Master Samak
Productive!
Steward Leprechaun
L&L
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Prologue: Admonition
“Not another one….”
Whirr…Click…Whirr…
An ancient door emitted low mechanical hums as its internal gears set in motion. Out of the gloaming imposed this towering slab, elaborate lines etched across its surface of stone. From within these lines came to life an azure glow, and they pulsed and quivered along to the dark rock humming, ever slightly, ever moving, an uncertain trickle in an enclosed stream.
Out of the dark, hindered by this fashioned light-work, the man standing before it had no time to waste. His appreciation for this marvel abandoned him. Impatience instead smoldered and a fear crept, and these gnawed at him. His feet shifted, his arms crossed and uncrossed in growing concern. All seemed harsher and louder by the quiet humming door. His forehead beaded blue with sweat in the dancing glow.
“Come on… Come on!” The man seethed and glanced back over his shoulder, making sure he was alone. His cloak clasped about him whipped to the movement and he felt as though it were clawing at his throat. He slammed a fist against the stone.
Almost deafeningly, reversing of deed, the noises of the door vanished as a way unsealed, one long crack of light splitting up the center. The man sprang forward, clawing, breath hissing through clenched teeth.
The halves of the door made to slide apart, toward the walls with nary a sound, but the man would not wait and squeezed into the ever-growing gap. In the narrow space his legs became trapped by the blade at his hip and and he gasped and wrenched. He gracelessly stumbled through onto his hands and knees.
Quick and sharp, his eyes peered across a bridge swart in shadow. To the man's sides stood thick and giant pillars of stone, the only guards against a treacherous fall. These stalwarts shone no inner light of their own yet looked of similar substance to the door, if but in polished reworked form. They were unmarked save for hanging torch-lights and stretched the gap to reveal a door on the far side. From the distance it appeared to soak up the other side of the bounded bridge. The shadows made it hard to judge. Looking up, immediately crouching low, the man strained his sight in vain to make out the ceiling to the pillars, which simply disappeared on into an engulfing darkness. He felt no breeze nor smelled stale air, but to him the space seemed opened for all to spy him, and yet, as well, contained away with overflowing night which was darker than night. For the night had stars.
With an effort in spite of his dread the man wrenched his gaze from the looming void, but as he went he kept his head low as though some thing might drop upon him. The surface of the walkway on flickered with the torches, ahead the makings of a circle was set in the floor, most catching of the dim light—but the bridge was empty and that was all that mattered.
He sped further into the room and continued to inspect, almost hunt out, one view to another, his eyes darting about faster than his pace. The span of the bridge was much longer than the man had perceived, but even as he swept warily on he could see the circle on the floor getting bigger. A vivid jade, in the exact center, it glinted without heed to the dark room. Still his guard did not lower. His shoulders tensed but he did not stop. A blur of a column rushed him by, followed close by sheer darkness before giving way to yet another column, and then another. However, the harder he hunted for any hiding foe, the rushing blur of these pillars and torches and shadows became ever and more clear. In fact, it wasn’t until the man jumped at the vision bordering his sight did he realize he had not been moving for some time: the faraway door no longer faced him, rather a pillar of stone did.
The man could see himself closely reflected in the polished column. Heartbeats of time passed. Carefully he took a step back, then tested another. The echoing steps reached his ears but seemed now louder than he wanted. Alert once more, disturbed to see himself as he was in the rock's mirror, he crept from the imperial giant. His eyes slid toward the door until they stopped suddenly mid-distance. His stride halted. He could not move.
Panic coursed like fire through the man now, his thought and his form paralyzed. The one sense he felt present was his sight, and only that. He stared at what his eyes wanted him to see, fixed as they were, drawn to what lay truly beyond the columns. The man gazed upon something that churned a terror and a desire all at once, deep down inside.
Nothing….
It were as though drapes of pure shadow had been thrown from the openings looking out, and now around the bridge churned and roiled a living nothing, an absence with will. The torchlight diminished and would not leave the columns. Blackness fell all about the man.
The man gaped as the whirling blackness took on dithering forms of people. Hardly standing out against the darkness, the ghost-like bodies teased him for brief moments—looking to reach out and touch him—before getting sucked back into the shadowy wall. They were images the man could almost respond to, were he given a few seconds longer to watch. But the figures changed. They twisted in front of each other, they overlapped and merged, they made it hopeless to find any sense from their actions. The man felt frustrated… and it captivated him.
Waves of allure washed over the man. His body shivered as he felt thousands of small impulses call to him, calling from the void. He wanted to answer them; he wished he could get the feelings out of him, though he didn’t know how.
No… the man did know how… he just didn’t want them to stop. His body shivered again as a sudden thought wormed its way into his mind and blocked out all else.
“Come…” breathed the man and the thought, in perfect unison.
He took a step forward. Immediately the swirling churned faster, anticipating the man’s arrival. Another step and his hand reached out to probe the dark matter, drawing nearer to the side of the bridge. His boots dragged across the floor like he hadn’t the strength to lift them higher. His breathing became labored though he had moved but a short distance. Unblinking eyes remained fixed on the shadows, compelled to examine them closer. He shuffled his feet more towards the edge, his sword forgotten, his mind lost.
A flash of pain swept through the man as his shoulder scraped against the side of one of the columns. Without emotion his eyes remained on the darkness. It now strained toward him, shrieking at the hand’s breadth that separated man from shadow. His face flinched away, an unconscious reaction to the fury pulsing through the air. The man didn’t want the wall to be angry. He only wanted to touch it, to feel it. Then he would be content. Then they would be content.
Yes….
With his hand outstretched, the man lifted his foot to make the last step to his goal, to his ambition, to his heart’s desire—
THUD
The man blinked. He swayed forward as his eyes aimlessly drifted in its attempts to recuperate. Once his sight began to register again with his mind he found himself looking at the floor. His feet were close to the edge of the bridge. Too close. He made to step back when a whisper caught his ear, a deathly breeze drifting in front of him, stopping him at once. Slower than before, the man slid his foot back from the bridge's edge, wincing at the noise it made. Only the breath of a whisper came to disturb him.
Shaking his head, the man straightened and looked boldly ahead, inwardly salvaging what was left of his pride. He instantly regretted doing so.
Opposite the man swirled a large, shadowy face—one of sorrow, of furor, of hate. The two locked eyes for brief seconds before the spectral outline opened its mouth and fragmented the air with a shrieking roar. Wails resounded throughout the bridge and the man could only stare back as the face contorted and twisted amid its screams. With the terrible sound still ringing all around, the face suddenly launched from the shadows, pulling the darkness with him. The man's eyes widened and he stumbled over himself in his attempts to get away. Twisting around faster than his feet would allow, the man slipped on the cape dragging behind him and tumbled to the floor. He scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could, gasping for breath, trying to look every which way.
Only thick swirling darkness lingered around the bridge, nothing more.
The man shut his eyes and for a long time just stood there, struggling to calm himself, fighting the urge to break down. His eyes snapped open again at a new thought as he whirled around, fumbling for his weapon and searching for what had made the loud noise in the first place.
He searched from column to column before looking at the door he'd came through. It, by design, had closed itself. Backing up, checking for anything abnormal, and eyeing the darkness beyond the pillars one last time, the man then turned on his heel and strode out for the other door, his attention back to its original intent.
Walking fast, the man soon crossed almost half the bridge’s length. As he came closer to the emerald ring the hairs on the back of his neck began to creep up. He slowed down and placed a hand on his sword. Several more steps would take him past the circle so he uneasily sped up again. Affirming his fears, the ring in front of him began to glow, slowly intensifying its radiance at each growing moment. The man stepped back as the space within started pulsating, visible swells of air rising from the floor like it would on a hot day.
Lines of color flickered around the enclosed area, gathering in the center. With a low hiss, the light dimmed and a woman swam into view from the circle. The man swiftly drew his sword and charged at his foe. Reacting, the woman threw up her hands in protest.
“Stay your hand, human, for I cannot harm you!” she commanded. The man skidded to a halt, an arm’s length away from her, his sword still raised between them. “And equally,” she added, “you would find that you cannot do the same.” To confirm her statement, the woman’s image wavered before the man, creating a fuzzy outline before returning to its real-life clarity.
The man hesitated a moment, his eyes narrowing. She had no weapons to be seen, and the simple cloak she wore made her appear nonthreatening. His sword lowered. He did not return the blade to its sheath, however, but kept it loosely in his hand. Squinting at the woman, he noticed that she seemed to both stare back and stare past the man. “Forgive me, but what are you?”
A smile favored the woman. “I am nothing but the image of everything,” she replied. Her words resonated within itself, a gentle echoing with each one. The softness of her voice was matched by her pronunciation, for she spoke systematically, saying each word clearly, effectively, and without emotion.
The man’s brow furrowed. "…What? Is that supposed to mean something?"
She blinked and looked away from him, staring instead at something that was not there. “I am a visual exposure totality assigned for the benefit of those wishing to know more of this location,” she stated, returning her gaze to the man.
He frowned. “That still didn't hel— never mind. Why have you stopped me?”
Her head tilted slightly. “I am instructed to guard this bridge and to bestow a message to all who seek the room that follows.” It was now the man’s turn to tilt his head.
“A message for me? What is it?” The woman blinked again, though this time continuing to stare at the man.
“I come to express a warning. What you seek may not be what you have sought after. Many have come before you and many have failed to survive what is contained within the room. It is something that may bring you perpetual fulfillment or perpetual despair. Those who died from it were the luckier ones to those who endured and lived afflicted. One way or another, if you so choose to enter the confinements of the room you will never be the same. Search your heart, human; is the risk truly worth the gain?”
Silence passed between the two until the woman blinked once more and said, “You have received the message.”
A troubled look hovered around the man as he ran the message through his head again and again. The woman stood on, watching him with unblinking eyes. After what seemed hours of awkward stillness, he lifted his head and said, “My path has already been set. I can’t go back from this. I have… I have decided.” The woman said nothing, and the man realized that he had said it more for himself than anyone else.
With that, the man set out once more, sword in hand. Walking around the circle, he averted his eyes and made for the door. He could start to make out writing etched into the stone, much like the previous one. He pressed forward, anxious to get out of the room, almost touching the glowing words when—
“I know who you are, Jarvis Voltel, and I know of your intentions!” spoke the woman, her voice tinged with authority. The man froze. “And believe me when I say that they will not work out as you would hope. I know not how you came to this place, but it was not through conventional means. Do not go through that door.”
With remarkable speed, Jarvis spun around and flung his sword at the woman. The whirling steel bridged the distance to her in a matter of seconds and passed right through. Her image wavered while the sword glanced off a column and clattered to the floor. He seethed in anger, watching the woman rematerialize within the circle, furious at himself for forgetting.
“You must not go through that door.”
“Shut up!” Jarvis Volte snapped. “I know what I must do! Nothing can change that!”
“Do not do this. Your purpose is impure. You will not find succe—”
“I SAID SHUT UP!” He furiously gestured in the air. Blue, crackling energy enveloped his hand and he hurled it at the woman’s feet. With a deafening blast the energy smote upon the jade circle. Smoke and sparks burst forth, blocking out the woman. She began to flicker away, the image unable to sustain itself. Jarvis didn’t wait to see her disappear. He turned to the door and waved a hand over it. Small, mechanical noises started up as the door prepared to open.
“No!” the woman cried out. “You mus… not go int… th… oom!” The sound of electricity began to build, the ring rapidly blinking on and off, drowning out any other noise. To herself, she whispered, “You have no idea what you’ll cause—”
In a blinding flash the ring detonated, releasing enormous amounts of sound and force into the bridge. The ground trembled under the man’s feet as the door stopped humming. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure he was the only one there. His cape swished to the movement as he observed the charred, smoldering center of the bridge.
The door unsealing, his amused expression grew and he quietly laughed. While the two pieces of the door slid apart, Jarvis Volte waited patiently for space enough to pass through. He continued to laugh as he walked into the next room. The door closed behind him.
A wall of darkness swirled around the bridge. A vividly green circle stood out on the walkway. A scream shattered the silence, echoing throughout the bridge before dying out and allowing silence to reign once more, as it had been for a very long time.
< Message edited by Master Samak -- 10/12/2019 8:05:50 >
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