Gate: The Emperor

I stepped through the vision gate and found myself standing on a field of barren, clay-like soil.  The sky was dark but a full moon was shining down upon this space, illuminating me like a spotlight.  Then, an earthquake began, nearly knocking me off of my feet as the clay split apart and a shadowed tower came from within the ground and thrust upwards into the night sky.

“It looks like the tower within which I discovered the Gumdrop King,” I murmured to myself as I observed the landscape. “Except this vision is unaltered by the presence of an Inner Child. The tell-tale sign of this desertion is the lack of life throughout the world.”

“How depressing,” came a whisper from the air beside me.

“Sometimes the Inner Children get a little lost in the worlds,” I said to the spirit of the air. “In fact it happens so often, that’s why I call them ‘The Lost Ones’.”

The spirit kept silent as I moved towards the new structure in a land where all life had fled. The lower part of the tower was unformed and seemed a part of the earth itself while the top of the tower was empty and lifeless to my eyes.  I began to climb the lower slopes of this structure, looking for a way in but finding nothing of interest in my search.

“I’m going to require some help investigating this tower,” I said, stumbling on an errant rock. “Air elemental, would you like to join me?”

There came a sound like a rushing wind and a miniature whirlwind sank into the earth. Moments later, a golem made of clay popped out of the ground beneath the tower and began climbing with me.  It was a difficult trek for both of us as the clay continually crumbled and broke beneath my hands, and the golem was so small that he had to rush to keep up with my steps.

“I don’t know if I can climb this,” I said, losing hope as I slid down another steep slope. “It’s like the ruling powers of this place don’t want us to be here, golem.”  Even as I spoke, the clay began to shift beneath me and formed itself into rough stairs leading upwards. “Much better. I take my words back,” I said. “We may be able to scale the heights after all. Do you know the name of this forsaken place?”

“You come to the home of the Night King,” said the golem. “Master of the Dark Time, Ruler of the Night Creatures. The Night King appears when the last rays of the sun fade from the sky and disappears when the sun rises again the next morning.  He can be quite elusive and difficult to find.”

“Well, we found him together, you and I, so I wonder if it really is so difficult to do after all,” I said. “Is he a kind ruler, this Night King?”

“Depends on his mood,” replied the golem. “The powers with ties to the moon are notoriously moody.  But don’t tell him I said so.”

I laughed at his blunt honesty.  “I will tell no one,” I said. “But I will write it down in my waking world. I hope that’s acceptable.”

“Matters not to me,” the golem said. “It is the Night King’s unbridled wrath you should fear. He can form warriors out of mist and dreams which enter your mind and haunt you into madness.”

“Dream can do that too,” I said, wiping the sweat from my forehead as I continued up the stairs. “This isn’t such a power to be feared when a member of The Light Congress can counter it.”

“Your Dream is not like the Night King,” the golem said, deftly navigating a particularly tall stair. “The King of the Nighttime hours is a nightmare beyond imagining.”

“A nightmare, you say,” I said. “I think I’ve met a member of his family in another world, quite recently in fact.”

“Woe is us,” the golem said.

“No, woe is them,” I said. “If he comes at us, we’ll call the legion and defend ourselves like we always do.”

“Woe to all then,” the golem said and I didn’t have the heart to continue the thread of conversation.

By this time, my companion and I had reached the top of the clay stairs.  A forbidding tower loomed before us with its front drawbridge standing open, a yawning gateway into the further shadows of the night.  I took a deep breath of the cold night air, then my golem and I entered the Night King’s Tower.

The faint light of the moon was filtered through the ceiling in such a way that I could see through the mist and darkness around me, though without the moon’s help I would have been blind in such a shadowed place.  Depicted on the floor of this tower at the threshold of the entry gate, there was a large crescent moon surrounding a smaller golden sun.

“Look closely, Light Congress,” said the golem. “Behold the sigil of the Night King himself.”

“Please call me, Heidi,” I said, peering carefully at the floor. “This symbol is backwards according to the rules of Nature that I know. The sun is not outshone by the moon; the moon is outshone by the sun.”

“It is completely accurate in the highly symbolic language of the spirits of the nighttime hours,” the golem said. “All are held in the dark arms of the goddess of the sky, even the shadow-banishing sun of the desert worlds.”

“That makes sense, I suppose,” I said. “But where are the stars? They are celebrated as much as the sun and moon in the place where I come from.”

“The stars do not dare to shine their light here,” said the golem. “The Night King would claim them for his own in a heartbeat.”

“So he’s one of those ancient spirits of dominion and conquest,” I said with a sigh. “Why do we keep running into those guys?”

“Maybe you’re one of them,” the golem said. “Spirits are called towards their own in the Inner Worlds. Unstoppably, some might say.”

I burst into laughter and had to take a minute to compose myself in the entryway. “That’s one of the funniest things anyone has ever said to me,” I said, wiping a tear from my eye. “I can’t even rule my own shadow, let alone the worlds.”

“A common problem among the folk we were just discussing,” the golem said stiffly.

“I’ve offended you,” I said, falling to my knees beside the small golem. “I’m sorry. Sometimes I find things amusing that others mean seriously and the other way around. My apologies, golem.”

“Think nothing of it,” the golem said. “Let’s be on our way.”