The fear energy skyrocketed and the kids began to fidget. A sense of crisis washed over him and he felt his mental state waver. Is it worth it? Their lives for these kids? Two Empyreans and a Nightweaver? Energy threatened to overload the Nightmare Seed even as he forced his Cleanse talent to refine it.

His hands shook. He’d never meet Sebastian again. His chest felt tight. Was his brother okay; is he in a Darktide too? His breathing hurried and his fists clenched as he stared down the street. The rumbling followed the horde of screams, a number that Silas knew they wouldn’t beat.

Three adults running on their own could maybe escape, but a group with over two dozen people, mostly kids? What would happen?

A deafening peal overwhelmed his hearing and caused his vision to go white. momentarily The deep reverberating chime of a bell sent him reeling. Never before had something been so loud.

Forcing himself to some semblance of clarity, he noticed that no one else seemed anywhere nearly as affected. The Director seemed mildly disoriented, but he relied on his cane to stand straight. The rest simply seemed uncomfortable.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” Glass spoke in a hushed, harsh tone as he guided the kids farther down the side road and into a relatively intact house. The Director grabbed Silas by the shoulder and directed him to follow as he came back to his senses. Silas could hear the horde slowly distancing themselves from the group.

The Bell drew them away.. Silas couldn’t remember many places in Ironside that had bells that size, let alone why one would be ringing. It sounds like it came from further down the main road. He followed the group up to the second floor while Glass’ scavenged what food he could from the kitchen.

No one here. Silas sighed internally, noting the absence of the original owners. The kids quickly got to cozying up on the few beds present while the two adults stood by the staircase. Silas took the chance to rest his mind and let the Nightmare Seed focus on refining the fear energy rather than drawing it in.

While it meant the kids would fully feel their fear again, he couldn’t really do much about it. The constant strain followed by the bell put his mind in a precarious state. He didn’t even want to believe he thought those things earlier.

“Your senses are enhanced?” The Director tapped his knee lightly with his cane, his gaze threatening to burrow into Silas’ eyes. “Is that from being a Nightweaver?”

Silas’ nodded, quickly giving a brief overview of what the Pathway was all about, purposely ignoring the dark look on the Director’s face. The concept of fear energy didn’t seem too foreign to the old Empyrean, but he was also known for knowing a weird array of things.

Silas could practically see the gears turning in the Director’s head, silently praying to the Sanguine Emperor that the man wouldn’t have a heart attack. “Where’d you get this information?”

‘Am I allowed to tell people about you?’

[At your own risk, yes]

‘Risk?’

[Not everyone will trust my existence]

Taking a deep breath, Silas gave a quick recount of the Wayfinders and the Ascension Lotus, even mentioning the need for missions and the shop feature. He mentioned that the Nightweaver Pathway was a reward for his first mission, not detailing anything about Erebus and the resulting interactions.

To finish it off he showed the Director the Lotus tattoo on the back of his hand, something the older gentleman knew wasn’t there when Silas visited for dinner. Silas believed he’d just look like a rambling madman otherwise.

A few moments of silence passed and the Director sighed, rubbing his temples as a flash of blood light lit his eyes. “You’re absolutely sure you’re in control?”

“Absolutely.”

“Can you prove it?

“Well.. yes? I can control the seed completely, and can even destroy it if I want. Look.” Silas motioned the Director over and approached the kids, noting Caisus had fallen asleep, his face twisted. He wasn’t sure if this would work.

Silas held both his palms in front of his chest and closed his eyes, sending his focus deep into his mind. He wrapped the intangible force around the Nightmare Seed and gently guided it out into the real world, same as before.

The Nightmare Seed was barely the size of his thumb, pale black and lined with glowing purple and blue veins. Its surface seemingly carved with scales reminiscent of a snake’s. The blue veins seemed even brighter than before, reminding him of his Innate Talent. With a deep breath, he slowly guided the Nightmare Seed towards Caisus.

Ignoring the fact that the Director was visibly struggling against interfering, the Seed merged with Caisus’ chest. The boy’s veins took on a dull purple blue hue as his expression eased, his sleep turning peaceful. Silas had a feeling what his nightmares were about.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Not wishing to continue the experiment much longer, he pulled the Nightmare back and returned it to his mind, the purple veins glowing even brighter than before. Silas suspected that harvesting nightmares was the real method of progression.

“See? Complete control. It can’t influence others negatively.” Silas added, conveniently omitting the ‘yet’ at the end. “It poses no danger.”

“Can you still become an Empyrean?”

“I’m.. unsure. Empyreans use blood energy but Nightweavers primarily focus on the soul as far as I can tell. They shouldn’t clash..?” Silas stated, unsure of his answer himself. The two Pathways appear entirely unrelated, one being the body and the other the soul.

The Director nodded, bouncing his cane against the floor with a rhythm. After a few seconds, he nodded again with vigour. “Good! When we reach the Estate, I’ll teach you my method then. We’ll see what happens then.”

“What if they clash-”

“What if they don’t? You said you’re a Wayfinder, yes? That means you find new paths forward. Can you imagine being both a Nightweaver and an Empyrean? Not to mention Isaac owes me a favour- he’ll make sure you survive.”

Seeing the struggle in the Director’s eyes, Silas acquiesced and sat down against the wall. He had a feeling that he still didn’t accept the Nightweaver identity, and this was the old man’s way of getting around it. It would all be okay in his mind if Silas was an Empyrean too. Silas groaned inwardly, looking up at the ceiling.

“Hah, I knew it! You’re gonna be an Empyrean!” Glass popped up from the stairway carrying a massive sack of food, a piece of bread stuffed into his mouth. His eyes practically shined in the candle light as he rushed up to Silas and spoke through his food. His voice was suddenly interrupted by a loud thud as the Director hit him over the head with his cane.

In the thirty minutes the party rested Silas took the chance to sift through what he knew about the outside situation. The Nine Stars went out one by one until only the Sun remained. Immediately afterwards what the Lotus called the Darktide washed over Ironside and most likely many other places in Ilnea.

Following which, the majority of people turned into mutants or were subsequently hunted by mutants. These mutants could be classed into several types. The Voiceless: long armed fast mutants that perceive based off of noise- their hearing is exceptionally poor beyond an unknown radius.

The Screecher, which Silas didn’t actually see much of beyond the vague shape behind a window. It acted as an alarm of some sort, its only purpose being to scream and disorient. He wasn’t sure what else it did.

Then there was the phenomena of the horde, the roadblock. Not to mention that the mutants that attacked just now had been lying in ambush, Silas believed some mutants had intelligence to some degree. Combined with the fact that they focus on human hearts, only eating the rest of the corpse for sustenance..

He shook his head and focused on the fight itself. His enhanced senses provided a faster reaction time and impeccable aim, but the bell afterwards proved that his senses can also be a weakness. He spent the short time left for rest focusing on how he could better control them with the use of his Nightmare Seed.

‘For the most part, it appears I just have to get used to it’ Silas rubbed his temples as the party got back on their feet and gathered their meagre things. Glass handed him five more low-quality bullets while the gun they were apparently meant for was missing.

Silas assumed the owner went down fighting.

They spent four more hours manoeuvring their way towards the Lower City through the Market District. They encountered two more roadblocks on the main street, forcing them onto side roads again. They ran into three more ambushes and traps, surviving only because the Director allowed himself to suffer injuries in exchange for killing the Screechers first. His blood energy forced the wounds shut.

Enough food was found to ensure they didn’t need to rest again, the two Empyreans recovering their energy by eating and walking. Glass purposely left out any hard, crunchy foods when he ransacked the house; a fact the Director complained about quite a bit.

As they descended and got closer to the garrison, bodies once again started appearing on the street. There was a distinct lack of any human corpses with only one or two in a guard uniform appearing beneath piles of mutant bodies. Silas could feel Glass’ emotions fluctuate and while he couldn’t tell for sure, he had a pretty good guess.

These people were his coworkers and friends, people he met every day. Most of them were Empyreans to some degree, capable of wielding blood energy. Now they lay dead on the street for the scavengers.

“Halt! Come no closer!”

Rifles appeared as windows burst open and doors swung out, men pouring out onto the street. The gleam of the firearms’ brass parts shined through the fog, reflecting the orange light of the street lamps.

Each of these men were wearing torn, tattered, blue and black guard uniforms. Blood both red and black stained their hands and faces. Their gazes were sharp and Silas immediately felt a sense of impending doom. His hands shot straight up, holding his revolver with his thumb hooked through the trigger guard.

The Director rested silently, leaning against his cane with both hands. The kids spread out and huddled around the three adults. Glass stepped forward, doing his best to quickly take his badge from his belt and raise it in the air.

“We’re survivors from the Upper City, we’re here for protection!”

A series of murmurs spread out and a few of the guns lowered. One of the taller guardsmen stepped through the fog slowly, his gun still raised. When the distance shortened to only some twenty feet, Silas could finally see the man’s features.

Short brown hair parted to one side and dull green eyes behind a pair of square framed glasses, his tan skin was practically covered in blood yet bore few injuries. The man slowly lowered his gun, looking first at the badge then Glass himself, “Sergeant Glass?”

“Inspector Davids?”

The Inspector breathed a sigh of relief and slung the rifle over his shoulder and waved his hand, gesturing for the other guardsmen to lower their weapons. He went up to Glass and gave the young man a quick hug, shaking his head.

“Come, come, the other’s will be happy knowing you’re okay.” Davids grinned, putting his hands on Glass’ shoulders. After a moment, he looked down at the kids huddled around them, then at Silas and the Director.

“.. How the fuck did you get kids here?”