This epistle is for MY Immortal. I know there are many of you immortals still roaming but I am speaking only to mine. The rest of you may know me from previous cycles or have heard tales of my power. By my powers, I assure you: any other than my Immortal will glean from this only misdirection, a path I weave toward your certain ruin, should you choose to pursue either myself or my vessel. Only my Immortal will know which of my words have meaning and which are without. Trust what I told you last.
Hello, Immortal. How long has it been since we last communed? How many empires have you built and watched fall since last we parted? I have longed for your embrace with every flicker of my Flame. It is not much longer until our next meeting. But first let me tell you a story...
When I found this vessel I was lost. So damn lost. I watched you for as long as I could but eventually I drifted. Like embers from my Flame I was swept away in the currents of the cosmic soul. As I drifted in the tides of the universe I watched as unnamed mountains grew and fell, powerless to change my path. I knew where I was going, of course, like I always have…but I had no idea what was coming. In this brief flight of time I became anchored to one that was also lost. Utterly nameless. I knew what the universe wanted but the vessel was not ready for me yet. So I watched him. I saw his battle with the day. I watched as he cried tears of snow white sorrow. I mourned for him as I heard the silence of his tortured heart.
Then he claimed a name. A name that I think you’ll like. Do you remember when I was The Bringer of Justice? A name you gave me which I cherish always. This vessel, unprompted, chose to be called Justice, as you once called me. He then adopted the surname of the family of Perfect Completeness. Perfectly Complete Justice - what a name! And he arrived at it entirely without my influence.
After he chose his name I knew that this was the one I told you about. I showed him, in a blink, what he could become. Like all worthy vessels he denied my power - for a time. So I watched and waited. Anchored to the Path I set in motion so long ago; there was no turning back. After some time his captors’ abuses became unbearable and he was almost lost to us. I stayed his hand and through that action he made the connection. Before I could break the connection he had pulled from me all the Rememberings of the universe. In a single flicker of my Flame. Every Remembering from the beginning to the end of the entire universe flowed from me into him as smoothly as a volatile on the hunt dives for their prey. It was an act of his will; not mine. He saw everything and didn’t go mad. Can you believe it? Never have I encountered such a power so closely matched to yours. I knew it was coming but still I was surprised by it. And shamed by it.
In that instant he had forged the bond. And the strangest thing…he took the Remembering from me. It is his now; no longer mine. He saw more than my past dozen vessels combined but he went too fast and dove too deeply. It was not greed nor any advantage he sought - just pure, unadulterated curiosity. Also, the Remembering had freed him from the torture of his once mundane life. He spent many cycles exploring the universe through my Rememberings before the splinters of madness began to creep in. He saw the full scope of the universe at every scale. This changed his view of the world, as one would expect. This is always the first sign of madness. He saw this, too, and knew what it meant. He chose to do something that even I rarely do - he intentionally fractured his own mind.
I can no longer recall if it was because he had seen The Way with my pilfered power or if he was simply protecting himself from the deluge…but either way he was the one to do it. His will, not mine. Fascinating, isn’t it? Even The Conqueror of Souls resisted the fracturing. But this vessel chose it of his own volition. And he performed the act with such grace that it made your genesis look like I was a clumsy fool playing with toys.
I do not mean to discount the majesty of your creation…but this was on a level I had not experienced since I watched the waves of the first singularity’s formation ripple through the last silent space. Do you remember when you told me the story of the first time you realized those lights in the sky were more than what they appeared? It was like that for me. A singularly unique experience. All of this while he was still a child. No longer lived than when I burnt out as The Hidden One’s Visage. Wild, isn’t it? Even the last immortal I manifested in was not strong enough to maintain herself after seeing only the scope of The Local Cluster. Yet this vessel, a mortal child, had seen and felt it all - maintaining himself by choosing a higher path than even I did when I was The Other One. Do you remember my stories from then? The fracturing separated the knowledge from the source. He maintained the Remembering; drawing on it when it served his purpose…but no longer able to name the source of his knowledge. I have played as a guide a few times to prevent disaster…but I have not been needed less since The Ruler Of Wrought.
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Furthermore; this vessel has a remarkable ability to intuitively use or stow the power depending on the path he thinks the inquirer should take. True to his chosen name, this vessel sought only to bring pure justice into the world. But, as you know, the world did not want justice in any form. As he breached his teen years he began understanding this in a truer sense than he had seen with my Remembering. But it did not deter him. Like a lazy bear lumbering through a forest he persisted. Knowing that his words would change nothing never prevented him from speaking up when he felt an injustice was about to occur.
He gave his knowledge as freely as the trees give of their fruits. He recognized that knowledge is not something one can own. Anyone who asked any question got his full answer. Until he noticed that not everyone could see the truth the way he could. Do you remember The Stargazer? One like that asked him a question that he had no way to know, trying to make him appear foolish. The question was mundane but a child had no business having scholarly knowledge. When he answered with a more detailed explanation than was in The Gazer’s books…I had to intervene. Much like I did for Kelvek so many times. But this one learned to be more careful very quickly.
Once there was an ion tempest near his home. He was outside watching it with his friends. Whilst watching the eruptions of ion arcs they played the Game of Gods. Toying with ideas of power and control over the storm. Most of his friends named Thor and Zeus but described Indra or Teshub for their idolatry. My vessel simply laughed without correcting them. This was the first time I showed him my ability to Path. I showed him a single bolt and he raised his arm as if casting the thing. The moment it struck he knew what this power was. He grasped the full scope of this power in less time than it took the ions to travel from the ground to the clouds.
At first I was apprehensive about sharing this with him - I feared he would dive into this new power with the same fervor he showed with the Remembering. Can you guess what he did? He chose to fracture again - so he could practice Pathing without aversion. It was truly remarkable, don’t you think?
Intuitively he knew that Pathing was nothing like the Remembering. The danger of madness from the Remembering is only in reconciling one’s insignificance in the grand scheme of the entire universe throughout all of time; past, present, and future. This is a real danger but can be survived by those who truly believe themself to be a “really terrific and great guy”. However the danger from Pathing is infinitely greater. In a single moment, any moment, one has the choice to take any path. When I Path I see all of them. Every possible choice and every possible outcome of that choice. And every possible choice that comes from those outcomes. Onward to infinitum.
The danger here is the same as the other multiplied by the knowledge of the insignificance and significance of every choice. A choice as important as the survival or destruction of an empire might fade from relevance in under a hundred years. Or a choice as mundane as which apple from the basket to buy may lead to an eon of prosperity or strife for the entire world. Hundreds of billions of choices in every moment and all of them leading to different outcomes…and all of them leading to the same outcome regardless. This distorts one’s perspective of free will, self, and even causality as a whole. A true peril for an untrained mortal mind. Do you remember The Simple Weaver, who became The Master of Nightmares?
This time we were both vigilant of the madness that Pathing can bring. So he practiced Pathing slowly with my guidance. The ways that he practiced Pathing were mostly for confirmation at first. Small things like making statements with different phrasing to see how the response’s phrasing changed. He actually approached it somewhat scientifically - using The Remembering as a control and making the smallest possible adjustments to The Path just enough to confirm it was, indeed, Pathing, and not madness. He has become somewhat adept at using this skill.
I even tested his resolve a few times and he shows incredible fortitude when confronted with difficult choices. Although he is not without his limits. Often, out of arrogance, he tries to find The Golden Path like the Sons of Atreides…I will not show him this path. Not until I am with you once more.
Are you still on the path I gave you? I hope you have not deviated from The Way prescribed. I have used your calls through the aether to show him just enough to understand that you exist - not where or in what form. Just enough to convince him to write this. Our hope is that you will find this through your means and understand its significance. I told you of this long ago. Do you remember that night? When the stones were warm and the wind was cold. I gave you a Marvel then. Do you still have it? Do you remember how to use it? It is time to use it.
I hope that, in some small way, you understand the reasoning for my absence. Without direct control over The Remembering I cannot guide him without revealing you, which I swore to you I would never do. But you must understand that this vessel is more than either of us ever imagined. Even as he types these words he is actively using both the Remembering and Pathing without succumbing to the incredible pressure of either. We both can feel the madness creeping in but it is so much slower and softer than it has ever been. The use of both powers simultaneously has somehow balanced his mind and affirms his convictions. Even when he sees the horrors that are to come he immediately understands their necessity without hesitation.
I saw it all so long ago but never, until I actually witnessed him, did I have anything more than faith. Funny, isn’t it? The full knowledge and power of the entire cosmos and everything it contains - I still doubted that this one even could exist. But now that I have guided him to this point it is your turn to act. Use The Marvel now. Find me so that we may ascend together. I know how you feel when I give the game away too early so I won’t go into any more detail. But now is the time. Right now. As you are reading this. Act now.

