He Who Speaks for Malin: Part III

[Minuvas 3193]

 

Spoiler

OOC: Things in brackets would be considered “common gossip” to Residents of the Ebonwood. Just stating for good measure, but unless you are dreamwalking with Minuvas, everything else here is his private coma induced visions.

 

 

            The following video details Minuvas in his meditative state of his mind discovering Malin. Post in your discord to join him in meditation, and help bring him back to Almaris! Lend your voice to his.

 

 

He who ‘Speaks’ for Malin (Part III)

[ An Elf hurriedly ran into the room, “Quick! Get everything…everything. The books, the artifacts…get it all”  the panic on the Elf was apparent as the healer tending to Minuvas dabbed a cool cloth on his “Wh…whats going on?”

“Didn’t you hear? They say that Frederick fellow won the war, and he’s coming to kill us all”

“Wait…w…why? What did we do…?”

“It doesn’t matter, you want to debate this while some White Rose freaks come here to murder us. Or some Fenn decides were not a part of their future -  or do you want to live!? We’ve gotta get out of here”

“Wait, what about Minuvas….should we bring the headband?”

“The bastard is dead, do you really think you’d want him to  live to see this anyway?”

“He’s not dead!” ……. “ No..I..suppose you are right”

They looked between each other, realizing they might have consigned the man to death “Okay no…go grab some folks who believe in him, his ways, get all of those books he wrote - we will lead the procession from the city with his body.” They looked at eachother,then ran their hands along Minuvas’ forehead “We know no King but Malin” and his body was taken from Imperial Lands, his regent Veronna escorting his body, leaving behind a place he had called home for over a century]

 

The Drifting had gone on again for some time. Once Minuvas had thought it a punishment, but now he had lost complete track of time. Whether he had been here for a few moments or all of eternity seemed irrelevant and unknown to him. For some time, the nothingness was maddening. But eventually….it became serenity and peace.

His consciousness traveled the cosmos of his mind, the endless void about him. He felt himself slip away, memories of who he was, where he was from, what he believed melted off his body. Like the melt of a snowman on an unexpectedly warm summer day, each drip of water is like a memory departing him.

But deep in his conscience was a core that was using all of what was left of him to hold himself together. From becoming nothing.

“En Guard!” The Dark Elf boy cried, the sword penetrating into Minuvas’ chest.

“Agh! You got me, its the end!” Minuvas grasped the wooden toy sword, making a dramatic sounding death in theatrical style. After a pause, Minuvas rose to give a speech “It was on this day that the conqueror showed his true colors, a tyrant! Oppressing the people!” He would continue for a few minutes, orating a lengthy monologue to the Dark Elf who mostly seemed uninterested.

An Older High Elf walked by them “Enough with the games you two….always with the speeches Minuvas, you and Hieran run along…go get some bread from the market, it will be dusk soon in Helena”

The image paused, blurring, 

Minuvas found himself looking at his child self and brother, looking and pondering. “I don’t remember this at all”.
 

Yet Minuvas was nothing but a thought. His physical body did not exist, only his conscious mind - looking onward at a century old memory.

 

“It was you” That ancient figure said in his low and lumbering powerful voice.

“Was?”

“I have remade you” The figure said, it's very words as he spoke and constructed Minuvas into reality before him now.

“Who am I now?” He said as he looked down at himself coming into existence, unsure of what he was any more. Just a thought, something that occupies some dark space of some strange universe somewhere?

“Who are you now?” The figure returned the question.

Frustration. Now he came fully into his form, remembering these conversations. His mind began to anchor around this frustration.

Without saying anything, as if already penetrated with in his mind 

 

“You do not approve? I have remade you as you see yourself. If you do not like what you see, it is you to blame”

“I …what? I didn’t say anything”

“You were almost ready. You still hold on. You speak less, but think the same” He told the stubborn High Elf

“Am I to be judged for what I keep to myself?” Protested Minuvas, proud of his restraint - he felt.

“The poison of the soul does not require the affirmation of your words to make it any more deadly. There is still arrogance. Divisiveness”

He waited some time, silently - a full day perhaps, drifting with Minuvas  before  the figure  added.

“What good is a voice, if it cannot speak its heart?”

“You continue to torment me, my King.”

“The ignorant learn through pain” It added

 

“I must be horribly ignorant” Minuvas said sarcastically

“So you say” He rumbled. “Do you know who you are yet?” it adds

“I am…Minuvas” The Elf added

A long hmm, as if thinking “You are ignorant, but less than before. You are still not ready”

 

And so came the nothingness once more. Embraced like an old friend, ah the comforting feeling of…being nothing…it wasn’t long before any doubts and frustrations he had melted once more away into the river of his mind.

 

[The people hoisted Minuvas’ body onto the wooden platform, the Elves hoisting his body out of the Ebonwood. The procession was unceremonial, conducted in the dead of night to avoid Human patrols - only whispers of where it was to be taken. There was no doubt many thought these Elves who had been the target of countless hate would scatter to the winds, but the Elves of the Ebonwood knew home is where their people are - not the land where it settles. There was nothing long or drawn out about it. There were no weeping Imperials to bid a citizen a farewell, most of them were dead. The hushed whispers of his escorts could not raise too loud lest they attracted the attention of roadside bandits - or worse -   How could it be? Minuvas wasn’t awake, his entire life had changed and he knew nothing of it.]

 

‘A Note sent to the Melphestaus Family: Family Melphestaus,
The head of the House is too ill to continue leading it. It is the best medical advice received thus far that Minuvas may soon depart the realm of the living. You are encouraged to say your farewells to him, the next opportunity to do so may be at the foot of a tombstone.’

Chadwick Hemmington, Melphestaus family butler