Keeping my thoughts empty and clear of dislike for the dungeon and the Pillar of Life is simply impossible at the moment. Every time I call upon my skill to root my feet in place I remember my brief moment in the Astral. I remembered that feeling of hopelessness as my mind wasn't my own. I feel all that hate directed at my family.
With my head overflowing with these thoughts I only get a fifth of the way across before the floor is moveing faster under my feet than I can jog. So I stomp down and deploy my makeshift roots.
CREEEEAK!
Like a wench thrown in to an engine my momentum stops dead. Silver Grass flows past my feet like water in a rather mexmorizing display. Using my astral mass to feel around I'm startled to find the grass is literally gliding along the wooden floor I'm now fastened to.
Putting the magical view aside i start stomping my way forward. It's only as I reach the halfway mark that something changes. The grass once short and soft begins growing longer, and changes from silver to a more corse gray. Sanding still for a moment I find the grass swaying twords me and Is now moving at a dizzying pace away from my destination.
From there on every step forward the grass starts growing a quarter inch longer. Sooner than I'd like i find myself waist deep in a roiling field that's trying to drag me back words!
"How you holding on Ghost?…Ghost!"
"Im fine! You don't need to shout…just…keep going forward." She sounds calm and excited. We are almost there…
Redoubling my efforts I keep stopping forward. Not even stopping as my field of view is eclipsed. It's only then that I start feeling a different kind of resistance. An odd reluctance to move forward.
I have no faith, no desire to serve our protect nature. So why am I here? Why must I defile this trial? Why can't I just turn around and leave?…
" BECAUSE I DIDN'T COME IN THE FRONT DOOR! I don't want to take this test! Turning around means being trapped in this defective dungeon until someone else comes along to and clears it! But even that's just a vague hope!" My out burst does nothing to remove the invasive thoughts. Turn around, Stop, rest, seek faith, forgive the Mother, just go home. My head starts throbbing in pain. All I can see is a gray tangle rushing past me. Mechanically I stomp my foot forward again and again until my skill shudders refusing to activate.
"WHAT!" In surprise my feet come undone from the floor causing me to fold against the tide and be dragged backwards several feet before with a painful internal twist I bind myself back and in place on all fours.
STOP,TURN AROUND, GIVE UP, GO AWAY, FIND FAITH.
"NO!" Forcing myself into a crawl I push forward again this time looking inward at my skill. Around my center a resistant film has begun to form? A tangle of half formed …faith, born of thoughtless plants is slowly coiling around my center cutting off my connection to my Skils…fighting against my every step not enough? Is clouding my mind not sufficient? Even my skills and sorce of magic in this new world are being attacked!
"Well fuck you too." Withdrawaling all my force before my center closes I hold it bundled loosely in my chest like a fraying ball of yarn. My next step is shaky as my skill has stopped helping me create the roots. But i must be close, right?
Little bit by little bit I crawl, and slowly what was once me mimicking roots changes to resemble barbed wire. I don't need permanent, all I need is sturdy. My speed increases as my reserves of Force run thin and my center closes up completely, as if it were never there.
Unable to see past the roiling gray unable to feel my magic sorce anymore, a memory hits me. An echo of the last time I had to crawl through an endless grey path.
-
"Just to confirm Miss Lock, you would infact like for for us to.." sounds of ruffling papers." Misplace young •••?"Misplace?
A voice that sounds far to sweet blasts out of the nurses old Nokia phone." DONT PUT WORDS INTO MY MOUTH! I SAID TAKE CARE OF HIM!"Aunty?
"Dose this care your paying for include him being taken care of with extreme caution, or brief dedication…"I'm… in hospital?
"Just take care of him and do what it says on the contract! I don't want to hear from you again! I don't need people blabbing about what happened to that broken boy!"
Right… my leg… it's falling apart.
"Right, under stood miss, we'll handle him and ensure his condition is no longer a burden on your family." The nurse sounds so tired…good.
"Good! Then you won't contact me again?" Glancing around the room my cot is in I see a damaged vent near the floor.
"Not unless som-" I heave myself over the bed rail just as I hear the shouting begin.
"THEN YOU WONT CONTACT ME AGAIN!" Crawling along the floor with my bound up arms I jimmy of the vent cover off.
"…Yes Miss. We won't contact you again." With a grunt and a shove with my one good leg I slip into the vent. Silently chucking at how I've saved the nursing staff the trouble of 'Missplacing me' this time…though Aunty will certainly be surprised once I find my away back home again.
-
Clawing into the grass my Spirit spreads out around me in a barbed weave. Briefly bringing the roiling field to a standstill. A sense of pain fills my head as I'm left panting from the unpleasant memories. Something slams against the barrier of simple faith around my center as a name settles in my mind. "Lock?" Bind rattles happily in my center resonating with the name and abruptly stoping the internal unrest.
With familiar motion's I drag myself froward until I'm laying on a bare wooden slope that leads down to the next floor.
[Congratulations aspiring Acolytes, as you have completed the test of Faith… WHAT DID YOU-!]
[Assigning Acolyte Profession••• incompatible-Core unformed-Faith nonexistent-Pillar Interface Dey- ]
[ You Asspireing Acolyte of Life have successfully passed the Trial of Faith. To repay your belief the Saint Malady offers one of 3 rewards. Please check your status book to see the potential options.]
leaning back against the wall I close my eyes suddenly feeling more grounded as my family name resettles inside my mind.