rrin opened his eyes, and a new world was before him. It was the sa gray world, lit by the heavens' judgnt, but it was different sohow. Or maybe he was different. Regardless, the burden no longer felt unbearable. It was mighty still, but he no longer struggled to acknowledge it.
In any case, the ti had so. The ti for his lips to utter the first words—the first words of a new man.
"Who am I?"
"The one who will never die. The El'shadie of this era."
"What can I do?" he felt calm, a strange intuition settling in his mind. It beckoned a wonder; was he still the sa person? It seed strange, but in a mont, the fear, the doubt vanished.
Perhaps this was what eluded him. Pride didn't have to hold him—he refused it, yet, sowhere deep inside, it remained. Like an addiction, it lingered.
The bird answered his question. "As I said before," it seed like it wanted to sigh. "You control this place. You can shape it, mold it, and perhaps claim it. Though the latter has not been done by anyone."
rrin stared at the bird, his ignorance settling in. "How?"
The dark wings rolled like ripples of sea waves. "I give guidance, but I reckon you need only to look into yourself. A particular el'shadie said it akin to breathing. A prescience of what to do. Each had their thods, figure yours."
rrin waited for more words, but sensed the bird had none more to give.
So I have to do this too? How? He looked away, eyes drawn to the vast world below; sand beads the size of stones dotted everywhere, spreading to all sides of the seeable space. The gray skies and thunder shone over them, casting an eerie gloom that brought a feeling of imposing dread.
This was a mighty place…His?
As he had done before, it took only a thought as his body dropped from the sky, the wind whistling past him. Gasping. The suddenness brought a startling mont.
The ground drew close, quickly he thought it and stopped, inches away from the dark sand below. Closer now, he saw them clearly. Like obsidian stones, smooth and mirror reflective. They seed like marbles. Though looking at them gave him the mild dread of the bird.
Were they the sa? He believed so.
He knelt towards the beads, knees still inches away from the ground. Floating. His hands edged towards them. What was he doing? The answer to that was lost on him, yet he felt it. Like a calling, an inkling, it pulled him.
Perhaps because despite the bird's words, he believed this experience was either a dream, so torture from damnation, or an image brought by his dying mind, regardless, so boldness to move unfettered rushed him.
His fingers trailed over the surface of the balls. Cold and itchy to the touch. And just then, he heard a voice whisper to him, "I am!"
rrin started at this, his eyes narrowing on the sphere. It said again, "I am!"
You're what? rrin asked.
"I am!"
What are you? He paused at the thought.. Flexibility, change, anything could be anything. He had almost forgotten the mantra the shamans had drilled into his mind. Likely having not danced to the mist had pushed the instincts away, but now he rembered.
That was the core of the dance of self. Anything could be anything.
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"You are a person."
"I am."
He felt strength flow through his body, and from that strength ca light. Bright white soothing light. From his fingers they surged out, flowing into the sphere like a ray of luminance.
The light quelled in the next second, vanishing without a trace. In its place, the sphere began to twitch, tremble, and shake. It floated up, cracks forming around its surface.
"I am. I am. . I am a person!"
It shattered, turning into dust that drifted down. Nothing. rrin stared dumbfounded. He expected so change, even waited for it, but nothing happened.
A sinking feeling pressed on his heart. Was he not adequate? The intuition told him he was right in the thod, yet nothing happened.
The bird spoke, high in the sky. It remained, not once reaching down when rrin did. "What do you define as a human?" it said, "It's no surprise you failed. To choose the most complex outco as a test is simply madness. But maybe you are mad."
rrin floated up, eting the gaze of the bird. "What? I did everything."
"If you could so easily take the power, then you would not exist, as the ones before you would never have died." There was a hint of amusent in its tone.
"What now?"
Suddenly, the bird's wings expanded further. Its feathers of interlocked scales grew. Frighteningly so—they grew wide, stretching to both sides of the world. Was it attempting to wrap the world? It seed strangely capable of doing so. Or at least, rrin believed.
Just then, it spoke. "What you do now is call them. Summon them! Summon your Ardents!"
Its voice bood loudly through the world, echoing through rrin's bones. And despite being certain he knew not what to do, he strangely now did. The intuition rose again. It was like an idea, a mory that appeared after having faded away. He smiled… a genuine one.
He heaved a breath and said softly, "Co to !"
The heavens scread.
And they ca. Oh, from the heavens, they ca. Strange creatures, akin to n, draped in oily, dark robes. They descended around him like drops of black rain, countless—so many they seed like a spread of sand over the gloomy skies. However, despite the exterior of mortality, sothing was missing that made them eerie.
Each of them was without a head—or without a head that any human could have. Instead, what resided inches above the flat collars of their necks were orbs. Orbs of swirling blackness—one that gave the impression of a gaze. An ancient eye that watched him… no, countless ancient eyes. rrin stood in the center of this vortex of strange creatures—Ardents, the bird had called them.
His Ardents.
rrin's heart tensed at the sight of their sheer number, but not long after, the feeling of peace quickly overpowered his fear. Enveloping him in warmth. Right now, he felt whole, as though he was not surrounded by unknown creatures but by familiars. A family of sorts. One he had known for as long as he had been alive.
rrin could hear pious whispers from his Ardents, a phrase repeated over and over:
"He who would never die."
They spoke in perfect uniformity, their voices a range of variety—so sounding male, so female, so like children, and others… unnatural. Yet they still reverberated together. To rrin, it was calming, like a sweet lullaby that quenched his soul.
And, of course, the giant bird now lood high above, its head tilted upward. Staring at sothing. rrin traced its gaze, his eyes resting on sothing high above in the gray sky. Half-illusory, a high gate of brittle, darkened surface rested atop a bed of gray clouds. Bizarre white light shone from its edges, piercing down and showering him with radiance.
It was warm. Pure. Powerful.
And it was his.
The gates themselves hid sothing behind them—sothing distant and ancient. A thing that rrin believed he could only claim once he reached for it… And so he did. It was a thought, a wish perhaps, but it ca to pass that he felt his body move, ascending high into the gray skies.
His mind was clear of thought, and only purpose remained.
Now, he was no longer obscured by the storm-charged clouds. Instead, they dod him, pushed back by the presence of the Ardents. With their descent, the clouds retreated, the Ardents acting like a shield against the crackling storm and its violence. rrin could still see it, yes, beyond the Ardents—surging and flashing.
But it didn't matter.
He looked up at the distant gate, the size of a mountain, as he drew closer. Soon, he would take it. His destiny. rrin reached out. He could almost grasp it—those dark, stony gates that seed as though they had withstood the greatest of foes.
This could be a dream, so falsehood, or torture, but he refused to think of it.
rrin would take it, and it would be his. He had once been in darkness, without reason to exist, but now he was in the light. He had once been in a dream that never ended, but now it would fade. Now, he knew where he was going. A pathless life was nothing but pain. But now he was aware.
The gates were so close now, inches away. rrin smiled. Mine!
Suddenly, a force slamd into him, shuddering the world in a massive boom. rrin was shot back, plumting in a blaze of power. His body ignited with bright white flas!
I knew it! He thought as the winds rustled him. This was torture—a trick. He was going into damnation!
He crashed.
The one who should have ascended, fell.—Recorded from the visions of a depraved Scholae.
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