@acolyte1951

1 year ago

Loomed over me, and above all the houses and walls of this mighty city, was an even grander structure. The Ziggurat. These are the southern realms. I have traversed far to reach this destination. To see a world wonder. The purpose of my journey was purely wanderlust. But now that I am here, what can this Ziggurat tell me? What mysteries does it hold? I asked the towns people, locals who for centuries have been ruled under God-kings. These monarchs are odd, for they aren’t true monarchs. They are autocrats, their bloodlines matter not. Whenever one grows too powerful, chaos ensues in the streets and a year later the dust settles. Life resumes, but under a new God-king. Yet what of the Ziggurat? It is immense, unchanging, and certainly unmovable. The towns people tell me that a shadow council exists, and without a doubt their presence looms even higher and wider than the Ziggurat before me in the horizon. This isn’t my first night in the Southern Realms. In fact, for many moons, I have spent my life amongst a traveling caravan. They are the ones who guided me across the many changing environments, and it is I who guarded their goods. Once dawn has set in, I notice that they are packing up. What’s more, I notice that I was in a trance for multiple days. What has felt like a single night in this capital of the Southern Realm has actually been a full week. The caravan, my brethren, are now preparing to leave. They sold mundane goods from my side and bought the exotic products of this side. I don’t want to leave. Not yet.


Before the caravan left, as the gates of the city were opening their passage, the wise cleric of the caravan passed me a scroll. They personally translated a guide about everything I needed to know about this city into my language. I cannot read the alien scriptures carved into the tablets, walls, papers, or fabrics that the people of the Southern realm utilize. But at least I can read my own scripture. Yet is that enough? I feel a fool. The caravan has long left, and now there is no room for regret. Near the eternal wells of the Ziggurat, are pillars of wisdom. The cleric has pointed it out to me in this scroll, I assume they once studied in this city that is why they are so familiar with its layout. Perhaps, I can follow their footsteps?


I leave the hostel, the structure which I slept on top of its roof so I could stare at the sky above. I never thought that I would be brave enough to venture closer to the Ziggurat. Each step I take is a step towards a mountain, not a man-made structure. The pillars of wisdom are indeed pillars. Some vertical, tall like titans. And some are horizontal, slouching flat like decedent kings of the past. But one catches my eyes amongst all others. Unlike the marble-white pillars around it, the obsidian colored obelisk glistens in my sights. I approach it. Neither cleric, scholar, nor priest bothers with it. They ignore its presence, preferring to study the scriptures of their own language than… the symbols which are too foreign and alien to even their own histories. A woman approaches me, at first I thought she was a veiled witch. The obelisk might reflect the sunlight, but the aura is dark. However, she does not wear any veil except that of her long and worn-out greasy hair covering her head. She asks me if I wish to know more about this obelisk. I nod.


Before this day, the day when the caravan left me and I stood alone as a unprepared foreigner in the capital of the Southern Realms, I had never known of the “Mystical Age”. Was it an aged undreamed of? The witch-like lady denied this, instead she claimed it was an age forcibly cast out. It can be dreamed but that’s all what it can ever be. Unless someone had the courage to cast aside their well-being, make enemy to every child who has had read the folk stories about a creature called Efreet, and unleash disposed knowledge back into the world. Hah, I would like to meet the person who could do all that, I told to the witch. Would you? She asked me once again. Her persistence and unknown nature began to terrify me, especially as I noticed the clerics, scholars, and priests around us disappear. The day had not ended, so why did their research? It’s because the grand vizier arrived. The governor of this section of this mighty city. I glanced all around me, shadow characters closed us in. Before me was the grand vizier, next to me the greasy haired witch, and behind me the obsidian obelisk.


Foreigner, get away from this wanted suspect. The grand vizier demanded. No reason to deny his authority. Yet, curiosity stuck my feat into the ground. My mind wished to retreat, but my heart grew heavier. This Witch speaks of a creature called Efreet, showing courage, and unleashing disposed knowledge back into the world, do you know what this is about? The grand vizier’s face drastically changed. He repeated his demands, but having spent a good while in foreign lands, the body language of the shadow guards and the grand vizier said otherwise. A few seconds later, I was about to let go of this foolish curiosity, but the witch asked me a third time. Can I gamble my courage, make enemy of each child who has heard about Efreet, and unleash disposed knowledge back into the world? Why was I the target of this all? How about you, witch, can you promise you can do the same? She said yes. As she did, the shadow characters crept closer in. They were obviously assassins. I had worked long enough as a mercenary to tell I was against a tough match. Perhaps because I thought it was a dream, an unreal scenario I found myself beneath the gaze of the Ziggurat and against forbidden secrets… that I had decided to risk it all. My life was forfeit, yet courage remained. This was enough to accept the witch’s proposal.


With that, the Grand Vizier commanded his subordinates to leap at us. I carried no weapon, and my muscles grew decedent like the pillars of wisdom. But I picked my poison and chose to believe in it. The witch grabbed me and off into the obsidian obelisk. I was no longer in the mortal plains… but inside a crystal-like construction. Like a bird, I felt or saw the obsidian obelisk glow in a dark red and then into a bright orange light. Flames erupted around it, and the shadow guards were attempting to chip away at us. The Grand Vizier ran off, to fulfill whatever duty he had in mind. My body felt ethereal at that point. I was not sure whether I was still in a trance or not, did the caravan leave yet or not? All I knew was that I shared my being with another being, was it the witch? Or was it Efreet? Were they the same, or did we become the same? I might have made the most foolish decision in my wander lusting life on that day when I amateurishly decided to try my bid at becoming a scholar in the Southern Realms. Or the whole process was worth it. A glorious turn of events. Because, despite dusk setting itself in the Southern Realms, the sky in the capital remained bright. A golden Ziggurat appeared.


All I could remember was the golden Ziggurat. And with a blink of an eye, I woke up either underground or inside a covered grove. At the village of the mushroom people, with an amulet in my hand. A shrunken forbidden obelisk, turned into a tiny crystal-like token. A proof of Efreet and that witch.

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