Lars woke up, and saw nothing. The Haverdash had finished underground chambers for him on Moxey''s orders. Though he had no discernible rank, and the other Haverdash found him distasteful, they followed his every order.
The door opened. He couldn''t see it from where he was at; it was through a wall of bars not unlike a cell''s, and then around a corner. He saw just a weak beam of light, and then the door shut.
Moxey called to him out of the darkness, "Good morning, Lars! You probably didn''t know it was morning though.”
"Good morning!" Lars answered back.
Moxey was silent, then laughed quietly. "Look at that. You''re less unresponsive without a stimulant. You''re progressing well."
He approached the bars and unlocked a door on them, stepping into the same chamber as Lars. "That''s an important step. Because, the only reason you''re being responsive is…?"
"Because it''s a good morning."
Moxey smiled coyly, "Not responsive enough to be clever yet, I see. No, let''s be honest. You have learned to be responsive when you have weak feelings so that you can pursue stronger feelings. Like now, you want me to give you something. And so I shall."
He took out a bottle of wine. "This can be vaguely called ambition, and will lead to better ambition later. You will find that this," he sloshed the bottle, "Is not good enough, and what you want is glory for Haverdash."
He handed the bottle to Lars, who took several gulps. He didn''t scream, but he did tremble and let out an initial yelp.
"I see you''re getting familiar with the hallucinations. Remember to treat them as real. We''re going to delve deeper into that today."
The door opened again, and many Haverdash started transporting sacks of dirt inside.
Moxey saw Lars watching them, "They''re bringing you new air. We''ll be depending on it during your exercises. Speaking of new things, I promised you a sword, didn''t I?"
The boy in Lars who wanted to fight battles and be a hero got excited, "I''m getting my sword today?"
"Yes you are. I''ll be back shortly, you''re going to love it. It''s very special."
Moxey locked the bar door behind him and went outside. The other Haverdash continued to bring in bags of dirt until the whole floor outside of his barred off section was covered.
The Haverdash filed out until only one was left. He reached outside and was handed a torch, then he tossed it in the middle of the sacks of dirt and let the door close behind him.
His only company was the fire, which quickly spread to the bags and started burning the flammable soil beneath it. The fire looked thick, and the smoke was as heavy as the air around it.
The fire changed colors as it transferred to different bags, cycling between blues, greens, red, orange, purple yellow, white, black, and then new colors that he''d never seen before. The smoke had filled his chamber, but it was pleasant to breathe. No, it was sour. Wait, pleasant again.
The fire grew until it reached as high as the ceiling, and as close as the bars. Then the fire began to merge with the room, splitting into strands that mixed with the ceiling, walls, and bars as they split into strands themselves. The entire room became a mixing and shifting mass.
Parts of the fire now composed the walls, parts of the walls now composed the fire, and then he felt his own body splitting painlessly apart. Lars thought so strongly that he should be afraid, but he could not feel fear. Instead he felt a continuous epiphany growing in his mind.
He held his hands up to his face to see what was happening to him, and he noticed that they weren''t strands at all. They were simply the paths that massless particles took as they flowed throughout every physical thing, and all things were composed of these same particles that flowed within and between objects.
He felt himself being transported rapidly, being shaken every which way as he was. He threw up. He saw the particles that were in his being form paths that spewed along and then merged with the ground, and the grass, and the rays of sun that hit the grass.
He looked up and saw the sky. He was outside. He looked down and saw his body, several feet below where he was looking from. His body was fully broken into the paths of particles, and the rest of the world quickly broke apart into those strands as well.
Sky would merge with earth, and earth with sea, all demonstrating that it was one. Though, Lars merged with nothing, and nothing with him.
The particles didn''t need to always create paths behind them, sometimes they would jump from one place to another with no conceivable trace to cue Lars into how he knew it was the same particle.
Then a human form ran to him. His particles were moving quickly, excitedly, and in a familiar pattern. He stopped by Lars, and they immediately began merging with one another. Even when he left and they were separated a great distance, they continually merged with one another.
Lars was suddenly brought back to his chamber, and finally felt fear. There was a hostile presence that he could feel approaching. He felt it pass through the doorway.
He tried to shout, "Who''s there?" But instead of making sound his words caused the massless particles to shake briefly.
A mass of hostility swooshed into his chamber as if carried on an underwater current. At its helm was an erratically dancing web that came to a point, clearly meant to kill.
It soared towards Lars, so he jumped through the open paths in the wall to hide. The hostility stood in front of the wall, hovering around it to try and discern where Lars was.
Seeing an opening, Lars jumped out of the wall and stuck his hands in the hostility’s chest. Its massless particles were stopped, and bounced off Lar’s hands in every direction, flying away from the hostility.
It went limp, but he had to be sure. He waved his hands through its head and dispersed the particles there, leaving no more paths to make up a head.
The hostility dissipated, but then many more roared in like the beating of a mighty wind. Lightning struck. Lars no longer saw particles and their paths. In the flash of lightning he saw towering beasts standing around him. They had teeth like lions, skin like rhinos, claws like eagles, and laughed like hyenas.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
When the light dissipated all he could see were their blazing eyes. A familiar voice pierced the darkness, “Lars, take your sword!”
Moxey must have thrown it, because a radiant greatsword careened through the air towards Lars, handle first. Lars caught it and swung upward just as a beast was leaping over him. A bright light shone forth as the sword cleaved it in half.
Another beast came from the side. He sliced with a wide arc towards it, but it leaped back in time to dodge. The sword grew in response, cleaving it in two with a bright light once again.
Repeatedly they attacked him, but the power of that sword delivered him every time. He grew tired as he fought, but the sword grew lighter in response to his arms feeling heavier. At long last, he’d slain them all, and he slumped down on the ground.
Moxey entered the door, and Haverdash filed in behind him. “Clear the air.” he ordered them.
The Haverdash propped the door open and brought in four braziers with powder in them. They put lids with holes on them in the braziers and set torches under the braziers, then left.
When the metal on the bottom of the braziers was hot enough the powder within it combusted, a bit at a time in each brazier. When it did it released a burst that expanded the air and made the gas rush out of the doorway.
As the powder in the brazier burned and pushed out the gas from the sacks, Lars''s vision returned to what he would call normal.
Moxey walked over to him and offered his hand to pull Lars up. "Wasn''t that exceptional, Lars?"
Lars accepted the offer and got to his feet, "Some of it. I have a lot of mixed feelings. Thank you for the sword."
"Sword?" Moxey smiled.
"Yea, this sword you-" He looked around on the ground, "I don''t know where I put it…"
"It''s there, Lars. The stick, by your feet. That''s what I threw at you."
Lars looked at the stick in confusion, "No, that…" he looked away at something else on the ground, "Why are there so many dead Haverdash here?"
“You did that. Just now.” Moxey picked up the one who Lars had killed before he was thrown the stick, “This one is a particular piece of work. Big hole in his chest, nothing left of his head, very nice. Most of them are cut in half, you obviously feel comfortable with a weapon.”
“But if all you gave me was a stick, how did I do that? Why isn’t the stick broken?”
“Lars, treat your hallucinations like they’re real.”
Lars thought about the particles leaving their paths behind that made up each thing, and how his merged with one other person over any distance. “All of them?”
“All of them. That’s what you did while they were happening, and look how it turned out! Thirty dead Haverdash,” He beamed with pride, “And not a scratch on you.”
Lars looked over the dead Haverdash. It was weird that Moxey didn''t care about them, and why did they try to kill him? "Did you send them in here?"
"Yes I did." He answered without hesitation. "I knew you would succeed. You can hardly blame me, I was clearly right. I have an eye for these things."
He was right. He had a great deal of understanding that fascinated Lars, and confused him. "Moxey," he paused, unsure if he wanted to ask that question.
Moxey walked to stand in front of Lars. "Don''t hold back your thoughts from me, Lars. What is it?"
"What about your hallucinations? Or, other people''s in general. Do I treat them as real as well?"
Moxey smiled, "That is an excellent question. The answer is no, there is no such rule. However, you may be able to find truth, and perhaps learn from the hallucinations of others."
Lars picked up the stick and snapped it in half, in disbelief that it was the sword he was wielding. "Can you tell me some of your hallucinations?"
Moxey''s smile widened, "Of course! But let''s not stay here, let''s go for a walk."
Lars held up the two pieces of the stick, "And also, am I getting an actual sword today?"
Moxey grabbed one of the pieces and swung it like a blade, "This isn''t a sword?"
Lars gave him an incredulous glare.
Moxey tossed the stick away, “Not satisfied with that I see. You aren’t doing it then, you aren’t treating the hallucinations as real. Let me ask you then, how did you cut all these men in half with your stick?
“It’s not a sword! I must have done that some other way!”
“So it isn’t, but it was. You were the deciding factor in that. It doesn’t matter what I tossed in here blindly.”
Lars blinked slowly with a confused expression.
“That’s right, I couldn’t see you when I threw that in here. I wasn’t close enough to hallucinate your presence. How it came to you, again, that’s just what you saw. I suppose your hallucinations must have been real, weren’t they?”
Lars didn’t realize he was supposed to answer, so Moxey shouted, “Weren’t they?”
Startled, he answered, “Yes! I guess.”
“Good. Now let''s go for a walk. I can barely see in here as it is, door open or not.” They left the underground chamber.
Lars shielded his eyes from the bright sun instinctively, but Moxey slapped his hand away from his face. “Why are you avoiding an intense feeling?”
Lars was embarrassed, he’d looked weak. He stood straight and opened his eyes fully, not afraid to feel blinded.
Moxey started walking again, and Lars hurried to catch up. “Don’t worry Lars, you will get a sword. One that stays a sword when you aren’t hallucinating. It’s important to have a weapon that doesn’t change when you hallucinate. It adds a little consistency you can always rely on.”
“But literally everything changes when I hallucinate, how do you make something that doesn’t?”
“There are ways.” Moxey smiled and glanced back at the hill that chamber was in, “We might be able to get a couple from what’s in there.”
Lars looked back with his brows furrowed. There was nothing in there but the dead Haverdash. Wait, is that what he meant?
“It will take a while to make though. Sometime in the next year. Sorry for the wait. Patience and boredom aren’t very enviable feelings. It will be good though. You’ll have one just like the one my good friend Trots has.”
“Can I see his then?”
“Unfortunately not. He’s back at sea now, handling the immigration. He has many obligations. They came with his rank, general.”
Moxey tapped the side of his head with his pointer finger, “I have no rank, and so I do what I like.”
That didn’t sound quite right to Lars. It seemed more like if you had no rank anyone could tell you what to do.
“Anyway,” Moxey continued, “You wanted to know what I’ve seen. We call hallucinations that, unlike you seeing that stick as a sword, tell you about the world as a whole, visions.
"Some even see the future. That’s what I’m sure you want to know about, the visions that I’ve seen. I’ve seen a few, but I’ll tell you the one that stuck with me most.
“I was on a tall mountain. I was overlooking a city, but it was such a clear day I could see the next city beyond it, and the next city beyond that. I began to feel myself rising, and I was concerned that I would fall off the mountain, but when I looked around to find footing I realized that my body wasn’t with me any more.
"I looked back where I’d come from, and I couldn’t find it. I knew it was somewhere though, because I could hear the roaring and the cold of the wind as it strengthened. A great wailing filled the air, and the sounds of tall buildings collapsing.
"I looked back at the cities, and fire was rising from each one. Blood poured out of the city gates higher than the head of a man, and the world was given to the beasts of the earth.
“Then the ground shook violently, and the beasts were flung to and fro and devoured by the earth. Only the birds of the air and the fish of the sea remained. Then the winds grew fiercer still, and the birds were torn to pieces, shredded by the very sky they flew in.
"The waters of the lakes and the seas erupted out of their holes, and the fish of the sea rained down and were likewise destroyed.
"As the earth shook and the waters burst forth, the fierce wind carried smoke from every corner of heaven and blotted out the sun, moon, and stars. I could only see by the spectacular nature of the vision, for there was no trace of light on the entire earth.
“Then the ground, which could not withstand how it was shaking, broke apart and dissolved into waters beneath it. The clouds being destroyed by the fierce winds and the waters firing up out of their holes became one body, an indistinguishable ocean that filled the air and the sea. Then the waters settled.
"For a moment, there was peace. There was only darkness, and in that darkness, quiet waters. Then the moment passed, and the waters fell away as if into a deep pit that had no bottom or edge. At last, there was nothing.”
Lars was horrified, “Do you think that’s actually going to happen?”
“Lars, I live as if my hallucinations are real, especially my visions. In doing so, I learned something from that vision. If everything truly will end, then I must take every opportunity in the here and now. I cannot sit idly by and let things play out, because it is not the end I am pursuing, it is what happens on the way.”
He put a hand on Lars’s shoulder, “Opportunities like you. You’re my most important project yet, a glorious Haverdash in the making.”