HOST-GSKEBECHET: HOST-GSKEBECHET moved page The Weight of Knowing to Opalina (prime)/The Weight of Knowing: Updating vignette article name per Gswiki:Style guide/Creative works

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HOST-GSKEBECHET moved page The Weight of Knowing to Opalina (prime)/The Weight of Knowing: Updating vignette article name per Gswiki:Style guide/Creative works

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HOST-GSKEBECHET: Updating essay to vignette as this appears to be "off screen roleplay" as opposed to a character-written essay

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Updating essay to vignette as this appears to be "off screen roleplay" as opposed to a character-written essay

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:10, 23 July 2026
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	{{creative-work		{{creative-work
	\|title = The Weight of Knowing		\|title = The Weight of Knowing
	\|type = ~~essay~~		\|type = vignette
	\|author = Opalina Jalcon		\|author = Opalina Jalcon
	\|author-displayed = [[Opalina (prime)\|Opalina Jalcon]]		\|author-displayed = [[Opalina (prime)\|Opalina Jalcon]]

TUMARA: Created page with "=The Weight Knowing= {{creative-work |title = The Weight of Knowing |type = essay |author = Opalina Jalcon |author-displayed = Opalina Jalcon |date = 7-22-2026 }} ''From the journals of Opalina Jalcon- 1-29-2002'' There are days when the world feels wrong long before anyone else notices. It began on the ferry. The river was quiet, the ferryman as indifferent as ever, and the others bustled about with the comfortable confidence of adventurers begi..."

2026-07-23T00:20:22Z

Created page with "=The Weight Knowing= {{creative-work |title = The Weight of Knowing |type = essay |author = Opalina Jalcon |author-displayed = Opalina Jalcon |date = 7-22-2026 }} ''From the journals of Opalina Jalcon- 1-29-2002'' There are days when the world feels wrong long before anyone else notices. It began on the ferry. The river was quiet, the ferryman as indifferent as ever, and the others bustled about with the comfortable confidence of adventurers begi..."

New page

=The Weight Knowing=

{{creative-work
|title = The Weight of Knowing
|type = essay
|author = Opalina Jalcon
|author-displayed = [[Opalina (prime)|Opalina Jalcon]]
|date = 7-22-2026
}}

''From the journals of Opalina Jalcon- 1-29-2002''

There are days when the world feels wrong long before anyone else notices.

It began on the ferry.

The river was quiet, the ferryman as indifferent as ever, and the others bustled about with the comfortable confidence of adventurers beginning another expedition. Yet every few moments a chill brushed against the back of my neck.

You are being watched.

The feeling came.

Then vanished.

Again.

Then again.

Each time I turned, there was nothing but river mist and familiar faces. Vaporum. Rontuu. Friends. Companions.

Nothing that should have frightened me.

And yet I could not shake the certainty that unseen eyes had already chosen us.

I laughed.

Or rather, I pretended to.

It was easier to babble nonsense than admit fear.

The mist gate opened like a wound in the air, and one by one we stepped through it into Wehnimer's Landing. Rontuu called for me to hurry. The others smiled and joked. We gathered ourselves into a group and set out with purpose.

I followed.

What else was I supposed to do?

The road stretched impossibly long.

From the Landing's crowded streets to the quiet grasslands... through the whispering forests of Trollfang... over rivers bright as polished glass... across mountain switchbacks dusted with snow...

The world was beautiful.

Painfully beautiful.

Birdsong drifted from lonely trees. Wildflowers clung stubbornly to rocky cliffs. Lakes reflected skies so blue they seemed unreal.

Normally I would have delighted in every step.

Instead I watched my companions.

I memorized their laughter.

The way Akashe smiled at everyone.

The confidence in Aerofoil's stride.

The easy jokes between Rontuu and Shooure.

Middnight walking beside us.

I kept thinking...

One of you won't finish this journey.

Then the voice came.

Not aloud.

Inside my thoughts.

Cold.

Merciless.

"Look around to your group now. Gaze into their eyes and know that you have just cost one of them their lives."

The words froze every beat of my heart.

No.

No...

Not because of me.

I wanted to scream.

Instead I whispered an apology to the group before any of them understood why.

"I'm sorry right now for the death that will come."

It sounded ridiculous.

Madness.

Who apologizes for something that hasn't happened?

No one questioned me.

They simply kept walking.

Perhaps they thought I was joking.

I wished I had been.

The mountains swallowed us soon after.

Stone replaced grass.

Snow replaced flowers.

Even the wind sounded different there, as if it carried old ghosts upon it.

Then we reached the ravine.

A lone ogre waited below.

Nothing remarkable.

Just another obstacle.

Then the sky exploded.

Lightning.

Brilliant.

Instant.

It did not strike the ogre.

It struck Middnight.

The smell of ozone hit before the thunder.

She never had a chance.

One heartbeat she was walking beside me.

The next...

...she lay at my feet.

Still.

Silent.

Gone.

Everything inside me broke.

Around us everyone rushed into motion.

Flasks.

Prayers.

Meditations.

Healing.

Questions.

Hope.

I could only stare.

This wasn't the ogre.

This wasn't bad luck.

This wasn't a careless mistake.

It was exactly what I had been warned about.

Exactly.

I threw my arms around Middnight's body as if I could somehow hold her spirit in place.

The tears came before I realized I was crying.

"I'm sorry!"

The words escaped me over and over.

"I'm sorry..."

When her ghost answered me, my heart shattered all over again.

She wasn't angry.

She wasn't accusing.

She simply spoke with the quiet kindness that somehow made everything hurt worse.

Everyone tried to reassure me.

"It was the essence."

"The essence got her."

"It wasn't you."

But they hadn't heard the voice.

They hadn't been chosen to carry the warning.

They hadn't been told that one of them would die because of me.

Maybe the voice lied.

Maybe it was only trying to wound me.

Maybe fate would have claimed Middnight regardless.

I don't know.

I only know what guilt feels like.

It weighs far more than armor.

Far more than any pack I've ever carried.

Even after we turned back along the highroad, after the others resumed speaking, after life insisted on continuing...

...I could still hear the thunder.

And every time I closed my eyes, I saw lightning reaching for a friend I had failed to save.

Opalina (prime)/The Weight of Knowing - Revision history

HOST-GSKEBECHET: HOST-GSKEBECHET moved page The Weight of Knowing to Opalina (prime)/The Weight of Knowing: Updating vignette article name per Gswiki:Style guide/Creative works

HOST-GSKEBECHET: Updating essay to vignette as this appears to be "off screen roleplay" as opposed to a character-written essay