The First Revelation

[StingyParrot 1595]

 

The red, ash-choked sun had set an hour after his departure from Tor’Praeth. Capric left his horse at the fortress, out of a combination of worry for the creature’s condition should it follow him, and also a brief assumption that perhaps ‘fire’ also referred to the burn of exertion, which he’d easily achieve in his wanderings. The way the layer of ash scattered on the ground crunched or gave underfoot became a hissing, cracking monotony that followed him all the way towards a blackened mountain he’d decided to scale. It sat crouched on the horizon, illuminated by the strange half-light cast by the numerous spot fires that blazed intermittently across the ashlands.

 

Once the sky had grown as black as the ground beneath him, Capric made camp by a glowing bed of rocks heated red by some subterranean fire. Normally, he wouldn’t need to have brought a pack - magic had its benefits - but he did this time, resolved not to rely on anything except his steel and Draan. 

 

What is Fire?

 

He mulled over the question. Fire was heat, life, and anger. It required fuel. It could be doused or strangled. It sears, cleanses, and cremates. Descendantkind was dependent upon it to warm their homes, cook their food, and as a weapon of war. Capric picked up a pinch of ash, letting it scatter and fade into the blackness around his little spot of light. 

 

It didn’t take long for him to think back to his readings. All fire is the same, inherently, no matter its position or how it came into being, A candleflame could turn into a wildfire. It would always be snuffed, though - wouldn’t it? Were the ashlands themselves one large, unending bonfire? But wouldn’t even that succumb to the turning of millenia? Nothing lives forever, he decides, rather things persist for long enough that one can think them immortal. Would fire be change, then? 

 

On an impulse, he took a thin strip of wood from his bag, turning the little stick in his fingers. Capric took in a breath, and the coals by his bedroll dimmed. Then he let it out, and they flared with a burst of embers, and the searing of his brand brought a new thought into his mind, like a shape felt in darkness. The Herald puzzled over it as he prepared a meal, ate it, then turned in for the night.

 

Capric dreamt of fire. He saw a burning pillar leading the lost, of a heated, purifying coal pressed to his lips and cleansing him. He witnessed it as a great meteor from the heavens, striking the earth and making the ground ripple like water in a dish, erasing the old, rotted life and letting the survivors pick their way through the rubble of their superiors.

 

The morning was dry and hot, though the latter was coming from the ground moreso than the sun, which had begun to filter through the pall of smoke that hung over the land. Capric packed up his things and trudged on towards the mountain, passing under a great arch of stone as he circled its base, then chose a point to ascend. The incline began slight, but jutted harshly upwards at times. Sometimes the ash would make a slope powdery and treacherous, or gouts of fire would surge at random intervals from smoking cracks in the ground. The air became redolent with the scent of brimstone. Once or twice, Capric encountered a flow of black, slowly-moving lava that necessitated a cautious detour.

 

Capric reached a summit in the late afternoon, when the sun had gone from yellow to gold and now to burnished brass, fading slowly into rosy darkness. Heat blasted from a lake of liquid fire, so hot that - as he found out - it would cause fire to burst out on nearby flammable material. He made camp a good fifty metres or so from the lake, and stacked a fire from the little bundle of wood he’d brought. Capric focused his attention upon the unlit fire, and scattered the embers wrought from his now-active brands over them, closing his eyes. 

 

An interminable amount of time later, the fire blazed to life, attracting - for some reason - a gathering of hardy moths, easily mistakeable for flakes of ash. Capric watched as they swooped and swung around the circle of light cast by his campfire, and as one swerved too close and was incinerated in an instant. He had his answer. 

 

Spoiler

heh asioth

 

[psychra_notte 618]

Spoiler

Fantastic Writing!! Great job man.

 

[MrGarden 295]

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