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rainbowfic2026-03-05 07:51 pm
thisbluespirit) wrote in rainbowfic2026-03-05 07:51 pm
Warm Heart #10 [Starfall]
Name: Thrown in the Deep End
Story: Starfall
Colors: Warm Heart #10 (Betrayal)
Supplies and Styles: Chiaroscuro + Pastels (also forgenprompt_bingo square "Betrayal") + Nubs + Charcoal + Novelty Beads (2020 Leap Day Challenge - "Exploitation.")
Word Count: 2426
Rating: Teen
Warnings: person held against their will, forced drugging, needles. Viyony's POV for the second half of Missteps & and your light can't guide me.
Notes: 1313, Portcallan; Viyony Eseray, Tess Hyan, Eollan Barra.
Summary: It's the first night of the festival, and Viyony makes a terrible mistake.
"Viyony, darling, are you all right?" Tess pushed her way through a giggling cluster of festival attendees to fling her arm around Viyony's shoulders. "Stars. You're shaking."
Viyony shook her off, gently. "I'm fine, I promise."
It wasn't a lie, really. Leion hadn't meant what he'd said, she was sure of it—at least she hoped so. She had to repress a small shiver, because the voice in the back of her head insisted on asking nevertheless: what if he had? What if she had been a complete fool all over again? But that was the problem—it would take a little while longer to recover sufficient equilibrium to face him.
Even so, she glanced around, a wistful hope persisting that he might have followed her, but she couldn't see him anywhere in the pressing, jostling crowd.
"We're leaving now," said Tess in her ear. "There's a party at the Zillence place. Come with us—there's a whole crowd going—me, Eollan -"
"Not Eollan!"
Tess shook her head. "Oh, don't worry, I'll look after you, and it's better than staying here alone—it all gets a bit wild later on. Anyway, if you really don't want to, we can just see you home from there."
Viyony hesitated, but Tess grabbed her hand, and she thought, why not? Leion would hate her going off with them—serve him right for turning her down flat, after saying over and over that she should sleep with him. And for all those comments about her being mercenary and heartless, too. Even if she did go in, she wouldn't stay for more than half an hour, if that, and as long as she kept close to Tess and her friends, Eollan couldn't do anything terrible to her. If he even wanted to. It was Leion who had told her that he did.
As they approached the Zillence House, Viyony's route home was tantalisingly visible on the opposite of the river but the city was still full of music and crowds while fireworks intermittently cracked and lit up the sky. Street sellers pushed their wares in front of her at every turn. She might never be in Portcallan for the festival again, and she didn't want to miss too much of it.
"I won't stay long," she said.
Tess wasn't listening, busy laughing at something one of the others had said as they clustered round one of the vendors to buy something hot and sweet on sticks. She returned, triumphant with her spoils and shoved one at Viyony, who found she was now in possession of a fine skewer-stick with lumps of white fudge-like sweets, threaded in between pieces of caramelised fruit and spicy roasted nuts, wrapped up at the end with a long twist of something Viyony thought must be Portcallan Bounty—a kind of seaweed that was a local delicacy in the city.
Viyony bit into the topmost candy—a little over-sweet and creamy for her—and let herself be ushered into the Zillence house along with the rest, and regretted it immediately. Still, she would just finish eating this and then tell Tess she absolutely couldn't stay. Maybe, she thought, her spirits rising, Leion would come looking for her at her aunt's house—she mustn't miss him if he did. But before she even got a chance to say a word to Tess, Eollan caught her arm and tugged her aside from the others.
"I'm so glad you came," he said in her ear. "I needed to talk to you. Come on—this way!"
"I'm not staying," she said. "I can't. Eollan, please. Not now—I shouldn't have come. I was only—never mind." Eollan didn't need to know about her stupid row with Leion. Her heart gave a pang. Here she was, hanging around with a gaggling, drunken group of people she barely knew when all she wanted was to be with Leion. She wished she hadn't run. Her fears seemed so much smaller now when weighed against the risk of losing what might be her last chance to be with him. "I'm sorry—but no. So, excuse me, I have to tell Tess that I'm leaving."
Eollan tightened his grip on her arm. "First, I must speak to you, and this might be my only opportunity."
"Let go!" Viyony tugged herself free, nursing her arm as she edged along the corridor, towards the door. "Tess! Tess!"
Tess poked her head out from the room she'd disappeared into, but only gave Viyony a small wave, before turning back to her companion.
"I really am sorry," said Eollan. He straightened and caught hold of Viyony again, swiftly enough that she had no chance to evade his grasp. "Come on. Let me show you something."
He clamped his hand painfully around her wrist and dragged her on down the hallway. Viyony hesitated to struggle too hard in front of everyone, feeling more foolish than afraid as yet.
"All right—let go. Just tell me whatever it is. I'll listen—but that's all!"
Eollan ushered her into the kitchen, and shut the door behind them. There was another man waiting there; a stocky, dark-haired fellow she vaguely recognised as being some kind of cousin of Tess's.
"You have to understand," Eollan said, catching hold of both her wrists. Viyony fought to pull free, kicking him, even as the other man came up behind her and put his arms around her. "You have a gift—a gift you can't keep to yourself. One that could be so much more—and I can show you."
A chill crept over Viyony, regardless of the heat of a late summer night. She swallowed and then struggled harder. "No. Don't you dare! Whatever I should or shouldn't do about my dreams, it's not your business."
Someone else emerged into the room from a door Viyony had vaguely assumed must be a closet, but now revealed a flight of stairs leading downwards. She joined the other man, taking hold of Viyony, while Eollan released her.
"Down here," Eollan said, leading the way. "We've made the place ready for you—come and see."
Viyony didn't dare resist on the stairs, afraid she would tip them all over the side, down into the cellar below. When they reached the bottom, she found that Eollan had prepared the place as if for some sort of theatrical performance—there were cushions laid out around a thick rug, facing a makeshift dais, and lightstone lamps placed just about everywhere possible at the front of the room. Every time she moved her head, confusing flashes of reflections from the multiple mirrors on the walls caught at the side of her vision.
"But this is—this is madness!" Despite Eollan's fascination with affinity, he had always seemed so practical and down to earth, not someone who would create this kind of scenario—where presumably she was destined to take centre stage.
Eollan grasped her arm as the woman moved away behind them, out of sight, but audibly preparing something with quiet rustling and small metallic sounds. "We need to find out who you truly are—what the full reach of your talent is. It's going to be marvellous, trust me. Come on, don't you want to see just how high you can fly?"
"Flying?" snapped Viyony. "Falling from a great height, more likely!"
More unidentifiable little sounds behind her caused Viyony to crane her neck to see what the woman was doing, but she couldn't. Her skin crawled in anticipation and cold sweat beaded on her forehead.
"Honestly, just go to any shrine you like and ask an attendant to look into lightstone for you. It'd be a lot more reliable than me!"
Eollan caught hold of her more tightly, pulling her back against him as the other man hastened forward to secure her. The woman moved back into view, advancing on Viyony with a vial in her hand.
"No, no, wait!" Viyony fought to get free, hard enough to cause the woman to halt, looking to Eollan for guidance. Viyony drew in a shaking breath. "Don't do this," she begged Eollan. "You say you don't want to hurt me—well, you will! You already have! And I saw a Starfall scholar a few weeks ago—they warned me against ever trying to amplify my talent. I don't want to find out why!"
The man gave a snort.
"Starfall," said Eollan with a shrug. "All they want to do is lock everything away out of reach—classify and catalogue it, put it in cases, make notes. What's the good of that? These things are given to us to use!"
Viyony was trembling with both rage and fear. She tried to stamp on his foot, but he was booted and she was wearing light festival sandals. "If you won't listen to me—then think about yourself! I'm not going to keep quiet about this, whatever happens."
"Yes, you will—once you see for yourself, once you truly understand. You'll thank me!"
"I will not!" Viyony nearly lost the point of what she was saying at that outrageous claim, but made herself return to it. "Eollan. If anything happens to me—if you hurt me, if I vanish, disperse, turn up dead—you'll be the first person that Leion comes looking for. And since he'll be right, he'll find you out—there's no way you can get away with this."
"You think I'm worried about Valerno?"
Viyony clenched her fists. "You might not be, but what about Imor Jadinor? Or his mother, or Imai Veldiner. They'll listen to him. Come on, it isn't worth it—let me go!" Her voice rose on the last.
"When you understand," Eollan said, soothingly, as if to a troublesome child, "it will all be fine—there won't be anything to complain about to anyone. Now stand still -"
Viyony kicked his shins as hard as she could with her heels, but it wasn't enough to make him let go, while the other man joined him, helping him keep her pinned in place. The woman walked across with more confidence, and Viyony caught sight of a silver flash in the light of the lamps—she had a needle affixed to the vial.
"Oh, no," Viyony breathed out—too late, feeling the sharp prick as it punctured her arm.
The man who'd been assisting Eollan removed himself, leaving Viyony in Eollan's hold.
"It will be all right," Eollan said, his breath tickling her ear. "We tested it on you before, in the cave on Calla Island. Now—Viyony, you'll dream dreams and see visions—and we will do what you tell us. Everything will be as it should."
Viyony closed her eyes, struggling to keep from shaking. "Well, then—let me go!"
"In a minute, I will," he said, and it wasn't reassuring.
Viyony raised her head and blinked, trying to clear her vision. Eollan, gently, slowly, finally released her. She stumbled forward, her hand to her head, trying to shield herself from sharp stabs of light that seemed to strike her from each mirror, no matter which way she looked.
"I do think," said Eollan, sounding further away, "that the whole world could even be in danger and you might have the key to saving it. It's possible."
Viyony seemed to rise up, in her mind, above everything, looking down at vivid red, orange and blue cushions and rug and shining starstone, in lamps, in the mirrors. Laughter spilled out of her, at the same moment as two tears ran down her cheeks. "Oh, no. I'll end the world long before anyone else does."
She was splitting in two, or maybe more: a whole set of Viyonys staring back at her from six mirrors, reflection upon reflection, while Eollan led the first, real Viyony by the hand up to the little dais, as if it were to be her throne. There seemed to be more people in the cellar now and she wasn't sure when that had happened. Her mind, though, shot on further past such concerns and right out of the room, out of the house, and up into the night sky.
Her arm throbbed with pain. She snapped shut her eyes with a gasp; now only one Viyony, who knew that Eollan had done something terrible and irrevocable. She trembled, and did the only thing left she could to escape what was coming. She closed her mind to it all and imagined that she'd never run from Leion; that she was with him now—walking along the beach together, or tucked away somewhere in his arms, warm and singular and human still. She opened her eyes, as if the very thought might have called him to her, and then her mind flew once more—away, over Portcallan; as if she were a great night bird looking down on crowded streets dotted with so much dancing silver and blue and green; passing far-away fires on the shoreline, while the city's songs threaded through her being. The tunes were painted in the same sea colours and her heart beat in time with them.
She could see Leion, or thought she could—inside a room—his office—face down on his desk, asleep or maybe in despair. She tried to perch on his desk, to touch his shoulder and call him, but she seemed to be nothing more than a cloud, landing there softly, too slowly. Before she could even try to breathe out his name, someone standing close by her in the Zillence house's cellar grasped her by the arm and brought her consciousness back to the stuffy room. The vision of Leion's office melted like sea mist.
"What do you see?" Eollan asked.
There were so many people in the room now, suddenly; all staring at her and laughing. Eollan's breath smelled of something it hadn't before. Viyony shivered. Time was already coming and going in fragments. Things had happened around her and she had been elsewhere, elsewhen, and she couldn't put anything back in order.
She exhaled, and took flight on her mind's wings again, up into the soft embrace of the moonlight.
She didn't need Eollan to ask her to speak: she could not keep silent over what she saw. The visions pressed in on her, pushing into her essence, her soul, and demanding to be heard. But, since he had asked, she looked right at him and told him again, the first thing she had seen:
"I told you," Viyony said. "Me. I'll destroy you all."
Story: Starfall
Colors: Warm Heart #10 (Betrayal)
Supplies and Styles: Chiaroscuro + Pastels (also for
genprompt_bingo square "Betrayal") + Nubs + Charcoal + Novelty Beads (2020 Leap Day Challenge - "Exploitation.")Word Count: 2426
Rating: Teen
Warnings: person held against their will, forced drugging, needles. Viyony's POV for the second half of Missteps & and your light can't guide me.
Notes: 1313, Portcallan; Viyony Eseray, Tess Hyan, Eollan Barra.
Summary: It's the first night of the festival, and Viyony makes a terrible mistake.
"Viyony, darling, are you all right?" Tess pushed her way through a giggling cluster of festival attendees to fling her arm around Viyony's shoulders. "Stars. You're shaking."
Viyony shook her off, gently. "I'm fine, I promise."
It wasn't a lie, really. Leion hadn't meant what he'd said, she was sure of it—at least she hoped so. She had to repress a small shiver, because the voice in the back of her head insisted on asking nevertheless: what if he had? What if she had been a complete fool all over again? But that was the problem—it would take a little while longer to recover sufficient equilibrium to face him.
Even so, she glanced around, a wistful hope persisting that he might have followed her, but she couldn't see him anywhere in the pressing, jostling crowd.
"We're leaving now," said Tess in her ear. "There's a party at the Zillence place. Come with us—there's a whole crowd going—me, Eollan -"
"Not Eollan!"
Tess shook her head. "Oh, don't worry, I'll look after you, and it's better than staying here alone—it all gets a bit wild later on. Anyway, if you really don't want to, we can just see you home from there."
Viyony hesitated, but Tess grabbed her hand, and she thought, why not? Leion would hate her going off with them—serve him right for turning her down flat, after saying over and over that she should sleep with him. And for all those comments about her being mercenary and heartless, too. Even if she did go in, she wouldn't stay for more than half an hour, if that, and as long as she kept close to Tess and her friends, Eollan couldn't do anything terrible to her. If he even wanted to. It was Leion who had told her that he did.
As they approached the Zillence House, Viyony's route home was tantalisingly visible on the opposite of the river but the city was still full of music and crowds while fireworks intermittently cracked and lit up the sky. Street sellers pushed their wares in front of her at every turn. She might never be in Portcallan for the festival again, and she didn't want to miss too much of it.
"I won't stay long," she said.
Tess wasn't listening, busy laughing at something one of the others had said as they clustered round one of the vendors to buy something hot and sweet on sticks. She returned, triumphant with her spoils and shoved one at Viyony, who found she was now in possession of a fine skewer-stick with lumps of white fudge-like sweets, threaded in between pieces of caramelised fruit and spicy roasted nuts, wrapped up at the end with a long twist of something Viyony thought must be Portcallan Bounty—a kind of seaweed that was a local delicacy in the city.
Viyony bit into the topmost candy—a little over-sweet and creamy for her—and let herself be ushered into the Zillence house along with the rest, and regretted it immediately. Still, she would just finish eating this and then tell Tess she absolutely couldn't stay. Maybe, she thought, her spirits rising, Leion would come looking for her at her aunt's house—she mustn't miss him if he did. But before she even got a chance to say a word to Tess, Eollan caught her arm and tugged her aside from the others.
"I'm so glad you came," he said in her ear. "I needed to talk to you. Come on—this way!"
"I'm not staying," she said. "I can't. Eollan, please. Not now—I shouldn't have come. I was only—never mind." Eollan didn't need to know about her stupid row with Leion. Her heart gave a pang. Here she was, hanging around with a gaggling, drunken group of people she barely knew when all she wanted was to be with Leion. She wished she hadn't run. Her fears seemed so much smaller now when weighed against the risk of losing what might be her last chance to be with him. "I'm sorry—but no. So, excuse me, I have to tell Tess that I'm leaving."
Eollan tightened his grip on her arm. "First, I must speak to you, and this might be my only opportunity."
"Let go!" Viyony tugged herself free, nursing her arm as she edged along the corridor, towards the door. "Tess! Tess!"
Tess poked her head out from the room she'd disappeared into, but only gave Viyony a small wave, before turning back to her companion.
"I really am sorry," said Eollan. He straightened and caught hold of Viyony again, swiftly enough that she had no chance to evade his grasp. "Come on. Let me show you something."
He clamped his hand painfully around her wrist and dragged her on down the hallway. Viyony hesitated to struggle too hard in front of everyone, feeling more foolish than afraid as yet.
"All right—let go. Just tell me whatever it is. I'll listen—but that's all!"
Eollan ushered her into the kitchen, and shut the door behind them. There was another man waiting there; a stocky, dark-haired fellow she vaguely recognised as being some kind of cousin of Tess's.
"You have to understand," Eollan said, catching hold of both her wrists. Viyony fought to pull free, kicking him, even as the other man came up behind her and put his arms around her. "You have a gift—a gift you can't keep to yourself. One that could be so much more—and I can show you."
A chill crept over Viyony, regardless of the heat of a late summer night. She swallowed and then struggled harder. "No. Don't you dare! Whatever I should or shouldn't do about my dreams, it's not your business."
Someone else emerged into the room from a door Viyony had vaguely assumed must be a closet, but now revealed a flight of stairs leading downwards. She joined the other man, taking hold of Viyony, while Eollan released her.
"Down here," Eollan said, leading the way. "We've made the place ready for you—come and see."
Viyony didn't dare resist on the stairs, afraid she would tip them all over the side, down into the cellar below. When they reached the bottom, she found that Eollan had prepared the place as if for some sort of theatrical performance—there were cushions laid out around a thick rug, facing a makeshift dais, and lightstone lamps placed just about everywhere possible at the front of the room. Every time she moved her head, confusing flashes of reflections from the multiple mirrors on the walls caught at the side of her vision.
"But this is—this is madness!" Despite Eollan's fascination with affinity, he had always seemed so practical and down to earth, not someone who would create this kind of scenario—where presumably she was destined to take centre stage.
Eollan grasped her arm as the woman moved away behind them, out of sight, but audibly preparing something with quiet rustling and small metallic sounds. "We need to find out who you truly are—what the full reach of your talent is. It's going to be marvellous, trust me. Come on, don't you want to see just how high you can fly?"
"Flying?" snapped Viyony. "Falling from a great height, more likely!"
More unidentifiable little sounds behind her caused Viyony to crane her neck to see what the woman was doing, but she couldn't. Her skin crawled in anticipation and cold sweat beaded on her forehead.
"Honestly, just go to any shrine you like and ask an attendant to look into lightstone for you. It'd be a lot more reliable than me!"
Eollan caught hold of her more tightly, pulling her back against him as the other man hastened forward to secure her. The woman moved back into view, advancing on Viyony with a vial in her hand.
"No, no, wait!" Viyony fought to get free, hard enough to cause the woman to halt, looking to Eollan for guidance. Viyony drew in a shaking breath. "Don't do this," she begged Eollan. "You say you don't want to hurt me—well, you will! You already have! And I saw a Starfall scholar a few weeks ago—they warned me against ever trying to amplify my talent. I don't want to find out why!"
The man gave a snort.
"Starfall," said Eollan with a shrug. "All they want to do is lock everything away out of reach—classify and catalogue it, put it in cases, make notes. What's the good of that? These things are given to us to use!"
Viyony was trembling with both rage and fear. She tried to stamp on his foot, but he was booted and she was wearing light festival sandals. "If you won't listen to me—then think about yourself! I'm not going to keep quiet about this, whatever happens."
"Yes, you will—once you see for yourself, once you truly understand. You'll thank me!"
"I will not!" Viyony nearly lost the point of what she was saying at that outrageous claim, but made herself return to it. "Eollan. If anything happens to me—if you hurt me, if I vanish, disperse, turn up dead—you'll be the first person that Leion comes looking for. And since he'll be right, he'll find you out—there's no way you can get away with this."
"You think I'm worried about Valerno?"
Viyony clenched her fists. "You might not be, but what about Imor Jadinor? Or his mother, or Imai Veldiner. They'll listen to him. Come on, it isn't worth it—let me go!" Her voice rose on the last.
"When you understand," Eollan said, soothingly, as if to a troublesome child, "it will all be fine—there won't be anything to complain about to anyone. Now stand still -"
Viyony kicked his shins as hard as she could with her heels, but it wasn't enough to make him let go, while the other man joined him, helping him keep her pinned in place. The woman walked across with more confidence, and Viyony caught sight of a silver flash in the light of the lamps—she had a needle affixed to the vial.
"Oh, no," Viyony breathed out—too late, feeling the sharp prick as it punctured her arm.
The man who'd been assisting Eollan removed himself, leaving Viyony in Eollan's hold.
"It will be all right," Eollan said, his breath tickling her ear. "We tested it on you before, in the cave on Calla Island. Now—Viyony, you'll dream dreams and see visions—and we will do what you tell us. Everything will be as it should."
Viyony closed her eyes, struggling to keep from shaking. "Well, then—let me go!"
"In a minute, I will," he said, and it wasn't reassuring.
Viyony raised her head and blinked, trying to clear her vision. Eollan, gently, slowly, finally released her. She stumbled forward, her hand to her head, trying to shield herself from sharp stabs of light that seemed to strike her from each mirror, no matter which way she looked.
"I do think," said Eollan, sounding further away, "that the whole world could even be in danger and you might have the key to saving it. It's possible."
Viyony seemed to rise up, in her mind, above everything, looking down at vivid red, orange and blue cushions and rug and shining starstone, in lamps, in the mirrors. Laughter spilled out of her, at the same moment as two tears ran down her cheeks. "Oh, no. I'll end the world long before anyone else does."
She was splitting in two, or maybe more: a whole set of Viyonys staring back at her from six mirrors, reflection upon reflection, while Eollan led the first, real Viyony by the hand up to the little dais, as if it were to be her throne. There seemed to be more people in the cellar now and she wasn't sure when that had happened. Her mind, though, shot on further past such concerns and right out of the room, out of the house, and up into the night sky.
Her arm throbbed with pain. She snapped shut her eyes with a gasp; now only one Viyony, who knew that Eollan had done something terrible and irrevocable. She trembled, and did the only thing left she could to escape what was coming. She closed her mind to it all and imagined that she'd never run from Leion; that she was with him now—walking along the beach together, or tucked away somewhere in his arms, warm and singular and human still. She opened her eyes, as if the very thought might have called him to her, and then her mind flew once more—away, over Portcallan; as if she were a great night bird looking down on crowded streets dotted with so much dancing silver and blue and green; passing far-away fires on the shoreline, while the city's songs threaded through her being. The tunes were painted in the same sea colours and her heart beat in time with them.
She could see Leion, or thought she could—inside a room—his office—face down on his desk, asleep or maybe in despair. She tried to perch on his desk, to touch his shoulder and call him, but she seemed to be nothing more than a cloud, landing there softly, too slowly. Before she could even try to breathe out his name, someone standing close by her in the Zillence house's cellar grasped her by the arm and brought her consciousness back to the stuffy room. The vision of Leion's office melted like sea mist.
"What do you see?" Eollan asked.
There were so many people in the room now, suddenly; all staring at her and laughing. Eollan's breath smelled of something it hadn't before. Viyony shivered. Time was already coming and going in fragments. Things had happened around her and she had been elsewhere, elsewhen, and she couldn't put anything back in order.
She exhaled, and took flight on her mind's wings again, up into the soft embrace of the moonlight.
She didn't need Eollan to ask her to speak: she could not keep silent over what she saw. The visions pressed in on her, pushing into her essence, her soul, and demanding to be heard. But, since he had asked, she looked right at him and told him again, the first thing she had seen:
"I told you," Viyony said. "Me. I'll destroy you all."
no subject
Psst! Couple of beta notes:
As they approached the Zillence House, Viyony's route home was tantalisingly visible on the opposite of the river but the city was still full of music and crowds while fireworks intermittently cracked and lit up the sky.
You need a bank after opposite
Viyony seemed to rise up, in her mind, above everything, looking down at vivid red, orange and blue cushions and rug and shining starstone, in lamps, in the mirrors.</>
I feel like this sentence doesn't quite parse correctly.