Point of Documentation: Marshall, Phoenix 11
The room felt as if it had gotten noticeably colder as the butterfly was revealed. It asked Marshall a question, but it frankly took him a full three seconds to even react to the things. It didn’t help that the insect hurt his head when he looked at it, but the concept of this thing being in here and talking to him of all things was just… a lot.
His face must have betrayed the reason for the hesitation for the butterfly flapped its wings and, like a wind across his face, the numbing aura was gone. The energy instead was replaced with that cold feeling. A presence. Yet again he was reminded that this thing was not meant to be here. Something that came from the Void, or was at least heavily submerged in it before coming here.
“I see that, once again, a mortal cannot handle the presence of one such as myself. A shame. Yet another limitation of what makes you human. Inferior. Fret not, however! I am here to liberate you from that failing shell of yours. A saving Angel, if you will.” Its words came out almost distorted, as if it was speaking underwater or through a covering.
The thing flashed slightly, but not in light. It was like it caused a flash of something that mentally blinded him to the existence of it in the air in front of him. Then, as soon as it happened, it subsided. What resided there now was something that looked akin to a goblin with light blue skin. It wore a robe that made it appear as if it was a religious type, the hood being currently lowered and the pointed ears showing. But that wasn’t the most incredible part of this. No, it was the eyes. Deep pools of a cosmos that Marshall had never, and would never see floated in them like a vast ocean trillions of ages wide and even deeper than that. The presence he felt earlier seemed to almost leak from those eyes. A central star that burned brighter than them all, eclipsing the rest of the stars in this midnight monsoon of galactic proportions, turned towards Marshall. That must be the equivalent of its pupil.
“My name is Tethel, a Cleric of a Greater Being. We need not talk about the greater one, but instead about you. You, oh so interesting human, are about to die. Not in a normal way either. You’ve been affected by the nurturing wind of our dimension and are being slowly eroded away as your pitiful soul cannot possibly comprehend the majesty of the Void.”
The being was all snark, and it pissed Marshall off to hear of. Yeah, geez, thanks for pointing out he was going to die. What gave it that idea? The fact he was bound in a room, the shoddy state of it, the creeping cancer-like Scourge that was ravaging him, or maybe he just looked like shit. Marshall opened his mouth to speak, but was instantly interrupted. Again.
“I, in all my gifted grace, have been told by the higher ups to scout you lowly mortal. And scout I shall.” The goblin-like-thing stepped towards the Marshall and held out some kind of metal rod. It was no bigger than a foot in length, but seemed to almost draw in the gravity around it as it just existed in this space. Some papers on the nearby table drifted off as it was pulled towards the direction of the imp.
Marshall felt something in his chest vibrate as the rod was pointed in his direction. It felt like a beehive was active in his body and it was trying to force itself out from every single pore in his body all at once. The pain washed through him from this, but it happened so quickly that it didn’t keep him awake through the pain and he passed out once again in the chair.
At least, he would have passed out if he was able to. His consciousness dipped and his eyes slowly closed before the little bastard hit him on the head with the rod. A jolt of energy went through his body and ripped him back into full consciousness in an instant. A scream ripped from his mouth from the pain and… was quiet. As if his voice was stolen from him for that instant. No, was it that instant, or had he not had his voice the entire time this thing had been here? He hadn’t spoken after all. This thought was the only thing Marshall was anchored to to stave off the pain from once again taking his focus from him.
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Marshall turned his head to face the Goblin once again, Tethel was it? Tethel seemed to be smiling with glee as it watched Marshall. It seemed to almost watch with bated breath as Marshall struggled and suffered. When he was able to stabilize himself again and looked at the thing, it seemed to come out of whatever stupor it was in. “Oh… oh what a lovely sight. You Humans have such an interesting sense of pain and ways to combat it. But not sleeping now, ok? We need to talk about things. Especially that nice little organ growing in you now.” Tethel pointed to Marshall’s chest, then raised to his mouth. “Oh yes, and you can speak now. I’ll remove that lock on your soul.”
As if a weight had been taken off of Marshall, he leaned forwards and groaned a bit in pain. Yeah, that wasn’t getting dealt with by using some pain meds. This was a weekend-on-the-third-ring kind of pain. He managed to squeeze out some words to the goblin as he did this, though. “What… what do you want with me?”
“Ah! Yes, I like those that get right down to business! Makes thing much more smooth than ‘oh please, don’t’ and ‘but I have a family’. Those ones are the worst, I tell you. They never shut the fuck up.” Tethel stepped towards Marshall, still bound as he was in the chair, and knelt down before him and looked Marshall over. “I scout potential infected humans to see if they are worth a blessing by a supreme Void being. If they are, the Scourge, as you call it, stops eating you alive and is instead absorbed into that organ of yours. Some very interesting things happen with it and sometimes even provide direct entertainment to those above!” Tethal took his finger and pointed it towards Marshall’s chest. “I was told yours would be a bit different because you came from the Holiday’s territory, but I never expected a 2nd-grade organ from such a weak being without even being blessed.”
Tethel seemed to be in thought as Marshall was able to finally shake off the pain he had experienced before. “What are you talking about?” he managed to say through gritted teeth. “What the hell is a grade? Blessing? Greater Being? You’re saying a lot of things that don’t make much sen–”
A hand came up and gripped Marshall around the mouth and stopped his talking. Tethel looked up at him and grinned. “Oh no no, that’s far too many questions. And far too conceited to think I will answer anything you ask me. I’m here to scout, not give you knowledge… but I will humor some of that. To keep you alive and all.” Tethel released his grip on Marshall’s face and once more just squatted there.
“Grades are how the organs of enlightened beings, such as yourself, use the Void. Enlightened meaning simply non-Void beings that can now use the Void. You exude a pressure that other Enlightened can see and detect in their own ways. 2nd-grade is actually quite good for someone who just grew their organ over the last few weeks. Most people like you have a 1st- or nth-grade organ that can barely hold any Void in it or pass through it. I’ve only known a few that innately start at 2nd… but most of those were people who were already able to sense and lightly manipulate Void through what they call ‘magic’.” Tethel made a rather crude noise with his mouth akin to a raspberry. “They’d call anything they don’t understand magic it seems.”
Tethel stood up and walked around Marshall, causing Marshall to turn his head to try to follow the small, blue-skinned being. “Greater Beings are above you, so you can think of them as God-like. Angels, in all the senses. There are also Demon Greater Beings, but those are detestable things that are no more than animals compared to us, of course. A blessing by a Greater Being allows that organ to start working. After all, simple humans like you cannot possibly start something so profound alone. Ah, on that note… I have a couple more things to scan on you. Please don’t squirm too much, I need to see into that organ of yours for typing.”
The rod once more came out and Tethel moved it and caused yet another gravity anomaly to occur. As he did, Marshall felt that pain again rush through his body. It was like a swarm of bees in his skin, but something felt familiar about it. Something recognizable. Something that he knew would gnaw at him at the first chance it got. Animalistic in nature and hungry.
Marshall’s senses dulled as he started to lose consciousness again. The goblin didn’t bang him on the head again, but instead let him fade. As things started getting black around him; figures stood in the room around him. Familiar figures that reminded him of times past. A gentle hand came and caressed his chin in a soothing motion. He looked up to eyes that he never thought he’d see again, eyes so soft that you could lay in clouds looking at them.
His mind blanked and Marshall fell forward… into something far too overdue: The Past.