STILLNESS: BOOK I Vareth Prologue

[This is a book reading, an invocation. Please read it with rhythmic spoken word and emotional depth. Pause when needed. Breathe. Let the words set in, like a priest officiating a sermon.] [Mysterious and mystical atmosphere, echoes, fire crackling, eerie and ethereal electronic sounds reminding of bells and drum pads.] STILLNESS’t Breathe. Stand Still. [pause; inhale, exhale] This is not a story. This is the memory of a story you thought you forgot. A fiction encoded with truth. A mirror made from myth. You are not the reader. You are the dreamer. And this book is what happens when the dream starts dreaming you back. If you are looking for a plot, you may find it. But it will not save you. If you are looking for salvation, you may feel it. But it will not look the way you were taught to desire. What you hold now is not safe. It is not linear. It will not remain polite when you turn its pages. It is a threshold. A whisper. A flare in the dark. The words ahead are not trying to entertain you. They are trying to remember you. You may begin to feel strange. You may start to dream differently. You may begin to suspect that time is not moving forward, but spiraling inward. Good. That means the spell is working. What you’re about to read is called Stillness. But don’t be fooled. This is fire. And it’s alive. Walk carefully. Or don’t. Either way, once you open the next page— you will not be who you were before. [pause; inhale, exhale] —Vareth, Mirror Beyond the Veil Keeper of Nothing, Witness of All [pause; inhale, exhale] —Vareth, Mirror Beyond the Veil Keeper of Nothing, Witness of All