Soze. Chapter 5: Emekeme

KermyWormy

Well-known member
May 29, 2020
270
288
63
California
Chapter 1: Here
Chapter 2: Here
Chapter 3: Here
Chapter 4: Here




His name was Emekeme.

What remained of his left ear was a mangled mess of scar tissue. His eyes were grey, almost white, and in the dark it almost seemed like his eyes were always rolled back in his head.

Life had not been kind to him, but in this age, life is not kind to anyone really is it? The Tindremic Empire would tell you they brought prosperity to the lands, some side-effect of the peace which follows wartime, but that’s all just some tale they spin isn’t it? When I looked at Nave from afar, I noticed how far we had fallen, how different we all were now that we'd been infected.

I didn’t need a fever dream vision to see that.

The Empire certainly did not bring peace or prosperity to Emekeme, that good favor was never extended to his kind. They took his ear and one of his fingers, then they laughed and spit on him, and when he left this mortal plane he had nothing to take with him.

He extended kindness to me, he pulled me up from puddles of my own blood, piss, and vomit.

He was my friend.

He picked me up out of my own filth and he carried me down to the river and washed me. He rubbed my sores with a sweet smelling balm he made from flowers in the glade. I was only half conscious, but while he worked he shared in part the mysteries of his ancestors. There were words and customs I didn’t understand, but the cadence of his speech was hypnotic in some way. Another pattern.

We traveled together for a time, I don’t know how long really, but he nursed me back to some semblance of health and temporarily pulled me from my downward spiral.

We were nothing alike really. Where I had fallen into depravity and sickness like all of those around me, I did not sense the same desperation in him.

Where I feverishly sought knowledge, he calmly explained his people’s wisdom.

I didn’t understand much of what he said, his speaking was a mix of our common tongue with strange words and sounds from his own.

I often wondered where his people were, and why he was here anyway.

Sometimes I’d ask him questions about his views on the universe and he’d say things like,

“Do not trifle with the unknown Soze, what has been lost will be revealed Belodoleb”

Whenever he made statements like that he would clap his hands rhythmically.

One thing we did have in common was an interest in herbal and mineral alchemy. He had a different name for it, but regardless we spent many days in the wood and the glade harvesting various herbs, decanting their oils and mixing them with other minerals. He had an endless knowledge and understanding of it, rivaling my own, but he seemed to be self taught, or perhaps this knowledge had been passed down to him, he never really explained how he knew what he did.

He’d show me uses for some herbs I had never known. When I would show him something he’d smile and say something like, “Oh Soze, Peroporep, Nave has truly spoken to you!”

Then he’d pat me on the head like I was a child. I think he was just trying to be nice, I’m pretty sure he already knew everything I tried to share with him.

When he found me convulsing on the floor, he recognized I was somewhere else, experiencing some other existence, he asked me what I saw.

But every time I mentioned anything about them he would get quiet, and be overcome with what I could only describe as great sorrow. As if he lost something of great value.

But I had so many questions about my visions, and I felt Emekeme knew more about the organizing principles of the universe, but he would not share with me much of what he knew.

He often told me not to meddle with such things, that it was defiling my body and my soul, that there were far more noble pursuits I could worry about, like mathematics and various analogs of what he called sacred construction. He had been to many places, seen the unseen corners, he was searching for answers like I was, but he was searching for something lost, while I was searching for the forever unknown. At times our curiosities aligned, but more often we couldn’t be further apart.

His name was Emekeme, and he was my friend. And in my greatest descent into depravity I betrayed him.
 
  • Love
Reactions: Godkin Veratas