ORIGIN

Fear and agony flooded through the link, seeming as if it would never stop. Aethereal struggled to differentiate it, to recognize it as the Spire's and not her own, but there was just so much.

Break the link! The sound seemed distant compared to the unrelenting horror and loss, the thought a mere trickle among an unending tsunami of emotion. But it was distinct enough to cut through the Spire's contributions.

You feel it, too, Aethereal realized with dawning horror of her own. Her magic had done something--perhaps grasping randomly for others, in the throes of loneliness--and the fear, the pain of failure was shared among all three of them now. Guilt welled up, adding to the torrent of negative emotion. She'd had no right to drag the small one into this. Aethereal let go of the lemur, scrambling back away from the creature.

She tried to pull back the emotions, pull back the magic, do whatever was necessary to break off the link between them--but nothing happened. The sharing remained. Whether it was because of the unreliability of magic, or because she wasn't focusing hard enough, Aethereal had no idea.

I'm sorry, she wept through the link. I tried. It didn't work. Her own sense of failure, adding to the Spire's--no, she couldn't, she couldn't, she had to keep it all to herself, she couldn't burden the lemur with more. Aethereal shoved those emotions down, pressing them away into the pit of her stomach.

Please, she thought to the Spire. She didn't know what it had failed, what had caused it so much sorrow, or if it could even control the intensity of emotion felt through the link but--I don't want to suffer, or for her to feel this. If you can do anything to break the link, or dull the emotions, please help. She didn't know if the Spire even could break the link, if it was her magic that had done this, but her magic wasn't working and she just wanted it to be over.

Her pleading had no effect. Aethereal might have drowned, buried by the feedback loop of guilt and pain, had it not been for Abra's singular voice cutting through the darkness. Stop. Stop it, came the words, and she echoed it in her thoughts. STOP IT. STOP IT. STOP IT, over and over until the cry was amplified by her own magic, pressing against the Spire's presence in her mind.

She did not wonder what it is happening again meant, or what exactly she or the Spire would fail at. There was too much pain, too much emotion, for her to even process the thoughts. She only knew that it was causing her pain, and that this small creature--they only wanted to help!--was suffering too, and she NEEDED IT TO STOP. If she couldn't break the link, perhaps she could impose her will on the Spire, and force it to just... stop thinking for a while.

The chaos surged through the link, terrible and unstoppable, and a roar rose in Aethereal's throat. She would take control, PURGE THE WEAKNESS, MAKE IT HURT FOR HURTING HER--

Is that really what you want? Wings flared out, the gill-like vents on her sides still heaving, the valkhound slowly lowered herself back onto six legs (when did I rear up?). The emotions were still running wild; her blood was roaring with yet-untapped chaos... but it wasn't her. All the Spire. And the 'gift' that I never asked for. Bitterness, now, and fury at the Creator and his chaos for wanting her to harm someone who had ONLY TRIED TO HELP.

Taking advantage of the thrill that sang through her veins, Aethereal directed the magic inward instead. Put the barrier back. Close the adit that the Spire reaches through. And to the chaos raging through the link: SHUT. UP.

She would not be controlled. She would not be made to hurt those who had done her no harm. Mother had not controlled her, and she would not allow the chaos to either.