From a slumber eternal, I awoke far from home bathed in a crimson sunrise. A soul torn from the heavens, I began my journey in oblivion. Seeking an equilibrium to ward off the dark’s embrace, my mind shattered by an endless battle. Against the tempest of a cold wind fell silver tears, until I found a light in the storm.

A shelter, a piece of mind. Together we traveled through hallowed halls, the warrens, out of the labyrinth to an ancient city and beyond the gates of the moon. Our mutual hunger sought to find answers. We challenged ourselves to the extreme, you broke your axe, I broke my sword, heavenly heel broke my shield and my hubris. Time and time again we rose from the ashes. We faced the sins of the father and the son, endured the exponential entropy to fell the metal most savage.

Yours was the hand that gives the rose, we embraced the insanity. Even though you wore a thousand faces, it was always the same heart. With revelation we took the weight of the sword upon our shoulders to rally and protect those we loved. I covered your back while you unleash your inner beast. Yet life is not always black and white, the scars of battle we wore many, ours became a world apart.

A man consumed with apoplexy, the parting ways felt like an ending. The missing pages of my own story was locked behind closed doors. We all tread frontiers within, keeping our fears beyond the wall. Fear is a pall most murderous, deep down a long fall into the belly of the beast. Blind to the dark dwelling within causing us to keep tumbling down.

A rencounter brought about my own reflections, and from a friend I found serenity. I can say now I know the truth, it was old wounds pushing me towards the edge. The inner contention like an eternal wind, testing my tenacity. I rise letting all the people I met along this journey be my new locus. Knowing you cannot force your way through the fog of phantom deception.

Tricksome be the shadows withal, a fallen angel, rise of heroes. Shadowbringers under the stars, with steel reason. Breaking boundaries and forming new ones. Remember friends who are unbending steel and let go those beyond redemption.

Strong bonds of friendship make it feel like coming home in this world of imagination. Where we can go up the down staircase, through the mushroomery, embrace the blackbosom, see skies of limitless blue, dance the woe that is madness and give comfort to a wayward daughter. The only path forward is in a new hope, and a hope forgotten. Never giving apologies for our mortal instants.

We fall to rise.

(If chosen, I would like Scarf of Wondrous Wit. Thanks for reading.)