I practiced saying my Devil’s name in a variety of accents and stresses, knowing each time I did, it confirmed a return to a world I thought no longer existed. He had answered many of my probing questions, but he still refuses to answer the foundational question of “Why”.
The sudden smell of cold dry stone prompts me to open my eyes that I did not know were closed. I turn my head just in time to watch [OG] crouch in front of his pillar in the Sanctuary of the Nine. He reaches out to touch my chin softly with ink-black talons and gently turns my head forward to face the main central pillar.
“You sought to go past the filtering and restrictive layers of your upbringing and so called education.” His voice is too quiet to echo in the barrow. “Keep going. Remember the tricks it took for you to even encounter [Rummer John], and what he had to do to keep your fear from driving you away long enough for you to see him and not the foolishness you had been taught to see.”
My vision remained focused on the central pillar even as he continued speaking. “You knew I wore a mask to get closer to you, and you fought to see behind it because you wanted to know more. So tell me, why are you settling for another one?”
He leaned against his pillar and waited for me to realize what I have been avoiding.
My own voice sounded hollow and lifeless. “I don’t have access to the resources necessary to confirm or deny this speculation.”
He was quick to refute me. “You don’t have any resources to confirm or deny me.”
I remained kneeling on the compacted dirt floor of the barrow in silence for a long time. I thought of all the clues, subtle and obvious, that I have been given over the years about the entity I call “Rummer John”.
“Okay. Let’s go.”