Gate to the Path of the Cenobite

"Excellent." said the priest.

"No, Mistress! You mustn't!" Mary gasped.

"Aye, although it chills my heart to do it, I have heard no other option, no other alternative to this gruesome task that now falls before me. If there is even the smallest chance that the Path of the Cenobite will show me how to defeat the... Shoggoth, then I must take it."

"Will you submit yourself?" the priest said, torchlight reflecting in his eyes.

"To you, sire?" Exotica said, shivering.

"Nay. To Eibon. For Eibon is naught but the glimmer of desire within us that seeks fresh knowledge regardless of the cost. Would you die to know the truth of the universe?"

"If it helped me save my father and the others, then yes." Exotica said.

"Then submit to Eibon, and open your eyes!"

"I submit."

"We shall see." the priest said. He then turned to his followers and spoke "The flame has been lit! Fire walks among us to guard against the eternal night! Prepare! Prepare the Path! Prepare the Path of the Cenobite!"

The followers replied with a chorus of ululating yelps and fled each one his own way. Soon none were to be seen anywhere.

"How is that preparing the path?" Exotica said dubiously. "It seems like they all just scattered randomly."

"Do you doubt? Does your heart lack faith? Or does the mind?" the priest glared. "Did you not submit to Eibon?"

"I have."

"Then accept his boundless curiousity. The Path may be near, or it may be far. It might not even exist at all. Does your soul not quiver and shake to comprehend these mad paradoxes?"

"Your words vex me, priest." Exotica said. "My concern is for this land, and its people. How can I grasp at vague conundrums when my father may be in torment somewhere within that nightmarish place?"

"You will have to submit." the priest said. "If you wish to survive. For once you embark on the Path of the Cenobite, there is no return."

"Can m'lady bring meals along?" Mary inquired. "And warmer clothing in case it is cold there? Oh, and perhaps a pony? You know... to ride on?"

The priest thought about this for a long time and then said...

1. "No, you fool!"
2. "Why actually, it is a splendid idea."
3. "Googooblyarghshnyarghwha?"
4. "Where am I?"

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