FIREKEEPER
[[BEGIN]].
{(set: $firelook to 0)
(set: $bedroomlook to 0)
(set: $drinkwater to 0)
(set: $jug to "empty")
(set: $dagger to "no")
(set: $painting to "no")
(set: $cityvisit to 0)
(set: $approachbed to 0)}On the darkest, longest night of the year, there is no moon.
The stars are barely visible and their radiance is weak.
On the winter solstice, the fire is gone from the (link-reveal: "sky")[.
It's dark. No moon. No stars. Just [[you->2]]].
{(set:$loop to 0)
(set:$acceptance to 0)
}You are a child of the Sun. Everyone is, but you have always held that love and knowledge close. The Sun's gifts are bountiful, and require only small sacrifice in return. You have given what you can for the Sun. You, Firekeeper, would give [[anything->3]].Firekeeper, so much is asked of you. Tend the flames. Let them burn you. Firekeeper, tend the flames. Let them (link: "burn you")[become you.
Firekeeper, the flames of the Sun are everywhere. If you can find them, keep them [[safe->4]]].{(set: $fire to 10)}The fire is (if: $fire is 10)[at its [[highest->5]]].
When the Sun goes down on the shortest day of the year, it goes down fast. In your mountain, overlooking the city below with its busy, forgetful denizens swarming through the gathering dark, you are alone except for the crackle of the flames and the dance of shadows against the stone walls. And the shadows do dance: your fire, which is everyone's fire, is not patient tonight. It is growing, growing. The bonfire that is birthed in your cold stone hearth tonight, just as the Sun vanishes, does not keep [[still->6]].The solstice is always the hardest night for you. Tonight, you know, will be no different. The townspeople, far below, are careless and fey; you do not need to see their faces to see the glow in their eyes, reflecting the light from their torches, lanterns, and candle stubs. You can hear the harsh murmur of their lives as they go on. You can see the pinpoints of orange light.
But the dusky haze remaining from the Sun's passage is already fading. The fire is at its (link: "highest")[highest, but without action, it will not be for [[long->7]]].{(if:$loop is 0)[You run through what you know, at the beginning of the longest night of the year.]
(else-if:$loop is 1)[You wake up, and it is the beginning of the solstice.]}
You are in the icy temple of the Sun, which has just set behind your mountain. The sacred flame, now a bonfire, must be tended to. You are the Firekeeper, child of the Sun, and you keep it burning through the solstice. (if:$loop is 1)[You have failed at this task once before.]
The sacred flame awaits. [[How will you feed it?->8]]The fire has [[died.->7]]
(set: $loop to $loop + 1)You consider your options, learned from years past(if:$loop is 1)[and from the previous night, or the night ahead, however one might classify a memory of the future].
[[Feed the flame with what you have on hand.->9b]]
[[Venture into the city below in search of fuel.->9a]]
(if:$acceptance is 0)[[[Do as you have often dreamed of but never done: let the fire die.->9c]]]Tap this passage, then the pencil icon to edit it.Tap this passage, then the pencil icon to edit it.You are tired, after all. You're tired of the Sun. Being its chosen, its host and its child and its loyal Firekeeper, cannot last forever. You've spent dozens of years in your temple, and each one passes with no change to the fire. Yours is one that, except on the solstice, cannot be put out.
Your face is the same, too. When the fire dances, it shows no mark of those years. Alone in the temple, your tower and your cage, you are ready to be [[ashes->10c]].{(set: $acceptance to 1)}The night passes quickly, as far as you can tell: the fire has no fuel and you are tired, tired, tired.
The flames flicker up and down, but each time they reach slightly less high. You watch them. You cannot look away.
Eventually, the fire is nothing but coals. They glow raw and red. You watch them too, as they become orange, yellow, pale charred blue. You watch them. You no longer have the strength to look [[away.->GAME OVER]](if: $loop is 0)[Breathe out, and open your [[eyes->a]].] (if: $loop is 1)[You wake up. You were not expecting to wake up. You do not know what you were expecting, but not [[this->a]].](if: $loop>1)[You wake up, again. You have been here [[before->a]].]The fire before you burns with the strength of the Sun. It is consuming in its circular pit.
You know the flame cannot die. You cannot [[let it->b]].Your surroundings are dark and alive with the motion of shadows. The fire crackles, and somewhere distant, water runs.
[[Look around?->c2]]
[[Leave the cave?->c1]]You exit the cave. Outside, where you rarely venture, is beautiful: the Sun has just passed behind the farthest mountain, leaving the sky cool in its wake. Many, many carved stone steps, once crisp from the work of stonemasons and now rounded with the flow of water and time, lead down and down. In places, they have been worn away entirely, replaced by rockslides or overgrowth.
Below, a city glows like a coal in the cupped palm of the valley surrounding it. You, high on the mountainside at the entrance to your temple and home, can see the whole of it. It is far, though, and there is not much [[time->i]].
The cave where you stand is barren. Four curving walls, a high ceiling, and of course the fire before you. The Sun, which you can just see from the archway in front, is disappearing behind the horizon, and behind you another archway leads into the dark.
[[Go deeper into the cave?->d2]](if: $firelook is 0)[
[[Investigate the fire?->d2b]]]
[[Exit into the night?->c1]](if: $bedroomlook is 0)[You take the archway that leads deeper into the cave, and the sound of running water grows louder. ]There is a bed, a small chest, and a spring bubbling in a bricked-up corner, forming a pool of crystalline water. It's (if:$bedroomlook is 1)[still ]dark; the only light comes from the next room with its fire.(if:$bedroomlook is 1)[ Just as it always was, just as it will always be.]
(if: $approachbed is < 2)[
[[Approach the bed?->e2]]]
[[Investigate the spring?->e1]]
[[Open the chest?->e3]]
[[Turn back?->c2]]{(set: $firelook to 1)}You approach the huge fire in the center of the cave. It moves sinuously, casting light on the perfect ring of stones encircling it, but producing no smoke. The stones, you see, are each intricately carved: names, over and over, and words, and the Sun. Always the Sun.
[[Step back->c2]].(if:$approachbed is 0)[This bed was once ornately carved, but the passage of time and the brush of constant use has worn its intricacy away. The covers are folded so neatly that they might give the impression of disuse, if not for the translucence of the cloth, thinned and softened through constant wear. The mattress is almost flat, an indentation in it in the shape of your body. You sleep on the left side, curled up to the wall.](if:$approachbed is 1)[You stare at this, the vista you have seen so many times: your bed, with its indentation from your body. You rose from this bed just this morning with the Sun.
For the first time this year, you know you will not return to it until the Sun rises again.]
[[Go back.->d2]]
{(set: $bedroomlook to 1)
(set: $approachbed to it + 1)}(if: $jug is "empty")[The spring is icy cold and perfectly clear. You dip your hand into it, reaching for the bottom, but the distortion of the water has tricked you: it is deeper than it appears. Beside it, there is a wide basin chiseled into the stone, and in that basin is a matching stone jug.](if: $jug is "full")[The full jug sits on the lip of the spring's outer wall. A few drops of water cling to its sides.]
(if: $jug is "empty")[
[[Fill the jug?->f1]]]
[[Step back?->d2]]
{(set: $bedroomlook to 1)}The chest holds the only things in the room that might be construed as personal effects. There are seven changes of clothes, all identical to each other but not to what you are wearing. You are dressed in a finer, thicker material, deep red and shining. The clothes in the chest are, however, also yours. You dig deeper.
Hidden beneath them: a faded painting at the bottom. (if: $dagger is "no")[A sheathed ceremonial dagger.](if: $dagger is "yes")[ You have already taken your weapon from here, but the painting sits where you left it last.](if: $painting is "yes")[ You have spent your yearly time with the portrait and the memories it holds, but it still calls to you.] Small, heavy, dark with age. (if: $painting is "yes")[And, beyond anything in this room, beautiful.]
(if: $dagger is "no")[
[[Collect the dagger?->f2]]](if:$painting is "no")[
[[Inspect the painting?->f3]]]
[[[Go back?->d2]]]
{
(set: $bedroomlook to 1)}{(if: $drinkwater is 0)[You fill it. The jug, already carved from heavy stone, is even heavier when filled, but you lift it easily. Clear drops trail down the sides. It is shockingly cold.]
(if: $drinkwater is 1)[With the taste of the water still clinging to your lips, you contemplate the jug once more. It is a deep vessel, and you have drained very little of its contents.]}
[[Leave the jug?->d2]](if: $drinkwater is 0)[
[[Drink the water?->g1]]]
[[Bring the jug into the main room?->g2]]
{(set: $jug to "full")}You drink. It sits in your stomach, and a chill radiates through you. It is refreshing but unneeded.
[[Go back.->f1]]
{(set: $drinkwater to 1)}You carry the jug in one hand into the first room. Your careful hands prevent the water from spilling. You stop before the fire, and put the jug down.
[[Leave the water and then the cave.->c1]]
[[Or pour the water onto the fire?->h1]]You pick up the jug.
(link: "Pour the water onto the fire?")[Your hands shake, and you grip the jug tightly.
(link: "Pour the water onto the fire?")[Your hands struggle to move, but they are inching toward the flames.
(link: "Pour the water onto the fire.")[You pour the water onto the fire. The fire hisses, vanishes, goes out. You [[fall.->fail]]]]][[The fire has died.->BEGIN]]{(set: $loop to $loop + 1)(set:$jug to "empty")
(set: $dagger to "no")(set: $drinkwater to 0)(set: $painting to "no")}The blade itself is weighty and dull with disuse, long and curved and wicked. The sheath might have been pliable and smooth once, but it is now stiff with the passage of time. The hilt, however, fits perfectly into your palm, and the pommel glitters in the light of the distant fire. It's a red stone, semitranslucent, in the shape of the Sun.
You sheathe the dagger and strap it to your hip. It settles there like it never left.
[[Go back.->e3]]
{(set:$dagger to "yes")}The painting is not very large, but it is clearly wrought with love. It shows a young woman's face. She is dark-eyed, long-haired, and in the moment captured she looks as though she is just about to laugh. You hold it delicately, and stare into her eyes. They are as liquid and beautiful as the flame in the next room. Most days, you do not allow yourself to revisit this memory. Today, though, you do. It is the only time you can.
[[Put the painting back.->e3]]
{(set: $painting to "yes")}You [[descend->i2]].The stairs are both numerous and treacherous, but eventually, you arrive in the city below. (if:$cityvisit is 0)[It's different from how you remember: it sprawls less and climbs more, buildings with white roofs and narrow countenances staring down with glassy window eyes.](if:$cityvisit is 1)[The smooth orange and pink sides of the buildings stretch upward. You have to squint to superimpose the city of the past over its current shape.]
(if:$cityvisit is 0)[It smells different, too. The rank sewage stench that had pervaded it the last time you were here is replaced with the choking odor of industry.](if:$cityvisit is 1)[The new smell, more familiar now, drifts through the air. Something burns.] It smells like flowers, like human bodies and most of all like [[smoke->i3]].
{(set:$cityvisit to 1)}The first person you encounter as you pad barefoot through the cobbled streets is a (link: "woman.")[woman. Not someone you know, of course: you have not known anyone for approaching a century but yourself. However, there's a certain familiarity in her face. Her features are similar to your own: she has the proud nose, the dark eyes, and the long hair that you see reflected in the water of your basin every day.
When she sees you, she gives you an expression that you do not see on your own placid face. She looks at you with confusion and some contempt.
She asks you, "Are you lost?"
Of course you [[are.->j1]]]You nod silently. You do not trust your own voice to form words, much less ones this woman would understand: her accent is different from the one you remember.
She looks at you with confusion, still, but now something resembling (link: "pity.")[pity.
"Where are you trying to [[go?->k1]]"]That makes you pause: it's not a yes or no question, and you don't know what to say to her. Do you
tell the [[truth->l1]]?
Or do you
[[lie->k2]]?It's a bad idea, telling this stranger, but you feel compelled to speak to her anyway: for the first time in a year, your voice will not echo off stone walls. It will be heard.
You say "I've come to for fuel for my heart's fire. I do not know where I shall go to find it."
The woman's mouth wrinkles with an emotion you cannot identify. "The coal mines are always [[open.->m1]]""I'm lost," you say, which is already a lie. You know this city, even if you have not walked it for a hundred years. "I was looking for my lover, and I...can't find her." This part, technically, is true.
The woman frowns, sympathetic even to your vagueness. "What's your lover's name? I am Tala. I might be able to find her for [[you.->l3]]You nod and turn away, but your mind hums with this new knowledge. Coal mines.
In the century before this one, it had been lumber. Wood from the trees of the orchard, sometimes accompanied scented oils or even animal fat on some special solstices. Early on in this century, when the offerings began to dry up, the lumber became cheaper and the oils thinner. In the past waning decade, it was whatever flammable goods the few remaining believers had to offer.
Last year, the sole believer had been sick. His body withered. His soul, though, was still so strong. His faith had not wavered. When he had nothing to give, he gave (link: "himself.")[himself.
He had flooded the pit where the Sun itself guttered with his own heart's fire. You buried him as best you could, [[after.->n1]]]Double-click this passage to edit it.