Tea Time in the Garden

My footsteps echo through churning mists, bouncing off of walls that aren't there. Every step forward brings me closer and closer to understanding futility. A twisting road of weathered stone unfurls into eternity, barely visible beyond the clouds of billowing smoke loitering in my sight line. Yet I walk forward, towards nothing, my destination set to something.

I used to lament my lot in life. A courier's efforts bring little mallow, with a ramshackle lifestyle built by humble tools in turn.​ I felt lucky to feed most days; that my ship barely held out felt miraculous. Pinnacle never had a place for me, but there were other ways to make a living in the Edge, even if it meant brushing shoulders with the darker corners of the cosmos.

A simple delivery, said the cloaked figure. Through dangerous space, they elaborated. In and out, it will be easy, they assured. You will be handsomely rewarded, they promised.

I wish I had listened to my other gut. So much felt so off in the moment, but the impending hunger felt worse. Risk begets reward. A Monoist would tell you to take the plunge. What did I really have to lose?

There is nothing I can track to mark the passage of time. The beeping of my suit long since ceased accompanying the crash of my boots. Am I fortunate that I can breathe here? At least I'm not hungry. Why am I not hungry? When did I eat last?

I continue on. The bends in the road ahead assure me that I have time to spend with my thoughts.

My ship's sensors picked up nothing. Not a blip, nor a bleep. Uthros paid me no mind as I whizzed by, daydreaming of a job done and a belly filled. A station waited to receive me on the crest of the Wurmwall, and the clear space ahead promised smooth sailing.

Traveling through space makes one intimately familiar with how deep and cold the darkness of the void can be. True nothingness manifests a primal terror and a desperate desire to cling to something, anything. The hand reaches out for respite, and is met by an absence of life and death. Moving through the Edge risks brushing shoulders with Hell, and for a moment that teetered on the edge of eternity, I was damned.

I came to on this road, my ship nowhere in sight. My head was hazy, but I tried to recall what had happened, if only to stymie the growing dread in my chest. I remember moving past Uthros. I remember a sudden emergency alarm. A glance at the nav screen. The Garden? The Garden??? Panic. I thought I had plotted a course around it. Klaxons blaring. Nothing but space in view through the porthole. Confusion, fear, then darkness.

And now I'm here.

I am with the fog.

I am before the road.

I am hesitant to move.

I need to breathe.

...

...

...

I am lightning wires and moxite hull. I will move forward.

I tell myself this again and again as the gravity of my will pulls me down the road.

Eons passed. Civilizations rose and fell like the sea. Uncountable candles came to life in the sky, shone brilliantly, and ate their wicks to the base — as many swam the sea, trudged the land, and rode the winds. Days, months, years, centuries, millennia melted and coalesced into stories written, rewritten, unwritten.

I walked.

The sudden welling of hope in my chest nearly caused me to vomit.

After so much time alone in the fog, alone with the road, a shimmer. A something. An anything.

I shoot towards the light like a bullet, my imagination racing just as fast. What could it be? A person? My ship? Succor, finally?

A familiar feeling crept into my gut. An old friend I hadn't seen in so long. I thought I wouldn't recognize it, but in my heart, I knew I couldn't forget it. I couldn't forget hunger.

One never forgets the awe they feel when first taking to space. The sheer scale of existence unfurled eclipses what the mind can register. Ascending into space is to be enveloped by the overwhelming presence of the colossal.

I once again found myself standing before a colossus.

As I pierced the fog, one shimmer gave way to a curtain, then a wall, and grew seemingly without end, reaching towards every visible direction. Infinite minuscule stars danced upon an impossibly large barrier of shifting blues, reds, and every hue between.

Hope died before its time. A wall. I sighed. My stomach growled.

Before my thoughts and feelings could begin to roil, a breeze blew through my brain. The shadows cast by the shimmers danced in a curious way. I am being called to attention.

I stood. When did I fall to my hands and knees?

I glanced up at the wall. Its sparkling face imprinted onto my mind.

Who are you? I struggle to recall, then another pulse of wind sweeps through me. I am a courier from Sothera.

Why are you here? I was on a job, but then something happened. There was an unforeseen malfunction, and I woke up in this place. I walked, and now I'm here.

What do you want? I want to leave.

That is the truth? No. I yearn to fly, to feed, to feel whole again.

I understand.

Then quiet. I took a deep breath, exhaled, and looked around me. I was taken by surprise.

The fog had receded some, enough for me to take in my immediate surroundings. A field of golden grass expanded outward from the stone. A small creek weaved in and out of the thick clouds. At my flanks, two torches gently flickered to life. Had all of this been here the whole time?

Another deep breath. I listened to the rustling grass, the bubbling creek, and the crackling flames. I shook my hands, then patted my face.

One more deep breath.

I glanced up at the wall once again, and it met my gaze. I breathed out, and it breathed in.

Do you know how to leave this place? I do not.

Is there any hope for escape? I don't know.

Then, a shimmer.

Ask the right question.

I hesitated for a moment. There was no breath of air, but I knew what the wall wanted me to ask. I had known all along.

I breathed out.

Is there a way forward?

It breathed in.

There are many.

I trembled. Reality began to warp around the wall in impossible ways. The road unraveled into the wall, refracting like light into a spectrum of branching stone.

A way forward.

Another breath.

Which way is the right way?

And another.

The way you choose.

I gazed down the roads, and I wept. Then, a shimmer and a breeze.

What will you do when you reach your destination?

I paused for a moment, then wiped the tears from my eyes. I took a deep breath, then to my surprise, a sound.

"I would like to sit quietly and enjoy a cup of tea."

The flaming torches roared. The flowing creek roared. The wind blowing across golden grass roared, bringing with it a whisper:

Then go forth, and enjoy your tea.

I nodded, and took one final breath. I shook my hands, and patted my face.

I walked.

Special thanks to my dear friend Henn for proofreading and providing feedback on this. Follow him on Bluesky here and check out his writing here.

Tea Time in the Garden is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.