Broken Chains

Sitting opposite each other, both Puck and Scarlet worked hard on their advancement. Puck needed to take the next step forward, while Scarlet had to reclaim what she had lost.

Observing all this was Zephyrian, who waited within Puck's soul. He was crying the efforts of the two with his newly reclaimed spirit and soul senses. Slowly, bit by bit, he too was reclaiming abilities and memories of his past.

Thinking about their little group, Zephyrian could only inwardly shake his head. They were truly unique: A formerly cowardly Gremlin unwilling to ever be bound again, a young female Gremlin with more experience than anyone her age should possibly have, and he, Zephyrian, a relic of a bygone era trying to reclaim his old glory.

Could they truly achieve something together? Would they be able to defeat the Heart of Darkness, perhaps only their first of many enemies? Zephyrian didn’t know, but he was willing to work for it.

And what he could do right now was help these two make progress. To do that, he would have to use a method he had only recently rediscovered, but it should work. Pulling on his own distant and rusty ideals, Zephyrian felt as though he were reaching out to someone who had once been his best friend but whom he hadn’t spoken to in ages. More than that, though, he wasn’t able to bear the weight of his own ideals anymore.

Once upon a time, he had been able to channel amounts of power and conviction he could only dream of today. Even though he had told Puck otherwise, it wasn’t because of Puck that they would have to wait another week before Zephyrian could try to heal him, it was because of his own inability to bear his own might.

There was a workaround, though. This time, Zephyrian wouldn’t try to use his power, he would simply release some of it and let it radiate from him to provide inspiration, conviction, and fuel for the other two. Feeling like a child fumbling with explosives, Zephyrian felt almost giddy. This wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t perfect, but he was enjoying life again, and that was all that mattered.

At first, everything went well for Scarlet. As she slowly fell into a deep meditation, she began to feel her spirit and tried to move it experimentally. It worked without problems. After that, she slowly went searching for her soul again, something she hadn’t done in years. It took some time, but eventually, she managed that too. But that was also when the problems began.

When Scarlet had visualized her soul and her ideal in the past, it had been a beautiful labyrinth filled with an endless number of secrets and dream creatures. Not anymore. When Scarlet arrived in her soul this time, she had to summon all her willpower not to flee immediately. Where before the labyrinth had held untold wonders and beauty, now it was filled with nothing but animosity and shadows lurking everywhere. Not only that, but all the dreamlike animals that had always come to her when she entered her soul now lay dead around her, mutilated to a terrifying degree by the monsters hiding in the shadows.

Around a corner in the labyrinth, she saw the foot of one of the snow foxes she had loved so much lying in a puddle of blood. For some reason, it was this particular foot, with the rest of the body hidden, that scared Scarlet the most. It felt as if the fox was still alive, slowly and inescapably being drawn to its doom while she could only watch, unable to help. She hadn’t been able to help her friends in the past, why should she be able to do anything now? Right now, she was no predator, in this moment she was only prey. Slowly, she took a first tentative step back from the corner with the fox, not daring to turn her head away from it.

As she took that step, she felt something crunch under her feet and something wet splatter against her leg. At the same time, she felt herself growing ever more distant from her own ideal as her curiosity was replaced with fear and her empathy was suppressed by the encroaching darkness.

There was still a part of her fighting, but was there even a possibility for a victory? Why did she even have the right to live when her friends had died? As Scarlet’s thoughts spiraled downward, the entire dreamworld began to become ever more horrifying. Slowly she was losing even the last grip on her ideals she had managed to maintain over the years.

That was the sad truth most of those pursuing an ideal faced at one point or another. If you lost control of your own ideal, it would morph from your greatest friend into your greatest enemy. As Scarlet was on the verge of sitting down on the bloody floor of her soul, nearly willing to give up and leave her soul never to return, she felt something.

Like a great tsunami, a wave of power, conviction, and ancientness washed through the world, through her body, through her spirit, and into her soul. With this wave came memories and emotions, along with pure, unused power from ideals, ready to be harnessed by her. More than anything, they instilled one thought into her:

“NEVER GIVE UP!”

And with that thought, Scarlet slowly stood up again, as the whole world around her quaked in great turmoil. She wouldn’t give in, especially not to herself and her own damn ideals!

Having searched for his soul for what felt like ages, Puck felt his inner vision blur from exhaustion as he grasped for the feeling that resembled his soul. So far, he hadn’t managed to fully reach it, but he had come close, and he wouldn’t stop until he had it. Then, finally, the feeling solidified, and Puck grasped it with all his might, willing himself into his own soul. With a lurch and a great twisting and spinning, Puck felt himself distancing from his body as his mind and spirit wandered off into a strange place.

Suddenly, he was floating in an endless web of creation, a great gust of wind ruffling his hair and clothes. Wanting to explore, Puck was unable to as he began to black out from exhaustion. Suddenly though, a wave of power unlike anything he had felt before went through him.

Feeling all his tiredness being washed away, Puck went on exploring and searching for his opportunity to heal.