The Prince is Awake.

Your name is Alcide Dasura, and you are alive again. Well if you can call this life. This dream body. You look around at the tower you are in. There are bars over the door and windows. These foolish black pawns really wanted you to stay asleep. How sad for them. Taking your own claws you scar your own tattoos into your skin on your arm, they would flare with green light as you call for the souls of the dead, using them to enhance your strength you tare the bars away from your door and continue out to walk about the tower and court yard.

Your name is Pythia Delphi. You have been dreaming of this place of obsidian for some time now, since you understood that you were the cause of your lusus constant abscences. Don't get you wrong: you still aren't particularly interested in riches, but this place is actually... nice. And you always come here whenever you go to sleep, it has its own story and everything. You even can fly and talk to some locals, who call you "the princess on the moon". Apparently, they are preparing for war of some sorts.

There are also monsters up there, in the vast black sky, whom you can hear clearly if you pay special attention to. They sing and say various things to you, and most of them are absurd. You have no friends who'd like to play a game of the end of the world with you, so you are always guessing it's your dream-version of a FLARP session. Something they made clear, though: you had to impede the "prince of the moon" from being too harsh on them. If you didn't the pretty obsidian place would be destroyed. They even put extra protection around "the towers" of the others "princes and princesses" to keep them safe.

Up to this day, you didn't know who the prince of the moon was. Now you do. And it had nothing to do with your FLARP session either.

When you detect movement and green light and you go to investigate, you notice someone moving and yes, this is definitely "The Prince" of the motherfucking moon. You frown, and approach, blocking his path by staying in the middle. You had one advantage on your favor: knowledge. "I'm afraid I can't let you go any further from this place. But I'm not here to fight. I want to talk."

You continue on your path. It was annoying to have the bleeding scars as it were. It was going to be even more annoying to re-ink all your tattoos. Oh well, it could not be helped a new life, is a new life. You keep walking along the wall for a while. You see hundereds of these black shelled people walking around the castle city. At least this place would be well stocked when the war they kept talking about came.

War bored you. There was nothing interesting in war. Two armies clashing for only one side to win, and then it happens all over again and again. The strongest on top and the weakest crushed underfoot. You sigh, it was a predictable pattern, one that did not interest you. One of these black shelled things had the nerve to speak to you. You crushed him like the bug it was. When you look up there is another in your path.

You have some interesting manners lowblood.

You say looking at her, your left eye was slowing returning to it's black and green coloration at the moment it was stuck in some weird mutation of both.

"Of course I do. When you, as an oracle, know the future of the person you are talking to, it kind of affects your speech." You smirk. Because of course that happens all the time, you are an oracle at FLARP, talking to people in such a way may or may not provide you with more information to work with. Information was really precious when it came to predict the best move.

This time you genuinelly had a lot of information on him at your hand, but you didn't... quite expect you'd get to know him. He's bleeding, and seems even slightly bored to you, in the way you get when you are forced to watch teenagers killing each other in FLARP.

A giant waste of time.

"Every little thing that you may or may not do will affect your future. It's pretty risky for you to move past this point. Specially killing people or other beings when you don't know what role they play into your future. You use this to pause and point at the body of the carapace in the floor, then looking at him.

"As a prophet, I am only here to warn you: the more you stay here, the more you are increasing your chances at losing that which you adore the most. You know which one I'm talking about, don't you?".

You watch her carefully as she speaks. You close your left eye. It hurt when it was in this stage. Also as she speaks you take off that ridiculous pajama top and tare it into bandages for your arm. She sure knew a lot for a lowblood, maybe this was her gift? You were not stupid, this could be a trap but when she mentioned her...

You have my attention...Prophet.

You sit up on the wall with your face in your hand as if to cover most of it. You will need to find a mask soon or have a new one made. You do not like that she can see your face.

"I prefer seer, but, thanks for your attention either way" you grin when you answer, and take your tarot cards out. He puts on a show by ripping his pajamas apart, because in your opinion that was so unnecessary. But now you are going to read his future, and when that happens, nothing matters but your keen observational skills.

He cares. That's something you know for sure. This guy, who kills and escapes by his own, bare hand, cares enough about the future of something to pause in front of a fudgeblood. You begin to carefully read his body language and his words, rapidly processing it all in your mind. Yes, this is the kind of things that you enjoy doing.

You sit on the floor, because there's no table, and begin to place the cards face down in front of you. "Now, this may seem a little old fashioned, but it's a necessary evil. We have time while you stay here, but if you leave, it'll be too late and you can kiss goodbye everything you were hoping to get. Now, prince of the moon..." You let your third pupil, your third eye, unfold.

"Pick three cards and think of what you love the most"

You hop off the wall and crouch on the floor in front of her. You watch her as she sets out the cards. You look over her face for something familiar. Did you know her? Had you known her? You should have paid more attention to your lowblooded slaves. But if there had been one with this gift you think you would have noticed... It could also be a scam. But why she would she risk her life, or new life, in this way. That did not make sense. You rub your forehead, you need to get a set of paints soon it was odd being barefaced like this.

Think of what I love the most....

That was not hard. It was always her. You keep the image of her in your mind as you choose your three. One from the center. One from the left, and One from the right.

He did listen to you. You can see the aura emanating from his body, all in different colors and your eye can see it pouring into several cards, speaking to you in a language only you ca understand. But the card that is flashing the most is that of The Empress. The second one flashing the most is the lovers.

Oh. So that's what he values the most.

He picked his three cards either way. The central card was the chariot, the one to the left was death, and the right one was the sun. Not like it mattered too much, the thing was to see his most intense emotions condensed, so your eye could translate them by leaking said feelings on the cards. So you improvise, something you always do.

You diplay the three ones he chose in front of him, and then point at the chariot.

"Fortune is all about paths, my prince. You could stay here and sleep some more, or you could stay awake and leave towards your own path. Whichever choice you make will recquire your bravery, and you should charge onwards without looking back, because if you try to switch paths middle way, deciding your choice wasn't the best, it will be too late!" And then you point to death.

"If you stay and watiently, eventually, you will get to see her. And by her, I do, indeed, mean HER." You take the card of the lovers, and place it on top of the sun. The resulting image is clear and positive, two lovers bathing in the sunlight. "The challenge here is your patience. Eventually, you will recover what you once lost, and never again you shall lose it. However, if you fail at being patient, or if you choose to leave immediatly and ignore this warning, your destiny will change."

And you place the card of the empress in top of "The Death" card. This held no clairvoyance purposes and you knew it, but the message you were transmitting couldn't be any clearer. You look at him over your square glasses, your eyes tinted with a serious gaze.

"Now, my prince. What now?"

You ponder the words carefully before you would take cards of the Sun and the Lovers and sticking them in a pajama pocket. You know what you would choose every time. You did all this for her. Everything, all for her.

You know well Prophet...

When you move it is alike a blur, you would grab Pythia by the throat and hold her up.

You are quite useful... So tell me... What do you think is the first move I should do to bring about the future I desire?

Your grip would be loose enough so that she could still draw breath and talk, but still firm enough that she would have no hope to struggle for escape. Your green eye would burn into hers. The whispers of the souls of the dead echoing from your mind to hers. You were not sane. Maybe once along time ago you were, but not now. You had been dead for a long time. You were not about to let anything get in your way of your new life.

You weren't expecting this. And his hand is kind of rough, but then again, he was the reason everyone else was locked. You weren't able to see anyone at all yet, even when you knew they were all resting on their towers, and the whole reason was the guy currently holding you by the neck. You could feel your blood pumping and pulsating in your veins, ticking against his calloused hands.

"Well. I would advice to, first of all, let go of the only girl who knows how to read your future and what the best move would be. But what do I know!" One day you are going to be culled for your sassy mouth, you swear. But it has also saved your butt on uncountable occassions, so you are not stopping anytime soon and you know it.

"Go to sleep. There are people here who are going to contribute to awaken you, and they are also the only ones capable of doing so. But they lack the power to do so right now. So for now... wait. When the moment is right, you will know it. And if you don't, your body will act on its own."

You release her. Just letting her drop to the floor among her cards.

I have no interest in sleeping again... I've had sever hundred years of 'sleep' as it was... But... I will stay my hand... This time.

You look down at her. Memorizing her appearance.

Maybe I will help these pawns in their war... Might make a good distraction until the others wake... What is your name Prophet?

You watch her carefully, she intrigued you. From what you could tell she was the only other awake troll on this obsidian planet other then yourself.

What else do you know about this place?

You look out over the wall, hopping up to crouch on the flat crenelation as you pear over the ledge, your knees bent up as you have your back to her, your hands grip the wall tightly. She used to chastise you for sitting like this, 'sitting like a bark-beast' she called it. But for looking over ledges and walls, this was the most comfortable position. It kept yourself balanced and ready to move if you needed to.

You fell to the floor, tarot cards around you. Well, it wasn't the softest landing, but it wasn't anything you weren't prepared to receive. You feel him looking at you, and had you been any other stupid troll, you'd feel he was oogling you, or maybe looking at you with desire for a killing rampage. But no, he was merely doing his "just in case" work of the day. "Just in case I need to know this in the future". "Just in case I forget who's head I have to crush". You stay still.

And then you smirk, still resting on the floor, because this way you could also memorize him as well. Not like you really needed it. "My name is Pythia Delphi. I am the Seer of this moon." You sat up, stretching your back and hearing your bones reaccomodate. God, that guy was strong. He lifted you like that and dropped you to the floor. "Let's skip to the good part."

You stand up, and put your hands in your hips. Well, it was explanation time. Fair. "This place is called Derse, and they are preparing for a war against another place called Prospit. There is a monarchy in course here. Also, doing anything lethal to trolls wearing purple pajamas such as you or me would most likely end like this more to the future." with the tip of your toe, you toy around with the card of the empress and the card of the death.

"And that's all the important stuff you have to know for your beloved one to live."

...and if I decide to go to this Prosprit place?

You are intrigued, but also a bit worried. Not like you would show it to the bronze blood. If your success hangs on such a fine line, you must truly be wary of how you act. On the other hand she could be lying. Or stalling for time... But time for what?

Tell me Seer... Why was I bright here instead of being brought back to life on Alternia?

You shake your head. Does he really not think of anything that isn't murdering whatever walks by his site? Is he just that blunt with everything? You look at the sky, far, far into the sky, where the little blue dot is floating "Prospit is so far, that if you wait here you'll get there sooner than if you go right now.This place works different from everything. Time isn't the same. Space isn't the same. There are things that are predestined to happen. You follow the flow, you win. You try to be special, you are punished."

It kind of reminds you of )(er Imperial Condescencion. The thought makes you glare into the sky just a bit, pushing your glasses up.

As for that last question goes... "Because Alternia has to be destroyed."

If Alternia was destroyed... Wait no. You had to learn this place first. You had to learn the land you stand on before you could move on to other things. Just like any new task or target. Your eyes are thoughtful as you look at her, fiddling a bit with a pant hem as you thought. You will need a plan of course. That was a given, you also needed to figure out what the others did, and the purpose of these chess shaped individuals walking around.

...Time flows different here...

Is it possible that you could still be in time to complete your Promice to her?

Yeah, no shit, so apparently he was having an epiphany or something because he was just repeating everything you said. You float a bit in the air and cross your legs, waiting for the big dude to decide on something. Or to answer. Or, nah, you know what, he's big enough to take care of himself and has enough information to start, you're not an effing tourist guide. You look up at skaia. Close your eyes and visualize the towers around. So many players still not awake, and you doubt they awake by normal means.

Maybe you'll go to the Dersite library again soon and see what's new.

"You really should go back to sleep after you're done thinking. Your head is going to hurt, mine did the first time." You descend to the ground again, keeping your card in your modus. You are going to wake up soon, you should really go back to your tower and do something. "But these were different rules, and Derse never gave a fuck about me understanding or not. Fortunately for you and I, thinks are always moving, and placing themselves just in time."

You chuckle. It was interesting all that had happened. You were alive again. On some place called Durse. And the main advice that the seer had given you was the fact that if you falter on your path or bring harm to the others on the moon, kiss your new ass goodbye.

...Just one last thing Seer... Sleep Well.

You jump down from the wall to land among the pawns. You would not faulter on Your path. But you were not going to harm the others yet. You do not know if that will even be benefishal to your cause. You needed to figure out how this place linked up to the 'real' world. You needed a map maker.

And there he goes. He has left you alone, but it's not like something you feel like complaining, in fact, quite the opposite. Nobility in Alternia only means trouble, fear, death and mayhem, after all, and high castes seem like more trouble than what they were worth at times like this. And here you were, expecting to somehow be able to calm who you were pretty sure was a juggalo down, so he wouldn't go on a venomous rampage killing and destroying everything just because he could.

For now, it seems like you have successfully managed to shoo him away and send him back to sleep. Here, the power he may have once held on Alternia is nothing but trouble, so may he rest peacefully and leave you the fuck alone.

You float away, going to Derse's library. You are going to have to do a lot of studying in the time it will take for the sun to set and make your real self wake up.