Jewels from the Dark

It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered now. Darach felt every thought drip slowly down his mind, eventually dropping from his brain into the abyss.

No. Something mattered. What was it? Think! He tried so hard to fight the fog of apathy and despair clouding his memory. There was something that mattered…

The air felt heavier with each passing moment. The weight was both crushing and oddly comforting. It offered an out – he didn’t have to feel anymore; he didn’t need to struggle or suffer. He could just…allow the darkness to ease him into the Void.

He became aware that something burned in his hand. The sharp sting cut through the cold and the pressure, as his fingers reflexively curled around the contents of his pocket. Laoise. He breathes a little easier, the heft of the darkness easing back a fraction. That’s right. That is why I was here. But where is here?

Darach tried to move but found that he had sunk up to his knees in soft earth. A gentle sigh exhaled around him, almost consuming him, and he felt a whisper caress across his face. He froze, feeling cold fingers of air trail down his arm. The embers clenched in his hand began to pulse with heat. He could sense the danger and stayed still, not sure if the enveloping entity could sense the aye-flame in his pocket.

Instead, he watched – felt really – the tendrils of the Wind lift another ember from his main supply box and carefully…gently…suddenly snuff it out. A pang of loss shot through Darach. The years of hope deferred. The loneliness. The absence. The void. The Void. The Void…

Little by little, the weight in the air returned around his shoulders. Little by little, he sank deeper into the soft ground. And little by little, he clutched harder to the tint handful of embers still glowing in his hand.