The Decimated House and The Visitor

Thread 1 of Kesindir's Dreamscape repair

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Kesindir
Approved Character
Posts: 192
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2018 12:52 pm
Race: Mixed Race
Profession: Fisherman
Renown: 90
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The Decimated House and The Visitor

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Timestamp: 123rd Ashan, half break before midnight.






That moment after everything broke ....


The wind whipped at the tattered clothing that drapped across the Biqaj's frame as he stood on the dusty dirty porch. The wind here was strong. Almost like the wind one would want to catch the sails of a ship, but here it nearly knocked him on his ass. Beyond the porch there wasn't much really to speak of. The ruins of some ancient house lie in a decimated heap, some of the structure stood, almost in defiance of everything, and a window or two banged ceaselessly against wood as the wind threatened to tear them from the very structure they beat.

This was his hell. The mission they'd been called to do had failed. This was his punishment. Kesindir shook his head. After everything. They'd failed, and now when he closed his eyes he saw this. A twisted hellscape of his imagination, burned into his mind to torture him for failing. This place, and that song. The song of Emea tearing apart, of Immortals crying. Emea's Requiem. Tortured, just like the landscape. He took a step into the fallen structure, wood creaking under the pressure of his foot, and the wind just kept screaming.

He was alone here, haunted by only his thoughts as he moved further into what was once a house. Kesindir's head was bent, eyes set to the floor to keep the dust out as he walked, slow purposeful steps, his feet heavy upon the beaten floor. "This was so ..."

"Unnecessary?"

Kesindir turned, but he was alone. No one was around. Was the wind speaking to him? It was right, whatever had said that. This destruction. The deaths. Sacrifices. All of it. Just unnecessary. Greed for power. Insanity. Things Kesindir had never considered possible, or even in the realm of what should be done, had been. He shook his head again, something he'd be doing for Trials to come, and knelt down to pick up a piece of broken wood.

"What's your plan?

Kesindir turned, but again there was no one. Was the wind really talking to him? Or was this just madness brought on by the tendrils of hatred and destruction that permeated this place. "Rebuild. One piece at a time." Who was he even speaking to? If this was to be his fate here, so be it.

"Do you feel that's necessary?"

"Of course it is."

The other 'voice' laughed. It echoed and sent chills down Kesindir's spine. "Who the hell are you?" There was no response, and the laughter stopped. Madness. He lifted a length of wood and walked it out the front "door" and tossed it to the ground, a cloud of dust rising softly as the wood disturbed its resting place. "So much dust ..."

"You don't even know the half of it."

"What do you mean?"

"There were things you didn't experience. Information you didn't have. Favors earned, a lifetime experienced. So much, and yet you still failed."

"We did everything we could ..."

"If that were true, They'd have lived."

Those words cut deep. Jesine and Kielik were dead. Forced to sleep a dreamless sleep, then cut down while they were most vulnerable. This phantom voice was tormenting him. Taunting him. Beating an already broken spirit. "Then what should I do? What would you do?" There was no answer, at least for a time and the Biqaj stood there on that porch, the wind still screaming, still threatening to push him over, and waited.

Finally ....

"Find Balance."

"Why balance?"

"Everything needs Balance. Life and Death. Two sides of the same coin. One side was destroyed. That threatens the other side. You saw it. Just before you came here. That desolate landscape void of anything. That is the Balance that the world will seek, should you fail to rebuild."

"So you were there too?"

"In a way, yes. I aided in the creation of a new Immortal."

Then Kesindir heard footsteps and he turned. Clearly he was going mad and this place was tormenting him. The person walking towards him was himself though slightly different. This doppelganger had a tattoo on his face and his hair was lighter, streaks of blonde contrasting the otherwise dark hair. "Are you some phantom of my own creation? Something conjured by my mind to torment and plague me in this dreamless world?"

The marked Biqaj smiled and shook his head. "No, I am not some phantom. I am you. Just an altered you. We are the same, though our paths diverged at a key moment, we are still very much the same."

"That sounds absurd."

"Moreso than witnessing the death of Emea? Of the Mortalborn Twins? The Ascension of Alistair and the Perversion of Tio? Really, you think I am absurd?"

The other Kes had a point. He'd entered that door three Trials ago in his dream a simple fisherman and now he was beaten. A broken part of what he once was. Still the Biqaj who'd fallen asleep but with so much more experience. So many choices made. So many pieces lost. So many things willingly given.

"I am better for it. Even if the world now isn't, I am. I also have a clear path on how to proceed. It begins here."

"So what happened to you?"

"We met The One, and Vri. Ymiden, Edasha, Faldrun. Each of them. Auya Trueheart, Varlum Onarmus, Tio Silver, Hart Qy'ihadi, and Eliza Soule. We were tasked with proving to The One that Auya Trueheart deserved to die a true death. She sacrificed herself so that Hart, Wren, and Eliza could make it to the final room, to reach the Sleeping Twins. As such, she would be forever trapped and tormented in the Deadlands. Tio and myself were tasked with maintaining Balance. Arguing for, and against, Auya. The One gave us her memories. Every single one. Vividly as if we'd been right there...and there was no good in her. Not until she stepped foot through the Door, and everything changed."

"We each pleaded, fought, and cried for her. For Auya. She gave selflessly of herself again to protect us from The One. We were successful. We saved her, and for her selflessness, she was Ascended and returned. For playing my part, Pier and Pre, and Ymiden Marked me, and Vri gave me a gift."
He held up his hand and on one of his fingers was a simple ring. "It allows me to see, to witness memories of those I touch. To relive experiences. We were fighting for something so wholly unique. Entrusted to do what needed to be done. We succeeded. But you."

"You all failed. You failed for everyone. Now no one dreams. We are haunted by this place. This is your consequence. This is your ...."


"I did everything I could!" Kesindir screamed, tired of having a finger pointed at him as if all this was his doing. "I sacrificed, I died, I bled for Them! You talked. I fought. I faced fears far greater than anything I've ever witnessed. I did everything I could. Everything..."

"We all did, and yet we still failed. Now we must atone for it. We must restore balance."

"Will it be enough?"

"I certainly hope so. Otherwise, everything was for naught."

That was a prospect Kes didn't want to even consider. Assuming that everything they'd done was for nothing, and the world would die and become that desolate landscape. He shook his head again, "No. That will not be the case. We will fix it. We must. We all must." The Biqaj stepped to the other and placed a hand on his shoulder, and in that moment, everything was exchanged. What had happened to each of them was shared, exchanged, and coalesced. There were still two Kesindir's standing there, one marked, one unmarked, but the experiences were shared and they both knew exactly what the other had done.

"Why, out of everything you had to offer, why your family? Such an idiot."

word count: 1358
Kesindir: "Spoken word in Rakahi"
"Spoken word in Common"
Thought
Others: "Spoken word"


"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived....I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life." ~ Henry David Thoreau

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