(The darkness within all of us is power. A control for the weak-hearted, to drag them down so to make them strong. Taint the life struggling to find the light and let them forget, that’s true strength applied with an honest kindness.)

“Strength is not like that. There’s light for every life. It doesn’t work that way.”

(Wrong. The fifth seal broke to birth new laws, and seed desires with purpose; hunger to plunge the black heart into diseased and disturbed beings, and give punishment for lost souls displaced by their deaths. The darkness empowered their tainted egos to forge a new and formidable will where only the strong can survive even unto death.)

“There’s no death. For we have the right to withstand the light of judgement and be renewed.”

(Wrong. The Sixth Seal is breaking at the seams. One piece left of Sol’s hana. And when that falls, famine shall claim. War shall break. Pestilence shall inflict. Death shall negate. You can not stop the consequence embedded within the laws of this world. And you of all beings are bound to uphold them.)

“Wrong, so very…”

(In this tainted world, we ride to the new laws; where Solkind will face the fate of Zyonkind’s mercy. There’s nothing you can do about it—Zaldizko. It was in your hands that started all of this. So, we will finish what was started and set the fate...)

⭐

I felt a malicious energy seep into my core and spread like cold water all over my being; dragging in agonizing scratches all over my ears to set my head throbbing. A heavy pain was weighing me down and pushing me around. A faint light. Monstrous scratching on rock. Something was tugging my body, with many voices urgently crying out. They sounded real and familiar. And the name they were crying out was…

“Neven. Wake up!”

I gasped for breath and spluttered out water. My head was throbbing and I felt soaked through.

I blinked in light and when my vision cleared, I saw Kalia and Edde sitting by my side; turned my head and saw a reddish, cat-sized, skirrat darting away from my view along a jasper stone path and disappeared behind a rock crop. The energy from that creature’s odd and creepy aura still lingered. Wolf must’ve sensed something was wrong too, for I saw his tiny rat-like body nimbly follow the other skirrat’s trail and was gone.

After a short moment, I was able to sit up with some assistance and saw everyone’s concerned expressions.

“Take a moment to rest, everyone.” Master Asuras sighed and sat back to catch his breath on the mossy, stone ground.

“Why is everyone looking so grim.” I sneezed as I felt a chill all over my body and saw I was indeed wet; turned my head and noticed that the rock crop I had seen earlier was near a riverbank. Wait. Surely I didn’t fall into the water? But I had no memory of doing that.

I skewed my head around and saw the steep path from the Temple of Anwar, which we had descended. We had only reached the bottom and closest rest point near the river. So, I might have been too close to an edge and fallen in, but it felt odd that I would let that happen.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“He’s gone.” Wolf grunted and puffed as he returned to the group.

“What happened?”

“We were walking close to the riverbank when we heard a splash and saw you sinking.” Kalia gulped and checked my forehead with her hand. “You feel warm. I hope that’s a good sign.”

“Troy dived in to pull you out before you got in too deep.” Tonya further explained that when he had dragged me onto the moss covered ground and turned me over, he saw my dark matter magic coming out of my body like black smoke. My mind had gone into an unconscious state.

The master noticed a reddish chi snaking its way into my energy to give it a reddish tint. He looked about and saw a brownish skirrat with a red aura nearby. The creature’s chi was seeping into my own. The master had used his magic with the Sacred Healing Light spells to bring me back to consciousness and detach the foreign chi from my own. But I had swallowed river water, so began to gurgle and splutter like I was drowning.

Troy had signed that he knew what he was doing when he pumped my chest to expel the water with a timed rhythm, and pressed his mouth to mine to feed air into my lungs before they had collapsed.

“Say what mouth did what?” I gasped and spat out more water to be sure.

Troy pouted, looking less impressed with my thanks.

I awkwardly scratched my head and flashed him a sheepish smile. “Sorry, it was a natural reaction?”

He frowned with a huff as he rose and slapped my back with a heavy hand.

“Looks like someone is better. Don’t fall in again, clumsy.” He grumpily signed and started prodding Khes and Zak to get up.

Master Asuras chuckled and nodded. “Seeing that everyone is ready to walk, let’s go. We need to make it to the Night Order’s Den before nightfall.”

I wobbled to my feet, feeling squishy in my sandals and my tunic sticking to my body: and gazed at Quicksilver with a plea, who shook his head and signed an air magic spell to dry me with a mini tornado.

We were soon resuming our walk without incident, although the event kept lingering on my mind. Especially the foreign voice in my head that was saying all those things about death, war, famine and pestilence. It was a voice I recognized to be the herensuge’s. My mind lingered around a likely guess that it was using a skirrat to access my head. But if it was taking control of my ego via chi corruption, that was not good, and had to do something about that. Eve would likely have a way to safeguard me from its influence. I had to speak to her when I had the chance.

For now, it seemed I was safe from another incident and continued to focus on the way a head.

Streaks of red and yellow ran across the dark sky by the time we had reached the flat areas of the Lower Tier within the East Quadrant. As I glanced back to stare up the steep path we had left behind us from the Upper Tier, I spied Anwar’s temple. It glowed like a miniature building, with the waning daylight casting a righteous, golden-rose hue to it.

“Hard to believe we’re no longer there,” Kalia carefully whispered near my ear.

I nodded and caught a sideward glance from Master Asuras; patted her shoulder to prompt her forward.

As I turned my head, a reddish skirrat with an odd aura rushed toward the path’s edge and was gone. Wolf had also spotted it and was rushing off after it. A few paces latter, he had returned and leaped up my body to perch on my shoulder.

“I think it's better I stick to you here. Some of the other skirrats are being strange, and it seems to be only around you.”

“I doubt it’s me. Maybe they’re just strange here, period.” I huffed, not liking it if that was the case, but it was a high possibility if the herensuge had something to do with it.

Still, for it to have a hold over the skirrats meant it had already integrated with the chi of the Central Hold. It was only a matter of time before it attacked again. But having Eve on our side, may have made it more cautious. Something about that weird conversation I had with it in my subconscious made me think that it was going to observe for the time being. It had already made a mistake when it fought us back on the trial floor, leading to Eve and the masters’ to show up and defeat it.

“Well, we’ll be more vigilant to be sure.” Lita added to the conversation with her reassurance. She hopped on Khes’s broad shoulder, who was in front of me, so she could keep me in her sights.

Khes grunted and gently patted her head.

I felt a prod to my back; turned and saw Zak prompting me forward with a deadpan expression and whispered grunt. I chuckled, thinking he was like Edde. Making sure my attention didn’t wander, I picked up my pace to stick with the others.