2020-05-08: Context is for Margraves

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  • Cutscene: Context is for Margraves
  • Cast: Day Muirwall
  • Where: ???
  • Date: May 8, 2020
  • Summary: After getting rolled by Luceid a second time, Day awakens to the truth about Vess.

"Day... you can wake up now."

The voice seemed far away at first, as though echoing from the top of a well down to him at the very bottom, but it grew clearer as Day's eyes began to open and his vision slowly cleared. The last thing he remembered was excruciating pain and a blur of white fur and fangs, but now he felt nothing but peace and relaxation - and saw nothing but a face he only partly recognized.

"Vess...?" He began to reach out with one hand, sitting up a little, but stopped to stare into her smiling face with dull realization. Something had changed about her. Her glasses were gone, her hair flowing about her face in little waves that seemed to eddy on air he could barely feel. The peasant dress she wore most of the time was replaced by a silk tunic in grass-green and white colours, simple yet almost religiously formal.

He rubbed at his eyes a moment before blinking at her. "What happened... back there?" Moment by moment, he began to take stock of his surroundings - a smooth stone covered with flowers, somewhere sunny and secluded. He could hear wind sussing through the leaves overhead.

From her seat beside him, the woman smiled and bowed her head. "You didn't learn your lesson from last time you met a Guardian. I don't fully understand them, but they're foes beyond any of us. I had to step in and save your life, you know."

"Save my--" Day cut off with a start and gave Vess a look over as memories began to flood back.

He pushed back in his seat, shoulders tensing beneath the green tunic he'd found himself in. "How is this possible?" he demanded as confusion and indignation hit him all at once. The Vess he knew was a simple girl with no ability to fight or use magic - so retiring that she slipped beneath the notice of most.

And yet, he had fallen to a Guardian when she did not - and now she seemed different.

The smile she offered him grew sad as she folded her hands in her lap, fingers lacing and unlacing in a nervous gesture. "I wasn't ready to show you this side of myself yet. But you needed help - not just against Luceid, but in your life. I didn't want to be dishonest, but I wanted you to treat me like a normal person. If I'd approached you as I really am, you'd have felt unworthy, I think."

"As you really--" Realization was beginning to hit him. A laundry list of innocuous incidents played out in his mind, each one more and more of a reason to kick himself for not noticing the obvious.

Vess smiled sheepishly. "The one thing I couldn't do much about is that a lot of people couldn't see me. It wasn't a perfect disguise, being someone of low standing. But it served."

"You're a Seraph," Day breathed. "You're not Vess at all."

"Oh no. I am Vess." She brushed back an airy curl. "It's short for Vesna, you know."

"But why... why would you do this? What possible reason could you have for this kind of... this deception?" The hurt in his voice showed more than he intended.

Evidently she picked up on it. Sliding a hand over his, she squeezed it delicately. "I'm sorry for tricking you like this. Like I said... I wanted you to think of me as just a normal girl. After what happened to you in Muirwall, I thought it would be best...."

Day cut her off with a shake of his head and looked down into his lap. His fingers tightened for a cold, shameful moment.

What happened back there...

"What is it that you want with me," he finally asked as he looked up, voice more subdued.

Her smile faded as she met his gaze.

"I need to restore our home. And I can't do it without the heir to the March of Muirwall."