Renee looked at her hands. They weren't hers. She knew it somehow.
Trouble furrowed her brow as she looked out over the forest of Moonflow. She looked to her right, and there, propped up against a gently rustling tree, lay her sword. The length of the blade was etched in interlocking angular shapes, ornately patterned in a complex pattern, complete as well as mystifying.
Renee took a deep breath. The sword she had brought with her to Moonflow had been unadorned.
Frowning, she rose to her feet, taking a steadying moment. She remembered being smaller, much shorter than she stood now. Renee knew that this place was doing something to her.
Memories fluttered and jumbled. She remembered praying to her god, but couldn't remember the name... She remembered that she was supposed to be a paladin, a warrior of virtue and purity. She shoved her hand into her pocket and withdrew the coin.
Artemis.
But that was wrong. She had worshiped someone else...
Renee shook her head, remembering that she hadn't worshiped anyone at all, but she was... different. Smaller. She looked at her sword, and then at the sun, blinking and squinting away from the blazing orb in the sky.
Feeling woozy, she went to her blade, drawing it from its scabbard, whisking it through the air, enjoying the bunch and flow of her well toned, sleek muscles. She had the odd feeling that she had never felt this way before, but it felt... good.
She finished her motions, thrust, slash, parry, spin and guard. It all felt natural. But it shouldn't have, and her movements failed her, something nagging at the back of her mind.
A spell. Someone has put a spell on me.
Odd memories of being deep in the woods, doing something terrible, refreshed her memory, and she remembered that firmly. Something had made her go into those woods, and that something had tempted her... with something she couldn't remember.
Worse still, she had the sinking suspicion that this was all an illusion, and that something more sinister was at work.
With an air of grim determination and sense of purpose, Renee sheathed her blade and turned, running her fingers through her flowing, unruly raven black mane.
She looked at her hand again, and it was too big, too thick to be her dainty hand...
But is this me? Or is THIS the illusion? I want to be like this, but... something else is happening. Something inside me. Her eyes came up as her suspicions simmered. Something that was PUT there.
Renee huffed a breath of frustration. She gathered her things, unnerved that perhaps everything she knew was wrong, and getting worse as time passed. Which meant that there was no time at all to start looking for answers.
She set off in search of Alisa, knowing that she had some answers, and could fill the spreading holes in her memory.
Renee patted the weapon at her side. Things are all changing here in this town, and maybe it's up to me to straighten things out.
But Renee frowned, because she wasn't sure who she was anymore.