Brother Asterion’s Mask :

The young Asterion appeared one day in the middle of an endless desert, reduced to skin and bones, with his memory in tatters. He knew neither his origin, nor what absurd path had led him to that scorching ocean of pale dunes. There he was found by some pilgrims, guided by a gigantic warrior dragging a colossal censer, so disproportionate that it seemed to defy all logic.

During the nights, while the camp slept, Asterion watched the warrior. He saw him bend down toward his strange censer covered with old, threadbare rags, as if secret voices emanated from that object, voices only he could decipher. The warrior nodded gravely, murmuring answers in a language the boy couldn't understand.

The journey was cruel. Under the weight of the sun and the endless distance that offered no refuge, the pilgrims fell one after another, consumed by exhaustion. The warrior lifted them, carried them on his shoulders, trying to save them while the enormous censer continued its relentless drag across the sand. Despite everything, one by one they fell behind... until only the warrior and the young Asterion continued, whose frailty concealed a surprising resilience and will.

One day they entered a region of the desert where the wind roared like a rabid animal. The sand floated in the air, forming a dense, blinding fog. There, amidst the gusts, Asterion saw the rags wrapped around the censer tear off and fly away. Then he understood, horrified, that it was not a mere ritual object, and that beneath the rags lay an urn of crystal and gold, and inside it rested a mummified body, curled up like an ascetic who had waited centuries for the moment of awakening.

Before he could ask anything, a colossal, amorphous creature emerged from the storm. The warrior turned to Asterion and said in a grave voice, "This is where your apprenticeship will begin, brother".

The beast charged violently. Asterion could barely make out shapes through the windswept sand that stung his eyes. But he saw the warrior bring his ear close to the incense burner and begin that reverential whisper again. And then a ferocious, almost animalistic energy seemed to ignite within him. The warrior launched himself into battle with tremendous strength.

The fight was long and brutal. Warrior and creature were evenly matched, two exhausted titans refusing to fall. It was then that Asterion, wiping the sand from his face, decided to act. Unarmed and unprotected, he lunged at the creature. His small size allowed him to instinctively dodge the monstrous swipes, and his desperate attack distracted the beast just enough.

The warrior seized that moment. With a shout that echoed like thunder in the midst of a storm, he delivered the final blow. The creature collapsed, lifeless, sinking into the sand from which it had spawned.

The sandy mist began to dissipate. The silence of the desert returned, vast and absolute.

The warrior approached Asterion, placed a heavy hand on his shoulder, and said:

"He who rests within my weapon was my master. When your training is complete, you will wield a similar weapon... and I will sleep within it. Thus I will be able to guide you from the other side of sleep. Thus I will remain with you, always".