The Kitin scriptures

[chibiarc]

Really awesome Komi, I would never imagine our minds could be the same yet in different places and times. It is absolutely breathtaking! I could almost smell the moss! Never stop to write, promise!

[komissar]

Chapter V

-[font=&quot] [/font]Who… who are you? – I barely managed these few words – so great was my astonishment. – And where am I for Jena’s sake?!
-[font=&quot] [/font]Don’t hurry young one… I trust we will have all the time we need for idle chatter, – came the answer. - I am… was… Dai Xielu. Once a scholar of the zorai people… a long time ago. Perhaps you have heard of my brother – Meng Xielu – the great seer. Who or what I have become now is of no relevance. Let us just say that I am still a zorai… in my soul at least… Soon you will regain your eyesight and many things will become clear to you.
-[font=&quot] [/font]But now you must rest. The “blinding spores” will not let go of your mind and body easily if you move around too much. There is nowhere to go… at least for now until your fate has been decided.
There came a soft rustling sound – as though a number of people were wading through the thick moss, I sensed a large shape approach me and a clay cup was pressed to my lips. It was water – a bit sweeter then usual but clean and refreshing. I drank from the cup, seizing it greedily with my hands and felt the old man’s hand rapidly retreat. There was a small breath of air as the same massive shape I felt before hastily drew back… I tossed the empty cup on the moss covered floor, lay back against the smooth wall and immediately fell asleep.

I can not tell how long have I slept. I awoke just as suddenly and the blindness was no more. I lay sprawled in the thick moss, it was damp and radiated a strange warmth, like the fur of a living mammal. The room I found myself in was very large and seemingly spherical - the walls were made of some kind of thick resin polished smooth and illuminated from within so that they seemed to glow. Their color was a deep yellowish hue reminding of amber and this eerie golden glow was everywhere – on the thick moss, on the occasional stalagmites rising from the bottom of this unusual cave, on my own naked skin. Yes, my captors left me naked save for a floral loincloth – my bag and my daggers - everything was gone. I looked around me – the hall was roughly a hundred paces across, the glowing walls formed a spherical dome, one side of it across from where I stood seemed a bit darker. Or maybe it was covered with some sort of symbols or ornaments – it was hard to tell from here. At the very center of the dome high above me – sat a kincher or a similar kind of kitin - also tinged yellowish-red from the glowing walls. It seemed to be doing something but I just couldn’t see what exactly. Most likely they have left him to watch over me, to see that I didn’t escape… Speaking of which – there seemed to be no exit from this place save for a narrow opening close to the center of the dome high above which was impossible for me to reach. I stepped closer to the glowing wall – felt it’s warm smooth even surface - no - even a professional climber would be powerless here. At least they have left me some food and even a crude dzao fiber blanket. It all lay in a heap a couple of paces away from me – strips of salted bodoc meat, dried fruit and a clay pitcher of water. I wrapped the blanket around my hips and it strangely reminded me of the white tryker caster pants I used to wear when I dressed in my healer uniform. Will I ever be able to heal my guildmates in an outpost battle again? Will I ever get out of this place alive? So many questions –– and this horrible feeling of utter helplessness – it all can drive a man mad! And then even the nanoseed will not save me. Jena in her infinite kindness has given us a return ticket from death but there is no way back from the tenets of madness… So… Imust calm down… I must sit and wait “until my fate has been decided” as the old zorai said. Decided by whom I wonder? The Kitin? Then there's only one kind of "decision" i would expect... And where is the old man himself anyway? There is nowhere to hide in this glowing prison cell…
- Master Xielu! – I called in a loud voice…
The answer came from high above me – “There is no need to shout, young man, I hear you perfectly well",- and the quiet tick-tack sound of chitinous legs moved in my direction…

(to be continued)

[komissar]

Chapter VI

I must be dreaming. This is but a nightmare – a ghastly delirious apparition summoned by the toxins of sleeping spores. Now I will simply wake up and it will all be gone, yes… I pinched my leg hard but… nothing happened – the horrendous creature was still moving towards me – slowly descending the smooth caved-in wall of the chamber. It was a kincher – well at least the lower part of this abomination undoubtedly belonged to a kincher – the massive brown and black chitin legs, the formidable mandibles, the curved segmented abdomen, but above it, at that very spot where normal kinchers have a head was attached a homin torso – a blue-skinned male zorai… Hands crossed on his chest, head slightly tilted he was watching me serenely while the legs of a kincher steadily carried him down. His expression was impenetrable – like any zorai he was waring a mask, only his mask was dyed pitch black with eye-slits outlined bright yellow and another yellow and red eye painted in the middle of his forehead. The creature climbed down, sprang lightly onto the moss beside me and froze there – silent - watching my utter stupefaction…
So this… thing… was master Xielu? How is this possible? If a homin receives such a horrible wound that his body would be cut in half – he dies, and if he dies – he immediately respawns at the nearest portal – such is the miracle of the nanoseed. But this being stood right in front of me – I could hear it breathing through the abdominal Trachea - and seemed as real as anything in this room.
-[font=&quot] [/font]As I said, young man, – it uttered wearily – things will be clearer once you regain your eyesight. – Just make sure you don’t loose your sanity now… that comes all too easily in a place such as this.
-[font=&quot] [/font]I once was Dai Xielu – a respected member of the zorai scholar conclave. Now I have become this… - he spread his hands trying to encompass his new form - … thing. I am unable to get out of this chamber, same as you, and even if I could – where would I go? Could I possibly show my face among homins? Would anyone accept me there, or would they rather hunt me down like a chimerous horror I have become? All of this is of no relevance… I have my task and the ability to work on it’s fulfillment and that is the only thing that gives any sense to my existence.
-[font=&quot] [/font]Master Xielu…, - I finally managed a few words. – But how? How did this happen? Who could have done this to you? – I sat down - my legs turned to molten wax and couldn’t support me any longer.
-[font=&quot] [/font]It is a long story, young man, are you sure you want to hear it? Not that you have any other options – trapped as you are in this “amber egg”…

I nodded, trying my best to adapt to the very thought that a conversation with a being such as this could be taking place.

-[font=&quot] [/font]Well…, - he sighed, and the air hissed through the trachea of his abdomen, - you might remember the story of the “tear of the kitin” – a mysterious amber artifact shattered into many pieces but thought to be able to wield tremendous power against the “ultimate enemy”. The pieces where gathered one by one – some found, some fought over and taken from brigands and outlaws – and brought to my brother Meng Xielu – at that time the seer in zora. He carefully studied this artifact – it’s importance was a bit exaggerated by the political powers of both fyros and matis but still it was not a thing to trifle with. It’s origins were unknown and it seemed to affect the psyche of nanoseed imbued creatures, including homins of course, and even drive some of them mad. I have also studied the artifact and even theorized with my brother about it’s origins and possible applications until one day… my brother vanished. He left me a coded message saying that he has found a way to put an end to the kitin threat once and for all. He would go deep into the prime roots, penetrate the kitin hive and use the artifact there…
-[font=&quot] [/font]Madness - that’s what it was – but who could stop my older brother – the head seer of the zorai scholar’s conclave, a man regarded almost as high as the great Mabreka himself? I couldn’t tell anyone, for this would ruin his reputation and our family standing among the people. All I could do was pack up and follow him underneath…

He sighed heavily again and shifted his kincher legs a bit as if redistributing some unseen weight.

- Search for my brother…,- he continued, - lasted 6 months... and proved absolutely fruitless… I looked everywhere – been in every corner of the prime roots, explored every region and respawned more times than I could remember, all in vain… I did not find a single trace of him. I had no clues to wereabouts of the “kitin hive” he mentioned and no ranger could help me… I confess I was just about to abolish all hopes when one day he appeared at the doorstep of our house like a ghost out of the jungle mist. His light clothing was ragged and torn, he was unarmed and his mask was stained but what really mattered he was alive. I ran to him and embraced him but he didn’t seem to notice me at all – he just moved on into the house, pushing past me as if I wasn’t there, came to the bed, lay down and fell asleep. He slept for 3 days – I tended to him – washed his body, cleaned his mask, clothed him. It was then that I have noticed that strange tattoo he had on his forearm – I copied it onto a wooden plate – for lack of anything better to do while I was waiting for him to regain consciousness. On the fourth day he awoke just as suddenly, stood up and walked out – not saying a word. He went through desertstock to Thesos and I followed him, calling to him, asking him to stop to take a look at me, his brother, to explain what happened, but he simply looked through me and pressed on. My brother was not himself anymore. Apathy settled deep within his soul, he recognized no man, spoke not a single word and cared for nothing but another cup of dandelion wine, which the barman in Thesos readily poured him.
So I have lost my brother. All that remained was the mystery that he has confronted deep within the recesses of the living planet. It was then that I have vowed to solve it and thus bring back my brother Meng…

(to be continued)
[font=&quot][/font]

[23857628]

If it'd be a book, it'd be a real page turner. Still I have to admit, that I didn't bother reading it 'til today.

Very good work indeed. Keep it coming

[komissar]

[CENTER]Chapter VII

[/CENTER]

..............You must have seen that tattoo aswell – continued Xielu – a set of pictograms: The greatest truth of the greatest enemy… It gave directions to a certain cave… I couldn’t find it at first but then I got lucky – I met a scouting party of Kitin gatherers. Brave little men they were – led by a tryker officer Be'Keeper Artan, their outlands supplier as I later discovered – they mistook me for a “kami agent”… I was promptly bound, gagged and carried to their base camp alongside a stack of foul smelling severed kiban legs. I had to wait in a small hut for a few hours until their chief - Mac'Rippsey Leassey graced me with an audience. It turned out they have met my brother – they referred to him as “Touched by the Kitin”. It seems that he came into contact with them and convinced them to help him enter the Kitin hive. He promised to retrieve some “Queens essence” for them. They wouldn’t tell me what exactly that was but from opaque hints and vague explanations I understood that It must have been some kind of jelatinous substance produced by the Kitin queen, the only place it could be harvested from being the Queen’s lair. The Kitin gatherers were quite accustomed to entering the hive – they used a secretion of kidinak abdominal glands to conceal their presence. Rubbed into skin that stinking solution would make the Kitin mistake a homin for one of their own and thus make the kitin tunnels relatively safe. Apparently the Kitin gatherers did not see my brother leaving the hive – they thought he was still inside and were eagerly anticipating his return. It wasn’t hard to convince these simple men to help me enter the kitin dwelling to “find my brother”. I did not have to lie to them for indeed my brother has never been himself after that deadly trip – he lost something in there – something far more important than his physical self and that was what I went after… I promised to bring the “Queens essence” to them if I could find it and they outfitted and supplied me fully – kidinak solution sacks, a well drawn map of the hive showing the main Hive-way and the radial corridors, a good length of rope, even some weapons. They warned me not to venture too far past the main road however – stories of great unknown danger lurking in the shadows of the deep hive was something these people sucked in with mother’s milk. And so I set out on an expedition of my own…

.............. I left some of the kidinak solution at the entrance – you must have found it – and drew arrows for a Kitin gatherer rescue party that might have went after me. I will not bore you with the descriptions of those endless corridors, the throngs of kitin soldiers and couriers, the feeling of euphoria for doubtless you have experienced the same. Let me just say that I didn’t manage to go too deep when I noticed a strange procession. A group of nettled kinchers were escorting homins – 7 or 8 of them – fully naked – along one of the corridors. They had a strange bulbous device slightly glowing purple attached to their heads. These devices were throbbing and pulsating as though alive. Their eyes were downcast, hands hanging down lifelessly, backs bent. Most of them were trykers though a couple might have been fyros. I remember that some of them had the Slaver’s tribe symbol branded on the shoulders. I froze paralized by this ghastly site when one of them turned his head and looked straight at me. It was a young tryker. His face... Pale and apathetic a moment before it suddenly distorted in a mask of rage his large eyes turned pitch black. This horrible creature bared his teeth, growled menacingly and slowly extending a hand pointed straight at me. I couldn’t run in fact I couldn’t move a muscle – so great was my bewilderment then. It was then that both kincher guards escorting this party turned upon me and pinned me to the ground. No, they did not kill me, though I really wish that they did. They held me down silently and the group of homins just stood there heads down, waiting. Even that tryker who singled me, out remained serene and passive as the rest. In a few minutes a kidinak courier arrived and sprayed some musky greenish powder from a small pouch he held in his fore mandibles right into my face. It was the same sleeping powder you are now suffernig from...

.............. I awoke in a small chamber – naked – bound and spreadeagled on a large flat slab of stone. Kitin were all around me – mostly kidinak and small kinchers – they just stood and watched. I felt a dull pain in the back of my head but could not examine it since my hands were tied. It was then that I heard the voice… Their voice…
.............. “We are the many in one – they said. That voice was husky, accompanied with a peculiar noise as though myriads of tiny claws scraping a rock. It sounded as if from far away but it was in my head – it was not something I could hear but a voice speaking inside me. There was a pause and the same voice repeated: “We are the many in one… We embrace you in our home. We are merciful.” I tried to break out of my bonds, I wriggled and pulled I yelled at them to release me to stop torturing me – all in vain. The kitin stood all around me like silent statues and when I stopped resisting the voice continued: “We are many in one. We are merciful. We will not let you die and be reborn for an eternity of torment. We embrace you in our home. We give you a choice…”

[uberzone]

very good indeed! is there more coming?

[bbobccat]

I loved your study of Zorai pictograms so much and now this breathtaking work. Fabulous, engrossing, entertaining. *Tries to perceive the depth of the well of creativity within Komissar.*

[komissar]

I loved your study of Zorai pictograms so much and now this breathtaking work. Fabulous, engrossing, entertaining. *Tries to perceive the depth of the well of creativity within Komissar.*

Thanks It somehow reminds me of what they write at the backs of best-selling books

It's not the bottom of the well by far Soon you will see more

[komissar]

[CENTER] Chapter VIII

[/CENTER]

...................“I ceased resisting then”… - continued Dai Xielu. My behavior was unthinkable for a zorai – acting on impulse like an animal – disgracing my name and that of my race. I felt a great shame. With it came a calm the kind of which precedes daily meditations. The spirit of my people lives within me – let their wisdom and their logic help me as it has always done before. After all, my situation is indeed unique – what possibilities of learning can present themselves for a zorai in a place like this – what important knowledge from the very heart of the enemy could I access here. The Kitin are offering me a choice. They let me decide, so maybe there is a way out of this for me yet. I must gather information – something told me there will be plenty of time to analyze it.

................... “What choice?” – I asked aloud – and my own voice sounded strangely unfamiliar in this place; an echo multiplied and carried it as though indeed not just I, Dai Xielu, but my whole people were present in this chamber. “The many in one in our infinite mercy offer you a choice” – sounded the voice in my head. “You can be an asset of the Great mind and help accomplish his divine tasks… Or you can become one of us… and play a special role in the fate of this world…” The pauses between sentences were long and the voice trailed away at the end of each of them as though it took a great deal of strength to finish every phrase. Now at least I had something to think over. What could be the meaning of this ”becoming an asset of the Great mind”? Did they refer to their collective conscience? Or was this Great Mind something else – something different from the “many in one” – the Kitin. Another mystery was unveiling before me and I felt a spark of what we zorai call “Akme” – a condition in which your mind and soul becomes one with the collective mind of all other zorai, the myriads of ancestors, when you receive new wisdom, access the uncharted territories of knowledge and an exultation descends upon you the like of which could never be described with mere words.
................... Although the situation I found myself in was rather scary if not to say grotesque I suddenly felt inspired and even gave thanks to Ma-duk for sending me this unthinkable opportunity. “What is the Great Mind”? I asked them… and the answer came loud and clear in my mind: “The Great Mind is the force that shapes the destiny of this world, the Great Mind is an all-powerful sentient, binding all to his will. You can become one with him for that is the ultimate dream of every living thing”. Strangely this time the voice sounded differently – no rasping noises, no huskiness, no effort was audible in it – a clear and powerful sound as though a completely different person was saying this… but while I was contemplating, the previous scratchy kitin voice quietly added: “Become His asset, submit your body and spirit to Him and you will know an eternity of pleasure…” Somehow that didn’t sound right. The intonation had a barely noticeable tinge of contempt and even indignation. Maybe it was my intuition or maybe the wisdom of ancestors did guide my mind then but I suddenly felt that this choice was the worst of the two… By the spirit! I couldn’t imagine then how right I was.” The old zorai fell silent for some time staring blankly in front of him. "On second thought, maybe I wasn’t…" - he laughed a short dry laugh that sounded more like a croak…

................... “And what was the alternative? – he continued. “Become one of us” they said – but this was simply impossible. Even the divine powers could not alter a homin in such a bizarre way. Surely they must mean “submit to their will” or “work for them” or something of that sort… And if that was the case some way of escape was more likely to present itself sooner or later… I tried to analyze everything minutely all over again but the voice in my head urged me on: “What is your decision? You must make one now.” And I told them that I accept the second choice – I will become “one of them”…

................... “As soon as I said that a hissing sound invaded the chamber and clouds of same greenish musky dust with which they sent me to sleep just a short while ago rose from the floor. I passed out immediately…”

...................Again the old zorai was silent for some time but then suddenly looked me straight in the eye and asked: “Do you know how the nanoseed works, young matis?”
- “Well”,- I said – “it makes us respawn when sustained injuries are too severe to be healed… It heals us slowly and steadily when healing is possible… It is one of Jena’s greatest gifts, and…”
-“Yes, yes”, - he cut me short there. “Let us stay out of religious matters for the moment. Nanoseed does indeed either heal or respawn your physical body unless… unless the body and the mind where both in a state of permanent sleep – hibernation or stasis so profound that even a gravest injury done to the body would not wake you. You must know that the Kitin can put a homin in that state. These “sleeping spores” produced by certain spieces of local fungi serve exactly that purpose. They put your every single cell and the nanoseed it contains into a static dormant state… I have my own theories about where and how they got such techniques, but let us leave those matters for later. That was what they have done to me..."
................... After another lengthy pause he continued - "After I woke up, blind for some time (and as I later learned blindness only comes when one has been put into a deep stasis), I couldn’t stand up, couldn’t walk, couldn’t even crawl, although I could feel around me with my hands which brought even more questions. The voice in my head was kind enough to explain what exactly have they done to me. They *cough* separated my upper self and attached it to a kincher’s open thorax. They even managed to bypass genetic discrepancy issue – ironically enough they use the goo as the medium between the two genetically incompatible species… The “remainder” of my body they have dissolved in a pool of kidinak acid, just in case. I do not think you want any more detail…
................... This is what they made me – half homin and half Kitin –a living monstrosity. They brought me here to this chamber and gave me a task that I have been busy with for many years now. I listen to their collective voice inside my head, I have grown accustomed to it. Sometimes they even translate images – things seen by other Kitin, that the collective would like me to witness aswell. I never leave this room – the aperture at the top is too narrow to let me through now that my Kitin part has grown. but I hear and see many things. Many unbelievable things indeed…

[night978]

YES!!!! komi you freakin awsome i cant wait for more