Puzzle of Lies

Participants:

delia2_icon.gif elisabeth_icon.gif

Scene Title Puzzle of Lies
Synopsis A broken angel bound to an enigma sends the lost dreamer on a quest.
Date November 19, 2010

The Sea of Dreams


By the light of the silvery moon, the warm waves lap at Delia's feet as she lays back and tries to find the stars. A distant memory of a king whose words to her said something about looking for a star and a tailor, maybe a tailor under a star, she's rather uncertain which. The gentle bobbing of the giant puzzle piece that she's laying on is soothing in a way, it's good not having to walk.

If she wanted to cross the ocean, she should start paddling.

Off in the distance, a woman's voice sounds through the mist. It almost sounds like she's fretting about something, by the way the murmured words echo across the water. Sitting up, the young woman lifts the makeshift bundle onto her back and ties it securely. Then she stoops at the edge of her 'raft' and begins spooning her hand through the water, trying to hurry toward the voice.

When the mist clears, the vision of a woman with long blond hair, tied into a tail at the nape of her neck can be seen. She's standing on a giant piece of the jigsaw and using a pole to navigate a bunch of others. They're not cooperating as much as one would like, as they keep drifting out of order, wriggling just out of her reach.

"D'you need some help?" The redhead, paddles a little closer on what looks to be a corner piece of the woman's puzzle.

The woman struggling with the puzzle in the water looks up, blue eyes brilliant in the star-streaked night. There is a sense of music shimmering around her, a haunting melody that lingers just at the edges of awareness. "They keep slipping away," Elisabeth laments sadly. "There are too many of them and as soon as I think I have one, it shifts." Her voice is husky. "I don't know what to do. If I can just get enough of them, the picture will make sense. They won't die. I'll know how to stop it."

The stars that Elisabeth is able to see are invisible to the redhead on the raft as she paddles ever closer. Sparkling droplets of water slip from her fingertips like diamonds as she raises them up out of the water. Using one to push some of her wild hair out of the way, she twists it into a knot behind her head, letting only a few of the curling strands loose to frame her face.

Staring into Elisabeth's eyes, there's a gasp of surprise from the young woman and a breath of awe as she points up. Forbidden blue. "You've…" There's no recognition from the young woman to the blond whatsoever, ".. you've got blue eyes." Stating the obvious as she is, there must be something somewhat uncommon with the sight, at least here. No matter. Wiping her hands on the thin cotton dress she wears, the young woman concentrates on the sight before her.

With a shake of her head, Delia pushes one of the pieces toward the other woman, getting it close to the group she has already. "M-maybe if we work together?" The offer of cooperation comes unbidden but with a lilt of hope in her voice. "Then you'll be able to finish?"

Her eye color seems the least of her concerns. "Would you?" Elisabeth asks hopefully. She turns on her puzzle piece, the diaphanous white of the spaghetti-strapped dress she wears swirling about her ankles as she gracefully and effortlessly balances on the edge piece that she floats upon. The movement flashes a glimpse of broken angelic wings tucked into the fragile hollow of her shoulders, useless. She pushes the piece she rides with the pole, shifting two others toward one another where they finally click together. The image in those two pieces alone is unclear, not enough of the picture to determine what it should be of. Mournfully Elisabeth murmurs, "The monster is walking the shadows. He tells lies, and each lie is another piece of the puzzle. But he's tricky. He tells just enough truth to make me believe the lies. I have to be so careful."

The young redhead nods and stoops down to the roll of fur that she'd been using as a pillow. The straps at its ends give evidence that it's also something of a carrying case as well. Reaching into one end, she draws out a gleaming sword, jeweled at the hilt and crowned with a large black pearl. It reflects the moonlight like a mirror, casting bits of light onto the broken angel and her white gown.

Delia doesn't have a pole to gather the pieces, so the sword is used as a substitute. Reaching out, she flicks one of the pieces toward herself an surprisingly, when they collide, they click into place. Again, the picture doesn't make any sense to her.

A swift and cautious flicker of her eyes is given into the darkness as yet another piece drifts closer to them. Standing up on her larger raft, the redhead waits for it to waft within reach before poking at it with her sword.

Elisabeth is grasping for other pieces, and there is a small pool of five or six… but none of them have edges that seem to be fitting together. "I think the boy's life depends on them," she murmurs in frustration, watching the swirl round and round one another. "Perhaps all of their lives. But all the pieces aren't here!" she cries softly. There is a chiming of sounds, discordant but lovely as she says it.

"Then…" Seeing only one course of action for the angel and herself, Delia glances at the blonde woman and chews on her bottom lip lightly. "We have to find the monster and make him lie some more." A somewhat fearful glint can be seen in her dusty grey eyes as she peers into the darkness and whatever awaits them there. Giving an audible gulp, she sets her jaw stubbornly and reaches down to the fur bundle on the ground.

After hefting it up to her shoulder, she straightens and lifts her chin in a determined expression before sheathing the golden sword back into the fur. "How do we get to where he is?"

Elisabeth's head comes around and those brilliant crystalline eyes fall on the woman on the other pizzle piece. "He hides in his lair, walking the shadows and sowing the seeds of destruction," she tells her companion softly. "We must tread very, very carefully. He's had a long time to put his plans into play. The more lies he tells, the more confusion there is. Are you sure you want to step into this fight?" She has become the haunted, broken angel she wears on her shoulder, and even in dreams she continues to seek the answers to the riddle… and to protect those who would choose to follow.

This is the path that Delia's been led down and with a deadpan expression to the angel, she simply nods and hooks her thumbs into the strap of the fur pack. "I have to help, I wouldn't be able to go home if I didn't." The cryptic words are all the explanation she gives to the other woman before glancing down to her piece. "How are we going to get there? Float?"

The music around the angel's aura seem fitting somehow, haunting though it is, it soothes at the same time. There's a slight pull that Delia feels just being in this place, faint but it feels so vaguely familiar. "I don't have a pole to push myself, but I can paddle with my hands."

"Mostly you just have to want to go," Elisabeth tells her quietly. As if standing on puzzle pieces in an ocean of darkness and starlight isn't strange enough. "I don't think we can get there from here," the blonde murmurs, looking around. And then her head tilts. "Unless…. " She smiles a little. And reaches up toward her face. When she turns back around, there is a crystalline blue orb dangling from a silvery chain in her fingers that she holds out to Delia. "He loves me," she whispers, the haunting song drifting just at the edge of hearing once more discordant in its tones. She watches with one bright blue eye. "That tie might… draw you there. But I cannot go. This is where I belong." Somewhere deep in her subconscious, Elisabeth can feel her own anchor. The one that will not allow her to slip from her own head. "If I go further, I will be lost." And not merely broken.

Almost afraid to touch the orb, Delia's fingers shake a little as she reaches out to take it. It swings in a circular pattern from the silver thread and she watches as that pattern pulls to one direction. With one last look to Elisabeth, Delia sets a grim look of determination as she sets out after the shadow monster alone.

Should the redhead be successful, the angel will have more pieces to add to her puzzle as more lies are told. Should Delia fail… heaven help her.

With a gasp and a jolt, Elisabeth wakes up in her bunk at the Textile Factory. The light of dawn is just peeking out over the lip of the horizon, the giant yellow sun pulling up over the edge of the Earth, giving hope for a new day. The drops of perspiration on Liz' forehead are wiped away with the back of her hand as she strains to remember her dream.

Her hand reaches for the glass of water on her nightstand and then jerks, sending it smashing to the floor. The blond woman's blue eyes are fixed with horror as she realizes just what happened. The redhead in her dream… Delia…

She just sent Delia after Tyler Case.


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