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This post is a vision which was received in role-play by one of my characters.
This is not public knowledge outside of the members of the Absolutist Faith.
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VOW UNTO ME
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On surface water of an azure river flood,
The brother raised a gilded chalice to his lips.
Filled with a sweet aged wine, hued with deep crimson blood,
He imbibed deep, into the blackest depths he dips.
The curtain rises at the top of the hour,
A story of a king and his fall from power.
Verses of honeyed rhyme and song echo to the solemn mind of the brother, a hallowed choir of the same dissonant voice so close and familiar yet have no mouths to speak. He hears the unharmonious words, but has no ears to listen. He gazes in the hall before him, yet he has no eyes to see. The brother is a ghost, a specter, he does not exist, yet he observes unblinkingly like a captivated audience at the climax of a stage play. Colossal pillars of black stone stand like soldiers adjacent to crimson draped walls that droop half-way to the floor. Soft sunlight shines through a single fire-hued stained-glass window, the red glow beating against the back of a throne of gold with linings of black leather. Obscured from it, a king with a heavy crown sits upon the throne, bound head to toe in the same crimson fabrics seen on the walls that hide his guise. Each ribbon in one way or another binds the king to the throne, some extrude to the towering pillars, constricting around them tightly at a quarter of each’s length. The king’s head is tilted downwards to a long shadow that rests before him, upon the surface of an ankle deep pool of blood that rippled at the slightest movements, rippling the cast shadow which ends inches away from a set of heavy basalt doors at the threshold. Each slab exhibiting elegant reliefs of exorbitant grandeur and legendary deeds long past.
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Hark! The king sits upon his gems and hoarded treasure,
With fists of iron and hands of gold, a monarch’s mark.
Holding kingdom and court unequal in measure,
The crown on his brow weighs heavy, a ruler’s work.
Yet, footsteps shuffle as a courtier’s presence looms,
The black stone gates make way for the king and his tomb.
The chorus subsides, the silence after shatters as the basalt doors grind against each other, pushing inwards at snail’s pace. The piled pale dust and cobwebs, long abandoned by their hosts, shake and flutter off the elegant reliefs. The lids of the great sarcophagus halt, as from the abyss without shuffles a man of fragile build. He is deathly pale, his body emaciated, leaving nothing but sunken eyes and pored bones threatening to snap at the slightest pressure. Clenched tightly to his ribs is a tome with no title nor marks. Loose pages hinge from the spine, leaking strands of ink that trail behind and stain the scribe’s ragged robes. The king lifts his head as the scribe stops before him, the ribbons straining and stretching as he did. The scribe bends one knee in supplication, the blood wavering as he offers the spotted tome with pigment coated hands with outstretched arms, his shaggy hair trailing with his downward face. The king directs his head to the pool before his feet, commanding his courtier with utmost silence. The loyal scribe follows, placing the book before him. The ink spreads from it like tendrils within the now tainted blood it floats upon. The king goes to raise his golden hand, twitching and straining against the cloths that bind it to the arm of his throne. However, the harder he pulls, the tighter his prison grips. The scribe rises once more, one knee soaked in a marbling of ink and blood. He gives one last courtesy to the king as he wades to the gates once more, leaving the king within his silent tomb as he fades into the abyss.
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Hail to the generous crown with his golden hand,
Who gives to the loyal his treasure and good food.
His gluttonous feasts are the finest in the land,
A means to an end to keep his subjects subdued.
Yet, a vassal of great renown comes to concord,
Yet the crown is enraged by the elderly lord.
The chorus ends, another man passes the basalt doors from the abyss unhindered. His visage is wrinkled and his hair is grayed. Yet, he still stands proudly and poised, carrying himself with pride and strength. The lord wears finely woven silks and linens, hued purple and blue, by dyes of faraway nations. His luxurious cloak lined with white fur gusts behind as approaches. He stops before the throne, closer than the scribe. He bows his torso to the king, a hand upon his heart and eyes closed. The king shivers and seizures as he angrily lurches forth, a rage and hatred so fierce he could be mistaken as a starving wolf. The binds upon him disagree with his sudden outburst, dragging his body with a heavy snap backwards, slamming his spine to the throne. He struggles with all his might, twisting like a fish upon shore until he floundered no more. Yet the pressure of his bottomless wrath ebbed like a harsh storm, tunneling solely into the lord before him. The lord did not notice or care for the king’s anger, bowing his head once again in utmost respect or understanding as he pivoted quickly, the cape flowing as he left. The king sat alone again as his head lowered to the long shadow.
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Hail to the wrathful tyrant with his iron fist,
Who lashes blindly at his lesser and greater.
Despite the body’s sudden turns and violent twists,
All conquerors are bound to the one creator.
The despot, alone with his one and only friend,
Now fears that it too will forget his final end.
The chorus fades, the hall is deathly silent. The glow which shone, so bright, fades as hours passed without any more subjects. The sun sets and the moonless night rises. The shadow grows unto darkens, devouring all. The ink which spread at his feet is indistinguishable with the blood. At midnight, the fabrics which bound begin to unravel. The king raises his iron hand before his featureless face. The cloths of his forearm slump downwards, revealing nothing but air beneath. The iron hand splashes as it collapses into the darkness below, it too devoured by the shadow. The king, now free, shakily lifts himself from the throne. He stumbles, turning around to the stained-glass, the time was dark before dawn. Tripping forwards to the window, the king’s vestiges loosen with every heavy step. He stops before the panes, leaning his half remaining body against the sill. The sun rises on the horizon, a blinding light that casts out the dark. The king reaches out with a golden hand, seeing the beautiful morning, pushing the red glass outwards. Before him was more golden than any treasure. At the apex of his reach, the golden hand falls, the owner gone.
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Hail to the now divine soul without hands nor fists,
Who turned to golden light purer than any coin.
Unfettered within, his egoless self exists.
Unfettered without, brothers and sisters he joins.
The free man, alone with his one and only friend,
Unravels himself to nothingness and ascends.