Nagith Chronicles: Discovery

Morning came and he went about his routine, mustering up his courage for what was to come. He would wait until after Tensombrek’s breakfast, during that lull in the day when he amused himself with various substances in his parlor. That usually had him in a good mood, so it would be more favorable odds. His hearts set on his objective he strode to the parlor, situating himself outside the door. His master should be inside already, now all he had to do was wait. Then he would enter, excuse his interruption as humbly as possible, and ask.

It seemed so easy in his head, it even seemed easy to just stand there, but his pulse was racing. The thought of answers excited him but the thought of what Tensombrek’s reaction might be was…nerve-inducing, to say the least. His hands were trembling a bit; he clenched them. He had made his choice, for better or for worse, he was going to do this. The potential gain was far more appealing than the threat of pain was- well, threatening. He composed himself, took a deep breathe, and entered the room.

“Lord Tensombrek?”

“Hm?”

He made sure not to look at his master’s eyes, rather focused his gaze on his mouth to show that he was paying attention to him.

“Forgive me for the interruption, Master, but there is something I would ask of you.” He said, repeating each word perfectly from the script he had concocted in his head.

“Is there? Very well then, you may speak.”

Charin blinked, surprised by his good fortune. Perhaps he had been wise to time his visit so, if the empty syringe beside his master was any indication. Quickly he continued, lest he curry impatience in his lord.

“If I may ask, Master, why is it you have us investigating the other world?”

Almost immediately the situation tensed. Tensombrek’s mouth tightened, his feathers began to writhe and creep up along the chair on which he lounged, their edges sleek and sharp.

“You may not ask.”

Such a sharp dismissal though, he hadn’t quite prepared for. Nonetheless, he steeled his resolve and pressed.

“Master, what is the information for? If you would tell us what exactly you wanted to learn, or what you wanted to use the studies for, it would be easier for us to deliver what you-“

“It’s not important.” He cut in sharply, scowling. “I told you that you were not permitted to ask. Now hold your tongue and leave.”

“I-“ Charin hesitated, then frowned. “Master. If it’s not important, then why have us do it? If it’s not important then why can’t you tell me? Wouldn’t it make more sense if-“

“Have you gone deaf, brat?” Tensombrek got to his feet, his tendrils twisting about. “I told you all that you have any need to know. Now remember your place and beg my pardon, or I’ll have your apology wrenched from your beaten hide.”

“Master! It doesn’t make sense!” Charin snapped. “If you made the worlds why do you need to know about them?! Did you not make that one?! How is that possible? You said you made everything! If you didn’t make it, where did it come from? Why is it there? Why do you care about it if it’s not yours?!”

“You are out of line, whelp!” Tensombrek snapped, his feathers arching like vipers. “I tell you what is! You listen, you obey, that is the extent of it! How dare you doubt me! How dare you-!”

“So is it like me, then?!” Charin shouted, unable to hold back his most pressing of questions. “Is it something you didn’t make?! I refuse to believe it’s just a fluke, nothing that beautiful can just be a mistake! I refuse to believe it doesn’t mean anything! I- I….I refuse to believe I don’t mean anything!”

Dead silence, dead stillness, Tensombrek’s swaying tendrils froze in place and Charin wasn’t even sure if he was still breathing. For a second, maybe two, Charin was convinced he was about to die. The stagnation only made his master’s malice even more prominent.

“Let me show you something.”

The room went dark.

Then, suddenly, a light. A tiny light, floating before him. Then another flickered up, then another, then countless ones rippled into existence. Charin’s eyes widened, withdrawing back in his shock. The room- or wherever they were now, flickered into innumerable lights and specks. Directly before him, hovered one in particular. A small sphere, blue, white and green. Slowly turning before him. He gaped, cautiously putting his hands on either side of it, cradling it in his hands.

“What is this?” he asked in nothing more than a whisper.

He stared, eyes wide, hands cupped gently around the floating blue and white sphere.

“That’s it. That’s all it is. That little speck is the world you’ve obsessed yourself with.” came the curt reply.

Charin’s eyes widened even moreso, whipping his head over his shoulder to stare at his master.

“This-?”

“Do you see know? How pathetic it is? How insignificant? Look around, you see that?”

A feathery tendril gestured in the direction of the small light, Charin staring at it in turn. It was too bright to look at it directly yet-

“That’s the ‘sun’. That’s that burning light you always see there. Those other little specks? Other worlds like that dust particle you’ve enamored yourself with.” His voice lowered. “Have I put it in perspective for you yet?”

Charin stared at the burning light, the other tiny pebbles of worlds, then looked out and saw even more of them- yet so few, so sparse. There were other things he could see, further out, but from where he was it all seemed so....empty.

“It’s...small,” he said simply, dumbfounded. “Everything outside it is so....”

“There’s emptiness. There is nothing. Do you get it?”

The little blue orb drastically shrank before his eyes, the sun, the other worlds all disappearing from his sight and suddenly a small glittering mass was in his hands.

“What-?”

“That’s the group of suns that world is in. You can’t even see that world now, you can’t see where it might be, you can’t even pick out a single sun. Much less that small, cripplingly mediocre one that you’ve adored so much. Now look around, tell me, Charin, what do you see? Do you see the pattern here?”

He trembled and did as he was told, seeing again, masses like the one he had shimmering bleakly in the void, so far away from each other, so few compared to the expanse they inhabited.

“There are worlds in every single one of these, and you know what, Charin? For the most part they’re nothing but stone, ice and clouds. Vapors. They’re so piteously insignificant.”

“Others...so are there others like that place? Others with animals and plants and-”

“It doesn’t matter.” he snapped, his feathers twisting and sharpening. “Do you not understand? You’re not the fool you make yourself to be. Even if there is, it doesn’t matter. They’re pathetic, tiny! Look around! Do you think any of them will ever be able to cross this to even meet!?”

It was so very dark, so very empty, so very lonely. The space between one world and the next was almost impossible for him to comprehend but between these? Between.....

“It’s futile, Charin. That’s the point. Every single world is nothing even compared to nothing. They don’t matter. None of it does. It’s all just a fleeting little trend. So get over it.”

Charin said nothing, staring at the cluster of suns he held, his expression blank.

“...Now let’s go.”

He didn’t respond.

“You’ve already tried my patience, Charin. I said let’s go. Do you still not understand this simple concept?”

“Simple....” he murmured.

Tensombrek began to speak and Charin’s shoulders tremble, a half-smirk cracking his lips.

“So much beauty can be crammed into such a little thing? That’s amazing.”

A bladed tendril slashed across his face. Charin let out a shout of pain, gripping the bleeding gash over his nose. The ‘room’, or the space, whatever it was they inhabited, went black. The many suns and their clouds disappeared, he could see nothing. All he could do was feel when Tensombrek’s feather, ever fiber like a needle, lashed around his throat, digging into his skin. He would have let loose another shriek of pain but the tendril constricted his throat, choking him, and suddenly his feet dangled in the air, no longer touching the ground- was there even ground, anymore? He couldn’t tell, he couldn’t see, he couldn’t even feel anything-

“I suppose it’s no wonder why you’re so enamored with that world, Charin.” Came Tensombrek’s voice, at once a sound and not a sound at all.

The feather tightened.

It’s a mistake. Just like you.

Charin struggled weakly, attempting to dig his fingers between the feather and the flesh of his neck. On reflex he scaled up his neck and his fingers, attempting to gain some protection against the piercing blades of the feather. He already could not see anything, so it was hard for him to pinpoint exactly when it was he had lost consciousness.

The first thing he became aware of was a trickle of water over his lips. He took a sharp intake of breath and then immediately choked on the fluid. A large hand patted his back as he stabilized, taking in his surroundings. It was his room, his bed, bandages were wrapped around his neck and face…

“I warned you this would happen, Charin.”

Malochite did not wait to hear him respond; he simply turned back to the pitcher of water, the jug comically miniscule in his large hands. Charin blinked the grogginess away from his eyes, then tried to turn his head only to be halted by a sharp pain. Right, his neck, how could he forget something like that? He settled for laying back down. Pillows had been propped up against the headboard, so he couldn’t recline back all the way and instead settled into a sitting position.

“Drink, it will help.” Malochite said.

Charin opened his mouth to respond and was cut off with another cup of water shoved to his mouth. He gagged a second before settling for drinking up, wincing slightly with every swallow. Once he had drained the vessel Malochite set the cup aside, busying himself with what appeared to be used bandages.

“What happened?” Charin asked.

“You should be grateful he decided to spare you, Charin. He is very angry with you, I suggest you tread carefully from now on.”

“Thanks, that was informative,” he muttered, gingerly rubbing his neck.

“I need not be ‘informative’ I merely must tell you what is necessary. If you desire to keep living, you must obey.”

Charin sighed, closing his eyes again. That turned out to be a mistake, given the second he had done so his head began to pound. With a groan, he pried his eyes open again, rubbing his temple. He was genuinely surprised that he was still alive after that. The boss had been more angry than he had ever seen him, and he had seen people die over lesser offenses. He shifted onto his side, staring out across the empty side of his room. A mistake…was that what he was? A mistake, but Tensombrek had also called that world, the expanse of worlds, a ‘mistake’. So perhaps, he was a mistake, but maybe that meant there was more to him than he used to think.