Ishar desperately wanted to show Mairek what he'd seen the previous night whilst in the presence of a God. He wanted to show him his meeting with Ovek and the visions Ovek had shown him. Ishar felt that words weren't fit enough to open his friend's eyes to the complexity of existence. Life was no longer about sheep and staying on his Cheke's good side. No, life was so much more and the sheer size of it tagged at Ishar's meagre sanity, threatening to break its bounds further and send him spiraling into a labyrinth of what was, what is and what could be.
Ishar could feel Ovek's handprint on his chest, dark against his sepia colored skin. The feeling of it came with an idea and he fueled the idea with a belief, a belief that through the same action of placing his hand on Mairek's chest as Ovek had placed on his, that he may be able to some degree bestow upon his friend visions that would otherwise explain what Ishar couldn't put into words. Ishar knew he couldn't very well come to his friend and say. "I met with a God last night and he's going to use me to take down the Kingdom of Binoria." words such as those would have Mairek tying him with ropes and dragging him to the village medicine man on claims of bewitchment.
As Ishar's hand lay on Mairek's chest he focused his intent on the image of Ovek, of the God who could change his complexion and eye color. Of the God his parents had called upon as they met their doom. He poured his will into the image of the deity and with a breath he called his name. "Ovek, help me show him!" Ishar felt a darkness engulf him and pull him into an endless spiral that threatened to tear the flesh from his bones.
Suddenly everything went still and he was no longer in the mud hut with Mairek. Ishar stood upon a pitch black expanse, everything around him was an even shade of black. He observed himself and found that he was dressed in an amber colored tunic that draped over the length of his entire body. He looked around him and noticed he wasn't alone. A naked emancipated figure knelt a short distance from him, the figure was so thin that Ishar could count his ribs and every protrusion of his spine. Chains adorned him, linked to the ground that was fine black sand.
Ishar walked towards the chained fragile figure, his feet making not a sound as he walked on loose grains of black sand. Upon getting closer Ishar noticed shackles locked onto the thin man's wrists and ankles, another chain was shackled to his neck and the chains all connected to the ground serving to hold their prisoner in place. Ishar circled the man and when he came to his face, Ishar gasped with recognition for it was the face of his friend Mairek.
Mairek looked like he'd aged a century and gone through three famines and a divorce. His dark skin hang loosely upon his face, his cheekbones grotesquely stood out even more than they usually did and his eyes were a lifeless shade of green. Ishar had wanted to show Mairek visions of his encounter with Ovek but instead he had gotten to see Mairek's true form. Ishar felt a pang of sadness at the sight of his friend and with it came a rage at the unfairness of it all.
"Gods Mairek!" Lamented Ishar.
"Don't call the Gods in my domain!” A booming voice said from all around Ishar and Mairek. "Really cool how you cut off the old man's hand and burnt down his place, really entertaining." Added the Voice.
"Ovek?" Ishar asked.
"In the flesh, well, in the voice, I don't wish to show myself to your friend." The God answered.
"Can Mairek hear you?"
"He hears me as the urge to fight, to fight against the injustices he has had to endure, to rage and wreck havoc on the world that has never felt like home to him. He hears me as the urge to pick up a sword and kill the man who'd stolen his love away from him. But sadly he can't listen to me for I exist as irrationality to him."
Ishar walked over to the stagnant form of his friend. He knelt before him and touched one of the chains linked to his right wrist, immediately he felt pain that didn't lack definition for it was pain he related to. It was the pain of having a parent that didn't regard him as a son, the pain of being abandoned and discarded like a moth eaten cloth. Ishar touched one of the chains linked to Mairek's feet and he felt another pain that translated to despair and an inability to act against the overwhelming tide that was his current life.
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Ishar touched the chain linked to Mairek's neck and he felt pain that Ishar surmised as heartbreak. Mairek felt like he had been ripped in half and a part of him was missing, never to be seen or held again. "Ovek, can we break the chains?"
"Only he can break the chains for it was him who formed them."
"Damn, can he hear me?" Ishar asked. Silence answered him. Ishar held up Mairek's chin until the frail man's eyes peered into his own. But Mairek's eyes were unfocused, they seemed to be beholding Ishar but not really seeing him.
"Mairek, Gods man! You're dying!" Ishar said, cursing by the Gods to draw back Ovek's presence but to no success
"I.. Ishar?" Mairek asked, his voice raspy.
"You have to break this chains Mairek, you have to try and break the chains and be free."
"I..Ishar?" Repeated Mairek in the same dry voice.
Ishar slapped Mairek hard across the face, it didn't seem to faze the chained man and a reaction from a statue was more likely. "Mairek! Look at yourself man, you won't last long like this. Gods! You need to break the chains." It was as if he was talking to a sheep for all the reaction it drew from Mairek.
Ishar let go of Mairek, got up and took a step away from his friend. He knew he had to help him somehow but he didn't know what to do or how to do it. He observed the dark expanse around him, his eyes taking in the abyss and he felt helpless and small. Nothing seemed to make sense where he was and it all felt like an endless nightmare. If only Ovek would help, if only the God would offer some advice on what to do. Only he can break the chains. Ishar recalled Ovek's words.
Ishar turned to observe his chained, naked friend. I exist as Irrationality to him. Ishar recalled more of Ovek's words. An idea sprung up in his mind and he bounced up and down on his heels as he felt the idea fill him up with an energy, a purpose so divinely brutal that its mere existence within him sickened him and excited him at the same time. "Gods Mairek! You're going to hate me for this." He whispered.
Ishar went before his friend and went down on his knees beside Mairek's ear. "Mairek, remember Jesna?" He asked. Mairek trembled a little, a faint trembling of his arms that wiggled the chains shackled to his wrists. Ishar took note of this.
"Remember when you made love to her the first time? Remember how she smelled, how her moans sounded like, the feel of her hair beneath your hands, the smile you shared with her whenever your eyes locked in intimate bliss?" As Ishar spoke the chain around Mairek's neck shone with a faint orange glow and Mairek's neck seemed to char from the shackles surrounding it.
"She was beautiful, wasn't she? What did you say her hair was like? Moonlight's glow? Pity that someone else is currently grasping that hair in his palm, thrusting his cock into her and making her scream in the mindless thrall of pleasure." Ishar continued. All of Mairek's chains rattled as his naked body shook. His lips parted and closed, trying to say something but at the same time failing to form any words.
"Yes," Ishar said. "Doesn't it anger you? Doesn't it drive you insane that someone else now holds the heart and body of the woman you once loved? And why? Just because he comes from a superior nation! Does that give him the right to take what was yours? Does that give him the right? " Ishar held a somber expression as he watched the chain around Mairek's neck glow from a faint orange to a blazing red. Burning the skin upon his friend's neck.
Mairek let out a gnarl that was part fury and part pain. Ishar increased the pitch of his voice. "What are you going to do? Sit in your pathetic hut and weep everyday as another man fucks the woman you love? Are you going to let him do it because you're incapable of standing up for yourself and fighting for what you believe is yours? Are you really incapable or are you a coward who's too afraid to act?"
The chain around his neck blazed brighter and its red glow cast upon Ishar's features. Ishar stood up and yelled into the abyss. "RAGE MAIREK! RAGE AGAINST THE PAIN! RAGE AGAINST THE DARKNESS! RAGE AGAINST IT ALL! GIVE IN TO IRRATIONALITY!"
Ishar's outburst reverberated against the abyss and the sounds seemed to echo all around them. Mairek tried to stand up but the glowing red chain around his neck pinned him to the ground, he contorted his face in rage and pain and pulled hard against the chains. Mairek's lifeless eyes were lifeless no more, the faint muscles upon his frail limbs tightened and veins formed upon the flanks of his face at his effort to break free from the chains, especially the one around his neck.
Ishar smiled at his friend and watched as Mairek strained against the chains, the chain around his neck burnt an even brighter red and Mairek let out a scream of defiance and the chain around his neck snapped midway with a deafening crack! Sending a shockwave across the expanse! The shockwave hit Ishar and he was thrown away from a screaming Mairek to beyond the dark abyss.
Ishar felt his body fragment and join repeatedly in a maddening sequence. He felt his thoughts become fluid and drip between his fingers, he struggled for any semblance of stability where he may lay his feet but he found none. He couldn't open his eyes for he could not feel them and he let out a silent scream that could not be heard for he had no mouth where it could come from. "Niada." A voice said from very close by. "We have to save Niada."
Ishar clutched at the words, willing himself to find meaning in them and an image formed of a Talisi girl holding a jar of water above her head. Ishar suddenly felt the presence of his eyes, he opened them and immediately flinched at the rays of light emanating from Mairek's window. Ishar lay on the floor and Mairek stood above him, holding out a hand. "Get up Ishar! We have to save Niada." Mairek said. Ishar smiled in reply and took his friend's hand.