The hour grew late, and his companion was already sound asleep. Gharava remained seated against a wall. If he closed his eyes, the purple flames would surely burn away his eyelids. That would probably unsettle his companion. Simple mortals had a morbid fear of all things deathly. Instead Gharava stayed awake, forever.

He would spectate the slumber, the desperate despair in wrestling with dreams unending. Dreams. Gharava wasn’t fooled, he could see the magic at work, a different kind of awakening within the sleep. Something was changing within Anite, each and every night.

What a blessing it was to stumble upon this knight, this champion to the master of spiders, paragon of the queen of the graveyards, Gharava’s own object of reverence. What a blessing indeed, that Ashe would take such an offensive step. Such an open declaration it was, to choose a champion as a mortal representative. The other ascendants must’ve been aware of her choice long before the rat in question was aware of any involvement, if there even was any awareness at this time.

Anite… Gharava wondered about the significance of Ashe choosing a ratman as her mortal representative, especially such a dumb one. The power she granted was extreme, and seemed like a wild gambit; drawing power straight from the soul of the world, to replenish one’s own. A ludicrous idea. How could she choose to grant it to such a young one, what trust existed between these two entities.

Gharava himself could only cultivate his power by instilling dead bodies with his soul, and then waiting to recover the soul in his own body, but Anite’s soul seemed to have grown after the revelation in the dreamworld. The revelation must’ve functioned as a ritual of sorts. That was the only explanation Gharava could think of for this sudden change in Anite’s soul… and appearance.

Anite seemed to have grown a head taller, limbs and face seemed to have changed, somewhat. There was something eerie about it, the snout had seemingly shrunk by a small margin, and the eyes had gained a clarity to them. Though no clarity was found in this champion, as far as Gharava was concerned, as we speak, it takes him the utmost effort to ignore the groans and screams.

‘Death! Death! We will kill your sons and rape your daughters, such is the will of the trinity!’

‘Ah, friend is awake.’

‘What… Where are we? Brynn, is that you… no, no you’re Gharava. We’re in the cave. We’re back in the goddamn cave, dear Ashe.’

‘Yes caves, want dead rat?’

‘Thank you, yes please.’ Anite said, and began to rip the skin of the small carcass Gharava had slapped on the ground next to the weary warrior.

‘Eat good, we make long travelings again.’

The journey took them through the endless gray tunnels. Gharava followed Anite along as the warrior cracked away at the stone roots that covered the walls, revealing cryptic symbols hidden below that led the way to a castle of sorts. It would be the first castle Gharava had seen on this floor, and he’d believe it only then.

In fact he highly doubted the sanity of his companion. The way Anite’s legs swerved during their travels didn’t instill confidence, neither did the talking to the walls whenever they revealed new symbols to them, but the walls did reveal their secrets to the young knight, and Gharava could not for the love of him remember what sleep deprivation used to feel like, but he remembered it was unpleasant, and he hadn’t seen the young rat get any rest at night.

Benefit of the doubt.

Anite stopped him in his tracks, hushing him.

‘Tonight, we’ll feast. Look ahead.’

It was far away and hard to make out. There was a large rat scurrying in the distance. From estimate it seemed as large as they were and would provide quite a bounty. Gharava would enjoy to feast on its life's energies. However, if they’d draw closer the beast would surely escape.

His companion seemed to see no issue, and Gharava wondered what kind of madness afflicted the young rat. Would Anite chase the beast through the tunnels?

No.

Something stirred within Anite. With a snarky smile, an outstretched arm reached for the stone floor, and the old rat could feel the soul of the world quiver as it was drawn into Anite. The stone in turn, shaped to a long, stretched-out cylinder with a pointy end. Anite broke it loose from the ground, raising it as if it were a javelin, and throwing it with incredible might. It soared, and boomed as Anite unleashed more soul to push and guide the projectile. The large rat never noticed it before it got skewed to the wall.

Anite looked wobbly but proud, grinning at Gharava like he was Anite’s drunk father, and looked heartbroken when Gharava punched the young rat on the nose with his bony knuckles.

‘Is you stupid? Who teach to magic? Sloppy sloppy sloppy.’

‘What? Why? That was brilliant! The power and control were perfect. If I could do that before, I would’ve blown your pupils to bits in the rat town.’

‘Pffft, no control!! Why is quiet? Must say words, magic words. You waste soul with quiet magic. No wonder is always wobbly and crying.’

The young rat seemed to be fuming with anger, red in the snout, ready to shout that Gharava’s advice didn’t matter. But didn’t.

‘What would you have me do then?’ Anite asked, anger still spilling from the words. ‘I can’t use real magic! All I can do is this earth manipulation bullshit.’

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‘Is rat shit! You is chosen champion of Ashe, make do magic to world tremble. This is party trick. Is waste to do party trick.’

‘But I was never taught.’

‘Teach now. Is easy. Magic is inside. Make vision in mind, see magic before do magic. Hold vision and find words, words to make true vision.

‘Take soul, inside. No soul in stone, stupid rat!! Soul in throat. Feel tingle, and speak. Then? Death.’

‘It feels like your speaking nonsense, but I’ll try it.’

‘No try!’ Gharava said, punching again. ‘Choose words carefully.’

So, Anite’s mouth shut for a period of time. During the remainder of the evening they partook in the bounty of the dead rat. Quietly, as Anite was lost in thought, working through Gharava’s wise words. It wasn’t long before the young rat collapsed on the floor. Unsurprising, given the brazen use of soul in catching this fat meal.

Gharava sighed and sat down, waiting until the young rat inevitably woke up screaming about murder or gods or whatever that specific day had in store for them.

Do you see what I mean? The kid was an idiot. Gharava had to put up with this nonsense on a daily basis.

Anite had woken up just before the next morning, weeping uncontrollably, crawling around in look of something mysterious and significant. As if there was anything else but stone and bugs. After calming down, the young rat looked at him with wet eyes.

‘Soon is morning. Do we walkings? Want find friends, yes?’

‘That is good, I think.’ Said Anite, looking off into the distance, but the rat didn’t get up. ‘Actually, no.’

‘No?’

‘Yes, we have some time, still. I would like to talk to you.’

‘Hmm, Gharava knows where this goes. Does not like it.’

‘I have some things I feel like I should tell you. You’ve been a real friend to me. I think you’re the best friend I've ever had.’

‘Yes, yes, friends, just friends.’

‘I haven’t been fully honest with you, and I feel that if you’re helping me to this extent, I should tell you who you’re involving yourself with. Especially after you reunited me with Ashe. Gharava, the truth is, I am not a ratman.’

‘Of course not, is ratwoman, can tell.’

‘Excuse me… what?’

‘Look, Gharava understands, is strong and make long journey. Friend is attractive, prettiest rat ever seen. But cannot help with this. See, Gharava no have penis, fell off, long time ago because rotting. So cannot give friend hanky panky.’

‘I’m not a woman!!’

‘Hmmm.’

‘I’m human!’

‘I am man, yes. You woman, champion of Death, princess of Darkness.’

‘You don’t understand, for the love of… Look, I’m a person from a long time ago, an earlier civilisation of who knows how many years in the past. I lived a different life then. It’s only recently that I’ve become a ratman, perchance, I think. And I’m not a woman!!!’

‘Ashe choose you as champion. Matters not what you are, man or woman, ratman or not.’

‘Thanks Gharava, I needed to hear that you’d still follow me. I’ve been having a very tough time, to be honest with you. I used to have visions before, but they were more vague implications, like they hinted at a past life, and the line between dream and vision was much more blurry. I don’t know if it’s what you did to me, or if it’s due to the passage of time, but the line seems less and less blurred. It’s like I live it, and after I wake up, I don’t feel like myself, not entirely.

‘Last night was especially hard. In my past life I was a knight, a champion as well. I would be sent to destroy the enemies no one else could stand against, me and my two companions. Their names were Brynn and Allister. Brynn is this grim, cranky lady. She’s an assassin to the crown, unparalleled in the art of murder, if I didn’t exist. Allister is this large, bald priest that could use powerful magic.

‘Whenever I dream of them, Allister is always in a great mood and he’s kind, but I shun him. I shun both of them, actually. I always seem so sad and sullen. There’s this distance that I keep between me and everyone else, and I feel so sad for myself. It’s funny to say, but it feels like I’m looking at another person, someone that isn’t blessed with a loving family like I am now.

‘In my vision we were confronting an enemy. We had traveled a long time to meet, and finally we faced them. We were tasked to track this tribe of people hiding in an ancient forest, worshiping some fake idols. They welcomed us with open arms, and we partook happily in their food and drink. The trip had made us tired and hungry, so we let them believe we were friends. They treated us with care and respect. The weirdest thing is, their idol seemed very much alive. Their god walked between them, healing their wounds, blessing their spears, a being of omnipotent light. It smiled throughout our visit, regarding us with the curiosity of a child. Allister mused that a forest fairy must’ve taken these humans under its care and had ascended after receiving their prayers.

‘It stopped smiling when I stabbed the first woman. Allister started laughing. Filthy foolish pagans, he shouted, we’ve come to punish you for your sins. The god screamed as we began to massacre these poor innocent people. It charged at me, but Allister spoke some words and a flood of shadows poured onto the creature, suffocating its light, after which I jumped to slash it. I slashed an ascendant creature made of luminescence, and it fell back, bleeding darkness. Brynn continued with dispassionate murder as Allister and I pursued our true target.

‘We were sent there to kill a god. And it was working. Around us, trees came alive to slam us into the ground. The world seemed to twist in ways that defied common sense, turning us around as it bombarded us with scorching light. Allister’s magic intercepted all of the god’s attacks and my blade seemed to reach him from meters away, making it falter and succumb to its knees.

‘When we caught up to it, it looked at me, and cried. Two streaks of shadowy smoke dropped from its sapphire eyes. It meant nothing to me. It cried, and I drove my sword through its chest.

‘It was dying when Allister caught up. He grabbed it by the scruff as if it were an animal. This is all your own fault, he said. You overreached and tried to become something you weren’t. Perhaps if you hadn’t involved humans in your aspirations, it could’ve worked out well for you, but there are only three human gods. The punishment for this crime is death. Your death, and even more death. We will kill your sons and rape your daughters, such is the will of the trinity!

‘I don’t know who I am supposed to be anymore. This person I see seems so cruel and sad. I don’t know if I can be that person, even if I have to be. How can I be able to kill gods? I’m just a little rat.’

‘I understand feeling. Once, long time ago, was mighty king. Unite seventeen tribes to form unbreakable horde. But have too much power. Get betrayed, power gone, horde dying. Have to start all over. Running, running, always more running, but always heading forward. Past is past. Future is future.’

The young rat smiled at Gharava, looking forlorn as she thanked Gharava. His pupil really was a fool.