RECORD/// Speaker: VLADEX / Subject: DESCENT -[“I know thee well. You huddle behind walls of fairplay and hope to withstand the frowns of fate. Foolish. The bricks are often stacked against you.
I built a kingdom with bloody bricks of conquest only to be scorned of glory by those who sat back whilst I was kissed by blades and caressed by flames. Tut, were I a battered beast of burden hauling crooked wagons with wheels worn ragged by the stones of the road I may have been content. But slicing providence to align with my vision is my speciality.
I would carve a new kingdom from the bones of the old one. One that would harry the heavens and make the stars shudder. And if naysayers were caught in the thresher of my machinations then all the better. I would wrest the glory from the smoldering corpse of fate itself should it defy me. Alas, defy me it did.
T’was my own vex in the end. My own underestimation of bullheaded fools with nothing to lose. The threat of my inevitability stoked flames of a desperate fury. I could feel the claws of defeat closing upon me as again glory was snatched viciously from my grasp. Heavily I fell.
I can still remember the alien breezes sweeping over me. That chaotic pull towards the darkness. The tearful farewell of the light. And the descent, careening downwards for so long that one feels held betwixt dueling voids. In time I could feel my mind numbing, my soul blanching. I could only stare at the nothingness, and the nothing between the nothing.
Without a landing, I found myself lost within a steely pit. I daren’t move, fearful of provoking fate’s sting. I felt none. Instead my faithful blade was beside me, ready to hew forever more. I had been transported, plucked from the aether and borne anew upon an evil star. To a lesser this would be punishment. But I saw it the true gift. A second chance. A fresh start. Swiftly I rose.
I didn’t become the most dangerous being upon this star by playing fair. And if you don’t tread with great care neither will you.”]