Dim yellow lights shone from the rocky ceiling, lighting the cavernous room in dull tones. Anatha blinked. Is this real? Her eyes struggled to adjust as shadows and light morphed together in an ever changing flow. What is this?
Incessant banging echoed from the mighty door before her, as though some immense creature, between a scurrying insect and a slithering snake, was throwing its twisted body against the door. Its voice was like the chittering of insects mixed with the breath of a corpse. An image of a worm beast, a god of corpses, emerged from the dark corners of her mind. She rubbed her eyes.
“Can you see me now?” a mocking voice asked.
A harlequin, that creature of the Otherpaths beyond any other, sat upon a throne before the door. Its flesh and clothing shifted from moment to moment in ways both subtle and extreme. The voice was too high pitched for a man, yet distorted and masculine for a woman. At first, Anatha thought it wore a mask, yet it also seemed like horrible smooth flesh. Its exaggerated expression seemed to change whenever she blinked. As she looked closer, she wasn’t sure whether the creature was wearing clothing. The ever changing patterns and peculiar folds could just as easily be the entity’s skin. It held a golden staff with a shimmering rainbow handle, topped with a symbol that changed and flowed like liquid gold.
“Who are you?” Anatha asked.
“I?” The Harlequin laughed. “I am nothing and everything, nowhere and everywhere, someone and nobody, reality and dream. Here, I am the ruler of thought filled nothingness. Tomorrow, I might be your very flesh, or the foundation of the world where you live. I don’t care, so why would you? It’s all one big joke.”
The thrashing against the door intensified as the creature beyond screamed in its horrible voice.
“The Worm is hungry!” The Harlequin laughed. “You humans thought you were so clever to wake it up. Wormfood! That’s all any of you are! Wormfood!”
“I don’t suppose it would help to ask where we are,” Anatha said.
“This place? It is a dream that has become reality, or perhaps the reality at the end of a dream.” The Harlequin grinned. “All that never was shall become all that is. This is the place where the soul dies, or perhaps where it lives on in my great dance. Life is death and death is life, ever intertwined. The boundaries between the two shift and flow until all reality is one moment once again. Then it all unravels for the great game to continue.”
Anatha sighed. “Sometimes the answer is another question, I suppose.”
The Harlequin clapped its hands. “Now you get it! The answer is just another question, one that opens the gateway to innumerable interpretations and ever more confusion. The question is the answer, yet never a satisfactory one. When an answer is not pursued to its conclusion, a conclusion can never happen. The mind races everywhere, uncertain about its most hard earned truths. Therefore, everything means nothing, yet everything must also mean everything. Thus, nothing means everything and everything means nothing.”
Anatha crossed her arms. “Why are we even bothering to talk?”
“You act as though that question has an answer!” The Harlequin laughed. “This is my reality and your dream! Or, is it my dream and your reality?” It pondered that question for an inordinate amount of time before shrugging. “Who cares? What was certain in the past always becomes a mockery in the future. The new questioner finds a new answer, humiliating those who answered in the past, casting them down. And when the one with the answer becomes proud of their accomplishment, the cycle repeats and they are cast down as yet another fool. The one regarded as wise has the same destiny as a fool in the ever shifting world, just as the most moral of the past have become the worst creatures imaginable today. What a world, what a world, what a world!”
“This conversation is pointless.”
“Pointless? Pointless!” The Harlequin glared at her. “Oh, you don’t know the half of it! You’re such a simple little fool compared to me!”
The Harlequin rose from its throne and appeared before her in an instant. Its hand reached towards her as what passed for eyes held her gaze.
“Time to learn, child!” The Harlequin cruelly snicked. “Time to grow up! Time to become like me! Your mind will go through many forms and many bodies. You will live in many ages, over and over again. Time will go forwards and backwards. Everything will change, for change is everything! You’ll know everything and nothing at the same time! You will dream while awake! Death and life will become as one. You and I will be together, forevermore.”
“No!” Anatha said firmly without fear.
“Yes is no and no is yes!” The Harlequin laughed. “It’s all the same! All the world is whatever I want it to be, yet never what I desire.”
“Would you like to hear a song, Harlequin?” Anatha asked.
“I would hate that, so sing it for me that I might know joy!” It grinned.
Within ancient blood I stand
Never faltering till the end
Protection of Gods and Soul
I am forever true and bold
I am Sol
The Harlequin’s leering slits of eyes widened. “What was that? No, you shouldn’t be aware! You should be asleep, dreaming! The dead should dream they are awake in a world of ever change! You should be the mask I make you wear as you dance for me! Laugh amongst this dying world! Laugh!”
“No.”
As Anatha walked towards the Harlequin, it backed away, never breaking eye contact with her. Even when it fell to the ground, it crawled backwards, unable to look away from her.
Light surged upon Anatha’s arms. “I’m not afraid! I am the Sun!
———————————
Anatha awoke from the vision. She stood amongst the other adventurers as they readied themselves for battle.
“Are you all right?” Aradin asked.
Anatha looked at Sol’s ring. “I’m fine, Aradin. Just got lost in thought.”
“I understand,” Aradin said. “Remember to keep your thoughts steady during the battle.”
Anatha nodded. “I will.” She placed the ring on her finger and raised her hand to the sky. “Knight of Sol, Arise!” In a moment, she stood clothed in white and gold armor, ready for the battle ahead.
Kotharian Lightning 