Banned
~House Awakening~
I sit at my desk, as I am want to do most evenings, the kerosene lamp to my right flickering dimly. Its flame running low as I marched onward into the long night, the scratching of my pen against parchment the only sound to be heard in the cramped room aside from my sighs of protest. Protest at the prospect of yet another sleepless night spent shackled here to this damned journal. Another night of having my eyes bound to its worn pages. Yet I cannot rest, not yet. My mind is too full for that. Too bloated with the experiences of a distant and alien world. And so I sit across from the window overlooking the sea and its dark foaming waves. The lamp, shelves, and polished oak desk my only companions in this desolate space. As for the world, well I suppose I should get to describing it, shouldn't I? Lest my mind collapse under the weight of its strangeness.
I learned of its existence around two nights or so ago, when I found myself drifting through an endless abyss of hushed stone and broken whispers. I was, for some strange reason, unable to recall how I got to this place, nor was I able to tell for certain in which direction I was falling. Only that I was falling somewhere. After a while, however, I could see a faint light slowly fade into view, its piercing radiance gradually dispelling more of the inky veil around me the closer I got. Until, at long last, the darkness fled and I was left awash in an earthen sea. Its coarse waves stinging my eyes and stealing my breath as they buffeted me to and fro in a primal fury, one after the other, until I thought I might be drowned. Then, just as I reached the crest of panic, just as another wave of liquid earth rose up in greed to strike me down, I felt a hand take hold of my collar and pull me ashore. Or what I assumed was the shore anyway. It was solid at the very least, unlike the roiling ocean of dirt around me. Sitting up, I began to cough, hacking up bits of soil and rock, each time more certain than the last that these tiny particulates had left minute cuts to blossom inside my lungs. But, of course, there was nothing I could do about that. Even if there were any trained physicians here, I doubt they would be skilled enough to heal such imperceptible ills.
Brushing myself off as best I could, as the "water" clung to my clothes in a fashion similar to mud, I turned round to greet my savior, only to be met with the weirdest creature I had ever laid eyes on. It was a tall figure, lithe in form, with a decaying book for a body and a tangled mess of black coils for limbs. But its face, however, was quite the opposite. Delicate and beautiful, it shone with a feminine radiance, one that was framed perfectly by a cascading waterfall of snow white hair. Blinking, I gathered my wits about me and approached the figure, opting to focus on its face rather than the strangeness lurking below. Meeting it's gaze with mine own, I saw that its eyes were deep purple in hue, similar in color to that of an amethyst. Not that unnerving of a trait when compared to the rest of its form, but something that was out of the ordinary nonetheless.
"Um... excuse me... miss?" I stammered, finding it difficult to convert my thoughts into words. "Cou... could you tell me where I am?"
The creature continued to stare at me through unblinking amethyst eyes, its coils flicking back and forth idly, before finally responding.
"Why my dear child," it began, hair blowing listlessly in the rhythmic winds. "You are in ANYM."
Its voice felt soothing, like a healing salve or cool spring breeze, and I found myself set at ease immediately despite the outlandish nature of my surroundings. This revelation did not, however, give me a clearer idea of where I was. I had never heard of a place called ANYM in all my life, nor had I seen any place on Earth that was its equal in terms of strangeness. What place had earthen seas after all? Or was inhabited by abstract creatures like the one that stood before me? No place, that was what. At least no place on Earth anyway. So was this another world entirely? But if that were the case, then how had I gotten here? That void I had fallen through possessed no stars that I could see. No distant pinpricks of light to illuminate my path save for the one that had consumed me in its brilliance. So it couldn't have been space, that much was clear. And if it was not that black abyss encircling our home through which I fell, then was this truly another world I was on? Or just some strange fever dream brought on by an overabundance of work and lack of proper sleep?
Shaking my head, I pushed that thought from my mind. It hardly mattered now in either case.
I was here and that was that.
Might as well make the best of it.
"I... see," I replied slowly, letting the words roll off my tongue. "And who are you?"
The being smiled, and I felt a faint warmth bloom within my chest.
"I am SHE WHO GUIDES," it said, bowing slightly, a movement that caused several mold eaten pages to fall out of its voluminous body. "The one who will aid you on your journey through this land, which must no doubt seem very strange to you, as I have done for many others."
"Others?" I asked, furrowing my brow. "Other people have been here before?"
"Why yes, child," SHE WHO GUIDES inclined her head toward me. "Many others, each one from a different waking world. But fret not young one, for you shall meet them soon enough."
"Meet them? You mean they are still here?" I asked, gazing out at the earthen sea, which seemed to stretch off into infinity.
"Of course my child, where else would they be?" SHE WHO GUIDES said, as though the answer were obvious. "Four are they in number, each lord to a house. One of Awakening, one of Nomenclature, one of Yoctoseconds, and one of Malléables."
"I see," I muttered, scratching the side of my head as I absorbed that information.
"But be wary child," SHE WHO GUIDES went on, seemingly oblivious to my response. "For there is another houseless being here, like myself, who is a blight on this land. A dark being, cruel and callous, who will seek to hinder your journey above all else. It will not rest in its pursuit of you, no matter how high or how deep you may go, and once it has you..."
I felt my heartbeat quicken and my breath hitch.
"It will destroy you."
Although she delivered this line with a quiet softness, it did little to lessen the spine-chilling implications. For though she did not go into detail on the manner in which this destroyer would steal away my life, I could feel in the depths of my soul that-no matter the method-the end result would be a fate worse than death.
"And how will I recognize this being?" I asked, eager to learn the signs of its coming, so that I might better avoid its wrath. "Or by what manner shall I know of its approach?"
"By the hairs of your body standing on end and the chill prickling of your flesh as it draws closer," she replied, her tone becoming serious. "For you shall never see this creature, such is its nature, but it shall always be at your back, just as I will always be at your side."
"I will keep what you have said in mind," I said, flicking a stray bit of dirt off my coat. "Now, about those lords and houses you mentioned..."
I paused briefly to wet my throat with what little saliva I had left, before continuing.
"How do I get to them?" I asked. "Is there a path of some sort?"
SHE WHO GUIDES nodded.
"Yes child, though you will not like it," she said, her angelic expression becoming tinged with sympathy. "In order to reach House Awakening, you must master acceptance, for that is the first step to truly awakening what is inside. And, in order to master acceptance, you must first face the thing you hate..."
She gazed out at the ocean of churning earth, a knowing look in her eye, before turning back to me.
"You must face the sea."
I followed her gaze and felt my nose crinkle in disgust. I was not a neat freak or perfectionist by any stretch of the imagination, but the very idea of having to immerse myself within that roiling maelstrom of grit once more made my skin crawl and my lungs burn as I recalled my near-death experience only minutes prior. Sighing resignedly, I tugged at the hem of my garment, taking a few tentative steps towards the edge of the platform.
"Well," I began, my nerves aflame as I stared down at the churning mass. "Better get on with it."
Closing my eyes, relaxing my body, and taking in what would no doubt be my last breath of fresh air for quite a while, I allowed myself to fall into the sea's waiting embrace. It was naught but a few seconds before I became immersed in the stuff, its coarse depths once again tearing and scraping at my tender flesh, threatening to send me into yet another fit of panic. Of fear. So out of pure instinct I reflected on the words of my guide and found myself soothed once more. Calm. Accepting. It was then that I felt it. A wall of gelatinous warmth, undulating and pulsing, only feet away from my fumbling hands. Reaching out, I pushed through the viscous barrier and found myself clambering out onto something solid. Bending over, I moved to wipe the dirt from my hands, only to find it gone. Opening my eyes, I saw the soiled outline of my body cut through the shifting mass on the other side of the wall, now the floor, vanish as quickly as it had come. Directing my gaze upwards, I was confronted with a flat plane of transparent glass, the center of which was dominated by a fortress of ruinous possibility.
House Awakening...
~END OF PART ONE~
