ravenroth (ravenroth) wrote in newalliance, @ 2013-02-25 22:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | batgirl ii, batman, raven |
Who: Raven, Batman, and Open to other cave dwellers.
Where: The Batcave below Wayne Manor.
When: Monday, February 25th, 2012
What: Raven finally reunites with her books! Is a totally guilty trespasser.
Rating: PG.
Whispers, whispers, whispers... This way... that way... down.... further...
It was like sleep flying, being turned by every whisper, trying to avoid the nightmarish places in Gotham while following that vague trail of clues. It was wearing on her, and even Patsy had noticed she was being more strange than usual, and a little short when someone had called to claim they had a haunting, and Raven told them upon entering the house they were a hypochondriac and there were no ghosts in the residence in question. Time was pressing on her, and she could feel the coil of the stress from her dreams starting to writhe in her middle nearly constant now.
The arrow pinned the dove to the oak.... The waterfall reversed and turned into molten fire... The chessboard was becoming black and green with lichen... A birth cord was severed, and the world trembled as though it may fall to pieces... The rocking chair was empty, but it rocked all the same... Someone returned to a house with a deep crack in the middle, clear through its foundation, and stuck an ax in the door and left it. The door groaned, so loud...
… Then silence.
Raven felt the stillness of the air where her soul-self left her standing. The quiet sound of water trickled through, echoing through a giant stone chamber. There was the smell of earth, water, old salt. Her eyes opened, and she knew exactly where she was, though she had never stepped foot within this sanctuary before.
It was impressive. She was standing on a precipice, looking several stories down. Stalactites guard overhead, not a few little furry bodies nestled in the crannies of stone. Directly below her was a dark sea of water, a glistening, glassy surface that betrayed nothing in its depths that embraced the edges of the lowest level. At the center lay a circular platform, laying a distance above the water. The familiar, jet vehicle rest in its center, facing a straight speedway that shot off into the darkness of a tunnel. Steps led up to another split level, where large screens stood in a smooth U-shape. This was further surrounded by an array of smaller screens, with a number of controls and keys Raven would have been hopeless in deciphering their uses. She could see the top of a very large penny and a bit of a... something large and green. A big demon or animal of some sort. The rest was hidden by view from the multiple levels and cavern walls, but even so, it was all very spectacular. Raven thought it even quite pretty.
A cathedral that goes down, rather than up, and ends in water, not sky...
Of course they would be here. She had given all of the books to him when she had left in her haste some five years ago. Raven did not instruct where they should be kept, only that they should be safe and not fall into the wrong hands. There was likely no safer sanctuary than the Bat Cave.
Where? she wondered, stepping from the edge, cloak lifting about her as she drift across the chasm of water to the platform. She felt the strange buzz of light, but could not see the lasers, so walked through them heedless. Her high heels clicked and echoed as she followed the tug in her belly among the levels and to a hallway cut through the rock tiled with dark stone. It led in a semi-circle to one of the other areas.
But she stopped in the middle of it, staring at a blank wall.
No... seemingly blank. She lift her hand, the pale fingers spidering across the stone surface. She started to whisper, but the whisper became louder. Her eyes began glowing a bright white. The voice, instead of its quiet sibilance, became a strong alto that echoed to the chambers outside the hall. The pattern of the glyph glowed under her palm, and the illusion faded. A small square was imprinted on the wall, the same color as the rest of the stone. She pressed her two fingers against it, the stone giving way underneath.
Then the wall moved.
She sighed, the glow of her eyes fading as she stepped carefully into the darkness beyond. Her hand stretched out, and she felt the leather bindings of rows of books. “Shh. I heard you,” she said, voice barely a breath. Raven paused, feeling something welling up in her. Joy. She knew these books, and this one in particular that drew her hand toward it knew her. It came off the shelf easily at her gentle pull, and she stood there in the dark, her gemmed forehead resting on the thick cover of the volume.
“Azarath... not all of you is lost after all.” Her whispering voice quivered, so she sighed, resting her head there and gathering herself, letting the emotions process carefully before they were pushed down once more. Then she opened the book, fingers tracing the words in the darkness of the room.