|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 2:55 am
 Nergal had left behind his backpack and his coat at a gnarly dead tree for the last bit of his climb, figuring it would be easier to do without. His host had left behind some useful reflexes, but that was by far no substitute for actual experience in climbing mountains, which he did not have.
He was weary and exhausted, feeling sore all over, and the only thing that kept him going was the eagerness, obsession almost, to finally find out whose voice it was that had led him onto this mad hunt. After an ordeal of almost three weeks, he was so close now..
Gritting his teeth dug his numbing fingers into the rocks further above and searched for another safe foothold, not bothering to look up to check how far he had yet to go, or to look down to see how deep he'd fall if he were to lose his grip, or the fact that it was slowly starting to get dark - only focusing on his next step, and the next, and the next..
After what seemed like an eternity (or no time at all, he wasn't sure which it was..) the slope flattened abruptly to a small rocky plateau high above the world, leaving the god blinking in surprise at that there was no further up.
He had made it.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:52 pm
"Withered, waiting, darkness baited-"
The lament stopped as Nergal straightend atop the plateau. The presence was tangible, a pricking sensation along the hairs of the arms and neck. Or perhaps less so, more of an awareness, like the high pitched whistle of electronics at the edges of consciousness....a white noise. There were no wisps, no clouds or mist to indicate where the presence itself dwelt, but it was there.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 2:11 pm
For a heartbeat he was close to a panic when the lament faded into silence.
Is it gone?
But no, there it was, he noticed just a moment later, it was just.. hard to make out, unlike the ghosts and wisps and wraiths he had dealt with since his rebirth. He reached out with his right, palm up. A greeting of sorts, a tentative promise of peace. A sign that he had neither come to judge nor to recapture whomever had escaped his realm. Not this time.
"Just who are you?" the god voiced the question which troubled him most. He spoke softly, almost as if he was afraid talking aloud might scare the presence away. Maybe it would.
"What-- whom are you waiting for?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 12:23 am
The air felt heavy, gravity pooled into the area and hunched on the plateau. Then it begand to form - a mouth, disembodied with the faintest shadows of lips worn back in decay from a yellowed, bloodied maw. What should have been a mix of blood and spit dripped on occasion from the edges of the phantasm, but vanished before hitting the ground. No face, no throat, no eyes....just a mouth.
You can hear? Who....who? 'Just who are you?'
You?"
It parroted his words earnestly, like there was something very personally important. The lips about the mouth became fibrous at the edges, knittings themselves more solid, more apparent, until true and actual lips covered the teeth and the wisps of a chin, of cheeks had formed.
"I. I am. More then waiting, I am. Who speaks? Acknowledges? I have waited for so long."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 3:42 am
"I can hear you," Nergal confirmed solemnly, "I can hear all of you. Whispers of those who no longer walk the living world, carried by the wind.. But you, for some reason I cannot explain, seemed more important than the others, so I followed your voice alone."
Nergal watched quietly as the mouth formed. Another might have felt sickened by the sight, but even though he had forgotten much, he still knew the many faces of death. There were few things that would cause him revulsion, or fright. Yet, for some reason, the hair of his neck raised..
"I have borne many names, though few dared to ever speak them aloud," he replied, his voice tinged ever so slightly with regret. "'The Overseer Of Souls', the mortals used to call me, 'He Who Receives Many'." He bowed his head for a moment and sighed, his thoughts seemingly lost in a time long since past. But when he spoke again, his voice was firm. "Nergal is the name I always preferred though. I am the one who judged the dead and decided on their fate. I have finally returned."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 11:05 am
"The dead...the dead. I was not one of the dead. But you can hear me. Me. "
The image expanded its threads again to include the whole of the orbicularis oris, and tendrils of the masseter and mentalis over the shadows of bone.
"I was Endenis, servant of Funerals and Death, my sisters and I held these things sacred...I would weave the tapesties of mourning to cover the dead....My fingers are gone, great Nergal. Gone away. But I have lamented long for my sisters, for the Crown who I could no longer find, for my lost and greatest friend, Sanatruces Aris"
"The rest....I cannot remember...ask me again. Ask me anything." The tone grew panicked, spilling words quickly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 12:20 pm
"I hold these things sacred as well." Nergal said earnestly, his voice turning softer, soothing.
His mind raced to connect something, anything, to the names he had just heard, but the memories, if they still existed, eluded his frustrated attempts to grasp them. So be it, then.
A question. Any question. Too many of them burned on his tongue now, but with which one to start? "The Crown you spoke of, Endenis, did you mean our Lord, the Twin Crown?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 4:45 pm
"Twins...a duality. Being two. There were two once, yes, I remember that. There were two with the Crown in my time. Sanatruces....He was there. Then he was gone. I could not find him, " The voice wept, repeating the words thrice.
"We all looked. They fell away, Lord. Each into dust or stone, or nothing. They all fell away. Then...."
Grief like rain fell upon the plateau, leaking in to the heart with visions of a tattered creature crawling, its legs drawn dead behind it.
"I couldn't move anymore. Here I stayed. No one came, and I couldn't find anyone. I couldn't pass it....pass it on."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 2:07 am
Such grief..
Nergal drew back his outstretched hand, closing it around his left upper arm instead. A shiver ran down his spine in face of such anguish, such sadness, and he added his own to it. He knew what it was like to lose everything, to see it all fall apart.
"What is it that you wish to pass on? Your search for Sanatruces?" He spoke hesitantly, feeling that he was about to add another responsibility to the large burden which already rested on his shoulders. But he took pride in that he always finished what he started, and this had started the moment he had heard the lament among the countless other voices and decided to follow it. Besides, Endenis had served so faithfully, so with such determination.. It was something that was impossible to ignore for the former judge of the dead, something he could not turn his back to.____..and such devotion. It must be rewarded somehow, and perhaps there is something I can do.
"And who is this Sanatruces you speak of? The name.. it bears no familiarity to me, and I cannot tell if I have forgotten or if I never knew. I.." He bowed his head, hiding the shame on his face in the shadows of his ashen colored hair. "I cared little what happened beyond the borders of my realm," he admitted, his tone bitter.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 12:00 pm
"Passing...passing, going, walking, giving. I had a task. Sanatruces. I was searching. The souls of the dead once judged were given over to us. Sanatruces was lost, but never found. Never came. Never judged. But..."
Names of thousands, like blades of grass, felt like springing up on the tongues on the plateau. The bones of the cheeks had formed, and the angles of a disembodied jaw, no full skull to attach to. Pinpoints finally shone where there were no sockets.
"Yes, yes and no. A gift. We were given a gift as we set out. An enchantment of Death, Underworld, Universe and Gaia. A rod, slender but true in form, two cubits in length and fashioned of bone and starmetal. It must be hear somewhere...none ever found it....I can't..."
Then hands formed, clutched together within what may or may not have been the body of a being if there were one. Folded in on the self, like a perished spider protecting its belly at the last. There was a flash of black and ultraviolet light, and there it appeared. The Scepter, grasped tight inside the region of Endenis' trunk. Metal laced about the crest and pommel in nouveau arcs, the shaft carven bone with chapter scenes like hadrian's column. Jet and verdigris amber sparkled inset along the whole, and a perfect sphere of volcanic glass swirled with ribbons of amber crowned the piece. Endenis' bones extended finally, holding the artifact out to Nergal.
"To pass it on."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 2:49 pm
Nergal stepped closer until he stood within an arm's reach of the spectre, irresistibly drawn by the sight of the ornate scepter, the expression on his face one of hunger. Desire.
He stretched out his right, hesitating for the tiniest moment before he actually dared to touch the ancient artifact, but then his fingertips gently caressed the surface of delicately carved bone and the amber inlays. "I had my hands in creating this?" he asked, looking up at what was there of Endenis' face, his eyes filled with wonder. "Or was it perhaps my Other who..?" His voice trailed off as his gaze was drawn back to the rod, and he shook his head slowly. "To receive such a gift.. Your search must have been of utmost importance, if such a gift was granted to you. Why was.. why is it so important to find Sanatruces?"
His fingers closed tightly around the shaft. The artifact bore no familiarity to him, not consciously at least, but there was an aspect within the god, deep, deep down, which wanted it, needed it, no matter the responsibilities that came with it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 12:06 am
"The final form, final name, that was given to-" the spectral hands released the scepter wholly, leaving its great wieght to Nergal's command and care. "To..."
"I cannot...remember only a face now, a feel, a smell....the edges are gone and tattered away. Time, it will take time to remember. If there was more of me, I could remember. But the search..."
"The scepter was meant to find Sanatruces, held aloft to the light of the stars...the light would coalesce and a thin beam would point inside the globe in the direction that should be taken. so often there were conflicting signals....than the magic stopped...the home of the dead was gone and it was no longer tied to the populace of the necropoli, endings lost sacred meaning, the blood of worlds congealed and became dust....and last the starlight no longer gave it strength or direction. But now...I do not know. You stand before me now Alive...if such ties could be reforged, it could work again?"
The lips quivered, then the lower was bit into in grotesque pantomime of uncertainty.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 10:29 am
The scepter weighed heavier than he had been anticipating, so he shifted it with both hands to rest against his shoulder for now, the cool, polished surface of the globe almost touching his cheek, while he listened intently to the spectre's words.
"It may be possible," he murmured. "The Lady Gaia walks among us once again, her rebirth was not long before my own." To face her again could no longer be avoided, it seemed. He could only hope that her anguish about losing her precious 'champion' to him had lessened somewhat in the time that had passed since he left, that she could be reasoned with.
"Universe has returned as well, I heard, quite some time ago. He may have regained much of his former strength by now, yet.." He pressed his lips together, chosing rather not to mention the other things he had heard about Lucius.
Fallen into disgrace. ____Sinned."I know where to find these two. Death however.." He shook his head slowly. It seemed impossible to him that Death would have faded into oblivion forever, yet he had heard nothing.. "Perhaps just the three of us will be enough to rekindle the old magic."
He gazed at the spectre thoughtfully, his head slightly tilted to the side, the sight of it not fearsome to him, but only causing him to feel a detached sort of pity, and sadness. "You have served with such devotion, dear Endenis.. My powers are still little, but is there a boon.. a gift.. anything I could grant you as a reward?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 12:28 pm
"Take me with you, Lord. Let me find place again, myself again, in your keeping. These tatters are not worth much, but they are loyal. My power is only whispers, but it is steadfast. "
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:26 pm
Nergal considered the request - breathing an inward sigh of relief he hadn't been asked for anything impossible - and then nodded. This was a decission that had been easy to make. Endenis' dedication and loyalty touched him, and in the end it would likely be beneficial for both of them.
"Very well, you may accompany me."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
