The words on the entrance to the cave of The Terrible had been the first words I had seen in this world. One of the first things I had done with Noel was try to decipher this script. In the end, the entire exercise had been pointless because I’d figured out how to trick the elves into thinking we had already visited The Terrible. The runes had also appeared near the tomb of the Mad King. I hadn’t been able to figure out these runes all those years ago and that thought had bugged me ever since.

I loved learning, problem solving, and languages. Finding an ancient script that seemed indecipherable but was somehow related to the spoken language of the elfin Jora tribe had been the perfect puzzle for me to work on when I was bored. I’d made breakthroughs in understanding this written language back when I lived with the elfin Jora tribe, but it wasn’t until I was living with the humans that I made significant progress. I’d even had Noel speak her language aloud for a time so I could work on deciphering the written script. It had been a part of my efforts to learn the elfin language, although I didn’t manage to learn the spoken or written language before Noel left.

After that, I had mostly worked on this language while trying to decipher the secret behind ‘annihilation,’ since both ‘annihilation’ and this runic language had seemed like hints that would help me return to my Earth. Even back then, I’d felt like those two things had to be connected. I’d thought for a time that there might be a way to understand Madness’ hint by translating ‘annihilation’ into this runic script. Wasn’t it funny that now the literal ‘Book of Annihilation’ had that runic language written on it?

And wasn’t it even funnier that I had long since worked out how many of these runes were supposed to sound?

I looked at the runes on the page stuck inside the diamond and began to chant. In the corner of my eye, I saw that Noel’s eyes widened, the silver moon shook, and the red star began blinking violently. The silver moonlight appeared like a tidal wave flying towards me and the red star blinked a hundred spears of red energy that pierced through the air heading right for my figure.

Birdsong filled the air and the dull dark sky lit up with a rainbow. The rainbow crystallized into the shape of a massive bird which flew into the path of the tidal wave and spears. The silver moonlight crashed into the bird, but the birdsong didn’t falter, and the spears embedded themselves into the bird’s figure, but the birdsong remained beautiful and clear.

Wild chaotic music filled the air, clashing with the gentle birdsong. Devilish whispers joined the fray like white noise but the birdsong cut through the din. The clamor intensified but I ignored it, since I knew nobody had to hear my words except myself. If Shakespeare’s Prospero didn’t need an audience for his magic, then let the Chorus know I will not be apologizing for speaking my words into the void!

The Simurgh could stop the Immortals but Noel hovered in the air unperturbed by the fiery rainbow colored bird. She fell to the ground in a silver bubble of her own making and when the bubble popped, she rushed over to me with a crazy look in her eyes.

I smiled as I kept reciting the words on the pages of the Book of Annihilation. I had never been able to decipher this language completely, since I’d only had a few words to work with, but since I’d invented a writing system for the human language, I’d gotten pretty good at filling in the blanks on the edges of spoken words and written letters. If there was something I didn’t understand, I just used what I knew of the elfin language to fill in the blanks as best I could. If these words needed to be recited exactly, then I was probably screwed, but judging by the way the Immortals and Noel had just tried to stop me, I had a feeling what I was doing was going to be dangerous enough.

I frowned.

Something was wrong.

I tried to cut out all the noise around me. The screeching music, the garbled whispers, the heavenly birdsong, and Noel’s loud screaming yell, I had to ignore it all. My rapid heartbeat, the rough noise of my quick breathes, and even the crunch of the soil under my feet as I moved closer to the diamond to get a better look at the page. Yes, I had to focus on my own words. The words that were coming out of my mouth, my best attempt at speaking aloud the runic words written on the page inside the diamond. Those words that should barely make sense to me since I’d deactivated my translation magic in order to say them.

“The thirty birds read through the fateful page and there discovered, stage by detailed stage, their lives, their actions, set out one by one – all that their souls had ever been or done,” came the words from my mouth, unbidden and strange.

These were not the words that I thought I was speaking. In my head, the words that I was translating were cruder, with bits and pieces blanked out, entire sentences cut in the middle or conjoined with others as if the whole thing was a piece of modernist literature employing the stream of consciousness style. I did not know this language well enough to speak it so eloquently. Phrases should have been left unconnected. I did not have an extensive vocabulary for this language so many nouns and verbs should have been gibberish, and yet, these words made sense. No, not only did they make sense, they were familiar. Very familiar.

They were familiar in content, of course. Thirty birds, as in the first appearance of the Simurgh. The fateful page, as in the page I was reading from. And the observation of actions and souls, which had been the description that I had been reading before, the words that described the experiences of Alek Izlandi as he came to this temple and awaited the ceremony that would turn him into an accessory for his Immortal.

They were also familiar in context. I had read these words before. Vaguely, in the fog in my mind that felt just like the fog that had obscured my memories of the birds that made up the Simurgh, I could feel a memory surfacing. A memory of a poem shared with me by my roommate who loved literature. A poem from far away that talked of birds and kings and journeys and mountains and valleys and… the Simurgh.

Yes, I remembered now. I remembered the poem as my mouth spoke the words. Words that I wanted to stop speaking but couldn’t. Yet, I still felt as if I was in control of my body and mind. I knew, instinctively, that no Immortal was influencing me with magic right now, I was completely on my own. What was happening was happening because of my own subconscious desire to keep reading. I wanted to keep reading this text, to finally return to my home world. I did not want to leave behind my friends, so perhaps I would take them with me.

Yes, what a wonderful idea. We should all go. Go back to my old Earth. No, not to my old Earth. We were not returning to the banks of the Charles River on the night when I was first swept away on a rickety old pier. We were going somewhere else. It would still be a return, but it would be a return to something older, primordial even. The essence of this world, according to the words I was speaking.

Noel reached out, her eyes wide and full of panic. In the corner of my vision, I saw Madness and the Evil Eye materializing in familiar forms, fighting back against the massive figure of the Simurgh as they tried to strike me down.

The world shook in protest of my words. I heard Kelser, Kol, and Taoc shouting for me to stop, as well, even though I knew they were too far away, they could not know. No, nobody knew. They weren’t enlightened. They did not know. They did not know.

They did not know.

In order to exist, you must be nothing first. One cannot be see eternity until they embrace Nothingness.