As the creature unwrapped the cloth from around it, its true appearance was slowly revealed. Even to Flip, who accepted that there were many strange and unusual things that could happen in any situation, was surprised by the face revealed underneath. And what was surprising, to Flip, as well as both Selian and Dovhran, was the normality of the face that the wraith revealed.

The wraith was no monster. No unimaginable nightmare or terror that could not be described lest the page bearing its description catch flame to appease the sanity of the world. The wraith was simply a man. Or, more specifically, an elf, as his jaw and ear shape indicated. His face was lightly worn from sun exposure but still retained the common elven fragility that often masqueraded as elegance. His hair, long and black, was held back in a messy bun that had until recently been squashed under his wrappings. His eyes, peculiarly, were a soft chestnut color, a common tone for elven eyes; though peculiar given the red glow they had emitted earlier. For all three, particularly Dovhran, it was like witnessing a master level painting of an average elven man.

“If the two of you who don’t seem interested in stabbing me don’t mind, I would like to ask a few questions now that I know honesty is assured.” The wraiths’s voice was less ominous now, though still level and in control.

“Assured?” Flip tilted his head to the side as he asked, his hat almost falling off his head.

“I do regret creating a binding contract in such an abrupt and underhanded manner, but I desire answers and I never help for free.”

“He’s right, I felt it the moment he started healing me.” Selian sighed. “Your spell started to lose strength but there was this lingering forceful presence around my neck… I think agreeing to tell the truth means he can make me tell him the truth.”

The wraith smiled, letting loose just a sliver of emotion. “Indeed. Though I must also commend you, young wizard, your spell was quite interesting. Are you perhaps a devout acolyte of Ghovu?”

Flip grimaced at the implication. And though he did not have any sort of arcane force acting on him that compelled him to tell the truth, he did so anyway.

“No. But the principle is derived from the premise of Ghovu’s teachings. Bonds are formed in many ways. Even jealousy and enmity. Negative feelings create weaker bonds, positive feelings create stronger bonds.”

“That confounds me, wizard.” The wraith frowned. “Enmity is a negative feeling, and yet you claim it was able to hold the both of us in place so powerfully? I do not like this feeling of confusion. Though I will not demand an answer, as I feel I will get none.”

Dovhran interjected, for the first time in what seemed like minutes, from where he still lay on the ground. Though he only laughed.

“Though I do not know you, I sense you are harmless with the knowledge. Or at the very least you have no one to share it with, except for us. And I know such magic will not work on you again.” Flip sat down and quickly conjured a new campfire between himself and the wraith with a quick gesture. “You misunderstand. The bond was not built in enmity, though I understand why you would suspect that. Sel… our friend, clearly bears hatred for you in her heart. But I’m not so daft as to think something monstrous like you cares about such a thing as hatred. The feeling was not mutual. But the feeling of pain. Pain is not an emotion. It’s neither positive nor negative, it’s just pure feeling. A feeling you shared in an exchange of blows, each drawing blood, as equals. That is a powerful bond to draw on. And that is the feeling that I used to tie you both to the earth. I believe our other friend realized that… though perhaps too late.”

“That’s why it failed when he healed me… and himself.” Selian muttered.

The wraith hummed in approval. “Ah. Yes. I see. That is strange and powerful magic. Even though your friend hurt me much less than I hurt her… we both shared in the spilling of blood and the pain of it. But blood is a dangerous thing, human. If nothing has changed since my last time away from the wastes, you might be jailed for using such magic.”

“I might’ve been. It’s hard to say though… whether the guard could have caught me or not.” Flip let out a quiet hoot of laughter at his own joke. He was the only one laughing.

“You don’t trust him, do you?” The wraith had turned his full attention to Selian.

“No.”

Selian sat down around the new campfire as well. She anticipated a full round of questions and acknowledged that she was unprepared to do much else besides answer them. Their guest was powerful, and fast, and cunning, but seemed mostly harmless.

“That likely means you and he did not devise this venture into the wastes. Was it the changeling? Or are you all unwilling participants?”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Changeling?” Selian was confused. She didn’t understand the question being asked of her. And, while the compulsion to tell the truth remained in her, she couldn’t answer the question.

“Right. He’s a changeling.” The wraith pointed to Dovhran. “Many tend not to reveal their identity unless forced or discovered. This would be much easier if I knew your names… what are your names?”

Selian twisted her head up in a struggle of mind and body. She could feel the urge to reveal the names that she knew, but also she knew that the less she told the wraith the better.

“Selian Farwysher, Rain, Cursed Daughter…” Selian had begun to list as many names as she had gone by and had been called as she could remember.

The wraith interrupted her with a raised hand.

“That’s clever. Perhaps I put truth on the lips of the wrong traveler.” The wraith muttered. “I can respect your desires for anonymity though, and I commend your sacrifice of your identity to keep those of your compatriots hidden. For now, I will merely call the fool rolling in the dust Idiot. The wizard, I will call Wizard. And you, child, I will call by your given name.”

Dovhran growled in protest but remained silent. He knew that the wraith’s intention was to provoke him and prove that his name was not, in fact, Idiot. But in so doing, he would prove that it was. Either way, he would be accepting the name the wraith had given him. It was with that realization of the nature of their visitor that Dovhran also sat down around the campfire.

“If you have need of my name, you may call me Theihdow. As in, ’… they. Meadow, and flower and grass…’” The wraith quoted with eyes closed, a work of poetry that was immediately recognizable to Flip.

“Where winds send waves that tower and crash.” Flip completed the line out of habit. “He’s quoting The Calm and The Storm.”

“Very good, Wizard. Very good.” Theihdow clapped his hands gently, creating a quiet echo throughout the waste. “It is a favorite of mine. And I suppose you can assume it is the source of my name… meaning it is an alias. I consider that a fair trade.”

“He hired us both.” Selian blurted out. Her own words caught her off guard and she pressed her hand to her mouth to cover it out of shock.

“Oh, so the effect does linger. That could make things complicated. You might be caught up in correcting things as you understand more while we talk… I will alleviate this restriction. If you better grasp or learn the answer to a question you could not answer as I asked it, you may remain silent. I will ask additional times if the question is important to me.”

As the wraith spoke, Selian felt a strange sense of ease enter her body and the force that wound itself around her throat relaxed a small amount.

“I suppose then, since you were hired, you are specialists of some sort. To what end?”

“I was hired to navigate us towards…”

“Don’t answer that question. What are the names of all the stars that mark the harvest?” Dovhran cut Selian short with his own question. The changeling hoped, and gambled, that the effect of truth telling was universal and could be overridden by more recent questions.

“The tomb of Helbrin Velsaffe.” Selian completed the answer to the question she was compelled to respond to.

“Troubling.” Theihdow muttered. “Though I admire the attempt to overrule my question, your efforts will not be met with any success. Idiot.”

“I’m sorry.” Selian muttered, averting her gaze from a now silently furious Dovhran.

“Don’t apologize. I would have learned this eventually. This way, was, however, faster.” Theihdow held out a hand to block Selian’s view of Dovhran’s face. The elf’s reach was much longer than it looked, or so it appeared to Flip. They appeared to be using some sort of trickery with perception.

“Regardless. I cannot allow you to travel to the tomb.” Theihdow stood. “I take it you navigate by the stars?”

“Yes…”

“I require time to ponder on what to do with you.” The wraith began to make slow pacing steps away from the campfire and into the darker harder to see portions of the waste. “You will not be able to progress further into the wastes. I will let you know if I have decided to kill you or not.”

Dovhran gave his two companions a look of warning while the wraith’s back was turned to them. More directly, as Dovhran looked to Flip, he slouched his head down as if asking for something silently. It was not until the changeling clenched his fists and repeated the slouching motion with a tilt toward the wraith that Flip caught on.

The wizard pinched the bridge of his nose and squished his eyes closed in contemplation. Without much hope for any of his companions to be more effective at the task presented to them, Flip nodded.

“We will leave you to your deliberations, then. Theihdow.” Dovhran sighed. “And we will walk back out towards the edge of the wastes while you decide.”

“This is acceptable.” The wraith muttered, now pacing in earnest.

With a dismissive wave from the wraith, the three travelers stood and began to walk south. But when the three reach what Flip considered a safe distance of approximately one hundred feet, the wizard turned to face the wraith once again. And it was with resigned obedience that he began to mutter an incantation.

Where winds send waves that tower and crash

And sun drops fall like lightning lash—

The poleniums, golden, in the morning sway

Turn red at dusk as night doth splay

With the utterance of an incantation for a new spell, the campfire died out and the wastes were engulfed in darkness once again. Now more forcibly than they had been before with the dismissal of the previous flames. A thunderous boom echoed out from the point where the three estimated the wraith had been but mere seconds ago, and a second later wind rushed past all of them towards the epicenter of the noise, followed by a burst of light that expanded out from that same point in a radius of nearly fifty feet. The three were nearly blinded by the rapid changes in light. But, the light quickly faded, and all three recovered in the darkness as their sight slowly returned to them and the stars began to shine again… though perhaps not so brightly as they once had in comparison to the destruction Flip had wrought.