Submission (#2057) Approved

Noble Rank Unlock Requirement: Advancement Act for Kier [ELN1701]

Act: A Peculiar Self [Act of Character / Advancement Act]

Word Count: 1015

Noble Rank Unlock Mini-Requirement: Depict your Elnin in the company of two or more other Elnins.
https://worldofeyre.com/submissions/view/2054

Atop that hill, the stars were gently singing. 

And under that moon, Kier lay alone in contemplation. Hours had gone by, and yet the night did not pass -- it simply grew longer, and longer, stretching towards some great infinity in the distance. The sky bled shades of purple and blue, interwoven with billions of diamonds, in a mass so great that they seemed to take into the beyond as great clouds of dust. The air was silent, and yet it could not remain still, rustling the grass and leaves to bade them dance. Kier, with eyes closed and senses inert, did not behold any of this. Even so, another world unfurled in their mind -- a quietus into which they had already been, and perhaps had always been, submerged. 

They swam in the opposite direction, away from the sky and its omnipresent allure. Down, deep, past the waters and the earth, beneath the other end of that infinity, towards a singularity so vast that the universe could have drowned within. And on that other side, reality flew free. 

An apparition of the soul overtook them, and Kier imagined a different world, a different self. A great palace under the seam of the world, rising like so many towers from the depths of creation. The jewels of a thousand trees hung upon this paradise, beckoning their joys to all that may enter. An ancient wisdom encompassing them all, tying them here for eternity. And on that highest peak, Kier was sure -- they had been there before, in some time, in some place. Alone, atop that summit -- a silhouette. The figure stood there for a time, before it began to morph out of a quadruped body, elongating into a great serpent with whiskers of fire. Its scales gleamed with prismatic light, casting brilliance onto the valley below, as if trying to replace the sun. 

The creature took flight, weaving around the complex, and Kier began to remember things -- the strangest things, such that they had surely never experienced before, and yet --

A voice echoed in their head. It spoke no words, but Kier could understand. It guided them, deeper and deeper into this strange new world. Here, time was suspended, and any instant that happened to fall into their grasp dissipated before becoming something more and more until Kier could no longer fathom its image. The night passed to day and back to night again, never ceasing in its walk. Things go on, things go on, they knew, but -- where was it going towards? Kier found themself wondering. Surely someone knows. 

The wyrm flew across a great many landscapes, across an uncountable number of continents. Within each burst forth the wellspring of life, evidence that the sky and earth loved them still. And it felt right, and it felt sad, to know that this was their fate. Never knowing, never moving, shackled to the cycle of eternity. But the hand of another offered forth a different choice, and at last Kier came to a dip in the world. An edge, a terminus -- an impossible sight of fancy. It pulled at their sides, melting the feathers and the scales, stretching their form into the silk of the id, unraveling and unraveling. Nothing awaited here but uncertainty and strife, and yet there was hope --

Plunging into its depths Kier fell, smoking with brimstone and rime, descending further until --

The void opened to swallow them whole. The sky faded to black, and their form dissolved into ash. A world of ink stretched on all sides, an abyssal chasm both bottomless and endless. A fear resided in this place, a beast that the world did not yet know. But it was coming, and it was inevitable, and the heavens would finally move again. In this place, the voice rang clear, in words that Kier could once again understand. 

"I've seen it. The miracle of conjoined truth. The Will exists here." A thousand worlds flashed before their eyes, a thousand and a hundred lifetimes passed just as quickly, faster and faster until the images combined formed a new picture. Into the darkness Kier walked and walked, until the blackness converged upon their form, shaping itself this way and that, receding into an invisible point upon their soul. And the sky fell, and the earths coalesced. Into one fate they wove, overlapping like so many dreams and hopes. The feeling of yearning, long departed from its natal cries, returned to a whole. Where one world was lacking, the other rose to meet it, and in their throes, a singularity bloomed. 

"Because of me... all will know what an 'end' is."

They stepped out of the shadows, and peered into the mirror. A new form, humanoid this time, with flowing hair and a great arching set of horns. The tail of a phoenix, floating along the air like the dress of a wraith. The feeling now, was different. Something within the void of white moved, and Kier but blinked once before the white fall away within the ray of a sun. The sky was once again encompassing, but it was no longer the sky they knew. It fell upwards, as if wishing to escape, to touch crowns with the expanse of the heavens high above. The birds too, had left, as had the beasts, and the people, and the soul. Kier blinked again. Ah, now I understand. This place doesn't need me, anymore. 

They opened their eyes. 

The night remained to greet them. The moon had not left its place, and the stars had not wavered. The sky stretched like a glass dome, enveloping the world with the love of something far greater than them all. The hill thrummed with the energy of melancholy, and still the singing of the lone breeze continued unimpeded, carrying the dew of memories into distant lands. The reverie melted away, leisurely at first, and at the edges, but eventually arriving at the core, casting away its shell until it was nothing more than a bygone morning dream. Slowly they forgot again, about that faraway place, about that faraway king.