Log:An Audience with the Source

Grimm Family Matters 2020/07/15 Grimm 6

Meanwhile...

Gabrielle Grimm arrives... elsewhere. It isn't the forest. It isn't even the same dimension. That is the extent of her immediate senses of the surroundings, which are minimal, to say the least.

She is ...at the end of a hall, of some sort. A few meters wide and unknown ahead, all of its length: floor, walls, ceiling are formed of something like white stone (or metal?), yet with a satiny reflective finish. Her senses can't penetrate it, or, rather, sense nothing at all beyond them in any direction.

The sole source of light is ahead an unknown distance: the same warming light that she saw, before, albeit now far more clear and bright, yet it stops short of being painfully blinding. There is something uncomfortable to the light, still, as much as it is soothing. The cause for both may be one and the same, as the core of her that she touches on so often, and did to try and travel, is ... not gone, but shrunken. Retracted. Hiding, deep within. With that reduced to just an almost forgettable sensation, she is now very much as she was before encountering one Jonathon Price.

Grimm finds herself teleporting and then flying toward the light, and then when she can no longer see, her vision clears to find herself standing in the strange dimensional hall.

Her shadow field, with wings and tendrils, is gone. As is the onyx of her hair, which is left blonde as it was before she got her powers, or the day Radical suppressed her powers with his device. She can't sense anything more than her normal human senses can observe. After so long accustomed to knowing everything around her, it feels like being blinded.

She tries to will herself forward, but...nothing. She's still standing where she is. And if she can't even teleport down a hallway, how is she ever going to get back home? She looks behind her, unable to see where she just came from. That just leaves forward. And so, she begins walking towards the source of the light.

It seems that her shadowy abilities are not the only aspects that do not operate as expected. Distance, or perhaps perception of it, is also, in technical terms,... wonky. After only a dozen steps, she finds herself at the ...other end of the hall(?). Grimm also finds herself directly in the presence of ... the light. The glare isn't painful, though it makes it difficult to discern whether it is a pinpoint or something larger.

"Welcome, Gabrielle Grimm. We know that you have questions..."

The 'voice' is felt more than heard, no different than the mirror, or the forest. The radiance from the light then dims and diffuses somewhat, allowing her to confirm that it is a pinpoint of light rather than, say, a basketball. For a moment.

Its form expands and alters, adopting a shape more familiar and understandable to Grimm: a feminine humanoid her height, with similar features as Grimm, though not as sharply defined. A nearly inverse Shady.

Grimm fights the instinct to shield her eyes from the light. She's powerless in this place, so she tries to exercise patience and politeness.

"Yes. I'm looking for my sister," she answers plainly, but doesn't add much more to that for now. The entity knows her, so it must already know that detail.

"She is safe," she?...it?...they? assure her. "We have protected her since our first meeting... but he hunts for her, still. He will not cease.

"She. Gwen. She's okay? Thank you....thank you so much." Grimm wipes at her eyes as they start to tear up in relief. "Can I...can I see her?" Gabrielle asks as her heartbeat quickens with excitement and hope. Though there's something else to be concerned about. "Who was that person hunting for her? Why are they after her?"

"We cannot reveal her while she is hunted; the risk is too great." There is no physical change in expression, and no real expression to begin with, but there is a sense of ...empathy and regret at that statement. "It was foretold that a daugther of Grimm would be a conduit to the end of all things. Price seeks to ensure that comes to pass."

"I'm her sister. I'll keep her safe! If I could just see her..." Gabrielle pleads. To come this far and wait so long, only to be told no? She's about to protest more when she realizes it may not help. "Price?" she asks, her voice cold and angry. "He's the reason? Jonathon already did that! So...it's safe to return Gwen to her family. To me. Please!"

Grimm also feels sick inside. That old man was Jonathon? Did the power leech away his youth, or was he always a sick old man pretending to be young when he seduced her?

"No," Grimm is told, no matter how far she's come. "Jonathon Price choose to follow the sins of his father, when Victor could not reach Gwenneth, and we did not allow him to find you, Gabrielle Grimm. We could not protect you both, from both, but Jonathon was the weakest of them, and you the strongest. We knew that you would prevail."

"His...his father?" Gabrielle utters as her mouth goes dry. Now she's torn in a different way. They didn't bother to protect her. That's something she'll internalize later. But for now, her sister's her main concern. She swallows and tries to hydrate her mouth to talk again.

"I won't let him touch her. Please. Please give her back," she begs again.

"We obscured her from Victor's sight," the light explains. "All of our creation is at stake. End his hunt, Gabrielle Grimm, and we will reveal your sister to you. Until then, we cannot." Again, there is a sense of empathy in addition to the finality of that caveat.

Grimm looks distraught. "I can't even talk to her until I stop Victor?" she sighs, heartbroken.

"If you would have her know something," the light offers, "share your words, your thoughts. We will convey them to her."

Grimm sniffs. Now that she has the chance, she's not sure what to say. She just speaks from the heart. "Tell her...tell her that her big sister misses her so much and never stopped looking for her. That I love her. That I'm sorry I couldn't find where she was sooner." A few tears run down her cheeks. And then, with determination, she adds, "And that she's going to do whatever it takes so she can come home at last."

The light was already calming, but now that aspect of it is accentuated briefly in pulsing waves of soothing. An attempt to assure? console? "She will know what you have shared. You know what you must do. Your sister is safe. Your friends are safe. We will return you to them."

A second feature of light now illuminates the hall from the end behind Gabrielle. It is neither pinpoint nor silhouette, but a circular portal.

Grimm looks back over to the portal as she feels soothed and calmed. She looks back to the light. "First...I have a few other questions. Who are you? What are you? Where is here? And where to I find Price's father and how do I stop him?"

"We are all that remains of ... The Source. The power that formed the seed of Yggdrasil to bud the first realms; that which coalesced into entities or ignited the first stars. Now, we are merely ... a shepherd of that creation. This," a hand gestures reasonably smoothly for more humanoid emphasis,"is only a construct; a place for you to be which you can comprehend."

Grimm nods slowly in awe, even as she has difficulty wrapping her head around the idea that the source of creation's remnants are what've intervened here. She's not really sure what to say about all that, except, "Wow." Several seconds later, her brain activates again. "I, uh, appreciate the construct. It's nice," she adds politely.

Grimm's mortal shell would appreciate it, too, as it has breathable air, pressure, and a narrow tolerance of temperature range. A meeting within a gas giant, or inside a star, or spread across an entire galaxy would be ... quite awkward. "Price will return to the last location he knows, in search of Gwenneth Grimm. He scours your world, and beyond, but will find no other sign."

Grimm takes a deep breath. At least she thinks she does. Who knows, if she's on a metaphysical realm's construct. "So I can go back to the forest to lure him out. And bring enough backup with me to stop him."

"Yes." As far as entities beyond mortal scope go, at least she/it/they is direct and concise. "You are powerful, Gabrielle Grimm, but Victor Price will not be easily averted."

Grimm nods shallowly. She already experienced that much when he almost knocked her out with one assault on her mind. "Well...perhaps I'll have to reach out to more friends to help. How do I contact you again once Victor's no longer a threat?"

"We will know when his hunt ends, Gabrielle Grimm. Until that time, we will watch over our creation, as we always have."

Grimm frowns faintly. "Do I...do I have to kill him to make the hunt end?" she ask quietly as that thought causes her concern.

"His hunt must be ended decisively and permanently." Now the response may seem less direct. "His power makes him difficult to contain. How his hunt ends is less important than that it does." There is a pause, and that soothing, empathic aspect of the luminescence increases briefly once more. "We do not wish an end any part of our creation, but the whole must take precedence over any one piece."

Grimm nods weakly. One way or the other, she'll end his hunt. For her sister. "I understand. I'll do what I can. What I must," she says with the resolve of a determined big sister.

"We know that you will," The Shepherd(s?) confirm.

Grimm nods, realizing there's little else she can do since she's powerless here. The very forces acting to suppress and hide away her powers makes her feel a little unwell. "Thank you again for keeping my sister safe," she says with a polite bow, because she has no idea what else to do, and waving seems too informal. She then turns and walks for the portal.

As before, the steps to the other end are far fewer than the eyes would suggest. Stepping through the portal, Grimm arrives in Steinberg Tower.

Log:Return to Grimm Reality