Kade opened his eyes, and for a long moment his mind was completely still. He simply stared up at the unremarkable ceiling, blissfully unaware of anything beyond the sunlight coming through the nearby window. Reality reasserted itself in the form of intense pain, and he would have whimpered if he was capable of any movement. His body was frozen and on fire all at once, and he sensed that his meager lifeforce was being continuously expelled to repair his ruined form.

He slowly became aware that he was in bed, and he thought it was his room at the inn–though even moving his eyes seemed beyond him, and he had only the ceiling to judge by. Time slowly ticked away, and it was measured in pains both new and cruel, as well as uncomfortably familiar. He could sense that the internal injuries were all related to the amount of Chaos that had ripped through him, and he recognized the horrible feeling from his time in Altera.

The truly paralyzing injury, however, was to his chest. He remembered with unfortunate clarity how it felt for his ribs to explode outward, allowing his Soul Core to directly release the overflowing energy. That he was alive at all was a surprise, as his physiology hadn’t evolved to the point that his cells had been replaced by independent crystals, capable of shifting and regenerating injuries in a direct exchange for lifeforce. Primus would bring that somewhat disturbing change, but for now–as powerful and durable as he was–his body was ultimately that of a man, and the damage to his bones and organs must have been alarmingly close to lethal.

As he slowly healed, Kade slipped in and out of consciousness, and he didn’t know how long it had been when he was finally capable of giving his body commands. At first he could only move his eyes, but at last he felt capable of turning his head slightly, and the first sight he was confronted by was Talnius, sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. The man was staring at him, and gave the impression of having been there for some time. His expression was somewhere between incredulity and fury, and Kade noted with some alarm that the man had one of his maces resting across his lap.

“Can you talk?” Tal asked in his typical gruff tone. Kade had to clear his throat several times before learning the answer himself. At last he let out a muffled ‘yes’, and Tal nodded once. “Good, because talking is clearly what you’re best at.” He stood up and began pacing in front of Kade’s bed. “Your morals and your lectures, these Gods-be-damned chains around our necks. Trying to turn us into good little boys, all the while you were planning this!” He punctuated his words by slamming a mace into the nearby wall, and plaster and debris rained over Kade, who couldn’t even move to cover himself.

There was true danger here, despite the collar the man still wore, and Kade sent out a mental command, trying to feel for Drake. He didn’t sense the Aspect at all, and was intensely worried–he’d left his familiar to watch over his companions when he’d gone to the sickhouse, and he should have been nearby. All Kade could do was watch the man pace and rant. “I have my regrets, and by Korthos I’ve done things that maybe I should regret more, but torturing the sick and dying for my own ends isn’t one of them!” The mace struck out again, and another chunk of wall was obliterated.

Kade swallowed painfully before croaking out some words, “Are they alive?”

Tal’s fury only seemed to grow at that, and he stared into Kade's eyes for a long moment before finally deciding to answer. “They live; for now. We have no true healers here and one had to be called from a neighboring village, so we don’t know yet what your disgusting actions have done to them.” Kade considered the man’s words, and the state of the sickhouse when he’d left. He knew that he was the only one capable of seeing the Chaos in those poor people, so what would it look like to anyone else? Furniture knocked around, fresh blood everywhere after being cast off his chains, and dozens of patients with strange wounds in their abdomens. It truly would have looked like torture, or at least some kind of sick experiment–Kade uncomfortably recalled the laboratory he’d awoken in, and his ravaged body gave a brief shudder.

Tal watched him writhe and seemed to take pleasure in it. He ceased his pacing and watched Kade for a long moment, shaking his head in disbelief. “Just what did you do to those people, and to yourself that ended with this?” he gestured to Kade’s ruined body. “And that energy…I’ve never seen or felt anything like it. Was it a signal? Is there someone else coming? We’ve been sitting around for two days trying to make sense of your madness. I would have killed you already if Cen and Olus hadn’t stopped me, and to hell if with your damned collar.” Speaking seemed to rile the man up further, and he once more slammed his mace into the wall, clearly frustrated that he couldn’t attack Kade directly.

For Kade’s part, he had no idea what to say. He still didn’t fully understand the compulsion that had driven his behavior, and sensed that it was far more than just another unusual ability. Even now, with his Soul Core feeling like it was barely holding together, he was completely certain that something in him had changed. He didn’t know what, but some kind of discovery was waiting for him, and he had the distinct impression that it held disturbing implications.

He tried to think of what he could tell the man, but the truth sounded nearly as bad as the crazed man’s wild guesses. I had a terrible desire to feed off the sick like some kind of monstrous Chaos vampire. Somehow that didn’t sound better than ‘torturer’ in his mind, and so he kept his mouth shut. When he refused to answer, Tal screamed in rage and began to advance on Kade, murder in his eyes, but at the last he seemed to notice something from outside, and appeared to physically tear himself away before stomping over to the window. He nodded grimly before speaking once more, “At last we’ll have some answers, even if they’re not from you.”

He turned back toward Kade, and in two strides was looming over him. Without ceremony or concern, he reached down and grabbed one of Kade’s arms, then dragged him from the bed. Kade only distantly felt his body crash into the floor as his lingering pain was still beyond measure. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as the man pulled him through the door, then heedlessly dragged him down the stairs and outside, crashing into every conceivable object on the way.

At last they were out in the open air, and Kade could feel himself being pulled through the streets. He managed to open his eyes, and immediately regretted looking down at his chest, which was still caved in, even if it was covered in a thin layer of scar tissue. He forced his gaze to the village around him, his exhausted mind barely able to register what was happening. Kade expected to be the center of attention, and dreaded having his well-earned shame on public display, but as the minutes passed and he didn’t see a single villager, he grew even more concerned.

At first he worried that something he’d done might have caused a calamity of some kind. He wasn’t completely sure that the gargantuan expulsion of Chaotic energy had been safely directed upward, and he half-expected Tal to deposit him in front of a pile of his victims. But the truth was stranger. When at last they saw another villager, the man wasn’t looking at Kade, but was instead on his knees, staring at something Kade couldn’t see as he bumped along in Tal’s grip, unable to look forward. They passed yet more villagers, first a few, then dozens, each of whom was entirely caught up in whatever was playing out up ahead.

Some began to take notice of Kade, and they whispered to one another and pointed. At last they reached their destination, and Kade felt himself hurled forward to collapse in a heap. “Look at them! Look upon the results of your mad rampage!” Tal roared with fury, and Kade managed to gather the strength to turn his head from where it was laying against the dirt and mud of the village street. He wasn’t surprised to find that the man had dragged him to the sickhouse, but the crowd of hundreds gathered around the building was a shock.

They were so densely packed that Kade couldn’t even see the doorway he remembered bursting through. It looked as if the entire population of Bolos had come to see his crime, and many were just like the first man: collapsed on their knees in horror. It belatedly occurred to Kade that it was oddly silent for such a large group, and he finally understood why as the crowd parted enough to show Presla speaking with a robed figure. He realized he’d met the second person before, during the village tour he’d taken with his unusual charges. Her name was Gemma, and she had naturally Awoken Healing in her Soul Core, a true rarity.

The women were speaking to one another quietly, with the healer repeatedly shaking her head, as if explaining that there was nothing she could do. This shouldn’t have been much of a surprise, as Gemma had surely visited Bolos in her long years on the frontier, but Presla’s reactions were quite unusual. She kept gesturing to a third woman, standing near the doorway. The woman appeared unremarkable, but Kade slowly came to realize that it was her that everyone was staring at, some of the nearby villagers even reaching out as if to touch her.

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Kade still couldn’t make out what they were saying from his place in the dirt, but he watched as Tal strode forward. Lost in rage and righteousness, the man began raging again, “I brought him! I brought the monster that did this.” At last the spell seemed to break, and all eyes turned to Kade’s pathetic form, crumpled and broke at the edge of the crowd. A path cleared to Presla and the Gemma, and Kade closed his eyes, not willing to look at the two who had dedicated their lives to helping the kind of people that Kade had preyed on.

“Talnius, what have you done?” Presla’s voice spoke into the eerie silence.

“What does it look like? I dragged him here to pay for his crimes. I thought he should at least see the tragedy he caused before we disposed of him. But if the villagers would rather see justice done immediately, I’d be happy to expedite the matter.”

“Oh Tal, you just don’t understand,” Presla said in a strange, sad tone.

“Enough of this!” Gemma’s high voice rang out with impressive authority, and Kade heard footsteps rapidly approaching. “This man is barely alive, how could you do this, Keeper Talnius?” Kade felt hands gently inspecting him, and moments later a warmth began to bloom inside him, the endless pain slowly receding.

“This man lost the right to any of our sympathy the moment he broke into a house of healing!” Tal roared. “Bolos is supposed to be special! It’s a place where the sick can be welcomed and treated with dignity. No staring eyes or warding gestures, no judgment from those lucky enough not to share their fate, no one treating them like pariahs just for the Chaos inside them! And this man destroyed all of that!”

Kade forced himself to open his eyes, his mind somewhat clearer now that the pain had lessened. He saw Gemma kneeling over him, silver hair spilling forward as she searched his eyes in desperation. “How did you do it?” she whispered in clear disbelief. “It’s not possible. I know it’s not possible. Please, how did you do it?” Kade could only shake his head in confusion before his attention was pulled back to Presla, who appeared to be desperately trying to calm Tal down.

He couldn’t hear her whispered words, but once more she gestured wildly at the woman huddled in the doorway, and with a clearer mind Kade realized she was somehow familiar, though he couldn’t place her. He’d met so many people in the last few weeks, but he couldn’t imagine what made this woman significant. Tal appeared to have a similar reaction, as he repeatedly shook his head in denial, before Presla pulled him forward with hands on either side of his face, and spoke for a long moment. Slowly Tal’s body seemed to relax, and he looked back at the woman with suspicion. She met his eyes, and nodded once, and Talnius seemed to suddenly lose what was left of his anger. He collapsed onto his knees, staring like so many of the villagers.

Cen and Olus emerged from the building only a moment later, each supporting a weak man draped in light robes. The crowd parted further, but several people ran forward to embrace the newcomers, and slowly the tension seemed to release, with murmurs and whispers giving way to sounds of elation, and even a few cheers. Kade still couldn’t understand what was happening, and he flinched when he realized Tal had regained his feet and was once more coming toward him. He found just enough strength to raise his arms in front of his face, but he lowered them again slowly when Tal collapsed to his knees with a thud. Kade was shocked to see tears streaming down the man’s grim face.

“Please,” his deep voice came out in a whimper. “Please, I’m sorry, I’ll do anything. Take my head with this collar if you must, but please…please heal Presla too.”

***

Hours later, Kade found himself in one of the many empty beds of the sickhouse, a steady stream of patients still being helped out as Gemma almost killed herself healing their fragile bodies. Cen and Olus stood like bodyguards in front of his bed, not protecting him, but rather politely dismissing the many villagers who either wanted to thank Kade for the impossible thing he’d done, or beg him to do it again for a family member or friend.

Presla had pulled Talnius away before Kade had been forced to speak to the man, and Cen and Olus had rushed to his side moments later, Gemma ordering them to take him to lie down. As she worked on his wounds she’d explained what she’d found upon arriving several hours earlier. At first she’d been as disgusted as anyone by the state of the sickhouse, but was surprised to find that the patients only had small, identical wounds, which were nothing compared to the regular decay and disfigurement caused by the Sickness.

The true surprise had come when she’d tried to heal her oldest patient, understanding that the woman’s fragile state meant even a small puncture wound could be fatal. Her healing had worked far, far, too well, however. Chaos Sickness was virtually untreatable, and the wounds and festering sores it caused couldn’t be affected by anything Gemma had ever encountered. And yet this time, the woman–who Kade had learned was named Marie–had reacted as if her injuries were entirely unrelated to the disease which had slowly ravaged her body and soul for over a century.

In moments Marie’s eyes had opened, her flesh and body restored, and she’d gotten up in confusion. She had been comatose for several years now, and was understandably disoriented. It had been her, of course, standing by the open doorway being stared at by the villagers, and Kade recognized her as the first patient he’d tested his ability on. Gemma hadn’t been sure if the woman was cured, or if the disease had been pushed back, but Kade’s eyes confirmed that there wasn’t a trace of Chaos left in her, and told them as much–though he didn’t elaborate on how he knew.

He was still unsure how much he should tell anyone, though he couldn’t keep everything a secret. If he could truly cure a disease that had been around for almost a hundred thousand years, he knew that he had to do so. Unfortunately he wasn’t actually convinced he could do it again. For the dozenth time he looked down at his bracer.

Name: Kadeus (House unknown)

Race: Child of Korthos (Variant)

Soul Core: Chains of Fate

Rank: Ascended Awakened (Dual-Path)

Lifeforce: 11%

Mana: 0/137

Chaos: 0/246

Strength: 19

Speed: 15

Endurance: 12

Magic: 11

Energy: 27

Ancestral Totem 1: (Name and House Unknown)

Class: Chaos Energist

Creed: Mine is the will that shapes worlds. Mine is the power that ends them.

Ability 1: Chaos Energy Blast (Rank 6, 43%)

Ability 2: Energy Construct (Rank 4, 26%)

Ability 3: Sealed

Augmentations: Mentor’s Amulet

Ancestral Totem 2: (Name and House Unknown)

Class: Vanguard

Creed: Ever moving, ever forward, ever fighting.

Ability 1: Relentless Pursuit (Rank 4, 14%)

Ability 2: Challenger’s Might (Rank 2, 29%)

Ability 3: Aspect of Metallurgy (Rank 5, 11%)

Augmentations: None

Ancestral Totem 3: None

His abilities and attributes had improved a great deal in his weeks of fighting alongside the false Keepers, and his Chaos reserves had once more taken an enormous jump by being so overtaxed. His mana pathways were still too damaged for him to absorb external energy, but Gemma had assured him this would take care of itself in time. It wasn’t this that made him unsure about helping others plagued with Chaos Sickness, however, and not why he was obsessively checking his bracer.

The problem was there was no new ability listed. Even back in Altera, before his Class was truly unlocked or remotely understood, the bracer had correctly identified the ability he used, even if its information was limited. But now he proved he could pull Chaos directly from living beings, and there was nothing. He had gone deeper into the interface dedicated to his Chains of Fate, but there was nothing new there either. He understood that Soul Powers weren’t as limited as Path Abilities, but for some reason he was absolutely sure that what he’d done was unrelated to his chains.

He’d used them as a medium, certainly, but somehow he knew the power came from somewhere else. It was the same feeling he’d had since he woke up, and it could only be connected to the odd compulsions that had driven him to such extremes in the first place. He had to make a decision soon as to what to tell Gemma and the others, but his mind couldn’t focus on what–on any other day–would have been the most important discovery anyone had made in millenia.

Instead, a single thought kept playing over and over in his head, and the implications–both personal and possibly to society at large–were staggering. Somehow he was sure–though he couldn’t say why–that he had broken a fundamental rule that governed all Children of Korthos. He had an ability that existed completely outside the purview of both his Soul Core and his Paths. Something so impossible that even the unusually powerful and versatile bracer couldn’t even recognize it.

Something–he finally allowed himself to admit–that only an Elder could do.