The Validity Tree

Emlie (M-lie) was a lost soul; searching... in it's solitude it had found many things and many "people", discovered interesting abilities that some would say weren't possible. Then it found Sollin.

 It had been on this earth for a mound of time only measurable by the space in which occupied the lasting impression of a lifetime. Maybe even longer perhaps; it couldn't put the pieces of why together but it always knew the how, or at least assumed that the answer was how. Emlie, a stranded and disturbed soul who had been drifting so long that all identity was lost; the only thing that remained was the name branded to it upon entering this laborious and desolate existence.

 

 Years had past and Emlie still came back; back to the same spot, the same instance of time where it all felt normal and every fiber felt as if this shell of a specter could once again resume all life that had been lived before, but Emlie knew that was never to be, it knew that having no life at all was never going to be life enough. Regardless of how much time had passed and how much it had endured it still remembered the feeling of being alive, the warmth that so many living take for granted, but Emlie was here, stuck in this time eluding existence never to be whole again; never to feel anything again but the trials of being a non-existing specter.

 Throughout its time it had learned a very wide variety of helpfully tricks and trades to be used at will on anything it desired, and of course this came in handy, and of course it made being this way worth while for some small and minuet period of time but none the less it was something, and Emlie held on to that something, became the best at what that something was and made sure to never lose it.

 Rosaria. A form of spectral ability that took most ghostly figures multiple lifetimes to learn, as it had taken Emlie. This technique allowed for the three key abilities of an entity to be preformed: Time, Interaction, and Pseudo-self realization. Time is exactly as it sounds; being able to take advantage of, and control time in all of it's fascist. The one downfall to time is, you are not able to interact with it in your favor, you cannot take time and redo your own death, it is impossible. Interaction, you may interact with the living world, only if you can: A. Find a portal to said world, and B. Have enough strength to keep yourself there for the duration of time in which you needed. Lastly we have, Pseudo-self realization. Pseudo-self realization happens when a wave of consciousness comes over a fully aware specter, they then go on to descend into what is assumed to be the ground and are never seen again. This event is theorized by many who don't know what lies beyond the great beyond, many are skeptical and very much more afraid of what might happen then they ever were before death, but more and more specters are starting to self realize; the term pseudo is used because the ones who created the term believed it to be the falsity of realizing ones true existence and falling into a pit of "despair" where things are no better (maybe even worse) than they are in this limbo of an existence.

 Emlie traveled throughout this limbo gaining knowledge learning and practicing with countless others who had obtained the power that it so greatly wanted, and after years and years of traversing and conversing things were now getting closer to the way where they felt right. Emlie felt as if this limbo could be something that could almost make it happy after a realization that things couldn't be the same, and that there was nothing it could do about it of course; so in order to fulfill its realization it chose to deal with the hand it was given.

 Emlie had went out of order, where most specters learned OF pseudo-self realization first and moved on to actually learn the other two, Emlie did not. Her first encounter was with a specter named Zumbina who had learned the secrets of interaction; even though, she had only existed within this place for half of a lifetime, which was an impressive feat, and allowed her to still retain her old identity. It took Emlie a lifetime and a half to fully become successful at interaction and half a lifetime longer to actually master finding the portals, at the end of its training it was able to successfully interact and find the living world and their portals this; although, being positive only made Emlie hungry for more.

Its next trial was learning time. Time; although, seeming simple for most specters was one of the hardest lessons Emlie had to come to learn; to successfully allude and experience time it took Emlie 17 entire life spans to learn and obtain the understanding of time and the way it was constructed; it took another 10 to truly master it.  Emlie went through many different time wise constructors to gain its mastery and each one self-realized before Emlies' ability came to flourish. For the longest span of time Emlie roamed and searched, trekking the vast and endless stretch of gray area that was Limbo until it came across a long lost soul, one that for many a century was believed to have self-realized long ago. But no, here it was drifting; almost as if it were waiting for something.

 The environment, yet normally cold and desolate with a tinge of gray bleak had lightened, almost as if this being was the key to it all. The specter's gaze shifted, but not like it turned to look at Emlie but almost as if the world turned with Emlie under it instead. The specters name had been passed around through time; changed and twisted so much so that now no one knew what its name really was, it was a mystery to this existence; as much a mystery as self-actualization was. But Emlie being in the core of this beings presence, the cusp of its reality; it knew exactly what name had been bestowed upon this ancient drifter; Sollin. The name made itself apparent through the veil of the drifters soul; it showed Emlie all of the truth that had come to pass and that would come to flourish. Emlie strayed, frozen in a paradox of knowledge; seeing that this ancient soul hadn't uttered a word and was delivering the vast aptitude of knowledge that it had searched for for the duration of its existence; here it was. The knowledge, almost overwhelming in it's own power gave way to secrets kept and memories lost (or at least what was thought of as memories) things that very few of the figures that survived in this Limbo experienced. And then something hit Emlie; something pungent and brutal that had been swimming through all this knowledge filling it with life and breath, Emlie could feel the aura even through all the knowledge that had expanded its existence and filled the contours of the mind of which had still existed long after death. This overwhelming thing engulfed Emlie, swallowed it whole into each and every pillar corner of its existence Emlie felt something that over all of these years it had never felt before, warmth... burning, stale, sizzling warmth; burning to the core as if lava had erupted in Emlie's soul, and caused its entire existence in the ether to conflagrate. Emlie looked around and noticed that the entire Limbo was set ablaze it was all burning to nothingness, all that it had known lifetime after lifetime was coming to an end; it thought to scream but couldn't, it thought to run but couldn't all was ending. Emlie then discovered that it itself was on fire as well and its existence in this world would soon come to an end and all the hard work it had exuded towards reaching some goal that it hadn't really known what it was for, was now coming to an abrupt halt. Sollin had shifted the world once again so that it wasn't existing in front of Emlie, so once again Emlie was alone, burning to nothing. The fire, so unnatural and dastardly licked its way through Emlie's soul.

 Where am I...

 

 I arose in darkness, engulfed by the desolate pungency that was solitude, I knew not where I was or what had happened to me; all I knew was that I was blind, and curious to everything around me especially the feeling of my own body. I felt it all; my chest, my hair, even my voice deep and cold in its tone. I felt around for any possible clue to where I was or something that could aid in my loss of sight and I felt something so peculiar, rough and rigid yet filled with so much life and existence; I closed my eyes just to gain a better sense of knowledge.

 Progressively I knew that I was here, inside something that would save me from my damnation. "Sir! Be still, be quiet, and you will live long" it said and I did exactly as it commanded.

 The gift of life is such a heavy burden... 

 

Author's Note

The world "It" or "Its" refers to the character Emlie for the reason that there is no gender associated with this character.