The world was strange once more, the room seemed to change with every time I looked away and the bed was cold. The moon was gone from the sky and the sound of servants going about their night time work was absent.

"It seems even you cannot resist their influence. A shame that you escaped them only to end up in their clutches once more."

I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of the… things voice. Spinning around to look at it he was as I remembered him. The ever present smile had never left him, his eyes were as red as ever, and his hair seemed to have only gained a bit more gray since I last spoke to him.

"It's you, have you come to confuse me with riddles once more?" Something felt off, as if suddenly my thoughts were my own once more and my mind was truly clear for the first time in a long time. I could think clearly without the veil of false love and affection clouding my judgment and decisions.

"Unfortunately I have far too much to discuss with you to be my usual self, for now I figure it's time the two of us have a more candid discussion. Much has happened since we last spoke."

"Why should I even talk to you? From what Selena implied you are nothing but something evil to be avoided, what with your connection to the void." His expression never changed but I could see his smile become ever so slightly annoyed.

"Of course you would just take her word, they would never allow you to figure out the truth after all. I knew I should have contacted you earlier, thankfully it shouldn't be too late." He wasn't talking to me by the end, in fact he seems to have completely forgotten about my presence as he devolved into a gibbering mess that spouted nonsense and riddles

Just as suddenly he was back to being as prim and proper as ever, what was wrong with him? "I guess I owe you an explanation do I not?"

"That would be greatly appreciated."

"Do you remember your name?"

"Of course! Its Vahi-" I stopped, my name wasn't Vahid, it's just the one that I had been forced to adopt in this world due to my sudden arrival. It's not like I could go around spouting my real name, that would just make people draw all the wrong conclusions. Obviously my name is…, my name is….!!! 'I can't remember my name!'

Suddenly it hit me, what else couldn't I remember? My parents! Surely I would remember them, they were kind and loving, they were my biggest supporters and… I couldn't remember what they looked like. I couldn't remember their voices or even their names. What about my brother? He was my life and light for as long as I could remember. Surely he's still clear in my mind.

But there's nothing. I can't remember almost anything about him, or at least nothing of real importance, it's almost as if all that remained of him was the impact he had on my life and nothing else. Is that all my memories are? The accumulated experiences they had in my life that made me into the person I am now?

"You can't remember can you? You can't remember the family you had before or the name that defined you. You've become more Vahid than anything else, his destiny is intertwining with your own and you are becoming him."

"How? How is this happening?"

"I'm guessing his memories have started to filter to you in your dreams? You've probably become far better at swordsmanship and leading men to be more in line with his own experiences. Tell me how do you feel about that maid? Selena was it?"

"I love he-, wait no I don't! I've barely known her for two months and sure shes good looking and intelligent but I've had far longer relationships that have never ended with me in love. What the fuck?!"

"You're seeing it now aren't you? Is it coming to you now that I've spelled it out for you?"

"These feelings aren't my own." No wonder I hadn't done anything with her yet other than some kissing, I don't love this woman. Sure I wouldn't mind spending time with her and getting to know her, but I'm not fucking head over heels for her!

"They are not." He ran his hands through his hair and I could visibly see the gray spreading through it as if he were getting older before my very eyes. In fact now that I looked at it his skin was growing ever more wrinkled and weathered by age as the moments passed.

"What you're feeling and experiencing aren't your own emotions, they are Vahids. He wasn't simply kicked out when you took over, and the gods are none too happy with us meddling with the affairs of men." Suddenly his hands were no longer empty, instead they held a sword and an hourglass.

"Imagine the sword as Vahid and the hour glass as you, not only is the glass slowly running out of time, but the sword is slowly grinding away at it, knocking sand down faster and even slowly breaking the glass."

"So what you're saying is Vahid is alive inside me and he's trying to take back his body? That's why I've been feeling this way about Selena?"

"Partly." The sword and hourglass were replaced by a vast portrait, one half filled with various objects such as trees, mountains, valleys, and cities. The other was filled with darkness, sparkling lights, and deep in the shadows leviathans of unequaled size.

"The world is split into two domains, the Material realm from which all mortals hail, and the Void in which creatures of power and magic reside. It is here that the gods rule in conjunction with the great apostles at their side."

"What does this have to do with me? I don't care about the lore of a fucking fantasy novel." His smile was gone, replaced instead with a scowl, giving me a nice look into his mouth. The teeth alone were scary, but the void where a throat should be was far more terrifying.

"This world is no story book, it is real and this is very important for your continued survival. Now interrupt me again and I will take your body for a test drive, am I understood?" My nod was all he needed to continue.

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"Now as I was saying the gods and their apostles rule over the void, but they are not the only creatures that make their home in its depths. The mighty Apollyon for example heed the decrees of the gods only under extreme duress, even then only the weakest of the weak will ever heed their call."

"I'm guessing this is where you tell me that you are one such Apollyon and that I'm what? Your champion or something?"

He looked at me for a second with a raised eyebrow before breaking out into hysterical laughter. "Me? An Apollyon? HAHAHAHAHAHA I fucking wish! You think I would be talking to you if I was one of those great beasts? Hell no. I am but a simple wraith, just like you."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I told you I would be candid, you are one of the voidborn, and somehow you've convinced yourself you are mortal, one of those tied to the material plane. Truly it's remarkable how convinced you are of it."

"That's impossible, I know I was born to my parents, even with my shitty memories I know that much!"

"That's just it! You were born to mortal parents! Somehow you figured out a way to transplant yourself into the body of a human and live your life among the mortals. You broke through the barrier between our world and theirs, and you remain one of us still whether you realize it or not." This, this didn't make any sense. I couldn't even perform fucking magic, hell those mages had just as much of an effect on me as they did on everyone else!

Or… did they? Sure I had a pretty fucking killer head ache for a second, but in the end I was fine and could continue on like nothing happened after only a few seconds. Everyone else was nearly comatose on the ground.

"So what you're saying is, I'm a demon from beyond that somehow possessed the body of a baby, and then when that body died I possessed Vahids body?"

"That's exactly it!."

".... Prove it."

"Prove it?"

"Yes, prove to me you aren't lying."

I could see his face morph into an almost intelligent expression as he tried to think of ways to prove to me that he was telling the truth. I don't know how long I sat there waiting for his answer, but I know it was a while because his hair had lost all of its purple coloring by the time he was done thinking, replaced entirely with a gray that was slowly turning white.

"Ah hah I got it! With your permission I will return you to your form as a wraith, and with it partial memories. I can't guarantee what effects they'll have on Vahids body in the real world however. Its up to you."

So he was giving me a choice then? The chance to uncover more of my past, to see yet another piece of the puzzle that my life had become since I awoke in this world. All I had to do was accept his offer and I would recover a piece of me that I once was, a piece I had never known about.

All it would likely cost is a piece of my humanity, cost me the chance to ever be the man that had fallen for Selena ever again, and forever alter destiny in the process. It would probably also forever deny the lingering spirit of Vahid a chance at ever recovering his body and life. All I had to do was say yes and everything would change for me.

But if I said no I would likely soon or later become one with Vahid, I would fall completely in love with Selena, destiny would eventually try to get us back on track but in that time I would be able to explore those feelings that I never thought I would get the chance to have. All it would mean is letting this world rule me and give into the supposed will of the gods.

I guess that makes my decision for me doesn't it?

"Do it, restore me to what I once was."

His wrinkled and weathered face smiled at me with a grin so wide and full of teeth I could feel the chill crawl up my spine, and it only grew worse as his body slowly started to lose his humanoid shape, becoming more goat-like.

"With pleasure!" I could feel him grab my head and suddenly I could feel it, the transformation and the knowledge that came with it. It lasted hours and seconds, years and days, time passed and stood still at the same time as I felt my very being changing. Memories of a life measured in millenia flashed by and above it all stood a name, a name that had once defined me, that I had once clung onto and forged my existence around. It was the name I had used to grow from a mear spark into the great wraith that I once was.

Theofie, Defier of the gods. It was the name I had been given when I first refused one of their commands, and it was the name I would carry when I gave up all that had once made me; me to break through into the mortal plane. I was tall now, taller than Vahid had ever been, my form was reptilian in a way with the scales that covered it, but also wolf-like with digitigrade limbs and a maw to devour with.

Most of all it was the smoke that trailed from my body and the way it seemed to fall from it that convinced me. I could move like flowing water, I could bend in ways that would break a man, and when I moved it was faster than any man could hope to achieve.

"Hehehe its too bad I must wake you now, you likely won't remember much of what we talked about, but with your true nature revealed once more you shouldn't have too much trouble keep their influence at bay until we talk again."

"Wait! you can't just end our conversation after that. Who are you? Why are you helping me?"

He chuckled softly. "Sorry, our time is up, I've already used too much power as is. Good bye."

"Wai-!"

Suddenly I was in bed with Selena once more. 'Why am I screaming wait? Also why am I in bed with Selena?'