Alesha opened her eyes and sat up, sliding easily out of the gel's comfortable grip. She eased the VR visor off of her head, set it down on its wireless charger and stretched, climbing out of the chair. Her body felt incredibly good. Invigorated, well-rested and perhaps a little restless.
"Alright System, I know you didn't have anything to add in game, but what about now, in the real world?" She conveyed mentally.
[You literally just asked me. Go outside and take a look for yourself.]
"As snarky as ever, I see."
Alesha went straightway to the balcony, flashing her wrist by the dome-shaped lock to open it. She stepped outside and looked up.
If she went to the far left corner of the balcony and leaned out over the edge a little, she could just barely see past one of the other apartment buildings, behind which was the moon. The sight of the moon caused her to freeze and her jaw to drop open limply. What on Elantris…?
Ferris, tonight's moon, (Elantris had two), was full. It was an exceptionally clear and bright full moon tonight. That, however, wasn't what gave her pause. The glowing symbol in front of it was responsible for that.
It was a radial pattern, one with four axes, characterized by effortless swooping lines, the whole of which glowed fiercely. Its inner glow was white while the outer glows were an orange-tinted red. The main lines of the symbol intersected one another, while the supporting lines, which gave off impressions reminiscent of swirling flames, did not. This symbol was not quite as large as the moon it obscured. Also, rather than being perfectly level, the symbol was rotated a bit so that none of the axes of symmetry were parallel to the horizon. As it glowed, its light pulsated somewhat erratically; yet this uneven tempo didn't feel jittery at all, somehow giving off a regal aura of orchestrated disarray.
Alesha's surprise had another cause besides the mere existence of the symbol. For some reason, one which she could neither comprehend nor express with any measure of certainty, she felt an instinctual connection to the symbol. It made her feel longing, joy, excitement and wonder. It was as if it called to her, "I am yours, and you are mine, we belong together. Welcome home."
And so she stared at it, as if in a trance.
Inside, Layla was on ViewTube, having gotten on to watch a certain livestream at the recommendation of a friend who she had been texting. The stream was showing a scene Layla had been sure she would never see again.
Rushing to find Alesha, Layla checked the office, asked her dad if he knew where she was, at which point Dennis (who overheard), told her to look on the balcony.
Alesha was still entranced by the moon. Her soul felt drawn to it in a way she had never experienced before. It was filling her with a sense of … belonging? Of a vibrant kind of life, of adventure, of --
[+1 Chaos Energy]
"Wait, this is Chaos Energy?" Alesha thought, wondering if the magnificent feeling she was getting from the moon was due to the accumulating Chaos Energy.
[In part. The symbol is also strengthening us in other ways, not just by bestowing Chaos Energy. I believe it is some sort of enchantment.]
Before she could ask, the balcony door slammed open behind her.
"Ahh!" Alesha yelped, startled by the sudden noise.
"Alesha!" Layla said in an urgent tone, hand gripping her phone in her left hand, the sound off and screen turned towards the floor. "You have to see this! Come quickly!"
Her sister's tone was alarming. Hurrying after her, Alesha shut the balcony door behind them and followed Layla into her room. They sat on her bed next to one another.
Quietly, Layla said, "It's another attack," as she brought up her phone and turned the volume on. "This time, it's happening in Trania CIty."
Layla's phone screen showed a split-screen view. A smaller window, in the upper left corner, contained the face of an average teenage girl, her hair stylish but her face leaving something to be desired. She was visibly panicking even as she tried to narrate (and film) what she saw going on around her. In the larger window? Utter chaos.
Scared pedestrians were running to and fro, some of them wounded and bleeding, others on fire of various colors (though not the strange omni-colored fire from last time). A man in an expensive suit carried his severed arm in one hand while he ran. A child was rolling around on the ground, trying to put out fire that had caught onto his clothes, when a large group of people stampeded over him, severely wounding him, heedless of the flames. Several kinds of animal roars and screeches could be heard in the distance.
The streamer was watching this from the roof of a fallen hover car, struggling to stay on top of its domed surface as the passing mob of people jostled it harshly. Her unexpectedly luxurious voice narrated the scene, so steady despite the look on her face and the surrounding chaos that one might have thought it was a voice-over done after the debacle had ended -- if it weren't for the fact that this was happening live.
"As you can see, it is utter pandemonium out here. I keep catching glimpses of nonhuman movement in the corners of my eyes but don't want to move the camera around rapidly too often, because you all need to see this. We all remember the attacks from 2 months ago. We all know how the Alliance covered it up, pretending it didn't even happen, well here we are again! It's happening! Wake up and look around you, Alliance, where's the invincible defense you promised us, where's --"
Layla hurriedly closed out the stream, deciding to look for a different one to watch instead. That channel had been straying into anti-Alliance content and that was something she had no desire to risk watching. The Alliance was merciless in punishing those who spread (and watched) such things.
She found another livestream to put on. This one was also in Trania City, and its streamer was an unpopular music artist from there, Q-Sun Ray. He was known for his sub-par voice and funky lyrics. His stream wasn't so fancy as to have a split-screen view, so the sisters could only see what his camera was pointing at: a group of 20 or so aliens, all of them with vibrantly hued skins and snakelike features. The camera shifted and a blurry vertical bar passed in front of it; Q-Sun must be watching from a balcony, holding his phone behind the bars. It was decently high up but not so far as to make it too difficult to see what was going on below.
The group of snakelike aliens were tearing through the streets, chasing down civilians and demolishing property, when one of them pressed its palm into an undamaged wall. With a sudden burst of dust and falling chunks of wall, a symbol carved itself into the surface -- it was the same symbol as was on the moon! This one didn't glow, but rather appeared as if it had been inked black after carving to make it stand out. And stand out it did. The symbol was fully twice the height of a man, its dark, swooping lines contrasting with the light blue, metallic wall.
Alesha's attention shifted to one of the aliens, a flagbearer. On the black pole that it held aloft, a rectangular flag was mounted, deep purple in color with a sunflower yellow rim and the same symbol in its center, in a vibrant red.
What exactly was this symbol? And why, while watching these aliens wreak havoc in her home world, did she feel… a thrumming call to join them?
[+1 Chaos Energy]