FIFTY-ONE: the Mist

FIFTY-ONE: the Mist

            Priscilla knew that she would be going back into the Mist.

            So, did I.

            I think everyone of the Mist knew.  The only two in the Bowl not of the Mist were Edlawit and Arous and they had no idea what was going to happen.

            A V-Dot arrived.

             There was a plague just beyond the Cusp that had risen up suddenly. Arous, Priscilla and a couple of other junior Yuhiketuh from the Cusp that had been training with Priscilla at the Bowl all set out for the plagued village.

            In The Bowl there is a sort of atmospheric dome over the whole of it that seals in moisture. The outer wall of this dome follows the Alippiana River. Everything on the outside of the Bowl is called the Cusp.  The Cusp is still considered Alippiana since that moisture bleeds over into the areas surrounding the Bowl. The Bowl overflows and those near it reap the benefits.  This village was said to be on the very edge of the Cusp, but it wasn’t.  It was outside Alippiana. This meant they would be outside the overflowing.  Priscilla would be out of range of her source.

The Diofe is our Source.  Priscilla and I, we don’t need to eat or drink we live on the Diofe.  Inside the Bowl the water acts as a conduit.  He constantly flows into us.

The Mist is the Diofe. It’s the readying place between the sleeping world, the world outside the Bowl and the wide-awake and alive world of the Bowl.

            They were able to port from the Alippiana River to a creek only one quarter mile from the village. Everyone in the Bowl can port.  It seems magical to people in the Sticks and the City so they call us ghost people.  Mostly they don’t believe in us or acknowledge. Porting is simply using a body of water to move to another body of water. It’s not magic and it’s not science, it just is.

To be able to port, you either have something from the water you are going to or have a mind-sight of it.  You could’ve been there before and use your memory. You step into one body of water and step out of another.  Like I said, simple.

            Priscilla had been in Bowl of Alippiana longer than I had and knew her source well. She knew how to tap into the Diofe’s energy through water even outside of Alippiana.

            She knew she was outside of Alippiana.  None of the other girls knew, they all thought that they were under the protection of the overrunning of the Bowl. She didn’t tell them how far away they were, not even Arous.

            Arous tried to save her.  Arous tried to sing her back.

Priscilla was sent back into the Mist that day.  Nobody who comes out of the Mist is supposed to go back and stay there.  If you come across the bridge or by the Chara’s Ferry, the Mist can kill you if you walk into it.

            For days Edlawit and Arous went to the Mist at dusk and dawn to see if Priscilla would come back through the Mist and into the Bowl. Her returning to the Mist was violent.  She spent all her energy singing and healing and there wasn’t much of her left when she was murdered.  She needed the rest. I knew that she may come out for a long, long time.

            I tried to soothe Arous.  Edlawit, the embodiment of patience, could see a faint mind-sight of Priscilla.  Even she couldn’t comfort Arous.

            Arous didn’t know how to wait.

            She was stubborn.