Perception is Reality

{ “’...lies leave a mark on your body language and that’s quite interesting.’” }

{ “...unless she was as him pretty good at misleading others.” }

Breath quite visible in the cool air, the sorceress watched silently as her latest exhale curled and rose into the night, becoming invisible as it cooled. Her knees were sore from the impact they’d made with the pavement just seconds before, but that pain was negligible when compared to how much her heart ached. Why had all of this happened to her now? The sudden appearance of magic, the mishaps that occurred as she practiced, the entities that showed up as well, and the responsibilities thrust upon her: to declare that it had all been too much was a severe understatement. If anything, the additional stress had been in the process of tearing her apart... with this being the absolute tipping point.

A body lay before her, devoid of a rising and falling chest and assumedly lifeless. She thanked God her abilities were not attuned to the death of others, because that would’ve pushed her over the edge and into whatever abyss awaited those who broke. No, instead she got to experience the detached feeling that came with the death of another person: something that was arguably still terrible for a soul to experience. And without someone to order her grief in the moment, there was very little to keep her in a relatively good place. Her mind was already beginning to void as the corpse grew colder and her gaze became flooded with tears for a person she could not protect in that moment.

It turned out that the warning she’d received from the tea shop owner (who doubled as her magical mentor) had been all but a ruse. There had been a vengeful spirit on the lose, bent on making her miserable, or worse, for the connection she shared with the Chinese goddess of the Moon, Chang’e. She should have taken it far more seriously. She should have trusted the mystical instinct attempting to order her steps. She should have, she should have, she should have. It was all she could say in this moment, despite it not being enough - to bring the dead back to life or travel back in time.

“I’m sorry. Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” Sobs broke up her speech and tears fell from her face onto the pavement. This would be the first and the last time she’d feel so powerless to do something, to fix something. It was a miserable, despicable feeling that a person with power should rarely, if ever, feel. If she had something to say about it from this point on, innocents would not be casualties on account of her carelessness ever again... Thoughts funneling through the young woman’s head came to a complete stop as the corpse sputtered and sharply inhaled. Surprise painted itself across the sorceress’ face as she scooted closer to the body, her knees aching further with such careless movement. It seemed she was not weeping for the dead after all, but a soul near death.

“Oh God. Ot eht latipsoh htiw uoy!” The forwards and backwards speech left her mouth in a less bumbling, sobbing mess than her apologies had before. The magic took immediately, causing the individual to evaporate from her sight and (prayerfully) appear in the nearest hospital - Emotion and the subconscious had to account for the lack of spell specifics in moments like these. Composure found her briefly afterwards and was followed by resolve. To be put through this sort of ordeal, left in state so fragile and messy, was still nowhere close to acceptable. She would not stand for it and, even more so, was going to solve the problem at its origin. It was time to avenge this innocent soul, dead or not, and come into her new found responsibilities.

Ian always had the problem of feeling like the whole world knew about his existence, after all, his ego was pretty big and that always brought him so trouble. “You should know about me, if not… you better learn or read a book. I have written a few already”

"...blink and miss them Part of a system, I am."