Did I See Wrong? Or Have I Finally Gone Mad?
Did I see it wrong? Have I finally lost my mind? Or maybe this place is... honestly, I've doubted it once, no, twice. Maybe even three times more... I've even wondered if I've become some cliché brain in a vat, where all this is someone's coding, or advanced 22nd- or 23rd-century VR tech from an edme future that revived just my brain. I slowly looked around, half-convinced it might be true, but everyone had their mouths agape, staring at the lake just like me. Thank heavens it wasn't. 'I'm really reborn in this land.' The relief of that thought was ridiculous, yet it immediately gave way to the question: then what the hell is this phenomenon?
"What the..." They say when you're too flustered, a random fragment of your swirling thoughts slips out unbidden. That was me right now. No time to worry about what I was blurting—I was too busy scanning my surroundings frantically.
But as I looked closely, something was off. Around the lake, which shimmered faintly and sent up beams of light like wisps of wind, fireflies fluttered, dust motes hung suspended, and people with mouths wide in shock stood frozen in place, as if the world had iced over in an instant.
'Guinevere.' My woman's form, instinctively sought, was frozen too—just as she'd been. This inexplicable phenomenon had halted her mid-stride, her face etched with worry as she gazed right at me, the person closest to the glowing lake, poised to rush forward at any moment.
And seeing Guinevere like that filled me with rage. Fear that this madness might harm her fueled an instant fury. My chest boiled like lava, screaming to whip my head around and charge the lake. This warrior-born body never stopped fighting, even when the world halted—it sought battle by instinct. And I gladly embraced the raw power of that crimson anger.
'Move!' My head turned easily enough, but the arm dipped in the lake refused, as if it weren't mine. It felt like a thousand, ten thousand pounds of weights pinned my body, but I summoned a force that threatened to burst me apart and finally twitched my fingers.
The frozen world's ripples stirred slightly, and soon the blue light engulfing everything swallowed me whole.
"...!" With even the last shred of control over my body stripped away, my mind delved into someone else's memories. A consciousness not my own seized my soul and unfolded its recollections. A grip so unyielding, so ancient. My soul shrank endlessly, my mind teetering on oblivion, but it held me fast, lifted me, and paraded the flow of eons before my eyes without omission.
It began in silent darkness, then some colossal event. Orbs scattered like marbles across the expanding void, endlessly colliding and rebounding along the swelling space. When the vast cosmos was far younger and smaller, this world was entirely crimson.
Orbs from distant space crashed ceaselessly into the land, forming a sea of blood-red light that became the sky itself. Beneath it, the roiling earth spewed scarlet lava, and the crimson world raged in endless fury, clashing without cease. Eons passed uncountable. As the cosmic orbs that devoured and fled one another settled into orbits, astonishingly, in one corner of land, sea, and sky, something called life emerged.
The hand gripping my soul's cheek drew that life closer. It resembled a bizarre worm or perhaps a simple fungus. Soon, the first specimen spawned countless likenesses, using light as fuel, the sea as home, multiplying endlessly. Like sky, earth, and sea merging and parting, male and female roles arose. Breathing, they gradually turned the red skies and seas blue through their respiration. Eons flowed as life, born from one, evolved into myriad forms, filling the stabilized surface.
Several times, late-arriving meteors from deep space struck, extinguishing countless lives. Continents shifted subtly, shorelines changed, temperatures rose and fell, altering winds and atmospheres. The world spun like a top around its great sun, occasionally wobbling, reshaping environments. Each time, bizarre lifeforms perished en masse. Though extinctions abounded, survivors endured by any means.
Witnessing this arduous saga, my soul, guided by the gentle hand, sat by a small campfire. Around it, turning, were beings like me—yet distinctly different, human-like, gathered in a circle, all vocalizing with round mouths.
[Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!]
[Ooo! Ah! Ooo!] Not quite human speech—more beastly cries. For hunting, eating, sleeping, living, dying. Simple matters of life and death. Yet astonishingly, those basic sounds conveyed the same emotion: faith. A transcendent belief, a devotion to revere something higher.
Ooo! Ooo! Ooo! Eyes flickering by firelight slowly transformed. Raw meat that took all day to chew became roasted. Flat, round heads grew larger, protruding forward. Finally, faces familiar to me—human faces—emerged. They gathered, now speaking true human tongues. I couldn't grasp the exact words, but I knew they had grammar, tone, vocabulary, sentences. Language grew richer, more complex, yet still they spoke of faith.
Unlike ancestors whose eyes sparkled at the fire, now we offered sacrifices, prayed for specifics—victory. Victory over all else on this land. And willingly, the hand clutching my soul stroked my cheek, nodding beside me as we watched. Willingly, for your sake. Protected, blessed ones advanced bravely, crushing myriad foes. Brutal, merciless wars raged across unimaginable time against those human-like but distinctly other—other human kindred.
Slaughter upon slaughter, sometimes merging. At the end of that endless ordeal, only one human strain survived. They were us—my ancestors, the first to summon and enshrine the being now caressing my soul.
Beyond faint echoes of triumphant cheers, the gentle hand guided my gaze onward through rippling ages. Humanity prospered. Triumphed! An unbroken chain of victories for the species. They tilled soil, read seasons from the skies. Yet gradually, the entity awakened by ancient kin—the one now showing me all this—faded from memory.
From one origin, spreading to the world's ends, time eroded the legend. People named it variously: sea god, river goddess, lake spirit. Wherever humans lived, water flowed, and its first manifestation was by a humble spring beside a blizzard-fueled campfire. Shores naturally became founts of its worship.
Even those myriad names twisted to suit human tyrants' tastes. Descendants who once communed with it lost the way, their innate senses atrophying. No longer needed for mankind's struggles, it was forgotten. Eons passed. Last glimpses of radiant human faces, then the entity sank into profound darkness, deep slumber.
In a void of utter darkness and silence, a faint sound stirred. Fully immersed in this entity's consciousness and memories, I sensed familiarity in that presence. Heavy eyelids lifted slowly; a single thread of dim light pierced the black expanse. The consciousness surged toward it with terrifying speed.
When it first awoke, aware of self, it had chased such light from darkness. Then it beheld humans by the fire—and ever after, nurtured them. Was this similar? Not in human words, but soul-felt thoughts rippled: concern, anticipation. Vast emotions words couldn't capture. Reaching the light, it found... my younger self from childhood.
Around my floating infant form in the dark, faint light waned. Gently, it extended a hand—as when first humans forged it from faith by the flames. Cautiously, like handling the world's peerless treasure, fragile beyond measure. A finger touched my childish cheek. Sharing its consciousness, I felt every emotion it harbored then: immense gratitude, joy. Pure, unadulterated. A desperate, obsessive love akin only to a parent's blind devotion.
My cheek-pricked child-self twitched. The black world rippled; my dim light pulsed strongly. Heartbeat waves bleached the dark ripples white. Like a devout worshipper, it extended countless arms, lifting my tiny body slowly upward. Crossing the boundary with the amniotic fluid enveloping me, we entered this world—thus I was born.
"..."
Faint at first, the majestic music swelling to fill all ended. The hand on my cheek slid to my forehead. Then meaning flowed. What I'd thought wordless melody was this entity's message to me.
Fear not. I am the first flame that nurtured you all, and the waterway.
"..." As the lake's light, whiting out the world at its peak, slowly ebbed, frozen dust motes began drifting down or up again. Sinking, scattering.
I shall blaze once more willingly. You have not forgotten the first promise. Nor shall you or your children. Behold, the token thus.
The lake's glow faded to less than fireflies, and sounds returned: Guinevere's hurrying footsteps, my subordinates', people's astonished cries. But my eyes were fixed, unblinking. In the dreamlike, mystical light's wake, at the lake's center where none should be, a small rock protruded. Thrust upside-down into its heart was a sword immense beyond words.