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[Bailos]

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We are content to view the world in which we live as a gentle river, ever flowing. Widening and deepening, shrinking and becoming shallow, flowing ever on towards whatever fate has in store. Perception is reality for nearly every man or woman but unfortunately, reality and truth are not mutually inclusive.

The simple explanation of a straight line, although a bent and dynamic one, completely belies the beautiful, intricate and many-layered nature of the cosmos. Worlds upon worlds exist with and on top of each other constantly crossing paths but never seeming to intertwine. Some transcend their own realities and step across these boundaries and as a simple monk would soon come to find, there are prices to pay for such knowledge.


Itullus Caius was a devout man, long ago having pledged himself to the teachings of a particular paladin who was quite staunch in faith who went by the name of The Platinum Knight. Followers of the Knight kept simple oaths of chastity, faith, discipline and ancestor worship. Being chaste, he had little family beyond two brothers and his parents of which only his mother remained. Itullus was no spring chicken at nearly 40 but thanks to his faith and discipline he stayed fit and youthful. His mother was still a beautiful woman at just under 60 and otherwise an image of clean living and health which is why it was so sudden and unexpected when she took gravely ill and succumb to pneumonia. In accordance with his faith, Itullus mourned her death for three days and on the fourth morning he built a beautiful funeral pyre at the edge of the woods adorned with seasonal flowers and plant-life and then returned her body to the earth and freed her spirit to move on before returning to his home to finish grieving.

That night by candle light, with the cool fall air hanging close, he entered a deep meditation through prayer to watch over his mother's spirit and guide her on her journey through the afterlife. Itullus had never done this on a family member's spirit before...he had assisted friends and other members of his order but his sadness and pain cast an unpleasant pallor on his searching third eye.

In time, he found his mother's spirit and he could look down on her walking across a barren plain, as an eagle looks down on a forest. A vast, desolate and arid expanse stretched out as far as he could see. Footprints covered the dusty flats going in all directions of many shapes and sizes and different spirits wandered in different directions. He focused on his mother and she did not seem lost and this eased some of his pain, but he focused in closer...She did not seem lost but she did not seem like she walked with a purpose or if she was headed anywhere in general...He looked closer still. Her hands were folded in front of her and she stepped deliberately, with a long stride, but her feet seemed sluggish. He looked down further, closer. A strange, wispy, black mist darted on and off of her feet, swirling up and down her ankles and shins and slinking into the earth and coming back up and renewing its circuit. This did not feel right.

This was not the tranquil journey across a peaceful landscape guided by a spirits choices in life. No, this was very wrong and not at all as he remembered. He called out to his mother, yelling down at her to startle her spirit back from these dredges but just as he felt he could almost reach her, a feeling of dread overwhelmed him and uneasiness washed over him. Doubt and pain consumed him and he quickly lost his focus and his spirit-mind was pulled away at what felt like a thousand miles an hour and strange tendrils soon obscured then totally blocked his vision. He was snapped from his meditation to find himself in a cold sweat, alone in his room with the candle nearly finishing its burn.

He wiped his brow then stood up slowly from his floor. Leaning back down, he picked up the candle and the faintest whispers filled his ears...lingering messages from the spirits, or something else? Standing back up straight, he lit a new candle near his bed and turned around to blow out the old one. As he blew out the flame, the last splash of light flared up and illuminated the dark reaches of his room one final time. In the corner, near the foot of his bed he saw his mother looking back at him with tired, empty, emotionless eyes. As quickly as the flame was blown out, she was gone and Itullus stands alone in his room.