InsaneJournal

WHO: Kestrel Hath & OPEN
WHAT: Arrival and confusion.
WHEN: Early afternoon.
WHERE: Just in front of the library.
RATING: PG?
STATUS: Incomplete.


It wasn't that the library had confused Kestrel upon wakening. It was more that -- it had, for the briefest of moments, made her think she was home, that Aramanth hadn't been burned and her family was still together and well and she'd fallen asleep while reading one of her father's books. That was all.

But it only took her a second of consciousness to realise this wasn't her father's library. It was bigger, it was laid out differently, and it was somehow ... shinier. She'd frowned and stood to examine the shelves of books, wondering if perhaps this was the Mastery (but that, too, had been destroyed), or Sisi's home of Gang, or even her people's homeland. But the books had had no titles, and the few she'd pulled off the shelf had been blank inside, too.

How odd.

Before she'd had time to contemplate this further, however, the armoured beings she'd assumed were statues had moved towards her. She'd dropped the books and turned to defend herself, not sure how she'd be able to fight off so many at once but determined to do so anyway -- but they didn't attack. They merely led her out, through the exit of the building and into a wide city street, bright with the afternoon sun. Her struggles against them had been entirely ineffective, and her curiosity had kept her from fighting too much. She wanted to know where she was; if these people wouldn't answer her questions, maybe there'd be clues outside.

Well ... there weren't. In fact, she was now even more confused than before. The street bore some resemblance to a cross between the Mastery and Aramanth's White district, but with several added elements she didn't recognise at all. The street signs -- she assumed they were street signs -- were made of some foreign material, and some of them lit up in different colours, and-- and were those supposed to be carts and wagons? Where were the horses? Why was everything moving so quickly?

One of the armoured guards had given her a strange handheld device as she'd exited the building, and she frowned down at it again now. Maybe it was a book. But it was hard and solid, heavier than it ought to be for its size. There was some sort of crack, though, so she tried to open it like a book ... and almost dropped it when it slid apart and lit up.

"What the--?"

The thing made a noise, some sort of musical tone, and Kestrel squinted at it. There was writing; maybe it was a book. It just wasn't like any book she'd ever seen before.