[Fire Isles] Procul Videre (Bahamut)

[Xeres Lyonythas]

Chapter 1: [Dollwoods] A Staff to Lean On (Private)​

He arrived on broken wings,
to seek a precious thing.
The woodland ceased to sing,
the moment he arrived.

A shattered creation of the Ethereal Plane,
a shadow of his former self,
the destroyer mirrored the darkest
elves of the slavers' hell.

Adorned in black armor and black silk,
he walked among the trees.
Armed with little more than his skill,
and his endless craving he

Called into the darkness, breaking
the silence that covered the woods
He cast upon himself a shroud,
of protection from the winds.

Would they forest impart their gift,
to a child of purgatory?
Or will they only answer to the power
of flames aplenty?​

____________

Shei'yein Neydremi

With the loss of Eden, and innocence cast away,
That with no middle flight set to soar,
Above the firmament, or lurking in shadows of foul play,
The broken souls and trust that was borne from war.

The branches interweaved, and pressed close upon his person,
T’was not wind to fear, but the fingers of crackling malice,
And like one pressed upon a tunnel, the pressure worsened,
Poisoned wine pressed to the lips by a rusty chalice.

“Twice-born, we shall instruct thee, and thou shall know,
Our will; for what is it of a man to simply be,
And with torrents of fire, to set the world aglow,
Without purpose; this alone, our minds agree,

We are that which has always been, and always will be,
Declare thy purpose, for with force, thy destruction guarantees."

​

---

______

Ebony visage cringed at the whispers
in his mind, causing his skin to shiver.
What sorcery did these woods seem to have,
what tricks did they have in their quivers?

Like poisonous fire, it crept and it blazed
inside of his soul like a torrential wave.
Spidery words of tormentors unseen,
were they here to destroy him or to save?

So the Twice-Born
of the Twice-Destroyed City spoke,
quoted, the bards of olde:

"Some say Telath will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted and desired,
I favor those who desire fire.
For I have perished twice,
And I was reborn by fate.
To say that destruction through ice,
would not suffice, though great."

"The Empire is rotten, a crippled soul.
A gangrenous, a cancer ignored.
I am the surgeon and with this fire,
I shall amputate and burn this perversion.
The Dream Eater's words and will alone,
I will heed with insatiable passion.
The banners of war will rise again,
and the Empire will be reborn in its ashes."​

Credits to R. Frost!​

_______

"You desire to strike, but fly on unlofted wings,
Your power to destroy is great indeed,
But the hand that guides the scalpel knows not what it brings,
The death that has grown from life; life will grow from death, or your quest you’ll concede."

The fallen one pushed on, where armies whole had sunk,
The wind chilled, even past his considerable wards,
And came to a clearing of a sturdy oak trunk,
Regrown from the roots of a tree deaded by a sword.

"That which was fallen, now once again bears fruit,
This cousin of yours, alike though you mayst not know,
Though focus your insight and discover the truth acute,
And find the path from which possibilities may yet flow."

For man and beast is guided by the winds of change, the cycles eternally churning,
And empires rise and fall, divided and united under crowns forever burning.​

__________

The Broken bristled at the chorus' spoken thorns,
yet he remained quiet all the same.
For through torment did he grow, was reborn,
and he suffered through greater pain.

Unhindered now by the voices of the wood,
the flightless creature walked on.
Therein he happened whence where he should,
the object he so sought anon.

The spidery words again announced,
that the fallen tree before him was,
an object of power, though denounced,
shared his dreams and his lust

For power begot power,
and strength begot strength.
So the Dragon of the tower
unleashed his powers hence:

Circles of the elements encircled the tree,
and the Dark One's mind sought respite.
Where his powers supreme and his soul was free,
and the world would bow down in spite.

The object revealed and his Circles in place,
Xeres began the careful deed.
Unbinding without prayer or Aslan's grace,
the Broken One called his brother to be freed!​

________

Cousin and brother, though bound by blood,
And t’was said, that blood runs thicker than water,
But commonality is nobility, and nobility is oft dragged through the mud,
And kin and common alike brought to the slaughter.

The unbinding proceeded, and the broken one delved into the world of another,
Swimming through the immaterial to time and space long past,
And something was freed, to call him brother,
And reacted with the magical rites he’d cast,

He saw the visions of a tree that’d lived, a noble spirit absorbed,
Upon life, a great villain, striving to destroy, but for what?
And on his death bed, a great king, reformed in ways foresworn,
To pull his name and serve those lost in the gut,

For the question had been asked, of the great purpose of destruction,
Which unmade all things, without adding the value of construction?​

___

 

[Xeres Lyonythas]

Xeres' eyes swam with visions of power, destruction, cities rising, falling, burning, and building walls and great wonders.

The enchanted wood seemed to be speaking to him, showing him his past, present, and future. A deep wound formed in the forefront of his mind. He saw pieces of a life that he once knew. A wife he once loved. A son he once took as his own. There were other images, flashes of fire, an earthquake in the sky, a crown, a sword, a shield, and a ...tree.

He was standing among the dark shapes and wicked, gnarled trees of the Dollwoods again. Xeres heard the question, the voice of his Brother, encased in enchanted wood. The dark elf reached out with his mind's hands even as he closed his pale gold eyes.

What is unmade, we can build anew, he whispered through their connection. Where strongholds stand, we can be lay them low.

Join me, brother, and we can forge with fire, become unwavering water, form stone thrones, and fly free like air.

Xeres poured more of his precious Vis into his altar and envisioned the four elements of his sphere, imprinting the very soul of fire, water, earth, and air into his words and thoughts. After a cleansing breath to steady himself, Xeres attempted to show his brother the power of the elements. His mind flashed toward his mastery over elementals, beings of pure essence; he imagined mountains rising and falling, subject to his will; they could silence hurricanes and conjure storms; and he event felt his heart leap when he remembered the first time he became airborne. It was an indescribable feeling, becoming weightless, soaring through the skies, laughing with tears in his eyes.

Come with me, brother. Become my right hand, my companion, my friend.

Then the Elementalist poured a small amount of mana into each cardinal positions of his Circle of Magic.

To the north, he produced a small sphere of swirling air that cackled with whispers of a storm.

The south carried a sphere of cold fire, humming with the promise of life and death.

To the west was a sphere of water, pure and encased in bright white ice.

And the east was a pillar of earth, a miniature mountain, symbolizing the summits they would climb and conquer together.

 

[Bahamut]

As the pillars were set up, and Xeres' vis was siphoned into each of them, a peculiar thing seemed to happen. the enchanted grove seemed to start becoming misty, foggy, and as the time went on that Xeres worked through the unbinding ritual, he would start hearing inaudible whispers all around him. Some came through more clearly than others, whispers of a past life, of something he once knew but didn't know about anymore, back before what seemed like an eternity. But as eternity's go, they last forever, and his former life did not last forever. The fog and the mist seemed to grow thicker, and Xeres' vision began to blur. If he continued with the ritual, the last thing he'd see before the mist blocked everything out, and his vision failed him was a shimmering white body coming out of the enchanted grove, slowly walking towards him, and then kneeling before him. As he looked towards the face of this glowing white body, he'd see the skin begin to form and an actual face appears out of the blinding light as his eyes drifted shut. The face was....

He blacked out.

....
....
....

Fluttering his eyes open if he were to look up, he would hear a barking of hounds in the distance. If he scanned his horizons, he would see that he was no longer in the Dolwoods, but somewhere entirely different, somewhere vaguely familiar. It was Arconis, and as he laid in the middle of the cobblestone street, he would see what looked like one person walking down the street to a huge mansion, one he may or may not recognize.

If he looked upon the face of the person walking down the street, it would seemingly some random man making his way there, and the summoning what looked to be four elementals, two air, and two fire. He then continued to walk towards the mansion. A feeling of de ja vu would wash over his persona as he saw this, like he had been here before. What he chose to do with the information and scene that was presented to him was up to him though...

 

[Xeres Lyonythas]

He had ...been here before.

Xeres' blood-gold eyes narrowed at the strange place. A part of him recalled the Dollwoods. But a small voice in his head told him that this was his reality now. This long-forgotten city, from an unknown past, in a different man's life.

A moment later and Xeres' own legs brought him into a light stroll. But he was heading somewhere, he thought. Then he noticed the stranger accompanied by beings of Air and Fire. An Elementalist?, Xeres mused. A brash one at that. Foolish highborn apprentices were always showing off their magic. It was one of the reasons Xeres left Arconis for the Free City.

Arconis.

The dark elf stopped abruptly and he suddenly realized that they were standing in the city. He recognized the cobblestones, the street corners, and even some of the buildings. Something else came to him, then. Xeres' footfalls came quicker now. He knew where this arrogant mage was going.

They were heading to the Blavorion Mansion. And, somehow, Xeres knew what awaited them there. Somehow, he knew that tragedy was about to befall this stranger with elementasl for companions.

 

[Bahamut]

As Xeres approached the mansion, he'd see the man had only one arm, was wearing a crimson jacket, with what looked like loose fitting black leather pants. The man, followed by his elementals opened the door to Blavorian's mansion, though before entering had heard Xeres running up on the cobblestone walkway that lead up to the mansion. Turning around, Xeres could see the man's eyes peering at him, and questioning who he was, and one of the first elementals turned towards the man and said, "Friend, do you know this man? Is he a threat?"

The young man looked down towards Xeres, and then asked, while answering the elemental's question to him, "I don't know, are you a threat like Blaze says you are?" Patiently waiting, and looking down towards the man from the upper steps of the mansion, the air elementals seemed to get restless a bit as Xeres could see the winds that made them up shuttering a bit. The one fire elemental, the one the man called 'Blaze' kept it's vision upon Xeres as did the other fire elemental whose name Xeres might not know just yet.

It was Xeres's chance to figure out what was going on, and if he was or would be able to stop the tragedy that would befall the man and his elementals...

 

[Xeres Lyonythas]

Was he in a memory? A dream?

Xeres followed the elementalist and noticed that he was missing an arm. A youth full of bluster with the scars to boot, he thought grimly. What sort of experiments or misadventure could have cost the young mage a literal arm? Curious and drawn to the strange party, the hooded dark elf followed suit.

But when the elementals turned to face him, Xeres halted abruptly. You can see me?, he almost asked incredulously. Then a flicker of his thoughts seemed to reassure him again. This was his reality. Why shouldn't they be able to see him? He was in Arconis, after all. And he was not some cowardly mystic that was hidden behind illusions or cloaked in invisibility.

It took all of Xeres' composure not to laugh when young man revealed his Elemental's name.

Blaze?

Did the boy name his other elementals Laser and Blazer?

"I am a fellow mage", replied Xeres after a small pause. He eyed the elementals warily, though. "An elementalist, like you."

Then Xeres took a step back and lifted his scarred hands. Then he attempted to manipulate the earth around him to rise into a thin pillar.

 

[Bahamut]

As the pillar of earth rose up from the ground, pieces of it building layers upon layers as it rose up, the young man, looked towards him, and then said, "I see..." The elementals, still wary of Xeres kept themselves within view of him more like an intimidation tactic, than anything else. "An elementalist so, but that does not make you not a threat..." he said his eyes remaining upon Xeres, his mind having entered a state of Clara in case he needed it for anything this "elementalist" might do. "Why is it that you are here, do you know what this place is?" he then asked Xeres, a slight smile cracking upon his face, wondering if the elf did know where they were at, and what this haunted mansion happened to be.

That feeling of deja vu ever present in Xeres mind, and thoughts of this being a memory could potentially be right, but he was still able to manipulate the elements. Was this a dream? It could be, or was it a vision, presented by the unbinding ritual of the enchanted wood that he was working to get a piece of, at least he was until he ended up here...

 

[Xeres Lyonythas]

Xeres half-expected the pillars not to manifest, if he was being honest.

If this was a dream ...then perhaps his subconscious might allow him to cast spells. Whether or not it carried the limitations of reality was a question for another time. For now, Xeres contented himself by manipulating the earth by applying pressure with his mind, compacting the dirt until it became solid, harder and harder, twisting and strengthening the Pillar into an Earth Spear.

Once it was suitable enough to use as a makeshift Imperial spear, Xeres grasped it and looked up at the youth who just asked him a question.

"I, too, seek something that was taken from me in this Mansion", he responded. The dark elf absentmindedly traced the space where the young mage's arm should have been. "Perhaps we can help one another?"

 

[Bahamut]

The young man looked at him as he traced the figure of his missing arm, not quite understanding what he was doing with the earthmade spear, but figuring that it was fine. "Then we have both lost something to this mansion, I say we both go in, and see if we can find what we lost, or at least bring the mansion down so that whatever has happened here, will never happen again..." he said, looking towards the elf, and then cracking a smile. "With me, Blaze and Ember, Aero and Aera!" he said a bit louder than his usual tone, and turned around to enter the mansion. If Xeres followed him, he'd continue receiving that feeling of Deja Vu, recognizing the interior of the mansion as they traversed through it.

Upon entering the first room, it seemed that something had been waiting for them, as if it knew they were coming. Three undead hounds were sanding there, the skin dripping off of their bones, tongues half hanging out of their mouths, but boney teeth and gums snarling, ready to pounce. "Hold them Aero, Aera! he yelled, and the two wind elementals moved forward towards two of the hounds, ready to hold the two of them in place, while Blaze and Ember went for the third in the center.

But Xeres could feel that there was something different happening this time, something wasn't right. As the elementals made their way towards the hounds that were about to pounce, the hounds tore right through their elemental shells as if emboldened by some strange force working against Xeres' efforts to save the man from the catastrophe that awaited him of his own doing...

 

[Xeres Lyonythas]

There was an ominous quake in the fabric of reality around him.

Xeres sensed that the deja vu he felt was no longer nostalgia but a warning. The undead hounds brutally tore through the elementals' shells. He had never known elemental magic to be so frail. Xeres instinctively called upon the latent air in front of himself and of the one-armed elementalist.

His manipulations were intended to compress the air so much as to Harden it. The spell was transitory at best. But Xeres' was forming a trap behind the curtain of Hard Air to slow the undead hounds' progress. With his mind's hands, Xeres called upon the earth directly beneath the three hounds. And he attempted to form Earth Spikes to skewer the creatures.

For good measure, Xeres continued to pour his energies so that the earthen spears grew and blossomed with crisscrossing branches of earth made spears to completely rip apart each hound where they stood!

Holding his magically-conjured Imperial spear at the ready in front of him, he called over to the one-armed mage. "Destroy the dogs!", Xeres shouted, desperation in his voice.

 

[Bahamut]

As Xere's spells took effect two of the hounds slammed face first into the hardened wall of air, as if they were slamming into a glass wall, though it didn't cripple and break. The one armed man was a bit shocked that the hounds had torn through the elemental shells of his elementals so easily, so didn't quite know what to do at first. The third hound having seen his compatriots slam into the wall of air started to sniff around, skin falling off of it's nose as it did. Trying to make it's way around the wall of hardened air, he managed to miss getting caught in the earth spikes like the other two hounds had been caught in. As the earth spikes broke up and through the wooden floor, rising and impaling the hounds, they began to branch out, and just as Xeres had expected, shredded the two hounds.

In the mean time, the one armed elementalist watched as the third hound figured out a way around the hardened air and was coming directly at him, teeth baring right down onto him. A flash of orange emerged from his hand, and the next thing Xeres knew the third hound was on fire, squealing, and barking, as the flames burned right down through his flayed skin. But as Xeres had previously felt another ripple within the weave of whatever he was in, seemingly caused the flames to stick to the undead dog, not killing it, and now it was a flaming skeleton of a hound. Once it righted itself upon it's feet realizing it wasn't going to die just yet, it continued to close the gap between Xeres and the young man. Xeres only had a few moments before it pounced upon him, intending to sear and rip the flesh from the young man's throat...

 

[Xeres Lyonythas]

Two of the three demon hounds were impaled and filleted where they stood, crucified upon earthen trees. Xeres frowned at the grim work even as the scent of gore and rotting flesh filled the close quarters of the abandoned manse.

Then his attention turned toward the remaining hound. The one-armed elementalist appeared to be frozen in place, still shocked by the loss of his elementals. That was a sure sign of inexperience, arrogance, or both. Either way, Xeres did not have the heart to see the young man die. In a way, he still clung to the old beliefs that gembloods were precious, to be nurtured, and protected.

The improvised Fireball was a good start. But fire did not seem to stop the last demon hound. Rather, it just gave the dog a fresh fiery coat to boot. Then the dog's flesh seemed to melt like an unholy candle until there was none but blackened bones. Swearing, Xeres' mind flashed toward the wall of Hard Air and pulled it violently apart, giving momentum and speed where there was none. In truth, Xeres was now trying to funnel all the air behind and around him into an Air Shock.

He funneled the gale winds into a cone and aimed the tip of the Wind Spear to obliterate the remaining skeletal hell hound!

 

[Bahamut]

As the hound took a leap towards the young one armed man, he stumbled backwards, and fell upon his rump. Seconds counted here, and Xeres was well experienced enough to know this. Forming the air with the experience of a master elementalist, and then siphoning it forwards as a Wind Spear the hard air hit the hound right in it's gaping open mouth, shooting through him, and pulling his boney body apart where all of the bone's connected. Fiery bones fell to the ground, entirely, the hounds form being completely dismantled, and utterly destroyed.

The young man on the ground, still had a gaping wide mouth at what just happened, and stammered, "Wha? How the heck did the destroy the elementals with such ease?" He couldn't tell, but Xeres could tell that the reality around him was shifting, almost in an effort to kill the young man, like some strange intelligence was at play here, working it's way into the fabrics of reality and altering them so the man's spells would be totally ineffective. There was something more going on here.

Just at that moment though, on the nearby stairs, they would hear footsteps coming down, somebody was approaching from the upstairs rooms. It didn't sound like the hounds, but rather one foot after the other on the creaky stairs, descending it slowly and cautiously...

 

[Xeres Lyonythas]

Without waiting for the boy's next folly, Xeres grabbed him by the cuff of his robes and pulled. Xeres was not sure if the boy would budge but he was happy to 'assist' the one-armed elementalist with a strong shove via Air Shock as needed.

They were heading toward the exit of the mansion. In Xeres' mind, they needed to get out of this accursed place.

The Adept was struggling with the red-robed mage when he felt his surroundings warp and shiver. No, he thought darkly. This nightmare is alive. Amber eyes narrowed toward the foyer stairs that spiraled into the upper floors of the manse. Something was coming. And based on his first impressions, the Blavorions did not like guests.

"Stay close to me", he warned the one-armed youth.

Sensing that his companion's spells would be just as ineffective as his elementals, Xeres took in a long breath as he cleared his mind and gathered the specters of magic around him. Who is master of this realm?, he thought. What sinister power controls this reality?

Then the answer came as swiftly as the elements beckoned his call.

Images of the Dollwoods and an oak tree with bark as dark and cold as obsidianite fluttered in his mind's eyes even as Xeres began to shape the spell that would become his Masterpiece.

After Chaos changed the means and methods by which mortals manipulated the astral, Xeres quickly adapted to the changes in his own sphere. Gone were conjurations and evocations along with his access to the Elemental Planes. Instead, he was relegated to manipulate the physical elements in the Material Plane. This tended to pose its own unique challenges but Xeres embraced it. At his core, he was an artificer and creator of amulets and magical trinkets. He took materials and found creative ways to combine and shape them into unique and wonderful creations.

In many ways, Elementalism was transformed into a sphere of sculptures. The Plane Material offered and provided them the marble from which they must carve and create wonders. In that moment, Xeres poured the entirety of his efforts and energies into Elemental Form.

A series of long, protracted Air Shocks turned into Wind Blasts, and they blended together into the arms of a miniature hurricane around Xeres. Yet he shaped the spell so that the center was caged in a rapidly-spinning sphere. This protective cocoon was intended to deflect incoming attacks and protect the caster from harm along with one or two others in close proximity. And Xeres was in the heart of the tornado, he was the eye of the storm. Then he willed the arms of the storm to lash out like the tentacles of some monstrous creature of the deep, destroying pillars and walls all around him.

"You will not harm him!", he shouted at the approaching demon. Then to the dark sentience he felt, Xeres whispered, "What do you hope to gain from this trial? What do you seek from this memory?"

 

[Bahamut]

As Xeres began to weave his spells, he'd feel the ripple of reality forming around him, but the dissipating as the spells took form. The elemental form of wind surrounded him, and pushed the young man back towards the exit, back on his rump. Still completely stunned about what all was going on around him, and confused as ever, he didn't say a word, and just watched the master elementalist bend the elements to his will. Surrounded by wind, Xeres would see the feet of what seemed to be a human shaped person, but then as he formed the wind barrier against him, and called out to him, he'd see the man finish descending the stairs. It wasn't a man at all, but an elf. And if Xeres looked via his claravision, he'd be able to see that the elf in question, had a much stronger vis count than even him, and it seemed he was an archmage of some type.

The elf smiled, and then said, "Don't worry, I'm not here to harm the young man, I was just here investigating the home as well, and I heard the ruckus, so decided to see what was downstairs..." The elf looked towards Xeres, and if Xeres studied his face for a moment, he would get that same sense of deja vu even stronger now that he had met that person in this very place in a past life. How he would approach the situation was entirely up to him, but again he'd feel a slight ripple in whatever reality he was in. Something was coming, and going to happen, he just didn't know -what- yet...

 

[Xeres Lyonythas]

Even while his entire world was consumed by the miniature hurricane with Xeres and the one-armed elementalist at its heart, the Stranger was unharmed.

Xeres' blood-gold eyes widened when the Elf smiled and casually made his way down the steps, lazily speaking to them. Even his voice seemed to carry over the cacophony and crash of the turbulence that his Masterpiece generated.

"The hounds are dead", declared the dark elf. "Who are you? What brought you to this accursed mansion?"

Then the dark foreboding swept over him again like cold fear. The threads of this reality seemed to be unraveling, slipping. Grasping the young man by the cuff of his robes, Xeres grabbed him to his feet.

"Defend yourself!", he shouted at the maimed child.

Then Xeres redirected his energies from his Elemental Form and began to pull the earth from his feet. He channeled and shaped the material to form rough hewn earthen plates to conjure Earth Armor over his form with just enough openings for his eyes and to breathe.

 

[Bahamut]

As the miniature hurricane swarmed around, Xeres would notice that it was not hitting the elf, in fact the winds seemed somewhat distorted around him as if they were flowing around the elf, and not even disturbing the garb that he was wearing or his lengthy hair. Then the house shuttered, and the elf looked upwards. The ceiling began to bend and to bow, as if reality was wavering it up and down. Xeres noticed this and went into action, pulling the earth from his feat up through the floor boards, and conjuring the earthen armor all over himself. The young man behind him had finally gotten to his feet amidst being at the center of the hurricane forced winds with Xeres, and Xeres could see that the ripple in reality was making the winds surrounding them even stronger, even as he tried to redirect the energy to the earthen armor, the winds still persisted.

He could see pieces of wood chips began to chip off of the ceiling beams even as they began to bow upwards. It was almost as if the walls were starting to bulge outwards too, the stones that held them together behind the wood slowly slipping out of place due to the external forces of the winds that Xeres's reality was increasing in strength. If this continued, the house would only be able to stand so much. The winds were so loud, and the elf tried to yell to Xeres to stop it, but all Xeres could see was the elf's mouth moving, he couldn't grasp or hear any words that might be coming from those mobile lips.

He could hear the ceiling creaking and the floorboards underneath them starting to sage and the outburst of the hurricane flowing around him. The young man followed suit, as Xeres had done, and began to channel the earthen element to create around him Earth Armor as well, so that he might be protected form whatever was coming.

 

[Xeres Lyonythas]

This reality was breaking. Xeres could see that the physical mansion, its floors, walls, windows, and ceilings were beginning to bend and bow, warping and twisting against the force of his magic ...and something else.

With one last look at the one-armed youth, Xeres wondered what his connection was to this place. He felt only sadness and pain in that brief moment as the sense of foreboding rose like panic. When he turned to the Elf, Xeres saw that wind didn't seem to affect him at all. Nor could he hear what the stranger was saying.

Gritting his teeth, Xeres channeled his powers of the Elementals into one immense effort. He reined in the miniature hurricane, transforming it into a giant dome of protection over himself, the one-armed mage, and the Elf. The spinning, swirling arms of the magical storm would form an outer layer intended to deflect and shrug away any falling debris. The interior of the dome, however, was reinforced with interlocking layers of Hard Air. If for some reason the Blavorion Mansion should unexpectedly collapse on top of him, Xeres was confident that the four layers of protection would suffice. Though Xeres was not above conjuring additional Earth Pillars to reinforce and support the walls and ceilings in crisscrossing triangles as needed.

He approached the Elf with great trepidation. For some reason, Xeres couldn't shake the feeling like he's met this stranger before.

"What is this place? Where are we?"

 

[Bahamut]

As the wind continued to swirl and bulge out the house, Xeres worked to repurpose it into a protective shield around them. The Hard Air reinforced by the Earth Pillars worked to stabilize their surrounding cocoon of a shield, and then Xeres would hear it, the weight of the house would bulge and buckle under the strain of the tears that started forming in this reality. The house came crashing down all around them. Xeres' shield held fast, holding the weight of house as it slid down around and off of the bubble til crashing next to them. But even as the house crashed down, and Xeres would expect to see daylight above them, he'd see nothing but blackness. It was as if the three of them were suddenly in a void, protected only by the wisps of hard are around them with the earthen pillars that had stabilized it.

The elven lord looked towards Xeres and said, "We are in a memory, one that you had right prior to your death on Telath..." After he answered the question, he looked towards the other elf, Xeres and then said, "You might not remember this nameless boy behind you as his name has been stricken from the memories of all that lived in Aerysia, including himself. He doesn't even know what his name is, but this memory has been hidden within the back of your mind for eras, not wanting to emerge forth from when you had arisen once again onto Telath. Nobody knows the name of this boy, other than he became reborn and reformed into you due to some otherworldly powers..."

He then continued, "But you have altered the memory, saved him when he was unable to save himself... Do you have any questions about that?" Once the question was asked, the elven lord would stand there patiently waiting, watching Xeres to see how he would react to finding out that he had once had a life prior to this one where he had died and had been reborn, though nobody knew who he was prior to this life as all information of the man had been stricken from history's record as soon as the man had died...

 

[Xeres Lyonythas]

Then the reality broke. Just like the Mansion of the Blavorions. But instead of the clear skies that he remembered outside, a space devoid of light and matter winked back at him. The ruins of the manse with its broken walls and shattered ceilings looked out into the abyss.

Xeres instinctively held his breath, almost afraid to suffocate from the darkness expanding endlessly in all directions. When he breathed again, the Elf started to speak of memories, death, rebirth, and otherworldly powers. He shook his head and his hood fell back to reveal his long strands of silver hair, obsidian skin, and accursed features. Yet a part of him believed this Stranger. How long had he lived in agony because of his unspeakable burden? The broken wings were like chains causing his shoulders to slump and his back to bend and curve. Could this be his fate? Was this the true meaning of his curse?

Suddenly, the dark elf turned toward the one-armed boy. The Nameless Mage whom he saved. He looked into those frightened eyes and sough to find meaning, some memory, to remind him of who he was. Then just as quickly, Xeres' blood-gold eyes darted back toward the Elf.

"It matters not who I was", he muttered in low tones. Then, his voice growing stronger and more defiant, he shouted, "This boy, this memory, is not who I am."

If this was a dream, a memory, then this reality must recognize him. He could interact with it. His magic destroyed the hounds, the mansion, and even allowed him to protect the one-armed mage. But the Elf. Xeres regarded the Stranger with a mixture of fear and realization.

The Elf was not part of this dream, this memory, this reality. He was a foreign entity, unaffected by his magic, his will.

"Who are you?", Xeres demanded.