(Scars do not appear to be cause of death –shock ... - Bad Request

Most were eroded with age, their features unrecognizable. Each one I
passed became more familiar though, until I recognized in some of the wear
in the stone was intentional, to reflect a mass of scars and wounds.
Moreover, as I walked through the dim gallery, the line of them began to
curve. They were all pointing to the center of the chamber.
I looked up at them, each one now with a set of scars similar to the one I
had, with faces cut and twisted and puckered like my own. One of them
stood staring into the center of the chamber with a disdainful expression.
Another stood with arms crossed, glaring straight ahead. One statue of me
held a hand over its heart, mouth open as if making a speech. One clutched
its right shoulder, as if wounded. It was a forest of lives and incarnations.
The center of the chamber beckoned me in with a green, spectral light.
There, above a massive bowl of webbed metal, floated a huge crystal green
as a sea. The rhythm of its pulses resembled a heartbeat, but slow and sickly
like that of a dying man. Light from the crystal touched the stones like
fingers, each ray of casting a glow on the ruined faces of the statues
surrounding it.
I reached toward the gem slowly. Was this what I came here for? Was this
the prison for my soul and my mortality?
An explosion sounded at the far end of the chamber, and darkness fled as
distant braziers flared like stars. Screeching laughter rang through the room
as a figure wreathed in flames barreled toward me, his aura charring the
pillars and statues he passed until they cracked.
"I will burn you to assssh, then ssset fire to the Planesss!" Ignus cackled.
My jaw dropped. This was impossible! I'd left him to be crushed in the
Modron Maze!
No- there was no time for guilt or shame. Ignus swept his arms together,
and sheets of fire surrounded his body. Another gesture, and bolts of flame
sped towards me. Fire and will were one and the same to Ignus, and where
others would handle the Art like pulling reins on a bucking steed, Ignus had
tamed the flames to his desires long ago.
I didn't have the strength to fight him anymore. The castings streaked
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