Marind Fable #1

[Tarquinus]

[b]Author's Note - make sure you have read the [url="http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/topic/5476-story-night-disclaimer/page__view__findpost__p__45929"]Story Night Disclaimer[/url] before you read any legends. -Keith [/b]

What you are about to hear never happened, but it is true. Whether you believe it or not does not matter. If you listen with an open mind and an open heart you may perceive such wisdom as applies to you.

Once in the land of MagicDuel there was a girl named Marind. She was a beautiful girl with a melodious voice; she had a knack for getting everything she wanted, and was very spoiled. She was also very talented, and at an early age showed the potential to become the greatest sorceress who ever lived. When an indiscreet tutor told her the extent of her talent, she became consumed by the ambition for power.

By adolescence Marind had already mastered all the magical secrets of Loreroot, Necrovion, and Golemus Golemicarum. She could change the map of her world to her will; she could create beings from air, dust, and water; and she could destroy a thing utterly with a glance. But these wondrous powers were not enough for her, and her ambition burned brightly inside her for more.

She cast her powers beyond the realm of MagicDuel, and discovered other worlds. She met the goddess Athena, who taught her tactics, the rule of law, and subtle magic. She met the wizard Merlin, who taught her the resonance between all things that live and die, and the cycle of power that leads to greatness, and the cycle of shame that leads to suffering. She met the god Nyarlathotep, who taught her much of betrayal, cosmic order, and Ultimate Truth. And then she met a being unlike any other she had yet encountered: Dream.

Dream showed Marind that all worlds and all powers, possible and impossible alike, existed in his domain. When she mastered the secrets of one cosmos, he could show her another: and never was her thirst for knowledge and power quenched, for each new answer raised new questions, and each new world implied the existence of another. Marind greedily consumed the knowledge Dream provided her, and her powers grew beyond the understanding of mortal beings, and she became an entity before whom gods trembled.

It came to pass that Marind sought her roots, and sifted through the millions of universes Dream had showed her, looking for the place whence she had come. But so many were alike, and so many seemed familiar, that she found she could no longer recall where she had begun. And then, in a shadow realm among many others like it, she encountered the ghost of a young woman trapped in a wooden box. And she asked the woman, “Who are you?” because the woman seemed familiar, though Marind could not say exactly how or why. And the woman replied, “I am the ghost of Marind, slain at the height of my beauty. Who are you, before whom even gods tremble?”

And Marind could not remember her name, or her purpose, or say for what reason she had amassed so much cosmic knowledge and power. She passed into the deepest depths of Dream’s realm, where even gods may not go, and became a force of the interlaced relations whence all things originate and whither all things must end. But her ghost remained in the cube, beckoning to travelers in the realm of Dream, challenging them with a mystery and instructing them in the paths of knowledge.

And this much is given us to understand.

Edited October 28, 2009 by Tarquinus

[Fenrir Greycloth]

I really really really liked this. It is a shame I missed it. Bravo. *claps*

[Chad]

Brilliantly well composed. The writer really knows how to present proper patters and presentation with a knowledge of choosing the right and great words. Very well indeed.