The Creepy But Hardly Abandoned Mansion in the Woods, Wednesday Morning
Jan. 14th, 2026 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deathsmajestyIn front of her was a village; a familiar village, not in itself, but in its kinship with others. Liliana knew she knew the kind of folk that would live in that village, but here, now, she couldn't recall. A high wall cupped what looked like a large and somewhat irregular assortment of buildings, with a tall central watchtower nestled in the middle of the settlement itself, but the doors and homes weren't sized for humans, but creatures much shorter. Halflings, perhaps, or goblins or--
Her musing was interrupted the alarm bells in the watchtower began ringing outside. It was a raucous, clanging sound, metallic and overwhelming. She put her hands to her ears and shrieked as the sound changed, becoming somehow even more discordant, somehow almost twisted. She had been standing in broad daylight a moment ago, but now it was the color of dusk. Up, in the sky, there was a vast aurora, twisting with light and color and somehow eating the sky. No, not the sky. The sunlight. Where the aurora sailed, twilight followed, the sky overhead erupting into deep blue spangled with stars in stars, the sun becoming a thin eclipse ring of fire in the distance while the moon sprang to sudden, total fullness. The transformation on the ground was much more startling. Everywhere the darkness touched, the city was transformed. The wall grew higher, topped with long spikes pointing both inward and outward. The ladders vanished, making the territory impassable. The buildings nearest the wall remained the same shape but sprouted spikes and bars along their windows, the spirals worked into their architecture growing more tangled and defensive. Even the doors grew narrower, making it easier to shut them against the world. Around her, the grasses withered and died, the flowers largely following, even as some sprang to greater, glowing life.
Liliana looked around a world wildly changed, one known to her and yet fully unknown. As surprise catapulted her towards awakening, she realized she could smell one thing that was familiar: moonglove blossoms.
In bed, Liliana gasped awake, the name of the plane she had seen in her dream crystalizing in her mind. "Lorwyn."
Her musing was interrupted the alarm bells in the watchtower began ringing outside. It was a raucous, clanging sound, metallic and overwhelming. She put her hands to her ears and shrieked as the sound changed, becoming somehow even more discordant, somehow almost twisted. She had been standing in broad daylight a moment ago, but now it was the color of dusk. Up, in the sky, there was a vast aurora, twisting with light and color and somehow eating the sky. No, not the sky. The sunlight. Where the aurora sailed, twilight followed, the sky overhead erupting into deep blue spangled with stars in stars, the sun becoming a thin eclipse ring of fire in the distance while the moon sprang to sudden, total fullness. The transformation on the ground was much more startling. Everywhere the darkness touched, the city was transformed. The wall grew higher, topped with long spikes pointing both inward and outward. The ladders vanished, making the territory impassable. The buildings nearest the wall remained the same shape but sprouted spikes and bars along their windows, the spirals worked into their architecture growing more tangled and defensive. Even the doors grew narrower, making it easier to shut them against the world. Around her, the grasses withered and died, the flowers largely following, even as some sprang to greater, glowing life.
Liliana looked around a world wildly changed, one known to her and yet fully unknown. As surprise catapulted her towards awakening, she realized she could smell one thing that was familiar: moonglove blossoms.
In bed, Liliana gasped awake, the name of the plane she had seen in her dream crystalizing in her mind. "Lorwyn."
