Just a few seconds later he realized that there was nothing aside from the house, that he was nowhere, that he was standing, lying, atop nothing.
It was truly a weird and exotic feeling.
'It' was not soft, 'it' was not hard, it simply was, eternal and unchanging, and yet changing with each step he took after he pushed himself up so as to walk towards the house, a house with three stories, a beautifully made diagonal roof, a balcony that overlooked nothing, made of old, aged wood with some small cracks inside, the rest made of greyish bricks withered by an eternity of time, light of many varying colours, mostly yellowish tainted, shining from the inside, resembling a normal, rustical house, be it with an abnormal height that was slightly off-putting to look at.
There it was again.
The call had returned, the same call he had felt ever since entering this place, the same call that had led Cades into this forsaken realm and turned him into what he was now, the call he both detested and endlessly praised for it's greatness and it's actions.
Still, while he had unknowingly followed the call he had not died, as he had heeded the orders of the metaphysical being or simply the thing without an object to back it up, the sound that was not a sound, the feeling that did not originate from anything meaningful, he stayed alive and became more powerful, so in the end it should probably be his choice to step inside that house, or rather, as he now began to realize, that manor.
Nevertheless he walked along the nothingness and questioned this place.
Why was this where he would meet the great pillar?
That was the meaningful question he had to understand.
There didn't seem to be anything meaningful moving in this realm, there didn't seem to be anything to be understood aside from nothingness, and could that truly be understood, he didn't think so anyways...
They had always tried to tech him something, to symbolize something, that he had understood, after all, why else would they have wanted him to fight Vexxen if they had not intended for him to learn something from that battle, so what was he supposed to learn from this?
The only thing that was here was absence, and while that did sound interesting, he could not remember anything that had to do with absence, at least not in his recent memories, th-
"The great pillar of absence, Leyk."
Why did he just hear Cades?
He rashly turned around, looking for the man who had appeared within his dreams that he dreamed inside a dream from what he had been able to understand, but he did not find him.
It was clear where Cades was right now.
He was talking, that much had been achieved, but what was he truly trying to do?
...
He was trying to appear in a form, even if just as an illusion!
Yes, that had to be it!
But what had he meant with the great pillar of absence, why had he known that and Leyk had not, had he simply forgotten... no, he wouldn't have forgotten something like that... it had to be something else...
"It's instinctive knowledge, Leyk"
Instinctive wha-
"Listen."
Leyk listened.
"Instinctive knowledge is knowledge you know by instinct, knowledge in charge of instincts, such as the body's knowledge of how to put organs to do their jobs, of how to regorw parts of the body, of healing, or giving place for mana, of growing stronger, of breathing, and most of that knowledge is not available to the conscious mind but rather stored in experiences, experiences which I am basically made up of."
There was a long break as he wanted Leyk to listen more, tired of the constant rambling of thoughts that were, right now, doomed to go nowhere, just reaching the possible conclusion that he had to wait for Cades to continue in the end.
"In this case it is knowledge granted by meeting a part of the great pillars, knowledge needed fro survival, but quickly forgotten because it lost it's use in that specific moment, simply erased from your mind, as so many other things you have learned and forgotten, but in the end, I still have that information."
Leyk stuttered as he talked aloud for the first time in a short while.
"Then you could tell me everything you know about the great pillars?"
"I could, but I won't, there are reasons as to why the body refuses to truly remember such things consciously, it could very much result in you going insane if you find it all out at once, and especially through mere instinct, or your own subconscious, it is better to drop the truth onto you from time to time, like a wise old teacher character that nobody really likes."
For a moment Leyk felt stunned, not because of fear, but because of needless hate.
"I know how you feel, you and I are both in many ways consumed by the sin of greed and gluttony, but not for food or money, for knowledge and experience, but while you want it right now, I already have it, so I ask you to wait quietly as I slowly give it to you as to not distort everything else you've amassed."
No, Leyk refused to accept this, he was certain there had to be anot-
"If there was then we would have to find it out by experimenting, and with experiments a lot can go wrong, so shut up with the obsession and go inside, there may be some kind of knowledge here, but for now just go and meet the great pillar, they won't kill you, at least not right now, and if there is something to learn in here, they will be the better teacher rather than risking insanity to learn the knowledge conveyed only by pure instincts, I can guarantee that."
Leyk nodded, though he didn't realize it, and slowly started walking towards the goal he had worked towards all this time, a place he yearned to meet so very much, a place he both hated and desired more than anything else, the end of this journey.
Why did he love it in some way, that was unclear, though he felt the truth deep inside of him.
If this journey, this place, gave live to him, what would happen once he left both the place and the journey, would he fade away, would he become Cades once more, would he be stuck here...
So many questions, so few answers, but that was just how the world worked, and now, he would enter it, through the door, old and rustical, a crude depiction of a five-fingered hand atop it, the handle silver with some golden accents, striking with the rustical feeling of the old house.