''The Great Desert''
(text-style:"italic","underline","superscript")[THE SIXTEENTH MOON OF MERCY IN THE YEAR 88744]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I don't know how to feel after today. I'm the same - but changed. I think the person who I was yesterday no longer exists. I'm in the same body, but unsure if I'm still Grier. I don't know if that makes sense and I can't even think of where to begin. Maybe if I just keep writing something will make sense.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ It was a quiet dawn. I hadn't had so much time to just //think// for quite a while. I'm always busy with something, preparing food, collecting water, sewing new clothes, ect... but the entire morning I did nothing but walk and think. It was refreshing.
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I trekked on. The walls around me continued to decay into jagged rows of teeth sanded down by wind and dust. Eroded chambers began to merge together until at last the ceiling rose into the distant heights of the Library. It were as if I stood on the seafloor looking up at a colossal wave lifting the sky. Then, at long last, I saw the Grand Desert before me. I let my eyes roam its horizon for quite some time, a beautiful, rolling sea of red dunes and playful mirages.
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ There is no confusion here, the Library has taken a knife to this place, shearing it down to a land of pure clarity. It's a harsh reality, but honest. To survive here requires oneself to reach into the deepest pits of their will. To live in a place touched only by the spiritual is to bare yourself naked to the struggles of the universe. There is no barrier between you and the divine, nothing to distract the soul from its communion with the Library.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ As I stood enveloped only in silent wind I felt a somber pang of regret within me. As if I had been reminded of something from a life long forgotten, a sealed path to another, different Grier. It awoke slumbering thoughts that rose to the surface of my mind.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[Thoughts of the afterlife]]
[[Thoughts of community]]
[[Thoughts of childhood]]
](stop:)](set: $Thoughtpath to "Freedom from the warmth of memory.")
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I shook the feeling away and trudged down the dunes before me.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ What a sacred, simple place this was. Perhaps that is why people once lived here. It is the only other place in all of the Library where I have found human remains. Ancient - but most definitely human. Older than any bones left in the Ephemeris Chamber.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Their skeletons are gathered in a ring on the center of a large, silver dish at the mouth of the desert. I once believed it was the site of a ritual to attain eternal life. Now its basin holds nothing but neatly organized bones. I thanked the desert, it has been merciful in allowing the dead’s final resting place to be undisturbed by its shifting sands.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I've often thought about crossing the dunes, discovering what lies on the other side, if such a place actually exists. But to challenge the desert's raw nature would mean death for me. Instead, I came to appreciate its song. Surrounding the dish are five stone pillars. Each is riddled with holes filled by spinning wheels made of bone and shell. I walked to the center of the dish and laid down amongst the lifeless tribe, gazing at the distant ceiling. The pillars use wind to make music with their chittering wheels and hollow whistles, the dish catches their song and stirs it into a beautiful, abstract melody. It's unlike anywhere else in the Library. I wonder what the song is saying? I wonder if it's the dead trying to speak to me? I wonder what they have become? I tried to imagine their bones rising into the faraway heights of the Library, past the ceiling and into the heavens. They floated further and further away until they lit aflame and burned into a beautiful constellation of stars suspended upon the tapestry of the cosmos.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ A deep sense of calm enveloped me, but the peace was broken by sudden tears welling in my eyes. Sobs possessed of a despair unknown to me burst forcefully from my lungs. I laid there amongst the dead and wept without knowing why for a long, long time. Only when the dish echoed my solitary sobs back to me did I understand. For the first time in my life, I felt truly and utterly alone. It broke me.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I looked to the bones and realized that someone cared enough to bury them together, someone cared enough to remember them. They loved and were loved in return.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ There is no one left to love me. No one to remember me. No one to learn from me. I exist in this isolated instance, surrounded by an ocean of empty, uninhabited time and when I leave this body it'll be as if I never even existed. There will be no one to mourn me, or struggle with me. No one to cry for me, no one to hold me close. I would never again share in the great sea of feeling that makes up what it means to be human. Within the core of my sadness was a burning regret. I remembered Yara. The one person who I cherished more than anything in the Library. I should have held every moment with her close, as if it were her very soul in my embrace. I wished so desperately to turn back time, to beg her never to leave.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I cried for the dead, but really I cried for myself. I pressed my eyes shut, desperately trying to hold back my horrible thoughts.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I was trapped behind my messy tears for a long time. When I finally opened my eyes again I was suspended in complete darkness. There were no red dunes, no stone pillars or chittering wheels, nothing to touch but the bare, abandoned void. I felt a comforting presence crawl up all around me. As if I were drifting deep below the surface of a cool, endless ocean. Then, in the distance before me, I saw a constellation of stars glimmering through the depths. They looked at me and merged together into one, single, lone Star. It shined brighter. It was the dead.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")['I see you,' said the Star.
'I've seen everything. Every waking eye and shuttered breath, cataclysm and miracle, motivation and impulse. I've seen every word of every page of every book and peered into the minds of those who crafted them. I've seen their struggles and victories, deaths and rebirths, dust and light.'
'And now Grier, I see you.'](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ A near eternity of time passed before I worked up the courage to respond.
'I see you too' was all I could muster to say.
'Tell me, what exactly do you see?' asked the Star.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I peered into the dancing light before me and saw:](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[LOVE]]
[[HATE]]
](stop:)](set: $Thoughtpath to "Freedom from the warmth of friendship.")
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I shook the feeling away and trudged down the dunes before me. I found a spot to sit for a quiet lunch while I took in the sights. There's nothing quite like food to lift one's spirits.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I made sure to pack my flute with me, the desert is my favorite place to practice music. The animals don’t judge and there's no one to hear whatever ugly sounds I force out my flute.
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ As I played, the lonely whistle of my flute stirred up a flurry of emotions within me. To my left I heard the warbling bend of an eucalyptus tree, caught in the wind. Its bowing melody was reminiscent of deep strings. So there I imagined a person, another human, swaying over a great cello. To my right I heard the steady thrum of distant wind rhythmically pounding the Library’s walls. It became a drummer - no, a procession of drummers, that brought a heartbeat to our swelling music. The world melted into woodwinds, brass, strings, and percussion, there was nothing left but our souls and the music emanating from them. In that brief moment I felt what it would be like to be part of a tribe. If instead of just Nabu, I could share in the warmth of thousands of people.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ We merged together and as one became a great parade, all marching beyond the dunes and into the mists. But I was left behind, for I am not part of their world. I imagined them rising past the ceiling, beyond the sun and moon and deep into the cosmos. They filled the void with their music and burst into flames, becoming a constellation of glistening stars. They hung above me in my mind, playing the muted song I could no longer be a part of. It was as if a human fragment of me were stolen.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ A deep sense of calm enveloped me, but the peace was broken by sudden tears welling in my eyes. Sobs possessed of a despair unknown to me burst forcefully from my lungs. I laid in the sands and wept without knowing why for a long, long time. Only when the Library echoed my solitary sobs back to me did I understand. For the first time in my life, I felt truly and utterly alone. It broke me.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I imagined the tribe, their instruments and songs, it all came from some primal pit within them. An innate love that wove their lives together, bonding them into one soul, this flawed, doomed, beautiful thing. They loved and were loved in return.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ There is no one left to love me. No one to remember me. No one to learn from me. I exist in this isolated instance, surrounded by an ocean of empty, uninhabited time and when I leave this body it'll be as if I never even existed. There will be no one to mourn me, or struggle with me. No one to cry for me, no one to hold me close. I would never again share in the great sea of feeling that makes up what it means to be human. Within the core of my sadness was a burning regret. I remembered Yara. The one person who I cherished more than anything in the Library. I should have held every moment with her close, as if it were her very soul in my embrace. I wished so desperately to turn back time, to beg her never to leave.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I wept for the tribe, but really I wept for myself. I pressed my eyes shut, desperately trying to hold back my horrible thoughts.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I was trapped behind my messy tears for a long time. When I finally opened my eyes again I was suspended in complete darkness. There were no red dunes, no wind or song, nothing to touch but the bare, abandoned void. I felt a comforting presence crawl up all around me. As if I were drifting deep below the surface of a cool, endless ocean. Then, in the distance before me, I saw a constellation of stars glimmering through the depths. They looked at me and merged together into one, single, lone Star. It shined brighter. It was the tribe.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'I see you,' said the Star.
'I've seen everything. Every waking eye and shuttered breath, cataclysm and miracle, motivation and impulse. I've seen every word of every page of every book and peered into the minds of those who crafted them. I've seen their struggles and victories, deaths and rebirths, dust and light.'
'And now Grier, I see you.'](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ A near eternity of time passed before I worked up the courage to respond.
'I see you too' was all I could muster to say.
'Tell me, what exactly do you see?' asked the Star.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I peered into the dancing light before me and saw:](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[LOVE]]
[[HATE]]
](stop:)](set: $Thoughtpath to "Freedom from the warmth of purpose.")
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I shook the feeling away and stumbled down the dunes before me, tripping, rolling and coming to a dusty, unflattering heap at the foot of the slope.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I sat quiet in my embarrassment for a while before heaving myself up and shaking off all the sand I had accumulated.
'What a fool I am,' I thought to myself, looking to the distant ceiling, 'perhaps the Library found it funny.'](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Then I heard an unfamiliar, hollow whistle and about a dozen meters ahead of me saw a small, stone door, barely emerging from the sands. It led into a dark staircase burrowing deep to some dormant place hidden beneath the dunes.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Before I could realize what was happening I was inside the tunnel, and then I was deeper, and deeper until the familiar howl of wind abandoned me.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ There was almost no light, but even worse there was no sound. I became so acutely aware of the silence I could hear my own blood pumping through my skull. Suddenly, the tight air around me released outward, a soft drone rushed in and freed my ears from the tunnel's oppressive silence. I had unknowingly wandered into a grand and dark hall. It came like a gasp for air after a long dive. I looked behind me and saw no entrance, ahead of me was just forever receding shadows. A muffled resonance hummed somewhere deep beyond the sunken walls of the chamber. I imagined it was the sands shifting around us.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Far ahead I saw a single stone slab rising from the center of the hall. This was a tomb.
On the slab before me was a book - not a book of words or gibberish - but a book of drawings and images. I held it delicately in my hands, trying to make out its artistry in the dimness of the tomb.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The drawings told a simple story, the first story I'd ever known only to be told with pictures. The book's hero was a woman, but it also wasn't - it confused me for a time. It looked like a human, but small and frail, with a head too big for its body. This delicate, pitiful, beautiful thing. Not even the creature itself was beautiful, it was a messy, clumsy animal. Unprepared for the world, scared, and selfish. A child. I had never seen one before.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I turned the pages. Deep within the story's woods was a stone tunnel that led to other worlds. In each world was some kind of mentor, some were sages, or knights, or scoundrels. A person that would help shape the child in some way, good or bad. Then, when the child was ready, they would venture back into the tunnel and leave that world behind forever. The story kept going until the child was but an old woman. A visitor to countless worlds. She had sung with sorcerers and fought with slavers, dined in the halls of great kings and buried humble lovers.
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The final tunnel led to a world of darkness. The woman laid down her swords and shields, let loose her hair and exhaled their final breath. She burst into flames, rose into the heavens, and became a star. A single, lone star.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ A deep sense of calm enveloped me, but the peace was broken by sudden tears welling in my eyes. Sobs possessed of a despair unknown to me burst forcefully from my lungs. I laid in the dark and wept without knowing why for a long, long time. Only when the hall echoed my solitary sobs back to me did I understand. For the first time in my life, I felt truly and utterly alone. It broke me.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I have no one to teach me the language of life. No interpreters for the world like the woman had. Their life was full of others, people good and bad, to help build them into something beautiful. Without them, does that make me just a formless thing? Am I still nothing but that pitiful, scared child?
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ There is no one left to love me. No one to remember me. No one to learn from me. I exist in this isolated instance, surrounded by an ocean of empty, uninhabited time and when I leave this body it'll be as if I never even existed. There will be no one to mourn me, or struggle with me. No one to cry for me, no one to hold me close. I would never again share in the great sea of feeling that makes up what it means to be human. Within the core of my sadness was a burning regret. I remembered Yara. The one person who I cherished more than anything in the Library. I should have held every moment with her close, as if it were her very soul in my embrace. I wished so desperately to turn back time, to beg her never to leave.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I cried for the child, but really I cried for myself. I pressed my eyes shut, desperately trying to hold back my horrible thoughts.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I was trapped behind my messy tears for a long time. When I finally opened my eyes again I was suspended in complete darkness. There were no red dunes, no stone pillars or endless halls, nothing to touch but the bare, abandoned void. I felt a comforting presence crawl up all around me. As if I were drifting deep below the surface of a cool, endless ocean. Then, in the distance before me, I saw a Star glimmering through the depths. It looked at me and glowed brighter. It was the Child.
](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'I see you,' said the Star.
'I've seen everything. Every waking eye and shuttered breath, cataclysm and miracle, motivation and impulse. I've seen every word of every page of every book and peered into the minds of those who crafted them. I've seen their struggles and victories, deaths and rebirths, dust and light.'
'And now Grier, I see you.'](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'And now Grier, I see you.'
A near eternity of time passed before I worked up the courage to respond.
'I see you too' was all I could muster to say.
'Tell me, what exactly do you see?' asked the Star.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[I peered into the dancing light before me and saw:](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[LOVE]]
[[HATE]]
](stop:)](set: $Choice1 to "Love")
[[INTIMACY]]
[[PASSION]](set: $Choice1 to "Hate")
[[INTIMACY]]
[[PASSION]](set: $Choice2 to "intimacy")
[[ISOLATION]]
[[MYSTERY]](set: $Choice2 to "passion")
[[ISOLATION]]
[[MYSTERY]](set: $Choice3 to "isolation")
[[VIOLENCE]]
[[LOYALTY]](set: $Choice3 to "mystery")
[[VIOLENCE]]
[[LOYALTY]](set: $Choice4 to "violence")
[[CHAOS]]
[[POWER]](set: $Choice4 to "loyalty")
[[CHAOS]]
[[POWER]](set: $Choice5 to "chaos")
[[HONOR]]
[[JEALOUSY]](set: $Choice5 to "power")
[[HONOR]]
[[JEALOUSY]](set: $Choice6 to "honor")
[[SORROW]]
[[JOY]](set: $Choice6 to "jealousy")
[[SORROW]]
[[JOY]](set: $Choice7 to "sorrow")
[[CHANGE]]
[[CERTAINTY]](set: $Choice7 to "joy")
[[CHANGE]]
[[CERTAINTY]](set: $Choice8 to "change")
[[ENTROPY]]
[[GROWTH]](set: $Choice8 to "certainty")
[[ENTROPY]]
[[GROWTH]](set: $Choice9 to "entropy")
[[HOME]]
[[REST]](set: $Choice9 to "growth")
[[HOME]]
[[REST]](set: $Choice10 to "home")
[[BEAUTY]]
[[MAGIC]](set: $Choice10 to "rest")
[[BEAUTY]]
[[MAGIC]](set: $Choice11 to "beauty")
[[WONDER]]
[[SONG]](set: $Choice11 to "magic")
[[WONDER]]
[[SONG]](set: $Choice12 to "wonder")
[[LAUGHTER|Star Talk]]
[[TEARS|Star Talk]](set: $Choice12 to "song")
[[LAUGHTER|Star Talk]]
[[TEARS|Star Talk]](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The Star glowed brighter.
'Grier, do you remember what you are?' it asked.
I looked inward and realized that almost all I had known outside this moment had faded into obscurity.
'No.' I responded.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ Ribbons of excited flame leaped from the Star.
'You've embodied everything good and everything evil. You are the burning cores of creation and ultimate destruction. You are a longing to be seen and the acceptance of release. You've heard the call and now you're here. It's unparalleled.'
'I don't understand. What do you want from me?'
The Star pulsed like an excited heart.
'This is your apotheosis, your catalyst of change. Here, as you balance on the threshold, I give you a choice: Follow me beyond the end of everything and free yourself from -](stop:)]
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//(print: $Choice1), (print: $Choice2), (print: $Choice3), (print: $Choice4), (print: $Choice5), (print: $Choice6), (print: $Choice7), (print: $Choice8), (print: $Choice9), (print: $Choice10), (print: $Choice11), and (print: $Choice12)//. Free from painful laughter or tears of joy.
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(print: $Thoughtpath)
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[Or return to your world and struggle a short while, like a waning fire lost in the night.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[
[[Struggle]]
[[Freedom]]
](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I thought for a long while about the Star's proposition, weighing my options carefully.
'You're right,' I told the star, 'I want to be free from many of those things, but not all of it sounds bad.'
'It's not bad or good. It simply is.'
'But what do you want?' I asked.
'I don't want anything. I've made my choice.'
I wondered to myself if it was a choice the Star regretted. At last, I came to my decision.
'I don't think I can abandon it all just yet. I want to see what happens in the end.'
The star smiled and began to diminish back into the depths, but there was a moment of hesitation.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Before I leave, I am obligated to pass down a message to you,' said the Star, 'Although, I regret agreeing to do so. You are not ready.'](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I was confused. 'Why am I not ready?' I asked.
The Star dimmed and the void crept closer.
'You are wandering deeper and deeper into a forest. For years and years you've wandered, gone so long that now you believe there is nothing //but// the forest. I fear what I must tell you will only drive you deeper, to a violent, entangled place.'](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Please, I beg you, what's the message?'
There was a terrible silence.
'Your existence is a mistake Grier. You were never meant to find the Library.'
I didn't know what I expected the Star to say, but it wasn't that.
'I didn't //find// the Library, I was born to it.' I replied.
'You speak of the Library as if it were the very womb that conceived you.'
'Because it is! I have no mother or father, I came into the world as Grier and will one day leave it just the same. It is as Nabu has told me, the Library made me for a purpose. I belong here. This is my home.'](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The Star glared with frustration.
'No Grier. You don't belong here. You have never belonged here. This place isn't a library, it's a prison, and you are a key, a dangerous key, that will let loose its horrors.'
There was a short, tense silence as I grappled with the Star's words.
'A prison for what?'
A longer silence.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Your captor, Nabu.'
I was appalled at the Star's frightening accusation. I have never once seen any signs that could point to such a conclusion.
'Nabu? He's my friend. All he has ever done is help me!'
The Star took a rueful tone.
'Nabu is not even his name. He is using you, just as the Library once used him.'
I didn't know how to respond, I didn't even know what to think.
'You're lying,' was all I could say.
'And you were not ready,' flared the Star.
'This is not the first time we have met, but it will be the last' it said, 'I will climb back into the dark and close this world behind me. I have done my part. Once all is done and spent, you will understand.'](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[And then, as if nothing had happened, I was back in my own body. The Star was gone, the wind stood still, and the tears had dried on my cheeks. It was an unexplainable, absurd thing.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//END OF EXCERPT//](stop:)](click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[The Star smiled and began to diminish back into the depths, but there was a moment of hesitation.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Before I leave, I am obligated to pass down a message to you,' said the Star, 'Although, I regret agreeing to do so. You are not ready.'](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ I was confused. 'Why am I not ready?' I asked.
The Star dimmed and the void crept closer.
'You are wandering deeper and deeper into a forest. For years and years you've wandered, gone so long that now you believe there is nothing //but// the forest. I fear what I must tell you will only drive you deeper, to a violent, entangled place.'](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Please, I beg you, what's the message?'
There was a terrible silence.
'Your existence is a mistake Grier. You were never meant to find the Library.'
I didn't know what I expected the Star to say, but it wasn't that.
'I didn't //find// the Library, I was born to it.' I replied.
'You speak of the Library as if it were the very womb that conceived you.'
'Because it is! I have no mother or father, I came into the world as Grier and will one day leave it just the same. It is as Nabu has told me, the Library made me for a purpose. I belong here. This is my home.'](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ The Star glared with frustration.
'No Grier. You don't belong here. You have never belonged here. This place isn't a library, it's a prison, and you are a key, a dangerous key, that will let loose its horrors.'
There was a short, tense silence as I grappled with the Star's words.
'A prison for what?'
A longer silence.](stop:)]
(click: ?page)[==
(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[ 'Your captor, Nabu.'
I was appalled at the Star's frightening accusation. I have never once seen any signs that could point to such a conclusion.
'Nabu? He's my friend. All he has ever done is help me!'
The Star took a rueful tone.
'Nabu is not even his name. He is using you, just as the Library once used him.'
I didn't know how to respond, I didn't even know what to think.
'You're lying,' was all I could say.
'And you were not ready,' flared the Star.
'This is not the first time we have met, but it will be the last' it said, 'I will climb back into the dark and close this world behind me. I have done my part. Once all is done and spent, you will understand.'](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[And then, as if nothing had happened, I was back in my own body. The Star was gone, the wind stood still, and the tears had dried on my cheeks. It was an unexplainable, absurd thing.](stop:)]
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(live: 0s)[(t8n:"dissolve")[//END OF EXCERPT//](stop:)]