The voices ended. The void embraced a figure, made pure and stable, whole
again. This figure was of two parts which had at long last found each
other, and no clear victor had been decided. Indeed, very little had been
accomplished ever since its creation.
"But wait!" thought the form. "I was human! Lord British did not create
me, I was born of Earth!"
"No," responded another part of the same being. "We were always here.
Lord British sought to summon thee, and so thou camest to his aide."
There was a pause, in which the void's sparkling contents circulated once
through the ether. A distant gazer grumbled at the disturbing noises.
"What of my family? Were those memories an illusion brought forth from the
void? Or do they contain some bitter truth?" The Avatar asked
desperately.
"Reality has been altered. Thy existence is no longer remembered, on
Earth," it replied. A long moment passed as he reflected upon this.
"And so the story ends?" asked the Avatar morosely. "We were once bound to
each other, a neutral force of the void, until that fatal day British
separated us. Now I must contain thee for eternity, if only to prevent
more destruction."
"INCORRECT," the Guardian stated solidly. "Thou havest two other choices.
Either bind our two minds together, so that we are completely as one, or
re-manifest thyself upon another world. That would free me, of course."
"And that is no choice. Thus, thou hast given to me the only course of
action which shall, perchance, end happily."
"Then make it, Avatar. End all contact with everyone thou ever knewest.
Thy identity shall vanish forever into the void as this form possesses a
whole new mind. one which is as empty and innocent as a newborn child."
"Better that than to wrestle with thee for eternity, even as I dost now.
Let it be done!"
Suddenly there was a bitter silence. Normally one could hear the perpetual resonance of magic as it floated through the ether, linking connections throughout the universe. But for a few eternal moments, the void became darker than it had been for over a millennia, and all reality was shrinking in significance to encompass a mere, single point of light. It quivered gently, though one could tell it held a great potential.
Back in Britannia, a mage attempted to cast a simple ignite spell. His efforts yielded a black, inky cloud of ethereal residue.
Meanwhile, the point of light was quivering with a rapidly increasing frequency. Soon it began to shudder violently, all the time absorbing more and more magic, until at last it could not take the strain and faded into reality. And as it did so, there occurred a rupture-whether by some other dark power or through chance alone-and the light broke into a thousand individual particles, each scattering throughout the void. In its wake flew a last fragment which still contained the bulk of the original mass, and it was just this piece which materialized safely on a world with ethereal connections. It was here that the Avatar woke up, immediately realizing that something had gone wrong, and that the Guardian was lost to him again-strewn in fragments across the void. Though what this meant, however, he had no idea.
Suddenly there was a bitter silence. Normally one could hear the perpetual resonance of magic as it floated through the ether, linking connections throughout the universe. But for a few eternal moments, the void became darker than it had been for over a millennia, and all reality was shrinking in significance to encompass a mere, single point of light. It quivered gently, though one could tell it held a great potential.
Back in Britannia, a mage attempted to cast a simple ignite spell. His efforts yielded a black, inky cloud of ethereal residue.
Meanwhile, the point of light was quivering with a rapidly increasing frequency. Soon it began to shudder violently, all the time absorbing more and more magic, until at last it could not take the strain and faded into reality. And as it did so, there occurred a rupture-whether by some other dark power or through chance alone-and the light broke into a thousand individual particles, each scattering throughout the void. In its wake flew a last fragment which still contained the bulk of the original mass, and it was just this piece which materialized safely on a world with ethereal connections. It was here that the Avatar woke up, immediately realizing that something had gone wrong, and that the Guardian was lost to him again-strewn in fragments across the void. Though what this meant, however, he had no idea.