Rybrus's eyes glazed over for but a few seconds after he downed my blood. I didn't even have time to decide if I was disgusted, or just majorly confused before I saw heard him curse quietly, and then quickly start scribbling onto a piece of paper he pulled out of one of his pockets. I didn't see what he was writing down, but I had a good guess, because of what he was muttering to himself.

I'd recognize those words anywhere - because I've had more or less daily nightmares about them - and the thing that spoke them - ever since hearing them for the first time.

"Lamplight in the dark."

"On journey you've embarked."

"I claim thee - my mark."

I didn't want to hear those cursed words anymore so I pressed my hands against my ears.

"How long will you last."

"To your kin it's such contrast."

"Marking thee - outcast."

The thing's voice mixed with Rybrus's as he spoke the words.

"Go free my sigil."

"As I watch and keep vigil."

"Lamp - child of Rigil."

I felt the visitor's glare on my back.

"Lil' lamp bruised and burnt."

"Flew too high, a lesson learnt."

"Sigil, unconvert."

I felt it's touch on my shoulder, as it's malicious laughter filled my ears.

"Or we could kill all."

"Their lives, irrelevant, small."

"Kill, and take the fall."

I stood up and looked around frantically, if this thing was going to terrorize me I at least wanted to look it in the face. Or whatever I should call the cracked hole in reality it wears as a face.

"Confused in your arc."

"Lamplight alone in the dark."

"Memory's hierarch."

I shouldn't have looked, I shouldn't have looked, I shouldn't have looked... the eyes, so many of them, everywhere... I shouldn't have looked, I shouldn't have looked, I shouldn't have looked, I shouldn't have looked.

"Hint to start your path."

"Hope, see light on the warpath."

"Make yours, our own wrath."

The visitor's visage shattered like broken glass - Rybrus was standing over me, a dark scowl on his face. It still took me a few seconds of panic and rapid breathing to realize he was offering me a hand to help me stand up. I was in corner of the room, on the floor, curled up. I gulped, and realized how dry and sore my throat was.

I accepted his help to help me get back up. "Sorry about that." He apologized and wrapped his free hand around my shoulder.

"What-" I began to speak, but was instantly shushed.

"I'll explained everything, but not here." His voice was much kinder than before, and I was in no condition to struggle right now - still too shaken by the thing's sudden appearance. Rybrus lead us both out of the door, and was immediately stopped by the two guardsmen.

"What happened? Is she wounded? What was with all the screaming?!" Came a familiar voice from down the hall as talking-guy came storming in.

"Long story short, she's provably innocent. Furthermore, I'm invoking a Hunter's right to recruit." Rybrus's voice had an edge of threat to it. Who the hell is this guy that he can just order a town's guard like this anyway?

Talking-guy frowned, but motioned for his people to stand aside. "I suppose that everything that happened is none of my business then. Try to leave the town soon however, people won't like it when they hear about this."

Stolen novel; please report.

"We are, in fact, leaving right now. Thank you for your understanding." Rybrus nodded at him and started walking me down the hall.

"What the fuck is happening?" I managed to ask as we left the guard's barracks and headed straight towards a small wagon in familiar black-and-blue colors. A moment later one of the two guardsmen who stood outside the door of the interrogation room sprinted past, carrying my things and dropped them off in the wagon.

"Soon" I was really getting annoyed with all of this cryptic bullshit.

----------------------------------------

After we left the town, Rybrus instructed me to change from the prison uniform in back of the wagon back into my own armor. I did, and eventually joined him on the front seat, but he waited with explanation until we were a whole mile away from the town.

"Ingesting blood willingly given by someone let's me see that person's memories." He finally started giving me some answers, and at least the blood thing made sense now. "I'm sorry you had to go through all of that."

"All of what? Another of the visitor's nightmarish visions because you insisted on speaking it's words out loud?!" I snapped back at him, my nerves still somewhat fried from the experience.

"No. For your mom - Morana. For having to face a torment without proper training. For having to face.. what do you call it again? The visitor? alone." My anger froze in my veins as he spoke. His tone was gentle, full of pain and- right. He's seen my memories, he knows how much I miss her and fear it. I forced myself to breathe, to calm down.

"One, two, three" I counted as I breathed out, and saw him nod at me. Of course he knew about this too.

"The report said there was a political dispute and that the guards captured a witness, who might or might not be a perpetrator in a serial murder of people from the next town over. I did not expect to run into someone with potential to be a hunter here." He tried to keep a neutral as he spoke, though I could hear his frustration.

"Each hunter at some point in their life has an encounter with the visitor as you call it. We call it Fate." I heard his words fracture in a repeating echo as he said the word - as if it was the thing - Fate - that spoke it's own name through him. Maybe it did. "Fate always speaks with the aspiring hunters. The words Fate speaks to them... we call those Destiny." I was starting to develop a headache from the echoes.

"Our mom-Fuck. One second." He took a moment to steady himself, and I saw him count to three on his fingers.

"What do you mean our mom?" I insisted.

"My memories are melted together with yours in my head right now, it will wear off in about thirty more minutes." He clarified. "Anyway, as I was saying, your mom probably didn't explain it to you because you were too young at the time, but a not so well known duty of the hunters is to try to understand Fate - and to do that we study Destinies. That's why I had to write yours down before your memories vanished from my mind. The words being spoken tend to attract Fate's attention though."

My mind was once again struggling to grasp all of the implications. Was it my destiny to be an outcast? Or do they just call it that?

"What exactly Fate is, honestly we have no real idea. There's theories of course, but that can wait for later. To answer the final question you probably have, the reason why we more or less ran away from the guards is the Hunter's right to recruitment.

An old bit of law that was established around the time torments started to become prominent. Long story short, I basically said that for the sake of the security of our nation, any and all crimes you may have committed in the past are forgiven and you are being recruited by Hunters at that very instant.

Generally people don't like it when you remind them that we have the right to walk up to anyone they know and demand they go to fight Torments otherwise everyone will die."

Rybrus's explanation felt absurd, but considering everything that just happened I believed it. "So you're some high ranking hunter or whatnot?" I asked the final thing that bugged me.

"I'm just a scribe. Some hunter's Destinies are not suited for fighting, so we are asked to do whatever we're good at." He answered with a shrug. "I just happened to be nearby, and know a few things about the law."

"Wait, wait, wait." I held up my hand. "So, Destiny-" I felt a sense of vertigo as my mouth moved against my intent. I felt violated as the control of my body was snatched away - my stomach churned, informing me just how horrifying the sensation was and I couldn't help but retch. Is this what Rybrus felt every time he let it speak through him? "Those words... they're important?" My tone wasn't exactly stable anymore.

Rybrus looked amused as he observed me struggle with the sensation of it speaking through me. "Yeah, Destiny always appears closely linked to each hunter's power. Though it does not predict the future directly, rather it always appears to be a description of the person in some way. After all, if Fate's words were absolute, you would have murdered everyone in Larton. Since.. you know, it wanted you to do that."

A chill ran down my spine as a memory of that moment ran through my mind and my shoulders slumped. "I suppose, yeah.."

Silence surrounded us as Rybrus chose to let me process everything that was said instead of feeding me more info and I appreciated that he did.

I had a lot to think about.