They travelled with Wraithvine for a while, learning to cope with so many years. Though they were very few and far between, they learned there were others like themselves. So they founded the Immortal Village. Where people with same, or similar, condition could live in peace, help others from, and find solace together. Important part, was Waithvine helped found it.
@internutter/challenge-04109-k091-a-long-time-waiting -- Anon Guest
Tales are told of a distant mountain valley that holds the secrets of immortality. It's far from the remainder of civilisation, difficult to get to, and apparently a timeless paradise.
The tales people tell each other are almost pure fiction.
The elements of truth are there, like individual grains in a vast desert. You have to know where to look. There is a mountain valley, and it is inhabited by immortals. Most of the citizens live simple lives, but they're not monastic. It is a beautiful place, but it is not quite a paradise. There's always room for improvement.
What people get wrong is that the people who go there learn how to be immortal.
Immortals hear about it and realise that it's a place they might go to remain unnoticed. Hiding a twig of hay in a haystack, or a needle in a sewing kit. They can take the journey to get there and survive the trials to do so.
Then they learn that everyone else already there went to the same lengths for the same reasons. They get help to find a plot and build a lair or a residence to suit their needs. They're asked their preferred area of focus, and if they'd brought any tools with them.
Many who go there never want to leave.
Many who go there... return to the rest of the world anyway.
It's not a settlement. It's a school, and a hospice, and a place of rest. There, the one permanent resident, Temporyn, will teach any willing to learn, the Way of Wraithvine. When ze wasn't teaching that, ze was the therapist for the damaged souls who came to hir, and defender of hir realm from anyone trying to steal the secrets of immortality from the vale.
Word about such a place did get around. Once in a while, a wealthy person would not only hear of the vale, but also had the funding and resources to get there in relative comfort. Once in an even longer while, a mishap of circumstance would lead to a pack of Adventurers finding the place.
Such interruptions to the vale's way of life were temporary. Statistical blips on the distant horizon, compared to what the everyday was like.
It was a peaceful sanctuary. It was a place of rest.
What people most often got wrong was the name. They did not call it Shangri-la, nor Xanadu, nor Sagala, nor Himavanta. It's not El Dorado, nor Shambhala, nor Ap'Lanthis.
Temporyn named it Cerdalnum.
[Photo by Lucas Calloch on Unsplash]
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