Interlude ?: Jeff's Awakening
Thu Feb 01 2001

>> All is an endless sea of black, frigid and encompassing. A single bubble rises above the surface, breaking...and Jeff thrusts his head out of the void. He is afloat in an ocean of infinite darkness, beneath a sky of hanging icicles. The water clings and freezes, yet his muscles do not cramp; his flesh does not numb. He feels only half-aware, like his body is contained within a shell that does not belong to him. 
>> His chest aches dully from where he was struck in that battle...long ago? Recently? Is it immediately after, or a million years since? It's cold...it's dark. Time is irrelevant.
* Jeff blinks, bringing a hand up to gently, tentatively rub his chest. "What..."
>> His touch causes faint tenderness, only slightly noticable beneath the chill.
* Jeff starts to tread water to keep himself afloat, looking around for anything in the sea of black.
>> Nearby -- why didn't he notice it to begin with? -- a slab of dark rock juts out from the water, forming a flat island perhaps ten meters wide. A dark, hunched form lies at the center of the island, black silhouetted against the dark grey eternity that surrounds it.
* Jeff begins to swim towards the rock, grateful for a place to go, yet uncertain as to why he hasn't cramped up from the cold already.
>> He reaches the small protrusion, climbing onto it. It appears to be a sheer drop into water, as his feet find no purchase until he is out of the water and onto dry land. The rock is cold also, but not nearly so cold as the water.
* Jeff walks inward, away from the water's edge. "This must be a dream..."
Jeff: ...or am I dead? Is this the afterlife?
Jeff: Sevena...
>> "A dream...some men ponder whether they dream in the waking world, or vice versa...but really, everything is a dream..."
>> The dark figure speaks in a voice cracked with aeons of age.
* Jeff turns to face the dark figure, somewhat wary but still very disoriented. "Who...?"
>> As his eyes adjust, he sees that the form belongs a hunched figure, facing away, and draped in a black, gauzy shroud which covers it and spreads out onto the ground around it. "It has been a long time in the reckoning of history. Two weeks have passed, but two weeks in which the gears of fate turn are infinitely longer than two centuries in which they do not."
Jeff: I've been... unconscious... for two weeks?
>> "You are not unconscious. You are dead."
* Jeff takes a step back, touching his chest again.
* Jeff slowly nods. "I... suppose... I shouldn't be surprised. I couldn't have survived that, after all."
Jeff: ...why aren't I surprised?
* Jeff looks around again, at the bleak seascape.
>> "By all rights you should have lived...but something no one reckoned on happened, and you were poisoned with a dark energy so great that even those nearby were cursed. I'm sorry, Jeff Claren. It's a foolish world indeed where even the gods are powerless."
* Jeff focuses again on the figure. "The princess and others were cursed? Are they all right?"
>> "The princess carries a dark cloud over her...I fear she has not yet crossed through her gauntlet. The others...are as well as can be expected."
* Jeff nods. "Do I bear this curse as well?"
Jeff: Or was that more of a 'living' thing?
>> "You are unharmed by it. The Dauphin's Spite destroyed your body, but left your soul untouched. I did what little I could to ensure that."
Jeff: Ah... thank you. But who are...
Jeff: Ge Ramtos was...
>> "Yes."
* Jeff falls silent.
>> The figure remains silent for a moment as well, but is the first to speak again. "The ocean that surrounds us is death. True death, not anything humans would call such."
Jeff: It's so... vast.
>> "Everything primal is."
Jeff: What happens now?
>> A soft, raspy chuckle escapes from the figure. "I wish I could tell you that. I am, myself, dying, though, and precognition is now largely beyond me. However, I can tell you this. You're no longer a part of the living world, but neither are you truly dead...you've left the ocean."
* Jeff looks back to the water.
>> The water has settled to perfect tranquility...a black mirror.
>> "This is the best any of us can do. You're a special person, Jeff Claren...but death takes all indiscriminately."
Jeff: I've never claimed to be special...
>> "Of course not. What you have that too many others don't is faith... hope... humility... willpower. I tell you this because I know that it won't spark hubris in a soul such as yours. Everyone in Filgaia has the potential to be like you...yet none can find the inner strength to do so."
* Jeff shakes his head. "Surely some..."
>> "Perhaps. You are not the only shaman of a Guardian Lord, but one of very, very few. Jeff...allow me to explain what has happened, and why."
Jeff: Please...
>> "We are the Guardians, the protectors of Filgaia since time began. Once our strength was great; now it is small. Many have wished to become Guardians, but few ever understand just what it would mean to do so. The Guardians do indeed have power which dwarfs that of humans, but we are bound, bound in bonds so tight that we could never escape without tearing out our own hearts."
>> "The Guardians could once see far into the past and the future freely, but nonetheless the demon invasion took them totally by surprise. Why was this? It's difficult for me to say, but I believe we allowed pride to consume us. We did not believe we could ever be felled."
>> "I believe that in our purest souls, we knew what was to come, but that that light of reason could not pierce our pride. We did foresee the first demon war, but we felt that we could surely defeat any threat. After all...*soft chuckle* Who can stand against the combined might of an entire world?"
>> "Today it's difficult to say if we won that war, or if we're merely taking a very long time to perish from the wound inflicted upon us during it. We have come close to giving up hope before...but each time, we look to the bright empyrean wings of Zephyr, our leader, and remember that no battle is lost until it is surrendered. You are proof of that: a dead man, but not yet passed on into oblivion."
>> "The four Guardian Lords rallied around humanity and the Elw in that terrible war, but we were victims of our own foolishness, and in our surety, very nearly perished entirely."
Jeff: Four guardian lords...?
>> "Yes, embodying each of the four cardinal virtues by which all things prosper. Zephyr, Guardian of Hope, Justine, Guardian of Courage, Raftina, Guardian of Love, and Luceid, Guardian of Desire. But something went wrong back then, all those centuries ago. Mankind's ambition created greater and greater weapons, but in its pride it tore itself apart as surely as it rent the enemy. In war, you see, there is little time for things such as hope, love, and courage. Foolish luxuries, people say."
>> "Perhaps it was inevitable that it turned out the way it did. Perhaps we could never hope to match the desire of the Demon Race. One never feels the same gnawing in one's gut when one is protecting something as when one is trying to take something one does not have. As Zephyr, Justine, and Raftina began to fade, we accused Luceid of responsibility. I don't think we were wrong in doing so...but I do think we were fools to try to heal by harming. One day, Luceid simply left."
>> "Soon after, Luceid reappeared in the ranks of the Demon Horde. We asked her why she would betray us to join those plotting the destruction of Filgaia, and by extension, herself, but...since that day when she left, Luceid has not spoken. And so we'll never know. Maybe it was a failing on our part. Maybe desire is destined to consume itself, once all else has been devoured."
>> "Everyone, of course, knows how the Demon War turned out. And perhaps it was even a good thing for the Guardians. We've grown much weaker, but...we're warier. What remains of us is cautious, and will not again be struck down by its own confidence. With this wisdom, we have won every battle put to us, but each time, a little more of us dies, and the battles are getting closer together. Five thousand years, then seven hundred, then three hundred, now one hundred..."
* Jeff blinks, taking it all in a little wide-eyed.
>> "The Forgotten Guardian taught us that great deeds, good or bad, send great ripples into the past and future. We have sensed these ripples growing stronger and stronger for some time now...we worry that we're not ready, so soon after our last battle. Sooner this time than ever before. But time waits for no one, not even the Guardians. Something massive is coming, but, crippled as we are, we can no longer tell what it is."
>> "We sensed that your time was growing short, yet at the same time sensed that what you did could make a huge impact on the future of the world and all things that live on it. We did what we could to save you...but I think that, in choosing me to go to your aid, we accepted our own helplessness to ward off fate. Something with great power was behind Sevena Stricken that day two weeks ago, that day when the moon was black."
>> "Luceid was there - this we know - but also old magics, forgotten and forbidden. Things we did not expect to see. I did all I could, but I couldn't pull you from the threshold of doom, nor could all of us combined. My demesne is death, so I suspended your soul, unharmed, while sparing your body the wracking agonies of the Dauphin's Spite."
>> "You are dead, and cannot be revived - this, as all men know, is the immutable law of the universe, older than the Guardians themselves. But perhaps...perhaps you can make a difference even now."
Jeff: If you truly believe I can make a difference... I'll do whatever I can. But dead, what can I do? Show me, and I'll do my best...
>> Ge Ramtos turns without moving. She faces Jeff, yet stares at the ground, the gauzy fabric concealing her head. "I can only give you advice. But I'll do that. And Jeff...thank you."
Ge Ramtos: This is the way things are now. 
Ge Ramtos: The Princess Amelia, bearer of the Tear Drop, resides in Adlehyde. There are dark forces about her, but we can do nothing more than we are to shield her from them, knowing as little as we do about their source. The Gaia Corporation, similarly, has bizarre and inscrutable plans for the future of the world, plans your old allies have been battling to thwart.
Ge Ramtos: Barring the princess, those who battled Sevena with you have remained together to follow the threat of the cloaked assassin Death. They have recruited additional allies, and finally managed to strike down Death despite the frequent meddling of the infernal Gaia Corporation.
* Jeff nods...
Ge Ramtos: Death was revealed as a Demon, suspended in life-in-death and controlled by a phantom puppeteer. We cannot trace the source of the control any farther than to say that it emanates from somewhere in the country of Adlehyde."
Ge Ramtos: Death was, apparently, trying to reconstruct an ancient device. Those few who battled him now hope to assemble the device first, since it appears likely Death's master will not stop with the defeat of his minion.
Ge Ramtos: A great battle is approaching...we believe that this battle will be between Death's enemies and his master, and we also believe that this may be the battle where your presence is vital.
Ge Ramtos: I'm sorry that I must send you to the land of the living as a stranger...there's nothing I or Odoryuk can do about that. You will remain dead...but you will have a second chance. 
Jeff: As a stranger?
Ge Ramtos: *nods very slowly* Your body will be dead. There's nothing I can do about that. You will be preserved as a living being would, but the living may be too blind to see the difference between a lowly zombi slave and a deceased Guardian Lord shaman. You will be you, but you will always be...a stranger. There is one thing I can do to ease this.
>> She lifts a withered, skeletal hand to offer him a small ring of twisted bone. A long chip of some black gem is tied into the ring.
* Jeff accepts the ring. "Thank you... what does...?"
Ge Ramtos: This ring was crafted from four Guardians' energies. While you wear it, you will assume the appearance and nature of a living being in every way. You will still be dead, but the magics designed to influence the dead won't harm or detect you, and your skin will regain the flush of life.
Ge Ramtos: There are advantages to being one who walks under the pale moon, so you may wish to remove the ring on occasion. It is up to you.
Jeff: Thank you...
Ge Ramtos: It is not just my art. But you're welcome. You can repay us infinitely by...simply being yourself. Who you are doesn't change, no matter what you become. In addition to the ring, I give you these things:
>> She makes a motion with her fingers, then lowers the hand slowly. A white, hooded cloak swirls about Jeff, and he finds himself clothed again, with his old bag of possessions beside him. A crucifix hangs around his neck.
Ge Ramtos: You must rejoin your old allies once again; they will need the help. However...you aren't yet strong enough to fight the battles ahead, Jeff. Your soul is a torch to light the way for humanity, but your body needs to be tempered. Rest a bit now...when you are ready, you must train for your return to the world above.
* Jeff slips the ring onto his hand. "I will... anything I can do, I will."