The Hollow Tune

by **Numia** on January 17th, 2016, 6:43 am

21st of Winter, 515

The dirt felt coarse underneath Numia's clay feet. Dancing shadows above harkened to the unreasonably tall trees of the Bronze Woods that loomed and swayed overhead to catch the sun's rays, a snowy mountain a fitting backdrop to them. One could say that the day was filled with avarice, as the wind caressed the trees and great birds whapped overhead with shrieking chirps that seemed to follow a musical chorus. It was one thing that Numia loved about the outdoors, and she appreciated these things.

While she knew the wilderness was fraught with perils and the possibility of death was much more likely than the city, Numia felt it was worth the risk to be here. She also surmised that most creatures out here wouldn't eat clay, so she wouldn't be attacked by wild animals so long as she didn't provoke them. Sometimes she preferred the solitude to the company of others, since sentients seemed less true than the wilderness which was more about survival. It was also where she thought she would train, having followed the Kabrin road for many miles now and traversing through the woods that seemed to grow up around her from the shrinking farming community bordering the castle walls.

But what she would train in today was a difficult concept, even for her. The unimaginable scope of everything that is nothing. A challenging concept for anyone to wrap their head around, it was something that had given her the reigns to a strange power that defied the realm she walked upon and seemed to have its own set of rules. To her, it was always a terrifying experience to stare into that inky blackness with the full understanding of just how infinite in scope it was. She knew that if she were lost in it's gaze, it would be a mistake of infinite proportions to her, and of little consequence to anyone else.

It was her greatest fear, that she would in turn become nothing in return for the power to enforce nothing upon this world. She thought she was vain, but then she realized that although she could alter her appearance she had always been too rattled about this to fully embrace it. She still had a profound sense that it was a huge part of her, and she knew that ignoring it would only cause her more problems. So she straddled the gap, balancing her world and the other one. As she walked, flashes marred her mind as if warning her to go no further, but she knew she had to better develop this power and grow to control it so that it does not control her.

But how does one tame something that is nothing at all? She thought that she would have to beat the void at its own game, on her own terms. It was only then that she thought there was a chance she could do anything at all about her predicament. To her, this analogy seemed to fit, but she was always looking for clues to broaden her understanding. Or at least, now she was due to being encouraged by the knighthood to hone her skills--but they asked for even more. They really pushed her, and it was both tantalazing and motivating. She knew so little, but she wanted to know more.

Her brisk walk on the road was starting to devolve. Puddles of muddy water from the seasonal rains pooled ahead, and she pondered this soup of dirt curiously. Water was uncomfortable to walk through, and the stain of the mud made her feel crusty and flaky for much of the day. There was also the other part of her mind that told her it was a warning, a peculiar feeling that welled up from within her. She saw it as a warning that she was straying too far from the city. She even contemplated it was a sign from Harameus, and she knew that other members of her race held the god in high regard. "Harameus," she muttered under her breath and bowed her head, exhaling in silent prayer. It seems I'm always on the lookout for your signs, even if I'm not as faithful as other Pycon.

She was stopped dead center in the middle of the seemingly empty road, and she took a moment to look around with her eyes and ears to take in her surroundings. The bushes next to her on either side were thick save for a small concave opening of sorts in a nearby thicket. She thought that it was maybe an old trail from a small animal, maybe a common one that she had heard of in passing but never seen like a rabbit or a fox. She reminded herself passively that she had promised herself a long time ago to always think about more than forward or back. There was always more than one direction, but she felt inferior at handling the ones she could see. There were tall trees to see from, but she was not a great climber. Winding wilderness paths, but she could not navigate well. Rivers flowed freely, but she could not swim over them. She was not as strong as the other races that walked the earth and if she were lost, time would be against her as she did not know where to find clay.

Numia knew in her very soul that she was miserable in her performance at the very basis of what she thought a Pycon should be. She just knew that all of her brethren who had made it out of the unforgiving with her had accomplished more than she had. As the thoughts stirred in her mind, she latched on to one of her few notable achievements. She had Rhaus. She wasn't the best musician, but at least she had someone to listen to her music. Not many Pycon could say they had done something like that, and she found a bit of comfort in this. It was a bond worth more to her than anything she yet possessed. Feeling inept seemed to come naturally to her, and while she knew she shouldn't brood it was hard to repress these feelings.

by **Numia** on January 17th, 2016, 6:44 am

She funneled away those feelings, repressing them and locking them away to replace them with new ideals. "I'll just have to change that!" she said aloud to herself, stomping the dirt with a snort and a dull thud. She whipped around in her clay cloak, an elastic part of her body bouncing with her wide, boundless steps reminiscent of hops as she dashed into the woodland trail. The thicket went over her head, and the overhang of gnawed weeds and bushes was perplexing as she followed through the path through the dark labyrinth of nature. Numia carried the weight of her body as she leaned into her turns so she didn't skid and fall where the path turned sharply. She didn't like enclosed spaces, but this was somewhat different since there was still a small trickle of light from above. She sneered through her nose at the cold winter air, running up mild exhaustion in her body from the run as she continued to run. Soon, she reached a point where the bushes were too low even for her and was forced to consider her options. At first, she brushed the abrasive twigs aside, but when they simply bounced back she opted to crawl along the ground. She took off her fiddle and placed it on the ground, knowing it would be less scratched up if she pushed it in front of her rather than keeping it on her back. Getting on her knees somewhat awkwardly, she pushed her fiddle forward into the brush and began to angle it through any open space she could find. The trail had disappeared now, nature had reclaimed it this far in.

The light grew a bit more luminous in the distance as she inched forward on her stomach, pulling herself forward by her hands and knees. Numia's knee spikes were making this crawl slightly difficult but nothing too heinous. The oppressive bush above her seemed to suddenly give way, and it was at that moment that she found herself in a much more open and secluded area. It was sort of a clearing, but crescent shaped and a little darker than the road she was on earlier. The trees in this neck of the woods had big heads as Numia liked to call their canopies though she knew the two words perfectly well. The few blades of grass that weren't smothered by rotting mulch were tall and gangly, taller than she was. As she looked around, the looming figure of a fallen tree caught her gaze. It looked as good a place as any to practice.

Numia lifted her fiddle up and examined it. There were new scratches and a dusting of mud, but nothing a quick cleaning and a coat of varnish couldn't take care of. She slung the instrument over her back, the strap over her chest. Taking a moment to scrape away the patches of mud from herself, she began to walk towards the one notable landmark in the vicinity. The tree looked like it had fallen somewhat recently, given that she could see many of the branches were still intact. She reached up and grabbed a thick one and attempted to pull herself up, struggling and bouncing on it with a creaking sound to try and get herself up and over it so she could use it as a platform to balance her way to the top of the sideways log which was rather girthy.

The attempt was unsuccessful at first, but she managed to reach a leg over and suddenly Numia had her chest pressed flat against the branch. It wobbled stubbornly as she tried to right herself, but she knew what had to be done. She closed her eyes and began to concentrate on changing her form. It felt uncomfortable, but she made the webbing between her toes recede so she could better grasp the uneven surface. It didn't help that she weighed so much, it was as if she were balancing on a springboard the entire time. Fighting against her balance, she pushed forward with her long and spindly arms to get her to a crouching position on the branch. Slowly, fidgeting ever so often to keep her balance, she began to walk up the narrow incline one step at a time. Her new toes seemed to aid her greatly in this task, but the bark felt itchy and scratchy because she grasped the wood very tightly.

Soon she reached the end of the branch, her chest once again pressed snugly to a wooden surface. This time, it was the trunk of the tree. She realized she had been holding her breath this whole time, and she took a moment to take in a couple deep breaths and regulate her breathing. When she was done, she reached out with an arm and hoisted herself up and onto the log. Her toes dug into the log, and her arms grasped the grain of the bark easily, and all she ahd to do was pull herself up as her elastic body helped her. And then, after what seemed like an eternity for something so trivial, she stood chiefly upon the log and inspected her prize. From here, she could see well across the glade and she presumed that there would be ample room to escape should any creatures take an interest in her.

Knowing perfectly well what she had come here to do, she set about the task of clearing her mind. The mental stretch seemed to help her prevent mistakes. She focused on her breathing once again, inflating and deflating her clay with air. The soothing euphoria of that cold substance was more apparent now, and as she closed her eyes she was already descending into her mind. From there it was an instantaneous dive into the broiling chaos that was her hyperactive imagination and her deepest, brooding desires and thoughts. Slowly, she began to chip away at these thoughts and feelings from within, loosening them to push them away even further from her mind.

She slipped up repeatedly, the mind disagreeing with her every whim. No matter how hard she tried, there was always a traitor working against her own rule and currently, that traitor was her own concern. Here she was, trying to ignore the sights, sounds, and scents of a very loud and obnoxious environment while she was worried what might spring from the depths of that environment. How could she focus on this power if she couldn't even align her mind with the fundamentals of what it was? It was the sole thought remaining, but it was a massive tangle of intertwined emotions that held on as if their life depended on it. It took every bit of concentration she had, but she managed to take her mind off of the subject and thrust her focus forth into the inky blackness that was her initiation.

by **Numia** on January 17th, 2016, 6:44 am

Chills began to wrack her body as she stared at that memory. It was her first brush with nothingness, and what it had done to her mind had left real scars. It was a symbol of all her doubts and worries, her inadequacies seemingly casting a shadow over her so dark that she was nothing at all. And even in this place of darkness, there was color. There were blues, reds, and violets that seemed to rest behind her eyes so that she was never truly without identity. The longest part of her initiation was waiting for these to go away, to finally drain the color from her world into an infinite basin of all-consuming nothingness. And it was that thought that she latched onto, a branch wavering with insecurity but somehow good enough to work with.

She pictured all of the sounds, the scents, the sights and even her own mind fading away into oblivion. Absolute, inescapable oblivion. And while she held that seemingly terrifying notion in her mind, she was forced to summon the energy of her soul and work with it. Deeply concentrating, she pulled at the threads of her being and began to congeal them into a sort of malleable essence within. It was a strange sensation, one that seemed to be conductive to her manipulations. It was as if this part of her wanted to become nothing, and it was trying to escape her by whispering in a language of emotion, tension, and desire. It took much effort, but as the two concepts became one, she could feel by now what had become an instinctive release of this emptiness inside her.

Raising her arms, she pictured out in front of her where she wanted the essence to go. It flowed through her, like a river that was hard for her to describe. It was frigid, like ice. It always felt like her mind and body would collapse into this rushing torrent of space and be lost, but that was yet another feeling that distracted her from what she knew she must do. And in that moment, a seed that would grow into nothing at all was planted in a pocket of space in front of her, greedily stealing this world to make itself known by the contradiction it represented. The relationship she shared with this force was hardly a mutual one. As soon as it had manifested, it had already begun to tug more of itself from her, the host. As she fed that river into it, so too did it slowly grow and grow. Numia opened her eyes, for once it had answered her call understanding it was less important than being weary of it.

The darkness that spread forth was now bigger than she was, the wispy purple border scintillating with the shadows cast upon it and wobbling ever so slightly with imperfections. It unnerved her, it always stared at her hungrily with desire, waiting for her to make a mistake so it could make a meal out of her. It was growing fast by her standards, and the edge of the portal was scraping up against the wooden bark and losing integrity. She was about to try something that she had learned she could do fairly recently, to give it more room to prosper. She raised her arms in the air above her head and directed it with the flow of her essence, trying to get it to follow like a pet begging for a treat. A testament to the all-consuming greed that she knew it to have, it followed lazily and devoured her power willingly.

As she gave more of herself to it, more of herself wanted to become one with it. What was cold was starting to become warm, trying to persuade her that she liked these feelings. It was an easy sensation to trust, if it didn't feel like it were deceiving her with every passing moment. She was just getting started, and she knew all too well that the crescendo of these nagging thoughts was yet to come. The more she used and abused this power, the more it seemed to abuse her. At least in that way it was mutual, but it wasn't something healthy or kind to her. Still, she fed and fed her essence into it, willing it to grow as her mind flexed and strained to both comprehend the concept it represented and reign it in by force of will.

Further directing it, she placed the portal directly over her like a blackened sky. Some sort of instinct awakened within her, and she genuinely felt like she was being preyed upon by a predatory bird from above as she stared up into the infinite void. It was a few feet wide now, and, she thought, larger than any portal she had created to date. She felt a strange thrill through her respect and all-consuming fear of nothing at all, a thrill exacerbated by the powerful feeling that the warmth surrounding the flow of her energy forced upon her. When it had reached the size she desired, it was four feet across and extremely demanding. She wrestled with that feeling, to cut off the tap from which the portal fed from. No ... it didn't seem right, she realized. She was the one feeding it deliberately all along. It was her own mind playing tricks on her to get her to succumb to these wanton feelings.

The floodgates raising ever so slightly, it stopped growing and instead began to wait. It still had demands for the price of its presence, but they were lessened now. Numia decided it was time for the next test of her practice, the most dangerous step in her opinion--exertion of push and pull. She couldn't control the amount of force very well, but she had seen the correlation between the power she fed it and the force it exerted, push or pull. For now, she was more concerned with performing the basics efficiently and the best way she could. It seemed more right to her that way. Through her connection and deep concentration, she familiarized herself with where the portal was in space. Her energy had a sort of signature, and through that signature, she could tell the portal what she wanted by manipulating it. When she carefully began to thrust outward with her mind and essence, so too did the portal translate this into a repulsive force.

by **Numia** on January 17th, 2016, 6:45 am

What started as a steady breeze emanating from the other size began to grow into a healthy gust. Numia theorized that it was not air that left the portal, but a more pure force that pushed or tugged on things. Her interpretation was very rough, one of the reasons that she approached this art with such caution. She began to push herself, feeding more power into that connection to increase the force of the push. After moments of steadily growing, there was a steady boom causing the trees above to whap their branches together in scraping protest. Their leaves billowed around the funnel of air being carried with the force though many carried themselves out of the path of this destructive gale.

Numia couldn't see any of this, but she could hear what was going on from her position underneath the black plane, and soon the first of the leaves began to pass the portal on either side. It was only now that she was beginning to grow weary, for she too had her limits. The euphoric feeling was beginning to grow more intense, caressing her every thought with its presence. It told her to continue, to embrace her power. It brought to her senses the taste of the sweetest clay, the most delectable sounds, and the unmistakable scent of ... fragrant flowers of some sort. The feelings seemed real, but they weren't at the same time. She wondered if she would feel this way again in the future, the warmth radiating through her causing her mind to cede into a half-state of bliss and fear.

No. I have to stop this ... too much. Under great stress, she struggled with her own power. She fought to squeeze the river of energy and reduce the flow. She didn't want to see that empty black pit anymore, at least not for awhile. It was trying to seduce her, to become a friend when it clearly had other intentions. There was something truly dark and sinister about the way it behaved, and it worried her. As she strangled the life from it, the push began to stop. The forest quieted down, the trees making a final complaint before the normal winter breeze began to placate them again. Everything fell deathly silent, and she breathed inward, the emotions less intense now but still crawling up from within. She had to get rid of this portal, or she knew it would consume at least a part of her.

Through her mind, she envisioned cutting it off. She pulled away from it, taking her power with her. It resonated in protest, shaking a little like a violent child as it began to shrink, slowly. And then the gates of the darkest place in the land opened right above her.

A sickly, clawed talon grappled at the log next to her. Something was there with her. Something absolutely terrifying. The wrinkled skin writhed and shifted as Numia walked backward as fast as she could while stricken with a fear that wanted to freeze her on the spot. Harameus, Rhaus, Harameus, Rhaus! Numia's mind had no words save for the names of her gods, desperately focusing on trying to close the portal before that creature could get free. Stepping out of the shadow and outside the portal, she kept backpedaling and watched as the creature pulled itself forward and partially out of the portal, a jagged and jutting chin portraying a creature only found in the worst nightmares imaginable.

The moment seemed to relent enough for her to think as the monster wrapped its arm around the log in a hug, tugging on it to try and get all the way through the portal and stay here in this realm. She was lucky, there wasn't a whole lot of room between the portal and the ground, so the creature was struggling to get free. If it had been a vertical portal, she knew she would have been a goner. Something, I have to do something! She fought to reign in her mind, to embrace logic in a moment of pure terror. Any time she summoned a useful thought, it skidded away and told her to run, run from this place and never return.

I can't let this thing escape! It could hurt someone, she couldn't bear that. What was unnerving was how silent it was. It didn't say a word, it wasn't breathing. It just creaked and scraped, trying to escape an eternity another Voider had forced upon it. Thinking fast, Numia couldn't get the portal to close fast enough. She had some distance from her meandering, so she thought she might be safe enough for a pull ... yes. A pull! I'll suck this thing back up into the void where it belongs! Numia swallowed and breathed quickly, shuddering and trying to get ahold of herself as she felt out for her connection again. She fed the portal, trying to instill it with the sense to feed on its surroundings, particularly downwards, on that creature escaping from its gut.

"You shall not pass into this world!" Numia screamed as the portal began to pick up again, hopped up on her power and infused with a new sort of vigor. So too, did her body respond to the act. With every moment the speed picked up, so did her body rampantly begin to lustfully demand more and more. A chill ran up from her feet to her head and circling around her core like a pack of wolves looking for an opening. She was staring blankly ahead now, trying not to look at the half of the 'face' exposed from the portal with bright, lantern-like eyes that glowed at her menacingly. She wouldn't let it through, at any cost she had to pay.

The abomination let go with one hand, holding onto the other as it reached for her slowly. The arm seemed to grow and narrow, getting ever closely. She was frozen except for her one will to pull this thing back in the void, and as the pull grew more intense, the creature began to slip. It still reached for her, but the other taloned hand dragged against the wood menacingly as it fought to stay anchored. So close to the edge of the portal, the pull was more intense. Bits of twigs and branches and clumps of dirt and grass were sucked into it. She grew and grew this force, at any cost.

by **Numia** on January 17th, 2016, 6:45 am

Then a new feeling came on strong within her. As the creature began to inch away, being pulled back into the void, she felt an incredible sense of power overwhelm her. I have the control! Numia's chest heaved rapidly, getting important bits of air to keep her going. She felt unstoppable, that she could handle anything. At that time, the creature opened it's many-toothed maw and jettisoned a long, green tongue that immediately caught fire towards her. It wasn't long enough to reach her, so she simply stood up straighter and gave the monster a stoic scowl. The flaming tongue world all around, spreading bits of flaming spittle everywhere that lit the ground and the bark on fire. Some of it landed on her leg, and her leg too went up in flames.

She felt pain, but it was such a small emotion compared to what she was experiencing now. The tongue got sucked into the portal as Numia kept feeding and feeding it, and even at this angle she was starting to feel a slight tug on herself. If she wasn't careful ...

If I'm not careful ... The thought snapped her back to the reality of the situation for a moment, and she began to step back to give the portal more room. She had never done a pull this intense before, and there was a growing pit of mud beneath the tree, rotten bark stripping away from the trunk to be lost. Finally, with one last sickening scrape the creature lost it's grip and shot back into the void in a blink of an eye. Silence followed, but Nimia was still feeding the portal.

Why am I doing this? It felt good like she could give herself away to the force. But there was still a small part of her that told her that what was happening was wrong, even a perversion of her values. She honed in on that piece of her being, dragging up a host of thoughts with it that sought to bring her into control and restore her empty mind. I do not want to become nothing. Numia told herself over and over to stop, and after much coaxing, she was finally starting to wind down her feeding of the portal. She closed her eyes, mentally trying to force the connection shut, but it felt like a rusted lock that wouldn't give. So she banged, and she bashed it mentally until it gave way. The flow of her essence was cut off.

The portal began to shrink, and she opened her eyes to watch it begin to vanish out. She blinked, it was gone. She was alone. Numia's feelings soared through her, racing from one edgeo f her mind to the other like lightning bolts. She collapsed on her side, eyes wide open and terrified in a fetal position, the image of that monster stained on her mind's eye. I almost, I ... I did, why did this happen? She shivered, consumed by fear and wracked with shivering. The Pycon was having a full breakdown now, ultimately disturbed by what had happened. A simple training exercise had become so much more dissident than she originally intended. I did what I had to do. She assured herself that she was just, but she felt like this was a mistake that others would not have made. She was so careless, so naive. Voiding was more dangerous than she could have possibly imagined.

A vague restitution was beginning to settle deep within Numia, calcifying bits and pieces of her mind. What was broken had to be rebuilt, and it was happening fast. She sat up, covering her face with both of her hands at the realization of a throbbing throughout her entire body. It was an alien sensation, one that was made trivial compared to what she had been through moments before. She had one question in her mind, powerful and loud. What does it all mean? She knew she was too much of a coward by now, and she felt like she wanted to change that. She was afraid to become nothing, she had been telling herself this whole time. Maybe she should become that which survives nothing, like that nightmare from beyond?

Numia closed her eyes, picturing that image of the creature. She couldn't remember more than the wrinkly talons, the tongue, and the eyes with that gaze. Reaching, reaching for her desperately. The creature hungered for freedom, and in a way she began to feel sorry for it. Trapped in the endless abyss, with nothing to keep you company. Nothing. Nothing at all. A lonely, pitiful existence where the power to shape the world means nothing since there is nothing to change. She looked at her hands, and her fingers were batlike with some human adaptations for grasping. Numia had an idea for a few changes. She focused on them, and they rippled into an uneven surface with tiny claws ending in clay points, shaped by her memory into something familiar. The change always made her uncomfortable, but it was her Ode to Nothingness.

Admiring her handiwork and looking over her hands at the new grotesque appendages, Numia's senses had finally calmed now. Many scents and sounds were amplified in the forest, her mind sure that it was in danger, if muffled and repressed. The realization that she hadn't played any music dawned on her, and the idea brought her comfort. And so she slid down the side of the trunk with a hop, falling loosely so she didn't hit the ground too hard. She looked around as she walked. The clearing was a mess, with fresh leaves strewn about, bark stripped from the log where she had summoned that window into the void, and a large, hollow crater in the earth where everything that was loose had been removed. Nothing may be nothing, but she now knew for sure that it had real and lasting consequences, and just how dangerous these consequences are.

Numia set about finding her way back to the Kabrin road, finding the scuff marks in the mulch where she had appeared from the bushes. She set her fiddle down once again and pushed it underneath. She took one last look at the glade, and then she disappeared into the bush. The crawl was a little more difficult than before, but her aching body didn't seem to win out over her mind, which was ablaze with thought and what she had learned today. The familiar trail underneath the foliage soon arrived, and she stood up within it. It was darker now, the sun obscured by clouds. She didn't run this time, and, instead, she walked. It went by quickly, and the road came into view.

Walking out into the center, she remembered the puddle. She walked up into it, gazing into its reflective surface. Am I nothing, or am I unfathomably more? She wanted nothing more than to unburden herself, and to let go of the dangers of the world for a moment. It was then that she slid her fiddle and bow from behind her and held the instrument by the fingerboard. She pressed the saddle to her chest, and she brought her bow just above the strings. She hesitated, for a moment. And then she drew forth a note.

The sound resonated through her, drawing her away from the real world and into something that was of her own making. It was a long, solemn note, for it had inherited all of her troubles. And with each note she played, another one of her concerns found itself banished from her mind and trapped in the song as she hummed and mumbled to herself, musically skipping towards Syliras and looking forward to a good rest.

by **Elias Caldera** on January 17th, 2016, 6:51 pm

Behold, Your Just Reward!

Numia

Graded as part of the Weekend Challenge!

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