While we walked through the tunnel, it nagged at me that I had spent far too much time outside the real world.\u00a0 With various scare quotes and philosophical constructions of what determined “the real world” (which we codename “reality”) versus the place I (my physical and determinative self [which was also a matter of scare quotes and philosophical constructions]) seemed to be.\u00a0 Part of me wondered how easy or difficult it was to create another world, and the limits thereof; if we walked far enough, would we have looped around somewhere?\u00a0 Was this Nellie’s lair part of the place Ivan opened or had we passed more thresholds?\u00a0 Did the rules of portals imply a kind of Zelaznyesque reflection of the worlds and soon we would run into another Viktor or even another Nikolai?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The ideas of “intent” and “will” and even those of “imagination” run into the argument here as well; my DM has created a world with years to add depth and the effects of our journey in it, and for the purposes of my gaming it is as real to my character as this one is to me, even though at the time we play I’m not experiencing the darkness, or the thrushing sound of Artur’s treelegs (like sea legs, only…not), and the hot wind the way I am here.<\/p>\n
I am well aware that I use this kind of philosophical meandering to fill up my brain’s idle sessions.\u00a0 It’s a great way to be too full for fear.\u00a0 Alas, if you were going to measure the overall emotional effect of meandering versus a single instance of fear, I think the fear generally wins.\u00a0 We are wired for fear.\u00a0 We aren’t wired for philosophy.\u00a0 (Although I might suggest it for a new race in the aforementioned DM’s worldbuilding.\u00a0 “Fight, flight, or ponder.”\u00a0 Nevermind, they were all eaten by sabretooth’d tigers.)<\/p>\n
I was able to tell that the light ahead of us was some kind of flame from early on in our walk.\u00a0 I saw the cage around it as we got closer.\u00a0 Bits of fire stretched out of the bars, and in the center was some kind of intensity that hurt my eyes to look at directly.\u00a0 The heat was near blistering, and I would not be surprised to find that I had some sunburn or equivalent on my exposed skin as we moved around it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It wants to be let free,” Artur said.\u00a0 He stood near it to apparently no ill effect.\u00a0 It didn’t seem to bother Nikolai either, who sniffed near it.<\/p>\n
“What is it?” I asked.\u00a0 I didn’t offer to go near and unlock the cage or anything crazy like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s an… elemental .\u00a0 It’s offering to not raise the alarm if we let it go.”<\/p>\n
“How can you tell?”\u00a0 I didn’t hear anything, but then again, I wasn’t part tree.\u00a0 Or wizard.\u00a0 Or anything but an idiot for getting myself into this situation.\u00a0 What’s the worst Peredur could do?\u00a0 Chew me up before he swallowed me whole?\u00a0<\/p>\n
And there’s the kind of philosophical meandering that brings on fear.<\/p>\n
“Besides,” I continued, “won’t it blow things up if it’s let go?”<\/p>\n
Artur didn’t answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“This is one of those moral stances we talked about,” I guessed aloud.\u00a0 “You’re morally opposed to living a long healthy life or something that you’re telling yourself is more against imprisonment or some other kind of important point.”\u00a0 I sighed.\u00a0 “You’re the wizard,” I reminded him.<\/p>\n
“Yes, I am,” he reminded me in return as he reached over.\u00a0 Nikolai pushed me against the stone wall as the light became too bright, even as I closed my eyes, even as I put my hands over them, and I felt… protected.<\/p>\n
The dog barked as the light receeded.\u00a0 “I got it.\u00a0 Good doggy.\u00a0 If I had a bone or a scooby snack I’d give you one,” I said.\u00a0 I couldn’t see anything for a moment, but I could see that I couldn’t see anything, which was hard to say, but at the same time, it made me feel better.\u00a0 If I couldn’t see that I couldn’t see I would have been blind, you see?<\/p>\n
Um.\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Nevermind.<\/p>\n
“Quick,” Artur said.\u00a0 “It’s moving inwards.\u00a0 I think it’s looking for something.”<\/p>\n
“Yeah, revenge.\u00a0\u00a0 The problem is, revenge here is super-sized and I only ordered a small.”\u00a0 I kept blinking and there were spots, but I could see we were in increasing darkness.<\/p>\n
“Looks like you got a bargain.”\u00a0 Artur started to move, so I kind of aimed myself at the sound of his rootlike feet.\u00a0 I tripped over Nikolai, who gave me the kind of look you can only get from a dog when you step on them, and he pushed ahead away from the clumsy human.<\/p>\n
\u00a0We followed the elemental around a large column and into a grotto of fire.\u00a0 Well, I suppose in someone’s viewpoint it was probably romantic, and if it had been candles and soft music I could see bringing\u00a0a non-combustible\u00a0girl I liked there.\u00a0 It wasn’t though.\u00a0 It was screaming and fire, fire in cages, fire in bottles, fire in …<\/p>\n
I took a deep breath and tried to focus my watery eyes on it.<\/p>\n
The intensity of some of the light was similar to the flare we’d just experienced.\u00a0 This was one of the reasons why wizards don’t get great health insurance plans.\u00a0 Extended life, some varieties of magical healing, sure, that was all good, but I was going to\u00a0get skin cancer just from standing in the entrance of this room.<\/p>\n
“It’s a firebird,” Artur breathed.<\/p>\n
All the other flame in the room seemed to give attendance, some kind of attention to one reddish-rainbow.\u00a0 Our hovering elemental guy was dancing around the large cage.\u00a0 How Nellie had managed to trap the kin of a phoenix… well, maybe Doloise was just making some kind of obscure collection for her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I tried to find words to describe it.\u00a0 Fire is fascinating.\u00a0 This was more than just the brilliance of light, though.\u00a0 It was the scintillating blend of colour and feathers and a sense of presence on its own.\u00a0 Words like “beautiful” seemed too obvious.\u00a0 Words like “brilliant” were too pale.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I’ll do it,” Artur said.\u00a0 He walked across the room and opened the cage.<\/p>\n
All the lights went out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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