The Darkness

Well, I don't really know what I should write about this time, so I think I'll settle for improvising a random story, or some other kind of messy scripture (it probably won't make much sense), for fun. Let's see what horrible kind of fiction we'll end up with... (Music mode: on).













This tale begins alike many others, a long time ago, in a distant, dark place. As far as everyone knew, the mentioned place had always been surrounded by darkness. No one really knew why anymore, but there had to be a reason, right? At least that is what a young traveller named Lucis Quaesitor thought.

The now almost grown up boy had heard of this lightless part of the world already when he had been a small kid. Many upon many a tale had been told, and sometimes even sung about this place. Of course, the place had to have a name. And it naturally had to be a name as twisted as the area itself. No one really knew what the dark lands had initially been called, but at some time a name had emerged, the palce was called Extortus.

Legend goes that Exortus means something very dismal in an ancient, forever forgotten language. Lucis had travelled very far from home - too far, some might argue - and was now on the brim between daylight and dakness; he had reached Exortus. He had been warned by many, them saying that under no circumstances should he enter the darkness before him. Stubborn as Lucis was, he had ignored anyone that had tried to convince him from going in to the place that lacked light.

Apart from being a traveller, Lucis liked to perceive himself as an explorer. "The Explorer of Exortus"... The title clanged well inside the head of the boy. The brave explorer, willing to take to drastic measures in order to find out about the truth behid ancient secrets.

Lucis had travelled to Exortus on foot, since no animal would dare go near the place, but that didn't scare the unfearing explorer, why would it? The darkness could easily be seen from miles away. It looked like a gigantic, gloomy cloud that had for some reason decided to stick to a single area. The interesting thing was that the cloudy darkness woudn't move at all. It was located in the middle of a relatively small desert, and one could occasionally see sand flying around the air, with the wind, but the bleak mist remained immobile.

There were several myths about people that had entered the darkness before Lucis had, but the stories didn't turn out the way you'd expect them to. Usually in these kinds of legends, the people that had entered the fog would have never returned, at least not alive, or in the best case scenario, they would return mentally ill. No, the stories were of a different kind indeed. Not only would most of the people that had entered the darkness returned, but they had come back as something more than they used to be. They were said to have gained the power and the knowledge of the ancients.

Lucis had never really understood why people were so fearful of this place. It's not that much unlike being scared of the dark. And dreading the unknown is supposed to be a bad thing, right? Lucis had stood waiting at the edge between reality and the unexplainable long enough in his opinion. It's not like he had been doubting his intention. There question had never been between Lucis entering or not, so enter he did.

Lucis took his first step into the dark mist, and just as he had expected, he wasn't able to see anything. He had been prepared for this possibility, though only mentally, this is to say, Lucis hadn't brought a source of light. What was more unexpected, was that the fog didn't feel like anything at all. You'd think that the cloudy substance would feel cold or so towards the skin, but it's like it didn't even exist, except in his own mind. at least, this was the case at first...

As Lucis proceeded navigating blindly through the mist, he began feeling a certain weight on his shoulders. He soon came to realize that the further he went into the darkness, the more exhausting continuing became. This made him wonder if going back would give him more energy instead, but he didn't have time for trying. Actually, Lucis had all the time in the world, the real reason as to why he wanted to continue deeper into the darkness was that there was some kind of a drawing force, a force that wouldn't allow him to go back. Whether that was just an imagination, or reality was unclear to our hero.

So as it was, Lucis simply kept on walking, and walking, for what seemed like eternity, or if possible even longer. Lucis had entirely lost grip of the time. He could have been inside of the cloud for minutes, as well as he could have been in it for days. It was at this point that Lucis realized that something odd must be occurring. Not being able to see the difference between minutes and days is not normal even in times of severe confusion. This darkness was surely keeping a mysterious force within it.

Lucis couldn't recall having been this tired ever before in the time of his life. At some point, he began crawling insted for walking, and he felt dry as sand, both on the inside of his body, as on the outside. Still, this was no normal lack of humidity. As dry as he felt, Lucis didn't really feel a real craving for liquid. However, he felt like he was about to faint.

Just as the light was about do disappear form his eyes - well, it would, hadn't everything around him been pitch black already -, light began to appear around him. In an instant, Lucis had ragained part of his lost energy. Yet, he was even more confounded than earlier.

As his eyes slowly began to adapt to the light, Lucis was able to make out some shapes around him. His best guess was that he had managed to reach the eye of the mist; the center of the darkness. Still, he was surrounded by the dark, there was simply a small area, with a radius of maybe 5 meters that vas visible around Lucis. He couldn't see anything but darkness if he looked straight upwards, and although there was light, there seemed to be no source of it, thus there were no additinonal shadows, apart from the darkness surrounding Lucis. The setup was to say the least, unsettling.

There seemed to be a large object, in the very centre of the center. As he became able to see more and more, Lucis began to see a certain movement in the object. Brave as he was, this still managed to scare Lucius beyond comprehenshion. It took several seconds for him to realize that what had moved, had been himself. That's right, in the very middle of it all, was for no apparent reason, a gigantic mirror. The dark figure that had moved had been nothing but a reflection of himself. Or this is what Lucis at first thought...

Upon studing the mirror more closely, Lucis noticed something that made his heart bumb across his chest... The reflection didn't move similarly to Lucis, but it seemed to move however it itself wanted to. Another odd thing was that the reflection lacked color, it was simply a dark shadow, with the same proportions as lucis.

Lucis gathered all the courage he had left, and tried talking to the mirror.

"Hello? Can you hear me?"


At first, there was no answer. It was not before this point that Lucis began to think that entering the dark mist mightn't have been the brightest ide that he'd had. He didn't have time to think much else, since upon that followed the reflections answer.

"Why do you think that I, the one who led you here, could not have heard you. I have waited for someone new to appear here for more than a century".


Lucis heart was now pumping blood through his veins at speeds he hadn't before thought were possible.

"Who are you then?", asked Lucis.


"I, am the very last of a species that your people call the ancients", replied the shadow in the mirror.


This was something that Lucis Quaesitor had never been able to believe no matter who would had told him. He wasn't even afraid anymore, simply astonished.

"An ancient still alive? Why that is magnificent news! There's so much that I wish to know, and you if anyone should be able to give me the answers!"


There was a slight pause, almost like the ancient took a moment to think.

"So it is wisdom that you seek?"


"Yes! Yes, it is! I wish to gain knowledge of so many things. For instance, is it true that people have stepped into this place earlier, and that they've returned more glorious than ever?"


The shady reflection let out a weird sound, and it sounded almost as though it was laughing.

"In a way, I guess you could say so. Is this something that you wish for yourself?"


"Oh please! That would be an honor!", answered Lucis, too into the moment to realize what he was getting into.

"Thank you, permisson was all that I needed", said the ancient.



Suddenly, everything around Lucis began to twist and turn, his whole reality being turned upside down. It felt almost like travelig at an extremely high speed. Then, everything became black.











At first, when Lucis awoke, he thought he was back in the darkness. He figured that he was probably supposed to walk away the same way that he came from. the problem was that Lucis had no sense of direction at this point. But if he just kept walkin forward in a straight line, he should eventually be able to exit the darkness. The weird thing was that Lucis didn't really feel any different. The ancient had promised him new powers, but he couldn't feel any of them.

This time, the walk was easy, and it didn't take too long for Lucis to reach something, it was what he reached that was terrifying. He began to see some stripes of light in front of him, and he walked towards them. Suddenly, he came to a stop. Not because he wanted to, but because he hit something seemingly invisible.

As he recovered from the slight blow, he saw something very unpleasing. He was staring back into the centre of the black fog! It was only now that he realized, this time, Lucis was on the other side of the mirror.

Lucis tried running back, but after only a few steps, he hit another invisible wall, the same happened with the two other dirsctions. Lucis heart dropped when he realized that he was fully stuck; unable make an escape anywhere. And right as he began wondering why this was, he looked down.

Written there, with a large red text, there simply stood:

"Thank you for this new vessel".







What Lucis never realized, was that the people whom had returned from the darkness as something more than themselves, were not themselves anymore.

Never enter the darkness.

























Okay, so that was my very weird and messy story, fully improvised in less than two hours. It will probably be full of grammatical errors, and other faults, but I think I'll refrain from correcting them; that would be tampering with the improvisation!!! (you got me, I'm lazy)...

I'm utterly sorry if I managed to bore you to death with this über-weird story thingy.

still, I'd be happy if you made some kind of a comment about it!






Now, it's time for music!


I wrote a short (40 sec) fanfare a bit more than a week ago. I'm planning on making it longer and better at some point, but if that ever happens remains to be seen. However, you can listen to the current version here:


Fanfareium (yourlisten.com).



It contains several high notes, with instruments that are not supposed to play that high notes... So some of you mightn't like it for that. Otherwise I think it sounds quite funny :P





That will be all for tonight.

Remember: whatever happens, you should under no circumstances enter the darkness.