A tale from beyond
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…hurt...
It all began with a stinging pain. Acid had cut through her protection, the arrow stuck in her shoulder, but it was no longer only the punctual hurt of a sharpened shaft of wood. Something inside her began to dissolve, there was no resolve left in her arm. And although that moment seemed to stretch forever, it was also over much too soon. The pain grew in her shoulder, then something found a way under the plates of her leg. Pain exploded in her knee, the world drifted sideways. The kobolds no longer stood straight, but the blows continued. Another one rammed a blade into her back. The stony ground drew closer, but it never hit her.
…falling...
She simply fell through the ground and the pain was gone. Everything below was grey, a bit like the stone that should have hit her. After a while she reckognized shapes in the fog. She felt weightless, nothing dragged her down, she fell upwards, drifted through the fog. For a moment, she could recognize familiar forms in the grey foggy mass, hunched kobolds, a dead human, a cave, a city, mountains, then it all faded into an even grey.
…loss...
For a while she drifted on, letting go of everything. Gliding on, further away from what she once knew. The grey became dustier, the fog more substantial, the light faded and went out. It took her only a moment to see, though. At first, there were only pillars, then slowly they took on humanoid shapes. Most were disformed, cowered or had curled up on the ground. At first she thought she heard the soft chirping of birds, then the sound picked up in intensity. The sobbing of a child, the whimpers of a strong warrior and sometimes she passed the deep growls of a monster. Most forms were too concerned with themselves to notice her passing, but once in a while, she passed a form that spotted her, often they noticed that she drifted onwards, to some place beyond this. Those things lunged at her, extending or even growing limbs.
…passing...
None could grab her, even if the limbs reached her, she just passed through them. There was no substance here. No ground to walk on. Just emptiness. After a while she began to wonder where her destination, her destiny laid. Something dragged her on, drove her forward, pulled her through layer after layer of lost souls. But she did not know what it was. The hope that it was her goddess calling her, kept her spirit up, gave her a bit of joy. The realization dawned on her that she was dead, and this was just the passing from death to a new life. Eternal life.
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…foe...
"Elissa," he said, his voice echoing along walls that were not there. "I wondered about what took you so long."
"I never hurry when dealing with fools," she replied without a moment's thought. Frantically all her mind was concentrated on figuring out what rules applied in this place. What was possible here? And how had he forged that armor?
"Do you even know where you are?!" Looking at what she thought her face must be, he seemed to sense what her mind was working on. "You're so weak here! You came unprepared!"
Trying to imitate his echoing voice, she willed a growl in place. But there was no echo for her meagre growl. So she fiercely answered: "Like I'd need preparation to teach you a lesson."…unprepared...
His chuckle started off as a soft clicking noise, but with each echo that came back from nowhere the volume increased, the clicking became a soft chuckle, a whispered laughter, a taunting laugh, a deep growl and finally a rumbling thunder. In the seconds it took her to come to terms with the penetrating loud sound, he had drawn a weapon. If the shadowy thing he held in both hands, raised above his head, could be called a weapon. In her mind's eye she could depict the wide arc this weapon would describe as he began to slash for her. With the strength of her will and the swiftness of a thought she moved out of his reach. But he never finished the half circle of a common slash, instead he let go of his weapon and send it flying towards her.
…struck...
The shadowy thing changed shape a couple of times before finally hitting her. It reminded her of the souls she had passed, almost looking human by then. The face it wore was one of impossible terror and fright. Half expecting the thing to just pass through her, she wondered if it was just another soul. But then it hit her, entering her thoughts and paralyzing her at first, all of her frozen by the immense power of this thing's fear. Only barely she managed to start searching for the source of this overwhelming terror, even while a part of her just wanted to let go. As she found it, the terror subsided immediately. It was but the picture of a doppelganger,
wearing the faces of other humans. Still she could feal the impossible fear of the soul that was with her. Without a second thought, she struck down the false illusion with a sword she conjured.…burning...
She had barely time to get used to the grey landscape once again, before Friedrich hurled the next shadowy thing at her. This time flames flickered at the outer side of the black thing. When it got close, she looked into the burnt grimace of what could have been a human, long ago. Still wielding the sword, she tried to deflect the oncoming soul with it, though she seemed to cut through the thing, it only made more flames come out of the new cut. It took only a second for the flames to entirely engulf her, once the thing hit her. Through the menancing laughter from Friedrich, she seemed to hear a desperate, a hungry cry from the soul. While it seemed that her flesh was melting, her hair burning, she tried to put the flames out. It didn't help any that she told herself that the flames weren't real, that here she had no flesh nor hair. Neither did it help to try to roll on the ground to put the flames out. There was no ground.
…fight...
It seemed to take forever to make her realize she had to use another soul to defend herself. Remembering the souls she had passed earlier, she concentrated on the person that had drowned. With a bit effort she managed to tear the soul from whereever it had been. While she still watched the two souls turning to smoke, she called out and pulled the warrior soul to her. Whimpering the soul charged at Friedrich at her command, but Friedrich just grinned and she watched how the soul hit his armor and disolved, leaving but a small dent in it.
"So, you finally grasped how this place functions," Friedrich commented with his disturbing, echoing laughter. She simply ignored him and mentally grabbed for the sobbing child, hurling it at him.
-
…sense...
With time she learned to see beyond the blackness, realized that here she did not need to rely on her eyes. In fact if she closed her eyes and allowed herself to feel the surroundings, she saw colours. There was a soft orange glow illuminating everything, a warm light, like the light of a sunrise. With a bit of focus, she could even sense the feelings and thoughts of the things she passed. That woman longed for a last drop of water, for a bite to eat, but she could not muster the strength to crawl over to the swollen man that had drowned. Another one grabbed for his head, sought it desperately, but was not able to find it. He would never be able to find it. Obviously she drifted through unfortunate people. This would likely become her new home. Carefully she expanded her probing, trying to find whoever was in charge. But what she found was another probing soul.
…meeting...
The other one was drawn towards her, just as she was pulled through the mists and shadows towards it. Experimentally she probed for the other one's thoughts. At first there was only the vague feeling of familiarity, then she began to understand parts of what the other one thought. Angrily, even a bit frightened, she opened her eyes and hissed into the dark: "Friedrich!" Moments later he stepped or rather floated out of the blackness. Unlike the other souls who were rarely more than a flat shadow on a non-existant surface he was almost substantial. Where they were shadows, he wore shadows as some kind of armor, surrounding a body.