Tilly felt like he should have stumbled as he was hurled through the other side of the portal. Instead, his momentum was immediately arrested as he cleared the plane. He found himself floating in the middle of a shady grove of trees with a moss-strewn stone path leading forward. He was still in his ghostly form, so he couldn't feel the calm cool air of the forest, or smell the slightly damp grass in the dappled morning sun, but he took them in anyway.
He looked down at the thread of rainbow-like energy pulling him deeper into the woods with gentle insistence. He hoped that whatever this was, it would help him get out of the mess he had found himself in on the other side of the time/space aperture.
He looked up to check his log and realized it was gone! In fact, his whole HUD was gone and he realized they must not work outside of time. He had lost access to them the last time he had frozen in time before the Flame. He tried to pull up his character sheet with mental commands to be sure, but none responded...
Now that he had time to think about it, he really didn't like losing access to his System interface. Most of the time it seemed like he was losing a game he didn't know the rules to and the Notification Log had been the one constant equalizer in his desert of information.
'Well I'm flying blind, what else is new?' Tilly thought as he let out a long silent sigh and floated forward. Wherever he was going, he would understand even less than usual.
He moved forward at a sedate pace, finding the forest to be oddly soothing, even frozen in time as it was. Sunlight danced through gaps in the foliage above and he smiled as he continued to float forward like a segway cop in the park. The trees became more sparse and patches of grass and wildflowers became more frequent.
Then he heard it, something just on the edge of his comprehension. At first, it sounded like the tinkling of bells, and he wondered if he was imagining it. But the farther in he went down the trail the louder it got, until he was sure it was an actual sound. When juxtaposed with the almost non-stop, fight-for-your-life, environments he had been moving through his whole time in Nephesh so far, the peace of this place stood out like a strange beacon. The cynical voice in his mind insisted that there might be some sort of enchantment or glamour at work, but the feelings he was beginning to feel did not avoid his mental scrutiny. He felt totally in control of his thoughts, even as some of the ever-present, low-grade panic that lived under the surface of his mind started to drain away.
Soft light harmonies began to accompany the bells, followed by gentle rhythmic beats. He had never been the biggest music guy, but what he was hearing now moved him deeply. This wasn't just any music, its ebb and flow spoke to something much deeper than a simple melody ever could. He realized that if he was in his actual body, he might have been unable to move farther forward without being overwhelmed.
At this point, the forest had almost completely opened up and the path led up a gentle hill set at the beginning of a small valley. Now that there were no trees blocking the horizon, he could see he was at the heart of an impassable circle of mountains.
'How hard would this place be to find in his physical form?... That is if it even existed in the real world.' He laughed at himself at that last thought. What did that phrase even mean anymore?
He continued his leisurely float, not noticing as the lines that made up his incorporeal form became more defined and present. There was something in this environment that was enriching his soul. It didn't just feel good. It felt right, like some part of himself that he didn't know was missing was slowly being restored to him.
He crested the hill and let out a silent gasp. The mountains, the valley, and even the ground beneath his floating feet faded away in contrast to what was the source of this extraordinary environment. The camera lens of Tilly’s awareness rotated, throwing everything else out of focus as his whole being feasted on the epicenter of this song.
There at the center of the small valley, swaying gently in an absent breeze was a Blue Flower. Those words ‘blue’ and ‘flower’ were pale, empty things compared to the reality unfolding before Tilly. Describing what he saw as a ‘blue flower’ felt like trying to describe the ocean to a person who had lived in the desert their whole life. There was a gap there that nothing but experience could fill.
The Flower swayed in time to the music, and the longer Tilly watched, the more he was able to understand. Dancing faintly all around the Flower, were ribbons of color, slowly being woven into the very fabric of reality and fading away.
No that wasn't right, the ribbons were not fading. Tilly could almost make out the pattern they continued to form as they augmented everything aro-
“That's enough little brother.” The voice struck Tilly like a slap and he tore his eyes from the entrancing scene before him.
The voice had been firm, but kind in its interruption of Tilly’s gaze as if the speaker understood the joy Tilly had discovered, and the price he was asking Tilly to pay by pulling his attention away.
Tilly was shocked to see an orc the size of a small building smiling down at him. Next to him was a hammer that literally hurt to look at. He even felt some of his form bending and twisting toward the weapon as he gave it any attention and he quickly glanced away. The impossibly muscular warrior looked sheepish once he noticed Tilly's discomfort and nudged the hammer behind his huge form with his foot.
“Welcome to Memory’s Womb little brother.” He said smiling, his large yellowish tusks doing nothing to take away from his genuine warmth. Without thinking Tilly asked the first question that came to mind, mouthing the words, but producing no sound. "Please, can you tell me what It is?"
Even as he asked, he struggled not to turn back to the Flower and its song, starving for the answer that would ease the ache of longing that had emerged in his soul. The fact that he couldn't audibly produce words didn’t seem to faze the giant orc at all. He smiled and nodded as if he had been waiting for Tilly to ask.
“That is the anchor point for all Beauty. From it, hope, joy, and courage flow, working themselves into the great weave of the hearts of men. I believe you would be most comfortable calling it Origin’s Bloom.” He smiled guilelessly, seeming happy to have someone to talk to.
Origin again…
The music around him grew fainter and the jarring pain radiating from his second thread, the one that drew him back to time, back to reality, made itself known. Another mystery, another demand on Tilly even though he was already giving all he had. Even here he could feel the Seed of Corruption straining against him, trying to dig deeper into his body. If they had brought him here because they wanted something more from him, they were going to be sorely disappointed. He didn't have anything left to give.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Tilly felt tired. Tired of always giving. Tired of never being enough.
The Orc’s beaming smile slowly sank into a frown, somehow watching the internal war play out within the ghostly form of Tilly’s soul, “You carry too much weight little brother… Some things must be laid down if we are to realize our purpose.” He grumbled.
Yeah, well it's been a hard week. I'm doing whatever I can to prevent a genocide and even if we somehow get out, I will probably turn into a monster. Whatever else Origin wants, you can tell him, I'm not interested.
The words and the deep bitterness they represented erupted out of him, flowing from his center like pus from a wound. He was trapped, and there was no way out. Whatever Origin was, he seemed to be indifferent at best, and cruel at worst. Tilly was done being forced to do someone else's dirty work. He had given all he had, with little to no support from the Deity.
The writhing pain present in his physical body radiated through the thread and up into his psyche, like nails on a chalkboard. Notes soared around him, a ripple of melody and wind winding its way through the valley, unhindered by time and space. The song met the silence of his agony and blanketed it in peace. Tilly remembered the little girl and her sad smile of hope. One that spoke of a small courageous choice, even when faced with the possibility of terrible pain. The choice to believe that things would be ok.
Something only a child could do.
“Look again little brother, but not too long. You are here in spirit now, but the weight of this sight would sever your connection to your mortal form at its current level.” The Orc insisted, looking back wistfully at the center of the valley. Tilly found himself following the orc’s gaze before he had even consciously made the choice to do so.
There the Flower stood. It did not glow, nor did the music it produced overwhelm Tilly. In fact, it did not demand attention at all.
Nonetheless, it was absolutely captivating. The pain waiting for him at the other end of the thread to his body continued to clamor, making its dreadful promise of future suffering and unavoidable failure. But here, now, Tilly felt a small portion of the deep pain he carried like armor around his heart... melt. Maybe, just maybe, there was a purpose in all of it. Some greater drive to move forward than the fear of failure that had kept him running from one pain to another his whole life. Through that small opening, he felt a minuscule portion of the song enter his being and radiate back through his thread, somehow touching his physical body.
Tilly couldn't tell what was happening, but something was being restored, both here in his ethereal form and there in his physical body.
“Now you begin to see, little brother.” The Orc said, calling Tilly's attention back to the present.
Tilly turned back to the orc reluctantly and winced at the bright hopefulness of his smile.
"Who are you, and why do you call me little brother?"
“You are a Guardian of one of the Great Secrets, and so am I. I was called Thunder’s Descent once... You have found the Flame in life and I have guarded the Bloom in death.” He said, still smiling. The last word hit Tilly like a ton of bricks. Tilly’s attention was immediately drawn to the faint insubstantial nature of the Orc’s outline. It was barely perceptible, but Tilly realized that the Orc, Thunder’s Descent didn’t have a physical body either. Although his form was almost completely substantial despite his disembodied state.
"Why me?" Tilly mouthed, his eyes once again drawn to the second thread, the one that still pulled him to the Bloom.
“Yes, Good question! My vigil here is almost done, but we will see each other again before its end, I think. It was good to meet you, little brother. Come find us when you are ready to lay down this darkness you think you must carry.” At his words, Tilly felt the tug from his time-bound thread grow more substantial, pulling him back toward the treeline. He stubbornly resisted, attempting to anchor his form with his will.
"Lay it down? When I chose to cleanse the corruption from the Temple, I gave up that chance. Now it's only a matter of time." Tilly mouthed frowning in confusion as he fought to stay in place.
"No one can decide that but you. You cling to control and because of this, you are losing the very thing you fight so hard to keep. We are all slaves to something, our only freedom is to choose what we will serve." He urged, his eyes imploring Tilly to understand even as his tusk-filled smile remained easygoing.
The force of the pull redoubled and Tilly began to move against his will,
"Wait! I'm tired of being left in the dark! What is Origin? What is Corruption, and how am I supposed to do anything about it? " He silently screamed in frustration, furious that he was once again being yanked around without any answers.
“We may not know all the steps little brother, but that shouldn’t stop us from joining the dance!” Thunder’s Descent called after Tilly as he built up speed. Annoyingly, the orc even included a small dance with his parting words.
The peaceful forest path flew by in a blur and Tilly felt like a fish on the line by the time he was pulled through the portal. Before he could get a handle on what was happening, he was at the time-space needle hole, being yanked through. He felt like the last bit of toothpaste getting squeezed from the tube. The aperture had grown smaller, and he realized that it had been slowly closing the whole time he was in the valley. It felt like his entire form was being smushed through an opening the size of a molecule, moving at a ridiculous speed to make it in time.
Then, just before he escaped the shrinking hole, he felt something vibrating down the thread that had led him to the Flower.
One last thing little brother, you might find yourself a little changed after your visit to our valley. The Great Secrets do not need anything from you, rather, they seek to give to all. Good Providence Guardian of the Flame. May your path be straight, and your eyes full of light.
Pop.
He was back through the other side of Time, and he was immediately assaulted by buffeting waves of malevolent energy emerging from the ritual. Tilly immediately curled into a ball trying to protect as much of his essence as possible from the onslaught of foreign energy.
But… The onslaught never came. Well, that wasn’t true. The waves continued to crash against him, but he no longer felt that ghastly ripping at the edges of his form.
He looked down at his ghostly hand in wonder, noting that it was far more defined and detailed. While he still felt the energy flowing all around him, it could no longer destabilize him on a spiritual level. 'Hell yeah! +1 to the magical flower of destiny!' He exclaimed dryly. He felt around for that second thread and noted that it was gone, cut off as the aperture closed. A surprising amount of sadness accompanied the realization, and he shoved down the strong emotional response.
The Orc had said that he had to find the valley again in order to get rid of the Seed of Corruption. At least that is what Tilly thought he had said... The simple-seeming Orc had been deceptively evasive. Well, that was a problem for future Tilly. A man who managed to survive whatever shitstorm was building up at the other end of the battlefield. He needed to get back and warn the others. He shot through the air at double his previous speed, which while nice, still put him at a fast walk…
This was going to be frustrating. But while he couldn’t do anything to move faster, he could at least review his Notification Log and try and figure out what had just happened to him.