Partings

Antares looked out into the emptiness that lay before him, the night sky seamlessly blending into the Void. At the edge he stood; the edge where the Land ends and no Path-seeker had stood before.

'Unfortunate,' he thought, 'that this time had to come.'

Slowly he took off his cloak, the once regal azure now a dirty blue. He wouldn't need it in the emptiness--there, it is neither cold nor hot; there, every ounce of feeling that had come and gone will be shred apart. All will have returned to nothing, the nothing that had fallen apart with the first battle.

His last thoughts were interrupted by footsteps light and quick.

"Master!"

KaiShen, his most loyal apprentice, ran to where he stood and bowed.

"Please, Master, rethink your decision. Things may still yet change--they have promised us that. There is hope yet for the Land."

"I have taught you well, KaiShen." Antares replied. "Yes, there may be hope still, but what I seek cannot be found in this Land anymore. She has long left the Land, the Lady that I have sought the Path for.

Selfish, maybe, but are not our motives selfish as well? The Path-seekers claim to unite to rebuild the Empire of old, yet they cling to the banners of their own clans and try to raise them above others'. The gods and demons keep the Land (and the Path-seekers, to some extent) from being ravaged by the Soulless--simply because without a Land, they would not be rulers. The Soulless want to destroy the Land, because that is what they have not. Even the most austere ascetic does it for his own enlightenment.

Pray tell me, kind one, that we truly live for others. Maybe then I will change my mind and return."

Antares folded up the cloak, and together with his sigil, handed it over to KaiShen.

"And we all have to move on sometime. What is the use of an apprentice if he would not succeed his master?"

With that, he took a step forward, and let the Void consume him.