Aberration

Pale violet glass covered the glade, and faint trickles of light shimmered beneath its alien surface. Frozen ripples sat in stasis, concocting puzzling patterns of spirals and curves. A reverberating echo swept out with every step I took. Then, a few moments later, the echo would return. Where trees once stood, twisted spires of crystal now grasped towards the sky. Hues of pink and purple covered them like veins. I glanced over my shoulder at the familiar Forest of Alnerin behind me. A line of verdant trees cautiously gazed over this despoiled land, land where their friends and family had once lived in peace. The woods would never be the same.

Warm wind rolled by, carrying a chemical stench. It did not blow in gusts as a natural breeze might, however. Strangely, it seemed consistent in its rhythms, almost like the sleeping breaths of some invisible giant. As the wind brushed against the coiling spires, an eerie melody filled the air. Everything here was unnatural. Uneasy feelings swelled in my chest and I wanted to leave, to return to soil and grass and trees and birds, but I could not. Not yet at least. Sporadically growing throughout the Glade of Glass are tiny little shards that resonate with exotic magical energy. The mages at the Academy pay handsomely for such objects, and I was in dire need of coin. Another night squatting in barns did not sound appealing.

Cautiously, I trekked forwards, deeper into the alien landscape. As the sunlight hit the crystals it refracted into peculiar patterns, as if the glass was cutting the light itself to shreds. I glanced down. Beneath the floor, encased in the glassy earth, were fossilised mementos of what was here before the storm. Fallen logs held in stasis, still with the moss and fungi clinging to their sides. Within a cyst-like hill, an old lumberhut survived as if it was never abandoned. It is not just inanimate objects that are buried unfortunately. An orange fox lay frozen in the glass. Its shape had contorted horrifically: its body was twice as long as it should be, its lower jaw protruded an arm's length from its muzzle, and its tail spiralled like that of a pig. I could only hope it died quickly.

Eventually, I could see what I needed - a small cluster of little green gems jutting up from the glass. Simply by nearing them I could feel their energy oscillating in the air. My skin became warm and wet as I reached towards them, as if I had plunged my hand into a hot bath. A gentle vibration tickled my nerves. I am not a professional in the Arcane, but even I doubted if my leather gloves would protect me from any harmful force emanating from the shards. With a small amount of prying, the green gems snapped loose, and I tossed them into my satchel. As I stood up and turned to leave, the realisation struck me: I was rich! Just one of these shards could purchase a small villa by Crownwater Bay, and I had six in total. In my excitement, I began to plan what I would do with all of the money. First, I would pay off my debts at the Kingmaker Casino, then I would acquire a vault with the Treasury of Adamant, then I would buy that villa. My thoughts shot in every direction, except the direction they should have been focussed.

Lost in thought, I had made myself vulnerable. The wind stopped and whispers began. I snapped my head around, desperately trying to gain sight of the speaker, but I saw nothing. None of the words were coherent but seemed as if I knew what they meant. Yet I hold no memory of their message. All of a sudden, the sky seemed impossibly high, as if the whole world was plunging down. Vertigo knocked me dizzy and I awkwardly stumbled back the way I believed I came from. Flares of light seemed to zip through the glass, like tiny fish playing in the shallows of a pond. Twisted spires began to emit a faint buzzing, invoking a piercing headache. As I bumbled forwards, the ground began to spin, sending my clumsy feet into disarray. I fell hard upon the glass. Behind me, the whispers grew louder. I glanced backwards in panic, still prone on the ground. Nothing. I shook my head, hoping to dispel the headache, and turned back to keep fleeing.

It was there.

Far too large to have approached me unnoticed, it now loomed mere steps away from me. A huge eyeball, covered with smaller eyes, glared at me with unknowable emotion. Purple veins sent streaks across its glassy mass, bulging beneath the iris, and then bursting forth as a tentacle covered with mouths of gnashing teeth. From each snapping maw, oozing tongues spilled out in their hundreds, lapping at the air with unrelenting frenzy. Its body leant on a tangled network of fleshy tree roots which writhed and squirmed to haul it closer. I could not move. Its gaze pinned me down and my legs went numb. In my mouth, I could feel my tongue suddenly swell until it burst from my lips, rendering me mute.

I awoke in the night, face-down on the glass. For a moment, I remembered nothing. Then, everything came flooding back all at once. I jolted to my feet and frantically looked around in fear. Nothing. Everything felt normal: my legs were no longer numb, my tongue sat comfortably behind my teeth once more, and there was no sight of that aberration. A sigh of relief escaped my chest as my pounding heartbeat settled. Six small green shards remained in my satchel. With great trepidation, I hurried back home.

The Academy paid me well for my find, and thanked me for delivering the shards. Next I paid off my debts to an elated manager at the Kingmaker, then I met with a representative of the bank to establish a new account. After a spectacular night in an Old City tavern, I began negotiating the purchase of a small villa by the sea from an elderly Towerborn lord. Everything was going well. I should have lived the rest of my life in mbliss. But a creeping dread remained within me. As desperately as I may try to dismiss that encounter as a dream, something deep within me knows it truly happened. My own skin feels tainted although I can neither feel or see any abnormality. I do not know what it did or what it wanted, and I suppose that is what makes it worse. I dread that, one day, I will discover the answers to my questions. I fear that I will wish I remained oblivious.