=Varith=

(12 Cycles later)

I’m running, surrounded by corpses and scenes of battle. Horrid abominations of mismatched limbs and flesh move towards me, their wet flesh rippling with each movement.

Desperate I swing my sword, fending off the putrid beings. But they swarm in a mass of flesh. Unable to keep them at bay I backpedal, trying to escape them, my training all but forgotten. One flings itself at me in speed inhuman to even my enhanced eyes. Off balance and with my sword out of position I close my eyes, waiting for death.

Only to be blinded by a blaze of light so bright that even my closed lids are unable to fully block it out. Blinking bright spots out of my now open eyes and am met by a field of smoldering flesh lit by ethereal flames that burn hungrily. I catch sight my brethren scattered around the now empty field.

In the distance a black spot in my vision moving, twisting around inhumanly as a star of blue chases. With a small prayer of thanks I regroup with the rest of my unit.

My visions ripples and bends another scene coming to light.

I’m flying, twisting through the ranks of blue cloaked men. I Rip them from their positions  and comrades, returning them in a less whole state. Soon enough my overt actions catch his attention.

The Wraith Lord.

He streaks over trying to catch me to stop me. I laugh at the thought. I’d been waiting, growing for millenniums, all for this battle. Clashing with him I make use of my incorporeal body to avoid his strikes. I stretch my limbs around him and attack from all sides, overwhelming him

A point in my vision catches my attention, a black smudge. Curious I focus on it and with that it grows covering my field of view until I can see no more. Now I am floating in a void empty by myself. Lost in scenes of slaughter that I had witnessed and the emotions that had been forced through, it takes me a second to reorient myself.

[A dream, this is a dream]

No matter how often I’d been forced into such scenarios by my slumbering mind I’ve never grown used to it. Never once have I been able to differentiate them from reality while in the midst of one. In the middle of my reverie I see something in the distance.

There, a light blue smudge moving across the void, a sharp contrast to the black that surrounds it. Interested I will myself closer, to probe it. It seems to sense, hastily switching directions to escape, but this is a dream and they are places of absolute territory. I will it to stop but it resists, sending waves of energy towards me that prickles the my skin.

[It hurts...]

I reach out, grasping at whatever in me forces these dreams onto me and demand for it to respond.

It does, quickly.

The reality of my dream rips as limbs even darker than the void forcibly enter,  shielding me from the rest of the smudge’s attack. Now it turns, baring its fangs at the source of the danger to me, snatching it. Grasping firmly it forcibly drags the smudge before me, allowing me to inspect it.

I was a small gathering of slightly glowing haze with nothing visibly holding it together. The insides were constant flowing in small complex currents that twisted around each other. Wherever the shadowy appendages dug into it, it would spark periodically, giving me the idea that the two did not go well together. As time went on the glow got weaker, the currents slower and the sparks appeared less often.

It was dieing.

Even so, with my curiosity peaked I was unwilling to let it go and continued to observe it. Entertaining myself with thoughts of what it was or where it came from I watched it slowly weaken until it disappeared completely. It’s “death” didn’t bother me, after all this is just a dream.

==

My eyes snap open and am met with the familiar sight of my room. Wide awake I sit myself up, stretching my arms to the side as I do so. Waking up from these dreams always tended to be a bit abrupt.

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[Strange.]

Usually that wouldn’t be too strange since I did get a full night of sleep, but my dreams usually left me feeling tired and drained. The complete opposite of how I feel right now, I felt fully rested, energetic even. I’d go as far that I didn’t feel hungry either.

Changing out of my nightclothes I make my way downstairs. There I see my mother busily cooking with Svere hanging over her shoulder. Hearing my footsteps she turns to me, surprised at my presence.

“You're up awfully early aren’t you? Did something happen?” Eyes twinkling she brushes back a strand of her red hair. Father and I both tend to sleep late and only awake when drawn by the tantalizing scent of food.

“Just had a bad dream.” Not a lie.

“Mhm, go wash up then. Breakfast will be done in a little while.” Nodding I go outside, closing the door behind me.

Outside I make my way to the well that we use for any water related needs. Pulling up a bucket full of water I can’t help but stare at my own reflection. Skin was so pale that I couldn’t spend more than an hour outside for fear of sunburn. The black strands of hair that hung over my forehead were a startling contrast, and then there were my eyes.

I hated them.

They were dark blue, nothing like the hazel eyes of my mother or the slate grey of my fathers. Without a doubt they were what stood out the most about me. Well, thats if you only went skin deep but still, I hated it all the same. I’d tried asking my parents where’d they come, where it’d all come from, only to get a tight, awkward smile in return.

After cleaning up I start to make my way back indoors, but stop halfway. Rested as I felt I had an urge to let it all out.

[I’m not hungry anyways.]

=Calibro's Wraith=

I can only watch as they drape the white cloth over his body, drops of red staining the pristine cloth. His chest still rose and fell but the look in his eyes was by no means one of a living body.

I can only clench my fist and grind my teeth at the sight.

[Damn it….] To lose a Wraith as old as him is always a blow to the Order, but to lose him while he was in the middle of a spirit walk? That hinted at much bigger, more dire problems.

"Calibro explain the situation to me.”

“According to the witnesses, he was in the middle of a spirit walk patrol in the kingdom of Reld when he had all of a sudden… started keening. Not a minute later he started to convulse and tear at himself like a madman. Eventually he just....... stopped, and well you can see the results.” Calibro, my spirit whispered over my shoulder.[/i]

"What about his contracted spirit?"

“Gone, no sign of it along with the Wraith’s soul.”

A body without a soul might as well be dead, common knowledge to any Wraith. Spirit Walking did involve removing said soul from the body, but it did still leave behind a tenuous connection, one that I currently didn’t see on his body. Still, we need to keep the body alive just in case he’s still out there somewhere.

[Have we finally ran out of time?] I turn towards the guards at the door.

“Make it known that no one is allowed to spirit walk anywhere near the Kingdom of Reld until further orders.” I face the other.

“Send messages via Spirit Walking to the rest of the Council, we need to meet."

==

PR: Leon Das