Oh, Scylla. I understand. The CB isn't active, and you want to leave. Do not worry, your short time on here will not be forgotten, as your presence was illuminating. I hope that you come back every so often, we would really appreciate it. I will miss you a lot.

~Over the Rainbow. 

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Goodbye, Scylla. I'll miss you. I didn't think you'd leave so soon! But I understand, life happens. This reminds me of when people move to another neighborhood; you still get to call them, and maybe visit once and a while, but it's never the same. Goodbye...

~Your Friend, Mice  :( :( :( 

She meditates in a corner of the clan dormitory.

She'd been sent there when her clanmaster had discovered her writing instead of doing homework. The initiate does not know why, but her meditation is unsettled- perhaps it is just her emotions, confused and unbecoming and still not fully released.

And then, all at once, like the edge of a crumbling cliff, the Force gives a shudder and a sigh and plunges her bodily into itself, its mesmerizing enigmatic undertow: below, faraway yet close, girl changeling water sea emerging stately, queenly, facing something something like regret with dignity, door, handle, pain hot sharp necessary as she opens the door leaves wonderful glittering seashore for dark dull home family duty beyond...

She pulls out with a gasp, dizzy. Seeds of a headache pound behind her temples. She has not gotten a vision this vivid, or this troubling, in...well, ever. 

Bereft of her usual balance, she rises with difficulty and goes to find Master M'syr. He claimed to have had something like this when Brooke Eirané, an old charge of his, left. Maybe he could make sense of it.

That girl, though...it could not have been Scylla. It just couldn't.

At least, she hoped not.

Oh I can't leave! I can't do it! I can't! My heart is crying, if not my physical self. Oh I can't do it! I don't want to be the person to bail out on all the things they're in and never post again! I can't leave! :sobs inwardly into fleece blanket: How can I possibly make a choice! I only said I would leave because my sister bullies me about being a CBer and it makes me feel terrible! So I said I would stop so she would be quiet! I still post! I just can't bring myself to LEAVE! This is what happens when I forge connections! No one even reads my ski lodge that I worked so hard on....: chews lip thoughtfully: I don't think this means I should... I JUST DON'T EVEN KNOW! MY HAND IS PERMANENTLY STUCK TO THE DOORKNOB! 

No Scylla!! You can't leave!!! You are one of my CBB's!!!!! (Chatterbox best buddies.) Please don't leave!!! And, if you feel like you absolutely have to leave, I understand. It's just.. I'll miss you and Hallia. The CB simply won't be the same without you. Please return once in a while. 

No, Scylla.......... Don't leave......... I feel so sad. Why is everyone leaving? Everything is falling apart....

It's okay, guys! Sorry for the confusion!

Scylla, using all her strength, ripped her hand from the doorknob. She shut the door with a slam, closing it on the possibilities of a new corridor. She turned to face the shimmering lake, her friends'hopeful faces shining up at her. Without a second thought, she raced down the weathered steps and dove in.

Aww, Scylla. I'll really miss you. I feel like you were one of the only CBers I really got to know, and be close with. You made some really amazing threads, and I loved having you here. I understand why you're leaving, but please... Do consider staying? For friendships made, that wish to stay made, and for feelings that wish never to be reversed. Please? If not, I'm sorry if I was ever mean to you or hurt your feelings. I feel like I have. But I enjoyed having you here, and I felt as if we were friends. Stay?

Master M'syr greets her as he always does: with a smile, a perky greeting, and a cup of tea.

"Let me guess...you had the same vision?" he says, perceptively, without preamble of any sort. She nods and sips the tea- it is fine sapir, rendered smooth and sweet by rather a lot of Phindian honey.

"There was this girl," the words spill out once she has finished swallowing. "I thought...I thought it might be Scylla, but she was a changeling, coming out of this huge lake or ocean or something, I mean the signature felt like hers too, and then she went over to this black door and opened it, but the doorknob hurt her hand, like burned it hurt it, and there was just this dark hallway on the other side and she went through and when the door closed, the Force kinda snapped like, oh I dunno, a training bond breaking or something..."

She stops for want of air. Master M'syr chuckles. "Oh, really? She went through the door? Then perhaps we did not have quite the same vision after all- you see, the way I saw it, she stopped on the threshold, as if undecided, then closed the door and jumped back into the water. What do you suppose is the significance?"

She does not know. The rest of the tea is drunk in amicable, if perplexed, silence.

************

Scylla is in the refectory for midmeal that day.

The first thing the initiate does is march over to Scylla's table and envelop her in a huge hug, propriety be karked. The second thing she does is give Scylla the rest of her cookie. The third thing she does is ask about her friend's bandaged hand.

Scylla shrugs lightly. "Oh, that's nothing. Small price to pay for nearly making the wrong choice."

The Force works in mysterious ways indeed. She fetches Scylla another cookie, trying her utmost not to gape.