Some call you god, some goddess. Some people bow down to you as their lord and master, still others whisper milady as they bow before your image.

You smile, because you have no name, have no image.

You simply are.

And you always were, and always will be.

These things though, these people, they make names for you. Names to use as curses, as blessings, as whatever they want. They build temples and effigies for you, bowing and praying and crying and killing and singing. All to appease you. All to gain your favour.

Will you bestow it upon these people? Will you encourage their religious fervour by giving evidence to your existence, to your beneficence?

A city lies sleeping below you, the people who call themselves your followers dormant and dreaming. Your interest, though, lays in one woman, a young girl who is called Delphine. She is an acolyte to an oracle, learning the art of seeing and scrying.

She relies on your for her visions, not the drugs and vapours other oracles use to induce hallucinations. And now she sleeps, she dreams.

Are they her own dreams she dreams, or yours?

It’s your choice: you are the god, the goddess, the thundering lord, the whispering lady, the idol of all these people, of Delphine.

She stirs in her sleep as you watch from heaven.

---

A shrill gasp accompanies the rising of the sun, Delphine waking with a start. Cold sweat glistens on her forehead, a glittering tiara of translucent pearls. Each droplet is illuminated momentarily in the sun’s brilliant light, sparkling before being wiped away by a shaking hand.

Her shoulders shake, her breath comes in rasps.

“What did you dream, Delphine?”

The girl turns wide eyes to the woman at her bedside, a crone with a kind and calm voice.

“Well?” she implores. She is stoic, not even a smile creasing her wrinkled face. There was no concern for her young stead, no distress over the girl’s sudden waking. She knows that you have sent her a vision, and she wants to know what that vision was. In this world, knowledge is power, and even pious oracles have their weaknesses.

“It was,” Delphine starts, her breaths and heartbeats returning to a natural pace. “It was a stag, winter-white. His antlers were hewn to mere stubs, his eyes crazed like a feral dog.”

The older oracle nodds, silent.

“He charged me, and, and…” The girl’s voice trails off; the woman stops nodding and instead stares into Delphine’s eyes.

“And?”

“And that’s all.”

A final nod, curt, and the old woman leaves. Delphine is left alone in her bed, the sheets wet with her sweat.

Outside the sun is shining, beckoning the city to awaken. You have blessed this country with light today, and blessed Delphine with a dream.

You smile at what you’ve wrought, the first piece put in place.

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Author guidance for This story

Setting things straight: narration is from a second-third person perspective. The narrator addresses the deity as "you," with all other characters spoken of in the third person.

This deity is, of course, nameless and genderless. Please remember that any reference to the deity is from a human perspective, therefore constructed and not innate to the deity itself. Don't make me go on a strange philosophical tangent, 'aight? Hahah.

Lastly: I have no clue where this is going. The symbolism in the dream, the pieces that the deity is laying down. I'm clueless. As usual. The idea just popped into my head, so I ran with it.

Hope you enjoy and add!

the Characters
You, the deity that gives Delphine her dreams and has a hand in fate.

Delphine, an oracle-in-training, also known as an acolyte. She has prophetic dreams, not needing the strange concoctions of the oracles to induce hallucination.

Nestre, the oracle in charge of Delphine's training. Despite her piety, she is greedy for power and recognition among the enclave of oracles.

Cervus, a young man who admires Delphine, though he does not know how or when to make his affections plain.

Planning and Brainstorming topic is here.

SPOILER
Please read this note if you choose to contribute, but if you have no intentions of ever participating in the writing process it may be best to avoid looking at the next sentences. Cervus is a genus of deer that includes the red deer, one of the largest deer species. This is directly related to Delphine's dreams. That said, I still have no clue what the dreams actually portent, just that this man features in them. End spoiler!

updated Nov 9 '11 by Jackerbie