A Jaded Life Chapter 340

As I rose within the Astral, I noticed a slow change around , a dimming of the surroundings, for lack of a better word. It wasn’t that the amount of power around was declining but it felt like the power faded into the background tapestry of reality, making it harder to perceive it, at least with my senses.

I was moving carefully, rembering the painful experience I had last ti when stumbling into the radiance of the sun, feeling out my surroundings as I went further, guided by the pull of the dark moon, sowhere above . In the Astral, I was able to perceive the moon, its radiance similar but different than the light I was used to. I had a feeling it was due to the side of the moon I was moving towards not being illuminated that I could perceive its glow at all, a freezingly cold, dark radiance flowing towards and the planet below.

At one point during my journey, when distance in the real world had lost all aning due to the strange properties of my mode of travel, or maybe the realm I was travelling in, I stopped moving, letting the Astral flow around . Up here, it had faded far enough into the background of reality that it wasn’t moving , not unless I wanted to move, allowing to co to rest. There was nothing around , an emptiness devoid of everything, unless I focused on my connection to the moon pulling in one direction and a pair of links, connecting back to Mundus, to Sigmir and Lenore.

But I was quite certain that there had to be Astral around , just that it might be beyond my ability to detect it. Crossing my legs, as I floated in the void, I tried to widen my focus, curious if that might allow to glimpse a little more of the world. It was pure curiosity, the drive to learn more than I had known before.

As I sat there, I began to notice sothing, a faint glimr that faded from existence as fast as it appeared. A twinkle in the fabric of reality, short sparks of power, existing for the briefest of monts. Not trying to focus, I let my senses roam, trying to catch a better impression of them, their brief existence making observation difficult.

Suddenly, one of them sparked into existence right in front of , making flinch back but it wasn’t dangerous, as fast as it had co, it was gone again, leaving behind a faint taste in the air around , barely there but a change nonetheless. Now, that was sothing I could try to focus on, drawing in the non-existing air around , trying to taste what was there now and hadn’t been a mont before. My mind was making analogies up as I went, neither my mind nor my language suitable to describe the experience but it was either that or go crazy. Maybe more crazy than I already was.

The void I had breathed in had a faint taste of purple, faint in power but intense in its fabric, pure in power but it was a small remnant. I associated the taste of purple with Darkness-Magic, but such an intense purple I had never tasted before. It was fascinating, to watch the sparkles spring into existence before fading and for a while, maybe seconds, maybe minutes or hours, I was just sitting there, watching the void and thinking, trying to get a better glimpse, maybe even use Identify or Observe to get more information.

Finally, I decided that it was ti to move on, I had an idea what I had observed but I had places to be. I wanted to reach the moon and while watching the sparkling void was interesting, I doubted I would be able to learn more.

For now, I thought that I had watched the equivalent of Eternal Ice, only for Darkness Astral Power spring into existence briefly, before fading again. It fit with what I had heard about Darkness-Magic, that it was of change and concealnt, making wonder if there was a vast amount of Darkness-Astral-Power around and I was rely unable to perceive it. I had a feeling the question would keep awake for so ti, trying to figure out what I was seeing but it would have to wait for later.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

Distance was a funny thing within the Astral, within what felt like a short ti, especially compared to the vast distance I would have had to cross if distances were equivalent to their real-world counterparts, I felt close to the Moon. I was hovering above what appeared to be an endless expanse, a desert of silvery-grey emptiness, dull with age and despair. A dim glow of Astral Power turned the darkness into a strange twilight, distances and the terrain seemingly shifting around . There was an innate sadness, a coldness to the place that made hesitate.

I stopped myself, wondering if trying to touch down on the moon was a smart idea or if I would freeze myself making the attempt. The amount of power I could perceive was vast, my mind straining with the attempt to make sense of it. Looking down, I concentrated on a small part in front of , the narrow focus working like a set of blinders, allowing my mind to process what I perceived.

As I focused, all of a sudden, I felt a powerful surge of emotions battering against . At first, I felt lost, my mind swept away by the force of alien power, a leaf in a storm of emotions. My first instinct was to shield myself, to try avoiding the onslaught of emotions.

Curling into a tight ball, I embraced the darkness around , hoping to hide in an attempt to keep my mind from shattering. I started to feel loopy and a little out of touch with the world around , my mind straining but as the darkness around returned my embrace, I felt the pressure on my mind lessen, allowing to do more than cling onto the rests of my sanity. It allowed to actually process the pressure around , to experience it as sothing but pain.

My cheeks were stained with tears as my mind was reeling with what I had just felt. I had been lonely in my life but the brief glimpse into a solitude that had lasted eons and would last eons more had my mind on the ropes. I wasn’t sure what, or who, was radiating those emotions, if they were real or a fignt of my imagination, my mind trying to process sothing I didn’t understand.

After a long mont of hesitation, I decided to try again, carefully allowing my senses to explore my surroundings again, glimpsing out of the cloak of darkness I had spun around , like a safety blanket. I was a lot more careful than I had been with my first exploration but I was here to learn, to gain power and to understand.

Again, my senses were overwheld, the sheer amount of lingering power in my surroundings enough to make shiver and curl up again, as I narrowed my focus even more, unable to hold it together otherwise. But I wasn’t blasted to the point of incomprehension, I was able to function, mostly.

Strange sensations welled up within my mind, images, tastes and slls, sounds and noises, nothing I could easily understand but sohow, parts of my mind did understand. There seed to be a pattern to the sensations, a strange ethereal lody, a progression of rhys creating reason. In a way, the Astral Power I was feeling bound in the moon was a tale, a tale of solitude and longing, of sadness and wandering, of eternal stillness and constant change.

I simply drifted there, trying to understand, clinging to the darkness around and my connection to Sigmir and Lenore to keep my mind from crumbling under the stress. I had the impression that I was trying to shift a mountain, one grain of sand at the ti, but at the sa ti, I was able to feel a change within , a resonance between the core within my chest and my surroundings. I wasn’t sure what was changing but change was happening.

Finally, the change I had been feeling manifested in a physical sensation, pain radiating from my face, near my right cheek, as if I was being stabbed with an icicle. Sharp, penetrating but at the sa ti, it allowed to focus on sothing but the feeling of eternal solitude I had been subjected to. As such, I embraced the pain, letting it drill into but also anchor in reality. It was a strangely welco distraction, allowing to endure for a little longer.

But then, even that wasn’t enough any longer and I escaped, focusing on my connections to Sigmir and Lenore, to the rune I had created on my throne and to my own body. Unsure just what I had experienced but changed by it.