Tomas

I sat in the Core Chamber, time passed me by as I diligently gazed upon the beautiful gem. Thomas had been trying to distract me from my attempt to study the gem for a good deal of time. He played the piano in the corner of the room, brought me food, and even threw random words at me on occasion. Some of those tries were deep and meaningful phrases others were just random questions about how I was feeling and asking if I was okay.

My goal wasn't some form of enlightenment or anything of that nature. I was burning the image of it into my mind. I counted the scores of cracks and scratches on the Void Diamond, pondering over each one. I found that if it was a surface scratch I could touch it and feel the same pains I'm sure Thomas did, the same emotions. Anger is the most prevailing of them. With eighty-four of the surface cracks being anger related, out of one-hundred-sixteen total scars marking the outer shell of the Black Diamond. There were twenty-one chips where love, or compassion, I'm not sure which, was the primary emotion. Notable here is that one of these lines goes deep, very very deep into the gem. It's also the most painful and was likely brought into existence the day Erifis was contracted. It had hurt Thomas alot, so much that I had fainted from touching this crack the first few times I attempted it.

I pondered it's existence for a while, before reaching the conclusion that all of the cracks and scratches visible were from his own actions, with the exception of a few of them, mostly outside of his Domain. Something the Gods added to deter the Core from attempting to influence the outside world. The Dungeon Quakes we experience in the city above a result of his actions, a scar for each one. I witnessed two of these appearing, with the accompanying quakes in the past eight days I've spent sitting here. Continuing on the list of observations I've made, up until my goal was thrown back into my face; I had counted four-hundred-ninety-seven motes of light inside the void of the core. To try to not confuse any who are reading this after my passing the Core itself is not a carved gem of any kind like the others that are described. This is a pole of black crystal, considered to be a Diamond by Thomas. It is smooth and has sharp tapering at the top and bottom. It is, at the time of writing- approximately four meters tall and one meter wide. At the center is a separate spike growing outwards horizontally, which measures one two meters long.

The unmarred surfaces are reflective like a mirror, through the scratches the internal structure can be seen. It is very beautiful and I can tell you that just looking upwards at the night sky, while a similar experience doesn't do the description justice. Swirls of stars, various colors and with different density depending on where you look in from set against the darkest black of nothingness I've ever seen. The "bottomless" pit Dungeon that was broken the year before I arrived here comes to mind. A realm so dark that the light of the Gods doesn't reach it. Thomas calls my research gazing into the abyss, and while an apt description, he does so almost mockingly. I've started to ignore it, along with his warnings that if I stare too long I might become of the abyss too. The bleed-over I get from the quote he fires off once a day makes me believe it is from his previous life.

He does tell me to eat or sleep or do something other than just stare at the core, at least once a day so I'm sure he actually is worried for my well-being. Even though I haven't slept in eight days I don't feel tired. I haven't eaten in eight days either and I'm not hungry, I haven't even had anything to drink and beyond a bit of a dry sound to my voice I feel fine. Eights days without water should kill someone. Perhaps being a Contracted Entity means I am similar to Dungeon Monsters. They don't require food, water or sleep. They can eat and they can drink, but it isn't required, some think the Core handles keeping them functional but knowing Thomas I highly doubt he does. Well it means I'll live as long as the Core does; so if you're reading this it means the Dungeon here is dead and so am I. Permanently.

I have noticed that the longer I sit here the more I feel like a weight is being removed from my shoulders, like life hasn't taken the toll it has on me. It could be my newer-younger body that feels like I did when I was a young Elf of Fifty years. The emotional trauma of my past no longer effecting me as it did once.

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A shift in the earth below me draws my attention from my writing. Thomas' avatar of the Reaper of his world floats to my right, eyes extinguished to small, barely noticeable flames. It's jaw hangs slack, unhinged on one side and the Dungeon Quakes increase in strength as the central spike of the Core grows in length. The materials it's made of extends out like a liquid, washing over the existing surface and then drying to a solid. Over and over, the process repeats itself for hours.

I go back to the book I'm writing for the end of my life and scratch out the old measurement and add the new one in once the Quakes slow down. It is a large + shape now, though the middle is still not an equal length as the vertical pillar. Thomas isn't sending anything over the connection he apparently shares with every living thing in the Dungeon, which is weird because he doesn't have control of that, or maybe isn't good at controlling it. Erifis teleports into the Core Chamber an accusatory look on her face, directed at me.

Fortunately the lapse in Thomas' presence ends before she can slap me for what she probably perceived as me doing something to the Core.

The first emotion is grogginess, like waking up after a long night of drinking. Then surprise, like stepping on a loose nail when getting out of bed, followed by worry, a fear of something you don't know about overtaking you and eating your soul, which is quickly covered up with excitement.

As Thomas speaks it isn't the same voice as what I had grown familiar with. It doesn't sound like a monster trying to speak. It's still the same Thomas, but it sounds like a person, moreover it sounds like a young human man. There is intonation to his speech now, and I can almost picture a sandy-haired blue eyed twenty year old speaking.

"Hey Tomas, Erifis... Sorry to worry you guys but I'm fine. Just did the evolution thingy... There is some new stuff I gained from it, so I need a bit of time to sort it out... think of it kinda like leveling up. Could y'all head up top and check on people please? I need to uhhh... Do some reading."

I figured out the teleporting trick Erifis uses when I had to go to the bathroom the first day. We give him our affirmations and then decide between ourselves that Erifis will start at the church and work her way down from there, and that I'll start at the Teleport arrival area and work my way from there up to the point we meetup. With a nod to eachother and a plan, we both Blink out to our own tasks.

There was no one on the teleport platform when I arrived, and with Blink down to the bottom there was no victims on the spikes either. I Blinked up the road to the first farmhouses, at the outskirts of the Island. I didn't realize that the Blinks produced a flash of light, but I get complaints from the farmers about it. They don't seem to have been harmed other than the slight blinding I caused. I continue on, walking mundanely this time, up the road and check on the others. No one I talked to seemed to even notice the Dungeon Quakes, and I'm sure Thomas knew that. I still can't see the other Reapers' that Erifis can, but as an Entity I can feel they are around. So kicked out of the Core Chamber and forced up to the land of the living I decide to go for a walk. Apparently alot of the people here has missed me, worried I had been swallowed up by the Core or perhaps left without letting them know. I feel like a juvenile being chided by his parents for not asking permission to go somewhere. I swing into the Mages' Guild, giving my greetings to the receptionist and asking if I had any mail.

It turns out, that when you neglect to check your mail for a while it kind of piles up. I carried the crate to my house, which is where Erifis met up with me. She had come to the conclusion that Thomas just wanted some alone time. Then she asked about my crate, after remarking that she didn't think I was strong enough to carry something like that. While the words sting my pride a small amount it is probably true. It weighs at least thirty kilograms, and I carried it to my home from the Mages' Guild almost three kilometers away, tucked up under my arm like a basket of bread.

I'm much stronger now that I look for the details. I was once a scholarly fellow, with a bit of gut from drinking and lack of exercise. Now I have a decently muscled body and gone is the fat from lack of motivation. My legs are more firm, so are my arms, and it's evident more now that I'm home, but my clothes don't fit anymore. I ripped the sleeve of my Green Glade tunic sticking my arm into it. My pants need to be held up physically and I don't own a belt. Oh what I'd do for a belt right now. Stuck in my personal room with a Lady waiting outside, and I don't have a way to keep my pants from falling to the floor.

I wish I had a belt so much.

Then it appeared. A black leather belt, just appeared in my hand, as if a penalty for my wish I feel tired. Like the lack of sleep finally effected me after all this time, but then I hear a drip, and look at the ground. It's blood, I touch my face and my nose is bleeding quite a lot. Things start to go dark at the edges of my vision, as I slip into unconsciousness.