"Memories and one's perception of them are but fleeting things, ever changing, never stuck in stone. The events that you remember can be distorted and altered just as easily as one could create a ripple in a still lake of water. Duskwalker Arts give one the ability to alter memories and how someone might perceive them. A clever manipulation of someone's brain with one of the Duskwalker Arts could make someone go from an ally to an enemy in an instant, or vice verse if one wishes. Sometimes it helps to imagine the Arts not as a typical Node with its applications of soul energy but rather the ability of morphing and alteration."

-Artful Insights, by Edward Duskwalker

Daniel woke up from a dream. It was quite a long dream, long enough to encapsulate his entire life. In fact, the dream was his life. Daniel, once again, was dead. He would change again, just like the last time. These memories of his were not his own, but Daniel's. He could feel it again. The void that swallowed the previous Daniel was hungering for him, ready to swallow him this time, spitting out another pretender, even worse than the last. This time, though, he was ready. Daniel struggled to the very end when he tried to escape from his own hell, struggling against it all. How ironic was it that the current me wants nothing to do with the life Daniel begged for? How ironic is it that life is now my own personal hell, just like that room was his?

The void kept hungering, that beautiful abyss calling for him this time. He had always tried not to remember who Daniel was. Though he was called 'Daniel' by all who saw him, he knew better than anyone that Daniel was dead, with only his memories to haunt his current existence. The void kept hungering, growing impatient now. Daniel didn't have the strength to resist its pull last time, now he had more than enough strength to hold on. Why? Why did someone as unworthy as him have this strength? It could have been something as simple as his physical shape, as he is clearly in better health than Daniel was at the time; but, even then, Daniel had the greater will to live than him. Is something like 'will' so insignificant? Does 'will' not matter?

The void is angry now.

It has begun to pull.

He had no name, not wishing to give himself one, forever hiding behind the persona of Daniel. So, when he began to fall into the void, his last thought was that of a name. Thus, Nameless was born. And, Nameless was killed. Another being crawled out of the void in that instance, this time with a softer countenance than the previous Nameless. Yet, something strange happened. Nameless was supposed to have died. Despite that, he was still alive; still alive, inside of the void, and suffering. This new 'being' was going to pop into Daniel's body and pretend to be him again. Just like Nameless did before. Strangely, that felt wrong to Nameless. Nameless wasn't Daniel at all, but it felt wrong to surrender the control of your body to someone else. Eventually Nameless realised that he didn't like the thought of that at all. So, he resisted. The new being could feel something was wrong the second he couldn't escape the void from whence he was born. The void was supposed to be pushing him out, not pulling him back in. No, this wasn't the void. There wasn't enough hunger behind this pull. This pull only held desperation. Nameless hung onto the trail left by the new being, now being able to get a glance of who the new one would be. Unlike Nameless who only wanted death, and unlike Daniel who only wanted life, this new being longed for a murky mix of these two wants. This new being was pathetic to Nameless, committing to neither path of his predecessors, and simply coasting along existence, wishing for nothing. And this was the person Nameless was supposed to relinquish Daniel's body to?!

Disgusting. Even Nameless had an urge for survival, despite a longing in a sense for death. That survival was what kept Daniel going in the end, and Nameless inherited it, vowing to carry on the torch. And this new being had the audacity to not try and survive?! It was beyond revolting. Nameless could sense the new being was panicking, starting to push against even Nameless himself. How dare this new being want to live? Nameless crawled his way to the Birch Estate, even when it only wanted death the most, just so he could satisfy Daniel's last wishes. What did this new being want to do? Live a life of mediocrity? Wait and do nothing until someone killed them? At least Nameless wanted to die on their own terms rather than leaving it to fate.

All of a sudden, however, Nameless felt another pull from behind him. It wasn't the hunger of the void, but a pull of something far different. It took a while to recognise it, but it was as Nameless surmised. This was the pull of survival; this was the pull of Daniel. To Nameless' greater surprise, the pull moved past Nameless, focusing on something else. No, not something else, someone else. It seemed Daniel was just as dissatisfied with the new being as Nameless was. So they both pulled. Their dual wills sang in unison, both disagreeing with the inheritor's. The void resisted their escape as much as it could, but eventually even a predator knew when to give up on prey, especially prey too hard to catch. With nothing stopping them, the new being couldn't resist his predecessors' pulls. The new being fell back into the void, unable to do a thing, as its hungry abyss swallowed him whole. Just as the void produced him, he was taken away by it within what felt like seconds. Nameless and Daniel hovered in silence, both successful in escaping the void, but now finding themselves in a solely dark, empty space. One thing attracted both of their attentions though. It was small, miniscule even, and it still caught their gaze. It was a soul. Cracked and harmed, in disorder and disarray, and ultimately, useless. With their will's now in sync, despite their seemingly opposite nature, they both knew what to do. Looking deeper into the soul, the two found mostly empty space behind the membrane. Mostly. Hanging in the space contained inside the soul were particles, hanging in the air like motes of dust. These motes were barely present in this 'mantle' of the soul, its distribution few and far between.

Nameless could feel what Daniel wanted in that moment. Strange that it was him who suggested it, rather than Nameless himself, still, their wills had conjoined and Nameless followed suit. Daniel willed these motes to gather, to condense in the centre of the soul. The motes did move, except it wasn't enough. Daniel was just too weak. Even so, Daniel wasn't alone. The unified wills commanded the motes to gather, and only to gather. The motes moved and then stilled. Not enough. They tried again.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

Gather. Movement; not enough.

Gather! More movement and still, not enough.

"Gather!" The two wills spoke, pushing harder and harder. The motes only resisted more. Until, the wills resonated.

"Gather!"

And this time, they listened. Daniel and Nameless knew these motes weren't simple motes of dust. They could sense it now, as if the soul was speaking to them instead. These were soul energy particles, drifting, orbiting inside the soul's mantle. With their epiphany of knowledge beginning to flow into their heads, all that was taught in the Academy and by Gulliver began to make sense. This urge both Daniel and Nameless felt wasn't a coincidence, and now they knew exactly what that urge was trying to tell them to do. To make a soul room.

"Condense."

Only needing a single order this time, the gathered soul energy that had now begun to form a sphere in the centre of the soul started to change. The soul energy particles that Nameless and Daniel observed felt ethereal, unable to be touched and interacted with. This alteration of the soul energy on the other hand, made the particles into something physical. Ethereal no more, a partially solid clump formed in the centre of the soul, shifting and rotating. Now, the hard part began. Daniel knew what to do and didn't have the words to describe what was supposed to be done, and Nameless had the will to execute whatever the two wished to. Rather than using mere words to will the soul energy, they finally resorted to the 'proper' way of doing things. Thought.

Joined wills imagined the clump to expand slightly, almost like forming a miniature soul inside of the soul itself, hollow in the middle with excess soul energy and a harder membrane to shelter the 'room' from the rest of the mantle. Hardening the room's 'membrane' and liquifying the centre was hard work for the wills, but nonetheless, they succeeded. In the centre of the soul was a perfect sphere of soul energy, hard and tough on the outside, and ethereal on the inside. It was a Soul Room.

As they applied the finishing touches to the room, they finally felt a wave of tiredness coming upon the both of them. Sinking into unconsciousness, the twin wills' last thoughts were not of the room, but of each other. Floating further and further down into nothingness, two will's slowly merged to one, Daniel and Nameless disappearing from where they once were, their spiritual space becoming empty once more.

* * *

"When will he recover?" Gulliver asked Iago, who had rushed to Midnight as quickly as he could, standing over an unconscious Daniel. As soon as the soul link went awry, Gulliver had brought Daniel to the Avitson Fishing Shack and sent out a vigil message to Avo, urging either Cynthia or Iago to come. It has almost been twenty four hours since then, Daniel lying on a make-shift bed in the closed storefront of the shop with Iago who had arrived only recently had finished his treatment.

"As I said, the Duskwalker Arts are tricky to control and judge their effectiveness. I have no idea what effect making him relive his childhood through memory would have on the boy, as it wasn't a good childhood by any means of the imagination, but it should help him 'return' in a fashion. Though, I have to ask. What on Alium did you do to Daniel?"

"As you should have guessed by now, it was a soul link. Me and Avo had a hunch. Daniel's will is too strong for him to be artless. Not only did he suffer through Ellis' torture, he miraculously came back from the dead and crawled from the corpse piles to end up in Lucan's hands. An artless person does not simply 'return from the dead'. So I looked. I couldn't find anything at first, until I noticed the presence of a very large spiritual shadow being cast over Daniel's soul. And I found it. Daniel has a Node."

"What?! How is that possible? I did a quick look into Daniel while he was asleep one time at home and found nothing of the sort!" Iago protested.

"I don't doubt your skills Iago, but trust me I almost gave up on finding it before I did. Daniel's Node is not only exposed, but also a live Node. That's what forced me to retaliate, the Node itself attacking me, and what ended up almost killing Daniel from the spiritual pressure."

"Then... he's like Lucan?"

"Almost exactly like Lucan. From what I can tell, his Node is basically identical to his father's. A Node from Dhalene himself. It didn't seem to have the same pattern as David's, so it's unlikely to be a Thunder Node, but perhaps a variation instead. It just so happens that the Node is also exposed, so not only do you have the difficulty in trying to find a Node that doesn't want to be found, there's no spiritual connection between the Node and soul that exists."

"Damnit. How could we have-" Iago began to say, until something stopped him. Gulliver wondered what made his already shocked face's eyes grow even wider until he followed the man's gaze; the gaze towards Daniel. There wasn't anything physical happening, so Gulliver assumed something more spiritual. Daniel looked about the same half-injured teenage boy as before after all. Furthering his sight into the spiritual realm was when Gulliver saw something remarkable. Daniel, a person with previously no spiritual presence at all due to a lack of a Node to exert control with, was glowing with soul energy. At first Gulliver thought maybe the boy had died, and this was his soul dissipating and returning all of the 'borrowed' soul energy to the spiritual realm. Gulliver ruled that possibility out quickly when the soul energy began to move in an unnatural way. It was being sucked in. What happened next, Gulliver couldn't recount if he tried. Daniel, without supposedly knowing a thing about the soul, was attempting to form a soul room. Gulliver knew that he should probably stop the process, just in case the boy hurt himself. Yet, something stopped the platinum. Something within Gulliver told him to see this through. He himself didn't know if this was trust or an instinct. Either way, what Gulliver was currently witnessing was something utterly fascinating.

And, just like that, the supposedly artless boy gained a soul room.