Meanwhile, in a deep, dark room, in a dungeon, under a desert of ice beads, a human consciousness that had merged himself with a spell, laid fuming.
The consciousness was sincerely vexxed, because he was now trapped inside an even smaller prison, after trying to kill and puppeteer a body in order to escape the dungeon he no longer had a reason to exist within.
Worse than that, he was furious at his loss of control over the blood that he had been using to actually effect the physical world more than blinding anyone and slowly driving them mad afterwards of course.
Frozen and brought to exist physically as an immobile pile of blood flavored sherbert, that might never again melt back into a form that could be contorted into a form capable of locomotion.
However, as the immortal spell continued to whine to himself about his bad luck, the wall opposite to the entrance point of the storage room, the one with the strange, puzzle like light fixture in the middle that the young meddler had messed with, cracked open.
Eight lines -in between each of the the eight runes- appeared, and begin to pull away, revealing a stairway downwards.
The living darkness, unwillingly flooded the downward space, and in mere seconds, the consciousness saw something that would have been breathtaking -if he still had lungs- that is.
A large, raw crystal, grey and cracked on all sides, but slowly beating with a soft yellow glow from it's deepest core, sat upon a pedestal that mimicked a tower, with a moat of still water around the tower, with it's walls covered by stone shelves, with dusty mementoes, from bones to broken blades.
And from this crystal - this Core, a collection of ripples through the ambient mana within the room pulsed through the conscious spell's very being.
The ripples were incomprehensible at first, but, within moments, they settled themselves into an approximation of legible form.
{- Form a Contract? -}
{- Yes or No -}
The once human, no longer having the capacity to speak as he could with the possessed blood, attempted to ripple its magic towards the crystal in the pattern as the 'yes' option.
Apparently this was enough of an answer as needed, since the crystal appeared to perk up somehow.
In that same, impossible way, a 'voice' was heard from the crystal.
{- Yes confirmed! -}
{- The Spire Of Θ thanks you! -}
{- Beginning Repairs -}
And with that last sentence, the previously small glow, began to shine out, the cracks on the crystal began to recede, as the grey within it turned a pearlescent Yellow, tinged with White flecks.
And from the depths of his existence, the spell felt something begin, for the first time in thousands of years, the roots of his spell were beginning to change.
As this happened, the entire dungeon— the entire Spire, began to pulse with a warmth that fit within the cracks and edges like a missing puzzle piece.
The newly employed spell of eternal darkness's 'body' began to melt back into a puddle of ichor, but not only that, something more began to manifest within the blood, at the incitement of the warmth that pulsed into it.
At the same time, within a room flooded with magenta light, the broken form of a training dummy on the floor, pulsed with that same warmth, and the broken pieces began to jerk and twitch.
Within a small labyrinth painter with a deeper yellow light, circles on the floor, pulsed with yellow light, and more lines within them began to appear, spinning with apparent excitement, as holes in the ceiling and walls clattered as they began to refill.
Only moments later, within a room of cyan, the mutilated form of a massive bear, skinned and nearly completely dismantled, with nearly all of it's meat having been cut into chunks that had been put to the side, the tendons and organs, were laid neatly next to the meat, all of it, began to melt into the floor as if was made of acid, as this happened, gates shuttered down from the ceiling, one after another, hiding the next line of unknown writing in the row.
the pulses of mana began to get louder, and shift into the audible thrumming beat, that of a Heart, as the Spire continued to revitalize.
- - - -
Ever had a feeling, like your blood veins are about to sneeze?
It was a strange sensation, I can't really describe it better than that.
But my attention was rather rapid reasserted at the amount of Ki within the forest.
It was tolerable, back when it turned out that my over absorption of ambient mana had been constraining my ki, my emotional sensitivity was still shit, but down to the smallest bug, I could feel every life in my range -which seemed way too big- now that I was in a place with so much life
The old man had finally let me go, but he told me to follow him, and far be it from me to have to give the big boss more back strain.
Though, besides all the lifesignals being sent to my brain, the walk back was full of Allen describing all the ways in which I had fucked up.
"Shepard!" His stern voice brought be back to the moment.
It seems like he asked me a question, to which I responded "Yea?" In a tone that was more dismissive than I had intended.
He looked back at me, and rubbed at his temples before repeating himself in a frustrated tone "Godsdammit Shepard, what was the first thing I taught you?" He had stopped walking to give me a steady
"Q-" 'Question Everything' it was the first official thing he had taught me, and one I hadn't even thought to employ when I was down in that shit hole.
But, now that I have the thought in my head again…
There was something wrong.
But what was it, it was like there was a part of my mind that was trying to stop me from looking into the reminder of questioning anything…
I looked back at Allen, and spoke what was on my mind "where are you taking me?" Allen's physical expression was hard to parce, but his Ki, had suddenly started staring straight at me, it was hard enough, pretending that it wasn't there, harder still, to not stare back in kind.
"We, passed the path to my place a while ago, if'n ya don't mind, I'd like ta put on some actual clothing, and maybe wash off, before we start trainin'." I didn't bother to match his glare with my own, since I was so young, it would just come off as a pout, as I had found out the embarrassing way, one too many times.
He seemed to mull over my words, before sighing and shaking his head.
"Shep, yer shack burned down." As he said this, he took his grimoire out, but why?
Not like I could focus on that or the small anger that came from him calling my cabins shack, as the rug was pulled from under me with his up front statement.
There wasn't anything but the sternness of his 'no bullshit' tone.
My mind was running a mile a minute, i could only passively acknowledge that the grey haired hunter was talking, I didn't even realize at the time that I had stopped walking.
Nor was I aware at the time, that I had turned to numbly walk back towards my home.
'We must have forgotten to put out the fire in the fireplace, before we escaped from the bear.' It was none of the voices I had come to apply to colors, but it seemed familiar.
Are my things ok? What if the townsfolk finally decided to get their just deserts on the devil child?
Walking faster and faster, the noises of the forest seemed to get more and more jarring, as my breaths lost their effectiveness, and the cogs in my mind began to skip and jarringly halt.
Light shines down from above, as I enter into the snow caped clearing that my cabin rests in.
My body goes cold, and my movement becomes choppy and slow, as I approach the…
In the middle of the clearing, in stark defiance of the white landscape, are three different sized pillars of pitch-charcoal.
There are indentations in the snow that imply that people have been here recently, in and out of the- my-
Of this space.
Like, a puppet, falling from it's strings, I fall to my knees, as I stare listlessly into the middle distance.
My face feels paralyzed, but I can feel bile in my throat, so I'm surely not feeling well.
My mind, is oddly, not very loud, right now, that's probably a sign that I shouldn't be alone right now, but I can't bring myself to move.
And I didn't move, from that spot, for some time.
When I did move again, it was because my legs had gotten painfully numb.
My movements were frustratingly slow, was my only passing thought, as I moved through this space.
A mental picture of how - it had been, flashed through my mind as I looked around.
Over there, my bed used to be, it was made of thatch, more like a cot, but it cradled my body in a way I found comfortable.
To it's right, my left, flush with the wall, should have been three cupboards, now not much more than rubble, crushed under the weight of the roof.
I didn't remember moving over to them, I only caught up when I started pulling the broken things apart, to see what had remained inside.
Clumps of stinking char were all that remained of my food supplies.
My head jerked to the left again, to the corner of the room, where I had left my equipment.
My hands stung from the contact with the snow, but that's odd, wasn't I wearing gloves?
But all of the questions in my mind, were wiped away, when I saw the first bit of the -chared cloth, and burnt, frozen leather the pit I didn't even realize I had been dangling above suddenly got a lot bigger.
As my hand brushed something hard in the pile, I grasped it without looking, even through the cold, I knew exactly what I was holding, my fingers clasped around it in the way I always had, pointer near top, middle and ring cradling towards the palm, for support, with the pinky a little more downward, for a little extra stability, thumb wrapped around the middle and ring.
Wrist kept straight, the force should be in the palm, move with the shoulder, knock one, pull, fingers wrist, forearm, arm, shoulder, into the back, keep a firm spot on the ground- and let go.
And as I finished the all too familiar action, I opened my eyes, gleaming with tears, but, within my hand, was only the ash covered, damp leather handle, of my bow.
The, pine limbs of it, had burnt away, to ash.
I dropped it like it was still burning.
Within the scorched, ash dyed leather, a pattern emerged.
Like a spindly snake or, root made of six sided fractals, coiling around the cracks of the rough handle, it's like I could see every bit of it, even though most of it had been hidden by the snow.
There was no real want to stop it, from the engraving of that pattern into my mind…
Before I knew what I was doing, I had the handle of what once was my bow, and was turning it to continue to see the pattern as it continued to winde through the cracks of the burnt leather.
It was the first time I had actively chosen to witness one, instead of having it blasted into my mind in a moment of weakness.
The way it appeared in my mind, was like a stretched out spring, in the fact that it could rather easily be wound back into a vaguely handle like collection of lines in my mind if I applied the right tension.
When the pattern was completed in my mind, physical sensation rushed back to me like- well, like something that rushes back into a person, so, like a breath? Or well, anyway, I probably did gasp aloud.
Because someone had me by the shoulder, and my legs were really numb again.
My head turned too fast to keep track, and suddenly, I was staring at a familiar, scruffy, scarred face.
Allen had followed me here, and before I could react, before I could make a quip or-or deflect this whole mess away, he just started hugging me.
For a reason I didn't care to figure out, a warmth had filled my chest as I hugged him back.
"The fire spread too fast, kid, no 'ne was tha wiser before yer 'ouse was already irreconcilable, it's a blasted thing, too, some o' tha wandren merchentiles wan'ed tha t'wn ta sell off tha wee bit that survived tha blaze, we scrounged up what we could, we've been keepin it in me storeroom," his voice held a very rare hint of mourning but it was still firm.
"Aye was gonna break tha news to ya with shown ya what've it remained, but ya went 'n had a thought fer once in that empty head o' yers, messed tha plan up real good," he gave out a hearty chortle at his little joke, but I was still too caught up with it all to really do anything.
My house, my home, I had bought this land, with money I made over a full year of helping people, and hunting creatures, the home I had built myself, with my own blood sweat and tears, that had been the final push in my figuring out Ki for the first time, was gone.
And all that remained, was the rubble of what once was, because of a stupid mistake.
All of this, had been one stupid mistake after another.
I'm the very, very center of my mind, I felt something crack, and shatter onto the ground.
Maybe, maybe if I were alone, in that dungeon, I could have been able to keep it together, fearing for the worst if I were to break then, and maybe, if I weren't being held like something that mattered, maybe i wouldn't have broken.
But the truth is, that I ran out of resistance, I ran out if excuses, I ran out of reasons to hold back the tears, to hold back the grief of my life being ripped from me from a few stupid mistakes.
And it was as the first few hot tears fell from my eyes, that I realized why I had tried to stop it in the first place.
Because with the illusion of a crack and a snap reverberated in my head, all the stress and anger and fear and despair and pain pain pain came crashing down like a tsunami from overhead.
I don't know when my sobs turned to screams, or when my abdomen started to feel like it was on fire slightly.
But all I knew, and all I could process, was that, underneath the screaming, and the sobbing, and the utter chaos of my mind, the cobbled together plate that represented my mental state, the one I had molded from the depths of two utterly shattered psyches, had itself, finally broke.
- - - -
That surprise was a bit of a doozy huh?
Wonder what'll happen next?
I've been dealing with some stuff as of recent, which is why I've been posting less (not like y'all prolly noticed lol)
I'm writing to get better, and comments, and criticism will help me get better, I'm aware of some of the plot holes already, but what you spot will help me improve, and correct those mistakes (or help me shift the story in interesting ways) so please comment if you would like!
See ya next time