Past Writing: Ekphrasis: Space

Date Written: January 2023

Painting: Zirconium

Space

He chased it, the stars and planets passing like rainbows in the endless space. He was getting closer. They continued through space, turning and zooming through the universe. A few moments later, he felt it slow down. It chose to stop next to a blue planet with a nebula glowing behind it. There was nothing particular about this place, except for a feeling of recognition. As he neared he could feel its presence: a tight space of immense knowledge and power, but he could see nothing but emptiness and the light of distant stars. 

The scope before him tightened, sculpting itself into a dark ball—an eye. It was closed at first and took an enormous amount of time to open, as if opening a single eye took all its effort. The eye turned to look upon him, and he found himself staring into an abyss of blankness. The eye studied him, and he studied the eye.

Suddenly, a hand closed on his mind, twisting it, crushing it. His wards did not last long against it. He fought it, mind against mind. Years of training and discipline protected his mind as he used all his power against it. But its mind was unlike anything he’d experienced. In every way he pushed back, it deflected. In its power, he found reflections of himself in its mirrors, glass shards, and crystals.

He was losing, little by little, surrounded by the forever shadows of himself. He was choking on despair and helplessness.

“Breathe in, breathe out,” he whispered. He said his own name again and again, and he found himself in a state of peace. All was still around him. The shards and crystals hadn’t moved, but he noticed now they projected memories of the past, each singular moment a shard: 

His dead sister speaking to him five years earlier—his master’s final words before he left, the people he had killed through his bloody past—a poem, one whose origins had slipped from the reaches of his mind: 

Emptiness blooms in a lonely night.

What knowledge, what blight, 

Comes upon your deepest fears?

Break you what you hold most dear,

For truth exists but in the deepest height,

And freedom in the eternal heart.

He knew what he had to do. As he exited the place of peace the emotions flooded back into him. He couldn’t stand for much longer. He spent all his remaining power on a single point ahead of him towards a mirror: the single mirror with the poem on it and the power broke it. Suddenly the pressure was released, and there was light, darkness, then nothing. 

Nothing… nothing…