Jessika’s father – rolled his eyes and, picking up her bow from near the door with one hand, grabbed her arm with the other and pulled her out of the room. "There is no time to explain. Come, come!"
He pulled her through the house and outside, his armored fingers digging deep into Ana’s wrist. She squirmed a little, biting her lip to keep from yelling at him as she stumbled along behind as he guided her to the center of the small village.
"Jacemont, what took you so long? The time is approaching!"
Jacemont Saphir finally let go of Anafenza’s wrist, approaching the woman waiting for them there. She wore long, flowing robes of dark fabric, completely black except for a blood-red design up the right side. It wound up from the hem of the robes to the collar - an intricate, winding design like ivy, with leaves and thorns. She turned her head to look at them, her eyes cold and dark. "Jessielle, what were you doing?"
Before she knew what she was doing, Anafenza dipped her head in deference. "Mère," she greeted her, realizing this was Jessika’s mother. "I was gathering my things...why aren't we in the catacombs? What are you and Père doing out here?" She motioned to the descending moon, meteorites flying off it and impacting the ground in the distance. "We need to take shelter!" Anafenza looked around, realizing she wasn’t in control. She was watching the memory unfold, taking the role of Jessika in it. Even with the knowledge that she was in a dream, she couldn’t take control and change the course of it.
The mother – Raechelle, Anafenza realized was her name – shook her head ever so slightly and turned back to look at Dalamud. "We are sheltering. Jacemont, stand with me. Jessielle, come here." She motioned to her left and right sides; Jacemont stood to his wife's left, looking up at the sky. "Something is happening."
As she said the words, there was a loud crack, and the three of them watched as Dalamud began to fracture. Fire peeked out through the fissures, and enormous wings appeared at the top of the hulk. The surface of the moon roiled and shook.
"Gods preserve," Jacemont whispered, his eyes wide in horror.
Raechelle reached behind her, her hand grasping at the air behind her head. She raised her arm, and Anafenza watched in awe as woman lifted a large, black sword with gold-filigree into the air, pulling it out of thin air. Shadows and darkness seemed to pour out of it and fall off it, like fog off of an ice crystal. She spun the blade down and screamed, thrusting the sword into the ground.
There was deafening boom, and Ana fell backward as the moon was blasted apart, fragments flying into the ground with enough force that it shook all around them. A few homes were ripped apart as fragments slammed into them, fire and debris exploding into the air. The ground shook, and Ana fully expected to feel fire consume her. She was going to die, she knew it...
So when, after a few more moments, she was still alive, Ana opened her eyes, feeling the memory of Jessika’s confusion even though she knew what she was going to see. She looked around and heard herself gasp.
Raechelle was holding the hilt of the sword still, gritting her teeth. All around them, extending out several meters, was a swirling cloud of black mist and smoke, shadows flying through the cloud around them with such speed that Anafenza couldn't get clear views of them. The cloud enclosed them and much of the village like a bubble, the outside just barely visible.
Jacemont cursed loudly. "It's a dragon!"
"It's not a dragon, it's a god," Raechelle corrected, gazing in equal horror as her husband. Ana clambered to her feet, watching as the beast - which took up much of the sky - began to fly quickly around, flares of fire shooting from its body and striking the ground, causing more earthquakes and explosions. It soared overhead with a scream, releasing a volley of fire at the village below. Far in Othard, she remembered seeing the moon drift below the horizon, but this…
This is the Calamity everyone speaks of. Kami, what hell…
"Jacemont! Now!" Raechelle screamed. Anfenza turned in time to see the man reach up and behind him. He clenched his hand and, in the same way as she had seen the woman, pulled a large sword out of nowhere, thrusting it into the ground as well. There was a pulse of energy that she felt push through her, and the bubble of shadows grew darker.
The beast's fire slammed into the shield, and Jessika's parents shouted in surprise, both of them faltering slightly, as if a great weight just landed on their shoulders, pushing them downward. They held onto the hilts of their swords, struggling to straighten back up.
Anafenza looked around, the memory of terror rising in her as Jessika watched. Another memory crept into her thoughts, an earlier time that she’d seen this happen, but she didn’t focus on it. Anafenza had seen this cloud of shadows before as well – the day she killed Jessika, it had exploded around her, swirling around and subduing Ana, as the curse fell upon the auri girl.
Raechelle shouted, and Ana looked up to see the dragon approaching again, circling back around for another indiscriminate attack on the land below. "Jessielle, we need you!"
Anafenza blinked in surprise. "What?! No! I...I don't know what's happening!"
Jacemont staggered again, falling to one knee but still holding onto his sword. "Your bow, child! Your bow!"
Ana shook her head, staring at the wooden longbow in her hands. "I don't...know what you want from me," she said, still confused, though the hairs on the back of her neck began to prickle.
"Strike the ground!" He called again, pulling himself back up to standing. "Strike the ground and defend your home! Your friends! Your family! Defend those you love, protect them from this!" He looked at her, and she noticed his eyes were pitch black, shadowy energy flaring out of them like two dark fires. "You know what to do, child! Now, stand with us!"
Anafenza looked at the two elezen, then back at the bow in her hands. She looked up, seeing fire rain down again. Panicking, she did what Jacemont told her, lifting the bow in the air and striking the one end of it to the ground.
Ana felt another pulse of energy radiate out, and the shield grew darker still, swirling faster and further out so that it protected most of the village. She felt as if her feet were rooted to the ground, and her hands locked in place, wrapped around her bow. Her vision darkened as she heard the fire slam into the shield, felt the impact of the fireballs on the shield as if a heavy hand were shoving her to the ground. She fell to one knee, her hands unable to release the bow, gasping for breath. The familiar sensation of being choked by the darkness came to her, the same choking she’d felt when Jessika had died. Her eyes were playing tricks on her: in one moment, she could see the bow clear as day, but in the next the weapon appeared like a great sword, similar to the ones the elezen were wielding.
Similar to the sword I’ve pulled from my aether, she realized, recognizing the weapon she’d come to know as “Bloodthorn.”
The attack continued for what felt like hours, or maybe it was only a few seconds. The three of them were screaming in defiance and pain as the ground shook around them.
Then, the world went dark.
Woke up to kiratai shaking me roughly I was talking in my sleep and I sounded like I was in trouble, so he woke me. I was the younger girl again, and again I felt as if the wind and rains were at my command. I wore special armored gloves that made these incredibly strong sounds that could throw grown men through the air. I was with two other women roaming a…city, I suppose, though I’ve never seen buildings as tall nor constructed in such a fashion…that is, until Ishgard. I suppose the location could have lent itself to some of my fancy. I’m going to curl back up with Kirikun now and sleep
((Scrawled quickly, in shorthand and sloppy, the follow passage appears on the page, as if Anafenza was once again taking notes hastily))
There once lived a brave knight. Full of courage and chivalry and kindness. He was a knight of Ishgard, a Temple Knight, one of the most respected in the land. His shield bore no hint of his allegiance, beyond the blue as the skies and white wings. His devotion was to his country and his countrymen.
But he was young...and as most young men do, he fell in love. He fell in love with a woman he shouldn't have even known. She was common; he was valiant. But he loved her. And, everyone knew, she loved him as well. They married. There was talk, as there should be in Ishgard, but no one truly cared. They were happy for the knight and his wife.
But the nights in Ishgard are rarely peaceful, and rarely do the knights know peace. gods that sounded amazing when he said that!!
The wyrms attacked one eve, not more than a bell after sundown. They brought down fire from the heavens, ripping the great stone walls apart with their claws, and eating up women and naughty children did he really just say naughty children!? Is this a bedtime story?
The knight fought bravely, as he had every other night. He fought with a fire his fellow knights hadn't seen before. He was scarcely the same man. They said he had something far more important, far more dear to fight for, for his wife, he’d learned, was with child. With a great, ferocious cry, he thrust his sword into the head of the last dragon. The battle was won. Ishgard stood, strong as ever
The knight hurried home, not even bothering to wash his hands of the deeds from that night, his armor crimson with wyrmsblood.
But when he arrived, not a stone was left standing atop another. All the walls had been felled. The roof burned away. And there, in the center of the rubble, lay the knight’s wife, still as the night.
The knight dropped his shield. His sword he drove into the ground, the only support left for him that night, and he wailed. He wailed and he cried and he cursed and he prayed and he swore and he hoped and bargained, he said anything he could think and everything he should not...all for the sake of his wife.
But some bargains are better left unmade...and more still better unpaid…A dark cloud rose from the rubble, shadows dancing inside. The cloud surrounded the knight and his wife...and in it a voice that said…"Brave knight of Ishgard, we have heard your grief. Tell us, what you would do for our relief?"
"Anything," was his reply. "You may have my sword, my life. Please, bring back my wife."
The voice, it laughed, and then replied. "On you and on yours, twenty-fold. We bind you, brave knight, and your sword, and take your oath, your word.”
The cloud grew thicker...it drowned out the light. The knight fell ill, and then fell asleep. by the kami I know this cloud!!
The sun rose, the morning came. The knight awoke, his sword in hand. It felt heavier now; no longer did it shine in his hand. He heard a gasp, and a sob of despair. The knight sat up, looking for where.
His wife was alive; in the rubble she stood. But she seemed different somehow, somewhere. Her eyes seemed dull, her hair darker still. Her skin far more ashen...her voice trembled, "what did happen?" she asked.
But the knight only stood. He stared and he wondered and he thanked the gods and the hells...His fair wife was alive, and with him still. From then on he fought with no purpose, none save for his wife...and the oath he had sworn. They still were in love, and she bore him a daughter. But the love was not strong, not as it had been, not any longer. And the knight was reminded of the bargain he'd made, day in and day out...for the monsters had carved it upon the maid.
Dzamael servant stopped us at the airship docks. wanted to speak but could not be gone from his master too long. He had overhead us asking about the house Vignesang, which he is a descendant of!! He could not speak to the location of Jessika’s family – they’d left decades ago – but he did know the legend of the knight’s wife and told it to us. I wrote it down above as he spoke…I asked him if this was nothing more than a bedtime story. He laughed,s aying most stories are just truth that’s been forgotten. Then he pointed at the scales on my side, saying I bore the same mark as the maid – the Bloodvine, the symbol of House Vignesang. He bade us leave ishgard before an over-zealous inquisitor see it, and then he left.
((Quickly scrawled on the top of the page in atrocious handwriting is what seems like notes Anafenza has taken during a very rushed research session…))
Vignesang house accused heresy – consorting with dragons unnatural abbilities no transformation allowed? What mean?? House leader – mistress vignesang – tried at witchdrop body not found – assumed guilty of heresy. Rest of house now servants subsumed within Dzamael
Ishgard is full of records. While most literature concerning heretics and their stories were burned or just didn’t exist thanks to the War, records of trials and judgements? Plenty.
Mistress Vignesang was tried on grounds of heresy shortly after one of Nidhogg’s raids on Ishgard some hundred years ago. The woman had been seen on the top of her roof, screaming at the attacking dragons, within a maelstrom-like aura of darkness. She was tried at Witchdrop – meaning they hurled her off a cliff. If she lived, she’d have been considered guilty and struck down; if she died, she couldn’t have been in league with the dragons, and so would have enjoyed Halone’s blessing of pardon in death.
Seriously? Who believes this shite??
They never found her body at the bottom, so it was assumed she transformed into some kind of beast and escaped. Because of her guilt, the house was torn apart; surviving family members became servants to one of the great houses, Dzamael. After that, no more record of the name exists. Nothing outside of that judgement exists, either; whatever history the house had, it was destroyed.
No one at house Dzamael would speak to us. We couldn’t even get past the door guard Given our appearance, I’m sure we were immediately met with distrust despite the dragonsong war being done Any hope of speaking with any descendents is a lost cause for now.
Another dream – Again, the light-covered field. More of the child-like laughter and calling those words again Aenc Tyr The sky was a ablaze with light, but there was no warmth from a sun. It was not unpeaceful, and I awoke with the dawn feeling rested, but I write this to just continue to keep record for my own benefit. I still do not hear the song the others hear, but even my own song – the vignesang’s song, for surely it was HER’S – has grown more faint.
We return to the tower tomorrow. I don’t know about kiratai, but I should be glad to be away from this freezing hell
We are on our way to Ishgard now to find more on “Jessielle” and her house Vignesang. Miss Sasani and Miss Sasari were…not extremely pleased to bring her up, and I can understand the pain behind it. I think most of the caravan knew once Sasani returned for a few moons and…the elezen was nowhere to be seen. Hearing more of her
Eh, probably for the best
Kiratai in his chair is a hard sight. He is so proud, and I can see it bothers him to be…helpless? Maybe that’s not how he feels, I don’t know. But he is different now. And I hate I cannot sit on his shoulder anymore
Still, he was a great comfort on the journey here. Another dream (though I obviously didn’t immediately write it down). I was younger, in the great river. It was the day I was left behind – it’s not an easy to forget setting. But I was there, looking across the steppe…and I saw one of the women again. It was the one with the arrowhead jewelry on her chest, the older one. She saw me, and we locked eyes. She immediately turned and hurried away into the rocks. I followed as quickly as I could, but when I found her, she was disappearing in a swirl of lights and chimes. Nothing remained of her there. I searched a little longer, before realizing I needed to return to the river and my family. After that, the dream was the same as it has been before – I am searching for them, and they’ve left me alone.
He said “what if you’re dreaming of someone you used to be?” And the damn scar burned like it knew!
What if it’s not someone I used to be What if it’s someone she was?
I need to find a way to Idylshire, for the library there. Or Ishgard, to research her house
Seven hells, I hope this gives me answers…
Aenc tyr
And now I can hardly remember the rest of the dream, dammit all. Bright sunlight steaming down through breaks in the trees. And that damnable tree was there too, darkness pouring from it as usual.
There were giggles and high-pitches laughter. Those two words repeated again and again.
It’s fading faster this time. Perhaps this really was just a dream. The other two women, the blue-skins, were there as well. And a voice, begging... open the gate?
I can’t remember any more. Aenc tyr
I need to borrow a few of the books from the library, I think…
The dream tonight was more familiar to me. I was in a cave, the steady drip of water echoing as it fell from the ceiling. I wandered for a time, not lost but unsure of where I was to go. I finally happened upon a large cavern, with vaulting cieling above. I looked about, before I suddenly just appeared before me, as if it had been there always
In the center of the cavern stood a large tree, the trunk large around The branches were filled with leaves, despite the darkness of the cavern. An energy radiated from it, a dark aura Creeping up the trunk was a creeping vine that seemed to wind its way around the tree and up into the branches, its dark red leaves trying to choke out the tree.
I know this tree; I first saw it after I killed that woman and took that curse on me. This was nothing new to me.
I found myself compelled to touch it, and I reached out a hand. I gasped when I did as I felt a rush of energy pulse through me. I heard similar gasps of surprise from near me, and I looked up to see
What was new were the other two women in the cavern with me. Each had blue skin and hair, nearly identical in appearance save for their clothes. They seemed surprised to see me and the other, each inspecting their own tree, similar in appearance to mine except for the vine, that also stood in the cavern. The younger of the two was touching her tree with a large hand sheathed in metal. The other held a device that looked like those tomestones, the device giving off a soft chiming noise. She, too, had placed a hand cautiously on her tree.
And as we now finally saw one another, I awoke, shivering.
What is going on with me?
This dream was full of pain. I pray even more that it was just a dream, because if this was real
I wish I could find this girl and rescue her. she was in so much pain, and so very scared. She was younger, not the same grown woman from my last dream. But the skin, the hair, the eyes I swear she was a twin, if not the same woman. But the setting was all wrong – it was dark, and dirty. It smelled of sweat and blood. Snarls and howls could be heard through the caverns. And this girl just sat, head resting on her chest, the final remnants of her sobbing slowly ending. Her legs were out in front of her as she sat, heavy chains bolted to the floor and clasped around her ankles. Her arms were held above her head, the blue skin marred with dark bruises and blood, her hands dangling limply from above the shackles around her wrists.
She coughed, weakly, before groaning, and I could feel the pain in her arms and legs. And then she, too, seemed to be aware of my presence. She couldn’t look up – so injured she was – but I knew she was talking to me.
“Please…help me.”
I know I moved toward her, but I actually did reach her. too many dreams I’ve had where I could not reach out and help, but this time I did get to her. I knelt in front of her, my hand resting softly on her cheek. “What happened,” I asked her, and she laughed bitterly.
“I’m hallucinating,” she said, slowly picking up her head to look at me. “Even you don’t know what happened”
I know I shook my head – I don’t think I said anything else the rest of the dream. I saw memories, rather than her explain what happened. Hulking men like wolves had surrounded her. She was escaping. They caught her and beat her. They broke her limbs to keep her from escaping again. She’d been here for days, hoping for rescue.
“Please…daddy…” I was brought back from the memories to see her head resting again. She was sleeping, though the look on her face showed she had no comfort here. I kissed her forehead, and before I knew it I was pulling my head out of the water of my bed. I came here frantically to write it all down – even now the memory of it is fading.
Who is this girl? What did she do to deserve such treatment? And why could she see me as well as the other…
As her twin? I know not how, but I know they were two very different people…and yet something about them is familiar to me.
I am not sure if I should be reading more books about Allag, or any of the fictions that are in our stores concerning allag technology.
First, it was a room this time; smaller than my apartment by far, but not cramped. There was a couch off to one side, next to a window. On the other side of that was a small desk. The desk had
It was thin and rectangular. It had words and pictures on it, that kept changing, rewriting I guess. I didn’t recognize the words – whatever language it was, I didn’t know it. There were similar glass rectangles with words and pictures flashing and rewriting on the far wall as well, next to a door that I assume led out to another room. The window showed a vast night sky, with stars far more immeasurable than any sky I’ve ever seen.
There was a small hiss, and the doors opened. A woman walked in, face down and studying what looked like one of those allagan tomestones, though it was larger than ones I’ve seen. She was wearing black pants, and a top that was black but with white shoulders and a red stripe separating the black from the white. There was a arrowhead pinned on her chest, silver. She had blue skin, and short blue hair and piercing blue eyes – I didn’t think it was possible for anyone to have that much blue on them naturally
She rounded the corner of the desk and sat down. After a moment of reading the device she dropped it on the desk and reached for a white ball that she had sitting on it. She tossed it into the air and then, as it came back down, bumped it back up with both hands. She did this a few times, oblivious to me – I think I was a ghost, watching this dream.
And then she dropped the ball, and stared right at me. Her eyes blinked a few times, her mouth hanging open. I didn’t know what to do either. We just stared at one another. And then she laughed a little and said the oddest thing.
“It’s you!”
I woke up then. I don’t know what that dream was, and I certainly didn’t recognize her. Who was she? What was that place?
Was I even dreaming?
More flying tonight, but the storm – gods the storm was incredible! So much rage and anguish carried on the winds, and the rain was biting cold and sharp as needles. But it didn’t stop me I just flew faster and faster, through the canyon of steel of glass. People hurried around beneath me – they all looked like hyur, but the clothing was strange. Still I just flew and flew, feeling more of the energy as I did before.
I felt overcome with grief? Pain? I realized I was crying but i didn’t know why. It was a sadness I am not familiar with
and I realized too that I was crying. I slowed my flying, feeling my face
my hand was blue! I didn’t know how or why but the skin was blue, and without scales The surprise stopped my tears and, just like that, the sky cleared. No biting rain, no strong winds whipping my face, no clouds hiding the late evening sky
My chest burned, and I hiccupped, but this pain in my heart…I do not know why I was so sad that I would make the sky weep with me
Another clear dream. Now and then they are crystal clear as if I am watching events unfold before me, a witness to things. Of course I have had dreams like these before, of memories of the Steppe. My tribe, my parents and family
This was strange though, fantastic in nature. I was flying, as easily as I could swim through a river. I could feel the wind in my face whipping my hair behind my head. I felt an energy wrapping around me, electric. I laughed and it was then I recognized the sound was not my voice but my head voice.
Everyone has a voice they use in their minds. I noticed some time ago mine is not the same as my spoken voice, and I know not when the two changed. But this voice I heard while flying over mountains of glass and steel was the one in my mind. I knew it was a dream then – because obviously the flying didn’t give it away. But when I realized I was dreaming I stopped in mid-air and turned to the mirrored surface of a mountain to look at my reflection, feeling something was amiss and that I was being watched. I managed to catch a glimpse of blue before I woke, and found myself in bed in my room, splashing in the shallow water.
On the front page, the word “Diary” is crossed out and scribbled over, and written hastily above it are the words “dream journal”
“Keep a journal by your bed so when you wake up you can write down as much as you can remember.” Thats what she said, so thats what this is: a dream journal now. It was not working out well as a diary anyway so there is that too. And since the dreams have started to come more maybe this will be better. I can hardly remember much of them by the time I wake except that damned tree and the miasma
And more voices too! Female voices, and the same voice too but doing different things. And the song, always the song.
There is a long break, before more writing on the second half of the page, somewhat more sloppy and hastily written…
They were there again. In the dark miasma. The two voices had shadows too. One was standing pointing here and there and shouting. There was a noise like those sirens the Garleans use, and she said something about bringing up shields. I looked to the other side of the tree, and another shadow was sitting. She was crying; I could tell it was the same voice, but she seemed built different. There was a low rumble of thunder as well – it was raining while she cried. I don’t know what she was crying about.