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Ａｂｏｕｔ
Name: Glass (Agni Smith)
Title: Keeper of Volcanoes
Gender: Male
Current Age: 31
The Making of Glass:
Heat surrounded him. It burned, but it didn't hurt. That was the most surprising thing of all. His past life was scalded away by the churning rock. His knowledge remained, but the context was scoured away. His family, friends, coworkers... those memories became flecks within the living volcano. He gave himself up to the burning fires, as they too claimed a guardian like the seas and the wind. He swam up through the molten rock and collapsed on the side of the caldera...
Agnia stared at the charts. He needed a solid proposal to get the funding he needed to study the mysterious pacific volcano. An island that showed no sign of being volcanically active, and was in every way extinct, erupted into a fiery display. No government wanted to go near the thing, but he felt drawn to it. If a volcano that extinct by every account could suddenly erupt, then what other dangers lurked in the mountains?
He was a PhD candidate, and this excursion would risk it all. But if it paid off... it would vault him into the field early. He looked at the topography map, and marked out several potential ways to reach the rim of the caldera. A knock at the door shook him out of his stupor. Dr. Lee looked at him with stern eyes. They did nothing to hide her concern. She was his mentor, and had every reason to be concerned. He had become obsessed with finding out the secrets of the eruption.
There was some minor evidence that there had been a deepening fault running through the island. It may have gone deep enough to reawaken the old chambers and have the magma rush towards the surface with catastrophic results. The island was still considered a danger, and earthquakes were constant. The only reason she was supporting him was because she too believed it was this fault that caused the volcano to be revived. Instruments needed to be placed on the the island, for the safety of everyone. All the while, Agni Stared at his charts.
He gasped for breath as he shakily got to his feet. There was a nagging feeling that there should be someone else on the rim. He didn't know who. He blindly stumbled and sought shelter in a lava tube he knew to be nearby. Glass collapsed into a heap on the smooth floor. Voices echoed up the tube, calling the name of someone who no longer existed. At least, that's what he thought. The name was foreign to him. The waking giant whispered into his mind to ignore these trespassers. He listened to her.
The helicopter's blades buzzed through the sound silencing headphones. They did nothing to keep him from feeling their beat in his chest. It was like another heartbeat. He focused on that instead of just how high up they were. He risked cracking open an eye, and saw the other helicopter full of their equipment. Boats were not allowed near the island, due to the earthquakes loosening up dangerous rubble. Preliminary measurements had recorded temperatures exceeding 500 C in the surrounding waters. Their equipment would be vital for monitoring the angry beast.
He couldn't help but think of the volcano as a living thing. It didn't like them crawling all over its sides, poking it, and prodding it. Why else was she throwing up steam and lava? He sighed, then nearly vomited as the helicopter dipped. He shook his head to clear it, and in an attempt to clear the strange thoughts in his head. He couldn't let his judgement be clouded. Agni's resolve hardened like the basalt below them. He looked towards the steaming giant. He refused to let it's draw sway him again.
He wasn't the first one she had claimed, but he was the first to survive the process. However, she didn't realize that her carefully laid plan would soon be in shambles. She had created him, not knowing what he would become. He was never hers to control. The curse laid upon her would stay. As the Ice Kings had said, she would never roam free above the land again, and was doomed to be part of it. until its inevitable end.
The ground crunched underneath them, and heat wafted up from the processes below and the sun above. He and Dr. Lee put on their protective gear. He'd had enough practice where he could get his on in the time it took her to get hers on. He double checked the seams, and then they headed off to their first point, the caldera. They were setting up a series of cameras so they could observe the volcanoes internal activities visually. The cameras were expensive because they were prototypes. Able to store, transmit, and protect, data, they were quickly becoming a sought after piece of equipment by many volcanologists. This was the final test for them. The caldera was a volatile place. If they could function there, then they'd be approved for full manufacturing.
They spaced them out according to the directions given to them by the engineers, then they scrambled back down the side of the volcano. They wouldn't know until they were back at camp if they connected up properly to the computers. The cheering echoed across the twisted rock. It seemed like it had worked. They spent the rest of the day setting up sensors, and marking out spots for seismograph sensors in the areas least likely to be hit by lava. That night he dreamed of swirling rock, in all sorts of shades of yellow, orange, and red.
The giant kept whispering horrible things. She was trying to convince him to do things he would never do. He may not know himself, but even those things he would not do. He looked on with a longing he didn't understand as the creatures left the waking giant. As soon as he was sure they were gone over the water, he came out of the lava tube. He admired it for its beauty in passing. His feet led him to places that held a twinge of familiarity, but every time he tried to remember, it turned to ashes. His fingers knew how to use the equipment. A vague sort of feeling told him he should've needed protection this close to active lava flows, but the heat didn't bother him anymore. He could slip into it like the fish in the ocean. That was something else that nagged at him. All these words that he knew, yet didn't know. The giant seethed in his mind, and he ignored her. He still had work to do, after all.
A loud beeping woke everyone up in the camp. The volcano was becoming restless after days of slumber. The figured they had a seven hour window to get all the equipment they could off the island. Agni and Dr. Lee trekked up the mountain in their gear to retrieve the cameras. The data they held was priceless, and not all of it had finished transmitting. They had their monitors volume turned on full, as the rumbling grew louder with each passing minute. The cameras were easily retrieved, for the most part. The shaking has wedged one into a widening crack that was spewing hot gases. Dr. Lee told him to leave, and he'd come to wish he had listened to her. Instead he kept going for it, and then the mountain coughed. He felt himself sliding down, down, down.
He could hear his mentor's voice over the headset crackling with static as she screamed his name. He hoped that he had fallen down the slope, but in his heart he knew he had not. Agni had a moment to stare at the beauty of the lava from this view before he plunged in...
The memories vaulted into his head like eager dogs. They were both familiar, and foreign. He was not the person who had fallen into the living volcano's heart. The changed viscet stood thinking on the cliff, looking out to the sea. He would need a new name to call himself. He looked down and saw a piece of obsidian, volcanic glass. Glass? Glass. She grumbled in his head that it was too simple of a name for one such as he. He ignored her, still. She had made him, but he wasn't hers. She roared in his head, and he caught glimpses of her thoughts; she wanted to use him to free herself from her prison. He used that knowledge to jab back, and gain a foothold. It became his pick as he chipped away at her thoughts to learn the truth.
She was a demon of death and destruction. A vile creature who sought only to make more of what she loved. She was cruel. A harbinger of death. She was Ignis Mortem, and she was furious that a pair of whelps form the ends of the earth had found a way to imprison her. She let him know her fury, and he was unfazed. He would never tame this being, but he could keep her from harming others. She sent a lava flow at him to knock him into the sea. Petty demon, he thought. He managed to cling to the cliff as the lava poured over him and tried to push him down to the water. He laughed at her efforts to kill him. She should've known that her plan was doomed to failure.
Glass climbed up the cliff when she grew tired of her tantrum. He looked out at the sea again, and saw a very large sea stack. Maybe he could make himself a shelter out there? Somewhere away from the powerful and childish demon, but close enough to intervene if needed. The fire that now burned within him made itself known. Heat poured from his body like a furnace. Curious, he picked up a rock. Within minutes it went from a solid, to a liquid oozing between his fingers and dripping onto the ground below. The fire burned hotter, sharper, clearer. His purpose grew clear, he was the Keeper of Volcanoes, and he had a job to do. The mountain behind him steamed in quiet thought.
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