Chapter 1 is here: https://mortalonline2.com/forums/threads/soze-chapter-1-the-hunger-and-the-growing-darkness.1465/
Chapter 2: The Rot.
I first observed the rot in a rare plant, the only of its kind as far as I know. Fate somehow brought it before me to study. When I put it under the lens I found the most peculiar pattern.
Growing from the stem to the base of its leaf the plant was the purest and brightest green, and though this sample must have been pulled from the ground months ago, it was still supple and fragrant. But as my gaze moved out along its leaf it turned yellow, sickly, and brown until it met with a large arc black as night which was scarred laterally across it. But on the other side of this arc it returned to the brightest green, healthy, and vibrant. But once again the green turned to brown, and then scarred across the leaf the darkest arc and the putrid stench of death. This pattern repeated a number of times.
I couldn’t explain the pattern, I'd never seen such a thing, and I wondered what had caused it. I grabbed a small scalpel and scraped at one of the dark arcs, and extracted a tar-like substance from the leaf. I brought it close. I smelled it...It was acidic, almost sulfuric. I rubbed a little on the tip of my finger; it burned. And then without even a second thought, driven by curiosity, I rubbed it onto my tongue.
I immediately convulsed! My gut wrenched, violently ejecting the contents of my stomach onto the ground in front of me. Large masses like viscera began to move about the pile at my feet, like a worm seeking the dry ground after a hard rain.
My eyes rolled back into my head and suddenly I was floating. I ascended higher and higher until I could see the span of Myrland stretching before me. I looked up and saw 2 moons, one on the left and another on the right. I looked and saw all the stars at once blinking like glowing eyes in the darkness. In a singular moment they turned to look at me! I felt their penetrating gaze, It was as if I was being judged.
I looked down and Nave was turning beneath me, she revealed to me the furthest corners of creation, continents I had never seen or known. Shapes without form. Places I would never see or know, places that exist and don’t exist at the same time. They would rise from the sea and then sink into the sea, lost and out of reach.
And then I saw time....It appeared as an untamed beast devouring all, it had no beginning and it had no end, it stretched out around itself and consumed itself. It was segmented, divided in parts, but the mouth consumed it all.
I tried to reach out and stop it, but I couldn’t, some force stayed my hand and I could only observe in horror.
Is this the true universe? Is this what I’ve been waiting my whole life to see? Are these the levers and gears that move everything along some predetermined path?
I longed to see more! This mere glimpse was not enough!
But the second I tried to control the vision, it was as if gravity woke up and remembered I didn’t belong up there, and I fell.
I fell, and I fell...The stars pulled from my vision, streaks of light being ripped from my eyes.
Then I hit the ground with a thud, and everything was silent and dark.
Chapter 2: The Rot.
I first observed the rot in a rare plant, the only of its kind as far as I know. Fate somehow brought it before me to study. When I put it under the lens I found the most peculiar pattern.
Growing from the stem to the base of its leaf the plant was the purest and brightest green, and though this sample must have been pulled from the ground months ago, it was still supple and fragrant. But as my gaze moved out along its leaf it turned yellow, sickly, and brown until it met with a large arc black as night which was scarred laterally across it. But on the other side of this arc it returned to the brightest green, healthy, and vibrant. But once again the green turned to brown, and then scarred across the leaf the darkest arc and the putrid stench of death. This pattern repeated a number of times.
I couldn’t explain the pattern, I'd never seen such a thing, and I wondered what had caused it. I grabbed a small scalpel and scraped at one of the dark arcs, and extracted a tar-like substance from the leaf. I brought it close. I smelled it...It was acidic, almost sulfuric. I rubbed a little on the tip of my finger; it burned. And then without even a second thought, driven by curiosity, I rubbed it onto my tongue.
I immediately convulsed! My gut wrenched, violently ejecting the contents of my stomach onto the ground in front of me. Large masses like viscera began to move about the pile at my feet, like a worm seeking the dry ground after a hard rain.
My eyes rolled back into my head and suddenly I was floating. I ascended higher and higher until I could see the span of Myrland stretching before me. I looked up and saw 2 moons, one on the left and another on the right. I looked and saw all the stars at once blinking like glowing eyes in the darkness. In a singular moment they turned to look at me! I felt their penetrating gaze, It was as if I was being judged.
I looked down and Nave was turning beneath me, she revealed to me the furthest corners of creation, continents I had never seen or known. Shapes without form. Places I would never see or know, places that exist and don’t exist at the same time. They would rise from the sea and then sink into the sea, lost and out of reach.
And then I saw time....It appeared as an untamed beast devouring all, it had no beginning and it had no end, it stretched out around itself and consumed itself. It was segmented, divided in parts, but the mouth consumed it all.
I tried to reach out and stop it, but I couldn’t, some force stayed my hand and I could only observe in horror.
Is this the true universe? Is this what I’ve been waiting my whole life to see? Are these the levers and gears that move everything along some predetermined path?
I longed to see more! This mere glimpse was not enough!
But the second I tried to control the vision, it was as if gravity woke up and remembered I didn’t belong up there, and I fell.
I fell, and I fell...The stars pulled from my vision, streaks of light being ripped from my eyes.
Then I hit the ground with a thud, and everything was silent and dark.
