Consider the Price

I returned to my tower today. Long nights, entombed among the darkened artifacts of Aeternum’s ancient past had taken their toll. The echoes days long gone rang in my ears, and all around me spun visions of rock and relic and the twisting shadows of phantoms from beyond the veil. The light stung my eyes and I yearned for respite. Morgaine was waiting for me. She could see the fear in my eyes, mirroring the horror in her own. She begged me to pursue this grim task no longer. To consider the terrible price I might pay in pursuit of some strange revelation. There is always a cost. Hephaestus the forger split wide his father’s skull to birth the fruit of wisdom into the world. Lord Atum spilt the blood of his own loins to bring speech and writing forth unto his desert supplicants. The Nords claim their Allfather lay transfixed upon his spear for just a glimpse of that which lies beyond this sphere. They made these sacrifices willingly. Because knowledge <i>is</i> power! The Ancients possessed these great and powerful secrets, and, yet, they too have passed from living memory. If we do not master this island and its mysteries, it will master us. It is only a matter of time. And in a place where lives encompass eons, time is not on our side.