Within Apprising Flesh

A majority of the remaining pages are coated in the same sludge, blocking whatever contents that it may hide. Scratching or attempting to remove the sludge does nothing.

Once again, she hears the distinctive cacophony of voices with every word she reads. Of men, women, and children all melded into an unholy din.


The first page after the gooped up muck is yet another complex formula. This one appeared to have three circles for Nothing, all linked towards the symbol for a human. A massive variety of symbols are linked about together beneath the human symbol, she'd be able to pick out: Flesh, gravity, weight.

"Nothing is Someone. If someone were us, the rock becomes mud and drowns us beneath the crust, 'till we fall below the impenetrable wool.


The next page actually links the same aforementioned symbol found in the last few pages; the pair of curved, sickle-like blades connected to a zig-zagged line. It is connected with the symbol for time; yet another very coveted symbol Thaumaturges world wide have always wanted to properly harness. The symbol for time is yet again, linked to the symbol of man.

"Love is but a fickle thing. It drives us to find what is real and unreal. If Anything were real, then the veil that hides the secrets to mortality would be cut, leaving everything to fall within our hands."


After this it's only a matter of journal entries.


Entry 1

"My dear Mai's condition only worsens as time goes on. At this rate, glass would make better bones than what she has now. Just today she tripped while trying to leave her seat, and that alone was enough to shatter her shin. Slippy has been taking as much care of Mai as she can while I conduct my research. Fortunately my findings have been a bit...fruitful, to say the least. Perhaps there is something in Nothing...if the law of causality is to apply, it wouldn't matter if Mai were to die. Or if everyone did, for that matter. Anything is the key.

"I think it's starting to get to me. The sound of...Nothing. It's starting to grow painful. The silence of it all is driving me crazy. I've decided to set up a music player in my room so that I can keep myself in touch while I conduct my research."


Entry 2

"Bells are fastened to the ceiling now. The silence...it hurts. Numbs my mind. I swear I can hear voices when I don't have music or sound nearby..and the place that Slippy set up. I'm far too fearful to investigate what lies beyond that door, not to mention what hides within the shadows. The eyes."

Mais condition still worsens. I keep her in a bedroom on the first floor so that she doesn't have to go down stairs when she wants to go outside. Separated from my research lab, though. She must keep far, far away. If she were to find Nothing..."


Entry 3

"The earth has become mud. I am sinking into the pool of ignorance. My head pounds at my own ideas, yet I must find Anything. I keep her favourite music playing constantly. The bells. The bells toll and keep away the silence. Silence is bad, it lures him. Lures the warden."

"Who did he cry to? Why did the Architect -- the strongest and most mysterious of all the known Gods, beg for mercy?

Entry 4

"Big, large man in the chamber of Nothing. Dressed in black shroud, mane of boneless limbs and winking orbs. Left as soon as eyes peered upon him."

"Dislike research. It's causing a dissonance in the balance of things. Gods frown upon disarray. Mai is weak. Could hardly say my name."

Entry 5

"He's watching. Waiting. While nothing is happening, Nothing comes. Every time I look back during my research, I see his eyes staring through the crack of my doorway. Every time silence happens, I hear his footsteps."

"I heard a scraping sound from upstairs. Found a large scratch in the attic...is this who Sidd spoke of? Is this the reason why imbalance is so despised?"


Entry 6

"He grows closer. The winking orbs blink and stare. The boneless limbs reach for every second of silence. The Warden knows."

Entry 7
(Scribbled in a nearly illegible manner.)
mai.

forgive me please

goodbye mai i love you