Story

Red, to Purple, to Blue, to Green. So it goes forever on.
A whirlwind of colours raging on in the pupils of eyes which refuse to rest, clinging to a body that marches forwards till it can’t press on any longer.

The woman has seen three days and three nights, her aching limbs are screaming, begging her to stop, and yet she forces another step forwards with a single goal in mind: Bring an end to her Nightmares.

She travels through valleys and peaks, plains and forests, all familiarly unfamiliar. With her every step a memory comes, and in the blink of an eye, they fade again. She sees a younger self drinking beside a tiny dragon, from the stream of a rising waterfall. She spots herself hiding in the bushes, trying to escape the consequences of a prank gone terribly wrong.

Images like these of her childhood flash before her eyes, yet she walks past them, heeding no mind to these visions. Then there’s one that makes her flinch, hesitate for just a second. She sees an outstretched hand reach down towards the adolescent self infront of her from a golden, blinding light. She’s bruised, and covered in blood that may not all be her own. Her hand reaches forwards, before she retreats for just a moment, thinking about her choice.

She hears a chuckle, before the figure fully leaves the light and kneels before her, hand still outstretched. Though her younger self only stares on in bewilderment, the woman smiles, and reaches out a hand before even her memory of herself could. Again, in the blink of an eye, her environment had changed, and her outstretched hand now pointing towards a pale woman fading to dust, laying against a tree by an oasis. She feels a tug on her shoulder, as a scarred man with black hair yells at her, tears filling both their eyes.

She understands the rage of her friend well, and the only words she can muster are quiet “sorry”’s interrupted by increasingly frequent sobs. She closes her eyes and cries out “I only wanted to help!” As the screaming fades, and the touch she felt on her shoulder with it.

Once she forces herself to look again, she finds herself standing in the hallway of her childhood home. She takes deep breaths to regain her composure, wiping away what she vows to be the final tear to ever fall from her eyes again. She yanks a lantern hanging from the wall, and lights it with the snap of a finger. Though her lips tremble, she muster the strength to sing a quiet melody:

“Lock the door, blow out the light; The hungry oni haunts the night.”
She clenches her teeth, and holds onto her wrist as best as she can, continuing to sing a familiar tune:

“Hide and tremble, little one; The oni wants to have some fun.”

As her singing grows louder, so does the rumble in the far end of the house. Paintings and books on their shelves jump with every step of the creature coming closer and closer towards the Woman. She can make out claws grabbing onto the corner at the far end of the hallway.

“Hear it scratching on the door; See its shadow cross the floor.”

“Maeve, I’d recognize that scent anywhere. I haven’t yet had the chance to thank you for your nightmares. They’ve made me so strong.”,
The hulking figure turned the corner, appearing thrice as large as any normal person. Though its face is veiled in shadow, four red eyes and a foul sharp set of teeth behind a smiling mouth pierce through the darkness.

“I’m almost disappointed to see you here though. I’ve waited for the great hunt for so long now, It’s a pity that you offer your flesh so freely”

The creature lunges towards Maeve, revealing its deep blue skin, the four arms it had hidden beneath its cloak, and a scar covering its chest from shoulder to hip. Its cackling echoes through the hallway as it speeds towards her, and yet she doesn’t move, not even an inch.

She locks eyes with the creature, her brows furrowed. The gleeful rage of the creature turned into curiosity, then fear, but they both knew that it was too late to stop now.

“The sun won’t rise for quite a while; Till then, beware the Oni’s smile”

Maeve sings, a mad laughter following the final part to her lullaby. Her smile reaches from ear to ear, as she drops her Lantern and charges towards the Oni. It tries to swipe her with its claws, ripping through the wooden walls of the building, but when it should’ve made contact, it finds mist in her place. Only a moment later, her grinning face appeared before its own, with her arm now deeply embedded into its eye.

Giggling like a little girl, her pupils light up in the colours of a Rainbow, with that same light travelling down into her cheeks, then her neck, following her veins right up to her fingertips. The Oni rips her away from itself, before it then claws at its own face. It rips through skin and flesh, gushing blood all over. It isn’t long before it tears at its own bones, all in a vain attempt to stop its own misery. Eventually, its arms fall limp as it looks towards Maeve once more. Its eyes tear up for but a second before the Oni’s upper half disappears into a thick red fog.

Maeve’s manic smile slowly turns into a much calmer one, as she admires her fireworks. Behind the gore covering the room, she catches something peeking out from behind a door, and meeting her gaze is the same little girl she’s been seeing this entire journey. Yet again though, within the blink of an eye, her environment changes into a hilltop at sundown she’s all too familiar with. She turns again and again, looking for the little girl she saw, but only finds a small Dragon resting by a tree at the top of the hill.

She lets her body fall to the ground, embracing the little wyrmling as she closes her eyes to rest. She mutters her final words, already half asleep:
“I wonder, will I dream nice dreams again?

I only want that one dream to return, the one so pleasant. Everyone was there, everyone was happy. What I wouldn’t do to dream that dream again.”

Her consciousness fades, as she curls up to what she believes to be an old friend of hers. As she stretches her arm forward, a piece of her sleeve gets caught on the Oni’s severed arm she’s actually hugging, and with that sleeve gone the black veins beneath her skin on her wrist are clearly visible, and they seem to grow larger by the minute.

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Additional Information

Following the merging, once Maeve broke free of Eclipse’s hold on her, she travelled the new world. She wanted to see everything she had never seen before, from both the dark side and the other side of the eclipse.

Though she had some joy seeing the sights of the world, she always wanted to reach out to her former allies once again. That day never came though, and it remained a distant want deep in her heart. During her travels, she began experiencing nightmares and hallucinations, which slowly worsened day by day, over the course of two years.

She blamed them on the Oni which plagued her in the Feywild, so she travelled into the wilds to finally confront the beast. Once she’d slain it, she realized that the Oni had nothing to do with her symptoms. She returned to the material plane, where a few more years had passed. There, she sought counsel from healers and clerics, and they informed her of her condition. They told Maeve that she had contracted Darkvein, and that it is in it’s later stages.

Knowing that she wouldn’t have much more time left, she sought to do everything she once stopped herself from. If she has to go, she wants to do so with no more regrets