Our paths

[Auriorusiana]

One goes this way, another that, one follows the paved road, the other paves his own.
And a third watches, he does not want to lose both as we drift, but figures they must converge and meet at some point, afterall the earth is a sphere, and we live in a ouroboros.

The one following the paved road, marked with graffiti and blessing and tidings recent and old, monuments of men successfully marching through

The other while wandering into the thicket, notices a dirt path already here, and footsteps left behind, there’s small wooden signs here and there but all lay defunct, he realizes he isn’t the first to be here, surely not the last, something the man following the paved roads already knows

The man following the path is strolling, autumn air burning his lungs in the crisp cold, yellow and red leaves swirling and dancing across the road many heroes have followed, he is at peace seeing this and feeling unity, he sees towers in the distance affirming his route is the right one

The other man, working hard sweating clearing the thicket without trying to harm the environment too much, picks up the old wooden signs, finding carvings on them that tell him salvation is this way, he cannot see the towers in the woods he is being lead to, as soon as hope dawns on him it is snuffed out and interrupted by a cry for help down the path.

The third watches them go, until he begins to lose sight of both, he begins to chart the ways best he can so hopefully someone else may gain insight of both roads, if they’ve both been travelled frequently he doesn’t see why there isn’t a map made, he knows whatever map there used to be was lost either on purpose or not, does not matter, he cannot bear to think of his friends lost, nor himself even though he acknowledges we all are.

The man along the paved road begins to document the heroes of old, seeing their dialogue along the roads and tree trunks, fascinated and feeling family in these stories, yet he wonders where they are, and he still feels alone

The man in the thicket hears the cry for help and begins barreling through the woods, frantically yet remembering peace and holding focus, he knows what lurks here and knows he doesn’t know all that does, yet he knows peace is his path of salvation no matter how bad the road gets. He comes to a clearing, and sees a man who fell form a giant sprawling oak tree and became impaled up side down, the broken branch in his chest, narrowly missing his vital organs.

The man in the woods came prepared, he knew this path was dangerous, and he knows the land given to him by his Druidic mother and father, he takes the man off the tree and begins to heal him. The man on the tree explains he watched many go down this path before, that he had no moral intent or grand idea of peace or salvation, simply that if someone dies along this path he will harvest their body like a Crow and give a proper burial, if he meets another he may dialogue and accompany him. The tree man explains he’s gotten a lot of trinkets from his travels, but all of them are worthless if he was dead on a tree for carrion to pick like fruit, he explains he is the brother of the mapper who stayed behind and they grew up here, learning from the world around them, witnessing horrors and beauties, and learning the transformation of either or. Raised by witches demons satyrs and centaurs, angelic beings and decrepit monstrosities, the man on the tree explains all these are related by some degree, he’s even witnessed a demonically possessed witch fall in love with an angel and instantly become healed and transform from wench to virgin even making hekate smile. Truly this event haunted the tree man, and his brother, if one can change so quickly for the better could that happen for evil? What defines this? That confusion is the bane of every man so far in this story.

The man on the paved road continues walking, but nightfall is approaching and as the red and orange sun bleeds into the skies and through the clouds he grows tired and hungry. He doesn’t know where he will sleep or gain food and this worries him further, he even knows the worry is killing him faster, darkness encroaches, there’s a shift in crisp air, he is not alone.

[Auriorusiana]

As nightfall came and tree man and his new found savior sit around the fire, watching the embers dance like nymphs in a festival, and the coals of the wood glaring back at the two hungrily. Tree man explains his people have lived here for generations, paving roads, finding lost ones, lost people, pets, houses, entire towns sometimes eaten by time and the forest, their people live as nomadic scavengers who sometimes settle down for a year or two to raise children or simply to relax. Tree man also explains the curse of his people, they are hunted in these woods by any variable enemy, some of which used to be his own people who by some means or another decided to be something different, this identity crises haunts tree man, all he wanted was family, and being racked by his own guilt and responsibility of leading people nomadically and unifying them, he knows he is responsible for a lot of terrible things in the woods, terrible things that no man can remember or will, terrible things even himself has forgotten once being given the ability and embodying the message to hold truth to not hurt or deceive and how to heal.

The man who saved him is in awe of the manifold stories to be told and the culture here of the lost men of the woods who always are found, but he soon finds that these stories never end, and the cycle only goes on and on, tree man sees this too and is haunted, worried that his entire way of life living out here was damned, and even if it’s not he will just be responsible for fates of death or worse everyday he breathes.

Tree man explains he climbed the tree first to observe the distant cities and towers after his tribe was ransacked, women and children were killed or sold if they were not ritualistically eaten or drained of their blood, after such an event he was separated from his brother, and them being the nomads they are he accepted this although he missed his brother and family dearly, “everyone wanders, everyone has to leave at some point, what never does is something that reassures me every step of the way no matter how horrifying it all gets, I know we’ll all be together one day”

When tree man was on top of the oak looking over the horizon, he had a crisis of faith and existential delimna

“I watched everything that ever made me or made me happy and at peace taken away, my life was drained, castrated, raped, sold, and eaten, and because I lived I could only blame myself, and bc I lived my fellow tribe accused me of either being apart of the pillaging or whatever variable they could throw at me. I felt immense responsibility, you can tell me all day it’s not my fault, but it is, it all is, we all play our role in this twisted cosmos, I can only bring peace taking accountability, since my life was stolen from me, I stole the mantle of responsibility, even if not a single person was left for me to be responsible for, at that moment I became the principle”

He realized at the top of that Oak he had became exactly what the world needed, what he always wanted, and he realized he could bring great change and peace and seed a new world, and at this moment of bliss, he began to hate himself, hate that he was spared, hate the pillaging, hate even peace if such a cycle can exist and will exist and that he played a part in it all, at that moment he longed for nonexistence, and unity, One for all and All for One, he saw the future where everyone was happy as intended and remembered the desolation. He began to stand as to throw himself off the ledge but before he could, he slipped his life flashing before his eyes, seeing good and evil like never before, his flashback was interrupted by the splintering implanting of a branch, as he lay hung upside down dizzy and blurry visioned, blood trailing down himself into his nose and he coughed and choked on his own copper taste, still images of horror and bliss echoing in his mind, squinting through the blood in his eyes he let out a curse blessing cry and divine roar in the moment of absolution and oblivion,sputtering blood through the air bearing stained teeth of his own blood, every last ounce of himself drained out into that cry, followed by soft silent whimpers as he cursed himself and his Lord all while still praying for his family and friends.

[Auriorusiana]

“If I stayed hung there I might’ve started choking on splinters and last time I checked I wasn’t a termite” he jests through glazed eyes telling infinite stories

“Could’ve died, wanted to die too, or even worse I cursed creation so I could’ve guessed where my fate was” he says solemnly stoking the coals of the fire

The man who followed the dirt path is amazed and in horror, speechless and rightly so, yet sharing infinite empathy and compassion.

“How do you feel that I got you off that tree?” The path man asks

“Like if I don’t fight for the peaceful world I almost died for and of that I want you to put me right back there, and let me suffer until it’s done, it’ll hurt less than being responsible for all that long term suffering”

At that moment they both knew they found a friend in each other

[Auriorusiana]

It was night, the man on the paved road could hardly see in front of his face, dimly burning lamps lit the way, the air was growing tense, something was definitely with him and it wasn’t his Lord this time.

The road crunched underneath his boots, he heard a noise, a faint whisper, he shrugged it off, then it came back, then more and more and more swarming him orbiting around his head and ears indistinguishable, eventually it reach such a level he roared back at his enemy whatever it was, and for a moment there was silence

Then it spoke

“Ye who wander, what be you? Why are you upon my path, I own this road boy”
“You own nothing, this path belongs to my Lord, I walk it for the sake of the collective, now leave me demon I have to carry on”
“You wish I was a demon, far worse, I’ve killed greater heroes than you, why shouldn’t I do you the same? Do you think you’re special?”
“If not demon what are ye? And no I do not think it of myself any higher or lower, I respect myself, how about you phantom? If ye are so powerful don’t you have better things to do like defeating heroes greater than I?”

The darkness laughs genuinely in amusement at the paved path walkers rhetoric
“So rare to find that in a hero but I guess not so rare on the true ones who make it, you sure sound like a great one, you don’t look much like it though, I can change that”

One by one, then all at once, fire flies appeared lighting an area of the road illuminating it in passive warm yellow light, the boy could now see his company, a man made of swirling dark clouds of gas, at first he saw his legs form, creased pants and jet black leather shoes as if just shined, followed by a pinstripe deep purple suit and maroon tie, slowly the neck began appearing and once the image fully formed, it was a spitting image of the paved path walker himself, except slightly off, he was groomed and mannered as if just walking out of a pristine temple, smiling uncomfortably, a start contrast from the boys current disheveled and sweaty appearance.

They sat in silence for a moment reflecting, the boy wondered in awe and horror, the millions of lights dancing and swarming around them, the boy looked again they weren’t fire flies but actual embers and pieces of fire, what magic was this? He heard the stories and rumors of practitioners and monsters, of mages and witches but this was nothing like he was told of

“I am the lie” the fake boy spoke to the real one “perhaps the original, perhaps the only, what is certain is that I won’t be first or last, therefore I am eternal, you worship deities and gods, here I am, I have won battles of the greatest of gods you worship, now I have come to undo you, you walked this path of vanity and stories the likes of which are illusory, I have deceived the wisest and most faithful, I am your doom”

The boy began sweating, thinking frantically of a way back or out, he knew at this point he had gotten himself into something too deep, it was either all or nothing, he either passes here dies or goes home in shame.

“Listen you djinn, demon, phantom or deity whatever you be, if ye be me or something more or less, why is it you bother? I have no money no belongings I have only my faith and ideals, what would you truly gain?”

“My boy that’s exactly it” a devilish smile creeping across the boys own face, the dimensions of which stretching farther than physically possible until he thought that the smile was going to start ripping the flesh and snapping his own bones, he shuddered at the sight, mind going in all directions of what this being could actually do.

“You have nothing but your ideas, I hold no name, no land, no planet or nation, I am disloyal even to myself if such a concept exists, I eat your ideas, your faith, and from it I learn to hunt your kind better, I am the apex of your world, if I desired I would rule your planet, if you had even a fraction of my abilities you would too. I am the idea, every false image, and that is my truth, I hold wisdom men cannot measure or fathom, and I steal whatever I can from the fool to hunt more fools, my work is laid out for me, can you say the same fool? No direction no one here for you, while I am legion alone and I know my path it is to stay here and eat your kind, meanwhile you just follow it along, like an ant, all fed on your stories and heroic fantasies without ever actually knowing who you worship, I do you a favor if I let you live and I clean the world if I consume thee, so tell me, why do you deserve to live and die?”

The boy sat in awe again, the lights dancing and flowing around them, he honestly could not answer, he did not know, he started this journey off of inspiration of the heroes of old and expectations to begin a journey and perhaps bring good tidings to the world, he was utterly aimless and out matched by a being whose only goal was the devour and he could not even say that he had more direction than this demon, or whatever it is, he could not even identify this being despite being raised on all those fables labeling the things that exist and thus he labeled himself as some self righteous hero to bring good to the world.

“You are right, I know myself not in Whole yet, you have your path clearly here, and I thought my path was clearly here for being paved yet I don’t, I thought it was all simple but it’s anything but, I thought my two feet could take me anywhere if I followed this path but here I see the very air itself skipping through all my heroes and soaring to levels I never knew were possible, the sheer crisis of this alone makes me want to give up and join you and worship you if that’s even an option, you’ve broken all my ideals with a single trick, I am lost and always have been even on this narrow road”

The reflection of the boy stood in silence, an indifferent frown on his face as the boy started up again

“Youve killed and beat so many of my idols, yet I was never warned of you, I only heard stories of their wins, you prove something fundamentally wrong with the entire system I was taught on, you prove that I should write of you as much as my heroes, you define heroism and great evil, you are so fundamental yet never mentioned, so I must write of you”

“I seek no vanity, I seek to exist, that is why I eat the vain and those fat pigs fed on stories of glory with no concept of what defines those parameters, that is why you see me breaking your current parameters of understanding, I eat the naive who chose to stay but rarely do I see someone who gives an actual answer and asks the right questions”

The image began to dissolve in a plume of dark smoke and fire.

“Something higher is telling me to allow you passage, I want you to know though, greater threats lie ahead than just me, I have lied before and told mortals I am the greatest threat but the truth is there’s always a bigger fish, I ask you not to write specifically of me, but of my kind, imagine what else lurks, if you care for your brothers you will include this warning, thus I will find ppl who choose to value glories and vanity without remembering darkness more, and those who heed the warning may not even have to encounter I, and may we both take this deal”

The being left in a cacophony of whispers again and in smoke, and the boy was left in darkness again, yet this time he could see the sky beginning to bear light, and he knew something in himself had changed

[Auriorusiana]

I’m happy you read it that fast I made it on a whim, and it wasn’t just the story that spared him but the recognization of his power and role

[Auriorusiana]

My coffee and cocaine watching this lobby unfold in discord

[Auriorusiana]

I was inspired watching discord unfold here I wrote it in like an hour in the bath

[Auriorusiana]

You’re a product of your environment and vice versa

[Auriorusiana]

Maybe that’s it, idk I was just writing.

Something like, we’re all going our own paths and we have to make these passages alone, but there’s a way to do it together and maybe share stories of our travels, maybe if we held that mindset before we wandered it wouldn’t have been so hectic

[Auriorusiana]

Why are you so concerned with objectives and morals and missions

Hasnt the mission always been peace