The Brink of Creation

Chapter 3 - The Night

On one of these many evenings after the Some were founded, these five encircled The Shadowsplitter. The Paladin held the drill precisely in its gyroscope as the others questioned The Visionary.

"One hundred twenty-one? Are you sure this is correct?" The Scientist lined his eyes up with the point of the gold crystal, studying the effects its angle had on the room around them. The candlelights danced about the room, such that the whole group was alight in golden splendor.

The Visionary tucked a hand underneath the shredded piece of blacksmith's apron covering his eyes to wipe the beads of sweat which dampened his face. He sighed relievedly as he responded.

"Yes, I reckon there is no other possibility. This angular position channels the light from the crystal more clearly than any other. The question is now, why is it not splitting the shadows?"

The Prophetess chimed in. With practice she'd grown in confidence over countless days, and her speech inhibition had verily improved. "W-we are missing s-something. There should be a d-door at the end of th-th-this thing!"

The Sentry adjusted his coat of Some, embroidered with diamond shapes made from a rare earth-tone metal, corrected her, asserting, "Well, not quite a 'door', but moreso a gateway-"

"Oh, would you two shut your trenches! We know there is something missing. We've been slogging at this for so long now I can feel the strands of my thoughts unraveling." The Paladin let go of the drill and gave it a hefty push in frustration. The lights bounced across the darkened windows and across the faces of the Some as the gold crystal gently rotated on its diamond metal gyroscope.

The Scientist glanced at The Paladin sternly. "Let us return to our work in the morning. Surely if there is something that has avoided the toil of our minds-"

"-w-which there is-!" The Prophetess mumbled under her breath, but still audible enough for The Paladin to scoff at her words.

The Scientist glanced at The Prophetess, then continued, "-If there is something we have missed, let us continue to search for it at next light. It is late and we all need rest."

The top level of The Visionary's Tower embraced a set of lofts which had at one point sheltered an enormous family of mineworkers. These lofts, stalwartly constructed with tortuously carved dark alder, staggered above the floorboards of the level near to the apex of the roof. Once enough housing space for thirty or so fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins of The Visionary's kin, the lofts held both comfort and privacy for even the most cossetted of beings. These once-vacant lofts were now plenty of bedroom for the five studious researchers who sought the world within.

While the others headed to their separate lofts for the night's rest, The Scientist and The Visionary retreated to the kitchen. Now they had a bond like no other, between two great friends, and they treasured each other dearly. I suppose this kind of connection is rather rare between two humans; much less between a Man and a Grizzle. They cared about each other's well-being, and desired the best for and in each other, and this is the most anyone could ask for from a friend. They would often share hot honeycomb tea in the evenings as the rest of the group slumbered, and so that is what they did this gloomy night.

The Visionary sipped his tea, seated on a beaten circular stool. Once a useful apparatus for him to feel for out-of-reach ceilings, the stool had fallen out of use with his invention of the mechanical hand. His sightless eyes searched the exquisitely patterned rug from underneath his blindfold.

"What do you believe we will find beyond the hidden portal, if we do find it?"

The Scientist narrowed his eyes as he crossed his legs, seated upon one of the extravagant loungers. "If our world and the world beyond ours have been torn apart from each other, that could be why the world we live in feels so... wrong. It isn't unreasonable to assume that neither world feels totally complete." He eyed the intricacies of the staircase as he tightened his lips, deep in thought.