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The Darkness Pervades pt:1


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The Darkness Pervades pt:1

 

Spoiler

 

 

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Vane stood in what seemed to be a boundless and unfathomable void, there was no light but the eerie glow, pulsating from where his left eye previously resided, in its place a rounded crimson crystal, august and imperial, an opulent luminescence emanating from within. Vane surveyed the measureless cavity of darkness, but could see no end, a true vacuum of oblivion. With a stultifying breath Vane began his stride, each step soundless and barren. The ashen king called out, but his voice did not carry, sound did not travel far in this place he realized. 

 

Vane stopped, after what seemed like hours, or even days, the knowledge that no matter what he did, naught would produce results took hold over his mind, no manner of action taken, hastened distance covered, or confounding scream... there was no escape. Vane exhaled, and emptiness washed over him, an acceptance of fact, and with acceptance, a sudden and jarring fall, a new terror rushed through the venerable kings body, faster and Faster and FASTER… until a precipitous halt. There was no blunt ending, he reached no ground, Vane merely ceased to fall, and before him stood a great thing of darkness. Ichorous masses bubbled from its surface, rising a few inches from its inky skin before popping and splattering back into its form, a shadow become tangible. It leaned in close putting what Vane only discerned as its face in cause of its sharpened yellowed teeth and guiled hollow eyes, the only parts of its shifting mass that stood permanent before his comparatively small frame, it said naught but smiled a large and primordial grin.

 

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“What…” Vane paused to recast his thoughts Who are you.” The great mass of shadow and murk howled a thunderous laugh “I have been with your people since they were warring tribes and before! I poked and prodded, sending man and monster, blizzard and inferno.” The being pronounced, a feeling of wicked pleasure exuding in its words “I am the Southlander, the Skanarri, the Inferi, the Svarling." it spoke, its voice a raucous chorus as if countless souls all spoke in unison. "I bashed down the doors of children in Elysium for the southern king, I scalped your comrades in Fenn for Zharteyr Rykhasson, I fired the arrow that slew High Chieftain Argos for the skanarri horde, I am the dragon that cooked your father alive, I am the inevitable, I cannot be escaped, I am the Darkness.” It roiled, appearing to pride itself in its exploits “And you?, your people? It spit the words out like venom. Everything will be mine soon enough.” it finally finished, appearing to Vane to have grown titanic in size "no…" Vane spoke, softly at first, balling his fists until his knuckles turned white NO!" He shouted at the visage of darkness, his eye growing brighter and brighter, illuminating everything around him, the beast let out an echoing chuckle. "There is nothing you can do to stop me." It said, its cavernous maw unhinging, swinging progressively more and more agape as it moved to consume the Herald’s progeny. Vane shut his eyes, the red incandescence of his false orbit receding with his vision as he waited to be devoured.

 

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But nothing came, no crunching of bones or gnawing of flesh, as Vanes heart once again returned to its natural beat he opened his eyes, the bright red light of his eye returned to cast its refulgent vermillion glare upon the landscape before him, this time a sparse forest of desiccated trees, old and cracked, long past dead. The ground before him was a packed hoary dirt with a lone cobbled laden road that traveled serpentine upwards to a singular cabin made of stacked timbers and coagulated mud. Within the confines of the forest roamed idled spirits and indolent corpses, meandering lazily through the thicket and grove. At the base of the path a figure awaited the haggard king, translucent and skeletal, neath an all encompassing hooded cloak, like a reaper come to shepherd souls, it raised its cadaverous hand and reticently pointed up the pitted cobbles of the winded road.

 

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Ascending the path, Vane felt an encircling unease, the faces of the meandering wraiths transient and familiar in his mind. Perhaps these visitant phantoms were old foes, or friends. As Vane crested the end of the cobblestone path, standing resolute before the cabin's wooden portal. Vane took in a deep inhale and knocked at the door. His heart beat, once… twice.. And then, a voice. “Just a moment…” A woman called, the voice sweet like honey in his ears, the twinge of recognition shivered up his spine, yet he couldn’t quite place why. After a moment the woman pressed open the door, the screeching creak of time escaping the old hinges, an aged woman stood at the frame, near his own maturing age, with olive skin and stygian hair, images of the qali desert, and the women who lived there were conjured in his mind as he entered. The woman offered him a seat at a modest wooden table with homely matching chairs at which he took his vantage. Vane took stock of the single roomed cabin, a bed, a table and chairs, some drawers and a cauldron cooking over a fire. The woman positioned herself at the counter next to the cauldron, and began hewing at a small assemblage of vegetables, speaking over her shoulder at him “You’ve come a long way just to end up here.” She spoke matter of factly, sliding some carrots off the counter and into the cauldron with her knife. “There was a monster.” he responded slowly, trying to puzzle together the events that had conspired to his current residence “It was the darkness. It tried to consume me.” The woman stirred the cauldron before going back to chop more vegetables “Oh?” she perked, seemingly half distracted by her own craft “Isn’t that inevitable?”. Vane looked surprised, raising his brow at the woman, hoping to catch that air of familiarity that exuded from her form “No.” he stated, narrowing his eye at her “We resist the darkness, and one day, we will help the Father drive it back, we will have victory.” he said, undaunted and emboldened in his own beliefs. “Victory?” The woman said, sliding the rest of the vegetables into the cauldron in one swift movement, the raking sound of the knife on the wooden counter causing his own ears to twinge, she began stirring the blackened pot as she spoke “A hollow notion, ridiculous even, we are born of the darkness, and in time, we will be returned to it, we are but fleeting errors.”. Vane slammed his fist on the table, standing up and edging the chair back with a loud scraping peal. “My family has been fighting the darkness for centuries, we will never stop!” The woman grimaced as he drug the chair across the cabins stone floor, her face gingerly growing to one of light irritation as she ladled the thick broth into a bowl for him “The great family of Ruric, standing alone, watching as the darkness reclaims what is owed, helpless to stop what is coming.” She said placing the bowl before him with care “Fight, don’t fight, it does not matter.” she said going to fetch another bowl for herself, taking her own place across the table from him. Vane took in the smell of the warm soup, grasping at the spoon that lay on the table and glaring at the woman in an indignated resentment, the realization dawning on him that this woman was not a stranger, but his own sister, Vera, taken decades ago by their mother. she looked up, noticing the recognition in his eyes, “So you finally figured it out…” she said, her pupils swelling until they consumed the entirety of her eyes with wicked and iniquit darkness “You're not her, are you… Vera.” he said softly, now recognizing the dish as his mothers own recipe “No.” she said, her face shifting to become sullen and morose, as if in regret for Vane “I’m not her. she’s gone… your mother is gone, your father, your uncles, everyone… and soon, I will consume the rest of the people you care about.” she said, her voice dipping, become deeper and deeper, gathering into a chorus of lost voices speaking together “I am inevitable and I will consume this world, you only prolong the inevitable, you may as well just lay down your arms instead of playing this silly game.” She paused, allowing him to take in her presence, not one of anger or malice, but like a mother informing an insolent child “or fight.” she said softly, as if she no longer cared, using a spoon to idly stir at the soup before her, her voice returning to its original smooth, silken cadence “Like I said, it doesn’t matter, but if it helps, you may seek solace in the manner befitting your lineage, and take up your nugatory vigil, but in the end…” she said scooping a bit of the soup and sipping at it “I will drink this world.” she said, looking up to him, glaring through his body like a knife, causing Vane’s head to spin, the cabin both twirling around him and melting at the same time. 

 

 

 

“No!” Vane said shooting upright in his bed, cold sweat pouring down his brow as he breathed heavily, looking to his side to see the woman he loved lying there, stirring at his interruption, and his newborn child laying in a crib just beyond her sleeping soundly.

 

Vane lay back in the bed, thinking about his most recent nightmare, one of too many as of late. Had the darkness been toying with his mind he thought to himself, or had he just been too stressed, overworked? He didn’t know, but he sought comfort knowing that he had something to protect, and that he would do everything, anything, to keep them safe from the darkness.

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