[Inaius] Memento Mori

MacSalterson

TNPer
Pronouns
They/Them
A Planet of the Kyaal Remnant

The planet itself had no name. No name that a species with more traditional methods of speech might recognize, at least. If a member of the Kyaal were asked, one might come to know it as "Where the Old Priest lives". It orbited an ancient star, a red dwarf that still clung to stellar life, emanating a dim warmth and light onto the singular planet of the system. The planet itself was mostly barren, but remained close enough to the star to retain some heat. Nevertheless, the atmosphere was thin, the nights freezing, and the days dark. By Kyaal standards, the planet was newly settled, only having seen three or so millennia of habitation. Its sole inhabitant was the aforementioned Old Priest, who had claimed the planet and built the fortress-complex in which they resided in solitude. Visitors were rare, solely composed of other Kyaal who passed by to pay their respects to the ancient one, or glean some information from them. And so the Old Priest passed the years in long stretches of meditative trances, bordering on hibernation or coma.

The Old Priest was dying. They had known this for some decades now, as they felt their senses slowing and consciousness weakening. When a member of the Kyaal dies, unless it be through violence, it is a slow process, neither dramatic nor painful, at least until perhaps their final moments. Despite this, the death of one is momentous - there are so few Kyaal left that whenever one dies, especially one as venerable as the Old Priest, it represents yet another irreparable blow to the species. Yet another final, metaphorical, nail in the coffin of their race, as it were. The Old Priest knew this, and so they shuddered into glacially slow psionic motion, reaching their many-tendriled consciousness into the supercomputer that was their fortress complex. In many ways, the exertion of this much effort hastened their demise, but the Old Priest sought to save what knowledge they had in some more eternal form. Months went by as this process continued, until, at last, the Old Priest's work was done. What they knew, their life memories, their experiments, their collected esoterica and apocrypha, all that they could manage to recall and instill into the memory banks of their fortress complex, was preserved. And with this final act, their consciousness, fading rapidly now, retreated for the first time in many decades back solely into the Old Priest. The Old Priest's senses collected into their biological body as they divorced themselves from the automata that protected and maintained the complex as well as the vast majority of the complex's computer system.

The Old Priest took in their surroundings, seeing perhaps more clearly now than they had in many years. Their chamber was, though relatively bare, possessed of a simple grace. It evoked, much like the ancient one who built it, an impossibly long life time for most other species in the sector to comprehend. A single tendril of their consciousness remained connected to the fortress complex's system, documenting the Old Priest's final moments. Ever the seeker of knowledge, the Old Priest wished to let those who came after know what their death was like. There was no regret in their mind, no shame, no fear of their final moment or what oblivion lay beyond it. Just a quiet and intense sadness. Then serene acceptance. Their consciousness disconnected from the fortress-complex. Then, finally, nothing.

The planet itself had no name. No name that a species with more traditional methods of speech might recognize, at least. But now, if a member of the Kyaal were asked, one might come to know it as "Where the Old Priest lived".



YOB - Marrow
 
Last edited:
Back
Top