Eyes with Which We See

I don't know how long I sat, I watched as stars faded out of existence. I watched as new ones were born. With hands left idle, I could only watch and wonder as how they made our world work without us. Without me. I was unaware that my form had withered away, I was unaware that my power had diminished as Wrath stole more from me. I was unaware of anything else as I listlessly watched with my own eyes the world they were making.

Days? Weeks? Years? Eons? I did not know. I had lost all sense of time in this endless sea. Nebulas coalesce into new planets, planets forming new systems around stars I had no part in making. My voice is stolen, my voice gone. I am alone here. An echo chamber built of eternity, no time, no place, no being. We had never built this place; we always were, the constant in this world. What was this?

Is this the place? Is this where I came from? Is this what I had done? Still waters to reflect my actions to me? A question that could not be answered, for there is only me here. My thoughts echoing back in the endless skies, the universe a mirror, endlessly repeating itself. Only me, only me, only me.

As I thought the words, as I gazed out. Something had appeared, something in my still seas. Something to break the motionless place I had lived. It rippled out, waves on my mirror of forlorn reverie, a soft breeze to make my dried and mottled hair dance once more. The petals of my flower to land gracefully in the currents of this thing had made.

Eons, millennia, lifetimes measured in cycles of universes, I had not moved. Weak I had grown, the dust for bones I claimed, cracking and crumbling as I moved toward you. Falling to pieces, I saw you, only then did I know. Only then did my eyes fill with tears that fell like stars from the darkest skies. What had they done to you, my Child? Everything you had made Wrath, everything you had been able to accomplish with the world taken.

Why did you need to take them from me too? Her skin like evergreen forests, her tail gone. Her connection to the skies is broken, her grace taken by you. Ears to remain yet unable to hear my song. On phantom wind did I hear their voices, prayers to a Great Father, oh sorrow filled my soul. You stole my name as well, vile Shadow.

She was young, too young for the clouds in her mind. Ancient hands on mine to cup her face, hot with fever. Wax painted across her skin, our language, butched and botched with disuse. Magic incomplete, our words taken for granted. The moment I touched her skin, my soul burned. My eternal soul, breathed life anew. I saw it, I heard it.

For the first time in the endless sea, I heard my own voice, "You couldn't touch it? You couldn't take that from them? You could only hide it, lock it away!" Lips cracked as I smiled, happiness flooding my mind.

A second voice, one I did not know, but familiar. Her voice, her mind reaching out. One unprompted, one that came from the deepest parts, buried below personality, buried below the animal. "You're hurt, let me help you..." With her words, I felt power pour into me. Power I hadn't felt in...

My bones healed, dust reforming around them. My eyes grew wet as they healed, my hair regaining some of its color. My emaciated form grew, if only a moment, enough strength to sit up. My how far I had fallen, my how much I missed the company of my children. Tentative fingertips touching my neck, feeling the smooth scar arching across it.

She turned in her sleep to face me, pained in her expression as her dreams bled into this place. Fire and darkness, the blood of the family, the brood of skulls they called home. The dead piled deep atop our Citadel. Where I had died. She fought back, running away from me, she thought I was the monster. My eyes widened as she broke the reality around me. Shattering like millions of shards of glass.

Truly, one of my children indeed, a broken chrysalis. I wrapped my tail around her form and held her like the newborn babe she was to me. Nestling her head into my neck, she smiled in her sleep, dark clouds abating for but a moment. Her dreams shifted again, pulling me through into a new place. A circle where we sat on stumps around a pyre, our heads burning at the base.

Odd, mine's still firmly attached to my neck for now. Looking around I gasped, the lost, the forgotten, the ones I thought I'd never see again. My family, the winged Sun, the Kind Giant, the wise Queen. A quartet I'd never had dreamed to bear witness to once more. Turning I saw her again, my sweet child, gaze distant and sad. I wrapped my tail around her again and smiled. I tried to speak but no sound came through.

She shifted the scene around us, only she pulled me into her. Melding us together, I heard the symphony of her mind, as I tried to Tether myself to her. Only with burgeoning consciousness did it occur to me, that she had shattered that place I sat for so long. That fear of the Shadows returned in a great wave, I would need to hide. I only hoped she wouldn't hate me for doing so.

I only hoped that in time, we could grow together while I slowly healed through her. She shared my blood, though thousands of generations removed, she was still one of my children. My sweet child touched by shadow, when the time is right, we will speak more. Maybe I can explain, maybe I can restore you like you will restore me. Maybe you can love me like I love you.

I was so absorbed in weaving the thread through her, that I didn't notice she had wandered next to a great pyre in the grassy-filled remains of her old city. Our skulls burning hidden in the flames, a crude message for this dream. Did he always do this with those he spoke to?

"You always seem to end up where I'm not expecting" A deep sonorous voice echoed beside me, while he said it to the child, I knew he was talking to me.

She jumped and turned to look at the great warrior sitting beside us. His eyes seemed to be wafting out of his sockets in great flames. He wore a rusted suit of scaled armor that was trimmed in gold and silver in intricate patterns. He had a greatsword resting against his shoulder with the tip planted deep in the dirt. I finally recognized the warrior as the Shadow Wrath.

His divinity emanated from his body in great waves, like the inescapable power of the sea gracing itself on a shoreline, instilling a sense of pride in her soul. He turned to look at us and his gaze pinned her to the spot. He did not smile, nor show any emotion on his face as he spoke "I am happy you made it here, through the trials you have endured. The feelings of anguish and resentment. You stand by my side, here in my realm."

His armor was loud in our ears as he rose to his feet, and swung his sword back up to shoulder. He walked to the flame in the clearing and peered deeply into it for quite a while.

She noticed something at the base of the fire, something charred. He muttered something to himself, the feeling of anger, physical in the air. She realized they were skulls, of species she couldn't identify, three of them.

He turned back to her and offered his hand out. My eyes flicked back and forth from him and the fire. He said nothing, only continued to hold his hand out. Waiting for her.

I could not allow it, I would not allow it. I would not let him take a single soul from my children again. While she woke in her caves on that shore, I backhanded his away. With what little power I had left, I knew I took a risk. I knew it would surprise him more than scare him. I knew I could do nothing but remind him that his plan had failed.

"You will not have her. She is mine, Shadow Bhal."

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A vasty different perspective on Chapter 9: Dreams unending in Soft and Subtle wind. An awakening for more than just Ilgor, more than a rebirth for Vilorlith. A promise, a threat, an inevitability. Just what are the Goblins and why exactly does she call Ilgor one of her children? The Shadows cannot create, they can only change...
Chapter 9, Dreams Unending in The Great Tree: Soft and Subtle Wind