Newton isn't an unusual outpost city, in any sense. It has the modest population, the cheesy museums, the tour guides and camping gear stores, and the hospital built from the ground-up to provide emergency services for the many tourists exploring the pristine forests.

It did not have someone seemingly teleporting into it from the middle of nowhere, right between two huge, white skyscrapers that work like walls only separated by a street so narrow that it wouldn't permit 2 cars to pass each other. Didn't have until now, that is.

...okay, so this is one of those visions that happen sometimes in Zoria's Maze. She should... stay on the path and try to make progress, probably. She sets about doing that, by walking down the street, and not gazing too closely at what is probably a metaphor for the maddening clarity of the Day realm or something.

Occasionally, she finds a crossing, even seeing people in the distance a couple of times. They don't pay her any real attention, just walking around to their tasks. They wear all sorts of clothing: athletic clothing, slinky dresses, business suits... there are even people wearing what looks like blankets, walking around. It doesn't take her much time at all before she reaches the outskirts of the city, a small clearing separating the outskirts from an intimidating and incredibly dense forest.

Every building is bizarrely tall, largely undecorated and square, colored either in white or the occasional grey, with many blueish panes of glass that seem to be windows, yet are completely impossible to see through. It doesn't seem much like a place where people would live; there doesn't seem to be a grocer or any other kind of business anywhere, to mention one thing.

Okay. She's in Varushka; stepping off the road into the intimidating forest is always going to be the wrong answer. She'll turn down another road and... keep walking. She doesn't do visions very often, the horse dream went on for a while, so it might be a while before anything interesting happens.

Or maybe being lost in a place where everything is too tall and everyone is from a different culture is some kind of important metaphor itself. The melting-pot theme makes sense as a stand-in for Anvil, although none of them are really a recognisable Imperial culture, but tall, impossibly smooth and square buildings are kind of the opposite of that - kind of like Urizen by way of Day, perhaps?

Oh! Oh, right. Urizen meeting the League - a huge city made out of Spires - yeah, this makes perfect sense as a vision to be hanging around at the moment. Presumably she should just keep walking until it feels like collapsing into something else. Or maybe she should stop walking to make it finish? She pays more attention to looking for a nice place to lean against or sit down - she generally prefers walking to standing around.

Eventually, a man stops in front of her, wearing a 3-piece suit and a pair of pants that look like they're way too tight to be remotely comfortable. "Miss, is there somewhere you're intending to be? It seems to me like you're not quite sure which direction to go in. Do you need directions to get somewhere?"

He instinctively looks at her, noting shoes very different from anything a thomassian would wear. He begins to think as he waits for the strange woman's response.

"I'm in pursuit of an agent of the Whisper Gallery," she replies, automatically; then realises that the vision is probably not going to help her with that practical consideration, they rarely do. "But... I think this is a vision, so actually... yes, I am not quite sure which direction to go in. I went to the Unburdening, and it made me think; I've just been falling back into old patterns because they're comfortable, and there, rather than working out whether they really suit me, any more."

The man becomes very uncomfortable. "Ma'am, do you have any suspicions that... you're not quite sure exactly what reality is like right now? I can call someone in to help you, if you're feeling unsure." He prepares to reach for his phone and call for help, as he tries to size up and understand the woman in front of him.

"In reality, I'm in a maze, attempting to catch up with my military unit, having been interrupted by a giant Night snake that really wanted me to have this vision," she says, which she obviously feels pretty confident about, but is probably not going to put her interlocutor's mind at rest.

She tenses up a bit as, to her mind, the slightly drab bravo goes for a concealed weapon, but calms back down fairly quickly - it might be unpleasant but it's only a dream, it doesn't really matter if he pulls a knife or wand on her.

"Oh, it sounds like you're not quite sure what's real right now and what's illusion? I'll call over someone to help you with that; they'll help you get out of your vision, promise." The man very slowly and very carefully reaches for a phone in the inner pocket of his jacket, and he quickly taps it for maybe a minute or so.

"They can be slow to arrive, so please be patient."

A woman wearing a beautiful, all-white uniform appears 5 or so minutes later, holding a rag.

"There's medicine in this rag; just take a few breaths, and you'll be taken back to reality again. I must warn you; you'll feel like you're falling asleep, before you wake up from your illusion."

It's a sedative designed to quickly bring her to sleep, hopefully letting her brain rest long enough for her to wake up in the psychiatric ward of the hospital with all her uncomfortable and confusing delusions gone.

The 'phone' is quite an unfamiliar object - maybe some kind of magical focus, although that's a very short and quiet ritual - of course things don't have to really match up with reality in a vision. She takes a somewhat worn notebook out of her bag - it has black-and-bronze geometric designs on the front and back - and a coloured pencil, and starts to write down details of the vision; she doesn't think that will persist out of the vision, but it will probably be useful for writing it down again more neatly and precisely when she gets back.

Her handwriting, previously in a different colour of coloured pencil, is an appalling childish scrawl.

When the woman approaches and makes her pitch, she just nods; clearly this is the way out of the vision. She takes the rag, doesn't bother to sit down or lean against anything, just raises it to her face and takes a deep breath.

The woman effortlessly and gracefully catches her, before motioning for the car hidden behind a corner to arrive. She gently places the woman into the car, before she gets driven to the hospital and carried to a bed in a small, white room, only somewhat larger than the bed and side table. She writes a handwritten note and leaves it on the side table, hoping that it's noticed when the woman on the bed wakes up:

"Being in states of mind like yours can be scary, uncomfortable and confusing. We hope that what you experienced was a one-time thing, and that this won't happen to you again. We can gladly reassure you and train you to better handle such confusing and uncomfortable experiences. To prove to you that you're lucid, we've left a piece of candy on the table, with this note. It'll taste like nothing you've ever tasted before. Because it's real, and you're real."

The piece of candy is placed within an anonymous white wrapper. The taste is simply beyond words; it doesn't taste like anything that's possible to make using any kind of "normal" cooking technique. But it is pleasant, vaguely, even though it's so completely alien.

The room is very... White. And sparse. And generally feels like she imagines the Day realm, all blank and clean and minimal.

She automatically reaches into her bag and puts a face mask on - even though she's clearly already inhaled a considerable quantity of magic, there's no need to let that get in the way of sensible precautions.

She sits up and reads the note.

So. On the one hand, when one wakes up in a Realm pocket with a vaguely threatening note (she is pretty sure she doesn't want to be 'trained', and 'lucid' is a very Day realm thing), one should not eat the mysterious candy.

On the other hand, she is in Zoria's maze, Zoria is a paragon of Wisdom, and Wisdom absolutely does say to eat the mysterious candy.

She loosens her mask and drops it for just long enough to pop the candy in her mouth. Then gets absolutely distracted by the alien candy flavor. This is clearly very important and not being able to describe it beyond 'vaguely pleasent' is distressing - this is a very complicated vision and it's probably very important and she's screwing it up, of course, as usual... 

A while later, someone starts talking. She can easily hear whoever it is on the other side of the door.

"Hey. I realize that this can be scary, but I want you to know that we all support you, happily. Many people have episodes like this, and you're almost certain to end up feeling fully lucid and aware. I presume you've tried the candy? You've noticed that the taste is so alien? That's exactly the point. You can't hallucinate something you've never experienced; the candy is proof that there's still a world outside you, telling you what's truly happening. Just listen, and you'll do well. If you need to talk, you're free to talk to me."

Judith is pretty sure she can hallucinate things she's never experienced; just a few days ago she was having a very vivid dream of riding and caring for a horse, after all.

And even if that was an experience from her soul, Night magic and Goosewhisper gave people novel visions all the time.

She considers not responding, but what is she going to do, just lie on the bed and expect rescue? This is getting a bit longer than the standard vision, she might have somehow been dropped through a portal...

...oh right, she should actually check about that. If she's in a realm pocket she should be able to detect the regio.

"Zoria," she begins, as that seems appropriate for her last known location, "as you identified the virtuous animals, let me identify this place. As you examined the world around you, let me examine this place. As you led your people to insights, let me see truly what is here." If she is not interrupted she will repeat this a couple of times and wave her hands through the air as if to draw some kind of mystical sigil, the whole process taking about thirty seconds, then look kind of disappointed and confused.

The voice on the other side of the door sounds slightly disappointed. "Can you tell me what that just did, dearie?"

Judith considers shutting up, but that has never been her best talent.

"Look. Can you just tell me if I'm in a tiny Day realm pocket, or still in a vision, or - at least come in and let me see you? I understand that making sense might be against incomprehensible vision rules, but I am getting quite fed up with this."

"None of those things. You're just in normal reality; not a dream, nor anything else."

The woman cautiously opens the door, looking at the woman in the room, making an apologetic face at her.

Judith has another quick look around the room. "This is clearly not anywhere in Varushka. Are you claiming I've been taken all the way to Urizen?"

"There is no part of the world named Varushka, and no part of the world named Urizen. I think it's clear you've been taken... too far for anything to make sense or be familiar for you. Please give me a minute."

She closes the door and walks away, somewhat panicked. She'll change into her PAPR system, anyway; why not think "rather safe than sorry"? And it was honestly burning a hole in her locker; it'd feel like a waste to not let it see some use.

So. That's one more point for 'inscrutable Day Heralds are attempting to mess with her head'. Certainly the women looked much more human than your usual herald, but they would do something like that for optimal confusion. Or might even be employing humans as a go between - after all, that's what she was looking for in the first place...

It could still be Night. Night can look like anything, that was the point.

She flips through some old notes in her notebook. They all seem to be there in great detail, which either is something that is just directly convincing her of that, or she's out of the vision section and in some kind of actual place, even if it is a magical one.

Is her notebook potentially dangerous information? Should she be destroying it? There are some secrets in there - and a lot of petty things about various important people that could maybe be used against them... But she doesn't want to destroy her notebook, and there's no obvious good way to do it here like a fire or something.

She could just tear out the page about Syrene.

If she was in a realm pocket, and not still in a vision, Detect Magic should have worked.

All knowledge is incomplete. Unless it is needful rest, inaction is always unvirtuous.

She gets up and tries the door. 

It's a normal door, leading to a normal corridor with a few rooms that look like the first one when seen from the outside.

She wasn't really expecting it to be unlocked!

Nevertheless. Have they left her walking stick to hand? She'll gather that up if so, and then venture boldly into the corridor, and open the nearest other door - sneaking out might provide a higher chance of success, but she'd feel bad if she didn't at least try to rescue anyone else who is also trapped here.

A man is waiting behind one of the doors, in a room that's very that clearly built like the one that had just been abandoned.

"Excuse me?", he said, slightly confused at seeing Judith.

Hmm. She hadn't actually thought through that most of the people here would have fallen for the ruse. Well, she might as well start with the straightforward pitch, there are lots of doors and only a limited time until her captor returns.

"I've come to rescue you," she declares, loudly, with as much confidence as she can muster. "This isn't reality, like they've told you - this is a trap, a place that will erode your soul. Come with me and we'll find a way out, or at least serve our souls by resisting."

"Yeah, no, that's not how this works. Souls aren't a thing; we're just people, living walking around, just like how animals do. I'm here of my own free will; I had a horrific nightmare and started becoming scared that a monster would eat me, so I asked to be sedated and taken here to re-connect with reality. I'm just taking a break to relax."

"Also, where did you even get that mask?"