Thena's face didn't betray whatever emotions she was feeling as she listened to Tio confess to his motives. It was as if she had already known the truth, had read it on his face the moment she saw him, but had needed to hear him say it out loud to confirm something. When he had finished talking she gave a little nod, as if to say that she understood where he was coming from, and then turned to the side to look at the icy cave around them.
"Some people fear being different, and some people fear being the same. Some people want a quiet life, and some people can't stand the thought. Some people crave power, and some wish for nothing more than to be rid of it." She whispered woefully, just as much to herself as to Tio. "It's these differences in hopes and dreams that make people so interesting. And who is to say which of them is right or wrong? Who is to say that a desire to change is any better or worse than a desire to stay exactly the same?" She looked back to Tio with a edge of steel in her gaze. "You have the heart of a true Seeker; one that yearns to unravel the mysteries of the world simply for the sake of knowledge, and for that I believe you are suitable to inherit the attunement spark. But a word to the wise Tio: never forget that the ability to learn about something does not give you the right to judge it. Transform into someone you can be proud of if that is what you feel you must do, but the moment you begin to consider other people's lives somehow inferior to your own you'll start to forget who you used to be. When that happens you'll become nothing less than a monster, and people like me will be there to put you down. Understand?"
Taken aback by the unexpected display of resolve, Tio only nodded dumbly in response. Ozbourne chuckled to himself at Tio's lame reaction. "Well I guess that settles matters. I'll go wait outside, give you two some space to work. Good luck Tio; this initiation isn't fatal, but I've heard that it hurts like hell."
With that the elderly man left, and when the sounds of his cackling faded away into nothing Tio knew that he and Thena were alone. Thena gestured for him to sit down with her, and once the two of them were sat cross-legged facing each other on the icy floor she gave him an encouraging smile.
"I'm going to begin the initiation now. In order to succeed you are going to need to listen, focus on picking up as much detail as you possibly can. Open your mind to the sound and it in turn will open your senses to the world."
Tio nodded to show that he understood, and Thena's smile grew just a little wider. Then she closed her eyes, took a deep breath...
And began to sing.
Perhaps it was the acoustic of the cave, but when Thena began to sing it sounded to Tio as if the sound came from all around him; like the cave was singing in harmony with her. Thena's voice was hauntingly beautiful, and the song she'd chosen: a slow, sad melody in a language Tio had never heard of before, complemented it perfectly. The music gripped his heartstrings, and the yludih belatedly realized that the first drops of tears were stinging his eyes.
It was then that his ears caught the sound of something particular in the song. It was a hairs breadth away from being silent and was as tricky to pick out from the rest of the sound as a lone flute in a thousand strong orchestra, but remembering his task Tio fought with every shred of concentration he could manage to catch it. It was absurdly difficult, but the harder he tried to hear it the clearer the noise became.
Then just as he thought he'd finally got it another new noise caught his attention, just as quiet as the first one had been. Concentrating harder than he'd done for years Tio split his focus to try and keep track of both the sounds, only for a third one to pop up.
Then a fourth. Then a fifth. Then ten. Then twenty. Each growing louder and louder by their own volition.
Panic grew in Tio's chest as he realized that the song was growing out of his control. The noise was starting to grate on his eardrums, but when he tried to cover them he found that the noise didn't diminish in the slightest. The noise was inside his head! The beautiful cacophony was threatening to split his head apart, and he had no way to defend himself against it! It was going to deafen him!
Desperately he wracked his brain for a way to stop the noise. Should he run away? No the sound was throwing off his sense of balance; he'd never make it to safety in time! Then could he stop Thena from singing? Possibly, but since the music that was causing him distress was inside his mind he doubted that stopping the physical singing would do much.
Hold on! Wasn't he thinking about this the wrong way? Ozbourne had warned him that this was going to hurt, so clearly this part was supposed to be happening, and Thena had told him to open his mind. He needed to listen didn't he? So instead of trying to escape the sounds, perhaps he aught to try embracing them?
Removing his hands from his ears, Tio once again focused on listening to each excruciating detail of the cacophony. Every note jarred against his skull, like a knife being scraped across his scalp, and yet he continued to listen. The painful pressure built up and up, threatening to explode at any second.
And then, with an audible crack, it did.
To Tio it felt like the top of his skull had exploded into a thousand fragments, and he gasped in pain as if he were drowning. Sparks swam across his vision, temporarily blinding him, and all conscious thoughts were monetarily overwhelmed by the pain. For a few trills Tio lay deathly still, essentially brain dead to the world.
Once again Tio saw a room of grey stone, inhabited only by a twisted mass of bones. It was the same bone cocoon he'd seen in the visions he'd had during his previous two initiations: the one with a faint silhouette of a person inside, but this time it looked different. The outer shell was cracked and splintering, and black miasma was seeping out from within.
The figure inside the cocoon stirred, as if waking from a slumber, and raised a boney arm to gently touch the wall of its prison. A spider web of cracks grew where it had touched, and the cocoon began to rumble as a torrent of compressed miasma burst forth from within, threatening to shatter it from the inside.
"You can never escape me." A voice resounded, echoing Tio's voice with a growling undertone. "The end of your destiny is the beginning of mine. But rejoice, for in your legacy you will be granted that which you have wished for."
Finally freed from the pressure, the pain inibegan Tio's head began to ebb away and the yludih's self-awareness began to return. As it did he began to realize that Thena had stopped singing, but the sounds he'd heard in her song were still around him. They were still loud, but the noise no longer caused him pain anymore; it was as if the noise could flow freely through his ears instead of being damned up inside his head. His mind has been opened to the world.
There was also another feeling in his chest: a gentle thrumming, like a tuning fork, that resonated with the noises around him. Having been through two initiations before Tio recognized the sensation easily enough for what it was: a new spark. He was an attuner.
