The shrine echoes with phantoms. A young woman, always looking serious. The priest, who seems harder than a priest should be. And a child, maybe four or five years old, appearing in various places. The furnishings are ancient sarcophagi, as might be find in a prosperous house that could keep their dead within - but there are any remains left now, and the phantom sounds from beyond the crack are angry or desperate or predatory - the sounds of a market place in the Streets Below.
More solid than the dream or memory he stands in, the Barsunala holds a stuffed toy chibix in his right hand. This place is clearly not where the child he seeks lives - but where he spent much of his life, apparently, and which left deep impressions on him. There's something else here though - something tenuous, but definitely a link to Wynona Windcaller.
"I feel sorry for the child if this is an important place already in his life," the Barsunala remarks quietly to himself as he walks through this 'memory', a few paces behind the child wherever he appears in fleeting moments. "Children should not have to know about the complexities of living and dying so soon." His attention flicks from here and there, to even the link to Wynona. What would she have to do with this place?
Focusing his attention on it makes it a little clearer. The boy is afraid. "Matra - take the boy!" the priest-figure commands, and lunges towards another phantom, plunging a dagger into its torso as it babbles about "They knew... they knew..." before screaming out from the stab. Everything else stops, the stabbed phantom forming.. a crack? Some sort of opening in the memory-dream.
The Barsunala's pale eyes narrow as he focuses on the moment; trying to make it more real. Who is this priest? Who is the woman? Who knew? Who came?
The stranger that became the 'rift' in the memory space is still indistinct, just an impression of 'whiteness'. The boy may have simply been too afraid at what was happening to remember it clearly.
The Barsunala focuses on the rift, trying to draw what he can from it. These are old memories, but may be still relevant. He actually reaches out to try and grab that phantom.
Everything changes. Now he's on the back of a ptera, over the Pit. An airship is overhead, bearing the symbol of Rephath. The rider in front of him says, "You've really lost it, Envoy. That's Captain Karada right there." She points to the rider on an approaching ptera. "And I find it hard to imagine he'd try to stab anyone without due cause." It's clearly Wynona, wearing Yodhrephath armor.
"Well, unless you are overlooking things due to your feelings towards him, Wynona," the Barsunala thinks. He considers asking a question, but he is a phantom in a memory. No one here would be aware of his presence.
The other ptera comes close enough for the Captain to call, "Sister Wynona! Who is that you have there?"
"Sister. It is odd to hear that title be used for her; she seems anything but," The Barsunala thinks.
Wynona has one ear turned back towards Alptraum.. is she's listening to something, Alptraum isn't hearing it though - just Wynona's side of the conversation. "I don't know about his servants. But he had five children - all of them lost. Please, Envoy... this is a very personal matter for him. Please don't be your usual blunt self around him. This isn't something he's casually shared with me. You see..." She breaks that off, then calls out, "A friend! She must have gotten lost! I'm taking her back tot he Vigilant Eye!"
Alptraum actually reaches out to try and place a hand upon Wynona's shoulder. It's a memory; things that cannot be changed. But, it doesn't stop him from caring or instinctively try to be reassuring. Well, as reassuring as death's 'right hand' can possibly be reassuring anyway.
The other rider waves an arm in sign of acknowledgement, and then his ptera breaks off, rolling to the right and leaving the way clear for Wynona to approach the airship. Things seem to be slowing down though. Wynona turns and looks at Alptraum.. and seems to really see him. Her eyes go wide. "She said she wouldn't mention anything," the white bat tells the black one. "Oh.. I should have pressed her about it.."
"And now you see me having to do my duty, as it were," Alptraum remarks quietly in case she really does see him. "She spoke up, then? Told someone? Endangered him or his family?"
"No.. it wasn't until she came back on Reckoning Day that she met with Karada," Wynona says. "By then the Yodhbarada had already spoken with him, so it didn't matter. They'd found the boy and taken him somewhere."
"Then what would have pressing the matter with her have changed?" Alptraum points out.
"We'd have known sooner," Wynona says. "Maybe the Captain could have found them in the Streets Below. But Envoy gave the message to the Yodhbarada. I'm not sure if she actually understood what it was - she was pretty messed up at the time."
"Maybe. You cannot punish yourself over could-haves. You don't know if anything would be different. You are upset at how things turned out and are looking for how it could have been fixed. The truth is ... even if other options were taken you cannot know if anything would be different," Alptraum points out and shrugs. "It doesn't stop it, though. I do the same and the advice I just gave I rarely listen to either."
"But you're here now.. so.. you're going to try and bring father and son together?" Wynona asks.
"Maybe," Alptraum says. "That depends on him. I know you care about him and probably with good reason. But, I have to consider the safety of the child so I have to judge his soul myself." The last part sounds more serious than Alptraum usually sounds.
"But you need me to take you to him, or you wouldn't be here," Wynona says with a sigh. "So.. if he gets hurt, that'll be on me, won't it?"
"He will not be physically harmed," Alptraum says, "And I should remind you that you asked me to do this. So, yes, part of it will fall upon your shoulders."
Wynona turns to look at the now frozen-in-flight ptera of the Captain's. "I owe it to him, I suppose. Maybe he'll hate me, or never be candid with me ever again.. but he can't have this hanging over him forever like it is."
"He doesn't have to know you were even involved. He certainly cannot know that I am. At least not initially. Everyone fears the reaper, you see. I cannot get anything honest about his soul if he knows who I am," Alptraum points out. He turns back to look at the ship for a moment. "Did those ships ever take on refugees?"
"Not.. not in any groups," Wynona says. "Anyone brought to the ship was usually someone found in the sanctuary zone of the Pit. That could be good or bad, depending on what they were doing. Now that you have me as a bridge, can you.. go into his dreams or memory?"
"In theory, yes," Alptraum says as he rocks his head, popping his neck. "But, the trick you see is triggering the right memory. A strong enough one to actually tap." Alptraum then grins toothily, white teeth gleaming in an otherwise black face. "So ... I guess I will have to be your prisoner," the Eeee quips, waggles his brow, then furrows it in concentration. Changing in dreams should be different than in reality; and this is a reasonably easy attempt at shifting. Just a younger version of himself; the kid that Barada often wanted Alptraum in the form of. Well, without the white hair at least. All black; simpler. A kid clutching the old chibix toy to his chest should he get it right. Something to help trigger memories in the Captain; a child with a familiar toy.
"Well, here goes," Wynona says, and time resumes as her ptera heads for the Vigilant Eye. As it comes in for a landing, there's a familiar tearing or cracking in the dream that they seem to pass through. When they land, things seem slightly different from Wynona's version of the event, but it's more in the texture of things than the appearance. Karada has already landed, and his handing the reigns of his mount over to another armored woman.
Alptraum has been replaced by a young, raggedy looking child. A child that is clutching the chibix toy to his chest; the toy that belonged to Karada's 'child' from marriage. Hopefully enough to trigger something in the captain. "I got lost!" the boy squeaks loudly. "It wasn't blasphemy!"
The Captain actually drops to one knee to be closer to Alptraum's height. "So you are Sister Wynona's lost friend?" he asks, gently. "What is your name, child?"
"Tod," Alptraum claims as he hugs the old toy tighter and takes a couple steps back from the kneeling Captain, eying him warily.
"Where do you live, Tod?" the Captain asks, looking momentarily sad when the boy steps back towards Wynona. "Would you like Sister Wynona to take you home?"
"No!," 'Tod' squeaks loudly, shaking. "I wasn't trying to violate the Wound, honest! I was looking for my family;my home was ... it used to be ... I was just looking ... maybe someone survived," he says in choking words. "I know what happens to people accused of doing that. I don't want to be taken to die too."
Here the Captain tenses up. "Nobody is going to hurt you," he promises, sounding serious. "You can't go.. back. I lost my family to the boomer too, Tod. You must have been very young when it happened. Someone clearly takes care of you now though. It's important that you grow up and be an honor to your family's memory, no matter how hard it can seem to be." He then actually opens his arms a bit, offering a hug.
'Tod' fidgets nervously. It cannot be often that anyone trusts someone in power and authority, after all. He looks between Wynona and the captain a few times. The movement that follows is slow, but he does eventually go to the captain and return the hug. It's tense and nervous, of course. As for the toy, it remains clasp in one hand still, which means it ends up draping over the Captain's left shoulder during the hug.
"My girls had toys like that," Karada says, and gives the boy a hug. "Did your guardians give it to you?"
"Yeah," 'Tod' claims, sniffling a little. "They ... died in the boomer too? I'm sorry."
"Yes, and my son," Karada says. "He was only a month old. We hadn't even named him yet."
'Tod' bites his lip, ears splayed out to the side. He holds out the toy to the Captain, ears quivering nervously. "Hugging it helps," he claims timidly. "A little."
Karada smiles and takes the offered toy. It makes a little 'chirp' when he squeezes it, and then his expression changes to one of confusion, as the world changes.
There's a training ring for the Dromodons, but inside is a young Fnerf galloping about, while a young bat - maybe six years old - stands on his back with bent knees and splayed arms for keeping balance. "Yo! Yo! Yo-Yo-Yoshi!" the boy squeals.
"What is this?" Karada asks, still holding the toy but standing up.
"What does your heart tell you?" 'Tod' says, but in a voice far older than his current body should have. In fact, his entire form seems a bit 'indistinct', like a fading memory.
"The crest on the door.. it is my wife's family," Karada says. "Tekkis." He squeezes the toy before continuing. "I didn't think they had holdings outside of Babel. But they were good at keeping secrets. The boy looks too happy to be.. hiding things."
A matronly Eeee exits the manor doorway, and calls out, "Renko! Don't hurt yourself! Do what Yoshi tells you!"
"That child, Renko, would be too young to remember he had something to hide," The phantom-Tod says, his voice seeming like whispers on the breeze. "He lost his family when he was a month old."
"Then he didn't lose anything," Karada says, still watching the boy. "Is Matra here with him still? She must be his mother.. to him. My wife's family was.. deep.. with the Yodhbarada. And all that implies for their character. He's not even actually my son. My wife only gave me daughters, and they were beautiful."
"You're wrong. He lost, even if he doesn't remember it directly he remembers it ... like a phantom, a shadow that is always there," the phantom says in the gentle breeze. "I never knew my parents as a child either; you always feel ... different, even if you cannot explain why."
"He looks happy now though," Karada says. "I don't think they will use him against me. He doesn't even know me."
Another Eeee woman appears, fairly young - although maybe old enough to be the boy's mother. "It's time for your bath, Renko," she calls, and the Fnerf stops the game to bring the boy over to her. "I'm not hardly dirty!" Renko complains.
"Matra," Karada identifies her, and smiles. "She made it. And is still with him. She's a good girl."
"The Yodhbarada never intended to do so," the Phantom notes; voice stronger now. Probably because it comes from an adult standing beside the captain; tall, muscular, dark save for the flowing white hair. "They worried you would use him."
"I never really got to be a father," Karada notes, glancing aside finally to Alptraum, while Matra allows Renko to splash around in a mud puddle to justify getting a bath. "Always away. I don't know who his father really is. I didn't ask when I came back from the Nagai Empire. I was going to treat him like my own blood anyway. He was such a little thing when the world fell apart. Maybe his real father pulled him to safety, watched over him all those years until.. he could come here."
"Would you embrace that role if you had the chance, though? Do you want to talk to him?" Alptraum offers. "I can make it so that he can ... see you for a moment or two."
"Would Matra see me though? Is this real?" Karada asks. "I can't be the boy's father now. He has a life, and I would only complicate it. Let him be young.. but I wouldn't mind talking to him."
"The child is dreaming, same as you," Alptraum explains as he raises his hand so that he can snap his fingers. It's a rather dramatic way to handle, well, just pausing things for a moment. "Do you wish her to see you too?"
"She's just part of his dream, so it doesn't matter," Karada notes. "Renko doesn't know me, so she won't. I don't know if she really knows I'm alive. How could she? You aren't Morpheus, are you?"
"No, I'm the Barsunala," Alptraum answers. Probably not a name he would want to hear, but it is the truth. He walks over to the child and taps him lightly on his forehead. Of course it's a bit dramatic to just restart part of the child's dream, but such things are expected.
"You can't have my mud!" the boy declares, not really minding that everything else is still frozen.
"I don't want your mud," Alptraum claims and smiles to the child. "He wants your mud," he adds, gesturing to Karada.
"You can't have it either!" Renko declares. "Are you a soldier? You look like a soldier! Have you got a sword? Can I hold it?"
Alptraum chuckles to himself. Kids. This one has been spared the horrors of much of the world at least.
Karada kneels down again (in the mud this time) and puts a hand atop the boy's head. "Yes, I'm a soldier, and I do have a sword," he says. He even shows the boy the fancy hilt, with the Karada crest on it. "But you're too little to hold it yet. When you're all grown up, come find me, and I will give you this sword."
"That'll take forever!" Renko complains. He isn't insistent though. Growing up in the Streets Below, protected or not, does not lead to a spoiled child or one prone to tantrums. "Where do I look for you?"
"I'll be in Babel, commanding the most impressive airship," Karada claims. "Your aunties will be able to find me. But you mustn't ask until you're ready to go, when you're big and strong. Do you promise?"
"Hmmm," Renko ponders. He looks at the fancy sword hilt again, then spits in his palm and holds it out. "Genoh!" he declares, and Karada clasps hands with him, repeating the phrase.
Alptraum stays in the background and chuckles. "I suppose that is the best to hope for. His position is one where an actual child would be a weakness and there are more than enough people alive that would try to exploit it," he thinks grimly.
"Don't give Matra too hard a time about baths, either," Karada says, then looks to Alptraum to.. start the boy's dream back up, probably.
Alptraum sighs and snaps his fingers again. The move is to take them back out of the dream so that the child is back to just being aware of Matra and the Fnerf.
Renko is now running around while Matra laughs and tries to catch him, before he can get mud everywhere.
"Too afraid to linger?" Alptraum asks of Karada.
"I just want him to remember the promise, when he's ready," Karada says to Alptraum. "I don't know what else to say to him. And the longer I stay and watch.. the harder it will be when I wake. If I wake, that is. Are you here to take me to the Sea of Souls?"
"And this is why I told her that I could not appear as myself at first," Alptraum grumbles as he heads back over to the Captain. "You just made a promise to that boy to be waiting for him in Babel when he was older," he points out, "You made this thinking you could not keep it?"
"My sword would be waiting," Karada notes. "I have made sure of that."
"A trinket does not replace a person; it only carries memories," Alptraum counters and taps Karada on the nose. "Are you so eager to die?"
"No, I am not," Karada says, and holds up the toy. "Carrying memories is still powerful though, isn't it?"
"It allowed me to find your son, so yes," Alptraum concedes. "But, I think he should get a chance to know you. Not of you; know you."
"When he is ready, he will ask the Yodhbarada," Karada says. "They will either honor his request, or show him that he cannot trust them to hold his best interests. Right now, he would not understand the truth about me."
"Actually, they would bring him to you if I requested it; they fear me," Alptraum notes, "Unfortunate as I prefer to not make people fear me, but such was necessary. That said, I also have no intention of forcing them to bring him now. I wish I could ... but the time, as you say, is wrong for such."
"It will be better if he comes because he wants to," Karada says. "I was.. angry.. at the thought of him being taken somewhere. Now, I see that it is the best outcome. He is with real family, not broken people in a broken city." The man then regards Alptraum. "Why are you doing this? You hint at parallels to your own past, but how could you know about me and my son?"
"Someone who cares a great deal about you asked me to find him as a favor," Alptraum answers. "How could I refuse? It is a rare moment when I am not dealing with endings but a beginning instead."
"This.. isn't some means of indebting me to Sunala then?" Karada asks. "Wynona did this?"
"You owe neither Sunala, or myself, anything. I do not ask for things in return for anything I do," Alptraum answers and waves his hand lightly. "As for who, do you really wish to know?"
"The choices are very narrow," Karada says. "If it wasn't Windcaller, then who?"
"It was her. She wished to lift some of the weight from you," Alptraum says.
"I'm not sure how to.. respond," Karada admits. "Our relationship is complicated."
"How do you want to respond?" Alptraum asks.
"I don't want to worry her, nor really let her know what has happened," Karada says. "She's sensitive. The Yodhrephath who cries in her sleep. She wants to be strong, and I try to help her in that. I may be the first man to do so though, or else the stress of her life is inflating my importance in it."
"I think you sell yourself short," Alptraum notes. "My advice here? Just say two words, in passing some day. 'Thank you'. Nothing more need be said."
"I'll try to do so in private," Karada says, looking concerned. "The other Yodh would give Wynona hell over any hint of favoritism."
"I could give them hell should they ever cause her any significant strain," Alptraum notes a bit grimly. "But yes, in private is advised."
"I'm pretty sure the Barsunala isn't supposed to show favoritism either," Karada points out. "We serve.. in different capacities.. and we should do so professionally."
"No, but I can make people treat each other with more respect if I feel they are crossing a line," Alptraum says, "Not often, but I can. Now, I have a question for you."
"Of course, what is your question?" Karada asks.
Alptraum rubs his forehead. "Do you want to say goodbye?" he asks, fingers pinching the spot between his eyes briefly. "To your daughters, that is. I may be able to find them."
Karada freezes. "That.. isn't something I'm prepared to deal with right now," he says. "Seeing my living son.. that gives me hope. I need to hold onto that a bit longer, before I can face despair again."
To that Alptraum nods. "I had to offer, if it would help you find closure. The greatest regret I have heard time and again was not having the chance to say goodbye," he says.
"It is different when dealing with children," Karada says. "They don't always understand goodbyes. I've said goodbye to them many times, before going off to war. They never realized it was because I might not come back."
"I didn't have the opportunity to say goodbye to mine," Alptraum says and shrugs slightly. "Shall I return you to your dreams?"
"You have children?" Karada asks.
"They are not born yet," Alptraum says. "My duties required me here."
"Then you owe it to them to go back to them when you can," Karada claims. "Sometimes that can be the only thing that keeps you going - having them to go back to."
"If I do not succeed at all costs in my duties here, there will be nothing to return to," Alptraum notes grimly. "The storm that is coming will try to wash the world away."
Karada smirks slightly. "Wynona is good at storms," he points out. "Any storm that comes after us has to get through ours first."
"I am not sure how she would handle a storm of death and insanity that Diphath intends to inflict upon the city," Alptraum counters.
"Storms are storms," Karada says. "Prepare the ground, funnel the flood waters where you want them to flow, use its momentum to force its direction."
Alptraum chuckles. "Simple in theory," he comments. "Now, shall I return you to your dream? Or is there something else you wish to ask?"
"I can return," Karada says, and bows. "Will I remember it all?" he then asks.
"Yes, you will remember it all," Alptraum says. "For good or bad."
"Thank you, then," Karada says, and salutes.
Alptraum walks right up and pokes Karada between the eyes. Again a bit overly dramatic, but the purpose is to just put him back on pause and try to shift focus back to Wynona's aspect of the odd 'dream'.
With a bit of effort, Alptraum finds himself back on the deck of the Vigilant Eye, where Wynona still stands with the reins of her ptera in her hand.
"It is done," Alptraum says to Wynona.
"Did it go well?" Wynona asks after taking a deep breath.
"As well as such things can," Alptraum replies and shrugs slightly. "In a few years, they may actually meet in person."
The white Eeee deflates a little, as if having been puffing herself up and just now relaxing. "That's.. good, then. His mind is at ease about it all?" she asks.
"I do not know him that well so I cannot say for certain, but I believe so," Alptraum answers while rubbing the back of his neck. "There is no 'simple' solution here. His position prevents many courses of action. What was done was the best that could be."
"Can you think of any.. uh.. fallout from this?" Wynona asks, rubbing the back of her neck now too. "Anything I should be watchful for, I suppose?"
"I expect your relationship with him will get more complicated," Alptraum admits. "In at least that he cannot show any sort of favoritism, but he does know it was you behind this."
"Did he seem upset with me?" Wynona asks worriedly.
"Not at all," Alptraum answers.
Wynona actually smiles then, which looks at odds with her attire. "That's.. that's better than I hoped for, then. Thank you, Barsunala," she says. "Or do you prefer Alptraum? Or is that just when you're not doing.. uh.. official.. stuff?"
"Well, I can be terrifying, imposing, and much more. Some people seem to want that from someone such as me; appearances and all that," Alptraum remarks, sighs, then shrugs, "But you can call me what you wish. I have no desire to enforce my will upon you."
"If you don't mind then.. I'll stick with Alptraum," the girl says, leaning in to say it in a conspirational tone. "It makes me feel a lot easier, anyway."
"I'm sure I'll somehow ruin that eventually," Alptraum admits with a sigh.
"You mean you're going to frighten me?" Wynona asks, looking worried again. "Why would you do that?"
"Not intentionally," Alptraum says and sighs, "But I am actually capable of changing shape. It isn't just a dream thing.
"I thought only a few beings could do that.. and only into one other shape, usually," Wynona says, eyes wide. "How are you able to do it?"
"Because I sacrificed part of myself for someone else; someone I love," Alptraum says. "It came with some benefits, and some drawbacks."
"So.. how much of a deity are you then?" Wynona asks, looking like she wants to poke Alptraum. "Half? A third?"
Alptraum has to shrug at that. "I don't know how to quantify it," he admits. "I once spent a week as a hog."
The Air Mage blinks at that revelation. "Uh.. why?" she asks. "Was it.. fun?"
"Because people will say anything when they think they're talking to a dumb animal," Alptraum points out. "Mostly it was odd."
Wynona blushes suddenly. "Oh.. I had a pet creen as a child," she admits. "I would talk to it, and tell it things I'd never say to another person. And then it started repeating it all and.. I was mortified. I felt betrayed. By a creen." She just sighs. "So.. yes, people will say anything to an animal."
"So it can be an effective way to get information," Alptraum notes, then smirks. "Want me to prove it to you some day?"
"By spying on me?" Wynona squeaks. "There.. aren't many animals in the Temple. Oh gods.. can you turn into a ptera?"
"Not by spying on you, no," Alptraum says with a sigh. "And yes, I could, given time to study one."
"But.. can you talk still?" Wynona asks, trying to get her head around it all. "I mean.. it's still you after all.."
"Not if the throat isn't built for it, no," Alptraum points out.
This seems to disappoint the Air Mage. "Oh.. that's.. too bad," she says. Maybe she always wanted a magical talking animal companion or something. So long as it wasn't a creen.
"I'm not going to be your pet," Alptraum remarks dryly.
"I'm already Gorphat's pet after all," he thinks.
"I'm sure we'll meet again though," Wynona says. "But you don't have to perform any tricks for me. I like you how you are."
You would be one of a few," Alptraum remarks as he reaches over and flicks Wynona in the forehead, popping her dream! Now alone, he sighs to himself, muttering about how he's just too nice in general. Still, he does feel reasonably good about what he did. Bringing closure to a tragedy helps and this city needs as much help as it can get.