The sun, devoured

[Gull]

(April 8th, late afternoon)

Gull sits on the deck with a hot cup of tea, gazing out at the snowy field. It's depressingly unseasonable but at least it's pretty.

As he watches, the clouded sky darkens. A storm...? It doesn't feel like one. Has he been out here longer than he realized? It couldn't possibly be evening already, could it?

[Nightshade]

Sam pokes her head out in concern, "Umm Gull, what's going on? Why did the sky darken all of a sudden?" She takes a step out of the inn and into the cold, shivering at the temperature change. "Is this normal?"

[Gull]

"You see it too??" Gull's eyes widen. "The light's been dimming for... I'm not sure. Maybe twenty minutes? I doubted my eyes at first, but --" He rubs his face. "Shit. It could be a storm, aye? It snowed last night, it could be a storm." It's a statement but Gull's tone is pleading. He's gone pale.

[Nightshade]

Sam's ears pin back in fear, "I-I don't think it's a storm Gull...S-should we get someone? Surely someone can do something right?!" She looks at Gull, fear clear in her eyes.

[Gull]

"I --" Gull swallows and continues, voice low and shaking. "I don't know. Who could -- Kez? Ceridwynn? Marr, maybe?" He stands, trembling. "Talia. She knows things about the sun. But she's -- fuck, Sam, what do we do?"

[Nightshade]

Sam's face continues to pale as she begins to shake, before closing her eyes and becoming still. A steady breath is released as Shade comes out, the green eye now a vibrant red, "Breathe Gull, let's go back inside and see if anyone knows anything. I vote Kez at this moment."

[Gull]

Gull blinks, noticing the change. He takes a slow breath. "Right, yes. Fire champion and... Yes." He closes his eyes and takes a few seconds to recentre. "Fetch Kez. I'll keep an eye on it. Got a couple songs to try." He strides down onto the field and turns his face to the darkening sky.

[Drixar]

It’s at this moment Drixar comes out, Cradling his current read in his arms. “Gull, sa- oh, Shade? Hi uh, are you guys okay?? I heard panicked voices”

[Gull]

Gull doesn't respond. He's kneeling in the snow, looking skyward and singing. "I was born in a Tawdonian dawn, At sunrise on a sunless day..."

[Kez Shiras]

Kez, half-dressed, bursts out of the inn door. He was just having a nap, and looks wildly at Gull and the sky. “Uhhh. Fuck. I wasn’t warned about this, but like… uh. Think of it like a spell- no, that doesn’t help. Um. It WILL be fine, but I just need to commune.” Kez clutches his champion necklace, fiddling with it slightly.

[Kez Shiras]

Kez rushes to the Fire Circle, encouraging anyone in town that wants to come along, especially for Gull. He knows the paths to the circle well enough by now, his focusing becoming more intense as the group gets closer. On the way down, he suddenly blurts out “I hope the circle is still there.” He gasps, evidently not meaning to have said that. He sheepishly adds “But uh… it probably will be.”

[Drixar]

Drixar tails close behind, wanting to support his distressed friends and halting briefly at kez’s comment. “I’m sorry, did you just say the circle might not be there?! Can you tell me what the fuck is going on because I am apparently not as panicked as the lot of you.”

[Kez Shiras]

“Okay, well, I’ve never really had the largest source of fire (and my internal source beyond passion) go out before, so I worry that the circle will vanish as our connection to Fire vanishes. Ow, fuck. My eyes. Don’t look at it.” Kez sort of stops abruptly for a second before crossing the precipice into his small glade where the Firepit is, taking a deep breath.

[Ryn]

Cozy by the former faerie circle and wrapped in blankets to stay warm, Ryns ears perk up to alertness as she hears the fire champion and his friends dashing to the fire circle. Ryn clenches her bell within her palm as her mediation abrupty stops. She takes a moment to take in the commotion. how long had she been mediating for? when did it get so dark outside? before she can really think, her attention is again drawn to the panic of her friends. “guys, what’s on the go? and am i crazy is it like, weirdly super dark right now?” she stands up to meet her friends, after a moment of dizziness and recalibration, she hurriedly reconvenes with her friends.

[Gull]

Gull follows the others to the fire circle, hands clasped as though in prayer. He doesn't stop singing even for a moment, alternating breathlessly between "There Will Be Sun" and "We Were All Small." Tears leak between his eyelids as he squeezes them shut to block out the sight of the now-rapid approach of night.

[Drixar]

Seeing Gull walking eyes squeezed shut, Drix snakes his arm into Gull’s to interlock the two and help guide him through the paths safely. He turns to Ryn as she approaches. “It is very dark right now, and I wasn’t as freaked out before but I think I am the right amount now. Gull is very freaked out by this and Kez made a comment that the fire circle may not be here???”

[Kez Shiras]

Kez steps into the clearing, shivering violently. He hasn’t noticed yet. But maybe it’s just because he’s half dressed in the snow. Maybe.
He initially gasps and yelps, because it looks like it isn’t there. But after a moment, you can see his breath of sigh of relief hang in the air. There are embers. It Remains, magically.
But that doesn’t solve the Very Present Issue. Kez springs into action, quicker than he can think. “YOU. Get firewood, RUN!!!” He calls out after whoever runs “DON’T BE AFRAID TO INTERRUPT”
He gathers the people that have joined him, and encourages them to stand with their arms outstretched to the sky, and their feet as specific places around the circle. He kneels, also extending his arms to the sky.

[Drixar]

Knowing his still ever present fear of fire, Drixar is the one to take off running. He returns not long after with as much wood his arms can carry, accidentally dropping the stack during his panic once he’s in the clearing. “I have them cutting more, so if this isn’t enough there will be soon.”

[Rudi]

Rudi comes in from the woods, holding almost as much wood as Drixar. She had felt a welling sense of panic as the sun disappeared, but tamped it down very far once she saw everyone else's panic. Rudi forces her hands to still as she lays the firewood in the pile, looking to the others gathered.

[Kez Shiras]

Kez’s shaking body is trying to stay focused amidst the panic, doing what needs to be done. “Just- uh, try and focus like you would focus on maintaining a spell, or a psychic state, or something. Use those same muscles.”
He sets the kindling firewood in front of him, taking a deep breath, before starting his desperate cry.

[Ryn]

as ryn arrives at circle, an iron knot forms deep in her stomach. there are only embers here. she hasn’t been aware for very long, but she can feel that the heat from the circle doesn’t radiate on her face, the way it usually does. Ryns eyes dart to kez when he calls for attention. she had never seen kezs face contort like this before. “YOU. get firewood, RUN!!!” he shouts. Ryn finds her footing in the unevenness of the icey snow, and darts to the faerie circle from whence she came. Not far from the circle, lies a heap of dead wood. reasonably sheltered so the wood wouldn’t be soaked. it’s closeby, and ryn felt that the heap of logs made a horrible seat anyways. there were too many pokey branches that would stab into her legs. She could afford to disturb it, a little. She brushes the powdered snow off the top of the pile with the cuff of her coat, and wiggles the heap with her foot. she gauges which log would require the least convincing to budge; how she usually does when she plays yenga. Ryn strategically she takes her pick, and to the dismay of her yenga skills, she still strains to dislodge the wood from where it had rested for months. if not for the weight of the log, it would slide out -after some slight persuasion- like a “good” yenga tile would. she slides out another log that was a little more willing than the former log, with all the new space within the pile that she has made. she was here to get one, but she might as well grab what she can carry. she grabs fist fulls of old man’s beards, stuffs it deep in her pocket. grabs dead branches from dead trees. after saying a quick thank you to the forest and to faerie, she begins lugging her chosen dead logs. After some mustering, she manages to pick it up and carry then. encumbered by the weight, she makes her way to the fire circle. as she arrives, she lets one half of the logs down, so she can grab her old man’s beard and the twiggy sticks from her pocket. she gestures to kez before laying them atop the firewood that’s already in the circle. it’s not a very gracious process as she places her logs in the fire. she drops them a little off to the side, and has to nudge the logs closer to the centre of the circle, as she prays that her offerings will soon catch aflame.

[Kez Shiras]

Kez breathes his frosty breath carefully. He takes a deep breath, and begins to yell into the artificial night.

“FROM THE INFERNO TO THE BLAZE, TO THE FLAME, TO THE SPARK, WITH FIRE I FUEL THE FLAMES.
FROM THE INFERNO TO THE BLAZE, TO THE FLAME, TO THE SPARK, WITH FIRE I FUEL THE CIRCLE.
FROM THE SPARK TO THE FLAME, TO THE BLAZE, TO THE INFERNO, WITH FIRE I FUEL THE CIRCLE!
FROM THE SPARK TO THE FLAME, TO THE BLAZE, TO THE INFERNO, WITH FIRE I FUEL THE SUN!”

At first the fire dims to embers but soon it starts to glow and brighten, the magic returns rapidly all the brighter from the previous darkness.

[Drixar]

As soon as things kick up Drix steps further away from the circle, his fear taking hold over his mind for a moment.

[Rudi]

Rudi shifts closer to her son in the chaos, gently placing her hand on his shoulder while continuing to focus on how she would heal someone with her own energy. It felt warm when she did it, so hopefully it would lend something positive.

[Gull]

Gull keeps singing softly under Kez's chant, arms raised with the others, every ounce of his desperate will channeled into strengthening Kez even as panic threatens to choke him. It's Nephila, it's Nullisia, the abyss of his nightmares is swallowing the sun --

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