TUMARA: Created page with "=Higher Than Fear= {{creative-work |title = Higher Than Fear |type = vignette |author = Opalina Jalcon |author-displayed = Opalina Jalcon |date = 7-27-2026 }} ''From the journals of Opalina Jalcon- 2002'' Before the fire in Pinefar, I almost believed I could still pretend the voice was only a nightmare. The room smelled of cedar, hot iron, and sulfur. People laughed over stubborn lockboxes and traded enchanted rods as though the world still made..."

2026-07-28T04:43:12Z

Created page with "=Higher Than Fear= {{creative-work |title = Higher Than Fear |type = vignette |author = Opalina Jalcon |author-displayed = Opalina Jalcon |date = 7-27-2026 }} ''From the journals of Opalina Jalcon- 2002'' Before the fire in Pinefar, I almost believed I could still pretend the voice was only a nightmare. The room smelled of cedar, hot iron, and sulfur. People laughed over stubborn lockboxes and traded enchanted rods as though the world still made..."

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=Higher Than Fear=

{{creative-work
|title = Higher Than Fear
|type = vignette
|author = Opalina Jalcon
|author-displayed = [[Opalina (prime)|Opalina Jalcon]]
|date = 7-27-2026
}}

''From the journals of Opalina Jalcon- 2002''

Before the fire in Pinefar, I almost believed I could still pretend the voice was only a nightmare.

The room smelled of cedar, hot iron, and sulfur. People laughed over stubborn lockboxes and traded enchanted rods as though the world still made sense. Darjun cursed traps with colorful enthusiasm. Kurut smiled with that quiet confidence that made impossible things seem ordinary. Lady Aysia moved with practiced grace, her hands always busy, always helping someone.

I tried to be one more ordinary soul among them.

For a little while, I succeeded.

Then it found me again.

Not with a whisper this time.

With certainty.

"I have returned once again."

The words did not enter through my ears. They bloomed inside my skull like black frost, each syllable scraping against my thoughts until nothing else could exist beside it.

I wanted to scream.

Instead, I argued.

"Yes, I can avoid you!"

The others must have thought I was talking to someone across the room. They continued laughing while Darjun struggled with another trap. Kurut fed another stick into the fire. Flames danced happily in the hearth, oblivious to the winter gathering inside my mind.

The fire warmed my skin.

It could not reach my soul.

The voice laughed.

It promised my lifeforce.

It promised our bond made it stronger.

It promised there was nowhere cold enough, nowhere distant enough, nowhere holy enough to hide.

Every word tightened around my heart like invisible chains.

I covered my ears.

It changed nothing.

How do you silence something that already lives inside your own thoughts?

I answered anyway.

"You cannot have me."

The words escaped before I realized I had spoken them aloud.

"Nor feed on me!"

I raised my fist—not because I believed it could see me, but because I needed to remember I still belonged to myself.

The reply came instantly.

If I continued to resist...

Everyone I loved would burn.

It would leave them smoldering at my feet.

It spoke with the calm certainty of someone describing tomorrow's weather.

For one terrible heartbeat...

I hesitated.

Not because I wanted its power.

Because I wondered if surrendering would spare everyone else.

Then I remembered.

Liars always promise mercy before the knife.

"If I feed you..." I whispered beneath my breath, "...you will kill them anyway."

No answer came.

It didn't need one.

We both knew I had seen through the bargain.

The room around me blurred as panic clawed at my chest.

"I need to get higher."

No one understood.

"I need to go to Koar."

Still they looked at me with confusion instead of fear.

"I need his help."

Bless Aysia.

She did not ask whether I was mad.

She simply said she would take me.

When the voice returned again, I could hear my own desperate thoughts echoing back at me as though the world itself mocked me.

"Anyone going to the Rift?"

"Please... it's urgent."

Aysia asked who I was talking to.

How could I explain?

"The essence is talking in my head."

The words sounded absurd even to me.

"The Council."

"The ones trapped in the tomb."

"One of them is looking for me."

I watched concern replace confusion in her eyes.

She believed that I believed.

Sometimes compassion is enough.

We left Pinefar behind.

The warmth of the trading post faded into snow and endless wind. Every step toward Mount Aenatumgana carried us farther from comfort and closer to hope. The frozen world stretched around us in silent white, beautiful and merciless.

The climb should have demanded all my attention.

Instead, I listened for the next whisper.

Every gust of wind sounded like its voice.

Every shadow looked ready to become its shape.

I wondered if Aysia noticed how often I looked over my shoulder.

If Darjun noticed how tightly I gripped my sword.

If either of them realized I was less afraid of falling from the mountain than I was of what climbed beside me unseen.

Higher.

Always higher.

Closer to Koar.

Closer to sanctuary.

When exhaustion finally robbed me of nearly every spell I possessed, I confessed only, "I am spell-less."

It was easier than admitting I also felt nearly hope-less.

At the summit, the wind became a living thing, screaming across the mountain as though trying to strip flesh from bone.

Then...

Silence.

Not true silence.

A vacancy.

The presence withdrew like a predator disappearing into dark water.

One final promise lingered in the emptiness.

"I shall be visiting you soon. Do not try to hide... the longer you hide, the more destruction I shall spread. Embrace that which I have."

Then it was gone.

For the first time in what felt like forever...

My own thoughts belonged to me again.

Only for a moment.

But on that frozen mountain, beneath Koar's endless sky, a single moment of peace felt more precious than all the treasures hidden inside every lockbox in Elanthia.

I closed my eyes against the bitter wind and whispered a prayer.

Not for strength.

Not for victory.

Only that when the voice returned...

I would remember who I was before it ever learned my name.

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