A favorable wind slid between the walls of the mountain peak. Alongside the crystalline pond, a myriad of colors sprouted from the dirt in strands that first appeared arbitrary but, upon closer inspection, coalesced into a weave of floral design. Within the pond rested a spirit that wouldn't talk, wouldn't share its power with just anyone.
The old man, who did, in fact, look young but never showed me the scrappiness of a demon, looked at me with a face of disappointment and set me on my task.
A quest appeared bright and purple overhead.
{Soul of Thyself: Given by a man who expected another.}
This was my current task: to get the pond to respond to me by whichever means necessary. That's it. No further information was dropped, and a vague quest offered no other tips other than a meaningless good luck adventurer.
Oh, and by the way, I wanted that other guy to make it this far, not you.
Gee, did that make me feel better?
Nights turned to days, and days crept into weeks. And just when I thought I had given up, I didn't.
She had said this would be the most challenging task. I muttered to myself as my eyes scanned the clear water for something missing.
Nothing caught my eye, so turning to my ears, I searched for a sound that would lead the charge—again, nothing that hadn't already been heard.
Finally, I delved into my soul. Inside my warren, I hummed with a power both gentle and strong. The outside felt far away. It was as if I was trying to contact the world through an astral plain. Yet, in the soul's warren, you are able to connect with that which doesn't reside in the physical plain.
But was this the answer?
In my astral form, I delved into the pond. Cold, it still felt cold, yet I shouldn't have felt anything.
What's going on?
Delving deeper, I dove towards the bottom, expecting to find another ancestral being like the tortoise.
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At the bottom, I found a being of ancestral organs; no, this was beyond ancestral. It was something that felt beyond time altogether.
An eye that resembled that of a beast blinked with a purple iris. Red veins coursed its surface, and an aura of death filled the water.
This thing could kill me. It would swallow my astral being, leaving me a husk on the pond's shore.
Run, hide, survive, my instincts screamed throughout my soul, echoing a death beyond anything that the physical world could ever produce.
Trembling, the water was shaken and stirred. Unease and trepidation filled the air. Then, it froze. Life ended, and nothing became everything.
Solitary, the voice boomed.
Who dares interrupt Saturn's sleep?
The voice boomed, but a hiss snuck between the words. It was faintly hidden in the corners of the syntax, but there for anyone not fearing enough to take the care to listen closely.
My name, how odd, I thought.
I can't seem to think of finding my name.
The voice retorted without remorse.
You don't even know thy name, yet you search for the fifth element? What a foolish alchemist you are.
Alchemist? Fifth element? I'm sorry, but you must have confused me with someone else.
No, I don't. For someone reaching the outermost circle, it must be for that—another fool.
Next came a booming laughter, one that felt both genuine and chaotic.
Well, that's not why I'm here. I'm here to find my soul, to find myself.
The eyes sputtered and straightened as if I had said the magic words, no, as if I had told the right ones.
So, you don't search for the eternal lapis, the stone of truth, for a fountain of youth?
His eyes now turned quizzical, no longer angered but curious.
No, I do not.
Swear on it, boy! The voice roared again.
I swear. I swear….
On what?!!
On…on…on well, on everything I've loved, on everything I am giving everything to find once again, on the reason why I'm here in the first place, face to face with an eye that could blink me out of existence.
Stumbling to continue, I breathed in and found not only my words but my courage as well.
Yet…yet, I'm still here!
I need your answers!
Please, please help me.
My last words came out in sobs. Sudden and without remorse, my emotions had taken hold of me. I was no longer in control.
To have those sharp moments that cut your life into pieces, you must also endure the dull.
I had endured so much, bottled up more, and now the sharp had replaced the dull.
His voice was placid like the pond had been before. A gentle force that sent ripples of calm throughout the surface. Where leaves cascaded and fell, only to float along undisturbed, waiting for a sudden wind to give them flight.
Everything, all of this, from what I can read from the scars of your soul, kid. It was for a return—a return to war. You have suffered only to suffer some more. Is this what you truly want? The foolish men who've spent their eternities hunting search for eternal youth, the transmutations circle, the truth of the center of the world. All you ask of me is to reveal what already lies inside yourself.
Once again.
Are you sure?
Will you risk everything without guarantees?
Deepening my resolve, allowing the tears to dry and my heart to bolster, reading my breath and cleansing my mind, I stared back into the eye of the beast.
I saw destruction prophesized within its pupil, of people burned and empires toppled. I saw a future war, a rift, a conflict beyond our current means.
I saw an expansion of hell.
Regardless of the cost, pain, and, more than likely, demise, I nodded and spoke loud and clear.
Yes, I will risk it all.
He smiled.
The giant eyeball that floated in an ethereal realm smiled.