The Atlantean Compensator

At his age, he"s a rising writer and is working on a PHD in english literature, yet he doesnt feel that it is going to fulfil and complete his purpose of life; that is forever changing to begin with.

Make no mistake, Herald"s last problem is defining his self ident.i.ty, peace is written upon his heart and soul. He just really doesn"t like this world as it is currently constructed, which explains his soul tie with Art and pretty much all its forms. Herald isn"t the typical organized man though, two consecutive days hasn"t been alike since awhile for him now, but none would be like the upcoming days he is going to live.

At 9 in the morning, of a chilly thursday in the 21of march 2024. He wakes up a bit uneasy, which isn"t normal as he is always able to have good sleep no matter the situation, pretty much the superpowers his friends would frequently tell him. He took a notice of this uneasy feeling and for a brief moment, his mind flashed a picture on the back of his eyes. A man like no other, showered with light and wisdom, holding his heart on his left hand, and his brain on the other. floating arround on the darkest furthest part of outer s.p.a.ce Herald could ever imagine. Then suddenly he lost the picture and could never recreate it back in his mind.

Herald sat, a bit amazed but nontheless terrified of what he had seen for a moment that felt like eternity, when it was in fact just a second and half.

Herald is a person who is fairly cultivated and has a sharp drive for knowing the unknown, he felt like if he had more time to a.n.a.lyze the picture he wouldve recognized the meaning behind it, for Herald, nothing is meaningless, and the more meaningless it is for everybody the more he"s intrigued by it. Surprisingly in this case, he did not give it much attention and continued his morning rituals. Which basically is doing anything while Buckethead ( Herald"s favorite artist of all time ) songs are on as loud as possible. He thinks he"s doing all his neighboors a favor by doing that.

Herald *talking on the phone* : "Hey"

Muruem : "Hey cheri"

Herald: "How is the queen doing today?"

Muruem: "As my king would like me to be."

Herald: "Alright we"re still meeting today right?"

Muruem: "About that, i wanted to tell you that i am not free today, something important came up in my new work and i have to attend."

Herald: "Oh really?"

Muruem: "Yeah, i am sorry.."

Herald: "No it"s fine, as i always tell you things like this are rather fortunate."

Muruem: "Oh please dont get started"

Herald *laughs a little*: "Alright, take good care of yourself, love you"

Muruem: "I love you too."

*Herald hangs up*, "ugh okey now it"s a free day, are we going to do anything or nothing?

(he asks and then answers himself) Emm, a bit of both would be good. Let"s see, i have to complete that book, i gotta read that one, the girl i met last week asked me to draw her for money, all the infinite buckethead songs i gotta play on guitar... d.a.m.n, i guess i"ll learn this gloomy one called the Pit."

Herald knows that this song is inspired by the short story Edgar Allan Poe wrote " The Pit and The Pendulum" the story of a prisonner trapped in a cell with a pit in its middle, and above him a picture of Father time, the anthropomorphized deciption of time with a razor sharp pendulum hanging on from it, designed to kill him with each minute pa.s.sing, the pendulum gets down. But for some reason again he did not recognize it, maybe due to the unlimite amount of songs buckethead has it is hard to track each one of them. But this will have its tail on him...

*At night*

Herald: "that wasn"t a bad day for someone who stayed behind his door."

Herald never sleeps without reading some parts of his weird collection of books, books that are mostly about history, religion, anthropology and psychology, and even at his age he still has dozens of manga files stored in his laptop, just like he did 10 years ago.

(Herald says excitingly): "oh yeah, i remember that i stopped in a very intriguing part of this book, called The Emerald Tablet"

And immediatly...

Herald stops for a moment, without moving an inch from his body.

Suddenly, the picture he had in his mind re-appeared again. Like a maniac he openned the file and started reading every line he could as if he understood them all. In what it seemed for him 5 minutes (that was actually 2 hours) he finished the book as he was halting like a thirsty dog left in the desert. Without any alert, he lost consciousness.

Herald (in what again seems even a further place than the previous one he had dreamt about, says unwillingly): *I, Thoth, the Atlantean,

give of my wisdom,

give of my knowledge,

give of my power.

Freely I give to the children of men.

Give that they, too, might have wisdom

to shine through the world from the veil of the night.*

(The ent.i.ty he had dreamt about last night has appeared again, this time more clearly, more shiny, and more scary. Herald could not move, he felt the realm of time crushing him to no avail)

Herald: "A..are you him? THOTH !!!!"

Thoth: "Those Are My Words. For That You Shall Be Given, Power

Power, Is Wisdom

They That Are Guided Go Not Astray,"

(Herald, as soon as he heard these words, lost all his fear and broke free from the realm of time

Floated higher and higher with Thoth, and spent in what seemed to him 5 years, learning from the wisdom of the Atlantean, he learnt that he himself is an Atlantean descendant, that there isn"t just him whom wisdom and power was bestowed upon. In their last day herald had finally the courage to ask Thoth.)

Herald: "My master, what is it that made you choose me?"

Thoth: "Your Eyes, My Son. Before i Set You Back To Your illusion That Is Humanly Called Reality, You Are To Be Bestowed Great Powers, Powers That Little Men Have Had Since My Gandfather Was Sent To This Land. Powers That Was Pa.s.sed To Me, THE THRICE GREAT!!! From My SEVEN LORDS. Down To The SEVEN HEAVENS. But Be Thou Not Proud ! For It is a Burden For The Uncapable.

Herald: "No.. Wait!! I still haven"t...."

Herald wakes up again, it is 9 at the morning. This time he recalls every detail of the dream,

"What was that ? I cannot be a prophet, that is long done with..."

"Was it my subconscious putting all the words ive read into images? that doesn"t explain everything either, it cannot produce a complete image with a straight chronological order. it doesn"t explain fainting after completing the book..."

"I know the right guy to reach, the one who suggested me the book in the first place."

Herald jumps up quickly from his bed and heads towards the bathroom, washed his face quickly without even feeling it, the recent events had him not paying any interest to his mirror image; but at the last glance ...

Herald: WOOOAAAAAAHHHH !!!!!?????!?!?!? WHA...WHAT IS THIS ON MY FOREHEAD ???

It appears as if Herald grew out of nowhere a third eye in the midst of his big forehead.

An eye that looks just like of those ancient Egyptian dieties, it sure looked ugly on him...

Herald: "What the f.u.c.k is going on? Does this have any relation with my dream??"

"Wait, is this what he was talking about when saying i am to be bestowed great powers?"

"No, this can"t be real, allthough i would like it to be but this is beyond my logical superst.i.tious levels..."

"Did i start hallucinating?"

(Herald with no second thoughts picks his phone to talk to his woman, who"s not legally his woman but he sees her nothing short of that, as it is a source of calmness and tranquility.)

Muruem: "Hey baby"

Herald: "Hey Muruem, i need to see you"

Muruem: "Whats wrong? Your voice doesnt sound good.."

Herald: "I will tell you when you"ll arrive."

Muruem: "But honey i have a very obligatory meeting in my work today, can you wait until the night?"

Herald: "Didnt you have that yesterday?"

Muruem: "Yesterday? we were together yesterday.."

Herald: ...

Muruem: "Are you okey Herald? i guess you"re falling sick i"ll call a doctor for you now."

Herald: "No no.. i"ll go see him myself..."

(Herald hangs up the phone without saying any further words..)

Muruem"says in a worried low tone): "What is going on... i dont feel good about this."

Saya(a dear friend of Muruem): "What is it?"

Muruem: "Nothing, just i had a weird call with Herald.."

Saya(smiling): "Aren"t you two always weird?"

(Muruem stayed silent.)

(Herald on the other hand, has no clue what is the meaning of this)

Herald: "This... IMPOSSIBLE!!! How is it still 21 march !!??"

"Was everything about yesterday a dream..??"

(Herald, being the smart person he is recalled learning the buckethead song and immediatly picked up his guitaro play it, and then...)

Herald: ".... I dont know the notes!!"

(He let out a terrifying scream, that of Fortunado when burried deep in the catacombs by Montrésor. Suddenly, he becomes silent...

He picks up himself and with a look so uninderstandable he whispers.)

"I gotta meet him.."

The moment he opened the door.

Him, is standing...

Herald: G...Guiado, i...was a..bou..t to...

Giuado: I know, Atlantean brother.