Arash stood before a great double leaf door.The words "House of BadBakht" were engraved on the wind-worn wooden door. He studied the words, fascinated by the flourishes at the end of each character. He couldn't help but remember Arman, as he admired the calligraphy in old faded texts. He used to call it, "The wisdom of the Ancients." Reading and writing were useless in the town of Harra. Anything that didn't put food in your stomach or help you earn it was frowned upon.

'Wisdom of the ancients..." Arash spat the words in disdain. Images of a twisted corpse flashed in front of his eyes. He could still feel the tenderness in Arman's skull as he grabbed onto it to scale the mountain.

"What do you plan to do?" Adam asked sullenly.

Arash turned back to his uncle. "Get back your strength!"

Arash pushed open the wooden door and was greeted by a long flight of stairs disappearing into the darkness. The chamber was devoid of sound, save the soft scratching of a person sweeping the floor with a broom. The heavy oak doors blocked all unwelcome sounds and the thick brick walls held their silence.

"Really?" Adam asked skeptically.

"No --" Arash stared at the pitch black darkness, hearing the rhythmic crackle of broom bristles against the cold hard granite. "I am struck with a sudden surge to become an adept in the house of hope."

"Don't even joke about it--"

"Ssh!" Arash said. He strained his ears to listen. The one sweeping the floor must have heard him as the soft scratching sound had stopped. Arash could hear the sound of feet shuffling. Soon enough, a bald monk stepped out of the veil of darkness, slowly descending the flight of stairs. He wore a serene smile on his hairless face as his eyes crinkled with happiness. It looked as if the man before him and never been touched by the tragedies of life.

"Felicitations!" the bald man said with a deep, soothing voice. "The great one has sent us a new brother." The bald man placed the broom against the wall and studied the young man before him. "Brother, you have been blessed by Lord, he has made you strong and vigorous. Enabled

you to reap from his bounties and has shown you the light." Each word slipped off the tongue of the bald man with a strange cadence.

A strange warmness poured over Arash as he found himself smiling. Doubts crept into his mind, but under the words of the bald man. Arash let down all his guards, he just wanted to listen. Listen to the man before him.

"...My brother, accept our Lord as the true lord and you shall never want for anything." The bald man extended his hand, it shone with a golden light.

"Wake up! you stupid Fool" Najwah cursed out loud.

"What?" Arash's brows furrowed as doubt start to form in his heart. Suddenly the man before him shone with a brilliant golden light and Arash once again slipped into a state of delirium.

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"Dammit!" Najwah tried to tap into his powers, but the golden light released by the bald man was blocking him to access to Arash's sea of consciousness. Whenever he tried to access his rune, he met with a strong resistance from Arash. Any thoughts violence against the bald man brought pain upon Arash.

Arash fanatically reached out his hands and grabbed on to the bald man.

"Arggh!" The old man let out a loud screech as strength rune rapidly sucked life energy from the monk. Arash regained his wits as he heard the frantic cries of the little black snake. He instinctively jerked away from the bald adept's hand which had been reduced to mere bones. The bald man crawled away from Arash in fear.

"What happened to me? I was... I was--" Arash mumbled in shock as he tried to make sense of things.

"You were ensnared by that fat fuck over there." Najwah hatefully stared at the frightened man, but his eyes seemed to be looking past the something beyond flesh and bones. Something is hidden from the naked eye. The little snake disappeared into the old man.

The bald man howled in pain as he flopped around on the hard floor, black veins popped on his face as he screamed at the top of his lungs. Arash immediately watched through his soul-eye and his jaw dropped at the sight before him.

Najwah was fighting with what appeared to be a giant golden leach. The little snake was merciless in his beatings as he whipped around the golden leech with his tail and bit large chunks from its body. Within moments, the giant leech was reduced to half its size.

"Forgive me. I... I didn't know." The leech howled miserably.

Najwah snorted at the ravings of the golden leech. "You didn't know?" Najwah bit off another large chunk from the leech's body. Tiny golden runes could be seen shining underneath the leech's skin.

"You can't kill me. I have friends. Lots and lots of friend. They will hunt you down."

"Hunt me down? I would like to see that." Najwah opened his maw and went straight for the golden rule. The Leech screamed in horror as it twisted it's giant body to protect his original body and barely managed to do it as Najwah went hurtling past him, taking a large chunk of leech's flesh.

"They might not be able to hurt you, but they don't need to when we have your master." The little leech said bravely. Najwah stopped for a second as he turned toward Arash, weighing his options.

"That's right!" the golden leech egged on. "They will be here soon and there won't be a single thing you could--Argh!!" The golden leech let out a terrified scream as he felt a silver rope tighten around his body. "Ru--" Before he could say anything, his core rune was crushed by the silver rope.

Najwah turned to Arash with a bitter smile. "Did you really had to do that?"