Ali So Far: The Goddess Prison

Act I - Chapter 9: The Voice of The Philosopher's Stone

"I must ask of you a favor," called the stone, echoing as a woman's voice. I realized she actually sounded from within my own mind. I only felt like she filled the room. "I seek a man who has given up on all. I must inquire if my search has come to an end."

I still could not shake my fear, but I managed to speak up, whether into the stone or out into the air, or maybe to the flower petals.

"Are you the Great Goddess?" I asked.

The voice let out a delighted laugh. "Here, be in confusion no longer."

Any light in the room that did not match the purple petals slowly faded away. A darkness pulled out of the fire and crawled along the walls till it swallowed every animal head, every portrait, and even the sofa. I jumped off the wall as it pulled to black, and stumbled into the rain of flower petals. Suddenly, beyond the wind, the howl of open air entered my ears. I dared to take cautious steps through the darkness, and it slowly began to pull itself away revealing that I was now surrounded by a circle of pink clouds.

The thick aroma of lavender flowers overtook me, the winds nearly stole my hat, and I almost lost my footing, unable to feel the floor beneath my feet—a buoyant feeling, like standing on water; a look below myself revealed an airborne cloud—enough to make me stumble over myself. The cloud caught me gently. I quickly pulled myself up to a pink hued sky that rained violet flower petals as far into the distance as I could see, every pocket of air coated in their aroma. A scent so strong it nearly carried a weight, a density that the sunlight beyond the endless clouds and raining flowers could barely penetrate.

"Vincent Escalowne the Third, the man who has given up on life," she said. "I am the voice of the Philosopher's Stone, and I request a duty from you."

I finally gave up my search for some sort of physical person and just turned to stare towards the sun—well, the brightest light present, which I assumed it was the sun.

"Well," I said, taking in a hesitant deep breath. "You can make a request."

"I am seeking a man to lead to the Goddess Prison. A man to take the task of freeing the Great Goddess. I need a man that can divorce himself from what people of this world hold dear. That is the only man with enough clarity to guide clearly."

'Clarity?' I believed this great voice to have a few wires twisted—or perhaps not. I guessed the point of clarity that came to me that day in the gutter: it actually meant something to someone else. Though, I wasn't sure if I could really appreciate the strange commanding sentiment.

"I have elected you. Although you may refuse, I find great reason for you to agree. That reason being that you do not have anything anything else to live for."

'Hise wasn't kidding,' I thought to myself, standing near mentally naked in this pink sky above Itallis, if I could call this place Itallis—'the wind can literally speak to you.'

"I've—" I said, stuttering and looking to my hands while at a loss for words, awkwardly hoping that I might be able to assemble something to say. "There's a lot of other people—" I began, but Hise seemed as if he felt past all of his treasure hunting, and, I guess, if this stone needed responsible trust, Ali Alhaven would be far down the list. "I don't have interest in such a thing."

"I did not ask for interest," called the stone. "Having agreed to death inside of your own heart, is it too much for a greater power to ask for the death to be of a different kind? A death to my will. You are being given a choice."

I casually let out a deep breath. "Whew," I said, trying to shake the concepts into some coherency. Whoever named this the "Philosopher's Stone" managed to be unsparingly accurate.

"I am giving you the will to live," she said. "Do you not accept?"

I let out multiple breathless enunciations and gestured towards an answer I couldn't express, nor did I know.

"I will allow you time to think it over, but make your decision quickly."

Suddenly the entire cloudscape and all of its pink ethereal escapism snapped to a close right in front of me, near instantly yanking to a single focal point in the distance. I wavered, disoriented in the darkness, still surrounded by flower petals as I fought for my balance. Once I gathered my senses, I watched the petals slowly vanish into darkness, one by one, until I found myself back in the den of Hise's mansion, the fire and scent of burning wood exactly as it'd been left, the ceiling untouched and colored by the flames, not a single flower in sight.

I immediately backed out of the den and made my way through the halls of the mansion. I felt so many emotions at once that I wasn't feeling anything at all. I was moving directly for Hise's study. He knew what the hell just happened. I was sure he did, because I sure didn't.

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Bit of a shocker, this chapter.

The stone talks.

Super abstract.

"You're already dead, so bend to my will"? o_O

Honestly forgot I wrote this. Probably more surprises in here for me as well.

Vinny has a good sit down with Hise next week.

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