A Runiversal Divergence
Lights flash, illuminating the darkness and the people moving all around me. Beats pulsate through the air. The air is humid, but my movements keep it flowing. I move with the beat, using every part of my body to move, while playing off the movements of the others. It is a moment of individual expression, but also harmony with the others sharing this space.
The music crescendos towards a climactic moment, and everybody gets even more animated, although we’d already been dancing hard. And then, as we get to the peak of the song…
I start, suddenly awake. I am sitting by a window, at one of my safe houses scattered throughout the Runiverse. That was… strange. Very strange. I rarely sleep these days, in my current form. It is so rare, in fact, that I don’t even have beds in these hideaways. And to dream… well, that is firmly in the domain of my counterpart, Wizard #5382. As a dream master, he has all the control over that realm you might expect, and a couple special abilities besides.
I consider the possibility that he might have sent me this dream. But… no - what would be the point? The dream was alien to me, but it felt so real. I suppose there are similar types of activities happening all the time at the Yellow Wizard Haven. But this didn’t remind me of that place - it was some place outside of our Realm. But whose experience was it? And why did I dream of it now?
Although it’s been quite a while since I last crossed paths with Ali, I decide that a visit is in order. I’d learned not to ignore strange occurrences such as this, even if seemingly random. It is time to return to the Obelisk.
I Travel to just in front of the Great Owl Obelisk first. Through experience, I’ve found that it pays to scope out a structure before venturing inside. It leads to fewer surprises.
The Obelisk stands as it always has, an intricately carved structure towering over the desert. It has persisted over many ages, and served many uses - a monument, a place of information, learning and meditation, a site of untold dark sacraments. Today, it is seemingly abandoned, an ancient relic of Wizards. But not all is as it seems.
I Travel once more, to a small chamber with no windows or doors within the depths of the Obelisk. There, as expected, is my counterpart - Sorcerer Ali of the Obelisk. He sits in his customary meditation pose, his form flickering, as if he’s not totally there.
“Back again, I see,” Ali says. He stays motionless as he speaks. The thoughts come into my mind directly - a perk of communicating with your other half, I suppose.
“I had a troubling dream.” I mindspeak back, emphasizing the last word. Ali will know the significance.
But instead of showing any signs of concern, Ali merely sighs. “Let me guess, you were experiencing someone else’s memory? In a location not of this plane?”
“How did you know that? Have you been spying?”
Ali sighs again. “Maybe other Dream Masters invade the dreams of others, but those are beneath my interest.” He finally moves, turning his hooded head towards me. Just like me, inside the hood is…darkness. A formless void, save for two luminous blue orbs that pass for his eyes. They lock onto my own two yellow ones.
“I’ll tell you again just like I told you all the previous times you came in here, times you no longer remember. Those aren’t dreams; they’re memories, OUR memories. Of times when we used to be one, in a different world.” He waited expectantly.
Unwillingly, more memories start to come back to me. Memories that Ali wishes to remember, and I wish to forget. After all, that’s what Ali is doing here - remembering. He lives in the past, quite literally.
“I see,” I say finally. “I’m sorry to trouble you, but I’ll need your help again.”
Ali nods. He’s been expecting this. “Just a moment, and I’ll take care of it. Then you can run off and… do whatever it is you do out there. And I can go back to what I was doing before you barged in here.”
He extends a hand, and a shimmering aqua-colored energy extends from it and envelops my head. I close my eyes, and within moments the memories fade…
To be continued...
Entered by: 0x9Baf…9a49 and preserved on chain (see transaction)
A Cosmic Convergence
I slowly open my eyes and take in the arid landscape around me. I am outside the Great Owl Obelisk. A gust of wind blows sand in the air; the particles flow through me, and I do not feel them.
He and I are still alike in many ways, despite our differences, I think. We are part of the Runiverse now, and yet, not able to fully partake in the same way as many of the others who have answered the Runes’ call…
In any case, I no longer remember why I came here. I know Ali is in the bowels of the Obelisk, doing his best to pretend we never made the journey to this place. But I have no desire to talk to him now; there is nothing more to be said.
At that moment, a flash of color seen in my peripheral vision attracts my attention. Squinting a little against the rising sun, I glimpse an otherworldly vision: a shimmering, multi-colored form gliding past the top of the Obelisk. It’s a bird, but unlike any I’ve seen before. Maybe some kind of marsh bird, but possessing none of the colors of the marsh. Instead, it has a vivid reddish-fuchsia front, fading slightly towards violet towards the back. Its beak is bright teal, and its wings form a panoply of colors, ranging from teal to deep blue to violet.
It lands just in front of me, looking directly at me. I perceive intelligence in that gaze.
“Greetings,” I say.
Well met, traveler, it replies. After a few seconds, I realize that these words weren’t audible, but arrived fully formed in my mind. Despite this, the bird has a discernible voice - feminine, tranquil, and timeless.
I hide my surprise - easier for me than most, given that I don’t have facial expressions. “I suspect that you are also far from home,” I say. “This doesn’t look like your sort of habitat.” I’m not sure how I know this, but I feel confident in saying it.
You are correct, I’m far from my homeland - further than you might suspect, the bird replies. But I’m right where I need to be at the moment. She tilts her head. You ARE Druid Faiz of Arcadia, are you not?
“Who wants to know?”
You can call me Ruby. That’s short for Ruby-Fronted, Time-Traveling Bittern.
“Hmm…” I consider the creature before me. I do not like the fact that she knows my name and anticipated my location, while I know next to nothing about her. My internal alarms are blaring - my past involvement in the affairs of the Runiverse means that there are those who want to do me harm.
There is only one wise course of action at this moment. Flee now, and consider it more deeply in one of my safe houses.
The Obelisk, the Sands beyond, and the unlikely avian entity before me all fade away as I teleport...
Ruby sighed as Druid Faiz faded into nothingness. If he could only observe his own patterns, he’d know that his appearance at this time and place was entirely predictable to seasoned observers, she thought. I guess I should have predicted that the memory loss would disorient him and make him likely to run at anything unexpected.
She emitted a few calls in frustration - they sounded like barking croaks. Well, I’ve come so far already, I won’t let a few more hurdles defeat me. She spread her variegated wings and promptly lifted off, flying north in a series of rapid wingbeats.
To be continued…
(By Kel 1/1)
Entered by: 0x9Baf…9a49 and preserved on chain (see transaction)
