The last journal entry from an Elderhearthian Hunter, Thalien Rhubard

It has been twenty days since I have been stranded in this place. I fear for my life, now more than ever. At the beginning, it was only a mere feeling. Uneasy pressure between my shoulder blades. And then it spread.

I felt it in the numbing of my fingers. I felt it in my stomach – as if I had swallowed a bag of rocks. It weighed heavy on me. My body was weary. My body is weary. I feel like a piece of rotting cloth, laying in the cold, damp ground, as worms eat away at me.

The worst part is, my mind is slipping. I can feel my consciousness fading away. My dreams melding with reality, and reality melding with my dreams. It has been a few weeks since I was unable to tell between what’s real and what isn’t.

The best way to describe it is – as if there was something, or someone, waiting beyond the fringes of my vision – where it is darkest. Waiting for me to lose my grip, waiting for my attention to fade so it can clutch at my last remaining piece of consciousness and pull it into the void. That place beyond reason and understanding.

There is something – beyond the veil. Something that lurks inside the darkness of the corners of the Tower. Of my mind. My sanity is sparse, and sleep is the one thing I dread the most. If I go to sleep – I might never wake up as myself. I think today marks my tenth day without sleep. If I even think of closing my eyes, I will be forever lost – I CANNOT FALL ASLEEP. It waits in the corner of my vision, with its crooked hands reaching out from the darkness, wanting to take me. But I can still fight it.

I write this, what is probably my last, journal entry because it has been a while since I felt sane enough to be able to think with my mind undisturbed by unseen forces pulling on it like a rope. I was never one to fear death, for I lived my life fearlessly.
I have walked into ruins no men dared to walk into before me. I have seen sights that you wouldn’t believe. I have fought and I have lived valiantly – or at least I think I did.

Climb.

Now that I look back on my life, there is no way that I could have done what I have done with a clear mind. Something, THAT something has always been there – it seems. Pulling me deeper and deeper.

When I received this mission, it was very straightforward. It seemed straightforward.
I was to go into an abandoned tower somewhere on the borders of the Northern Tarbonian province, and investigate the strange happenings that have been reported by the people living here.

Come, it tells me. Come, climb up. There are sights to see. The voices that echo in my mind are the only sound I hear, drowning out my breathing, my steps, and even the scratching of my pen on this paper. Come to us. Give yourself over to us.

By all indications, it was a standard Hunter mission. A spatial anomaly, or perhaps an aberration that was bound to this place – I came prepared for both.

Die.

But it was none of those things. When I first arrived in this town, Zhlokam, everything seemed in order. Except that immediately I felt a presence – a tug. And it was coming from the Tower. The townsfolk greeted me warmly, and pointed me to the Tower’s direction. I did a bit of talking with the residents, and they told me that a  Siewerski mage by the name of Viliya took refuge in here, and he had helped the people of Zhlokam immensely.

Until the day he hung himself from the top of the Tower.

Not months after his suicide, the people started hearing things. Whispers in the night that were loudest near the Tower. Scuttling and scratching in the dark corners. Footsteps where there weren’t any people. A standard anomaly, I thought.

As I closed in on the Tower, the pull I felt became stronger. I was practically running towards it.
The Tower itself didn’t look impressive. It was an old watchtower, repurposed into a storage space for the townsfolk – until the mage came. The stonework was pretty old, but it wasn’t run down.

There is only one thing left for you to do before you become one with the Tower, the voice tells me.
You must take the leap – CLIMB TO THE TOP – I feel a sharp, stabbing pain behind my eyes as the scream gives me a crippling headache.

In front of the Tower, I heard something – in my mind. The voice mixed with my own thoughts, so at first I couldn’t discern that something, or someone, was talking to me. My mind told me that I absolutely must go in, but my entire body felt numb. My physical being was practically screaming at me that I should run away. But being the thick-skulled, fearless idiot that I am, I walked in.

And nothing was the same since.

When I looked through the windows of the Tower, the town looked deserted – dead. There was not a single soul walking around. Houses were half-destroyed, and all that was green was now grey. 

Hollow.

Yes. Hollow. That is the right word for this place. For me, as I am right now. Hollow.

I wandered around the Tower, looking for clues. Searching for a cracked crystal that might have caused the anomaly, but after days of intense looking, I found nothing. And it is important to note that, no matter how hard I tried – I could not leave the Tower. I was trapped inside of here. I still am trapped.

I looked behind every corner, lifted every stone, searched every nook and cranny – but there was nothing.
Nothing except loads and loads of notes from the man who lived here before I came. The worst part of it all was that I could not read the notes. I took some classes of Siewerski grammar and syntax, but this was something else. I could recognize the letters that were distinctly Siewerski, but the language itself was erratic, cryptic, and it felt unnatural somehow.

Climb. Die. Climb. Die. CLIMB. DIE. CLIMB DIE CLIMB DIE CLIMBDIECLIMBDIECLIMB DIEDIEDIEDIDEDIEDIEDIE DIE CLIMB AND DIE SO YOU CAN BE FREE ONCE AGAIN

FREE

Hours turned to days, days turned to weeks and weeks became months. As time passed, the whispering became louder, and clearer. I could hear movement every now and then – but for the life of me, I could swear that I was the only living thing inside the Tower.

Living, yes. In my line of work, dead things do tend to rise sometimes.

I see it now. Clearly. A silhouette. It’s standing in the archway of the door to my room. I feel its piercing gaze burning itself into the back of my head.

It’s telling me that I should climb to the top of the Tower. Yes, the top of the Tower is a nice vantage point. I could see the beautiful Tarbonian landscape before I give myself over to it. Give myself over? My life, as it seems, belongs to the Tower. I can’t run away from it anymore. I tried many times, but to no avail. What is life, essentially? I lived for four decades and I don’t think that anything of significance is left behind me. I have no family, no living relatives – save for some distant cousins I never really was close with. Give myself over to the Tower. That is my purpose. I must feed the Tower, for it is a living entity – and I must become one with it. I feel its hands on my shoulders. As I write these words, I notice that my letters are the same as the mage’s letters. Who am I? I came here five years ago, after I was rescued by an underground mage rebel faction within Siewersk, and I found my home here in this small town. The Tower seemed like a reasonable choice. After all – it called to me, and I came. The Tower was my home, and it was my friend. Yes, there was someone inside with me, and I talked to them. My favorite was the Lady, as I called her. I loved her, even. But to be able to join her, to see her and hold her – I must climb. And I must give my life to the Tower so we can be together. Yes, climb.

My life as a Hunter will have meaning now. The Tower needs only one more soul to complete the transformation. To truly come alive. I have been searching for a way to leave my legacy on the World, and what better way than this. I must climb. Climb.

I go now. To climb to the top of the Tower. And see the land one last time.

I cannot fight anymore. I feel the darkness gripping my heart and my mind. It’s taken over.

The moment I put down my pen, I will be lost forever. And I cannot write anymore. I feel – drained. Exhausted.

I stopped responding to hunger a few days ago. This is my end.

Perhaps, after the Climb…I will be reborn? The Tower is the only Home. The only one I need.

Yes.

Climb.