Домагой Курмаич - Mother of Learning

Everyone but Zorian was gone. It was just him, a madly twitching Guardian of the Threshold and a quiet, featureless black void all around them.

He immediately tried to return to his body, but failed.

Shit… Well, at least the Guardian of the Threshold was starting to calm down. He was twitching less, and no longer twisted his head and limbs at impossible angles. Maybe–

A multitude of eyes suddenly snapped open all over Guardian of the Threshold’s body, blinking rapidly for a few moments before focusing straight at Zorian. Each one was different. Different sizes, different color, different internal structure. Some of them had multiple irises. Some of them glowed. Some of them were multifaceted, like those of an insect. Some of them made his mind feel numb just looking at them.

" Zorian Kazinski,"the Guardian of the Threshold said. Was it still the Guardian of the Threshold? Freaky eyes aside, even his voice was different. It was booming and resonant, with not a trace of humanity in it. "I have a proposition for you."

"Who are you?" Zorian immediately challenged.

" You call me Panaxeth,"it immediately answered.

Zorian’s mind froze for a moment. What… how…

"The primordial?" he asked numbly, his voice filled with disbelief.

" Yes,"it answered.

Suddenly, some of its eyes closed and disappeared. The ones that made Zorian hurt to look at, as well as some of the freakier normal ones.

"You can talk?" Zorian asked. It was a dumb question, but he was still in shock and couldn’t help himself.

Panaxeth seemed to think so too, because he ignored the question.

" I can get you out of here,"Panaxeth said. Its form changed again, additional eyes closing and his form becoming more humanlike in both color and texture. "All you have to do is make a contract with me."

A contract?

"No thanks," he said immediately, shaking his head in denial.

"You will never get out of here alive without me," it told him. Its voice acquired a human-like quality by this point, and most of the eyes were gone. "The other person didn’t either."

"Red Robe?" Zorian asked.

"I never asked his name," Panaxeth said. He looked entirely like a man by now, though his features seem to shift all the time – male and female, old and young, all kinds of skin tones and facial features… "Does it matter? We’re talking about you, now. Swear on your life you will help free me and I will incarnate you outside of this crumbling world."

"Why would I do that, though?" Zorian asked.

"You get to live?" Panaxeth asked, sounding a little mystified by his response.

His constant shifting of his appearance slowed down greatly at this point. He seemed to have settled on a female form now, tall and good-looking, with long black hair and a body to die f–

Zorian scowled. The damn thing was slowly changing its appearance to appeal to him as much as possible, didn’t it? It constantly cycled through different appearances, all the while paying attention to his body movements and facial expressions to see what evoked a good response in him.

It was showing him what it thought he wanted to see.

Suddenly, the entity shifted into a perfect copy of Kirielle.

"I just want to live and be free!" she said, her lip quivering and her voice on the verge of tears.

"You are not Kirielle!" Zorian shouted at it, his temper rising.

Panaxeth immediately changed forms again, copying Taiven. Then Zach. Then Xvim, Daimen, Ilsa, Imaya…

Some of these people… how did it even know how they looked and sounded? Was it reading his mind?

He immediately strengthened his mental defenses, even though he could detect no intrusion.

"Why are you talking to me now?" Zorian asked. "I was here plenty of times before."

"The gate was barred until now, so there was no point in speaking to you," Panaxeth answered. "I can only get people out when the way is open."

"But you could have contacted me like this all this time?" Zorian asked.

"Yes," Panaxeth confirmed. "The Sovereign Gate has been damaged over the years, some of the safeguards failing. That is why they stopped using it for a long time. However, there is no point in speaking to most people unless they are strong enough to help me and unless the way is open. I did not think you could gather the entire Key before the world crumbled, but I’m glad to be proved wrong. We can help each other, Zorian. We can even discuss additional rewards once I am out of my cage."

"But what if I fail?" Zorian asked.

"You die, of course," Panaxeth said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "That’s what the contract is for."

"So you get me out of here and in return I must help free you or die?" Zorian asked.

"Exactly," Panaxeth confirmed.

"I’m going to have to say no," Zorian sighed.

Panaxeth stared at him for a second. It seemed to realize it would never be able to convince Zorian to take this sort of deal, no matter what it used to entice him.

"You will regret that," it said. "This was a one-time offer. I will not bother contacting you again."

Zorian was of two minds about this. On one hand that was a bit disappointing, since he would like to have more talks with a primordial to see if he could get something substantial out of it. On the other hand, it was a freaking primordial and it seemed to be reading his mind in some way he couldn’t detect!

It was probably for the best that it never wanted to see him again.

"You gave up pretty quickly," Zorian commented. "How are you so sure there is no chance to convince me in the future?"

"It doesn’t matter anymore," Panaxeth said. "Someone else has already taken my offer."

Zorian’s eyes widened at the comment. Before he could ask Panaxeth what it meant by that, the generic female form in front of him disappeared and he was surrounded by noise again. He was once again standing next to Zach, with temporary loopers standing around him. All of them were screaming, shouting and talking at once. It was abundantly obvious that Zorian wasn’t the only one who had found himself alone, facing a terrifying primordial entity.

And after the situation had calmed down somewhat and he had done a quick headcount, a terrifying realization suddenly dawned to Zorian.

Silverlake was gone.

It wasn’t long before the group decided to leave the Sovereign Gate space and return to their bodies outside. Partially this was because the Guardian of the Threshold was gone, leaving them on their own in the silent void. When Panaxeth ended his interaction with Zorian and others, he took the Guardian he had been possessing along with him. Or maybe he was the Guardian in the end, who could know? Regardless, with the Guardian no longer present, there was little point in them staying there either.

The second, more important reason, was that Silverlake was gone and they desperately wanted to check if she was outside, waiting for them. Although Panaxeth’s statement that someone had already taken his offer and her subsequent disappearance strongly suggested she had betrayed them, Zorian held on to the hope that she had merely left the Sovereign Gate on her own. Somehow.

It was a hope that would not last long. Whatever force Panaxeth had used to stop Zach and Zorian from returning to their body had dissipated with his disappearance, so getting out of the Sovereign Gate was done without incident. Once outside, they found Silverlake’s lifeless body lying on the floor.

She was dead. There was no evidence of struggle. No wounds, obvious or subtle. No indication of any sort of foul play from the facility staff or hidden enemies. It was as if her soul simply disappeared from her body all of a sudden, painlessly killing her.