Down the Rabbit Hole

[BakedPotato 1020]

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Down the Rabbit Hole

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It didn’t take long for Gazhnahk to feel that call once more, that desire to roam the limitless cosmos. In the depths of a cave she sat at a desk, toiling over the tome she had been given like she had been every night.

Quickly she stood up, knocking her chair over in her haste. She snapped the book shut and put it away in her pouch. The Akaal gathered some belongings, things she knew she would need. Last to be grabbed was a large bag of salt before the orc headed to the corner of her chambers.

With a handful of salt she began to form a circle, making sure that the circle had no gaps in its formation. The uruk used her tusk to bite the tip of her finger to draw blood. As her blood spilled, she used it as ink to form runes, the meaning behind some known only to her. She repeated a familiar sequence, intending on traveling to a place she had visited previously.

With the runes complete she placed herself at the center of the circle, sitting within it. The orc crossed her legs and relaxed her hands on her knees before letting her eyes fall closed. The blood shaman began to chant in the tongue of the spirits, asking her ancestors for guidance.

As her words picked up pace, white light streaked with a multitude of colors began to form around her, fluid but crystal-like with sharp edges as it flowed from the ground up toward the sky into a blinding glow. The light began to cloud her room, whisking her away into the cosmos.

She began to swim through the fabric of reality, for the very first time alone and in control. This time was different for another reason as well, she knew the plane she wanted to go to. She had been there once before.

The prismatic light appeared on the grand deck, and shortly after the orc followed suit. Gazhnahk took a look around her, finding herself in the main observing deck of the multiversal observatory once more.

She began walking the halls with some idea now of where she was going and where she was. Like it had been on her first visit, the observatory seemed empty. This brought the same weird nervous fluttering in the pit of her stomach that it had brought the first time. Why would a structure entirely man-made be empty?

The Akaal claimed one of the many rooms, one near the main deck. She put her shield down and the large bag she brought. Then she emptied her pouch of everything but the book, a pouch of salt, and a journal with only blank pages.

The orc spent days filling the first pages of her journal with information about the observatory. She mapped its halls, sketched its contraptions, and detailed anything she could. She kept her spear on her, ever paranoid.

When she slept, the orc barricaded the door to the room she took shelter in. It was still not enough to bring her comfort and she got little sleep through the night, or what she presumed was night. Even what little sleep she got was plagued by strange dreams.

She now functioned on her own schedule. The observatory floating through empty nothingness meant she had no sun or moon to guide her.

After detailing the observatory she would spend her days on its main deck, where the large telescope that poked through the dome roof led. The deck had three tiered layers, with each one dipping lower than the first. Two paths of stairs divided each deck into thirds and connected them. From the first deck off to the sides were more stairs that led up this time into a balcony and lounge area that floated above the observing deck. The telescope’s eye hung in the center of the middle deck.

Gazhnahk ignored the telescope for now, making her way down the steps to the third deck. She stared out into the vast emptiness of space between all dimensions. A perfect, pure black void except for the shining speckles glittering in the distance.

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The orc watched the stars through the glass of the giant dome, standing there and doing little else. The occasional yawn or cough interrupted the silence, but nothing else disturbed her. Once she grew tired she would retire to her chambers, barricading her door before waking up to do it all over again.

She wasn’t exactly sure why she was doing it, day after day just watching the stars. Perhaps it was how small it made her feel in the grand scheme. Her problems felt so inconsequential as she gazed upon the countless realms. In fact it made the war she dealt with feel like the smallest issue in the entire universe.

Maybe that’s how it started, but as weeks passed a longing grew in Gazhnahk. She always had a craving for knowledge and now she was being shown a limitless fount of it. She could spend eons traversing the galaxies, but would even she have enough time to learn it all?

So she continued to stand, and long, and stare out. How long had passed was no longer something the orc could be certain of.

Finally inaction turned to action. One day after Gazhnahk awoke, instead of walking down to the first deck like she always had, she made her way up the steps of the balcony. She walked along its railings until she got toward the center of it. She rested her hands upon it and looked out, staring through the glass at the far twinkling dots in the distance.

This became her new routine and even more time passed. Gazhnahk had forgotten why she originally came. For what purpose had she set out? All she knew now was the longing to learn among the stars.

Finally the day came when Gazhnahk did not walk up the steps toward the balcony but instead down to the telescope. She peered through the eyeglass and cranked the gears of the ancient mechanism. It lurched to life with a loud screech of metal grinding against metal.

As the telescope moved and focused a world appeared within its view, though calling it a world was quite the overstatement. It was nothing more than a room set ablaze. A large box was propped over the room via a stick with a string attached.

Certainly an odd and simple realm, but nevertheless she did not move the telescope off it.

Day after day she returned to the telescope, detailing what she could in her journal and attempting a sketch. The fire never seemed to go away and the room did get ruined, but never completely destroyed no matter how long she watched.

She found this realm most curious and wondered its reason. Perhaps not everything needed a purpose.

After gathering what she could, the Akaal then moved on. The orc cranked the telescope once more and it shifted again, the machinery of the dome turning.

What appeared in her sights was a realm not much unlike her own. It had forests, bodies of water, mountains, and possibly even small towns, though the view from the observatory wasn’t perfect.

Gazhnahk spent even longer watching over this realm. She looked for anything that might set it apart from hers.

A page of her journal was sprawled with what she could learn, but alas it seemed like an ordinary realm. Moving on, she worked the machinations of the telescope and it seemed for the last time, as she settled it on a realm and felt it stiffen more and more. It fought her until it moved no more, with a final third realm in its view. It appeared the old machine had grown exhausted from her toying, though it mattered little to her.

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As she gazed upon the third realm she realized it was by far the most interesting she had seen. She watched a new season come and then, a few minutes later, leave and be replaced by another. A cycle that took months in her realm seemed to happen multiple times an hour in this far away land.

She had lost track of time long ago, but it was likely weeks if not months that she spent watching this realm, noting every shift and observing as much as she possibly could. Her journal now filled with pages of sketches and detailed notes, she spent countless days just watching the seasons shift.

Finally so much time had passed that even this grew boring.

The Akaal decided she must go down the rabbit hole. She had to know what was out there.

She walked down the halls of the observatory once more, putting anything in her satchel she might need. Finally, once all was explored again, she returned to the room she had been calling her own. She gathered all her belongings before barricading the door.

Once she felt safe she began to form her circle of salt, painting runes in blood within it. Though she had not used the runes she had used to get here, it was not a return she was making.

The orc stepped within and began her chants, the blinding prismatic light that had brought her here forming once more and sending her off to a new place, one she had never been to before.

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Spoiler

Seasons by ABeardedArtist