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 same as him. Merrin wonders about the difference. One was pathetic compared to the other. Likely, it is a matter of training? The thought lasted the briefest of moments 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 mentation 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 merge 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. Merrin 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 become 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 fumes; 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. Men, women, 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, somehow; they know, somehow, the awareness had descended into the world. How? Then comes the song. A melody 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, Merrin 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?
Merrin quells his trembling hands, ambling, observing the men. Some bow, others watch, eyes beads of white within hoods. These ones are harder, stronger than the others. Caution, something 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? Merrin 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 screamed. 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.
No one.
He moves on, his entourage, like something 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.
Something catches his awareness: a man, dark-haired, centering a smaller group. Eyes meet, the man bows so deeply it seems his nose touches his knees. Yeimen. Something of a priest to his people. Clearly, Merrin 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, harmed, 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, Merrin finds himself sealed from movement. Ah, what he does now, many men 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?"
Merrin beholds him, "You will ask me 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 means. This is what they believe. This is why they resist him.
How ignorant!
Merrin screams. "What do you think happens now?" He paces over the stage. "THERE IS NO ONE IN THIS ROOM WHO CAN STAND AGAINST ME!"
They shudder, more standing, piercestones clicking in their hands.
"YOUR WORLD, SOULS, AND BODIES TOLD YOU OF MY RETURN." He pauses. "FEAR THAT MOMENT. 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?" Merrin 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 same 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 name. Fashioned from the same old tongue taught to you by her… Vaelarith… The one who looked away. No… Your true name is Lor—the bond."
"sunBringer!" He fell to his knees, the ring behind following the path.
One whispers. "Kael'thureon."
Merrin 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 name, Kart." Merrin speaks to another, "You dream of pleasures and fear it makes you a sinner."
"sunBringer!"
Merrin circles the stage, "I KNOW YOU ALL. EVEN IN THE DARKNESS I—SEE—YOU!"
Yeimen stands above the lowered heads—eyes burning with something deep. A love for him. "sunBringer, what does your light reveal for me?"
"I see as I have shown you in your dreams." Merrin 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 become.
"THIS IS THE THING I GIVE TO YOU. NO MORE REGRETS. NO MORE PAIN, RAGE, FEAR. GIVE IT ALL TO ME." He mutters. "Give me your sins. Your fear. Dump it into my heart and my soul. Taint me 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. Melding 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 moment and something 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. Merrin 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.