Hallucination Caves Altar

A few days later, Avantika returned to the statue, carrying a clay pot she'd made, full of brightly-colored wildflowers. She just wanted to see how the fireflies had arranged her gifts, she told herself, but even she knew that that wasn't the whole truth. It was part of it, sure, but not all. But she couldn't think about that without feeling like a complete fool, and a reckless one at that -- something she had never thought of herself as before. The Long Night had not been so long ago that she should have any trust for magic. And this was definitely magic! It was strange and unfamiliar and oddly unnatural. But, a sliver of thought whispered, the Long Night never hurt you. It hurt Audra, but Audra was a fraud, a thief of her heart, a bad, bad person. It scared her, but what didn't? She had never been actually harmed by the magic.

Maybe she was wrong to be so afraid.

The scent was stronger now than it had been. As Avantika kept moving towards the caves where she'd found the statue before, her head began to ache suddenly. She pinned back her ears as a shrill whine suddenly shrieked through the silent air. It sounded like a wolf, but also somehow not. She couldn't go check it out. Shadows flashed in the corners of her vision as her pace increased from a comfortable lope to an all-out sprint.

Finally, she made it into the cave and met the gaze of the statue. She was still breathing heavily. The fireflies whirled about her, quicker and more erratic than before. Something was here. Something new. And just like that, Avantika was afraid again. She left her pot and bowed silently, then left. She was going home.

"Speech"