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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kafkonia" data-source="post: 2882817" data-attributes="member: 40261">Bas the SeekerThe stench that hit his nostrils was a delight to him. He had not smelled anything so offensive in his life; it was almost a palpable presence, an oppressive weight on his lungs. A new sensation. A new experience. He committed it to memory even as the hag began to speak to him."Everyone comes to see old Etna. Everyone has something to ask, something they want to know. But all those questions, and Etna has no answers. It makes Etna sad. So sad."As she went on, he picked his way over to the crystal ball and touched it with his fingers -- it was cracked and pitted, no longer as smooth as it had once been. Still, what knowledge might it have once purveyed... what knowledge might it yet provide in the proper hands?"Questions, questions. Everyone has questions. Even Etna has questions. You there, maybe you have answers, yes? And, maybe if you have answers, then Etna has answers too, for you, yes?""I have answers, woman. That is the one thing I possess.""What do you see when you sleep, child? What troubles your dreams?"He snorts derisively. "In my dreams I see nothing but fog. The fog from which I was born, the mist of nothingness." He pauses. "In my nightmares I see the impossibility of the life I never led. I see the friends I never made, the lovers I never took, the family I was never born to. In my nightmares I see decades of existence pass. And when I wake I long all the more for the fog of my dreams.""Who pulls your strings? Who's the puppetmaster makin' ye dance all pretty? Or," she cackles, "do you think yourself a freeman?""Nothing pulls my strings." He corrected himself. "Nothingness, I should say. The unmaking. I know enough not to think myself free. I am the vessel for my search.""And, you didn't forget a gift for poor old Etna, did you? Yes, I can see it, it's in that backpack, yes... what did you bring poor old Etna? Show me.""Hmm? Oh, yes." He reached into the pack and pulled out a small parcel. "I bring you the eyes of the blind seeress Oksana of the Empire of Dreaming Petals. If you place one into a lit brazier, the smoke will show you the death of a loved one. Also, the tongue of Abdul ab-Nezar, the greatest liar in the Thousand Shiekhdoms. Cooked with the entrails of a virgin goose and eaten, it will let you speak with a fallen ancestor." He tossed the parcel to her. "You are welcome to them.""My questions, now."Does my existence matter to the Perfect?""What will happen if I fail?""Will I be unmade if I succeed?"</blockquote>

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