Ages come and go with the turn of a page, becoming history. History gives way to legend, and legend to myth with another turn of the page. Even myth is forgotten when the winds of time turn the page once more.
A World where Writers are the creators, the destroyers. The jury, the prosecutors, the judges, and the executioners. A World where Writers...are God.
White sunlight poured in from the sky overhead, falling endlessly into the abyss of the object in front of Calis: the Writing Well. The Writing Well was a simple arrangement of plain, gray stone in a circle around a hole in the ground. Inside the hole, a mass of white and red energy churned around itself; it was dangerous to spend too much time too close to the Writing Well. It‘s power distorted reality and could just as easily distort a Writer. Ambellina stepped forward, gripping a sheaf of papers. She stood over the Writing Well and let the papers fall in. The Well swallowed her pages. The sky overhead darkened and the inside of the Well turned black for a brief moment, hardly more than a few seconds before it settled and the sun burst back into existence, lighting the sky again. Behlren stepped forward beside Ambellina and let his single page fall. Again, sky and Well darkened and then returned to normal, then Calis came to stand beside Behlren, and all of the Writers behind him. When the twenty-sixth Writer came to let the Well have his pages, the Writers formed a tight ring around the Writing Well. Why the Writers did this once a week, Calis did not know. Did not care. It was what had always been done. What was, had always been. The Writing Well was merely a portal. A place where fiction became reality.
A War bringing Man malevolence. Death bringing Man madness.
Dread filled Calis at the sight of Ambellina’s motionless body sprawled on the floor; her chair had been knocked over in her fall and her pen lay a few inches from her outstretched hand. Her eyes were as wide as plates, staring blankly at nothing. Her mouth gaped, as though she had been surprised by something before she had fallen. And she was pale. So, so pale. “Ambellina?” Calis whispered. He knelt beside her when she did not move. “She’s cold! So cold, no wonder she’s not moving! Behlren, get her some blankets!” C didn’t seem to realize he was shouting; he never shouted. That was ridiculous. Just like Ambellina was ridiculous. War was ridiculous. Behlren was ridiculous. The whole thing was ridiculous! He wanted to laugh as his arms closed around her and picked her up.
“This…” Calis began, “this stillness. It is death.” Calis couldn’t have said how or why he chose that name. The word had merely occurred to him and seemed right. It fit. The word was harsh. Cold. Permanent. “Ambellina is dead.”
Power. A principle pertaining to all people, perhaps. What limits Man's power? If you could do anything, would you? Would you bring a lover back to life?
“But now that’s gone. Ambellina is gone. Now what? Move on? No. NO! There must be something that can be done, a way to reverse death! I am a Writer! I have the power to create! I give stars life, why can’t I give Ambellina life? Why shouldn’t I be able to? Why not?” An idea was beginning to take form in Calis’s head. A horrendous idea, but why not? What prevented him from trying? Nothing. That was the point Zellis had been trying to make. There was nothing to say what the Writers could and couldn’t do. He was alone. To be alone was to be nothing, to be surrounded by nothing. If there was not anything but nothing around him, then he had no restraints, no limits. He could do anything if there was nothing to say he couldn’t. Calis’s mind raced along these thoughts, meeting at a singular point: He would bring Ambellina back to life.
Man's madness...a malignant malady making the core of His being.
A new emotion was overwhelming him. It was strong. So, so strong. Almost like love. But it wasn’t love. It contradicted everything about love, but it was just as strong. It needed a name. “Hate,” Calis rasped as he wrote the name of every Writer into his Book, “Hate is what this is. Yes. I HATE YOU, BEHLREN!” No time, no time! He wished Behlren would die like Ambellina! How he hated him! He would cast all of the Writers into his fictional world! So that they could be with Ambellina. They could all be happy again. Together. But not Behlren. Behlren, he would kill. Behlren would never come between Calis and Ambellina ever again.
In a world where fiction is made reality, a world controlled by a Man and his madness, what do you do?
Calis drove his knife into Falisha's ribs. He would be haunted forever by the unasked question in her eyes. Eyes like stars. The stars were going out. "This is MY story...you're not part of it."
You kill or be killed. The Writing Well Coming soon to a forum near you. did i do it rite, guiz? Also, the song at the top, as you might have seen, is Coheed and Cambria's Keeping the Blade and, obviously, was not performed, composed, or had anything to do with myself.
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