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rainbowfic2025-10-13 02:59 pm
paradoxcase) wrote in rainbowfic2025-10-13 02:59 pm
Realgar #15 [The Fulcrum]
Name: Transtimeline Whispers
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Realgar #15: Murmur
Styles and Supplies: Silhouette, Life Drawing, Tempera (this spread, interpreted as need / want)
Word Count: 1394
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Characters: Setsiana, Sapfita, Qhoroali
In-Universe Date: Night of 1912.3.4.6, 1912.3.5.1
Summary: Setsiana asks Sapfita about the strange dream.
That night she had a dream of Sapfita, which was somehow starting to feel like a “regular” sort of dream rather than a special kind, compared to the other strange dreams she’d been having lately. They were sitting cross-legged on the “floor”, with Setsiana leaning back with her hands braced against that invisible surface. “Are there other kind of special dreams that people can have, aside from ones that involve you?” she asked.
“Oh, sure,” said Sapfita. “I’m very far from the only being that exists out here, in this place outside of Time. “Theoretically you could wind up visiting with someone else instead, although I don’t think most of the others like to interface with humans like this, so much.”
“No, I mean… dreams that don’t involve any gods, or whatever else might be out here.”
“What kind of dreams do you mean?”
Setsiana thought about what to say. Was it really the dream that had been strange, or just the conversation the day after? She tried to come up with an explanation. “Maybe… a prophetic dream?”
“No, that’s categorically impossible, at least if you mean a dream that is guaranteed to come true. Just think about it for a minute — you’d dream your dream, and then subsequently many timelines would diverge from that point, and that dream could logically only predict the events of one of them, meaning that it never comes true in any other timeline. Technically it is possible to dream of things that happened to you on other timelines, and that other timeline could just as easily be one of your possible futures, rather than an alternate present. But it wouldn’t be guaranteed. Did you have a dream like that?”
“I think I must have,” said Setsiana. She remembered something, then. “I dreamed myself saying something that I didn’t know, before I said it,” she said, slowly. “And then that turned out to be true. Does that mean it was something I knew in another timeline?”
“Quite likely. I can’t actually see into anyone’s regular dreams, that don’t involve me. But I think these transtimeline whispers, where information crosses timelines from a person to a different version of themselves via dreams, are a lot more common than anyone thinks. A lot of the time people get insights from regular dreams that are things they knew or learned in other timelines. What was the dream you had?”
Setsiana was silent for a moment. If she had to analyze that dream… with Qhoroali in the position of Priestess Fyäccheira, and giving her glowing praise for something she’d written… That had been the first true positive feeling she’d ever had towards Qhoroali, way back when Qhoroali had first told her she’d collected all of Setsiana’s papers, and she’d felt that way in the dream, too. She was getting attached, probably too attached. It wasn’t right; Qhoroali wouldn’t appreciate it, and she would never feel the same way in return. And Sapfita had never been happy to hear about her feelings for Yeimicha, either. She should really just forget about that dream.
“The dream doesn’t matter,” she said, in response to Sapfita. “But the information that might have crossed timelines is that priestesses can bring back physical substances from dreams they have of you. That’s actually true, isn’t it?”
“Not just priestesses,” said Sapfita. “I could give you something now, to bring back with you.”
“Could you give me some of what a timeline is made of?” Setsiana asked. She thought that was what Qhoroali had been saying the substance they had looked at earlier was, the one from the paper she’d written in the alternate timeline. But Qhoroali had seemed uncertain — if Setsiana brought back the same substance from this dream, it would prove whether that was really what it was, and also that substances could be brought back in this way.
“Yes,” said Sapfita. “It is a bit tricky to get the essence of Time itself to fit into three dimensions, so it won’t be exactly the same, but I think I can manage a reasonable facsimile for you.” She brought her hands close to her body, to where they were no longer visible in her silhouetted outline, and when she brought them back out again, there was a flask in one, which she handed to Setsiana.
Setsiana took the flask and looked at it. It certainly didn't look like what she and Qhoroali had observed a month ago; instead of being a ghostly mist, it was a bright yellow-green, so bright that she couldn't properly make out if it was a gas or a liquid, or if the threads that she’d seen in Qhoroali’s experimentation room were present. She noted that the color did seem to match the glowing outline that was always visible behind Sapfita’s silhouette. Exactly where Sapfita had gotten the material from, she had no idea.
“Thank you,” she said. Even if it didn’t turn out to be the same material, it would probably tell them something, and maybe Qhoroali would be able to get it to do something interesting. “Did you also give this to a priestess in another timeline?” she asked. If the formula in her paper had come from a substance returned from some other priestess’s dream, Sapfita should know about the time she had given it.
“Many times, actually,” said Sapfita. “It’s not an uncommon request. Was there a particular time that you were thinking of?”
“Just one in a timeline where I stayed at the temple and didn’t go with Qhoroali,” said Setsiana.
“There are many timelines like that, and I’ve given this substance in more than one of them.”
Setsiana shook her head. “I don’t have any further details than that.”
“Well, I hope that helps with what you’re looking into.”
“You know what we’re looking into, right?”
“Better than you do at the moment, probably. But yes, I remember this. And you should remember that I love you.” As the dream faded, the bright color of the flask in Setsiana’s hand swirled and dissolved, and finally seemed to dim into mist.
She awoke with the dream fresh in her mind, and brought her hands out from the covers to where she could see them. Indeed, there was a flask clasped in her right hand, but it no longer had the bright coloration that it had shown in the dream. Instead, the contents were a familiar ghostly white, and she did think she could see the tendrils she remembered forming at the edges of the glass.
She got out of bed, and left the room without dressing, still in her nightdress. Outside, she pounded on Qhoroali’s door until it begrudgingly opened by just an inch. She could hear very irate complaints on the other side demanding to know why Setsiana was bothering her at such an early hour.
“I brought a substance back from a dream!” Setsiana said. “Sapfita gave it to me Herself; She said it was the stuff that the timelines are made of. I think it is actually the same thing you had Cusäfä make based on my paper from the other timeline.”
The door jerked open, and Qhoroali rubbed at her eyes. She was dressed in a long loose shirt and trousers that seemed to be made of some soft material. “Let me see.”
Setsiana handed her the flask, and she disappeared further into her room and returned a moment later, with a second one. She held them up; they did indeed seem, for all intents and purposes, to be identical. A smile spread across her face. “Fascinating,” she said. “So that is what this was. I think this should be our focus, going forward. I believe that if we can find something that destroys or destabilizes this, whatever that is should also be able to destroy or destabilize Sapfita. Finally, some progress.”
Setsiana stepped back, some of the elation of discovery draining from her. Of course the reason Qhoroali wanted to study these things was so that she could kill Sapfita. Had she forgotten that so easily? This was not just scientific inquiry for the sake of gaining knowledge. She was helping Qhoroali for now because Sapfita Herself had told her too, but the time would come, maybe soon, where she would have to stop Qhoroali from achieving her goal. She couldn’t afford to forget that.
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Realgar #15: Murmur
Styles and Supplies: Silhouette, Life Drawing, Tempera (this spread, interpreted as need / want)
Word Count: 1394
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Characters: Setsiana, Sapfita, Qhoroali
In-Universe Date: Night of 1912.3.4.6, 1912.3.5.1
Summary: Setsiana asks Sapfita about the strange dream.
That night she had a dream of Sapfita, which was somehow starting to feel like a “regular” sort of dream rather than a special kind, compared to the other strange dreams she’d been having lately. They were sitting cross-legged on the “floor”, with Setsiana leaning back with her hands braced against that invisible surface. “Are there other kind of special dreams that people can have, aside from ones that involve you?” she asked.
“Oh, sure,” said Sapfita. “I’m very far from the only being that exists out here, in this place outside of Time. “Theoretically you could wind up visiting with someone else instead, although I don’t think most of the others like to interface with humans like this, so much.”
“No, I mean… dreams that don’t involve any gods, or whatever else might be out here.”
“What kind of dreams do you mean?”
Setsiana thought about what to say. Was it really the dream that had been strange, or just the conversation the day after? She tried to come up with an explanation. “Maybe… a prophetic dream?”
“No, that’s categorically impossible, at least if you mean a dream that is guaranteed to come true. Just think about it for a minute — you’d dream your dream, and then subsequently many timelines would diverge from that point, and that dream could logically only predict the events of one of them, meaning that it never comes true in any other timeline. Technically it is possible to dream of things that happened to you on other timelines, and that other timeline could just as easily be one of your possible futures, rather than an alternate present. But it wouldn’t be guaranteed. Did you have a dream like that?”
“I think I must have,” said Setsiana. She remembered something, then. “I dreamed myself saying something that I didn’t know, before I said it,” she said, slowly. “And then that turned out to be true. Does that mean it was something I knew in another timeline?”
“Quite likely. I can’t actually see into anyone’s regular dreams, that don’t involve me. But I think these transtimeline whispers, where information crosses timelines from a person to a different version of themselves via dreams, are a lot more common than anyone thinks. A lot of the time people get insights from regular dreams that are things they knew or learned in other timelines. What was the dream you had?”
Setsiana was silent for a moment. If she had to analyze that dream… with Qhoroali in the position of Priestess Fyäccheira, and giving her glowing praise for something she’d written… That had been the first true positive feeling she’d ever had towards Qhoroali, way back when Qhoroali had first told her she’d collected all of Setsiana’s papers, and she’d felt that way in the dream, too. She was getting attached, probably too attached. It wasn’t right; Qhoroali wouldn’t appreciate it, and she would never feel the same way in return. And Sapfita had never been happy to hear about her feelings for Yeimicha, either. She should really just forget about that dream.
“The dream doesn’t matter,” she said, in response to Sapfita. “But the information that might have crossed timelines is that priestesses can bring back physical substances from dreams they have of you. That’s actually true, isn’t it?”
“Not just priestesses,” said Sapfita. “I could give you something now, to bring back with you.”
“Could you give me some of what a timeline is made of?” Setsiana asked. She thought that was what Qhoroali had been saying the substance they had looked at earlier was, the one from the paper she’d written in the alternate timeline. But Qhoroali had seemed uncertain — if Setsiana brought back the same substance from this dream, it would prove whether that was really what it was, and also that substances could be brought back in this way.
“Yes,” said Sapfita. “It is a bit tricky to get the essence of Time itself to fit into three dimensions, so it won’t be exactly the same, but I think I can manage a reasonable facsimile for you.” She brought her hands close to her body, to where they were no longer visible in her silhouetted outline, and when she brought them back out again, there was a flask in one, which she handed to Setsiana.
Setsiana took the flask and looked at it. It certainly didn't look like what she and Qhoroali had observed a month ago; instead of being a ghostly mist, it was a bright yellow-green, so bright that she couldn't properly make out if it was a gas or a liquid, or if the threads that she’d seen in Qhoroali’s experimentation room were present. She noted that the color did seem to match the glowing outline that was always visible behind Sapfita’s silhouette. Exactly where Sapfita had gotten the material from, she had no idea.
“Thank you,” she said. Even if it didn’t turn out to be the same material, it would probably tell them something, and maybe Qhoroali would be able to get it to do something interesting. “Did you also give this to a priestess in another timeline?” she asked. If the formula in her paper had come from a substance returned from some other priestess’s dream, Sapfita should know about the time she had given it.
“Many times, actually,” said Sapfita. “It’s not an uncommon request. Was there a particular time that you were thinking of?”
“Just one in a timeline where I stayed at the temple and didn’t go with Qhoroali,” said Setsiana.
“There are many timelines like that, and I’ve given this substance in more than one of them.”
Setsiana shook her head. “I don’t have any further details than that.”
“Well, I hope that helps with what you’re looking into.”
“You know what we’re looking into, right?”
“Better than you do at the moment, probably. But yes, I remember this. And you should remember that I love you.” As the dream faded, the bright color of the flask in Setsiana’s hand swirled and dissolved, and finally seemed to dim into mist.
She awoke with the dream fresh in her mind, and brought her hands out from the covers to where she could see them. Indeed, there was a flask clasped in her right hand, but it no longer had the bright coloration that it had shown in the dream. Instead, the contents were a familiar ghostly white, and she did think she could see the tendrils she remembered forming at the edges of the glass.
She got out of bed, and left the room without dressing, still in her nightdress. Outside, she pounded on Qhoroali’s door until it begrudgingly opened by just an inch. She could hear very irate complaints on the other side demanding to know why Setsiana was bothering her at such an early hour.
“I brought a substance back from a dream!” Setsiana said. “Sapfita gave it to me Herself; She said it was the stuff that the timelines are made of. I think it is actually the same thing you had Cusäfä make based on my paper from the other timeline.”
The door jerked open, and Qhoroali rubbed at her eyes. She was dressed in a long loose shirt and trousers that seemed to be made of some soft material. “Let me see.”
Setsiana handed her the flask, and she disappeared further into her room and returned a moment later, with a second one. She held them up; they did indeed seem, for all intents and purposes, to be identical. A smile spread across her face. “Fascinating,” she said. “So that is what this was. I think this should be our focus, going forward. I believe that if we can find something that destroys or destabilizes this, whatever that is should also be able to destroy or destabilize Sapfita. Finally, some progress.”
Setsiana stepped back, some of the elation of discovery draining from her. Of course the reason Qhoroali wanted to study these things was so that she could kill Sapfita. Had she forgotten that so easily? This was not just scientific inquiry for the sake of gaining knowledge. She was helping Qhoroali for now because Sapfita Herself had told her too, but the time would come, maybe soon, where she would have to stop Qhoroali from achieving her goal. She couldn’t afford to forget that.
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Thank you! And yup, can't forget about that part.
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Thank you! I think I went through everything I've planned, and about 1/5 of the scenes were actually dream sequences of some kind.
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It wasn’t right; Qhoroali wouldn’t appreciate it, and she would never feel the same way in return.
eeeheehee I love me some pining.
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Thank you! We shall see if Qhoroali will ever change her mind.
Me too, haha, usually a lot more than the actual relationship.