The Imperium

Chapter 1: Mind Walker

To begin where it ended - the sun beats down, sand swirls and blows, shrubs rustle, children play, a tomb now a hill, pillars overgrown and eroded, faces smooth and faded, entrance hidden, light fading, room dark, contents forever sleeping, forgotten, but never to be lost. 

The air is cold and sweet. The day is a fine one - cool, gentle, and unlike any that came before. The sun shone brightly as a calm wind danced softly with hundreds of white sheets of cloth hanging from the grand temple.  And at its zenith upon an altar in the Great Hall where mortal women are touched by Gods, lay Yulon. 

Denied sight, all his senses allowed him was the clinking of sacred charms and the fragrance of perfume. A strong breeze blew across his face, and with that came a sudden sense of relaxation he couldn't defy. All his irritation and stress drifted into the farthest reaches of his mind as if making way for Them. He never heard the priestesses enter the ritual hall, but he knew they were there all the same, imagining a dozen envious and worshiping eyes. 

He was no stranger to the feeling.  He had felt it several times, whether it be from the wealthy or the rabble, even those with holy blood those he called his kin gave him such gazes. They had moved closer, now only feet away but still he couldn't hear their movements. “You” the word rang out, rattling through his head. Few times before had Yulon felt so unsure and afraid. That voice was too close, or was it too far? Was it a voice? 

As he tried to reason options through his head, logic twisted and writhed before melting away. ‘Prideful Lord you have climbed, witnessing the way of Gods as only one so feeble can.”  The sound or sounds were everywhere.  His head drummed to the beat of his soul, and for a second he thought of death but something brought him back. “Now you are here, what do you seek that only Gods may deliver?” Yulon made to answer: he thought of silver, copper, tin, even gold.  He thought of countless armed men who would die for him without fear or hesitation, He thought of countless monuments made in his name. 

Yet nothing escaped his lips, he was left with only silence. All the same they continued: “Such gifts are not given, but one thing can be.” Without warning his jaw was pried open. A strange liquid crawled down his throat. The taste was bland, akin to bread but there was something solid in the mixture which passed with the rest. He felt a numbness as he swallowed the substance, hands holding him firmly by the shoulders to the altar. In the sea of his mind he ordered his legs to kick. They twitched in response before more hands piled on to them, hands grabbed his face, pulled his hair, gripping tighter and tighter. His heart hammered through his body, his stomach bellowed as if in response, and a violent swelling sensation overtook his entire body. 

Under an immense pressure Yulon tore his mind open - abstract shapes, incomprehensible concepts, and creatures he deemed should never come to fruition flashed before him as a familiar set of words reverberated every time he witnessed a fresh grotesquerie. “What do you seek that only Gods may deliver?”  The visions intensified, colors growing ever brighter. “Such gifts are not given.”  Sights and sounds blipped in and out of existence at unimaginable speeds. “But,” the word was a whisper yet it howled inside him screaming until he wanted to scream in response - “One thing can be.”  The colors stopped, the visions stopped, his mind was silent. When he tried to open his eyes nothing happened.  Instead something else opened and Yulon saw. 

He was standing far beneath the earth, at the bottom of a massive staircase that he deduced could only lead to his answer. He looked at the cavern around him. The cave was cloaked with a dingy blackness, thousands of stalactites hung from a massive low hanging ceiling. They glittered gold yet were stained with an orange rust, though to Yulon he thought in some places it looked almost blood red. Below, expanding out before him was an endless pool. Impenetrably black it seemed to consume the water droplets that fell from above. The place made Yulon uneasy. He looked back at the staircase.  

The steps were elegantly carved from what appeared to be a light blue marble. Depicted upon the stepstones were painted scenes of people, each stepstone home to its own depiction. On those tapestries closest to Yulon, hunting parties of four or five men chased the common elk of the arid plains, others stalked the wild buffalo of the wetlands. Higher on more were farming vast fields of wheat using oxen to till the soil while chickens and goats roamed freely through fields of grass. But dwarfing them all was the unnumbered mob that sat above, crowded together around something he could not see.  Many lived in hovels, huts, others had small apartments built of clay brick sealed together with mud. 

Farther on, some possessed larger apartments painted over with many colored dyes that marked them as merchants. Yet most elegant of them all were the lavish palaces of those blessed through blood, men and women walked through courtyards dressed lavishly in brightly colored dresses covered with abstract shapes, animals, and plants. Long cloths of silk and linen hung from their waists trailing behind them. Dozens of servants crowded around their masters bearing food and wine in grand dining halls lined with ornately carved pillars. Young men and women lounged on cushions in gardens filled with strange flora as birds hovered and perched overhead. Still these nobles and their elegance were not the center of attention, again his attention was drawn to what lay farther on, hidden to all. 

Yulon had already seen something at its center and zenith. He thought he knew, but there was no way of knowing and he felt it unimportant - why does it please the gods to make us guess at their ill-faithed riddles? he complained to himself. Do they find weather-worn, perfumed crones grinding their jaws over headache-inducing visions amusing?  Do they snigger at foul smelling full bearded shamans squinting at the smoke of a fire, searching for divine signs?  It occurred suddenly to Yulon that he could not decide whether the depictions were elegantly carved and painted as the work of some unmatched artist or some chaotic scroll that was simply the mess of a child. Eventually he looked away from it all and resolved to climb.  The first step felt fine.  The stone was stone - there could be nothing wrong with that. As he continued Yulon noticed the steps had grown larger, now it took two, now three strides to clear them. This was not the strangest thing.  The stones now felt strangely warm, as if something had changed but every time he gazed down everything appeared exactly as it was. 

The scenes on the steps changed. There were more settlements now, towns at first but soon one metropolis joined another and before long there were dozens of them. The more staircases he ascended the warmer they seemed to become. He had been climbing for quite some time and the steps grew ever wider, but for the first time Yulon noticed that the ceiling which had seemed so distant before had now squeezed in around him.  Feeling the pressure he crouched ever so slightly, looking farther up the staircase he saw what was unmistakably an opening in the cavern.

Light spilled from the entryway, stinging his eyes.  Averting his gaze Yulon stepped onto the next platform. He had barely stood on it for five seconds when the stone suddenly became scalding hot.  Startled, he stumbled backwards falling onto the step behind him, and a dazed Yulon struggled to his feet. Barely able to stand, he hugged the wall of the passage for support. The exit was near and he could feel a light breeze coming from the opening. 

Up until now Yulon had not been met with any real resistance. Am I being tested or is this another practical joke? Preferring the former and fearing the latter he resolved to endure the pain. If they wish to see my resolve I will grant them that much, and if they seek to see me scream and stumble over myself in pain I will make sure I disappoint them, it would be amusing to see the face of a frustrated god. Gripping the wall, Yulon tentatively stepped onto the platform.  The stone felt even hotter than before the heat seemed to eat away at his skin. Keeling forward from the agonizing pain, sweat dripped from his forehead as he panted for air.  

Robbed of any rational thought his mind came to one conclusion, and he ran. Clumsily at first, stumbling multiple times and burning his hands he eventually managed to sprint. The faster he moved the more it felt like his feet were melting away. Finally through searing flesh and bone Yulon reached the top and crawled through the opening. He emerged out onto a high cliff overlooking an arid valley, After taking a few minutes to catch his breath he noticed the pain had subsided. He examined the soles of his feet. Apart from a thin layer of dirt they were completely unharmed 

Back on his feet, he walked forward. The land below him was eerily flat dried shrubs and shriveled lonely trees dot the landscape. Far off in the distance a river wound through the valley. Dozens of columns of smoke drifted from the bank of the river. From this distance Yulon could make out the distinct shape of a temple.  The monolithic structure looked as though it was a spear aimed at the heavens. That must be where the gods await me. 

“I found you little one” a voice echoed through the landscape, circling Yulon like he were prey. “What!?” he was at a loss for words once again he was being attacked by his own senses. He felt his eyes begin to water. “You must think you've come far yet the reality is that what you've seen is little. But you have made it to the end of the path all the same.” The voice was circling closer now, it sounded strangely like that of a child’s. “Now come to us. We have been waiting” Perplexed, Yulon inquired - “how?” The voice responded eagerly but this time in a whisper as though they were just over his shoulder.  “Allow me to demonstrate”. 

In that moment everything turned to dust. The light that had illuminated the world disappeared instantaneously and then he was falling through a black void. All Yulon could do was scream as he plummeted, then as suddenly as he had found himself falling he struck bottom.        

Though he was not dead nor was he injured, Yulon was most certainly dazed. It took a minute or two for his vision to focus and adjust. He found himself at the entrance to a long hall lined with massive pillars. They reached into the air holding up an unseen ceiling, the hall was illuminated with row after row of torches lit with a peculiar green fire seemingly floating in midair. At the base of each enormous pillar were much smaller podiums of granite, the tops of which had been shaped to resemble birds of prey. 

in the black void surrounding the scene Yulon could just barely see silhouettes of what appeared to be animals and people of all ages and all were motionless. Looking back down the hall he noticed a massive black marble throne and a shadow sitting slumped to one side in it.   

He walked forward in silent anticipation at what lay at the end. Sitting upon the throne was the shallow corpse of a man.  He did not have to be told who it was.  What remained of his hair and beard were lined with numerous gold braids. His clothes consisted of fabric of a thousand colors and patterns, and upon his head was a crown Hanging from it were dozens of beads made from lapis lazuli meant to imitate stars in the night sky.  Yulon noticed worms burrowing through the eye sockets of the corpse, disgusted he averted his gaze. 

“Is it not to your liking?” the voice asked, mockingly.