8000ContestItsDenali - Fragment 4

Link to article: 8000ContestItsDenali - Fragment 4.

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+++++ [[span class="gregory"]]//So turns the wheel of the sky.//[[/span]]
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[[span class="gregory"]]"How could I even think of letting you go after how far the both of us have come?"

Altasha paused and breathed deeply.

"I will inherit the Halcyon's Legacy."

"Are you certain?" Gregory asked. "Though your mind may be permitted to wander some, you will ultimately be bound to this place. Forever."

Altasha smiled stepping past Gregory and towards the radiant throne. "An eternity with your memory, and the future of the world assured? How could I ever think to refuse an offer like that."

Gregory beamed with pride and relief. "So shall it be," he announced jovially. "Let us proceed."

Somewhere in the far reaches of the cathedral, the low tone of an organ introduced itself, accompanied by the soft and drifting echoes of a choir. As Altasha approached the throne, she found it empty. Gregory's body had vanished.

"Out with the old," he quipped grimly, taking notice. "My time here is almost up."

She felt a knot of grief curl in her throat, but pushed it down as quickly as it had appeared, forcing her attention back to the task at hand.

At last, Altasha stood before the Throne. She turned toward the nave. Gregory stood before her, his hands folded behind his back expectantly. The pews behind him sat full, each occupied by the forms of previous heritors. Children of the Day, Twilight, and Night looked on eagerly, all awaiting the advent of the new god.

"Altasha Ilgovich, Child of the Day. You stand as the heir to the Throne of the Glittering City and bearer of the Legacy of the Halcyon," Gregory boomed. The memories of Gregory's own ascension echoed in Altasha's mind as she recalled the same words spoken by Mah'Khai nearly a century prior. "Will you solemnly swear and testify that you shall uphold this station to the best of your ability?"

"I will."

"Will you to the utmost extent of your power maintain the law and natural order of the world and beyond as best as you are able?"

"I will."

"Will you to the utmost extent of your power bear the Legacy of the Halcyon for the sustenance of all the world?"

"I will."

"Have you any regrets?"

Altasha slouched somberly for a moment.

"I would have liked to see Lilia one last time," she murmured.

Gregory bowed his head. "Your conscience is clear. On behalf of all the peoples of this world, we thank you."

The choir waxed, the organ swelled, and the light glowed brighter than ever before. The crown upon Gregory's head shimmered, and rose, climbing into the air above Altasha. The facets shifted as the crown began to reshape itself. Its form compressed and warped, the threefold prominences flattening until the crown bore the appearance of a pure white sphere.

Altasha could feel it calling to her silently, eagerly awaiting a new form and master. And so did she bestow it. The sphere reacted in kind, its white surface flattening, twisting, rearranging itself into something entirely novel. In moments, there floated a pale circlet, its profile adorned with intricate, fractal filigrees spiraling inward without end. Thin threads of silver and diamond trailed behind. Upon its brow rested a grand and brilliant azure jewel. Altasha held her arms wide and bowed as the crown descended toward her and gently laid itself upon her head.

Bolts of white-hot pain instantly shot across her body. She felt like she were being dunked in ice water while wrapped in a live, electrical wire. But beneath it all she could feel a turbulent energy coursing through her, the exact nature of which hovered just beyond her ability to grasp and define it. It seemed to flow forth from the ground beneath her feet as though it were being drawn up from some impossibly far depth beneath the island itself. Something utterly alien. It danced at the edge of her mind, just barely out of reach as she teetered on the absolute brink of apotheosis.

The shock was over in an instant as something inside Altasha shifted. She stood straight once more, gathering herself beneath the gaze of each heritor who watched her from the pews. The Throne called to her, yearning. She felt galvanized. Electric. Ready.

Altasha took a deep breath, and opened her mouth to speak.

"May the Glittering City endure forevermore."

She sat, and a pale light engulfed the chamber.[[/span]]
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[[span class="gregory"]]Altasha was adrift on an ocean of thought. The world around her was like the night sky, decorated by an uncountable number of stars. She traced the lines between them, forging elaborate constellations through the vastness. They reached across the expanse, forming webs between each other, each point forming webs upon webs upon webs, as though every point in the sky were connected in some measure. Altasha could feel one in particular calling to her across that unimaginable distance. She began towards it.

Far away, yet close at hand, she could feel her body becoming one with the Glittering City. She was here and there, wherever here was. The walls and buildings of the City warped as they adapted to their new master, forging a new visage to commemorate her reign. Across the sea, the ingress to the island closed with a rumble. The City was sealed once more. Altasha continued forward, drawing close to the star that yearned.

It was brilliant. Myriad threads ran off of it into the expanses of noöspace, here at the center of an enormous and magnificent tapestry of connections. Altasha reached forward and gingerly held it.

//Lilia.//[[/span]]

[[span class="telepathy"]]"It'll be alright,"[[/span]] [[span class="gregory"]]she murmured. She embraced the slumbering, dreaming star, curling her essence around it, whispering words of comfort, of explanation, of apology. Altasha hoped they would suffice to speak for her in her absence. She owed Lilia far more than mere words, but this would have to do. Far greater things than her previous life demanded her attention now. Altasha held Lilia's dreaming mind close one last time, then bid farewell, and returned adrift to the gulfs of noöspace.

The City's initialization process was almost complete. Altasha could feel herself growing, expanding past the wildest imaginations of human cognition. Her reign was almost ready to begin. But one more star called to her. It was a light within, the fading ember of a mind cradled close to her heart. The stars vanished as she delved down after it.

Altasha and Gregory stood before one another. An endless blackness abounded. There was nothing else left here. He was fading. What stood before her was the last of his mind holding on with everything he had.

"Thank you for making it this far," he said, beaming.

"I couldn't have done it without you," she replied. "I'm glad I got to see you again."

"As am I," he said quietly.

He stepped toward her, and wiped his thumb across her cheek. Altasha realized her face was wet with tears. Who would have thought that gods could cry too?

"You always hated goodbyes," he said with a sad smile. "Even so, would you indulge me this one last time, my dear?"

He held out his hand. Altasha took it.

The void shimmered around them. Altasha could feel Gregory's lifeforce burning away as he brought forth the form of a small living room. The warm glow cast by the fireplace to Altasha's right faintly illuminated the shadowed recesses of the room, staining the darkness with a cool, golden light. Myriad delicate ornaments adorned the Christmas tree that stood behind Gregory, each one accented by the varying colored lights that twined between the branches. Behind her, a snowy wind breathed against the darkened windows of the room. Altasha instantly recognized the scene.

"Christmas Eve, 1931," Gregory said in a hushed tone.

Altasha took in the room, basking in the memory. "Our last night together," she murmured.

Gregory waved a finger and the phonograph in the corner of the room awoke. A soft melody quietly crackled to life. //I Could Waltz On Forever (With You Sweetheart), 1927//. Gregory held out a hand to Altasha, bowing slightly.

"May I have this dance?" he asked with a tired smile.

Altasha nodded, taking his hand. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

As the two swayed in the soft glow of the fire, the world seemed to move with them. Theirs was a dance that transcended time and space. The sigh of the wind outside was the breath of centuries; the dancing shadows of the fire like the spirits of old.

The record spun as its music drifted through the room, carrying the melodies from another time, another life. Altasha closed her eyes and let it all wash over her. She felt as though she were a young woman again, a fledgling researcher brimming with hopes, and fears, and dreams. She and Gregory spun, and so did the wheel of the sky beyond, turned no longer by the hands of the man at her side.

Time compressed, and the wind, the fire, and the phonograph played on as the two of them danced, lost in time and space in a kaleidoscope of memory; brilliant beyond brilliance, eternal beyond eternity.

As lifetimes wore on, Gregory's pace finally began to slow. He slumped against Altasha, the weight of his long journey settling upon him at long last. The room around them seemed to ripple and shift. The phonograph sputtered briefly.

"Altasha," Gregory murmured, his words a frail whisper. "It's time."

The room began to fray, its form taking on an ethereal transparency. The fire darkened, the wind hushed, and the phonograph faded to a distant hum as the scant remains of Gregory's lifeforce ebbed. Altasha closed her eyes and lowered her head. Her lip trembled as she continued to shuffle her feet to the fading music. She leaned over and kissed Gregory gently, then spoke, her voice breaking.

"I'm still here."

Gregory smiled, his body at last beginning to fade with the world around them. "Thank you, Altasha," he murmured, his voice seemingly distant and echoing. "For everything."

Altasha felt the world fall away around her as the scene evaporated. Gregory's voice surrounded her, gentle, serene, and at peace.

"If you should ever feel lonely, dream of me, would you, my dear?"[[/span]]

[[span class="gregory"]]The void collapsed, the Glittering City called, and the newborn god **[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-8018/offset/5 opened her dreaming eyes.]**[[/span]]

8000ContestItsDenali - Fragment 4

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