Chapter Text
Darkness.
Nothing but darkness.
Then, a spark. A fragment of life sputtering into existence. A cooperation between darkness and light, life and death, to create something so alien that all who gaze upon it are left to pick up the shards of their broken minds.
A city. Traces of civilization, leaving a gash in the natural landscape of deepslate caves. Built by nobody, inhabited by ghosts, ever abandoned. Nothing more or less than a scar of what once was – of what is – of what will be.
A grassy scent in the air; a mournful sigh for all this is.
Ruins. Streets covered in debris, walls and roofs barely standing. The wood has long since rotted, the stone bears scars of time neverending. Covered in an eternal thin layer of bioluminescent darkness.
It climbs the walls, builds bridges across stone, feeds on what little life wanders into it. The silence as poignant as the persistent darkness, a blanket of stars, its electric blue and green-ish shine shifting across it. Barely enough to be seen; not enough to illuminate anything; enough to send shivers down one’s spine as they watch eternity unfold.
A small altar; candles ever burning, a body ever dying. A grief that cannot fade.
A portal. A tall frame of reinforced deepslate, the secrets of which will never be unearthed. Once lit, twice used, always cycling through to the next moment. A set of bones lying next to it, the architect, a silent witness.
Approach the frame; you can almost hear their cries of laughter, of pain, of despair, of grief. Perhaps you even hear their voices dig into your skull, begging to be heard.
“Hey, idiots! We’re right over here!”
“Give him back! Just give him back... please...”
“It’ll be okay. Take my hand?”
“You took my buddy from me! And now you will pay.”
A world in stasis. Caught between two heartbeats. Between now, then, later; ever-present, never far. A silent witness to the tragedy of life, to the horror of heartbreak, to the atrocities that have been committed, that are committed, that will be committed.
When darkness is illuminated, terrors come alive; when the light touches walls and sculk, buildings and sensors, portal and shriekers – the world is born, lives and dies within the cavern where the ancient city resides.
Once the light had burned, it must vanish. Darkness returns. The terrors recede and fall into slumber while the darkness recuperates. The darkness remains until the light burns once more. No surprises, no change; events will unfold as they always have.
This is where our story begins and ends forevermore; in the time between light and darkness. Before and after, until what has been uncovered will be seen for the first time again.
Attend a tale of grief and sorrow.
Attend the story of the inflexibility and static nature of man.
Attend the darkness, while we await the light that will burn all.