Flash Fiction February 2024 Day 28: To Carry On The Story (Lucien)

 A/N: Flash Fic Feb 2024 is officially complete! I will possibly have an extra piece for Rare Disease Day up tomorrow, but this prompt is the final one from The Storytelling Collective list of prompts for the year. I really enjoyed this Tolkien inspired prompt list and I hope you enjoyed reading the results :)

Prompt: Don’t adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on the story.

Over the years I have often wondered if there will really truly be an end to things. While I have crossed from life into death a part of me still remains attached to the realm of the living, and as a result the adventures continue. In many ways it is a strange existence; stuck in the grey area between the eternal darkness of cold and enduring death, and the warmth and light of life. I have, as a result, begun to view the day to day like a continuous story or adventure of sorts. The characters may change, some may appear only for a short time, others may remain consistent for weeks, months, years, or even centuries whether by magic or simple genetics. Still I wonder if there will be a finite end one day, the turn of the last page. Don’t adventures ever have an end? I ponder the question late one night as I sit alone in the silent sanctuary. “I suppose not.” I find myself talking to myself aloud to cope with the silence while the rest of the sanctuary sleeps, as the dead like myself have no need for sleep. “Someone else always has to carry on the story.” That is something I know to be true, as I have seen it happen on more than one occasion. Where I failed Issy has managed to carry on, the Septim Empire has since fallen away and given way to a new dynasty, and most recently Anna has taken the mantle to be the hero of the times. The Third Era was a turbulent time, with the story being handed from hero to hero in relatively quick succession, and with seemingly never ending adventures. As we move further into the Fourth Era it makes me curious what adventures there are to be had in this current age, and who it will be that will next carry on the story. The world may come crashing down one day, but for now there are still pages left unwritten, the continuous tapestry of time must continue, and the story thus remains unfinished. That fact is oddly comforting, even for those who dwell among the dead.