Esterson Session 12, Masquerade

Once again, you dream as curtains draw back. This time the familiar being of Woe stands as a conductor for a choir and orchestra. On the stage are puppets of blindfolded guardians, a runaway, a noble, and a demon. They bow before it all starts, heading to their starting positions.

It begins with one of the guardians, a hopeful and cheery man who loves his fellow guards and family. From above, the noble hides a bloodied knife behind his back, directing the blindfolded guards to the runaway after stabbing them in the eye. They then follow in pursuit.

The runaway was prepared, a trap deployed. In the great mist, so many perished except our lone guard. He puts his hands to his face, for the wood had melted off. In grief and agony, he looks around at the fallen, outraged of their fate and of his own, a fate, he believed, worse than death.

When returning to town, no one recognized him. He was outcasted and shunned as a hideous monster. The people he happily protected now scorn him. In his despair, the demon descends downward, providing a mask for his quest of revenge. The guard looks at it, holding it up in the air.

He puts it on, a renewed sense of fire in his spirt. With this dark blessing, he holds a torch in search of the runaway through the town. Fires erupt everywhere. Smoke pours through the streets. All in the attempt to smoke out the runaway. Nothing could be found. The guard then turns to face other settlements. If it meant they had to burn too in his quest for revenge, then so be it…

Stepping up to the doors and past the guards, you can hear the music already. Though, when the doors for the keep open, you see two strangely dressed figures standing before you. The two of them looking like twins though one a man and the other a woman.

The man holds up a small deck of cards then expands them out in his hands.

“Pick a card,” the woman says.

“Any card,” the man adds in.

A king of spades.

The two of them look at the card, then to each other. The woman pipes up, “I think it’s working as intended.”

“Well I think it shouldn’t.” The man then takes the cards into his coat pocket, taking a small flip pad notebook. With a pencil in the other hand, he makes a quick mark. When he flips the pad around, you can see there are two tally labels for “King of Spades” and “Anything Else.” The King of Spades is completely full. The man then flips the book closed, tucking it back into his coat.

The woman rolls her eyes, “There’s always next time, Edwin.”

The man sighs, “Maybe it won’t be here.”

The woman then leads the way through the hall, “Instead it will have to be there.”

"But I saw him!" Emoru tearfully pleads.

Two familiar voices pop up from behind, "It could be reality," Ellen pipes up.

"Or he's truly met his finality," Edwin retorts.

"That is the question isn't?"

"Was he a figment of the mind or is he still with us?"

Ellen then holds up a playing card, putting the face to her twin, "If only I knew what card I held."

"If only I told you it was the King of Spades."

"I'm sure you didn't like the answer, Edwin."

"Only because I hate the deck it came from."

"Oh come now. We'll find you a new deck eventually. One with more spontaneity."

The lights dim within the vast room except for the ones by the stairs. Standing there is a macabre yet stout figure in a thick cloak and mask. His eyes dart and glare at all he can see. Many gasp at the sight of him.

"A party are we having? I used to party much like this, though far less extravagantly," he begins to pace around the room, striding about the open space as people back off from his aimless pacing. "Such fun times together are we having? Silris would adore all of this wouldn't she? All of us wearing masks this evening especially. How poetic of you all, hiding away your true selves. For I have seen what you all really are like. Out here, you are generous and gracious until the mask slips. Oh, my Reverie rivals, how hypocritical you Silris types are especially. You all praise and adore beauty but fate forbid a hideous monstrosity approach. How fearful all of you become to chase it off thinking of it as hellspawn."

His lips sneer, "I could hurl my insults all day if I wanted but I offer you purity-obsessed Revered a chance to prove me wrong for once. A crime left unpunished, justice not even sought out. A crime on your very soil that left good Civil Guardsmen dead within Kalgarim. This runaway is still running and could very well poison not just the stout homeland but of your Kingdom if he is not found. Know that my scourge over Kalgrim shall only find its conclusion when I get my revenge.