Deep Empty

[To New Beginnings]

An infinite landscape of blackness as far as the eye could see, dotted by beings caught in eternal slumber that lay stars apart from one another. Each one gave a dim glow, some brighter than others. They came from all walks of life; there were adventurers in leather, wizards in robes, and kings in lavish attire. Peace may be what some see within this world, but their desire to live and their disparity of being trapped within death is what brings their restless souls back from the dead. Self-reanimation is alien to those who live here watching over the dead as they sleep and while it was a normal occurrence for some, it only fueled the curiosities of others.

Not a single, peculiar sound could be heard across the void, not even the faintest whimper; there was nothing, only complete and utter darkness. What's more, there was no breeze. The air was musty and inert, completely unmoving. This was the Deep Empty, the place where all souls come to rest following their demise, where they await the wheel of rebirth or the victim to a surprise resurrection.

An uncanny, amorphous aberrant roamed over the characterless terrain of the Deep Empty. A resonating soul was pulling at its putty-like body and causing ripples to run against its shiny, liquid-black features. Like a spider in the dark, it moved with the utmost urgency as it sought out its prey.

"What's this... What's this...? How is that possible?" The creature mused over just as a spring of warm winds gushed into the realm of souls like water pushing up through a small hole on the bottom of a sinking ship. "This cannot be natural... I've never felt this before!"

The sensation of warmth was foreign, completely, and utterly alien. The being's very core thundered in excitement, clashing with its completely moldable exterior.

As the aberrant converged on the reservoir of warmth that indicated an inexplicable synchronization that called out to him. It cared not what slumbering souls it rolled over. The only thing on the creature's mind was the growing sensation as they got closer.

As the being moved along the floor like a bottom feeder, it soon felt the warmth of a soul that was drifting between realms, trapped between a rock and a hard place.

Coming to a stop the primal shapeless aberrant being formed into a trait-less humanoid with simple indents to reference a pair of eyes and soft protrusions to give way for a mouth.

Standing at least six feet tall, the being held a masculine form as it stood over a sleeping form garbed in leather attire with a silver tag on her chest. Yes, this was a woman despite her tightly bound bosom. He stared down at the delicate creature as if it was a doll, a collector's item, but what he was thinking was far from this.

On her lips was a frown that held many sorrows towards a failed conviction, a noble goal never achieved. So as he knelt down by her head, he placed two fingers upon the poor soul's forehead.

"You... You are the one who is calling," the faceless being cocked his head to the side as he spoke in a hoarse tone, "This feeling... A link to the Plane of the Living?" he mused aloud to himself for as the centuries he had spent in the Deep Empty, he had never felt something quite like this.

His eyes flickered over her porcelain face and short brown hair that looked to have been cut by a dull blade. "What are you, little one?" From what he observed of the human life stages from other corpses within this place, she was a mid-late teen.

His curiosity aroused, the thoughts and questions regarding the Living World crept deep into his mind. This place that the sleeping ones come from, what was it like to live there? What did the food taste like? Was the air any different? Where did all these souls come from? Why was there so much suffering? Why was there so much passion? What was love? Despite discerning he shouldn't contemplate such ideas, the creature proceeded to gaze at the one slumbering beneath his fingers.