Cadence
#2 of DnD
Here's another DnD story I wrote not too long ago. This one isn't about my character, but our bard, a changeling named Peren. I wanted this story to be confusing and leave questions, but still make sense. Hopefully I pulled it off.
It has now been three yesterdays, tomorrows for me. Daught accidentally knocks a cup off a table, as his girth isn't suited for the elven home. I knew it was going to fall, it happened already. But my body refuses to reach out and catch it. It already happened, and the runes that flash in front of my vision when I try to reach out freezes my arm to its side.
I can't change events that have already happened, no matter how small. The cup falling was what got us kicked out of the elf's house, after all. That chain of events led us to Kelvic, a local minstrel, who told us about a small patch of ruins up the trail we could check out. Keep following that path and three days later will get us to Hulsen'fal, and the cursed vase that set me on my backwards life.
I am brought out of my headspace at the sound of angry elven being shouted down the hall. Daught gives a worried and confused look at the elderly elf chewing him out in a language the golem can't understand. Saryn and I express our apologies for our companions' clumsiness and Gifter joins in, placing a coin on top of the elf's head. That's the final straw.
We're kicked out of the house on the grounds of 'destruction of property' and 'being mocked.' Gifter looks a little upset at accidentally upsetting the elf as we exit the house. Seeing how the Tabaxi was raised in an elven village, I understand her being upset after trying to help a race she feels a kinship to.
My mouth opens involuntarily, and I offer words of comfort that have already been said. I speak them in fluent elvish, and Gifter responds in kind, seeming to brighten up. Daught gives us a confused look over his shoulder, and I tell the behemoth not to worry.
Runes dance at the edges of my vision throughout the entire conversation. Only when it's over, and we're walking down the road do the runes fade and everything above my waist can finally move freely.
I'm forced to walk alongside my companions, but my arms are free to do as they wish. Not wasting this moment, I pull out my viol and lightly pluck at the strings. A cheerful tune fills the street as we play. It's not very loud, as my fingers are forced to play quietly, runes flashing across my vision, forcing my fingers to pluck the strings softly.
I'm only able to play a few chords before my fingers are forced to stop, and I feel my upper body start to seize up again, the runes flashing angry shades of black and red in the corners of my vision as I try to fight it. I feel the rigidity in my neck at this point, and my hands start to sling the viol over my shoulder again. Before I lose control of myself again, I mutter a single word under my breath.
"Curse."
Tomorrow, or yesterday for me, I strummed the same tune and muttered 'vase,', and the 'yesterday' before that, I muttered 'tomorrow,' following the same pattern.
Gifter, who is still walking besides me, turns to give me a quizzical look, but doesn't say anything.
Not too much longer, music can be heard down the road. Off in the distance, I can see the minstrel Kelvic playing near a fountain in the town's center. The song he is playing on his lute is the same one I had been strumming away not too long. I see Saryn glance at me out of the corner of her eye, and I can see she recognizes the connection.
I remember something from the day before I got cursed, on one of the nights we were staying in the ruins. Saryn asks me about the tune I've been playing, saying that Gifter told her I'd been muttering words under my breath.
I'm certain that memory hadn't been there earlier, yet it feels like it's always happened. A tinge of elation rises inside me as I realize that my efforts aren't being wasted. My companions are getting curious, which means I have a chance at getting out of this.
But shortly after the memory comes to mind, the runes flash, as if surprised. They start to flicker, as if having a conversation with each other, but each flicker growing more and more aggravated, the colors darkening. I'm hit with a sudden wave of pain as all my muscles tense and pull away from each other at the same time. My mind screams in pain, but my body remains rigid and clueless.
I can't flinch or curl up on the ground, I am forced to continue to walk as my body threatens to tear itself apart. Tears sting the edges of my vision, but refuse to fall.
When the pain finally subsides, and my clarity comes to my mind in relief, I find myself standing near Kelvic, who is currently telling us of the ruins up the mountain. This is the end of the conversation, which I swore lasted at least 5 or more minutes before this point.
My mind swirls as I remember something else from a few days later. An answer to Saryn's question.
"It's a common bardic warmup." I had told her. "There are different ways to finger it when playing on string instruments, and they're each given different names, which is what I've been muttering under my breath."
I had never said that before. At least, I don't think I had. However, I still remember her accepting the answer, for the most part.
A shiver runs down my spine as I realize the curse can alter things from my 'yesterdays, as they technically haven't happened yet, being tomorrow. Anything I do to alter my future, the curse can fix if it's too obvious.
I internally grit my teeth.
//////////////////////
I wake up the next morning, a canopy of trees above me. At first, I think my companions had taken the hint to fix the curse, and I had woken up the day after we had found the vase. But then the sound of Daught dragging in a large boar makes my heart sink.
This was 5 days before the events with the vase. I had skipped a yesterday; the curse was working harder to reverse my life.
I close my eyes, wracking my brain to figure out how to get out of this situation. I try to remember the vase itself, the details it held before I touched it. I try to remember the ruins we walked through, and if I noticed anything strange while walking through them or if anything caught my eye that I could potentially use.
Since my tomorrows haven't happened, the curse can take any preemptive action I make against it and manipulate it so it doesn't happen at all, or is remedied, and I'm punished for it.
How can I relay a message in the coming 'tomorrows' that my companions can decipher to stop me from touching the vase? I'll have to include gaps in my 'tomorrows' as instead of going back a day at a time, I'm going back every other day.
An idea crosses my mind, but I'll need to test something first. As I'm involuntarily getting ready for the day, and Daught gloats over his catch to us, I wait until I have a moment where I can control myself again. Once I feel the rigidity relax across my muscles, I move as if to put on my pack, but 'accidentally' drop my viol on the ground. It clatters against the forest floor, the neck scratching against a small stone.
My companions give me a concerned look. I curse in elvish, trying to keep up the act, and pick up my instrument. Gifter comes up to me while I'm inspecting the scratch and places a coin gently on the neck near my fingers. I thank her for the coin, and make a mental note to polish the scratch out in a couple days.
Almost immediately, I remember something from 'yesterday,' the day I skipped over. We had a bit of free time after delivering a package to the elven village where we meet Kelvic, and I'm sitting down at a tavern, polishing the scratch out to the best of my ability.
The runes at the edges of my vision appear curious, but otherwise don't do anything. Perfect.
That confirms my suspicions. Because my tomorrows haven't happened yet for me either, I can make changes to the way I do things. For me, they simultaneously have, and haven't happened yet.
If the curse can control my future, then so can I.
Now what I need to figure out is a way to relay a message without my companions seeing, or without making it too obvious I'm up to something. If they make a comment on something before I'm ready, then the curse may stop it and I'll have to start over.
////////////////
'Tomorrow' 5.
I strum my instrument, the same way I did the first three 'tomorrows,' and mutter 'death' under my breath.
I 'remember' that I did the same thing 'yesterday,' but instead muttered 'pain.'
Words with no meaning, but once it's done, I 'remember' my companions were more concerned on the Day Before, as I'm calling it. The day before the curse was placed.
'Tomorrow' 7.
I subconsciously rub my finger against the backside of the lower bout of my viol, near the center.
I mutter 'suffer,' and I 'remember' I muttered 'famine.'
'Tomorrow' 9.
I 'remember' I was filled with immense pain again as I attempted to play the song again. I am unable to do it again today, and I suspect the curse won't allow me to do it again in the coming "tomorrows.' However, my companions are concerned enough as it is on the Day Before.
Without looking, I etch a single line on the backside of the lower bout of my viol, near the center, and I 'remember' that I etched a circle on the back 'yesterday.'
'Tomorrow' 11.
Another line etched today and 'yesterday.' I'm relying on memory and sense of touch to etch what I need into the wood.
'Tomorrow' 13.
The runes are getting curious as to what I'm doing with my viol. They pulse and spin each time I try to etch the back. I fear that if I am not careful, they may try to force me to look in my 'yesterdays.'
I need to figure out a way to finish what I need to do on the back of my viol without actively etching it.
'Tomorrow' 23.
I just need one more line.
One more line on the back of my viol and I'll finish.
The runes have grown too curious. The day after I dropped my viol, I 'remember' they made me polish and sand out the accumulation of etchings and scratches I had gotten up to that point.
I also 'remember' that I had gotten a glimpse of the scratches when I was doing so. They appeared to be nothing more than random scratches.
But it was missing something, and the runes were refusing to let me pull out my viol unless I had already done so.
So instead, I flipped my viol upside down, the neck now facing downward instead of up.
'Tomorrow' 31.
I adjust the strap on my viol one more time.
///////////////
'Yesterday' 7.
I subconsciously rub my finger against the backside of the lower bout of my viol, near the center.
My thumb catches the edge of one of the etching, getting a splinter that bleeds into the scratches.
'Yesterday' 5.
I drop my viol that morning, but the strap size and location I'd been adjusting earlier causes it to fall exactly where I need it to to complete the meaningless rune on the back.
Gifter sees the rune when placing a coin on my viol, now stained with blood from earlier.
'Yesterday' 4.
The curse makes me polish and sand out the rune on the back of my viol.
'Yesterday' 1
My companions grow concerned about the song I've been playing and how I've been muttering under my breath.
Gifter, remembering the rune on the back of my viol, brings it up to Saryn, who speculates it may be a curse of some sort and casts Remove Curse on my viol. Upon casting it and examining the back of my viol, they find the rune to be gone.
Today
I find the vase placed elegantly on an altar in the center of the ruins. I go to inspect it, but Gifter recognizes some of the runes on it to be the same I had etched on the back of my viol.
Saryn casts Remove Curse on the vase to be safe.
//////////////
Tomorrow.
I awake the next morning near the embers of a dying campfire. Above me, a few dark clouds roll heavily across the sky.
Sitting up straight, I glance around at my stirring companions.
We're camped in the center of the ruins of Hulsen'fal, a pile of looted items near our packs. On the ground in front of the loot is a finely crafted vase. Strange runes are etched and painted deep into the ceramic, but otherwise there's nothing terribly special about it.
It's too burdensome to carry for any significant distance, but maybe we could give it to the elderly elvish man that had one of his cups broken by Daught.
Hopefully that'll amend any bad blood between us.
Thanks for reading! May your inner fire burn strong!