Nivenmage

When War Comes

"Serylor?"

"Yes."

"What did he do to you?"

"The same he did to you. Isn't it strange how empty it feels here."

The woman didn't seem very interested in Argenen any more, she now started to look around her, and he followed her lead. He was sitting in the mud with dark trees around him. He could see water through the leaves, and then he heard a noise he remembered; a hiss of falling water. With a burst of excitement he jumped up and stepped out towards the lake

"Nevea falls!" He breathed, and then, "it's not the same..."

"Of course not, Nevea never meant it to be seen like this." The woman said angrily. "So empty, she didn't deserve this."

Argenen couldn't completely make sense of what she was saying, it felt like everything in that place was insane. Even the trees looked mad, angry and confused. They clawed at the hollow sky with their upturned branches but no peace was found there. Argenen looked blankly into that same void. It was so much like the void inside him.

"I don't think I belong here." He said, but the old woman didn't seem to hear. "Why am I here?" He asked. The question felt pointless and stupid. Was he slowly going insane too?

"You are at Nevea Falls because you want to be." The woman answered. "It was a desire, and so it appeared. Here we can all rot in our own fantasies."

"I'm imagining this?"

"Oh no, this is all really here, just as the gods made it, but you came to this place because you were drawn to it." She waved a hand around to indicate the waterfall. "It must have been clear in your memory."

"It was." He said. "As I fell through I kept wishing I could see it just one more time."

"Your wish is granted." She laughed bitterly, but her eyes stayed downcast.

Argenen turned when he heard a noise behind him. Through the leaves of the trees behind him a pair of eyes was watching him. When discovered, the hidden being stumbled and fell forward. It was a crazed Valiaphite woman, as wild as an animal, with no remnant of that warm energy that living Valiaphites possessed. He watched her sadly as she screamed and fled, terrified of him, or perhaps the life within him.

"Am I still alive? You said earlier..."

"Yes. I can feel you here so clearly. That's why that poor creature came here. They can feel you from far away."

"Who?"

"They're just memories, really, memories of who they used to be. Have you ever forgotten someone?"

"I suppose I have."

"First you forget their faces, the subtle hints in their features that truly defined them. Then you forget the sound of their voice, and even how it felt when you loved them, but there is something deeper that you never forget. It is a feeling that sustains their identity, it is all they have left."

"I don't really understand."

"You haven't been here long enough."

"Someone I know once called them 'manifestations of intentions'."

"That's as accurate as any description."

There was a dull silence, and then:

"You'll have to go back, I'm afraid. Your story is not yet complete."

"Is it even possible?"

The woman then approached him and put both cold hands on his face. She stared into his eyes as she maintained her chilling caress. He was not afraid of her, he had never been. Something written in the lines of her face comforted him.