Trials of Stone

The Realization

He reappeared in silence.

The break of the waves was gone. The sigh of the wind was gone. Whatever had been the ever-present hum of the Earth, never noticed until now, it too was gone. He looked around, and nothing but flat, aged stone stretched away from, with no horizon, but on forever.

And yet, despite the barren emptiness around him, somehow a sense of motion still came from the earth, though no object, not even the tiniest particle of dust moved. He couldn't describe it, other than what little there was left to be, still was, still existed despite the lack of any action to pronounce it.

Time, he thought. What was left was time.

Like the Pillar of Body, the glow from the Pillar of Soul was gone, replaced with another deathly-blue flame, no longer flickering in the wind but still, like the flame of some giant candle. He paused to look at it, and then back at the endless barren landscape. And then he faced the final stone pillar.

There was no turning back now, even if he wanted to. There was nothing left to return to, and though he knew in his heart that it was his fault, the Trial of Soul had scorched away his guilt, leaving only a sense of justice and purpose. He had started this path, and he would reach the end, and then he would face whatever would come after that.

He stepped up to the granite Pillar of Mind and placed his hand upon the sigil, bracing himself for the rush of flame

It didn't come. Instead tendrils of green light seeped out of the cracks between the stone bricks and began to creep and wind their way around his hand and up his arm. They reached to his torso, up his throat, his jaw, and then they covered his eyes and blinded him with sullen green light. This time he felt the slight shift in the air, the change in the pattern of the ground he stood upon as he was moved to who knew where.