AN: Alright, first time trying out a fanfiction about a game. the Watcher is named Cera, she's a Cipher. Other than that, find out later in the story - trust me, it'll make sense, I promise. Anything else will be a spoiler. Also, I wasn't entirely sure what a Cipher may and may not pick up on - mental powers, I know the fighting abilities and all, but what about everywhere else? I might've made some stuff up, but it makes sense enough - at least, from what I can imagine about people with the mental ability to read others' minds and such. Some info about her: she's an elf, short, choppy brown hair, and I happen to like pink so she wears clothes dyed in hot pink and the darker pink.
Cera sits up in the cart, woozy and feeling like she might throw up even now. She's been sick all day, wasn't feeling all that wonderful the day before, and hasn't eaten anything for the past day - lovely, truly.
Well, nobody ever said traveling would be easy. And it's still better than back home.
Calisca whips her head around at the sound of her clambering out of the cart, and says "We've stopped for the night - giant tree login the way. We'll be moving it tomorrow though. Few words of warning from Odema: don't go in the ruins, don't wander off, and don't provoke any hut-dwellers."
Cera nods, eying the ominous looking ruins behind the strange rocks she now knows are called Adra. "Wasn't planning on going somewhere dark, creepy-looking, and likely full of spiders and gods-know-what-else."
"Good call. Odema still thinks it's the Rumbling Rot you've got. Says there's supposed to be these berries growing all over these parts, Springberries he said, make a tea with them that helps with some of the symptoms."
"Like the vomiting? I'll drink a whole barrel if it'll help. Have any of these berries?"
"No, but c'mon, they've got to grow nearby. We can refill the water skins as well."
"Sounds great. Didn't mean to get sick and be a burden or anything."
She can feel the minds of the rest of the caravan, a quiet hum against the total silence of the night - soothing, steady. The total silence of being completely alone for miles in unnerving, if a welcome respite from cities and tense situations that only get tenser when you can feel the person's mind and their own tension as well as your own. The unending clamor of a dense city could well drive you mad after a while, unless you know how to shield yourself, but this is a good balance between the two. Calm, relaxed, and peaceful - and given the fact that she tends to pick up on people's thoughts and feelings so easily, its exactly what she needs right now.
They find Springberries soon enough, along with a wolf that growls at them menacingly. Calisca readies her weapon, but Cera says "Wait, it's just trying to survive like the rest of us out here."
"So you want me to let it kill us both?!"
"No, but lower your weapon for a moment. Feel free to bring it back up if this doesn't work though." She stares at the wolf for a moment, and then it stops growling and calmly walks away past them and into the woods.
"How did you just do that?!"
"One of my skills. Nothing too hard." Cera shrugs, feeling uncomfortably warm with her fever burning her up from the inside.
"You're a Cipher then."
"Yeah, good guess. Not something I talk about much."
"You don't talk much about yourself at all, really."
Cera shrugs and asks "How many of these do we need?"
"I dunno, twenty? We figured out you're Aedyran from your accent, but other than that you're a mystery to everyone."
"Just another Aedyran elf is all. Nobody special, except for the part where I can read minds."
Calisca snorts and says "And spring a lock. Such as when Odema accidentally left the key to the wagon in the lockbox and lost the key to the lockbox somewhere in the wagon." They both laugh a little at the memory, which turns into a cough for Cera. "Alright, let's get you to the river. Water's gotta help even a little, berries in it or no."
It does help, actually, clearing out some of the fuzz from her mind - and then she feels something, a disturbance in the steady mental rhythm of the camp. It's agitated and alarmed, and between that and the fever and sickness, it's all a little too much for Cera. She falls to her knees, one hand on her head - and then they both hear something swish over her head. An arrow buries itself feet behind her, it would've gone right through her head had she still been standing.
A warrior in mismatched skins stitched together comes out from the trees, holding a carved bow and quiver in her hands - Cera's faster with her crossbow though, purple fire igniting automatically as she aims and fires her bolt straight into the woman's heart. She turns around to find Calisca fighting a Glanfathan man - it's a stalemate, right up until he suddenly gets a crossbow face to the face. "We've got to get back to camp!"
They get there, the two Glanfathans waiting for them somehow getting knocked down and Calisca finishes them off, only to find nearly everyone dead. Only Heodan is still alive, and the guy that must be the leader of these kith is holding a knife to his throat. "Drop your weapons, or this man dies."
Cera can see they don't really have a choice in the matter - from the Glanfathans' perspectives, anyway. "Why are you doing this? We've done nothing but set up camp for the night!"
"Your words carry no weight when I have seen the truth with my own eyes. We have seen the footprints, heard the footfalls. Now you will answer for your trespass."
It must be the fever messing with her mind, because Cera asks "You heard people inside the ruins, so you came out here and killed everyone that wasn't in them?"
All the Glanfathans look at each other in bewilderment, and Cera focuses on the leader through the sick fever-haze in her head. In the confusion of Cera's point - her amazingly good point apparently - it's not hard to do this, despite the fact that Cera would never do this under normal circumstances. The Glanfathan leader suddenly stabs himself in the heart, just as Cera shoots a crossbow bolt into the archer that's backing him up.
Heodan stumbles away from the dying Glanfathan, just as a wisp of wind starts stirring. Odema, apparently, isn't actually dead yet - he yells "Get inside! RUN!"
The wind picks up, feeling like it's trying to rip them all apart from the inside out - they just make it into the ruins, and Cera looks back to see lights shining in the ex-campsite and an indescribable sound ringing in her ears. They get deeper inside, as the entranceway collapses, and Calisca says "Good thing you can do stuff like that - but what in the world made you ask them that question? Because, honestly, the looks on their faces were pretty hilarious."
"First thing that popped into my mind. It did give me enough of a distraction though."
Heodan asks "You made him stab himself?"
"Yep. Pretty good aim to. I don't usually do it - like, ever, that was the first time I've ever done that - but I practiced the skill for situations exactly like that."
Heodan says "Much appreciated. Let's get out of here before more Glanfathans show up and find we actually are trespassing in their ruins."
Cera says "They said people were in here, so not what we need right now."
Calisca nods, and they set off in a random direction - and find a makeshift camp, perfect. There's nobody there though, so they take all the camping supplies they can find - screw these people, they got the honest caravaneers killed - and head off in the opposite direction to find the exit somewhere.
They find it alright, after a few hours of making their way through Engwithan traps and such. And then, they get outside only to find a group of robed strangers and a machine. Three have just the robes, the fourth person looks like they're made of ash or stone, and the fifth man has on one creepy headdress-mask combination that has large wings jutting from the sides like he's about to take off in flight and be pulled around by his head - wow, she really needs some sleep because she's starting to think she's seen this guy somewhere before.
The three of them crouch down, well hidden from their sights, and listen to one weird speech about a queen-that-was, an oath, a book, and a key of some sort. The last thing Cera hears before an awful whirling sound starts up is a word she has never heard before. Then, there's the feeling of an intense wind ripping at them and Cera blacks out with a throbbing pain in her head like someone hit her over the back of it.
AN: Alright, hope this isn't too bad, everyone! First attempt at a fanfiction based on a story, so please don't be too harsh! Timings for quests and such might be a little messed-up or won't make much sense - sorry about that, really! But when your on the clock to find people before you go insane with visions of a past life, well, things tend to get a little messed-up. I'll really try to give some reasonable explanations, I really will, so hopefully nobody gets too angry at me or anything. Really into PoE, can't wait for the Deadfire sequel - currently trying to get an optimal character to upload. Anyways, please review! I promise you'll find out more about Cera's mysterious background next chapter if you all want me to keep posting! Enjoy!
