“I think you should eat it, human…” Dio’Mar said, hovering around Robert’s head.
Robert appraised the strange food that was brought for him by the Cugorii. It was an absolute mystery where they got it, and to make it even stranger, it looked as though it was cooked.
“Mushrooms… and some kind of meat?” Robert looked at the Cugorii again. “Where did you get this?”
The creature just lifted its clawed hand and pointed into the darkness of the cavern. Robert looked again at his strange meal. It had felt like forever since he had eaten anything, and he was going mad with hunger.
“Screw it,” he said, biting down hard on the meat. His mouth filled with a strange and sour taste, almost like vinegar. He gagged as he forced himself to consume it. “What the hell is this?” he asked Dio’Mar. “Don’t tell me you don’t know. You’ve been down here for thousands of years.” His eyes widened as a thought crossed him. “Wait… this isn’t Dae meat, is it? Of the dead that are down here?”
The Cugorii shook its head slowly.
“No… that is not the flesh of the Dae…” Dio’Mar said. “There are many creatures that scurry in the darkness… just be thankful that you are not starving to death now. We found you a source for clean water… food to eat, and still you complain… what a troublesome creature you are.”
Robert looked at the water dripping down from a low hanging stalactite. His only source of the precious liquid; it tasted like metal and, for all he knew, was sewage leaking from the streets above, but he had been drinking it for several days now and seemed to be fine.
He quietly finished what he could of his meal and leaned his head back against the cave wall with a sigh. He cradled his right arm, something he did now constantly, wallowing in the despair of losing his hand. The wound was gruesome and needed to be tended, Robert knew, but it seemed to remain uninfected. Considering the filth of the cavern, he was quite confused.
Dio’Mar floated in front of his face. “Get up… you have eaten; now we can begin our training again.”
“I need more time to let it digest, if it can be digested. We mortal organics have our limitations. Lots of them.” Robert looked again into the darkness above him. He contemplated his life and his choices. How he ended up in this strange and cruel world still eluded him. What would happen to him if he died here? He began to ponder. He was never a religious man, but he had contemplated the existence of a higher power for many days since he arrived here. At home, he never gave it much thought. It all seemed so strange to him, so backward to put your faith in something that you couldn’t see. After all that, he found himself here, where there were spirits, magic, and monsters. The irony of it all brought him back to something his father told him before he left for college. That people who fancy themselves intellectuals often find that they are the most ignorant of all. Things may not be as they seem because there could always be an unseen or underlying equation. He sighed and groaned as he adjusted his battered body. “Wish you were here, dad…” he said to himself softly. And chuckled at the foolishness of it. “Never thought I would say that out loud.”
“You creatures are so strange…” Dio’Mar said. “We must continue with the instruction… you can listen, can’t you? Your ears still work.”
“Listen…” Robert said, still looking up. “I don’t care anymore. I’ve got nothing left. This damn cave can have me. Just let me starve to death. It would be better than eating this shit.” He tossed away what was left of the strange meat.
“You must not give in to despair, human… you must continue… we made a deal, remember?”
“Don’t care,” he said.
Dio’Mar’s almost non-moving mouth turned into a frown as she got above him in his line of sight. “I will not accept this… you must—”
“Fuck off,” Robert said, cutting her off. “There is no deal!” As the last words left his lips, the cave erupted with the sounds of growls and snarls from the Cugorii. Robert jerked back in fear, looking frantically at the creatures, but quickly saw that they were focusing their attention on Dio’Mar. The small spirit noticed this, as well.
“Interesting…” she said, turning to face the aggravated creatures.
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As quickly as the aggression of the Cugorii came, it disappeared, alongside Robert’s anger, it seemed.
“Did I do that somehow?” he asked, shaken.
“It would seem that you have the ability to command these creatures, human…”
“But how? I haven’t done any real training. I don’t even understand this power that everyone has.” He began to stand, but the spirit halted him.
“It would seem that I have been approaching this from the wrong direction,” she said, floating to him and putting her hand on his cheek. “The Dunamis can do many things, much even the spirits do not know of… but of what knowledge I have… I can promise you, it will change your life.” Dio’Mar’s mouth tilted up in a strange smile.
Another sinister-looking smirk, Robert thought, still not sure whether or not he could trust this little spirit.
“It can even replace your hand…” she said, her little tin voice ringing in Robert’s ears.
He looked at her now seriously.
“You can… what?” he said, his voice quivering with muted and guarded hope. There was no hope. There couldn’t be. After all the pain and suffering he had endured, all that he was still enduring, how could there be any?
“I said… if you listen… and follow my instructions… heed my wisdom… you will be able… to replace your hand,” she said, slowly.
He stared at her, still unsure how to proceed. She lifted her hand and outstretched her little fingers. “Stand, human…”
~
Robert found himself floating in the sky and surrounded by clouds. A light breeze gently caressed his skin as he stared in confusion at the seemingly impossible circumstance.
“This is your Dunamis…” Dio’Mar said, inside his head. “This is the vastness of the power here… spiritual energy that has been in this cave… unused and dormant for thousands of years. None who have come here have been able to use it… even I have not been able to do more than sustain my existence with my own energy. But you… you can tap into it… you can control it.”
Robert took a deep breath and looked into the vast sky around him. He looked down, expecting to see the surface below, but still saw nothing but the blue, vacant sky. He felt the pulse again, one that he had felt many times before but never fully understood. It was intoxicating, but he was terrified to take it. Terrified that if he indulged in this world’s fruits, it would lay claim to him, and he would never return home again.
“Why do you hesitate…?” Dio’Mar’s voice rang out again.
“I… I can’t,” he told her, closing his eyes to the beautiful sky, struggling against the pulse, the beat of his own heart.
“You are trying to deny that which is already within you, human… you would have better luck running from your own shadow. You are afraid?”
Her voice began to deepen from the small and fragile sound he had come to know to a harsh and vile one. The change made his skin crawl.
“Do you not hate them? For all they have done to you, do you not wish death upon them? The vile Dae who broke your body and your spirit! Who cast you down to be devoured by monsters? Who branded you a demon?”
Her voice was now a shout, dripping vile hatred. This was the true form of Dio’Mar, not the simple and gentle spirit of the forests, but one who had been tormented for millennia.
But her words began to take hold. His thoughts did turn to the tormentors who butchered him. He opened his eyes now and beheld a dark and stormy sky, violent with fury. The wind now tore at him, feeding off this anger he felt, the resentment at all involved.
“I want…” he said, his mouth dry, “…I want to go home… if you can help me do that, then I will help you. I will do everything that I can, but I need your word… you need to swear to me that you will help me with all of your power.”
“I do,” she said, rasped and jagged.
“Swear it… Swear to God!” As the words left his mouth, the turmoil around him came to a halt, and all that was chaos became clear and beautiful again. The blue sky returned, bringing forth warm rays of light that soothed Robert.
“I…” said Dio’Mar, her voice now normal and small again. “…I swear.”
Robert found himself back in the dark of the cave. He blinked in confusion at the strange vision, but within his chest, he could feel it. The Dunamis beat with a rhythmic boom, and a power that he could never have imagined seemed to be at his fingertips.
A small shape shifted on the ground. Robert looked to see Dio’Mar’s tiny form floating just above the ground. She tilted her head toward him, and her eyeless face seemed to be in great pain.
“I have used… much of my strength to bring myself before you. It is all I have been able to accumulate over the years… it is gone now. Human… Robert… you are my last hope for salvation. Will you help me?”
Robert looked at the spirit in her pitiful state, and he knew she was not what she claimed. Perhaps at one point, she was an innocent spirit who loved all around her, but she was broken now. A shell filled with nothing but regret and hatred for all things in this world. All things except for me, he thought.
He reached his hand down and touched her. Feeling another painful jolt, she shrieked but did not dissipate as she had before. He didn’t quite know what he was doing, but he suspected the act of making contact with this spirit somehow gave her strength.
“Are you ok?” he asked, attempting to cradle her with his left hand, only to see his fingers slip through her as though she were made of smoke.
She solidified and sat on the palm of his hand, her sinister smile returning. “You are a very smart thing,” she said. “I will recover… the energy you have given me was more than last time… and more than I have felt in thousands of years…”
The two were silent for several seconds as Robert stood, this time on his own. “So, where do I start?”