The Silent Circle

In the early third millennium of the First Age—which the Sēna Amīzuye called Yōho Anyohao—an expedition of scholars and explorers from the eastern lands approached an obelisk of unknown composition and purpose.

"It was a late summer, with the season of rain not long away, when our humble ship reached the small settlement of Lewīho within the bounds of a sheltered bay, just west of the World Mountains. I was only an apprentice scholar back then, assigned to assist my mentor as she, in turn, was to aid Amīna Kedēgi, the wise leader of our expedition. I had never left the bounds of Nīwulā Valley before, and the long journey left me tired. Still, our time was short and results were expected by our leaders before the month was over."

"The travel from Lewīho took no longer than two and a half days, and by the midday of the third day we caught our first sight of our purpose there. I must have gasped audibly when I first saw the obelisk, as my mentor gave me a deservedly pointed glare. The reports which had garnered our leader's attention had not been detailed, and I had not known what to expect, but it certainly was not what I saw."

"It was a great monolith, four-sided and sharp-tipped, formed entirely of some material blacker than the darkest stone I had ever seen or heard of. Nothing reflected off it, not even the tiniest of glimmer of light under the heavy glare of the midday sun. As it stood, it was already at least the height of two full-grown men, but something had made it sink far beneath the surface of the earthy mire around the thing, hiding the extent of its true stature."

"We hurried to make camp near where the hills met the small ring of a mire surrounding the obelisk. It was such a strange area, as if something had forced the trees away from the column's immediate surroundings and left nothing but foul water and muddy earth behind. And the more I looked, the more I was certain it was the perfect ring, a circle around that eerie, shadow-formed pillar."

"Before evening Amīna Kedēgi had us gather at the very border of a ring of stones, left there by the discoverers of the obelisk. In their reports, they attempted to detail the effects the monolith had on its surroundings, but there was no denying its influence even before we reach those markers."

"I could say that the world grew dark and voices muffled, but that would not begin to describe the experience. The world darkened, true enough, but it was not the addition of some dark veil over all which caused the effect. On the contrary, it was as if the entire world became somehow lesser the closer we got to that black obelisk. It was here, also, that I noticed it left no shadow of its own."

"The air grew light around the obelisk, and we quickly became exhausted simply walking forward. My breathing turned shallow and I noticed the lack of smells in the air. Further away, where our camp lied, the heavy stench of wet earth and muddy water hovered like a thick blanket over the mire. Insects, too, were united clouds of bloodsucking monsters all around the mire's edges. But not here."

"We were perhaps ten steps away from the obelisk at the mire's heart, when Amīna Kedēgi gestured us to stop. He had to raise his hand to communicate his instructions, as any sound, even from right next to us, was little more than a word whispered underwater. By the Amīna's order, we began preparations to further approach the eerie column. I did not want to so much as look at it, so wrong its very existence seemed in such a normal world, but I had little choice."

"The Amīna had come up with a simple enough plan to get us within touching distance of the obelisk. With the way our senses ceased to function the closer we got to the structure, he had us tie a rope around one of us, which would allow the rest to guide the test subject back away from it, or drag them back by force, should such a need arise."

"I admit to some curiosity at the thought of approaching the obelisk myself. Even with how lightheaded I felt many steps from it and my instinctual discomfort any time I caught sight of the thing, something about it invited me closer. Perhaps it could be called luck, then, that I was the one chosen for the experiment, though I think in truth I was simply the most expendable."

"A long piece of thick rope was tied around my waist, with the other end left to the hands of one of the guards escorting our expedition. There was little else to do after but to begin the long walk of ten steps up to the monolith."

"It was only this close to the obelisk that I began to recognize the void pushing forth from within me. The fear and discomfort I felt at looking at the monolith became a mere echo before disappearing completely, and even the curiosity which spurred me onward dulled until little motivation for continuing remained. But never did I think to stop."

"By the time I took that last step, all air had escaped the area around me. I had taken a last, desperate breath some time ago, and though I gasped for air, it did not find me. I was blind, deaf, left into a strange void beyond all existence. I did not feel the murky water through which I waded, the rope tied to my body, and in truth I did not even feel myself. I do not believe I could even remember my own existence in that moment. I might have forgotten about everything and embraced the abyss around me, but then my fingers grazed at the obelisk."

"It was an explosion of color, sound, smells and sensations at their purest. Time and space stretched around me, pulling and pushing my mind in ways I had never felt before. Whatever it was, it forced my mind to surrender or else it would have broken. I could see myself, front and back and from every side all at the same time. Beyond that immediate area surrounding the obelisk, I could see less and less until darkness alone remained. That one moment of all of time and space condensed into a single point, the most brilliant show of the universe, quickly drowned beneath static and a sense of burning cold and nausea rising from my gut."

"That remained my last clear memory until I woke up in the Yuiwian temple in Lewīho, eight days later. The rest of the story I had to hear from the others who had survived the experience. Mainly, my mentor sat me down and told me what she could."

"I had collapsed in front of the obelisk after staggering and stumbling my way to its looming shape. Blood had run rivers from my eyes and ears, nose and mouth. Only, they had not fallen directly down as one would have expected, but dropped at a subtle angle down and behind me, directly away from the four-sided shadow of a column. My eyes, after they dragged me back from the murky mire water, were wide open yet completely void of presence."

"That evening, Amīna Kedēgi came to my tent, where I was resting until, and if, my consciousness returned. No one saw him enter, and no one told me of this, nor do I truly remember it happening. Yet, I know that it did. He came to me, sat on my bedside and asked questions of what I had seen and heard. I do not believe my answers were coherent, or even spoken in a language I could not recite, but that mattered little to the wise leader. Whatever my answers, he wrote them on clay tablets which he left behind before disappearing into the mire that very night."

"Come the following morning, his tablets were found, and the text on them remains undeciphered to this day. I have been asked to assist, and I have tried what I could, but the writings on them are unlike any I have ever seen elsewhere. Even Amīna Kedēgi's own, previous work was of little help."

"A guard had reported to have seen the Amīna leave the camp after nightfall. The following search found nothing, however, and soon the guard himself was interrogated. He was young and volative, and had a violent and troubled past. No one had seen him interact with the honored leader, but such altercations often happened in the dead of night. It had not helped that a week later, the skeletal remains of something vaguely humanoid appeared from the mire's watery ground."

"I do not believe he was killed. I believe that, whatever I told the Amīna before his disappearance, led him to the obelisk. Whatever might have happened after I do not know and cannot begin to guess. The guard, however, had little in the way of friends and my word alone could not save him. He is not the sole reason I now write my account of the events of that short and failed journey, but I hope that this account will give his soul some leniency in the pale eyes of our Lady Death. And, if she sees fit to aid me in regaining my memories of that evening and night, I would be ever grateful."

"There will be another expedition to the obelisk. I have been invited to join the group of researchers on account of my previous experience. As the time nears for the ship to leave these shores, I find my dreams return to that moment again and again, just before I touched the surface of that impossible, three-dimensional shadow which had taken the shape of a great obelisk at the heart of a nameless mire."