She was dwelling on what she had seen in that forbidden pool when a shriek from that damnable bird shook her from her disturbed thoughts. She looked up and saw that she stood before the Stygian black mouth of a cavern. The Ztheradox had led her safely through the brambles for what had seemed days, and tall rock formations had begun to emerge. She stood before one of these towering structures now, grey stone spotted and stained with lichen and moss. The Ztheradox landed on the branch of a nearby baala tree and cocked its scaly head. She looked into the darkness of the cave mouth and tried to resist the urge to enter it. She knew she had to. The guardian of the pool had placed a Gej upon her, a task she must complete even though her will fought against it. She broke into a sweat as she tried to fight the compulsion within her. The guardian’s sorcery won the brief psychic scuffle and Soja strode forward into the Cave of Archetypes.
Had the Ztheradox not continued to guide her, she would never have found her way through those caverns of slumbering things. What horrors her eyes were set upon! Yet she felt that whatever she would see here, would pale to the horror she was set out to find beyond the lizard temple: The Star Crawler. The caverns began to widen as she walked, and eventually she could not see the walls or ceiling at all, just a heavy mist, eerily illuminated by her torch. As she continued on, she explored the confines of her mental shackles. She could feel the edges of the old guardian's power. It was smooth and without blemish. She had been well trained in the arts counter sorcery but she needed to find a crack in the hex.
Before long she was walking among the stones and masonry of the lizard temple. Broken Cyclopean structures surrounded her and massive statues of men with reptilian heads glowered down as she walked compulsively to her doom, a doom that was a mere handful of steps away.
“We meet again child,” came a voice from the mist and stones. Soja spun, reached for her spear, but her body would not obey.
“There is no need for that, I will not, cannot, harm you,” the voice said in disappointment, “ you made sure of that.” Soja had cleared the stones and statues of the lizard temple and set eyes upon the thing twisting and gyrating a meter from the dusty stone ground. She recognized it of course, a mass of stars and void, liquid flesh running and pulsating across it. It was no longer in the nightmare form it had taken during the battle of the Totem Wilds, but the realization that she had not killed the thing that had ended the life of her sister forced a scream of rage and terror from her.
“There, there child. I'm no more happy for this reunion than you. More so because I cannot do to you what I have long wished. I am still recovering, you see. Yet I know one of my brothers would be more than happy to implement your punishment.”
A second gej! The old guardian's magic had fallen away and was replaced by new mental fetters. She explored this new magic, it was rough hewn and hastily cast. As she walked to meet her new doom she searched for a weakness, a place to insert her psychic wedges and crack this new hex apart. The days passed, her feet blistered and bled from the leagues she had tread. Her body took her along unknown trails, and she saw no other human. She began to speak to the Ztheradox, sing to it, feed it. It kept her sane, helped her fight off the loneliness. Then, one day when she was at the absolute edge of her endurance, when she was so weary she could not chew the food the Ztheradox had to hunt for her, when she had to crawl on her hands and knees, she heard a voice that caused her to collapse, and curl upon the sodden earth like a child.
“We meet again girl,” it said. Its voice was like a strong wind that carried thorns on its current. The words cut into her mind, she screamed and felt the hex shackling her will crack. She frantically worked her mental tools into the cracks and began to pry, keeping her eyes shut, not daring to look at the abomination that lay mere meters away.
“when last we met, you implemented your strange weapons upon my poor flesh, to no avail. Only your sister’s spear had any effect. And what effect it had! My flesh is still rent, I am unable to fulfill the gej I sense is placed upon you. Thus I place my own!” Soja screamed in frustration as the shell of the Hex, nearly pried asunder, was replaced by another, this time one of a highly inept nature. But still, she was too weak to work upon the magic.
“Go, seek my father in the very bowels of this land. Find where his blood flows in a great river and cast yourself in.”
supported by 30 fans who also own “The Three Gejes / Breaking Psychic Chains”
If nostalgia for an age where creatures of myth walked together with the children of men had a soundtrack, this album would be it. Also, a touching reminder that we can forego wealth and power for wilderness and freedom, if we so choose. emanuele127
supported by 30 fans who also own “The Three Gejes / Breaking Psychic Chains”
I met Fogweaver through Vedurnan and, later, Magelight. This more energetic take on their music is wonderful and exciting, a compelling twist bearing their unique signature. emanuele127
