by J Hawk
The voice was silent for a few seconds. And then it spoke again.
“I go by many names. But you may know me as … the creeper.” it said. “I am a person who cannot physically move, for I am crippled. And so, my body is grounded to where I now lay. But even from here, I can sense things and make contacts like I am now. And I can very meagerly influence the passing events. Very meagerly … for you see, I am a mystic. And though deprived physically, I can use my powers to sense the wanderings of others’ around me. And that was where I found you.”
The voice fell silent again, but something within it seemed to bubble with glee. “I have seen your soul, Zardin … I can see everything that makes you who you are. And I know it. The desire that possesses you now, the terrible wrath, and the yearning for a second chance to release that wrath.”
What do you want with me? asked Zardin. I’m not even alive!
Silence lingered for a few seconds, before the voice broke out in another wave of laughter.
“That’s the very part I’m here to change, my good man.”
Everything within Zardin had gone temporarily jammed. What remained of his untethered consciousness had frozen in shock.
That’s impossible. he said, breaking from the daze of what he had just heard.
The voice shook the world in a low chuckle. “Not to me, it isn’t … with my mystical powers, it is very possible. I can transmit my powers to nurse your body to a livable condition again, and then I can infuse your untethered soul back to that body, so that you can live again. But the question looming … is do you want it?”
Zardin considered what he was hearing from this strange new entity. He analysed the entire bizarre scenario, before slowly responding.
There isn’t a thing in the world I want more … there isn’t a desire I’ve had when alive, which has burned stronger in me, than this one now. The desire of revenge. I want to go back there … and I want to tear everything apart. I desire revenge. I desire carnage. Because that is the only means by which I can regain what I have lost. For life had taken everything from me, and given nothing back.
The voice let silence loom for a moment, before slowly saying, “You and I are one of a kind, then. We are but the very same hatred living apart, and we share the very same wicked goal. And that was the very reason I had decided to save you. Because I sensed another with the very same goal that I nurse, and who carries the very same hatred for life as I have. And so, when I return you to life, I want you to do me this one favour. Find me and come to me. Join forces with me.”
What are you saying? What will the two of us do, if I join you?
“We are mystics, Zardin. Mystics who have chosen the path of hatred and destruction. For us, there is only one goal … We are going to finish what the great Redgarn started eight thousand years back. We will repay the world’s deserved share of pain. And that will give solace to our throbbing pains, and release them.”
The creeper sent a vision, an image shooting through Zardin’s mind. And for the split second, Zardin saw the man’s form where he was, through their present contact. He witnessed the man’s form for a fleeting moment, before the vision faded.
But why do you need me? Zardin asked.
“Because I am crippled in the current state,” said the creeper, with a trace of fury in his voice. “And I need your assistance as you need mine. I told you that I can influence events without physically being present there … that’s because I can’t be present there. And that’s why I need you. I need you to find me, and to help liberate me from this crippled state. Then, together, we can move heaven and earth, and make everything ours. If you find me, you can help me the way I helped you … but finding me will be a journey of its own.”
What do you mean?
“This journey may take years. But like I said … at the very end of it, we will finish what Redgarn and the Xeni started eight thousand years back. That is our ultimate goal. But to reach it, there is a long road…”
Zardin was possessed by a sudden, mad sense of thrill. Very well … whatever it is, tell me what I need to do. And I will do it. And join you.
“Good … first, after I awaken you, you need to find and join the order of the Xeni. I do not know where they are, but you need to join them, and learn their ways. You will need years to devote to learning the arts that Redgarn had left behind through his Xeni. But through your help, make them grow stronger. And when they have, lead them out of hiding and into the open. And then, undertake the quest of finding me. All else, I shall take care. Once we are united, you and I, we will unleash the wrath of the gods themselves upon this realm.”
It was a moment unlike any other Zardin had experienced his entire life … a moment of gleaming clarity, mixed with triumph. For he now realised the very purpose of it all. His very purpose. And it had, at long last, found him…
I won’t fail you…
As he said it, the entire realm of silence and peace was suddenly rent … And he felt himself sucked out of the abyss he was now in with the force of a vacuum pump.