Darkness Dances
by Crokneru

Past. Past lurks just below the filmy surface of reality which we mistake to be solid. We spend our lives trying to convince ourselves that our reality is more firm than the oily slick on the surface of the ocean which it is. 

Attempts to discover the past that lurks just beneath the surface are dangerous if not fatal. Yet who can resist the call to do so. 

Who knows what vile secrets the dark waters of the past conceal, and woe to he who dives in to find out. The dark waters of the past aren’t kind or forgiving. 

I had to learn this first-hand. 

My original journey to learn about my past started off innocently enough. The peaceful lands of Trammel lay in the shadow of defilement, the untouched meadows would soon be stricken with the cancerous sore of housing. Any attempt to glean knowledge from the pristine land had to be conducted with haste. 

And so I began. 

The dark forests and southern jungles bore their secrets silently, impassive to my pathetic attempts to gain that knowledge. Alone I would never succeed. But I had a Key. 

A Key to unlock the Door. A Key both wild and restrained, a Key with wild power enough to open the Door, a Key with enough restraint to do so. A Key that wasn’t strong enough to survive the dark forces it unleashed. 

Sorry Tremikus. 

The Door open, the black wolf came to me. 

She gave me the sight I begged for, the sight that no mortal should be made to see. She showed me my heritage. 

My mother was more than just a simple islander, in a way that resists sane thought. Her father was not of this world, yet not from beyond this world either. Her father was an aspect of the black wolf, a being born of darkness. My namesake. 

The Lord of Shadows was not welcome in this world, his stay was needfully short. Yet what he left behind was more than I could bear. His dark seed grew into my mother, enhancing her beauty. And her power. 

My poor father was thankfully ignorant of all this, a simple merchant taking a beautiful native for a wife. The seed which grew in my mother bloomed in me. 

Sight is both a curse and a blessing. 

A shattered world, scattered faceted shards. Yet more. Different gems, different fragments, different shards. All float in the black void. 

Darkness swirls 
forces grow and change 
nameless powers given names 
darkness seeps into the shattered gems 

different forms of fragmented darkness 
Crokneru 
lord of shadows 
swirl in the void 

grandfather 
me 
flower blooms grows 
break free 

power refined with local blood 
break free 
engulf next shattered remnant 
die to be reborn again 

dance of darkness 
rebirth and death 
power distilled and refined 
darkness dances 

strings pull you along 
darkness laughs 
be reborn again 
lord of darkness rules 

friends abandoned 
colors fade to nothing 
the void swirls 

maybe we will meet again 
brought together by 
capricious currents of void 

the present pulls me apart 
draws me into the next shattered gem 
as it will do again 

death 
rebirth 

tears freeze in the void 
sorrow