- Influence
- 9,373.00
(This occurs during the attempt to save Talinn’s life).
As those under him desperately attempted to save the Minister’s life, the unconscious and broken body of Talinn Ryalor, Duke of Westisle, Head of House Ryalor, and the de facto rightful heir to Imperial Throne of Fyador, finally gave out. It had survived four decades of constant warfare, assassination attempts, and the fading flame of youth transitioning into old age, but the savagery of Ulog had finally pushed it over the edge. A final, pained gasping breath could be heard around the room, and then it was seemingly over. No glorious death in battle, no final words, just a death on the operating table-blue blood or commoner blood, many beasts ended their mortal lives on such.
In the infinitesimally minuscule amount of time where the electrical circuits of the brain still fired, or perhaps where they had indeed finally shut down, whatever made up “Talinn”, his consciousness, or soul, awoke from the blackness of the coma. Gasping, he sat up, expecting to be on the frozen island of Urk, or on the Hide, pain running through his body from the horrific wounds he had suffered at the demon’s hands. But that was not the case. He felt a gentle warmth on him, and he glanced around at his surroundings. He was in some kind of idyllic forest, near a peaceful, rumbling stream, gentle rays of light coming down from the clear blue sky and a kind sun. He looked down at himself-he was still in his uniform, but his weapons were gone, and something felt...different. He no longer felt the normal aches and pains of his increasingly old age. Sitting, then standing up, he walked over to the stream, and looked down at his reflection, and for a moment, he was speechless.
Although he was still approximately his current age, all the scars of battle he had carried were gone. He took a look at down at his paws-there, too, they were gone. Carefully unbuttoning and opening his shirt, and pulling down a leg of his pants just to be sure, it was true. All of his old wounds, even the grievous one from Alexei which forced him to walk with a cane most of the time, had disappeared.
“What…? Where?” He asked himself, clearly confused. Was this some kind of dream? He had been on Urk-hadn’t he? Or had that been the dream? No, he had been there. This was clearly some sort of hallucination or lucid...although it did not feel that way. It felt real. Terribly real.
Looking past the stream, over which a small stone bridge led, he noted something impossible-a road, made of the purest gold-and he felt inextricably drawn to it. Moving across the bridge and onto it, he reached down and touched it-the same soft warmth that permeated this entire strange place. He glanced forward, and caught sight of a figure in the distance further along the road, who had turned to look at him. Ah, good, someone who could explain to him what this place was. Standing up and making sure that he looked presentable in the streamwater, he moved towards that figure. As he got closer, he could make out more about the mysterious beast. Clothed in the purest white cloth, it was a fox-a vixen, the most beautiful he had ever seen, and, getting closer, he noticed she had a ridiculously huge tail. No, that was plural, tails. Nine of them to be exact.
I...what? This...I had heard the priests speak so many times, even asked the Kitsune for help on occasion, but I never...this has to be some sort of...well, we will see what She says.
She smiled at him as he got closer, and he noticed her fur was much like the path-pure gold, as were her eyes. Standing before Her, he shifted uncomfortably, while She patiently waited for him to speak. What was one even supposed to do in this situation, if it were real? He thought for a bit, and then spoke.
“So...You are real?” He asked questioningly, unsure of what to say or do. “I...uh…” he stumbled on his words, uncharacteristic of the mighty Minister. “...how should I address…?”
“You may call me whatever you would like,” the vixen replied gently and in a lyrical voice “Kitsune, She…” in a flash the vixen turned into a tall, handsome todd, “Him…”, in another flash, a fox that looked neither male or female “Them”, and then finally some kind of white, misty cloud “It, whatever you prefer."
“Ah, uh, the vixen form, if You would.” Talinn replied, shocked, and once more the beautiful vixen was before him, smiling kindly once more. He bowed respectfully, then got to his knees.
“I...I apologize for not...for many things. I was...the world I was in, it…there was never any real...” He struggled to articulate his thoughts. He had said the old prayers, done the motions, not because he believed in them, but because he was expected to, or, in some kind of desperate plea to the universe in many cases.
“Proof?” She finished, chuckling, putting her paws on his, and helping him to rise up from the ground. “The natural consequence of giving you all true freedom. If I made it too obvious, you would not be free to disbelieve, would you not? Although I would like to think the answers to some of your requests might have hinted at the truth, if you had looked deeper.”
Talinn glanced down at the floor, unable to meet Her eyes. It was true-he had never really put in the spiritual work in his life. He had always been so busy.
“I understand. ” she comforted him gently, reaching out a paw and touching his face for a moment, causing him to look back at her.
“But...You are here...and...this is...is this not proof?”
“Is it?” She asked mischievously.
“I would say so...I am dead, am I not?”
She smiled at him softly, not answering the question.
He put a paw on his forehead.
“What are You then? My conscience? What is this place? Is this some kind of dream? A vision? It does not feel like any I have ever had. What-”
She shook her head, this time with kind of a sad smile.
“Those are not the kind of questions you were brought here today to ask, or find the answers for.”
She turned, continuing to walk down the road. Talinn, feeling a sudden urgency in his chest, quickly moved to follow her until he strode along side her.
“Then what...what I am here for? Why have You brought me here?”
“Now you are asking the right questions.” She chuckled as they continued, moving towards more, open green fields. “You are here for...balance.”
“Balance?”
She nodded at him sagely as they continued along the path.
“Yes. Everything must be balanced, every bill paid at the end of the day. Whether in your world...or this one.”
He stared at her for a long while, trying to find the words, before he finally spoke. He did not like the sound of that.
“If this is the afterlife…”
She smiled at him again, a frustratingly neutral expression on her face.
“And You created it...and You are omnipotent...You...there is no need to balance anything, right? You can just will it, and it is so?” Talinn was becoming increasingly anxious, a feeling that set him at odds with the otherwise peaceful nature of this place, whatever it was.
“If I am who You think I am, I do have that power,” she replied pensively “but I have, for lack of a better word, ceded that you all.”
“What…?” he started-and she raised a paw up to stop him.
“True free will is a tricky thing,” she replied pensively “it requires a certain balance to work, and, in the end, judgment.”
“Is that was this is? You judging me?” Talinn whispered, voice and body on edge as they both stopped, his gaze fixating on her. A tumultous hurricane of emotions ran through him.
She shook her head at him sadly.
“No, I am not the one who judges.”
“Who, then? Vulpuz? Is he around here somewhere? This does not feel like what I had imagined ‘Gates to be!"
She shook her head once more.
“No, neither does He.”
“Answer me then! Is there some kind of higher God? Some kind of final arbiter of whatever 'Gates objective morality You...or You All... designed? And don't you dare to give me of one of your nonanswers, whoever You are!" Talinn found himself shouting at Her, his anxiety reaching a crescendo. He felt sick inside.
She gave him that frustrating, neutral smile, and then looked pensive again for another moment.
“I will answer the first question for you...look ahead.”
Turning his attention from Her, he then looked at the path ahead of them. It forked off in three different directions. One that continued straight, one to the left that seemed to go to a kind of darker forest, and one to the right that seemed to go into some kind of desert. He turned and stared back at her.
“The one who will judge you...is you.”
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