No Roamers slept as the other fire flickered on the hill across the valley. It burned the entire night as we sat and watched. Listening. Nothing to be heard but the consumption of new branches to the orange tendrils growing to evaporate again and again in front of me. The pounding in my chest incessant from the encounter in the shadows. My mind blurred by all that has happened. From the pale grass in the Infinite Desert to being surrounded by dark sapphire brick walls hidden beneath the green sprouting from branches reaching toward the sky. The ages of Roamer experience felt as barren as the land we wandered before the horizon we entered. This was a new age for the Roamers. Fractured within a new cycle of the complete unknown by worry and desire. I longed for another taste of the sweet shoots by the water.
We plotted in the livid night. The fire we found had to keep burning. The fire across from us had to be investigated. There were voices in the Roamers who thought it could be those who took the left path to only arrive in the same place as us. There were many voices who no longer considered them Roamers. Many voices thought what I saw in the forest was another one of the creatures we met before. Convinced their colors could change like the plants surrounding us. We were to split off once the unseeable sphere took its place in the sky illuminating all below. We could no longer see the other fire. I had to see what was there for myself.
The hill was steep going down to the valley. Orange bulbs popped up from green leaves as we made our descent and expanded in size as we found the valley floor. You could not wrap your arms around these bulbs. A group of the brown four-legged creature we met before were grazing the bulbs as we passed by, unmoved by our presence. The hill across from our fire was steep going up. The bulbs scattering away as they shrank to the size of my fist upon our ascent. We wandered that hilltop for the same flames until our group spread out further and further from each other. Shouting about what they found. Still no fire in our sight.
Small white pebbles dotted the area of my search like the night sky among the vernal evergreen grass. I gathered them in my hands as I found them. They were soft. The first few I rolled into dust between my fingers and thumb as they dyed my skin. I found more and more until both my completely white hands were full. The pebbles snaked together the more I followed, winding through the underbrush. They jumped to the size of my palm. I dropped the pebbles I had found as the white rocks overtook the ground and cleared the sky of any trees. Violet rosettes spiraled through shimmering flat crystals. That is when I found it.
It stood out from all that surrounded it, no dirt or weathering on it. The transparent hexagonal prism inset with twisting black-violet streaks that sprung from the center out to the symmetrical pyramid ends shone in the illumination of the unseen sphere. I removed it from its place among the white rocks. The rosettes’ petals fell away from the sky turning black. As I held the prism to the sky all the colors from the eclipse enveloped my vision. The markings began to grow out from it, slicing through the spectrum. It bled into my white dyed hand to my untouched skin. I watched as it reached my shoulder and up to my neck. My awareness snapped back to my surroundings on top of the white rocks and withered black rosettes. The prism still in my hand. The transparency had shifted to solid marble, only the outside black-violet streaks observable now.
I had no idea how long it had been since I heard another Roamer call out their search. The sky was still bright. The sphere had not yet crossed over the dark sapphire wall. I traced my path back through the tree line, the white rocks fading away as orange bulbs returned to the evergreen grass. I kept the prism in my hand. Refusing to look at it again until I found the others. I searched across the hilltop and found nothing. Not a trace of them. No return to my calls. I could see tiny wisps of orange on the hill across from me within the trees. Those who stayed behind were still there. I had to return. To unite with the Roamers again. What was left of us.
On my ascent back to the hill with the flame, I buried the prism under the largest orange bulb I could find. I did not want it to do to the others what it had done to me. Whatever it had done to me. I called out for them as I reached the peak. They greeted me with cheer in return. We were together again. The fire was not there. They searched for more branches to feed it as the flames grew as tall as them. Their return was greeted by gray branches that blew away to dust. We had no idea how to bring the fire back. They stayed for us to decide on what to do next. I was the only one to return.
In their search for branches that led to the fire going out, they found orange spheres hanging from trees deeper into the peak of the hill. They were soft and flesh-like. I bit into one. The outer shell was thick and bitter. Underneath was a smaller orb held together by white veins. The segments pulled apart and held an incredible amount of liquid unlike the pale grass or green shoots. It nourished all the energy I had lost in my journey. I had lost much in the journey to the unknown fire across the valley. I was glad to have the Roamers still together. Those of us left.
Night set fast, though no gray orb entered the livid sky. Only the tiny speckles shone down on us. It was hard to see much beyond your arm. We stayed close. We sat by the extinguished fire trying to stay warm. Small lights across from us began to flicker. The blazing flames grew large. It was getting colder. The strength from the orange orbs fading. I told the Roamers I could guide our way back to the hill across the valley. We moved slowly down the steep hill that felt more treacherous than before. The closer we got to the valley floor, the more tiny orange lights appeared. It was the orange bulbs. They were glowing. We could see more of the path before us, crossing the largest bulb where I buried the prism. The orange bulbs began to ascend the hill where the fire was at the top. We were not sure what we would find. If there was anything to find.
As the bioluminescent orange bulbs faded away and we sank into deep night again, we could hear voices. They sounded like the Roamers who had gone missing in our search. They were laughing. We approached them slowly. Staying low to the ground, hidden in the bushes. The flames rose over the tops and we came closer to the fire and the sounds of the missing Roamers. I peered through the leaves, revealing five of them sitting around the fire as the other two walked out of the shadows behind them. Their bodies were smeared with thick black goo. One was holding clusters of tiny black orbs in their arms. They approached the first Roamer closest to them. The Roamer with free hands grabbed a cluster of the black orbs and held them over the sitting Roamer's head. They squeezed the black orbs and released black goo that dripped down through their fingers onto the top of the sitting Roamer’s head. It poured out until the Roamer was completely covered and the black orbs were cast into the fire, fueling its power. They moved to the next Roamer and repeated the same process. They reached the last sitting Roamer and the first began to sprout crystals from the black goo covering their skin. Dark sapphire crystals began to cover all of their bodies.
The Roamers I had led up the hill began to shriek, running past me out of the bushes towards the crystallized goo covered Roamers. All of the black goo Roamers turned their gaze towards the Roamers approaching them. The black goo Roamer holding the tiny black orbs dropped the armful and they rolled all over the ground. The Roamers stepped on them, exploding the goo out, slipping onto the ground. The crystalizing Roamers grabbed glowing orange rocks out of the fire. They walked to the fallen Roamers and began to pound each of them with the glowing hot rocks. I bolted back down the hillside. I could hear branches breaking behind me. I dashed past the glowing orange orbs as they appeared again. My foot caught something on the ground and my body flipped end over end, racing down the hill with no slowing. I hit the valley floor surrounded by the larger glowing orange bulbs. I picked myself up as quickly as possible and rushed to the largest bulb where I buried the rhombus. I clawed away at the dirt beneath the glowing orange orb. The breaking branches are catching up behind me. The marble prism peaks out of the dirt; I grasp it fully in my right hand. I turn to find a Roamer covered in black goo behind me shimmering from the glowing hot rock in their hands. They ran at me, rock held overhead. I charge, dodging to the right, thrusting the prism in my right hand to the temple on the left side of the black goo Roamer’s skull. Hot liquid covers my hand and forearm.
The gray orb appears in the sky. Completely illuminating the valley with glowing orange bulbs. The black goo covered Roamer falls to the ground. The glowing hot rock sizzling away the largest glowing orange flower. I see my arm. Covered in crimson. I see the Roamer below me, crimson flowing from their left temple. Black goo oozing out of their lifeless pupils. The evergreen ground flooded by crimson. My white-stained hands streaked with crimson. Yellow dots stir under the tree line to my left. Four white legs caught by the moonlight. Branches begin snapping to my right. I turn to look as I feel a heavy hit to my skull. I am in the pool of crimson, clenching the marble white prism with black-violet inset markings. A glowing red streak passes over the gray orb and the dark sapphire walls as it all fades away.
I struggled out of the sleep that took hold of my mind and body. I was no longer on the valley floor surrounded by orange bulbs. Sand covered the ground like rust. Scattered crimson buttes shot to the sky out of igneous boulders spouting yellow smoke from their tops. Mauve plumps covered in hard amber thorns dotted the tarnished land. The unseen sphere hanging behind haze in the sky. The horizon is still claimed by the dark sapphire walls. Clothing was covering my body for the first time. It held the warmth from the fire that was beginning to smolder. Every Roamer that had taken the right path lay around the fire in clothes similar to mine. All of the Roamers alive and unchanged. Not a trace of the black goo. No sprouting crystals. The Roamer I smashed the prism into was breathing gently in slumber. I was still clutching the prism-shaped stone. My hands dyed from the soft white pebbles I had rubbed to dust, covered in streaks of rust beginning to crack and flake.
I could not tell what had been keeping the fire aflame from the ashes that were blowing away. There was no kindling nearby to keep it going. The other Roamers began to wake as I searched around for anything combustible. I placed the prism inside a pouch in the clothing before the other Roamers could see it. The conversation was ordinary among all of us, determining which direction to wander in search of scarce grass. The longer they spoke with each other the more clear it became they had no recollection of our journey inside the dark sapphire walls. As if this is the same desert the Roamers had been wandering all our lives. No left path. No right path. No fracture of the Roamers. The Roamers who took the left path were not there. They were not spoken of.
Like all the cycles before, the Roamers searched the desert for sustenance. The crimson buttes looming higher and higher above the closer we were to them. The mauve plumps were too fickle to consume despite their plentitude. My stomach rumbled deep with every few steps taken. We found a path that began to sink past the surface of the rust desert into a canyon of soft smooth contours with spire-like hoodoos rising. The further down we went the more narrow the path became. Waves of vermillion, pink, yellow, and brown crossed the canyon walls surrounding us in amplitude with each turn as speckles of igneous rock grew up from the bottom and faded away as the light weaved into static on the surface above.
It felt foolish of me to lead in a place I had never been. The other Roamers were certain I needed to. They were clueless as to what had happened before. The canyon path led us lower and lower to walls so narrow we were shuffling one in front of the other. I began to hear water dripping. I picked up my pace and started to lose the Roamers behind me. The igneous speckles were leaking. Small droplets of liquid were filtering through the walls leading further down. The drops began to merge into small braided channels. All I could hear was the liquid running down the canyon paths. I came around a corner to a small pool of the draining liquid where green stocks with dome-shaped umbels of white dots grew out of the liquid-covered sand. I snapped one of the stalks out of the ground, ready to end my hunger. The Roamers behind me caught up and screeched as they saw what was in my hands. I stopped and looked down. The streams of liquid dripping out of the igneous speckles down the walls morphed into viscid streams pooling into black goo on top of the sand where I had broken the stalk of flowers. “Those are what killed us!” the Roamers shouted at me, “How could you forget what happened to us!” My reflection crystalline in the stillness of the pool of black. I hurled the stalk of flowers back to the goo they rose from.
My head ached with blurry vision. The black goo had returned. I had almost eaten what grew from it. The Roamers saved me. It was difficult to stand. They carried me out to the other side of the canyon. It seems the missing Roamers had eaten those plants before and passed. It was difficult to get exact details out of the others with my head swirling of what had happened before this desert and what they recalled. The light had started to set. We found refuge between a cluster of igneous boulders. My vision slowly returned as the aches lessened their intensity. Some of the Roamers split off to find kindling for a fire and return, asking me to start it like before. They said to use the stone I have against the boulders. I pulled the solid marble prism with coursing black-violet lines from the pouch in my clothing and struck it against the basalt. Sparks danced out. I strike it again and again as flashes of light begin to illuminate the Roamers around me in the encompassing darkness. The light from the sparks danced up against the Roamers who were covered in black goo on the hill from their feet through their clothing to the top of their heads. It began to bounce off of them, sparkling until spectral hues started shining. I kept striking the stone against the boulder, watching the form of the Roamers change. The kindling caught flame, and the refraction dissipated. The Roamers in their original state.
I cannot sleep. The night sky is not pitch black, though no shining speckles above. The gray orb’s light is waning, shrinking away from the desert inside the shrouded dark sapphire walls. The other Roamers have passed out. I am tempted to flee into the dark. Away from whatever these Roamers have become. The subtle floral breeze wafting through the boulders begins to flicker the fire before me in one direction. Then another. The breeze picks up to small gusts. The fire is dancing around in all directions. The gusts have turned into severe gales. The sleeping Roamers stirred awake. I could hear a melody coming through each burst of wind. Rise. Swooping. The trill grew stronger, bouncing directions with the fire in each gale.
Above us, an outline grew from the gray orb’s faint light. It circled the cluster of igneous boulders we had taken refuge in. The trill grew louder and louder until I could hear nothing else. The winged beast swept down, landing on top of a Roamer next to me with its clawed feet first. Emerald wings fluttered the flame stronger, revealing its head with round yellow eyes to a sharp golden beak. It held down the Roamer's legs with one foot and their upper torso with the other. The golden beak pierced the Roamer’s stomach as the winged beast pulled insides out I had not seen before, covering the ground beneath it in a crimson pool. The beast spread its wings and flew up into the night dragging the Roamer’s insides with it. The other Roamers watched the beast vanish as they turned their gaze to the cut-open Roamer. They all pounced at the crimson pool. Licking up as much as possible. “Don’t you want some? The desert has gifted us with this meal.” The black goo roamers crystalizing. The Roamers that had been struck with hot glowing rocks deforming to sprouting decay.
I charged past the Roamers into the darkness. It didn’t matter the direction. Those are no longer Roamers. Not the ones I knew. They were gone. Lost to the land inside the dark sapphire walls. All of Roamer experience lost, but mine. I ran until the glowing haze returned to the sky. There was no one else near me as far as I could see. They had not followed me. A laccolith of polygonal basalt columns rose in the horizon. I climbed up the columns until I found an unseen opening leading inside. I entered the cave striking the stone against the walls to see if there was anything else inside. On the third strike, the stone began to glow illuminating the entire cave.
“Who is there?” a voice whispered from the shadows beyond the light shining from the stone.
The sound of the voice echoed around me.
“I wish you no harm. I am curious how you found my cave.”
The voice was now coming from directly in front of me. I backed myself against the wall of the cave near where I entered, holding the stone before me to expand the reach of light as far into the shadows as possible. The form the voice came from revealed itself, stepping into the light of the stone. They looked just like a Roamer covered in a pitch black cloak dotted by shining crystals.
“Where did you find that stone?” Their eyes scanned my body.
“Would you share more about how you found it? That Bane Shard has been lost for a very long time.” they opened their palms to both sides. My mind twisting. Flickering the same waves of the eclipse.
“You have wandered far into Akrazia Myrrogon, the Impermanent Labyrinth. This is the land of Zyz.” The image faded. The cloaked figure was comforting my shoulders while I slipped down the cave wall to sit.
“I am Zraosha. I will share all I know about this cryptic land, in exchange for your name.”
I no longer knew who I was. The Roamers fractured. Crystalized. Consumed. I was starving. Parched. Exhausted. All of Roamer experience left to me. I had no name. None of us did. We lived as one. As Roamers. Now there is only one.
“I am Roamā.”