Extra chapter: Akemi’s Journey

When Akemi became an incorporeal, her entire body was nothing more than a heap of misshapen smoke. Like all the incorporeals, her conscience broke away from the original body while sleeping and wandered to the Other World, but for not doing it right, she ended up not really materializing.

Upon arriving in this world, she felt as if she were in a dream. A more intense and longer dream, but nothing beyond it.

Unlike Arthur and the others who ran into this world in vessels, incorporeals arise in different places, since each one forms in their own ways and times. Therefore, when “dreaming” for the first time, Akemi found herself in a field full of peaceful animals and creatures, in the middle of the Western Continent.

And, in her early years, she had no notion about the passage of time or the things that happened around her. As if in a deep dream, she perceived reality only for an instant before forgetting everything about it. Time and space were confusing concepts to her mind, since she went through moments of darkness and awareness without even noticing the transitions between them.

Her body, a misshapen mass of smoke, roamed the plains; the few intelligent creatures who saw her, always kept their distance. As if by a stroke of luck, Akemi spent many years in sparsely populated places – even though her wish (when she was conscious) was to find someone to talk.

The dream lasted more than a dream should. It allowed her to roam between fields and lakes, to admire animals and plants, to watch the powers of ogres and vampires, to discover spells and magics. Over time, her body became more than just smoke, absorbing energy and becoming a more conscious creature every year.

She discovered the fear that others had of her existence and the way that many would try to hurt her in the years to come. She realized that she was unwanted by all those capable of uttering words and even by many of those who were unable to speak.

It was around that time that she started feeling hungry.

It was not the same hunger she had expected to feel a long time ago, when her memories of Earth were more than mere blurs in her mind. No, the appetite here was different, arising from the core of her existence, from the depths of that mass of light that she was. It seemed, in a way, that her mind went blank making room for a new dream.

And she would have allowed her conscience to be carried away and her thoughts to be swallowed up by a new dream, however, something inside her noticed the danger. Her instincts woke up and raised her awareness from the muddy, blurred thoughts. For the first time in a long time, she felt alive.

And, with life, comes death. And the fear of death too.

It was at that time that, as all creatures in a dream, Akemi accepted the reality of this world. Despite still believing that she was in a dream, she felt afraid of death, as is the case with so many who have nightmares. So, there was only one way out: To quench the hunger and remove the feeling that she was about to disappear.

And although she did not feel part of the world, even if it was a dream, she still needs to feed. That is the only thing that matters to her drunk mind.

Drunk, yes, because that was how she accepted the impulse inside her – like an alcoholic who slowly walks to the bar and orders a drink. In an attitude similar to the one she so often saw in her father’s gestures (or was it her brother?). What was the drink that made him turn into an alcoholic? She could not remember. She tries to invoke the memory, but fails. Only the vague thought of the past exists, but not even their faces appear in her mind. There is only the idea of a father and a brother, but the details are gone. The questions are mixed in her mind, and therefore, even the questions are gone. There is only the image of the prey that she has to reach and consume. She wondered what kind of dream is this, where she cannot even understand herself, but in which she can perceive matter and its consistency, its smell and sound, its taste and all the details in its appearance?

Her hunger does not disappear by chewing leaves and flowers. It is so difficult for her translucent hands to hold objects that it is impossible to collect larger fruits. She has to drop blackberries from the branches, one by one, with a lot of effort. It is a slow process that ends up to be useless, since the hunger does not diminish.

She wanders, desperately, trying to quench the hunger and restore her memories. What does her parents look like? Did she even have parents outside this dream? What was her home like, or where did she live? What objects were inside her house? When did she come to this world? How long has she wandered through these lands since the beginning of this dream? How many years have passed since she appeared in the woods?

And why is this hunger growing so fast?

The questions keep increasing, still unanswered.

The hunger, however, would not grow forever.

The first time she was able to feed, it was by the time she used to wander through fields, avoiding contact with intelligent creatures who – as she had discovered – lived nearby. At that time, she did not understand the reason for being persecuted and had to flee, confused, from repeated attacks. At this point, even an escape became a difficult task, since the effort spent energy and weaken her fragile structure even more.

This weakening gives her the feeling that she is about to disappear, making the fear of death even more intense. And even though she knows that dreams sometimes feel like that, she cannot shake it off the fear of death.

It was during an escape that things changed. Akemi’s pursuer ignored the terrain, allowing her to escape with some tranquility. And, on the way, one of the forest monsters attacked the pursuer.

The monster that “helped” her was a snake with a body of at least ten meters. The monster was feared in the region and she chose to inhabit that place because she knew that few creatures would dare walking into that territory.

The pursuer was a hooded figure, who used water magic and was unable to repel the snake’s first attack.

The monster – who Akemi named “Bi” and for whom she cheered for – managed to hit two strokes, pulling the hood of the magician and revealing his face, painted in blood after a direct blow threw him against a tree.

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The warrior was a young man, under twenty years old. His face carried a mixture of anger and persistence.

He stood up and fought as he could, but the first two strokes affected his physique. From that point on, he could no longer deliver powerful blows, nor could he use his magic easily or move his body with the necessary speed. He ended up wounded by the serpent’s fangs the same moment he delivered the death blow to the monster’s eye.

After the fight, there was only a deadly silence hovering over the scene. The snake was dead. The human is wounded and was poisoned in the last attack. And Akemi, floating a few inches from the ground, looks at the warrior, wondering if he would still have enough strength to attack her.

-Are you going to kill me? – He asks, looking directly at the luminous center of the incorporeal. – Come on, you damn thing. Just-

He was unable to finish his sentence. The snake’s venom caused his body to contract itself. His hands twisted in a claw and he brought his knees to his chest. His whole body convulsed in a spasm and he started to squirm.

In an attempt to help – guided by pity – Akemi put a hand on his shoulder. At this point, her hand was nothing more than a round-shaped light.

And when she touched the face of the fallen warrior, what started as an attempt to help immediately turned into something else. At that moment, she felt her conscience strengthen. Her interior was filled with strength and she felt her mind clearing all of a sudden. Just then, she realized how difficult was to keep herself attentive and how, until then, she was easily distracted, jumping between thoughts. For the first time in a long time she wondered what she had been doing.

The sensation, however, was short-lived. Before she can even understand the amount of energy she was collecting from the magician’s body, his energy was depleted. She knew that her hunger was satisfied.

And that her actions sealed the warrior’s death.

This was the first time that Akemi ate like an incorporeal. It was on that day that she realized that this whole world was not just a dream. She realized that she wouldn’t wake up, no matter how long she waited.

From that day on, she fought in order to survive. She tried her best to feed on irrational creatures. Although the amount of energy of such creatures is very small (since they do not absorb the magic of the world in large quantities) it felt morally better for her to feed on them.

As years passed, the number of soldiers increased and, as the kingdoms became more civilized, the number of safe places for an incorporeal to inhabit became proportionally smaller.

For a long time, she tried to live peacefully in different places and sometimes even managed to find others like her. Although the ability to speak seemed to be something exclusive to incorporeals who ate as much as possible, even them were eventually captured and killed.

Akemi had to relegate herself to a smaller existence, fed by creatures who would not be able to avenge themselves and, sometimes, she would be able to feed on a dying person on a battlefield, or on a sick person whose room she invaded in the middle of the night.

She was not proud of those actions, but she also never regretted them. After all, it has always been a matter of survival. If all kinds of creatures hunted her before she even did anything, why should she stop being the hunter when the opportunity presented itself?

“Besides, it’s not like I’m killing anyone. I just collect the energy from those who are already doomed.” This reasoning was what kept her healthy and allowed her to sleep at night.

It is important to notice that time still passed very quickly by her. Sometimes years would go by and she would not notice until someone tried to kill her or some natural disaster destroyed her home. Like in a dream, her life passed much quicker than it should.

Over time, she had to learn the hard way about the rules of this world. She learned about the different creatures that inhabited the lands she passed through. She learned about the different people’s beliefs and superstitions. About the way her magic opposed the one handled by the creatures that had bodies. She learned about the kingdoms, their power and their influence. She heard rumors about a continent of dark magic and another continent, inhabited by warriors, descendants of the same ancestors of the people of the continent that she lives in.

She also learned about how the different creatures came into this world and how, by some bad luck, she got to this place with an incomplete body. And, because she was incomplete, she discovered that her body was not injured by conventional weapons. Of course, this was learned after she thought she had died several times, only to realize that she had not been hurt. However, this knowledge was accompanied by another one: Magical weapons could damage her. Although she did not feel pain – because her conscience did not seem entirely linked to this “body” – a blow from a magic weapon could cause another moment when her brain darkened, bringing back the feeling that everything was about to end.

She learned about the safe and dangerous places for an incorporeal to be. She learned about a barrier in the Desert that held a spell similar to hers and even visited the place, only to realize that she would not be able to go through the barrier, no matter how hard she tried.

Over the years, it became more and more difficult to find someone she could live with. The loneliness and constant fear of an attack – since everyone seemed to want to kill her – took her sanity almost to the breaking point. She began to wander aimlessly within the Great Forest and was often attacked on nearby roads by travelers, not dying just because they did not have a magician or because she felt a sudden will to live and fleet from the place.

The night she decided to leave on a trip was also the night of a very strong storm. The magic moved so violently that she remembered the time when she discovered her own magic. The time when she not only feared this world, but was also a little excited to explore it.

And that made her want to find out what this world had to offer.

The next day, when she started her journey, she would be led to question some of her oldest thoughts. After all, people talked about the existence of entities like Justice, Peace and Truth. Besides them, one of the most known is Destiny. Akemi has always judged such things as myths, created by people.

However, the very next day would make her doubt her own ideas. Was it possible for such a thing as Destiny to exist, or was just the consequences of her own actions that brought her to the beach? Was it a mere coincidence, which occurred because of her curiosity, fueled by the storm of the previous day? Or was it the touch of some superior creature?

After all, it was thanks to a conjunction of disconnected fact that she found a castaway lying on the beach.

It happened when she needed it most. Just when she decided she could no longer hide and she would have to investigate ways to change her life in this world.

It was precisely when she made her decision that she felt a type of magic equal to hers, coming from the body of a young man lying on the beach.

His magic was like her own, but still felt different. Because it flowed in a beautiful and gentle way. It came from the waters of the sea and from the creatures that approached him with the tide. It flowed from the waters to his weakened body.

She herself could not resist. When he opened his eyes and held out his hand, she could not reject him. After all, despite being the first time they saw each other, she immediately understood who he was.

He was not an enemy. That hand did not want to hurt her.

She tried to touch his hand, allowing some of her energy to flow into the boy’s body. He, fragile as he was, despite receiving the energy, did not heal immediately, closing his eyes and sleeping peacefully on the sand.

Akemi, excited by her discovery, realized that she was unconsciously smiling. Although her body was unable to express her smile, in her mind she knew she was smiling.

That boy was the change she needed. He would be the one who would transform this nightmare of a “life”. Through him, she could start over.

She decided she would do whatever was necessary to acquire a body. She would cross any path to protect him and to convince him to give her what she needed.

From that moment on, she would not allow their paths to separate.

And Arthur’s journey turned into Akemi’s Journey as well.

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