The world had changed already. Most people won't have noticed at all, wrapped up as they were in their own petty issues. This man however had spent enough time regarding the minute mysteries of the world to see the difference now.
It began with his initial forays into meditation. When he lit the candle, the rest of the world shimmered and dimmed, slightly out of focus. All that mattered in those next minutes was the flame, multifaceted, and the charring light of its core. It was much like a crystal whose color and shape gleamed and changed continuously without rotation. A mirror, placed beyond the candle flame, and angled so as not to reflect his own face, acted as a good viewing surface. When he had perfected the setup of his meditation space, the mirror showed a pure dark blankness. Not complete darkness in the slight rectangle, but rather a flat constant tone that was just the barest touch lighter than the space around it.
In his meditations with the mirror and the candle, he often saw visions. He had taken this for a natural part of the process, but was disturbed by some of them in particular. Though not initially one given to premonition, sessions involving sights of barren landscapes and widespread hardships gave him cause for concern through their persistence. He had little faith in the clarity of his abilities, but some bad future was on its way. He saw trees bereft of leaves and twisting in high winds. He saw ponds and even rivers coated in ice, their entire surfaces somehow frozen over. In one vision he walked out through drifts of cold white sand, with ash falling from a darkened sky. He came across a frozen pool and was shocked to see a fish suspended in the ice, its mouth open as if gasping for a last breath. These visions always left him chilled to the bone and with a feeling of forewarning. He knew though if such an apocalypse was coming there would be little he could do on his own to stop it.
The favored scholarly places of knowledge and study did not seem to savor his practices, but then again his family had always been on the outcast side of society. They had, in fact, excellent reputation and connections, but none with the parts of society that had come to publicly guide the local communities. Positions of power were relative, and some more visible than others. Throughout his upbringing he had considered the idea that official acceptance of your status means little unless you can back it up with might of reason or the reason of might. Whatever his force of power in the community, there had been no ears for his prophetic concerns. He was often deemed too inexperienced in his arts or unaware of the science he was exploring, the understanding of which would show the error of his ways. At worst he was considered unstable and sent from the halls in ridicule. If there was any truth to his visions, those favored scholars would not have warning from him.
So he endeavored to leave this domain behind. He would endeavor to create, and move through a portal to a different plane, most likely (and hopefully) somewhat parallel to this one. It was not the sheer possibility of this undertaking that hindered his efforts, but only the amount of power required. He was an adept meditator, and could even use darkness bound to his awareness for benefit, but could not nearly approach the concentration needed to open a true portal. He had traveled to the Queen City metropolis and visited dark temples hoping to find wisdom, but they were too obsessed with their own cultist fantasies. He had traveled all around the valley regions, even along the shore of the great lake, seeking powerful places of energy. Any time he found a spot, he would try again, meditating on the candle flame in his darkened tent.
He found in his travels small nexuses of energy, slightly unbound from their surrounding landscape, and with exponential concentrations of power. Some of these he had consumed, like rare dazzling mushrooms. The effects were incredible, and the meditations immediately after consumption of one of these “nexus-flowers” had been some of his most productive and vibrant. Their effects only lasted briefly though, and he would return to searching the region again. His meditations changed their focus to the conjuring or summoning of a powerful nexus specifically for his use. If he could create a large enough one, it could perhaps become a fuel source for his inter-dimensional travel.
The visions had changed again lately too. This time colors had come in more often, unrelated and swirling around the sides of the frame, sometimes behaving in curious manners. Red-orange, and blue-purple mainly showed, with the purple seeming to grow a little stronger over time. There was also the face of a specific girl. Faces were not uncommon in his visions, but this one was different. It looked at him with a defiant and accusatory expression that unnerved him. He knew nothing about her, but she seemed to challenge him. Whatever the reason she could have, he didn't like her appearance in the mirror one bit.
Imagine then his feelings when suddenly this girl was there, in his sanctum. How she had come all the way into his personal space was baffling. The tent had been set up in a darkened side alley in a small township near the base of the mountains. As always, he had chosen the spot to be unobtrusive and relatively private given the circumstances. Indeed, he had even chosen the darkest spot on the lane, and set the tent back among the bushes relative to the rest of the seedy shops on the street. The doorway had been covered with an old tapestry which, though a powerful object in its own right, certainly didn't look inviting to the layperson in its incredibly faded state. And yet, here she was, wandering into his meditation again. That he had failed in capturing her only gave more credence to the theory that she was somehow related to his goal. She clearly had power, perhaps enough for what he needed. It had almost been within his grasp.
Now after the confrontation he had a lot of things to consider. The world of his work had opened up wide and now admitted a host of questions and possible new routes to progress. The meditation had seemed almost successful; that red-orange flash had manifested in real space. Could that have been the fruits of his nexus-conjuring efforts? It had broken the mirror though, which meant he would have to use a stronger scrying material going forward.
He swept up the broken glass thoroughly and notified some of his more trusted men to keep an eye on the girl so he might find her again. It had almost seemed that she herself was going to step right through to somewhere else, but then the spell had broken. Who was this person to be so immediately powerful? He had a brief thought that she was the red-orange light, but immediately dismissed it. The nexuses were never conscious beings, and if they ever gained that sort of awareness he shuddered to think of what would happen to the balance of the world.
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