_a first visit
((Transcribed from AIM; Incomplete))

The wind picked up, calling up a whisper through the leaves of the surrounding trees and tangling through hair like the fingers of a long-forgotten lover. The forest seemed infinite in the darkness that plagued it, light from a setting sun struggling to find its way through gaps in the green ceiling but dying before it could dispel the shadows that awaited it.

It was the sort of forest your mother would warn you never to go into.

But you went anyway, not on part from your better judgement but simply because you couldn't resist. Something was calling inecessently, a single voice pulsing in your head and never ceasing her cry, one that grew stronger and stronger the deeper and farther you traveled into these woods.

But finally something seemed to break -- the darkness, or the voice, or maybe even arguably your sanity -- and trees and shadows alike parted in the near distance to reveal a village. There was a strange sort of calm and peace that draped over it like a blanket -- even when nothing looked quite real there, maybe just a bit too perfect in an out of place sort of way, even when it looked like a dream, and even when it vaguely felt like home now.

Something else broke as well -- the silence by the sound of soft humming. It presumably came from a short, shadowy figure knelt down next to a dark and murky river that appeared from the forest and cut through the village.

Anstice was tired. Wandering through the forest for so long... It was almost like she'd been sick again, only being able to go forward in spite of the confusion and darkness. She'd liked to tell herself that this time, though, she'd had a choice, whether or not to continue. And she justified continuing by telling herself over and over again that she had nowhere else to go.

As she came upon the village, Anstice's first thought was to run away. She shied back a bit, desperately and frantically searching the buildings and streets for signs of life. This place couldn't be like where she'd come from, could it? Someone had to be alive... She couldn't possibly be the only one left in the world...

At that fearful thought, she thankfully heard the humming. So there /was/ someone else. She wouldn't have to be alone. Mother had told her never to talk to strangers, but as far as she was concerned, this figure, crouched by the river, might be the only other being left in the world besides herself. One hand strayed to her lips - a nervous habit - as she approached the figure by the river, filled with both curiousity and caution.

Closer proximity revealed that this figure was a girl -- young, in her early teens, trailing pale fingers through the silent water. The last of the breezes wound itself into her short, shoulder-length auburn hair, carrying Anstice's footsteps with it.

With a start, the young girl jumped to her feet and whirled around with pale green eyes wide open. She stood frozen there, hands intertwined and pulled her chest, but something about Anstice seemed to calm her down and she finally offered a hesitant smile. She held up a hand in greeting.

Anstice jumped a little and took half a step back as well; she didn't mean to startle the other girl. As the girl by the river held up her hand, though, Anstice also started to relax, smiling and waving shyly in reply. She half-wanted to say something, too, but at the moment, she couldn't find her voice. And another part of her was afraid and unwilling to break the silence. Anstice decided that she would wait to see if the other girl would speak first.

The other girl hesitated, having thought along the same lines -- but eventually she knelt back down again, pressing fingers into the dust in rhythmic patterns.

"Hello..." She hesitated then and raised her gaze to the other girl to see her reaction.

Anstice took another step closer, then another. At least this girl was not much older than she was... As the other girl looked up at her, Anstice shuffled her feet a little bit in the dust. Her own gaze alternated a few times between the other girl's eyes and her own feet.

"Hello," she said, her voice wavering a little. Anstice squatted down, now watching the other girl's hands. "W-what are you doing here?" she asked after a moment, her tone a bit stronger even if she did still sound rather uncertain.

The other girl offered another shy smile and continued writing into the dust. "This is my home..." She waited, before quickly scrawling an afterthought, "Desiderium, maybe you know it as the Village of the Lost? The..."

She hesitated here, biting down on her lower lip, but eventually picked up writing again. "...souls of those who have died but wanting to live for whatever reasons may be called here to be offered a second chance at life." She glanced uncomfortably at her own handwriting, trailing her hand a short distance away from that little speech to write in more flowing script, "My name's Antique -- what's yours?"

Anstice chewed her bottom lip a little as she read the first part, but perked up a little as the other girl introduced herself.

"I'm Anstice," she replied, kneeling on the ground and smoothing her hands over her dress. She was quiet for a moment, then cautiously asked, "So... am I dead right now? Are you dead, too?"

"Maybe," The girl wrote slowly, sensing this was a somewhat touchy subject, "Though I'm pretty certain I'm alive... But I might have been dead once, and gone through the ceremony... If you want to not be dead again, that's what you'd have to do... If that makes any sense?"

Anstice was a nice name, she decided, it was too bad that she would not remember her if she were to go through the Ceremony.

"I'm... not quite sure what you mean..." Anstice admits, smiling somewhat sheepishly. "What's this ceremony thing, though? If I'm dead now, does it make me alive again?"

"It's when you..." But she trailed off in writing here, scrunching up her nose in thought. "...I forget," She wrote finally, erasing some of her previous words to make room for these new ones. "It doesn't hurt though... And it will make you alive again, except not in your old body, but in a new one so you'd be healed if you died from.. wounds."

At the mention of wounds, Anstice self-consciously hugs her knees against her chest. Most of them would be hidden beneath her dress, but the scars of the buboes on her neck...

"A new body...?" she whispered, frowning. "I... I think I might like that..." So much pain tied to those scars that were constant reminders of the plague that had killed everyone except for her.

"I can take you to the place where you can do this, if you want..." The girl hurriedly scribbled into the dust, glancing sideways at Anstice with something akin to worry. It was true -- she'd only met this girl for only a few minutes -- but she had such a childlike quality to her that made you want to protect her, even if you were hardly older than she.

Hesitating, she reached out for the other girl with trembling fingers -- hoping to appear comforting or reassuring and not scary. The thought of potentially not actually being able to touch the ghostly apparition never occured to her.

Frowning a little, Anstice shied away slightly from the other girl's touch. Antique seemed nice and all, but Anstice just wasn't sure which of the two of them was dead, and which wasn't. Or if they were both alive, or dead. It was so very confusing...

"... Where do we have to go?" she asked, brows knitting with uncertainty.

Antique snatched away her fingers, redness flushing along her cheeks. She didn't write out a response like she normally would have done, but instead shakily pulled herself to her feet and gestured to the vague, shadowy outline of what appeared to be a castle in the distance.

Anstice followed the girl's motion with her eyes and- Castle! She lept to her feet, brightening immediately. She'd only ever seen a castle once in her life - the one where the manor lord lived - but she never even got close to it.

"Do- do we get to go," she began excitedly Then she lowered her voice, glancing around before continuing: "... inside?" Even just being a stone's throw away from a real castle would be a dream come true~

Antique merely nodded, before pointing a finger to the river and tracing it up back into the direction of the castle. Presumably by following the faintly-beaten path next to the silent waters could one accurately reach the grand structure.

Eyes shining, Anstice watched Antique trace the path, then turned her gaze back to the other girl. "Alright, let's go now," she suggested with a grin. "How long will it take us to get there?"

Antique blinked at the question, flushing again. Admittedly she hadn't expected to be asked to come along -- and furthermore she had never gotten to see the castle up close. Her head hurt thinking about it -- she wasn't reborn like the rest of them, and logic dictated that she would remember any details about the castle -- but she didn't.

Oh, right, the question. The red-haired girl measured a small amount with her fingers, before giving a "follow" flick of her wrist and, turning, began to trace the path up to the castle.

Anstice nodded, fiddling with the bottom hem of her dress in excitement. "Not long, that's good. Do many soldiers live there? They'll let me in, right? Even though I'm just a little girl?" She was getting more antsy now, her mind bubbling with questions.

The castle loomed closer, even though it seemed to have been taking a lot longer than Antique was expecting. She shook her head to Anstice's first question, left wondering at the others but finally nodding. They would let anyone in, or at least that was what she was supposed to say. She wasn't completely sure.

The girl finally quieted down as they got closer to the castle, too awed by its size and proximity to voice any more questions. Though she was becoming a bit worried by what she might have to do here at this castle... Anstice glanced at Antique again, then quickly back at the castle.

Their path following the silent river that would ultimately end at a large castle -- vaguely french gothic in design, towering, gray, and old. Though the rest of the village appeared healthy with its own odd brand of flora and fauna, nothing grew here but thorny vines and an old, equally large tree to the side whose bare limbs scraped against the sky. Antique approached the doors and tugged one open, nothing visible beyond the entryway but darkness.

Anstice's pace slowed as they drew closer to the building, and she looked around at the vines and the solitary tree. As she heard Antique open the door though, she hurried a bit to reach the door. Peering into the darkness within, though, Anstice saw that this was not the glowing castle full of shining knights she had envisioned. Her fingers slowly uncurled from around the bottom hem of her dress, and one hand strayed to her lips as she stared into the extensive darkness.

"I- is anyone home?" she asked shakily, her voice a whisper.

Antique hesitated behind her, looking from Anstice to the looming darkness the castle contained and back again. She wasn't supposed to go in when she hadn't been summoned... But neither would it be right to just leave the girl there... Antique tugged lightly at her companion's sleeve and pointed in the direction of a darkened hallway in the castle. Although it was hard to make anything out through the shadows, a low sort of flickering light (that must've come from candles) could be seen in the distance.

The girl jumped as her companion tugged her clothes, a small gasp escaping her lips before she remembered that it was just Antique. Just her luck that she finally gets to visit a castle and it turns out to be all creepy like this....

"Ins-side?" Anstice squeaked as she saw where Antique was pointing. "Alright." She shut her eyes and swallowed, and cautiously stepped through the doorway, into the building. Maybe it would be better inside?

Antique smiled faintly after the girl, waving her fingers slightly in a farewell gesture Anstice probably wouldn't see. She stepped back and pried her fingers from the door, blankly watching it close before turning away. She'd better get back to her house before she was seen and got into trouble.

There was the faint sound of footsteps in the distance -- so the castle wasn't completely abandoned -- however, whoever it was didn't seem to be heading in Anstice's direction. The fact that the door closed, sealing her into darkness, made the candlelight at her destination easier to see.

Anstice jumped again - a good six inches this time - as she heard the door close behind her. She whirled around and whimpered fearfully as she saw that the light from outside had been sealed out, and she had been sealed in. It was not likely she heard the footsteps over her own panicked panting.

The girl managed to get a hold of herself after a few minutes, enough to move again, at least. Still breathing like she had just run a mile, Anstice forced herself to turn back to the candlelight ahead, and very stiffly placed one foot in front of the other. Then moved the back foot to the front. Back foot to the front. Back foot to the front. Small steps. Easy this way. Light ahead; just keep walking. Back foot to the front...