Why?

An exploration of the fifth Postulate.

Dream by Caesura, Artwork by Grant Griffin

Caesura stepped past Absalom, through the door at the Titan's Fountain, and into the Barrow Garden. He walked through ancient shields and spiritual guards like they were tissue paper, paying little attention to the alarms that sounded as he past. He ignored the woman with the auburn hair at the base of the path, and didn't accept the trial she offered. Ghosts arrived to slow him, but he simply walked past, and their clawing hands phased through him.
At the end of the path, he saw the next step in his journey. A mechanical contraption, too advanced to be part of this fantastical world, but right at home in the plane surrounding. It was a pod of some kind, with a hatch exposed to the stars. Caesura opened it without searching first, only mildly perturbed by the necrotic magic that triggered on his interference, and then stared into the pod. It was a swirl of time and space, a portal to a demiplane attached to Golarion, but somehow outside it -- more of the Void than the places between.
He stepped inside, freefalling through existence itself, until he arrived at the end of the path.
It was a small cave, its walls carved to hold thousands of glowing spheres. Each was a different color -- the individual magic effects of those who had created them -- and swirled with the memories they contained. A pool of water made a ring around an island in the middle, which was bare save for a perfect circle in the sand. The focus for whatever enchantment kept the Grotto together.
Rufus Geldenleaf and the Centurion were standing on the island, a Body and Mind existing separately, but wrapped around the same Soul. They examined Caesura as he examined them, watching with an idle curiosity, and waiting for him to speak.
Caesura: "Why?"
The One God smirked, and shook his head.
Rufus Geldenleaf: "That doesn't work on me, I--"

Centurion: "--exist beyond the Five Postulates--"

Rufus Geldenleaf: "--but you knew that."
Caesura:"Why?"
The One God nodded, as if the question affirmed something he already knew. Something he had seen hundreds of times playing out again, every instance only of minute difference from the last. A blip in the Entwined Infinities -- an incident of no consequence, one that would pass and pass again, until Paradise replaced all.
Rufus Geldenleaf: "You're going to ask me again--"

Centurion: "--but it will not change--"

Rufus Geldenleaf: "--the answer."
Caesura:"Why?"
Rufus Geldenleaf: "The law of threes--"

Centurion: "--holds no power over me, for I was--"

Rufus Geldenleaf: "--the one who wrote it."
Caesura: "Bu--"
Rufus Geldenleaf: "--ll--"

Centurion: "--sh--"

Rufus Geldenleaf: "--it? I think not."
Caesura bristled, each half of him fighting for dominance, until a subtle balance spread over him. One eye the blues of wonder, one the essence of frost. Two minds and two souls, crammed into one body. A descendant of Amphisbaena in both blood and form.
Caesura: "I can play--"

Caesura: "--this game too. I understand--"

Caesura: "--how you think."
The One God did not need to share his disbelief. It was plain across his faces. But there was a change in his form, the way the duo held themselves. Rufus Geldenleaf spoke for the both of them, their wills combined into the One. Caesura did the same -- mirroring his prey, allowing his Souls to fall into alignment.
One God: "A new tactic, but not one that I am impressed by. What do you hope to achieve here, Caesura? You're usually bored by now."
Caesura: "I want you to tell me. Why you continue? Why you pursue Paradise, when it always leads to Pandemonium? You owe me that."
One God: "I owe you nothing. I am the very reason for your existence."
Caesura: "My point exactly. Why? Why do you do it? Why do you put us through this, over and over and over again? Why?"
Caesura pressed his power into the words, pushing his question out into the universe. But the universe was the One God, and so it was his to answer.
One God: "You're different this time... Significantly so. What did you see, Caesura? Out beyond the Outer Gates?"
Rufus took a step forward, the One God's curiosity overtaking his constraint, both sets of eyes hungry for knowledge. Caesura felt the weight of it, the pressure to respond to the Postulate. But he was different this time. He'd seen it, in the Last World, in the depths of the Basin Below. Still, the whole approach felt sloppy. The steps he'd taken to get here, and the questions he'd repeated. But it'd worked -- his guard was down...
Caesura let the pressure pass through him, along the façade of this entire venture. The questions, the lackadaisical searching. For Caesura had never come to ask a question. Not this time -- not ever again.
He was here to deliver the answer.

Caesura: "P̵̢̩̙̝̏͜ḁ̵̢̤̩͓͇̘͎͇͉͉̞͝r̷̨̨̜̫͝ͅa̴̧̹̳̠̻̞̲̼͌͆̇̇d̷̢̛̖̙͎̝̟̅̃́̽̊̍̿̏̈́͋͘ͅi̷̗̓̀̂̀̎̅̓́͗͂s̸̞̯̺̳̪̪͙͖͔̝̼̘̿̊̌̐̂̑̉͆͘ê̶̻͖͎͕͓͐̏ ̶̡̙̰̠͓̙̪͉̍̂̇į̶̢̯͎̙̪͔̓̒͜͝s̴̤̺̲͍̳̈́̔͌̓̃͌͘͜͝͝͝ ̷̣͖͕̻͑̌̌̾̈́̕ļ̵̯̋̄ǒ̷̧̪̠̩̱͗̈̒͊̀̕͘͝š̸̛̹͔͈̥̲͇͍̤̟̬͉͊̉̓̑̂̎́̕͜͝͝t̴͔̱͚͒̋́̓͊̂̾̆͝.̴͉̫̓͘"

It wasn't the speech of the Old Ones, or the tongue of the Fey. It was the language of reality, the existence that lived beyond the dream. The words that Azathoth shrilled between his bouts of madness. The words that had driven Caesura mad.
It was the truth.
Rufus tumbled back as if he'd been struck in the face by a hammer, his features crumpling into something inhuman, the Centurion reaching out to stop his fall.
One God: "Be silent! Get out!"
Caesura: "We can't."
One God: "LEAVE!"
Caesura: "You have to let us go."
The Grotto shook with the One God's tantrum, Rufus quickly devolving in form, until the Centurion became mortal again, and held a baby in his arms. A soldier of an unknown culture, red hair tumbling past his golden helmet. A woman at his side, with raven hair and butterfly kisses. A young man with that same black mane, but his father's face, trying to calm his brother down. The scream exploded, pulling at the threads that held them all together, little rifts pulling at reality.
Even knowing it was coming, Caesura wasn't ready for the counter.
A massive wave of pure denial hit him, ripping a hole in the fabric of space time. He was thrust inside it, the hole closing around him--

---

The vision cuts suddenly.
Caesura is gone...