It's very, very dark, as though Anisa were encased in a pitch sphere. Nothing feels like anything… Though it seems as if she's standing, the rabbit can't "feel" the floor. The only light here seems to be coming from Anisa herself, her white fur standing out starkly against the blackness beyond, and her clothes seeming pale, like pastels.

Anisa blinks, and looks around dazedly. "Where in the world… ," she says silently to herself. How did she get here – where is here? The rabbit peers around in the darkness, trying to make anything out.

As the Lapi speaks the words, a voice fills her head… no… voices … all speaking countless languages at a whisper level. Somehow, their perceived meaning seems louder, crystal clear. "Link achieved. Purpose?"

The white rabbit's ears spring upwards, and her nose starts to twitch rapidly in a combination of surprise and curiosity. "Um, purpose? What do you mean?" She looks about some more, furrowing her brow. "And who are you anyways?"

Purpose: Information, whispers the legion. Container perceived. Block perceived. Light spreads away from Anisa, seeping from her feet to form a circle. It remains so for a moment, then spreads away quickly. Blue-green rhombi flare into being, spaced around Anisa, and innumerable. Thousands upon thousands of them dot the smooth, dark landscape all the way to the horizon.

A soft humming noise slowly begins approaching. What look like a number of stars dot the sky.

Anisa's eyes widen as much as they can as the light eminates from her, and her jaw drops in confusion. "What are all those… box things for?" She halts her breathing at the sound of the humming, and points an ear in its direction.

It seems to be coming from everywhere, and getting louder. The "stars" get brighter, and brighter… then steadily lengthen into lines. It becomes apparent they're approaching… and at a high rate of speed. They stretch out, spears of cyan heading on a collision course for… Anisa?

The white rabbit does a double take, and after a moment of hesitation, instinctively tries to bolt. She shuts her eyes as the light gets brighter.

There's a sudden high-pitched ringing noise, and the rabbit feels her movement checked. Hard to say what's doing it, with her eyes closed.

The noise, sounding like wind-chimes crashing together, fades into a steady, mid-ranged hum. "Resonate," murmur the voices.

Anisa's fur stands on end, and she cracks her eyelids open enough to see where she is going. Although from the looks of things, it's notvery far. "Who are you, what do you want?!" she yells. (I must be having a nightmare!)

The rabbit finds herself tangled in a cluster of crystal rods. Most of them are cyan, but a few are greenish-hued, each of the green ones also a different length. A small rhombus hovers in the air a short distance away, rotating slowly and cycling between blue and green. The steady hum continues, an even pitch and tone.

"Resonate," command the voices.

Anisa tries to free herself from the rods, struggling to squeeze through their gaps. Her ears keep focused on the rhombus, and realizes that the sound it emits is a perfect note. "What do you mean by 'resonate'?"

"Dissonance is perceived." The five green crystal bars flutter with some inner light, fitful, as though something in them were disturbed. Eight new pinpoints of light appear, floating in the darkened sky overhead. They're hued an orangy-red, and cruise around in the distance. Something about them feels… wrong.

"Resonate."

The Lapi's heart begins to beat faster as her instincts tell her to flee… if she could that is. She tries to make her way to the rhombus. "Resonate? What is that, like singing?"

The nest of crystal doesn't really afford much movement, and the green rods flutter and blink with each of Anisa's words, like sputtering torches. As Anisa shifts around in it, her pendant is jostled around. It falls to one side, striking a crystal jutting past her side. The blow causes a ringing noise… a clear tone in the key of 'A', though slightly flat to Anisa's ears.

"Dissonance is perceived," murmur the voices. The pattern of ruddy-colored lights seems closer now. It still meanders about in the sky, as though searching for something.

The rabbit thinks back, she's heard the words "resonance" and "dissonance" before, but where? In dancing class? Something to do with music? She blinks as the pendant hits the rod, causing it to emit the sound. She then blinks at the pendant itself. "Where's the stone?" Still listening to the rhombus's note, she bites her lip as an idea forms. Taking the pendant housing, she begins to hit the various rods as best she can.

Anisa strikes at the green rods, trying to match the note of the rhombus.

The metal pendant-housing swings on its cord, and rebounds off the middle-length, greenish crystal rod. It rings melodiously, shivering, and slides from the cluster. It keeps sliding all the way through the bottom, then falls free… and falls, and falls, and falls disappearing into the distance "below" Anisa. The rhombus' hum changes in pitch.

The eight reddish lights in the sky continue circling… but they seem slightly more distant, and slower. Less certain.

The rabbit blinks. Whatever she just did, it must have been the right thing. She strains her ear to match the note, thinking back to the music she used to dance to. "That must be… E… " She peers at the rods, grimacing. "A, B, C, D, E… it must be this one… " She hits the longest rod with the pendant, bracing for the result.

Again, the clear tone matches. The green bar shudders, glowing steadily, and slides free of the mass, falling away into darkness. The tone of the rhombus hums a higher pitch.

"B," says Anisa, saying what she thinks. With another deep breath, she hits the next to shortest bar.

The greenish rods flutter at Anisa's voice, and the circling pattern in the sky starts to draw nearer… but it seems driven into confusion when the crystal is struck, and meanders in a random direction. The crystal glows brightly, shivers, and slides from the surrounding cluster, falling away. The pitch of the rhombus gets higher.

The rabbit blinks as the lights draw nearer, and puts a paw to her mouth. Listening to the next note, she recognizes it as the tone of A, and strikes the shortest bar.

The bar practically pops out of the pile, and tumbles end over end into the void. The rhombus hums low, as if in approval.

Heart beating slower now, the Lapine heaves a sigh of relief, and strikes the last of the remaining green bars, matching it with the rhombus' tone of D.

It shivers and falls away obligingly, and the small floating rhombus spins more rapidly, cycling in colour more swiftly. The bars begin detangling themselves around Anisa, shifting back and forth to allow each other to slide free, shedding bar after bar, each darting back off into the distance and fading from view. Anisa is left sitting on… whatever was holding her up before, and the rhombus slows to a stop, hanging noiselessly in the air.

"Resonance established," whispers the legion. "The obstacle is removed. The container's information is accessible. The link can be broken."

Anisa watches the bars slide away, still completely confused at just where exactly she is, not to mention on how she got there. Keeping her mouth silent, she listens to the voice, not daring to talk again lest the light return. Standing up from her seat, she walks over to the rhombus, and peers at it curiously.

It hovers silently before Anisa, washing her face with soft hues of blue and green. The ruddy lights that were in the sky are gone, and the larger rhombi littering the "landscape" fade out of existence as well, leaving Anisa alone in the dark with her own.

The rabbit watches the other sights disappear, then turns her attention back to the floating shape. Chewing on her lip, she reaches out to touch the object, if somewhat hesitantly.

The crystal is warm to the touch, and it pulses white. Once. Twice. Thrice, and the white light brightens, blinding, but not painful, then fading back into darkness again, but this time, a less complete darkness – the kind of darkness the back of one's eyes afford. Cricket song, and the sound of lapping water and creaking wood can be heard.

Anisa sets her ears forward in concentration. What's going on? She tries to look around again, grabbing hold of the stone.

Dawn sunlight greets Anisa, filtering through cracks in the ceiling of the Akwavi house, and she can feel the corners and edges of the First Stone clutched in her paw, on the end of its cord. The heavy weight of the steel-bound tome lies flat against her chest, the way she fell asleep last night. Wanda leans over Anisa, and for a split second, the rabbit can see a look of concern fleeing from the Skeek's face, to be replaced by her usual nonchalance.

There's an odd, moist feeling in Anisa's ears.

Anisa blinks, squinting as the light floods her eyes and realization slowly dawns. "Where… where am I?" she asks as she slowly rises, putting a paw to her head, still clutching the Stone. She places the book to the side, and feels at her ears. Strange, everything sounds… clearer? She looks to the Skeek, her face showing confusion.

"Shhh, relax," whispers the Skeek. It looks like she has been sitting on an upturned bucket next to the hammock Anisa had fallen asleep in. "You're in the Akwavi-Kin Mangrove, remember? Are you all right?"

"I-, I guess so… " When the rabbit returns her paw from her ear, she gives a small squeak at what she sees, her nostrils flaring as she gives a start. The normally snow-white fur on her fingertips is stained with the crimson hue of blood. "What… wh-what happened?" The Lapi's heart begins to beat wildly, and she feels at her long ears all over, trying to find the wounds.

Wanda's look of concern creeps back a little as the rabbit startles, and she leans a little closer, her twitching whiskers almost tickling Anisa's face. The blood seems to be in Anisa's ear canals, but though it seems fresh, there's no pain, and it doesn't seem like there's any more bleeding. "I don't know what happened, sugar," says Wanda, her eyes searching for anything wrong. "I woke up before everyone else, as usual… and I saw you all tensed up in your hammock. You had your fist curled over your necklace, and there was a little light seeping out between your fingers."

The mouse reaches out gently to try to take hold of Anisa's right paw.

Anisa obligingly takes the mouse's paw in her own, and squeezes it tightly, looking down at the stone with concern. "Then… then it must have been what caused me to dream that weird dream… " She picks up the Stone by the chain, and dangles it in front of her face. "What is this thing?" she whispers to herself.

Wanda looks over Anisa's palm, eyeing the slowly fading imprint pressed into it. "You had a dream? What was it like? You were muttering a lot in your sleep, and I thought I heard… no, I couldn't be sure, it was so faint."

"I was in some sort of… room or something," says Anisa. "It was dark, but… light seemed to be coming from me. There didn't seem to be a floor, but I could feel one." She looks to the pendant again. "The Stone in there was floating, and there were these voices in my head, whispering weird things. When I talked, I got surrounded by a bunch of rods." The rabbit shifts to get more comfortable. "I had to play the scales, or something, to free myself. When I did, I grabbed the stone… then woke up." She looks back to the mouse. "What was I saying?"

"Something about resonance and dissonance, I think," answers the Skeek, shaking her head. "Whatever it was, you had me stumped, sugar. I'm glad you're feeling all right, th-" As Anisa shifts, the heavy tome slides off her chest, landing on the floorboards with a heavy thud. The cover falls open, the hasp of the lock flapping against it with a dull clank.

Wanda stares.

Anisa freezes, looking down at the book. Her jaw drops, "… did… that… just… happen?" She looks back up to Wanda in disbelief, then to her right palm.

An otterlike lump in one of the hammocks rolls over, and Jed's voice can be heard muttering, "Keep yo' trampolinin' 'round th' floor down, thank y'kindly. Iss barely daybreak."

The Skeek glances at Anisa, then back at the book. She doesn't reply, but her expression seems to indicate that she also sees the book lying on the floor, its lock open. Or maybe she sees a three-eyed pancake creeping across the floor – it's tough to tell with her look.

Slowly, and still a bit unbelieving, the rabbit slips from her hammock and down onto her knees, shifting the book into a position so she can read it.

Laying it open reveals pages tanned with time, but in remarkably good shape considering everything this tome has been through. The cover page shows a number of odd runes, and a strange symbol. It looks like a circle within a circle… and branching off the inner circle are five spokes, each ending in a circle of its own. Below it reads a line in what seems like some amalgamation of archaic Rephidim Standard, and… something else. Part of it, after some puzzling, seems to read, "Penned this cycle (gibberish)" and what could be a name.

Anisa looks the page over in wonder, not daring to turn a page just yet. She looks up to Wanda, a small bit of blood still trickling from her ears, and gives a small grin. "Mission accomplished."