The air within the nearby Folds quivered.
Altheon stepped forward across the shifting currents, the folds parting for him as if pulled by his re presence. He looked at the form of Thauron, face etched into a writhing tendril of darkness, and said with cold precision, "Why is a creature like you saying such words?"
HUUM!
Thauron tilted his head and gave a crooked smile.
His voice was light, almost amused. "I cannot believe it either. A Living Existence apart from a Paradox, actually here. But I did all of this...for a reason!"
His voice was almost filled with a maddened glee.
"I did this...because I believe I hold a piece of information that may be absolutely consequential for Living Existences. And I want to trade it for sothing of equal value. Thats all. Sothing very, very simple."
...!
Altheon’s eyes glinted with glory.
He swept his gaze over Thauron’s strange form and said with unyielding calm, "You reek of thr stench of Paradox. Why would I give you anything, when I can simply take? I could unravel you here and now, then sift through all your records."
The folds around them seed to shudder.
And yet...Thauron only laughed.
He looked straight at the Living Origin before him, his smile wider now, less amused and more mad. "Seeing your light of grandeur, you must be a Living Origin through and through. So I will tell you this. Before you, I swear by my very purpose and beginning. If you forcefully move against , even you will not be able to find the information I hold. I’ve locked it away sowhere... no Foldless Ones can reach. No Living Existence can reach."
His words rang out with a quiet finality, and then he asked, "Now, as a Living Origin, tell ... are my words false? You should be able to see if it’s truth or lie if I have sworn by my beginning and very purpose!"
...!
Altheon did not speak imdiately.
His hands rose slowly as he sent a ripple of light through the folds, a wash of Origin weaving that passed through Thauron like a tide.
It returned to him bearing the truth. There was no lie in Thauron’s oath.
His brow furrowed. A piece of information hidden even from soone as powerful as him? This was no small feat for soone that seed to be a re Master of Existence!
Thauron’s face curved into a grin that held teeth as he accepted the gaze of a Living Origin.
In his thoughts, he murmured to himself.
He had hidden the mories within an Inevitability. How could anyone reach them now? Not even the Foldless Ones had eyes in an Inevitability. That was the brilliance of it.
The madness behind the Inevitabilities had brought sothing wondrous after all. It had allowed him to hide to gain the information he now held!
Altheon’s voice rang with imnse coldness. "What do you want, then?"
Thauron shrugged and gave a short laugh. "I don’t know."
"..."
That answer made even the air grow heavier.
Thauron continued, arms spreading wide. "I truly don’t know what I want, because the value of my information could be far greater than anything you alone can offer. But I do know this: I want sothing of equal worth. If you can swear by your Origin, by your purpose, to give what you can as it has to be equivalent in exchange... then we may begin."
A silence ca.
To ask a Living Origin to swear by their beginning was like asking a Wheel of Existence to shift their course.
Altheon stared long and hard. His mind moved swiftly, calculating risk. Could any one being’s information truly be that valuable?
But the folds whispered around him, and there was no deception.
"Who are you?"
Altheon asked.
And Thauron smiled and bowed in reply.
"I am just a little fish trying to swim in an unfathomably vast sea. I am Thauron."
WAA!
Thauron.
Altheon took this na and nodded as he swords!
"By my Origin, you, Thauron, shall receive an equivalent exchange of the value of information you shall give."
...!
With a quiet voice that held the weight of creation, Altheon spoke his oath.
Light surged around him as the folds themselves bore witness to a promise by a Living Origin!
Thauron exhaled, eyes gleaming. He clapped his hands once.
"Good," he said. "My information is simple in shape, complex in consequence. Watch. Listen."
With a tap of his finger, a stream of mory flowed forth. It shimred with fractured light, dancing through the air toward the Living Origin. A tale unfolded.
It showed the reality that had transpired between the being called Ozymandias and the Living Paradox, Moiraine. Every word, every movent. Every resonance inside the Paradoxical Prison!
Thauron smiled faintly as he searched deeper.
Through Bob’s mories, he pulled the tangled details.
Details of Noah Osmont.
Of when Bob t him.
From Hell Terra Firma to other Frequencies and beyond, Bob had t Noah Osmont. He also happened to et...the body of Ozymandias when his other body was locked in Hell Terra Firma!
Since Thauron considered the unique entanglent they held...
’I will leave out a few things, my friend!’ He smiled as he looked at the Living Origin and planned to only reveal one identity.
The one that was actually in the Paradoxical Prison!
"This one," he said softly as Altheon stood still, "is nad Ozymandias."
A flare of light burst from Altheon’s body. The weight of his silence grew.
"It seems," Thauron added with a mad grin, "that he is a Young Paradox unlike any other."
Golden-white brilliance erupted as Altheon’s power surged. His face twisted with too many thoughts at what he saw!
A Living Paradox...that did not cause Inevitabilities with other Paradoxes!
This was an impossibility.
An abomination!
An affront to Existence itself!
And it could not be allowed to happen.
He turned to Thauron, gaze unreadable. "You do not know how vital the knowledge you have passed on today is. Since I have sworn by my beginning, Thauron... you will be compensated."
His voice darkened. "But first... I must act."
Thauron gave a deep laugh that rang out through the folds. It echoed off the depths of the Nullvein Gravewake Folds like a song of unraveling.
He settled into a crouch, his face alive with anticipation.
"Good," he whispered. "Let us see how weavings shall unfold from here!"
The folds rippled. Far beyond, the drums of Origin began to beat.
—
Far from the roiling folds of Thauron.
Deeper still, within the heart of the Living Origin Labyrinth, the main body of Altheon sat in solemn stillness. The brilliance of the Origin Weavings swirled around him like rivers of white gold fire, and his eyes, usually composed, were now grim.
What he just found out was heavy!
Sothing with terrifying implications!
He turned his gaze toward the female Origin Descendant beside him.
"Shaynara, A Living Paradox has risen who does not produce Inevitabilities..." he said, the weight in his voice cutting through the sacred hum of the Labyrinth. "When he cos into contact with other Paradoxes, nothing happens!"
BOOM!
Shaynara whose face bore a crown of soft white fla, flinched.
Her expression grew dark as she stepped closer. "What?! Who?" she asked quietly. "Such a thing should not even be possible! All Paradoxes bear Inevitabilities...this has never changed since the Earliest Folds! If such a being truly exists, they...cannot be allowed to live!"
Altheon’s face remained grave. "It is a creature called Ozymandias," he said. "And from what I’ve seen, it may not even be an Originus Venerant yet as this gives us an opportunity."
Shaynara’s brows furrowed as her aura pulsed violently with the resonance of an agitated star. Altheon stood slowly, his form shining with golden-white luminance.
"He is currently in the company of two Living Paradoxes," he said, his voice low. "That protection alone would make a frontal assault impossible. But if he has yet to close off his existence through Originus Venerant, then I may still be able to strike his very purpose and beginning."
He looked directly into her gaze. "I want your help. If we are swift, we can end this before it unravels!"
Around them, golden authority buzzed.
The fairy-like creature near them looked over in shock!
Shaynara nodded, the tendrils of her authority flowing through the air like golden silk. "I will guide my power to supplent yours!"
Decisive.
As if she knew exactly what was at stake!
Altheon’s aura flared. He stepped into a seated position, the folds around him quieting as if the Labyrinth itself recognized the weight of his coming act. A ring of light appeared around his seated form. The female Origin Descendant extended her hand and her power, the resonance between them surging.
He breathed in. Then, a chant began as Altheon took this seriously!
"By breath drawn at the cusp of the first Fold, By silence spoken when beginnings unfold, By the tether of spark, when form was made, I call your na through the root of shade.
Ozymandias, whose na I now know, Your thread is bare, your essence aglow, Unwoven shall be your misguided claim, Erased from song, returned to fla.
By purpose etched in folds long dead, By the whisper of truth no Paradox has said, I cast this thread back through your seed, Let your purpose falter, let it bleed. Let your beginning end, O Ozymandias!"
HUUM!
Each line rang with dreadful precision. The Labyrinth groaned. The air around Altheon twisted like coiling rope. His body beca a beacon of Origin, and from his brow, a single streak of light shot forth.
It curved impossibly through the folds, unseen by most. It bore his chant, his judgnt. It carried the command to strike down the very beginning and purpose of one called Ozymandias.
As the attack surged across Existence, Altheon’s expression remained cold. Shaynara stood firm at his side, her arms extended in support. The Labyrinth trembled as two Living Origins reached across existence to end a paradox never ant to be!
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