RP:Empty

Part of the What Dreams May Come Arc

Summary: Meri visits with Maude at Valrae’s old home. The restless spirit of the witch, delighted to see her her again, calls a more tangible form. While Meri offers Valrae hope, the confused ghost offers her friend a vague warning. Shaken at seeing the spirit of the woman she once called daughter, Maude abandons the home on the outskirts of Larket.

Behind Hemlock Grove

The last time that Meri had ventured out this way, it was a somber and aimless wandering, and it granted her the misfortune of seeing Irenic hauled away for crimes...she was not entirely sure of the crimes. Today Meri was her with actual intention, and that was to check in on a woman who was now left without Valrae or Irenic. The blonde tattoo artist was not the best at expressing her own emotions lately, let alone dealing with the emotions of others but here she was. Standing outside the door of a home that probably feels entirely too empty to Maude. Meri takes in a deep breath before knocking on the door, hoping that someone might answer. If no one did, that was fine. Meri somehow felt like it would be okay to let herself into the home. There was obviously no ill-intention meant with this entrance. Maybe Maude was depressed and had herself holed up in bed, buried beneath the covers. Meri just wanted to check and make sure everything was okay. If Maude did answer, she would find herself greeted with a familiar face seemed to be in good health, if not somewhat somber in spirits, doning a hesistanr smile and a bouquet of sunflowers and daisies.

As it were, Maude moved about the empty house feeling as much as ghost as the woman who she had grown so fond of had become. She filled her days with tending the horses and the empty home. The enchanted garden had turned black, curled up as if some invisible fire had spread through it the night it took Valrae’s life. The weather that seemed to never creep beyond the hemlock grove had settled in, turned the grass coarse and yellow and unwelcoming. There were two fresh graves in the bare garden only one with the dirt still fresh as Valrae had left no body to be buried. The other for her familiar, the black cat Nox, who had taken his last breath just as the witch who kept him. Maude, with Irenic when he had been here to help, had cried and bled to empty all the dead out and dared to start anew. She wouldn’t let all that she and the Red Witch, and the man who loved her, built go to ruin. So she cooked and she cleaned and she spent long nights alone feeling the dark press into the windows and never seeing the spirit of the witch who moved with her, when she could. Witches who still remained in Larket or near would visit, to pay respects and give sympathy. Maude cooked for them and let them cry or swear vengeance over an empty grave. But for today, today the older woman was spending time planting anew. Maybe she had no spells to draw the plants from the ground, but she could plant and tend and let things grow in their own time. Valrae’s spirit watched her work and though Maude had a magic all of her own, the practical kind. When she stepped back into the house and saw Meri, sunflowers and daisies in hand, she made a clicking, happy sound and moved to pull her into a tight hug. “Merr!” The old woman spoke her name incorrectly but with enthusiasm. “We have tea?” Her broken common echoed in the home. Valrae’s spirit recognized Meri and spiraled happily around them both.

The state of the garden, the fresh graves, none of these details had escaped Meri's attention. This was not the first time she has visited since Valrae's death, nor would it be the last, but there was still this dreadful pang in her heart each time she viewed these reminders. As far as Meri was concerned, the name Maude spoke was correct enough. A shortening of her current name, it was pretty cute. The hug takes Meri by surprise and it is returned in an awkward, one armed sort of manner before the flowers are relinquished to the woman. Maude knows the house better, she'd be able to locate a vase and put it into water and then decide where she would like to have them sit. Plus handing them over would give the woman a chance to admire them close up rather than with Meri holding them. "We have tea," Meri repeats in gentle affirmation. Maude would lead the way, presumably inside and to the kitchen but if she felt so inclined as to usher Meri in some other direction....Well, she'd be met with one compliant and respectful tattooed lady. Living room? Dining Room? Porch? Kitchen? Whatever made Maude content. Valrae's spirit. That is one spirit that Meri would appreciate speaking with, but for this exact second...the spirit is this buzzing feeling within the back of Meri's mind. It's there, this nagging feeling, but Meri could not quite place her finger on what exactly that feeling was. "You have not had any more troubles since I last saw you...?" When those avians appeared and hauled Irenic away.

Maude takes the flowers happily, clicking her tongue again at Meri. “Too much, you do too much,” She gushes, grabbing a vase to arrange them in after putting the kettle on for tea. With quick, practiced hands the old woman puts together a tray of fruit and sweets as she chatters about and answers the blonde’s question. “No, no,” There was a sadness to the answer though. “No more. They took Irenic, you know,” She waves her hands in the general direction of the yard with a frown. “Lies, I say. The man would do no harm, I tired to tell them…. Well. They don’t say where they take him if you remember.” She sets the tray of snacks in front of Meri and takes a moment to pat her hand. “I love visits,” She tells her then, her smile wrinkling her face pleasantly. As Maude chatters at Meri, Valrae’s spirit passes restlessly around the tidy little kitchen. Can you see me? Can you see me, Meri? I miss you. Can you see me? Frustration rolls in waves over her. Maude, unseeing and unfeeling of the spirit, puts together a tea tray and adds it to the table before taking a seat. “Tell me about you, how you are?” Valrae feels helplessness reaching like a black hand, surrounding her. She pulls together what little strength she can and wills herself visible. “Can you see me?” Maude screams, her old face blanching before she loses consciousness and slumps to the kitchen floor.

Meri did not have the heart to put in her two cents about Irenic, what she has learned during her interactions with him. He was not a bad man, not deep down. Misguided, which has lead to him have a bad history. He probably has done something worth hauling him away for. This little comfort that Maude has does not need to be shattered. "It is not too much, if you need any help I do just live ri-" Meri's sentence is cut short at this point, Valrae's voice is no longer just a buzzing in the back of her mind but it was booming through the room. Maude blanches, screams and feints. Meri's reaction is a little different, the woman definitely loses the color to her face just as Maude does, but with the older woman feinting Meri moves to action to try and break her fall and ease her gently to the kitchen floor. Once Maude is settled, Meri rises to her full height to stare at the now visible spirit. To an extent, Meri felt like she was asleep and in the middle of a dream/nightmare, or like she had been sucked back into the Shadow Planes. Except it was not Max she was seeing, or the ghost of some other familiar. This ghost that stands before her is quite known to her, and she has heard that Valrae's spirit still lingers. Seeing is believing, and now Meri was seeing but there was still this seed if doubt in the back of her mind. "I am hallucinating..." Meri was starting to feel like her knees were about to give way, so she sinks back into a chair before she ends up joining Maude on the floor. "You are not real."

Valrae watches Meri spring into action, save Maude from the worst of her fall, and feels gratitude spring anew. She’s frowning at the situation though, because she really hadn’t meant to give the old woman such a fright. Well, suppose what’s done is done. The image she’s chosen, though not consciously, might be unnervingly familiar to Meri. A mess of curls bundled high atop her head, her eyes lined dark. The way she had been in life, when Meri had been put under some thrall of magic ink. When she moves, it’s unlike anything living moves. There is no movement for breath, no stirring of air or soft sounds of her feet on the glossy wood floor. “I’m here,” The echo of the witch assures, a longing on her face. It was so good to see Meri, even like this. There was an ache that surrounded her to see her so pale and unsure, but the selfish parts of Valrae took even this. “I am real, Meri.” Sunlight slanting through the kitchen window passes through her and to the floor without resistance. The false image of her knees before Maude, a hand passing over her face without so much as moving a hair. Maude doesn’t stir. Valrae’s ghost stands again. “I’m sorry Meri, I didn’t mean for this,” She waves her hands. “To happen. I just wanted to… I wanted you to see me. See that I’m here.” There was desperation and loneliness in her voice, cast on the image of her face.

Meri whole-heartedly understood the desperation and loneliness that Valrae’s spirit was feeling. These were sentiments that Meri felt while trapped in the Shadow Planes, but Valrae may have it worse than Meri yet. At least Meri did not have to see her loved ones moving on with their life without her. She thought often about what they might have been doing, but she never had to see it. That possibly puts more ache in the heart. Meri’s mind is still clouded with doubt, her brows furrow together as she tries to process what she is seeing. The look that Valrae takes on hits an emotional chord with Meri — it is a reminder of that one time that a witch who hardly knew her was more willing to help her than any of her other friends. Meri had decided that she liked Valrae from the get go, but that encounter in particular really made Meri value and appreciate Valrae. The blonde steps forward and hesitantly reaches out with a tattooed hand. It was clear to Meri that Valrae did not have a physical form, the sunlight passed straight through her and have her spirit an almost angelic feel. That did not stop Meri from trying to reach out to place the palm of her hand against Valrae’s cheek, even if contact could not be made. “We are trying to bring you back to us. We need you to come back to us. There are skulls? We are trying to get them for you.”

Valrae watched Meri struggle, wrestle with her sudden presence… But was that a flash of understanding too? A stab of sorrow pierces her. As the other woman reaches out to her, her hand placed where her cheek might be, Val’s own hand moves to cover where Meri’s would be. She closes her eyes and for a brief, shining moment she could almost feel. If the dead could weep, the witch would be weeping. The blonde’s words echo to the spirit, mirroring Lionel’s. “I don’t deserve it,” She answers, opening her eyes finally. Emerald pools of regret and sorrow study Meri now. “The path a chose… The people I hurt,” She pauses, the emotion threatening to spread her thin and out of focus… Away from where Meri could see. “Cal, you… Irenic.” She shakes her head. The bundle of golden curls move, an illusion of true movement. “I stole from Callum, I’m sorry.” Sincerity passes over her face like a cloud over the moon. “I had no choice. My people were dying. They die still...” A quiet falls. The air is cold around the spirit of the witch. “I would change things though, if I could do it again...” Suddenly, the restless ghost is pacing the lenght of the kitchen again. “Something, something… I have to tell you,” When Valrae stops again, her eyes are wide and dark. Fear lines the illusion of the ghosts face and the room is suddenly darker. “The skulls, Meri… They’re hungry. Dangerous. Please….”

Meri would be the one to cry the tears that Valrae could not. This was not the first time that Meri has shed tears for Valrae, but the blonde was certainly more emotionally volatile since her return from the Shadow Planes. Maybe she would have cried regardless, but more than likely her tears would have been held back and restrained...unlike right now. Those tears stained Meri’s cheeks in full salty streams. Her expression does darken when Valrae mentions stealing from Callum, that was a good way to chance upsetting Meri. Yet Meri also reconigzed the dire situation that Josleen and Macon forced the witches into. It was challenging to really hold on to that anger. “Your people were dying, they still are, you were doing what you believed you had to do to protect them. Which means you deserve it.” A beat. “Everything in this land could be defined as dangerous and hungry if you look at it with the right light.” Perhaps in time Meri would come to understand Valrae’s warning, but for now the skulls seemed like an important tool to bringing her friend back, who will continue to save the witches. “We are going to bring you back...But I must warn you that Irenic will not be here when you come back...” If Valrae has not already witnessed his capture....and even if she did, would she remember? Would Meri have the misfortune of having to repeat this conversation?

Warning bells were sounding off all around Valrae. She moved back and forth, no sound to be made in the little kitchen, restless and wild. There was something just beyond her, something she couldn’t quite reach. Beyond this, Meri’s tears tore at her. She would remember them. When she was plunged back behind the veil and condemned again to be alone she would see her now and be choked with guilt for it. Maude was stirring on the floor, as if the cold Val had plunged the room into was seeping into even her. “Yes, no.” Valrae is suddenly still, motionless the way that only came with death. “They are old, Meri.” Her voice sighed through the room like a winter breeze, echoed like a warning. “Keep your eyes open… They’ve waited.” She’s shaking her head again, the image of her clouded and curling away like smoke. “He’s gone,” The spirit answers of her husband. “I cannot find him. I’ve searched. I called. Irenic has gone.” Maude made a small sound of pain, her eyes fluttering like the heartbeat of a bird. Valrae moves to Meri and mirrors the woman’s earlier movement, reaching out to brush at the tears on her cheek. Her hand changed less than a cold breath of wind. Helplessness surged through her again. “Keep your eyes open.” Valrae pulls her hand away, her form fading with her voice. “All magic demands sacrifice…”

All magic demands sacrifice. Meri frowns, this message was not so lost on her but it was so hard to tell what it would take. Maude begins to stir and Valrae approaches, placing hand to cheek just has Meri had done earlier. Maude is forgotten momentarily as Meri continues to frown. There were so many reasons to frown in this moment. Valrae was dead, this conversation had very ominous tones to it that almost suggested that...perhaps Valrae should not be saved? But that could not be true, could it? To make it worse, this conversation was finding it's end, Valrae was fading from view and her voice was going with her. It was just a few short moments, a few brief words, but how much energy had to be expelled just to make herself visible like that? Meri could not even begin to understand, all she knew that as quick as Valrae was there, she was gone. "Valrae..." If no answer resonated back to Meri, it would ultimately be Maude that gains Meri's attention. She was stirring, Meri should help her however she can, even if it is just helping her back to her find steady footing again.

Poor Maude looked as if she’d aged twenty years coming off of the cold floor. She was making sudden hand motions, crossing over herself and muttering in the tongue of her birth. Silver hair askew, dark eyes wide and darting about until they rested on Meri. “My girl,” She moans suddenly, sorrow as deep as any mother could feel is etched in the lines of her pale face. She shakes her head, unsteady on her feet she stumbles to the kitchen tables chair. Her trembling hand fists clumsily around a cloth napkin. She makes no move to dry her tears though, only wrings it in her hands with nervous energy. When she turns her face to Meri again she looks at her without truly seeing. “I must leave. I cannot stay.” Weakened from using so much of her little remaining energy, Valrae watched on with a heavy heart. She leaves them both, Meri’s tears and Maudes eyes haunting her as much as she had haunted them..

Meri was sorely tempted to leave shortly after Valrae's disappearance, but she could not in good conscious. Poor Maude. Poor Meri. Poor Valrae. For all three women, this was a sad moment. An emotional moment. These are not things that Meri is good at dealing with. But Meri stayed, for as long as Maude wanted Meri to stay. It was not right to abandon the older woman in such a time. While Meri was none-to-happy herself, and those tears would not be quick to stop, she would insist on catering to Maude. Tea? Meri would finish making that. Was she hungry? At some point though, the two women would have to part.

Maude thanked Meri with sad eyes. She packed away the food, offering Meri the bulk of it. She packed a few of her things, though she didn’t have much… Clothes, a portrait of her and Valrae, the wedding rings of both the witch and her husband. She locked the doors and windows, snuffed the candles and the fire that had been burning low in the kitchen hearth. She clicked her tongue at Meri again, fumbling over being thankful and sorry, and she would leave with the younger woman, breaking away to open the stables and leave both horses to run wild. Maude looked back once, before putting it all behind her and heading out.. Toward Cenril, she would tell Meri if she’d ask. Behind the hemlock grove, the cottage would suddenly seem to sag, empty and dark of void of the life and warmth that once filled the home. Inside and alone, without tears a ghost wept.