You find a book that manages to be eerily specific to your personal interests! What a coincidence!
Turned out, that book on the stars and space was a series. What luck! Some of it felt horribly irrelevant to Keionx, but some of this was... fantastic stuff. Balls of flaming gas? Places where it looked like there was a hole but it was actually something tiny pulling everything towards it? Gravity - that there was a force that held her to the ground, and that force seemed to be involved in everything in the universe?
What wonders... wonders beyond wonders. She picked up the next one with semi-apprehensive eagerness.
Green Minuet rolled 1 12-sided dice:
10Total: 10 (1-12)
Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 11:08 pm
Degras Tysson
How long had it been?
Degras stood at the entrance to the campus grounds, bag over his shoulder and lanyard around his neck. He was completely motionless, save for the wind in his hair. Memories and fear held him in place. The uncertainty of the future, and the ever looming shadow of disaster whispered in his spongeclot. He did not belong. He had thrown away that right.
Really though, how long had it been?
A memory of a time before the Phoenix Initiative, before his nightmares gripped reality, floated on the surface of his mind. At the beginning of every twilight, as soon as the sun set, he would hurry from his hive to explore the campus. The library had always been his favourite; he could sit there for hours, reading until the first light of morning bled into the sky. Wolly had always tagged along with him, uncomprehending but happy to support him. Ephias knew his future waited somewhere within the school walls, a life of discovery, the chance to improve trollkind, and one day even unravel the secrets of the universe.
All gone.
He wondered if he thought he knew what he was doing when he first dragged Etsali into the Phoenix Initiative. At the time, all that mattered was making a difference—no, his ability to make a difference. He knew the world would go on without Ephias Sagine. In the grand scheme of things, he was no more than a blip in space time, as insignificant as a grain of sand on a shoreline. But even so, he wanted to belong to something, to feel like his existence was perhaps not so small. If he could make society a little bit better, just give it a nudge in the right direction, his life would mean something.
He thought the Phoenix Initiative was his answer, to fight back against the forces of tyranny and win change. Nothing could be more noble than fighting for a future that he might not live to see. After the initiative's exile into the swamp however, he found he himself doubting. Not in the rebellion or its mission, but in his own conviction. The sense of purpose he sacrificed so much chasing after seemed as incorporeal and unattainable as always.
There was no going back. He had thrown away everything and so much more for the chance to define himself. His own sacrifices he could reconcile with. For those he forced Etsali, Voscil, and Zindel to make though, he would never forgive himself. He locked up his heart, and lapsed into practicality, another reparation to ensure he did right by his friends, by Etsali. They had given him their everything; the least he could do was commit. For them, his future would hold nothing.
Degras released a breath he had not realised he had been holding. It left his lips as a gentle puff of steam in the chill air. He shivered automatically as a response and adjusted his jacket against the cold. He asked himself again: how long had it been? All those nights spent fighting for the initiative, cleaning up the outpost, and working for Chiara he had been living as someone else. When was the last time he had been himself? Where were the pieces that made up Ephias?
A passing troll bumped him. He staggered, grabbing at his bag to keep it from sliding off his shoulder. Asphalt crunched under his feet. The spell broke and he returned to the present. He stared ahead, past the school gates. A future waited for him there. Not the future, not his future, just a future, one that he could choose to take or not.
There would be risks. Of course there would be risks. Degras calculated the risks, but Ephias took them anyways. He glanced down towards his feet. Besides, he had already taken the first step. Wolly had always said he just needed a little push.
Shouldering his bag, Ephias went through the arches and onto the school grounds.
Green Minuet rolled 1 12-sided dice:
7Total: 7 (1-12)
Green Minuet
Greedy Trickster
Offline
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 5:08 am
Degras Tysson
Remember to do this, Green, or I'll slowly kill you.
Ephias stumbles across a picture book of clowns. He gives it a long, hard look, expression inscrutable, before stamping it into the dirt. Clowns have no business being in a place of higher learning.
