Lindiwe & Maw

She scans the Black Wave, her incandescent eyes carefully surveying the desolate moorland. The dark grass sways in the wind, while luminescent pollen drifts through the air. Though the scenery may not be devoid of charm, she knows that danger lurks there, threatening to manifest itself in the world at any moment. Such is the fate of all the Tumult singularities. At this very moment, many other Yzmir watch over all those that continue to exist in Asgartha. The Megalith, the Fagn, the Glow, the Wave... It is their duty to control them, to regulate them, to ensure they remain dormant.

By her side, Baba Yaga is vigilant too, even as she knits a blanket to pass the time. Her eyes frequently lift from her knitting needles, darting towards the unreal panorama. Her assistance will be more than precious if a corrupted Chimera were to arise on the dark plain. While Sakarabru, Marduk, and Nimue watch over the Well of Tears, the fierce witch is the one who has been appointed to serve as a lookout over the Wave. How many times has she prevented, since the founding of Asgartha, abominations from sowing chaos in the streets of the capital? She has lost count.

Lindiwe had grown up in Caecaster, far from the heady and cosmopolitan life of the capital. All around her city, a vast desert stretched as far as the eye could see, a barren expanse of ochre and chalk. The city was built within a massive mesa, a rocky plateau overlooking the crimson sand. Its inhabitants preferred to live in the shadow and coolness of this stone shelter, which had been extensively carved into grand vaulted halls and labyrinthine corridors. Time often seemed suspended to her in the immense and often depopulated corridors of the capital of Caer Arcolano, locked in a perpetual summer that suited her just fine.

When she returned home in the evening after a grueling day of work, her mother, Nesiwe, would tell her what she had seen, heard, and done that day. The underground rivers, the unreal silence of the abyss, the muffled chatter of her colleagues, the chilly air contrasting with the arid furnace of the desert... Her mother was fortunate to work within the Hypogea, the underground world that sprawled beneath Caecaster and its environs. There, in the perpetual night of the depths, she harvested the precious Arcolano Milk, a psychotropic substance that Alterers sometimes used to enhance their demiurgic abilities.

Nesiwe described each detail with care, emphasizing sensory aspects, especially hearing and smell... She avoided mentioning colors, comparisons with things Lin could not know or apprehend. For the young girl was born blind, and her world had always been tinged with darkness. Yet she did not suffer from this lack at all. Her universe was made of sounds, smells, textures, temperatures, movements of air... She had known nothing else. One of her senses might be extinguished, but the others were in constant vigilance. She had memorized the route from her house to school, from the covered gardens to the market. And there was always someone, friend or neighbor, to accompany her when she needed it.

Descending a long, thunderous staircase while firmly gripping the railings, Lindiwe sometimes ventured into the Hypogea, to listen to the sounds reverberate, muffle, and spread within the immense underground ecosystem. She loved the atmosphere that emanated from this place, so subdued, so soft. She could hear the gurgle of streams, winding in rivulets over the sand. She could taste the refreshing humidity, laden with mineral scents. But one day, as her mother and the other harvesters exchanged the latest gossip, Lin was drawn to a murmuring coming from the oozing rock. She trudged towards the hissing, which sounded like a call only she could hear.

She ran a hand over the wall, feeling beneath her fingers a ringed and elongated prominence. Its consistency was different from the surrounding stone, as if she were touching mother-of-pearl rather than the usual apatite of the cave. Fumbling around, she discovered what seemed like a ribbon embedded in the wall... No, not a ribbon, but a tube trapped in the partition. And at the end of the shape, there was a mouth with sharp fangs. In that moment, a voice thundered in her head. But it was not words that sprouted in her mind; rather impressions, sensations, emotions... Then darkness enveloped her entirely, muffling all her senses.

She must have lost consciousness, for when she abruptly regained awareness, she was half-submerged in a sweet, intoxicating liquid. She scrambled upright, emerging from the puddle in which she had sprawled, painfully coughing up what was in her lungs. She coughed as she crawled on the damp sand, a throbbing pain pulsating behind her forehead. She tried to stand, her breath caught and hoarse, desperately seeking to breathe. But at the same moment, she saw flashes of light in front of her, which she struggled to make sense of.

She shook her head, blinked her eyes. Phantom shapes danced for the first time on the surface of her eyes. It was as if needles were being thrust into her skull, yet at the same time, she was fascinated by this unprecedented sight... Gradually, she became aware of the voices calling to her. Her mother's voice, screaming with a strange mixture of fear and anger. She also heard the chitinous noise coming from above her, like a threatening rustle. "Get out of there," the voices said. "Come over here," repeated others. As she groped in their direction, she could hear a scraping next to her, as if something were sliding on the sand. Something big. Something that provoked fear all around.

Her mother's arms hoisted her onto the bank. Lin stared at her, her pupils trembling, her gaze saturated with impressions she could not comprehend. She turned towards the creature that had loomed over her, and seemed to sinuously dance on the milky depths. Lin let herself be enveloped in Nesiwe's embrace. Her consciousness began to drift again. Once again, a voice burst into her mind, imperious, mesmerizing... A voice that said, "I will wait for you here, in the depths of the earth."

When she woke up again, she was lying on her bed. The world had returned to darkness like obsidian. Her mother took her hands when she opened her eyes. She was crying. Lindiwe listened for a long time as her mother told her what had happened. Some sort of worm had burst from a wall, while Lin fell backward. And the creature had not allowed anyone to approach the young girl's lifeless body. Nesiwe could see that she was drowning, that she was suffocating, but the Chimera hovered around her to prevent anyone from passing.

However, the giant worm had not attempted to attack her, as everyone believed. She was certain that it meant her no harm. On the contrary, it was as if it had watched over her during her unconsciousness. But nothing in what her mother recounted explained the visions, nor the voice that had resounded in her head. For the first time in her life, she had seen. And in doing so, she had felt the touch of a foreign mind against hers. Was it because of the Arcolano Milk? Did the substance have the ability to awaken her senses?

There was only one way to be sure. Despite her mother's reluctance, she drank another sip of Arcolano Milk as soon as she could. And once again, she saw shapes, movements, complemented this time by what Lin guessed were colors, manifest on the black canvas of her vision... She looked at her mother's face, traced her gaze with her fingers to follow the lines and contours. Tears flowed down Nesiwe's cheeks when she realized that thanks to the Milk, her daughter could finally see.

Many learned scholars, doctors, and theorists succeeded each other on her case. Yzmir Initiates revealed to her that the young girl did not see through her senses, but by directly welcoming into her mind the ideas that resonated around her. She could see and perceive through the prism of her mind alone. However, abuse of the Milk could have serious side effects on her psyche if she did not manage to discipline it further. The mages proposed to Lin to join the Faction to learn to better exploit her faculty. They demanded only one counterpart: that she help them track down the chimera worm, with which she seemed to have a connection.