Isocrates's Diary

Chapter 4: The Ramblings of a Madman

How long have I been asleep? Where is everyone? It is so quiet. I am still in the back of this vehicle - that is a good sign... I hope! My leg looks better, but feels tender. I would exclaim, "It's a Miracle!" but I am not for that mind. I vaguely recall the nightmares, I felt trapped, unable to escape. I have always been able wake in such situations, but could not this time. Was this an effect of the Black Road? 

I am sweating, shacking. I feel slightly numb. Strangely I am not hungry or feeling to need to urinate. Actually, I feel something in my gut, a dull, emptiness, but I feel no need to eat. I am not sure if I should move. I will wait here for now. 

Time passes, a long time, it feels like eternity. The vehicle is silent. It is just me and my thoughts. Though I have slept for so long and wide awake, I feel exhausted, like Honey spread too thin over too much bread. There is nothing pleasant to distract my mind. Normally I would think of home, but that does not help. As I sit here, it is being ravaged by disasters, I cannot bear to think about it. What if the Black Road is there as well? 

The Black Road. Is it made of nightmares or are nightmares made of it? The pain. I recall the pain. Something assaulting my mind. The harder I fought it, the more unstoppable, no, unbearable it became. The shadows, are they moving? No, that must be the trees. Yes, that must be it, the trees. Not worm like tentacles. What if they are in Greece? No! They would be powerless to stop them! Our weapons are useless! I must go back! What would that do? I would only die along with them. Better to die besides friends than alone, in the dark. 

So alone. So cold. 

Is it a blessing or a curse that I cannot get to sleep? I feel so weary, I feel like I am propped up by my body, my mind cannot sleep. The flashes return. This is hell. I do not know how much more I can take. I shiver, but it is not cold. The shadows are getting longer, like they are reaching for me. So they will engulf me. Where is the Black Road now? Maybe it is not far away? maybe the others fled? Leaving me to my fate? 

No! I cannot think like that. I must stay strong. How can I? I am useless! No! I am not! I am the Archon of Athens! Athens? One of those worms could wipe it out! What is the worth being an Archon of the defenseless? I cannot give up on my friends! My family! My people! Though you've given up on yourself? They've given up on you. As far as they know, you are dead. No one can survive an attack from a giant sea monster. Did they see that? No! They were frozen when it happened? What for all of the time of the attack? How do you know? How do I know? What do I know? ... what do I know indeed. 

What am I writing? I must have blacked out there for a moment. I am becoming my own worst enemy. I must find something to think about. Something I can do. Maybe finishing that siege defense engine? It seems to futile. Why bother? Even one of those small weapons could do more than anything we have back at home. What is happening back there? AAAAAAaaaaarrgh! 

This is not helping. 

I had almost lost all hope when I saw lights in the dark. Fearing this maybe it, I readied my sword. Pointless as they may be, I do not care anymore, I will not go down without a fight! If I can choke the beast (as it swallows me,) or even give it indigestion (which is maybe the best I can hope for,) then my struggle was not in vain. 

Cordelia! Where has she been? She did not seem to bothered by a sword-wielding madman, ready to lunge for her. She probably could have crushed my skull before I could have made a move. I heard rumours of such acts of savagery that barbarians are capable of. I pose no threat to her. 

She unhooked me from the machine. I noticed that my leg no longer felt tender. We travelled with the vehicles to Castle Carnelian (?) Another strange structure. She talks about rest and getting ready for some time. I do not understand the time system here and the mechanism by which it is recorded did little to help my understanding. 

This is another military base. More uniforms. More people who I cannot communicate with. I was shown to a room. The room is sparse, but at least it was more comfortable than that vehicle I was stuck in for two eternities. So what now? I guess I have to wait. 

Great! Just what I needed, more waiting. I have no idea what is going on (nothing changes in that respect.) I look at the Tetradrachms I have with me. That is about all I have left of home. It may be all that is left of home. *sigh* didn't take long did it? 

It was a long time. I try singing to myself. I cannot, not without crying. I examine the room. The engineering of the furniture here is quite robust. Well that lasted long. Stupid, bland room. If I go anywhere, I will get lost, no one will be able to find me, and I will no doubt fall into some nasty acid pit or get eaten by some black worm thing, that was stalking me since we left the Black Road. My leg twitches, I still remember the intense pain of its saliva. 

Eventually, someone remembered that I am not dead (yet) or the alloted time passed. I was guided to the huge room with a giant tree in the middle. Are there buildings in this room? I cannot identify the species of the tree. It looks like all of them and yet none of them. I think my danger sense got burnt out of me as I am not getting those feelings of danger. 

There is a curious pattern etched into the floor near the tree. Cordelia arrives and explains that this is the pattern. This one does not look broken. At least that means no Black Road here. That worm will have to wait till another time to eat me. Cordelia looks troubled. She has not slept well. She was not interested in talking. I cannot blame her, even I sometimes get tired of explaining the simplest of things to simple minds. 

The other barbarians arrive. Nice to see that they have no been eaten either! All these strange marvels around is just a bewildering as ever, but at least I could not hear myself think. I think I think too much, sometimes. Cordelia explains to us the dangers of the pattern and the many ways one can die within it - then tells us to walk the bloody thing! 

Creepy decides to not walk the Pattern. Maybe that was the wisest decision. The other two walked the swirling patterns. They burst into flames, but yet they were not injured by them. These barbarians are tough! Though, somehow they did manage to defeat a black worm. I am not sure of my chances. Cordelia seems impatient with me. I am last to go. 

I ask here whether walking the Pattern would help me restore the Pattern in Greece? She indicated that it would be helpful, which means she doesn't have a bloody clue. She just wanted me to either get on with it or disappear (I think the latter may be the more accurate of the two.) One instruction was most interesting though: we had to think about the room we were staying in once reached the middle of the Pattern. 

Reading between lines, just I can get to Athens just by walking the pattern. Oh! How my heart raced at the prospect of getting home. Then I remembered that everyone was probably being eaten by worms or exploded on by volcanoes. I did not feel any danger, standing before the Pattern. That may be because it got burnt out of me. This better work. 

I saw the flames about me; though, it was not the sensation that I expected. Part way around, the sensation reached the place where I was burnt by the worm. I had a flash-back and was nearly overwhelmed by the forces in the pattern. I was very thankful that I had quite a way to travel before reaching the middle of the Pattern. It gave me time to clear my mind. I fear I would have visited the Black Road if it had occurred nearer the center. 

Then I was in my room. 

My head started to spin... I collapsed, asleep...