Object 1729: The Holder of the Call

To begin, find a place of violent strife. It may be a war, or a battle, or a one-sided massacre, but it should preferably last a while since I'll be off when it ends.

If you can't find one, either you're not looking hard or far enough, or interesting times are definitely in your future and all our stories will soon come to an end. Find it, and reach it, and look for its center; not necessarily in a geographical sense. Head to the place of greatest violence and suffering, the most prominent point of this madness. And whether it's a vast ceremonial building of a culture devoted to visceral sacrifices filled with the prisoners and captives, or simply an open pit in the middle of nowhere filled with the remnants of a hundred lives, you may mark it by the corpses and the suffering of those still living.

Find that place, enter it through whatever means necessary, and join that group in the torments they are passing through on that earthly plane. Confess falsely, demean their ideals, whatever it takes, lose to those inflicting the harm, and suffer. If you do not presently hold an Object, then your quest has prematurely ended before it begins; at the least, you may die without the stains on your conscience that being a Seeker inevitably entails. If you do possess an Object, keep it close to you but do not use it. And when you suspect or feel death is near, whisper (or imagine whispering, if speaking is no longer an option), "I suffer of choice, that I may meet you."

You may get it wrong, in that you've selected a conflict I have no part or interest in. The following does not apply to you. You may get it wrong, in which case you've missed the center of the suffering by a fair distance. The follow does not apply to you. The ends of a Seeker may be determined by the paths they've chosen, and the choices they've made, but at the least, you do not need to consider my trials. But if you've got it all right, then you will awake, as though from a nightmare, in a dwelling somewhere close by to where you met your (temporary) end.

I will be there: I will have dispensed with the formalities, for meeting me is the easiest part of the entire affair. Be surprised, fearful, or utterly nonchalant at what appearance I choose to take; that matters not to me. I shall give you a minute to rest after your waking, and will gesture for you to follow me out of the dwelling. Follow quickly, for I will be very impatient at your disturbance. And bring whatever trinket or Objects you have chosen to bring along.

I will attack you. This I make clear now, for the determination to suffer and risk all is inadequate for my Object. If I attack you before you make your own strike, or have prepared your own defenses, you WILL DIE. And you shall find yourself in the hell I have taken you from, experiencing the same tortures but without the prospect of hope. If you fail to attack violently enough or defend yourself with adequate resilience, the same applies to you. Do one, or both, and live beyond a minute, and I may stop to offer you a task.

It may be simple, or complicated, or both. It might be the work of a minute, or of a dozen years of painstaking work, or something in between. But it will set things in motion for the next Seeker who comes, and it may well leave you with a mention in the annals of history, for whatever that is worth.

And when you are done, I will find you, at the epicenter of what you have wrought. You will know the question, which you will ask even as you already have the answer. And I will grant you a device for speaking to others, once a grand trumpet, now a mere phone the size of a hand. For you will know that there are always people who will answer a call to violence, and you will have proven that you have been one to make it.

The trumpet is Object 1729 of 2538. When they come together, it will call out, and those who would fight HIM will rip themselves asunder.