To Live as Smokeless Fire
I have forgotten more than most people will ever have a chance to remember. Time has taken from me my friends, children, lovers, rivals, and worst of all….several of my memories. With each rebirth, each wish, each push into the next generation I know well that I lose a bit more of myself. The very thing that keeps me alive also continues to take from me what I hold most dearly; the memories that make me who I am.
I can barely remember anything beyond the past few incarnations. My life as the chained one, and the burning hatred I held for those who couldn’t share my fate of endless existence. Sleeping within my relic no longer brings me solace; it simply forces the world around me to change with more experience. I either watch as the erosion of time rips every foundation away, or I sleep endlessly and hope to grasp hold of the past memories of better times.
No pretense is being made that this fate I bear is not of my own making. I betrayed my king, and my people. My punishment to go on like this is something I did to myself, for I betrayed a cardinal rule of my kind…. I fell in love with a mortal.
A long-lived mortal, but still one who would eventually pass away. The life of a vampire is both beautiful and wicked, but eventually still doomed to the damned curse of temporary existence. I have razed kingdoms, conquered worlds, and brought entire dimensions to heel. I've created monuments to my masters, my lovers, and rallied armies capable of bringing down gods!
In all my grand power, I am still nothing before the inevitable constant that is time. Empires crumble, and mortals forget. Mistakes repeat themselves until there is nothing left to do but watch the destruction play out before you.
I find myself once again alone. Alone, losing what's left of my soul and sanity. Memories of the past are all that hold me together. I don’t want to reincarnate again, this life has been precious to me. I want to keep it all, I want the pain, I want to suffer for those I lost. If I don’t….then who will?
-----
Twilight, just as the sun begins to fade
The Djinn touched down on land that was familiar to him. A battle happened here in the past, a grand one likely lost to the history of most still alive. The allies he fought alongside, and the enemies they faced down during that grand time suddenly came rushing back to him. This place, whatever it was within the grand finite multiverse that was Ayenee, seemed to have restored a fraction of who he once was.
He didn’t float, or glide, or suddenly appear in this town as he once would have, but rather simply walked to its gates. Nowadays he found that taking the time to take in his surroundings was more important than making a show of himself. That said, he did nothing to hide the green skin he was so fond of sporting.
He had been away from this place for a long time, but it seemed the magic of the world itself may still remember his presence. Strolling through the paths of the town that made themselves off as streets, he watched the people around him, hoping to find something that could rekindle the spark he knew he was losing.
I have forgotten more than most people will ever have a chance to remember. Time has taken from me my friends, children, lovers, rivals, and worst of all….several of my memories. With each rebirth, each wish, each push into the next generation I know well that I lose a bit more of myself. The very thing that keeps me alive also continues to take from me what I hold most dearly; the memories that make me who I am.
I can barely remember anything beyond the past few incarnations. My life as the chained one, and the burning hatred I held for those who couldn’t share my fate of endless existence. Sleeping within my relic no longer brings me solace; it simply forces the world around me to change with more experience. I either watch as the erosion of time rips every foundation away, or I sleep endlessly and hope to grasp hold of the past memories of better times.
No pretense is being made that this fate I bear is not of my own making. I betrayed my king, and my people. My punishment to go on like this is something I did to myself, for I betrayed a cardinal rule of my kind…. I fell in love with a mortal.
A long-lived mortal, but still one who would eventually pass away. The life of a vampire is both beautiful and wicked, but eventually still doomed to the damned curse of temporary existence. I have razed kingdoms, conquered worlds, and brought entire dimensions to heel. I've created monuments to my masters, my lovers, and rallied armies capable of bringing down gods!
In all my grand power, I am still nothing before the inevitable constant that is time. Empires crumble, and mortals forget. Mistakes repeat themselves until there is nothing left to do but watch the destruction play out before you.
I find myself once again alone. Alone, losing what's left of my soul and sanity. Memories of the past are all that hold me together. I don’t want to reincarnate again, this life has been precious to me. I want to keep it all, I want the pain, I want to suffer for those I lost. If I don’t….then who will?
-----
Twilight, just as the sun begins to fade
The Djinn touched down on land that was familiar to him. A battle happened here in the past, a grand one likely lost to the history of most still alive. The allies he fought alongside, and the enemies they faced down during that grand time suddenly came rushing back to him. This place, whatever it was within the grand finite multiverse that was Ayenee, seemed to have restored a fraction of who he once was.
He didn’t float, or glide, or suddenly appear in this town as he once would have, but rather simply walked to its gates. Nowadays he found that taking the time to take in his surroundings was more important than making a show of himself. That said, he did nothing to hide the green skin he was so fond of sporting.
He had been away from this place for a long time, but it seemed the magic of the world itself may still remember his presence. Strolling through the paths of the town that made themselves off as streets, he watched the people around him, hoping to find something that could rekindle the spark he knew he was losing.