The inside of this sandstone hut was small, only a single room. In it were two cots pushed up against the back wall. A table and a few chairs took over the center of the room. On the table were a few reed quills and a tiny jar of ink sitting atop a pair of scrolls. Aside from Tehk, Lara, and Rashem, that was all that was in the room. Lara made for the bed and lied upon it without making a sound. Tehk sat in a chair by the table. Rashem leaned against the wall opposite Tehk.
“This looks like some religious text.” Tehk read it out loud. “And Malachai slipped off the cliff. Madoc reached out and caught him not with his hands, but with his mind. Malachai hung in the air, frightened at seeing his doom beneath him.
“‘This could be your end. Meet it well.’ Madoc turned to leave, then paused. ‘If you fell to your death now I will have failed you, my brother. You seek the golden path yet have not understood your purpose. In this moment you may learn what that is. Hear my words.’
“‘Malachai spoke with faith in his heart, ‘Share with me your wisdom Lord Madoc, and I will receive it.’
“Madoc came to edge of the cliff and answered his most devout of apostles, ‘Everything I have told you is a lie. Where can one find the truth?’
“Malachai hesitated. He searched the depths of his heart for the answer. Asking himself the same question he found his answer. Madoc set him on the ground. Malachai fell to his knees and praised Madoc. He then asked, ‘Lord Madoc, why did you wait until I neared my doom to teach me this?’
“Madoc spoke, ‘Only when one is pushed to the limits of his anguish can true wisdom be learned. – The Gospel of Madoc, Chapter 22, The Black Book of Ceridwen.”
“I don’t get it,” said Lara.
“What did you learn from this passage, Tehk?” Rashem asked him.
“Sounds like an Undertow crackpot who liked to play around with his powers of telekinesis. Why he’s been written into the Black Book I have no idea.”
“Look deeper. It is important you understand this.”
At first Tehk wanted to vent his annoyance at why this stranger was so interested in teaching him something, but the text was interesting. He read it again. “I guess they’re saying that you can only learn through pain. That’s a little sick.”
“Yet true. Read the next scroll.”
Tehk looked at the next one, and saw that it was a letter.
To the applicants,
You may not know where you are, or perhaps even who you are. Do not be troubled. Each of you has chosen to begin the journey on the golden path. All of you have come to us to apply for Initiation into the Acolytes of Agony, devoted of Kanna. These are the testings ground on which your character will be measured. There is a danger that hunts you. At a time of our choosing we shall come to collect you. Survive until then and you will be brough before the Kannistic Conclave where we will determine if you deserve to be given the title of Initiate. – High Priestess Thea of House Hirch.
“So that’s what this is about!” Tehk exclaimed. He was infuriated. “I wouldn't sign up for that. This is ridiculous.”
“What if this is the occupation you’re grandfather chose for you,” Rashem countered.
Tehk contemplated that for a moment. That was entirely possible. “So is this what I am?”
“No. That is what you were, and that life has died. You need to decide what you are, and you have to do it soon. It is all you have to do.”
Tehk didn’t understand. He wrote off the comments as more of Rashem’s crackpot antics.
Lara stood up and said, “I don’t think that’s why I’m here. It just feels…wrong.”
Rashem ignored her, “Tehk, it is up to you to defeat the creature. You can be a hero and do something, or be a victim and do nothing. If you decide you are the latter, others will suffer needlessly.” He walked outside. “They will meet pointless ends, not in concurrence with the path.” Tehk stood up. Rashem turned to face him from beyond the doorway, “Use the tools I have given you.” He walked out of sight.
“Hey! Where are you going?” Tehk chased after him. Two bounds and he was outside. Rashem was no where to be seen. “How’d he do that? Why’d he do that? Nothing in this place makes any sense!” Tehk let his frustration get the better of him. He came back inside and sat at his chair, sulking. Repressed memories came flooding back. All his life he’d been deserted by the people who were closest to him. His father was always working in his study. His mother led a life of leisure and left Tehk to raised by the servants. His cousins looked down upon him. He just didn’t seem to fit in with them. He wasn’t like them. Tehk didn’t have ambition. His efforts weren’t fueled by jealousy. He was slow to anger. Negative emotions just weren’t a dominant part of his personality.
Only his grandfather understood him. He was the only one Tehk could talk to, and share his feelings with. Tehk understood why his grandfather sent him to the acolytes. Tehk was not as quick with numbers as the rest of his family. He didn’t like to cheat people or trick them into making bad deals. He abhorred fighting, whether it was physical or verbal. He wouldn’t make a good soldier or politician. What Tehk had was idealism. Jar Adrana saw that his ability to stand by his principles would serve him well in life, and the such a life could only be occupied with religion. It was because of this, and Tehk’s loyalty to his family that Jar Adrana entrusted him with a mission to report on certain goings on of the Acolytes. Remembering his grandfather gave him hope.
Though Tehk still couldn’t remember anything that happened after his grandfather’s funeral. Lara sat next to him. Even though they weren’t aimed at her she decided to take Rashem’s words to heart. For once she was going to be the one consoling somebody instead of being the one consoled, “Hey, we can figure this out. We’ve made it this far. You tangled with that thing twice, and you came out with barely a scratch both times.” She thought that was weird but didn’t comment on it further. Rather she said, “Why don’t you see what else is in that book?”
Tehk looked up. “Yeah. That’s probably a good idea.” He picked it up off the table and flipped through the pages. One of them had an illustration. It was a picture of the monster. “Look at this!”
Lara saw from where she was sitting, “I don’t want a closer look. Read what they say about it.”
Tehk read the passage in the journal next to the picture, “This creature has been dubbed a ‘Visage.’ It is conniving demon from hell between spaces. The slave experiments generated what some scholars are dubbing ‘negative energy.’ This energy has reached such levels that it was weakening the borders that separate realities. We tried to stop it. I devised a plan to repair the damage, albeit not without danger. With the time we had left before the boundaries grew to weak, Lord Malus sent us an item that would serve as the focus of a ritual –“
Lara flashed. She and Sa’ir were running. The experiments were over and the guards had come to dispose of all the slaves. In the morning before waking the guards crept into each of the huts and were killing slaves in their sleep. When Lara awoke she saw a blade being raised high above her head. She jumped out of her bed just as it came down on where her next had been. The sword got caught in the bed, and Lara ran out of the hut. She made it out to the dirt road and saw her brother – Sa’ir was her brother! He grabbed by the hand and started running away from the town. “Come on! We have to stop them. Their trying to summon a demon. They may kill us all, but we can’t let them get away with bringing a monster to the ‘Als. We have too many, already.”
Screams came from all around them as the slaves who were awake realized what the guards intended to do to them. “Don’t look back! We can’t help them!” Sa’ir yelled. “We’re almost there!”
Four scholars we’re standing at various points of a geometrical pattern dug into the grounds. The one in the center was chanting unintelligble words. He stood on a vivid blue stone. The others each swung a smoking brazier from one hand and carried a lit black candle in the other. A ball of crackling energy was expanding above them. “We’re too late!” Lara cried. Sa’ir said, “We have to try.” He let go of Lara and charged them. She did the same.
“– to close the portal and seal it forever. This focus was called a Touchstone. It would help to indicate where the boundaries were at their weakest, and with the right spell could break through the boundaries. Once the portal opened we were to conduct a ritual using the portal that would seal it forever. The boundaries would have been repaired, but the ritual was interrupted –“
“Oh, no,” Lara whispered.
The memories kept coming. Sa’ir tackled the one on the stone to the ground. He began punching him repeatedly. Lara jumped on the back of the scholar closest to her. She grabbed his face, searching for the eyes. Her fingers found them and she squeezed. Just then the ball of energy exploded into a circle of electricity, at least 20 feet in diameter. The winds picked up as the two atmospheres collided, creating a temporary sandstorm. A red mass of shimmering cloth descended upon them.
The blue stone Sa’ir and the scholar were wrestling on glowed bright. A burst of blue light emanated from it. When it reached the light reached the portal it shrank down to nothing.
The Visage was delighted with its new playground. It brought a golden claw down upon Sa’ir, and descended upon him. Lara let go of the scholar she was attacking and ran after her brother. When she got over there she couldn’t believe her eyes. The scholar lay in the sand unconcious. Sa’ir was still fighting…himself? There were two Sa’irs. The Sa’ir on the bottom kicked the one on top in the groin. Stunned by the pain he fell into the sand. The Sa’ir that was standing grabbed the one gasping for air in a headlock, and choked him until he went limp. He walked over to his sister and said, “We did it.”
Lara couldn’t comprehend what was going on so when Sa’ir grabbed her by the hand and ran, she ran with him. Behind them troops were pouring out of the huts to see what happened. They made it to the site of the ritual, and after a few minutes there was a horde of ‘Als spear militia chasing Lara and Sa’ir.
“We just have to make it over that dune. Then we can lose them.” Sa’ir said desperately.
“How?”
“You’ll see.”
When they made it over the other side of the dune Lara realized the guards wouldn’t be able to see them. Sa’ir turned to her and said, “Dig.” The two of them got on their knees and dug as deep a pit as they could with their hands in the few moments that they had. Sa’ir said, “Get in.”
Lara responded, “What about you?”
“No time get in!” She lied down in the pit and Sa’ir covered her with sand, leaving her a small air hole. He got up and started running away from where Lara was hiding. She could hear his footsteps. He must have only made it a few feet before the guards caught up with him and took him down. Then she heard the creature’s roar and a battle commencing. Lara was petrified. A long time passed where only the sound of battle could be heard. It could have been a few hours or a few minutes. Then silence…then footsteps. Lara heard someone coming towards her. To her relief, it was her brother digging her up.
Two guards grabbed her by the arms and dragged her out of the sand. She screamed, “No! No! Let go of me! Sa’ir, Sa’ir! Help me! Why did you betray me?”
“– The goals of this creature are strange. It seeks to kill and assume the identity of its victims. Those slain by the Visage rise again as one of their kind,” Tehk finished.
All Lara could say was, “Oh, no…”
Aeron is hilarious!
