Water.
It had provided the soundtrack for her nightmares. It had violently shattered the moonlight against the rocks in a jealous rage and then it had gently whispered to her, a whisper beyond hearing, in the hot and bright silence.
Now it quenched the flames and chased away the shadows in her mind, and the whisper became a roar.
JA-son. JA-son.
She had left Jason. She had walked away from the inferno that had been his house. He was gone.
She would think about that later. When she could handle it.
Everything she had been through in the last three days, the dreams and the fog and the shadow and the flames, came together and flowed down, down through the mountains and the valleys, until finally it all came crashing down on the rocks of one name.
Seth Morrigan.
“And Lilith, Seth lives.”
The water roared.
The house by the waterfall.
It did not call to her. It did not whisper to her.
She was no longer a lifeless marionette.
The house did not control her strings.
It did not pull her forward.
And it most certainly did not promise warmth and light and love.
There is no water without the fall.
Her mind was as silent and clear as the stars. All the voices had gone quiet.
She had returned to herself.
She had cut Seth’s strings.
She moved forward of her own volition.
The warmth and the light and the love had always been there.
The water had to fall.
Her heart whispered his name.
Jason. Jason.
The water held the moonlight in its loving embrace. They fell together, and though the rocks split them asunder it did not last.
They found each other again in the quiet pool beyond the rocks and clung together, bright and beautiful and alive.
Lilith knew what it was to be torn apart and then reunited.
She embraced the water in her mind, letting it run clear and cold.
She walked purposefully through the weeds, rather enjoying the feel and sound of the dead leaves crunching under her feet. Let him hear her. Let him know that she was coming.
The house was silent in defeat. It had broken her, but she had won in the end. She had fallen, but she had survived. She had learned how to put herself back together.
And now she chose to go inside.
The door opened at her touch. Perhaps Seth was expecting her? She hoped so.
She stepped over the threshold. The wood floor creaked and groaned, just as it had in her dream. A dream that seemed so long ago now.
The house was indeed cold. So very cold.
Fire. Death. Alone.
Water.
Lilith went in to meet her nightmare.
In the Valley of the Sun 
First Comment!! Yay! This was awesome! I love it i love it I love it. Great Job!! (sorry I’m hyper today)
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woops 2nd comment I mean!! lol. A minute after the first.
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Speaking of minutes This story gets better by the minute!!
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Was it really that fast a read? Wow.
Thank you. 🙂
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This chapter is alot like nightmare except this isn’t a dream. Btw, in the 26th pic why is one of the windows glowing green? Sorry if that sounds like a stupid question. 🙂 p.s. Can’t wait for the next update!
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The lights at Seth’s house are still set the way they were for Meeting and Legend and Nightmare. Which I suppose I need to figure out why Seth would choose to light his house like that, lol. I like the trolling the townspeople for the lulz explanation from Legend personally.
And yes, this was very much like Nightmare. Thus why I recommended on some forums and Twitter that people reread Nightmare first. 😉 Nightmare is where Lilith entered into Seth’s dream world, and this is where she comes out and reclaims herself. So yes, once I realized it I opened up a tab with Nightmare and made sure that the parallels were there.
Thank you. 🙂 And I am a bit worried about the next update – this seems very much to be building up to the climax but I have a bit of exposition I want to stick in first. Valley will show me the way, as always.
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AH! Love the new update!
Water and fire and wooooooo.
❤
Can't wait for next part.
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Thank you. 🙂 I love this one too. I seem to like them more myself as we go on. I think that’s a good thing.
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Yay! I checked the site just to see if anything had been uploaded recently and then I see… “Water”
I admit to squealing like a fangirl. My roommate can testify.
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Heh. I’m glad you like it. Personally I get all excited and get butterflies in my stomach when I get close to the end of a update and I’m all like, “OMG, can’t wait to publish it!”. Especially this one, because I quite like it.
I have been to known to do very fangirl-y things when talking or thinking about Seth or looking at pics of him. Sigh. He’s so adorable. And omg I’m so close to getting to write him! Yay!
Err…sorry. I’m excitable.
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Alright! Go Lilith! I’m so glad to see that she is slowly gaining pieces of herself again! The fact that her psyche has gone through hell and back, and made it!, is just astounding. I’d give her a big hug if I could. 🙂
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I think that realizing that Jason loved her (and that she loved him) really helped her.
She really is strong. She just lost sight of that for a while. She fell into Seth’s dream world and lost herself. But then Jason brought her back and she found her strength in him and his sacrifice. I deleted it, but the bit about leaving Jason’s house did include “Now she had a job to do.” at one point. I think she’s really still very damaged, but at the moment she’s managed to put all that in the back of her mind and lock it down. She’s riding on adrenaline and a nuclear bomb of righteous anger. If she survives the confrontation with Seth, I think she’d have a bit of a breakdown after that and then have to slowly rebuild herself over the years. But right now – well, Angry Johnny has become her theme song.
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AMAZING. I loved this chapter. Lilith is really brave! GO LILITH! She can face him! 🙂
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Thank you! I love it too. 🙂 I listened to Beethoven’s 5th while writing it. I think I may continue to do that. 😉
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I just read through the entire story very good I like your writing style!
I can’t wait for the next update!!
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Cool, then you probably picked up on things that people who have been reading each update as it comes out for a while may have missed.
I’m glad you found it and gave it a chance, and I’m very happy that you like it. 🙂 I tend to update about twice a week. No set in stone promises, but the next update will likely be out by Thursday.
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Great, and sooooo beautiful, those night shots…
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Most of them have a 100% opacity screen layer. Wish I’d known about that back when I was shooting Nightmare.
Thank you. 🙂
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Now that I think of it, what is that Circle of stone at the end of ‘Nightmare’?
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I haven’t forgotten about it. 🙂 I haven’t decided yet, but the next update may be a bit of exposition that finishes out the Nightmare reference. In a more abstract way and not directly pulled from Nightmare like this update, but yeah.
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Another stunning chapter. I will be thinking about this one for quite a while. Mostly because of this: “…the water held the moonlight in its loving embrace…” then “…the water and the moonlight found each other again…” and finally… “Lilith embraced the water in her mind…” To me their are many sub-layers to this text… and I’m either not understanding them all, or reading to much into it. Whatever the case, I love the writing here.
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Did you read the first half of Nightmare? This is basically a rewrite of the first bit of Nightmare from the other side of the valley. Nightmare was when she really crossed the border into what I seem to be calling Seth’s dream world but you shouldn’t really take any plot hints from that, and in this one she’s on her way out.
I’ve started skimming the surface of alchemy in an attempt to figure out how Seth would work in a non-Sims version, and I knew I was on the right track when I read the motto of the alchemists – “separate and join together”.
And thank you – I know you said on Boolprop that there hadn’t been as much of the prose lately, but there really was a reason for that. And now it’s starting to come back. 😉
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Wonderful. I’m glad I reread Nightmare–it really set up the information about the house well. I had forgotten how Lilith felt about the house.
I like this new Lilith–it’s interesting, because really, we’re just getting to know her now. Before, she was always simply reacting to whatever haze or influence Seth has over her, but now she’s acting on her own. I remember thinking in the last post, “So THAT’s what she’s like….wow!” 🙂
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Yeah – I’m thinking that the next update may cover the second half of Nightmare. I think that as long as I keep it to one update (and end that update with Seth’s appearance), that bit of exposition won’t slow the story down too much. And it fits into the retreading Nightmare pattern, and I like patterns.
And yes, she was very passive. But I think that growing past that was rather the point – there is no water without the fall.
It’s like at the beginning she was kind of depressed and lived very much inside her head and felt alone and pointless and scared. So she was ripe for the message in Nightmare – give up your power, let someone else take responsibility, (omg Red Right Hand is even more of a Seth song than I realized), and it will all be better and you’ll be taken care of and you don’t have to risk anything. I think that’s why she didn’t really admit to herself how she felt about Jason – she was scared of it. She was scared of risking herself and getting hurt.
But she got hurt anyway. She took the deal that was offered to her in Nightmare, and she lost. She gave her power to Seth, and he betrayed her and used it to take everything that she had from her.
And in doing so, he taught her the value of it. The fog in her mind has been stripped away, and now she sees. Life is suffering. There is no escape. There is no way to avoid risk and to avoid getting hurt.
There is no water without the fall.
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Really evocative pictures as always. I love the steady progression of her journey, both physically and mentally as she makes her way to the house by the waterfall.
With every step, you can feel her strength growing, her ability to combat Seth’s control over her. Very Symbolic.
I was really quite impressed by the concept behind how she ended up cutting Seth’s strings, her allusion to Jason and his love and his warmth – it gave her strength, one she sorely needed for the final journey to confront her fears, her demons.
All of these themes really interweave in a beautiful tapestry throughout the telling of this story. One woman’s journey to find her courage and discover who she is.
Another wonderful chapter. It will be interesting to see what Seth has to say for himself.
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Thank you. 🙂
And yes – like I said (in a reply to a comment on Death, I think) when my father died my mother gave me a black opal ring with a diamond in it and said that the opal was her life after he died and the diamond was me. I think Lilith’s diamond is the love that she had with Jason. She didn’t fully appreciate it when she had the chance, but she does now.
Fire. Death. Alone.
Water.
Like Sarah says, the fire comes for us all. We all suffer. We all die. We all feel very alone.
But in the end, it all comes back to water. If you can move past the fire and the death and the being alone and see that the water has to fall, that it’s a never-ending cycle, then you can be comfortable in your own little individual water droplet skin. Because you know that you contain the ocean within yourself.
Not really sure what Seth has to say for himself beyond the first line at the moment, but I say that he’s freaking awesome and I love him. 😉
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I clicked on your link once a couple of weeks ago, which took me to the most recent update. It looked interesting, but I didn’t understand a thing that was going on and I quickly moved on, having just discovered Sims stories and Legacy Challenges. It was a whole new world for me and I was eager to see what other stories were out there, what else had been done with this game I have loved for years. (An internet surfer? Obviously not.) But, I added it to my list to go back and read from the beginning, and blithely moved on other, easier to grasp immediately, stories.
And today, I am glad I did. If I had read this from the beginning that day I would never have started my own legacy story. This is absolutely brilliant. I am in awe. I am completely intimidated! lol
Really, this is just wonderful and I’ve enjoyed it so much. Now I have to wonder if I should start over, or just mull through it all, knowing my storytelling skills (or photo-editing skills) simply don’t cut it. Blech. But that’s my problem, not yours!
Brilliant. Can’t wait to read more.
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First – thank you so much for the first paragraph. It really makes me feel better because I watch my stats page like a hawk (I am indeed a neurotic perfectionist, you know) and I notice people not reading through and I’m all like “Does it suck? Is that why they didn’t click on the link to the next chapter? OMG OMG it sucks and I should delete it and I suck and I hate myself!” Generally that’s the point where my husband laughs at me a bit and tries to get me to see sense.
So that helps me think “Oh hey, it could just be normal internet stuff and not a terrible eternal judgement of suckiness.”
Ooh, if you’re new to the community I have lots of suggestions. I try to keep quality and regularly updated stories on my blogroll, and Boolprop is the biggest legacy forum. A few of the authors who are on my blogroll post on my forum, VSS.
Here’s my first legacy, if you want to see how I started out. Four years ago. Sigh, how the time flies.
http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/uploads.php?user_id=134089&asset_type=story
Do note the plumbbobs and the pictures taken in buy mode.
Awww, thank you. I certainly don’t feel I deserve that, but I appreciate it. And I’m happy that you’ve enjoyed it, because it’s pretty much become a drug of euphoric happiness for me. Seriously – the other day I was looking for Sarah songs and found #1 Crush and I was like, “Yeah, I can see this being a Sarah song.” and then I was like “OMG this is how I feel about Valley!”.
Err – I only got maybe two hours of sleep if that last night and my head is all fuzzy and I need to go eat before I die. Sorry for unleashing my craziness on you.
I had quite a few projects that didn’t make it past the first chapter – like AFB and Soft Rains. It took me four years of telling stories with the game to find one that I would “twist a knife and bleed my aching heart and tear it apart” for. (quote from #1 Crush)
Off to go eat now. Err…yeah.
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Once again, stunning. I’m left jaw-dropped and speechless with your story and this chapter had me shivering, yes, shivering. The line: “There is no water without the fall.” was a perfectly orchasrated sentance, and it truely made me realise how to make a perfect line. This actually taught me something lol :P.
I can’t stop liking this, you’ll know me as Tyirannoss on SS and the first thing I do when I go online is check the Player Made Content section, and everytime I see you’ve updated it makes me smile.
Cannot wait for the ending, and cannot fear it more.
Ben
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I’ve eaten now. It was all very dramatic and “can’t die, not done with Valley” and “can’t die, don’t want some two bit hack finishing Valley for me”. But eventually the pizza finished cooking and I ate some of it and I am…alive! Yay!
Although still apparently a bit whacked.
When Valley is done, I’m so going to do something like stay up all night and rewrite Night the next day. See how Bella sounds when I’m sleep deprived.
Sorry. I probably shouldn’t reply to comments when I’m extremely sleep deprived.
Anyway…thank you! Although that’s not nearly enough. That deserves more than just thanks. I am very extremely touched. And happy that something of what I feel when I work on it was transmitted to you.
In Nightmare there’s the phrase “she could have the water without the fall”, which is where that came from.
Awwww – updating makes me smile. A lot. And giggle sometimes. And kiss my computer screen to kiss Seth by proxy.
And I feel the same way, really – I want to write Seth so bad but I don’t want this to end.
Which is why it won’t. I’m going to write a non-Sims version. It’s going to take years. It’s going to be hard. But I’m going to do it. And then I’m going to do my best to find a publisher for it. 🙂
Thank you so very much for all your comments and support. I can’t tell you how much they mean to me.
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Very good. As always can’t wait for more. =]
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Thanks. 🙂 I’m quite excited about the next one too – in my current vision of it, I get to write The Line. 😉
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Loved this one! Can’t wait for the next one !!
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Thank you. 🙂 Hopefully it’ll be out by Thursday. We’ll see.
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So the confrontation is finally happening.
This story has been AMAZING. I’m going to be sad when it ends.
And good going, Lilith. Don’t let your fear run (and ruin) your life anymore!
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Today at work I went to my LJ on my Blackberry and brought up the pics of Seth in his formal suit in the most recent picspam.
And then I kissed the screen.
I’m going to go crawl in bed and stick my head under the covers and sob brokenly for days when it ends, personally.
But really – thank you. I’ve come to love Valley. A lot. Like perhaps more than Jason loved Lilith. And while I like to think I would have gotten there eventually even if no one read and commented, the comments and the knowledge that other people are enjoying it as well definitely help, and I truly appreciate it.
Thank you.
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First off… AWWW Jason! I was so falling in love with him!
But I love how this chapter connects to Nightmare. Just awesome! As soon as I saw her in this outfit as Jason’s house, I totally said, “Uh oh!” I love visual indicators like that.
I can’t wait to finally see Seth!
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I’ve changed my avatar on LJ, Boolprop, VSS, and here to Seth. I don’t think it’s changed here quite yet, though.
He really is very cute – you guys haven’t seen any unedited pics of his face yet really. 🙂
Jason was awesome, yes. Alas.
And thank you. 🙂
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So suspenseful! I love this!
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Thank you. 🙂 I’m glad that you’re enjoying it.
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I am so much in anticipation right now of Lilith and Seth’s meetings…ooooohhhh…. 🙂
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I cannot wait to write Seth’s first sentence! It came to me weeks ago.
And I think that yes, the next update will have to be exposition that explains more of the story behind the second half of Nightmare (perhaps including the stone circle, which I really haven’t forgotten about). That would give The Line a bit more oomph to people who don’t know the backstory like I do. Because it’s absolutely delicious to me, but it might not have quite the same effect if you don’t know what was up with Sarah and have some idea of why Seth killed her.
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Wow! Great job! But, I think the only flaw is that you kinda rushed this chapter, a little. But otherwise, I think it’s really well written and I cannot wait to see what will happen next.
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Hmm.
How was it rushed? At first I thought this comment was on Nightmare and I went back and reread Nightmare and saw lots of horrible writing and it did seem rushed, but maybe I’m still too close to this one to see it?
The walking scenes had a set pattern. Rewrite the bit from Nightmare sentence by sentence, a pic of Jason, and then the final sentence. I thought repeating that pattern three times would have been a bit much, but maybe not. Three is the magic number, after all.
But is there a third way to vary those sentences? Hmm.
I assure you that this one took the normal six to eight hours to do.
Thank you. I do appreciate criticism. 🙂
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AMAZING UPDATE!!! I’m so happy that Lilith is taking action, time for some heroine action! (I hope, please don’t kill her :O)
“There is no water without the fall.” Best line ever, well done.
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Thank you. 🙂 I do rather like this update.
Wrote a two and a bit page outline of the next one. Haven’t written an outline since Suspect, and never one more than a page long. But well – this is important. It’s near the end, and it’s Seth. It has to be good. 🙂
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All through this update I was so in awe of the pictures, and the story they told, amazing update as always. I’m so excited to see what happens when Lilith finally meets Seth, I can’t wait for that update, and I am glad she’s coming back to herself. Very interested to see what happens to her now that she’s walked into Seth’s house.
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Aww, thank you. Especially since there’s not any especially edited pics in here that hadn’t been in previous updates.
I think a bit of exposition is going to happen first, but only one update of it. 🙂 Which hopefully I’ll get that update out by tomorrow night. We’ll see.
After that, though – after that it’s truly the end and I want to make sure it’s perfect and right and so updates might slow down. I’m not really sure how many updates are left, actually.
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It was fantastic!!!!!!!!!!! ROTFLOL.
good job.
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Thank you, roflcopter co-pilot. 🙂
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Amazing once more. Eagerly awaiting the next posts to infinity. Saw your new avatar on Alice & Kev (very sad post there) Maybe a little foreshadowing perhaps? Great job!
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Thanks. 🙂 It’s a pic of Seth from some pics I took while I was playing him last week. I love him. A lot. That’s all the secret meaning behind the new avatar, lol. 😉
I’ve started on the next update, but it looks like it’s going to end up intricate and involved. Took about three or four hours last night to do the first nine pics. So yeah – changed my goal to tomorrow night.
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If you love him s much maybe you should make a youself a sim and marry him lol.
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I am quite happy with my IRL husband. Who is very tolerant of my staring at Seth pics. 🙂
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IRL?
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In real life. 🙂
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I don’t know If I said it already but …I’m so glad I found this site…Keep up the good work I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say GREAT blog. Thanks, 🙂
A definite great read..Jim Bean
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Awwww, thank you. 🙂
Valley is my life and I am pouring my soul into it, so I would hope that it has some substance. So that’s quite meaningful and thank you for saying that. 🙂
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this is almost poetic in how she returns to Seth’s house. It feels like we are at the top of a steep hill and just about to roll down to the bottom. Slowly.
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Glad you said slowly – I’m 9 pics into the next update and it is much slower than this one. Like those 9 pics took about three to four hours to do last night slow. And they’re just the intro to the real part of the update.
Thank you so much for continuing to read and comment – it really means a lot to me.
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i would have been here sooner but it has been slow going for me to read and type comments…i am trying to keep up as best as I can! and this story really intrigues me.
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Love the new update! The photos are like always awsome. I wonder what will happen to Lilith next! I’m off to read the next chapter!
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Awesome! Now, she has to die? Aww!! Oh no!
I just love this story so much haha!!
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Thank you. 🙂 I love it extremely a lot myself. Going to get started on the next update later today I think.
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I don’t know If I said it already but …This blog rocks! I gotta say, that I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks, 🙂
A definite great read….
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Thank you. 🙂 I’m pouring my soul into it so I hope it has substance.
I’m glad you like it – I certainly do.
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Some beautiful shots here. I love the water and the moon. And the stars! Lovely, lovely. I’m surprised that Lilith is back in control, but thinking about it, I think I get it. The bitterness of Jason’s death brought clarity? Something like that. I guess I’ll see as I continue.
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I really liked the part about the waterfall how and how it symbolized Lilith finding herself again. I think it could also be associated with lovers like Bella and Mortimer and how they found each other again in the end. I can’t wait to see Seth already!!
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Oh wow – you’re so awesome. So so awesome. The waterfall became like a huge symbol, yeah, and that’s a neat thought about Bella and Mortimer – I hadn’t thought of them like that.
*hugs*
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Wow. Impressive chapter! You can never go wrong using water as a symbol.
Water to fight the fire still burning in that house. Water to find herself again… Can’t wait what’s in store for her…
Interesting. Really interesting.
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I wrote this while listening to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony over and over. 🙂 And yeah, well – fire is so omnipresent in my work that I had to have some water somewhere to counteract it. 😉 Plus there is the waterfall there, being all slow and syrupy and frozen in time for Seth. Until Lilith comes along, and it changes, and becomes a powerful living agent of change.
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Ah, that’s an interesting choice! I’m not a great fan of Beethoven myself, but I can see how his 9th Symphony fits this chapter really well. I’m playing it in my head right now ;).
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Ooo… I love this chapter! Lilith is regaining control of herself and her life. She is going to face her nightmare. Okay, it’s time for this all to end. How will it end? Must. Read. More.
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Yep! 🙂 I was listening to Beethoven while writing this chapter, and I quite like it. 🙂
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I love Beethoven.
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