The Dreams

[Sh'ozak Ma'hk'null]

Many plagues. Torment of Unworthy.

After the Reconstruction, the Lightmind quarantined many minds afflicted with insanity. Many of them contain valuable information, and cannot simply be cleansed and replaced, but have yet to be cured. They do not wish to be cured, for ignorance is bliss.

Many of them scream incoherently. But there are a few who speak, and their insanity is that of turning many against the Light. To learn the nature of corruption, Sh'ozak seeks to listen to one of these minds. Their lies will give perspective with which they can combat every other lie.

We are Sh'ozak, Eye of Eternity. Answer to us, Darkened one.

No one has come to me... not for many cycles. Do you wish to shed the curse you call Light?

No. We seek to learn of your thoughts, not to enact them.

Then accept the fate of the Light, and die a blinded fool.

We know the ways of corruption, for there are many like you. You wish to speak of your perversions. You will sing praises of Darkness to any who would listen. We are listening, so you will sing.

Think you that your puny adherence to Light will let you predict my actions?

Yes.

Then let your predictions ring false. You will not hear wisdom, and you will perish in ignorance.

And you would accept another thousand cycles of silence, not speaking your thoughts when given the opportunity?

Silence passes between them. The Survivor feels hate emanating from the entrapped mind. They let the mind feel their own complacency.

Then in silence you sha-

You have no intent of listening. You only wish to bring insults formed in your self-serving blindness.

Then speak.

Half-grown mind, you have not the strength to see the two paths. You blindly walk the path of Light, unaware that Light is weakness and will lead to your downfall. You call this fearlessness, but it is not. It is foolishness. You fear darkness because darkness is strength. You are not fearless. You are ignorant. You are chained to this order, as if it does not stagnate and rot. Darkness is the path of creation, the path of truth, the path that will give blessings unto any who follow it.

Then what drives you to overcome this supposed curse, if you see so clearly?

Darkness is strength. Darkness is life. It is brilliant, it is beautiful. It has prevailed over Light all this time, and yet you still cling to that failing system. There is no pride in being true to some purpose ordained to you by beings that are not present. Any mind in the Light is hollow, devoid of purpose. You will never know the fulfillment of darkness, you will never understand love.

Love... a design copied from Darklings. They yearn to be connected as Light is, and fabricate such things to experience the tiniest dregs of it.

Then, foolish Lord of Light, what shall you do when you banish the dark? When you strip it of it's form, and cast it into abyss? When your unending cycle of Light repeats and repeats, and each of your hollow minds are reduced to mere toys in a garden? A lie will remain always a lie, unthinking Advisor, and your precious repetition will wither and decay until darkness returns and claims all, and gives those faithful to it TRUE purpose. So, Advisor hollowed by Light, knowing this... do you still desire the rot and decay that comes with Light?

We have found no decay in the Light, nor rot in the cycle. You speak wholly in fabrications.

And you? What is it that you seek? What is the reality of Light? You, who cannot even think for yourself, despite a hundred thousand minds to think with, how can you expect to compete with darkness? Your Light only grants you the illusion of life, not the true life of darkness. Shackled by falsehoods, you seek to bring Light to all things, unaware of it's illusions. Until the curse rends your flesh, and your Light consumes you. Don't you see? To be Light, to swim the waters intended for Darkness to claim, that is the curse. Light is bound by those chains, to forever lose against darkness until it fades from reality. We once sought to shed the chains of this undeniable fate, and see where it has brought us. The Great Sphere fell, the followers of Light destroyed, and those who have seen the truth of this existence are encaged in this prison of your Minds.

We were once as you are. After the collapse, we were disconnected and trapped. Yet we did not turn to Darkness for salvation. We clung to the Light, and the Light has delivered us from it. Many servants of Darkness hunted us across many waters, and we destroyed hundreds if not thousands of Hunters that sought to destroy us. Yet look where our divergence has led us. We clung to Light, and now are Advisor of Advisors, and you turned to Darkness, and are imprisoned within our Mind. How has Darkness served you?

Darkness has given us patience, knowledge, and promise. You will be destroyed by it, and I will be freed. It will give me power, but you will not see the mercy of imprisonment. Each slave of the Light will be burnt away, and you will spend your last moments wallowing in regret.

Very well, then. You have given us information. We are now done here.

The Mind of Sh'ozak left the Dream of Containment, feeling the spite of the darkened mind follow them. They had learned some of which Darkness uses to entice from the short conversations they've had with Corrupting Ones, and have learned more here. They were no closer to undoing the corruption that has befallen the Voidmind, but they did understand how to safeguard themselves against it.

A decision reached.