2022-02-17 Moonlit Travels - Gerhard
Feb 21, 2022 22:30:01 GMT
Jaezred Vandree, Celina Zabinski, and 4 more like this
Post by Gerhard on Feb 21, 2022 22:30:01 GMT
For the rest of his life, until his last breath, Gerhard would remember the moon, and the sight of Toril spinning above him.
---
I step through the portal, Kavel, Derthaad, Marto, and Beets following behind me. I detest portals, though this was not always the case. Stepping through to The Witching Court, though, I forget my displeasure as it is replaced wholly with wonder.
We have come out in a clearing, surrounded by mist filled forest, a mountain at our back. The moon, a giant orb of light, floats above us, as though it is just out of reach. No matter where we turn, it follows, lighting our surroundings as we take everything in.
"Any of this look familiar, Beets?" I ask. I have not known her long, and I regret that my first impression was not very becoming. Since that meeting, though, she seems to have been through a lot. She hovers near Marto, looking about at the forest.
She knows a little about the Court: it's one of the major ones, of Hags and Witches, ruled by Queen Nicnevin, the Queen of Copper and Crystal. Marto chimes in, too: as Fey Ascendant she rules all of the Feywild. The mountain palace that they found themselves outside of was her home, and that of many of the major figures of the court.
There is only one major figure I want to see, though. Sarin Alleannder, who I met just months ago, once invited me to The Witching Court. Hopefully he can help me as he helped Sorrel. Though... I fear my curse is of a different sort entirely.
---
Margotin, our drow emissary, leaves us in a waiting room as he fetches Sarin from further in the mountain. Kavel and Beets pass the time with a feat of strength, but I am distracted. What do I ask Sarin? This was a mistake, I should have called ahead, I should have even asked if this was something he could help with, I should have...
Sarin enters with the same dancer's grace he displayed before, a bit more at home here with copper and crystal than he was in Daring Heights. The others watch intently as he comes in and takes a seat amongst us.
"So," he says, "how can I help you all?"
---
It was dawn of the Winter Solstice, many years ago, when I awoke to the sound of ripping fabric. As I cast around for the source of the noise, I notice Henri standing in the center of the ruin, staring straight ahead.
He is staring at a tiny hole in space, hovering just inches above the stone circle we were excavating just the day before. Light from the dawn sun poured in, focused on the circle by the lenses we so painstakingly restored to their former positions.
Awed, and a bit scared, I approach, placing a hand on Henri's shoulder as the light begins to spread, the runes beneath our feet and on the pillars around us beginning to glow. Rips and tears continue to fill the air as the circle widens, and widens, until it is large enough for either of us to step through. Through it, though, not much can be seen.
Henri grabs his satchel, slinging it over his shoulder, and steps through, out of sight.
---
"I see..." Sarin has moved closer to me, his hand on mind, as I finish telling my story. I've taken out the sketch I took of Henri on that day, that I showed him before: he is kneeling, a look on his face that I could not read then and never did capture quite right. The others are listening, too, and I realize that it is the most I have shared with others in a long time.
Sarin straightens, his poncho hiding very little of his sculpted physique. His gentle red eyes find mine, and he smiles. There is in fact a ruin nearby, he tells me. An ancient place, they do not go there much any longer; but as he recalls, it has many of the same runes that I describe.
"However, I cannot go with you. Tonight is The Night of Darkness, and I must prepare." I look to my friends, and see the same confusion on their face as I am sure is plain on mine. Sarin notices, and smiles. "I am sure that you noticed our moon? Tonight is one of the few opportunities to see it eclipsed, a rare treat. The entire court will be plunged into darkness."
---
It takes many hours to reach the ruin that Sarin described to us. Surrounded by mist on all sides, we each in turn get the feeling that if we were to step off the path, we may be lost forever.
I shudder at the thought. The Witching Court feels infinite: the forest and its mist stretches forever, until it suddenly ends and we are in an infinite plain. We walk, and walk, and soon come to another forest, this one also framed with a mountain rising out of the mist.
The path, now less defined, is traveled instead through instinct, and a bit of rock throwing. It is Derthaad that finds the first stone, a lump of granite weathered by time and wind.
The faint outline of letters piques our curiosity, but it is only once Kavel lifts it back up into place that we see it as it truly is. I rush to pull an old etching from my bag, holding it in the light of our crystal torches. I share a glance at Marto, the two of us comparing the two. It is a perfect match.
As Derthaad begins to cast a spell in order to decipher the ruins, my heart swells in my chest. Finally, after all of these years... but it is only moments until he reports back that not even he can understand the text.
My heart drops as I turn away. A rock, and some indecipherable scratchings. Nothing more than a beast clawing away the dirt to make itself a home, I think. Another dead end in the list of dead ends. I hang my head, eyes downcast, the mist at my feet swirling.
Swirling, and thinning, and pushing me further into the forest. I lift my head, and I follow its trail as it reveals to me what I had been looking for all along. Nine stones, sticking from the soil and covered in ruins, sit ahead of us. Two of them, off to the side, have a slight bend; an old archway, betrayed by time just as we all are.
It is Derthaad that shouts a warning to the group, as I stand enraptured by the sight. The eclipse is beginning he tells us, and as I tear my eyes away I can see that a quarter of the moon has now disappeared.
I return my gaze to the stone circle ahead of me, but my eyes take time to adjust.
It is brighter now, somehow.
The glow of our torches bends, streaming to the stone circle.
The runes begin to glow.
The world begins to rip.
And I run, faster than I have ever run before.
---
As the sun made its way across the sky the day of the Winter Solstice all those years ago, I waited for Henri to return. I busied myself with recording the different phenomena around me: the glow of the runes, the constant focal point of the light no matter where the sun moved. Every so often, I would steal a peek at the portal.
Where it was once completely opaque, now it is a window to another world. The view through is not clear, but I am able to sketch the few things I can see: a forest, and a clearing, and a pillar or two that look similar to the ones around me.
As dusk approaches, though, I get anxious. As the light dies, so does the portal, shrinking in size with each passing moment. Soon it is too small to go in after him even if I wanted too, and still there is no sign.
The sun is touching the tops of the trees when I hear a shout. Henri, on the other side of the rift, is breathless. Exhilaration is clear on his face.
I shout for him to come through - the rift is small, yes, but I can pull him through. I must pull him through.
I hold out my hand.
---
I'm on my knees. Behind me I can hear the others shouting, but I do not hear them. The only sound is the blood rushing through my ears; the only sight is my home above me.
Marto is the first to reach me. Kavel and Derthaad follow with a rope, securing our way out. I do not know where we are, but as the others come through I begin to find my bearings.
We are surrounded on three sides by empty space - a flat gray plateau stretches out. Pillars, carved with runes, surround us on all sides. There is a shimmer between them, keeping the air within. Above us is what we can only describe as... Toril? Behind us, though, is another mountain, a large wooden door cut into the side of it.
Derthaad is the bravest of us, and he goes to knock. There's a moment where I think us alone, but...
thud
thud
thud
The door opens, slowly, and a large red hand curls its fingers around the frame. Pushing it open is a massive pit fiend, and I see my friends brace themselves.
The devil looks down at us, and cracks a gigantic smile.
"Welcome travelers... to the moon!"
---
His name is Copernicus and he is here with another, Lamel, a water genasi. The two of them invite us inside, and as we walk inside the mountain, I am struck by the contrast to the mountain palace of The Witching Court. Where the tunnels there seemed hewn from the rock, these feel as though the tunnels had stood for time immemorial, the mountain growing around them. The walls are smooth and straight, meeting the floor at a perfect right angle.
Lamel offers tea, and biscuits, and we sit. Marto decides to wait outside, Kavel running him news and nourishment while we speak.
I have millions of questions. Lamel, sensing my indecisiveness, sets her tea down.
"You have just traveled along The Infinite Staircase! It goes... everywhere. Anywhere in the multiverse, worlds known and not."
"Travelers have walked its steps since the dawn of time, and each place they landed, they built outposts such as this one to revere the staircase and its beauty."
"What do you mean, The Infinite Staircase? We just stepped through... a portal? Right?"
Copernicus smiles, his reinforced chair creaking underneath his weight. "Tell me: before you stepped through, did you notice anything about the portal? About where it was headed?"
I shake my head. Looking around at the others, they tell me that just before I stepped through, they saw what looked like carved marble steps, stretching deeper and deeper into the void of the portal.
"So.. if this staircase is infinite, that means that there are infinite places to search?" I ask. "Not infinite, no. Countless, though, oh yes" Lamel replies. "But whatever do you search for?"
I rummage through my coat for the portrait of Henri, worn from years of this same action. I tell them of how I lost him, and how it was in a place just like this one. Lamel and Copernicus sit, and listen, passing the portrait between them. Lamel looks deep in thought.
"I may have seen him before, yes."
My heart swells, and my voice catches as I ask: "You have? Are you sure? Where was it? How do I get there?"
She smiles, "It was The Beastlands, I think, a number of years ago. But, it was an outpost, all the same. An outpost of The Staircase".
"How do I walk it, then?"
Lamel smiles again, glancing at Copernicus. She reaches behind her chair and pulls out an ornate silver staff, decorated from top to bottom with swirls of silver. Copernicus pulls out a small dagger, the same swirls present on his.
"These items, these Calls, let us find doorways to The Staircase wherever we may be."
I look at them, and their Calls, and pull my sleeve up to reveal a thin band of silver. Normally a straight line across my forearm, it is now wavy, singing with a frequency that I cannot hear.
"Is this similar?"
---
Magic is wonderful, and cruel, and Henri’s outstretched hand cannot pass through the rift. Not sound nor solid would pass back through the rift to me, try as Henri might to return. Pushing turned to pounding on the barrier as it shrunk rapidly with the dip of the sun beneath the horizon.
With only a small disc separating the two friends, the horror of their situation begins to settle in. Henri sits on the other side, tears filling his eyes as he extends a single hand, pressing it against the portal. I stumble forward, to meet his touch.
My hand passes through, and I stumble, but Henri catches me.
The sun disappears.
And the portal closes.
---
Copernicus unfurls a wing, and Lamel lifts her skirt ever so slightly. He has a similar band of light on the tip of one wing, and she has one on her knee.
"You have been chosen by The Staircase!" they exclaim. "You are destined to walk the stairs!"
"Wait. What do you mean?". The two of them are excited now, Copernicus leaping from his chair to congratulate me.
"The Staircase! You will be able to experience its majesty like no other."
I shrink a bit under their gaze, sharing a glance with the others. Marto speaks in my mind, then, reminding me that I only have a couple of minutes left.
"If I need a Call in order to walk the stairs, how do I get one?"
Lamel smiles and walks over to a small shelf, where she picks up a small jar. It looks like quicksilver as she pours it into my outstretched hands.
"The Call will take on the form best suited to its owner. After that, all you must do is listen."
The silver swirls, circling my hands. It feels strangely familiar, as it hums and vibrates, the air vibrating with magic that we cannot hear. It begins to form into a beautiful bow, the silver of which, now set, matches the pattern on the Calls that Lamel and Copernicus carry.
Marto is in my head again, telling me that we need to go, now. I turn to Copernicus and Lamel, lost for words. They simply smile back.
"Fret not, traveler! We will meet again on the Stairs", their eyes wide, their smiles wider. Copernicus hands us some other trinkets, passing me a small bar of orichalcum that I tuck in the folds of my coat.
We run, all of us, Marto pushing us through the portal. I take a single look back before I step through, at Copernicus and Lamel, at all of the questions that I could not ask. And then I am through.
The transit takes an instant, but as I pass through, there is a small voice in the back of my head... maybe traveling The Infinite Staircase, maybe it could be fun? And then I am through, and the voice is gone.
---
I step through the portal, Kavel, Derthaad, Marto, and Beets following behind me. I detest portals, though this was not always the case. Stepping through to The Witching Court, though, I forget my displeasure as it is replaced wholly with wonder.
We have come out in a clearing, surrounded by mist filled forest, a mountain at our back. The moon, a giant orb of light, floats above us, as though it is just out of reach. No matter where we turn, it follows, lighting our surroundings as we take everything in.
"Any of this look familiar, Beets?" I ask. I have not known her long, and I regret that my first impression was not very becoming. Since that meeting, though, she seems to have been through a lot. She hovers near Marto, looking about at the forest.
She knows a little about the Court: it's one of the major ones, of Hags and Witches, ruled by Queen Nicnevin, the Queen of Copper and Crystal. Marto chimes in, too: as Fey Ascendant she rules all of the Feywild. The mountain palace that they found themselves outside of was her home, and that of many of the major figures of the court.
There is only one major figure I want to see, though. Sarin Alleannder, who I met just months ago, once invited me to The Witching Court. Hopefully he can help me as he helped Sorrel. Though... I fear my curse is of a different sort entirely.
---
Margotin, our drow emissary, leaves us in a waiting room as he fetches Sarin from further in the mountain. Kavel and Beets pass the time with a feat of strength, but I am distracted. What do I ask Sarin? This was a mistake, I should have called ahead, I should have even asked if this was something he could help with, I should have...
Sarin enters with the same dancer's grace he displayed before, a bit more at home here with copper and crystal than he was in Daring Heights. The others watch intently as he comes in and takes a seat amongst us.
"So," he says, "how can I help you all?"
---
He is staring at a tiny hole in space, hovering just inches above the stone circle we were excavating just the day before. Light from the dawn sun poured in, focused on the circle by the lenses we so painstakingly restored to their former positions.
Awed, and a bit scared, I approach, placing a hand on Henri's shoulder as the light begins to spread, the runes beneath our feet and on the pillars around us beginning to glow. Rips and tears continue to fill the air as the circle widens, and widens, until it is large enough for either of us to step through. Through it, though, not much can be seen.
Henri grabs his satchel, slinging it over his shoulder, and steps through, out of sight.
---
"I see..." Sarin has moved closer to me, his hand on mind, as I finish telling my story. I've taken out the sketch I took of Henri on that day, that I showed him before: he is kneeling, a look on his face that I could not read then and never did capture quite right. The others are listening, too, and I realize that it is the most I have shared with others in a long time.
Sarin straightens, his poncho hiding very little of his sculpted physique. His gentle red eyes find mine, and he smiles. There is in fact a ruin nearby, he tells me. An ancient place, they do not go there much any longer; but as he recalls, it has many of the same runes that I describe.
"However, I cannot go with you. Tonight is The Night of Darkness, and I must prepare." I look to my friends, and see the same confusion on their face as I am sure is plain on mine. Sarin notices, and smiles. "I am sure that you noticed our moon? Tonight is one of the few opportunities to see it eclipsed, a rare treat. The entire court will be plunged into darkness."
---
It takes many hours to reach the ruin that Sarin described to us. Surrounded by mist on all sides, we each in turn get the feeling that if we were to step off the path, we may be lost forever.
I shudder at the thought. The Witching Court feels infinite: the forest and its mist stretches forever, until it suddenly ends and we are in an infinite plain. We walk, and walk, and soon come to another forest, this one also framed with a mountain rising out of the mist.
The path, now less defined, is traveled instead through instinct, and a bit of rock throwing. It is Derthaad that finds the first stone, a lump of granite weathered by time and wind.
The faint outline of letters piques our curiosity, but it is only once Kavel lifts it back up into place that we see it as it truly is. I rush to pull an old etching from my bag, holding it in the light of our crystal torches. I share a glance at Marto, the two of us comparing the two. It is a perfect match.
As Derthaad begins to cast a spell in order to decipher the ruins, my heart swells in my chest. Finally, after all of these years... but it is only moments until he reports back that not even he can understand the text.
My heart drops as I turn away. A rock, and some indecipherable scratchings. Nothing more than a beast clawing away the dirt to make itself a home, I think. Another dead end in the list of dead ends. I hang my head, eyes downcast, the mist at my feet swirling.
Swirling, and thinning, and pushing me further into the forest. I lift my head, and I follow its trail as it reveals to me what I had been looking for all along. Nine stones, sticking from the soil and covered in ruins, sit ahead of us. Two of them, off to the side, have a slight bend; an old archway, betrayed by time just as we all are.
It is Derthaad that shouts a warning to the group, as I stand enraptured by the sight. The eclipse is beginning he tells us, and as I tear my eyes away I can see that a quarter of the moon has now disappeared.
I return my gaze to the stone circle ahead of me, but my eyes take time to adjust.
It is brighter now, somehow.
The glow of our torches bends, streaming to the stone circle.
The runes begin to glow.
The world begins to rip.
And I run, faster than I have ever run before.
---
As the sun made its way across the sky the day of the Winter Solstice all those years ago, I waited for Henri to return. I busied myself with recording the different phenomena around me: the glow of the runes, the constant focal point of the light no matter where the sun moved. Every so often, I would steal a peek at the portal.
Where it was once completely opaque, now it is a window to another world. The view through is not clear, but I am able to sketch the few things I can see: a forest, and a clearing, and a pillar or two that look similar to the ones around me.
As dusk approaches, though, I get anxious. As the light dies, so does the portal, shrinking in size with each passing moment. Soon it is too small to go in after him even if I wanted too, and still there is no sign.
The sun is touching the tops of the trees when I hear a shout. Henri, on the other side of the rift, is breathless. Exhilaration is clear on his face.
I shout for him to come through - the rift is small, yes, but I can pull him through. I must pull him through.
I hold out my hand.
---
I'm on my knees. Behind me I can hear the others shouting, but I do not hear them. The only sound is the blood rushing through my ears; the only sight is my home above me.
Marto is the first to reach me. Kavel and Derthaad follow with a rope, securing our way out. I do not know where we are, but as the others come through I begin to find my bearings.
We are surrounded on three sides by empty space - a flat gray plateau stretches out. Pillars, carved with runes, surround us on all sides. There is a shimmer between them, keeping the air within. Above us is what we can only describe as... Toril? Behind us, though, is another mountain, a large wooden door cut into the side of it.
Derthaad is the bravest of us, and he goes to knock. There's a moment where I think us alone, but...
thud
thud
thud
The door opens, slowly, and a large red hand curls its fingers around the frame. Pushing it open is a massive pit fiend, and I see my friends brace themselves.
The devil looks down at us, and cracks a gigantic smile.
"Welcome travelers... to the moon!"
---
His name is Copernicus and he is here with another, Lamel, a water genasi. The two of them invite us inside, and as we walk inside the mountain, I am struck by the contrast to the mountain palace of The Witching Court. Where the tunnels there seemed hewn from the rock, these feel as though the tunnels had stood for time immemorial, the mountain growing around them. The walls are smooth and straight, meeting the floor at a perfect right angle.
Lamel offers tea, and biscuits, and we sit. Marto decides to wait outside, Kavel running him news and nourishment while we speak.
I have millions of questions. Lamel, sensing my indecisiveness, sets her tea down.
"You have just traveled along The Infinite Staircase! It goes... everywhere. Anywhere in the multiverse, worlds known and not."
"Travelers have walked its steps since the dawn of time, and each place they landed, they built outposts such as this one to revere the staircase and its beauty."
"What do you mean, The Infinite Staircase? We just stepped through... a portal? Right?"
Copernicus smiles, his reinforced chair creaking underneath his weight. "Tell me: before you stepped through, did you notice anything about the portal? About where it was headed?"
I shake my head. Looking around at the others, they tell me that just before I stepped through, they saw what looked like carved marble steps, stretching deeper and deeper into the void of the portal.
"So.. if this staircase is infinite, that means that there are infinite places to search?" I ask. "Not infinite, no. Countless, though, oh yes" Lamel replies. "But whatever do you search for?"
I rummage through my coat for the portrait of Henri, worn from years of this same action. I tell them of how I lost him, and how it was in a place just like this one. Lamel and Copernicus sit, and listen, passing the portrait between them. Lamel looks deep in thought.
"I may have seen him before, yes."
My heart swells, and my voice catches as I ask: "You have? Are you sure? Where was it? How do I get there?"
She smiles, "It was The Beastlands, I think, a number of years ago. But, it was an outpost, all the same. An outpost of The Staircase".
"How do I walk it, then?"
Lamel smiles again, glancing at Copernicus. She reaches behind her chair and pulls out an ornate silver staff, decorated from top to bottom with swirls of silver. Copernicus pulls out a small dagger, the same swirls present on his.
"These items, these Calls, let us find doorways to The Staircase wherever we may be."
I look at them, and their Calls, and pull my sleeve up to reveal a thin band of silver. Normally a straight line across my forearm, it is now wavy, singing with a frequency that I cannot hear.
"Is this similar?"
---
Magic is wonderful, and cruel, and Henri’s outstretched hand cannot pass through the rift. Not sound nor solid would pass back through the rift to me, try as Henri might to return. Pushing turned to pounding on the barrier as it shrunk rapidly with the dip of the sun beneath the horizon.
With only a small disc separating the two friends, the horror of their situation begins to settle in. Henri sits on the other side, tears filling his eyes as he extends a single hand, pressing it against the portal. I stumble forward, to meet his touch.
My hand passes through, and I stumble, but Henri catches me.
The sun disappears.
And the portal closes.
---
Copernicus unfurls a wing, and Lamel lifts her skirt ever so slightly. He has a similar band of light on the tip of one wing, and she has one on her knee.
"You have been chosen by The Staircase!" they exclaim. "You are destined to walk the stairs!"
"Wait. What do you mean?". The two of them are excited now, Copernicus leaping from his chair to congratulate me.
"The Staircase! You will be able to experience its majesty like no other."
I shrink a bit under their gaze, sharing a glance with the others. Marto speaks in my mind, then, reminding me that I only have a couple of minutes left.
"If I need a Call in order to walk the stairs, how do I get one?"
Lamel smiles and walks over to a small shelf, where she picks up a small jar. It looks like quicksilver as she pours it into my outstretched hands.
"The Call will take on the form best suited to its owner. After that, all you must do is listen."
The silver swirls, circling my hands. It feels strangely familiar, as it hums and vibrates, the air vibrating with magic that we cannot hear. It begins to form into a beautiful bow, the silver of which, now set, matches the pattern on the Calls that Lamel and Copernicus carry.
Marto is in my head again, telling me that we need to go, now. I turn to Copernicus and Lamel, lost for words. They simply smile back.
"Fret not, traveler! We will meet again on the Stairs", their eyes wide, their smiles wider. Copernicus hands us some other trinkets, passing me a small bar of orichalcum that I tuck in the folds of my coat.
We run, all of us, Marto pushing us through the portal. I take a single look back before I step through, at Copernicus and Lamel, at all of the questions that I could not ask. And then I am through.
The transit takes an instant, but as I pass through, there is a small voice in the back of my head... maybe traveling The Infinite Staircase, maybe it could be fun? And then I am through, and the voice is gone.