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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sagiro" data-source="post: 834447" data-attributes="member: 726">A short but highly significant update.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 175Around the dwarf the rest of the Company holds its collective breath, fearing that the Eyes of Moirel will leap into Kibi’s eye sockets to speak.   They are spared that gruesome sight; Kibi carefully picks up the Eyes, one in each hand.  Their glow seeps out through the gaps between his fingers.“It is my vision, come to pass,” whispers Snokas.Kibi turns to face the group, gripping the Eyes tightly.  His face holds a myriad of emotions – fear, excitement, anxiety, curiosity.  “Whenever you’re ready,” he thinks.Seconds pass that seem like an eternity.  It is just creeping into peoples’ minds that nothing is going to happen, when they start to feel the vibrations.  At first there is no sound, just a silent thrumming that buzzes through their bodies from all around.  Then a low rumble begins, sounding through the basement walls.  The Greenhouse is trembling, ever so slightly.“Kibi?  Are you okay?” asks Ernie?“Yes.  They aren’t saying anything.”The rumble becomes louder, as if a small earthquake is shaking the foundations of the house.   An alembic on Aravis’ workbench starts to rattle.In Kibi’s head, words form:  Earth Wizard, you are becoming what will be one with us.  Before the end you will descend, destroy, and open the door to your greatest fear.  But the journey from now to then is a journey from now to then to now, and many years lie ‘twixt key and door.  Now all of you… wait, for the time is almost upon you.Kibi repeats what he heard to the others.  As they ponder the words, the Greenhouse creaks, as if a gale has started to blow outside.  The laboratory equipment is all a-clatter; a flask falls on its side, rolls off a table and shatters on the hard earth floor.   From upstairs they hear the sound of windows yammering in their frames.The shaft of sunlight shining down through the stairwell goes out, as if the sun has been switched off.  And from Kibi’s mouth two voices speak, his own voice doubled, sounding in unison.  The Eyes in his hands glow brightly, purple and green, as the words come.It has all come undone.  Your enemies unmake the world, but you shall not be unmade, and alone of all things you shall be remade.Flicker bounds up the stairs in a panic.  It’s a bit past two in the afternoon, and all is dark outside.  And not just dark.  Lightless.  He runs to a window and puts his face to the glass, but there is nothing outside.  For all that he can see, the Greenhouse is floating in a great black void.  He runs back down to the others.The Greenhouse groans as if something outside is trying to twist it apart.  All around them their glassware is rolling off of tables and benches, crashing onto the floor.  The green Eye glows brightly, and from Kibi’s mouth comes its voice. Outside the world is as it has always been – slaves, toil, fear, and the endless digging.  The Emperor drives them, always deeper into despair.  Evil beyond evil, and yet himself only a means to an end.  Fear him, but fear more his success.There is a series of crashes from upstairs as jars and crockery fall from kitchen shelves.   Tiny cracks appear in the floor, the walls.  The sound of shaking and rattling becomes almost deafening, and it seems a miracle that the Greenhouse is not flying apart in a shower of beams and bricks.  Beyond the sound of the house is that of a wailing wind, or the scream of an unearthly voice.The purple Eye flashes in Kibi’s hand, and his voice sounds clear above the din.Inside the world is as it never was – hope, strength, freedom and the safety of foresight.  The Archmage crafted it, a haven to be anathema to your enemies’ designs.  Wise beyond wisdom, and yet himself only a means to an end.  Trust him, but trust more yourselves.The Greenhouse quiets.Is that all?Sweat is dripping down Kibi’s face into his beard.  His grasping knuckles are pale.A shaft of light again shines down the stairwell, but brighter, oh so much brighter.   From outside the Greenhouse shines a light brighter than a hundred suns, absolutely blinding, filling every window with its blaze.  Both Eyes glow again, purple and green light intermingling with the powerful ambient sunlight from upstairs.  In his strange double voice Kibi speaks a final time.They are following back the path of Moirel.  They have always done so.  We cannot pursue them without our brother.  If you wish to travel nowhere, to unmake the world, bring us to the home of seven dark words and make us three.Beware the world.The dazzling light goes out.  The Greenhouse is still.  Kibi’s hands open reflexively and the Eyes drop to the ground, quiescent.  He thinks:  “Scree?”“I’m here, Kibilhathur.”“Good.”Some of the Company go upstairs.  The house is a mess.  Furniture has tipped over, glasses have broken, and the trophy case has disgorged its pelts, tentacles and other mementos onto the floor.  Eddings stands there, wide-eyed, Argol perched on his shoulder, Smeggy nestled in his arms.“We seemed to have weathered the storm,” he says, voice trembling slightly.Light, normal afternoon sunlight,  is coming in through the windows in thin bands.  Flicker walks to one of them and peers out.  He is surprised to find that the window has been boarded up from the outside!  Faintly, from somewhere outside in the far streets of Tal Hae, there is a distant shriek.…to be continued…Here ends Part One of The Adventures of Abernathy’s Company.</blockquote>

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