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"Enduring Vision"
Dungeonmaster dreams.
Though his body is frozen in time his mind still wanders, as impotent as a spectre, through scenes of the past and present, with tantalising glimpses of the broken futures. The world of the Realm is spread out before him. He sees it all and can do nothing but watch.
Now the Realm is tilting out of balance as Venger’s power and influence grows. Dungeonmaster can see no way out.
He sees his prize Pupils scattered and dispirited; though this is the new way of the Realm and even his own messenger fares no better. All seems lost in too many futures.
The Ranger pines for his lost love, and faces ultimate failure as his friends slowly disappear.
The Barbarian, though young, knows he is alone, and knows he has few friends left to help him.
The Magician struggles against the Darkness inside him, the fight consuming all his strength, destined to break under the strain.
The Thief runs; called onwards by her own conscience to danger and regret and lost hope.
The Cavalier stands alone, deep in Venger’s Shadow, unable to see a way out now the Seer is dead.
And the Acrobat… Diana, the Child of Light… now it’s dark for Diana. Dungeonmaster can’t see her at all. She’s gone.
In the blink of an eye it will all change and for a moment the future fills his vision. Now he can see betrayal. He can feel fear. He can see the colossal emptiness of a broken soul left behind.
The picture pulls into sharp focus.
The Ranger watches with the stone-faced Barbarian as the Magician cries relentlessly over the discarded clothes of the Cavalier.
The Thief runs towards an injured boy, though legions of Orcs stand in her way, the plaintive bleating of the unicorn in her ears.
The Cavalier hovers at the brink of consciousness, a fate worse than death awaiting him at the hands of Venger’s Orcs.
And the Arch-Mage himself moves forward to a future that even he can neither anticipate nor comprehend.
Dungeonmaster can only wait, to see how the present unfolds.
But as he watches them all struggle, he senses something more. Figments of his imagination, maybe, but there is another face, an older face that hovers over the Realm. A face that Dungeonmaster had all but forgotten. A face he’d hoped never to see again.
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Fanfiction Masterlist
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