The Sketch Rift: The Eternal Crusade

This Chapter Was Not Scripted

Soal awoke on the same hill the following morning with an immediately quizzical expression. He peered up into the expanse to see that the slightly rose-tainted sky was exposed, lacking the dully shaded collage of yellow and brown that he expected to awaken to every day. Puzzled, he examined his surroundings, only to find it the familiar deadened tone that to which he snored the last night. Irene and Alice had not yet awoken, still dozing on the hill, not yet awakened by the glaring light of the sun. Feeling a fell breeze on his face and arms, the sensation was refreshing in a very eerie manner. Whatever had happened overnight to transfer the past from its present to its future?

Simultaneously, Moth came to mind. His explanation of the Crusade's purpose had stunned everyone, but the truth had not yet spread beyond the two of them. This sunny day could symbolize a great number of calamities, not the least of which may be Moth's final day in captivity, by whichever interpretation one could follow. Entirely disregarding Irene and Alice's continued rest, along with the general beauty of the morning, Soal stood and slumped his notoriously heavy sack of gear over his shoulder, trudging to the highest ridge of the slope. Unsurprisingly, in the vicinity was Moth, surrounded by a dozen or so stoical Crusaders, traversing the oddly green dunes of dirt on their passage to Sogbury. They seemed to be in quite a hurry.

"Moth! Moth!" Soal called out, briefly dropping his pack of items to wave his arms. Now approaching Hendera, Moth and his company failed to recognize the semi-Master Bringer who stalled far behind them. This is looking eerily familiar, Soal, reeking with uncertainty, therefore picked up the sack once again to trot after them.

Upon his entrance to Hendera, still hardly keeping up his pace while Moth and the Crusaders around him turned corners and temporarily left sight, the citizens were looking just as baffled, if not more so, than himself; in fact, so much so that many of them declined to acknowledge Soal's presence, as he swerved between crowds and dodged passersby on the pedestrian streets (as all of them were). He even spotted Count and Lucy standing before Counter's Hall, vigilantly squinting through telescopes to point out differences in the sky.

Seemingly in no time, Soal had pursued Moth and his wardens all of the way past Hendera's northern border, while they picked up their speed whenever Soal gained on them. Finally, somewhere about two-thirds through the usually mundane journey, Moth's movement and gestures became erratic and overly circumspect, allowing the exhausted Soal an opportunity to subtly approach them.

"Moth!" he drew several deep breaths, awaiting the Ambassador's notification. "There you are. I was somehow convinced you played a part in... this."

Soal was even more flabbergasted as Moth turned around to speak with him (once the protective ring silently opened), his eyes unfocused and his face accentuated with genuine fear. "This chapter wasn't scripted," he gulped. "This sudden revival of greenery and the rejuvenation of the blue sky, in winter... it wasn't supposed to happen. This wasn't in the Kyueb Reacsoa's agenda. I'm so sorry, Soal. It's better if you just get to someplace safe before something terrible happens."

"Sorry for... what? Moth, what's going on? Did you do this?" Soal was stricken with disbelief that Moth was unaware this would happen, but it may have been among the most unusual occurrences that happened to him in recent months. The semi-Master Bringer knelt down to pluck a newly blooming flower from the grass of a variant he recognized, but could not name. "How can this be a bad omen?"

"It's all my fault," Moth began to back away towards Sogbury, and the ring of Crusaders followed, Soal trailing behind them as the unnaturally gentle day began to unnaturally dim. "I wrote a scathing letter to the Kyueb Reacsoa, in protest of his mistreatment of me and in request of the weapon you will eventually use to destroy the Bane of the Armorillion. He returned the favor with a mere warning signal: that if I even considered using the weapon, we would all undergo an unscripted punishment. It's my fault that this is happening. We need to get to a safe place now. Questions later."

Soal, petrified, was numb in terror for a moment as Moth and the Crusaders sped towards Sogbury, and the day continued to darken as if a solar eclipse were taking place, which there clearly was not. He was unsure of whether it was because of this ominous prophecy that may already be happening, or because he was believing Moth's cult of Cofontors more and more with time. Upon overcoming this reflexive panic, he immediately dropped the flower he had presented and hoisted his sack of armor and weaponry over his shoulder and spurted toward them, somehow successfully integrating himself within the Crusaders' circle of protection.

The sky, now much more noticeably tinted, had darkened to an extent that dusk seemed to be falling, although the sun was still overhead. An uncanny humming noise also seemed to be emanating from the region behind them. Soal, visibly shaking, inferred that a brusquely forming cloud must be the source of both of these things. Not looking back to check, Moth had a stuttery answer to grant him, without the question even being asked.

"I-it's probably that thing the Kyueb Reacsoa told me was uncommon-n, but a constant threat in the Highest Plane of Realit-it-ity," a perspiring Moth's teeth chattered. "I'm sti-ill unsure whether or not he was lying abou-out it (Come on, let's hurry up here!)."

"What thing?!" Soal was forced to yell over the now unbearable humming noise from the unidentified cloud, now beginning to realize that even the unflappable Crusader defenders were panicking, very nearly trampling the others on their frantic approach to Sogbury, visible in the distance, which was rapidly tainting brown-maroon more and more, while the buzz grew more and more unbearable.

"He called it a Slicer Swarm, I think," Moth's words beyond that point were inaudible, but hardly any attention was paid to it anyway as a tidal wave of wasp-like insects engulfed both their view of Sogbury and their view of each other.