I'm Alive // Succession
A single ember catches the wind, tumbling into the dark of the dream, caught between the ephemeral fingers of the Haze. The ember becomes a silver star, growing brighter as other stars spread out and away from it, creating constellations and colorful swirls of light to fight against the black. As they complete, an outline presses against the night sky from behind, a blanket wrapped around some divine echo, her voice both recognizable and unknowable — familiar, but filled with a well of endless power.
Chamas pushed aside the vines that blocked the clearing, the low trickle of a nearby stream the only sound beside his labored breathing. His clothes were soaked in sweat, his arms and sides cut to ribbons by the thorns along the path, but already healing in the otherworldly timelessness of Paradise. Sitting on a stone that came up to his waist, a thin wisp of a man was tapped on his box of cigarettes, pulling one from the pack with the deftness of experience, and lit it in one smooth motion that ended with the cigarette in his mouth.
Chad looked down on the Ikal Expanse, his body eerily still, floating atop the highest mountain in sight across the horizon. He watched the little motes of life walking about the valley, and the great beast of light that roamed farther north, surrounded by the dancers who kept his crumbling soul at bay. Then he looked to his side, where a little Gray man approached, his eyes clouded by the Data Bleed contaminating his brain. Invisible to the rest of the world, Chad glanced at the ghost glitching into and out of existence behind the Gray—
Desna: "I'm alive—"
Chamas pushed aside the vines that blocked the clearing, the low trickle of a nearby stream the only sound beside his labored breathing. His clothes were soaked in sweat, his arms and sides cut to ribbons by the thorns along the path, but already healing in the otherworldly timelessness of Paradise. Sitting on a stone that came up to his waist, a thin wisp of a man was tapped on his box of cigarettes, pulling one from the pack with the deftness of experience, and lit it in one smooth motion that ended with the cigarette in his mouth.
Chamas: "Told you I'd make it back."
???: "Yes, you did..."
Wyatt released a cloud of smoke between his lips, which swirled into arcane sigils and hazy visions of war before it faded. He never broke eye contact, and Chamas didn't rise to the challenge his silence offered. Wyatt showed a coy smile, flicking ash from his cigarette, and stood up from the stone.
???: "Yes, you did..."
Wyatt: "Well, let's get moving."
Desna: "Fury in the Black, I'm sorry—"
Chad looked down on the Ikal Expanse, his body eerily still, floating atop the highest mountain in sight across the horizon. He watched the little motes of life walking about the valley, and the great beast of light that roamed farther north, surrounded by the dancers who kept his crumbling soul at bay. Then he looked to his side, where a little Gray man approached, his eyes clouded by the Data Bleed contaminating his brain. Invisible to the rest of the world, Chad glanced at the ghost glitching into and out of existence behind the Gray—
Desna: "—can't explain everything. But they're coming— The next eclipse. I'm—"
#?!: "I'm alive, Mother..."
#?!: "I'm waiting for you, at the next twist of the Road..."
Desna: "Very proud of you all. I'll be there soon."
The dream fades.
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