A simple Yes or No will do
There was no breeze here, yet the grass moved in waves underfoot, there were no trees, yet he could feel the movement of life under his feet. The cliffs of the valley rose high above him on both sides and stretched far into the distance before disappearing with the curvature of his soul. From one side to the next there was only about 100 meters of space yet it felt like his whole world could fit inside it.
"This is the mark dug into your soul. What you feel here is the lingering touch of power, imprinted on you in a single moment. She held onto you for as long as she could until you were ripped from her grasps, this is the carvings of her nails. What do you see?
The voice of the soul orb wasn't coming from inside his mark but from the real world, either he wasn't able to return to this realm or didn't wish to.
"I see nothing but grass and walls"
Skye spoke the words both inside the valley and in the real world.
"Unfocus your eyes, don't look at the details, let the information take form in front of you"
He once again did what he was told, wondering why he didn't question this orb that randomly appeared and followed his directions without thinking. Was he always like this, just a follower? The man he knew from the Steel Dome would have demanded answers before following any directions.
As these thoughts crossed his mind and his eyes continued to look into the distance, the sky began to shift, the movement of the grass took on new patterns. No longer were the clouds in the blue sky randomly drifting, they were taking shape into letters, connecting with the grassy valley to spell out in front of his eyes as clearly as he was reading the marks on the metal walls of the Dome floating in front of his face on a message board:
The sky spelled out his name, the earth wrote out his title:
[Skye Sauveterre]
[Druid of the Seed]
[Claim mark?]
{Yes} {No}
What kind of question was that? He didn't consent to any of this and now suddenly they want to make sure he has a choice? Release your mark and continue the madness or don't and die in the madness but powerless? Of course he was going to.
Yes, release the fucking thing
As the words crossed his mind the ground started to shake and shift under his feet. The life he felt underneath suddenly woke up and began to take hold of the valley. A robotic voice rang out all around him, bouncing off the walls of the valley.
[Warning]
Near the base of the towering cliffs the dirt turned and tumbled as roots began to climb and spread over their rocky surface as they raced to the sky. Making it half way before stopping and crossing over each other to take up space. Little sprouts started to puncture the ground around him like sprouting flowers. Some of the sprouts opened up like little hands waiting to grasp on to anything, others looked like they would grow into beautiful trees in a few lifetimes.
[Structural changes necessary to facilitate power]
The empty valley of grass now looked both abandoned and brand new, ancient and at the dawn of life's beginning.
[Carving pathways]
As the roots started to take place in his mark, Skye suddenly felt a stirring in his own body in the real world. Suddenly his eyes shot open, pulled from the valley in his soul, looking to catch whatever was causing this. His eyes couldn't see anything before they started to roll back into his head and he let out an uncontrollable yelp.
[Beginning change to morphology, please refrain from moving]
"What is going o…!"
Was all he could manage before his question turned into an incoherent scream behind clenched teeth.
His hands shot up to his chest to clench it, and a violent pain started to spread throughout his body. If he was standing he would have collapsed and further damaged his head, but luckily he was still sitting firmly on the ground, only having to topple over.
[Please refrain from moving]
From his chest the pain spread like fire, pushing through his veins and engraving itself into his very muscles. Like hell he wasn't going to move. It was slow and tedious, like the roots in his mark climbing the valley walls. Skye was too blinded by the pain to feel its movements.
[Please refrain from moving]
His body continued to frash on the ground as his spit turned to foam before escaping his mouth, head jolting back and forth before losing control of his limbs. No one would be surprised if he really did piss his pants this time. He couldn't even make out the words being spoken inside his head anymore let alone follow directions.
"It's okay you're not going to die, stop being such a baby. Whatever you're doing, just stop it, it will be fine. Just stop moving, it should be simple."
His soul orb's words were silenced under his own heartbeat pounding in his ears and the gasps of a dying man escaping his mouth. Skye knew pain, both physical and emotional, but this was a new experience all together. He felt as if he was being destroyed and created at the same time.
Time didn't exist, only suffering. He did not know how long this continued on for. It was either only seconds or he had lost years under the pressure of the hurt. He started the process at 22 but could easily be in his late 30s by now. Would his brown hair be gray by the time this pain stopped? Would his skin no longer be olive but an ashen white with liver spots?
In reality the whole ordeal only went on for a few minutes, in fact Skye laid on the ground gasping trying to recover for longer than it even transpired.
[Physiological changes complete. Mana channels and ability pathways carved. Thank you for not moving.]
The robo voice almost carried a tone of sarcasm with it, if that was possible.
He eventually pushed himself upright with a shaky arm, wiping off the dirt and spit that had caked onto the side of his face. It felt weird to get thanked for not moving when that was all he did for the last… however long?
He looked at his hands and arms, down to his feet where he could feel the changes in his body, like something foreign was beside his veins and his bones were hollowed out. They still felt sturdy, just more empty.
"Why… what happened… to me"
He asked through shallow breaths.
"Well I'm not inside of you anymore so I can't really tell, and the process is different for everyone, but it would seem like you either had a seizure or you accepted the mark. It had to change your body to allow itself to express itself through you. What did it say there?
"Is it… going to hurt like that… everytime I use it?"
Skye's eyes were looking into the distance and unfocused even though he was still staring directly at the dirt in front of him. Had he somehow gotten a power that was good for nothing but causing himself pain? How would he survive like this, suffer in front of his enemies until they feel bad enough to leave him alone?
"Hey dude I have no fucking idea, I was born like an hour ago and was just briefed on what we're doing and why we're doing it. If you got seizure powers that's pretty fucked up but that's just the hand we were dealt. I got a lot of knowledge on the past floating around in my… orb head? But not too many of the finer details, we'll have to work that out as we go"
If there were crickets they would have chirped, an old man would have found this the perfect moment to cough.
The silence continued until Skye broke it.
"It said my name and that I was a Druid of the Seed"
"Are you sure it didn't say Druid of the Seiz?
"At this point it might have"
They both would have laughed if it wasn't also a bit sad, not the whole talking to a piece of yourself in the woods and telling jokes, but this whole damn thing.
"Well, no point in waiting around for it to happen again, let's get moving. Unless you want to wait around and hope someone finds you?"
Skye was shocked but he still pushed himself off the ground and started to follow the soul orb forward and through the trees.
Someone find me?
Why didn't he think about it, of course there were others here, why would he be sent to this random place all alone, what was special about him? There had to be lots of others walking around trying to figure this out, and if he found others to team up with his seizure powers wouldn't matter at all, he could still survive.
"How many people are… wherever on Earth we are right now?
His soul orb scoffed
"First off, who said we were still on Earth? And there should be about 200 people running around right now. With any luck most of you should survive, but in reality only 5 of you need to."
A 2.5 percent chance of survival in the worst case… Wait
"Did you just say we're not on Earth??"
"Oh so you're all good with finding out you have seiz abilities and there really is a god, but being off earth is filling you with surprise. Honestly man, kids these days."