Ron falls behind him, Davos too, though the man maintains a cautious distance. Cleaned up, his face is left only with slight bruises and swollen features. Better than expected. A difference between a common man and a Blademaster, perhaps.
Jeseries is the sa as him. rrin wonders about the difference. One was pathetic compared to the other. Likely, it is a matter of training? The thought lasted the briefest of monts before the lording of the imperative.
Catelyn stands beside Ron, silent after the prior conversation. One ponders what goes through that mind of hers. That ntation that rivaled a caster's. What does she see in the chosen course? He thinks of asking her, to halt the procession for the needed advice. But no. He seals the conflicting voice, steals a breath, and hears the pounding of hearts amongst his people.
Behind him, they are like a collective, bereft of any individuality. Just a singular whole, donned in strange hooded robes. A unique tessellation of flesh and man.
These are the people he leads now. To safety, to peace, to hope. But first… he must rge the two into one.
And he marshals the wind!
It howls like a beast, wailing defiance to his will. They shudder, his people, made children to the sudden gale upon the world. Kill the fear. rrin rears both arms, dust spinning in a webwork around him, snaking it. They must watch now in awed horror. At this power, miracle, and will, they gape. Not enough, he thinks as the air screams, the queer weaves reeling to his wishes.
They bend, twisting, cloth, and hair fluttering in the mighty gust. It grows now, feeds on his force at unpredictable heights. Would it beco a true storm if he poured the entirety of his force? He reins in distraction, heaves a breath, and swings down.
A boom, and the wind tunnels into the rims of the door, shattering rock and dust. It quakes, soot bursting like a black, reddened wave. They duck, shielding against the fus; he doesn't. He stands as the grit kisses his skin, staining his eyes. Resolute, arms forced to his sides. Soon, it calms, becoming a dying wave of swirling smoke.
It is done.
Now has bled into the future, and the voices flow into his awareness. n, won, behind and outside the door, chattering on. They wonder: "What happened? Who is that? Is it a monster? Is it safe to check?"
Like bairns, they await another—for a source of higher control.
My control.
He steps in, feet crushing soft stone and dust. It is silent, sohow; they know, sohow, the awareness had descended into the world. How? Then cos the song. A lody birthed from the throat, echoing out like the vibration of reality. They trail with him, behind, humming the tones—unity made music.
Basked in it, rrin channels the air, wind blowing out the screening dust. It reveals the interior. A world is here. A vast oval space, curved walls, sleek black, light crackling red on the distant walls. They number beyond count, hundreds at the very least. Distributed in circles, heads bent in solemnity. Somber. Most are hidden in darkness, little more than a sure presence. There—everywhere… How was this the totality of his people?
A change roams the assemblage at his presence. Quickly, they tear off shirts, draping them over their heads, a duplication of what his entourage had done. They watch him through the darkness of their improvised hoods, waiting for proof.
How long has he been gone? Now he returns. What does he bring with him?
rrin quells his trembling hands, ambling, observing the n. So bow, others watch, eyes beads of white within hoods. These ones are harder, stronger than the others. Caution, sothing of individuality yet existed in those eyes. Beautiful.
And I must now break it.
A ringed stage is ahead, dim light raying down from further above. A sole source of radiance outside the distant torches. So that's the place Catelyn talked about? rrin advances, knowing the warmth these people had felt. He conceals his expression, realizes what lies at the furthest edges of the chamber.
Burned bodies, no froststones.
How long they would have prayed, cried, and scread. Just for him. His gaze, his miracles, anything to relieve the horror they endured. But he didn't hear them. Voices too low to pierce the impossible. No one should have to endure this. No one should have to see such pain.
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No one.
He moves on, his entourage, like sothing of exalted saints, seat themselves without invitation. They have a greater role in the eyes of these ones, a well of myths and legends about their sunBringer… A god they must all now worship.
Savior to god, what a progression.
Sothing catches his awareness: a man, dark-haired, centering a smaller group. Eyes et, the man bows so deeply it seems his nose touches his knees. Yein. Sothing of a priest to his people. Clearly, rrin sees and discerns these things.
As he draws closer to the stage, a few stand, mumbling. "Stop."
"Who are you?"
Indeed, he was different. In the mines, a resemblance of the Ashman screened the known features, not now. What walks among them is a different creature. A man burned, hard, and stoned. Pain forged into this.
He is not what they deserved, but he was what they had.
So he steps atop the stage, light beaming down from overhead. Radiant. Holy in that artificial manner.
Then there is silence. They wonder, watch for what happens now… And though he stands, aware of what to do, rrin finds himself sealed from movent. Ah, what he does now, many n hungered for it, yet he… it abhors to control others in such ways.
One breaks the silence. A timid old man, swathed in a shirt as a hood. His voice croaks. "Who are you?" He says, "Who are you to stand where He is to stand?"
rrin beholds him, "You will ask that question?" He snaps. "What child asks the father for his identity?"
The man staggers back, nearly falling. Hands holding up his form.
Another speaks. "Prove to us that you are him. Prove to us that you are the one who controls the light and dreams; it is the only way."
"I AM THE WAY!"
They all stand, fervor channeling strength into the chamber. How divine they think of what they have built? It must be protected, saved, not perverted by any ans. This is what they believe. This is why they resist him.
How ignorant!
rrin screams. "What do you think happens now?" He paces over the stage. "THERE IS NO ONE IN THIS ROOM WHO CAN STAND AGAINST !"
They shudder, more standing, piercestones clicking in their hands.
"YOUR WORLD, SOULS, AND BODIES TOLD YOU OF MY RETURN." He pauses. "FEAR THAT MONT. FEAR THE LIGHT THAT TAKES THE DARKNESS YOU CRAVE AND SEE SINCE YOU WERE BORN TO IT. THE LIGHT THAT OPENS YOUR SECRETS, LIES, AND TRUTHS. THE LIGHT OF THE FATHER ABOVE."
And he stops, turns to one, sauntering to the middle-aged man. Knees bend, he leans, piercing his gaze into the man shrouded in black.
Let him fear! Let him wonder what the light reveals in him.
"You think you can ever be anything else?" rrin whispers. "Anything other than a common thief caught on the bed of a brightCrown. You are afraid of that truth. Every day you try to change, repeating the sa things, locked in a pathetic, mundane existence. But you pray for the One? Every day. But now I stand. And you wonder, what if I am the one, the savior to break your perpetual pedestrian life."
He stands.
"You dream of it. Your mother. Of the man you could have been beneath this black-veiled world. She died three years ago, and you think it your fault. Washed away by the storms, lost in the roaring seas. You watched it happen. Heard her screaming. You reached for her, but didn't. You feared your own death. You feared seeing red instead of the world's black. And as she sank into the world, you bore another na. Fashioned from the sa old tongue taught to you by her… Vaelarith… The one who looked away. No… Your true na is Lor—the bond."
"sunBringer!" He fell to his knees, the ring behind following the path.
One whispers. "Kael'thureon."
rrin walks to the center stage, watches another. "In your nightmares, your heart is devoured by the fallen and you think it the source of your dark thoughts."
"sunBringer!" They hum as one, bowing, dropping down.
"I know your na, Kart." rrin speaks to another, "You dream of pleasures and fear it makes you a sinner."
"sunBringer!"
rrin circles the stage, "I KNOW YOU ALL. EVEN IN THE DARKNESS I—SEE—YOU!"
Yein stands above the lowered heads—eyes burning with sothing deep. A love for him. "sunBringer, what does your light reveal for ?"
"I see as I have shown you in your dreams." rrin says, "Paradise. Freedom. Light."
He falls down, and the rest follow—the entire chamber bowing to one man.
"sunBringer!"
"Kael'thureon!"
"The light!"
They shout titles as ludicrous as the one who now bears it. Ah, what creatures they have beco.
"THIS IS THE THING I GIVE TO YOU. NO MORE REGRETS. NO MORE PAIN, RAGE, FEAR. GIVE IT ALL TO ." He mutters. "Give your sins. Your fear. Dump it into my heart and my soul. Taint so you will remain pure. Stain the light. Reach for it, and free yourself of pain and sorrow. That is who I am. That is what I aim to give. I give to you my flesh and blood. My people. My chosen."
Screams like wails fill the chamber, trembling the very walls. It is as though madness had descended into reality. But it wasn't. This was another. A different kind of corrosion.
Today, the El'shadie took his throne.
And light shoots out from him, harder than ever before. lding like skin over flesh. White, radiant. He is a thing crafted of solid light, a godly thing. Alone, the chamber is brightened on all corners. No darkness, just him. A man with a desire.
A mont and sothing fits into his awareness. Among the bowed heads, one is reared, watching, glaring… Moeash.
There is a need to ponder about the man-child, to rejoice in his safety… but… not now. rrin looks away, lifting both arms, the wind descending to his will. Easier now. And he commands them, smashing the far ceiling with a burst of tempest.
A boom and stone rains on the world below, crumbling against the webwork of spinning air doming the witnesses, all of them. Up, they watch in awe. At their radiant god calling down wind and stone.
The myth deepens.
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