♬Across the Ages♬ {Open Starter}
Since Veran’s possession and subsequent abuse of her powers, the peace that had blanketed Lybranna in light of her passing had been tainted by the damage she had caused by the very thing Nayru had dedicated her life to protecting. The day she came into the world it had been said that she had been blessed by one of the three golden goddesses and, as a result, was tasked with upholding the balance of time throughout her life as an Oracle.
Whether or not those facts were true down to the letter wasn’t important to her as the years passed. “Oracle of Ages” followed her wherever she went; the title never strayed far from a heart swollen with pride at the mention of it, for it mattered little whether the Goddess Nayru bestowed the gift upon her or not. In the end, it was a sacred duty, and she believed that she would see it through properly until the end of her mortal life.
It was not, however, meant to go as smoothly as she had hoped. The Sorceress of Shadows possessed her body, and through a mix of the witch’s potent, vile magic and Nayru’s own, she gouged holes across the very fabric of time the oracle had devoted her life to maintaining.
“What will happen, will happen. There is no going against the Goddess of Time.”
She wished that she hadn’t been so relaxed that day. She had spent so much time focusing on the fact that her torment would end that she never stopped to think about the lasting damages such a rotten woman could conjure. The holes in time were near invisible to regular civilians and appeared at random, flinging the unsuspecting across the ages to wind up just about anywhere with little hope of returning. Of course, she could always close them herself, and for the last several months following Veran’s death it was all she did.
Traveling around Lybranna her senses, keen as they were, guided her to each new portal that sprouted, and closed them with the help of her Harp of Ages. Although she had been working diligently and the number of portals had diminished to nothing for a time, more would always find ways of appearing, leaving her to wonder just how long it would last before it ended...
That thought alone was fresh in her mind as she returned home one afternoon, the sweet air of her forest a pleasantry rarely enjoyed those days, but it seemed that she still had yet to earn it. Not ten paces into the familiar canopy of trees, a portal burst to life at her feet, leaving her just enough time to instinctively squeeze her harp against her chest before being lurched across time with her cry of surprise echoing on after her, and she was soon enough thrown against the ground with a grunt; a cough.
“Where--” She wheezed, the air having been knocked from her lungs with the force of her graceless fall, “Goddesses, I cannot tell where I am.” True enough, this was neither the past nor present location of where she had just been swept away from. The world was different in all the wrong ways, leaving the oracle to sit up and collect herself through her lingering confusion. In her hands remained her ticket home, but days of prior use had left its owner exhausted and without the energy necessary to use it then, and thus she too had become stranded in an unfamiliar time.
It took everything she had to steel her nerves enough to rise again, breaths forced slow and even as her harp remained pressed almost uncomfortably tight to her chest, but she refused to allow her fear to reach her face. She had a duty to uphold- one that she needed to do regardless of hardship-- regardless of fear. and the shadow of Veran’s Black Tower looming over her village every day ensured she never forgot.
“Best to seek aid, I suppose,” spoke Nayru softly, shakily, under her breath as she started forward. “But is anyone even around?” Her gaze slid upward to the world around her, and for the first time in a long time the Oracle of Ages found herself at a loss.
