Trick's Malachite Vision

As Trick touches the malachite, she feels an overwhelming coldness coming from them that should have been felt in the air around it. Her reaction is to let go, but it's too late.

Trick feels her vision warp before feeling as though she is looking through multiple sets of eyes all at once. She sees herself, as if a few feet above and behind her body. She sees her young self in the Necklace, walking amongst shadows and avoiding attention. She sees herself in a completely alien landscape, wearing a cloak made of pure shadow. The ground is made of stone that resembles writhing flesh. Her body is scarred, bleeding, and the sky above shifts between hues of purple and green. Then everything goes dark. Trick is back to her own vision. Looking around, the sky is pitch black, while the ground appears to be shallow liquid that stretches into the horizon. Below her, the liquid resembles the night sky, but with a dark silver instead of pure black or dark blue. Stars twinkle with various colors. About 100 feet away, something floats just above the water. A black hole that appears to suck in light, circled by a halo of golden matter. A small green light orbits it, beckoning Trick closer.

As Trick walks, ripples deform the night sky below. Some stars glow stronger. Others dim. And others seem to explode into beautiful displays of color that forever change the sky. She reaches the black hole. It must be around 20 feet wide and tall, and from this point she feels a soft pull that makes her cloak flutter towards it. The green glow continues orbiting for a moment before slowing down and stopping in front of her. Its light fades, and Trick sees a heart made of malachite. It looks familiar enough, but there's something not humanoid about it.

Trick: "I see your heart ... Am I to take it? To carry it through into the nothingness with me? I don't understand.

Trick feels her voice through the empty space. It takes a moment before it comes back as an echo, but it's different. In the first wave, she sounds like she did when as a child. Then, another wave hits, and she sounds almost like her mother. Then, ancient, barely able to speak. The echo fades after that. The heart beats once, as if to agree. Trick is almost certain she has seen a Shadow who claimed to have slain a wyrmling parading a heart that resembled this.

As Trick touches the heart, she feels something encasing her fingers. The malachite has begun growing, sheathing your hand in bubbles and sheets that quickly expand to cover your arm in a sheath that crawls towards your shoulder.

Trick: "Don't ... I'm afraid. If you don't mean me any harm, I could use some reassurance."

The crystal continues growing. As it covers her chest, leaving her neck stuck in a collar of bubbles, Trick feels warmth. Not just any heat of a flame, but almost like she is being hugged by the stone. In a few moments, Trick is fully encased in this cocoon of malachite. All is dark. ... You are floating through the Astral Sea. You are broken, not whole. But not forever. ... You are Trick once more. The world stretches out into threads of light and shadow, infinitely moving outwards from you. Three loose strands float in the air, shifting, waiting to be pulled. A voice echoes in your mind. It is feminine and ethereal, like how a whale call feels.

Seradez (?): "One must be tied. One must be severed. One must be left alone. Choose."

The first thread is crimson. The second, pitch black and shifting unpredictably. And the third, fraying and green, pulsing.

Touching the black thread, Trick feels what she saw with a deeper understanding. It pulses erratically, shifting in color and texture as though it were an oily surface. It feels like a shadow cast by something, the result of actions.

The red thread feels warm. It barely moves, radiating purpose and certainty.

The green thread feels frayed, as if portions of it were attempting to branch off, or perhaps it's... unfinished? It pulses in sync with your heartbeat. Touching it, Trick feels as though it's waiting, uncertainty itself.

Trick: "I choose. I cut the black. I leave the red be, since it has its own purpose and certainty. And I ... tie the green. Not forever. But because I know the dangers of forging forward without knowing where you're going. I don't know what's happening here, but it feels uncertain. So I tie as a pause, to think about actions before they are taken to avoid the pain of unforeseen consequences."

As Trick speaks, she feels her voice echo out into the horizon of threads. A moment later, the black thread is cut. It severs too easily, as if it were taut. You feel a sudden stillness, as if the entire world had held its breath for a moment. The red thread tightens slightly, then stills. Trick feels memories of her past resurging. Time spent with her parents, time spent with her brother. His death and the death of the Deepest Shadow. And meeting BugSaw and Ravik. Fighting alongside them, killing the false kuo-toa God. Her memories feel solid, and any trouble she might have had in recalling them disperses, to a point that it's hard not to recall them like a song stuck on repeat. The green thread moves downwards, joining the many white and dark threads on the ground. It unravels, tying itself in many different places and forming a fractal that resembles shattering patterns on glass. On the ground, as if each shard were a different window, Trick sees... A meteor shower over a large town, filled with sounds of cheer and wonder. A cloudy peak surrounded by statues of people, all frozen mid-action. Gnolls setting fire to a village on the coast, the sound of war and yipping filling her ears.

Seradez (?): "How fortunate it would be, to live in a world such as this. But certainty was taken from you."

Trick: "Yes. But nothing is ever certain, it's part of being alive. Perhaps that was my mistake, thinking I could form the future if I wanted it enough."

Seradez (?): "You are not foolish. You simply live in the wrong time."

The green cracks continue to spread, showing Trick visions of multiple places all at once, so many that it's hard to keep up. The floor suddenly opens beneath her, and she falls into dark waters, sinking deeper and deeper. A gigantic shadow passes by a good hundred feet in front of her.

Seradez (?): "You, who have no fate. Will you embrace the return, or fight for this false freedom?"

Trick: "I don't know ... I need ... I need more time. I need more information. Every time I make a choice, it's wrong."

Seradez (?): "Then go and learn. Learn the lies and truths, while you have time. That is all I want- a world where all choices are right."

Trick continues sinking, and eventually reaches the seafloor. A green light floats over you, illuminating the immediate area. Around her are ruins, and skeletons. Hundreds of skeletons of whales, fishes, and humanoids that look like Kuo-Toa. Malachite grows on the bones, and the graveyard forms three different pathways. Before she can make a decision, the first two are covered over by walls of malachite, leaving only the third.

Trick walks through the cemetery path, and the scenery around her slowly changes. The kuo-toa are smaller, the whales are warped, and soon all bones are barely recognizable, shifted into strange shapes. A ring of golden light appears beyond, and as Trick reaches it, she finds herself in a clearing. Silver points gleam in the water around, and a large mass of malachite, like a statue that has been chipped at countless times, rests at the center. Many chains of metal with various runes of all colors of the rainbow surround the mass, and it seems to almost shift in place as your eyes try to focus on it.

Seradez (?): "See what they have done. See what I am now. Fr-"

Your vision is ripped in half, and you feel something tug at your soul. You are suddenly pulled upwards, out of the water, through the threads, and your vision is replaced with that of the temple. Your paw is placed on the malachite, when you suddenly feel a repulsion of it. Your hand is thrown backwards, and all three pearls crack at once.