Hold It Together

Toad awoke with a gasp, her heart pounding away inside her chest. She clutched the amulet hanging around her neck, the one bestowed to her by Mystra, feeling its cool surface against her skin. It was with short, ragged breaths that she tried for the moment to recall where she was. The dream - no, the vision - still lingered in her mind.

She scanned the interior of the dome of force she had surrounded herself with the previous night before going to sleep. Outside it, her campfire had long since died, and the morning sun was rising over the horizon, covering the mountainside below her in a golden light. Outside, the world was calm, unaware of the storm within the mind of the diviner.

Still clutching the amulet, Toad forced herself to stand, still trying to comprehend what she had seen. She closed her eyes once more, feeling the soft hum of the magic within the amulet. Mystra had bestowed a portion of her own power to Toad through this amulet when Toad was granted the honor of becoming her aspect. It was hers to safekeep. That was her duty.

Taking a deep breath as she tried to steady herself, she opened her third, divining eye. Toad had seen many futures in her time as a diviner, and witnessed countless possibilities. Rarely had she hoped to be wrong like she hoped now. But as she allowed the glimpses of the future to press on her awareness, the same visions flooded forth.

Silence. The kind that presses against the air, suffocating everything beneath it. All around her, The Weave shimmered faintly, like fragile threads of silver hanging in the air. But something was wrong. The threads were unraveling, snapping one by one, leaving jagged edges that sparked with uncontrollable, chaotic energy.

At the center of the vision stood Mystra. Her radiant form was dimming, her light flickering like a candle nearing its end. The goddess reached out, her hands trying to grasp the dissolving threads of The Weave. But for every thread she touched, two more slipped through her fingers. As her light faded, her expression was one of agony.

Hold it together.

The words echoed in Toad’s mind, though they were not her own. She felt her goddesses’ presence, distant and fading. Before she could fully process the visions and her goddesses’ words, a pulse of energy surged through the air, rippling the Weave itself. Toad gasped, her body seizing with the sudden shock of it. It was no longer a vision. It was happening - now.

Toad fell to her knees, trembling, as the overwhelming force of the unraveling Weave washed over her. She had seen this moment in her dream. Herself, holding the Weave together, alone, as it teetered on the edge of catastrophe. But seeing it had not prepared her for the reality of it. 

“I’m not ready!” she cried out, her voice swallowed by the maelstrom of magic raging around her. But there was no one to hear, no one to answer.

Hold it together.

The words echoed in her mind once more. And while Mystra was gone, a final fragment of her still clung to existence through the power she had bestowed to Toad inside her amulet. 

She had no time to think, no time to mourn. She felt the collapse beginning. The Weave was faltering, unraveling into dangerous arcs of wild magic. Toad staggered to her feet, her breath coming in ragged gasps. She was no god, yet the power bestowed by one stirred and surged through her. And now, she understood.

She had to hold it together.

With a shaking hand, she touched the unraveled edges of the Weave. It bucked against her, wild and chaotic, but she held on. The power within her surged, giving her just enough strength to hold the threads together. Her body ached with the unbearable strain. Her arms felt as though they would tear from their sockets, and her legs trembled under the weight of it all. The raw magic burned as she grasped it. 

But she couldn’t let go. She wouldn’t.

She breathed deeply, trying to steady herself. The threads of the Weave were wild and thrashing in her grip, but she pulled them towards her, holding on as tightly as she could. The energy coursing through her was too vast, too powerful for any mortal to control, but she had to control it. She couldn’t let it slip through her fingers. The threads of magic bent to her will, trembling in her grasp as she pulled them together, knitting them back into some semblance of order. It was an impossible task, but she couldn’t stop. She couldn’t allow the Weave to unravel.

One by one, the threads came together, converging in her hands as she weaved them back together, until the chaotic storm of magic began to calm. The frayed strands stopped flailing, now bound within her grasp. Sweat poured down her face. The slightest error, the slightest slip, and it would all come undone.

Toad lowered herself to the ground, sitting cross-legged on the cool earth. She felt the raw magic pulling at her, straining against her grasp, but she held firm, her hands trembling as she cradled the broken Weave.

She couldn’t fix it. She couldn’t heal the damage. But she could hold it. And for now, that was enough.