“Damn, this is tasty,” Jayson said.
“Told ya.”
They’d brought Jayson and his dog back to their camp. Gwil knelt on the ground, scratching Argo’s neck while the dog licked his nose.
Argo was a spaniel of some sort—shaggy brown fur speckled with white, floppy ears, a big, curious nose, and the sweetest black eyes. The dog stood at about knee-height.
“I’ve been scared to touch any of the food here,” Jayson said. “On account of it being over two centuries old. But I guess this Zippy’s has got legs.”
Jayson wore a knee-length yellow rain jacket, and a matching brimmed hat. He had pale skin and red hair—the normal orange kind, not like Cort’s—that fell to his shoulders and a trimmed beard. He looked to be in his thirties.
“It’s been a long time since I saw such a healthy dog,” Cort said. “His fur is so nice and shiny.”
Jayson beamed. “Yup. He’s my best buddy.”
“Should we give some ketchup to Argo?” Gwil asked. The dog tilted his head at the sound of his name.
“Mm, nah. I think it’s too spicy for him,” Jayson said, reaching out to give Argo’s head a pat.
“Ohoho, what a nice dog,” Gwil said as Argo flipped over so Gwil would scratch his pink belly.
“So, what are y’all doing here?” Jayson asked.
“Resting up and passing through,” Cort said, finishing off a tube of ketchup. Argo moved to Cort and started licking his fingers, trying to get at the ztuff.
“I’m glad you guys are cool,” Jayson said. His cheeks went a touch red. “I’ve been watching you, and I was worried at first. Y’all snuck up on me, coming out of nowhere. It freaked me out that you weren’t obscuring your Nirva. Just flaunting it all willy-nilly. Usually only the scariest folks’ll do that.”
“Eh?” Gwil said, looking up.
“You’re Hallowed, Jayson?” Cort asked.
“Erm.” The man looked confused as he nodded. Cort smacked Gwil on the back of the head.
“How come he could sense you, but you couldn’t sense him, Gwil?”
“I dunno how to…” As Gwil spoke, he squinted at Jayson. The man’s yellow jacket glowed with a radiant golden aura.
“Ah! You’re a virgin Hallow?” Jayson asked, grinning. “That’s scary. I didn’t realize… Your Nirva is very… vibrant. How’ve you made out so far? Y’all looked pretty battered when ya showed up.”
“It’s good,” Gwil said, scratching the back of his neck. “It’s only been like a week. I dunno how to do anything, though. Not on purpose, at least. You can see other Hallows? And hide yourself from them?”
Jayson nodded. “It’s been a few years for me.”
Gwil gaped. “Could you show me some stuff?”
“Sure. If Argo trusts ya, then I do too.”
“Do you live here, Jayson?” Cort asked.
“Temporarily.” He took his hat off and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’ve been on a sort of quest since I became Hallowed. And I think I’m near the end.”
“Oo, what kinda quest?” Gwil asked.
“I’ve been searching for some magic or something that would let Argo live forever. I’m following a good lead. I’m close.”
“Oh no!” Gwil said. “Is he sick? We’ll help.”
“No, no. He’s fine. But he’s six years old…” Jayson grimaced and shook his head. “They just don’t live long enough. It’s not fair. I dunno if animals go to the Hells or not… But either way, I couldn’t stand it. I will make Argo immortal, no matter what I have to do.”
“That’s cool!” Gwil said. “I hope you do it.”
“Aye, good luck,” Cort said.
“Thanks. So, I’m guessing y’all don’t know about the storms? On account of the fact that you’ve been sleeping outside.”
Gwil and Cort shook their heads.
“Yeah, you’ve been lucky. Of course, I would’ve come out and warned you if it came down to it. But tonight’s the night. There’ll be a nasty storm.”
Cort pointed toward the storm wall. “It won’t stay trapped in there?”
Jayson shook his head. “Roughly every three days, it bursts, and we get a bad storm out here. But right afterwards, that’s the best time to cross.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Gwil looked up from nuzzling Argo. “Cort, what about-”
Cort cut him off. “How long does it take to cross? We’re not ready to leave yet.”
Jayson put his hat back on his head. “On foot, with a good pace, no stops besides a quick nap… I reckon you can make it in two days.”
“Alright,” Cort said, nodding.
“You wanna give yourself as much time as possible, though,” Jayson said, leaning forward. “The conditions are always bad inside, but it’s vicious when it swells to the peak. If you can afford to, wait for the next storm. That place is full of madness—you don’t wanna cut it too close.”
“Shit, thanks for letting us know,” Cort said. “You saved us.”
“Sure,” Jayson said. “Either way, you need shelter for tonight, yeah? Come stay at my spot. I’ve been sleeping in a cellar at the other end of the ruins.”
“Thank you, thank you,” Gwil said as he fought to keep Argo’s snout out of his mouth.
“We’ve still got some time, right?” Cort said, looking up at the sky as he stood. “How ‘bout I cook us some food?” He nodded at Jayson. “It’s the least I can do.”
“Ooh! Ketchup with turkey,” Gwil said.
“Much appreciated,” Jayson said. “In the meantime, I’ll show you some tricks, Gwil?”
“Ooh!”
***
“Let’s see…” Jayson said, pacing back and forth. “We don’t have enough time to get into the meat. And I’m no expert, certainly not qualified to teach, so forgive me. But I can at least give you some things to chew on.”
They stood facing each other in a clearing that was boxed in by a few ruined buildings. The rain fell in sheets. Jayson’s raincoat flapped in the wind like a loose sail.
“Do you sometimes see traces of Nirva, like everywhere?” Jayson asked.
“Yeah, I’ve had that a few times,” Gwil said, raising his voice above the wind. “Like blurry rainbow lines cutting through the air.”
“Right,” Jayson said. “So, detecting others and obscuring yourself. These two techniques are intimately connected. And it’s all in the eyes.
“The way I was taught, obscuring yourself is called Nyx. And sensing others is called Mir.
“Nyx is simpler, so we’ll start there. If I can at least get you on the right track before we part ways, we’ll call it a win. Um, I guess what you should do first is try to get into that state where you can see the Nirva everywhere. It took days for me to learn to do that on demand, so don’t feel bad if-”
“I see it,” Gwil said. He’d surged Nirva into his eyes the same way he sent it to other parts—with a reflex similar to making yourself pee with a different part of your body.
The ethereal veil flashed into existence. The change was as drastic as turning to the next page in a book. Countless threads, like so many running rivers, flickered through spectrums of color.
The veil sheathed everything—every blade of grass, every stone and speck of dirt, each of the thousands of little bugs crawling through this muddy field. Even the air was full of threads, like an impossible carpet as big as the World and as tall as the sky.
Despite this, Gwil could still see the mundane plane of the World just the same. His eyes showed him both things at once, as if this type of vision was a separate thing that existed in a different part of his brain.
The swirling colors drifted across an infinite canvas. There was so much. Most things possessed a steadiness, their changing patterns followed a cadence akin to breathing.
The threads that comprised plants shimmered from green to yellow to brown to black. The mud changed more slowly and had even less variance—brown to red to fiery orange. And all the bugs, just tiny dots shifting between white and black.
Jayson and Argo both glowed with bright gold auras.
“Oh, uh, okay,” Jayson said. “Well then…”
Gwil didn’t hear him. He’d looked up at the sky and found it breathtakingly oppressive. Pitch blackness smothered the World. Within that darkness, rotten red-black Yalda’blood, churning like a sea, forming bizarre shapes.
The voices, which until now had been whispering more quietly than the wind, swelled into blood-curdling screams.
Gwil looked back down and saw everything—except Argo—drenched with that sickly hue. A deeper veil, beneath the prismatic one. Yalda’blood bled from Jayson’s heart. It flooded the earth; it choked the critters and poisoned the vegetation.
Nausea struck. Gwil bent over and blinked away that madness. Jayson had appeared beside him and was patting Gwil’s back while Argo whined.
“You see that gross shit, too?” Gwil rasped. “The Yalda’blood.”
“Yes,” Jayson said. “You looked too deeply. It’s my fault. I should’ve warned you. That is a cruel truth, best ignored.”
“And the voices?” Gwil asked, catching his breath.
Jayson nodded. “You need to be careful not to… not to delve. That’s how my teacher described it to me.” He licked his lips. “I saw you there. I’ve never seen Nirva like that. And my teacher was strong.”
“What is that stuff, though?” Gwil said. His mouth was dry. “It’s so wrong. Everything is full of poison. And the voices—agony. Everything is drowning in agony.”
“I know,” Jayson said. He sat down on the ground and tugged at Gwil’s sleeve to get him to do the same. “It is suffering—you have the right of it. I can’t help wondering about it too, even if we’re not supposed to. It’s dangerous.
“But it’s like all the suffering in the World is filling the sky. A curse that everyone bears, and we Hallows are meant to witness it. That’s what I’ve gathered.”
Argo wormed his way into Gwil’s lap and gave him a slobbery lick on the cheek, then he squeezed himself between Gwil and Jayson and sat down.
Gwil took a tube of ketchup from his pocket and squirted some into his mouth. He passed the tube to Jayson.
“My teacher let some things slip, and he’s a man who’s seen a lot of shit. He said something like… All the gods and demons that were born during the Apocalypse—they’re at war, or something like it. Our World is caught in the middle. Everything’s gone to shit and we’re just… limping on, I guess.”
Gwil laughed. “What a big mess. Stupid Apocalypse. Buncha shithead gods.”
Jayson took his hat off and crumpled it in his hands. “I’m sorry. I was foolish to think I could teach you.”
Gwil waved him off. “No, it’s my fault. But it’s no big deal. I just won’t do that again. Out of sight, out of mind.”
Gwil got to his feet and held out his hand to pull Jayson up. “I still want you to show me as much as you can. Hey, was your teacher’s name Skuld?”
“No. I don’t know any Skuld. My teacher’s…” Jayson shook his head. “Yeah, I’m down to keep going if you are.”
“Cool. Hey, what’s your Invoke? I can shrink, but sometimes I get stuck, so I don’t wanna do it right now.”
“Oh wow,” Jayson said. “Uh, I can breathe fire.”
Gwil’s jaw dropped. “Whaaaat? That's so cool! Show me, show me.”
Jayson laughed and waved his hands. “It sounds a lot cooler than it is.”
“Who cares?” Gwil said. “C’mon, do it.”
Jayson cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and started blowing out as if failing at whistling. There was a puff of smoke, then a few sparks evolved into a steady stream of fire. He stopped to inhale more and then blew again.
This time, the flames blossomed out. Jayson aimed at the ground. The grass smoldered and smoked, but the dampness kept it from fully catching on fire.
Jayson blushed while coughing. “S-see, it’s not very strong. I’m still working on it, though, and I’ve been getting better.”
Argo raised his leg and pissed on the blackened patch of grass.
Gwil grabbed Jayson's shoulders. “That is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!”