First Draft - Stairs in the Dark - Last Updated: 09/13/2016

The maw that opened in the night gave Kan reason to pause and consider his next step one more time.  The voices in his head urged him to retreat.  The pressure of the discordant choir raging at him only galvanized his resolve.  Pain sprang into his mind like a screaming trumpet next to his ears he flinched away.

“It’s the only way!” he yelled at the opening.

“Turn back!” a voice inserted itself like a blade and then twisted into an agony of intensity that caused him to stubble to his knees.

“You will die,” the voice promised.

Fear clawed at his heart as he forced himself to his feet an stepped into the dark mouth of death that would consume his body and possibly destroy his sanity before he could complete his purpose. 

“I will not turn back,” he yelled into the darkness as he reached the top of the stairs that lead into a vast cavern below.

Kan’s pulse hammered as if it were a creature seeking to tear itself from his veins.  Each step into the darkness was met with the taunts and promises of the voices that threatened to drive him mad with echos of voice and acrimonious sound that only he could hear as it rippled across his mind in waves that assaulted his sanity.

The light that illuminated the stairs as he descended into the catacomb levels below was on something that gave incomplete details to the wet and pervasive moss that threatened to steal his footing with each step into the void.  It emanate from the moss itself, splashing the black with hues so faint that it might as well be drops of water cast onto the baking sands of the Zhe-Hu Desert at mid-day for all the good it did to bathe the wide expanse of blackness.  All it revealed was fliting movements at the edge of perception that Kan sensed at a primal level were not mere ghosts of his imagination acting on a canvas of shadowy velvet; he was being watched and followed by the Wraiths of Silence. 

“You are brave!” an amused voice chuckled amid the violent torrent of mental torment that gnawed at his inner stability. 

“I DO NOT FEAR YOU,” Kan yelled at the voice.

“You should,” the now cold voice said,

“I will end this life of yours,” it promised with no trace of humor or sanity.

“With each step forward your remaining human heartbeats grow shorter,” the now familiar if menacing voice warned.

Kan could feel the truth of the warning.

“I do not fear to cross the Vail of Silence!” he replied.

The barely contained terror that screamed in his head for him to run sloshed through him triggering more adrenaline to flow into his flooded system threatening his tenuous fight for control of his mind.

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” he screamed as he stumbled and fell painfully down the last few stairs landing with a meat crash that slammed the right side of his body into the cold slimed rock. 

“NEVER,” the voice echoed in his mind like the racked laughter of a psychopath.  

Kan steeled his resolve and pushed himself to his knees before standing. 

“I will do this,” Kan said with coldness seeking to calm the roiling fear and master the pain that still burned in his shoulder and threatened to overwhelm his tentative balance as he took his next step forward to the glimpsed edge of the landing.

“Why are you doing this,” Kan called as he stepped onto the first stair.

“This is was the only way,” the voice answered in with the barest trickle of sympathy that vanished as if it were a particle colliding with another particle.  The resulting explosion of mental imagery shattered Kan’s tenuous control and his knees buckled sending him into down the entire flight of stairs to land in an insensate heap at the bottom.

The world ceased for a moment as the shards of pain overcame his body.  Those same shattered spikes of pain viciously thrust him back into consciousness. 

“Give up,” the voice said with disdain as the cacoughany of other voices forced their perspectives to cause his head to swim with agony.

Kan yet again forced himself to knees once more only to have his right knee scream as if it were being forced into a closing vice and he cried out in momentary uncontrolled pain.  The effort of standing and then working his way down the next fifty flights of stairs nearly killed him.  The silent shadows that lurked to all sides took on demonic proportions as they taunted his mind with visions of his pending death.

Kan stepped into the dim carved hall at the end of the battle between the fiendish voices, the slimy steps at odds with the previously solid unforgiving landings that had all vied for the honor of killing him. 

“I’m still alive, Master” he said, as his breathe coming in aching spurts.

“I can see that,” said the approving voice

A massive shadow disconnected itself from the ceiling thirty feet above and dropped to the floor with a grace that seemed impossible for a creature of such size of a ground car. 

Kan froze as the realize that the creature standing before him was the source of all the pain.

"Well done Kan," the voice stated as the confusion in his mind vanished into a pool of approval and flavored by hope Kan had never felt this from his unseen master in the entirety of his last decade of training.

“You have done well Kan!” he said again wordlessly in Kan’s mind.

Kan laughed at the realization of his triumph.

"Your lack of shock and awe at my unveiling confirms yet one more element of your character that the vision that the Council of the Voiceless has observed for you has merit," the hulking shadow stated as it stood to its full height and nearly blocked the passage forward.

"Did they tell you more that this vague path we have been walking these past cycles?" Kan asked.

"They never tell more than they must and sometimes the choose to remain silent and simply send a master like me without more than a generally vague and fleshless morsel to provide sustenance," the shadow stated.

"Then I guess it is lucky we know as much as we do, or you might have eaten me when we first met.", Kan said.

The cavern filled with a base rumble, "You would not taste good!"

"You are laughing at my ignorance you old lizard," Kan said in mock hurt.

The shadow replied in tones of seriousness, "We do not eat acolytes, it would be bad form to eat one of our own."

"Not to mention a bad reward for the courage it took to enter the swamps and seek the Council with this vision." Kan said.

Now that we are at the entrance to the Cavern of  Worlds and you have passed through the outer vail of Silence without the transformation, where do we go now my acolyte of visions?" the hulk asked.

"I have seen beyond the Vail of Silence and know that the change will take me yet, but not for a while yet for it is the will of the Voiceless One for me.", Kan said.

"It is rare that 'The One' speaks to any beyond the vail."  the creature said as it turned to look at the door to the Cavern of Worlds.

"I wish he had not chosen me to be honest." Kan said.

The massive bi-ped crouched low to look Kan in the eyes.

"You are wise enough to know this is not a blessing that "The One" has bestowed." the lizard-like being mused.

"My name is Tazul, Master of the Mind, Keeper of the Key, Protector of the Way and I am to be your teacher and guardian," the massive creature said.