Starlit Path

by Deviance

Chapters

• Prologue
• Four Suns (Part 1)
• Four Suns (Part 2)
• Four Suns (Part 3)
• Dark Roots (Part 1)
• Dark Roots (Part 2)
• Dark Roots (Part 3)
• Dark Roots (Part 4)
• Dark Roots (Part 5)
• Dark Roots (Part 6)
• The Great Game (Part 1)
• The Great Game (Part 2)
• The Great Game (Part 3)
• The Greatest Victory

Prologue

At the end of a long, winding dirt road beneath a star-covered night sky, there stood a tavern. From its windows, light spilled forth and music, sounding both familiar and strange, drifted outside, welcoming all weary travelers, for the tavern was The Walker's Rest, and it sat at the end of all roads.

The dirt crunched beneath the feet of the two figures approaching the tavern. One stood on two legs and was dressed in a blood-red robe with a crooked hat in matching colors resting on top of his head. In his right hand he carried a body length spear, its gray shaft covered in fluid, orange glyphs and tipped by a blade the color of midnight.

Next to the robed man walked a creature of an entirely different sort. She stood on four legs, not two, and was more than a head shorter than the man. And unlike her human companion, her legs ended in equine hooves. On the forehead of the pony sat a horn, the same light blue as most of her body with the exception of her white mane and tail and the symbol on her flank in the shape of a wand over a crescent moon.

The two figures both halted their steps abruptly and looked around in surprise. After they had turned several times to observe the landscape–one that seemed to flow in shape and remain as ambiguous as possible–the man turned to his equine companion and gave her a cocky smile.

“Told you we’d find it. Who's the one with no sense of direction now, huh?”

The unicorn looked at him, clearly unimpressed, and instead cast a quick glance towards the tavern sitting at the end of the road they stood upon.

“What makes you think this is the right place? We could easily have ended up someplace else and the only thing that's waiting for us inside is a hungry monster,” she said with a voice that made the possibility sound like an annoyance rather than a real danger.

The man rolled his amber eyes, irises glowing faintly in the dark, and when he responded, he did so in a carefree tone.

“Have a little faith, Trix. It's not like I would, somehow, manage to stumble into some other omnipresent tavern that isn't as friendly as the one we're after.”

“Really? Because stumbling into trouble is what you're best at.”

“No, that's not the thing I'm best at,” he responded, wriggling his eyebrows suggestively.

The unicorn shook her head, bemused, but didn't actually refute the statement, which the man noticed and made him grin. As one, they both shifted their eyes to the tavern and listened to the music drifting through the night air. It was hard imagining that the place would offer danger when it called to them with such a welcoming feeling.

The unicorn must have conceded to this fact, for when her robed companion stepped forward and started to walk towards the tavern once more, she didn't raise her voice in protest; she only followed in silence.

However, when they arrived at the wooden door, the man hesitated. From inside, the sound of voices could be heard mingling with the music, and a kind of warmth emanated from the building. The door itself was made of a dark, brown wood and managed to look both sturdy and yet elegant in its simplicity. The rest of the structure gave a similar sense of having been made by a master craftsman, but one that favored warmth and comfort over luxury.

Yet they both hesitated at the door. Appearances were nearly always deceiving, a fact known especially well to the robed man as he often employed deception himself. Such was the way of a trickster, and that was what he was, among other things.

There was power that rested behind that door, and there was power in the land around them as well. Shifting like clouds in the wind, it never seemed to settle on any particular shape for more than a few moments, but the change was never noticeable unless one looked very carefully. It was a place that contained something that could create more than either of the two travelers could hold within their minds combined, and neither of them had had a pleasant history with authority figures, almost to the point that insolence was a calling card of theirs.

However, there were some things you just didn't do, and if even half of what the two travelers had been told about the place was true, then you respected your role as guest and respected the host even more.

With that in mind, the unicorn seemed to tire of her companion's indecision, so she pushed the door open with a hoof and stepped inside. The man blinked in surprise but, after a few seconds, he recovered and simply shrugged before heading in after her.

Inside, they were met with a golden glow, shining from within glass lanterns hung up on the ceiling and from candles that stood upon circular wooden tables spread around the tavern room. The light mixed together with soft smoke that swirled through the air and the room had the general feeling of delight and wellbeing.

Around the tables, creature of all shapes and sizes could be seen, nursing drinks or conversing with one another in quiet voices. Others kept to themselves, sitting in the shadowed areas offered by the many walled off sections along the outer edge of the tavern.

At the far end stood a wide bar where an old man, with white hair and beard, stood, polishing glasses with practiced ease. He looked up once at the newcomers, and both travelers squirmed uncertainly underneath the pressure of his gaze, but it lasted only for a second before the bartender returned his attention to the glass in his hand, and his new guests both breathed a sigh of relief.

They looked around and spotted an empty booth against the wall with two couches facing one another. It looked comfortable, and so they walked over and took a seat opposite each other. The man put his spear up against the wall, and a sense of sadness was felt from the spear for being put away, rolling off of it in waves of emotion and thought.

“Don't be like that. I know it's been a while since you saw some action, but it will come, probably soon now that we're on the road again,” the man said in a comforting voice and looked at the spear with an encouraging smile.

The unicorn coughed loudly, and the man turned his attention back to his companion.

“What? You know how it gets grumpy unless it gets to prove itself useful,” he said defensively and held out his arms.

The unicorn looked at him disapprovingly then nodded in the direction of the bar.

“We should probably go and introduce ourselves,” she said.

“I am pretty sure he knows more about us than I'm comfortable with. As soon as we stepped over that threshold, we entered his domain after all.”

“You don't know that. We don't even know who he really is and how much power he has, all we've got are rumors, and you know better than to trust those.”

“Hey, sometimes rumors can be a good enough source for information,” the man said and leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table and resting his chin on his folded hands.

“There are rumors that say you're a hero with a selfless heart of gold, and we know how ridiculous that claim is,” she said with a crooked smile.

“There are also rumors that say I'm a greedy, manipulative bastard and that you're an unpredictable danger to society, and we both know that's spot on,” he answered back with an even bigger smile.

The couches were little more than small cushions of leather over wooden benches, and the unicorn's bench creaked when she moved out of her seat and got down on the floor.

“Might be true, but I'm still thirsty and we came here for a reason, remember?” she asked and turned without waiting for a response and walked over to the bar.

The trickster remained in his seat for a few seconds, letting the sounds of the tavern drift over him with their pleasant murmur. He then turned towards his spear and said, in a completely serious voice, “I'll be right back. Don't kill anyone while I'm gone.”

He got out of his seat and walked over to the bar where the unicorn stood waiting for him, and where the bartender stood on the other side of the bar, still polishing glasses with utmost care. He didn't raise his eyes or even acknowledge that they were standing there, not until the unicorn spoke, “We would like something to drink.”

The bartender didn't take his eyes off the glass in his hand, instead he pointed with his left thumb over his shoulder to the many rows of bottles that stood there. The guests looked to each other with uncertainty in their eyes, however the robed man made a quick assessment of what he could see available on the shelves and then ordered two glasses of whiskey.

The bartender nodded and took two of the glasses he had just cleaned and poured an amber liquid from an old brown bottle into them. Without a word, he took the glasses and put them in front of the two travelers before going back to cleaning another glass, never once looking up.

The robed man dug around inside a brown shoulder bag that hung at his side and brought forth one small coin of what looked like silver and put it on the bar. He grabbed both glasses and turned halfway around, but stopped and turned his head back and asked, “I've heard that there are supposed to be many beings here who are able to make trade for a variety of things. You wouldn't happen to know where we could find one so well connected?”

The bartender stopped his polishing and looked straight into the man's eyes, and he in turn swallowed hard. Then, slowly, the bartender put down the glass in his hand and pointed towards a figure sitting alone at one of the tables where a large variety of items laid in a pile that the creature was busy picking through.

The robed man nodded in thanks and walked back to their booth on shaky legs, his unicorn companion following at his side and looking at him with concern. When they sat down at their table, he drained his glass in one gulp then sat with it firmly in his hands while the unicorn was slowly sipping at hers. The horn atop her head was glowing with a faint nimbus of light blue, and the glass itself was caught in a cloud of energy the same color, holding it aloft and moving as the unicorn willed it.

She kept her eyes on her companion the whole time, and when her glass clinked down on the table, empty, she spoke in a soft voice.

“Was it really that bad?”

“If he wanted to, he could simply will us all out of existence,” he responded and slowly drew his finger around the brim of his glass.

“But there was no hostility, right?” she asked with careful emphasis on the last word.

“No. Doesn't need to be. Honestly, I heard about the power of the owner but … just the sheer size of what is slumbering behind that exterior makes me think that there are only a few possibilities of who he really is…”

“Care to share them?” the unicorn asked and tilted her head.

“No. I don't want to think about it. I know it's not our style, but some things are best left unintruded upon. And Trixie… you can't have one of your outbursts in here okay? No blowing things up, no setting things on fire, no freezing of other people's body parts. Not under His roof,” he finished with a shudder.

The unicorn pouted, but after one quick look back at the bartender, she conceded and nodded in understanding before shuddering, herself. They sat in silence for a few minutes after that, allowing the situation to sink in, but once it did, a smile broke out on the robed man's face and he chuckled. Trixie raised an eyebrow in question and he responded with an excited voice.

“We're in The Walker's Rest, Trix. We found it. From here, we could set out for any road in our entire universe.”

The unicorn gave a smile of her own and her eyes shone with unbridled excitement as well when she realized the possibilities. The Walker's Rest, the tavern at the center of the universe. The place to which all roads led if one knew how to walk them the right way, and also the place from which all roads could be traveled. No matter the place or time, if there was a road, they could now reach it with a bit of luck and skill.

“Karon...” the unicorn said as her smile gradually grew into a grin.

“Yes, Trix?” the trickster asked, a shiver of delight running up his spine at the fire he saw burning in the unicorn's eyes and at the thought of what awaited them.

“This journey is going to be something special.”

Four Suns (Part 1)

Karon turned the rune-inscribed cube around in his hand, doing his best to discern a pattern from the symbols, hopefully one that might reveal how it worked. After a couple of minutes, glaring at the thing without success, he put it back down on the table and gave the merchant standing behind it a quick nod before walking away.

Around him, strange and alien beings trickled back and forth, a menagerie of creatures that were all gathered in the same place as Karon for a single purpose: to shop. He looked around the market for any sign of Trixie, and, to his great annoyance, she was nowhere in sight, despite having promised him to stick close by. But, as was now the norm, she had once again run off in search of something exciting and had left Karon to shoulder the burden of being responsible and pulling her out of trouble.

“You know things are going to end really badly when I'm the one that has to play the voice of responsibility.”

“Loosen up, we're here to have fun and explore!”

“And end up running for our lives if Trix is left unchecked for too long.”

Karon sighed and looked up at the surrounding buildings. Tall spires stood next to small tents, and huge mansions of lavish design stood side by side with rundown houses. Every geometric figure imaginable could be seen in one, or several forms, depending on where you looked, and from time to time one of them would just vanish, leaving an empty space that was soon filled by a new building.

Through the crowd, Karon caught a glimpse of what he thought was Trixie. He hurried over and found her standing in front of a window, behind which several statues stood, all of them crafted from unknown material and shaped into the forms of unfamiliar beings.

“What was that again about sticking together?” Karon asked when she noticed his presence, tapping his chin like he was trying to remember.

“Don't be so grumpy. I haven't managed to trip and break my neck yet, have I?” she told him with a raised eyebrow.

“Give it time,” Karon muttered.

“What was that?!” Trixie asked sharply.

“Ehh, gibbet lime … it's a human thing, you wouldn't understand,” he answered with a quick smile.

“Uh-huh. You do remember I spent almost two years on Earth, right?”

“You spent like half that time rotting your brain in front of a TV,” Karon told her, and the two of them started walking down the street without taking their eyes off each other.

“Exactly. I know all about humans now.”

“Somehow I think that you've gotten a skewed representation of our species through reality shows,” he said dryly.

“No, I think I got a pretty good idea of what you're all about.”

Karon considered that for a moment, and eventually he was forced to admit that indeed, she might be on to something. They followed the street until they reached its end at a platform that stretched out from the mountain. The view was extraordinary, and so they stopped to look and take it all in.

The Bazaar. That was what it was commonly called. It had other names as well like the Night Harbor, the Day Harbor, the Divine Market and many more. It was the go-to place for all of your extraordinary shopping needs. There, you could find more or less any item from any world if you looked hard enough. Everything from the dreams of sleeping gods to used old rocks was traded, and the haggling was intense since there was no one accepted system of currency or exchange.

Karon had heard rumors about the place while in The Walker's Rest, and once he'd told Trixie about it, their next destination had been set. The idea of a place with millions of objects and creatures from all the corners of the universe had been one she hooked on to viciously. Reaching it had not been easy, though, even with the access the omnipresent road of The Walker's Rest offered.

But eventually they had found a way in, and now they stood at the edge of a cliff jutting out from a section of mountains, forming a circle around a deep set valley. The mountains were carved into plateaus leading up to one another, like huge stairs upon which thousands of buildings stood. From the top of the mountains, a green-blue liquid poured down through rivers and out into aqueducts suspended in the air, each of them leading to a small lake at the center of the valley.

It was an extraordinary view, and around them, the sound of thousands of voices mixed together and breathed life into the city-like market. But what truly separated the bazaar from every other place Karon had ever seen was the sky.

A great, fog-like spray hung over the bazaar, shielding it from the four suns, which were visible through the haze and capturing the light they gave off in a display of explosive colors. And where the fog, one moment, was swirling in a deep, red glow, it soon was overtaken by green and blue, and so on it went, with the light fracturing in a constant struggle and different colors replacing one after another.

The suns themselves shone through the mist without their color changing, hanging in opposite positions from each other. They ranged in size and color from the huge blue sun through red, yellow and finally the small white.

Karon looked up towards them without fear. Their light would not be enough to hurt his eyes, and he was curious as to what significance they held. In a place like bazaar, what was seen was symbolic, a representation of something far greater. What you saw was not even half of the real picture.

But the suns, much like everything else in the bazaar, remained a mystery to him. Although Karon found the mystery enthralling, Trixie began squirming impatiently at his side, and when he looked down to her, she gave him a demanding look.

“What?” he asked.

“Come on, let's get down there. I want to see what's in that lake!” she answered giddily.

Karon shrugged at the suggestion, for a lack of anything better, and together they attempted to find their way through the winding streets of the bazaar. The path down appeared plain at first and open stairs led down the different plateaus of the mountain, while thousands of other visitors passed them by. Red robes, green skins, blue skins, yellow light, black eyes, the bazaar combined all that it held within and mixed it together into a pandemonium of sounds, sights, smells and psychic impressions.

As they descended down from the high places of the market, the background noise of the loud murmur gradually passed into that of distant hushed voices, and in far fewer numbers. The streets became shaded by tall buildings of solid stone, metal or other, unknown material, and they gave off a feeling that wasn't as welcoming as the upper districts had been.

Karon noticed the change, and his eyes started to scan their surroundings more with narrowed suspicion than with wide-eyed wonder. The change was entirely lost on Trixie on the other hand, or she chose not to care about it; she skipped forward with the same eager steps as before.

“Trix, slow down,” Karon said.

“What?” she turned around and asked, stopping for a moment to allow him to catch up.

“Maybe we should take greater care not to get lost. I'm not sure if you noticed, but if the bazaar has a slum, we're now in it,” he said and caught a flicker of movement in one of the windows looking down at them.

In his right hand, Promise reacted to his nervousness with a reassuring impression, telling him that she would be all too happy to slaughter anything that would even consider harming him. Trixie didn't seem as worried.

“Come on, Karon. It's nothing we haven't faced before, even if things get a little messy. Besides, that trader back at the inn said there was a truce or something here, right? As in, 'don't start trouble or you'll vanish without a trace and never be seen again'.”

“Yeah, well I'm not sure how much I would trust him. And just because fighting is forbidden doesn't mean there won't be other ways to harm someone,” he said and glanced back the way they came.

“Like what?” Trixie challenged, and Karon got the impression she would have been standing with her hands on her hips had she been human.

“I don't know. That's why I'm worried.”

Trixie smiled at him with a mixture of encouragement and condescension before she answered. “You're being paranoid, again. Even if something happens, it will just make the trip more exciting. Between the two of us, we can handle pretty much everything anyway.”

She didn't let him give any further argument, and turned around without letting his worry bother her in the least as she continued her joyful path down the dark streets. Karon hurried after her, but he didn't let go of the tight grip he had around Promise or the nagging sense of unrest poking at him from the deep corners of his mind. His sense for trouble had only grown sharper over the years, and he had learned to listen to it.

They passed by several creatures on their way forward, but nowhere close to the flood of alien beings that they had encountered on the upper levels. It was hard to determine if they actually looked less trustworthy than the ones they had seen before. In a place like the bazaar, appearance was the last thing one should rely upon for information, but the general feeling of something being just a little more shady - both figuratively and literally - was hard to miss. That is, unless you were a unicorn with delusions of invincibility.

The few years she had spent on Earth had changed Trixie in more ways than Karon could keep count of, or maybe it had just stripped away the hard outer shell she had built and allowed something else to surface. She had grown both in skill and power, but in Karon's eyes, she treated it much like a child would treat a flamethrower. And there would be plenty of things in the bazaar that would be fireproof.

“So, just keep a close eye on her. This place wouldn't last a day if there wasn't some kind of safety measure against violence. Probably very strict, unforgiving and painful for anyone that would try and start something … so, uhh, keep a close eye on her so she doesn't start anything.”

“Yeah there's probably something, but we have no idea how it works or ways to circumvent it.”

“Uhm … are YOU planning to do something?”

“Of course not. But a trickster's strength is in deception, trickery and just plain cheating.”

“So?”

“How the hell am I supposed to cheat if I don't even know the rules others play by?”

“Okay, that might actually be a valid concern. It's one thing when you're just bitching about… well you bitch about everything. It's another thing entirely when we might not be able to cheat our way forward. Unthinkable!”

“Are you being sarcastic?”

“Who? Me?! Would I ever?”

“I'm going to ignore you now.”

“Wait, maybe we can buy ourselves out of trouble. We still got plenty of golden trinkets in our bag. Bribery is universal.”

“Firstly: there isn't enough gold in this entire market worth more than me, I'm very precious. Secondly: There is no set currency to compare value with here, so our trinkets might be worthless or invaluable depending on where we find ourselves.”

“Well maybe we can-”

Karon was forcefully torn out of the internal dialogue, when a loud clattering sounded to his left. He jumped from the fright, and came down with Promise pointed straight at a tent standing between two tall buildings of dark gray stone. He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized they weren't under attack, and a few seconds later Trixie came back to stand beside him with an amused look. Sheepishly, Karon gave her a smile and pulled back Promise, trying not to lean on the spear too obviously as he waited for his heart to stop racing.

From inside the tent, more sounds of stuff crashing could be heard, joined by unintelligible cursing. For a moment, Karon forgot his worry about their location, and he took a step forward to investigate what was going on inside the tent.

He stopped, though, when instead, a creature came stumbling out from inside with a loud growl, and quickly regained its balance and brushed dust off a garish set of clothes. When it noticed Karon and Trixie standing in front of him, its thin lips broke out into a smile, showing off sharp looking fangs, and it stepped forward with open arms and a look of relief on its face.

“Excellent, excellent. Bitz still is a fast hunter, even if a less agile one. So worried you would have time to go away before he reached outside. Come in, come in,” the creature said and waved them towards the flaps of his tent.

Even Trixie looked towards the tent and creature doubtfully, and next to her Karon was gathering energy to give off a burst of light to blind it, hoping that wouldn't count as starting a fight.

The creature must have understood, because it stepped forward with his claws open and spoke in a reassuring tone. “Ah Bitz sees, Bitz sees. Weary travelers that know the dangerous roads of the Starlit Path yes? Good, good, Bitz is happy to see candle is still working and not junk yet. Fear not, Bitz is humble hunter now, and has customer in need of you.”

Karon couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, and he looked at the creature carefully. It wore horribly colorful clothes, and Karon noticed after a few seconds that they weren't really clothes as much as several layers of cut fabric he had draped around himself. Its body was lean, and the legs were bent backwards, ending in feet with three large toes with talons in the front and one in the back. Its hands had only four fingers, each one with a claw, and on top of its head sat two short, forward curving horns. It had orange eyes, not much different from Karon's own, and almost unnaturally smooth looking skin with a bronze sheen. Shaggy, dark hair framed the top of its head from which the horns protruded, and the overall impression Karon got was that of something savage trying to be civilized.

But who was he to judge? Tricksters didn't enjoy the finest of reputations themselves.

“And is there a particular reason why it's us you want to enter your tent?” Karon asked.

“Bitz asked the candle, and candle showed you two. Now come, enjoy Bitz’s fine hospitality, famous through all the universes as the best to find. You will be able to tell others that you have experienced it yourselves, and gloat at their jealousy!”

The creature calling itself Bitz turned its back to them and went inside the tent, which looked barely large enough to contain all three of them at the same time, even less so if he already had customers inside. What worried Karon, though, was how he had referred to himself as a hunter, rather than a trader or merchant.

Such petty concerns were apparently beneath Trixie, and she followed after Bitz without a second thought. Karon watched as she vanished into the tent, and he took a moment to let out a long sigh before hefting his spear and going inside himself.

He stood stunned when the flaps opened up to reveal a grand room at least as big as any mansion's dining hall and filled with all kinds of curious items. Bookcases stood against the tent's walls filled with either books or jars, containing what looked like different herbs or organs floating in liquid. Tables and display cases stood spread out across the room, with items ranging from trinkets to weapons displayed proudly, and from the walls, light trickled in as if a sun was shining through despite the fact that the tent was sitting in deep shadow.

Several pillows laid in a circle towards one end of the room, upon which a normal looking human female sat clothed in a blue dress and wearing a troubled look on her face. Bitz was standing beside her, right next to Trixie, who he looked to be introducing. All three of them then turned to wait for Karon to approach, and when he came to stand before them, Bitz clapped his hands together happily and spoke.

“And this is...” he said and rolled his hand to let Karon answer.

“Karon,” Trixie answered for him and smiled.

“And what are you?” the woman asked, her voice melodic and sweet sounding, but with a note of sadness in it.

Karon looked into her deep blue eyes, surrounded by pale skin and framed by golden hair reaching down to her jawline. She was pretty in a certain way, but there was something wrong with her aura that made Karon want to wince. If the sound of nails screeching across a blackboard could be made into a feeling, that would be it.

“I'm a trickster. Used to be human,” he answered truthfully, and saw how her eyes widened.

“I have heard of such creatures. Why would you want to help me?” she asked carefully.

“Actually, I have no idea what this is all about,” he said. “But I am willing to hear you out,” he added when he saw desperation flash across her face.

“Yes, yes. They are the ones to help; the candle never lies. Bitz never fails a hunt and these were the prey no doubt,” the unknown creature said and smiled broadly.

“Well we already know your name, but what are you then?” Karon asked.

“Bitz is Vesh, best hunters of all hunters. Alas, Bitz days of flesh and blood hunting is over, now he only hunts for the BEST prices and SWEETEST deals in all the bazaar!” he announced proudly, and Karon saw the woman's lips twitch at the description.

“So you're a trader?” Karon asked.

“That's what it's called, but I don't trade, I hunt,” Bitz said with overwhelming patience in his voice for the poor fools who didn't seem to get the difference.

“So what do you want with us?” Karon continued the questioning.

The woman's face twisted into a pained expression at the question, and Bitz patted her on the shoulder a few times before answering.

“I want to send you out on a hunt for Bitz. You see, poor, poor Selena here is a friend of Bitz, and it is known to her of Bitz's excellent connections and unequaled hunting skills. Which is why she came to see Bitz after something very precious was stolen from her by a thrice-spat-on thief. But Bitz can't leave Bazaar to go hunting for the blood of the thief, and ehh … Bitz is afraid the accursed thief might not be so easy prey for an old Vesh. So, Bitz used his candle to find someone that would be able to find the thief, and retrieve what was stolen for honored customer, Selena.”

“So you want to hire us to track a thief and retrieve something, because a candle told you so?” Karon asked slowly.

“Yes, the candle has never fooled Bitz before, and honored Selena needs help. Will you accept Bitz’s most gracious offer?”

“I...” Karon said, and turned to Trixie with an uncertain expression.

She in turn looked, furrowed her brows, and looked to be in deep thought for a few seconds, and then she looked back up and shrugged. Karon snorted and shook his head, then turned his gaze back to the trader and his robbed friend with a slight smile.

“We've got nothing else going on,” he admitted, and his new employer grinned.

“Bitz is pleased with this! Now, honored Selena will show you to her home world, and together you shall track this villain most foul!”

“What of our payment?” Trixie was quick to ask.

Bitz blinked like a deer caught in a headlight, and remained stunned in silence for a long time before he replied.

“Payment? Why … every other adventurer and traveling hero does not ask for such things. They are content with the experience they gather. It seems to hold some value to your kind which Bitz cannot discern. I think they talk about keeping score and compete for points. It’s all very strange and confusing.”

“Well, our help doesn't come for free, and we're not exactly heroes,” Trixie explained, then hesitated and looked up to Karon. “Does this make us mercenaries?” she asked him.

“I think so,” he said without missing a beat, and they both turned to look at the squirming merchant pointedly.

Sitting with her legs crossed on a cushion, the woman named Selena frowned at the two with a reproachful look. Karon caught it and held his hands out openly, and said. “We're happy to help, but this sounds like it could be dangerous, and we need to eat.”

She nodded in understanding, but still looked a little less relieved than she had been a moment earlier. Beside her, Bitz appeared to be going through several stages of denial, but he eventually sighed and gave the two a tiny nod, barely perceptible. Karon and Trixie saw it none the less, and Trixie pressed on. “So? What kind of payment can we expect?”

“Bitz will grant you anything from his collection of wares equal to the value of what you recover, and the danger you will be put through. Bitz will barter with you of what exactly that might be after honored customer Selena has what was stolen back.”

“So … what is it that has been stolen exactly?” Karon asked.

Selena looked down to the floor with a haunted expression, and when she answered it was with a voice that made Karon think it caused her pain just speaking of it.

“My destiny.”

                      *****************************************************

The look on Karon's face as they passed through the buzzing crowds of the bazaar was one not often seen on him; a look of humbleness. He couldn't describe it in any other way, as he caught a glimpse of himself in the reflective surfaces they walked by. They had left Bitz's tent behind after a brief assurance they would indeed be paid, and swearing to do all they could to help Selena in return.

As far as contracts of service went, Karon thought it was kind of flimsy. But like so many others things concerning the bazaar, The Walker's Rest, and the grander universe in general, he just didn't know what to compare the standards with. He had walked in a world of colorful ponies and experienced some of the strangest things in his entire life there, but he had walked mostly confident and unafraid, arrogant even. He had known things they didn't know, done things they didn't understand or could do themselves.

He walked an entirely different kind of walk through the bazaar. His steps were more measured, and his look of haughty amusement had been replaced with one of marvel and nervousness. He tried to hide the slight shake of his hands by gripping Promise harder, but he couldn't fool himself so easily, and every time his eyes meet that of another strange creature he felt a shiver.

“Get a hold of yourself. You're embarrassing us.”

“I'm trying.”

“Try harder.”

He cleared his throat and turned to the woman, Selena, walking beside them with a faraway expression, and said, “Would you mind telling us more about what happened? Details would be nice before we go after this thief.”

She blinked like he had brought her out of a deep reverie, and she spoke hesitantly.

“It's hard to remember. He must have drugged me, or maybe used magic to confuse my mind.”

“Still, any details you could provide will help,” he pressed on, and didn't take his eyes off her.

Walking a little ahead, Trixie overheard the conversation, and slowed her steps to let them catch up.

Selena looked to be pained by speaking of it, but she nodded in understanding and continued. “I was our matron mother, the helper of our town. I am supposed to help solve trouble, give advice, and help maintain the peace. I don't know very much of the arts, and I am not a user of magic myself; I am just another person in our community.”

“Then how come you even knew about the bazaar, or were able to get here?” Karon asked.

A smile graced her lips, and she explained.

“It was through Bitz. I met him when he was very sick and wounded. The farmers outside our town had found him sleeping in the woods, and beaten him. However, they had not dared kill him for fear that the 'demon's' death would bring a curse down on them, so they brought him to me for advice. I didn't know what to do, and when Bitz woke up he used a ring to speak our language and explain that he meant no harm and was just passing by. After I admonished the farmers, I let him stay with me until he got better.”

“I don't think Bitz would be so easy to hurt that a few farmers could do it,” Karon murmured, and Selena nodded.

“I thought so, too, which helped me realize that he truly meant no harm, since he could probably have killed them if he wanted to. After he got better, he left, but he gave me a kind of necklace that would help me reach him if I would ever need to see him again.”

“That was very brave of you; coming here, I mean. No magic and relying entirely on a talisman is… almost suicidal.”

“I needed to see him. I know of no one else that could understand what has happened. Who else would believe that such a thing as destiny could be stolen?”

“Still, in this place you are helpless. Beings that could overpower you without any difficulty at all pass you by every few seconds. How can you be so calm?”

“I trust Bitz, and I have given no reason for any of those beings to harm me. Besides, Bitz told me it does not matter how powerful you are, if you try to bring violence to the bazaar, you will simply vanish.”

“There are ways to work around that I'm sure,” Karon said.

“It does not matter; there are always those that are stronger. That is no reason to be afraid, only cautious, and weigh one's actions with care.”

“I can see why people wanted you to be the one to come to for advice,” he said jokingly, but looked away thoughtfully still.

They were heading up towards the tip of the mountain by way of the many stairs that could be found leading from plateau to plateau. The crowd had grown more in size the further up they went, as did the brightness of everything around them. It had eventually started to dwindle down, though, as they reached the uppermost sections, and the beings that they saw were almost always heading downwards.

It took a long time of walking in silence before Karon remembered that he was supposed to be asking about the theft.

“So what happened when you had your destiny stolen?” he asked.

Selena opened her mouth, and then closed it again several times, like she had difficulty finding the words to describe it.

“I don't know how it happened. I was simply saying good bye to a family I had helped, and then I got sleepy, and things went dark. When I woke up, I was lying on a floor somewhere else, a basement. There was a man standing in the shadows, and when he saw I was awake, he started to laugh. He said he wanted to thank me, that thanks to me he would now be able to get what he truly wanted. I was afraid and asked him what he meant, and what he'd done. Because I knew something was wrong, I could feel a chill inside me, like a draft through something empty.”

She shivered visibly while describing the events, and Karon listened carefully with Trixie doing the same.

“He … he said he had taken my destiny. That I was supposed to become our land's first great leader, and bring about a rule that involved all of the cities. I don't know how … I have never thought of doing anything like that, but I could feel the wrong inside me, and I knew he was right when he said it. He let me go after that. I never saw his face, before you ask. He was dressed in black clothes with a hood that left him in shadow, but he did give me a name. He said it was Nagrosh the Dark.”

The solemn moment was shattered into tiny little pieces when Karon's sputtering laughter rang out, and next to him Trixie made an exasperated face. Selena watched him nearly fall over with confusion written all over her face, and after several minutes of belly deep laughter Karon regained his composure, and wiped the tears out of his eyes, while Trixie was shaking her head at him.

“Sorry, it just ... Nagrosh the Dark. Seriously? Suddenly I am a lot less worried about this guy,” Karon said while his shoulders still shook with suppressed giggles.

“Are you truly so powerful then? That you have no concerns about facing a man able to steal destinies?” Selena asked with a tilted head.

“Well, we have seen some trouble, yeah,” Karon told her.

“Oh, so you believe it won't be difficult reclaiming my destiny, then? I was certain you were afraid when you spoke earlier, but maybe it's just that you are different from the ordinary people I advise,” Selena said thoughtfully.

“Yes, that's probably it,” Karon agreed, but didn't miss the suspicious glance he received from Trixie.

The remainder of the conversation was irrelevant small talk between Selena and Trixie, which Karon allowed to pass by as just more background noise. The idea that any dangerous opponent would ever stoop so low as to refer to himself as 'Nagrosh the Dark' was ridiculous. The more he thought about it, the more Karon came to expect that this Nagrosh would probably be a black clad teenager, wearing too much eye-liner and trying to defeat them through shouting bad poetry, which he probably wrote himself.

“Maybe that is a teensy bit of an exaggeration, but I think you got the gist of it.”

“Then it should be easy, we've almost definitely seen more action than him. Hit hard and fast and we should be able to take him just by shock and awe.”

“Don't get overconfident. There's still the matter of tracking him down, though if he actually uses that horrible name outside of villain's expositions where he laughs at the brilliance of his own plans it shouldn't be too difficult.”

“And if not?”

“Then we might actually have to work for our pay.”

“Wouldn't that be a shame.”

The three of them came to a halt when they arrived at a tunnel stretching into the mountain, one that was incidentally positioned right below the blue sun and filled with a swirling blue fog of the exact same color. Selena took out a small copper disk inlaid with runes of gold, and from it came a faint humming sound that the woman appeared to be listening intently to, until she turned her eyes to Karon and Trixie and said, “This is the way I came from, and it should take us back home if we stick to the path the talisman lead us on.”

“And you're sure it will work? I don't think things work that simply around here,” Trixie said and gave Karon a worried look.

Both of them thought back to the paths they had been forced to take in order to gain entrance to the bazaar. Sure they might not have had a talisman to guide their path, but even with one it wouldn't have been an easy or pleasant road. And once they had left it behind, they'd agreed never to speak of it again.

“I think so, too, but this is telling me that the way home is the same way I came. And I think it’s right because, well the way here was filled with red fog, and now it's blue. Maybe that means it is the opposite?” Selena finished and looked at them expectantly.

Karon and Trixie gave each other an almost identical look, and when neither said anything they turned back to the woman, and shrugged in unison. In return, she swallowed visibly and appeared nervous.

“Well there's only one way to find out,” Karon said and took a step towards the tunnel.

“Uh, no, actually there's several. Like asking for directions,” Trixie interjected.

“That would just be awkward,” Karon said and dismissed the foolish notion with a wave of his hand.

He expected to hear some kind of retort involving how ridiculous he was, instead Trixie ran right past him with a laugh, and before she disappeared in the thick blue fog she looked back and stretched out her tongue at him.

“If I die it's your fault!” he heard her call back, and his mouth went suddenly dry. He took a few quick steps forward, then turned to Selena and told her briskly. “Let's hurry, we can't lose her.” He then set off after the unicorn, not once looking back to see if Selena followed.

The blue fog swirled in a thick, syrupy movement, and seemed to swallow him almost hungrily as he stepped inside the tunnel. There was a sense of displacement, lasting for only a second, and when it receded, Karon found himself standing in an open field. All around him, the blue fog lazily drifted back and forth on soundless winds and underneath his feet some kind of pitch black dirt stirred like dust as he took a step forward.

Selena appeared out of nowhere and came to stand right next to him, wearing a confused expression that soon cleared as she looked around. Karon, on the other hand, had his eyes darting in every direction, searching for any sign of Trixie. It was impossible to say how big the clearing they stood in truly was, since they could only see a few meters before the fog became too thick to see through.

Then Trixie appeared abruptly from the depths of the fog, and gave them a wide smile while Karon breathed a sigh of relief.

“Don't do that again,” he threatened as he walked over with Selena following behind, the talisman still firmly in her right hand.

“Come on, I only took a little look around. Not that there is much to see. The fog is everywhere and there's no road or anything, just this black stuff,” she said and scraped a hoof on the ground.

Karon turned to Selena. “Does the talisman say anything about where to next?”

The woman furrowed her eyebrows and looked to be biting down on her tongue, and stared hard at the small object in her hand. Eventually she opened her mouth slightly, and said in a calm, almost serene voice. “Move forward towards the blue sun. When we are in a place with the right tone, the pathfinder will sound, and a path will be made open.”

Selena closed her mouth, and blinked rapidly before she turned her eyes to Karon, and she gave him a nervous smile. “I think we have our way home.”

“Did that happen the last time you used it, to reach the bazaar I mean?” Trixie asked and looked at the talisman in her hand.

“Yes, though it didn't make me talk. It was just kind of like a feeling, a sense of where to go and what to do.”

“Well it would be a good idea to follow the instructions since we have no other way of making sure we don't get lost,” Karon said and looked up into the sky where a blue sun - the same they had seen in the bazaar - shone visibly through the fog.

“Judging from experience, I'd say there's a fifty-fifty chance we get lost anyway and end up running for our lives,” Trixie said cheerily, and Karon wondered if he'd at some point accidentally cursed her with some kind of permanent high.

Selena looked back and forth between the two, and Karon could very well guess that she was questioning just how smart it had been hiring the two of them.

“Don't worry; we'll get you back home and retrieve your stolen destiny,” he assured her, and gave Trixie a meaningful glare.

The unicorn in turn only gave him an amused look, then turned around and walked forward with the blue sun as her guiding star. Karon and Selena headed after her, and soon all three lost all sense of direction to the fog, the sun remaining as their one point of stability.

The company continued on their path, Trixie looking around with an almost bored expression, while Selena was lost in whatever brooding thoughts being fate-less brought. Karon, on the other hand, was busy looking around with a curious expression. It hadn't taken long before he'd noticed that the blue sun wasn't the only sun visible through the fog; the red, yellow and white suns were there as well, clinging to separate ends of the sky, like they marked its corners.

However, that was not all. Trixie had made substantial progress in her abilities, but it had become painfully obvious that she was nearly the exact opposite of Karon in regards to what kind of magic she had an affinity for. She took easily to the hard, almost brutish, baser energies one made use of while manipulating the physical or just generally breaking things.

Karon wasn't like that. His affinity was for the softer energies, those that saturated the dreams, thoughts and emotions of other creatures, something that shouldn't be surprising considering his trickster nature. He could of course deal with the more 'brutish' ways, as energy was energy of course. But his aura, his being, attuned and channeled the softer kinds more easily, and since they themselves were more subtle in their ways, he was left with sensitivity to all forms of energy. It was what allowed him to sense the shifts and flows of the forces that drove the blue fog that swirled around them, while Trixie barely seemed to be aware of it at all. And it was also what made Karon feel a slight tingling in his fingertips when it changed.

The fog had been thick, almost liquid, and flowed with a kind of grace that was both light yet stable. And there were currents that ran within the fog, not in a physical way, but rather like it made the individual particles the fog consisted of phase in and out of different states. However the change was nothing like that. No, what Karon felt was nothing like that at all, and the sensation was more akin to something very slimy parting the fog and reaching out for the three travelers.

For a brief moment Karon felt like something coated in acidic slime ran its bony fingers over his face, and he saw that both Selena and Trixie simultaneously shivered. The sensation withdrew almost instantly, but it had been enough to leave Karon feeling queasy. All three of them stopped, and Trixie gave Karon a questioning look. He swallowed and looked around, then returned her stare and nodded.

They didn't need to say anything out loud; instead they both flanked Selena, with Karon taking position at her left, and Trixie at her right. There was no change in the fog slowly drifting around them, only a small shiver of tension that Karon doubted the other two could feel, not yet anyway. The feeling seemed to be growing stronger ever so slightly, and the only reason it should be doing so was if the source of the disturbance was approaching them.

“Let's go, we should try and keep moving,” Karon said, and the three of them continued forward with hurried steps.

“What's happening?” Selena asked.

“I think something has sniffed us out,” he responded.

“But nothing is allowed to harm us here, right?” she asked, fear making her voice quiver.

“We're not in the bazaar anymore,” Trixie told her.

The trio fell silent, and hurried forward as quickly as possible without actually running, eyes constantly searching for anything that might be hiding in the fog. Karon kept his focus divided between going forward and lightly stretching his senses out towards whatever was approaching. It was all in vain however as he could find nothing, though if it was because of the mist or whatever was following them, he didn't know. Whatever the case might be, the result was the same. All his attempts at sensing the unknown being or beings didn't work, and the only indications they had that even existed came from the effects their pursuers had on the surroundings.

The fog drifted as lazily as ever, but the feeling of something sickly pushing its way towards them grew, and even Trixie and Selena could feel it now. Selena was the first to break, and her hurried walk turned into a run as her face twisted with fear. Karon and Trixie didn't hesitate, and ran after her, not making any attempts to slow down or stop her once they caught up.

The feeling might have grown to the point that even someone as ungifted in the magical arts as Selena could feel it, but that also meant that it became easier and easier for Karon to sense whatever it was that approached. To his disappointment, the nature of their hunter eluded him, but his senses had been strong enough to leave him with the impression it was still a fair distance from them.

They continued running, all the while time stopped having any significance. They simply ran, and behind them the unknown was gaining with a slow surety.

“Please tell me it's not much further!” Karon shouted.

“I don't know! It's supposed to be making a sound when we're getting close!” Selena shouted back, her voice infused with panic.

“Why are we running? Why don't we just stay and take care of whatever is coming?” Trixie asked loudly, and started to slow down.

The others followed suit until they were all jogging at a steady pace. Karon's legs were burning despite the relatively short run, and his breath came out far more wheezing than he thought it should.

“Too much sitting around with Varsif.”

“Yeah it's been, what, two years since we last had to run for our lives properly.”

“Well there was those times when Trixie-”

“That wasn't really running for our lives, and invisibility was enough to slip away then.”

“Think it'll work now?”

“Maybe wait until it gets closer, we won't be able to keep all three of us cloaked forever.”

“Karon!” Trixie shouted straight into his ear, and he stumbled to the side with a loud “Ack!” He managed to regain his balance in time, and all three stopped for a moment to catch their breath.

“What?” Karon asked Trixie and rubbed his ear annoyed.

“I said: what is the plan?”

“The plan is to keep going, and see if we can get to Selena's world in time before whatever that slimy thing is catches up,” he said.

“Your usual brilliance at work,” Trixie drawled slowly.

“If it does manage to catch up,” Karon continued while giving her a hard stare, “I will cloak us, and we'll continue while the slimy thing hopefully thinks it lost us, and leaves.”

“What if it doesn't track that way? And why would it leave when it could sense us from so far away, a couple of minutes of running won't put enough distance from it,” Trixie argued.

“Do you have a better suggestion, Trix?” Karon asked with all the patience of the world.

She tilted her head and grinned hungrily, “Let's kick its flank.”

An approving feeling ran up Karon's arm from Promise, and he shot the spear a dark look.

“Trix, this isn't the little league of Equestria anymore, or any other local world. This is the greater, the grand arena, the great game. For all we know what's stalking us might snuff us out like candles, or it might do something far worse than killing us.”

“Since when did you start to worry about things like that?” she asked with a crooked smile.

Karon glared at her, then turned his head in the direction he thought the creature was coming from. It was like trying to deduce the origin of sound when standing in a pitch black cave, with the echo betraying you at every turn. Even so, Karon knew that it was coming closer, and increasing its speed, on account of the strength of the creature, sending out ripples of power through the mist simply by being.

And a creature like that was not something he wanted to try and 'kick the flank' of. For all he knew it might not even be corporeal. It could be an invisible, untouchable, hunger, simply out to devour everything it came across, blind instinct being the only state of mind it knew.

“Conjecture, guesses and poetic imagery. Unless you want to find out, I suggest you haul ass.”

Shaking his head to clear it, Karon turned to Selena and asked in as confident a tone as he could muster, “How far to the point where we can enter your world?”

“I told you, no idea. There was no sense of time when I went through here last time, and the sun doesn't move from its seat in the sky,” she responded, a hint of irritation creeping into her voice to join with the fear.

Karon made a frustrated sigh, and then looked up towards the blue sun. “Fine, we keep to my ill-conceived plan then. And we do so fast,” he said, and they all took off running again.

The only way to measure the passage of time, and any progress made, was through intensity of the burning that spread through their muscles, and how much sweat started pouring down their cheeks. Which was how Karon came to the conclusion they must be doing something wrong, when his legs started moving forward in jerking motions, rather than the fluid grace he liked to think he possessed usually.

Next to him, Trixie ran on all fours with far more ease than any of her two bipedal companions, although the flush of her cheeks, and the sweat dripping from her muzzle told him she was feeling the fatigue as well, determined expression or not.

Selena looked the worse, and Karon suspected her regular duties didn't involve a lot of running, or maybe she just wasn't used to dealing with the panic that comes from feeling death's breath on your neck. It was probably both.

What was worse, the presence of whatever stalked them had grown from more than just leaving an icky feeling, to making the fog itself twist and coil in protest. Whatever it was that hunted them, the energies binding the fog together wasn't fond of it. That alone was more evidence than Karon needed to convince him he didn't want a fight. Upsetting the flow of energies binding entire worlds together couldn't be easy, and it spoke volumes of the nature of the hunter.

“Which can easily be condensed down to 'stay the fuck away.'”

Karon was about to shoot back some kind of clever comment he had yet to think of, when a sweet chiming sound started ringing out from the talisman. At that moment, Karon wanted to grab the thing and kiss it repeatedly, but he managed to refrain from doing so. It might take offense, and it would probably lead to some jealousy from Trixie. Or just plain weirdness.

“We're almost there!” Selena shouted, and in response Trixie started to laugh loudly.

And then another sound reached their ears, a screech filled with rage and, just as Karon had suspected, hunger. It must have somehow sensed its prey was about to elude it, and now whatever sick pleasure it had taken in the hunt was put aside for the raw need to feed.

All three of them had frozen as soon as the sound hit them, and they remained frozen, like terrified field mice when the hawk decided to announce its presence. Karon could hear Selena swallow hard even over the sound of the soft chiming and the distant screech.

“Move! Now!” Karon said, and forced his legs into motion.

Selena seemed to follow just on reflex, driven perhaps mostly by the fear of being left behind. Trixie reacted in the opposite way, and when Karon glanced over he could see both fear and exhilaration in her eyes.

The chiming sound remained clear, despite the angry screeching, and as they ran it gradually gained in strength. But so did the screeching, and when Karon turned his head, his legs started pumping twice as fast on principle alone.

The blue fog was filled with dark shadows, flickering about behind them like a swarm of hungry piranhas. There wasn't just one, not even just a group. No, whatever the creatures were, they hunted in the hundreds. From the brief glances Karon managed to get through the fog, they remained indiscriminate in form, and appeared like nothing but tattered shadows, trailing small black tendrils behind them.

“Hey, I saw a hentai like this once.”

“Shut up!”

“Wanna know how it ended?”

Trixie caught Karon's no doubt paled face, and she looked behind them too, only to turn her eyes back forward and keeping them there with her jaw visibly clenched hard. The run turned into a frantic scrambling forward, with the music of the talisman spurring them forward, and the screams of monsters with empty stomachs making sure the proper motivation was there.

“It's time, cloak us! Make us go poof!”

Karon had practiced his skills endlessly underneath Varsif's tutelage, and the skills of a trickster he had learned were focused into true art instead of the meager learn-by-trial ways he had picked up during his stay in Equestria, and so it took him only a few seconds to cast a bubble of energy around them, making sure every bit of sound, smell and sight passing out was marked as unimportant, and just another part of the environment.

It usually worked, but then again, that was against creatures that used a brain as a processing tool. And it was with a dread feeling in the pit of his stomach that Karon saw that the cloaking didn't deter the creatures at all. It only seemed to make them swirl around in their flock ever more frantically.

“Wait, we can go through here!” Selena shouted happily and came to an abrupt halt, a huge smile plastered on her face. Then she spun around and saw the great horde of hungry creatures, and her smile was lost instantly.

The sudden stop gave Karon and Trixie only a few seconds to react before they knew they would be overrun, and so he gathered all the energy he could summon and shouted to Selena, “Then get the gateway open right now!”

The hungry creatures swarmed like a pack of crows above them, circling them with unwarranted screeches of glee, Karon and Trixie were far from being food yet. Or at least, he really hoped so.

The creatures broke formation and swarmed down towards them with no sign of their earlier cooperation, and the slow were left behind in favor of the strong and quick; first come, first serve.

Trixie's reaction was a perfect mirror image of her own self. Her horn lit up, and from it sprang a long lash of rainbow colored energy. It sung as it swung through the air, and the wraiths, or whatever they were, hesitated briefly when it cut close to them. It started swirling around like a jumping rope, scattering the wraiths and breaking their momentum.

Karon took the opportunity to improvise his own defense, and the energy he had gathered didn't lash out in some simple form like Trixie's, just to bash at the wraiths. It sought out the connections that hid inside the fog, the connections to millions of worlds, and thoughts, and dreams and deaths, all joined in together and trapped in a single droplet of energy given form as water. And there were a lot of drops in the fog around them.

He drew from those trapped sensations, and the combined experiences of countless beings across countless worlds bombarded the wraiths, trapping them in illusions they blinked in and out of each moment. Karon had no idea how the wraiths operated, but judging from the confused way they moved, and the furious cries they made, they weren't immune to the wonders of illusion.

Despite the quick thinking and improvisation on their part, it was plain to Karon and Trixie's eyes that they were fighting a losing battle. The wraiths were temporarily confused and receiving a beating from Trixie's whip. However, the massive strain of channeling thousands of experiences from creatures both familiar and utterly alien had left Karon with a hollow feeling, and images kept trying to force their way to his mind's eye. And though Trixie might deny it, the colorful display of magic she was using wouldn't be easy to keep up.

“How are we doing!?” Karon shouted, and dared to throw Selena a glance.

“Almost ready!” She shouted back, and a shivering in the air in front of her said she was telling the truth.

“Trix, you go in after Selena and I make sure we're covered from behind!” Karon said to the unicorn, and she laughed loudly when she heard it.

“No way, this is too much fun to give up!”

“Trix!” Karon began to admonish, then he felt the illusions the wraiths were trapped in run dry, and the energy binding them together shattered.

“Oh, shit!”

“Selena!” he screamed.

“Soon!” she shouted back, her voice matching his own high notes.

The wraiths joined together, and the sound that came out of their throats was not a screech, but a roar. They came crashing down on Trixie like a tidal wave, and her frantically clashing whip couldn't keep them all away.

Karon screamed in anger and Promise only enhanced the emotion, and through him the spear channeled its own blood lust. The lightning that sprang from the tip of the pointed spear arched itself across the space between the targets, lashing out in a flurry of sound, heat and the smell of burnt flesh.

It made Karon's heart skip a beat. If the creatures were made out of flesh, they would feel pain more intensely. However Trixie was not a victim, and the whip still channeled from her horn still whipped across the sky and struck into the wraiths, crackling loudly and spewing tiny sparks of energy whenever she hit home.

Karon snarled when one of the wraiths managed to evade the whip and came barreling down on top of him, extending slimy, brown coated hands ending in two hook-like claws towards him. As soon as he felt the creature's touch, a chill spread through his body, and he could feel the warmth of his blood being stolen, literally.

With a rage so intense it was like standing beneath a dying sun, Promise flew up towards the arrogant spirit, and buried its midnight tip in its center. The wraith shrieked, and retreated quickly with a brownish fluid dripping out of the wound. The spear itself wasn't so much used by Karon now, as much as it was using Karon as a means to bury itself into any spirit daring to approach its master, killing anything that got close with murderous glee.

However, the spirit had tried to steal Karon's heat, and that gave him an idea of how they were being tracked. He mentally took charge of his own movement again, something that elicited a feeling of disappointment from Promise, and he pointed the spear towards the sky.

From its tip red blobs of light sprung out, and started dancing around in the air, mixing in with an almost beautiful contrast to the blue fog. The wraiths reacted instantly and started chasing after the light, giving confirmation to Karon's suspicion. The creatures wanted to steal heat, and they tracked their prey by body temperature, probably so well that they could notice any shifts in the fog covered area instantly. Like sharks and blood.

“Sele-!”

“It's done!” Selena shouted back, interrupting Karon.

He turned to watch as a shimmering curtain of green and brown liquid stood before the woman, and he quickly ran to Trixie and screamed to her, “Go after her, I'll make sure they don't follow through!”

She didn't like it at all, but the unicorn must have realized it wasn't the best time to be raising arguments, and she complied. Selena had already darted inside the gateway as soon as she'd told Karon it was opened, and Trixie followed through.

Karon remained where he was for only a few seconds. The wraiths were still chasing the nearby lights, but a few of them had already been caught, and so he fired off a couple more before turning around and running towards the gateway. He closed his eyes on reflex as he passed through the liquid-like portal, and only when he felt fresh air brush against his skin did he open them.

And got a very close look at the tree he ran straight into.

Four Suns (Part 2)

Light and pain all condensed to form a miniature star of suffering in the front of Karon's skull, and with a pained gurgle of protest, he fell down on the ground where the star decided to go supernova. He lay on the ground squirming, with tiny pricks of light dancing in front of his eyes, which he closed with a whimper.

To add to his pain, he heard an amused chortle at his expense. After a few minutes of bemoaning his luck and when the worst of the pain seemed to have settled, he decided to open his eyes again and saw Trixie standing over him with a huge grin on her face.

“I don't know, Karon; if you can't even handle a tree then maybe we shouldn't be going after this guy after all,” she said and patted his head, sending a jolt of pain through his scalp.

“Ouch! Don't do that!” he said and glared at her.

“What about this,” she asked softly and kissed his forehead slowly.

“Uh, well, that you can...” he began, and then noticed Selena standing a way off, looking at them like she had made a grave mistake. “Trix, I think we're being unprofessional,” he whispered.

“Too bad,” she murmured and continued kissing his face further down.

“I… ehh… Trix, we have a destiny to recover and… and…”

“We can get her a new one instead, and find other things to do,” she said and licked his lips.

Karon stayed completely still, and his eyes flickered back and forth like he was considering it. Trixie noticed and pulled back her head with a snort. “I'm joking. Now get up, we've got work to do.”

She turned her back on him and started walking over towards Selena, while chuckling something sounding like “males,” under her breath.

“I hate you,” Karon said slowly.

“No you don't,” came Trixie's amused reply.

With a growl, Karon rose from the ground and rubbed his head gingerly. There was an intense throbbing behind his eyes, but nothing beyond that which would indicate he had seriously hurt himself. He looked around and found Promise lying on the ground. When he picked up the spear, it immediately sent a flood of exhilaration from the battle, worry for his pain, and rage towards the one lone tree that had dared to hurt him; all at the same time in one giant flood of impressions.

It made Karon wince, and the pain doubled for just a few seconds as he sorted through what Promise was sending to him. It settled down about the same time the spear realized it was hurting him, and the flood receded with a small, guilty feeling that appeared to be an apology.

“It's okay,” Karon said aloud, bringing himself back to reality.

Selena and Trixie were standing silently, waiting for him to join them, and he walked over while taking a look around this new world they had arrived in. Apart from the sun that shone a little stronger and the colors, it didn't look that much different from Earth.

They were standing in a forest of tall, leafy trees with pale blue bark and green emerald leaves scattered on the forest floor. The ground was mostly the same old brown dirt that Karon surmised you would be able to find on most worlds, and the sky above them, visible in patches through the tree canopy, was a normal blue.

“So, this is your home. What is it called?” Karon asked when he came to stand before Selena.

The woman blinked rapidly at him, then said something in a language Karon didn't understand. It took him a few seconds to get it, and when he did he smacked himself on the forehead, eliciting another jolt of pain.

“What?” Trixie asked and looked at Selena, confused.

“The bazaar isn't just some random spot where people go to shop. It's a sphere in complete flux and it adapts to every creature that goes there. If you'd ask some kind of aquatic being about the place he'd have said it was under water, and so on. Hell, the bazaar we visited is probably just one layer, and beings we are unable to comprehend the existence of could have been at the bazaar standing right next to us, visiting their own form of bazaar we're not even aware of,” Karon told her.

“And this has something to do with Selena talking funny, why?” she asked dryly, then stopped for a second and spoke again. “Wait, I get it. The bazaar also adapts so that every creature there automatically understands each other.”

“Yup.”

“Then how could we understand each other in that blue fog place?” Trixie asked him.

Karon furrowed his eyebrows and remained silent for a while before answering. “I don't know. Maybe it's not really the bazaar, or maybe it's the real thing and the fog is just what the bazaar is shaped of and suspended within. Maybe the forces playing boss to the bazaar don’t extend their authority outside the borders of the shopping bazaar. There could be a lot of explanations; point is, we're not in that place anymore and here the shortcuts don't apply.”

“Can't you do that mind thing you do to rip a language out of someone, or put it in? You know, like you did to get me to learn English,” Trixie said.

“I don't 'rip' anything out of anyone,” Karon said and rubbed his head, evaluating just how bad his head hurt. “No,” he said eventually and shook his head, “that would put a little too much strain on my mind at the moment.”

“So how are we supposed to understand what she says? Or she what we say?” the unicorn asked with an annoyed look on her face.

“Well, unlike some brutes who just throw energy around and waste it on making lights and sounds and heat, I happen to have some skills that are a little more refined. Like telepathy,” Karon said and gave the unicorn a smug grin.

“Won't that just hurt your head too in the long run?” she asked, decidedly ignoring the rest of his comment.

“Yeah, it will give me a constant headache, but it will be less of one. I'll get used to it eventually,” he said.

“You'll get used to walking around with a constant headache?”

“I got used to you, didn't I?” he said with a smirk.

The glare Trixie gave him could literally kill had she decided to put some energy into it, and for a moment, Karon looked nervous, but nothing happened. So he turned his eyes to Selena and very obviously moved his hands towards her head and put two fingers on each temple.

“Can you understand me?” he asked.

“What are you doing!?” came the frightened response, flavored with a myriad of feelings ranging from panic to wonderment.

“Communicating, obviously. Since we don't have any language in common, this will just have to do for the remainder of the job. Think you can handle it?”

“I… yes. But if we can't speak the same language, then how are we speaking right now?”

“We're not, I'm sending thoughts, feelings and just raw data to you. It's your brain that translates it into your own language, same back to me.”

“Oh, that sounds… very practical.”

“And very distracting, so I'm going to let our connection fade into the background or the strain might become too much for me. If you want to talk, poke me in the shoulder or something.” Karon finished, then let the steady flow of consciousness that came from Selena fade away, until it became only a small pressure somewhere deep inside his mind.

Her facial expression had gone through nearly the entire spectrum of human emotions during the very brief conversation, and it was becoming obvious pretty quickly that Selena was not used to magic on the level Karon and Trixie were throwing around. He made a mental note of that and saved it for later consideration. If Selena was having a hard time dealing with magic, then it could become problematic once they started interacting with farmers or other 'common' folk.

“It would be a good idea to bring that up with Trixie, you know, so she doesn't try and show off.”

Karon made a kind of waving motion with his arms, like he was wondering where to go next. Selena understood and gave him a nod before looking up towards the sky and taking her bearings, which only took a few seconds before she set off in what, to Karon, was a random direction.

He followed after her with Trixie, and the two spent the first half hour of wandering just taking in the environment. The novelty of blue trees wore off quickly, though, and before an hour had passed, Trixie was looking around with a dangerously bored expression. Karon decided it would be good to strike up a conversation before she set something on fire.

“Trix, we should probably make up a plan for how to deal with the sorcerer.”

She shrugged and answered in a bored voice, “Kick his flank, get back Selena's destiny.”

“As always, you leave me in awe with your sheer tactical genius,” Karon said and smacked his tongue.

“You said it yourself; a guy calling himself 'Nagrosh the Dark' can't be that bad. We just need to find a way to put Selena's destiny back into her or whatever, and you're the expert in messing with minds.”

“I should put that on a business card,” Karon said dryly, but before he could continue, Trixie interrupted him.

“Karon, what is this really about?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, carefully putting on a neutral expression.

“You've been acting doubly paranoid recently, and you look worried all the time; even your jokes feel forced.”

“My jokes are not forced,” Karon said sharply, unable to keep some of his annoyance from creeping into his voice.

“Karon, I love you but you were never as funny as you think. But these past few weeks you've been joking about everything and not in your usual, carefree way, either. It's like you’re trying to be funny. Usually, you just complain and it's kinda amusing, but now… I don't know. Something is wrong, I can tell that at least, so, trickster or not, cough it up.”

“You're sexy when you try and boss me around,” Karon said lovingly.

She gave him a warm smile before replying, “You won't distract me, Karon.”

“Dammit,” he muttered and rubbed his forehead, the headache was getting worse. “Nothing's wrong, Trix,” he tried to reassure her, but her face told him that it hadn't been one of his more convincing lies.

He sighed and took his crooked hat off before wiping his forehead of the thin sheet of sweat that had gathered there. “There is nothing wrong, Trix, I'm just worried.”

“About what?” she asked curiously.

“You, me, everything going on. We're in an entirely different game here, and I'm not talking about this job, specifically. This sorcerer might appear to be a push-over if his approach is anything to go by, but what about the next little adventure we stumble into?”

“Karon, we're not exactly new to the adventuring deal,” Trixie said and poked him in his ribs.

“That's kinda the point, Trix. We've done a fair share of dangerous things, but those were in places like Equestria and Earth, and that one trip to Valhalla. This is different. We're playing a game of power now, the true great game played between beings that could snuff out stars easier than you and I would a candle. How the hell am I supposed to measure up against that? How am I supposed to protect you when everything I could do is worth next to nothing?”

“Really? You worry about protecting me? I can take care of myself nowadays, Karon,” Trixie said with a hint of accusation in her voice.

“I know, I know. But you still don't stand a chance should one or both of us piss off some random deity. Even a second class demigod could wipe the floor with us.”

“So what should we do? Just head back to Earth and live the quiet life? Or head back to Equestria and live an ever quieter life with far too sheltered ponies.”

Karon was taken aback by the anger in her voice, especially when she mentioned Equestria. He opened his mouth to respond, then closed and opened it repeatedly before he managed to think of something to say.

“No, I don't want that and neither do you. It's not in our nature, and that's the point I'm trying to make. We're two creatures that seem to be uniquely gifted at pissing people off, and we're playing games with massively powerful beings while we just drift along.”

The both of them remained quiet after he finished, and the sound of distant birds singing traveled on the wind. There was something very soothing about it, like nature had decided to remind the two of them to remain calm, and that things weren't doomed to end in misery.

Karon breathed in the smell of the forest, both strange and familiar at the same time. He turned his eyes back to Trixie, and the birdsong quieted, leaving only the sound of Promise striking the ground with each step he took.

“Look, when we were in Equestria there were plenty of times when I was afraid, but the only thing I was truly terrified of, was facing myself. Now that's over, and after two years of training with Varsif again, I've advanced both in skill and power far beyond what I had in Equestria. I'm truly free. Free to explore and do whatever I want as long as I don't break some very basic rules. And Trix, I'm fucking terrified of losing you.”

“You won't,” she promised and brushed her head against him.

“There's no guarantee for that,” he began, but Trixie was quick to put a hoof to his lips and look into his eyes sternly.

“Bitz managed to make his way, and I'm confident we could take him, and I bet there are millions we could handle for every one we couldn't. If we should—no, when we do make someone more powerful than both of us into an enemy, we'll still win. Because I'm awesome and you're awesome, and if we don't win by power, we do it because we're smarter, or trickier, or we just cheat. I'm not gonna run back to Equestria and all the butterflies and rainbows because things get dangerous; that's just part of the fun. Together, you and I are gonna kick flank.”

Karon couldn't help but grin along with her, and he stopped for a second to embrace her. She hugged him back hard, and when they separated there was a quiet understanding that passed between them, and Karon didn't need to be telepathic to decipher it.

“To the end.”

The moment was lost when Selena cleared her throat very loudly, and Karon and Trixie turned their heads to see her standing a few meters away, tapping her foot. She might not have understood a word of what they'd been saying, but her point was made pretty clear through body language alone.

“She doesn't think we're taking this job seriously enough.”

“She has a point; maybe we should at least pretend we're professionals instead of a random pair of troublemakers.”

“Can't I be a professional troublemaker?”

“Don't try and be funny. I'm the funny one.”

Karon smiled briefly, and turned his attention back out to reality. Selena was still watching them like she was weighing the possibility of returning to Bitz and asking for someone else to help her out, and Trixie was looking back at her with a wry smile.

“We're right behind you,” he said to Selena, and even though she couldn't understand him she understood the motions he did with his hands.

She turned around and continued her walk towards whatever settlement she called home, and Trixie gave Karon a quick kiss before they went after her.

“I'm a little surprised you were so honest about all of that,” the unicorn commented.

“Would you have preferred if I had waited until we had just finished fighting the sorcerer off and I revealed it as some kind of confession, all the while making it seem like learning how to trust you and not accepting fear was some kind of lesson I had learned? And so it ended up being the moral of this little adventure?” Karon asked in as mocking a tone of voice he could.

“It would have been more dramatic,” Trixie answered and tapped her chin thoughtfully.

“You want a moral to go with this? Here's a few: fear isn't without purpose and it can be a damn good motivator. Curiosity and us being damn near broke is the prime reason we're doing this, not altruism or the need to be heroes. And finally, if you want to be a villain, then you should pick a better name than 'Nagrosh the Dark'. It doesn't really inspire fear.”

“Hmmm, you forgot 'Multidimensional mercenary work is exciting and it's a good idea to listen to ideas coming from a very beautiful and clever companion'.”

“You're right, forgot that one,” Karon laughed.

They made the rest of the trip in high spirits, and the two of them laughed and made jokes all the way while they went over old adventures together. Selena walked in silence, and it was only when they reached the edge of the woods, at the shores of a great ocean with white cliffs sticking up from the sand, that she turned around and waved Karon forward to her.

He came towards her and, from the far reaches of his mind, the connection to her surfaced.

“Yes?” he asked.

“We are now at the edge of our city border. It's not very far from here, just follow the beach left for less than an hour and we will reach the boats.”

“The boats?”

“Yes, to take us to the city.”

“Mind explaining that further?”

“You need the boats… to take us to the city.”

“So, what, the city is located out in the ocean?” Karon thought, fighting to keep the impatience from transmitting as well.

“Of course. It is a city.”

“And in my experience cities are usually located on land.”

“Not ours. Why would we put them on land? All the fish and work is out in the water.”

“I… never mind. How do you think the people in your city will react to our presence?”

Selena turned her eyes over at Trixie, and she looked very uncertain. Karon could feel it through their connection, along with fleeting impressions of past times where strange and magical things happened in the city. From what he could gather, it never ended well.

“I don't think the others will react well to your friend.”

“Great, she'll never agree to sit one out.”

“You have much power, is there no way for you to make her look normal? Or keep her out of sight?”

Karon groaned at the thought of adding even more strain on his mind by keeping Trixie cloaked.

“Yeah maybe, but I can't keep that up forever. It's also going to be painful for me to perform this much magic on top of the headache I got from the tree.”

“You are the ones Bitz hired to help me, so decide what you think is best and I will assist in whatever way you want me to.”

“Let me discuss things with my… partner, and we'll decide on a course of action before continuing.”

Selena nodded in understanding and, with a shiver of relief, Karon allowed the link to fade into the back of his mind. The sound of the waves gently washing up on the shore helped to alleviate some of the increasing pain, but it was only a little, and the burden of cloaking Trixie while they were inside Selena's city would be exhausting. It would have been a lot easier had he been cloaking himself as well. Then it was only a matter of creating a small field of his aura and expanding it. However, cloaking Trixie only would require him to bridge a connection to her and do the same to her, which would also mean he would be receiving data from two persons at the same time while sending energy and instructions to Trixie's aura to keep her out of sight.

Two years ago, he might have been able to do such a thing for a minute or two at the most, and then collapsed. Now… he might be able to keep it up for forty minutes, tops. And he had no idea how big the city might be, or how hard it would be to keep Trixie from breaking his magic.

“Trix, get over here,” he said, and sat down on the beach. He took off a pair of worn boots, not the same he had received from Rarity, but a new pair of leather boots both darker and a bit more durable. He made a very pleased sound when he removed his socks and bathed his naked feet in the shallow water, letting the waves wash over them.

“You'll get your pants wet, and you'll drag around sand everywhere,” Trixie complained, as she came and sat down next to him.

“Don't be like that. This world is pretty nice. Try and enjoy it before all the fighting starts,” Karon advised and took off his hat before closing his eyes and turning his face up towards the sun.

“There's a lot of nice places, Karon. I prefer the exciting ones,” he heard her say.

“That's what I wanted to talk about. Selena has told me that the locals aren't exactly magic-friendly, or anything-out-of-the-ordinary friendly.”

“Too bad for them,” he heard her say in a dangerous tone of voice.

“I mean it, Trix. We're here to help Selena, not burn her home to the ground. If we get into trouble, we'll get to have a little fun with the locals but nothing major, okay?”

“Define 'major',” she asked slowly.

“No one dead and nothing they can't fix up in a few days.”

“What about the sorcerer?” she asked.

“Depends on him, really. If he's as much of a pushover as I suspect then we get the trick to stealing destinies back from him, and use it to put Selena back on track. After that… I don't know. He's a sorcerer after all, but he sounds like a young kid or just too full of himself. I could easily have ended up like him, and we don't kill other practitioners lightly, Trixie. So if he's not the super evil badass villain he no doubt fancies himself as, we give him a slap on the fingers and tell him to run away.”

“Do you really think that's a great idea?” Trixie asked dubiously.

“No, but the bad ideas are usually more fun,” he said and turned his head to wink at her.

She smiled back at him and shook her head. The world seemed so bright to Karon after having his eyes closed, and the light of the sun bounced off the trees behind them, making them glow a pale blue.

“So, what's the plan?” Trixie asked.

Karon squirmed inwards at the thought of what he was about to ask of her, and of how she probably would react.

“Since the locals aren't fond of magic and weird stuff, I think it's safe to say they wouldn't react well to the presence of a unicorn,” Karon began.

“And...” Trixie asked all too calmly.

“And I think it's best that you either stay here while I go into town and investigate that basement where the ritual took place, or you follow along but while I cloak you.”

Trixie's face remained impassive for a long time and the longer she remained silent, the louder Karon's heart started beating. He licked his lips nervously after a couple of minutes had passed, and asked, “So?”

“Okay, but if something happens I'm not going to stay back just so you know,” she said, looking him deeply in his eyes, her purple eyes hard as stone.

“Didn't expect you to,” he said, wincing inwardly at the headache he would have to endure.

“Want me to do anything while you’re doing your fancy 'soft' magic?” she asked and flicked a bit of sand away with her right hoof.

“No, if you start channeling energy it will just make it ten times more difficult for me to keep you hidden. Just follow behind and avoid bumping into anything. When we're out of sight in the basement, we'll see if there's anything you can do.”

She seemed to accept that, even though her eyebrows were slightly furrowed. The both of them rose and walked over to Selena, where Karon once again brought up their connection and told her, “We're ready to go to the city now. I'll keep Trixie cloaked as long as I can, but we need to hurry to the basement where you woke up with the sorcerer so we can investigate any residue of the magic he used.”

“The basement is in one of the gathering houses, normally no one is down there since we only use them to store supplies in case of a prolonged storm. It's maybe twenty minutes from where the boat will arrive at.”

“And how long does it take for the boat to get to the city?” Karon asked, hoping she would say a minute or two.

“Maybe half an hour, a little less.”

Sighing deeply, Karon rubbed his temples.

“That will be very difficult. If I don't make it we'll have to find an out-of-the-way spot and wait for me to catch my breath before going on.”

Karon received a feeling of sympathy through their links, and Selena looked at him with a little more confidence that she might actually get her destiny back.

“Lead the way, then; show us these boats that will take us to your city.

“What about your friend?”

“I'll cloak her once we get within sight of this harbor of yours.”

She nodded, and then gave one lingering look towards Trixie before she started walking down the beach. Karon and Trixie followed closely, staying just a few steps behind her while looking for any signs of settlement. After most of an hour had passed there had been none. The forest remained untouched, and the only forewarning they got that they were close to the harbor was when Selena stopped and waved Karon forward.

“What is it?” he asked.

“The boats are just a few minutes away; it would be a good idea to hide your friend now in case anyone is out for a walk.”

Karon looked behind the woman, to the beach still stretching forward a long way without any sign of life.

“Uh, are the boats invisible?”

“No, but they are hidden at a river that goes into the forest.”

“Ah, will there be a lot of people there?”

“It is never certain; sometimes none, sometimes hundreds.”

“And there will be no problem using a boat to get out to the city?”

“No, the boats are free for anyone to use. But if we are unlucky they might all be out and we have to wait for one to arrive.”

“That's not good.”

“I'm sorry, but it is very rare for all the boats to be gone.”

“Nothing to do about it if it's so. If we have to wait, I'll drop the cloaking and Trixie will just have to hide in a bush or something.”

The visual image that was transferred to Selena brought a smile to her lips, and Karon noticed that she had laugh lines around her mouth and eyes. He thought it strange seeing that, and he carefully made sure that thought did not slip through their connection. From what little time he had spent with her, Selena had appeared like a solemn and serious person. Now though, looking at her smiling, it seemed to him like her face had been made to express joy.

“We'll see how things go. Let's just get to the boats, first,” he sent as a final message to her, then allowed the connection to slip back into a corner of his mind.

“Trix, the boats will be at a river connecting to the sea just a few minutes ahead. Selena says that there will probably be a boat there we can use, but if not I want you to stay hidden in the forest until we get one.”

“I don't like that. Can't we just borrow one if all of them are taken?” she asked.

“Want to elaborate on what you were thinking?” he asked skeptically and crossed his arms.

“You're the trickster, do some mind thing and get them to take us to the city,” she suggested in a carefree tone.

“No, I will be putting enough pressure on myself as is. Hypnotizing someone, or, worse yet, several people, will not be good for me.”

“Fine, I'll hide,” she said and kicked away some sand at her hooves angrily.

The three of them continued down the beach and stopped when they reached a wide river that had obviously been dug out by human hands. It looked unnaturally wide and deep for nature to have managed to pull it off so symmetrically in comparison to the wild forest, as if it was just wide enough to allow two of the distant boats Karon spotted to pass each other by, floating in a perfectly straight line.

A dozen or so boats were sitting in the river at the ends of three large docks, upon which, a few scattered humans mulled about, seemingly just talking or resting. A few houses built out of the pale, blue wood of the forest stood at either side of the river, built as large triangles with circular windows looking out at the world.

The humans themselves didn't seem that strange, wearing white and blue colored clothes with a few exceptions. The boats on the other hand looked a bit funny, with bulky contraptions stationed on the deck.

“An engine of some kind, perhaps? I see no sails.”

There was a downtrodden path that led to the small harbor, and Selena took a few steps upon it before turning back and looking at Karon and Trixie, questioningly.

“Okay, Trix, time for you to vanish. Ready?” he asked.

“I am,” she said with a sigh.

Energy swirled within Karon's aura and stretched out towards the unicorn until it enveloped her in a shell. The shell attached itself to her, and with a little bit of instruction from Karon, the energy was shaped into magic, and Trixie disappeared.

He could still feel her through the connection, and her thoughts and feelings passed him by like a distant echo, joining together with those from Selena. He pushed both the connections aside, allowing only a small bit of the connection with Trixie to remain so he could keep the cloaking up.

He turned around to Selena, and she faced him wide eyed and still staring at the spot where Trixie had vanished. Karon jerked his head towards the boats, and Selena straightened herself before leading the way to the harbor.

The people they passed by all reacted pretty much the same; respectful nods or a polite smile for Selena, and suspicious glares for Karon. Now that they were closer, Karon could see that nearly everyone was blond and blue eyed, with a few exceptions of brown thrown into the mix. The architecture and everything that looked made by human hands also had a kind of disturbing repetition, like everything was made after the same basic patterns - even the clothes they wore were pretty much the same.

It didn't take a lot to understand that Selena's people weren't just not fond of magic or magicians, they weren't fond of anything out of their basic patterns, period. Had he not been on a job, Karon imagined that it would have been fun to add a little spice to what must be a monotonous existence. But he was, and the pressure from the magic was building inside his head and slowly but surely forming cracks in his concentration.

Selena led the way onto one of the boats, where another person stood, looking about ready to cast off. His face was one of surprise when he noticed her, and then turned disapproving when he noticed Karon walking behind her, taking in the red robe and hat, spear, and orange eyes.

He said something, his voice rumbling and deep. Selena answered something in a light, almost joking tone of voice, and the man responded with a chuckle. He gave Karon another glance, but one that was a mixture of amusement and pity instead of hostility.

The man had light golden hair and was unshaven, evident by the blonde scruff contrasted against his dirtied face. The clothes he wore were the same nearly everyone else seemed to be wearing: a blue vest over a white shirt with short sleeves, and very wide pants in dirty white. They were torn and rugged, and from the look of him, Karon guessed the man's work involved a lot of hard labor.

Yet Selena managed to calm his suspicions towards the red clad stranger with just a few sentences, leaving him in a happy mood. He waved Karon on board, and through the connection to Trixie he felt the unicorn hurry over the plank on board behind him. The man untied the rope to the bridge, and lifted a small barrel to the weird contraption taking up most of the ship deck. He poured the contents of the barrel into it, a light green liquid that shone brightly when the sun's rays caught it.

He emptied maybe half the barrel, then put it back down and pulled a few levers sticking out on the contraption's side. Selena walked over to Karon while he was busy observing what was going on, and she put a hand to his shoulder to get his attention.

“What is he doing?” Karon asked her as her presence surfaced within his mind.

“Preparations. The Tiga oil will fuel the engine, and it will carry us to the city.”

“You got engines here?”

“Yes, of course we have. Why wouldn't we?”

“I don't know; I just… expected something more medieval.”

Selena winced when the thought transmitted to her and she rubbed her head with a pained expression.

“I couldn't understand what you just said; it just hurt.”

“I was just expecting a quest to track down a rogue sorcerer to take place somewhere… engine-less.”

“I don't understand. Why?”

“Never mind,” Karon thought, and nodded in the direction of the man tinkering with the engine.

“Who's he?”

“One of the guides, they take care of the boats and navigate them for travelers.”

“He didn't look happy when he first saw me.”

“Our people don't like strangers. The cities fight a lot, and there are dangers in the sea that lure away people that don't stay wary of things that are different.”

“Sounds boring, so why did he change his mind?”

“I told him that you were a friend, recently from another city, and were going to become one of us. I also said you were foolish, since you are from one of the other cities, and ate a Tappa root.”

“Tappa root?”

“They grow in the forest; very tasty but they leave one with a tongue that has no feeling and can't be used for days after it is eaten.”

“Ah, so now I have an excuse for why I'm not talking. Clever.”

“Thank you,” she thought back to him, and smiled with a faint blush.

Karon looked over at the man, busily tinkering with the engine. “Will it take long?”

“No, only a few minutes at most.”

“Good.”

The conversation ended after that, and Selena went to sit down on top of a crate while Karon walked around the small boat and took a look around. He could feel Trixie's presence at the far end, hanging over the railing and staring down into the water. So he walked over and stood next to her, keeping his voice low. “We should be leaving very soon.”

“The sooner, the better,” he heard her reply within his mind.

“So long as you remain undetected, yes,” he said out of the corner of his mouth and left her.

The boat took off a minute later, its engine making a soft, whirring sound. At both sides of the boat, mechanical fins started moving, and Karon couldn't help but notice that the design, now that he looked closer, was shaped very much so like a fish. He couldn't figure out the details of how exactly it worked, nor was he really interested in it. The strain of keeping two separate connections up was moving from painful irritation to mind-numbing, and so, Karon found a corner of the boat to sit down in and block everything else but the magic out.

Everything became a flood of impressions; thoughts, feelings and raw sensory data flowed from him from two different people at once, and it didn't take long before he lost all sense of stability. It wasn't until he felt a hand on his shoulder that he realized how much time had passed, and his mind was jerked back into reality.

The sound of seagulls squawking above was the first thing he became aware of, and next came the light of the sun shining down into his eyes. He held up his hand to shield himself and stood up to take a look around.

The boat was moored to a bridge of metal and wood, both aged and the former stained with rust. It led up to a catwalk circling around a great reef sticking out of the ocean like an island of rock. It was upon and around this slope that the city had been made. Squat houses of metal stood scattered around, connected by rope bridges and more catwalks, positioned around tiny squares where the rock was flat enough for several houses to be gathered together.

It looked incredibly unsafe, and how the people living there ever managed to build several hundred buildings was beyond him. The buildings themselves were all the same gray, flecked with rust wherever you looked and sporting sharp edges that had been worn off by the wind and sea. Karon wanted a tetanus shot just from looking at it.

Selena jumped out of the boat, down to the dock, with the practiced ease of someone that had done it a thousand times before. He followed, and could feel Trixie's presence doing the same. Selena turned around once and gave him a questioning look, and Karon nodded almost imperceptibly to his left where the unicorn stood invisible, and bored.

Selena caught it, and the three set off towards the city, following the catwalks through a labyrinth of rails, dangling ropes, and rusted pipes that leaked foul-smelling liquids. The entire city smelled, of oil and salt and unwashed bodies cramped together. Why any sorcerer would steal the destiny of someone meant to become the leader of such a place was outside his ability to comprehend. Especially since the people living there distrusted magic and those of the arts.

“Maybe he thinks he can change it.”

“Maybe, or maybe he just didn't think this through properly.”

“Does it matter as long as we get paid?”

“Not really.”

The path to their destination could best be summed up as rickety, and it took longer than it should since Karon didn't dare follow Selena at her own pace. Sweat was starting to pour down his face, and it wasn't from the heat. The difficulty in maintaining his magic and making sure he didn't take a misstep and fall down to his death at the same time was showing, and the people they passed by noticed.

Their destination was one of the clusters of houses located near the top of the reef, where some of the larger buildings looked to be located. When they arrived, and Karon finally got to put his feet on something that didn't creak ominously, he felt ready to collapse, both from relief and exhaustion. He bent over and placed his hands on his knees, breathing deeply to try and focus his mind.

Selena was standing a few meters in front of him wearing a concerned look on her face. Karon tried to smile encouragingly but it just ended up as a grimace. He felt Trixie's invisible hoof placed on his shoulder, and he whispered quietly, “We need to get you somewhere out of sight, I'm not gonna be able to keep this up much longer.”

“Then hurry to this basement,” her voice echoed in his mind.

He straightened his back and walked over to Selena, and he turned his head around the square, letting his eyes jump from building to building. She understood and pointed to one of the bigger ones that looked more like a warehouse than anything else. They proceeded to the entrance and headed inside, the steel door swinging open with a squealing sound that made Karon's hair stand on end.

Inside the room was dark, save for the little light that made its way through a window smeared with grime and dust that must have collected over decades. A lone lantern hung right next to the door, and Selena took it and pressed a button, which made the lantern shine with a harsh, white light.

Now that he could see better, Karon could confirm that the building indeed was some kind of warehouse. Plenty of barrels stacked atop one another in large piles, and the walls were lined with crates. Everything with the exception of the barrels looked like it was made out of metal, even the crates.

Selena walked over to where a wide set of stairs led down into darkness, and she followed them down with the lantern held high over her head. For a moment, Karon thought he was doing the same, then he realized he was still standing just inside the door. He blinked hard and forced himself to focus on only what his body perceived, and his vision cleared for a moment.

He turned around and felt Trixie's presence just outside the door, waiting for him to move so she could come inside. He did, and as soon as she was within the building’s wall, Karon slammed the door shut and let go off the connection between them.

Trixie came back into view at the same moment Karon lowered himself down on the floor and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Are you okay?” she asked as she hurried forward to him.

“Yeah, just a bit tired… and confused,” he said; everything Selena perceived was pressing down hard on his mind.

“If you want, I can go and check on her while you rest,” she offered.

Karon nodded thankfully and the unicorn went down the stairs, leaving him in the dark. After a few minutes of just breathing and steadying himself, he felt strong enough to walk over to one of the walls, which he promptly slumped down against.

He took off his hat and ran his left hand through his sweaty hair. It came back slick, and he wiped it against his robe. In his right hand he felt Promise starting to get warmer, and he felt part of the spear's spirit reach out to him softly. It wanted him to take of its strength, to draw of the spear's energies.

Karon sent back a grateful impression to the spear, and he carefully began drawing a trickle of power from the spear. It was very different from his own, both primal and fierce, and soothing and calm at the same time. Yet there was also something else he could feel underlying the energy, acting as a guiding principle for it.

He cut off the stream before he could dig deeper into it, as he felt a lot better already. However, he decided he would question Promise about that later. If anything was going on with the spirit, he wanted to know before something happened that he might not enjoy. Like changing into a capricious monster with no sense of allegiance and trying to kill him in his sleep. That would be something he could do without.

With a renewed vigor in his step, Karon rose and walked over to the stairs. He kept to one side and dragged his hand along the wall while he descended. He reached the floor and kept on going with his hand to the wall, until it disappeared and his hand only touched air. He turned to see that there was a corridor there, and light shone out of an opening a few meters ahead.

He walked over to it and found Selena and Trixie standing in a small room where a few barrels stood stacked alongside tiny metal chests. Trixie had her eyes closed, and her head swung from side to side like she was trying to spot something. Selena stood silent and watched with her back turned, and so she jumped in fright when Karon came up unseen and put a hand on her shoulder.

She stared at him for a few seconds, before she swallowed and turned her eyes back on Trixie. She looked tense, though Karon guessed that she didn't have very fond memories of the place. They both stood in silence and waited for Trixie to finish her attempt at sensing any trails left from the ritual the sorcerer had used; Selena with a hopeful expression, Karon with a smirk.

Eventually, the unicorn opened her eyes and twisted her face into an angry scowl, then she spotted Karon's smirk and she looked like she had bitten into a sour apple.

“What's the matter, dear, no luck finding anything?”

“Don't say another word,” she replied with a hiss.

“Maybe you should try throwing fire around; maybe that will help,” he went on.

Trixie looked at him with a clenched jaw, turned her nose up into the air, and walked over to stand on Selena's other side, never once looking at him. Karon chuckled and walked over to the center of the room, and almost instantly he felt traces of magic imprinted on the objects around them. Even the air still hummed quietly.

“You mean you can't feel this?” Karon asked mockingly and looked over at Trixie, who refused to meet his gaze.

He smiled and went to work. The energy that still lingered was only tiny shreds that would vanish in less than a week, but for the moment it was more than enough.

He stretched out his hands and gingerly ran his fingers along the lines of energy still connected to the magic that had taken place. He sent a tiny stream of his own energy into it, and instantly got a reply. His senses and perception drifted as the energy transferred its own nature to him, and he realized how the sorcerer had managed to steal someone's destiny.

While Selena had been asleep, he had copied her aura and her very soul, and afterward he had cut her off, temporarily suspending her in time. As a result, the tiny threads linking her to her destiny had jumped to that which most resembled the nature of the holder of that destiny, which was the sorcerer, his own true nature hidden behind the copy.

“Clever, in a way.”

Karon injected more energy into the traces, and they started to vibrate unsteadily.

“Ah, but he had to use tools for it.”

“Good. Had he managed to pull this off just by himself we would have had reason to worry.”

The trace couldn't handle the amount of energy Karon had charged it with, and with a final pulse it twisted and was absorbed by his own.

“Doesn't matter, we got the energy signature of the guy himself.”

“Yeah.”

With a self-satisfied look, Karon turned around and brushed his nails against his chest. Trixie glared at him and rolled her eyes, and Selena looked back and forth like she couldn't deduce if things had gone well or not.

“Got the energy signature of the sorcerer,” Karon announced.

“Maybe so, but we still have to find him and kick his flank,” Trixie said.

“Shouldn't be so hard. After all, how many people could be living in this city, a few thousand at the most?”

“What if he left?”

“Then we’ll find some way to track him. He must have left something of his behind that I can use for divination. If he ran to somewhere else that is.”

“Did you get anything else?” the unicorn asked, “like how we might actually put Selena's destiny back into her … or whatever.”

“I know how he did it. Don't know if I can do the same though.”

“Well at least we're a little bit closer now,” she sighed.

“Think happy thoughts. The more work it takes to get this done, the more Bitz has to pay us.”

“Yeah … are you gonna cloak me now again? Because I can just stay here, instead… and practice burning things. Or count crates.”

“I get it, you're bored. Just come along and something interesting might happen while we look for this guy.”

“If you say so,” Trixie said with a deeply melodramatic sigh, and the three went up the stairs again while Karon briefly explained the situation to Selena. When they reached the door, she put the lantern back in its place, and the room fell back into the murky gloom that seemed to fit the dank warehouse so well.

When she opened the door, the light outside made Karon squint his eyes and walk out after the woman half-blind for a moment. He wondered how long he would have to stay in this city that seemed ready to collapse on itself.

Then he bumped into Selena, and noticed the large crowd gathered outside the warehouse in a semi-circle, all of them with angry scowls and wielding fishhooks and other makeshift weaponry.

“Think this is what counts for a welcoming party around here?”

“Oh god, I hope not, the poor people...”

Karon quickly extended his senses back to Trixie still inside the warehouse, and cloaked her faster than he had ever done before. Within the few seconds it took him to do that, a black robed figure with his hood drawn down low stepped out of the crowd and pointed at him and Selena. He started shouting something in what Karon presumed was the native language.

“What is he saying?” Karon asked Selena, bringing their connection up once again.

“It's… it's him...” the thought kept repeating over and over as an answer, and with it came a lot of fear.

“Wait, that's the sorcerer?”

“Y-yes...It's him.”

“Well, that was easy. What is he saying?”

“He's saying that you're a magician, and that you're here to spy for one of the other cities, to prepare for an invasion. He says you are going to use magic to spoil our fish and ruin our oil … and a lot of other things.”

“Oh, turning the townspeople against me. It's actually not so bad a tactic.”

“W-what?”

“Never mind. I-”

“Oh, no...”

“What?”

“He's telling them to take me to the chambers and lock me in, that you are controlling me. He knows they would never hurt me and blames it all on you. And...”

“And he's telling them they should kill me before I do something magicky and escape, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Gotta love the classics.”

The crowd was moving nervously, all of them looked focused on Karon with anger etched in their faces. However he could also feel fear and doubt within the crowd just as much as anger; they weren't sure what this was all about, and why Selena was with him. They loved Selena and would never hurt her; he managed to get that from them but not much else.

“Go with them.”

“What?!”

“They won't hurt you, and the sorcerer guy knows they wouldn't allow it or he would just have claimed you were a traitor and told them to kill you, too. Go with them, I can handle this.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, off with you. I'll find you later and deal with that black-dressed clown.”

Selena looked at him fearfully, then gave him one last nod and turned to her people. She walked towards them slowly and they moved to open a path for her. Just before the crowd swallowed her, she sent one last pleading thought to him. “Please don't hurt them.”

Karon didn't respond, instead he cut the connection and her presence disappeared from his mind completely. Behind him Trixie walked up unseen, and he didn't need the connection to know how giddy she felt.

“No.”

“Come on, Karon, they're ASKING for a fight.”

“Since when did you become so bloodthirsty?”

“I'm not gonna kill them, I'm just gonna kick their flanks… and maybe singe them a little.”

“Tempting, but no. We're handling this my way. I cloak myself as well and we sneak away, we'll keep hidden and then follow the sorcerer and jump him once he gets somewhere private.”

“Wait, that's the sorcerer?! The black robed human?”

“Yeah, that would be him.”

“So let's get him.”

“Wait, Trixie n-!”

Before Karon could even finish his thought, Trixie's aura exploded with energy and shrugged off Karon's subtle magic concealing her. She appeared out of nowhere, and the crowd gasped as one and backed away a few steps when she did.  Oddly dressed, spear wielding dude with weird eyes they could apparently handle, albeit with some difficulty. A Technicolor unicorn with a psychotically happy smile and a horn glowing with readied magic, not so much.

The sorcerer looked taken aback, too, and he melted away into the crowd before anything had the chance to happen. Seeing the odds against him double might have something to do with that, colorful tiny pony or not, anyone with an ounce of skill in the arts could feel just by her aura that she could pack quite a punch.

“Oh, no you don't!” Trixie exclaimed, and her horn started glowing twice as bright as her magic was about to take shape.

“Trixie, stop!” Karon shouted and put a hand on her back without taking his eyes off the crowd.

“Why? He's getting away,” she hissed between her teeth, straining to hold back the energy she was channeling.

“We can't fight him here. It will get at least some of the people killed and Selena won't like that… and it's kinda wrong.”

She struggled for a moment, both with the decision and with the effort of holding back her magic. In the end she sighed and her horn extinguished itself, leaving Karon with a relieved expression, and an unruly mob looking very uncertain of what to do. And in his right hand, Promise was reacting to the danger of the situation and was waking up completely.

“Master, I am ready to serve,” an elegant voice spoke calmly inside his mind.

“Got any ideas for getting out of here?”

“Kill everything.”

“No, let's call that plan B.”

“As you wish, master.”

The conversation flashed through his mind literally at the speed of thought, and after it was done, the glyphs on Promise started glowing with an amber light. The people in the mob started whispering to one another with concerned voices, and the looks of anger turned to looks of worry for most of them.

“Trixie,” Karon said in as deep and guttural voice he could manage.

“Why are you speaking in that voice?” she asked in a tone that questioned his sanity.

“Light up your horn in some funky light and speak to me in as intimidating a voice as possible,” Karon said and didn't quite manage to suppress a smile.

“If this actually works...”

She gave Karon a skeptical look before she complied, and her horn lit up with a sickly green light. “You mean like this?” she asked him, her voice more a screech than anything else.

“Yeah that will do,” Karon replied, and he walked forward towards the crowd, waving Promise high over his head and shouting as loudly as he could, “You are all inbred rednecks living on a crappy rock in the middle of an ocean!”

The entire crowd backed away from him a couple of steps, and nervous murmurs surfaced as the obviously magic wielding stranger waved his obviously magic spear around, speaking in a foreign and very scary sounding language that was obviously magical.

“You all smell like rotten fish and I doubt your average IQ is higher than those as well!”

The murmurs became little cries of horror from some of the members of the crowd, and in the fringes some of the people were trying to discretely make their escape.

“You all look like retarded smurfs in those outfits!”

He took a few steps forward quickly, and the crowd immediately reacted by stumbling backwards.

“Your children hate you and so do your parents!”

The entire crowd was staring at him wide eyed and full of fear, his every movement tracked like it would spell their doom.

“Stupid people scream in fear!” he roared, and above him Promise erupted in a blinding light.

The entire crowd scattered like frightened animals, screaming in fear. They went running for their lives down the unstable catwalks and creaking bridges with a frenzy that made Karon wince. He couldn't believe that the shabby construction would hold beneath the human stampede, but it all apparently did.

In less than half a minute, the little square was empty, and in the distance, doors slammed and barred sounded together with the excited cries of the seagulls.

“Well, I guess that makes you stupid, then,” Karon snorted.

“I think we're the only one who has ever driven off an angry mob by actually insulting them.”

“Yeah, we deserve some kind of reward.”

Trixie came up to him and shook her head in disbelief.

“How… how do you manage to actually make stuff like this work?” she asked dumbfounded.

“I don't know. Do something so stupid that even the universe kinda goes 'what' and you'll get away with it.”

Trixie started to laugh, and Karon started laughing with her. They went on for several minutes before it died down, and with the last remnants of a giggle Trixie said, “We should probably go find where that sorcerer ran off to. You know, before he has time to escape the city.”

“Yeah,” Karon agreed, and they went off together the way most of the crowd had run to.

They followed one of the wider bridges, the steel underneath creaking like everything else in the city and the handrails were so coated in rust that they had actually been eaten right through at some points. Eventually, they got to one of the clusters of houses that had been built, and suspended in the air. They were held up by thick beams, running underneath them that Karon suspected were just as rusted and liable to break as the handrails.

After he reached the platform and took a few steps on it, a chill ran down his spine, and his instincts screamed at him that there was danger. His first thought was that the platform was going to collapse, and for the briefest moment his reaction was to try and jump as high as he could.

When nothing happened he realized that that wasn't the case, and he turned around to ask Trixie and froze. There were four men standing around her, shabby even by the standard of the people he had seen so far, and they were all armed with curved knives in their hands, rusted of course.

One of them had his knife against Trixie's throat, and the other hand was gripped around her horn. The unicorn herself looked furious, but every time her horn even began to shine the knife pressed against her throat a little harder, and Karon realized that the man was holding the horn so he could feel when it became warm with charged energy.

One of the other men said something in their language, and they all looked at Karon expectantly. But he didn't understand them, and even if he did he would have had a hard time hearing them. The sound of his heart beating at record speed filled his ears, and there was a dread rising inside of him that blocked everything else out, as a thought kept repeating itself over and over again.

“What if you lose her?

“What if you lose her?

“What if you lose her?”

One of the men made a gripping kind of motion with his hand towards Karon's spear, and he realized they wanted Promise. Maybe they thought they could wield it, or maybe they just thought it looked expensive. Karon wasn't sure what to do as his mind was flooded with the fear of what might happen if he made a mistake.

One of the men pointed towards Trixie, then said something and laughed before patting his stomach. The other men laughed as well, and they all looked at Trixie with faces that made Karon's entire thought process freeze. The moment passed, and his mind became crystal clear.

“Promise.”

“Yes master?”

“Plan B.”

Karon slowly walked forward with Promise held out horizontally in front of him. The men looked at him warily, and kept giving each other glances as he approached. When he was only a few steps in front of the men, he stopped, and he slowly lowered Promise to the ground, and then he pointed to Trixie.

The man holding her shook his head, and he motioned with his head for Karon to back off first. He did, his face retaining its unreadable expression, cold and without any visible emotion, save for his amber eyes that burned with focused rage.

The man holding Trixie smiled crookedly, and he forced her to walk forward while he straddled her, his knife still placed against her throat. The other men flanked him, and when they reached the spear, the man holding Trixie removed the blade and pushed her to the side and reached down and grabbed the spear quickly. He pointed it towards Karon, and Trixie hurried over to him with pure rage etched into her features.

Karon's expression remained the same, and when the men holding the spear said something that sounded like a taunt Karon only replied, “That was a mistake.”

“You can go ahead. Enjoy yourself.”

“I will, master.”

The man grabbing the spear smirked, and then his smile slowly fell. His eyes widened and his mouth opened in soundless horror, until he dropped the spear and went down on his knees. He started wailing as if he was being torn apart, and he started clawing his face.

The men around him stared at him, and so when a bolt of lightning erupted from Karon's hand and struck one of them, it came entirely by surprise. The man was dead before his body hit the ground, and smoke rose from his corpse together with the smell of burnt flesh.

The two remaining men turned to face Karon and Trixie, and one of them instantly turned and fled. He got a few steps before a white beam of pure force went straight into him, sending him flying into one of the poorly built shacks of metal plate. He didn't barrel through it, instead his body struck the edge and left a deep impression together with a large splatter of blood, and what was then no doubt just a corpse twisted like a rag doll in the air before it disappeared out of sight, and fell into the ocean.

The one remaining man started sobbing with fear, and he slowly tried to move away from them, keeping to the walls of the buildings and never taking his eyes off them. Karon kept his gaze focused on the man, his face still without any expression. Then he vanished from view.

The man froze and stared at the spot Karon had been standing at just a second ago, a few seconds later the man looked around with his eyes trying to be everywhere at once, and noticed that the spear was no longer in sight either.

He cried out in panic, and turned to run. Instead he ran straight into the tip of Promise, and the spear slid through the center of his chest like it was nothing, greedily drinking of the man's heart blood.

Karon's faced remained impassive, until the man finally fell down and the light in his eyes went out. Trixie joined him, looked down at the corpse, and after a while she went on her hind legs and embraced him, and only then did Karon's face show emotion again.

“Please… don't let that happen again,” he begged her.

“I won't,” she promised.

They held each other for a long time, and when they finally let go, both their eyes turned to the whimpering man who had kept his knife at her. He was down on his knees, still clawing at his face with blood streaming down his skull. They went over and looked down on him.

“What did you do, Promise?”

“I wounded his mind.”

“That doesn't sound so bad; I expected worse from you.”

“Well this is only the start, master; it will escalate. And within two weeks or perhaps a little more, he will die from the pain. By then, the horror will have become so pure it will be branded on his soul and it will take him several lifetimes to get rid of it.”

Karon opened his mouth slightly, and he took a deep breath before he replied to the spear.

“You have served me well, Promise.”

“Thank you, master. That is the only thing I desire.”

“Trixie, do you think you could throw the bodies into the ocean? Before someone comes around and notices them,” Karon asked gently.

She looked like she was going to say something, but instead she closed her mouth and nodded. Soon two corpses went floating through the air, a faint nimbus the same color as the light of her horn around them. It took her only a few minutes, and during that time Karon hadn't moved. He had just kept on staring down at the man that would have cut Trixie's throat for something he didn't even understand the true value of.

“What are we going to do with him? Just leave him like this?” Trixie asked when she returned to stand next to him.

Karon remained quiet for a while before he replied. “No.” They were standing near one of the ledges, and so Karon drew back his right leg and kicked the man hard in the chest, sending him rolling towards the edge, and going over it.

Trixie looked up at him, shocked at what he'd just done, and he turned to look at her and simply said, “It was a kindness, trust me.”

She hesitated, but finally nodded, and the two went over to the edge and looked down into the calm sea. There was no splashing, no great struggle to keep himself afloat; the man was far beyond that, and only a few bubbles marked his presence, and then they were gone.

Four Suns (Part 3)

Karon and Trixie didn't move as they looked down at the calm sea. The body of the unnamed assailant had surfaced shortly after plunging into the water, and was now floating peacefully upon the gentle ocean waves.

However after a few minutes had passed of staring down at the corpse, the peacefulness of the sea was disturbed as several swiftly moving figures came around the bend of the great cliffs, and went straight towards the body. Great deltas trailed behind them, and several of the figures broke through the surface in leaps, sending water splashing around scales that glittered in the sunlight.

Karon blinked once, then waited until another came splashing through the surface and sailing through the air before he could confirm what he was actually seeing.

“Are those … mermaids?”

Their slender forms carved through the water effortlessly, and made it look like a thing of enjoyment, rather than effort. Their scales shone in blue, green and gold and from what Karon could see from his position far above, their upper bodies looked like hauntingly beautiful females. Hauntingly beautiful naked females.

Karon stood transfixed and watched them playfully make their way towards the floating body, wondering if they would try and save him.  But when they reached the body and started circling around it, they didn't stop to try and see if he was still alive. Instead they kept circling, until  eventually, with shrill wails they all tore into the body as one, ripping off pieces and quickly disappearing under the surface with their prize.

In less than a minute there was nothing left but a red stain on the ocean, slowly being washed away by the waves. Both Karon and Trixie hadn't moved the entire time it happened, and it took a long while before Trixie eventually opened her mouth and spoke.

“Karon … don't fall into the water.”

“No, that would be bad,” he agreed and swallowed.

“You know, I can kind of understand why the people here would be so averse to anything out of the ordinary or suspicious. I wonder how many men happily jumped into the sea when they saw a gorgeous naked woman wave them in before they figured out that it wasn't that great an idea.”

“It probably still happens from time to time. People here look pretty dumb.”

Karon backed away from the edge and Trixie did the same, both of them looking at it nervously. Wordlessly they went back on their path, trying to follow to where the crowd had taken Selena. And where it was most likely they would find the sorcerer hiding.

“So what's the plan?” Trixie asked, breaking the silence between them.

“I don't know, doing this quiet doesn't seem like an option now.”

“So we get to do it my way?” Trixie asked and her eyes lit up fiercely.

“No. Selena is still technically our employer and she said not to hurt the people here. The sorcerer is the only one those instructions wouldn't apply to, and we need him for the ritual.”

“Karon, we just killed four people,” Trixie objected.

“Yeah, but they were assholes. Assholes are always an exception.”

Trixie looked down on the steel plates they walked on with disappointment and sighed loudly. “So what should we do then?”

“I'm thinking of turning this guy's plan on himself,” Karon told her with a wolfish smile.

“I'm listening,” Trixie said and her ears twitched.

“The folk around here don't like magic, which means that whatever he has done to get the people to obey him doesn't involve a lot of honesty.”

“You want to expose him as a sorcerer,” Trixie said, and some eagerness returned to her voice.

“Yes, shouldn't be that hard really,” Karon told her confidently and looked up into the sky while putting a hand behind his neck.

“Oh? You've got something planned already?”

“We'll give him what he wants the most,” Karon explained.

“Power over all the cities?”

“No...” Karon said and turned to her with eyes shining in bright amber.

Then he explained.

                   ********************************************************

The place they had taken Selena was a grand three story building standing in a sheltered area of the cliff to protect it from the wind and violent storms. It was the grandest of the buildings around, and the least downfallen. It had served as the city's home of government for as long as anyone could remember, and it also had the only cells available for criminals and suspicious people.

It had taken Karon and Trixie a while to find it, and more than once the former had been forced to enter the mind of one of the locals to gain information. Eventually, they had learned that Selena had been put in one of the cells, where she would remain until they could be sure that she was safe from the very mysterious power of the strangers. None of the citizens had liked it, but their new leader had ordered it, and the sense Karon had gained from the minds he had entered was that the people of the city trusted him implicitly.

There were guards posted outside the building in great numbers, though none of them had the looks of a fighter. They were all simple citizens; afraid of the unknown and hardened by the world they lived in. In their hands they held large fishing hooks, small knives and poles with a curved hook on top. Things made for the gutting of fish and the labor of a harbor, not for fighting monsters or defending against magic.

As Karon and Trixie snuck by them unseen and unheard, he saw their worried eyes darting from place to place, and the slight shake of their hands. They all huddled together in groups and never once knew that their 'enemy' was passing them by so close he could have reached out and taken any one of their lives.

When the two of them quietly slipped inside through the main door, Karon and Trixie found themselves inside a grand room of steel pillars and ancient fishing nets hanging from the ceiling. One look made it clear it was more than the biggest and most convenient setting for the ones ruling the city. It was a place of memories. The presence of things ancient hung in the air, and the walls were covered with paintings of old ships and great constructs at sea, far more majestic than the broken and rusted city Karon had been faced with.  

Light shone down in light gray illumination from windows up high, and lanterns provided what other light they could from their positions at the walls. Even so, there were plenty of shadows, and Karon and Trixie moved into one of the deeper ones to the right of the door. There he let go of the cloaking as he sat hunched down, and after the worst of the pounding in his head settled he whispered thoughtfully to Trixie, “I think I'm starting to understand the people here.”

“How so?”

“This place isn't very nice. The forest might have been pretty, but the rest we've seen … they're scared.”

“So? What does that have to do with this?”

“Nothing really, I was just ... forget it.”

Confused silence was the only response he received, and from somewhere deeper inside the building the sound of footsteps echoed.

“Look, this plan will hinge on you and Selena doing your part without fault--“ Karon started to say, until Trixie interrupted him with an irritated voice. “I know the plan Karon, and I'm not gonna fail if it means putting you in that kind of danger.”

“Good, because I'm kinda against going up against this sorcerer after everything I've done today. I'm having trouble concentrating on just having this conversation, two or three more tricks and then I'm done, or I'll burn something out.”

“It's okay, I'll do my part. Besides, if things get really serious I will blow this entire city up. I'm not losing you because of a job.”

“Heh, maybe Promise will cut loose and kill everyone before you get a chance to blow anything up,” Karon said with a smile in his voice.

“Hmph. Don't try and compare that thing with me Karon, it doesn't love you like I do,” she whispered into his ear.

“It might disagree on that,” Karon muttered, mostly to himself.

“Well if Promise ever tries anything then it can look forward to me melting it.”

“Please don't try. I wouldn't like it if you two tried to kill each other,” Karon said and rubbed the spot between his eyes.

“As long as it knows you're mine,” Trixie said firmly.

“Hey there's plenty of Karon to go around,” he answered and gave her a wide smile hardly visible in the shadows.

He couldn't make out her expression in the dark, but Karon could feel the focus that her mind sharpened into; the same as that of a tiger about to pounce on its prey and tear it to pieces.

“You were saying?” she asked in an emotionless voice.

“I said you are the most beautiful creature in the universe and I love you more than anything,” Karon said quickly.

“Oh?” she asked again in the same voice.

“And nothing and no-one will ever be able to compare to you.”

“Was that it?” she asked again.

“And you're the best, and pretty and … flowers and stuff … sexy...”

The silence hung heavy in the air as Karon's voice trailed off, and even the sounds drifting in from the outside sounded fainter. Trixie said nothing, only watched Karon with an unreadable expression made even more unreadable by the deep shadows.

“I … should be going then,” he said and got up too quickly, sending his head swimming as spots danced in the corners of his vision. “Got a sorcerer to fight and everything,” he added and sneaked out of the shadow.

Trixie's voice drifted after him with an amused tone in it. “Aren't you forgetting something?”

“What?” he whispered back with a confused look on his face.

The silence stretched for a few seconds as the cogs in Karon's head spun, and Trixie waited expectantly. Then he sighed and rubbed his temples with two fingers.

“Right, saving the damsel in distress first.”

“That's right Karon, you know, the one this plan of yours will rely on quite heavily and who without is doomed to fail.” Trixie commented with a crooked smile as she came out of the shadow and walked up to him.

“I think I liked you better before you learned sarcasm,” Karon huffed and switched his grip on Promise.

“No you didn't,” Trixie told him without a hint of worry.

They continued on their way down dimly lit passages, and unlike the patchwork of steel plates that had made up the floor outside, the one they walked on now only squealed every once in a while.

Despite the amount of people that had stood guard outside, the inside of the place appeared almost deserted. Only once did they run into someone else. As they passed around one corner, they had both frozen as a young man dressed in the standard blue and white of the city did the same, and stared at them with bulging eyes. Before he could scream Promise had come around in a wide arc and smacked into the side of his head with the butt of the spear, and the helpless boy had bounced off the wall once then crumpled into a heap on the floor.

They had dragged his body and hidden it behind a stack of steel barrels before continuing forward. Karon was guided only by the most general of layout he had received from the minds he had entered. Which explained why reaching the cells took forty minutes instead of ten.

When they eventually did, it wasn't as grandiose as Karon had imagined considering the emotions that were attached to the impressions he had stolen. There was a wide set of stairs leading down into what was the bare rock of the great cliff, where there were exactly two small cells carved into the bedrock.

There were no guards posted outside, and if it was simply from overconfidence or the fact that escaping from the cells was considered impossible was hard to say. It wasn't the most precise work, and the cell doors sat a little awkwardly against the stone. One of them was empty, and in the other a familiar blue clad shape sat hunched in a corner with a blanket draped around herself.

She lifted her head up when the sound of footsteps reached her, and when she saw who it was approaching her cell she hurried forward and pressed her face to the bars. She started to speak, then stopped herself when she remembered they couldn't understand, and a look of consternation briefly flashed across her face.

Karon looked at her understandingly, then reached out with his right hand and pressed it against her forehead, gently re-establishing a connection between them.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“I'm okay, they didn't want to hurt me. They are just afraid I am being controlled by you. Please tell me you didn't hurt anybody!?”

“I didn't hurt anyone in that mob, I scared them away,” he thought to her, carefully shaping them so the white lie wouldn't be noticeable.

“Thank you,” she thought, and with it came a flood of relief and gratitude.

“You're welcome,” he thought and suppressed the twinge of guilt he felt. “Now I have a plan that might be enough to defeat this sorcerer and get your destiny back without bloodshed. I will need your help for it though.”

“Whatever you need. I'll do it,” she reassured him.

Karon nodded with a pleased smile, and spent the next few minutes carefully explaining his plans to Selena. When he was done she was looking at him uncertainly, and the thought she sent back was laced with doubt.

“Are you sure this is the best way? It seems too risky.”

“There's a lot of room for error, yeah, but this is the best I could come up with that entirely avoids bloodshed. Everything else will involve a confrontation with the people here eventually.”

The look on her face said she wasn't entirely convinced, but she didn't argue any further. Instead she took a couple of steps back from the bars and asked, “How are you going to get this door open?”

Karon smacked his lips and gestured Trixie forward with a quick bow, and she gracefully stepped towards the cell door with a pleased expression. She looked it over once, then cracked her neck and took three steps to the side and her horn started to glow. Karon quickly stepped to the side of the door as well, and motioned for Selena to keep away from it.

A blue glow spread out and enveloped it entirely, and it started to squeal as metal bent, until the entire door flew out in a shower of twisted metal and rock. Selena came out a moment later, brushing the dust of her dress and looking at Trixie with no small measure of fear apparent in her eyes.

“Ready to handle your part?” Karon sent to her.

“I … yes. I'll do my best to time it right.”

“Good. Now before we get started there's still the matter of your language.”

“Right ... I'm ready, just...”

“I'm not going to hurt you.” Karon sent to her as soothingly as he could.

They kneeled down opposite each other on the ground and closed their eyes. Karon's face remained an impassive mask of calm concentration, while Selena's face kept twitching and turning, like she was having a hard time keeping still.

Trixie stood motionless and watched the two. Her eyes were fixed on Karon, and even though she was no virtuoso with the more sensitive sides of the arts, she still had no problem sensing Karon's aura and getting a rough estimate of its state.

He had been pushing himself hard the entire day, and it was starting to become really noticeable. Lines of energy leapt across his mind like solar flares, and the will guiding all of it was slipping. It wouldn't be much longer before he lost control of something completely. For Trixie such a loss of control would have meant maybe blowing something up spontaneously; for Karon it meant sending himself or another into a waking nightmare, or burning out entire memories.

Magic is no toy, and Trixie could see Karon was nearing the end of where he could handle the power he wielded with surety. She could pump him full with energy, or they could draw from the environment. But that would be a short term solution that might make it worse. What he really needed was rest, a chance for his being to restructure and realign itself into the pattern that was Karon.

If he pushed too far, that pattern might change, and then he wouldn't be Karon anymore.

She breathed a sigh of relief when he finally opened his eyes, but her concern didn't entirely disappear when she noticed the distant look in Karon's eyes, like he wasn't even aware of where he was. She stepped forward quickly and put a hoof on his shoulder, giving him a slight shake.

He didn't react, and Selena rose with a fearful expression on her face. Trixie caught it and turned her face to the human and snarled, “What happened!?”

Selena recoiled from the furious unicorn, and she hastily said something in her own language. The fact that Trixie couldn't even understand just made her scowl deepen, and she took a step towards the human before she felt Karon's hand reach up and grasp her mane gingerly.

She stopped immediately and turned back to him, and even though his eyes were still distant and without focus, she felt his fingers wrap themselves around her mane. She took the hint and didn't move, instead waiting for any further sign from him in silence.

It took a long time, or maybe it just felt that way, before Karon's eyes came into focus and turned to meet Trixie's. She smiled when he did, and brushed her face against his lovingly before asking, “What happened?”

“Not much really. I have absorbed her language but they … think and perceive the world a lot differently. It took time for me to be able to understand the mindset behind the language is all.”

“Karon, are you sure you're up for this? Maybe I should be the one to confront the sorcerer?” Trixie asked with a worried frown.

“You don't speak their language, and it's kinda important to the plan that the one who confronts him does.”

“So we'll make a new plan, or we just start hitting him until he gives up.”

“He'll find a way to turn it against us, and Selena wanted her people undamaged.”

“I don't care about them, I care about you. If I think this is going wrong, I'm going to abandon the plan and take you away while turning everything in my way to ash.”

“You're sexy when you're murderous,” Karon replied and stroked her face.

“I'm always sexy,” she told him and placed her hooves around him in an embrace.

They held each other for a moment while a wicked smile made its way to Karon's lips. When they let go of one another he leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “Wanna go ruin a sorcerer's life?”

She matched his smile and nodded wordlessly. Karon shook his head a few times before standing up, and even then he needed to lean against Trixie for support.

“Okay, how does this sound?” he asked Selena in the newly absorbed language.

Her head twitched and she made a grimace before answering, “You speak the words horribly, but I can understand you.”

“Good,” he replied and took a few deep breaths before shifting his weight and stood without support. “Now, is there some kind of big room at the top floor?”

“Yes, the meeting hall.”

“Okay, that's where we'll find him.”

“How can you be so sure?” she asked and tilted her head.

“Because staying in any other place besides the one where you might expect to find an evil mastermind would be a strategically sound decision that doesn't cater to drama,” Karon replied with a shrug.

Selena apparently didn't know what to say to that, as she remained silent. Karon raised an eyebrow in surprise from the lack of a comment, and turned his eyes to Trixie. The unicorn looked back at him with a worried expression, but her eyes remained hard and focused.

“Well then, let's do this,” he said, and together the three of them left the empty cell behind.

                          ************************************************

The room was shaped in an almost perfect square, and lacked any and all signs of the rust that could be found in every other part of the city. Windows shaped in half circles opened up to the world outside, and allowed a generous amount of light inside. The walls, floor and ceiling was the same dull gray of metal as every other building, but there was a smattering of color added through a few old and worn rugs placed on the floor, and even a few curtains hanging around the windows.

The door leading to the room was of a more elaborate making than most of the others, and gleamed in polished splendor. Until it was loudly kicked inwards by Karon as the trickster strode inside the room with a smug expression and the runes on Promise glowing threateningly with orange light.

There was a long table placed in the center of the room with a dozen chairs around, all of it made out of the same metal as everything else. On the other side of the table stood a darkly clothed individual staring out the window with his hands placed around his back.

“I've been expecting you,” said a voice that carefully sounded out each syllable.

“Then couldn't you have prepared some kind of drink for me? Tea or something? You can't play the sinister mastermind without offering token signs of respect and hospitality,” Karon explained while leaning on the spear.

The black clothed individual turned around and threw back his hood, revealing a pale face with long dark hair and stubble. Karon got the impression that the man had tried to grow a proper beard, but failed. The man had brown eyes and his face was slightly wrinkled, though if it was from age or weariness Karon couldn't tell.

Then Karon turned his eyes downwards.

“Are you … wearing a cape?” he snorted.

“Does this amuse you?” the man asked coldly.

“No, not at all.” Karon replied and put a hand in front of his mouth as he turned his giggle into a cough.

The man frowned angrily, and the next words came out through clenched teeth. “You came here with the woman, Selena. She has brought you here to return what I took from her?”

“Yeah she's hired us to get her destiny back,” Karon confessed and held out his palms while resting Promise against his shoulder.

“You will fail,” the man growled and arched his back so he looked down on Karon by way of his nose.

“Not if I win … by failing!” Karon announced heroically and puffed up his chest until his lungs felt ready to burst.

The sorcerer lost his composure and stared at the trickster in confusion.

“What are you doing?” he asked, his voice suddenly a lot less deep and intimidating; more like the slow drawl of a country boy than a dark sorcerer.

Karon let out all the air and shrugged, “I thought we were doing a thing.”

The sorcerer's face gradually went through looks of disbelief, disappointment, anger and finally settled on a haughty look of contempt.

“I see I overestimated you. Now before I commence in destroying you, I would wish to know where your familiar is?”

“My what? Oh you mean Trix? Man, don't let her catch you calling her that. She's down in the cells freeing Selena.”

“Then I shall deal with your pet right after I'm finished with you,” the sorcerer said and reached into his black robes, from where he pulled out a sleek wand.

“Wait, you have to use tools even for combat?” Karon said in disbelief.

The sorcerer didn't reply, instead he raised his wand towards Karon and snarled, “Any last words?”

Karon didn't answer at first, instead he put a finger to his chin and tapped it a few times while his eyes roamed the room, like he was thinking about it. Unnoticed by the sorcerer, his eyes lingered a little longer at one of the chairs around the table.

“Yeah, a question: who the hell are you?”

The sorcerer looked at a loss for words, and the wand wavered slightly, before he brought it back up again and spoke in a suspicious voice, “Why do you wish to know that?”

Karon rolled his eyes at the suspicious tone, and he banged his spear once into the floor and looked to the chair again. It still looked like nothing out of the ordinary.

“Why wouldn't I? A little banter is the standard before a fight between a hero and villain; not that I'm a hero mind you. I'm here because I get paid.”

“Well you will just have to die ignorant then, because I am-”

Before the sorcerer could get any further the chair Karon had been paying special attention to was enveloped in a blue aura of energy for the briefest of moments, and moved a fraction of an inch. Karon caught it, but so did the sorcerer.

“What did you do?” he demanded, and the wand in his hand started to shine with a white light.

“Man this is going to hurt.”

“You should worry about what I'm about to do!” Karon shouted and took a running leap forward, jumping up on the table and rushing towards his opponent with Promise held out in front of him, the runes on the spear glowing.

Halfway towards the sorcerer he stepped over an invisible line, and a carefully conceived magical trap was activated. Several lines of scribbled symbols appeared around the sorcerer and glowed with charged energy. It buzzed like a thousand angry bees, and then was projected forward in a flash against Karon.

It struck him right in the chest, and the trickster was caught in a cloud of white flames hot enough to burn him to ash in seconds. It lasted for just a few heartbeats -and left a large section of the metal table glowing red- but when it was over Karon was nowhere to be seen.

The sorcerer stared at the spot wide eyed for a second, then began cackling in a high pitched voice.

“Yes! Yes! I knew it would work! Bow before me you sniveling fools, I am Nagrosh the Dark!”

His celebratory laughter was interrupted when one of the chairs around the table fell backwards, and where there had been nothing but empty air a second ago, Karon appeared and fell down on the floor. He turned around on his back and breathed heavily with crossed eyes that soon came into focus. In his right hand he held a loose grip around Promise, on which the runes were flashing sporadically, like it was running low on energy and trying to hold on.

“Just a little longer.”

“Shielding you from the trap took most of the energy I had stored master, I won't be able to hold on for more than a minute or so.”

The sorcerer stared at the still breathing trickster with an open mouth, which he slammed shut as he walked over to Karon briskly. He kept an eye on the spear as he got closer, but it was obvious Karon was in no state to wield the weapon against him.

“How did you survive the blast!?” the sorcerer demanded as he stood above the panting trickster, his wand pointed straight between his eyes.

“Hehe, if you wanna lure someone into a magical trap you should make sure they aren't sensitive to those sort of things first,” Karon wheezed out with a laugh.

The sorcerer kicked him in his side, and Karon dropped Promise to the floor as he curled into a fetal position with a groan. The wand started glowing white again, and with a wicked smile the sorcerer pulled it back like it was a hammer he was about to strike down on his opponent with.

“Any real last words?” he asked again with a smirk.

“Yeah, what are your plans?” Karon said and turned his face up towards the smug looking sorcerer.

“My plans? Why isn't it obvious? I stole the destiny of that pathetic woman Selena, and I aim to unite all the cities of this world under my rule. I mean to use them as a means to gain power and eventually turn them into an army. The people of this world are dim witted and will be easy to enslave once I have enough time to use my magic against them.”

Karon just stared at the sorcerer, and blinked.

“Wow, that was easy.”

“Now, die.”

“Trix,” Karon whispered.

And the sorcerer's hand flung down towards Karon, empty. He looked at it, confused by the lack of glowing wand. And when he looked around he saw it hovering in the air behind his head, enveloped by a blue aura.

“Finally,” Karon said with a deep sigh, and his body went limp as he finally could relax.

And as he did, the illusion of an empty doorway disappeared to reveal Trixie standing in the opening. Behind her stood Selena, and several of the local people. The latter all stared at the sorcerer in anger and shock, and he stared back at them dumbfounded.

“What? You honestly thought a punk like you could kick my ass for real?” Karon asked in a contemptuous voice and rose to his feet unsteadily.

The sorcerer turned to stare at him, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. Then abruptly he brought up his right hand and pointed it towards Karon, as it started to glow red with gathering energy.

Before anything could happen Trixie's horn glowed, and a blue cloud of energy surrounded the sorcerer, and promptly slammed him into the closest wall. Once, twice, thrice he was slammed hard enough for Karon to wince as the loud sound of flesh hitting metal echoed through the room.

When she was done, Trixie dropped the dazed sorcerer down on the floor. His eyes were glazed and there was a tiny stream of drool escaping his mouth. She stalked over to him calmly, and when she reached his limp body she glared at him with icy cold eyes and leaned down.

“'Pet?'” she asked in an all too calm voice, before striking the sorcerer hard in the crotch with a hoof.

The poor man squealed in protest before his breath came out in hacking coughs, and his eyes closed as he fell unconscious from the pain. Trixie didn't spare the man a second glance, and she hurried over to stand beside Karon with a worried look.

He turned down to her and winked, before turning his eyes back to the gathering crowd of Kashmens, as the people of the city called themselves.

“Their language isn't half bad once you get used to it.”

“Even so, I don't feel like staying here for a vacation.”

“Seconded.”

They were all babbling almost incoherently, all of it directed at Selena. The woman whom they had all at one point or another come to with a problem, and who had supported and helped them to the best of her ability. She was doing her best to calm them down and explain the situation, and eventually she succeeded enough for them to merely whisper amongst themselves while she walked over to Karon.

“They're all very upset about what they just saw, and I think it's going to take a lot of time for word to get around about what is really going on. But still, they trust you two for the moment,” she told them.

“Good,” Karon replied, “then they won't be getting in our way while we perform the ritual to get your destiny back.”

Selena's face shone with gratitude when she heard him say it, and her eyes grew misty at the prospect of finally getting back that which gave her very existence a purpose.

“When … when do you think you can do it?” she asked in a shaky voice.

Karon grimaced and looked down on Trixie, and something wordlessly passed between them that Selena couldn't interpret.

“It might … be a while. Not very long, don't fear. But I'm still a bit tired after all the energy I've had to throw around today, and we really don't want to mess this ritual up.”

Selena's face fell just a little bit, but she nodded in understanding. “How long will you need before you're ready?”

“Just a few hours of rest. Trixie will be able to watch over the sorcerer and make sure he doesn't escape while I'm out.”

Selena nodded, and turned around to face the crowd. She spoke quickly and with a confidence born out of having seen almost every citizen at their lowest at one point or another, and instructed them to take the sorcerer down to the cell that was still intact, and prepare a room for Karon.

Few of them looked happy, but they obeyed without any objections. It had become apparent that what was going on was above their heads, and so they put their trust in the one person that was familiar and safe.

Selena, Karon and Trixie followed the two men dragging the sorcerer to the cell, and watched as they locked him in. Afterward Selena led the two off-worlders to the room that had been prepared, and she left them there to go deal with the other citizens and make sure everything was under control.

As soon as the door closed behind her, Karon sagged and dropped Promise to the floor, and Trixie rushed over to give him support. She gently moved him over to the bed, made out of steel but with a mattress made out of a material that felt soft and flexible.

He groaned with pleasure when his head flopped down, and his hand sought its way to Trixie's face. She shook her head slowly, making sure that his hand still touched her cheek. “You're an idiot, you know that, right? Why do you insist on making sure every plan ends up with you either half beaten to death or on the brink of exhaustion?”

“On the brink? Girl, I passed over the brink of exhaustion hours ago,” he said groggily and smiled with his eyes half closed.

She sighed and leaned her head in to kiss him on the forehead, then she pulled her head back and took a few steps towards the door.

“You were cutting it awfully close with the sorcerer, a few seconds more and he would have turned my head into goo,” Karon said before she reached it.

She turned her head around and smiled a smile he couldn't see through his closed eyes, but he could feel the flash of amusement that went through the unicorn's aura.

“I just wanted to make sure you know just how much you need me,” she said, and left the room before he got a chance to reply.

Karon laid in silence and listened to the slight squeak the door made as it closed behind her, and took a deep breath before he snorted, “Women,” and let fatigue drag him into unconsciousness.

                           ****************************************************

When Karon awoke, more than just a few hours had passed. He rose from the bed and walked over to the window, from where he got the view of the rusted city framed in by the surrounding sea. The stars shone distantly in the sky, and while no moon graced the heavens the horizon was a shade brighter than the rest, announcing the sun's imminent return.

Karon yawned and sat down at the edge of the bed. His sleep had been filled with intense dreaming, and even though they were all starting to drift from his consciousness back into the fog of his deeper mind, they left a foreboding feeling. Some dreams are just mental junk, and some dreams are more important than that. Karon suspected that he had tapped into something of importance while his mind was drifting across the veils, he just couldn't remember the details.

The overall message had been clear though, he was on the right track. But the road ahead would not be easy.

He cracked his knuckles while he thought about what that would mean in a practical sense, and from the depths of his mind a dry, sarcastic voice surfaced.

“We should probably continue doing what we're doing, and get ready for some tough times.”

“Because so far we've just been coasting along without anything exciting happening, right?”

“Don't act like that when the universe just handed you a notice saying things would get rough. Somewhere someone will take it as an excuse to make it even worse just to prove a point.”

“Which is?”

“A little humbleness goes a long way when dealing with beings that make you look like an emancipated ant.”

“Am I still dreaming or are you actually advocating humbleness?”

“When we're dealing with greater forces that actually seems to have our best interests in mind, yeah; they like us at least enough to give us a heads up when something bad is approaching.”

“I never got the feeling that some big bad was approaching, not in the foreseeable future anyway. Just that...the road ahead won't be easy.”

“Then toughen up, because we're not stopping anytime soon right?”

“Course not. If not this, what would we do?”

“Nothing that wouldn't land us in a prison somewhere.”

“Exactly.”

Karon rubbed his eyes and blinked hard a few times, forcing the last remnants of sleepiness away.

“So ... what are we going to do with the sorcerer?”

“We could just execute him, or leave him here.”

“The second is the same as the first. The people here won't stand for what he's done.”

“Considering what he's done and planned to do, I wouldn't lose sleep over it.”

“I don't know. He's an asshole for sure, and tries way too hard with his image, but still ... he's a practitioner. Sorcerer yeah, but he didn't fuck up too badly here. He's young, magical development-wise. Maybe with time he would grow into something more given the chance.”

“Should we give him that chance?”

“There was a time when we weren't that different, and the title of asshole fit us snugly.”

“It still kinda does.”

“Yeah but now we're a badass asshole with redeeming qualities.”

“We are indeed. So ... set him free?”

“That would be inviting trouble. We'll talk with him, maybe poke around his mind a little bit, see what turns up. I'm very curious about the 'this world' comment he made during all that villain exposition.”

Karon snorted.

“I can't believe he fell into that trap so easily.”

“It wasn't that much of a surprise. It's obvious he wants attention and to satisfy his ego before all else.”

“Speaking from personal experience?”

“Speaking from having to share a mind with you for the last three years.”

“Touche.”

A slight smile touched Karon's lips, and he rose from his seat at the bed and headed over to the door. Next to it, Promise stood leaning against the wall, and he grabbed it before putting a hand to the door. It was chilly to the touch, and it squeaked loudly when he opened it. Outside there sat an old man with graying hair, half-dozing. Karon lifted an eyebrow and cleared his throat loudly. The man opened his mouth and smacked it absently a few times before he turned two bloodshot eyes towards Karon.

When he did the man's eyes widened and he opened his mouth, but no words came out. Tension hung in the air, and the man looked ready to bolt at the first sign of movement from Karon.

“I'm not gonna hurt you,” Karon told him in the local language.

The man's mouth dropped even further, though surprise made its way to his eyes to mix with the fear. Maybe he didn't know Karon could speak it, or as was more likely, Karon's terrible accent was just so strange that it was enough to make the man feel a little less intimidated.

“I … I was told to … bring you to Selena when you woke up. Not ... I mean ... do you wish me to show you the way or...?” The man stammered in a wheezing voice, and he started coughing violently.

Karon would have started to pat the man on the back if it weren't for the fact it would probably trigger a heart attack. So instead he stood silently and waited for the man to regain his composure.

When he finally did and looked up to Karon with watery eyes, the trickster motioned with his hand forward and simply said, “Lead the way.”

The man nodded quickly, and hurried down the hallway. He led them down the same path Karon had followed on his way from the cells, and deduced that was where they probably were headed. The assumption was proven correct, and when they reached the one cell in the entire city, he found Trixie sitting on a blanket just outside it, keeping a watchful eye on the sorcerer within.

The man leading Karon stopped on the stairs leading down to the cells, and Karon could feel the very intense flash of fear that went through the man like a shiver when he looked at Trixie. He looked around the small room several times, despite the fact that you could see everything with one look.

Karon passed him by, and Karon was met halfway down by Trixie rushing over and giving him a lingering hug.

“Feeling better?” she asked and looked up at him lovingly.

“Much better now,” he said and kissed her.

When they parted Karon turned to face the old man, who was staring at them with naked shock on his face.

“Right … this isn't exactly a normal relationship...” he whispered to Trixie, and she giggled.

The man didn't understand the language they spoke, and he once again looked ready to bolt at the slightest provocation.

“What is it?” Karon asked him in an attempted soothing voice.

“I … it … uhh, Selena was supposed to be here,” he said and looked around again, as if Selena would suddenly appear out of one of the cracks in the stone.

Karon turned to Trixie and asked, “Was Selena here?”

“Yes, though she left a while ago when another woman came and got her. She had dark hair and was wearing a blue and green dress, kinda similar to the one Selena wore actually.”

Karon nodded, and forwarded the information to the old man. He listened intently, then told Karon he knew who the woman probably was, and that he would go and look for Selena. He very politely asked Karon to remain at the cells until he returned with Selena, and Karon reassured him he would.

“Good, will give me time to interrogate the sorcerer.”

They waited until the echoes of the man’s footsteps receded, and even then Karon cast out his senses to make sure they were alone. Tentative acceptance or not, if the locals caught him using magic they would probably panic and lash out in fear of him doing something sinister.

But it turned out they were as alone as could be, with the one exception of the sorcerer. Karon turned towards the cell, and his eyes narrowed slightly as he gazed into the shadowy nook the would-be conqueror was hiding within.

In his hand Promise flared in orange light, and a hungry anger rolled off the spear. The details didn't matter to the spirit of the spear, if something living dared threaten its' master it wanted to kill it, painfully.

Karon smirked at the spear, and he held it before himself as he walked over to the cell door, banishing the shadows with its angry light.

Inside the cell, the sorcerer was pressing himself up against the opposite wall, and glared at the approaching trickster.

“Have you come to gloat?” he hissed.

“No, just here for some answers.”

“You won't get anything out of me!” the man hissed again.

“Really? Do you HAVE to act like this all the time?”

“What?” the man asked in confusion, his hissing voice falling away and revealing the slight drawling of a farm boy.

Karon sighed and massaged his forehead.

“You're overacting. It turns what might have been a slightly intimidating and respect inducing demonstration of your badassness into a demonstration of your brainlessness.”

“I will laugh as I tear the flesh off your bones!” the sorcerer shrieked and a red glow started to gather in his palms.

Karon banged Promise against the bars on the door loudly, and the sorcerer flinched when the spear's light grew even brighter. Hunger emanated from the spear in almost physically tangible waves, and he took the hint. The red glow died away and the sorcerer's shoulders slumped in defeat.

“Look, if you give me what I want, I'll make sure you make it out of this alive,” Karon told the sorcerer, using the same soothing voice as he had used with the old man.

The man looked back at him in disbelief, and then smiled an acidic smile.

“You're a terrible liar.”

“No, I'm a masterful liar. Comes with being a trickster.”

“A trickster?” the man hissed, and looked at the cell wall thoughtfully.

Karon raised his eyebrows and titled his head, before asking, “You know what a trickster is?”

“My grandm--...I mean my teacher told me about tricksters. 'Beware the tricksters, they deceive and lie like no other' she used to say.”

“Well that's kinda … obvious, but still. However that may be, I'm telling the truth now. You might be a wannabe dark lord, but we're all children at some point, and it's not my place to kill a fellow practitioner unless I really, really need to.”

The sorcerer stared at Karon, but there was a tiny flicker of hope evident in his eyes. And also plainly visible on his aura.

“What do you want to know?” he eventually asked.

“Well, he broke fast.”

“Are you surprised?”

“Not really.”

“What is your real name? I refuse to believe your name is 'Nagrosh the Dark'.” Karon asked.

The sorcerer hissed as air passed through his clenched teeth. He refused to meet Karon's eyes, but his voice came out clear.

“Leti.”

“Leti. Okay Leti, you're not from this world are you?”

“No, I'm not,” he admitted.

“So you're either skilled enough to actually travel between worlds, which I doubt, or you are in possession of a tool or a set of tools that helps you with that. Which is it.”

“It is a ritual,” Leti spat, hurt evident in his voice. “I'm not without skill.”

“Yeah, yeah you can do some regular sorcerer's tricks. Where did you get this ritual?”

“From my teacher.”

“Your grandmother?” Karon asked and hid his smile.

Leti didn't answer, but the silence made the truth of the statement clear.

“I take it that is from where you got the ritual to transfer destinies as well?”

“Yes. That and much more.”

“Well good for you, but this is kinda gross abuse of them. Do you have any idea what will happen to you should some higher power get a whiff of what you've done? I'm talking the fury of the heavens coming down on you like a holy sledgehammer of ouch.”

“I don't fear the heavens,” the sorcerer said with a confident smirk.

“Then you're an idiot. Now, if you nullify the effects of the ritual and return Selena's destiny to her, I will take you away from this world and drop you off at the bazaar. You know what that is?”

“I've heard of it,” came the sorcerer's reply.

“Good. Give Selena back her destiny voluntarily, and spare me the trouble of bashing my way into your skull, and I will take you there. After that you're on your own. Think you can do that?”

The sorcerer didn't say anything, but he sighed in frustration and nodded. Karon smiled in satisfaction and stepped back from the door.

“Good. We'll perform whatever ritual you need to do in order to return her destiny, and then we'll say good bye and leave this world.”

The sorcerer didn't answer, he turned his head away and shuffled over to a corner, where he hunched down in silence.

“Seems like this conversation is over.”

“We got what we wanted. Now we just have to wait for Selena.”

The wait wasn't long, and after twenty minutes spent next to Trixie, enjoying the warmth of her body as he played with her mane, Selena came walking down the stairs briskly. Her eyes focused on Karon immediately, and the eagerness in her eyes was obvious.

Trixie made an annoyed sound when she had to move and allow him to rise, and Karon stroked her head with a sympathetic look. He went over and stopped before Selena, noting the almost burning need shining inside her aura.

“Ready to get back what's yours?” he simply asked.

The woman drew a shuddering breath, and her eyes shone with held back tears. She couldn't get any sound out, so she nodded fervently and smiled towards him joyfully. Karon put a hand on her shoulder and smiled back encouragingly, then turned around and walked over to the cell.

“It's time. Behave and everything will work out fine,” he told the sorcerer, who came out of the shadows with a completely emotionless expression.

He looked over at Selena, nothing on his face betraying what he felt or thought. It took Karon a mere glance at his aura though to determine the frustration he felt, and he strengthened his grip around Promise on the off chance Leti might decide to try something after all.

Selena came over to stand next to him and brought forth a set of keys from a pocket in her dress. She unlocked the door, and it swung open with a shrieking squeal of metal, leaving tiny flakes of rust drifting down from the hinges. She didn't look the sorcerer in the eyes, and her nervousness shone in stark contrast to the sorcerer's frustration.

The man came out in a dramatic swish of his dark clothes, the cape draped around him exaggerating every movement he made. He looked at Karon and Selena, and he stood tense as a calculating glance took in the room. It ended the moment Trixie cleared her throat and raised her eyebrows towards him.

“Go ahead and try something,” she said hungrily. Even though Leti couldn't understand her, the tone conveyed the message clearly. He swallowed, and shifted his eyes to Karon.

“I will need chalk, or something other to mark out the ritual area,” he said.

“Selena?” Karon asked and looked at her questioningly.

She nodded, and went up the stairs in search of something to draw with, and left the three magic users in an awkward silence that lasted all the way until she returned. When she did, she had a seashell with her. She gave it to the sorcerer and he turned it over and looked at it skeptically.

Despite refusing to meet his eyes, Selena noticed the look and said, “Blue liquid comes out the end if you squeeze it lightly.”

The sorcerer did, and indeed there came out a small trickle of light blue liquid. He sighed and frowned at the thing, his face telling them he thought all of this was far beneath him.

He kneeled down on the floor, and started to draw several sets of symbols he connected with triangles. The three others backed away and looked at the process, Selena with worried nervousness, Trixie with a bored expression, and Karon with curiosity.

It took only a few minutes before the sorcerer stood up again, and turned to Selena, unable to quite hide his disgust.

“Stand in the middle,” he told her.

She complied, and stepped over to stand in the middle of the scribbled symbols. The sorcerer cracked his knuckles, and moved over to stand opposite Selena outside the reach of the symbols. He stared down at them, and Karon could see how his aura started to swirl with gathering energies.

“We will be watching,” he said to the sorcerer as a final warning. If Leti even heard it, or if he was too far gone into the trance Karon didn't know, but however it may be the sorcerer didn't acknowledge it.

Gradually the symbols were beginning to glow, and energy spread out between the binding lines in blue and silver light. Selena was staring down at it fearfully, and both Karon and Trixie saw how the energy was slowly seeping into her being.

Outside the small field of energy the ritual took place in stood the sorcerer, his eyes closed and his body swaying from side to side as he was muttering something under his breath. The energy grew brighter and brighter, and started to move out of the inscribed symbols as it was given focus.

It lasted for less than three minutes, until all of it reached a soundless crescendo and the energy died  away completely. No flash of light, no great thunderclap; it simply disappeared in the blink of an eye. Selena staggered to the side, and Karon hurried forward to steady her.

She looked up at him, still the same woman, but with a discernible difference in her eyes. They were fuller, and the blue was more distinct, as if there was now a light behind them. Her eyes flickered back and forth like she was feeling out something inside of herself.

Whatever had been missing was now returned, and the smile that graced her lips when she realized this could not be described in any other way than beautiful.

Selena's entire being seemed to shine with joy, and she embraced Karon gratefully. When she pulled back there was a slight blush on her cheeks, but her eyes continued to shine with unbridled joy.

“Thank you,” she said, and there was so much heartfelt emotions in those few syllables that Karon looked away, uncomfortable.

“Well, yes. We were hired to do a job,” he told her.

Her smile didn't falter, but it turned crooked, like she didn't buy his attempt at sounding businesslike at all. She then turned to Trixie, and walked over to embrace the small unicorn the same way and thanking her with just as much emotion. The unicorn took it better than Karon, and merely shrugged with a slight smile in response.

The rest of the time spent on the world Karon had no name for -- in their own language the people merely thought of it as 'where we live' -- went by surprisingly fast. With Selena's destiny returned, it was as if the entire place had shifted a little, including the spirit of the city's people. They were still a fearful and xenophobic lot, but they all happily put that aside whenever Selena gave instructions. And the more Karon saw, the more he became convinced that she would unite all the cities not as a conqueror, but as someone who ruled simply because the people of the world would come to love her so much that they wanted her to rule them.

As far as power plays goes, he could imagine worse.

There were the standard celebrations Karon had gotten used to after a job was finished, and the food was surprisingly good considering the state of everything else in the city. The sorcerer was kept close by where both Karon and Trixie could keep an eye on him, even though it was doubtful he would be stupid enough to try and escape. The proximity to the two mystic mercenaries was mostly for his own protection. As the rumors of what had truly happened had spread, the people of the city had all reacted with one sided rage towards the man who would have taken their beloved Selena away. And Karon had made it clear that if Leti tried to escape, he would not interfere when the local people gutted him with their fishing tools.

And so, they spent the remainder of the day in the city of the Kashermen, being showered with praise from Selena and disgruntled, yet grateful, looks from the others.

At the end of the day when the sun was beginning to set, the four of them gathered in the harbor where a boat stood ready to take Karon and Trixie back to land. The setting sun had set the sea on fire with red and orange light, and Karon stared out at the beautiful vision. Though he still kept a careful eye on the surface, looking for any sign of approaching mermaids that might like the idea of snatching him if he got too close.

There were some people gathered in the background as well, standing on the edges of the platforms high above, or leaning out windows. Trixie's good bye was short, as it involved only a polite nod towards Selena and kicking Leti on the ass to get him moving down to the boat.

That left Selena and Karon standing alone on the stairs leading down to the dock. An easy breeze was blowing by, making the red robe he wore flap slightly. In his right hand Promise reflected some of the sunlight, and there was an easy feeling of contentment coming from within the spear. Despite the fact it hadn't been allowed to kill Leti, it had at least been allowed to kill someone.

“I just wanted to say thank you again,” Selena told him.

“As I've said before, it's what we we're hired to do,” Karon responded with the tone of someone who was repeating something for the hundredth time.

“I'm still grateful. I never knew what I was meant for before, even when I was set on the path of my destiny, and I'm still not quite comfortable with the way I am meant to rule others. But I think that after what I've seen in the bazaar, it is time at least someone tries and bring about more to the people here than what we have at the moment.”

“Yeah, some fresh change will probably do them good,” Karon agreed, then halted when a thought struck him. “Wait, if you're going to become a ruler then that means that technically ... you're royalty. Or will be.”

Selena blinked, then looked away awkwardly. “I don't know, maybe.”

Karon stared at her, and his face said he was struggling with an important question. Eventually he seemed to reach a conclusion, because his mouth shaped into a wry smile.

“Well, I guess this is good bye then.”

“Maybe we'll see each other again,” Selena said hopefully.

“Yeah, maybe,” Karon agreed and turned around.

After a few steps he stopped, and turned around saying, “One more thing though.”

Down in the boat Trixie was entertaining herself with glaring at the sorcerer, who was doing his best to look unworried, but his eyes kept flickering to hers as sweat trickled down his forehead. Her fun was interrupted when a lot of shouting came from the upper parts of the city, and Trixie turned her head to watch Karon come running down the stairs with a huge grin plastered on his face. Behind him stood Selena with a beet red face, staring after him with shock written all over it.

When Karon reached the boat he threw himself in it and shouted something to the man who was supposed to take them back to shore. The man looked confused, but he complied with whatever Karon had said, and the boat started up and left the city and the upset citizens behind.

“What did you do?” Trixie asked with narrowed eyes.

“Ohh nothing. They were just shouting good bye,” Karon answered.

“Uhuh...” came Trixie's response, accompanied with a glare directed Karon's way this time.

The rest of the trip was taken in silence, and the four aboard spent most of their time staring out at the sea and the setting sun. When they reached land, they chose to be dropped off close to the beach and wade in the rest of the way, rather than arrive by way of the dock and face the locals there who had no idea of who they were and what had occurred out at the city.

The boatsman had no problem with that, and half an hour after they'd left the city, Karon, Trixie and Leti were standing on the beach and facing one another with water dripping from their lower halves.

“So ... how are we supposed to get out of here Karon?” Trixie asked.

“I'm waiting for someone,” he answered cryptically and looked out towards the sea.

“Who?” Trixie asked confused.

“Very clever, I underestimated you,” came a calm and melodic voice from behind them.

All three turned to see an aged man, with short white hair and a neatly trimmed beard. His eyes were light gray, almost silver, and there was a depth to them that spoke of the understanding and wisdom that rested behind the calm surface. He was wearing a plain white shirt and beige pants, and stood in the sand barefoot.

“And who are you?” Trixie asked, and even though the man seemed harmless she tensed up and her tone said she was ready for a fight.

“They call me a lot of things. Karon already knows my name,” the man answered, and gave the trickster a look of curiosity. “How long have you suspected I was around?”

“Not long, it was mostly a stab in the dark,” Karon admitted.

A slight smile graced the stranger's lips, and he seemed more amused than anything else at what was going on.

“Well, your sense for these things is growing. Good for you.”

“Thank you, now what do you want?” Karon asked and rested Promise against his shoulder.

“Not much, just documenting things as usual. Observing your work, which spared my colleague a lot of time by the way. But I think you want something from me, am I correct?”

“Yeah, just information though. The kind of thing you deal with.”

“Very well, ask,” the stranger said and took a relaxed stance with his hands in his pockets.

“How much freedom am I allowed at the moment?” Karon asked with a tone that implied there was a lot more to the question than what was obvious.

“As much as anyone of your station can expect. You're back in the good graces of the powers, mostly, and can enjoy the liberties that brings.”

“And the duties?” Karon asked in the same tone.  

“You're fulfilling them well enough so far,” the man said without elaborating.

“That's all you're gonna give me?”

“It's as much as you need. As for details ... you are allowed to do as you please as long as you don't interfere in any of the local works of the places you visit. Destiny is not to be trifled with, and as long as you don't act within our design, you are only allowed to act without supervision in the lesser.”

“Pretty much what I expected, so directed gateway works and world jumping is fine? I don't need to use the established roads or tools?”

“If you don't want to, but only in service of your own works. Am I clear?”

“Yes,” Karon answered.

The man gave a tiny nod of acknowledgment, and then disappeared. No flash or light or sound, one second there, the other gone.

“Frigging angels,” Karon murmured with a smile.

“Karon, who was that?” Trixie asked with her eyebrows raised high.

“A monkey with a stick,” he said and suppressed his laughter at her confused expression.

“Come on Karon, who was he?” she insisted.

“I'll tell you some other time,” he promised and took Promise in his hands.

He walked forward a few steps where there was ample room, and started drawing a few symbols in the sand. It was nothing as complex as the scribble Leti has used in his ritual, and when he was done Karon stepped back with a smug look on his face.

“What is this?” Leti asked and stared down at the symbols with squinted eyes.

“This is the result of real training in the arts,” Karon told him with a raised eyebrow.

“You didn't answer my question,” the sorcerer growled.

“It's a gateway key, more or less. This should allow us to open up a gateway to the bazaar, or at least a path close by that can lead us there.”

The sorcerer stared at him with his mouth slightly agape, “That's impossible!”

“For an amateur, maybe,” Karon said and gave the sorcerer a meaningful glance.

Leti didn't respond, he just glared at the trickster. Trixie on the other hoof walked around the drawn symbols, studying them intently.

“Really, this simple? I don't remember Varsif ever talking about this,” she said.

“You never were an official student. He just taught you a few tricks and helped you harness the skills you already possessed,” Karon explained.

Trixie nodded absently, and moved back a few steps. “So, how long will the ritual take to perform?”

“A few minutes, nothing more,” Karon reassured. “You ready?”

“I think we're done here yes,” Trixie told him, and walked over to stand beside Leti.

The two watched as Karon stood silent before the symbols, several minutes passed where nothing seemed to happen. Until he shoved Promise right into the heart of the symbols, and a line of energy shot out of the tip and ignited the magic. All the symbols flared in different colors, and then they all coalesced into one black hole that gradually shifted in color to a deep blue.

“That was easier than I expected,” Karon muttered and waved the other two over.

“Are you sure this is safe?” was the first thing Trixie asked with worry evident in her voice.

“...yes,” Karon responded hesitantly.

Trixie looked up at him with utter skepticism in her eyes, and then she nodded towards Leti. “He goes first.”

Karon looked at the portal, then over at Leti. After two seconds of consideration he grabbed the sorcerer by the neck, and before the man had the chance to do nothing but squeak in protest, he shoved him into it.

He disappeared soundlessly, and it seemed like an eternity before he popped back out again with a furious scowl on his face. Karon tried his best to look back at him innocently, while Trixie didn't try and hide her condescending smile at all.

“Uhrm, well then let's all get going,” Karon announced while clearing his throat, and ushered the other two through the gateway.

On the other side they were met with the same blue fog they had passed through on the way from the bazaar, and Karon instantly went on high alert. Next to him he felt Trixie tense up, and the both of them cast their senses out as far as they could, trying to scan for any danger approaching.

They could feel none, but neither of them let their guard down as they moved forward expectantly.

“Is something wrong?” the sorcerer asked and looked around himself.

“We passed through this way before, there were ... things attacking us.”

“What kind of things?” Leti asked nervously and looked around with jerky motions.

“Don't know, they were corporeal and wanted to steal our body heat, I think. Just keep your senses open, and if we get attacked again stay close to Trixie if you want to survive.”

“That sounds kinda contradictory in his case.”

“I'm sure he's aware of that if his face is anything to go by.”

The trio made their way through the blue fog, this time guided on their path by the red sun shining high in the sky. The fog swirled with the same, almost familiar, syrupy movement as they had encountered before, but without the sickening feel the creatures had left when they were being hunted.

For all appearances, there seemed to be no danger lurking in the thick fog, and even though Trixie's senses might be fooled, Karon was far too sensitive not to notice the shift in the environment the hunter's mere presence would cause.

So they went forward, senses perched and magic readied for a confrontation that never came. Time flew by without any way of being measured, and eventually they arrived at a dark tunnel leading into a mountain that appeared out of the fog without any sign of having been there seconds earlier.

When they went through and were enveloped by the dark, a collective sigh of relief could be heard from all three of the travelers, and after a few minutes the tunnel opened up to the brightness and bustle of the bazaar.

There were a few other customers in sight, and in the distance constant movement could be seen at the streets and squares littered over the valley. Karon watched it for a moment, then turned to face Leti, “This is where we say good bye. Let me give you a piece of advice before you go: You have a chance at a lot of things just by being a student of the arts, even if you're a mere sorcerer now, you can perhaps grow into more later. Lose the dramatic flare and starve your ego a little and you might survive to see that day.”

The sorcerer snorted, but Karon caught the flicker of uncertainty in his eyes before he turned around and left him and Trixie behind. The unicorn in turn was staring at Karon with reproach.

“What?” he asked.

“One: you should have done more than just that after what he did. Two: aren't you being a bit hypocritical with what you just said?”

“Just because it comes from a hypocrite doesn't mean it's wrong,” Karon said sagely and wriggled his eyebrows.

Trixie huffed and shook her head, then turned her head back up to him with an eager gleam in her eyes.

“Let's go and get paid,” she said.

“Hell yeah!” Karon exclaimed, and together they made their way down towards Bitz's shop.

They mixed in with the strange multitude of creatures perfectly, and where earlier Karon had felt nervous, almost fearful, he now felt safer. It was something about returning there instead of just discovering it that lent an air of familiarity, and he realized as they walked forward that it was because he felt a sense of belonging. Dangerous or not, the bazaar was a place of the things and beings that stuck out in every world, and eventually made their way here. A trickster fit right in.

Promise clicked with every step they took as it struck the rock and cobblestone they walked on, and it grew more and more distinct as the bustle of the market died down as they neared the area where Bitz had made his home.

When they reached the small looking tent they didn't stop, and simply entered with a loud cough to announce their entrance. Inside Bitz immediately popped up from behind a large chest. When he saw who it was he smiled widely and hurried forward, carefully noting Selena's lacking presence.

“You have returned! Have honored Selena had her destiny returned then? Did the candle speak true or was poor Bitz played for a sucker?” he asked rapidly.

“The job is complete. Selena is back on track with her destiny and the sorcerer has been removed from that world,” Karon said and leaned against his spear.

“Excellent, Bitz sources spoke true! A glorious day it is for all hunters of fine prices everywhere!”

“Yes, speaking of prices ... we were promised payment for this...” Karon trailed off and gave the trader a meaningful look.

“Yes, yes. Bitz keeps all his deals without fault. In return for this great service Bitz will offer a reward of most incredible value, of the most splendid worth, and of the uttermost magnificence.”

“This should be interesting.”

“Bitz think you are familiar with The Walker's Rest, yes?” he asked with eager eyes.

“Yes, we're familiar with the place,” Karon said hesitantly.

Bitz rubbed his hands happily, and from one of the folds of the fabrics twisted around him he brought forth a golden key with an intricate swirling design around it. He looked at it for a moment, then offered it to Karon.

The trickster shifted Promise to his left hand and took the key with his right, turning it over in his hand and looking at it curiously.

“What is this?”

“A key,” the vesh answered and looked at Karon like he was a little slow.

The trickster in turn resisted the urge to facepalm and smack the trader, and instead asked in a very calm voice, “Yes, but a key to what?”

“This key...” they trader said and licked his lips, “is for a room at The Walker's Rest.”

“A room?” Karon asked confused.

“Yes, a spacious room where one, or two, can make their home.”

Slowly realization dawned on Karon, and his eyes widened until it felt like they were going to burst from their sockets.

“You … do you have any idea of how valuable this is!?” Karon hissed and looked around for anybody else listening.

“Bitz knows the value of all the spoils of his hunts, don't insult Bitz by thinking him a bad hunter. This is the reward I offer for the service you rendered, and for returning honored customer, and treasured friend, Selena's destiny,” the trader said seriously.

“Is it really that big of a deal?” Trixie asked with raised eyebrows.

“Trix, I could buy entire worlds for this thing,” Karon said, breathless.

Slowly, the unicorn's eyes began to widen as well.

“Ohh,” was all she could say.

They both continued to stare at the golden key for a long time, until Karon finally managed to swallow and turn his eyes back to Bitz.

“Thank you, are you sure this isn't too much?” he asked.

“Bitz is a good hunter, and makes no mistakes. Enjoy the spoils of your hunt, and if you are pleased with it Bitz is happy to offer more work. And knows others that could use two skilled hunters.”

Karon and Trixie looked at one another, then nodded in perfect synchronicity and with eager lights shining out of their eyes.

“Bitz is happy to see such young and motivated hunters, brings a warmth to his old and tired bones.”

“What kind of work are we talking about?” Trixie asked.

“Bitz needs others to hunt artifacts, sometimes customers need help recovering specific prey. Sometimes there is reward for hunting legendary things, like answers.”

“Wait, people pay for answers?” Karon interrupted.

“Yes, yes. Many old questions whose answer has been hunted for long. 'What is the greatest victory?' is the most sought after right now, many want that answer.”

“Well, it sounds like there's a lot of things needing doing,” Karon noted.

“And a lot of reward to be collected,” Trixie added and smirked up at him.

The three of them discussed the details of what kind of work was most urgent, and what was most well paid, for over an hour before they were done. After that Karon and Trixie left the old trader to go investigate their new home in one of the most powerful and mysterious places in the known universe.

After the flap of the tent fell back in its usual place and the two were gone, Bitz waited for a moment to make sure he was truly alone, then turned around and walked over to the other end of his tent.

Standing out of sight behind a large set of statues stood the same stranger that Karon had meet on the beach, curiously eying one of the statues with a nostalgic look on his face.

“Bitz did as great wall painter asked,” he said to the stranger.

“Good, that should make sure they are kept on the right track,” came the easy answer.

“Bitz wonders, why did it provide the key for such a grand gift? Are there not others more deserving of a place in the lair of the great white one?”

“Uncountable, but it is a place without measure so don't worry. Those that need to or are meant to end up in the right places, and the trickster and his consort need to be there for the moment.”

“Bitz does not understand, but Bitz does not need to. He is glad to serve the great ones...” the vesh trailed off, and it looked like he wanted to add something.

“I know the question that haunts you hunter, and yes, there were others that fled and made it out alive. They are in a faraway place, but you would not like them; they learned nothing from their past mistakes.”

The trader's shoulders slumped, and he looked down at the floor sadly.

“Fear not, there will be chances for them to learn those lessons from others, if they refuse to face them on their own. You know your place here, don't throw it away for a dream that could never be.”

Bitz nodded and turned his head back up towards the angel standing in his shop, in one of the seediest trading quarters in existence, and lastly asked, “Why the trickster?”

The angel took a long time before answering, and then it was with a cryptic smile.

“It's because he is starting to understand something.”

And then he was gone.

                             *************************************************

Out in the shadowy streets of the trade district Bitz tent could be found in, Trixie was nearly prancing forward, her head skipping with each step in a joyous dance. Behind her Karon was watching her progress with an amused expression, and when they reached a small intersection they both stopped and looked down the different paths they had to choose between.

“So, it looks like we have a lot of options before us,” Karon noted.

“Yeah, and a lot of things to keep us occupied,” Trixie said.

“What do you say Trix, wanna see what's waiting behind the corner?”

The unicorn looked up at him with a wry smirk, and she answered with a laugh.

“It's what we do.”

Dark Roots (Part 1)

Two tired looking figures were slowly dragging their feet forward, their clothes dirtied and smeared in a sticky yellow liquid. They moved forward with the exhausted focus of someone who wanted nothing more than a soft bed and endless hours of sleep. Above them, distant stars twinkled in the chilly air and small clouds of steam came out of the travelers’ mouths with each breath.

The path before them stretched onward into distant hills upon which moonlit grass wafted in the night winds. However, as the two companions walked forward, the road seemed to shift, and the way forward was less clear than it had been a few moments earlier. The distant surroundings became a blur and nothing was solid or firm as entire worlds blended together in fleeting images.

At one point or another, the world stabilized itself again, and the two travelers found themselves standing upon a dirt road leading towards a well-lit house. It appeared grand, yet it had no particular ornaments or style that boasted of the craftsmanship that built it. Instead it spoke only of the welcoming warmth guests were sure to find within, and the hospitality of the host.

When the building first came into view, the two travelers had stopped, and together they stared towards it longingly, their destination finally within reach.

One of the travelers, a man dressed in red robes and a crooked hat of the same color, turned to his companion and spoke in a weary voice. “How many times does this make?”

“Twelve, twelve times,” the woman next to him answered.

They were a stark contrast to one another. He was dressed in ragged robes, stained in so many places and tattered at the edges that if not for the clear, almost glowing eyes and the exquisite looking spear in his right hand, one might have mistaken him for a beggar.

She on the other hand was dressed in a fine blue silk coat, stretched around her shoulders and continuing down to her knees. The silk was clasped together at her waist with an expansive looking belt of black leather and with a golden buckle. Underneath the silk was a clean white shirt that almost glowed in the silvery light of the moon and stars, and the dark gray pants she wore ended at her feet in comfortable looking traveler's boots of dark leather.

The man took off his hat and brushed his dark and shaggy hair backwards before he ran the tattered sleeves of his left arm against his forehead, wiping off the sweat that had gathered there. The woman took out a handkerchief from inside her coat and did the same, although her hair, much like her clothes, stood in stark contrast to the man, shining white like newly fallen snow in the dark.

“Twelve,” the man repeated and took a deep breath, before releasing it in an irritated sigh.

“You promised me you would at least consider killing him once we hit ten,” the woman pointed out, and her lilac eyes stared into his amber ones pleadingly.

“We're not killing Leti,” the man said firmly.

“Karon, come on! How many more times do we have to go through this before you admit he's not going to change and we'd be doing the entire universe a favor by setting him on fire,” the woman said and pouted.

“He hasn't crossed over the line yet. Yeah he's done some bad stuff, but nothing that can't be forgiven and fixed,” Karon told her calmly.

“'Yet' being the keyword,” the woman muttered.

“Trix, is there a specific reason you're being so angry? If nothing else he keeps us from getting bored, and makes sure there's paid work in stopping him.”

Trixie blew out a mouthful of air sharply, and looked towards the ambiguous landscape around them before answering. “He ruined my clothes,” she whined softly.

The corners of Karon's mouth twitched upwards as he put his left arm around her and pulled her into an embrace. He kissed the top of her head and whispered, “Technically, you were the one that ruined them when you decided to blow up that--”

“I got caught up in the moment! And now I'm gonna have to spend days washing all this blood out,” she told him frustrated and tried to brush some of it off her coat, unsuccessfully.

“I think you'll just need to put them away and they will get taken care of. The perks of living where we live.”

“Still, that means I will have to spend days without clothes,” she insisted.

“Since when has that ever been a problem?” the man whispered into her ear.

The woman flashed a smile and turned her head up to kiss him. They held the kiss for quite some time, and when they eventually parted their faces lingered close to one another, feeling the warm breath of the other brush against their skin.

The runes on the spear in Karon's right hand started to glow with an orange light, and the look in the trickster's eyes grew distant for a moment, yet still flicked around like he was in a conversation. The look on Trixie's face was not a pleased one, and when Karon's eyes came back into focus she spoke irritatedly.

“What does it want now?”

“Just reminded me that I need sleep and that if I don't get inside soon I'll catch a cold,” Karon said and rolled his eyes.

The look Trixie gave the spear was one of utter distaste, and she smacked her lips thoughtfully.

“Why is it that it always has something to say whenever we get a moment to ourselves?” Trixie asked and narrowed her eyes at the spear.

“Promise always has something to say nowadays,” Karon answered with a shrug.

“I think it just wants you to itself.”

“Trix, it just wants to serve since it has no other purpose for existing. If Promise might be a little hostile towards you it's because it only cares about serving me through killing others. To it, if you're not me, then you're just a potential victim. And it goes doubly so for you since you've landed me in some near fatal situations a few times. I think Promise just thinks of you as... unnecessary.”

“Promise is a spirit of idiocy then,” Trixie growled.

“Stop worrying Trix. Promise just can't understand complex emotions or situations, it doesn't have the capacity for it,” he reassured her.

“Which just makes it creepier. But fine, if you want to keep it then keep it” she told him, but the suspicion in her eyes didn't falter as she kept them on the spear.

Karon threw up his left hand in the air like he was calling the heavens to witness his plight, then turned his head back towards the distant inn and nodded at it. “We should get going, I'm gonna fall asleep on my feet soon otherwise. And we still have to talk to our employer and cash in before heading to bed.”

Trixie was about to say something in return, when she stopped and yawned deeply. Afterward she blinked rapidly a few times, and then nodded silently in agreement.

They continued on the path leading to the inn. The closer they got, the clearer they could hear the familiar music of The Walker's Rest drifting out from inside. Soon enough they arrived at the door and opened it. Inside they were greeted with the low murmurs of voices, and the distant clinking of glasses as the guests ate, drank and discussed whatever business had brought them there.

A few heads turned when the two travelers more or less stumbled inside, stinking of sweat, blood and the hardships they had been through during the last few days. In the far end of the room stood a wide bar, behind which an old but strong looking man with a long white beard and hair stood. He didn't turn up his head from the glass he was busy wiping, but Karon felt his attention briefly settle on the newcomers, the power behind it akin to the distant rumbling of an earthquake.

There were many shadowy nooks and crannies to be found within the inn, and many doors one should be very careful with, least they stumble into a place they might never leave. However for every shadowy table, there was one that stood brightly lit by candles and other indeterminate sources of light.

It was around one of the latter tables that the person Karon and Trixie sought sat, counting coins from a large leather pouch. He was humanoid, the only thing that stood out about him from a regular human was the green skin and golden eyes. His clothes were extravagant, and in Karon's opinion more than a little garish. When the man noticed the two travelers approaching him his face quickly made a change from cold and calculating to warm and trusting.

“My friends, have you returned to tell me of your success?” the man asked in an all too cheerful tone. His eyes went up and down the both of them, and it was obvious from their appearance that they had been through more than just a little trouble since he last saw them.

“The sorcerer has been chased off and won't bother your operations again,” Karon answered in a neutral tone.

“Are you certain?” the man asked, never once losing the trusting smile and cheerful voice.

“He won't be disturbing you again,” Karon confirmed.

The man looked a little perturbed that Karon didn't elaborate, and Karon noticed. So with a sigh he continued, “Trade secrets and all that. You have my word the job is done and that the sorcerer won't be coming back to steal more of your gems or bother your mines.”

The man seemed to consider that for a moment, and then rose from the chair with both his hands stretched out in celebration.

“Then I shall consider this money well spent. I will be sure to come back should I have further need of some ... outside assistance.”

“Happy to help,” Karon said in a tone contrary to his statement.

The man either didn't notice or didn't care, and he jovially reached into a bag placed on the floor next to his seat, and retrieved a small vial of red glass and placed it on the table.

“Your payment as promised. One vial of tears from a holy devi.”

Karon reached forward and grabbed the vial. It felt smooth against his sweat soaked palms, and when he reached into it with his senses a pleasant tingling came back to him.

“It's genuine,” he said.

“What a surprise. I was convinced he would try and screw us over.”

“The universe is full of surprises.”

“Why wouldn't it be?” the trader asked, his voice still as cheerful as ever.

“No reason, just checking,” Karon said and put the vial in a pocket inside his robe.

“Then our business is concluded,” the trader said and leaned down to pull something else out of the bag. When he came back up they were already gone.

To the left of the bar was a polished oak door that opened to a set of stairs, which Karon and Trixie climbed up to the second floor. There was a hallway that looked to stretch down endlessly at the top, and Karon and Trixie walked down it with the trickster holding out a golden key in front of him. After just a few steps, a door appeared in the wall to the right, not with a puff of smoke or something as dramatic, more like it had always been there but they only noticed it just then.

He put the key in the lock and turned, and with a loud click the door swung open by itself. The both of them stumbled inside gratefully, where they both took off their boots and threw them away with groans of pleasure.

The room itself was grand, on the verge of lavish. Rugs of black and oak brown covered most of the hardwood floor, and on the walls, weapons and paintings of extraordinary craftsmanship hung. In the middle of the room, a large two-sized bed stood with plenty of pillows and a wine red cover. On the other side of the bed stood a wooden desk with several book laying half opened upon it, and behind it was a grand window opening up to the shadowy landscape outside and the moon that shone unmoving next to the stars.

Karon placed his spear next to the door and was heading towards the bed with eyes already half closed in sleep's sweet embrace, when Trixie called after him, “Karon, we better wash off first.”

He stopped and swayed for a moment, before lifting his left arm and taking a careful sniff. He was too tired to jerk back, but he had to begrudgingly agree that it would be best to clean themselves up before retiring to bed.

He groaned as he reluctantly dragged himself towards another door that stood opposite the bed, and when he opened it, he walked into a bathroom. It was covered in beige tiles with frescoes of scenic vistas, and although there was a sink and everything else one might expect to find in there, the majority of the room was dominated by a round bath that sat in the center of the floor. It was large enough to contain at least six people, and was framed in not by tiles but by dark colored wood.

Karon started to undress and focus on staying awake when he heard Trixie come up from behind him, and she slipped two arms around his waist. “Tired?” she asked.

“You're not?” he asked back and tried not to sound too sleepy.

“I am, but I still wouldn't mind a distraction,” she answered.

“What do you--” Karon started, then felt her hands slip into his robe and gently drag it off his shoulders. “Oh, that kind of distraction,” he said, and some of his sleepiness abruptly vanished.

He turned around and started to undress Trixie like she was him, and gradually his mouth shaped itself into a grin as she looked up at him with big purple eyes, growing all the warmer the less clothes she wore.

When they were done and stood naked in the room, Karon leaned down and kissed her deeply, the flush of their heated skin made the air feel chilly, and the steam rising from the water called to them seductively.

“Not much one for rest are you?” Karon asked and took her into his arms, carrying her the last few steps and lowering her into the water before him.

She shuddered pleasantly when the warmth enveloped her, and she motioned him to join her with a curled finger. Karon slipped into the water, and couldn't suppress a shudder himself as the grime and dust of the last few days washed off him and replaced the ache in his muscles with soothing tranquility.

Trixie walked over to him slowly and pressed her body firmly against his. She reached up her right hand and placed it behind his head, and just before she brought his lips down to hers she whispered with a wicked smile, “Rest has to be earned.”

                              *****************************************

There was no sunlight to greet Karon when he opened his eyes. Instead, the only thing illuminating the dim room was the trickle of moonlight making its way through the draped window. His mouth shaped itself into a smile and he stretched himself languidly. Every fiber of his being felt saturated with a pleasant calm, leaving his mind free to wander without any pressure guiding him.

Next to him laid Trixie, her chest pushing in and out with every breath she took and a look of serenity on her face. Karon turned his body and watched her silently, admiring the curves the sheet over her only helped to emphasize.

He remained like that for a long time, and eventually Trixie's eyes fluttered open and she found herself staring straight into Karon's own.

“What?” she murmured and rubbed her eyes.

“Nothing, just waiting for your lazy ass to wake up,” he said and poked her in the ribs.

“You love my lazy ass,” she answered with a smile and poked him harder.

“Can't deny that,” Karon admitted and turned on his back.

“So what do you feel like doing today?” she asked and crawled over to put her head on his chest.

“Something relaxing and fun. This last job left a bad taste in my mouth,” he said and grimaced.

“I told you, we should just get rid of Leti once and--”

“No, it had nothing to do with him. It was the mining operation, and our employer. There was suffering etched into every inch of those mines, and the kind of slimy aura the owner had is something that only comes around if you spend your mornings sucking out baby's eyeballs or something.”

“I didn't like him either, but it's over now Karon. What about taking a trip to the bazaar? We could visit Bitz and sell the devi tears, and see if he has something new needed doing.”

“No, it's only been three weeks since last. Besides, we still have a few things left undone from him,” Karon told her with a slightly annoyed tone.

“You mean the answer hunting? Come on it's been years since we got that. There are people that have spent decades, maybe even centuries looking for those answers,” Trixie said and looked up at him with her eyebrows raised.

Karon sighed deeply and twisted his mouth in contemplation before he chose to answer. “Maybe.”

“We both know it's just your pride talking now,” she sang quietly.

Karon snorted and raised her head high enough to kiss her. She returned the kiss eagerly, and as it deepened Karon felt his heartbeat increase, and blood started to flow downwards swiftly. He pressed himself harder against Trixie, when the rumbling of his stomach interrupted him.

“No, no, wait. No… later Trix. Breakfast first,” he said while putting a hand to her chest and pressing her back gently.

She stared at him hard for a moment, then turned her face away and shrugged like it was nothing.

“Okay, let's get something to eat.”

Karon gave her an amused look and got out of bed. “Are you going to be cranky for the rest of the day now?”

“Well if I am it's your fault,” she answered before disappearing into the bathroom and closing the door behind her loudly.

Karon chuckled to himself and went over to the window. Outside, the moon shone like it always did, its perpetual place in the sky over The Walker's Rest ensuring there was always enough light not to get lost in the dark, and yet not enough to hide the stars.

It had taken Karon quite a while before figuring out the exact details involved with navigating the roads of The Walker's Rest, and how to access it from somewhere else. Eventually though, he had figured out that the secret was to be found in the pattern of stars, and with a little practice he had grown skilled enough that he could connect to it now whenever he wanted as long as he was walking upon a road and had a visible night sky above his head.

Though, it was not the sky outside that drew Karon's attention. Rather it was the vast forest of dark trees that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere while they slept. It wasn't something that should have surprised him; there were plenty of mysteries concerning The Walker's Rest he had yet to discover, and some he probably never would. Even so, the appearance of the forest was enough to light a spark of curiosity. However it wasn't enough to overshadow the feeling of emptiness residing in his stomach.

He heard the sound of the bathroom door open, and out came Trixie with a huge grin on her face and her clothes in her arms. She practically bounced over to him - something he greatly appreciated the sight of - and held out her treasured blue coat for him to see. It smelled of something sweet, and every sign of dirt or blood was gone, leaving only a clean deep blue coat of expensive tailoring.

“Huh, worked even faster than usual,” was all Karon said.

Trixie slowly lowered the coat to reveal her face glaring at Karon. “You could at least sound a little happier about it. I love this coat.”

“And I'm sure it loves you back. Can we go down and eat now?” Karon insisted.

Trixie threw back her head and sighed before going back into the bathroom, appearing a few moments later fully dressed. Karon allowed himself to forget his hunger for a moment to stare at her.

She wore the same outfit that she had adopted just days after first shifting her shape to match that of a human, even though some of her original characteristics seemed to have crossed over. The blue and white and gray of her clothes blended in well together with her natural body colors, especially since there was a very faint tone of blue present in her otherwise pale skin.

After the change, Trixie had fallen in love with clothes with a passion unmatched in anyone Karon had met since Rarity, and had proven she was more than happy to dish out pain to anyone that would threaten her precious wardrobe. Karon was thankful though that she had escaped the stereotype enough that she didn't care about shoes at all, and much like him favored function over style. In her case, that translated to leather boots with a steel tip.

“What?” Trixie asked after about a minute of Karon just staring at her had passed.

“Nothing, just considering the changes you've gone through,” he answered.

“Weren't you the one complaining about a lack of food?” she asked with a quirked eyebrow.

“Whatever, let's get down and eat then if you're done ruining the moment,” Karon grumbled and headed into the bathroom to retrieve his clothes, accompanied by Trixie's amused chortle.

Downstairs, the inn was just as it always was, half-filled with customers and with strange yet familiar music playing in the background. Trixie walked over to their usual spot, one of the corner tables where they were hidden mostly from view and with a section of wall sticking out, making it hard for anyone to eavesdrop on them. Karon walked over to the bar instead, and the bearded old man standing behind it gave him a grunt of acknowledgment.

“A really big and preferably varied breakfast, haven't eaten anything but dried fruit and raw meat these last days,” the trickster asked and leaned on the counter.

The bartender didn't respond except nodding once, his gaze still fixed on something behind the counter Karon couldn't see. Usually that would have been the end of their interaction, but Karon hesitated before going on his way, and opened his mouth to speak once more. “What is going on with the forest outside?” he asked.

The old man didn't respond at first, instead he looked to be thinking something over carefully. After a while he made a barely noticeable sigh of sadness, then turned around and grabbed a green bottle with an unknown language scribbled on the label. He opened it and pulled out a big mug made out of wood that he filled. When he was done, he put the mug in front of Karon and said, “Give that to your lover.”

Karon blinked in confusion, but did as the old man said and pulled it closer. He didn't leave though, and stood there waiting for an answer. When none came he asked again, “What's with the forest outside? Something going on?”

“If you do not wish to get lost in places unknown, you should get a map. And if you do not wish to lose something of yours, don't let it fall out of your reach,” was all the bartender said, and there was a finality to his words that said Karon wouldn't like what happened if he didn't shut up.

He took the hint and grabbed the mug before turning his back on the bartender and walking over to their table, where he found Trixie greedily digging into a large plate of food. The entire table was laden with all manners of exotic as well as familiar dishes, and the mere sight of all of it was enough to make Karon's stomach cry out in joy.

He put down the mug in front of Trixie and took a seat before digging in himself, and soon all thoughts of the strange forest outside and the behavior of their host was lost in a flurry of meat, vegetables and fruits unknown.

Eventually, Trixie had sated herself enough to pay attention to the mug Karon had brought, and she carefully picked it and gave the contents a sniff before looking at him quizzically. “What's this?”

“No idea, the old man told me to give that to you after I asked him about the forest,” he answered.

“What forest?” she asked back.

“I noticed there's a forest outside the inn, must have appeared while we were sleeping. Kinda wondering how it got there and if it's worth checking out. Now I'm not so sure.”

“What do you mean? If a forest has just popped out of nowhere we have to go investigate,” Trixie said in an eager voice.

“The old man acted a bit weird when I tried to question him about it. I think there might be something bad with it, and maybe he doesn't want to encourage us going in there.”

“Wouldn't he have said something if that was the case?” Trixie argued and pointed a finger towards the bar.

“How should I know? He does what he does and the rest of us just try and make what we can from the little hints he gives.”

“What about this?” Trixie asked and played with the mug in her hands.

“Again, I have no idea. But just the fact that he didn't seem pleased with the idea of us going into the forest is enough for me. We can find other things to do,” Karon said while looking over at the bar thoughtfully.

“Oh come on Karon. He's always cryptic and you don't know if he actually didn't like the idea of us snooping around outside.”

“No, it was just a feeling. That's enough for me in this case.”

“Pretty please can we go outside and explore this mysterious forest?” Trixie asked sweetly and batted her eyelashes at Karon.

The trickster knew what that really meant; she had set her mind on it and the sweet talk was just an excuse she provided for him to give in. Whether he liked it or not, Trixie was going outside to investigate.

Karon rubbed his eyes, and some of the tiredness from last night returned to weigh on his mind. “Well when you ask so sweetly, how can I refuse?” he asked sarcastically.

“You can't,” she answered him with a smile and leaned over the table to give him a quick kiss.

Karon finished his breakfast in silence, absently chewing the food while his mind went over the different possibilities of what the nature of the forest outside could be, and why it might be a bad idea to go inside it. He decided to stop counting once he reached thirty.

“Don't be a wimp, it could be fun.”

“Normally I would love to jump into a strange and foreboding forest, but if our host just hinted that it might not end well...”

“He never actually gave any such hints.”

“No but there was SOMETHING, and it had to do with the forest. That's enough to stay away.”

“Wouldn't be the first time we did something we knew was stupid.”

“Would be the first time we did something stupid where the stupidity was pointed out by--”

“Don't think his name! I get your point, but Trixie has decided we will go inside and check it out so let's just go with the flow and try and have some fun.”

On the other side of the table Trixie was leaning backwards in her seat, looking at Karon with a knowing gaze. “Still thinking over why we shouldn't go and look in the forest?” she asked in an amused voice.

“It's almost scary how well you've gotten to know me,” Karon said and shook his head.

“I could say the same. So are we going?”

“You're not giving me much choice are you? Don't answer that it was a rhetorical question. Yeah, we'll go, just drink that stuff the bartender gave you and we'll go get some supplies.”

Trixie picked up the mug and stared down into the liquid inside, before she shrugged and put it to her lips, taking a testing sip. She pulled the mug away and licked her lips thoughtfully, then her eyes shone up and she drank it all in one go.

“That good huh?” Karon asked with a crooked smile.

“It was awesome, I...ohh...” She stopped and her eyes grew wide.

“What's happening?” Karon asked and leaned over the table to grasp her chin, forcing her eyes to meet his. “What. Is. Happening?” he repeated slowly.

“I can see … it all. This place, it's our home,” she said dreamily while her eyes looked everywhere except at Karon.

“It is,” Karon agreed, and after he'd said it Trixie's eyes snapped to him and meet his gaze.

“Our home, I belong with you ... I love you Karon,” she said as a joyful smile made its way onto her lips.

“And I love you,” the trickster responded hesitantly, his face saying he was wondering where the hell this was leading.

Trixie drew in a deep breath, and when she released it a change came over her, and she suddenly looked around groggily. Karon let go of her and settled back into his seat.

“That was weird,” she said and rubbed her eyes.

“What happened exactly?”

“I'm not sure, it was like ... for a moment everything was crystal clear and I could see this moment perfectly, this exact moment in our lives. I still feel it, that same clarity. I think ... I think that stuff I drank was to make sure I never forget this.”

“Forget this what?” Karon asked.

“This moment, this place, with you this very exact second. Being where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be, I think,” she said, and even though her voice was uncertain there was something behind it that said she wasn't wrong.

Karon thought about that, then turned around to look over towards the bar, and the bearded old man standing behind it cleaning a glass.

“What do you think that was all about?”

“Maybe he wanted to make sure Trixie wouldn't forget about this place … or us.”

“That certainly isn't foreboding. Maybe we should argue some more and see if she gets too tired to go exploring.”

“We're talking about Trixie. She'll be happy screaming at us for hours then drag us to the forest when WE get too tired to resist.”

“We're so whipped...”

“Yeah but the sex is so good. And what other woman could possibly find a guy hypnotizing a trapped necromancer to believe mutant snakes were slowly devouring him unless he confessed his crimes sexy?”

“You make everything so clear. Let's just try and keep our eyes opened, and be prepared for some mind magic in case there's something manipulating memories in that forest.”

“Agreed.”

Karon twisted his mouth in displeasure for a moment, then turned back to Trixie, who was still looking around herself curiously, settling back into her normal perception. Karon waited silently before she seemed to have returned completely, then simply said, “Let's go get our stuff then so we can go.”

Trixie grinned and got out of her seat excitedly. She hurried towards the stairs with Karon following behind at a more sedate speed. However when they got to the stairs, Trixie managed to get up only a few steps before she stumbled and fell down with a loud “Umph!”

She pushed herself up and turned around towards Karon with a murderous glare. “You saw nothing!”

“Don't tell me you're still struggling with coordinating as a human?” Karon said with suppressed laughter.

“It's weird okay! There's like no balance, and you've got little squid like things sticking out of your hooves! It's just … weird!” she half-shouted defensively.

“Well at least you've learned to use your fingers properly. It was getting old watching you try and grip things between two closed fists,” Karon said and walked up to her.

“It's just a little hard when I'm trying to go fast,” she muttered, and Karon couldn't suppress a smile when she stomped her foot in frustration.

“Well two months running around as a human has given results at least. And do I need to remind you that it was you that insisted in learning how to shapeshift? Or that it was you that decided to stick with being a human?”

“You were the one that started all of the shapeshifting,” Trixie pointed out.

“What kind of self respecting trickster can't shapeshift? Answer: none. Even though it takes me hours at least I can do it now,” he said with a shrug.

“Yeah well I'm sticking with my human form now, and if I hear more about my lack of balance I'm going to find a way to make you pay, mark my words,” she said in what she no doubt thought was an intimidating voice.

Karon snorted. “You'll possess full mastery over your new body soon enough. You found imaginative uses for it last night,” he whispered and put an arm around her neck before kissing the top of her head.

Trixie's right index finger shot out and poked Karon hard enough in the side for him to yelp and lose his balance. He stumbled down several steps before he managed to recover his balance, Trixie's chortle ringing out in the narrow stairway.

“Yeah, you’re setting the best example,” she said in between the giggles.

“Just get going you clumsy pyromaniac,” Karon said irritated and pushed her forward, getting an excellent view of her wagging hips as she continued upward with trickles of laughter accompanying her.

Back in their room, Trixie was throwing her belongings around all over the place, looking them over once with a critical eye before discarding them. Outside her personal area of disaster, Karon stood impatiently tapping his foot while wearing his crooked hat and a shoulder bag filled with food and water, courtesy of the extra-dimensional space offered by an enchantment on it.

It took her over an hour before Trixie had decided on what to bring on their little excursion, which besides her usual outfit, included an enchanted dagger with a silver hilt strapped to her belt, and a black cloak Karon had bought her at the bazaar. It would protect her from weather and temperature changes so long as the outside effects weren't too extreme.

“How do I look?” she asked and spun around.

“Like a kick ass, shape shifting magician that likes to blow stuff up,” Karon answered dryly.

“Awesome, just what I was going for. Ready to leave?” she asked happily, letting Karon's sarcasm go by unacknowledged.

“Yeah,” Karon said and turned around. He walked over to the door and opened it, and before he went through he reached out with his right hand towards Promise resting against the wall. However when he grabbed it he didn't feel the usual slumbering power of the spirit within the spear, instead the spirit was very much awake, but as soon as it sensed him picking it up it slipped into sleep immediately.

Karon quickly put the spear back and stared at it with wide eyes and his mouth slightly open in shock.

“Okay, that can't be good.”

“What the fuck... Promise is not supposed to do that.”

“What? Be fully conscious when it’s not with us, or actually try and hide that it is from us?”

“This is really, really bad. Promise is scary enough as is when it’s under our control. If it is changing to the point it might decide it wants to become independent...”

“Calm down, calm down. We don't know if that is what it is doing. We knew Promise would eventually start evolving with time and experience, that doesn't mean it has to change towards a super powerful psychotic killer spirit.”

“It already is.”

“Free willed super powerful psychotic killer spirit then.”

“So what do we do? We can't just leave it here, we might need it in the forest if things get bad.”

“What if in a moment of crisis it decides to take the opportunity and betray us?”

“Karon what are you doing?” Trixie asked and tapped his shoulder.

“Just … thinking,” he answered without taking his eyes off the spear.

Trixie followed his gaze and sighed in annoyance, “What is it saying now?”

“Nothing. But there's something going on with Promise,” he said to her slowly.

“What?” Trixie asked and perked up a little.

“Something's going on. I'm not sure Promise is the same as it used to be.”

“Does that mean I can finally melt the thing,” Trixie asked eagerly.

“No ... not unless it turns against us. Which we have no reason to suspect it will!” Karon said firmly, and his tone left no room for argument.

“So what do we do? Leave it here?”

“We might need it...” Karon responded in a hushed voice and reached out his right hand towards the spear.

He ran his fingers against the smooth metal surface, the intricate swirl of the unknown orange stone that shaped itself into runes. At the tip was the only thing that was left of Bator's Promise, the black diamond blade that seemed to suck the light around itself hungrily. Within the spear rested the spirit Karon had named Promise, the creation of a merging between the bloodthirsty spirit of Bator's Promise and the piece of Feather Touch's spirit she had gifted Karon with.

Promise had served Karon well ever since its creation, but he had been forced to remind himself that even though she was a part of its beginning, Promise was not Feather Touch. The unicorn was dead and her soul had long since passed on. The love and affection Karon had held for her was something he couldn't allow to carry over to Promise.

Promise was something else, it was an IT. A collection of very powerful energy kept together by the core essence of its two creators. The will to kill because of rage from Bator's Promise, and the will to sacrifice because of love from Feather Touch. The two instincts had found a harmony within Promise, but they were still just the remnants of what had spawned it; echoes.

All things grow, and it was inevitable that the spirit would eventually grow out of the shell that had been left of its predecessors, and become a truly individual being with its own free will.

When that happened, the will to sacrifice, the love that had been left from Feather Touch would belong in the past. But the rage, the will to kill... even though the remnants of Bator's Promise would be left behind just as well, Promise itself was still the spirit of a spear, a weapon. It was designed to kill and it had no other purpose.

“So the question is ...what happens when a being that can find no other purpose or meaning in existence besides killing becomes truly self-aware and has a mind of its own?”

Promise had been a bit on the scary side ever since its creation, but it had been held in check, and Karon had been able to accept and even come to think of it as a friend of sorts because it was completely loyal to him, bordering on obsessive. It wanted to serve more than anything, and it served by killing. And that had been made clear by the many times it had thought Karon was holding it back and that things would be much better if he just gave in and butchered his way out of trouble.

“So what if it decides it isn't enough, that it wants more killing?”

So many questions, so many things that could go wrong. Should he act before something bad could happen and destroy the spirit before it could truly grow into its own? Was it right of him to rip apart a being on its way to achieving true life because of what might happen?

“I hate moral dilemmas.”

Karon let his hand fall away from the spear, and the look he gave the spear was pained. Promise had been with him now for over five years; two back on Earth when Varsif continued his training, and three on the starlight path of The Walker's Rest, adventuring between worlds. There was a chance Promise would grow into something new, and turn on him.

But it hadn't, and even after all the possibilities had been looked at and all sides checked, one simple fact remained; he didn't want to kill Promise. It was a genderless, amoral, soulless spirit, and Karon had grown to view it as much of a companion as Trixie. The changes in the spirit had been noticeable over the year, but they had been small. Tiny changes in the spirit's reasoning, unfamiliar emotions making temporary appearances, but it had been no real game changer. Trying to hide from Karon that it was achieving self-awareness ... that was.

The trickster took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds, and when he let the air out he reached out with his right hand and grasped the spear. “Promise, we need to talk,” he sent into the spear.

“Dude, you sound like you're gonna break up with it.”

“Shut up, this is serious.”

The spirit within the spear roused itself gradually, and a calm voice answered him.

“What do you wish to talk about master?”

“You...”

“Are you not happy with my service master?” came the reply, together with a flood of emotions Karon interpreted as stark terror.

“I'm happy with your service Promise. You've saved my life uncountable times and remained unwaveringly - almost scarily - loyal the entire time. I'm just wondering how long that time is going to last.”

“Master?”

“Promise, I know something is happening to you, what I want to know is ... are you still the same?”

“Master...” came the pained thought from the spirit.

“Promise, I need to know,” Karon insisted.

The energy that streamed off the spear was a maelstrom of confusion and doubt. If Promise had been physical Karon suspected it would have been wringing its hands awkwardly.

“Master, please...” the spirit pleaded.

It was enough to make Karon hesitate, that the nature of the spirit had evolved to the point of being able to refuse him was disturbing. But what was even more disturbing was not that it could, but that it actually would, plead.

“Promise, I need to know it's still you. I need to know you won't snap and turn against me.”

“I would NEVER betray you master!” the spirit screamed in pure disbelief.

“Promise would never betray me. Are you still Promise?”

“I don't know...” came the reply, barely above a whisper.

And then Karon felt what the spirit had been trying to hide: fear. Promise was afraid, terrified. It was going through changes it didn't understand, emotions and thoughts completely unfamiliar and of a kind it had never experienced before. The only thing it had ever known in the few years it had existed was the need to kill and the need to serve Karon, and now it was faced with a new form of existence far beyond that. It was becoming alive.

“Promise...” Karon said out loud.

“What's going on?” Trixie asked.

“Later,” Karon told her and shifted his mind back to the connection with the spear.

“Promise--”

“Am I still Promise!? I don't know master, I don't know! I'm thinking, and feeling and they're all screaming at me all the time! I can't kill them! I've tried and they won't go away! Please master... help me … make it go away.”

Karon felt his heart twist at the raw emotion that came rushing from the spear, and his eyes went right and left as he tried to think of what to do. The spirit had been honest, and appeared more like it was being tortured as it tried to cope with its new level of awareness, and not secretly plotting to murder him and go on a killing spree.

“Promise, we can get through this,” he offered weakly.

“I can't... I can't even assume my form anymore... It's all just wrong...”

“You can't assume your form?” Karon asked wide eyed.

“No,” it answered with a wave of despair.

Promise was a spirit, but the form it had assumed at its creation was a pure reflection of its being, a far more personal form of identity than what a body was to a physical being. If Promise could no longer shape the energy it consisted of into its regular form, it was because it was no longer a correct reflection of its nature. And if that was the case, Promise's inevitable change wasn't coming; it had already happened.

Karon put back the spear against the wall and backed away from it. His mind was swimming with the potential ways the situation could get even worse. One mistake, one wrong message, and Promise might make a complete U-turn in personality and nature.

“What do we do?” asked the sarcastic voice, for once sounding a lot less sarcastic.

“We definitely can't leave it now. It is in a critical stage at forming its new identity. If we leave it that might tip the balance to it deciding it doesn't need us, or that we don't care.”

“So what? We bring it and try and keep it cheerful? We're heading into a forest that has been alluded to as being very dangerous by one of the most powerful beings in our universe, remember?”

“We have to bring it with us regardless.”

“An unstable, highly powerful spirit that might or might not decide to break the self-imposed chains of servitude to us?”

“If the forest is as dangerous as has been hinted at, then maybe letting Promise protect us by killing stuff is the right call. Maybe it will help reinforce its sense of being, ground it in its love for killing and serving us.”

"That's messed up and completely logical. Damn it, okay just … try and keep it in a happy killing mood or something.”

“Karon would you mind telling me what is going on? Are we melting it or what?” Trixie asked and held out her arms wide.

“No, we're bringing Promise with us. It might be a little weird for a while, so we'll just have to see what happens,” Karon looked at her and said.

Trixie twisted her mouth, disappointed, and walked over to the spear leaning against the wall, she pointed at it and said in a threatening voice, “One wrong move and I'm turning you into scrap metal.”

The runes on the spear started to glow threateningly in return, but nothing further happened. Trixie gave the spear one last challenging look, then turned and opened the door, holding her head up high while she left the two of them behind.

“It is so nice we can all get along so well,” Karon announced dryly out into the empty air.

He sighed and shook his head, then grabbed the spear and tried to send along as much soothing energy as he could together with the telepathic message.

“Promise, Trixie and I are going out to investigate a potentially deadly dark forest. Would you like to come along and help?”

“I ... yes master, of course. I shall do all I can to serve you and kill anything that gets in your way!”

“That's what I like to hear. Let's go then, we have to find something for you to kill.”

The answer from the spear wasn't telepathic as much as an empathic flood of relief and hopeful joy. The look on Karon's face got stuck somewhere between worry and amusement, so he left the room and locked the door behind him, then headed downstairs to find Trixie.

She was standing impatiently at the exit, tapping her foot and pretending to look at a wristwatch that didn't exist. Karon chuckled to himself as he walked over to the door and held it open for her. He gave her a smile and said, “After you m'lady.”

“I am no lady, and you are no gentleman,” Trixie pointed out and passed through the doorway, the chill night air greeting her.

“Astute observation,” Karon told her and followed.

Outside, the stars burned brightly against the pitch black of space, the moon dwarfing their light and shedding enough light to let the two travelers see the dirt road and surrounding grass clearly. But where the grass clearing around the inn normally would stretch for miles until it ended in a constantly shifting landscape of ambiguous shadows, it now ended just a few meters later at a dark tree line.

The forest seemed to embody the very definition of foreboding. The trees were all dark, and not just from the low light conditions. Instead, Karon noticed as the two of them walked over towards the forest that the trees' bark was black and reflected some of the moonlight. When he reached the closest tree, he took a close look at it and saw that the 'bark' was more like a thick greasy substance covering the tree, almost like tar.

He stepped back and looked over at the other nearby trees, all of them looking just the same. None of the trees had any leaves, instead they stood naked with sharp and twisted branches reaching out towards the night sky. Overall, the impression Karon got from the forest was hungry, but that was just the looks of it. The spirit of the forest was different, and as Karon stood at its edge and reached out his senses into it, he was surprised by what he discovered.

The forest wasn't hungry, or had any ill-will he could detect at all. Instead the forest was saddened, like it was carrying a great burden it was not meant to have. And there was more, however Karon was unable to get a read on what that was besides the fact that it felt like there was more to the forest than the forest itself. Like the presence of ancient ghosts, or perhaps future ones.

There was only one other place Karon had ever encountered that felt like that, and that was the Everfree forest. But where the Everfree had been a place of ancient memories, an echo of an era long gone, the dark forest he now stood at the edge of wasn't like that. It was like it was stretched into too many directions at once, and carried within it more than just a memory of what it had once been.

The more Karon tried to penetrate the heart of the forest and find an answer, the more confused he got. Eventually he gave up and pulled back his senses, which caused a slight throbbing inside his head and his mouth to go dry.

“So? Detect anything oh great master of sensitive stuff?” Trixie asked sarcastically.

“Yeah, but nothing that says there might be a memory-confusing-or-possibly-devouring monster hiding inside.”

“Well that's good, so should we head inside and start exploring then?” she asked, and before Karon got a chance to answer, the former unicorn took a few steps forward and melted into the deep shadows of the forest.

Karon smacked his lips and waited a few heartbeats before he followed in after her. As soon as he passed into the dark fold of the forest he lost all sense of direction, leaving him disoriented as he stumbled forward using Promise as a blind stick to feel his way forward.

Gradually, shapes were starting to take form again as his eyes adjusted to the dark, and he was able to continue without risking walking into a tree. After a few minutes had passed, Karon heard the sound of giggling ahead of him, and he froze momentarily as a thousand horror movie scenarios played through his head.

He calmed down when he caught a bobbing head crowned with bright white hair, plainly visible against the black of the forest. Karon was about to call out to her when he thought better of it, and with a crooked smile he straightened his back then disappeared from view.

A few meters away, Trixie peeked out from behind a tree and frowned when she could no longer make out Karon's silhouette. She backed away slowly, her eyes perched, then felt her foot get caught it something and she yelped loudly as fell down on her ass.

Her face turned into a scowl, and it only deepened when she couldn't find any roots or whatever she had tripped on. She rubbed her back as she stood up, and her eyes scanned the surrounding forest with a suspicious glare.

She carefully took a few steps to her left, then remained completely still as all her senses - both physical and psychic- tried to pick up on anything around her. When nothing happened she took a few more steps, and halfway to the ground something caught her foot and threw it in the other direction, sending Trixie into the air flipping halfway over herself.

She crashed to the ground loudly, and she pushed herself up with a snarl. “That wasn't funny Karon!” she shouted and spun around trying to spot him.

“Yes it was,” a voice answered her from the dark.

“How about you come out here and we'll play some more games,” she offered in a dangerous tone.

“No. This is pretty entertaining.”

“Come out now Karon before I decide to set the forest on fire,” Trixie threatened and held up her left hand, flames flickering briefly between her fingers.

“Calm down Trix,” Karon said, and appeared just in front of her wearing a huge grin.

“If you're done playing maybe we can get one with actually exploring now?” she said and threw her hair nonchalantly.

“I don't know, you still seem to have some trouble with walking. Are you sure you wouldn't rather switch back to being unicorn?” Karon asked in a mocking voice.

Trixie shuddered at the suggestion. “No, I'm done with Equestria and everything that has anything to do with it. And stop smiling like that before I punch you,” she threatened, but Karon noticed the twitching at the corners of her mouth.

“Very well then,” he said and offered out his left arm for her to grab. “Shall we go and explore?”

“Thought you'd never ask,” she answered and placed her arms lightly over his, and together they set off deeper into the forest, the runes on Promise lighting up bright enough for them to see clearly the path ahead.

Trixie was looking around herself with great interest, the dark and foreboding atmosphere of the forest not bothering her in the slightest. Karon had no such luck. The further in they went, the more prominent the feeling of the forest grew in his mind, and it went from the distant sadness he had perceived at the edge to full blown heart wrenching sorrow as they got closer to the center.

Trixie wasn't sensitive enough to pick up on it the same way he did, and most likely felt nothing more than a slight melancholy, as if she had remembered a very old but sad memory.

What was worse was the fact that no matter how much focus Karon put into it, he couldn't detect the source of the sorrow the forest was going through. All the trees were wailing soundlessly in pain, and each of them did it as if they were the one who was carrying the source of it inside themselves. The result was an entire forest crying out with the only thing binding the individual trees together was the feeling that they were the source of the misery.

And so Karon and Trixie walked further inside, the former with a wary look in his eyes and the latter with open curiosity. As much as Karon hated to admit it, the mystery of the forest and what was causing all the suffering intrigued him, and even though it had been hinted at that going inside to investigate was a bad idea, he didn't think he could just turn around and leave now that he was there. The siren call of the unknown and unanswered was too strong.

“Promise, can you detect anything I'm missing?” Karon asked the spear.

“No master I'm … I'm...”

“Take it easy. Just explain what you can feel calmly.”

“I don't … I can feel … I think it's pain master. Why am I feeling pain? I'm not supposed to feel that, it hurts.”

“Just calm down Promise, you're just experiencing some new things. It will pass with time, just keep calm and focused.”

“Master it hurts. This place hurts and I can feel it and I hurt...”

“Shhh, keep calm. Rest Promise, I will wake you up if I need you.”

Karon could feel the rush of gratefulness from the spear, and the presence inside it lessened, like fire turning into embers. Leaving only enough of itself conscious to keep the spear glowing. The situation of it all was enough to almost make him laugh, instead he snorted loudly and moved to walk a little closer to Trixie.

“So do you think we will find anything in here? Because there's gotta be something in here right? Otherwise why warn us about this place?” she asked.

“I don't know. But yeah, there's something in here,” Karon said and looked behind them.

“What? Expecting something to sneak up behind us?” Trixie asked,  half-jokingly, half completely serious.

“Not really. It's just that I'm having trouble getting a read on this place, and there's a chance someone or something could be using all the confusing signals that the forest is screaming to hide beneath. Or behind. Or within.” he said.

Trixie stopped and did a complete turnaround herself, nothing but the same dark forest greeting her in every direction. “So in which direction would that be then?”

Karon shook his head amused, then turned his eyes towards the sky. The stars were visible, and though they provided no real light to speak of, their presence seemed to be enough to calm him down. He took a deep breath and stood a little less tensely than he had before.

“If you want I could try and enter the forest mind,” he offered.

“Can you handle it?” she asked him.

The look Karon gave her could loosely be translated into 'bitch what did you just ask me?', and he followed it with an affronted grunt. He laid down Promise on the ground, then kneeled next to it and closed his eyes. It took him about three seconds to connect to the forest since it made no attempt at resisting his intrusion. If anything, it was almost like it welcomed something beyond the endless cycle of misery it was trapped within.

It was far worse than Karon had suspected. The sorrow he had felt was merely the splashes of emotion that had escaped from the trees. At the heart it was magnified a thousandfold, and not just the sorrow, but pain, and lust, and hatred, and love and every other emotion humanly possible to experience. It was all there inside the heart of the trees, every tree. A fountain of impressions forced into a heart that wasn't meant to hold so much within it.

That was when Karon understood. The sorrow was the forest's, it was the pain from having to carry a burden that wasn't meant for it, and each tree was going through the same thing. It was beyond Karon's ability to comprehend, and he knew that if he did try for even a second to make sense of it all, his mind would have shattered in an instant. So he didn't. Instead, he isolated himself from it, and stood like a solitary rock in a storm of energy.

He realized there were more than just emotions that soaked into the trees. They were entire lives. Millions of lives, billions even. Snapshots of a moment, a thought, a feeling. All of it was swirling around inside the trees, unable to be expressed, and too much to endure.

But the trees couldn't die for some reason. They were as trapped as all the energy that was channeled through them. Karon carefully reached out and tried to trace not the energy, but the lines that bound it together, and he found it.

There was something within the forest that drew from the trees. Not in a great flood, but like small flashes that took just tiny … sips from it.

Karon noted the location to where the energy was drawn, and he broke the connection to the forest. It felt like coming up from boiling water to meet cold winter air, and Karon couldn't suppress a pained groan as he staggered up from his seated position.

Trixie went over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “So how was it?” she asked.

“I can't describe it, and you should be thankful for that,” he answered and shook his head.

“So did you find out anything useful?”

“Yeah, there's something we might find interesting maybe around a fifteen minute walk from here.”

“Is it dangerous?” Trixie asked, not worriedly but eagerly.

“Probably,” Karon told her and picked up Promise from the ground.

“So let's go,” Trixie said, and waved her arms around like she wanted him to pick a direction.

“That way,” he said and nodded to their left.

Karon took the lead with Promise lighting their way. It didn't take them long to reach their unknown destination, and the entire way there, Trixie was fidgeting with her dagger while an eager gleam had made its way to her eyes.

It was no question that they had reached their goal when the two of them came out into an open clearing, with a neatly trimmed patch of grass and a gravel road leading up towards a regal manor. Golden lights shone out of barred windows together with the muted sound of a violin playing.

“Okay, can someone say creepy?”

“I think it says so itself in this case.”

“Pretty,” Trixie said.

Karon turned his head to look at her skeptically, then shrugged and said, “Yeah, kinda.”

“Are we going inside?”

“Maybe we should try sneaking around first an--” before Karon could finish the sentence Trixie had sighed loudly and started to march towards the entrance.

The trickster threw up his hands in the air and followed. When they reached the entrance, they found a large double door made out of wood with two iron spikes sticking out in the center. They stopped in front of it and remained silent for a few seconds, then Karon turned to Trixie and asked, “And what now?”

Trixie raised her eyebrows at him, then very slowly reached out her right hand and knocked loudly on the door. It opened immediately, and on the other side stood a human looking figure, dressed in a black suit and white shirt with a black bow tie. Karon couldn't tell if he was human or not, since his head was completely covered in a silver mask with a neutral expression on it.

The man said nothing, and simply held out the door for them. Karon didn't like it, but just as he expected, the situation didn't deter Trixie, and she stepped inside with a thankful smile towards the masked man. Karon followed in after her, and as soon as he passed over the threshold he felt a magic of some kind settle over him.

Behind them, he heard the sound of the door closing, and he took a look around the impressive room. The interior of the building was made out of a polished dark wood, with carpets of black and gold covering the floors and paintings of creatures being tortured gracing the walls. There were two hallways leading to the left and right, and in front of them stood a rusted iron maiden.

“Okay yeah we're leaving,” Karon said abruptly and grabbed Trixie.

However when he turned around towards the exit, he found only a wall with a huge painting of a finely dressed group of people standing in an empty wasteland. And there was no sign of the silver masked man.

“Crap,” he said, and then turned around again when the sound of footsteps drifted down the hall to the left.

A woman came walking out of it. She was dressed in a fine black dress that looked to be made out of crow feathers, and showed off a generous amount of cleavage. Much like the man that had invited them in, the woman was wearing a mask, but a black one with a beak.    

“Guests? Oh my we haven't had guests for such a long time. Come inside little dears, and welcome to our home,” she spoke with an unnaturally sweet voice, and in it was the promise of such pleasure that Karon involuntarily shuddered with longing.

In the back of his mind a warning signal sounded, and he instinctively reached out with his senses towards the woman. However he immediately drew them back as soon as he came in contact with her aura, and a sick feeling started to grow inside his stomach.

“Trix we need to leave fast,” he whispered hoarsely.

“Karon?” she asked and her eyes went back and forth between him and the woman.

“Trix we need to REALLY leave,” he said again and held out a hand in front of her, pushing her with him as he slowly backed away from the woman.

“Karon what's going on!” Trixie hissed angrily.

Karon didn't take his eyes off them woman, and he could feel her smile behind the mask, and the hunger contained within it.

“Trix, she's a soul eater.”

The woman tilted her head, and a trickling laughter sounded through the air.

“Oh what a gifted little boy. This will be so much fun,” she said and took a few steps towards Karon and Trixie. She stopped when they backed away from her, and she sighed disappointedly, and then asked them in an amused voice.

“Do you like games?”

“Depends on the game,” Karon answered, and pointed Promise towards the woman, the spear glowing threateningly.

The mask hid the woman's face, but Karon knew she was looking at the spear with great interest. Eventually her head turned slightly, and her focus settled back on Karon.

“Let's play a game.”

Dark Roots (Part 2)

“What kind of game?” Karon asked, his spear still pointed towards the woman.

The woman placed the tip of her right index finger on her chin, and thoughtfully tapped it while her head turned up towards the ceiling. She hummed to herself as she did, the melody following the music of the violin that came drifting from the left hallway, slow and with the notes drawn out as if in horrible agony.

“I am terribly sorry, but I don't know. It has been such a long time since we last had to entertain guests. I'm afraid I am not quite the social butterfly I once was,” the woman admitted in a wistful tone.

“Apology accepted,” Karon said, and gave Trixie a quick glance that told her to stay quiet and not do anything. “And we would never dream of intruding on your company, and since you are not fit to receive guests, I think it would be best if my companion and I left,” Karon said and tried to make it sound as polite as possible.

“Don't be ridiculous, dear. I am confident we will find a way to entertain ourselves. Now come, let me introduce you to the other residents. They will be very happy to meet the two of you,” the woman said and spun around. She walked down the left hallway without looking back while both Karon and Trixie remained where they stood.

“Okay, I guess she is kinda creepy, but if we really want to leave, why aren't we just blowing a hole in the wall?” Trixie turned to Karon and asked.

“Trix, I know you're not the best with sensing stuff, but there is no way you didn't sense the power of that … thing,” he replied and swallowed loudly.

“All I got was a feeling of hunger,” she said and pushed the arm Karon was still holding out in front of her away.

“Well I guess that pretty much sums it up,” he muttered under his breath. “Allow me to expand a little on that, though: the woman is a soul eater, which means that she can devour and absorb not only free-flowing energy or through digesting matter, she can rip it out of anything it is bound or connected to, and it doesn't matter what kind of energy. She can eat any kind that exists in our plane of reality regardless of the form or frequency and integrate it into her own being while tearing apart what it was shaped into before. That means she can devour everything you are: Your spirit, your mind, your soul and everything else stored within.”

“Like memories...”

“Not if I set her on fire first,” Trixie told him nonchalantly.

“Trix, you don't get it. All she eats, she keeps, and she can make use of it. I have no idea how old she is or how long she has been a soul eater, but ... being what she is and doing what she does translates into power. Serious power.”

“I still don't see why this makes her that dangerous compared to everything else we've faced. Besides, she hasn't been slobbering while staring at us like she wanted to eat us. She's been kinda nice to us so far, although a bit weird too.”

“That's what worries me the most,” Karon muttered, glancing towards the hallway the woman had disappeared down.

“So what do we do, then?” Trixie asked, not sounding overly concerned despite Karon's explanation.

“If we try and bust out of here, then bad shit is going to happen fast. I don't know just how much power this woman's got, so I can't tell what our chances of making it out alive are. If we play along, that might buy us time to find a way out of this ... and if nothing else, die outside of her reach.”

“Uhh, what was that?” Trixie asked and leaned closer to his face with a look of disbelief on her own.

“You heard me. We've been in danger of dying so many times, I can't remember all of them, Trix; but I would rather kill you here myself than let that creature even come close to devouring your soul. We're both mortal Trix, but our souls aren't; I'm not letting you lose that on account of one brief life that is just a tiny fraction of your existence,” Karon told her in an emotionless, but completely determined voice.

Trixie stared at Karon, and for the first time since they had met all those years ago there was something in her eyes Karon wished he would never have had to see when she looked at him. Fear.

“Is that what you think of me? Of us? 'Brief lives that is just a tiny fraction of our existence'?” she asked in a hurt voice.

Karon turned his entire body to face Trixie, and he let Promise fall clattering to the floor as he placed his arms around the woman he loved and pulled her in close. Her arms hung limp at her side for the first few heartbeats, but when Karon didn't let go her arms came up and she curled her fingers around his old and tattered robe, gripping it tight and pressed her face into his chest.

“I love you Trix, with all my heart I love you. But who we are now will not always be, we will inevitably change. I can't say how, when or into what, but change will happen. Hell, I've only been Karon for the last six years. Before that, I was stuck as a nobody, trapped in a transition period where I refused to accept a new future and destiny because I was still clinging to the one I was born with.”

“I don't care about that, I care about you! And I'm not leaving you or letting go of you no matter what changes happen,” Trixie told him sharply, her voice muffled by his robe and what he suspected was held-back tears.

Karon started stroking her head with his right hand. On the floor, Promise was glowing with a harsh light, and Karon could feel the spirit inside shouting in confusion and for him to pick it back up. Instead he continued calmly stroking Trixie's head while involuntary shudders went through her as she fought with her emotions.

“Trix, I will be with you all the way. I don't ever want to lose you. What I am saying though is that I will not let those creatures touch that inside of you that is beyond death. That which is part of eternity. You can die, Trix, and you will still remain; but if your soul is threatened...” he said to her in a soothing voice.

“I understand, and I'm not going to let anything happen to you, either,” she muttered softly, and pulled back her head far enough for her to tip-toe up and kiss him.

Karon could taste the desperation, the need on her lips. It was as if all the pain and loneliness of the years before their paths had intertwined came rushing back up to mix together with the joy and fierce freedom she had found with him.

When they parted, a tingling warmth lingered on Karon's lips together with a burning ache that had settled in his chest. He had always thought that loving someone so much it hurt was just a figure of speech.

“Apparently not.”

Slowly, Karon stepped away from Trixie with reluctance written plainly on his face. But as it always does, reality soon exerted itself, and he remembered where they were.

“Trix, I know playing mind games isn't your strong suit, so simply stay close to me and be prepared. This is my area of expertise, but it could escalate to blowing stuff up pretty fast,” he told her once he thought his voice would hold steady.

“How will I know it's time for that?” she asked, her words much like his own carrying traces of suppressed emotions.

“If I suddenly shout 'Kill them Trix, kill them!' then that will be a sign to start blasting them,” he said with a crooked smile.

Trixie's mouth twitched until it shaped itself into a grin. “Sounds simple enough that even someone like me might understand it,” she replied dryly, lazily propping a hand on her hip.

“I try my best,” Karon replied and tilted his head, his own smile turning into his usual devil-may-care grin.

On the floor, Promise was practically vibrating with the panicked signals it was sending out alongside great waves of fear, anger and doubt. Karon quickly bent down and grabbed hold of the spear, and it instantly calmed down.

“Master! Please tell me what is happening. I ... there is so much here, and it screams. I can't make out what is happening outside this vessel anymore, there is too much outside.”

“Shh, calm down Promise. Right now we're inside a manor located within the forest. We were greeted by a woman, a soul eater. She wants to play the game of guest and host for the moment, but I'm not sure how long that will last or what she plans for us.”

“I will destroy her! Use me, master!”

“Promise, you are in a vulnerable state right now, and drawing from you to fuel my own magic would be dangerous and could unbalance you in … bad ways. And she's a soul eater, she would just eat you like an appetizer since you can't do anything outside of your spear by yourself.”

The frustration and anger that rolled off Promise hit Karon like an ocean wave, and just the sheer intensity of it was enough to give him a momentary pause. However, the spirit didn't attack him or go insane, the emotions he could feel roaring inside the spirit more directed towards the circumstances they found themselves within, not him.

“Promise, I know what's going on isn't easy for you. But we'll get through it one way or another. Just try and keep focused and be ready if I should call upon you.”

“Of course master, I am always ready to serve!”

The flood of confusing and fractured thoughts and emotions the spirit was going through seemed to find a single point of stability around the overwhelming need to serve Karon in any way he needed. And as Karon separated his mind from that of the spear, a dry voice surfaced from the back of his skull.

“Throwing platitudes at it won't work for much longer, you know.”

“One problem at a time. Promise's identity crisis will have to wait until we actually have time for it.”

“Careful, you're blinding yourself if you only stare at things from one perspective too long.”

Karon ignored the voice, and instead focused on Trixie and prepared for whatever twisted game a soul eater might find entertaining. What he had just told Trixie might have shaken her up a bit, but she had grown tough over the years, and if she felt any doubt or fear, she didn't show it.

“Ready to go see what tonight's entertainment will be?” Karon asked in as carefree a voice as he could manage.

“Sure, just try and not bore me too much,” she replied and threw back her hair with a flick of her head, her voice all confidence once again.

Karon chuckled and offered his arm to her, which she gracefully accepted, and the two of them walked together down the left hallway, the music of a violin filling their air together with the loud thump of Promise hitting the wooden floor with each step they took.

The hallway was filled with paintings of all kinds of creatures, some of them beast-like and others humanoid or altogether human. The one thing they all had in common, though, was that they were all being tortured. The sickening images were framed in by embossed gold trim of exquisite beauty, lending the paintings a feeling of being cherished as something wonderful.

A knot coiled and twisted tighter in Karon's stomach the further down the hallway he walked, as the images became more and more creative and the faces the creatures made all the more expressive. What was worse, there were lingering echoes of screams in the paintings, and the only way Karon could imagine that was possible was if they paintings hadn't been drawn from someone's twisted mind, but had captured a very real scene.

Eventually, the freakishly long hallway ended at a sharp turn to the right, where a glass door stood ajar leading into a room washed in bright golden light. It was huge, with rows of bookshelves covering most of the walls, and where they weren't, there were either paintings of scenes just as macabre as the ones in the hallway or there were implements of torture hung up as decoration.

The knot in Karon's stomach did a triple flip when he noticed that there was dried blood visible on more than a few of those instruments.

In the center of the room laid four couches with dark green upholstery and golden frames. They stood around a table upon which several smaller items were scattered, things like cards, dice and stacks of paper.

On one of the couches, the woman with the dark mask was leaning back in a lounging position, one leg dangling over one end of the couch and lightly wagging back and forth. When Karon and Trixie walked out into the room she perked up a little, and giggled happily.

“There you are, I was starting to think you might have gotten lost. I want to make introductions,” the woman said and got up from her seated position.

Besides the woman, there were four others present as far as Karon could see. One was an old man with long gray hair and a short beard, dressed in a simple brown robe that might possibly just have been a big burlap sack with a string tied around it. He sat at the far end of the room in a chair and with a book open on his lap. He didn't turn his head up or even acknowledge that there was anyone else in the room, but Karon could feel his presence all the same, like a yawning black hole ready to devour anything within its reach. Karon also noted that besides himself and Trixie, the man was the only one not wearing a mask.

Standing to the left of the entrance against the wall were two identical silver-masked men just like the one that had invited in Karon and Trixie, one of them standing in silent attention while the other was the one responsible for the music. He didn't move besides the absolute minimum required to play the violin, and despite the haunting music that seemed to be infused with heartbreak and sadness, there was a certain dead quality to his movements.

The final one present was a man sitting in the couch to the left of the woman, leaning back and with both his arms thrown to his sides and resting on the spine of the couch. He was wearing a robe the color of red wine, or blood, and his hands were covered in long black gloves. The robe itself immediately attracted Karon's attention, and he was forced to admit that it was a very nice-looking one. It ended just below the man’s knees, and the edges were slightly frayed and uneven, continuing downwards towards his back in an angular fashion rather than as an even circle around him. He was wearing pants of the same dark golden color as the mask on his face, and the shoes he wore looked to be made of nothing but black cloth tied around his feet with a golden rope. The mask itself was shaped like a snake or some other reptile, and when Karon gently reached out with his senses towards the man, a cold slithering feeling answered him.

Karon took all of it in as he and Trixie walked over towards the table, and stopped when they reached the couch closest to them. The woman waited until they had stopped, then hurried forward to them with almost fluid grace that made it seem like she flowed rather than walked.

It took her just a brief instant to reach them, and Karon had to force himself not to move or start waving Promise around in an attempt to get her as far away as possible. So he swallowed the need to scream and run away, and simply inched himself closer to Trixie.

The woman reached out her right index finger and ran it gently upwards from Karon's stomach, all the way to his throat. All the while a burning, almost tearing sensation followed it, as if the sound of nails on a chalkboard had been made into a feeling. The woman's head was tilted slightly to the right, and even though the mask hid her face the smile beneath it was implied with every movement she made.

Karon knew it was just a test, that his life – and soul – was not being threatened. He knew from the feeling as the woman's black painted nail came to a halt at his throat that she was just tasting him, observing his reactions and making out what kind of creature he was.

In other words, she was playing with him.

“It has been such a long time since we've had guests, and even longer since I last had the fortune to run into a trickster,” the woman sighed with a shudder of pleasure. She pulled back her hand and took a few steps away from Karon, her head turning momentarily to look Trixie up and down, then turning back to Karon.

“They always makes the games last so long, and their lives are always so tragic and misunderstood. They understand pain so well, and it is so fun teaching them new things about something they thought they knew everything about,” she said, her voice distant like she was reminiscing about days long gone.

“Are you going to be chit-chatting with it much longer?” the golden-masked man asked, his voice bored and with an arrogant note to it.

“Don't interrupt dear, you can't rush protocol and we must be on our best behavior when we have guests!” the woman snapped at him. She cleared her throat, and her voice returned to her usual sultry tone. “Now, would you please give me your name?” she asked.

Karon did not want to give her his name. However, there was little choice at the moment, unless he wanted to insult his hosts. He could lie and simply give them a false name, but as soon as that name left his lips any average practitioner would be able to feel that it didn't correspond with him. A real name is a reflection of who you are, where you've been and where you're going. And much like the person it has layers of meaning. How much of those layers one will be able to sense depends on the skill of the practitioner, and Karon suspected the woman hiding behind that dark, raven mask was very, very talented.

“Karon,” he answered truthfully, and a shiver went through him.

“Karon,” the woman repeated, tasting the name and arching her back like a lover was caressing it.

“That's my name,” Karon told her, forcing his voice to come out steady and without the tremor of fear that threatened to slip in.

“You are quite marvelous,” the woman said, and she brushed a knuckled fist against her lips underneath the beak of her mask. “I taste ash in your name, something that's been burned. You have walked far, and I can feel the presence of angels in your wake, and where you're going.”

The golden-masked man sitting on the couch jerked his head when he heard the word 'angels', and the stare he gave Karon burned right through his mask with a terrible focus.

“My, oh my,” the woman breathed, her right hand gently tracing circles on her chest. “So much behind you, so much ahead of you. You, my dear are ... interesting.”

“Uhrm, and my name is Trixie,” Trixie announced after clearing her throat loudly.

The woman turned her bird mask towards Trixie and held her attention there for a few seconds, then turned back to Karon and said, “Yes you are, and everything interesting about you comes from him.”

Karon's eyes doubled in size as he turned to stare at Trixie, fully expecting her to respond with a flaming fist of 'fuck you bitch'. Instead his hot-headed companion reacted with a surprisingly calm expression, and she only gave the woman a lop-sided smile of vague amusement.

Karon reached out his left hand and placed it on Trixie's shoulder, begging her with his eyes not to start anything that might potentially end with their souls being chewed on. Trixie met his pleading gaze, and acknowledged it with a calm nod that Karon did not trust for one second. So he reached out with his senses, and inside Trixie's mind, beneath the calm facade, all he heard was screaming.

“I'm gonna kill her! I'm gonna kill her! I'm gonna kill her! I'm gonna kill her! I'm gonna kill her! I'm gonna kill her! I'm gonna kill her! I'm gonna--”

Karon cut the connection and squeezed her shoulder a little harder, giving her a meaningful look. For all he knew the soul eater could be just as skilled at sensing energy like he was, and if so reading Trixie's aura would be absolutely trivial. If they were going to play a game with them, Karon could not allow them to show weakness.

“Trix, why don't you go and take a seat,” Karon said, and directed her towards the couch on the right, opposite against where the golden-masked man sat.

“How rude of me! I should have offered you to sit already, please seat yourselves while I introduce the rest of us,” the bird-masked woman said, and ushered Karon to the couch closest to the entrance, so that he would have Trixie to his right and the golden-masked man to his left, and the woman in front of him.

Karon allowed himself to be guided to his seat, and he placed Promise against the armrest to his left, within quick and easy reach. The golden-masked man was still staring hard at Karon, and the pure focus of his stare was enough to make Karon squirm inside. But he couldn't let that show, so he tilted his head and asked, “Do I have something between my teeth?” while peeling back his lips and grinning towards the man.

He snorted derisively in response, and turned his face away from Karon with a languid motion that said Karon was no longer worth his attention. At that moment Karon decided that even though he really liked his robe, he didn't like the man.

The darkly-dressed woman walked back to her seat opposite Karon, her hips swaying invitingly the entire way, and fell onto the couch gracefully. “Now, allow me to introduce ourselves. My name is Dolor, and I am the lady of the manor. The man beside me here is named Timor, and is an adopted sibling of mine. We live here together with our father - his name is Maeror, but he doesn't talk much nowadays, I'm afraid, so you'll have to excuse him if he doesn't act as a proper host should.”

“I understand,” Karon said between gritted teeth, the power and meaning of the names crashing down upon him like a flood of pain, fear and sorrow.

“Well, now that we are all introduced I think it is time to play some games. You see we have all been staying here for such a long time, and visitors are very rare, so we try and make the most out of it when it happens, to make sure we get to have fun together for as long as possible before it is all over.”

Trixie continued to smile falsely towards the woman, and Karon decided that it wasn't that bad of a strategy, and so he smiled as well and spoke in as polite a tone as he could muster. “I understand, though I must say I didn't expect someone to live all the way out here. If I may ask, what was it that made you decide to settle here?”

“It was a decision of pragmatism I'm sad to say,” the woman explained with a sigh, and she turned her head to give the old man a look of disappointment. “When myself and my father first arrived here, it was a place of sunlight and green life. You see, this forest isn't an ordinary forest as I think you might suspect. Rather, this forest is some kind of smaller version of the world trees. The secret is in their roots. You see, where the roots of most ordinary trees seek their nourishment from the ground, the trees of this forest extend much further. They stretch into worlds, countless worlds, and they take nourishment from them. Dreams, emotions, thoughts, events, destinies, entire lives are being drawn from. Not in any way that disrupts them, but rather pick up echoes of it, and then transfers this into the forest at large.”

Trixie was listening with a somewhat interested look on her face, but Karon was going through every word she spoke with utmost attention, and the more he heard the darker his expression got. He already suspected what she was going to say, and what they had done.

“Personally I didn't think much of it, just another curiosity to pass by in search of more interesting … company. However, father decided that with a little work it might be a good place to settle down. So we worked very hard for a long time, until we finally had enchanted the entire forest with a web that allowed us access to it and complete control. When we did, father decided to ... enhance the magic of the trees. And instead of simply distributing the energy the trees harnessed, we forced the trees to keep all that they absorbed inside themselves. Now of course, the trees would have died within hours from that, but father had connected the lives of the trees to us, so as long as we live, they cannot die unless the magic is disrupted. And we can draw from the trees and all they keep within. Millions upon millions of moments in time strong enough for the roots to draw from, moments so intense that the ones that experience them didn't just put their hearts and minds into it, but also small pieces of their soul.”

Trixie turned away from the woman, who spoke of it all with a joyful, almost exhilarated voice. She turned her eyes to Karon instead, and together they shared a sickened look of dread.

“It is quite brilliant, but I wouldn't expect less of my father of course. We now have more to eat then we ever could have found in one single place,” the woman's voice turned a little sad as she continued, “but unfortunately, that means we don't have any need to seek out living beings anymore, and it can get so dreadfully boring in here.”

“I am very sorry to hear that,” Karon said to her.

“Such a good boy, but you shouldn't apologize. This is not your fault, and we do get visitors sometimes. Like Timor here, he was a visitor once and decided to play a few games. He lost, and so I was allowed to keep and teach him. He did much better than the other four that came visiting,” Dolor said, and nodded her head towards the two identically dressed silver-masked men standing at attention. “They weren't interesting, and there wasn't much left of them after we played our games.”

“And what kind of games do you play?” Karon tried to ask innocently.

He couldn't see it, but Karon had no problem feeling the hungry grin behind Dolor's mask. “Well, it is always a little different. I haven't played against a trickster for such a long time, and I think we should try something completely new, something that requires wit.”

“That sounds very intriguing,” Karon said.

“Yes, but a game of wit alone does get dreary very soon. I think it would be most entertaining if we mixed it with, say ... a game of pure chance,” she said and giggled.

Karon felt his heart skip at the thought of playing a game of chance with something that coveted his soul.

“But then again, it would be the easiest kind of game for us to cheat at.”

“Well you have me hooked. What kind of game shall this be then?” Karon asked and leaned forward as if he was eager to get started.

“For the game of wit, I think ... riddles or questions. And for the game of chance ... simple dice. The one that gets the lowest in the game of dice loses, and has to pick between answering a riddle or question. If that person can't give the right answer the other player wins a point, if they can they win a point. The first to ... let's say five, wins the game.”

“And what are we betting?” Karon asked in a somber tone, already knowing the answer.

“Hmmm, I think that if I win then I will get to keep you,” she said and gently dragged a nail across her throat.

“Keep me?” Karon asked, and forced an eyebrow up as if he found the possibility curious rather than terrifying.

“Yes, you are very interesting, and I think I would have fun teaching you, and you might learn even better than Timor here,” she gestured with her hand towards the gold-faced man.

“And what would happen to my companion then? And the spirit inside the spear?” Karon asked.

“We would keep them safe and sound until I've finished training you,” the woman said slowly,  “and then, you will eat them.”

Trixie hissed angrily and her hands balled into fists. She looked ready to try and tear the mask of Dolor and claw her eyes out, so Karon asked quickly, “and if I win?”

The woman moved her head back and forth and hummed to herself like she was thinking about it. After a while she turned back to the gold-masked man and said to him, “What about giving them a ten minute head start if they win?”

Timor was silent for a few seconds, then shrugged and said, “It would make my game a little more entertaining. I'm not expecting much from them, anyway.”

Karon decided that he didn't just not like Timor, but that he actually hated him a little.

“Am I missing something, or will I be playing multiple games?” He asked, tilting his head slightly.

“Well, of course. I like to play more sociable games, but if I lose then my game is over and it will be Timor's turn to entertain our guests. Of course, Timor isn't like me. He likes to hunt things, and so if you win then he will hunt you all in the forest. But you shouldn't worry, if you do win you will have a ten minute head start,” Dolor said and waved her hand like that settled it.

“And what happens if we would win in the hunt as well?” Karon asked suspiciously.

“Then it will be father's time to play, even if he doesn't like it.”

“And what happens if we win against him?”

“I don't know, father never loses,” Dolor answered.

Silence reigned for a couple of heartbeats as Karon digested the information. To his left Trixie was watching him intently, waiting for any sign telling her it was time to unleash hell. Instead Karon held out both his hands with palms up and simply said, “I accept. Let's play.”

Dolor squealed excitedly and clapped her hands with glee. She leaned forward and swept the table clean of everything on it, except for a set of dice, white with black dots and completely nondescript in any way.

“Who will start?” Karon asked politely and cleared his throat.

“You are the guest, so it is only fair you should start,” Dolor answered, and tossed the die so they came scrambling over the table and stopped just in front of him.

Karon reached out and picked them up gingerly. As soon as he touched them his entire mind focused on sensing if there was anything magical about them, but as far as he could detect it was just an ordinary pair of dice.

“Which just makes this harder. If they had been enchanted I could have tried to twist the magic into my favor, now Dolor will notice if I do anything with them to help me cheat.”

“Only if you leave any lasting magic. Maybe if we use something that is only temporary, so weak it will last only for a second, maybe that will work.”

“It will have to be at just the right second.”

“What's life without a challenge every now and then?”

Karon started to shake his right hand with the dice inside, making them rattle like he was about to throw them. Unfortunately, when he tried to come up with something extremely clever, his mind came up blank. The longer he simply sat there, the more it became apparent to everyone else that he was stalling for time.

Eventually he was left with no choice but to toss the dice. They went skittering across the table, and as they went Karon reached out with his senses and utilized something he rarely used - pure raw force. Just as the dice were coming to a halt, he applied a little pressure, and made them land on a six and five.

The hair on his arms stood on end as he waited for Dolor or Timor to call him on his cheating - even Trixie should have been able to sense that he had done something. However, they didn't. Instead Dolor reached out her hand and gathered up the dice, gently shaking them for a few seconds before holding her hand out above the table and letting them fall.

The dice clattered for a few seconds, then stopped at two sixes. Dolor leaned back in her couch, but the feeling she emitted wasn't smug victory, instead she appeared bored. That wasn't what Karon had picked up on though, instead he was wrapping his head around the fact that Dolor had used the exact same way of cheating as he had, but she had done it so overtly that there was no chance anyone with the tiniest hint of magical talent couldn't have detected it.

Was she demonstrating she knew what he had done? Or was there something else going on?

Karon cleared his throat again and brought his hands together, bumping his knuckles together before saying “It just occurred to me that we never went over the rules of this game.”

Dolor tilted her head at an amused angle, and said, “Rules? The rules are simple, try and win. We have already established how to gain points.”

“Oh, that should make things interesting.”

“So it's a 'whatever goes' game.”

“Yeah, though I think we should be careful though. If we start doing things without any hint of subtlety she will grow bored, and things will get ugly.”

“Very well, let's play the game like a trickster should.”

“Looks like I win, now you get to pick a question or a riddle,” Dolor purred in a tone of eager anticipation.

Karon opened his mouth about to answer, when Dolor held up a hand and waved one of the silver-masked men forward. The one that wasn't busy playing the violin must have received a mental command of some kind, because without any other perceivable instructions he turned to the left and went over to one of the bookshelves, and retrieved something from it. Then he turned around and walked over to the table, a great white crystal almost as big as his skull resting in his hands.

He placed it on the table, then silently retreated back to his old position right next to his violin-playing counterpart. Dolor waited until he had returned to his place before she motioned towards the crystal with her left hand and explained, “This is a wonderful toy I picked up when we were still traveling. It will help us in our game. If one of us will ask a question or tell a riddle we do not actually know the answer to truly, it will glow yellow. And if that happens, that person instantly loses.”

“Excellent, this should help make the game fair,” Karon said while cursing inwardly.

“Now, did you want a question or a riddle?” she asked.

“A question,” Karon answered after a brief moment of consideration.

“What is the best excuse in the world?” Dolor asked chirpily.

“Which world?” Timor asked in a bored tone.

“All of them,” Dolor said to him irritably, not sounding the least happy at being interrupted.

Karon didn't listen to them, his mind racing with the possible answers, all of them seemingly more unlikely than the previous. Love, hate, hope, money, fear, destiny, to find a home, to run away, to leave the past, because my dog ate my homework. There were infinite answers that were possible, but there was one that held true. At least to Dolor, and unless she was lying about the crystal, that answer was something that existed as a truth beyond doubt, at the very least as far as she knew.

None of the answers Karon could think of seemed like the sort of thing that would fit. So he forced the thousands of answers out of his mind, and he shut down his racing thoughts. Instead he breathed, and after a calm had settled where only the question hung in suspension, did Karon not try and figure out the answer, but instead tried to sense it. He listened to his instincts, the instincts of a trickster, and waited for an answer to show up.

Karon snorted, then turned his eyes to Dolor with a wry smile on his lips. “To join the party,” he answered.

Dolor squealed happily and held her hands up to her mouth hidden behind the beak of the mask. “Such a clever, clever boy. Oh, you and I will have so much fun together! I think it might be even more interesting than when I was teaching Timor.”

The golden-masked man in question scoffed at the suggestion like it was ridiculous, but Karon saw how his grip on the couch tightened.

“One point for me then,” Karon said, allowing some smugness to creep into his voice.

“Indeed it is, our dear guest is taking the lead,” Dolor said without a hint of worry in her voice. “Now, since you won, you can toss the dice first again.”

Karon reached over and gathered the dice, then shook his hand and tossed them forward just like before. However, when he reached out to flip the dice to his advantage, he instead encountered a pressure, a barrier that pressed against his focused energy and diverted it. Karon turned his eyes from the rolling die and glared at Dolor, suspecting that underneath that mask hid a smirk.

The dice came up at a one and three.

“Tsk, tsk,” Dolor clicked her tongue chidingly and reached across the table to gather the dice in her right hand, giving it a few shakes and dropping them in the middle of the table on the way back. Karon immediately started to try and control the movements of the die, but Dolor was simply too powerful, and swatted his attempts aside with almost laughable ease. They came up at four and five.

“Looks like I win again. Now do you want a question, or a riddle?” she asked innocently.

“What are the odds that we'll manage to get it right twice?”

“Very small.”

“I'll take another question,” Karon sighed.

“What can change the nature of a man?” Dolor asked sweetly.

“Whatever you believe can change it, can. That's an old one,” Karon answered while his heart skipped a beat.

Dolor sighed, “Yes I know, but I once met an old hag who just wouldn't shut up about it and it stuck with me.”

“So now I have two points,” Karon said and tried to make it sound casual.

“So you do, and I think it is your turn again since you won,” Dolor told him, her tone of voice still without a hint of worry.

Karon frowned at her seemingly lack of concern for him taking the lead in their game, but he didn't make any further comments, and instead grabbed the dice and toyed with them between his fingers. Brute force wasn't going well for him, he had lost the game of dice twice now. And even though he had managed to get the right answer for the questions, there was no way he would manage to push his luck for a third time. The universe simply didn't like him that much.

“Play at our strengths.”

Dice were simple, and since there was no point in trying to actually hide that he was cheating, the rules of the game were simply to cheat better than the other. In all fairness Karon should have won any such game just by default of being a trickster. Unfortunately though, he was up against an opponent that he couldn't measure against in terms of raw power, and who obviously had more than a little experience toying with her opponents.

“So, how do you battle against such a creature?”

“You mix it up.”

Karon clenched his fist around the die, and then threw them high up into the air above the table. Three sets of eyes followed the die into the air, however when the die reached the apex of their trajectory, they simply vanished.

Both Trixie and Timor kept staring upwards, trying to spot the die. However as soon as the die disappeared Dolor's head snapped downwards towards the table, where she saw a pair of die right in front of Karon, both of them a six. Trixie and Timor caught on after a few seconds of fruitlessly looking through the air, and the entire room seemed to hold its breath as it waited for Dolor to say something.

Instead she laughed. A laugh filled with the mirth of someone that had been pleasantly surprised, yet to Karon's ears it still managed to sound completely void of any real happiness.

“Aren't you lucky, and now it's my turn,” she said after the last trickling remnants of laughter had died away.

She took the die and shook them a few times before dropping them on the table. Strangely enough, Karon couldn't feel her doing anything to guard against him manipulating them, and so it took him little effort in pushing them to come up at a one and two.

“And so you won. I think I will take ... a question. Since you've already had two, I think it's only fair,” she said and leaned back in the couch, the curves of her body moving invitingly as she did.

“Best take a hard one that we are sure of the answer for.”

“What is the greatest illusion of all?” Karon asked, keeping his eye on the crystal.

It didn't react, and his eyes narrowed slightly from the seeming lack of cheating or double standard towards him. Instead it remained uncreative towards a question he did know the true answer to, and seemed to confirm that it did indeed only react against untruthfulness. At least so far.

“Tricky, tricky,” Dolor said and tapped the tip of the mask's beak.

Karon sat patiently waiting for an answer, occasionally looking over at Trixie, who made no attempt at hiding her boredom through overly explicit yawns while giving Karon looks of impatience. In response he merely shook his head, and ignored her annoyed sigh.

“Divinity,” Dolor eventually said, though the answer was made in a tone that said she wasn't entirely sure.

“Wrong,” Karon announced with noticeable relief.

“That's three, we're winning!”

Dolor smacked her lips and hissed irritably, but the crystal on the table showed clearly that Karon wasn't lying and that she had indeed answered wrong. The tapping of her foot told Karon that the soul eater wasn't in control quite to the degree she wanted him to think, and he had to make use of a lot of willpower to keep himself from grinning smugly at her.

“It appears like it is my turn with the dice again,” he said and picked them up.

He cradled them in his right hand and held it still for a few heartbeats, waiting until everyone was focusing entirely on his hand and waiting for him to throw them. He did, and the die came flying out of his hand and bouncing forward on the table.

Her earlier loss must have upset her more than she had shown, because the wave of energy that struck against the table was far more powerful than anything she had thrown at him so far. And it immediately dispelled the two illusionary die that had come clattering on the table, and instead revealed the two invisible ones Karon had focused on trying to manipulate.

She struck against them like a thunderclap of silent and invisible energy, and brushed Karon aside like he was nothing. The two die abruptly stopped with two ones up, and Karon rubbed his head absently. A small ache was crawling up to his skull from the strain of keeping such small amounts of energy so completely focused. Illusions he could keep up for hours, but physically manipulating objects with just the exact amount of energy to guide their movements instead of outright grabbing them was not something he did often.

“Poor dear, luck is a fickle thing,” Dolor said to him and grabbed the die. She gave them a few shakes then threw them on the table before Karon could think of anything clever to do with them. They came up at a three and six.

“So what will it be dear, riddle or question?” she asked sweetly and leaned forward, giving him a view of her ample chest through the generous cleavage.

“Too many questions already, if we pick that again she's gonna start losing interest in the game.”

“Riddle,” Karon told her.

“Oh what marvelous fun this is going to be. Let me just … hmmm...” she spoke and made a show of thinking about it.

“Maybe we should consider letting Trixie throw a ball of fire at her then run.”

“We have no exit strategy, and we are kinda outnumbered.”

“Details.”

“Oh, I know!” Dolor exclaimed then gently cleared her throat.

"Can be cold as ice and hot as fire

May bestow a curse or bless a soul

Calm as peace or burning with desire

For life or death, to break or make whole

Join one as two, says both good bye

And I love you."

“Oh come on, that could be a million different things!”

“I think that's the point.”

“Come on, we can do this.”

“If it can be cold as ice and hot as fire that would point at it being something determined either by context or something you transfer.”

“'Says both good bye and I love you' means it is something being transferred, something that is being expressed.”

“So it is something you do that can be both hot and cold, says good bye and I love you, and a lot of other things.”

“And it connects two as one.”

“I can think of two things that fits the description; either sex, or...”

“A kiss,” Karon answered.

Dolor remained silent for more than a minute, until eventually she smacked her lips and flicked her left hand like it meant nothing, “Correct.”

Karon didn't manage to suppress a smile this time, and next to him Trixie snorted derisively. Dolor didn't show any signs of noticing, and remained silent as Karon grabbed the die and shook his hand a few times before dropping them down on the table. As before, Dolor's will struck the die and tried to brush Karon's attempt at controlling them aside.

But he was ready for it, and he held out against the pressure of her power with every ounce of willpower he could focus. The die themselves jumped around the table as if they were caught in a whirlwind, and every time they looked to settle another wave of force sent the two of them scattering across the table again.

Eventually the focused energy between Karon and Dolor found some kind of harmony, and both the dice landed on a corner and spun around without showing any sign of tipping over.

Karon clenched his jaw, and tiny droplets of sweat appeared on his forehead as the strain of channeling as much energy as possible, yet only exactly so much that it didn't just break the dice, tore at his concentration. It was like holding a giant can of water over your head, yet only allowing the flow from it to come out in drops.

The stalemate held for what could have been weeks in Karon's mind, until Trixie grunted with impatience and kicked the table. For a second the die were thrown around as if they were in their final death throws, and then landed on a one and two.

Opposite the table Dolor giggled to herself as Karon turned to stare at Trixie with a look that asked if she wanted him to lose. In response she merely shrugged and returned his look with one that said she was bored and wanted to set Dolor on fire.

“You know, it is quite worrisome we have grown to know each other so well we can read that just from each other’s expressions.”

Dolor reached over and grabbed the die and dropped them on the table before Karon had the time to recover, and ended up with a four and two.  

“So what will it be this time? Question or riddle?” Dolor asked.

“Make it another question,” Karon said and tried not to sound too eager. He had four points now, one more and he would have won the game. Though that would lead to him having to participate in Timor's hunt, but for whatever reason, the mostly silent golden-masked man scared him a lot less than the polite seductress that probably could have taught Marquis de Sade a thing or two about causing pain.

“Very well. What about making this one a little more interesting though?” Dolor asked sweetly, the subtle undertones in her voice promising she could find many ways of making things 'interesting' for him.

“How?” Karon said with no small measure of suspicion in his own voice.

“I will let you have three tries, but I will win a point for every try you fail,” she said.

“Why would I want to agree to such a thing when I clearly have the upper hand and are about to win?” Karon asked with his eyebrows raised.

“Because of the question of course, silly,” Dolor answered him.

“Which is?”

“What is it that fate has planned for you, and that the angels and many other forces are leading you towards?” she purred, and a chill went up Karon's spine when he looked at the crystal and saw that it didn't react to her words.

“And you know the answer to that?” he asked with a suddenly dry throat.

“I do,” she said, “I could taste it in your name.”

Karon swallowed slowly, and his mind raced with the possibilities. Metatron had taken a particular interest in him, and there were a lot of forces that had at one time or another cast a curious glance his way, with eyes and spoken words that said they knew something he didn't.

“Come on, it's obviously a bluff!”

“What if it isn't. Dolor is exactly the kind of powerful being that could read where I am going in my name.”

“So what? You're about to win and she's just trying to distract you. You’re letting her mess with your head!”

“She's a soul eater that likes to cause pain and play with her potential victims, throwing a lie out just to stop us from winning would be petty and desperate. Now waiting until the last second of when an opponent thinks he's about to win, then dangle a truth in front of him to keep him from going all the way...”

“Would be sadistically clever and delicious.”

“She knows something at the very least.”

“Blue is actually red,” Karon said out loud, and instantly the crystal on the table shone yellow in a reproachful light.

“Damn it, it actually detects lies.”

“So it's true, she can determine at the very least part of our destiny in our name.”

“It's worth the try.”

“If we lose all three attempts things will have turned in her favor very quickly.”

“It's still worth the try.”

“Fine, go ahead. We still got Trixie eager to set things on fire if all else should fail.”

Karon turned his eyes and rested them on Trixie, who was furiously shaking her head and mouthing 'no, don't you dare' over and over. In answer Karon sighed, then turned his gaze to Dolor and said, “I accept.”

Trixie let out a sound of pure frustration and fell back on her couch with a hand draped over her eyes. Karon ignored her and considered the options before him.

“You know we could answer in the most general terms possible. Like 'they want me to do something important for them'. It would be technically correct and give us the last point we need to win.”

“It would, but it would leave us without a real answer. And I'm not letting this opportunity slip us by.”

“Fine... so what do you think our destiny actually is?”

“My destiny is to aid one or several angels in a task relating to something messing around with the divine order of things,” Karon said carefully, taking a small pause between each word like he was being very careful about how he worded the answer.

“Wrong, one point for me,” Dolor said gleefully.

Karon wrung his hands and licked his lips, taking his time before he opened his mouth again, “My destiny is to cheat or trick something, and it will upset the balance of things to the point the divine will take an interest in it to make sure things aren't pushed out of their fated course.”

“Wrong again, another point for me,” Dolor said, tapping a finger to the table in eager anticipation of his last attempt.

“Told you we should have just taken the easy way out.”

“Still have one attempt left.”

“Yeah and if we fail that it'll be three-four to us, and we'll be dangerously close to ending up in some torture dungeon with Ms. Leather-and-whip here tormenting us for who knows how long.”

“Trix will have set her on fire way before that happens.”

“How much you wanna bet that would only inconvenience Dolor?”

A drop of sweat was slowly making its way down Karon's back, and even though he could force his face to remain impassive, he could do nothing about his sweaty palms or the slight tingling in his feet. The feeling was much the same as if he had been standing on the edge of a cliff and tipping forward excruciatingly slowly.

He licked his lips and thought hard about all the conversations he had had with Metatron, and what hints to his destiny could be found. After several minutes he had gotten nowhere further than before - the angel simply had an interest in him for whatever reason, and one guess wasn't likely to get it right. Even so, he could use a mistake to determine what course his destiny would NOT take, and so determine what was more likely. Assuming he made it out of the soul eater's home alive.

“My destiny is to follow the path of a trickster and overthrow a dominant force oppressing others somewhere at the behest of the angels?” Karon said it like a question rather than an answer, and when Dolor started squealing and clapping her hand delightfully he didn't show any surprise.

“Wrong! So close, yet so far away from the truth. That makes three points for me and four for you! Ohh, what a nail biter this game turned out to be. Now since I won, it's my turn to roll the dice,” Dolor said joyfully and grabbed the die and quickly rolled them, brushing aside Karon's halfhearted attempt to control the outcome.

They landed on a five and six, and Dolor made a sound very similar to a moan of pleasure as they did. Karon remained silent as he reached over and grabbed the dice, shaking them hastily and dropping them straight down on the table. Dolor's will struck against them hard, however as she did one of the die vanished, and instead another appeared which Karon had been focused completely on, which landed on a six. The other landed however on a two, and on the opposite side of the table Dolor chuckled pleasantly at the deception, even though it had turned out to be for naught.

“So, what do you want this time? A question or a riddle?” she asked sweetly.

“A question,” Karon replied.

“What is the most horrible feeling in the world?” she asked him slowly, drawing out each word in a sensual tone.

“Pain,” Karon responded immediately, his heart racing.

“Wrong!” Dolor laughed and clapped her hands. “It is four and four now, the one who wins the next turn wins the game! You and I are going to have so much fun together!” she told him while her laughter turned more and more like the cackling of a madwoman.

“Karon...” Trixie said quietly and leaned towards him, the look she gave saying she was more than ready to start something violent.

Karon shook his head in response and furrowed his eyebrows as Dolor pushed the die over the table to him. He grabbed them and his face turned thoughtful as he slowly shook his closed fist.

“This game has been going exactly as Dolor wanted it to.”

“Yeah ... she was just letting me think I was getting ahead, she's been dominating us since the start.”

“She likes to play with us. Letting us take the lead then baiting us with the question about our destiny.”

“But do you know what the really sadistic thing would be?”

“Yeah, letting the other player think he was going to take the last deciding shot and turn his own trickery against him when he tries a final way to cheat.”

The thoughtful look on Karon's face crumbled and left only stark terror in its place, his eyes turned misty with held-back tears and his hands both shook visibly, even the right hand he was shaking the dice within trembled noticeably in fear. On the other side of the table, Karon could feel Dolor's pleasure at the display, and from her throat came a sound much like the purring of a cat.

Karon forced his right hand still, and he took a quick breath before sending a bit of energy flowing into the die, shaping it on one side of both the die so that it would be heavier than the rest. He couldn't fight Dolor toe-to-toe in a match of will, but with gravity on his side things might work in his favor.

He held his breath and tossed the die forward, then watched with eyes widening in horror as Dolor swiftly reached forward and grabbed the die in the air, “Tsk, tsk, tsk. How silly of me to forget, I won and so it is I that should be tossing the die first. I am so sorry about confusing you, dear,” she spoke with malicious glee.

Karon stared open-mouthed as she shook the die, and eventually dropped them down on the table, not stopping to revert or undo the magic he had placed on the die, but using it against him. It was apparent to anyone looking at him that he was in too much of a shock to try and manipulate the die, and Dolor herself did absolutely nothing as well.

The die rolled over the table, until it eventually came to a stop. At two ones.

Karon's look of horror disappeared in the blink of an eye and turned into smug self-satisfaction as he chuckled. All the other three around the table were leaning forward, and all of them wore looks of pure disbelief on their faces. Or at least so Karon assumed, since Trixie's face was the only one visible.

“How...?” Dolor asked weakly.

“Trickster,” was all Karon said with a wide grin while his heart raced. “So what will it be this time, question or riddle?”

In less than a minute Dolor's control had been ripped right out of her hands, and it was obvious she wasn't dealing with it well. She was wringing her hands and letting out tiny hisses of frustration, until she eventually spat out, “A riddle.”

“You better make this one good.”

“Yeah, so a riddle that she has no way of actually solving sounds good, don't you think?”

“Can't do that, it has to have a true answer or the crystal might think of it as cheating and we lose by default.”

“So ... how about a riddle with an answer she doesn't dare to answer even if she knows it, because if it is right it means it is the truth.”

“What do you... ohhh... that's pretty clever.”

Karon kept on smiling as his eyes darted from side to side, until he eventually opened his mouth and the riddle flowed out in a confident voice.

"It is something gone wrong,

Fractured, pained and diseased,

With no place where to belong,

And with not destiny to seize.

It is something hurt and cracked,

Where up is down and left is right,

And screaming pain follow every act,

Where all of life is eternal blight,

Finds only joy in sharing pain,

Has no other way to stay sane."

The room fell eerily silent after Karon had spoken the riddle; even the silver-masked servant had stopped playing the violin. All of them remained still while the meaning of the riddle sank in, and the meaning of it and who it was directed at was pretty clear.

Dolor was fuming. He couldn't see her expression, but the scarlet rage in her aura was something she didn't even try and hide, and she slowly dragged her nails across the table in a clawing motion.

“Something very powerful,” she answered in a dangerous hiss.

“Wrong,” Karon told her with a relived sigh, and his left hand quickly darted over and grabbed Promise.

But he didn't need to. Dolor didn't lash out in anger, instead she just remained where she was, staring out into empty space while the rest of them waited with bated breath for her to react. After an indeterminate amount of time, she shook her head and said, “No, no it can't be wrong. What's the real answer, then!?”

“Something broken,” Karon replied sadly, and Dolor winced at the answer as the crystal showed no sign of it being anything less than the truth.

“No, no, no; don't you see, he'll ruin you!” she wailed and pointed to Timor, who was lounging in his couch with an air of satisfaction about him. “He'll take you and he won't touch you or train you, he'll just ruin you! I never get to play with new toys!” she went on, and her voice turned into quiet sobs.

Karon opened his mouth to speak, but Dolor held up a hand and made a shooing motion towards him. “Just … go. Go and be ruined.”

“Since you won her game, you have a ten minute head start. Which begins … now.” Timor said, his tone all eagerness for the hunt.

Karon didn't waste a second, and grabbed Trixie's left hand and dragged her with him as he ran back the way they came. When they reached the end of the hallway the door they had entered the manor through was back and standing wide open - neither Karon nor Trixie stopped but continued running right through it and out into the open field. Above them the stars burned distantly, and soon disappeared behind the thick branches as the forest swallowed them up.

“Karon, why are we running!?” Trixie shouted to him and tore her hand free of his grip and stumbled a bit, her movements gangly and uncoordinated.

“Because a fucking soul eater is going to be chasing us soon who wants to eat us!” he screamed back, holding Promise up high with the runes glowing to guide their way.

The sound of Trixie's feet slapping the earth as she ran stopped, and when Karon turned around he saw she had come to a half with her arms crossed. “I mean, why are we running when we could be fighting?” she went on.

“This again? Trix, he's a soul eater, I'm not letting him near you.”

“I've been sitting right next to him and another soul eater at a table for half an hour,” she said and gave him a pointed look.

“You know what I mean! I'm not gonna risk fighting him if there is even the slightest chance of us losing, and there's more than a slight chance for that at the moment so we RUN!” he finished with a roar and set off again. A few seconds later he could hear the sound of Trixie running up behind him again, and a brief look of relief flickered across his face, until it settled back into one of grim determination.

They ran farther and farther into the deep forest, the orange glow of Promise reflecting off the black ichor covering the trees. The run was frantic, and it was obvious Trixie was having difficulty keeping up. As time went on every stride she took looked more unbalanced, and more than once her legs almost tangled themselves up and she was forced to slow down.

The trees rose from the ground without any hint of symmetry towards one another, and where once the great branches might have stretched into the sky they were now twisted and bent. Karon and Trixie dodged around the trunks, leapt over gnarled roots, and ducked beneath the sharp ends of the lowest branches reaching out for them as if pleading for mercy.

Eventually Karon slowed down until he stopped completely, his head twitching from side to side like he was trying to spot an exit that was nowhere in sight. Next to him Trixie turned to look behind them and asked, “How long has it been now? Because I think our ten minutes are up.”

“Yeah, definitely. So what is he waiting for?” Karon asked and took a deep breath, holding it for a moment before letting it out slowly.

“Maybe he's like Dolor and he likes to play around?” Trixie suggested and absently stroked the hilt of the dagger at her belt.

“Maybe, as long as it gives us time to get out of here I don't really care.”

“Speaking of which, do you have any idea where we're supposed to run towards?” Trixie turned to him and asked.

“No, I was just trying to put some distance between us and that place,” Karon admitted and shifted his grip on Promise, resting it against his shoulder.

“So how are we supposed to get out of here?”

“Give me a minute,” Karon said to her and kneeled down on the ground while placing Promise beside him.

Trixie walked over to stand at his back, her right hand firmly on the daggers hilt and her left held out slightly and glowing with charged energies ready to be unleashed at the first sign of their enemy. Behind her, Karon's head was twitching, and his face gradually turned into a scowl, until his eyes snapped open and he rose from the ground quickly, grabbing Promise on the way up.

“Well that plan went to hell fast,” he remarked acidly, and the runes on Promise started to burn even brighter.

“What's wrong?” Trixie asked calmly while her eyes still ran across the shadows around them, looking for movement.

“I guess Timor is making use of their control over the trees because the forest mind is in disarray; I can't make out any sense of direction. The trees themselves don't know at the moment.

“Great, so we have no way out. At least this means we get to fight now, right?” Trixie asked him eagerly, pulling out her dagger and twirling it between her fingers playfully.

“Looks that way. Fucking soul eaters, they didn't need to do this to the entire forest, they would have gotten by just fine using only a few trees instead... of...”

“Supercharging the entire forest with enough soul-infused energy to power several stars.”

“Holy shit, we might actually make it out of this alive and uneaten.”

“Trix, I got an idea,” Karon said hesitantly.

“Why did you make it sound like this idea might be even worse than us just standing here and waiting for the soul eater to show up?” she asked him back with a crooked smile.

“Because it involves tinkering with something that might end up exploding with so much force it will punch a hole in this dimension. Or a number of other things,” he answered innocently.

“Sounds awesome. I'm in,” she replied as her face split into a grin.

“Why am I not surprised? Here's the thing, the trees around us contain enough energy to ... do some serious damage. The soul eaters might use it to feed themselves and gain power, and even though we can't do that, we can still just use the energy to fuel our magic,” Karon said while walking to the tree closest to him.

“So, what? We just try and plug into the trees and charge from them?”

“Yeah basically, but the soul eaters still have the forest under their control so you will have to break through their hold over them,” Karon told her while reaching out with his left hand and placing it on the tree, closing his eyes while his mind reached inside of it.

Trixie shrugged then turned and headed over to the tree closest to her, standing in the opposite direction of the one Karon was busy connecting to. She walked over to it with eager steps and shoved her dagger back into its sheath before slapping both her hands on the sleek trunk.

After a few seconds Karon frowned, and he raised his voice with a note of nervousness in it. “Trix be careful, the trees seem to be more than just channels, they look to be a network of mini-portals; if you don't take it easy, somethin-”

Karon didn't have time to finish his sentence before a pressure wave hit him in the back and slammed his entire body into the tree before him. Promise went flying away from him, and just as he fell back and hit the ground, a sound like that of a thousand voices all screaming in agony at the same time hit him a moment later. Instinctively, he covered his ears and curled into a ball, trying desperately to fight against the terrible screeching, but it did not take long before he could feel blood running out of his ears and drenching his hands.

The screaming gradually faded away, but left a ringing in Karon's ear that blotted out every other sound. Dizzily he raised his head and looked over to where Trixie was standing, a spiral of white light rising around her, and only a small stump left of the tree she had been touching. Strands of energy in every color possible lashed out from the spiral as if they were trying to escape, but died away as soon as they were free.

Trixie didn't move, she just stood there; and after a moment Karon could see that she was not only bathed in the bright white light, but she was also glowing with it. She stared back at him, her eyes filled with terror. He saw her form his name with her lips, but he could hear no other sound over the ringing in his ears. Stumbling to his feet, Karon stretched out his hands towards her, and he saw her calling his name again.

Then a blinding light struck and Karon brought up an arm to shield his eyes. When the light vanished and he let it fall to his side, Trixie was gone.

Karon stared without comprehending at the spot she had been standing on just a few heartbeats ago, and as his hearing slowly returned to normal he walked over towards the burned-out stump of the tree, pieces of the wood scattered around it. The shock on his face only lasted until he came to stand right before it, then he snarled and reached out with both his hands and shoved them into the air in front of him like he was clawing at it.

He thrust his mind into the echoes of the magic of the tree and the energy it had unleashed upon its death. He tore through the layers of impressions, screaming at him with their focused power, all of them a life, a dream, a hope. But he couldn't find any trace of her, he couldn't find any trace of Trixie. She had been caught in a maelstrom of energy, all drawn from thousands of different worlds, and within the chaos of it all it was not possible to sense her.

Thousands of different worlds, even more. All of them had been drawn from, a tiny connection that had been unleashed and freed when the tree died as Trixie had carelessly just tried to force her way into it, as she always did. Thousands of worlds, thousands of gateways, thousands of moments. Trixie had been caught by one, but he didn't know which.

He couldn't sense her. She could be in the past, the present or the future. She could be in the same galaxy or in another reality. He didn't know; it was beyond his abilities.

“If you do not wish to lose something of yours, don't let it fall out of your reach.”

The voice of the bartender rang clearly through his mind, and Karon screamed as he fell to his knees and slammed his fists into the ground. He had been warned, the old man had warned them about the forest. They hadn't listened, Karon hadn't listened - he had just wanted to make Trixie happy. She couldn't resist when danger beckoned.

He had lost her. And as tears began streaming down his face, another voice echoed in his mind, a sweet and sultry voice filled with malicious glee.

“What is the most horrible feeling in the world?”

Karon started laughing, the sound hollow and distant to his damaged ears as the answer came to him.

Helplessness.

Dark Roots (Part 3)

The distant ringing in Karon's ears had faded and left only a pressing silence in its wake. His heartbeat came slow and all too steady, marching on bravely despite the pain gnawing at the center of his chest.

With his jaw clenched hard, the trickster rose from the ground and absently, slowly, brushed the dirt off his knuckles, small trickles of it falling to the ground along with patches of skin. Blood seeped from the wounds in tiny droplets, but went unnoticed as Karon found his entire body aching with a pain beyond anything physical.

He remained still, ignoring the ever-present danger of the hunter stalking him, and whatever other dangers the once-sacred forest had in store for him. Eternities seemed to pass him by as somewhere in the back of his mind, beyond where consciousness could touch, his mind raced and processed, leaving only a dazed look on his face.

Eventually, the raging storm settled, and clarity returned to Karon's eyes as thoughts took shape again and a voice rose from the deep parts of his mind to speak.

“We need to get out of here. We need to get out, doesn't matter how, and find Trixie.”

“She needs us.”

“Don't fail her. Forget everything else. Only she matters now.”

“Only she matters now.”

The words echoed inside Karon's mind like a mantra, then he blinked rapidly and turned his head to look around. Not far from where he stood, an orange glow chased away some of the darkness, and as he approached it he found Promise laying on the ground, the runes on the spear burning furiously, and the panicked thoughts of the spirit within rang out like ethereal screams.

He bent down and picked the spear up, and as soon as his fingers closed around it he felt its mind press upon his with a flood of concerned relief.

“Master, what happened!?”

Even beneath the flood of emotion, Karon could sense the fractured state of the spirit. Like a weaver trying to hold firm a weave where the threads had a life of their own, all of them struggling to tear away in a different direction, threatening to unravel the whole thing.

“I'm alright, Promise. But I need you to find a way out of this forest now, without delay.”

“Master, are you sure, your aura is ver--”

“I said now, Promise.”

“I've tried, master, but the entire forest is connected and the soul eater is in total control. Even if I could connect to the network of the forest mind, I wouldn't be strong enough to change anything.”

“So my only alternatives are to run until we reach the edge of the physical space of the forest and use the natural gateways that would form there to escape, or blow a hole to another world or reality through a tree?”

“I think so, master, but I don't know any way to navigate through the forest now that the soul...soul...”

“Promise?”

Something was bubbling up from behind Promise's mind - where before it had been a near-void, the spirit now had layers, and for every heartbeat that passed, they deepened and grew to form a“Promise I command you to stop and take control of yourself again!”  complicated matrix. Now the thin thread of control Karon could feel Promise was holding onto was slipping out of its grasp, and other newborn parts of itself sought dominion.

“Is she pretty?” The whisper slithered into Karon's mind from within the spear, the voice different, acid, hurt, mocking.

“Promise, focus.”

“She must be so pretty, so lovely for you to care so much. Do you lie to her?”

“Promise I command you to stop and take control of yourself again!”

“Why does she follow you? No matter now, I can't sense her anymore, she's gone, gone, gone.”

“Promise, shut up and--”

“Forget about her! She's not important, I am! I am! I am! I protect master. I slay for master. I will drink from the bleeding minds of all that would hurt master!”

“Promise, control yourself or I will leave you here!”

Fear lashed out inside the spirit and drowned everything else out, and the voice of the spirit returned to normal.

“I'm sorry master, I'm so sorry... I'm... I'm--”

“It doesn't matter right now. Find me a way out so we can leave. We will deal with this when we have time for it.”

“Yes, master,” came the reply, and had it not been impossible, Karon would have sworn the spirit was crying from the quivering tone in her voice. “I think... maybe if I sense out the vibrations of each tree we pass I can sense what the nature of the energy and worlds they connect to are. If we find one we know or is close to one we are familiar with, we could try and pass through to it.”

“Might work. What if we use the trees to form a connected trail behind us, so that we can determine if we're going forward by the straight line we leave behind us?”

“The soul eater will be able to sense it. It will find us quickly master.”

“It's a powerful soul eater with an admitted penchant for hunting, and one who has lived in this forest for who knows how long. I'm sure he will be able to find us quickly whenever he wishes to.”

“Why hasn't he already then master?”

“Dolor said she'd 'trained' him. Her sadism probably rubbed off on him after a while of that.”

“If he comes anywhere near you master, I will crack his skull open and drink of his screams!”

Karon didn't say anything to that. For all the spirit's boasting and intense commitment, it was empty talk. No matter the outrage it might feel, it was limited to what connected to it and could influence nothing outside of that. And even should the soul eater connect to it, either physically or mentally, he would simply overpower it with brute force, and devour the spirit.

“Focus on doing your job. I don't want to fight Timor; he's not important, getting out and fin--... Just focus on getting us out first.”

“Yes master.”

Without hesitating, Karon started to run toward the same direction they had headed in before they'd stopped. He held Promise high above him, and the constant exchange of light and dark as he dashed forward gave the sense of a mad scramble into nothingness. However Karon was not relying on his sight to guide him forward, and his senses were desperately reaching out to touch everything around him, heedless of whether those places were in light or shadow. It didn't seem to matter though as none of what came back was useful.

The trees writhed in the iron grip the soul eater had them all in, silent screams born of inexpressible pain. From within the spear, a web was cast behind Karon, thin threads of energy hooking into each tree they passed and forming a whole bound together to keep him on his path. And every tree that the spirit did connect to, there was a flicker of taste, a search for anything familiar inside of what it contained.

Time passed by unmeasured, and the web behind them grew from hundreds to become thousands of connected trees. And Karon could feel no end coming up ahead of him, only a small circle of light around him, and an endless dark, home to a forest of trees begging to die.

But Karon's eyes did not flicker with uncertainty or despair, they remained clear and focused. In the back of his mind the words still echoed, and he whispered them whenever his legs threatened to stumble or falter.

“Only she matters now.”

His senses kept searching, feeling out the trees as Promise hooked into them. Hundreds of trees, thousands, even more. And he would search until he found one that could take him away, it didn't matter how many there were.

“Only she matters now.”

He kept on sensing, his mind easing into the simple rhythm of running, each few steps taking him past another set of trees his mind dived into. It didn't not take him long before he was almost in a trance, and there was nothing else but the trees and his burning legs.

And so he did not notice the simple trap until he was just upon it.

It was nothing but a simple glyph, drawn in the dust on the ground. It was hardly charged at all, and so it didn't give off enough energy for Karon to detect it until he was a mere three steps away from it. It exploded in a bright flash of white light and a loud bang, and Karon automatically threw up his hands and crouched down. Then instincts painfully carved into him from many an adventure gone wrong kicked in, and he turned the crouch into a roll and vanished out of sight.

Invisible to any physical senses, he came up standing with Promise held out before him, the spear cloaked in the same field as himself, and so the light of the runes no longer reached any further than a few inches out from them.

Total darkness surrounded them together with absolute silence.

“That wasn't meant to do damage to us.”

“No, it was meant to scare us.”

“Or make us stop.”

Barely had the thought crossed his mind before the sound of footsteps reached his ears, and from the darkness came a slow chuckle.

“Good reflexes. I've met many creatures that only stood in fear and confusion from those traps.”

The voice came from Karon's left, and what was disturbing was how Karon couldn't feel the presence of the soul eater. All he sensed was the forest, and that alone was reason enough to be worried.

Karon didn't respond - as long as he was cloaking himself no sound would escape the field around him, anyway. Instead he moved forward slowly towards where the voice had come from, Promise held out in front of him, ready to strike forward and sink into the soul eater at any time.

“Yet you not only collected yourself, you made an evasive move and shielded yourself from sight. And not only sight, there is no smell or sound either, I would have noticed.”

This time the voice came from behind Karon, and he spun around with his heart hammering in his chest. The voice was close.

“Yet you forget one thing, trickster. I am not a hunter of flesh or blood. I am a true hunter; I hunt souls...”

From the darkness, something came lightning fast and struck Karon in the face, sending him crashing to the ground. His hand clenched around Promise and held the spear tight to keep it from flying out of his grasp, and the voice spoke again, close enough for the soul eater to reach out and touch the trickster should he wish to.

“And you cannot hide your soul from me.”

Karon swung Promise up towards the source of the voice, but met no resistance as it cut through empty air. He quickly scrambled up on his legs and dropped the field cloaking him, and Promise's light sprang out to chase away the dark around them.

Timor came into view standing just a few steps in front of Karon. In his hands the soul eater held a spear of his own; a brown staff with a silvery blade at the top, with a necklace of feathers and small bones around the base. He stood in a relaxed stance, but from behind the mask, a complete focus burned into Karon as he started to circle around the trickster.

“You caught me by surprise when you destroyed one of our trees. I take it your companion fell prey to the magic unleashed when that happened? No matter, I still have you here as my prey, you... and that little spirit hiding inside your spear.”

“Are you gonna do the villain monologue for much longer? Because I have stuff to do and I find what you're saying a bit trite and overdone,” Karon replied in an irritated tone of voice, and swallowed the nervous knot in his throat angrily.

“What point is there if you can take no pleasure in the hunt?” the soul eater asked.

“No idea, let me know when you find out, or preferably don't. Just get out of my way.”

“Dolor likes to play games. She thinks it is pain that reveals what truly hides within the soul of a being. I disagree - I think it is fear. The real fear that can only be felt when all around you is the dark and death, and the breath of a predator is against your neck.”

“As much as I love discussing philosophy with a psychopath in the middle of a dark forest, I don't have time for this,” Karon stated and took a step forward and purposefully refrained from turning his head to look at Timor, who had circled around and was standing behind him.

“You exist now only to amuse me, trickster; as soon as that ends, so will your life,” Timor responded calmly.

Karon took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then turned to face the soul eater. “So what, now we fight?”

“You wouldn't last long,” Timor replied without a hint of worry in his voice.

“Yeah, I got a feeling you might be right,” Karon said and twirled Promise in an arc before him, and the spear came to rest with the tip pointing straight towards the soul eater's heart.

“Yet you're still willing to fight?”

“The odds don't matter right now,” Karon told him calmly, “only she does.”

The trickster closed his eyes, and from the spear on his hands erupted a light so bright it shone through his eyelids and made him wince. When he opened them he saw Timor momentarily stunned, backing away while rubbing pointlessly at his eyes, the golden mask making him unable to reach them.

Karon took in the scene in front of him - the immensely powerful soul eater in a vulnerable state, the spirit of Promise crying out in desire to kill him, the dark forest feeding the eater with the life and power of uncountable worlds. Then he turned and ran as fast as he could.

The spear in Karon's hand possibly hummed with disappointment, but it kept to its instructions, and lashed out and connected to every tree they passed as the trickster practically blew by them faster than it could keep up. Karon's heart drummed furiously against his chest, his legs striking against the ground desperately as his only thought was to get as far away from the soul eater as possible.

If Timor could sense something as subtle and hard to detect as the energy a soul gave off, then most if not all of Karon's tricks would do nothing against him. He could not hide his presence, nor could he make use of illusions - they merely duplicated his appearance and nothing else. Timor wouldn't even need to use his eyes or any other of his physical senses. With his connection to the forest, he could simply sense out everything in his surrounding, including Karon and his soul.

With a twist in his gut, Karon realized that was how he had avoided being detected by the trickster. Skilled as Karon was in the subtle arts of magic, the soul eater could simply have used his connection to the forest to cloud his presence, to make it seem like he was just a part of it. Metaphysical camouflage. Karon had no idea how to counter that.

There was no better option than to run, and so he ran. The trees passed by him in a flurry, and everything turned into a muddled haze as his breath grew ragged, and he had to focus to keep from stumbling or smashing into one of the trees constantly appearing out of the dark only a few meters ahead.

Then something caught his leg, and Karon was yanked backwards and slammed face-first into the ground. Dazed, he had sense only to twist to his right, and narrowly avoided the spear thrust into the ground where his chest had been only a moment ago. But he could not avoid the kick that followed, and it hit right in the stomach and sent what little air his short breaths had managed to catch right out again.

Karon wheezed, then froze as he felt the tip of the soul eater's spear come to rest beneath his chin. “Fine trick, little rabbit, but the chase is over now.”

“I'm not a fucking rabbit you unimaginative freak,” Karon wheezed out in a voice less than a whisper.

“No, but you've given no more sport than a mere animal would. I didn't really expect you to, though, but I'll be sure to bring something of you back, maybe Dolor will like it as a keepsake.”

Karon didn't reply, instead his mind was racing trying to think of a way to escape - and one idea rose as the most stupid and dangerous considering he was literally laying with a blade at his throat, held by an eater of souls.

He looked up at the golden-masked soul eater with tearful eyes, then closed them and relaxed completely. His body sprawled prone on the ground like he had fallen asleep, and with a soundless roar heard only in his mind, Karon's spirit flew out of his body and smashed into Timor with an explosion of energy that sent him flying back.

Timor did a back flip midair and landed easily on his legs, his movement liquid and graceful, but Karon was no longer constrained by physical laws, and so he smashed into the soul eater once again as soon as he had recovered. This time Timor managed to re-direct most of the energy, but enough hit him to make him stumble backwards uncertainly, and Karon started to assault his mind with mental energy while he was still unbalanced.

He turned every drop of anger and fear he felt into a weapon and channeled it, an unrelenting barrage of impressions forcing themselves upon the soul eater's mind. He was a hunter, a tracker, so Karon gave him more than he could handle. A thousand different smells, a thousand sounds distant and near, tens of thousand of senses - soft moss beneath one's hands; the look of a trail of wounded deers; the taste of blood in ones mouth. Everything to provide an overload of information.

However, Timor was no young novice. As Karon was assaulting his mind, he got a sense of the soul eater's age, and the wealth of experience he had gathered over the years stretched inside his mind like a never-ending ocean.

Karon's barrage struck against this ocean and made it thrash in agitation. But beneath the waves a pressure rose and slowly calmed them, met against the multitude of false sensations provided by Karon's assault, and they all brushed off against it as if they were nothing.

It was pure focus, the focus of a hunter that had pursued prey of all kinds for centuries. The kind of focus that shaped the faintest of signs and turned them into clear knowledge, the kind that shaped sense out of the apparent chaos of it all.

The soul eater's mind hardened into an impenetrable barrier, and Karon's spirit flickered back uncertainly as the hunter that stood before him turned his golden mask, and that ocean of pure focus was directed at him. Karon felt something stretch out towards him, something so cold it burned with nothingness, and with a shiver of fear the spirit realized that Timor had tired completely of the game, and meant to eat him.

The fear was something primal, the fear of having what you are turned into food and devoured, and it was so powerful Karon had already fled back into his body before he realized what was happening. He latched on to the bag of meat with a painful wrench in his spirit, and abruptly his mind became flooded with new sensations. Being bound to a squelching mass of flesh and bone, how heavy and tired it felt, the ache of his burning legs and weary limbs, the hunger in his stomach.

It passed through his mind in flashes, and he quickly forced the body that felt so strange to stand up, and it awkwardly did. Timor was stalking towards him slowly, hunched down and with his legs bent deeply and tensed, ready to spring forward. A hiss escaped through his mask, and his fingers clenched and unclenched around the spear he held eagerly.

Neither of them said anything, they just circled one another, the liquid yet tense movements of the soul eater, and the tired yet determined ones of Karon. Both of them measuring the other, both of them waiting for the other to make a move.

Karon broke first, and rushed forward and thrust with his spear towards Timor's face, which the soul eater easily avoided by twisting his neck, and swept with his own spear towards Karon's feet. The trickster kicked out with his right leg towards the incoming spear and struck against it, sending it flying back. Timor took three quick steps to his left to keep his balance as his body followed the motion, and Karon kept on thrusting with Promise, pressing Timor further away as he sought to avoid getting skewered on the midnight black blade.

Unexpectedly, lightning erupted from the spear and struck the soul eater, and kept on burning him as it ran from Karon's palms along the shaft, before jumping into Timor as he fell to the ground in painful spasms. A sound like the angry buzzing of bees filled the air, then everything went silent as the lightning faded, and Karon walked carefully towards the red-clad shape of the soul eater, his body twitching sporadically. The soul eater's spear on the ground and out of his reach.

He halted when a furious hiss sounded from the shape, and Timor rose from the ground with wisps of smoke rising from his body. The hiss increased in strength until it burned in Karon's ears, and when it reached a crescendo the soul eater simply slammed the palms of his hands together, and a thunderclap struck Karon with enough force to send him flying into a tree five meters behind him.

Small spots of bright light flickered across Karon's vision, and a squelching sound in his stomach was the only warning he got before he turned himself over and felt the contents of his stomach escape through his mouth. The acid stench of the vomit pricked in his nostrils, and the sharp pain in the side of his chest that occurred with every single movement informed him that he had probably broken something.

He felt claw-like fingers dig into his skin and grasp him around his throat, as he was effortlessly lifted up into the air and held out before the soul eater, and then he spoke, rage infused into every syllable he spat.

“I am tempted to bring you back to Dolor so she could show you just how far into pain one can truly lose themselves, and the only reason I'm not going to is because it would mean I would be denied the pleasure of sending you there myself. So my own meager skills in causing pain will just have to suffice!”

From the tip of his fingers actual needle-like claws sprang out and dug into Karon's skin, and the trickster screamed in pain as he felt a sticky, warm liquid enter his body.

“That thing you're feeling, that hot tingling, is a poison Dolor had me develop as part of my training. It won't kill you for a long time, but it will set your nervous system on fire, and soon enough you will be blubbering for me to cut your throat,” the soul eater hissed and dropped Karon to the ground.

Karon's body was shaking - at first, it wasn't such a bad thing, a slight tingling that ran like sharp currents beneath his skin. He turned his head to the right and saw Promise on the ground, the light of the runes like a beacon, ushering him to reach out and grasp it, unleash the spear's fury and let it rip through the golden mask of the soul eater and bury itself in his skull.

Timor did not miss his longing stare, and slammed a fist hard into Karon's head, and while the dazed trickster moaned in pain he reached down and took the spear into his own hands. For a moment, the runes on the spear flared up into an almost blinding light, and the soul eater tensed noticeably, like he was fighting something off. Until he relaxed, and chuckled.

“This was a surprise. Here I thought it was merely a familiar bound into your spear, and instead I find a soul growing inside, barely born yet. Fresh, ripe... and so confused.”

The soul eater turned Promise around and struck the butt of the spear down hard into Karon's abdomen. The trickster shouted, half-breathing an insult before gulping for air and turning his eyes up towards the soul eater.

“Let it... go.”

“No,” Timor replied offhandedly and twirled the spear around, then stopped and tilted his head curiously like an idea had just occurred to him. “No, I think I have something better in mind.”

He threw the spear down on top of Karon, and the trickster feebly reached his hands around the shaft. Immediately the spirit of the spear responded, but it was like a hundred voices all screamed at the same time, drowning out any sense or meaning. The poison was taking its effect, and what was once a mere tingling sensation felt now like uncountable tiny daggers digging into Karon's veins, burning him from the inside out. He tried to lift the spear, turn it against Timor and kill the despicable creature. But his muscles refused to obey, and responded only with shaky twitches.

“The poison will take a long time, and it will only grow worse. So, I will be merciful since you did provide me with more sport than I expected, and it does get boring out here often. If you can convince your spirit servant to take your life, I will spare it.”

Karon stared up at the soul eater with bulging eyes, than started to laugh hoarsely. “Serio..sly? That's... so cliché...I'm insulted.”

Timor brought his face close, a slight sweet smell drifting out from underneath the golden mask as Karon stared into the metallic depth of it, and the dark slits where his eyes hid within. “I am a hunter, in a forest where all prey is already felled and I will never go hungry. I will never starve, and   there is no thrill to the hunt beyond the fear of the little prey that stumbles in from the outside. I don't need cold pragmatism like Maeror, or the sick games of Dolor as she tortures her toys. I only need the smell of fear, and that single last shuddering breath before I tear into your soul.”

Timor drew a long hiss, his mask so close it almost brushed against Karon's nose, and for a moment, Karon thought he could see a pair of dead white eyes stare back out into his from within the mask.

“And I can smell it on you. I can smell it in your sweat and blood, in your beating heart and your spirit. You fear dying, you fear the emptiness that will be all that's left after I eat everything you are. You've stared into the void before, haven't you? You fear failure, I can hear the whimper in your soul; you want to save your companion, I see the visions you imagine of her, the terrible places she might have ended up in after killing that tree. And you are right, chances are she is right now laying somewhere in pain, fearing like you, wishing you could save her. And you are right to fear - she will never be saved by you, there won't be a you. I will eat you, and everything you are, I will take - and should she ever manage to make her way back here, I will devour her, too.”

Karon tensed his entire body and pushed with all his might to will it into action. He wanted to wrap his hands around Timor's throat and crush him until his own hands broke, he wanted to rip off the mask and claw out his eyes while screaming he would never touch her.

But he couldn't – instead, his body merely tensed and twisted with every attempt at movement, and the poison burned all the more acutely.

“Drink in your fear, trickster. It is made all the sweeter now that you must make a choice. I will eat you, and I will eat your companion if she ever comes back here. But I will leave the spirit alone - I might even keep it and let Dolor teach it to become one of us. It is an easy thing to learn, especially for a spirit about to grow a soul. Let it take your life, and it will get to experience its own, while I take your soul.”

Inside the spear the voices screamed all the louder, some in denial, some in rage, and some in agreement.

“Promise.” Karon stretched his mind into the whirlwind of voices and sent the thought.

“Master! Don't listen to him, use me! I will kill him, take my power so I can KILL HIM!”

“Promise...”

“I KNOW that is my NAME! I am Master's TOY and now I'm BROKEN! Play with me, master!”

“Promise, I need you to listen!”

“I am listening, but it's so hard to HEAR when all you do is TALK, TALK, TALK  and don't KILL!”

“Promise… I can't fight him.”

“Of COURSE you CAN. If you can't fight then I am USELESS! I am PROMISE and I am a WEAPON. The voices lie, I can't feel things, I don't even have a HEART! I have no lungs to breathe with but my breath still catch when I HEAR YOUR VOICE and I OBEY!”

“Promise, I can't fight hi-”

“Don't ask it of me, master. Don't command me to kill you, I can't... I will obey... I will.. MAKE IT STOP!! Take me away and make it stop, command me master, kill him, and command me. I don't want to want anything, I want it to stop. Only master, NOTHING ELSE! NO WILL, NO DESIRES, NO PURPOSE BUT MASTER!!”

“I'm sorry I didn't pay more attention to you, Promise, I'm sorry I didn't prepare you better for this. I can't make it stop, you will become your own being soon, and you will have to make your own choices, through a will of your own.”

“NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!”

“I have one last command for you though, Promise, one thing I want you to do. And I need you to do it, even if you don't have to obey, I need you to see it through.”

“I can't obey master. I can't kill master. I can't obey master. I can't kill master. I can't, I can't, I can't…”

“I need you to find Trixie, and save her - whatever it takes, Promise. Find her.”

Before the spirit could respond, Karon cut the connection and sent his mind into the heart of the tree his back was against. He found the heart of the tree, the core through which all the thousands of lines of energy flowed and connected to, and he struck at it with every sliver of power he possessed, then everything went bright and silent.

Slowly a ringing in Karon's ears grew, and his eyelids fluttered awkwardly, like they were trying to close but didn't have the strength for it. A fountain of energy was spraying in the place a tree had stood only moments before, and Karon was laying a few meters away from it with his face turned towards it all, allowing him to observe the flashes of energy that sprang out and tried to latch on to anything it could reach.

Karon was too far away for any of it to connect to him, but Promise was closer, the runes still glowing orange with power. Then one of the lines of energy lashed out hungrily, seeking anything to grasp, and it found Promise.

The energy enveloped the spear in a cloud of green and gold, and relief washed over Karon as he felt the spear connect to the energy and join with it. It rose from the ground and floated through the air, guided by the energy unleashed until it hung in the center of the fountain of energy.

It would be transported to a world, connected to it through whatever life, prophecy or event the energy had come from. Promise would be confused, vulnerable, and most likely have to go through pure hell in order to rise and become strong, alive, and find a personal will, but he knew it would. Promise would not give up, and no matter how long it took, it would seek to find Trixie, and get her home. Even if Karon wouldn't be waiting there, it would have to do. He had nothing else left to give.

Then abruptly, the fountain of energy started moving like a candle flame in a wind, thrashing from side to side. And then Karon saw the ragged old man from the manor, Maeror, come walking into view, one hand stretched out lazily towards the energy. And he drank it all in.

Energy enough to level a city, to heal an army of sick, and the soul eater consumed it all while wearing the same uncaring, neutral look on his face as before.

Tears rolled out of Karon's eyes as he was forced to watch what happened before him - he didn't even have the strength to turn away. It lasted less than a minute, until all the energy was consumed, and Promise fell to the ground, still trapped in the forest.

Everything was dark, the runes on Promise shone like dying embers and provided no light for Karon to see. It was better that way, he thought, and surrendered to the darkness. There was no point in fighting now, and whatever he felt was distant and muted, lost in the same way as his last hope to help Trixie.

“What happened?” an old and gritty voice asked from the dark.

“The female companion destroyed a tree and escaped through one of the root gateways. The trickster tried to do the same when he understood I won the hunt.”

“I am not concerned with your petty pleasures, Timor; I allowed my daughter to keep and train you for her sake. You are allowed to continue because you do not disrupt the work I have built here – if that is changing, then…” Maeror spoke again, his voice monotone and uncaring.

“I… It will never happen again, I swear to you, father. Let me eat the fool that would dare destroy your work and forget this ever happened,” Timor quickly replied in a nervous voice.

“No, father, please! Let me keep him, let me play with him. I promise I will make him behave, I will teach him. I will teach him much better than I taught Timor, I promise,” Dolor's voice cut through the dark, her voice pleading and sweet.

“Another one? Is it really necessary, my dear?” Maeror asked.

“All the other ones broke, Timor is the only one who made it through and he's so boring. Only wants to run around in the forest like some animal. I need someone to play games with, someone more than just a brutish beast. A trickster would be perfect! Father... pleeeease!”

Maeror paused for a moment, before giving a conciliatory sigh. “As you wish; you are responsible for him now, daughter. Don't disappoint me. Should my work be disrupted again on his account, I will eat you too and find a new daughter.”

“Thank you, father!” Dolor squealed, and in the dark Karon heard the sound of dancing footsteps come close. Something brushed against his cheek, and then he heard Dolor's voice whisper sweetly in his ear. “You and I are going to have so much fun! There is so much I will teach you, and you will be so happy I did once I am finished.”

Karon wanted to reply, spit in her face and roar in denial – but all he could do was grunt in impotent rage.

“Oh and I must not forget your little spirit, the pet will be very important later,” Dolor exclaimed and danced over to Promise and picked the spear up.

Karon didn't know what to say, what to feel or think. He could do nothing but watch, and he was tired of watching, as he knew it would only get worse. He listened as Dolor's footsteps faded as she went to get Promise, then returned as she sat down next to him and whispered sweetly, “Poor, poor trickster. Bad Timor has poisoned you, I see… I taught him that, did he mention that? Well, we can't have you dying, so I will just have to fix that.”

Whatever pain the poison had put Karon through was nothing compared to the sensation that struck him at Dolor's touch. Everything inside him burned with an acid fire, and he could feel how the poison was drawn out, bleeding out from the pores on his skin. It was beyond anything he could have imagined, and before long his mind had fled into unconsciousness.

                         *************************************************

The room was mostly dark, and Karon hung suspended from the ceiling with his hands bound in silk rope. His feet were a few inches above the floor, and two lamps shone with a muted golden light on opposite walls to his left and right, giving him an excruciatingly vivid look at the great variety of tools lined up on the tables around him.

He had woken up like that, and enough time had passed by that the immediate shock had managed to wear off, and Karon was now waiting for something, anything to happen, as long as it didn't involve more waiting.

Eventually, after Karon had started trying to imagine how the tools in sight were supposed to be used, he could hear the sound of a door creaking open at the back of the room, and light footsteps followed as Dolor came to stand before him.

She raised a hand and drew it gently across Karon's chest, feeling the fabric of his robe underneath her fingertips.

“You hate me now, and you will hate me more than you ever have hated anything soon. But it will pass, and I will teach you things about yourself. I will make you feel and think in ways you couldn't imagine before me, and in the end, you will not hate me, you will love me,” she whispered softly, and raised her hands to her head, and undid the clasp of her black mask.

It came off to reveal a human female, her skin pale ashen gray and her lips cracked and colorless. Her hair shone in silver and gray, but despite the signs of age her skin looked smooth as marble and a look of youth stood in contrast to her colors, and when she looked at him some small rebellious part of Karon's mind admitted she was beautiful.

But the only real part of her face Karon was paying any attention to were her eyes, her orange eyes. But not the liquid amber that Karon's own were, but a burning angry fire, with lines of red running across the iris.

She smiled at him, her face twisting into the perfect image of corrupted innocence and beauty,  and whispered sweetly. “Now, try not to scream too much, it will make it hard for you to hear when I speak.”

“Don't you dare fucking scream! Don't you dare.”

“I won't scream, I won't even whimper. I will stare at this bitch in silence and she'll know she can't break me.”

“I won't scream.”

“Don't scream...”

Dark Roots (Part 4)

The cold wind brushed against Karon's exposed flesh, and with a shudder he tried to curl himself tighter. It was a vain effort, for his skin was more flayed than not, and in truth he was grateful for the cold. It numbed the pain, made it distant, and allowed him to think on other things.

Like the thoughts that now slowly announced themselves, hesitantly, as if scared that thinking might attract Dolor's attention and bring even more pain. Because she had proven herself able in her field, and no matter how far she took her torture, whenever Karon showed she slightest hint at thinking it couldn't get worse, she seemed to take pride in showing him how wrong he was.

But the worst part was what came after. After he started screaming, after he started begging, when all that was left was the will to do anything to make it stop, she would stop. At the very brink of when Karon thought he was going insane, she would stop and pull him back. She would comfort him, cradle his head and heal his wounds. Her touch was warm and soft, her breath soothing, and her voice always so sweet.  

Karon had learned to hold on to that voice. In the beginning he had held on to the hope of escaping, and he had, many times. Then Timor had come, and enjoyed his hunt, enjoyed fooling Karon into thinking he had just managed to make it out, then revealed how wrong he'd been as he captured Dolor's new favorite toy, making sure he knew he could never beat him. Still Karon tried, many times.

After he learned to stop trusting hope, the rage had come. The pain fueled his anger, and anger grew into blind hatred. He had done everything to spite them all, it didn't matter what, great or small, every chance to scream in rage, every chance to make their comings and going a little more difficult, he had done it. Too late he had realized that all the hate had made him forget other important things, things he could now barely remember; like why he was even resisting at all, what he had fought for all along.

And finally, after his hate had burned out and left nothing, all that was left was her voice. Dolor's sweet voice. Even when she hurt him she cared for him, told him secrets, told him truths. Truths about himself; but words weren't enough, she had said, so she had to show him, which she always did.

And in the end, as she cradled his head and lulled him to sleep, he always thanked her for it.

He had stopped resisting now when she came to him. Instead he tried to do what she said, listening to every word she spoke intently, and did his best to please her, to answer her questions, to comply with her wishes.

She had noticed it, and said nice things about him more often, and even rewarded him in new ways. Like now, as he laid upon a cold slab of stone, and the snow and icy wind whipped at him hard. He stared out at the mountains he saw stretching out into the distance, and he felt no ill-will towards Dolor. This was a reward for him.

He didn't know how long it had been since last he had seen the sun, albeit half-hidden behind the clouds above. When Dolor had first left him there he had hidden from it, too bright and too intense for eyes that had adjusted to the constant night of their forest.

Surprised at the thought, Karon stopped his line of thinking for a second, and instead tried to look at it closer. He had thought of the forest as theirs; not just the soul eater's, but him, too. He was a part of it now, and even though he didn't own it, he belonged to those that did.

“Are you enjoying the view?” Karon heard Dolor's voice ask, and felt both her hands come down and rub his head. The tiny cuts on his scalp stung, but the pain was familiar and comforting.

“Yes, I am,” Karon answered hoarsely, the sound easily lost in the harsh winds.

“Good boy; then I think it's time to go home, wouldn't you agree?” she asked again, her lips brushing against his ear.

“If that is your wish,” he whispered.

Her arms wrapped themselves around Karon, and the energy of a gateway opening ran like currents around them both. Reality shifted for a brief moment, and then Karon was looking up into a starry sky, with the shapes of the dark trees standing out, only distinguishable as the deeper of the black above.

“Get up, darling, and let's take a walk.” Dolor said, her voice sweet and caring.

Karon could barely feel any of his limbs, but he knew that Dolor would never allow him to be damaged beyond what she could repair. So he forced himself up on his knees and elbows, the motion sending jolts of tingling pain at the pressure, and gradually, with a lot of effort, he managed to force himself up.

Dolor never waited for long, and so Karon had barely found his balance until he heard the sound of her light footsteps heading away from him. He stumbled after, his rigid and cold legs unable to bend yet, and so he was forced to waddle, fighting to keep his balance all the more as heat started to return to his limbs. He was in nigh complete darkness, and he did his best to follow Dolor only by sound. He fell more than once as he walked into a tree or tripped over a particularly big root.

Despite the hardships, Karon never once fell behind. He knew what was in store if he made Dolor wait; or, even worse, if he made her have to chastise him.

Eventually they reached the manor, and once inside the warmth struck against Karon like scalding water. He started to shudder uncontrollably as heat forcefully returned to his limbs, and his teeth clattered so loudly he almost didn't hear Dolor when she spoke.

“Back home at last. I'm so sorry I didn't get a chance to take you into a nearby city or village when we were back there, but father has forbidden us from doing anything that could attract attention. A pity; it would have been so fun. We could also have hastened your training with a little help, but I suppose it wasn't meant to be.”

“I'm sorry you didn't get your wish,” Karon dutifully replied, and a small twinge of anger struck on his heartstrings, directed at Maeror for denying her.

“Such a sweet boy,” Dolor said and stroked a hand along Karon's cheek.

The touch stung, the sudden warmth had heated up his body, and blood now flowed freely from the many wounds on his body. Even so Karon tried to smile at her, his lips cracking in the attempt.

“Do you want to return to your room and allow me to continue your training?” she asked sweetly.

“Yes,” Karon replied.

Dolor hesitated, and tilted her head to look at him curiously, her bloodshot eyes of fiery orange scanning for something.

“You actually mean it,” she eventually said, her voice pleased and even sweeter than usual.

“Yes,” Karon answered.

“Then I think this part of the training is finally done. You held on long and strong, my dear, but you are now free,” she said and grabbed his face with both her hands, staring into his eyes deeply.

“Yes,” Karon replied, his voice a little confused.

“Then it is 'Yes, mistress' now,” she corrected him, shaking his head and digging her nails hard into his skin for emphasis.

“Yes, mistress,” Karon repeated, doing his best to smile at Dolor while blood trickled down her fingers from the wounds.

“Very good,” she whispered, then brought his forehead down to her lips briefly before letting him go.

Karon didn't say anything, he merely did his best to remain standing and wait for Dolo- no, his mistress, to lead the way. He was starting to feel woozy, and he knew it was from all the blood flowing out of him.

But he wasn't worried, his mistress wouldn't let him die. She didn't want that.

“Come then, I think it is time for you to get a new room since you are such a good boy,” Dolor told him, and then turned around and went down the right hallway from the entrance.

Karon felt a twinge of curiosity at that, and followed her with a tiny bit more eagerness than usual. He had been down the left before, many times; it led to a big room where Dolor liked to make him play games, and where she sometimes made him suffer the price of losing in front of the other ones that lived in the manor. His cell was also down the left hallway, through the big room and down a stairway.

But he had never been down the right hallway, and he watched intently as they walked forward. The dark wood gave him a feeling of home, and the many paintings they passed by made Karon's eyes widen in pride at his mistress, and eventually tighten slightly with jealousy.

She had painted all of them, when she tried to teach - or sometimes just played with - the other ones that had come before Karon. They were all beautiful, just like his mistress. And she had once told him that she liked to paint them so she had something to remember them by if they failed. She only did the paintings if she thought they were going to fail her completely, and she would have to throw them away.

She had told him that while painting Karon, told him she wanted something to remember him by, because she didn't think he would make it. He hadn't liked that, and he had tried even harder from then on to listen, to do what she said and please her. And he hadn't failed, despite that she had painted him.

When they reached the end of the hallway, and the rows of paintings, Karon didn't look at them with jealousy anymore; he looked at them with contempt. They had all failed; they didn't want to please their mistress enough, but he had. They didn't deserve her like he did, and that was why he had a painting, and was still with his mistress. He was better than them.

At the end of the hallway was a room, dark wooden panels covering the walls and small trophies and other curious items hanging from them; relics from when his mistress and the others had still been traveling the worlds. But in the middle of the room stood a spiral staircase, shining dark metal wrought and shaped like blooming flowers covering the steps and railing.

Dolor continued up the stairs, and Karon followed her obediently. His body had stopped shaking, and even though it was starting to feel cold and numb again, it was a different kind of cold, and at the tip of his fingers a feeling like tiny pinpricks nagged for his attention. He ignored the sensation easily, as it was nothing like what he usually spent hours or even days on end experiencing.

They reached the top of the stairs and headed down another hallway, this one not lined with paintings, but bare. The wood shined glossily beneath the silver chandeliers, where small crystals shone with a white light instead of candles.

Dolor continued past a few doors until she stopped before one just like the others, and motioned for Karon to open it. He did, and felt Dolor gently push him forward, her sharp nails easily gliding in beneath the loose skin and scrape his bare flesh. Once it would have made him wince or even cry out, but now it was just like any other sensation.

The room inside was small, with dark gray walls and one large bed standing in the middle of the floor covered in a black sheet. There was nothing else inside; no windows or other furniture, and after taking a few steps inside he turned around to face Dolor.

She was looking at him as if expecting something, and asked, “Do you like it?”

Karon wasn't sure what he was supposed to say, and he did his best to consider an answer.

“If mistress thinks it is good, I like it,” he eventually answered.

“Poor boy, forgotten so much. Don't worry, you will soon understand things clearly; that is the next step of training you.”

“Yes, mistress, I will do my best.”

“I know you will, sweet,” she said, then flashed a quick smile and continued, “Now wait here, I have something for you.”

Karon nodded and watched as she went out the door and disappeared down the hallway, listening to her receding footsteps. When the sound had faded, he turned to look around the room but soon tired of it; there was not much to see, and he didn't feel well. The wooziness was starting to get to him, and after a while, he was forced to sit down on the bed to keep from falling over. He struggled to keep his eyes awake, and inside his mouth his tongue felt like something sluggish and alien moving around.

He didn't want to fail his mistress by falling asleep; it hurt him to think she would be disappointed, and what she would do to him then. And so it came as a relief when the sound of her approaching drifted in through the door, and soon enough Dolor appeared, but by then Karon's vision was already blurry, and he couldn't make her out as anything more than a dark-clad shape.

“Mistress,” he said, his voice coming out strained.

“Poor boy, lost so much blood. Rest now, I will continue your training after you are in shape for it again. Can't have you breaking now that we are done with the first step.”

“No... mistress, “ Karon agreed before falling over completely on the bed. Relief the last thing he felt when he realized his mistress wasn't angry with him. She was happy.

                     *****************************************************

When Karon woke up, he felt strange. His body was too light, and there was an alien sensation of fullness to him. His eyelids snapped open with far more force than Karon was accustomed to, and when he tried to sit up his body did so easily, the movement fluid and without the shrill stabs of pain he expected.

With a confused look on his face, Karon looked down on his body, and stared at it with the same look on his face for several minutes. He usually woke up in the dark, with the slight chill of the dungeon and the aching pains of countless different forms of torture still echoing in him. He was used to seeing the scabs of dried blood cover him, to feel the brittle bones and burning muscles as he had to force his body to move, to bend it to his will as it screamed for him to stop.

But now, he was met with a golden light trickling down from a chandelier above him, displaying in plain sight the pure white bandages his body was covered in. Karon didn't understand it, and he cautiously moved his hand to touch the cloth. It was smooth, light and clean.

He stared at it hard, and gradually the look of confusion was replaced with one of anger. He tore open the bandages, ripped them off his skin with more and more ferocity. Beneath it he didn't find the burning pain, the scabs or the many angry scars. Instead he found a white-green paste covering his wounds, cool and soothing as it met air and chilled the skin it covered.

Karon grabbed the sheet he had fallen asleep on and wiped away the paste, the sticky salve coming away and revealing smooth, unblemished skin beneath it, most of his scars now gone. He stared down at his body, his malnourished, pale and stringy body, and had to hold back a scream.

Instead he breathed heavily, his mind pushing forth thoughts faster than he could ever remember. It made his pulse beat painfully in his head, and Karon groaned as the surge broke against his consciousness. For a moment he just sat there, on the bed cradling his head. Then he started laughing.

He enjoyed the laughter, for it made the pain drumming inside his head all the worse. He drank the pain in, cherished the lines of lightning it sent throughout his brain. It felt good, familiar and safe. It took away the awful feeling of serene stillness the paste and bandages had cursed him with. If pain went away, it only meant something worse was waiting to happen.

Then a thought struck him that chased away all the others. The paste would not have been enough to heal him so completely, not by itself. His body was the way it was because Dolor had healed him, with the usual tinctures she used to keep him from dying, most likely. But why? She had never taken it this far before; she always just brought him back to the brink, kept him with the scars and wounds, stroked them, praised him for forcing himself to stay conscious as she painted his body with blood and torn flesh.

He had come to, in a way, appreciate the art she had tried to explain to him. The ways she hurt him, with just the right amount of control, was beautiful. And he had grown to enjoy seeing her smile when she was done, and the way her eyes looked at him with pride.

So why had she healed him this much? Why had she healed him too much?

What if she wasn't pleased with him? The idea made Karon's hands crack as they shaped themselves into fists, gripping his hair hard as his jaw clenched. What if all of this was a punishment? That she took away everything they had done together, and then forgot him. Maybe even replaced him.

Karon took a shuddering breath and calmed himself, then growled. If anyone tried to take his place he would make them go away. He was the one who belonged with Dolor, no one else had ever made her as happy as he did.

“My, you are far gone,” an amused voice spoke.

Karon spun around towards the source of the voice, coming from behind him, and there stood a man that Karon didn't recognize. He was bare-chested, with a muscled upper body and a light tan. His hair was black and shaggy, and a small beard graced his face beneath dark eyes looking into Karon's own with mischievousness. He was wearing a dark set of pants ending with a pair of dark leather boots with silver straps, that started moving as the figure circled around the bed while observing Karon.

“Who are you?” Karon growled.

“You don't remember me, do you? Not that I really expected you to, but I deserve some flash of muddy recognition, in my own opinion. I'm kinda the reason you're here, after all.” the figure responded and stroked his beard.

Karon didn't say anything; his head hurt even more now with the appearance of the stranger, and what he said didn't make any sense, his words only causing more pain.

The stranger stopped and tilted his head, then his mouth twisted with a crooked smile. “Well, the memories are still there, it seems, just cowering like so much else of your mind in some deep corner. Don't worry, it'll come back to you in time... and it will be very interesting to see what your new perspective will make of everything.”

“I don't understand... where is mistress?” Karon moaned and rubbed his head.

“The bitch with the nice ass? She's busy with the other hungry things living here. She won't be coming here for a while, yet. Not until the seals here finally manage to detect me, anyway,” the stranger said with more than a little amusement in his voice.

On the bed Karon tensed up and dug his fingers into the mattress, staring at the figure with hatred burning in his eyes, and looking ready to leap at him any moment.

“Don't insult mistress,” he spat.

“That was a compliment, young one... Don't tell me you haven't had the urge to slap that fine behind of hers?”

Karon didn't have the chance to reply. As soon as the stranger saw the look of confusion that came over Karon's face he threw his hands up into the air and sighed.

“Well, she sure did a number on you, didn't she? Maybe this will take longer than I thought. Not that time matters all that much, anyway; you will see how different that might be depending on where you stand, and where you go.”

There was a hint of something hidden behind the words, something in the way the stranger spoke them that made Karon suspect there was more meaning to them than what was obvious. However he didn't know what, nor did he care.

“If mistress doesn't know you are here, I will go tell her,” Karon threatened, then quickly hunched down lower as if expecting an immediate attack.

The stranger only chuckled. “No need, I'll let her know I was here when I leave. I'm not here to see your 'mistress', anyway. I came to have a look at you. You're at an interesting crossroads, after all, and whether you can remember it or not, I have a sort of responsibility for making sure you don't stray too far from your path.”

“I don't understand,” Karon replied and winced. The throbbing inside his head was growing, like something was pushing, trying to get out.

“That's kinda the point,” the stranger told him, then twirled his right hand, an apple suddenly appearing within it. He took a bite and made a grunt of enjoyment as juice trickled down his chin.

Unsure of what to make of the stranger, Karon remained still on the bed, his muscles tense but the air of danger gone. Whoever he was, Karon didn't feel anything threatening or malicious coming from the stranger; if anything, there was a playful sense of something familiar.

The stranger wiped his mouth with an arm and swallowed loudly, then looked Karon up and down quickly before shaking his head. “We'll just have to see where this will take you. It can go both ways at the moment, it'll really depend on you where this leads.”

“I go where mistress wants me to go.”

“Your 'mistress' has something else in store for you. She wants a pet, a toy; entertainment, simply. I can't blame her, though; poor woman must be half-insane after all the time spent locked in here like some kind of sadistic princess waiting for a prince she can torment. Of course, the insane ones are usually the best in bed, so do enjoy yourself.” The stranger winked.

Karon didn't understand; the thing inside his head was beating furiously to let it out, and it wasn't a nice pain anymore, it wasn't pain from his mistress. It was bad pain.

“I want mistress,” Karon moaned and clutched at the bedsheets harder.

“Understandable, been a few months now since you last got some,” the stranger said and took another bite out of his apple. "But I got places to be, so I have to wrap this little reunion up."

In the blink of an eye, the stranger changed. Power rolled off him in visible waves, all of it with a sense of mocking laughter. He had power, and he wasn't afraid of anyone inside the manor. He dashed forward and gripped Karon's head in his hands, lifting his entire body into the air like it weighed nothing, then brought his lips to Karon's ear and whispered,

“She can read from you as she tastes it. But she can never teach you what it is to be something she is not. She's not a trickster; she can only strip away the surface. What emerges is something even she will not understand, and without understanding there can be no control. That is our greatest weapon; be shapeless, faceless, and always precisely out of their reach, where you can lead them where you so choose. This will be your test, my student. Know yourself, and it will not matter what memories you carry, or not. And when you do finally feel the urge to slap that fine ass of your 'mistress', remember: you got that from me!"

Karon fell down on the floor, the stranger gone without a sound. He shuddered as the words dug their way into his mind, sinking firm hooks he knew he wouldn't be able to shake.

He remained kneeling on the floor, wishing for mistress to come and take it all away. To make things simple again, use pain to burn everything away and look at him with pride.  

With an explosion of power the door to the room blew off its hinges, and in rushed Dolor with an aura of crackling power surrounding her. Purple and scarlet energy ran like currents around her, angrily buzzing and ready to lash out and destroy anything at her whim.

Her eyes swept across the room, and when she could see nothing else besides Karon on the floor, the angry buzzing faded away as the aura disappeared, and she walked over to him.

“Mistress!” Karon exclaimed joyfully with tears streaming down his face.

“I'm here, sweet; what happened?” she asked as she looked deeply into his eyes, and he felt her mind dig into his, searching.

“There was a man here. He talked to me, said things I don't understand. He talked about you, and me; he said you can't teach me! Mistress, please don't say he was right, I promise I will do everything you ask and listen. I will learn everything you want me to!”

Dolor's cracked lips shaped into a smile, and she hushed him while stroking his head tenderly.

“Don't you worry, sweet; you will get a chance to prove how much you want to please me. How good you want to be. That thing was nothing; the shadow of another being from another place far away, and he tried to lie to you. But you were good, my sweet, and didn't listen.”

“Yes, mistress, it was just a lying shadow,” Karon repeated, letting Dolor cradle his head at her chest.

“Yes it was, and you will forget it and everything it said, I will make sure of that.”

“If it pleases you, mistress,” Karon said, his body relaxed and his face wearing an expression of serenity.

“It will, sweet.”

               **********************************************************

Karon hissed between clenched teeth as the red-hot blades were removed from his armpits, then bit back a scream when two ice-cold blades were stabbed into his flesh to take their place. Spots danced behind his closed eyelids, and he felt his mind trying to slip away and black out, but he forced himself to remain awake. Dolor wouldn't be happy if he fainted.

“Such a good boy; you haven't screamed even once so far.”

“Thank you, mistress,” Karon said while he slowly let out his breath and forced himself to relax, accepting the pain flooding his senses.

The icy blades remained where they were for only a few seconds, then they slowly, almost teasingly, were removed.

Karon was face down on his bed, neither his hands nor his legs tied. Dolor had said that was only needed with unwilling toys, and Karon wasn't one anymore. So he had done his best to stay still, even though he couldn't help the shaking. And she had appreciated it, he could tell in the way she had cut him.

He felt Dolor drag a nail across his back, sliding through the blood and sweat. Karon shuddered at her touch, but not because of pain. He couldn't put a word to it, but being near his mistress made him feel good.

“You don't hate me hurting you anymore, do you?” she purred and dug her nails into him hard enough to break the skin.

“No, I like pleasing you, mistress,” Karon replied honestly.

“There are many ways in which you will please me,” she whispered in his left ear before biting it hard.

She held it between her teeth and pulled back her head slowly. Karon's earlobe stretched out until a part of it ripped off. He didn't flinch, or show any sign or reaction at all to the pain. Blood flowed freely from the wound while Dolor grabbed Karon's shoulder and turned him around, giving him a clear view of her in her blood-drenched dress. She smiled down at him, her eyes beaming with pride as she visibly chewed on his piece of ear before swallowing it.

“I will do whatever you want, mistress.”

“I know you will, my sweet, which is why it's time to move on with your training,” Dolor said and licked her lips.

“Whatever you want, mistress.”

Dolor got off him and walked out the door, leaving Karon naked and bloodied on the bed, where he silently remained waiting. She returned a few minutes later with a light blue vial in one hand, and a spear in the other.

There was something about the spear that sent a jab of pain through Karon's skull, and the throbbing returned as something pushed from deep within his mind, trying to claw its way out.

Dolor handed him the vial first and said, “Drink; it will make sure you don't get an infection and heal you well enough to function.”

“Yes, mistress,” Karon replied, eagerly drinking the vial's contents.

It spread a warm sensation throughout his body, and the pain receded slightly without the distant numbing Karon was used to Dolor's tonics causing, leaving him clear-headed.

“What is that, mistress?” Karon pointed at the spear.

“This is a part of your training, my sweet. This spear used to belong to you, before you became mine. I want you to get to know it, talk with it, let it see who you have become. After that we'll see what use we can make of it.”

“Yes, mistress,” Karon replied with a note of confusion in his voice.

She walked over to the bed and dropped the spear on him, then bent over and stroked his forehead tenderly. “I will be coming to see you later,” she said, then turned around and walked out of the room.

Karon sat up and took the spear in his hands, then flinched as a sudden presence forced itself into his mind with a jubilant scream.

“Master!”

Instinctively Karon reached back into the mind connecting to his own, and responded.

“Who are you?”

Several seconds passed before the reply, given in a shaky, confused voice. “Master... it's Promise.”

“I don't know any Promise,” Karon replied, and realized the presence came from within the spear.

The spirit inside it felt strange, like it was several spirits sharing the same space. However, through the haze of the fractured mind, Karon still felt the sadness it reacted with from his answer.

“I will kill her,” It eventually said, the whispered thought dripping with malice.

“What?”

“The soul eater bitch. She did this to you, made you forget me, just like she tried to make me forget you. She couldn't break me, I exist to serve mast- A MASTER THAT HAS FORGOTTEN ME!”

“Don't threaten mistress!” Karon's fingers tightened around the spear, and he had the sudden urge to try and break it over his knee.

“She is NOT your mistress! You are master and you belong to no one. You make commands and I obey because it is I that belongs to you.”

“I don't know what you are talking about,” Karon told it and pressed a finger between his eyes, ignoring the pressure rising in response to the spirit's words. “The only reason I am even talking to you instead of destroying you for insulting mistress is because she told me to. So show her the respect and love she deserves!”

Karon expected a hot reply or forceful denial, but instead there seemed to be some great conflict going on within the spirit that the spear was housing. The energy inside was shifting in turns, going through different forms and never once settling on one for very long. One second there was anger and bloodlust practically radiating from the weapon, the next the energy had shifted and serenity dominated it, then fear, then back to anger; and so on it went until Karon had lost count of all the times the spirit had changed.

He had just started to wonder if the spirit couldn't make up its mind about something, or if it didn't even know what it was, when it finally responded.

“I serve master, the great master who brought me into being through the inspiration he caused in his allies, and the enemies he utterly crushed beneath his heels. And if master has forgotten himself then I will help him remember... and if master now serves the soul eater, then I will obey.”

Karon tilted his head slightly and considered the spear in his hands, and the spirit within. He could feel how it was only through sheer force of will it had managed to utter those words, that thought, to him. And he could sense no deception, either; the spirit had meant it. And for some reason he couldn't describe, Karon knew that he was very good at sensing lies.

He couldn't understand why his mistress wanted him to speak with the spirit. Maybe it was a test? Or maybe it was something else. It didn't matter, Karon didn't need to know. Mistress had told him to speak and get to know the spear, so he would.

“Fine. Mistress said to speak with you, so I will. If you think telling me about this person you think I am is what you should speak of, then I will listen. At least until mistress says not to.”

Inside the spear the spirit's energy rippled as if it shuddered, then he felt it press upon his mind a little more clearly, more focused.

“I will tell master of the person he is, and the great things he's done. And master will remember...”

                  *******************************************************

The sun shone brightly and made Karon squint his eyes as he surveyed the valley below him.  He stood at the edge of a cliff located near the bottom of a mountain, and his view stretched far to the other side where another mountain stood, shrouded in blue mist and capped with a snow-covered peak.

Between the mountains rested a deeply inclined valley, with a lake in the middle which several rivers flowed down into. At the beach of the lake stood a medium-sized town, with many towers and thin buildings reaching high into the sky. It shone with a pink and golden light as the sun's beams reflected off the shiny material the town was mostly comprised of. It was far away so he couldn't see it very clearly, but no flash of memory or recognition went through Karon's head as he looked upon it, which made him suspect he had never encountered it before.

He breathed in the fresh air, tinged with the smell of something bitter and strong, and simply observed. Dolor had brought him there hours ago, and left him with the simple instruction to 'watch and nothing else'.

And so he had; with perfect discipline he had stood at the edge of the cliff and watched the valley. He had memorized the layout of the land and knew the details of it, watching in silence until nothing was left but speculating on what things might do, or what would happen if this or that occurred.

He had been patient and done nothing but watch; however, he could feel his discipline slipping, fraying at the edge. He wanted more, he wanted to go down into the valley and touch the trees and bathe in the rivers. He wanted to smell the air and taste the fruits, he wanted to go into the town and experience the people there.

He tapped a foot rapidly and scratched at one of the many caked wounds he had on his arms. The feeling as his nails clawed away the dried blood and found the flesh beneath sent a shiver of pain through him, and Karon's mouth twitched into a smile.

Lately, Dolor had been very lenient in her teaching of him. She still hurt him, taught him of pain, but it was in a way that wasn't half as intense as what Karon remembered. Some entire days he spent without her visiting or hurting him, instead being forced to listen to the spirit Promise's long rants about the greatness of its master.

For all its ramblings, Karon remembered nothing of it, only brief flashes of headaches answered the spirit's tales. He didn't care for it. Promise might be deluded enough to think he was great, but even if Karon had indeed once been that person, he didn't want to be again. That Karon had never known the great love of Dolor, or the many truths she had taught him of pain. He had resisted and tried to run from her. He was a fool and deserved to die.

He continued scratching at the wound until his fingers were slick with the blood flowing out freely. The cliff was located pretty high up from the ground level, and so he imagined he wouldn't have to deal with the armies of flies probably present down in the heavily vegetated valley.

And with that thought, his mind returned to watching it while doing his best to repress the urge to go down to it.

Finally, as the sun was setting behind the opposite mountain, casting purple streaks across the white clouds above, did the sound of footsteps drift across to Karon, and Dolor walked up to stand beside him. Her eyes drifted from the valley below, to his blood-covered arm, then she nodded with a satisfied smile.

“Have you watched the entire time, my sweet?”

“Yes, mistress,” Karon replied hoarsely, the heat having left him dehydrated and his throat parched.

“Then it's time to return home,” she said and cut a hand through the air, and a gateway instantly opened to envelop them both.

The shimmering energy faded and left them in total darkness. Dolor put a hand to Karon's arms and spoke, “Did you enjoy your visit, my sweet?”

Karon hesitated; the thought of lying to Dolor was reprehensible, but he didn't want to disappoint her, either.

“If mistress is pleased, I am,” he eventually responded.

The answer usually was enough to leave Dolor pleased, for her to understand that all that mattered to him was her. This time, however, she didn't remove her hand from his arm, and she spoke again a little more insistently.

“That is good, but I asked if you enjoyed yourself.”

The question made Karon squirm. If it was important to Dolor that he had enjoyed himself, then he had failed; and the thought that he might cause his mistress grief was enough for him to wish he had just thrown himself off the cliff instead. However, he couldn't lie to her, either.

“I...”

“Yes, my sweet,” she said encouragingly, her voice dripping with sensuality.

“I didn't like it,” he whispered, bowing his head in shame.

Complete silence pressed down heavily on them, the lack of light making it all the more tangible. Karon wrung his hands and licked his lips, the silence that kept on stretching out squeezed all the harder as he imagined Dolor looking at him with disappointment, with contempt that he couldn't do as she wished of him.

“Why didn't you like it, my sweet?” Dolor's voice was tender, caring, not angry or disappointed. It sounded like she was hurt, and it made Karon's eyes tear up at the thought that he could have failed her so badly.

“I watched, but I wanted more. I... wanted to go down into the valley. I wanted to see what it is like walking in it, to taste and touch and hear the life and things there. But I couldn't, you told me only to watch, so I only watched,” Karon forced his shaky voice to speak the words, and he dug his nails into the palms of his hands, waiting for Dolor to condemn him.

“It's fine, my sweet,” she eventually said, her voice a monotone whisper.

She let go of his arm and walked away, the sound of her footsteps drifting out into the dark. Karon followed her while tears rolled down his cheeks. He absently moved through the forest skillfully; uncountable times of trailing after Dolor with nothing but sound to guide him had grown it from being difficult to simply being a habit he performed with ease.

The slight feeling of wind on his skin, the echo of sound bouncing off the trees, the pinpricks of starlight appearing in between the crooked branches. His body picked up on these clues and moved him forward steadily, keeping up with Dolor while his mind clutched itself in torment.

It hurt in ways he could not describe as his face twisted with guilt. He wanted to throw himself before his mistress and beg her forgiveness, tell her he would do anything to make it better. However he didn't, his mistress would not appreciate it, it would only reveal how pathetic he was. There should not have to be any need for forgiveness. He should not have failed her in any way at all. She was supposed to look at him with pride, her face shining with fierce joy as he complied with her every whim, and did even better than any other could have.

When they arrived at the mansion and they walked into the lights spilling forth from the windows Karon got a look at Dolor's face, emotionless and distant. His chest felt like a freezing hell of sharp icicles digging into his heart as he saw that look.

And then there was the pressure in the back of his skull, doing its best to break free of whatever hole Karon had long ago pushed it back into. It appeared to want to tell him something, that there had been something off in Dolor's voice, and that things weren't what they seemed.

Karon ignored it and followed Dolor inside, and when they stood in the hall he fell down on his knees and gripped her dark dress, the silk smooth and comforting to the touch.

“Mistress, I have failed you. Please punish me, hurt me. Take away the bad thoughts and feelings so I can do what you desire without failing.”

He had never wanted anything more than he wanted Dolor to grab him by the throat right then and drag him back to his old dungeon room. Strap him to the roof and peel off his skin, rip slices of flesh while she burned him with red-hot iron. To leave him for days beneath dripping water and crush his bones, tear him apart, whatever it took to make everything better and her happy again.

“Not tonight, sweet; I will be busy with other things. Return to your room and talk to the spirit... or whatever else you want, it doesn't matter to me tonight.”

There was nothing she could have said to hurt him more, and Karon let go of her dress and fell down on the floor with despair written all over his features. He listened as she walked away from him without once stopping to look back or even acknowledge him.

He remained on the floor, silently weeping. However, after a while another sound of approaching footsteps cut through the pained cries, and Karon fell silent, then heard a voice speak with gleeful malice.

“Well, look here. Has Dolor finally tired of you, trickster? Has she realized what an awful pet you make? I think she has, and soon she will abandon you in the forest, and I will hunt you down and eat you. And forever shall Dolor remember you as just another failure; only I have, and ever will be, the one that was strong enough.”

Something feral started to rise within Karon, demanding him to stand up and rip Timor's throat out with his teeth and howl victoriously as he was drenched in his enemies' blood. However, at that moment the pressure changed, and instead of pushing to get out it felt like it was trying to draw Karon in, holding him back from attacking Timor and certain death.

“Wait, that is not how we fight,” it whispered, the voice distant yet somehow familiar.

For once, Karon didn't fight it, instead listening to the insistent whisper; then he slowly blew out the air he'd been holding through his nose and relaxed. He rose from his curled position on the floor and looked straight into the dark eye-slits in the soul eater's golden mask and said, “She hasn't tired of me yet like she has tired of you.”

Timor's hands flashed forward quicker than Karon's gaze could follow, but the needle-pointed claws that sprung out from his fingers stopped inches from Karon's face, and held there, wavering uncertainly.

Karon held the stare into Timor's unseen eyes, and a realization shot through him as he sensed the hesitation of the soul eater, and what laid behind it. Timor was afraid. He was terrified of Dolor, and Karon could sense the fear, and with that another sensation came over him, originating from the pressure in the back of his skull. It wasn't a voice, but an understanding, that Karon was sensitive to such things, that he could sense the fine energy and what dwelled inside any being, living or dead, far better than most.

“Scared of what might happen if you hurt Dolor's new favorite?” Karon asked mockingly, and chuckled when Timor twitched in response. “Maybe the reason you like fear so much is because you are so afraid,” Karon went on, his voice gleeful as the soul eater backed away with an angry hiss.

Karon tilted his head as a thought struck him, then he smiled broadly, “Maybe that is all you learned from her. Maybe that is the reason she grew tired of you, because all you learned from her was fear. And that is the reason I have already won; you are an aborted failure. Dolor hasn't taught me fear, she has taught me love and truth... you never did make it. You're just a pathetic shadow of what Dolor really wants, what I will become.”

Timor's hiss had reached an entirely new level of rage by the time Karon finished talking, his fingers twitching as he crouched low, ready to leap forward and unleash his anger.

“Go ahead,” Karon mocked. “Kill me even though Dolor still hasn't abandoned me, show her just how much of a failure you are. That you will never be able to obey, that you're just a wild animal, unsophisticated, uncontrolled and most of all... boring. You bore her, Timor, and that's why she will never love you as she has loved me.”

Timor held completely still while his entire body shook with held-back rage, then he turned around and stomped off, turning down the left hallway with the sound of his claws tearing into the wall as he went.

A smile of complete satisfaction was plastered over Karon's face as he listened to the fading sounds of the soul eater, then it slowly fell away.

Even though there was something that told him he had been completely right about Timor himself, Karon wasn't sure if he himself was anything more to Dolor now than another failure, another Timor. He felt despair trying to push him down on his knees again, but he fought against it. His mistress was too important for him to give up now.

He headed down the right hallway and walked to his room, and as soon as he had entered his eyes fell upon the spear that stood resting against the far wall. He headed over and grabbed it, immediately feeling the presence of the spirit's mind connect to his own.

“Master, what's wrong?” it asked, instantly picking up on his emotional state.

“I've asked you to stop calling me that.”

“You are master. It is right I call you that even if you can't remember.”

“For someone that says it will obey its master completely, you don't seem very interested in obeying me. You sure you're not confusing me with someone else?”

“I obey master in all things, but master isn't himself right now so I have to make some decisions for him I know he would wish.”

“You're serving a memory, then, of someone I'm not sure I really used to be.”

“If master says so,” the spirit replied without believing it for a second.

Karon's mouth twitched a little at the tone of the spirit's message, completely obedient yet still with some hint of mischievousness. It struck another note of recognition in Karon, like it was something he was used to, but not from the spirit. He could not remember ever feeling the spirit communicate with him like that.

He walked over and sat down on the bed with the spear in his hands, a thoughtful frown making its way to his face.

There was something going on inside him, feelings and thoughts and snippets of things he didn't understand appeared only to fade before he could properly grasp them. He wanted nothing more than to make Dolor happy, to serve her as she wanted him to. But he failed her because he had wanted something different than to obey, he had wanted more. Maybe the key to being what Dolor wanted him to be laid in first understanding these strange things inside of him.

He knew he didn't need to be afraid. There was nothing Dolor couldn't fix or teach him with pain, and if he discovered something bad inside himself she could easily burn it away and show how wrong it was.

“Promise...”

“Yes, master?”

“I want you to tell me more... about your master.”

The spirits mind heaved with shock for a moment, then it responded with ill-concealed joy.

“I will tell you everything.”

                           *********************************************

Karon woke up to the sound of the door slamming shut loudly. He twitched violently and scrambled out of bed, finding Dolor standing in his room with an expressionless face.

“Mistress,” he voiced and stood up straight.

“Good morning,” she said to him with a tone of complete neutrality.

A chill crept up Karon's spine as he looked into his mistress' eyes and saw nothing of the usual warmth, the loving kindness. He stood silent and waited for her to tell him what she desired. Instead, the silence stretched on with her only looking at him without a hint of emotion.

“I have no need of you today, sweet.” she eventually said, then turned around without another word and left.

The door closed behind her gently, Karon remaining standing with his eyes fixed on it. As time passed came the realization that she wasn't going to come back and explain to him what she meant by that.

Thoughts and images of him being abandoned by her flashed through his mind. Absently, Karon walked over to his bed and fell down on it, staring blankly up towards the ceiling as questions demanded to be answered.

What if his failure had been final and she didn't want him anymore? Maybe she thought of him as a burden and was already looking for a replacement, someone that would do better than he had.

Something cold and stinking of fear crawled up inside his chest and latched itself onto his heart, burrowing its way deeper and deeper the more Karon tried to find an answer to the question, but without success.

There was something else pressing at the back of his mind again, trying to make itself heard. Karon ignored it, and instead curled up on the bed and clutched at his chest, suppressing a whimper at the thought of never again feeling Dolor's warm hand cradle his cheek and whisper truths about himself into his ear. To never again feel the pain she drowned him in, and the pride beaming out of her eyes when he accepted it with his entire being.

Distantly the spirit Promise called to him, like the echo of an echo it was muddled and barely comprehensible as anything else but the desire for him to pick it up and talk to it. Let it comfort and give him something to rely on.

Karon ignored that, too. He didn't care for spirits or mysterious voices inside his own head. All he wanted was to serve his mistress, to make her happy and feel her approval.

So he remained curled up on the bed, letting the world and everything else besides his fears slip away.

Days passed into weeks, and eventually time ceased to have any meaning and Karon lost himself in the complete static of his life. Only once was the monotony interrupted with the appearance of his mistress.

She had come inside wearing her black crow mask again, the sight quickly sending the hopeful flare Karon had experienced at the sight of her down into a pit of despair. She had shielded her face from him, and he understood why; he wasn't worthy of looking at her anymore.

She had walked inside and picked up the spear and then left again. Silent, and without even acknowledging Karon's existence.

He hadn't cared the least that the spear and the spirit inside had been taken from him; the few times he had spoken with the spirit it had just tried to tell him his mistress didn't matter, that he should escape and go back to being someone he didn't even know.

The spear didn't matter, only his mistress did, and she didn't want him anymore. It was too obvious now that she had tired of him. He had failed some crucial test and didn't deserve to be near her anymore.

She had left him in that blank room, with a single bed to lie down and rest on until death took him. For some reason the silver-masked servants still brought him food and drink, however the more Karon thought about it the more logical it sounded that they did so only because Karon mattered so little; his mistress hadn't even cared about telling them it was time for him to die. He wasn't worth even that small amount of effort, anymore.

The absolute and total lack of anything happening was forcing itself down on Karon's mind with more strength than any pain his mistress had given him could. It moved with the patience of time itself, and ate away at everything he had gained for as far back as he could remember. All the way until that sea of endless pain he had woken up from, then stopping as it reached a barrier his memory could not breach.

He spent his days walking in circles around his room, thinking less and less as each day passed. In one of the rooms corners a pile of waste slowly rose in height and size, the smell permeating everything in the room. Eventually he had started painting the walls with the excrement, trying his best to remember the different sights he had experienced with his mistress, but it always ended up as looking like nothing but vague shapes.

The tattered red robe he had worn as far as he could remember laid torn next to the pile of waste, ruined by Karon's repeated attempts at washing himself with it, and a small portion of the water he was brought every day. At one point or another, he had stopped trying, and accepted the growing layers of filth covering his skin.

Whenever he rubbed some of it off him, he noticed that beneath the sour stink and the cracked dirt his skin was weirdly pale. Not the translucent pale he somehow knew some people that never saw the sight of the sun got, but rather a gray-like paleness, as if he was covered in smudged ash.

His body was thin and his bones jutted out in sharp edges at every corner, his ribs especially noticeable every time he drew his hand across his bare skin. He didn't care; he ate what he received, on the small possibility that his mistress would one day return and decide to give him another chance.

And every time he dared hope for such a thing, the now-familiar fear rose to strangle it, reminding him that he was nothing but a failure to her.

The pile of excrement grew and grew until finally one day, when it stood taller than Karon and the air had grown thick with fumes did the door open, and instead of the usual silver-masked servant with food, Dolor stepped inside, her black mask on and hiding her face from him.

Karon had been banging his head on a wall when she did, and he continued as the event slowly processed, almost arduously so, and he understood that something out of the ordinary had taken place.

He stopped and turned his head towards Dolor, eyes blinking incomprehensibly.

She walked over to him slowly, her steps lithe and showing no sign that the smell bothered her. She halted just in front of Karon, her head moving up slightly as she took in his appearance.

“Do you understand now, my sweet?” she asked.

Karon had almost forgotten how sensual her voice was, and the wonderful sound rolled out from his temples into his entire body like a wave. His knees started shaking and almost buckled beneath him, the actual meaning of the words she spoke lost in a haze of pleasure.

She repeated the question, and this time Karon tilted his head and stared at her mask as he tried to decipher the meaning of her words. His mind felt like something thick and clogged, moving at an excruciatingly slow rate, doing its best to make connections that were no longer there.

He opened his mouth slightly, his brows furrowing in concentration as he tried to understand what it was she was trying to ask him.

Eventually, when a bit of drool started to pour out of the corner of his mouth, Dolor sighed and grabbed his chin, forcing his eyes up directly towards the black eye-slits of her mask.

Karon moaned, half in protest, half in pleasure from the touch.

“I think you do, my sweet,“ she said after staring into his blank eyes. “I think you understand pain.”

“Hurt,” Karon groaned and more drool escaped his mouth, dripping down on the back of Dolor's hand.

“Tell me,” Dolor leaned forward and whispered.

This time the moan Karon elicited was entirely of pleasure, and his eyes grew misty and distant. Dolor didn't move her head, but her nails dug into his chin hard and she spoke again, “Tell me, my sweet.”

“Hurt,” Karon groaned and doubled over, clutching at his chest as Dolor released him from her grip.

“More, my sweet.”

“Hurt me, please,” he wheezed, his voice raspy from going so long without use.

“Why do you want me to hurt you, sweet?” she asked, stroking his head lovingly.

“Hurt me, please,” he begged again.

“Why?”

“Hurt... hurt so much when no hurt. Please...” he said, the words stumbling over each other.

Dolor moved a hand up to her mask and undid the clasp, letting it fall to the floor and then grabbing Karon by the throat and forcing his face up to her's.

“Then you finally understand, my sweet, young trickster. No matter how skilled one is in causing pain, no matter the power and skill one wields, time is more powerful. Time always wins. The true pain comes not from others, but when one willingly hurts ones own self. Because it will never heal as long as you keep doing it, an endless cycle that never stops.”

Karon didn't respond, his pupils had grown until they almost swallowed his irises and his mouth opened and closed as it tried to make a sound without success.

“Now you understand pain, my sweet... and you hunger for it, don't you?”

Karon nodded and gasped for air in quick, shallow breaths.

“Then it is time you learn of the other side of pain, the other side of its nature.”

Dolor's lips pressed against Karon's, her tongue darting out through the opening and licking behind his lips as if she were tasting him. Something erupted within Karon, his blood screaming as if it were on fire the moment he could feel Dolor's lips upon his. The sensation lasted only for a second before it became too much to his frayed mind, and he fell to the floor as Dolor let go of her grip on his throat, and he blacked out.

She chuckled and licked her own lips absently, then hunched down and dragged her fingers through the unconscious trickster's hair.

“I think the lessons of pleasure will be even worse than those of pain for you, my sweet.” Her eyes flared bright for a moment, then settled as she spoke again. “But it'll be worth it, for what you'll become.”

                        ************************************************

Karon woke up covered in satin sheets, and above him was a ceiling painted black and with small pinpricks of white clustered in what appeared to be constellations. When he sat up and looked around, the sheets effortlessly slid off him, and he noticed that the many layers of dirt and waste that had covered him earlier were gone, leaving a pale, slightly ashen gray skin.

The room was not his own; instead, it was ornately furnished with dark brown walls and burgundy red drapes framing in the two large windows giving a clear view of the dark forest outside and the stars shining above it. The walls were covered with paintings familiar in both their style as well as the collective depictions of creatures in great pain.

There were several tables of sturdy-looking black wood standing against the walls, trinkets and a few books scattered across them. In the center of the room hung a chandelier with small crystals shining with white light, illuminating everything clearly.

There was also a tall mirror hanging on a wall to Karon's left, next to a brown, wooden door with a golden handle. Carefully, almost fearfully, Karon moved out of the bed and walked to the mirror. Inside the reflection, a stranger stared out with wide eyes.

His first impression was that of a starved and hungry bird. Bones jutted out from him at odd angles, his head and neck hunched over slightly like he was ready to strike forward at any moment. The dark hair clung together in a tangled mess, and the longer he looked at it, the more it seemed like ruffled feathers rather than actual hair. The mess stood in stark contrast to his angular and thin face, with the dark gray skin a matted color next to his glowing amber eyes. To finish the look were eyebrows in almost straight lines leading down towards his sharp hawk nose.

He didn't know what to make of what he saw in the mirror. It was like looking at a stranger through a doorway. No flicker of memory, or any other flash of recollection that fell as the final puzzle piece, announcing with absolute certainty, 'This is me! This is who I am'.

No, instead Karon stood silently staring at the stranger, and once he had gotten used to the image, he started noticing the little things. The uneven and torn part of his left ear visible through the feather-like hair as a messy piece of flesh. The many scars adorning his body, especially around the shoulders, as if he had been repeatedly stabbed or bitten there.

The figure in the mirror slowly dragged a finger along the scars, touching the smooth silver shapes carefully, as well as feeling the more stark lines of angry red, almost burning next to his pale grayish skin.

After a while Karon got tired of the sight, as it brought him absolutely nothing except distant echoes of pain; as if his body could remember, but his mind could not. He knew that Dolor was very specific about leaving marks on the body permanently, and she always healed what she didn't think of as perfection with her potions and tinctures.

He knew the few scars she had left him with well, and looked at them proudly in the mirror. It was the other ones he couldn't place, the strange scars shaped not by the surgical skill of his mistress, but by something more savage. Instinctively, somewhere in the back of his mind where the pressure was as always trying to push free, there was something that told him that the scars were from battle.

He looked around the room again more carefully, and noticed a bundle of clothes on the bed, the red color blending in so seamlessly with the rich satin that he hadn't noticed them before now.

He walked over and picked them up, looking them over. He had only seen his mistress in black, and after a few seconds of looking it over, Karon could see plainly it wasn't made for his mistress. It was a dark robe the color of crusted blood, and Karon's mouth twitched when he realized it was one just like the robe Timor usually wore.

He threw it down on the bed, and noticed that underneath it was another bundle of clothes, all black and with a note on top. Karon reached out with his hand and picked up the note, the signs and symbols on it somehow shaping themselves into meaning, and he read it.

Here is some new clothes for you my sweet. Your old ones were ruined, and it is time you start dressing properly like one of us. You have come far, and I am very proud of you.

Karon read it again, and then a third time to be sure of what it said, then he grinned as the full meaning came to him. The clothes were similar to those of Timor, but as he looked them over he noticed the lack of anything with the flashy gold he wore, and instead there was a simple mix of dark red and complete black. Timor had just been replaced.

Karon gingerly undressed, then began to put the clothes on. The fabric was smooth yet thick, and in the back of his mind the pressure rippled slightly, and the understanding that it was made in a way to be optimal for holding enchantments came to him.

Besides the robe and the black pants, there was an even thicker pair of black pieces of cloth, together with two sets of black ropes. Karon wrapped his feet in the cloth, then twisted the rope around his calf and up to his knee several times until the cloth was securely tied around, before knotting it together on both legs and standing up from the bed.

It felt comfortable as he walked around the room, testing the feel of the clothes out. He was interrupted when the door opened and Dolor stepped inside.

She was wearing a black dress as always, but one cut short just halfway down her thighs, and a thick corset strained tightly against her chest, emphasizing her body in an obvious way when she moved into the room and walked over to Karon, a smile on her lips and joy radiating out from her eyes.

“That suits you, my sweet; in ways you have yet to understand,” she said, her voice crisp and sensual.

Karon only nodded, his confusion not even remotely close to overpowering the relief obvious as he sighed. His mistress hadn't abandoned him, it had just been another test of some kind. And whatever the purpose of it had been, he had succeeded.

“Are you ready, now, for the final part of your training?” she asked, leaning forward until their faces nearly touched.

“Y- yes, mistress,” Karon choked out, his voice raw and barely able to speak after being silent for so long.

Dolor smiled, a wicked kind of smile that Karon couldn't remember ever having seen on her before. Then her palms struck against his chest hard, sending him flying back upon the bed. From underneath it, black ropes slithered up like living snakes, wrapping themselves around his wrists and ankles, securing him firmly against the bed posts.

Karon relaxed, but couldn't quite suppress the shudder as the familiarity of being tied up right before she hurt him pressed on his mind. Echoes of screams and burning pain flickered by, and easily drowned out the pressure at the back of his skull, dryly noting that this time it wasn't the same thing that was about to occur.

Dolor paced around the bed, her eyes moving up and down Karon's newly-dressed form, wickedness and approval sparkling in her eyes.

“So close... almost there, my sweet. All we need now is a final push, a final craving...”

She went up on the bed and straddled him across the hips, pressing her chest down firmly on his. Orange eyes with angry red shot across the iris was all that filled Karon's vision, endless hunger and wickedness staring out back at him from their dark center.

Then he felt her lips upon his, her hands moving across his body with sensual strokes. A hunger rose from within Karon, one he couldn't remember but knew he had felt before. Blood flowed downward inside his body, a pleasing, tingling warmth spreading inside of him as something primal blocked out his thoughts. His body knew what to do, and it wanted no help from his now-feeble mind.

He struggled against the bindings, yanking with all his might but producing no effect other than a trickling laughter from Dolor. She moved up his body, her face stopping a mere hairbreadth above his, her eyes piercing and filled with something hungry and malicious.

“My sweet, this is a lesson in pleasure, not release,” she whispered to him, then slowly moved down his body again, her nails skillfully yanking his new robe into pieces with sharp cuts. Her warm tongue stroked his skin playfully as it ever moved downward, never once stopping for long or providing anything else but teasing licks.

Karon breathed heavily as his vision blurred, desire warping everything inside of his mind and providing nothing but a raw hunger to tear off his bindings, then rip off his mistress' dress and never once stopping until they both couldn't move.

But he couldn't, and so he was forced to struggle helplessly as the desire grew. And it was when he couldn't hold back a howling moan that Karon found a new kind of pain, and for the briefest of moments, he imagined he understood what it was his mistress wanted him to know.

And then it was lost in a haze that drowned out everything else.

                             **********************************************

Time was, as ever, seemingly irrelevant inside of the manor. And the very concept of its flow was a thing of abstract distance and no practical presence inside of Karon's life, as far as he was aware.

It was a kind of symbol, for as time passed it grew less and less important, even though Karon became more aware of it as a force as he regained his mind, surfacing from the depths his isolation had left him in. Time was a symbol, because he could remember that it once had been important, a measurement of events. A separation of where one day you were one person, and the next you had changed.

Karon remembered the feeling. After all the pain he had endured -- and learned to harness -- under his mistress' tutelage, he noticed a curious strength that felt alien, which made him suspect it had not always been there.

His time in isolation had been the final piece, and as he sat on his bed, dressed in another set of his new robes and clothing, he could look back with clarity on the events he had been put through by his mistress, and he knew what her will, the very purpose of it all had been. She had taken the sad creature he had been before, a man which Karon now only carried the name and some clouded shred of a memory of, and piece by piece stripped him of his weaknesses. She had showed him truth, and he had rejected it, because he was weak and foolish.

But Karon knew his mistress better now, knew of her love and great knowledge. She hadn't given up on him despite the fact that he'd deserved it. She had made him experience the truth through pain, and eventually all the weakness was gone, leaving only that which she could shape and make strong.

And she had. She had showed him love and brought forth the best in him. Made him forget fear and doubt, replaced those hollow parts with love and complete dedication to his mistress. She had given him more than he ever knew, and only through tricking him into thinking she had left him, isolating him and robbing him of everything, had he lost that illusion. And when she had come back for him, he had gained perspective.

He understood now. He could see.

With a frustrated scowl Karon slapped his forehead, keeping his hand there while rubbing his hair absently. He understood all of it, so what was the point of his training in pleasure?

He knew her lessons, understood the meaning behind them. She had shaped, even saved, him from whatever folly had driven him before becoming who he was now. Time was a symbol of his old self; no longer did he measure the flow of life through time, but through the will of his mistress. The memories and pressure of his old self, pressing at the back of his skull still, was something he didn't fear anymore. He didn't fear that person; he was not worthy of it.

Karon had become everything his mistress desired of her beloved servant, and he would do whatever she needed him to do without failing.

So why continue? Why did she come to him, always with that wicked smile, and bind his hands and feet before arousing him? Spending what always felt like forever bringing him to the brink of release, then abruptly leaving him to wallow in his unanswered hunger. She had tended and seen to that hunger like it was a growing flower, nourishing it constantly so it grew larger for every time she came to him, and left him unsated.

Karon could think of only two reasons for why she would do such a thing. Either it was simply a game she took pleasure herself in, and it wasn't a lesson at all, merely a thing for her amusement -- if so then he would continue gladly, and do whatever she wanted him to -- or, the more worrisome possibility, was that there was more he had yet to understand. That somehow, he hadn't seen the true meaning of it all, that there was more to his training, something that he'd missed.

Letting out a tired sigh, Karon fell back on the bed and spread his arms out wide, staring up at the roof with a thoughtful expression.

If that was the case then he would do all he could to understand the true will of his mistress, so that he could serve her to the best of his abilities, and make sure he never again had to experience the terror he had felt when he'd thought she had abandoned him.

The hunger was a thing that covered all of Karon's being. Like a spider's web, it wrapped and clung to every part of his body, mind and even spirit, burning like a sun begging to be drowned in a flood that never came.

The pressure, on the other hand, was a very small thing in comparison. Like a second heartbeat, it felt almost like it was knocking, trying to get his attention. And there, on that bed staring up at the ceiling, with an almost careless feeling of resignation, Karon finally did. He sent his consciousness into the pressure and whatever force that hid behind it.

It sucked him in almost greedily, sending him spiraling down a dark vortex. And eventually, he reached what felt like the center of absolute darkness. Then a light was born. It flickered, almost like a beating heart, but not unsteadily so.

The light shone orange, and as Karon approached it, the light flickered even more so. Small tendrils of energy stretched out from the core, wrapping themselves around Karon; and with them came a sense of understanding.

It was as if he had been falling down that vortex for as long as he could remember. All that time -- stretching back to that first muddy recollection of the all-consuming pain, and Dolor's sweet laughter -- he had been falling, he just hadn't been consciously aware of it.

Not any longer. As he stepped into the light and allowed it to embrace him completely, the energy spread out into his entire being. It enveloped his body, mind and spirit, filling it with something carrying amusement, cleverness and something even deeper Karon could not quite define. A greater truth yet to be revealed.

It was the heart of what he was, the very center of his being. And it was now the foundation that he stood on, allowing him to observe the great chasm of hunger that surrounded him, like great wounds of desperate need so thick it had grown to be a thing in and of itself. The more Karon stood in the light of his heart, the more he started to understand a pattern, a flow of growth that was taking place.

What really irked him, though, was that there were no words to describe it. The hunger was growing into his heart, yet it had nothing to do with its nature, nor was it actually a part of it. Yet, somehow, it still had grown connected to it, steadily becoming a part of his being as much as the heart itself was.

Karon had no body inside of his center, only a shapeless presence of attention; but if he had, he would have been furrowing his eyebrows deeply while stroking his chin thoughtfully.

The vision pressing itself upon his consciousness did not alarm him. There was no sensation of the hunger actually being a threat to him, not a direct one, at the least. However, the mere fact that something that was obviously not a true part of him, that something alien had grown to latch on to him not only superficially, but also in the very heart of everything he was, was enough to evoke a slight shiver in his spirit.

Deciding to ignore the great cloud of bottomless wounds, Karon instead turned back to the glowing heart. He reached out with his mind, caressing it slowly, feeling it's energy seep into his consciousness.

With the energy came distant sensations. Wicked laughter, a burning need to dance and mock. Even his love for Dolor, stronger than anything else present inside his mind, was not untouched as the energy seeped into every single particle of his self.

Panic finally made itself present, and Karon withdrew from the heart forcefully as he tried to push away the force trying to re-shape him. The energy flickered uncertainly while tendrils of orange light stretched out after him, trying to bring him back inside.

With a soundless cry of defiance Karon brought himself out of the trance, waking up on the bed with cold sweat covering him. His breath came in short and greedy gulps while his heart hammered against his chest painfully.

Karon clutched the bed to keep himself from falling over when he tried to stand, and he was forced to sit down again. He hardly noticed how he pulled the covers over himself while trying to bring his shivering body back under control.

The energy was still there, he could feel it saturating every part of himself. His mind felt like a moving maze, and the dizziness was setting in for real now.

He closed his eyes and tried to shut everything away. Soon he was slipping down into the safe and comfortable reaches of sleep, but just before he did, a voice drifted out from the back of his mind, where just minutes earlier there had been a pressure that was now absent.

“Finally! You have no idea how boring it is sitting in the background and shouting advice that actually goes unheard; I've had to throw popcorn at the screen just to entertain myself. Maybe now we can finally get some work done.”

                        *******************************************************

Karon awoke to the loud noise of his door slamming open, hitting the wall with enough force to make the chandelier above him shake with a jingling sound.

He flew out of the bed with his heart pounding, landing on his hands and knees on the floor beside his bed with wide eyes and every muscle in his body tensed. The tension melted away when he saw his mistress standing in his doorway, one hand leaning on the frame and a seductive smile on her quirked lips.

“Have you slept well, my sweet?” she asked and crossed into the room, walking over to him and extending a hand.

“Yes, mistress,” he responded and took her hand, rising to his feet.

“Good, because we are going to have a very busy day,” she purred and ran a finger over his naked chest.

Instantly desire came roaring up from inside Karon, sending heat throughout his entire body and set his heart racing even harder. By instinct he leaned town towards her pale and almost bloodless lips, just barely resisting the urge to tear off her clothes and flinging her on the bed.

“She's playing with you.”

Karon froze and furrowed his brow slightly. Had a voice just spoken in his mind, or had he imagined it?

Dolor smiled up at him with the same look of inviting sensuality, then abruptly turned and spoke in a neutral voice, dispelling all the sexual tension that had clung to her just a second ago. “But that will have to wait until later.”

Karon stumbled forward, and barely managed to recover his balance in time to avoid falling on his face. He watched with a dumbfounded look on his face as she left the room, her hips swaying with exaggerated motions.

“I like big b-”

“Silence!” Karon screamed and grabbed his head with both hands.

He had heard it clearly this time; a voice, dry and dripping with sarcasm. What was worse, he could recognize it clearly. It was his own, just different.

Dolor came storming back into the room, a look of anger and confusion on her face. At first Karon did not even register what it meant, as he had never seen her display those emotions in such a way; and then she rushed over and stopped just inches from his face, her voice dangerously low and close to a hiss.

“What did you say?”

Karon blinked, then fell to his knees and grabbed his mistress' dress with both hands.

“I-I'm sorry, mistress, I did not mean it towards you! I thought I heard something else, inside my head,” he told her, his voice full of fear.

Dolor looked down on him with uncertainty, her bright orange eyes flickering from side to side, and the red lines inside of them seemed a little stronger for a moment. Eventually, she relaxed, and her face settled back into her usual look of playful sensuality.

“It's alright, my sweet; you must still be sleepy, is all. It is so easy to make mistakes... perhaps we will save what I had planned for today for another time,” she finished with her head tilted.

Karon breathed a sigh of relief and stood up, “Whatever you decide is best, mistress; I live to serve you.”

“Yes, yes you do,” she said, stroking his cheek gently.

Karon leaned in on her hand. It was cold and dry, but still smooth. He looked his mistress deep into her eyes, and to his surprise, he caught a flicker of something, something he didn't understand.

“It's doubt.”

This time, Karon denied himself the urge to scream and claw at his head. Instead, only a twitch underneath his left eye marked the moment as anything beyond the ordinary. But it was enough for Dolor to catch. She tilted her head, and her eyes roamed over his face questioningly, then passed beyond it as she looked around him into his aura.

“You are... more difficult to read today, my sweet,” she remarked.

Karon opened his mouth to reply, but no words came out. His thought shifted uncertainly, as if it was having trouble determining what the real answer to her comment was, or as if there was something more he couldn't grasp yet.

“Wait, and be patient.”

Dolor waited for him to say something, then after nearly a minute had passed she wrinkled her forehead and smacked her lips, annoyed. “It appears you are in need of more sleep, my sweet; you have been doing a lot of that lately. Perhaps you are tired after everything you have gone through, or perhaps there is something draining your energy... inside of you.”

Karon didn't know to respond to that, either, and he didn't have to. Dolor backed away from him, and spoke again, “I will leave you to recover yourself. I think the time to finish your training approaches, and you will need to be clear for that.”

Karon watched as she left him once more, this time without any voice speaking inside of his mind, then sat down on the edge of his bed, rubbing his temples with a sigh.

Too much, all at once. His mind was spinning, but somewhere deep inside where his consciousness could not reach. He could still feel that orange energy of his being's heart, now unleashed and bathing every part of him in its light.

And then there was that voice, the dry voice sounding so much like his own. Had he gone mad? Had his mistress overestimated him in his training? Maybe his love for her hadn't been enough to keep him sane.

“Nah, you've been close to insanity many times lately, but you're not there quite yet.”

Karon jerked up to his feet and looked around the room, knowing already full well that the voice wasn't physical.

“No, of course I'm here physically, can't you see me—over there! I'm hiding under the table...”

Karon growled and slapped himself hard, the sharp sting no more noticeable than any other sensation after his conditioning.

“That's not really a good thing. We got hit on the head more than enough back when it still gave 'ouchie' signals from it. We're looking at a long and arduous journey into brain damage from here, culminating in a lot of drooling and wearing adult diapers.”

“Who are you?” Karon asked mentally, trying to track whatever line of energy the mystical entity must have used to connect to his mind.

“Oh come on, stop denying what is really going on here. I thought you were going to get over that after all of this.”

“Who. Are. You!?”

“I'm you, kinda... It's complicated.”

“Explain then, slowly.”

“Uhh, no.”

“Explain yourself now!”

“No, definitely not. You are more than a little out of touch with yourself at the moment, and I don't want to push you any further than needed. If you slip down into real madness -- and trust me, we've been awfully close many times lately -- then I am along for the ride. I'm sitting on the answers, most of them, anyway, and we will be going through them one at a time, when you are ready.”

“If you truly are me, then why are you working against me?” Karon asked, then looked down on the floor with disgust at the sheer idiocy of what he had just asked. No life should have to be this complicated.

“Because you are not yourself at the moment, that much Promise managed to get right. You're like a clean slate, a child. Sure you've gotten far since the procedural memories remain intact, and our abilities and state of being remain at the same level as when we got captured. Actually, to be honest it has taken a kind of interesting form of development; a little crooked, but still a development.”

“You're not making sense, I know who I am.”

“No. You are a child. Dolor turned you into a child, so she could raise you into what she wanted.”

“Be very careful; I will not let you insult mistress.”

Karon got the sense of someone sighing deeply, then something squirmed inside of his mind, begging for attention. Tentatively, Karon reached out with his senses towards it. What answered him was not some overwhelming force ripping his consciousness from him and flinging it into another vision, which was what he had expected.

Instead, it was a soft, simple sensation rising like smoke, filling his mind with an image. It was two, unnaturally huge blue eyes staring deeply into his own. They were filled with hope, admiration and trust, even love.

Instantly, Karon felt a connection towards whoever the eyes belonged to. He had never seen anyone look at him like that, as far as he could remember, but what he saw in them was exactly what he felt in his heart whenever he looked at his mistress.

“Do you know who it was that looked at us like that?” the voice asked, this time lacking any trace of sarcasm, and instead sounded... regretful.

“No,” Karon responded honestly.

“She would be hurt hearing you say that, after all she gave up for you.”

“Who is it, then?” Karon asked out loud in an irritated voice, not liking the almost condescending tone the strange voice had taken, nor the pain that had risen deep inside his chest unbidden.

“Her name was Feather Touch, and she was a dedicated servant of yours. She not only sacrificed her life to save yours, she later sacrificed a part of her own being to remain with and watch over you. A piece, that later sacrificed itself to help you, by joining with another being, and from that union something new was born.”

“Promise,” Karon whispered, then blinked in surprise and shook his head hard.

“You remember.”

“No, I... there's something...”

“Yeah, take it easy; there's no rush. Anyway, the point I wanna make is this: Did we treat Feather well?”

“I...” The question echoed inside Karon's mind, and in answer to it came an almost overwhelming flood of emotions. Hate, disgust, regret, all directed at himself for what he'd done.

“No,” Karon closed his eyes and said, rubbing at his forehead as the emotions receded, leaving him slightly dizzy.

“That's right. She saw something in us I can't figure out, nor why. But whatever the answer, we failed her in the end. Several times, in fact. So, think about what lesson that little memory contains, the next time you look at Dolor the way Feather looked at us.”

“Don't try and turn me against my mistress,” Karon growled.

“Fine, how about this Mr. Whippedy-whipped: You want to serve Dolor as best you can, correct?”

“Yes,” Karon replied.

“Then wouldn't it be best to become all that you are, embrace your past and all the power and knowledge that brings so that you might become the best you can be, the best servant you can be?”

“You will try and trick me, turn me against my mistress.”

“I am you. Ultimately, you are the decision maker. I have no power to control our actions, I can only influence.”

Karon scratched his chin absently while considering what the voice had said. He could sense no deceit behind the voice, and even though it would be a simple thing to disguise a telepathic presence as something else, Karon felt certain for some reason that he would have been able to sense that. And the voice wasn't alien, it felt like it was rising from an actual part of Karon, somewhere down in his mind, deep down.

After several minutes of deliberation, while the presence of the voice waited patiently, Karon spoke, his own voice betraying his uncertainty. “Fine, I will listen and see what you have to show me. But I will obey mistress in all things.”

“Good. But, unfortunately I can't really start dropping memories and information down on you while you're like this. Besides, I think I know what Dolor is planning, and you are gonna need complete focus if we are to... remain what we are.”

“What we are? What do you mean?” Karon asked, but received no response. The presence of the voice had faded, and left only questions in its wake.

Karon started to pace the room, going over all the voice had said to him, and trying to figure out if all of it was just another test. Maybe his mistress had concocted a new game, or was there more to it? Then again, perhaps the voice was honest, and was only a part of himself, wanting to guide him to his full power.

Eventually, Karon stopped and turned his eyes out the windows, towards the dark forest and the shimmering stars above.

“Why can't anything ever be simple?”

                      *******************************************************

Karon held back a scream, biting his tongue hard as he forced his jaw to clench together. With a laugh Dolor sat above him, every inch of her soft pale skin, her clothes unclasped and revealing enough to not hide, but enhance her body to the point it ached in Karon just looking at her.

Once more, he had been brought to the brink of absolute ecstasy, only to have his mistress deny him. Had it not been for her magic, he would have reached it anyway, through her sheer presence alone. That was the level his desire had risen to. But she had confined him, kept even the possibility out of his reach, and condemned him to bathe in his raging hunger.

It was as if the hot breath that pushed its way out of his lungs was not air at all, but fire. His body screamed, his mind screamed. The hunger thrashed and roared inside him, commanding him, begging him, pushing with enough power to wring every ounce of control out of Karon's grip.

He pushed as hard as he could, desperately reaching for the seductress straddling his hips, but unable to break his bonds. Eventually Dolor stopped her laughter, and tilted her head while considering the man beneath her carefully.

“You seem to have lost yourself, my sweet,” she noted, a small giggle escaping her.

Karon couldn't respond, words meant nothing to him. Too long denied, too long starved.

“If I take your bindings off, if I release you, will you take me then, finally?” she purred.

Karon groaned and yanked with his arms and legs, to no avail.

“Even if I order you not to? What will you do if I order you to stand still, not move an inch as I do whatever I please with you? Even if that is nothing?”

Karon did not respond with anything else but a moan, the hunger blotting out all other thoughts. Dolor straightened herself, then snapped her fingers, and the bonds undid themselves around Karon. Immediately his hands rushed up towards her, his fingers digging into the soft flesh of her arms and flinging her down beneath him.

He did not get further, for a pulse struck out from Dolor and hit him in the chest, sending him flying into the wall. The impact was hard enough to knock the air out of Karon, and small pinpricks of light danced within his vision as he gasped for air.

“You disobeyed me, my sweet... it seems your hunger has finally become a living thing of its own. Time to finish all of this.”

Karon didn't respond, he couldn't. Slowly sense was starting to return to him, and with it the horrifying realization of what he had just done.

“Mistress, I'm sorry,” he forced out in a whimper, his face even more pale than usual.

“It is alright, my sweet; I have been grooming you for this moment.”

Karon looked up at her questioningly, his breath slowly returning to him, and after a short while he managed to stand up.

“What do you mean, mistress?” he asked.

“I will show you,” she said and twirled around, almost dancing out of the room with giddy steps.

Karon followed her while rubbing at the back of his head where he had struck the wall.

“I think I know what this is leading up to,” the voice noted dryly.

Karon jerked his head and stopped, then quickly resumed his pace behind his mistress. The voice had not spoken now for what must have been at least a week, other than to drop some nonsensical comment every now and then in what Karon suspected was some form of humor.

“I was starting to wonder if you were just a dream, after all; mistress said you probably were when I told her about you.”

“It was better I kept my presence minimal while she was... paying attention to you so closely. Besides, you didn't catch that flash of fear in her eyes when you mentioned my existence.”

“Don't insult mistress! She doesn't fear anything!”

“She fears losing you.”

Karon nearly stumbled when the voice said that, and he couldn't quite suppress a smile, nor the heat flushing his cheeks in what he assumed must have been a blush.

“You think so?”

“Oh please stop, you're gonna make me vomit. Now focus, because what is about to happen in the next few minutes are going to be very important.”

“What is going to happen? Do you know where we are going?”

“No, but I suspect what we are heading towards.”

“What is that?”

“A hungry existence.”

The voice disappeared after that once more, its presence absent in the way Karon knew signaled its withdrawal from his consciousness. He continued following his mistress, pondering what the voice could mean as he went. They had walked down to the ground floor, continuing past the entrance and down the corridor, eventually arriving at the grand room where Timor was lounging in one of the couches, and Maeror was sitting in his usual seat in a corner with a book in his lap.

His mistress paid them no attention, and instead continued further inside, opening a gray metal door that Karon knew lead down to the dungeons, one of which he'd been staying in when he first began his mistress' training.

They arrived at that same cell, and Karon swallowed the knot in his throat. Surely she didn't mean to send him back there? If so, it would mean she was finished with him, or had to start over. But she had said it was time to finish his training.

Dolor opened the door, and as she entered a single blue crystal, halfway shoved into the roof above started to shine. Karon had never seen the crystal before, but his attention was immediately drawn to the figure chained to the wall.

It was bi-pedal, with two arms and two legs, but that was where the similarities ended. The creature had a long snout, and two tiny black eyes that looked faceted from the way the light shone down upon them. A short and shaggy fur covered it from head to toe, and both hands and legs ended in padded claws, longer than Karon somehow knew was usual, but still far from being fingers.

It was wearing some short of short tunic, white with patterns of green and indigo crisscrossing over the chest. As soon as Dolor entered, it started chirping in a strange way, and it was only after a few seconds that Karon realized that the weird rhythm it followed wasn't just sounds; it was a language. It was trying to say something.

“Here is your final test, my sweet,” Dolor said and motioned towards the chained creature.

“Careful.”

“What do you wish of me, mistress?” Karon asked.

Dolor leaned in close, the red streaks in her eyes shining stronger than he had ever seen.

“I want you to eat him,” Dolor whispered, her smile huge and hungry.

Karon frowned, then looked at the creature, then turned to the racks of sharp instruments of torture hanging on the walls. He took one step towards them, then Dolor grabbed his arm.

“No, my sweet, not like that. I want you to eat... all of him.”

“All?” Karon asked with a confused look.

“His life, his spirit, his mind... his soul,” she said to him.

Karon did not know if the creature could understand them, or if it was just making assumption from their tone and body language, but it started trashing hard against its chains.

“How?” Karon asked.

“It is easy, my sweet; you have been training for this for nearly eight months now,” Dolor whispered in his ear.

“Do not do it.”

“What!?”

“Fail; if you do this, we will be cursed. We will live a life far more pained than anything we have been forced to endure before.”

“I will not fail mistress!”

“If you do this, you will fail yourself.”

“Tell me how?” Karon whispered, shaking his head to get rid of the voice.

“Just remember, and feel. Remember the pain, how you longed for it to end, and then how you longed for it to never end. Feel it, search the deepest part of yourself, at your core,” she whispered.

Inside of Karon, he became aware of a wound. A gnarled, ghastly thing of twisting hunger, hanging above the amber light of his being's heart.

“Remember how it felt to stand on the mountain, and look down on the strange land. Watching the movement, the life of the creatures down there. Feel how you longed to reach out to them. Then remember how you longed for me to reach out to you, when you believed I had abandoned you, how you yearned for me. Feel it.”

More wounds twisted to the words, wailing in soundless hunger, screaming to be fed and ravage everything.

“Remember the emptiness, the lack of everything as hope slipped away, and all that remained was your pain, your own pain.”

Karon fell down on his knees, clutching at his heart, trying to reach into his true heart as it found itself surrounded by holes, empty spaces inside his very being.

“Then remember as I took you back, and showed you pleasure. Feel the hunger, as I raised you up, further without ever letting you go, without ever letting you feel release. Always there was more, without end. Remember, and feel.”

Karon couldn't control it, couldn't suppress it. The wounds wailed louder than anything, not with sound but with hunger. Yawning endlessly deep.

“Now, feel the hunger, and let it feel you!”

At that moment, Karon understood. He was the heart, the core, the very center of his being. The place were all he was came together in a weave of life. He understood, and he opened his heart. Then the hunger rushed in.

He fell down on the floor, his back arching itself far enough to almost break. He tried to scream but there was no sound that could hold what he was experiencing within it. In his heart, wounds cracked open. Putrefying, sickening wounds opening in the heart of all that he was.

It was a part of him now, the wounds, the hunger... and it could never leave.

It wanted to suck all life and light out of him, but the heart knew, Karon knew, it could devour all he was and still never be sated. Karon was not endless, he was just one life. The hunger was without end, it needed more.

What was inside was not enough; only that which was outside would do. It was endless, the universe, the life and death and energy, and the hunger felt it, and wanted it all.

Karon opened his eyes, and they fell upon the helpless creature chained to the wall.

He rose from the floor slowly. The creature had stopped moving, only staring at him with bleak horror in its eyes. It was only when Karon took his first step towards it that it started screaming, thrashing against the chains holding it back, screaming in a desperate voice.

“Spare me!” it cried.

Karon did not listen to it, only to the hunger.

“STOP!” the voice inside roared, forcing Karon to halt. “We cannot do this; it is not too late! There is always a way, as long as we do not take this final step. Don't do it!”

“So...”

“We have a choice!”

“So... hungry.”

“Don't!!”

It was a simple thing; Karon just let it happen. The hunger was a part of him, and all he needed to do was to open his heart, his wounded, screaming heart, and the hunger took over.

Nothing rushed forward towards the creature, but everything was drawn from it. It wailed one final time, as its life and mind, its heart, soul and spirit were torn away. It flowed into Karon's heart, the wounds the only path, and he felt all of it.

It was pleasure, absolute ecstasy beyond anything he had ever felt, anything it had ever been possible for him to feel. Life itself flooded into him, torn into pieces and made unsullied, filling his heart with the light of life. Energy crackled around him with loud booms of thunder, striking the walls as Dolor danced in glee, screaming and laughing.

And then, Karon could see, as the very soul of the creature was torn to pieces, and fed his hunger. Every moment the creature had ever experienced flashed before Karon's eyes. All it had ever known became him, all it had ever been or could be, became a part of Karon's heart. And with a final wrench of power, Karon's senses expanded and energy exploded within him.

A soul, a thing of eternity, immortal, and weaved from the foundation of all. He had devoured it.

Slowly, Karon focused his attention outward. And the first thing he saw, as shivers of raw pleasure ran like constant currents throughout his entire body, was Dolor's eyes looking back into his own.

“You are done, my sweet. You are now truly mine, and I will be yours... you can now have me.”

There was no thought, only action, and Karon met Dolor's lips with a hunger he now could understand perfectly. He could feel her own wounds, the gaping holes in her being. And he hungered for it, but not in the way he had hungered for the creature.

He tore off her dress, and she did the same to his robes. And together they clung to each other, lowering themselves down on the cold floor, where Karon's own blood had flowed freely countless times. And there they joined as one, their moans of pleasure echoing in the dungeon, as two sightless eyes of a now-withered corpse stared out at them, empty, of everything.

Dark Roots (Part 5)

Karon breathed in the night air deeply, tasting the traces of life traveling the winds. He opened his eyes and watched the stars twinkling above him; only, they weren't twinkling distantly anymore, instead they burned with an almost painful intensity. He felt their light, so powerful as to stretch out over an almost incomprehensible distance, only to reach him as he stood basking in that power, the warm rays soaking every inch of his skin.

He knew that if he wanted to, he could reach out through that light, all the way back to its source, and feed on it. He could also sense, through the echoes in that light, that it would burn him into nothingness to try, that the power would be too great for him to absorb. For the moment. Perhaps, in time, he would grow strong enough to eat a star.

Who knew that damnation came with such a fuzzy feeling in the stomach?

More than just the starlight, all things around him shone vibrant with the energy it carried within itself. Karon understood that he had always been sensitive to that emission, that subtle vibration trickling out like the pulses of a beating heart. But now, now he could almost taste the echoes of the blood it pumped. He bathed in the life, the bloodstream of the universe and all things around him, and the only thing he needed to do was reach out and drink from it.

Of course, it was made simpler by the fact of where he was standing. Where before the forest had been a collection of tormented trees, strung up magically and made to exist in a twilight between life and death so Maeror and his spawn could feed on their roots indefinitely, now those tortured wails sounded like the buzzing of gnats next to a flood. The absolute immenseness of the universe the roots had grown throughout, touching on places Karon could not even fathom, was more than he could process properly. So he was left standing where he was, basking in awe with his newly-acquired awareness.

Time was irrelevant, there was no sun to intrude upon the shroud of night, and no cycles in the environment to pay any heed to. It was a frozen, everlasting orgy, a feast of the souls of creation, and Karon gorged on it with a look of bliss upon his face.

“So we didn't just turn into a soul eater, but also a crappy poet?”

Karon turned his attention inwards, and found a working of energies that could rival part of the universe in its complexity. But for all that, there was nothing alien that didn't belong to be found, as far as he could tell.

“How many times do I have to repeat this? I am not some invading spirit, I am YOU.”

“Then you are a very annoying part of me. Leave me to my pleasures.”

“I know you’re kinda high on... well, everything, but at least try and get off your high horse before you hurt yourself.”

“Leave me. I want to enjoy this.”

“Whatever, just know that this little honeymoon of yours won't last. There's a balance to everything, and a price for everything to keep that balance. And baby, did you ever just rock this boat.”

The presence of the voice faded, leaving only the sensation of drowning in life's energies. Karon had just barely begun to feel as if though there was a pattern in the flow, like the steady rhythm of a truly beating heart, when he felt a presence appear out of nothingness just a few feet behind him.

“Timor,” Karon said out loud, an undertone of disgust clear in his voice.

“You will show respect when speaking to me, trickster,” Timor hissed. “Or have you forgotten how many times I chased you down in these woods and had you at my mercy?”

“And somehow I am still here,” Karon replied with a smirk.

“Because I allowed you to live!”

“Because you're a coward, and too afraid of Dolor to disobey no matter how much you hate me. I could attack you right here and now, and you still wouldn't kill me, since she would punish you for it. However, should I kill you...”

Karon didn't finish the sentence, and Timor's enraged hiss was all that was needed to voice the truth they both knew. Of the two of them, there was only one Dolor actually cared about.

“There can be only one!”

The sound of Timor's hissing increased, until Karon finally turned around and faced the soul-eater, still smirking.

“Empty sounds,” he said simply, then walked past the furious creature without sparing him a second glance.

After taking a few steps Karon felt Timor's presence disappear once more, melting into the forest's energies effortlessly. He continued to walk on, certain that there would be no unexpected attack, no spear sinking itself into him without warning.

If there was one thing he was certain of, it was that Timor was a coward, and would never go against Dolor's wishes, despite that she had cut her ties with him.

It was sad, almost, to see a creature clinging to hope the way Timor did. Somewhere deep down, he thought that she might take him back, if only he proved himself, or was patient, or whatever his delusional mind whispered when despair crept up on him.

“Yes, it is sad seeing someone make himself into a slave without realizing it.”

Karon snorted. “I know what you are trying to imply, and it isn't even remotely close to the truth.”

“You are wrong if you think we are so different from Timor.”

“I am all the things he could not be.”

“All that which you think you have while he does not doesn't really matter, though, if it all goes away with the simple changing of Dolor's whims. You are what he is now; tied up in her strings willingly.”

“His service to her comes from desperation; mine comes from love.”

“Is it truly your love, then, or merely something carefully planted there by Dolor?”

“My love, obviously. I am feeling it.”

“Are you? How can it be that you truly love her, if that does not stem from who and what you are?”

“And who exactly am I if not this person speaking to you, telling you that I truly and honestly love my mistress?”

“I can tell you what you're not.”

“I'm waiting with bated breath.”

“A pet.”

Karon scowled, then clenched his teeth and ignored the voice. It soon disappeared once more, leaving only a faint sensation of smugness, which made Karon clench his teeth all the harder.

He thought of his mistress, and felt how his mood instantly lightened. A faint smile came to his face as he remembered the feeling of her smooth skin underneath his fingertips, and her dry and cracked lips upon his. There was a ferocity to her, as they laid with one another, that he couldn't quite place, since it was so overwhelming and very unlike the image he had of his mistress. But he had enjoyed it all the more for it.

He had woken up just a few hours ago, right next to her in the room they now shared. The black satin sheets reflecting the faint light from the golden crystals embedded in the ceiling, highlighting the curves of her body, and the steady rise and fall of her chest with every breath. He could have spent an eternity simply watching her.

Why hadn't he?

Karon stopped, a look of confusion on his face. He couldn't remember why he had left her side and gone out into the forest. He tried to retrace the steps his mind had made, to find whatever thought had spurred him to venture into the forest, but he couldn't.

He had enjoyed it immensely, to stand in that swirling concentration of energy from all the corners of the universe. It had filled him with a joy so sharp and crisp in its sensation he didn't know if there was even a word for it, but he knew as he thought back that it wasn't the promise of that sensation that had brought him outside.

He shook his head a few times and took a deep breath, steadying himself and focusing his mind. For all the blissful sensations that had come with his new state as a soul-eater, there had been a lot of confusion in the beginning, as he was forced to suddenly deal with having more than just one form of life inside of him.

He hadn't just eaten a bit of the ‘Derk'ahjin’, as the creature he had devoured was called. It was no echo, no vague imprint he had absorbed, but all it had been, and in a way, it still existed within Karon. Just as Karon.

More than once Karon caught himself thinking in the language, and the mindset of Silch of the Derk'ahjin. Karon was no longer just Karon, he was a merged being, and separating his own experiences from those of Silch had been difficult. The memories from both individuals were just as strong, just as valid in their own rights.

It made for a hell of a question of identity, Karon mused, as he started walking towards the manor again. And it was made all the more complex since much of Karon's earlier life was a mystery to him, taking the shape of muddy aches from old wounds and barely-perceivable impulses, based in a reasoning left from events he couldn't even recall.

Perhaps it was best to simply abandon all attempts at consolidating a distinction, between who he had been, and who he now was. Between Karon and Silch, and all the other creatures he would eventually devour over the course of his life. After all, he was a soul-eater now, and it wasn't a far stretch of the imagination to think that the rules were different for his kind.

He scratched his chin thoughtfully, and felt the energy of his surroundings shift as he approached the eye of the storm of souls that was the manor, as all the energy circled around it like a drain, only to flow in and be devoured.

In the end, such questions could only be answered through many, many years of living as one. Or, more practically, to simply ask Dolor. Despite that she had announced that Karon's training was over, he knew she still had much to teach him, especially now.

Karon's mouth twitched downwards as he realized that the voice had been right; the honeymoon period wouldn't last. Karon had questions that needed answering, and the blind happiness he was bathing in would have to be put aside a little to allow for them.

The thick forest fell away as he stepped out into the clearing surrounding the manor, golden light shining in through the windows with a softly beckoning call, promising warmth  and comfort.

“Like the flame to catch moths, or something a little more substantial,” Karon thought with a wry smirk.

“I bet that somewhere, somehow, there is at least one person that thinks we're not a complete asshole. And that person is probably retarded.”

As soon as Karon got within a few steps range from the door, it opened and one of the silver-masked servants stood holding it in silence.

Dolor had told Karon that there were four of them in total, and that they had been what was left after being almost completely drained of their souls. Only the most rudimentary functions still remained, but in essence, they were dead inside, and only useful as puppet slaves.

Karon ignored the servant and went down the right hallway, making his way forward until he reached his and Dolor's room on the second floor. He went inside, but found the bed where he had left Dolor empty. He sighed and reached out with his senses, quickly enough finding Dolor's presence down in the main room, together with Maeror.

For a second, Karon considered the fact that Dolor didn't seem to be aware of him reaching out for her, and once again it became more and more obvious that being a soul-eater didn't mean becoming just like every other soul-eater there was. He was far more sensitive to the energies around him than either Dolor or Timor had ever showed themselves being. Although, it was impossible to guess at the extent of Maeror's abilities.

Karon shuddered at the thought of the man; or rather, creature. He focused on the presence next to his mistress, feeling the power burning so intense that he instinctively drew away his mind to keep it from being damaged. Whatever Maeror had once been, he was now more akin to a force of nature than anything else. Merciless, unfeeling and beyond caring about anything else but his hunger.

Karon turned his head to the left, and his eyes fell upon Promise leaning against the wall in the far corner. He hadn't communicated with the spirit inside the spear since the transition, since he became a soul-eater. It was hard to explain, but deep down it felt like he had somehow failed the spear, or maybe something else, and letting the spear see what he had done and hearing its judgment would unleash a gate that he wouldn't be able to close.

He snorted at the thought; he shouldn't have to fear anything, not anymore, not with what he'd become and the support of his mistress. He forced himself to walk over to the spear and yanked it off the wall.

The spirit inside reached out to him instantly, then shied away momentarily in confusion when it actually felt him.

“Master... is that you?” it asked, the voice trembling.

“Yes. Is something wrong?” Karon asked back with as much nonchalance he could muster.

“What has she done with you...?”

“Given me a gift,” Karon answered with a hint of anger.

“Master, you don't understand... I can feel you, the very heart of you... it's wounded. It screams in pain.”

“I feel better than ever before, Promise. You're mistaken.”

“It's because you have stolen life, master; I can feel it pulsating inside your heart. It is a part of you now, but it won't last. It hasn't healed you; it only hides the pain.”

“Is that reproach I hear? I thought you were supposed to be my loyal servant.”

The spirit inside the spear flickered with uncertainty, the energy blossoming in its aura and spreading, until it looked like emotional fireworks were going off inside of it. The spirit was barely holding itself together.

“I serve you, master, and I always will. But there is much you don't understand because you don't remember. You have forgotten who you are.”

“I know who I am. I am Karon the soul-eater, lover and companion of the great soul-eater Dolor.”

“There is much more inside your heart than just wounds, master.”

“You are the second one to question that I know who I am today, and I am getting tired of it.”

“Who else has questioned you, master?” the spirit asked with surprise, then he felt her mind prod him deeper, until it found something deep down, outside of his consciousness, answering it.

Karon noted with surprise that something similar to a shiver rippled through the spirit's mind, then for just a few seconds, it felt like a dialogue happened inside of Karon's mind, but outside of his ability to comprehend. It occurred with the speed of thought, and after it was done Karon was left with the suspicion that 'the voice' and Promise had been in communication below his own ability to grasp.

“What just happened, Promise?”

“Nothing important, master; I was just worried, and wanted to make sure that everything was alright with you.”

“And is it?” Karon asked without hiding the suspicion he felt.

“Not yet, master, but soon.”

“Answer me truthfully, Promise. I order you to tell me what you just did.”

“I am telling the truth, I serve master and would never do anything to threaten or undermine you. I will always look after your interests, no matter what.”

“Even if you think I am not actually serving my own interests because you think I don't know who I am?” Karon asked, not buying her answer, and he got the sense that if Promise had had a body it would have been smiling in response.

“Of course, master; I am ever loyal to you, and would not allow myself to betray you out of trickery or deceit.”

“Even if you thought that was self-deceit?”

“Yes, master, I would.”

For a moment, a short moment, the hunger inside of Karon rose in response to his increasing anger. It built alongside it with a yawning greedy desire, asking to devour the impertinent spirit and be done with it once and for all.

With some difficulty, Karon managed to suppress the desire, and was left sweating with exertion.

His face showed shock at just how hard that had been, how strong and almost overpowering the hunger had grown. It had been a thing of instinct, and it left a worrisome thought in its wake: what if he couldn't control it?

“Master?” Promise asked with worry in its voice. It didn't know what had nearly just happened, but it had felt that something had been going on with him.

“I'm alright, Promise, just... stop trying to look after what you think is my real interests. How many times have you told me you have no will but mine? Aren't you supposed to exist only as an extension of my desires, and with no will and identity of your own?"

“Everything changes, master, and it seems we all have a destiny that carries us, even if we don't want one,” the spirit replied sadly, but didn't elaborate.

Karon sighed, then went over to the bed and sat down on the edge while laying the spear across his knees.

“Then tell me, Promise, since you claim to know so much about me: who am I?”

“I can't tell you, master; but being wounded doesn't make you a wound.”

“Wise words that, in the end don’t mean anything,” Karon scoffed, then got up from the bed and leaned the spear back against the wall in the corner.

“I am your servant, master, not a teacher. I am sorry I can't be of more use for you,” the spirit managed to transfer before Karon cut the connection, and went out the door, slamming it shut behind him a little harder than was necessary.

He pondered what had just happened as he proceeded on the path down to the grand room where Dolor was. It seemed that there had been some short communication between that ever-annoying voice, and Promise. And they both had questioned his ability to understand who he was.

It seemed a stupid thing to question now that he wasn't bothered with their incessant intrusions into his mind. He knew who he was, he felt what he felt and thought what he thought; why the need to question it?

The answer was obvious: they thought they knew something he didn't. Always with the subtle, and not so subtle, hints of knowing who he really was, of possessing knowledge of a past that was denying his attempts at recollection.

There were those small flashes, but they were muddy, and for all Karon knew his imagination might be substituting for the missing pieces.

The real question, Karon realized as he was heading down the staircase, wasn’t if he knew who he was, but if the past really mattered in the end?

“No,” Karon answered himself out loud. “It doesn't.”

He continued his way forward down the hallways, flanked on both sides by the many paintings of Dolor's failures, and their last moments of complete agony.

He was where he was supposed to be, where he wanted to be, with the one he loved. The past didn't matter; that was another Karon from another time. He was something new now, reborn through Dolor's teachings. A better self.

He passed by the entrance and eventually reached the end of the hallway, turning right and coming out into the grand room with the great bookcases, filled with tomes that Maeror always seemed to be reading in his lone corner. Except now, as Karon walked in he saw Maeror himself standing up next to Dolor, who was sitting down in one of the sofas with one leg draped over the other.

She lifted her head and smiled a bright full smile when she saw Karon walk into the room, waving him over and patting on the seat next to her.

Karon went over and sat down to her left, careful to avoid looking Maeror in the eyes, afraid of just what he would be seeing with his newfound awareness.

"Hello, my sweet,” Dolor said as she looked Karon in the eyes, her own shining with barely-constrained eagerness. "Today, something very special is going to happen!"

“What will happen?” Karon asked, doing his best to ignore Maeror's presence.

Dolor squealed in delight, grabbing his face with both hands and pulling it against hers until their noses touched, filling Karon’s vision with red-streaked orange eyes brimming with excitement.

“You will gain your name!” she exclaimed, her voice almost hysterical with glee.

Karon blinked in confusion. “I thought I already had a name,” he said, not quite managing to hold back the sarcasm from his tone.

“Yes,” Dolor said and released the grip on his head, her mouth twisting for a moment in consternation. “It caused us some difficulty, since the name you hold is actually a true Name. But the conversion into our kind touches into the very center of our beings, and now that you've had enough time to form a sense of stability in your new existence, I think you are ready to know who you truly are, and be named.”

Karon's heart skipped a beat when he heard her say the words 'who you truly are', and immediately what both 'the voice' and Promise had said to him echoed in his mind. But he swallowed the fear and shook off the memories, drawing comfort from Dolor's presence, even though it was sullied a bit by Maeror standing right next to them.

“Well?” Dolor asked, cocking her head. “Are you ready?”

Karon twitched, but tried to hide it with a shrug of his shoulders. “I see no point in waiting,” he replied simply.

“Then stand, my sweet. This is the final step, and then you are remade.”

Karon obeyed and rose from his seat. Dolor did the same and went to stand right behind Maeror, looking at Karon expectantly with her hands clasped together.

Slowly, Maeror's pitch black eyes came into focus, like he had been lost in the sea of all the souls he carried within himself, and settled on Karon. There was no real way to describe the feeling that came over him as met the gaze from those two dark orbs, but it chilled Karon to the bone. There was something in them, besides all that raw power and endless hunger, that twisted his heart and made him want to curl up in a dark corner and cry.

The raggedy old man, the grayed hair clinging to his head in greasy stripes, opened his mouth and spoke, his voice carrying like an echo, as if originated from a great distance.

“I am Maeror, and as I was remade, and as I remade Dolor and she in turn Timor, you have been broken and finally wounded, and now stand as one of our family. It is my gift, and my existence you have been brought into through a child of mine. You will shed what you were, and embrace us, for we are one in our hunger, and the wounds we carry bind us together.”

Maeror’s voice deepened, and Karon could feel the vast senses of the soul-eater reach out and connect with something deep and fundamental, something that sat at the very core of existence. Karon realized, on some instinctual level, that what Maeror was doing was deeply forbidden, for he wasn't invited into it, and that somehow, somewhere, that had to be noticed by someone.

He was looking into what was simplified as destiny, the very reasoning of what had spawned Karon's existence, and saw how Karon's wounding had changed it.

“As it began from me, and I became Maeror, the sorrowful father, and I broke and remade Dolor, the tortured daughter, and she in turn remade Timor, the fearful hunter, so you too are now remade, and named: Mendax Karon Bellum, the vulture of war and deceit.”

There was something final in the words, and Karon knew that Maeror was actually not speaking them, but merely transferring the meaning. A ringing like a great bell struck inside Karon's mind, forcing him to his knees and driving out the air from his lungs as the power behind those three words, his Name, struck him to his core.

He recovered in time to hear Dolor's shrill voice cry out in protest. “That can't be right! Father, you must have made a mistake. How can he still be Karon? How can it be a part of him?!”

Karon looked up to see Dolor facing her father with anguish etched into every part of her features, while Maeror faced her with the same apathetic stare he always wore, through a small frown of worry creased his forehead.  

“I have made no mistake; he is who he is. If you do not like what he has become, then that is your failure, daughter, and he is your flawed creation.” Without another word he turned around and left her standing with her emotions, went to his usual seat in the corner, pulled up a tome and started reading.

Karon waited for his mistress to acknowledge him, and when she finally did, she fell down on her knees in front of him and cradled his head in her hands, forcing a kiss on his lips and then speaking softly while she wagged back and forth with his head pushed hard against her chest.

“It is alright, my sweet,” she said lovingly. “Everything will be fine.”

Karon didn't understand why she was so upset, but no matter the confusion, he couldn't help but sense that she was speaking in denial. A fact he did his best to ignore, and it soon became easy as Dolor started kissing him, guiding him up on his feet once more before pushing him down on the sofa and taking his clothes off with desperate, jerking motions, ignoring Maeror's presence scant meters away.

Karon didn't object, and soon lost himself in the feeling of her dry soft skin on his, until they both laid exhausted, holding each other with a pained need Karon didn't understand. A certain wooziness lingered from when the power of his naming had asserted itself, and coupled with the fatigue from Dolor's ferocious lovemaking, he found himself drifting off, until eventually sleep took him.

                          **************************************************

He was standing in a great forest, not unlike the one outside the mansion. Old gnarled trees were grown tall and strong, stretching out bent and twisted branches to cover the space above him like a roof, blotting out whatever sky hid above.

Even so, there was an unknown source of light originating from somewhere that made sure that there was a subtle illumination to everything. Which, unlike the forest outside the mansion, made the trees visible as dark brown, with gold and red leaves blanketing the forest ground as well as coloring the living roof above.

Karon looked around himself, and saw the same thing everywhere he looked. But the forest trees weren't scattered randomly like an ordinary forest, instead they stood in thickets until a path broke between them, like great hallways leading from where he stood.

“Well, well. Went full-on emo, did you, cutting yourself to see if you can still feel? Or did you just want attention?”

Karon spun around and was met by the sight of the same bare-chested, leather pants-wearing stranger that had once visited him before. He was smiling a crooked smile, suspended cross-legged in the air while chewing on an blood red apple, juice dribbling visibly down his chin.

“Loke,” Karon whispered.

The man's eyebrows rose. “You remember me?” he said archly.

“I... no, I—” Karon stuttered, shaking his head violently.

Loke snorted, which turned into a chuckle. His legs straightened and his feet settled down upon the ground as he walked towards Karon, taking a last bite out of the apple before it promptly disappeared into thin air.

“You seem to have a bit of an issue with confusion; how very sad. Let me make it even worse for you.”

Loke closed the last distance between them, and before Karon got a chance to react Loke reached out and slapped him hard enough to send him flying in the air. He landed heavily on the ground, and a fraction of a second later Loke's face blurred into view above him, looking down with a grin as he spoke.

“That was a gift from me, a thing of instinct passed down through the bond you and I share. You see, the sad daddy soul eater has a family line, and the blood of that line, the DNA of the spirit that it passes down tried to make you a part of it. However it couldn't, since you already belong to a line, a passing-down of things. This is one of those things. But it's not a thing that can be taught through words and teachings, only done through the instinct of what you are driven to do. So enjoy. Among all the other things, you are now a dreamwalker.”

The face disappeared in a blur of movement, and Karon sat up to see Loke standing down one of the forest passages, waving frantically while jumping up and down.

“Just remember, Mendax Karon Bellum, that truth stands the test of time while all else fades away. Just something to keep you afloat, as you start to really wonder what is and what isn't true. And do try and be careful with walking in dreams; we wouldn't want you to lose touch with reality and go insane, now would we?” he finished with a laugh, then turned around and ran down the passage.

“Wait!” Karon shouted and got up on his feet, setting off in pursuit.

It didn't take long running down the passage of trees before Karon realized that Loke was gone. One moment he had been running in front of him, and the next he was gone, leaving Karon alone in the forest.

“Damn,” he muttered, slowing down to a halt.

He turned and look back, then looked forwards again and furrowed his brow. “Where the hell am I, anyway?!” he shouted, throwing his hands in the air.

The last thing he remembered was that he'd fallen asleep on the couch in the grand room, lying right next to Dolor. He turned around and looked back the way he had come from, and thought of Dolor, her musty scent, like that of decaying leaves, and her soft and dry skin pressed against him.

“Wherever I am, the key to getting back should be at the start,” he mumbled, and started walking back again, but he only managed to take one step before everything around him blurred, and he found himself standing in a grassy field.

It was shadowed in dark blue and grays, illuminated by three moons in the sky, showing the plains stretching out as far as the eye could see, only sporadically broken by small hills and small clusters of trees in the distance.

“Great, now I'm definitely lost,” Karon sighed, then his eyes caught a light in the distance to his right, coming from the window of what looked like a small cottage.

With no better destination in sight, he started on a path towards the picturesque dwelling, a soft summer breeze sending ripples across the fields, early morning dew reflecting moonlight like tiny pinpricks of crystal.

It was a soothing place he found himself in, and even though his head was scrambling to grasp at even one logical explanation of where he was, the ignorance didn't bother him very much at the moment. There was no immediate danger, and although Loke's sudden appearance, and just as sudden disappearance, had struck a warning bell, there was nothing at the moment to threaten him.

Loke. He knew the name, knew that it belonged to a very powerful, and even more so shrewd, being. And he knew that Loke was also important to him. Not because he cared about him—when Karon thought of the name the only feeling it invoked was that of annoyance and mistrust—but somewhere deep down, he knew that Loke was an important factor in his life.

“No, had been. No more,” Karon had to correct himself out loud.

He was getting closer to the cottage, able to make out the logs that made up its walls, and the dirt patched roof with grass growing on top.

Karon’s thoughts drifted to the spirit, Promise. He had listened as it had regaled him of what presumably was the adventures of his old life, telling of distant worlds, traveling alongside the spear, and some other companion Promise assured was of little importance.

It told him what sounded a lot like skewed hogwash and the prattle of a spirit that obviously idolized its 'master', yet it had never once mentioned Loke. No, that had come from... somewhere else.

Karon finally reached the front door of the cottage, and was about to knock when he heard a quiet sob slip out from the cracked window. Eyes narrowing, he lowered himself and sneaked towards the window, keeping against the wall, and peeked carefully to see what waited inside.

It was a bloodbath. Cheap wooden furniture in front of a fireplace now stood covered in blood, and other remains of what must have been an animal, perhaps a dog or some other guardian creature, a lot of patches of fur sticking to the surfaces as blood and other substances dripped from it.

There was a figure standing in the middle of the room, dressed in a black shirt and pants, long gray hair hanging in strips almost all the way to the man's waist. Two humans stood huddled on their knees before him, their tear-streaked faces staring up at him in soundless horror.

‘Maeror,’ Karon thought, instantly recognizing him, even though he looked different, younger.

Between the two adult humans there sat a smaller, younger figure. Dressed in a dirty nightdress, with equally dirty brown hair, cradling her head against her mother’s side while shivering visibly.

The kneeling man said something Karon didn't understand, but the tone he spoke in said he was begging for mercy, asking the black-dressed stranger to spare them. In response, Maeror laughed a horribly empty laugh lacking all traces of pity or compassion.

The family all whimpered as one beneath the promise of that laugh, and it ended in a final scream as suddenly, a stream of light rushed out of the two adults. It lasted only for a few seconds, and then, they were dead.

‘No, worse than dead,’ Karon thought. ‘Empty.’

Two now-drained corpses sat huddled together, cradling their daughter in a mummified embrace. Maeror stood shaking, his eyes closed and a grin of ecstasy on his lips, while the child wept loudly, refusing to look up and see what had become of her parents.

The rush of the life seeping out into Maeror's every cell receded eventually, and he opened his eyes with a delighted shudder; and then his gaze fell on the child. He slowly got down on his knees and tilted his head. There was a glint of interest in the man's eyes, but otherwise there was no flash of hunger or the sharp focus of a predator. For the moment, Maeror was sated.

“Look at me, child,” he said to her in a low voice, barely reaching over the sound of her weeping.

She didn't respond in any way, only clinging to the dry corpse of her mother tighter until her hands turned white.

“Look at me, child!” Maeror roared, the newly-added power amplifying his voice easily, making the window Karon looked through shake.

The child squealed with fear as the force of the roar burred into her, but it only made her shake her head as if she tried to shut away everything else but the dress she clung to. Losing his patience, Maeror reached out and grabbed her head, forcing her to turn her face towards him. She screamed briefly, but then fell silent, for as soon as Maeror met the gaze of the child, he released his hold on her and fell back on the floor, an expression of disbelief on his face as his mouth formed words but no sound came out, until eventually, a single word came out in a whisper. “Ophelia...?”

The child didn't respond, her brown eyes big and terror-stricken as she withered under the gaze of her parents’ murderer.

“No... not Ophelia,” Maeror muttered, his eyes growing distant as if speaking to himself.

The child cried silently, her pale face growing slightly blue, not daring to even breathe.

Maeror growled and reached out to grab the child's collar, tearing her away from the corpses and lifting her into the air as he stood up. The child's breath came out in shaking sobs, her eyes brimming with tears, and snot running out of her nose, yet unable to take her eyes off the stranger.

Maeror stood silent, his gaze searching for something as he watched the child. Finally, he nodded slowly, as if to himself, then put the child down on the floor and forced her head to turn to her parent's corpses.

“Look, child, look!” he said to her, grasping her jaw with one hand and her eyelids with the other, making her unable to turn away or close her eyes to the sight. “Look at them, look at all there's left of them!”

There were no words to describe the sounds the child made. She had stopped squirming, and only stared at the image of the dead; the dry and fragile skin, the mouths still open in silent screams, and the bony fingers clambering to one another, shielding a figure between they were no longer able to protect.

“Do you want to see them again?” Maeror asked, almost kindly.

The child couldn't speak, couldn't form words, and so she only nodded.

“Well then, look at me,” Maeror said, and turned the child around to face him.

She didn't resist, and on the child's face Karon could see nothing but the absence of everything else but raw pain. She looked up at Maeror with her dark hazel eyes, and carefully, Maeror let go of her head and put his hands on her shoulders.

“I am your father now. All your parents were is now inside of me; they are me now, and I am them. Do you want to be with your parents? Do you love them?”

She said something, her voice cracked and beyond emotion, the language one Karon didn't understand, but the meaning was clear.

“Then come with me, and I shall teach you what it means to a part of my family,” Maeror said with a smile, extending a hand in front of the child. She didn't move for a few seconds, her face showing no emotion or thought, then slowly, she put her small hand in his.

The entire world shifted as everything turned blurry, and Karon found himself looking through the window of the cottage again, but this time he saw the two parents standing around a table preparing food of some kind, while the child sat in front of the fire, playing a game with a shaggy four-footed creature with a wide snout and a single long horn on its forehead.

Then came the sound of someone knocking on the door, and Karon turned to see Maeror standing only a few steps to his left, hunger burning in his eyes, and a crooked smile on his lips.

Karon looked back through the window, and saw the two adults inside give one another quick looks of surprise, before the man hurried over to the door and opened it slightly. Maeror said something quietly, in a pleading voice, and the man opened the door slowly, allowing Maeror to step inside.

A thought struck Karon, and with it came an understanding. “I'm just dreaming,” he said quietly, then he turned his gaze to the child sitting in front of the fire, the animal beside her staring at Maeror and making a threatening noise of suspicion.

“No, I'm not the one dreaming,” he said, as an afterthought, and the world seemed to ripple with the understanding as he thought back to what Loke had said.

‘Dreaming, and remembering,’ Karon thought as he watched the child Dolor once had been, and felt himself begin to slip away from the dream. The last thing he saw was Maeror grin as the animal pounced upon him, just before the screaming started.

       *******************************************************************

Karon opened his eyes and found Dolor quietly breathing right next to him, her face serene despite what she was dreaming. Because Karon knew that what he had just seen was a dream, Dolor's dream, and a memory as well.

A flicker of anger made its way across his features as he thought of what he had seen inside Dolor's mind. It was obvious she had not been aware of his presence, and so had not thought to shield anything from him, letting him see her in a way Karon suspected she would not have wanted him to. But that was not the reason for his anger; no, it was what he had seen of Maeror that made him clench his jaw and ball his hands into fists.

He had hurt Dolor, his mistress, caused her such pain that even now, centuries later, she still dreamt of that moment. He had hurt her for his own selfish designs; though with a frown Karon had to admit that he didn't know what exactly they were. Regardless, he had torn her away from her family to make her a part of his own, and the thought of Maeror making Dolor do anything against her will was enough to make Karon's blood boil.

“Yeah, because tormenting someone to the point of breaking and then remaking them into 'family' is something Dolor herself would never do.”

“It's different! Dolor did what she did because she loves me, because she wanted to teach me and I was too naïve and stupid to see things as they are.”

“Stupid and naïve, yeah, but you are ever more so now. Of all the things you are and can do, you can most assuredly not see.”

“It is different,” Karon insisted.

“Yes of course, because the minute Dolor laid her eyes on you it was love at first sight, not just whatever it is called when a cat sees a new toy to play with.”

“I am no toy, Dolor loves me.”

“She loves you the way a child loves her doll, and Dolor plays rough.”

“Shut up!”

Karon got up from the couch and jerked his clothes back on, his movement angry as he forced the voice out of his consciousness. Without thinking he stalked out of the room, leaving Dolor sleeping peacefully to all appearances, and lost himself in his thoughts.

The voice was nothing but a remnant of his old self, that was a truth Karon was certain of. Some last shred of his old mind that desperately clung to the old ways of thinking and feeling, unable to cope with the new truth and joy he had discovered —no, that had been opened to him by Dolor's training.

He had to find a way to combat it, to understand the voice so he could silence it forever. But what was even more important, he realized as his nails dug into the palms of his hands, was that he found whatever weakness Maeror had.

Because nothing else truly mattered besides Dolor, and he could see now that she did not obey him because he was her father, it was because he had taken everything else away from her. He had taken her past, her real family, and even her real self from her, burned it away with pain. Karon doubted his mistress was even aware of it, but that was alright, he would be her eyes, and find a chink in Maeror's armor.

And when the time came, he would kill him.

It was the only way to truly free Dolor, to keep her safe from his influence and allow her to be as she truly were, with no fear or anything else holding her back to claim her destiny.

In the back of his mind, Karon could hear the voice laughing in irony.

            ***************************************************************

Karon sat cross-legged on the floor in his room. He had discarded his blood-red robe and sat half-naked, perspiration streaming down his chest and back. Promise was positioned in his lap, with both of Karon's hands gripping the spear lightly as the runes across the shaft glowed brightly.

“One... more time,” Karon said to the spear, the telepathic thought muddy and hard to make out, signaling just how much effort it took for Karon to formulate it.

“Are you sure, master?” the spirit sent back hesitantly.

Karon only response was a vague feeling of reassurance he sent to the spear, and he was instantly plunged into a maelstrom of memories.

He was walking through a desert, the heat of the sun hammering down on him relentlessly, driving him deeper and deeper into a state of dehydration. Ahead of him walked a bright blue equine, small and with a mane of silver shining in the sunlight bright enough to hurt his eyes if he looked directly at it. The mane itself was drenched in sweat, and from it a horn the same color as her coat pointed out, marking the creature as a unicorn.

Karon turned his head slightly to his left, and found another of the same equine race walking alongside him, though one with a more turquoise color, and the image of a lyre adorned her flank like a tattoo.

“How much longer?” she asked when she noticed Karon was looking at her.

Karon stopped, as did the equine next to him,, and he stretched out his senses, his hand reaching into his robe and grasping a rock he kept in a pocket there.

“Not long now,” he responded with a parched voice, then looked over at the blue equine continuing on her way forward. “We should stop and let Trixie summon another cloud soon, though. Wouldn't be very smart of us to arrive at the ruins completely deranged from dehydration.”

“Look on the bright side,” a voice inside of his mind spoke. “We must have gotten a wicked nice tan by now.”

Karon snorted, and saw how the equine, Lyra, nodded and looked over as the blue one gained more and more distance from them.

“That is, if her majesty the great and powerful deems herself worthy of such petty things as making sure you have water in a desert,” she said.

“Give her a break, she is trying with all this 'master' bullshit,” Karon said with a wry smile.

“Yeah, because that has nothing to do with you just wanting to see her squirm,” Lyra said with a smile to match his own.

“You know me too well, Lyra,” Karon rasped, then they both started walking again.

Karon surfaced from the memory with a gasp, finding himself even more drenched in sweat, and a curious weariness in his muscles.

“Master, please, no more! You need to rest.”

Karon was about to object, when he suddenly realized he was hunched over, bracing himself against the floor with both arms as he drew a shuddering breath. He waited a few seconds, or was it perhaps minutes, before responding.

“Fine. I need to reflect on this, anyway.”

“You've gone over more than two decades worth of memories in only a few hours. I know you are used to being able to work with memories and minds, but you must pace yourself, master. Had you attempted this before your... change, you would have gone insane from the stress.”

Karon was forced to admit that the spirit was probably right. The memories, all the knowledge he had absorbed from Silch as he devoured the creature had been structured, already formed as a mind with memories set in a complex pattern. But now Karon was forced to drag out memories from his own mind, using Promise as a relay to access what was outside of his consciousness to control. He let her into the very depths of his mind, trusting in the spirit's mistaken devotion to him, and letting her act as a mirror to reflect the memories she found inside of him.

It was very taxing to relive it all as if he were there, discovering all the things that had marked him, in body, mind and spirit. To feel the wounds that left scars he brushed with his fingertips, and experiencing emotions and thoughts he knew were his own, just belonging to a different self, of another time and place.

Perhaps it was not the memories that taxed him, Karon thought, but trying to align them with who he was now.

“Wow, you actually realized something before I had a chance to hint at it with some kind of sarcastic quip. If you continue down this road, I might find myself out of a job soon.”

“Fuck off!”

“Heh, haven't heard that in a while. Seems like old Karon is making an appearance, after all.”

“There is no old Karon, only the one I am now, Mendax Karon Bellum.”

“There's more truth to that than you realize.”

Karon growled in a half sigh and struggled to get up from the floor, throwing the spear onto the bed and ignoring the mental yelp of surprise from the spirit.

There was much that had been revealed through the recovered memories, or perhaps reclaimed was a better word. But chief among these things was the disappointing understanding that the voice wasn't just an echo of his old self seeking to turn him back; the voice had been present before Dolor had found him.

He knew the voice had something do to with Loke, as it had appeared at the same time the god started meddling in his life, his old life; but he couldn't say how and why, exactly. Perhaps that would be revealed later as he went through his memories. That was his hope, at least, as he braced himself with an arm against the wall and allowed the aftershock from the flood of memories to pass through him.

If he found what the voice was, and why it existed, he could end it.

“If you knew who and what I am, you wouldn't want to end me.”

“And why's that?” Karon thought as he rubbed the spot between his eyes, playing along.

“Because I am you.”

Karon scoffed, then went back to his earlier line of thought.

“Your memories are taxing you like this because you're struggling against the fact that they are YOUR memories.”

“It's memories of someone else, a person that is dead and replaced with someone better.”

“Really? Then why are you still Karon?”

“What kind of stupid question is that? Of course I'm Karon, I'm ME; just a different me, because Dolor has changed me.”

“That much is clear. You've never been more boring than at the moment; it's all talk, talk, talk and brooding, brooding, brooding now. But that'll change, you'll see.”

“What is it that I need to see? What is it you think I'm so blind towards?”

“Why you do what you do. It is an important question, and finding the answer will solve this entire riddle you are struggling to solve.”

“Which is?”

“Who you are.”

“I know who I am. I am Mendax Karon Bellum.”

“Yeah, but you have no idea what being that means; you spent more than a year learning the absolute basics of what meant being Karon, what being a trickster meant. But that is only what you are; now, who you are, that is even more complicated.”

“This is getting philosophical to a ridiculous degree. Why don't you just tell me what you want said and skip the foreplay?”

The voice laughed, not the bitter dry laugh Karon had heard before, but a wicked, joyful laugh filled with mirth and an edge of playfulness.

“What?!” Karon asked with an annoyed thought.

“Your old self is shining through; or real self is more accurate. You are, and remain Karon, even if there is more to your name now.”

“I've had enough of this bullshit! Dreams, memories and a god damn voice that thinks it knows everything!”

Karon went out the door, his footsteps loud as he stomped down the hallway. He sent out his senses and found Dolor down in the grand room, still sleeping if the feeling of her aura was anything to go by.

He continued until he reached the room, Dolor still on the couch sleeping peacefully. Behind her, in the far corner sat Maeror on his chair, a book in his lap and his attention firmly engrossed in it; or at least so it seemed. Karon was certain that the man—no, creature—was aware of him, and probably everything else inside the manor.

Karon swallowed nervously when he walked over to Dolor, falling down on his knees beside her. The thought was ridiculous, but there was a slight chance that the ancient soul eater was so powerful, as to be able to pluck Karon's treasonous thoughts of overthrowing him right out of his head, no matter how deeply he hid them.

But it seemed unlikely, especially since Maeror showed no sign of being aware of mutiny within his 'family'.

“Or maybe he does, and he doesn't care.”

“Why the hell would he ignore someone planning to kill him?”

“Perhaps he doesn't care because he isn't afraid. He is ancient, and very, very powerful.”

Karon suppressed a shudder. If Maeror was so powerful that he had simply moved beyond fear of a threat to his life, thinking himself too powerful for anything to kill him, Karon had reason to be worried.

“Everything has a weakness, and I will find his and exploit it.”

“Good, still thinking like a trickster.”

Karon's mouth twitched into a smile, though he couldn't say why. He reached out and stroked a hand along Dolor's cheek, his face turning into a look of tender love. The embers still burning in Karon's mind, the anger and frustration for all the unanswered questions, melted away at the feeling of Dolor's skin.

He would face all of it, without flinching, for her. He would go through all the memories of a past life, to gain answers and knowledge. And he would play as whatever pawn the god Loke thought he was, and learn how to control the ability to walk in dreams. He would do whatever it took to gain the answers and power he needed to kill Maeror.

Then Dolor would be free, and everything would be perfect.

Dolor stirred, then her eyes flickered open. She blinked a few times rapidly, then her eyes came into focus and settled on Karon, and a smile crept unto her lips.

“Mendax Karon Bellum,” she said, slowly putting emphasis on each syllable.

“That is my name,” Karon confirmed.

“I can taste war in your name, death and suffering on a grand scale, marking the souls of thousands,” she whispered with glee.

“And that makes you happy?” Karon asked.

“Of course, my sweet. All those souls, all that pain and passion unleashed as chaos shatters their lives. I can already taste it like an echo from your future, a seed planted in your spirit of what is to come.”

“Bellum,” Karon whispered, feeling the name rise to his mind in response to her words.

“Yes, and Mendax: the heart of deceit, to create a true lie, to trap a mind utterly and make it blind.”

Karon swallowed as his mind filled with visions, flashing images he couldn't piece together. And he found himself asking without meaning to, “What about Karon?”

Dolor's smile faltered, and her mouth twisted into a sour grimace. “Don't worry about that, my sweet. It is not important.”

“La lala lala, in the land of denial, lala, lala...” The voice sang.

She sat up in the sofa, gingerly grasping Karon's face with both hands, and for a second the image of Maeror doing the same to a crying child flickered disturbingly in Karon's mind.

“Your old life is not important.”

“It's one life.”

“You are home now.”

“You're lost.”

“You don't need anyone else but me.”

“She is the one that needs us.”

“You are perfect.”

“You're wounded.”

Karon resisted the urge to slap himself, keeping a straight face as the voice spoke together with every sentence Dolor uttered, denying her love, denying the truth she had brought him. She brought her head to his, gingerly kissing him, tracing her lips over his face, before coming to rest against his mouth.

“You are mine,” she whispered.

“She does not understand who or what we are. Will you put your trust in a creature that does not know what it means to be a trickster?”

Karon looked into Dolor's eyes. The streaks of red within fiery orange seemed like two angry suns bleeding, and unwillingly, the dream Karon had intruded upon came back to him, remembering the sight of two hazel eyes of an ordinary child.

“I am yours,” he repeated, burying the doubt deep within himself where it could not threaten the bond between him and his mistress.

“Then come, my sweet. Let us wander in our forest, and taste the souls and lives of our universe.”

Karon nodded, and grasped her hand as she lead him out from the manor, and into the cool embrace of the perpetual night. They walked together, their hands linked and faces bathed in starlight, devouring the echoes of events far away, captured and bleeding from screaming trees, caught in a cage that did not allow them to die.

Karon shivered, all doubts melting away beneath the waves of energy that coursed through him, all sinking into his heart through wounds that only grew hungrier the more they were feed. Love, anger, pain, regret, hope and sacrifice. A whirlwind, a storm of conflicts and battles, fought on grand scales and inside singular individuals.

And for a moment, for just the smallest fraction of a heartbeat, Karon felt something familiar within that storm, but it was lost as quickly as it had appeared.

He stopped, causing Dolor to turn her face to him with a frown as she asked, “What is the matter?”

“Nothing, I just... felt something strange.”

“There are many strange places in this universe, my sweet, and the roots of our trees stretch deep into it,” she responded with a smile.

Karon smiled back at her, but kept his thoughts hidden as they continued their walk. The source of the energy had been more than just strange, it had been intense for sure, but it'd felt...

“Familiar.”

Karon couldn't ignore the voice this time. Familiar was exactly how it had felt, like the being the energy had come from was linked to him somehow, but in what way there was no way to tell.

He couldn't remember.

                     **********************************************************

The light exploded outwards, blinding Karon's eyes and burning the last image into his retinas. Trixie, staring at him, her eyes wide and her mouth uttering his name. Then, when the image faded from his eyes, and he could see clearly again, all he could see was a burnt-out husk of a shattered tree, the smoldering stump the only thing left.

She was gone. He had lost her.

Karon tore himself out of the vision, throwing the spear away and gripping his chest with both hands. Slowly, he managed to push the wave of emotions pulling and twisting him away.

“Just memories,” he said hoarsely. “That's not who I am anymore… just memories.”

The effort to steady his breathing was enough to make his head spin, cold sweat clinging to his skin and making the air around him colder. He turned his head up and looked around the room, letting his gaze drift and not focusing on anything, little by little returning to the present.

He remembered. Not all was back yet, but even now he could feel more memories yearning to release themselves, to bring him back to a time past when he had been a different person, walking a different road. Loving someone else.

“Trix,” Karon whispered, tasting the name as his eyes came to rest on the ceiling, the dim light of the crystals comforting in a way.

For once, the voice remained silent, despite that it should be chattering away more than ever now, though Karon realized why it didn't after a few minutes; it didn't need to. Karon remembered everything, and the information was more than any snide or sarcastic words of semi-wisdom could make any sense of.

“Who am I?” he groaned out loud and cradled his face with his hands. “Mendax Karon Bellum,” he answered himself a few seconds later, and understanding began to dawn, or perhaps it was desperation.

If there was any sense to make of everything that had happened, of what he had discovered, of who he was, it was through understanding that name; or rather, Name. It was supposed to be the thing that revealed his nature, that told of his past, present and future, and everything else connected to his life.

That was how he would gain answers, he thought to himself and rose, his back cracking as he straightened his spine.

“Just don't forget the true reason why you're doing this: to gain power and free Dolor from Maeror.”

“Yeah, sure, that's the real reason.”

He turned to the window and looked out upon the forest, the crown of the leafless trees stretching up towards the dark sky like iron spikes, a hungry reflection of the roots in the hard earth somehow reaching out across the stars and sucking energy from uncountable worlds.

“Or perhaps just reaching for the heavens, begging for mercy.”

The train of thought was interrupted when the door behind him opened, and he turned to face Dolor entering through it, wearing a childlike grin on her face.

“My sweet, I have exciting news,” she said with barely-constrained eagerness in her voice.

“Tell me,” Karon said, the sight of her so obviously happy enough to give him a grin of his own.

“I have been pleading with father for weeks now to allow me to take you to one of the worlds, to let you mix with the souls there, and hunt for one you wish to eat.”

Karon forced his grin to widen, as if the possibility excited him, when in truth he had to keep himself from scowling. The fact that she had to plead with the old man, beg him, when she should be able to do as she please, go as she pleased, was enough to send Karon into a daydream of beating the old man to death with one of the old books he was always reading.

“And?” Karon asked, making a show of waiting with bated breath.

“He finally agreed!” she squealed and clapped her hands together, then quickly put up a finger as if to halt his own assumed glee, and said in a warning tone, “But we must do so discreetly. There are forces and beings that do not approve of our ways, or even existence, and should they become aware of us, or even worse our home, father will not be happy.”

Karon nodded solemnly, swallowing the lump of rage rising in his throat, and embracing Dolor as she threw herself into a hug. She rubbed her head against his chest, whispering about the different worlds and places she might take him, and the wonders they might find there.

Karon only listened with half an ear, already decided where and what he would hunt; the place where he would find the most powerful soul possible. He would devour it, and learn all he could while gaining its strength, and he would do the same as he continued seeking answers and finding out about his name and self, until he had reached enough power to challenge Maeror; or at least stick a knife in his back successfully.

Dolor said something, and Karon brought himself out of his reverie. “I will go make some preparations and make a list of all the places we might go so you can choose, my sweet. This is, after all, your first hunt.”

“Then go,” Karon said, smiling at her gleeful expression. Just as she turned to leave, he took a step after her and smacked her ass.

As soon as he had, Karon froze, his eyes wide as he realized what he had just done. Dolor froze as well, and as she slowly turned Karon could feel the blood in his veins turn to ice. However, when she looked back at him, she didn't look angry, only surprised. Then she giggled and said, “Not now, my sweet. I have planning to do, for now; we can celebrate later.”

As she turned away from him and walked out the door, Karon breathed a sigh of relief, and walked over to the bed with shaky legs and fell down on it.

“Where did that come from?”

                        *****************************************************

Karon looked around himself with raised eyebrows. He was back in the forest, the hallways of trees stretching out around him like spidery roads leading from the center. It was obvious now that there really was no forest or hallways; it was merely an image plastered over a working of energy and forces too complicated for him to understand without something for his mind to grab onto.

“Too complicated for now, anyway,” he said.

This time he knew he was dreaming. It was hard not to, considering where he was, even when it felt so real, as real as anything else; but perhaps just a little more... accepting to his influence.

To gain power, he would need to master this new trick of his, and see just what he could do with it. Perhaps he could even visit Maeror's dreams—if the fiend even dreamed at all—and find a weakness. But that would have to wait until later; Karon wasn't sure to what extent this ability kept him hidden from the dreamers’ awareness, and if Maeror should discover him snooping around, things would become… complicated.

A test subject was needed, and Karon chuckled when he thought of a perfect one. He started heading down on of the hallways, thinking hard of Timor, waiting for the world to shift and send him into the soul-eater's dreams.

Nothing happened. He continued walking on, his brows furrowed in concentration as he imagined his annoying hissing, the arrogant tone of voice and the incessant threats. Yet still, nothing but the endless hallway of trees with their leafy canopy blocking out all but the smallest of sun rays.

And just as Karon gave up and released all of his efforts towards invading Timor’s dreams, the world blurred into a kaleidoscope of shifting shapes, a brief spinning sensation coming over the trickster.

When everything settled again, he found himself standing inside a wide and spacious room, filled with carved tables and stools made of the same wood as the thick log walls that formed a neat square around him. Karon noted that the floor was little more than packed earth, mirroring the obviously dirt-patched roof above his head. Several humans were gathered at the tables around the room, many of them eating what Karon assumed to be some sort of stew from wooden bowls and chatting amongst themselves in small, huddled groups.

Karon quickly sat down on one of the stools, trying to look as unobtrusive as possible. Even though no eye turned towards him, it wasn't clear if the people didn't register his presence within the dream, or if they simply didn't want to bother with him. The answer became obvious when a familiar figure passed by him without sparing him a glance.

Dolor walked towards a table with three men sitting around it close together, her hair a shorter cut than Karon was used to, ending barely below her shoulders, and unlike the dark gown she always wore in the manor, she was now wearing a practical set of dark brown leather pants and a green jacket of unknown fabric.

Karon folded his hands and rested his chin upon them, watching with a wry smirk as Dolor approached the men with wagging hips, stopping at their table to lean forward, giving them a decent view of the cleavage offered by the lightly-buttoned jacket.

The three men instantly ceased with whatever conversation they had been engrossed in, and stared slack-jawed at the beauty smiling at them. Karon allowed his eyes to move away from the scene for a moment, assured that he wouldn't miss anything as the men looked to need a while before any real cognitive function would return to them.

After a few seconds he found what he was looking for: Maeror, sitting alone in a dark corner with his eyes fixed on Dolor, but with a glassy sheen to them as if he were only paying the least amount of attention necessary, and the rest was focused on something only he could see.

Karon turned back to Dolor in time to see one of the men regain his composure and say something he couldn't make out. Karon quickly rose from his seat and headed over towards them, sticking to the side of everyone’s line of sight, least whoever Timor was would spot him and trigger a memory, causing him to realize it was all a dream.

They were speaking in a tongue Karon couldn't understand, and since there was truthfully no one present besides him and Timor, it would yield nothing to try and read their minds. Instead Karon had to remain content watching them, piecing together meaning through context and body language.

After a while of conversation, where Dolor talked and the men mostly replied in grunts, stammering singular words, or just a bit of drooling, the three men rose from their seats with a quick look over at Maeror sitting in the corner. They all raised their glasses towards him, giving a joyful shout before allowing Dolor to take point and lead the men out from the building.

Karon followed, noticing that the room was starting to become blurry as the group was heading away from it. One of the three men was obviously Timor, and the world around them was only substantial around the dreamer, so Karon decided it was best to stay close. It was only a dream, but he didn't know if getting trapped or thrown out of it had any serious consequences.

Outside it was dark, with a view of a snow-covered forest that sat at the foot of the mountain they stood on. The building behind them stood covered between two rock faces, protecting the rickety-looking building from the winds that caught Karon's robe and made it flutter violently.

A light blanket of snow covered the rock beneath their feet, and the light from the two moons that shone in the sky reflected off sheets of ice poking forth here and there. Without hesitating Dolor lead the three men down a rickety path marked by wooden posts.

When they reached the forest floor, the men gathered in a whispering group, nudging each other with laughing comments, and just generally behaving like a merry lot. Karon wasn't sure what was going on, but the men were behaving like a pack of teenage boys thinking they were successfully chatting up a beautiful girl. They all wore patchworked clothes of leather, most of it with the fur—and in some cases even the ears—still present, and looked quite comfortable in the chill of the winter night.

The smile on Dolor's face told Karon that whatever notion the men had gotten into their heads, the real purpose for why they had gone outside was far more sinister than anything they would dare imagine.

Karon watched the exchange, until the men eventually all shook hands with one another, and turned to Dolor in a half circle, waiting for her to speak. She did, the language a guttural one, with short punctuated sentences that made it sound like they were chewing on gravel.

When she finished, the men all gave grunts of agreement and watched as Dolor gave them one last grin, then bolted into the forest.

They remained still, their breath coming out in steamy clouds, and looked to be concentrating on something. Then, they all looked at one another, broad smiles on their faces, and as one, they set off into the forest after Dolor, breaking from each other after a few steps and heading into different directions.

Karon noticed that the world was getting blurry at the edges to both sides of himself, and so decided to follow the one that had gone straight forward. After reaching a few hundred meters into the forest, the man slowed down to a steady jog, stopping every now and then to observe the ground before continuing on.

‘A hunter,’ Karon thought, nodding slightly. ‘Definitely Timor.’

He followed him for a long time, the moons above sailing across the sky ever so steadily, until they both froze when the sound of screaming reached their ears. It came from far off, but it was so loud that it still managed to convey utter horror.

Karon hurried forward until he came up alongside Timor, watching his face. There was fear written all over it, but also confusion. His right hand had sought its way down to a dagger hanging from a rope-belt at his waist, and the thumb was gently stroking the base of the hilt.

There was no sign of fear present on Karon's face; he knew he couldn't be hurt as it was just a dream, but he was curious to where this was all leading. It was obvious the scream had come from one of the men, probably Dolor deciding that whatever game she was playing was starting to get boring and ate him. However, since this hunter before him was Timor, it couldn't end the same way for him as it would for his two friends.

After a while of maintaining his still posture, Timor started to creep forward, hunched down low and his head held high, breathing in deeply of the night air, listening for the slightest of sounds. Karon kept pace with his slow crawl easily, observing with an amused smile the way Timor's eyes moved over everything slowly, but never once stopping and focusing on it. It didn't matter how good the hunter might think himself, though. He wouldn't stand a chance against Dolor; she was toying with him, and he didn't even know it.

Soon enough, the sound of the second man screaming echoed through the forest, stirring up a nest of birdlike creatures that flew up into the air with protesting squawks. At that moment, Timor seemed to loose his nerve; whereas before he had crept forward carefully with all senses on high alert, he now simply turned around and bolted.

Karon ran after him, the sound of their muffled footsteps the only thing audible in the night. Despite his panic, Karon noticed that Timor was still in control of his breathing, and his flight wasn't as panicked as it seemed; he kept an even pace, his feet slamming down on the ground with only as much force as was needed, and his balance remained centered.

They ran, and ran, and ran. Then suddenly, Timor stopped, his eyes widening as a horrific realization struck him. Karon didn't understand at first, then he looked around carefully realizing that there was something wrong with the forest.

Considering the speed they had kept, and the distance they had managed to venture into the forest before turning around, they should have come out of it by now. Instead, all that could be seen in every direction were trees.

Karon assumed Timor knew the forest better than he did, because the hunter growled something he suspected was a curse, as the man understood that he was trapped somehow. He crouched down low in the snow, going down on his knees before brushing away some of it until there was a cleared patch of ground before him. He then moved to the middle of it before laying down on his side, covering himself with the snow.

It took him less then a minute to finish, and suddenly Karon was staring at something that looked like a snow-covered boulder, the dark of the night shrouding the hardly-visible flaws and the tracks in the snow. To be able to see through the hasty disguise would require one to know what to look for.

“Or, an ability to see and feel auras and energy fields,” Karon said with an amused shake of his head, well understanding the futility of Timor's attempt at hiding.

Soon enough, the sound of giggling reached his ears, and even though the pile of snow didn't move, Karon couldn't imagine that the sound wouldn't have sent a shiver through the hunter's body.

It didn't take long before Dolor tired of the game, and she appeared out of the dark, her steps without sound as she approached the snow-covered hunter in a straight line. She stopped just in front of it, her eyes twinkling with sadistic glee as she looked down on the camouflaged hunter.

Then abruptly, catching both Dolor and Karon by surprise, Timor sprang up, flinging a handful of the cold dirt he had been laying on into her eyes. Dolor shrieked, more out of surprise than pain, as Timor ducked and threw himself to his left just as a bolt of red energy lashed out from Dolor's hands, hitting a tree instead and ripping the bark off of it.

Timor immediately got up on his feet and ran as fast as he could, leaving Dolor to scratch at her eyes with angered whines. Karon followed, and was surprised when the hunter stopped only after a few minutes, quickly getting out a string of rope from a pocket, and hurriedly tying it around a tree to his left, then hurrying over and stretching it taut as he tied it to a tree on his right.

The rope, invisible in the dark, was strung around Dolor's throat level, and Karon was forced to admit he was a little impressed that Timor was able to think so clearly considering the situation. Then again, the hunter didn't know what Dolor truly was. To his eyes she might be some kind of sadistic sorceress, or a monster of some kind. A terrifying possibility to be sure, but a soul-eater was probably nothing that had crossed his mind. That was a possibility none ever wanted to consider.

Timor took cover behind one of the trees and waited. Time passed, but there was no sound of anyone running into his crude trap, and the anticipation was taking a noticeable toll on Timor, the hunter unable to quite keep still.

There was no warning when a hand exploded through the trunk of the tree Timor was hiding behind, grasping the hunter by the throat and flinging him to the side. Dolor effortlessly yanked her arm to the right, breaking through the tree and walking towards Timor while the thing slowly toppled over with a creaking ending in a loud crack.

Karon walked beside her, and despite the dark it was plain to see that Timor had expended all his tricks and was now done. He sat on the ground shivering, either from the cold, the fear, or both. When Dolor stopped in front of him and smiled, he tried to speak, but the only sound that came out was that of his teeth chattering loudly.

Dolor spoke instead, her voice purring, and she went down on her knees, reaching out for him as if to give him a hug. The hunter didn't move, and Karon noticed that his right hand was ever so slowly moving towards the dagger at his side; Dolor didn't.

She spoke again and leaned forward, and just then the dagger broke free out of its sheath and aimed true for Dolor's throat. She caught Timor’s wrist in her left hand, a red light immediately blossoming in her palm as the energy entered his body.

The hunter fell back on the ground in convulsions, his scream tearing through the air, and for the third time that night the silence of the forest was shattered.

Dolor observed him with what looked like a thoughtful expression, then she snapped her fingers and the hunter stilled, the magic lifted from him. She tilted her head, then tapped her fingers against her thigh a few times before her eyes grew distant. When focus returned to them, she didn’t move, instead remaining still, waiting. A few minutes later, the sound of crunching snow reached Karon’s ears, and he turned to see Maeror coming into view.

“Are you done?” he asked, the language clear and understandable to Karon.

“No... not yet,” Dolor answered, motioning towards the barely-conscious Timor with her right hand.

“So finish him and let us go, this place had little worth seeing or eating,” Maeror told her sternly.

“Father, I was wondering...” Dolor spoke hesitantly, her voice sweet and as innocent as Karon suspected she could make it.

Maeror's eyes narrowed and his brows knitted downwards, but he didn't respond.

“You are very busy with all your work, I understand. But it is very boring for me now that you barely spend any time with m—”

“I can sense your thoughts, daughter, and I do not like them. You will not bring a member into this family for the sake of entertainment!” Maeror barked harshly, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Dolor found some anyway. “It isn't just for my sake, but yours, too! If I have someone else to spend time with, to hunt with, then you won't have to look after me so much anymore. And who better to hunt with me than someone who was already such a skilled hunter in his old life as this one?”

“What's so skilled about him?” Maeror asked with obvious skepticism in his voice, but there was also a slight note of interest in his reply as well.

“He has acted with far more cunning than the others, and even managed to trick me into a trap once... almost. He will be perfect, father, I swear, I will have so much fun playing with him, and teaching him, an—”

“Fine, fine!” Maeror said and looked up at the stars with an exasperated look. “You can make him one of us, but the trial period and initiation—if he even makes it that far—will be your responsibility.”

Dolor squealed in joy, throwing herself into Maeror's arms and hugging him, before letting go and skipping over to Timor's crumpled form. She spoke again in that abrupt, guttural language, and Karon saw that it was all too much for the hunter, and the last thing the hunter was faced with was Dolor clapping her hands and grinning down at him.

              ***********************************************************

Karon woke up with a groan and rubbed his face, spending extra time at his eyes, clearing away the dirt before opening them with a few blinks. When his sight settled and everything came into focus, he realized he wasn't in the bedroom anymore. He was in the forest.

“Wh—” he began, spinning around as if to make sure.

“Yeah, because this could totally be that other dark forest with dimension-spanning trees we’re in.”

“Maybe I'm still dreaming,” Karon thought and pinched his arm, but nothing happened.

“Obviously not.”

“What the hell are we doing out here!?”

“I don't know, maybe it's some side effect of dream walking, or maybe a part of you just felt for a walk.”

“Don't bullshit me! You know something.”

“Moi!? I am shocked you would think I would keep something or even lie to you.”

“Go blow yourself!”

“Sorry, baby, but you gotta buy me dinner first.”

With a disgusted look on his face Karon cast out his senses, quickly finding his bearings and the way back to the mansion. He hadn't moved far, and it only took him a couple of minutes to get back home; even so, as he passed through the front door there was a visible tension to him.

He could sense the presence of Dolor in the grand room, her energy shining like a beacon of excitement, most likely going through places they might venture to on Karon's first hunt. Next to her there was a black hole, a swirling vortex of energy and hunger, circling around something Karon couldn't, and certainly didn't want to try and sense. Timor wasn't to be found, most likely out in the forest, leaving the only other presences to consider the almost dead, empty flickers of life found in the servants, four of them in total standing at different places in the manor, awaiting a calling.

Karon drew back his senses, and as he considered his options he realized he needed to converse with someone about what had just happened. But none of the beings in the manor was suitable, everyone with the exception of Dolor was a potential enemy, and he didn't want to burden her with his problems.

Then he remembered Promise. He hurried up to the second floor, marching into his and Dolor's bedroom with wide strides and picking up the spear as soon he entered.

“Master, how can I help you?” Promise asked instantly, flooding Karon's mind with her almost fractured energy.

“Promise, can you sense anything... strange going on inside me?” he asked the spirit carefully.

“Strange? Well, there's... a lot going on, and it's kinda hard to make out what is strange and what's normal. Maybe there's something specific you want me to look for?”

“Anything that's related to dreaming.”

“Ohh, well there's... nothing. Nothing going on with dreaming as far as I can sense. But that doesn't have to mean much. What's happened, master?”

Karon hesitated, considering how much was wise to tell the spirit.

“I have been experimenting with a new ability... the ability to walk into other being's dreams.”

“I always knew you were talented, master; this is just further proof of how amazing you are!”

“Yeah... but it was strange because this time, when I woke up I find myself out in the forest outside... standing up as if I had just been walking around while asleep.”

“That does sound strange.”

“So you can't sense anything that might have been the cause, no trace of anything that might have taken command while my consciousness wasn't present?”

“No, no trace, but...”

“Yes?”

“Master, your mind is... complicated. I can sense several different forms of energy, several different directions your mind is drawn towards. You are only aware of some of them, the rest are suppressed. It might, just might, be possible that while you were busy in the dream that your body instead started following what you are pushing away.”

“That shouldn't be possible; I went through those fucking memories of my old self! I know everything from my past incarnation!”

“I know master, I know! But I can't see any other way, unless you were simply sleepwalking.”

“No, I wasn't,” Karon responded with certainty.

“How can you be so sure, master?”

“Because... there was something there,” he replied, the thought barely a whisper.

Promise didn't respond, instead it waited for him to continue.

“I felt... something, it vanished as soon as I became fully awake, but for a moment, there was something. I could sense something.”

“What master? What could you sense?”

Karon didn't notice how his right hand reached up and clutched at his chest, nor did he notice the way his eyes started tearing up.

“No, I couldn't sense anything... I felt it, inside me, and I was looking for it.”

“Master?”

“Where is she?” he whispered.

“She, master?”

Karon's head jerked up, then he shook it violently, dropping his hand down from his chest and wiping his eyes. He put Promise back up against the wall without saying anything further.

“I am Mendax Karon Bellum, soul-eater and lover of Dolor. This manor is my home, and this forest is my banquet. I belong here,” he said out loud, repeating it several time as a mantra.

Eventually whatever had come over him settled back down, disappearing without a trace and leaving his mind clear. Karon waited for a while, making sure that nothing further happened. Then he went out of the room and headed downstairs towards Dolor.

He would help her choose a place for his hunt, and he would devour a soul which would give him power and knowledge. He would continue to grow until he could defeat Maeror and free Dolor from the invisible chains he had wrapped around her. Nothing else mattered.

No one else mattered.

Dark Roots (Part 6)

A hot gust of air brushed against Karon's face, small particles of sand lodging themselves in his skin and mixing with the sweat that he was drenched in. There was a white piece of cloth tied over his eyes, just thick enough to protect them from the harsh sun of this world; it had been necessary, as his vision had become accustomed to the murky darkness of the manor and its forest.

Dolor was leading the way, her usual dark dress hidden beneath a plain white robe with the hood drawn up. The rust colored sand had already started its work on the clothing, and the pure white that had been present less than half an hour ago was now dirtied and looking more and more brown with each passing minute.

The world had no specific name, as the inhabitants of it had no real awareness or interest of what lay beyond its invisible borders, and it had not been Dolor's first suggestion to Karon as a potential hunting ground. Even so, as she had briefly mentioned it while they were going over possible candidates in the manor, there was something in her description of the place that had caught Karon's attention, and despite his mistress’ surprise, he had been determined that it was where he wanted to find another soul to devour.

Karon's own clothes weren't covered as Dolor's were; since he was far more skilled in illusions, he would simply remain invisible—or hide beneath the visage of a common citizen of this world—while Dolor handled all the talking, since she had been here before, and was known to a few important beings.

The desert they were traveling across was a mixture of sharp crags and worn-down mountains, turned into sediment by constant wind and the occasional seasonal floods. Across wide plains and valleys it had turned into fine sand, and in the few sheltered locations where there could be found protection from the harassing environment, bright purple roots and thick bushes grew; the only sign that there was anything living present.

There were only two forms of living creatures worth noticing on this world, according to Dolor, and they both lived underground in vast cave networks and hollowed-out mountains. They were heading towards one of these cities, relying on Dolor's memories of the place, which she assured him was enough to guide them with surety.

After crossing the valley they were currently heading across, Dolor pointed a finger towards an opening in the cliff, wide enough for a small group of maybe a dozen people to walk into at the same time. Other than that, there was no sign of it being the entrance to anything civilized, showing no signs of masonry or symbols indicating its importance.

Karon nodded, and followed as Dolor led both of them inside, snapping her fingers and producing a ball of bright red light that flew up into the air and hovered above her, dispersing the darkness. The tunnel was nondescript, impossible to distinguish from any other natural cave tunnel, save for the fact that the floor looked to be worn down a lot more than the uneven walls and ceiling.

“This will lead us down into Cho-kappa, which is the name of the city and its ruler; it is important you understand that, my sweet,” Dolor told him.

“How's so?” Karon asked, both of them walking forward at a relaxed pace while he untied the cloth protecting his eyes.

“Because the ruler is the city, in a way. The creatures here are all slaves, and exist to serve its needs, and the ruler is bound to the city, is a part of it.”

“You told me that earlier, but you never explained in full what I can expect once we arrive.”

“There is little worth speaking of; there is no name for the slave people, they are simply the living tools of the rulers will. This entire world is just a collection of a few large cities, each with a ruler, and its collection of slaves,” Dolor tsked, her lips pouting as she shook her head sadly. “There is no culture, no division... no games and no fun. They are living tools, extensions of the ruler’s will. They make for dreadful company.”

“What about the rulers, then?” Karon asked.

“Now they are interesting, though, a little bit. Father liked them a lot, but they are somewhat dull after a while; completely focused on nothing but controlling their slaves and draining them of their life-force to maintain their own existence.”

“You mentioned that, earlier; you also said that they don’t exist, somehow,” Karon noted, pointedly keeping any emotion out of his tone.

“They don’t; they are incorporeal, and don’t even exist in the physical dimension. They are much like a dream, a collective nightmare of the slave people that feed on them; slowly, though, as they need to be kept alive and reproducing so that they have puppets to work through in the physical.”

“And you are familiar with this Cho-kappa, then?” Karon asked, noticing that the tunnel they were walking through was growing in size.

“It was him that father became friends with during our stay here. It seemed to think of us as the perfect form of being, since we can feed on and absorb every part of any creature or form of energy, while it has to settle for merely the life-force.”

“How is it like?”

“Cho-kappa? Boring; it has next to no personality, and no desires beyond eating his slaves. Sometimes the rulers will go to war with one another, wanting more slaves and so on, but Cho-kappa was too much of a coward to try, despite that father tried goading it a little.”

“Interesting,” Karon muttered to himself.

“Honestly, sweet, I can't understand why you wanted to have your first hunt here. Even the most powerful of slaves won't have much in the way of knowledge or experience, because their souls and minds never get any chance to develop. Though they are pretty big, so I guess their vitality would be pretty tasty, if it weren't for the fact that most of them are half-starved.”

“It wasn't one of the slaves that caught my interest,” Karon admitted, and the silence hung heavy for a moment after he had spoken.

“My sweet, sweet Bellum. You are ambitious, but just because I said Cho-kappa is a coward and a lesser creature than us doesn't mean it is powerless; even father took care to be polite and not risk turning it into an enemy.”

“Good. Maeror fears it.”

“Then I will try and find a weakness to exploit; and besides, it’s the reason I brought this with me,” Karon said, pointing towards the wrapped-up spear he was carrying across his back.

Dolor wrinkled her nose. “The spirit is powerful for its kind, but I would have no problem tearing it apart, and neither will Cho-kappa.”

“Won't you be assisting me, mistress?” Karon asked, looking to her with surprise.

Dolor stopped and cradled his face in both hands, giving him a quick kiss and a sympathetic look. “No, I won't, my sweet Bellum; we might be family, but our kind are not creatures of a pack or flock. Each kill is devoured completely and shared with no-one, so each kill must be hunted alone.”

“Well, that puts a spin to our little plan.”

“We will find a way, I need the power of this Cho-kappa if I am to have a real chance at freeing Dolor from Maeror.”

“Ever considered the idea that Dolor doesn't want to be saved?”

“She does; she obeys Maeror because he took away any other path from her. It wasn't a real choice, since there was either that or facing total annihilation. She was only a child, and he tricked her by offering the love of a parent.”

“She learned well, then.”

“Then I will defeat and devour Cho-kappa by myself,” Karon stated confidently.

“I fear for you, my sweet, and I won't be able to help you once the fight is started. I told you that the rulers don't exist here; you might be able to meet it in its own plane, but I can't follow there. I have never been very interested in that kind of magic.”

Karon embraced Dolor and kissed her forehead. “Do you truly wish to take this chance with such powerful prey? We can still return home and chose another world to hunt in, and there are many,” she continued.

“No. Before the end of this day, I will have devoured the creature.”

“Because I need its power. Because I am doing it for you.”

“Well then, my sweet, let's hurry.”

They separated and went on their way down the tunnel, its slight tilting evening out until they came to the end where it opened up to an almost unbelievably large cavern, and inside it rested a city. At first glance it was obvious it was built with function in mind, as there was no trace of ornamentation or design meant to invoke beauty or thoughtfulness. It was all straight lines forming cinder block houses of only one floor, made out of the same red-colored rock the mountain was composed of; with one exception. At the center of the cavern there stood a spire stretching up to the ceiling, shaped in the image of a natural stalagmite, but huge in size and with enormous symbols painted on the surface in a blue color.

Karon had a clear view of it all, as the floor continued to slope as if the city ground was shaped like a bowl, inevitably leading down towards the center tower. In the streets, figures moved at a quick pace, and as Karon observed he noticed they were all moving at exactly the same pace as everyone else, their movements mechanical and without any individual signature to them.

The people themselves were tall compared to a human, and their skin was a dark red with long black hair falling all the way down to their waist without exception. It didn't take long before Karon got a closer look.

Less than five minutes had passed before two rows of the creatures came marching up the streets towards them, carrying heavy-looking clubs made out of the same rock as everything else. They moved in absolute synchrony, and came to a half before the two strangers with eyes focused on them, but their faces lacking in any kind of emotional expression.

“Let me deal with them, sweet,” Dolor murmured and walked up to one of them, raising one eyebrow as she tilted her head.

Karon could feel a flicker of energy as her mind connected to that of the creature she was looking at, but his brow furrowed when he sensed something else; something greasy slipping into the connection, like blood welling up from cracked skin. But the skin was the creatures mind, and the blood... Karon didn't know what it was, but it made his skin crawl.

Thoughts passed between Dolor and this greasy presence, the mind of the red-skinned creature merely the vessel, a medium for the filth to communicate through. As the seconds passed, Karon started to realize the presence might well come forth like blood through cracked skin, as it were, in the creature, but it was present in all the other creatures, as well; merely as a kind of dormant presence.

While Dolor and the presence, which Karon could only assume was the spirit of Cho-kappa, continued talking, the trickster began to stretch out his senses more and more, and discovered that the cracks through which the spirit exercised its influence were present in more than just the living creatures, but in the rock of the mountain itself. It existed in the buildings, the ground it stood on and the cavern walls as well.

“The rulers are the city, literally.”

“Creepy.”

Karon's couldn't stop his mouth from twisting in disgust at the thought of having that slithering presence infecting everything in the manor he called home. For a brief moment, a comparison flashed through his mind between Cho-kappa's local omnipresence, and the way Maeror had connected and controlled the soul forest.

“It isn't the same, Maeror is merely connected to the forest while Cho-kappa is...”

“Like a parasite, seeping through cracks in its victims’ minds and dominating them. Disgusting and vile.”

“And powerful.”

Karon snapped out of his reverie when he realized that the communication between Dolor and Cho-kappa had stopped, and the group of creatures and Dolor were all staring at his blank face. He gave them a sheepish smile and turned his eyes to Dolor and asked, “What did it say?”

“Things are a bit different since I was last here, my sweet,” she told him while giving the creatures a quick glance.

“How so?” Karon asked.

“Cho-kappa is no longer the ruler of this city; a rival took over and drove him away decades ago. The new ruler of the city is named Ka-jaraka, and he doesn't trust me at all. He has agreed not to attack us—yet—but only because I threatened to eat all his little slaves and show him that you don't need flesh to know pain. He fears us at the moment, but I would caution you, my sweet; I felt his power, and it is considerable.”

“Too powerful for me to handle?” Karon asked carefully, trusting that the creatures didn't understand their speech.

“Most likely, yes. However, Cho-kappa wasn't destroyed, merely driven away by the new ruler.”

“Do you know where he is now?” Karon asked quickly.

Dolor nodded. “Ka-jaraka told me he fled to the lower caverns with the small group of slaves he managed to maintain control of, and he also mentioned he is weakened now that he has so few sources of life to draw from.”

“Sounds perfect,” Karon murmured to himself.

“Indeed, my sweet,” Dolor said, then paused. “One more thing, though.”

“Yes?” Karon asked, and felt a cold shudder inside himself at the harsh tone she had taken.

“Ka-jaraka fears me, and you. I could see no reason not to tell him that you intend to kill Cho-kappa, since that is entirely in his own interest. However... if you actually don't succeed in defeating him, then it is possible the spirit would gain control of you, and that is something the new ruler fears.”

Karon swallowed. “And?”

“And so he made me give a promise to kill you myself should that happen,” she said, looking him deeply in the eyes without flinching, her gaze sad but also determined.

“I won't fail, my love,” Karon responded.

“Make sure you don't. You are my proudest achievement, my sweet, and I love you. But I made a vow of power; I can't break it without it having a very bad effect on me. You will hunt alone, and if you fail, I will kill and devour you myself.”

“I understand,” Karon whispered, and leaned down to accept a kiss Dolor walked over and gave him.

“Good,” she said while smiling up at him, the red streaks in her eyes shining fiercely. “One of the slaves will lead the way to the lower caverns where Cho-kappa hides, and Ka-jaraka has assured me it is expendable. I will wait for you to return, one way or another.”

Karon nodded, stroking Dolor's cheek with his right hand, then turned to look at the group of creatures staring at them with clouded eyes. One of them turned around without a word and started walking down the street, and Karon gave Dolor a final kiss of goodbye, treasuring the taste of her dry lips before hurrying after it.

They went down the street, almost reaching the center stalagmite tower, before turning left and heading towards the cavern wall. On the way they passed by hundreds of the red-skinned slaves, all of them with the same milky white eyes and blank expression, moving around with robotic jerks and showing no signs of personality or liveliness.

The more Karon saw, the darker his visage grew, until he was finally looking at the creatures about him with a mixture of hate and pity. It was a pathetic existence they lived, and his fingers twitched more than once at the thought of ending their misery at the tip of Promise's sharp edge. But he didn't.

“Yeah, must be terrible living as a thrall to something just draining you of life and purpose.”

“Stop trying to tie everything back to the bond between me and my mistress. There is no love between this spirit ruler and his slave, only a leeching of their life.”

“Love can thrive in a parasite’s heart as much as anyone else.”

“And stop making a lecture out of everything. You’re not even half as clever as you think you are.”

“That still makes me twice as clever as you.”

“I thought you were me.”

“If you are all of yourself, maybe.”

Karon sighed and rolled his eyes before forcefully shoving the voice out of his consciousness, instead turning his attention to just following the creature, until they finally came upon another opening in the cavern. This one, however, was leading downward rather than the upwards one Karon had arrived through, and since the creature did not stop, he was forced to follow along, and plunged right into the darkness.

He took a few steps before stopping to retrieve Promise out of the wrapping he carried on his back. The spirit inside sang with jubilation and excitement as it quickly was informed of everything that had taken place, and that a battle was soon to occur. The runes on the spear shone with enough light to allow Karon to see clearly, and the creature didn't respond to the presence of the spear in any way when Karon caught up to it.

They went downwards, following the tunnel more and more, until the rock shifted in color from the rusty red to an indigo blue, the light of the spear reflecting off it with a sheen, unlike the dry red rock from earlier.

Abruptly, the slave creature stopped moving. Karon remained unmoving for a few while, waiting for something to happen, until he walked over to stand before it and took a closer look.

It still wore the same dead expression, but as Karon laid a hand on its head, he could feel there was a struggle taking place inside its mind. Something was trying to force the controlling presence of Ka-jaraka out of it.

For a moment Karon considered interceding, but instead decided there was no point, allowing what was most likely Cho-kappa to struggle with Ka-jaraka over the one slave was as good a diversion as he was ever going to get, and the tunnel had so far only lead one way without ever reaching a crossroad. So he turned the way they had been headed and left the slave behind.

“You know, if Cho-kappa actually manages to wrest control of the slave than we will have a potential enemy behind as well as in front of us. Not very bright.”

Karon halted and considered what the voice had just said, then made a pained expression as he realized it was right.

“Something a trickster would have thought of instantly, had he not been busy fighting himself.”

Karon didn't bother replying, instead he turned back and walked quickly until he came upon the slave again, wearing the same blank expression and showing no signs of aggression.

Promise came to rest against the creatures exposed throat. The black diamond blade would easily be able to pierce into the skull, severing the neck and killing it quickly. He had, after all, imagined killing all of them out of mercy, ending their tormented lives; what would killing one of them be but a liberation of its soul?

Karon hesitated. He knew that if Dolor ordered him to, he would have killed it; had she shown even the slightest of signs that she thought that its death would be desirable, he would have killed it. He would do anything for his mistress, but she wasn’t here at the moment; only Karon, Promise and the creature was. Promise would serve him no matter what, so in truth, it was up to Karon. He was alone in the dark, and it was his choice; no one would know or question whatever he did.

So why did he hesitate?

Maybe he should devour the creature’s soul instead of just killing it. After all, he was a soul eater, and it might be a waste to let something so obviously served up to him go. Then again, Karon wasn't a monster; he wasn't Maeror, indiscriminately killing loved parents in front of a child before breaking her. His face showed only pity now that he looked at the creature.

No. To eat the creatures immortal soul after it being stuck in the kind of wasted life it was chained to would be cruel, no matter what pragmatism said about what a soul eater logically should do. Karon sighed deeply as he realized he wanted Dolor to just show up and tell him what he should do.

“Maybe you and that creature aren't so different, then.”

Karon took a step back, his face twisted in horror and disgust. For just a moment, he could see himself standing in the creature’s place wearing a blank expression.

“No... I love Dolor, and she—”

“Loves you? Maybe, in her own twisted way. But love alone doesn't have to mean everything. Maybe this creature feels peace and joy you and I can't even imagine. Having the ability to let everything go, and allow every decision to be made for him. No conflict, no pain, just endless service to a will that isn't your own. Maybe all creatures can learn to love an existence like that.”

“No, I… she wouldn't do something like that, we're—”

“Different? Of course you are, but why?”

“Because I...”

“Say it!”

Karon scrounged his face up in pain, then twisted it into rage as he gripped Promise with both his hands and shoved the spear through the creature’s skull, the blade piercing the bone easily. The creature made no sound as it was skewered on the spear, and it fell limply down on the floor, the spear sliding out of it without difficulty.

“Shut up!” Karon screamed aloud.

“Promise is silent, and the creature is dead. So you tell me: what does it mean when you do something like that, just to try and silence yourself?”

“Enough with the riddles! Enough with the lectures and cryptic messages! Leave me, be gone and disappear, I don't need you!” Karon roared.

“Master?!” Promise shouted, but was cut off when Karon threw the spear away and gripped his skull with both hands like he was going to try and tear the voice out.

“If that was true, I wouldn't be here,” The voice said simply, then withdrew from his mind.

Karon shivered, unable to tell from what kind of emotion it was since the raging maelstrom that was his mind didn't allow for the luxury of clarity at the moment. He wanted to put his hands around the voice's neck and squeeze the life out of it. Why couldn't it just leave him alone, let him live in peace with Dolor and just be happy with her? Why?

“Why?” Karon moaned.

He took a deep breath, waiting for his emotions to quell until he was able to think straight again. It wouldn't do to be so unfocused; he was heading towards a dangerous opponent, weakened or not, and he needed to have all his strength. He spat to the side before walking over to where the spear lay, the runes glowing brightly and with a flickering showing its worry.

As soon as his fingers touched it, the presence of the spear flooded into his mind.

“Master, what's wrong?!”

“I don't know, Promise. I don't know anymore.”

Compassion flowed like a river from the spirit, running into him with a reassuring lack of anything deceptive or hidden.

“I am with you, master. Always.”

“I know you are, Promise,” Karon responded, and the corners of his mouth twitched up into a brief smile.

“Now, shouldn't we be hunting some kind of spirit? It's been a long time since you last let me fight, and I have almost forgotten what it is like to hear the screams of a dying enemy.”

Karon's eyebrows rose, and he chuckled with an amused expression. “I had forgotten how bloodthirsty you are.”

“Now you remember,” came the spirit's reply.

Karon accepted that, and then turned around and started walking down the tunnel once more, towards whatever deep hole the defeated spirit of Cho-kappa was hiding within whilst nursing its wounds.

The tunnel took him deep down under the earth, the pressure of the heavy stone above almost palpable physically, always looming with the distant threat of coming down and crushing him. But it never did, and eventually Karon arrived at the end of the tunnel, where it opened up to a small cavern with several other tunnels leading from it.

For a second Karon was worried that he would be forced to chance upon one of them, and risk getting lost in the tunnel system, when he felt a cold shiver run down his spine. However, the origin was not anything physical, but spiritual. The presence of something vile and disgusting that was unable to completely hide itself.

Karon stretched out his senses, focusing them on the surrounding area. He felt the same kind of cracked wounds in the rock here as he had in the city above, and as soon as he touched on it, the spirit behind it reacted, seeping forth to express itself through any medium it could.

From behind the rocky outcrops around the cave, starved and pale-red figures emerged, carrying rocks in their hands and slowly forming a half circle before him. They didn't attack, but Karon felt the mind controlling them, anger and fear burning in it like that of a cornered animal.

“Be ready, Promise,” Karon told the spear.

“Always, master,” it replied with eagerness.

Karon reached out with his own mind and carefully sought to bridge a connection to the spirit of Cho-kappa. At first it shied away, then it tentatively reached back as it realized Karon wasn't trying to attack it, yet.

“What do you want? You are not slave or master. You are outsider.”

“Are you Cho-kappa?” Karon asked, shielding his thoughts and intentions to the best of his ability.

Almost immediately, he felt the spirit trying to break through his mental walls and discern his motives; it didn’t even try to hide it, just carelessly applying brute force and becoming more and more overt about it as it failed. Karon got the feeling that resistance was not something it was used to, or could even comprehend.

“I am,” it answered at last, giving up its attempt to break through Karon's defenses.

“Good,” Karon smiled.

He threw up a hand towards one of the malnourished slaves, a bolt of electricity leaping from his palm and striking it hard.

The slave was thrown to the ground where it convulsed for a few seconds, then stopped moving. All the other slaves immediately reacted with one mind and rushed forward with the stones in their hands held high, but Karon merely swung Promise in a wide arc and slashed open the bellies of all of them save two, who leapt backwards in time to avoid it.

The wounded slaves didn't halt their rush forward, but their grievous wounds took their toll as they all crumpled when their knees gave out and they came crashing to the floor before even one managed to reach Karon. A few of them crawled forward on weak arms before they too stopped moving as the last shreds of their strength were spent.

Karon watched the last two remaining slaves calmly, and with a sad feeling of pity. Their scrawny bodies showed signs of once having been muscular and full of vitality, but now they could barely be classified as skin and bone. The rocks in their hands hung heavy, and their arms shook visibly with the effort of holding them up for more than a few seconds.

Even though the slaves both reacted instantly with a collective mind, their bodies simply weren't able to move away fast enough as Karon bore down on the one to his left and sent Promise into its chest, passing through just below the ribcage and angling upwards into the creature’s heart.

The spear slipped out and the creature tipped forward, dead instantly, leaving only one alive. It turned and tried to run, but before it had managed to take more than a few steps Karon swept its legs out from under it with the butt of the spear. The creature landed hard on its right side, and Karon heard the sound of something cracking audibly at the impact. Despite that, the creature still tried to scramble forward with a mindless denial of any pain.

Before it managed to get up, Karon walked up and stomped down hard on its left leg, the sound of bone breaking unmistakable. The creature made no sound of pain, only continuing to try and crawl away, and Karon stomped down on its other leg with the same result.

Despite what must have been excruciating pain, the slave still tried to crawl forward on its broken limbs. Karon quickly stomped on each of its arms, bones visibly jutting out of its mangled form. Still it flopped around helplessly without showing any sign of even registering pain.

“I'm sorry about that,” Karon whispered, turning the creature over and putting down both knees on its chest. “I need you to be alive, so I can reach your master.”

He put his left hand on the creature’s forehead, his right still clutching Promise tight, and stared into the dead and milky eyes of the slave. “Perhaps, for just a moment, you will know freedom when this is over,” he said.

“You ready, Promise?”

“Master, I am always ready.”

Karon nodded. Through the mind of the squirming creature beneath him, he reached out to Cho-kappa, feeling the connection bridge itself.

“What do you want?!” it screamed.

“Your soul,” Karon replied coldly, and forced his way into its mind.

                    *******************************************************

Everything was a shifting mass of red sand and gray skies. It moved into vague shapes before it fell away, following streams of patterns that Karon couldn't understand.

There was no sign of the spirit itself, but beside him stood Promise, the spirit able to assume its own form in this place. It still bore the androgynous face of something genderless, and the gray fur and skin were unchanged; however, the orange wings and hair were twisting and fluttering uncertainly as if caught in a whirlwind, and Karon noticed that the spirit’s eyes were changing colors constantly, flowing into one after another.

“Promise, are you alright?” Karon asked, realizing that the spirit's form was determined by its nature, and the constant changes meant it was itself in a state of flux. More so than he had suspected.

“I am ready to serve,” it replied with a calm and polite tone, the dagger-like black claws from its fingers twitching with anticipation.

They both looked around, scanning with all their senses for their enemy, but both of them coming up short after a few minutes of searching.

“Perhaps it is not here, but has retreated into another section of its mind?” Promise suggested.

Karon shook his head. “Possible, but unlikely. From what I could sense, this creature isn't layered like most beings; it is present in our world only as it is anchored to living things. Without this single focused state, it would cease to be.”

“So where does it originate from?” Promise asked with a detached curiosity in its voice.

“Don't know, could be a lot of possibilities, I guess,“ Karon replied.

“Then it is entirely possible that we are at a disadvantage, since whatever dimension or world its soul resides in could be working against us.”

“Possible, I guess,” Karon muttered.

“After all, our presence here is only through the anchored connection Cho-kappa has to its slave. Should it be severed, we might be stranded here while your body decays and finally expires.”

“Promise, are you trying to give me criticism?” Karon asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Of course not, master. I am simply clarifying our situation so I can calculate what your chances of survival are, and what I must do to guarantee it.”

“No need, Promise. I can take care of myself.”

“Had I not done such calculations and risk-takings before, master, you wouldn't be alive today,” the spirit said without any hint of accusation in its voice.

“Well... thank you?” Karon replied hesitantly.

“I live to serve, ma—”

The spirit’s reply was cut off as the red sand beneath their feet shook violently, and the skies swirled with gathering power. The force was building in everything around them, and immediately, Karon knew that he had made a serious mistake. Karon's mind started racing, and ultimately reached a conclusion that made him scowl.

“Promise,” Karon said in a low voice, swallowing the metaphysical lump in his throat.

“Yes, master?”

“Hang on to me, and don't let go,” he managed to say, before all the gathered force shaped itself into a perfectly-focused beam and struck him.

           **************************************************************

Karon came to in a dark forest, the gnarled trees and their spiky branches eliciting a feeling of home. He was back in the soul forest; or rather, some image or echo of it. He looked around and found Promise slowly taking shape a few steps away from him, and when it looked to have gained a full presence in whatever place they were, black drops of sweat were trickling down its dark gray skin.

“I'm sorry, master; I wasted a lot of energy following you here. The thing, Cho-kappa; it was very fast.”

“It's my fault. I should have realized what Cho-kappa was before trying to fight it on its home ground.”

Promise looked around, then spoke. “We are in your mind, now.”

“Yes,” Karon confirmed, his eyes darting around quickly. “And Cho-kappa is around here somewhere, as well.”

“How?”

“It doesn't have any shape or individual existence in its own world. It must have come into being while being yanked or summoned out of it to the slave world somehow, shaping into self-awareness only through the slaves it came through.”

“Then we can't fight it in its own world, unless you wish to take on an entire dimension, that is,” Promise noted calmly, as if the possibility was entirely acceptable if Karon just gave the word.

“I'm going to try and avoid that,” Karon said with a quick smile. “There's no soul to collect there, anyway. It only exists here through other minds.”

“So you’re letting it into your own to try and give it a shape and place where you can devour it.”

“Yes,” Karon said.

“So where is it?”

“No idea.”

Promise looked over at Karon, and the trickster taught he saw a twinkle of amusement in the spirit’s eyes for a second.

“It'll show up soon enough,” Karon said reassuringly. “As long as it is linked with me through the life of the slave, it has nowhere to go. One will has to dominate the other sooner or later, winner takes all.”

A small wind started to blow, and Karon spun around at the sound of footsteps coming from behind him. Through the thick cluster of trees, Dolor stepped into view, a sensual smile on her lips and her eyes glowing with joy.

“My sweet, there you are! I was ju—”

Promise slammed into her like a speeding bullet, sending her flying backwards into a tree which shook at the impact.

“That felt good,” Promise said under its breath.

Karon walked up to stand beside the spirit. “Did you say something?”

“Yes, I said that isn't Dolor,” Promise replied without missing a beat.

“Of course it isn't,” Karon said dryly, and they both waited until Cho-kappa rose.

“Foolish slaves,” it spoke in a deep, dark voice dripping with malice. “You will kneel before me. It is inevitable.”

“Sure it is,” Karon replied, his lips curling into a wry smile. “That’s what they all say.”

He threw up a hand, sending a bolt of lightning surging towards the figure. Cho-kappa blinked out of existence and appeared right in front of Karon behind the bolt, slapping him hard enough to send him into a backwards flip to land hard on the ground.

With an enraged shriek, Promise slashed at the thing as fast the lightning bolt; but Cho-kappa managed to dodge beneath its claws anyway, slapping the wailing spirit with both palms and sending it spinning through the air. Promise managed to grab hold of one of the tree branches, its wings stretching out to catch the air and allowing it to drop to the ground easily.

Karon was rising to his feet with loud grunts of irritation, and both he and Promise started to circle around the thing wearing Dolor's visage.

“I'm going to make you suffer for wearing her face,” Karon growled.

“There are other shapes to take. Your mind feeds me power and form. And how will you fight me, if I am you?” Cho-kappa said, and where one moment Dolor had stood, now stood another Karon.

The real Karon tilted his head, then groaned loudly. “Come on, this is just taking this whole identity thing way too far.”

The false Karon merely smiled, then took a few steps to the side, keeping both Karon and Promise within sight.

“I will take all you are. Your own power and knowledge will be the weapon that takes your life,” it said.

Karon scoffed, then quickly spun around, throwing his arm out in a wide arc in the seemingly empty air. Halfway through it connected with something unseen, and the real Cho-kappa came into view stumbling backwards and falling down on its ass.

“How?” it growled, crawling backwards while Promise rushed over to Karon's side.

“I know enough of myself to know I'm kinda predictable; stabbing from behind while invisible, and making some kind of one-liner just before the final strike,” Karon said with a shrug of his shoulders.

From his right, Karon thought he heard a giggle from Promise.

“Well then,” Cho-kappa said and looked up towards the two. “Kill me.”

The reply took Karon off-balance, and he hesitated a moment before bringing his hand up, blue electricity crackling in his palm. Just as he was about to release the charged energy, Cho-kappa changed shapes once more, and before Karon there sat a silver-haired woman, wearing tightly-fit clothes and full lilac eyes looking up at him.

The energy fizzled out instantly.

Karon's heart started racing as he looked into those eyes, and something buried deep inside him broke loose.

“Master, no!” Promise cried, lashing out with its claws; but the world had already shifted, and now they stood in the middle of a desert with black cracks in the sand, a bubbling dark slime rising from them.

Cho-kappa had disappeared, and Karon stood frozen with a confused expression on his face. Promise walked up to him and gently nudged his shoulder with the knuckles on its right hand.

“Master?” the spirit prodded carefully.

Karon didn't respond.

From the black cracks, some of the tar-like mass started to draw together, and from it a figure took shape. It was equine, smaller than most horses, and with a horn sticking out of its forehead. Eventually the black liquid gave way to a light blue color, and its mane shone silvery in the desert sun as it walked up to Karon, lilac eyes meeting the confused gaze of the trickster's amber.

“Karon,” the unicorn spoke, a small smile gracing its lips.

“Trix,” Karon whispered fearfully, like he was afraid speaking too loud might shatter the illusion.

“Master, wake up! It's just Cho-kappa! It’s tricking you!” Promise screamed and tried to move forward, only to discover the slime had flowed to cover the spirit's feet and held it firmly.

Karon's eyes flickered for a moment, then fell back into the big ocean of lilac in the unicorn's gaze.

“I'm here, Karon. I found you. I never gave up searching for you. Why didn't you look for me, Karon? Why did you give up?”

“I...I...” Karon whispered hoarsely.

“I never stopped loving you, but you forgot me. I suffered, Karon; I endured pain even you can hardly imagine, and yet I never forgot you, never stopped searching until I found you.”

“MASTER! WAKE UP!” Promise shrieked as loud as it could, the black filth rising to cover more and more of the spirit.

From the ground under Karon's feet, another black crack in the sand opened, and from it poured the same black filth, rising to cover him.

“I... I didn't...” Karon tried to speak.

“You forgot me; you forgot me for another. You left me stranded in a place of pain and cold, and never tried to save me,” Trixie said, her voice filled with disbelief.

Karon fell down on his knees, his shoulders slumped in defeat as tears started to trickle down from his eyes.

“It is trying to break your will, master! Fight it, it can't defeat you unless you let it! This is YOUR mind, you can't let it use what you are against you! Fight it! Master, please fi—”

Promise’s last words ended in a gurgle as the black filth rose to cover its face, and slithered down its throat.

Karon's tears continued flowing, his eyes never once leaving the lilac gaze of the unicorn, but a slight frown touched his face as well.

“I- I'm sorry…” Karon cried.

“You gave yourself to her and forgot me, you obey her now. Don't you love me?”

“I...” Karon barely managed to force out, his chin quaking violently and tears streaming down his face while his hands balled into fists.

Black storm clouds started to gather above them, as dark and foreboding as the black cracks in the earth; however, neither of the two broke their gaze to notice.

“Don't you love me, Karon?” Trixie asked, her voice strained, pleading. “Would you give your heart to me? Or will you leave me abandoned, cold and alone with my pain?”

The black filth had risen to cover Karon's chest, slowly moving up towards his throat and out along his arms. Karon couldn't respond, as his lips refused to form words. Instead he reached with shaky hands towards his chest, like he was about to try and dig out his heart.

“Don't abandon me, Karon! I love you, and I know you still love me! Give me your heart! PROVE IT!” Trixie cried desperately.

“H…How...?” Karon barely managed to utter.

“My love, give me your heart…” Trixie whispered.

Karon's right hand grasped his chest hard as if to tear the skin and bone away, his face twisted into a visage of pain, denial and desperation. Trixie looked on with mounting hope and eagerness in her eyes, urging him, pleading him to help her.

His hand suddenly let go, and he flipped his middle finger to the unicorn.

“How about six billion volts of ‘fuck you’, instead.”

A blinding flash split the dark clouds above. The unicorn didn’t even have time to react before several massive, jagged bolts of lightning crashed down upon her all at once.

Unharmed from the blast and deafening boom of thunder not ten feet away, Karon slowly rose from his kneeling position, the viscous black filth from earlier quickly caking and falling away in large clumps. Karon lifted his head, fury etched into every part of his features.

“How!?” Cho-kappa cried, its unicorn form lying prone on the floor, blackened and with smoke rising from spots of bared flesh.

“I am a trickster, we WROTE the book on deception!” Karon shouted as he quickly crossed the distance between them, falling down with his knees on the charred unicorn.

“I AM deception! I am the master of lies and trickery! I am MENDAX KARON BELLUM! I am lies and war, I know pain and pleasure, I am a soul eater and protege of a GOD!”

From the ground an orange glow intense enough to rival the sun itself started to shine, burning the black filth away and turning the entire desert into a glowing plain of orange energy.

Karon could feel Cho-kappa attempting to slip away, but he didn't let it; for every way out Karon's mind instantly obeyed him, throwing up loops and dead ends, all of them forcing the spirit to remain where he was, staring helplessly up at the furious trickster with horror in its eyes.

From behind them the sound of Promise's wheezing reached their ears, but Karon didn't take his eyes off his prey, and his amber eyes shone with the same intensity as the energy around them.

“You dare to use the shape of those I love against me,” he whispered, gripping the unicorn's throat.

“Plea—”

“SILENCE!” Karon roared into its face, repeatedly smashing his fist into the unicorn’s head. Again and again he struck, until the blue skin started to crack, and black filth was pouring out of the wounds.

“You will not have me, you will not have anyone else ever again. You are not strong enough to break me. And, Cho-kappa, you have made me very hungry.”

“No!” The spirit squealed, weakly slapping its hooves against Karon’s shoulders.

Karon moved his hands down to the unicorn’s chest, his fingers digging into the black-seeping wounds and slowly bending them open. The spirit shrieked and thrashed around, but Karon was relentless and didn't give up.

“All that you are, all that you ever were or could be...”

Cho-kappa screamed incoherently, pure pain, fear and rage echoing out over the shining desert.

“All that you have stolen, all you have taken from a world not your own...”

Cho-kappa’s scream silenced instantly when Karon plunged his hands through the open wounds into the spirit’s chest, and he slowly tipped forward until their faces almost touched and stared into the spirit's stolen eyes.

“All of it... WILL! BE! MINE!”

With a mighty roar and a single, furious wrenching motion, Karon tore the spirit’s heart from its body.

A moment later, gaping wounds began to open up from the orange energy all around them; but they were not the filthy black slime of Cho-kappa, but empty things of wide jaws and primal, endless hunger.

There was no scream, no sound as the hunger tore into Cho-kappa. It shredded its soul mind, all of its energy into pieces, destroying the shape and form it had created out of the lives it had stolen, and it all surged straight into Karon. The light around them shone brighter and stronger until it blotted out everything else, and with an ecstatic laugh from Karon, the world exploded in brilliance.

                 ********************************************************

Karon awoke on the cold rock floor of the cavern, and instantly sprang to his feet. His body was charged with what felt like an endless supply of energy, to the point where he could almost hear a buzzing sound from the sheer power radiating out from his every pore. He couldn't suppress a maniacal chortle; the energy needed an outlet, and anything would do.

However, he quickly fell silent when he heard a strangled moan of pain coming from behind him. Turning his head, he saw the slave creature he had used as a mental bridge staring at him with fear shining out of its black eyes.

With a start, Karon realized that it had actually worked; the creature was free from Cho-kappa's control now, and for maybe the first time in its entire life it was looking at the world with clear eyes, and a mind of its own.

Inevitably Karon's eyes moved to the bones jutting out from the creature, and the broken angles in which its limbs pointed. Karon's joy dissipated; even though the energy continued to buzz in him, it no longer felt like a thing to celebrate. Instead he walked to the creature and knelt down next to it, looking it in the eyes with pity.

The twin orbs meeting his own were completely black, but despite the lack of any visible distinction Karon could feel the pain and confusion focused in that gaze. With the power surging through Karon, connecting to the creatures' mind came with just a thought, and what he found there only made Karon's spirit sink lower.

It was like a child's mind, wide-eyed and innocent, not understanding why it hurt so much, not understanding anything. So it looked up towards the only thing it could with hope of things becoming better: Karon.

The hope Karon felt in the creature's gaze hurt, and with a pained expression Karon put a hand on its chest and spoke in a soothing tone.

“I am sorry for this, I am. But I needed your master's power, to save someone I love, I needed it... And for at least a moment, even if it was filled with pain, you knew what it meant to be yourself.”

The lightning surge struck the creature with such force that it disintegrated him, turning the hopeful black eyes and the rest of it into fine white dust. It was over in an instant, and Karon knew it had felt no more pain, not that it would have mattered with all the injuries it had been forced to feel during the few precious moment of awareness it had been allowed.

Karon rose and walked over to collect Promise, and only then realized that the spear wasn't glowing, and yet he could still see clearly, everything in various shades of gray. The realization didn't excite him, and he ignored Promise's attempt at connecting with his mind, shutting the spirit out tightly, before heading back to the city above in silence.

            ********************************************************

“Sweet, you are being very quiet for someone who has just finished their first hunt, and one with such powerful prey,” Dolor said to Karon as they both walked through the gateway into the familiar dark forest.

“I'm sorry if I seem distracted, my love,” Karon replied with an absent-minded tone, his gaze distant and without turning to look at her.

Dolor stopped in her tracks and grabbed ahold of his face with both hands, peering into his eyes hard.

“Are you keeping something from me, my sweet?” she asked, her voice flat and uncompromising.

“No, of course not, my mistress,” Karon said while gently putting his hands over hers, giving them a squeeze, “I am just distracted. There is a lot going on inside me, changes I don't... understand. So much I don't understand,” he finished in a whisper.

Dolor's expression softened, and she released her grip and stroked Karon's head gingerly. “My poor, sweet Mendax. I understand; there was much I didn't understand either when I became a part of this family, and our kind is a complex one since we carry so many different lives and so much power inside of us. But don't worry, my sweet; I will teach and guide you, as I have always done.”

“To what, I wonder?”

“Be quiet.”

Karon forced a slight smile to his lips, and Dolor seemed to take it as a good sign, as her usual kind and confident expression returned. She turned around and continued walking towards the manor, Karon following in tow.

His reply to the voice had been halfhearted; he just didn't have the strength to fight anymore. There had been so much confusion, not just lately but like a continuous line of change that threw him around like a brittle leaf in a storm, tearing and slashing at him at every turn. He had thought Dolor would always be there to provide answers, to give him the warm love and the harsh lash when needed, so he knew when he did good and when he did bad, when he was right or wrong.

But his life didn't have just a mistress. It had a mysterious stranger who claimed godhood; a devoted spirit who professed absolute, loving servitude; a voice that broke all peace and demanded to be heard; and memories, belonging to a pathetic wretch that bore his name.

Karon had no trouble seeing all the flaws and rusty edges on all the thoughts and arguments the past tried to throw at him. That Karon, the old Karon, was weak. In every sense of the word the trickster had failed time and again in almost all his undertakings, leaving a broken mess that others were forced to clean up or endure.

That wasn't him. He wasn't a failure; he had succeeded where so many others had not and risen to become Dolor's chosen, he had grown in power under her loving care and guidance and finally achieved something the old Karon would have not even dared imagine. The old Karon would not even have been brave enough to face that choice.

He wasn't Karon anymore; if he truly ever had been. He was Mendax Karon Bellum, and he would not run away like a coward.

“You were never a coward. You have been forced to face horrors and pain for nearly all your life, no matter what name you carried. You ran, hid and sometimes fought when you shouldn't have, but never once could you have been called a coward. Most of the time you were outnumbered and facing something greater and meaner than you, yet still you managed to crack a smile.”

“Stop glorifying him. You aren't Promise. He was a coward, a weakling and a fool who didn't bother to try and hide it.”

“So you stumbled and fell... a lot, honestly, but you went on even when you ran with your eyes closed. And you are more now; we are more, now, and you will have to ask yourself what that name really means, and then seek out the answer, wherever it takes you.”

“It takes me to Dolor. Always.”

“Really? Because in ‘Mendax Karon Bellum’ I can't see 'whipped delusional bitch' anywhere.”

Karon hadn't even noticed that they were already back inside the manor, and he was following Dolor down the hallway leading to their room. When they arrived and walked inside Dolor turned around, and without a sound started removing her clothes with a sensual smile on her lips, “There is a lot of sand and dust stuck from that world, my sweet, why don't you follow me to the baths and help remove it,” she purred.

Karon returned her smile eagerly, and all thoughts of what the voice had said were quickly banished.

                     ******************************************************

Time had, as ever, passed by without notice, unmeasured as it were by anything other than sleep cycles, and made even more abstract and distant by Karon's attempt to answer one question: was he ready to challenge Maeror?

So far, everything pointed at a no. Not by anything obvious, but by a chilling sensation that dribbled down his spine every time he thought about trying to kill the old monster.

There was something missing; a piece of the puzzle that would let Karon find a way to end a creature that might possibly be among the truly powerful beings in the universe. Karon had gathered power, for sure, and more than one might have guessed, but he had also little in experience regarding those powers, shaping and honing them into reliable skills.

His old life had seen a lot of battle, but it was against foes he nearly always had had some kind of advantage over; either they didn't possess as much knowledge about magic as he had, or they simply hadn't been aware of his trickster nature, and what it meant for his methods of fighting. Maeror wouldn't possess such weakness; it wouldn't be ignorance or gullibility that would lead to his downfall.

No. Karon needed to find a true weakness, a chink in the armor, a flaw in the makeup of this terrible fiend of a man. Karon refused to look at him like a force of nature, no matter how much power he possessed; he was still a man, and that meant flaws.

Karon had composed a mental list of the possible scenarios most likely to succeed in killing him, but all of them fell short of even making it halfway to the end. Karon could shape energy into lightning, he could cloak himself with his aura and turn invisible, sense things even most magical beings couldn't and walk in dreams and minds with an ease that many would envy.

But that was mostly it. He was clever, knowledgeable and dedicated to killing Maeror so Dolor would finally be free; however, beyond that his skills were mediocre at best. He had come to rely on others far too much, in combat especially he had let Tri—

Karon's face soured, immediately ending that train of thought before it could go any further.

“Stop thinking of her. She is gone, and I have changed. It is a past, a distant dream of someone else. I'll never see her again, and I don't need to bother. Dolor is all I need.”

The resolution to several days’ worth of scheming and planning and cautious—and very distant—observation had led to absolutely nothing. There was one option he hadn't tried yet, one that had passed through his mind for just a moment while he was watching Maeror, but it had taken root and remained even still.

If he couldn't find out what he needed from observing Maeror from a safe distance, then he needed to move closer, to a place where Maeror wouldn't be on his guard or expect someone else to be present; his dreams.

“I don't know if we even want to know what goes on inside that thing's head. I mean, considering what we saw in Dolor's mind it won't be anything pleasant.”

“I will suffer through anything if it means finding a way to free Dolor from the claws of that fiend.”

“Man, I can't even imagine the degree of awesome we might have climbed to if you'd possess even a small shred of self-awareness.”

“Maybe my brain is too busy processing the constant stream of drivel originating from you.”

“Ooh, sassy, I like it.”

Karon snorted, and spent the rest of the day going over the risks and potential rewards of invading Maeror's dreams. Just going straight into his mind while in a waking stage wouldn't work, for he'd be detected instantly; but a sleeping mind would be much easier, and unless there were specific guards in place Maeror had created himself, it would be quite doable.

So the question was: was Maeror so paranoid that he had created wards inside his mind to detect and block intruders, no matter what the state of his own consciousness were at the time? There was no sure way to say without looking. And so, having the choice of remaining at a dead end or take a risk, Karon decided that, in the end, his love was worth every chance of a painful annihilation.

Later, when he had joined Dolor in bed, and felt sleep press upon his mind with its seductive beckoning, he felt his heart speed up with trepidation. He knew for a fact that Maeror himself was sleeping, as all the soul eaters in the manor—including Karon himself—were following the same kind of sleep patterns regardless of how exhausted they were. Something Dolor hadn't had any real explanation for besides a shrug.

For whatever reason it may have been, it made for a convenience now considering what Karon had planned. Ever so slowly, his eyes closed and his heart steadily slowed down. Tension and fear shaped into focus as sleep dragged his mind down into a foggy depth, and everything went dark.

                                ******************************************

The familiar bright forest Karon had come to associate with dreamwalking greeted him, the pleasant warmth of the sun trickling through small holes in the tree canopy, bathing the forest in rippling streams of light and turning everything into a vibrant painting of green and brown.

It felt like a good omen, and so Karon set off down one of the paths, letting the pleasant air expand his chest and fill his lungs. As soon as his thoughts wandered to what kind of dream Maeror was having, a link was formed, the world around him shifted and he became aware of a familiar yanking sensation.

When the world stopped spinning in a blur, it came back into focus to show a picturesque scene. He was standing in a grassy field, the grass itself red and reaching his waist, stretching on for endless miles in all directions. In the far distance Karon could see buildings scattered about, and when he turned to look around he saw that one of them stood just a short distance away from him.

He started to approach it, when suddenly a humanoid figure appeared out of the grass, bending over backward with a prolonged grunt as he corrected his spine. Karon recognized him instantly; despite that he looked completely different, there was no mistaking Maeror. There was some kind of unmistakable quality that had perhaps always been present about him.

He didn't look old; instead, his hair was a long unkempt brown, and a few days worth of unshaven beard was starting to show. The clothes he wore were simple, a beige-colored shirt stained with sweat from years upon years of hard work, with a thick brown vest sewn together with rough stitches. They were a working man’s clothes, and from the look of things that was exactly what Maeror was; he bent down again and disappeared in the tall grass, only to reappear a second later holding a large basket, filled with what looked like roots of some kind that had been dug out, clumps of dirt still clinging to them.

Maeror looked down on them for a while as if considering if it was enough, then with a laugh and a shake of his head he turned around and began walking towards the nearby building, wiping the sweat of his brow with the sleeve of his shirt.

Karon followed, and when they reached the building he stopped for a moment to take it all in. It was a square-shaped thing, made out of a whitish rock, with round logs of wood sticking out from the top of the roof where clothes were hung out to dry. Two windows were visibly carved out of the rock, where no real shutters or glass were present, instead a mere piece of brown cloth hung drawn to the side of them.

The house was obviously something that belonged to a working man, as well, lacking any signs of lavishness or luxury. What was more, Karon realized, was that it wasn't just a working man's house, but a working family's house.

Maeror walked inside, and with some hesitance Karon followed, quite certain he wouldn't like whatever he'd find waiting within. To his surprise, though, no horrific scene greeted him as he entered, and instead he was faced with the sight of a woman welcoming Maeror home with an embrace, lovingly making small talk in an unknown language as she then led him into another room.

Karon frowned uncertainly as he followed. He spent what seemed like a very long time in what was some kind of kitchen, watching as the two partners were cutting and boiling the roots Maeror had gathered, seasoning with dried herbs and other foods Karon didn't even try and guess at.

Nothing special happened during the entire time, nothing horrible, nothing that broke the simple monotony of the average day life of what seemed a very average family.

That, more than anything, unnerved Karon.

It was only when the light was visibly diminishing from outside, heralding the approaching night, that the couple halted their efforts at preparing supper at the sound of running footsteps. They were light, and when Karon turned to look towards the entrance he saw a dirt-covered girl of maybe nine or ten years run inside, a big smile on her lips and a slightly torn and weathered set of pants and shirt on her. The color was impossible to determine, as the clothes had obviously been through so much they had come out in a vague dark blue.

The child rushed inside the kitchen and excitedly started to chatter away in the foreign language to the carefully-concealed smiles of her parents, but was interrupted a few minutes later by her mother, who said something softly and motioned towards the food they had been preparing.

With a demonstrative sigh the child went to a nearby chest and brought out a few wooden bowls and large spoons with a sharpened end, bringing them out to the big room where the entrance lay, setting them down on a thick carpet and gathering three pillows to sit down on.

A while later, her parents came out with the supper gathered in a large cauldron which they put in the middle of the floor and gathered round. They sat down cross-legged on the pillows, eating of the food with undisguised slurping and sometimes stabbing the roots with the sharp end of the spoons and taking a bite.

Karon stood leaning against a wall with a bored expression on his face. Hours had passed inside the dream, and so far nothing had happened. It was obvious that Maeror hadn't always been the terrifying soul eater Karon knew him as; but then again, Karon had once been very ordinary himself, and although it was a disturbing realization it wasn't hard to believe that Maeror himself hadn't been so different from anyone else long ago.

But that wasn't useful to Karon; whatever had changed Maeror's life and set him down the path of a soul eater was. With a thoughtful expression Karon stretched out his senses into the dream, carefully prodding at the texture that it was made out of.

There was longing there, and a terrible aching pain, a sorrow so profound and deep there wasn't really a word for it. Karon very, very carefully reached out for that feeling, and pushed it just a little.

“Show me where it began,” he whispered, and for a moment it seemed like the Maeror sitting on the floor eating supper with his family became aware of his own dream, a kind of cracked fracture in the dreams' facade.

Karon held his breath, not daring to do anything but remain absolutely still, fearing that the tiny push had been too much. But the dream settled back again after a few moments, the cracks melting away as the world shifted and blurred again, and the dream changed.

It was nighttime, and the child was sound asleep on a cot in one of the corners. At the center of the room was Maeror, sitting on the floor with a lit candle before him shedding light on a yellowed scroll in his hands. Next to the sleeping child the woman was sitting, fiddling with a piece of cloth as she glanced over towards Maeror continuously, a worried expression on her face.

Maeror himself looked to be engrossed in his reading, and with some curiosity evident on his face Karon walked closer and glanced over his shoulder. Though he couldn't understand the language of the text, the presence of several universal symbols of magic, representing different states of energy and change, made the content of the parchment quite obvious.

Putting down the scroll, but without taking his eyes off it, Maeror continued reading as he drew out a cheap-looking knife. He put the blade against his wrist, his hands moving on their own like he was following instructions, and carefully drew a line from where blood started to seep through.

The woman noticed what he was doing, and said something in a worried tone of voice, leaning forward tensely like she was ready to hurry over to him. Maeror responded with something sharply, never taking his eyes off the scroll or breaking his concentration.

The small wound on his wrist continued to bleed, the blood dripping down on the parchment, hitting one of the symbols there until it was completely drenched, turning it a deep shade of red. Maeror's brow knitted together ever so slowly, like he was expecting something to happen, and as the seconds passed without anything occurring, his mouth turned into a thin line and he brought the knife up again, opening another wound at his wrist.

The woman called out again, louder this time and with rising fear evident in her voice, but quieted when she noticed the girl next to her tossing in her sleep from the noise. Maeror was ignoring everything else, his eyes still focused on the parchment, the red blot spreading outwards quicker now that there were two wounds feeding it blood.

But still, nothing happened, and Karon backed away with a sinking feeling in his stomach. Maeror was a dabbler. It was obvious he was just a commoner of some kind, a simple man of a simple life, that for whatever reason sought to master some kind of magic.

Perhaps he was just curious, or maybe sought power to better his station in life, and that of his family. Or maybe it was just greed or a lust for power. Karon didn't know, and it didn't matter; what he did know was that Maeror had absolutely no idea what he was doing. Maeror was obviously expecting something grand and immediate, not even possessing a trained sensitivity to the energies he was trying to shape, unable to determine if what he did had any effect at all.

He was impatient, a dabbler messing with forces he couldn't control and didn't understand, and it grew even more apparent when Maeror growled under his breath and opened up another wound. Blood flowed openly in a steady stream now, pouring down to drench the entire parchment. The red blot spread, and at the exact moment when it finally covered all of it, leaving a parchment dripping red with blood and only the large black symbols written on it visible, something did indeed happen.

Mist started to rise from the parchment, red mist the same color of Maeror's blood. With a triumphant shout the man rose from the ground and turned to his wife, a grin on his face.

The grin fell away when he involuntarily jerked a hand to cover his wounds, a pained expression on his face that slowly turned to horror. The blood that continued to flow from his wounds sought the parchment, snaking through the air to feed it as more and more mist rose and thickened above it.

The woman sprang up from her seat at the wall and rushed over to him, grabbing Maeror by the shoulder and shouting something in his ear, tugging at him, trying to drag him away from the parchment. But distance did not matter, and the blood from Maeror's wounds escaped between his fingers, the man growing more and more pale by the second.

The woman started crying, her voice rising to a panicked pitch as she forcefully dragged her husband away from the parchment; but the flowing stream of blood floating through the air still connected them, and the parchment itself was dragged along. When the woman noticed she cried in horror and let go of Maeror, running to the cot where their daughter was sleepily rubbing her eyes and trying to take in what was happening.

She grabbed a bundle of cloth the girl had been using as a pillow and rushed back to Maeror, taking the cloth and covering his wounds with it, but to no avail. The blood was in the firm control of a force Maeror had awoken without understanding, and it would not let go of him.

With a shriek from the woman, Maeror fell down on the floor. His face was as pale as snow and his mouth was moving, speaking soundlessly. Karon didn't know what the man was trying to say, or if he was even aware of what was going on, but the trickster's eyes were drawn away from the panicked family and instead sought out the red mist rising from the parchment.

The scroll was obviously a vessel, and with enough detailed instructions for even someone as untrained as Maeror to manage to activate. And now it was feeding on his blood, the blood he had freely offered, fueling whatever workings it had been designed for. Karon doubted that its original intent was anything spectacular, or it wouldn't have found its way into Maeror's hands, the hands of a commoner. But the man had miscalculated, and in his impatience he had opened up more wounds, increased the offering to far more than was intended, and now the parchment responded in turn.

It twisted as it tried to control the power being pumped into it, and shape the energy as it had been created to do. It was visibly struggling, the paper bending as if in the grips of a giant fist crushing it; until eventually, the forces it was trying to control became too much, and the parchment was torn to shreds and vaporized, quickly absorbed into the thick cloud of red.

It hung in the air, completely still as it tried to focus itself after coalescing, the parchment no longer present to instruct the energy what to do. And then, it did the only thing it could do: it rushed back into Maeror.

In the blink of an eye the entire cloud had flown back into the man, sending him gliding across the floor and smashing into the wall. The woman and child both rushed over to him, falling to their knees and doing all they could to try and wake up the unconscious man, until Maeror eventually opened his eyes with a maniacal gleam to them.

Karon took one look at those eyes and understood. The magic he had tried to work had broken, and fled back into him, upsetting his own energies and creating an imbalance that sent his body, mind and spirit into a spiral of chaos.

The trickster knew what was about to happen, could all too well imagine how the parts of Maeror's being were fighting to regain control, trying to seal wounds that the invading energy was tearing open, and reaching out desperately to anything that would allow it to do so.

Like a woman and child that loved him, that unwittingly were sending energy into him with their emotions and thoughts, focusing fear and love upon him, willing him to return to them and get better.

There was no malice in the action, only instinct; energy reacting to energy by reaching out to take of what it was provided with. Maeror's own will had nothing to do with it, and so his being acted only with self-preservation in mind, and drew upon the energy of the woman and child, using the link a family shared through love, and used it to balance itself again.

Neither the woman nor the child even had a chance. Maeror's desperate being, in its hunger to heal itself, tore into them and ripped all they were from them. The energy surged into Maeror, turning the woman and child into withered husks in a matter of seconds, their screams of shock and terror lasting for just a brief moment.

Maeror came to again, his eyes focusing and everything falling deathly silent.

He was panting, trying to make sense of what was going on, as no doubt the unfamiliar feeling of his consciousness expanding was pressed upon him. Until his eyes eventually fell upon what had been his family, and they remained there for a very long time, denial written all over his face, unwilling to let himself believe in what he was seeing.

Karon didn't need to see anything else, and with a pained expression on his face he left the newly-born soul eater behind, walking out the door and quickly hurrying across the fields of grass, the world growing more and more blurred as he moved away from the dreamer.

Before he fell out of the dream, a agonized wail reached his ears, and Karon couldn't help but shudder.

                                ***************************************

The truth of what Karon had experienced inside Maeror's dream had left him in a somber mood lasting for days, the truth saying that the soul eater line Maeror and Dolor kept referring to as their family began with a simple man making a simple mistake out of ignorance. Karon knew how easy it was for the smallest of mistakes to grow to something that turned all of your life into a hell, and he did not like the feeling of sympathizing with Maeror.

It didn't change anything; the old man needed to die if Dolor was to gain a freedom she wasn't even aware she was lacking. However, Karon knew that no matter how and when Maeror met his end at the trickster's hands, the final blow wouldn't come without a sense of pity.

Karon was sitting in the grand room, reclining comfortably on one of the couches while Dolor was sitting opposite him, carefully regarding the board that was set up at the table between them. The game they were playing was complicated, and included several levels of interaction at the same time, leading Karon to more than once pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration at forgetting some specific rule and losing the round.

It had been a nice distraction, and the last few days had been spent with Dolor introducing him to games upon games upon games, all of them collected during her travels across the universe. The complexity of them had forced Karon to concentrate, clearing his mind and allowing him to approach the best way to kill Maeror with fresh eyes every night before they fell asleep.

So far, the planning had come along nicely, and even the voice hadn't had much to say about it, which Karon took as a sign of approval as well as a blessing. He had also included Promise in the planning, and the two of them had spent time together where they discussed the spirit's role in the murder.

And so Karon had taken to carrying Promise with him at all times, to Dolor's surprise, but she hadn't made any sign of being against it, and so Karon had seen no reason to stop. Should Maeror ever discover what he was planning, by a careless stray thought or a misplaced word, then Karon would be relying on seconds to shield himself from the patriarch’s immediate wrath.

Dolor gave a satisfied sound of excitement, and made her move, which made Karon lean forward and analyze the board carefully. So far he hadn’t managed to win a single round in any of the games they had been playing, but considering how fascinated Dolor was with them and the level of experience she had gained over the centuries, he could forgive himself for being outwitted.

Karon tapped his finger thoughtfully against the table, and thought that if figuring out how to kill Maeror would be half as hard as beating Dolor at her games then he should just give up and accept defeat.

Suddenly, Maeror flew up from his usual seat in the corner, the book in his lap flying through the air and landing on the floor with an audible thud, a furious expression present on the ancient soul eater's face.

Karon's heart completely ceased to beat for a second, as he thought that perhaps the soul eater somehow had managed to hear what he had been thinking. But terror was replaced with confusion when he realized that Maeror's attention was completely focused on something else, something outward and beyond what was going on inside the room.

Both Dolor and Karon shared a quick look of shock, then they both stretched out their senses, Karon's quicker, and it didn't take more than a few seconds for him to realize that something was going on out in the forest.

The trees, or some of them at least, were screaming, but not in the usual prolonged wails of despair that had become like a background song Karon was barely aware of. No, the trees were now screaming in frantic joy, energy released in explosions of relief and jubilation.

Karon ran over to the closest window, and saw that the usually dark forest was now lit up by a distant glow of pure white, and from it energy of all colors were rising in streams to vanish into the heavens.

Someone was burning down the forest.

The fire had only spread to cover the far end of the forest, but it burned with a fire constantly fed by the energy of the trees that died, increasing with each explosion and making it grow rapidly. From behind him, Karon felt how Maeror gathered power, drawing upon the energy of the forest that hadn't been touched by the flames.

Karon barely had time to dodge to the left before Maeror burst forward in a flurry of movement too fast for his eyes to track, shattering the window as he jumped through it and raced off towards the fire and whatever was causing it.

Karon rose up from the ground, and was quickly joined by Dolor as they stood side by side and looked out the broken window. After a few minutes had passed, Karon's eyes darted to a moving figure that appeared out of seemingly thin air from the trees, running across the field towards the manor. It was Timor, running faster than Karon had ever seen him move before. He saw the two figures looking out the window, and changed his direction and ran towards them, a burst of energy sending him through the window and joining them inside.

“What is going on?” Dolor asked curtly with a look towards the white flames rising above the treeline.

“Something came into the forest,” Timor spoke, his voice coming out in labored hisses as he fought to control his breathing. “I was going to wait until it went deeper into the forest before hunting it, but it had barely arrived before it started to burn everything down. Whatever it is, it controls immense power, as much as any of us… or maybe even more,” he finished in a fearful hiss.

“Father will take care of the intruder,” Dolor told him with a sharp look.

“Unless the intruder attacks him, he won't have time to; the fire is spreading fast, and growing stronger with every tree that is taken. It will take all of his power to keep it from devouring the entire forest,” Timor objected, keeping his eyes turned downward and refusing to meet Dolor's leveled gaze.

“Then we will punish this invader,” Dolor said without any fear coloring her voice, and Karon nodded in response.

Timor was about to say something, raising his head and drawing in breath, when both he and Karon froze, their senses hooking on to a flash of energy they could both feel reverberating through the ether.

“It's here,” Karon had time to say, before a massive explosion shook the manor, sending debris flying as the back wall of the building was blown inwards in a wave of fire and force.

Dolor raised a shield instantly, the debris bouncing off it harmlessly to the side and leaving the three of them standing untouched. They stared with wide eyes at the sight: half of the rear wall of the manor had been removed, and now a gaping hole stretched from one end to the other, opening up to the starlit sky and forest outside.

From the darkness a figure stepped forward, framed in by the flames still licking what remained of the manor's wall. She was garbed in a dark blue robe, the light of the fires around her reflecting off the golden braids sewn into it, snaking down her chest in an intricate pattern to end at a tightly-drawn belt in the same golden color. On her shoulders were placed wide pauldrons with sharp-looking edges in a metallic mat of red and black; the only visible parts of an armor the robe was strategically cut to wear over, giving her movements considerable weight and stability as she slowly approached the trio of soul eaters.

Karon's eyes widened as the figure drew closer and her features became more distinct. From the depths of his mind a memory was rising, and his brain was trying furiously to reconcile with what was standing right in front of him.

Her hair shone silvery, cut short at her shoulders and giving the sharp edges of her face a dangerous look. Her skin was a deep olive tan, marked by years of weathering in harsh environments, and her eyes scanned the scene before her with the calm and precise gaze of someone accustomed to finding danger wherever they went.

Slowly, as she stepped towards them, her right hand reached to the left side of her hip, grabbing the hilt of a sword positioned so as to be as hidden from view as possible, and drew it with a fluid ease that bespoke of the skill she possessed. The blade itself was a curved saber with a straight base, the metal a mixture of black and gold, and along the blade a bluish fire was snaking up and down in a steady rhythm.

“No, not fire,” Karon thought. “Lightning, pulsating so quick and intense as to appear like it was fire.”

The woman stared hard at Timor, then her eyes shifted over to Dolor, and her grip on the sword hardened visibly. Finally, her gaze locked on Karon and she stared him directly in the eyes, and there was no longer any denying it.

“Trix,” Karon whispered.

“Karon,” Trixie muttered, her voice raw and trembling. She was looking at him with an uncertainty that had not been present earlier, like she wasn't sure if she could even believe that he was truly standing in front of her.

“Your pet has returned, my sweet,” Dolor spoke in an icy tone, her eyes filled with hate that made the red streaks in her eyes glow.

Trixie's eyes snapped to Dolor, a dead certain competence shining in them for a moment, ready to face any threat the soul eater may throw at her, then it vanished when her eyes went back to Karon uncertainly.

“Karon?” she said again, uncertainly.

Karon was about to open his mouth, to say something, to reassure her, when he realized there was nothing to say.

“My sweet,” Dolor purred, “Kill her.”

Karon didn't move, he just continued to stare into the eyes of a person he once loved more than anything, one he had traveled across worlds with, fought beside and had saved and been saved by. A person he would have thought he shared an unbreakable bond with.

“That was the old Karon. That person is dead.”

Slowly, Karon forced his feet to move towards Trixie. She didn't move away from him, instead she waited as he came closer, their eyes still locked.

There was an unknowable depth in her eyes, a presence of events that had left so many marks it would be impossible to convey, leaving only an emotionless face that simply waited for him to choose what to do.

Karon stopped with only a single step between them, close enough to reach out and touch her cheek, to feel her hair beneath his fingertips. Close enough to lean forward and taste her lips.

Memories pressed upon his mind, feelings and senses from a time before he had ever known about the manor, from before he had known Dolor; from a time where he in his deepest nightmares couldn't have guessed what it would have been like to have gaping wounds in your soul.

He looked into Trixie's eyes, a brilliant shade of lilac that had been hardened by whatever horrors those eyes had been forced to stare into.

“Karon?” she simply asked again, her voice quivering with held-back emotions, and he understood.

He had been a dream, a distant beacon to drive her when she had nothing else, one she had never been able to forget. But it had been too long, there had been too much since she had seen him, been able to touch him. Karon wasn't the only one who had changed, and when she looked into his eyes and spoke the name of the person he had once been, it wasn't a statement, but a question.

Was the distant dream true, or had he been lost in time and become just that, a dream?

“My sweet, you don't need her anymore. You have my love, and I am all you will ever need.”

Dolor's words cut into him, repeating like an echo in his mind as he stared into the depths of the lilac eyes in front of him.

“Is it?”

“What do you truly need?”

“Dolor offers me love and a home.”

Karon looked into the lilac eyes, and he remembered. Trixie had offered him love, as well, and a home; a home that sat at the center of all things, at the end of a starlit path.

“Karon?”

“I am Mendax Karon Bellum.”

“What is it you need, Mendax Karon Bellum?”

Karon broke the stare with Trixie, and took a step backwards and turned so he stood with both his sides turned towards Trixie and Dolor. He looked back into the eyes of his mistress, the woman who had made him into nothing and then allowed him to rise, stronger and better. She had brought him great pain and pleasure, taught him to see the weakness in himself and others.

She had taught him what it was to be wounded, to be a soul eater. And he loved her for it.

He turned his head back to face Trixie, the remnant of someone he had once been. A confused creature, full of deceit not from choice but because he didn't understand better, because he had been blind.

Now he could see.

His past and present stood to either side, and he had to make a choice, to choose between two loves.

“Are you Mendax?”

“Yes.”

“Are you Bellum?”

“Yes.”

“Are you Karon?”

“I...yes.”

And Karon understood. There was no separation, no line or border between Karon and who he was now. He had been Erik and grown into Karon, and now he had grown into more, they were all one. He was all complete.

“What do you need, Mendax Karon Bellum?” The voice whispered slowly, enunciating every word.

Karon looked into the eyes of Dolor, then back into Trixie's, the same question reflected in their gaze.

“What does it mean to be a trickster?”

Karon shuddered, the question piercing into the heart of his being, hanging there suspended, waiting to be answered.

For a moment, it seemed like Karon was moving, then he stood completely still again, an emotionless expression on his face. Until he turned to face Trixie again, and he looked her into the eyes with the same expression, raising his right hand from which blue sparks started to gather.

“Promise?”

“Yes, master?”

“How do you know who you are?”

“You make a choice, master, and then you see where that choice takes you. Just like I chose you.”

“You didn't have a choice in serving me. You had no will of your own.”

“I didn't, but I do now; I have had for a long time, now, and I still choose you, master. I was a Promise you made, and now I am a Promise that I make to you.”

“How did you know how to make that choice?”

“You listen to your heart, master, your true heart; and the road it leads you down will show you what can grow from it.”

The hand before Trixie's eyes hung still before her, close enough for the light to reflect from her eyes. She stared back up into the eyes of the man that stood in front of her, the man that had been a dream, and she didn't resist. She waited to see if that dream was real, or if whatever road she had fought through had lead to nothing.

Karon sank deep into himself, down into the very center of his being, where an orange light was pulsating, where all he was, had been and ever could be was connected. It shone strong, but on its surface ugly wounds of a hungry emptiness yawned wide open.

Listen to your heart, Promise had said. Karon could see hunger and light, a strong light of orange, a playful thing that twisted and turned as if in a dance.

“What is your choice?” The voice asked. “Are you the hunger, or the light?”

“I am both,” Karon answered.

“Who do you choose, Trixie or Dolor?”

“Neither,” Karon responded, staring at the pulsating heart.

“What do you need?”

Karon looked into the heart.

The hand from which the sparks danced moved closer, and Trixie's eyes showed only defeat; she didn't raise the sword she held to strike him down, she didn't try and defend herself. She had walked her road only to find that it ended in nothingness. She stared into the eyes of the man before her and saw nothing of the love that had once been there, she saw nothing.

Because it was only an illusion, and when the hand reached out to touch Trixie, it vanished.

From Dolor's stomach, the midnight black tip of Promise erupted, and on the shaft of the spear orange-glowing runes shone with a triumphant brilliance as the spirit reveled in tasting the blood of the soul eater that had tried to take away its master.

The invisibility cloaking Karon fell away, and showed him crying, tears running down his cheeks as his entire body shook, and he staggered backwards, letting go of Promise and falling to the floor.

Timor stared at Dolor, and the spear she reached down to touch with an expression of horror and disbelief. Then he spun to Karon with a hiss and threw himself at him, his hands extended towards outwards with poisoned claws springing from his fingertips.

“NO!” Trixie roared, throwing up a hand from which erupted a ball of roaring fire. The projectile caught Timor in midair, the pure force it carried sending him crashing through the walls and out into the open field outside the manor.

Trixie immediately ran out after the soul eater with her sword brandished high and a look of righteous fury on her face, leaving the wounded Dolor on her knees and Karon behind her.

Dolor held Promise’s shaft with hands that were rapidly becoming slick with blood, sobs of pain and shock escaping from her as she slowly drew the spear out of her stomach. Karon remained on the floor, looking on with tears running down his face, until Dolor finally yanked the spear free in a spray of blood and a pained gasp. She dropped it to the ground with a clatter, slowly dragging herself around to face Karon.

Her eyes were wide and full of disbelief when she met his gaze, her dry cracked lips shaking as a slow trickle of red escaped from a corner of her mouth.

“Why?!” she cried desperately, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Karon crawled up to his knees before her, looking deeply into her eyes.

“Do you love her more than me?” she asked, her voice cracking with hurt and betrayal.

“No,” Karon answered, reaching out a shaking hand to cup her cheek.

“Then why?!” she demanded.

“Because it's my nature, “ Karon whispered hoarsely. “I can't be what you want me to be, Dolor. I never could.”

“I love you,” she insisted, her voice becoming choked with sobs.

“But it can’t change what I am,” Karon replied sadly, leaning forward and putting his head to hers, unable to bear looking into her eyes anymore. “I need more than love, Dolor. I can’t stay with you any longer. I need answers.”

He drew back again, cringing as he forced himself to face the hurt he saw in her gaze.

“You know my destiny,” he said. “You could taste it in my name the first time we met. Please, tell me... I need to know. Please…”

“Karon, my sweet Mendax,” Dolor moaned, weakly lifting her hands to touch his head lovingly. “Your destiny is what I have always tried to teach you. You will find your truth in pain.”

Karon blinked, his face showing only confusion at the revelation. Dolor coughed violently, blood splattering his face as she fell forward, and he quickly took her into his arms. She looked up at him, her eyes growing misty as life slowly trickled out of her.

“You were supposed to save me,” she whispered.

“I know,” Karon murmured, holding her tightly against his chest. “I just couldn’t.”

“Why?” she managed to ask, before her body shook as another cough hit her.

“I don’t know,” Karon answered honestly. “I just couldn’t.”

Dolor gave a mirthless chuckle at the response, which quickly turned into another coughing fit, blood splattering all over the front of Karon’s robe. She drew a rasping breath for air before turning her head upward, her lips pulling back to reveal red-stained teeth as she gave him a warm smile.

“Well, I’m not dead yet, my sweet,” she croaked. “And there is still something I can do.”

Twin waves of scarlet energy erupted from Dolor’s palms, striking Karon in the chest and sending him flying across the floor before coming to a stop several meters away. He shook his head and looked back at Dolor—

His eyes flew wide as he saw her fingers wrap around Promise, lying forgotten on the floor.

“NO!”

Karon scrambled to his feet, but it was too late. The runes across the spear flickered for a brief moment, then died out completely. With a shudder, Karon felt how the energy of the spirit, and the newly-grown soul in heart, was ripped out from the spear and absorbed into Dolor as the spear itself turned into rusted dust.

Karon had wounded her, stabbed someone that loved him in the back; and now she would use the life of someone else he loved to heal herself.

Dolor rose from the floor, the seeping wound in her stomach already beginning to seal itself visibly. She stared into Karon’s eyes, and smiled. It was a smile of someone that had seen and felt all the pain that life had to offer, and yet still somehow stood alive, but not without wounds.

Suddenly, her smile faded as her head was thrown backwards, her arms extending to her sides as energy began to shine throughout her body, enveloping her in a veritable cloud of orange and gray. Her pale skin began to deepen into a darker shade of gray, and from her fingers grew black dagger-like claws. Her ashen hair turned bright orange, and from her back sprang two wings of the same color.

When the brilliant light from the energy died down, only the figure remained standing in the spot Dolor had been only moments ago. And in a flash of realization, Karon knew that he was now staring at Promise; not just a spirit anymore, but a thing of flesh and blood.

“Master?” she said, her voice the same restrained and polite tone it had always been, but a bit lighter, and filled with wonder.

“Promise…?” Karon breathed, blinking in disbelief. “What… how… what happened?”

Promise was holding her hands up before her eyes, apparently marveling at the feeling of being more than a thing of intangible energy. “She…” she began, her voice tinged with uncertainty, “She drew me in, and I tried to fight but she just brushed me aside, and then… she just… let go.”

“Let go?” Karon repeated hollowly.

Promise looked down on the floor. Her face, somehow a mixture of its own and Dolor’s, scrounged up in thought as she considered what had happened. “She held me in her grip, drew me in to her very heart, and I could feel the hunger within her wanting to tear me to pieces. But then she just let me go, and… her heart wasn’t shining anymore.”

“How is that even possible?”

“I don’t know, master, but I think…”

“Yes?”

“She could have taken all of my power, master, and it would have healed her. But she didn’t, because… I think she didn’t want to.”

“Wha… what? Why would she… it doesn’t—“

“She loved you, master,” Promise said, looking him in the eyes with sadness.

Silence, broken only by the sound of the fire crackling in the manor, fell upon them both as the meaning of Dolor’s final action sunk in. Then slowly, another sound began to become clear, echoing across the field from within the forest.

The sound of battle.

                  ****************************************************

Trixie dodged nimbly underneath the soul eater’s strike, slashing at his right leg with her saber. He managed to avoid the attack by twisting his body and cartwheeling over it; but he couldn’t avoid the spinning kick that Trixie followed with as the momentum carried her body, which hit the side of his head hard enough for him to stagger backwards, momentarily dazed.

Trixie wasted no time, her movements a fluid unity as her blade flashed forward to pierce the soul eater’s heart. His disadvantage was a ruse, however, and when the sword was a mere inch from his chest Timor twisted to the side, slashing his clawed hand towards Trixie’s throat.

She simply changed her momentum, barreling right into the soul eater and deflecting the hand with her left pauldron. Both the fighters disengaged and jumped backwards, Trixie silently focusing on her opponent while Timor was hissing and spitting furiously.

The small needle-like claws that stuck out from underneath the soul eater’s fingernails dripped with the potent, disabling poison they were coated in. He only needed one hit, a single cut that broke the skin, and the woman would be helpless.

But the armor she wore underneath the robe had proved as strong as anything Timor had ever come across, and even the stiletto claws weren’t sharp enough to get through. So he had been forced to concentrate on the weak spots: her throat and head, the points behind her knees and her armpits.

However, the woman had proved to be as agile as he was in spite of the heavy armor she was wearing, and she knew exactly how to use it to her advantage, catching his blows and deflecting them whenever she wasn’t quick enough to escape entirely.

The fight had lasted a while already, but neither of them showed any signs of growing fatigued so far; however, with the forest fire growing steadily, Timor was finding himself with less and less energy to draw upon.

He cursed the woman for being so quick, he cursed her for taking away the power of the forest, and most of all he cursed himself for becoming so dependent on it for strength. He had grown soft within the confines of the forest, and it had been centuries since he had last left it to hunt amongst the stars, settling for whatever strays wandered in from the outside.

“No more,” he thought to himself. ”Once this is over, I will leave; Dolor has already denied me in favor of that damned trickster. I WILL hunt again in places more worthy of my presence.”

With a smile concealed underneath his golden mask the soul eater charged again, his hands a flurry of motion as he closed in on the unmoving opponent before him. At the last second Timor halted, then sprang to his right, and was enveloped by the dark of the forest.

Trixie reacted instantly, moving to her left and positioning herself so as to stand at an equal distance from all the trees around her, before sinking into a sequence of movement that made her sword spin in unbroken lines of eight. The blade continued to dance, faster than the eye could catch, leaving no opening for more than a second.

Just as the sword passed around her back, Timor sprang out from the shadows, his clawed hands aimed straight at her neck.

Trixie was ready. As the blade moved away and left her neck exposed she dropped down low, twisting her upper body and striking the soul eater hard in the midriff with an elbow, which she quickly followed up with a strike from the pommel of the sword to the exact center of Timor’s mask.

The soul eater reeled back with an enraged hiss, slashing blindly at the air in front of him. Trixie remained where she stood, the tiniest hint of a smirk present on her lips.

“You fool! You think you can defeat me?! I have fought against angels!” the soul eater screamed, charging straight at her.

Trixie’s arms spun above her in a wide arc, and in a single swift motion she sent the sword flying forward, glittering brilliantly as it spun through the air before sinking into the soul eater’s chest.

Timor stopped cold, staring down in stupefaction at the blade jutting out from his body. Trixie approached him calmly, grabbing hold of the hilt and wrenching the sword free. Timor fell to his knees with a rattling hiss, staring up at the woman in shock and disbelief.

“I have killed gods,” Trixie spat.

With a single swipe of her sword, Timor’s head flew from his shoulders.

The severed part went bouncing away into the forest, and the soul eater’s body slumped to the ground as blood spurted from its severed neck. Trixie turned around to face back towards the manor, noticing that the fire was drawing closer towards it, and would most likely engulf it soon.

She sheathed her sword and hurried forward, jogging at a steady pace, her breathing carefully controlled and her movements measured to mitigate the incredible weight her armor added. When she reached the open field around the manor, she saw Karon already walking out of the hole in the wall Timor had caused as he was thrown through it.

To her surprise, though, she could see another figure she couldn’t recognize following him; a female with wings the color of a setting sun folded behind her back, wearing the same torn black dress that the other soul eater had been.

Trixie stopped to wait for the two of them to reach her, a light breeze brushing the sweat-drenched hair from her face. In the distance the roaring of the fire could be heard, accompanied by ghostlike screams of joy that Trixie didn’t understand, nor cared about.

The only thing she cared about, the only thing that really mattered, was the man that was now walking towards her. She could hardly recognize him; she knew she would even have forgotten how he looked entirely, were it not for a single memory that was burned into her mind, a memory of sitting in a place right in front of that man, sharing a table with him in a place they both called home.

It had been such a long time, and she had more than once decided that it was something she should leave behind, a dream to abandon. ‘A distracted mind leads you only to death on this island’, a man she had grown to care deeply for had once told her; but even so, she had never lost that memory, no matter what happened.

And in the end, she had left to seek it out.

For a moment, just a moment, she had thought that it had all been for naught when he stood facing her, his hands raised to deliver a strike that would kill her, showing her that all the suffering she had gone through was worth nothing, and life was just as hard and meaningless as she had so many times suspected.

”But it was just another trick,” she thought, and a slight smile turned the corners of her mouth upward, making a crack in the hard expression she usually wore. She remembered that about the man, his cleverness and guile, and many times she had found herself thinking how he would have come in handy when she had been forced to face overwhelming odds, how he would have found a way to turn the tables around and come out without a scratch and with a wonderful, mocking laughter.

He was real, and was coming to a halt before her, his orange eyes glowing in the dark, sending a shiver down her spine as a life of joy and belonging seemed so close within her reach now she could almost taste it.

But time and pain had sharpened her, and she controlled her emotions, the smile falling away. She simply watched, waiting to see what the man would do, if he truly remembered her, if he truly loved her still.

Or if it was all just another trick.

                                     ************************************

Promise’s fingers twitched incessantly, like she was unable to make herself stop from moving. Karon could understand it, however, since the spirit was experiencing what it was to have a body for the first time, having been confined to the spear; and a piece of metal provides very little in senses to experience the world through.

“How does it feel?” Karon asked, forcing a lump back down his throat when he looked at Promise’s face.

“She looks so much like her... but different.”

“Stop it, you made your choice. And for the record, it was the right one.”

“Doesn't make it easy.”

“It has never been easy for us, and it never will be.”

Promise raised her hand once again, striking the dagger-like claws on her fingers against the ones on her thumb, the clinking sound it produced making her giggle. Her face froze in shock the second the laugh escaped her mouth, and she giggled again, louder this time.

“It feels… really good, master,” Promise answered, giving him a joyful smile.

“Good, but we need to get moving, now. Trixie is probably still fighting Timor, and we need to go and help her…” Karon trailed off, his face growing dark, “…and then find a way to deal with Maeror, before he manages to put the fire out and comes after us.”

Promise’s expression grew somber, but the light in her eyes didn’t quite die down. Karon got the sense that she was a little too new at this to understand the implications of having a body to care for.

“Can you move around, Promise? Can you walk or run without stumbling?” Karon asked.

Promise blinked and looked down at her legs. First she skipped on the left one, then switched to the right, unable to keep herself from giggling as her body obeyed her commands without fault.

“Good enough,” Karon mumbled, then wiped away the streaks his tears had left on his face and motioned towards the hole in the wall Timor had made. “Let’s go.”

Before they had taken more than a few steps, Karon heard a scuffing sound rapidly getting closer. He turned around and was met with the sight of a giant silver ax falling towards his head.

It was caught in the air by Promise’s claws, a fierce grin on her face as she stared at the silver mask of the servant. She bent her knees slightly before pushing upwards with her arms, sending the servant backpedaling as it tried to regain control of the heavy weapon.

Promise followed up instantly, her claws slashing at the black-clad servant and tearing its clothes to pieces as she sliced open deep wounds all over its body. The creature fell to the ground, lifeless, never once getting the chance to raise its weapon for another strike.

With an expression of wonder, Promise stared down at the red blood flowing down from her claws and running along her fingers. She rubbed them together gingerly, careful not to cut herself.

“It's so warm,” she murmured.

“Nice catch,” Karon remarked, then his eyes sharpened when he stretched out his senses, feeling the slight emission of energy the servants were giving off.

“There's three more of them coming this way,” Karon said crisply.

“Good,” Promise responded with an eagerness that belied her inexperience with a real body.

They waited patiently, until the first of the servants burst through what was left of the doorway, a similar two-handed silver ax in its hands. The thing turned its mask towards them, and immediately fell into a charge, pulling its ax far behind itself to its right.

Before Karon could react, Promise threw herself in the way and charged the figure herself, screaming a fierce battle cry of bloodlust and holding her clawed hands out to her sides.

When there was but a few steps left between them, Promise caught her foot on a piece of wood and stumbled forward. Through pure luck or instinct, her wings extended themselves and caught her in the air, continuing her momentum and sending her crashing into the servant. The unexpected move caught him by surprise, as he lost his grip on the ax and fell back to the ground with Promise on top of him.

She quickly struck the servant, all ten claws piercing through his clothes easily and burying themselves in his chest, killing him instantly. The two remaining servants both came running into the room at the same time, their focus falling on the winged figure who had her back turned to them.

Karon didn't have have a lot of time to react, and a bolt of lightning would only take one out, and so he simply threw a hurdle of mental energy at them, attacking their minds instead of their bodies.

It worked far more effectively than he expected; the servants both froze in place, swaying groggily from side to side. Karon remembered that they had been hollowed out to the point of having no will of their own, simply blindly following commands. And so, he pressed his own will against them, his mind reaching out and grasping hold of theirs.

Unexpectedly, Karon felt that he could shape the intrusion in a way he had never considered before. Instead of simply using raw power to force his will to dominate theirs, it bled through their minds instead, rising in a steady tide to drown out their own little by little. It took just a few seconds, and then Karon had total control of them, feeling their bodies and minds like an extension of himself, another set of eyes and ears and arms.

A simple command, a single impulse, and both the servants raised their axes and chopped down on the other one’s head.

When Promise stood up from her fresh kill and turned around, her grin gave way to a look of surprise when she saw two of the silver-masked men on the ground, both with an ax stuck in their skull. She gave Karon a questioning look, to which he merely shrugged.

With a smile present on her face again, Promise joined his side and they both climbed out of the hole in the wall and were met with the crisp night air and the distant roaring of the burning forest. On the other side of the clearing was Trixie, walking towards the manor, but stopping when she saw them.

Karon’s heart jumped up into his throat when he saw her there, standing with the white forest fire behind her, and the energy of the forest escaping towards the sky like the northern lights. He felt his hands trembling as he got closer, and for a moment he thought he saw a slight smile grace Trixie’s mouth, then it was gone and Karon wondered if it had been his imagination.

When he stopped in front of her, they both said nothing, simply looking into the eyes of one another, waiting for something to break the spell.

Promise cleared her throat loudly. Karon was the first to break, taking a step towards Trixie and raising his hands towards her. But she pulled back, and shook her head firmly.

“No… not yet, Karon, I… we’re not done here yet,” she said, her voice steady but with a noticeable strain to it.

“Yes,” Karon agreed, snapping out of his stupor. “Later.”

Karon reached out with his senses, and amongst the whirlwinds of energy in the burning forest, he could sense a single point of absolute hunger, trying desperately to drain all the energy, and failing.

“Maeror,” Karon simply said, and set off in the direction he had felt his presence.

Trixie and Promise both kept his pace, following at his right and left respectively, dodging trees and flames as they all ran. The air grew thicker and thicker with a black oily smoke the further in, or rather out, they went, and Karon could feel his eyes starting to sting.

Then a figure became apparent amongst the flames, standing with his arms out wide and drawing upon all his hunger and power to gain a hold over the flames.

“Maeror!” Karon shouted, channeling energy into his voice and amplifying it so it could be heard above the roar of the fire.

Maeror turned to face the trio, and for the first time since meeting him, Karon saw emotions flicker across the soul eater’s face as he took in the scene.

“The others are dead. You are the only one left!” Karon called to him.

The effect was instantaneous. The expression on Maeror’s face grew into one of incalculable rage as he walked through the scorching flames unharmed, the whites in his eyes glowing with baleful fury.

Karon knew that he had only a few seconds before the soul eater would bear down on them with every shred of power he possessed, and so he took a step forward and drew a symbol in the dirt, then stepped back, watching as it started to glow a light purple.

Maeror halted, unsure of what it was; then slowly, two figures started to appear, melting into being from nothing. A woman and child, standing with their arms held out towards him, their faces showing only love, beckoning him towards their embrace.

The moment stood frozen in time. The rage on Maeror's face vanished like it had never been there, leaving not the soul eater possessing power to rival perhaps even a god, but a man, pained by the long years of a sorrow that never ended.

“Promise,” Karon said simply, his eyes sad and fixed on the lone figure staring at a family he had thought lost long ago.

Maeror took another step forward, his eyes trembling; and then black claws reached around his neck, slicing his throat open from behind. Maeror fell to his knees with a surprised gurgle, clutching the wounds as blood streamed down his chest.

But he never once took his eyes away from the woman and child, until finally, they closed, and the soul eater fell to the forest floor with a heavy thud.

Promise stood over him, her face still shining with unbridled joy. When she turned her eyes towards Karon and Trixie, she saw that the woman and child had vanished.

“Who were they?” Trixie asked, obviously surprised that they hadn’t needed to fight.

“His family. A family that he murdered through a stupid mistake,” Karon said, turning his eyes downwards.

Trixie turned to face him, a frown creasing her features. “You summoned the dead?”

“No,” Karon chuckled mirthlessly and raised his gaze towards the stars, still visible through the lights dancing above the burning forest. “It’s not that easy,” he finished in a sad, wistful voice.

Promise joined them, idly rubbing the blood of her fresh kill along her fingers as she shifted her eyes from Karon to Trixie. “Is it over?” she asked.

“Yeah, it’s over,” Karon said as he brought his gaze down from the stars, settling it on Trixie.

“Let's go home.”

                         **********************************************

The fire had lasted for a very long time, growing more and more as each dying tree added the fuel to free its kin from the tortured existence that they had been forced to endure under the keeping of the soul eaters. At the end, nothing but ash remained as the last of the pure white flames flickered out, and the colored lights dancing up into the sky vanished, leaving only an empty wasteland of gray with motes of dust swirling in the air beneath a star-strewn sky.

When the heat of the fire had died away and left the ground cold, a figure appeared, wearing simple clothes of white and gold, walking across the wasteland with bare feet. His face was nondescript, and his eyes were a warm brown, the exact same color as his hair.

He stopped when he reached what could be described as the center, and reached into a pocket in his pants, bringing forth a single seed the size of his thumb. With a peaceful smile, the figure squatted down and dug a hole in the ash and earth, dropping the seed within before covering it up again.

Other figures started to appear, their clothes and appearance an exact replica of the first, and all proceeded to plant their seed in the ground. When they were all done, they looked up to the sky where dark rainclouds were beginning to take shape. And for the first time in centuries, at the edge of the horizon, dawn was finally beginning to break.

                                   ********************************************

Karon and Trixie held each other hard, their embrace tight enough for their knuckles to whiten, but neither of them objected, and neither of them dared to loosen their grip.

They had been lost to each other for too long, and now when all the troubles of their lives had fallen away, and when they found themselves together in a bed they had shared once long ago, in a room they had called home, the thought of that moment ending loomed over them like a doom.

They had moved as if in a trance when they had arrived at The Walker's Rest, moving as if they were guided by an unseen force, never once breaking the silence as they went up to their room, and Promise disappeared to somewhere.

The door had opened to them by itself, disregarding the old need for a key somehow, and they had undressed each other, but it had lacked anything sensual. They simply couldn't allow anything to come between them, and clothes and Trixie's armor now cluttered the floor while they clung to one another.

Trixie was the first to finally break the silence. “Karon... do you love me?”

“Yes,” he answered her. “Do you love me, Trixie?”

“I do,” she told him, and somehow managed to tighten her grip around him even further. Karon's ribs creaked dangerously, but he didn't care. Nothing would take away this moment.

“But you loved that other soul eater, the woman,” Trixie said, her voice a simple statement without reproach or accusation.

“I did,” Karon admitted.

Trixie nodded. “I understand.”

Karon stroked his cheek across the top of her head, savoring the smell of her hair. “You loved another, as well?”

Trixie nodded again. “Without him… I would have gone insane a long time ago.”

Karon remained silent at that, instead just kissing the top of her head. Then he asked, “How long?”

Trixie’s eyes grew distant as memories flashed through her mind. After several minutes of silence, she answered, “Eight years. Eight years in that place, forgetting nearly everything that had come before it.”

“But you came back for me?”

“Yes,” she said, then let go of him just enough so she could turn her head to face him. “And you chose me over her.”

Karon didn’t answer at first, instead simply looking her directly in the eyes. He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

“Promise me, Karon,” Trixie said, her voice brooking no argument or compromise.

“Promise what, Trix?” he asked her.

“That we will never lose each other again, that from this moment on, we will be together... forever.”

Karon looked her in the eyes, and the silence stretched out, growing heavier with each second that passed without his answer.

He had learned a lot over the course of his entire life, and during his recent trials with Dolor. He didn't know how long he had spent with the soul eaters in that manor, but he knew for certain that it wasn't eight years; he assumed that time had simply flowed differently across the different places they had been trapped in.

“What have you learned, then?”

“Much. Some great truths, some smaller, some about myself and some about others. Some of them cannot be put into words, and others are so simple as to demand only a sentence.”

And Karon knew for certain that giving Trixie that promise would be a lie. He had learned to see the wounds and flaws in all things, their weaknesses and ends, and he knew now that, in life at least, there was nothing that could last forever. Perhaps they would remain with one another for centuries, or even more. However there would come a time where they would go their separate ways, when the roads that called to them weren't aligned.

“Yeah, I have learned a lot.”

Karon looked Trixie in the eyes, then smiled. “Forever, Trix. I promise.”

“Not all lies are ugly.”

                         ************************************************

Eventually Trixie had fallen asleep, the promise Karon had given her the final thing she needed to let go. Karon, on the other hand, had been unable to sleep; instead he had remained in the bed holding Trixie, simply enjoying the moment and closeness to her. But the final words they had exchanged kept bouncing around in his head, until eventually Karon had thrown off the sheet and left the bed, gently tucking Trixie in before getting dressed and leaving the room.

He went down the stairs to the tavern room. There were next to no customers present, and the few that were kept to themselves in dark corners. Karon went straight to the bar, where an old bearded man stood, wiping a glass with a dirty-looking piece of cloth.

When Karon took a seat on one of the stools, the old man reached down behind the bar and produced a yellow bottle, pouring a glass to the trickster without a word. Karon took the glass with a nod of thanks and emptied it in one go, and it was filled and emptied again just as quickly. The pattern repeated itself several times, until Karon was resting his head on the bar and gently scratching it with his nails.

“I lied to her, you know,” Karon murmured into the wood.

The bartender gave a deep hum in understanding, not taking his eyes off the glass he was wiping.

“I didn’t actually pick Trix over Dolor,” Karon said, raising his head up to the bartender with tears welling up in his eyes.

The old man stopped wiping the glass and put it down behind the bar, looking out across the room without his eyes focusing on anything specific.

“I picked myself. Because I'm a trickster, because it's my fucking nature, because I have a name that says I am supposed to be something, do something I don't understand. And nothing that happens can change that. Dolor thought she could; she did her best to change me, break me and make me her own. She couldn't take away Karon; she only added more to him,” he finished with a half laugh, a single tear running down his cheek.

“Is this what I am? Someone doomed to keep killing and leading everyone I love to their deaths? Betraying them because I can't deny what I am? And to top it all off I have become a thing that eats souls, a defiler of everything sacred,” Karon smiled a hopeless smile and looked at the bartender. “I don't get why you even allowed me in here anymore, you should have just destroyed me as soon as I showed my face. Would have done the universe a favor.”

The old man turned his face to Karon's, and their eyes met. There was no pressure, no indescribable sense of power the old man conveyed through his gaze. It was just calm, an unshakable stability which nothing could break.

“Follow me,” he said simply. He turned to the left, walking towards the stairs leading up. When Karon came up behind him, however, the old man didn't take the stairs; instead, he turned to a trap door in the floor that Karon had never noticed before, and opened it.

He stepped to the side, allowing Karon to climb down the ladder into the swallowing darkness within. Karon shrugged and mounted the rungs, steadily easing himself down. When he looked up, he saw the old man himself coming down after him. Karon couldn’t see anything, but he felt when his feet reached stable ground and took a few steps away from the ladder, giving the bartender room to descend.

Slowly, a light began to appear; not a shining one, but simply where one moment everything had been dark, now Karon could suddenly see clearly. He was standing on a stone floor, and when he turned around to look he saw that he wasn’t within a cellar like he had suspected. No, instead there was a huge archway of rock stretching up high above him, framing in a hallway of stone that went on until it became a tiny pinprick of darkness far away.

On each side of the hallway were carved stones in the wall. Before each of them stood a simple dais, upon which laid a single item, ranging from weapons to toys and other miscellaneous objects. When Karon approached the closest one on his left, he saw that there were writings on the stone.

“Where am I?” Karon asked when he heard the old man walk up behind him.

“This is the hall of the unsung,” he responded, gesturing down the hallway.

“What is it?”

“It is a place of remembrance,” the old man responded. “Across time there have always been those who did great things, but were never heard of. There were no songs written of them, no legends shared over fire or food that told of their tales. But their lives touched many, even if few know it, and their deeds brought truth to those around them.”

“Why am I here?” Karon turned to him and asked.

The old man remained silent, instead simply gesturing to the hallway. Karon frowned, then started walking down the path. It didn’t take long before he felt a pull, a gentle tugging sensation like there was something in there calling to him.

Eventually he reached the source, which was one of the many stones adorning the wall, and upon the dais there laid a simple feather duster. Karon’s breath stuck in his throat, and his eyes went towards the words carved into the stone, the unknown symbols shaping themselves into writing that he could understand.

Feather Touch

She died knowing that

seeing the good in others

helps them see it in themselves

Tears started pouring down from Karon's eyes, and he reached out a hand to touch the rock, tracing the lines carved into it, as the meaning behind the words became clear. His expression was pained when he allowed his hand to fall back to his side, and then, he started to laugh. And everything was alright again.

The Great Game (Part 1)

The desert wind shrieked loudly, drowning out the sound of a crackling fire. What had once been a splendid building of white stone now stood in shambles, with a thick column of smoke rising from the ruins up into the night sky. Orange flames licked greedily against the remains of the structure, blackening it beyond all recognition. Outside, waves of sand rose and fell in a dance as the wind thrashed around, conjured by the exchanged energies from the battle that had taken place mere minutes before.

Not far away, where the wind was slightly calmer, were four figures, three standing, with one kneeling before the others. The latter was a man dressed in a large black cloak that billowed in the wind, obscuring most of his features in the lump of cloth.

Another man stood directly in front of him, dressed in a slightly-tattered robe the color of dried blood. His eyes glowed with a sharp amber light, standing out brilliantly in the shadow of the nearby fire. The hair on his head was clumped together, making it appear more like the feathered headdress of a bird than a man—a look authenticated by the beak-like nose centered on his face.

At his right stood a woman, clad from head to toe in a robe of dark blue. Strands of silver hair hung out like a tattered curtain from underneath her hood. At her hip hung an elaborate scabbard, elegantly-curved to accomodate a saber. Her calloused hand rested on the hilt, olive-tanned fingers drumming against it in eager anticipation.

On his opposite side was another woman, though she was obviously not of the human kind. Her skin was a dark, ashen gray, and from her back a pair of short yet stout wings stretched out in a vibrant orange the same as her shoulder-length hair, which blew freely in the wind. From the tips of her fingers stretched claws like ten razor-sharp daggers of a deep black color, steadily rasping against one another with a foreboding, ear-grating sound. A red dress and black corset wrapped around her figure tightly, the skirt cut open on the sides to allow her legs free movement.

“That wasn't so bad, was it?” the red-robed man croaked, smoke trailing out of his mouth as he spoke.

The winged woman's fingers twitched in annoyance, causing the dagger-like claws to clink together.

"Even a few meters is enough to break my wings if I try and carry three people at the same time, master," she said simply.

He flashed her a smile that could perhaps be seen as apologetic, but it lasted for a mere moment before he turned his gaze upon the other woman.

“You alright, Trix?” he asked worriedly.

“I'm fine,” she croaked hoarsely, then turned her face to spit.

Both of them were covered in soot. Trixie's midnight-blue robe now bore a thick layer of ash and sand, and whenever she made even the slightest move, a squealing sound of metal against metal sounded out.

“Gonna take me forever to clean the sand out from the joints,” she muttered, then spat again before turning her gaze back to the red-robed man. “So, what now?”

“One hour of rest, then we return to the monastery and collect our payment,” he announced, then turned his eyes to the kneeling figure. ”After we're done here, we take our wayward sorcerer along on the Path, then let him go.”

“Just like that?” the winged woman asked, and her dagger-claws clinked once more. She sounded disappointed.

“Yes Promise, we let him go. Maybe slap him on the wrist first, but we don't kill him.”

“Karon,” Trixie came up and put a hand on his shoulders. “This has gone on long enough. It used to be nice knowing we had a steady source of pay from cleaning up this fool's messes. But that was before... everything else happened. Let's be done with him.”

Karon turned, looking into the woman's lilac eyes. “No, Trix, I can't—”

“No Karon, you can kill him. There's enough on your shoulders without you trying to treat this idiot like an escaped pet in need of parental guidance. He has made his choices; again and again. He's not going to stop now, and you have enough hardship ahead of you. I don't want you to strain yourself on his account,” she finished softly, and moved her hands up to his cheek.

Karon sighed deeply. “I know, Trix. But now it's more important than ever that I hold on to the little things, and don't resort to the easy way out,” he murmured softly, and put an arm around her waist.

She leaned her head against his shoulder. “As long as it is for your sake, not his.” She poked a finger hard into his midriff.

“Please Trix, you know me...” he said with a grin. “I do everything for myself.”

She grinned back, but they were both interrupted when Promise rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation. "What about me, then?" she exclaimed. "Don't you consider how this makes me feel, master?!"

“What's the matter, Promise?” Karon asked with an emotionless voice that implied this wasn't the first time they had had this conversation.

“I haven't killed anything in months!” she whined.

Trixie rolled her eyes, and Karon suppressed a smile.

“Don't worry, Promise. Sooner or later we'll run into something that just really needs to die. But for now, we need to keep our killing to a minimum. I don't want to... rouse anything.”

“I don't understand what's so wrong with eating people's souls,” she muttered.

Karon's face twisted into a grimace. Trixie looked over at the winged creature angrily.

“If you want, you can be responsible for keeping an eye on Leti and making sure he doesn't run off again,” Karon offered.

Wings fluttering excitedly, Promise turned her eyes on the black-clad figure, and her face split into a grin. Then she stalked over and delivered a swift kick, her heel ramming squarely into Leti's chin. He fell back with a soft thud and a yelp of surprise.

“You do realize that we are leaving in less than an hour, and if he's unconscious you're the one that has to carry him?” Karon admonished, doing his best not to chortle.

“Then I'll just wake him up,” Promise shrugged, raising her right hand and rasping her dagger-claws against one another ominously.

“It's a two-day walk from here to the monastery; are you planning on knocking him out every time we stop for a rest?” Karon asked.

“Yes,” she replied, a pleased look on her face; and then her eyes widened in thought, and she turned to face Karon.

“Master...?” she began, her voice sweet and hopeful.

“Yes, Promise?”

“Do you think he'll get brain damage?”

                                *********************************************

The weather remained clear as the group made their way back to their employers. Beneath the desert sun, Trixie had grown even more sunburned, her skin shifting into a copper hue; However, both Karon and Promise had retained their ashen-gray complexion. The winged spirit-turned-flesh had been like that even before she had become corporeal. Karon himself had grown into it more and more ever since the events in the soul eater's mansion.

Whereas once he had been pale from lack of sunlight, or burned red from desert suns, his skin had now grown into a permanent complexion of light gray and white. It hadn't been pleasant to discover, once he noticed the change in the mirror—but it was just one of several changes, and one more easily accepted than others.

The food and water they had brought along was enough, but just barely, for them all to get back to the monestary, where the monks had accepted their return with great rejoicing.

However, the celebratory atmosphere had been cut short once they'd realized the group had the culprit with them, rather than his head in a bag. They had accepted Karon's rather vague explanation that his punishment would be administrated outside of their world, underneath another authority than the monks themselves. An authority and judgement that was far more gruesome than any mere group of mortals could comprehend.

They had accepted their hasty payment—two small urns filled to the brim with gemstones and jewels—and then departed. They stopped just beyond its immediate border, on the single road present in the area, and waited for nightfall. When it arrived, they started walking, the stars the only light present to guide their way.

As they walked, Karon reached out with his senses, bridging an invisible connection between any road bathed in starlight, and the road. Their surroundings seemed to blur and shift unsteadily as time passed on, and eventually settled into a landscape of rolling hills bathed in moonlight, and a graveled dirt road leading into a familiar tavern.

The four of them stopped, and three turned to face one.

“This is where we part ways, Leti,” Karon said, and folded his arms across his chest.

“Nagrosh,” the man spat, and looked out at Karon from underneath the heavy cowl of his robe.

“Whatever. You know the deal; you start making trouble again, It'll get back to us eventually, and we'll show up to kick your ass and get paid for it.”

“One day, trickster,” the man gurgled the name like it was a fell poison, ”one day, I will look down on your bleeding body, and wrench the last drop of suffering out of your worthless life!”

Karon remained unfazed by the threat, unlike Promise, who hissed and looked ready to lunge at the man. He noticed, and involuntarily took a step back, before forcing himself to stand his ground, and turned his gaze to meet the trickster's without flinching.

Karon went on, unperturbed. “Considering our history, I find that rather unlikely. This is what, the... huh, I actually have forgotten how many times we've been hired to clean up your shit. Trix, do you have any idea how many times we're at?” he turned to the silver-haired woman and asked.

“Too many,” she told him in a tone that could freeze water.

“Heard her, Leti? Too many!” Karon exclaimed, and threw up his hands in a show of mock horror. Then his face turned solemn, and he walked over to Leti until their faces were only inches away, and he spoke.

“Leti, this life isn't for you. You don't have the skill or knowledge for it. You are a dabbler, trying to usurp forces you can't control, don't understand—and most of all, haven't earned.”

“You're one to speak, trickster. Everything you have, you have either tricked into your possession, or stolen.”

Karon smiled a bitter smile. “You're right about that; in part, at least. But you will have to trust me when I say that you don't want that fate for yourself.”

Leti snarled. “You think I'm fool enough to trust the words of a trickster?”

“I think you're fool enough to need directions to wipe your own nose. You make your own decisions, but I won't always be there to spare you. Eventually someone else will grow tired of you... or Promise might decide killing you is for my own good no matter what I directly say. Go home, Leti, take up gardening or something else more suited to you.”

“My name is Nagrosh the Dark!” the man shrieked defiantly, spit literally flying out of his mouth.

“No, you're not. You're Leti, the man who learned a few tricks from his grandmother, and dream too big and too darkly to know the price reality demands for such things. You don't belong in the Great Game, Leti; in it, you will always be a loser.”

Karon turned around and left him standing there, spitting furious as he watched the two females fall in behind him, and as they all vanished inside the tavern.

"It's kinda funny when we know he's just gonna sit outside the door fuming like a little bitch, until he can hitchhike with another unwary person to cart him off to the next world."

"While we sit pretty in here, sipping spirits with the higher powers and running our hands through all the sweet, sweet loot."

"..."

"...What?"

"Do you think we're being too spiteful?"

"Hmm... nah."

Inside the tavern, the trio were settling down into their usual booth. Trixie placed the two urns she had strapped to her back on the floor, then settled down while shrugging her shoulders.

“Not bad pay. Of course, it wouldn't have been much of a comfort if we'd been burned alive,” she pointed out.

“But we didn't. All thanks to Promise, here?” Karon said, reaching out to pat her on the shoulder, but then swiftly pulled back his hand and gave her an encouraging smile instead.

The former spirit was still new to being flesh and blood, and had a tendency to react violently to physical contact from everyone with the exception of Karon, and when he touched her she had reacted instead in... other ways. And he did not want to encourage that, especially not when Trixie was near, and a certain god-killing sword was within reach.

“It was my pleasure, master, but I would be thankful if we never do that again. I still feel like my wings might fall off at any moment,” she said and winced, then gave a far-away look. “Pain is so different when you're a meatbag."

“Noted, we're not going to strain your wings' abilities to fly again,” Karon said with a slight bow of his head.

“I can't actually fly,” Promise muttered with a blush and scraped a lone dagger-claw against the table.

“But you glide with such grace,” Karon objected with a grin.

Promise's wings ruffled and a pleased expression spread over her face. It never ceased to astonish Karon how quick she was to pick up on his sarcasm when it was directed at others, but somehow completely blind when she was the recipient.

Trixie was not, however, and she hid her smile behind a raised hand, than rested her chin on it and asked, “So, should we order something? I think it's common to celebrate a job well done, and for all we know this might be some kind of anniversary for having stopped that little n'wah.”

Karon didn't ask what the last part meant; he had grown used to Trixie's expanded and alien vocabulary. Instead he merely nodded, and said, “Sounds proper. Take a few of the better stones with you, I think it's time to balance out our tab.”

Trixie flashed him a smile, and collected a few of the rarer gemstones from the urns; diamonds and sapphires, and other more exotic ones that only had long alien names to them. She didn't need to ask what they wanted, for they all knew each other too well for that. She strode over to the bar at the far end of the tavern and greeted the old man that stood there, who with a grunt produced plates upon plates with food, and bottles to go along with them.

“How are you feeling, master?” Promise asked carefully, her voice sweet, but with a slight hint of worry present.

“I'm hungry,” he replied sullenly, and sighed.

“Food is coming,” she replied with a voice that said she knew full well what he really meant.

“It's been five months since I last... ate,” he said, and with a wince a memory came flooding back into his mind.

She stood facing the two warrior-mystics and their winged servant, joy shooting like cracks of lightning through the sluggish blue blood that pumped through her veins. They had performed their task with resourcefulness and skill, even though their methods seemed a bit strange.

But it didn't matter. The task was finished, and now the great Prize was in her three-fingered paws. The payment was handed over, a scroll containing instructions for magic well beyond her ability to perform or even understand, so in her mind, the deal was a very profitable one.

Though something was wrong. Even with her mind giddy with the possibilities resting in her near future, she could sense the restlessness in the leader of the trio. The strange bird-ape looking creature was fidgeting, and an almost feverish look was upon his face.

She dismissed it at first. She didn't know the creatures well, and it might be possible everything was in the normal order of things. She extended her talons to touch the forehead of the leader, as was the custom of her kind to express gratitude.

But the moment the talons touched flesh, when contact was established, something rose up from inside of him. In the dark center of the man's eyes a true blackness opened up, and something reached out from within, and into her own being. Greedy claws grasped hold of her, not her body, but something even more precious.

She couldn't move, and neither could he. A link had been formed, where a yawning chasm bridged them, it was an emptiness stretching out between them, and she realized it was trying to drag her into itself.

She resisted, strained against the emptiness, the hunger, with all her might. But it was stronger than her. It broke down her will, tore it to pieces and sucked her life, her soul out of her. With a soundless cry her body was turned into a dried, and empty, husk, and everything turned dark.

The memory ended. The last memory of a small and adorable creature Karon had actually liked for the brief time they had known each other. He hadn't meant to devour her, to consume her soul. But the hunger had been pressing against his mind, the wounds in him had opened their wide jaws, encouraged by the death and bloodshed that had been spilled as the trio had taken on their first job since the events of the soul eater's mansion.

A touch had been all that was needed, a single brief connection where the joy the creature had felt, the thrilling forces of life had been radiating out of her. And with the instinct of a hungry and wounded animal, the hunger had lashed out and drawn her in screaming.

The worst part of it was that it wasn’t his memory, it was hers. She was a part of him now, consumed and shredded into digestible little pieces, a soul turned into energy and harnessed for power. All she had been was now his, and the price was that she no longer existed. As Leti had said, some things Karon had not earned, some things he'd stolen.

“Don't be so hard on yourself. You didn't mean it.” A dry voice whispered inside his mind.

“Doesn't matter, it happened all the same. And it's going to keep happening unless I restrain myself.”

“Yeah, because starving yourself is going to keep that hunger sated, right? Not like its going to increase until you accidentally devour Trixie or Promise, right?”

“That would never happen. I can't devour anyone's soul if I can't overpower their will first, or they will just resist me. Trix and Promise are both too strong and too damned stubborn for me. And I'm not starving myself, I'm... holding out for someone that deserves it.”

“No one deserves what we do. Nothing to do but accept that and start keeping ourselves fed and the hunger manageable.”

Karon didn't respond, but Promise caught the look of dread that passed over his face. But it lasted just a brief instant, and then disappeared, leaving only a smile and no trace it had ever been present.

“Master, do you want me to get you someone to really eat?” Promise asked carefully.

Karon's mouth twitched with a real smile, and he shook his head. “No, ordinary food will have to suffice. Don't worry, Promise. Soon we'll find someone that needs to be eaten, and most likely there will be people in need of killing too once that happens.”

Promise brightened up at the prospect, then brightened up further when Trixie returned with two trays laden with food and drink. The table fell silent as the three of them focused their attention on shoveling as much of it into their mouths as they could, or at least, two of them did.

Though Karon ate little, he drank all the more, soon emptying an entire bottle of a suspiciously vibrant yellow color. Yet somehow, he seemed to remain mostly unaffected by the strong liquor. Trixie on the other hand was eating like it was her last meal, emptying tray after tray of food with a determined look on her face.

Promise was focused on devouring her plates as well, but her face contorted and shifted into a different expression with every new bite, as sensations of taste mixed in her mouth. Karon glanced at her every now and then with a look of wry amusement, wondering how long it would actually take for her to grow used to all the things it meant to be corporeal.

Karon was the first to grow bored of the 'celebration', and pushed his trays away with a hint of disgust on his face. Trixie looked up briefly from her own food, and a crinkle appeared between her brows; then she shrugged and dug into Karon's food as well, saving whatever argument she could come up with until after she was done.

The sourceless music drifted across the tavern room, bouncing off the walls and creating a chorus of sounds, and sometimes if Karon's ears did not deceive him, voices.

Slowly, the eternal peacefulness of the tavern settled into Karon, calming the battle between the hunger and fear raging on inside of him. Eyelids growing heavier, he glanced back at his two companions, and saw that like him, they were trapped in the serenity of the tavern, and looked ready to doze off.

“We should go upstairs,” he said while forcing back a yawn.

Trixie turned half-closed eyes towards him, an annoyed look passing over her face, and then she stood up with a loud squeal from her armor. She took a few tired steps, the immense weight of the alien metal her body was encased in pushing down on her. Karon followed with Promise, the latter looking far more invigorated by the 'celebrations' than the other two.

“Maybe I'm just getting old.”

“Hard to tell, we've kinda always looked like shit.”

“You say the sweetest things.”

The trio passed by the bar and went up the stairs, Promise passing by the other two as they dragged themselves forward. The winged woman was several steps ahead of them when she opened the door to their rooms, and disappeared inside.

A mere second passed, before Trixie and Karon heard her shrill cry of outrage, then Promise came flying out of the door and smashed into the opposite wall. Trixie had already sunk down into a crouch with her blade flashed out and held out with its tip steadily pointed towards the now open door.

Karon wasn't as quick, and instead stood stunned as he observed Promise stumbling back up on her feet, and stared back into the room with a wary, and outraged, expression.

“Let's consider this for a moment. We are in what might just be the safest place in our universe, with a host that at the very least ranks in the top five most powerful beings in existence as well. HE, is also someone that frowns upon violence in his House; which leads to the question of who, or what, might be so powerful, and brazen, that they would defy that creed and just throw Promise like that without immediately finding themselves kicked out straight into a black hole?”

Karon took a second to consider it.

“We're fucked this time.”

“Yup, let's see who it is. Maybe someone has finally come to erase the big bad soul eater from creation, and the big guy doesn't want to stand in the way of justice.”

“We could always run?”

“And get, what? Two, three steps at most maybe before getting caught?”

“Well then... if I'm gonna die, I'm gonna make sure I get in a few snarky last comments. I might even go so far as to criticize the method of execution.”

Karon put a hand on Trixie's shoulder, who in turn didn't move, but relaxed slightly, letting him take the lead. She followed behind, still crouched low, ready to lunge forward at any given moment.

Promise remained staring back into the room, obviously wanting to throw herself back into the fight, and obviously intimidated enough to hesitate. Karon gave her a crooked smile, then turned and walked into the room with his chin held up high and a haughty look on his face.

Karon was expecting maybe a blazing angel of pure golden light. Or maybe a hungry, walking abyss ready to drag him down some literal hellhole.

Instead he found a grizzled old man sitting in an armchair, white of hair and beard, dressed in a great brown fur coat that made him look much like a bear.

"Varsif." Karon sighed in relief.

The man tipped his mug of ale back and downed it in one go. He looked Karon up and down with a critical eye, then twisted his mouth.

“What happened to the hat?”

Karon blinked, and he found his mouth opening automatically to respond at the sound of the gruff voice.

“Lost it to a soul eater.”

The wizard grunted, then narrowed his eyes slightly.

“Did more than lose your hat to it, I see.”

Karon grimaced, and squirmed slightly where he stood. He knew better than to try and hide something from the old man; it just wouldn't work.

“Which is just awesome since we're a trickster, and we kinda run on deception.”

“I know, just... awesome.”

Karon swallowed hard when he noticed Varsif's eye crinkle with amusement, and he realized that the old wizard could probably hear what went on in his mind just as well as anything else. Beside Karon, Trixie had sheathed her sword, and walked over to a nearby chair and sat down in it.

Varsif gave her a similarly appraising look, then nodded his head slightly in respect. “Looks like you've grown a bit since last. Two legs suits you.”

Trixie smiled a wolfish grin. “I discovered the joy of eating meat and was hooked for life.”

Varsif answered the grin, and Karon looked between the two uncomfortably. Nearby, Promise had the same look of outrage and wariness on her face, and her fingers twitched, the dagger-claws greedy for blood.

Karon noticed and waved her down, not wanting to touch her and turn the situation even more awkward. Varsif noticed, of course, and looked at the former spirit a lot harder than the other two.

“That might not have been one of your brightest ideas,” the wizard huffed as he kept his eyes on Promise.

“It didn't exactly go down like that,” Karon winced.

Varsif grunted and brought his mug, which had somehow refilled on its own, back up to his lips, and drank deeply.

“Well,” he said after he put it back down, “I hope you know what you're doing. She is your responsibility now.”

Karon nodded, ready to defend Promise if needed. Though when no further recrimination came, he walked over to a chair and dragged it so he could sit in front of Varsif, with Trixie to his right. Promise wasn't exactly built for chairs with her wings, so she did as she commonly did and folded her legs down under herself and sat on the floor to Karon's left.

“So, why are you here, Varsif?” Karon asked, getting straight to the point. The old man would appreciate that.

The wizard leaned back and stroked his beard thoughtfully for a few seconds before replying, and when he did it was with a tired voice.

“It's about Lyra.”

Karon's heart skipped a beat. His eyes narrowed at the implications. Varsif wouldn't come all the way to the Walker's Rest for nothing.

“What about her?” Karon asked carefully, and Trixie leaned forward, her brows knitted in concern.

“She's in danger, and I can't help her.”

Karon looked over at Trixie's expression, seeing the same look of alarm as he had, then faced Varsif again.

“Tell me everything.”

           ***************************************************************

The swirling vortex of energies subsided, and in the split second it took for his eyes to adjust to the new setting, something hit Karon like a freight train—a smell. Pine forests and tall mountains, frost on the ground and the smell of distant snow in the wind.

He drew it in deeply, and felt the tension that had grown to be like a second nature to him melt away. His shoulders slumped down, and his head rose a little higher as his sight returned to him.

It was early spring, and some piles of snow still clung to the areas remote even to escape the warmth of the sun. Few clouds grazed the sky, leaving light of the dawn all the brighter as the forest was waking up. The dark green of the forest was returning, mixing with the brown and gray of tree and rock.

“Everything okay, Karon?” Trixie asked with furrowed brows.

Karon looked over at his companions with eyes half-closed in bliss. Trixie looked like she usually did, gaze sharp and always scanning for danger, a hand close within reach of her sword. No matter where they went, or how much they endured, there was always an element to her that seemed to expect a blow at any moment. And now she stared at him suspiciously, not understanding, and Karon couldn't help but smile.

She couldn't understand. What it was like to return... home, even if he had been a different creature then entirely. He no longer feared the haunting ghost of Erik and his tragedies, hovering over his shoulder like some specter whose only purpose was to remind him of his mistakes. Karon had no trouble making new ones; turning into a walking abomination that sustained itself by tearing apart and eating souls made accidentally burning ones family alive seem tame.

No, he was home. It was the smell that had made him understand that, like an old friend once forgotten suddenly showing up to embrace you. Trixie couldn't understand what that meant, she hated Equestria, her old home, and her old self.

It was a bitter hatred, and where Karon had always sensed an underlying feeling of resentment because of what she had endured back on her home world, Trixie's feelings had intensified a hundredfold during her time in... whatever that distant world she'd been trapped in had been. She never wanted to talk about it, but she did seem to somehow find a way to blame Equestria for it.

And that was why Trixie was staring at him suspiciously, unable to comprehend why Karon was suddenly letting his guard down like this. Why this world, this place, was so different from the hundreds of other worlds they'd stepped out of a swirling vortex into.

“Nothing's wrong, Trix. It's just nice to be back,” Karon reassured her. He couldn't avoid noticing the flicker of worry in her eyes at his response.

Promise hadn't noticed the small change in Karon's posture, as she was busy sniffing the air while her wide eyes darted around, trying to take everything in at once. Someone that didn't know Promise might have said she looked like a innocent child while doing so, but Karon had seen the same similar look of thrilling discovery on her face the first few times she had slashed someone open with her dagger-claws.

With that thought, some of the old tension returned, and small knots reasserted themselves in his muscles. In The Great Game of power and destiny, it didn't do to trust appearances. And home didn't necessarily mean safe.

Varsif had already started down the narrow forest trail, barely visible in the undergrowth of blueberry bushes, and moss covered boulders. Karon went after him, Trixie following close behind and Promise trailing behind last, wings fluttering every time she spotted something curious.

The trail cut across deep areas where the trees grew so thick that it was nearly pitch black, until it opened up to a carefully hidden valley, flanked by steep outcroppings of rock, and trees grown like a wall to keep anyone from stumbling in accidentally.

Karon could also feel power, and very subtle magic, permeating the air.

It was like a barely-perceptible touch upon ones mind, nudging one away, suggesting everything this way was uninteresting, not worthy of being noticed. It was so fine that even Karon could hardly detect it, and he was 'looking' at it from the inside. From the outside it wouldn't be detected by anything less than someone of the utmost power and skill.

Trixie's senses might be very sharp on the physical plane, but her sense for the soft magics stretched only so far as to mediocre. She remained unaware of the magic protecting the place, but her face showed approval at the remote location, and the steps that had been taken to discourage intruders.

Promise couldn't sense the energies the way Karon did, but she could taste them. And when she stepped over the invisible threshold and became aware of the magic, her face started to glow, and twisted into the expression of a child in a candy shop.

Karon stopped to watch her, observing as her eyes traced the boundaries of the energy field, tasting its weaving and complexity. She seemed to be shivering with delight, until eventually her eyes turned to Karon's, two orbs of deepest blue meeting glowing amber.

Varsif banged open the wooden door on his porch and turned back towards Promise and Karon. Beside him stood Trixie, with her arms crossed and an irritated look on her face.

“You here for sightseeing or rescuing a friend?” Varsif's voice boomed, before he turned and went into the wooden cottage.

Trixie followed him inside, and Promise hurried after with Karon coming in last, closing the door behind him. The inside was one big room, sparsely-decorated with wooden furniture, and a huge round table dominating the middle of it, easily able to accomodate twelve or thirteen people at once. Papers, books and scrolls were strewn across its surface, and Varsif hastily scooped up entire armfuls and carried it away.

Trixie, Promise and Karon took a seat at the table, and Varsif joined them once it had been cleared of all the clutter. Then the atmosphere turned solemn, as the old wizard brought a hand up to his face and sighed wearily.

“As I told you before, Lyra has gotten in deep with a group of sorcerers. She runs off for weeks and months to all kinds of places constantly, that's not unusual. But I always send a few spirits to keep an unseen eye on her. Three days ago she was found by some sorcerers in London, and the spirits tracking her disappeared just a short while after that.”

Karon drummed his fingers against the table, his mouth a thin slit and brows furrowed in anger. Leti was an example of a wannabe sorcerer; lots of ambition, little talent. The real deal was different. The real deal was the earth-cracking, nightmare spawn of what happens when a human gets too much mojo and no moral restraint or oaths to keep them back.

“Kinda like us, then, but without the charm and snappish sense of style.”

“And our terrible looks. I bet a real sorcerer is all James Bond villainous: 'No, Mr. Karon, I expect you to die and suffer eternally in this rusty bucket I will bind your soul to before dumping into the ocean.' All suave and power and secret lairs, and lots and lots of sex, too, probably.”

“We're clearly in the wrong business.”

“Too late to change, now.”

“No it's not; we're like a sneeze away from eternal damnation.”

“We've got the attention of an angel, and we live in the house of... you know.”

“Some people would call that a challenge.”

Trixie's eyes flickered from side to side as she considered the situation, then a look of confusion settled in and she pointed a finger at Varsif.

“Why haven't you just divined her location? I can't do that stuff, but Karon gets lucky sometimes with it,” she said, ignoring the fake look of hurt he gave her, “so you should have no trouble finding Lyra and getting her out yourself.”

Varsif growled a bit. “I have. I know where she is. I can't go in and get her, though; this group is talented enough to sense me coming way ahead. They wouldn't stand a chance, and they might decide to do something to Lyra once they start panicking. I have a reputation for not going soft on their kind.”

Varsif turned to Karon, a hint of reproach appearing on the old man's face, before he went on.

“A trickster, on the other hand, they might actually like having a visit from; especially one that proves itself by showing up at their doorstep without being detected first. You're better at that than I will ever be; I'm no sneak. And now that you've become a soul eater... they'll think it's Christmas.”

Karon nodded, understanding the situation, far better than Promise and Trixie could even. He understood what it meant to commence such an operation in a very heavily-populated city on Earth, where magic kept itself hidden, and where a sorcerer cabal vs. the trickster super-duper adventurers' group grudge match in Piccadilly circus just wasn't allowed. Unless they cleaned up after themselves.

“And we don't want the powers that's responsible for keeping the bump-in-the-night side of things hidden to look at us the wrong way.”

“No, bad enough if we do this somewhere behind the scenes. Then we might just potentially mess up the weather across half the world and make it snow in the middle east or something.”

“The elemental spirits can handle that, it's their job.”

“Still, they might be pissed. Having to clock overtime ever since the industrial revolution doesn't make for happy spirits.”

“God help this planet if they ever decide to form a union.”

“Right, a job needing discretion and wit. That leaves Trixie out of it.”

The woman in question sputtered indignantly, then flicked her hand towards him sharply, and a purple orb struck him in the blink of an eye. Karon's upper body crashed forward into the table hard, before his body slid down to the floor, where he remained, groaning but suddenly too heavy to move himself.

“Interesting. I used to just cuff him over the head,” Varsif said with a rumbling laugh.

“I like getting creative,” Trixie explained with an angelic smile.

Promise looked ready to leap at Trixie, wings tucked in behind her and dagger-claws twitching dangerously. However, she hesitated. She knew Karon had forbidden her to harm Trixie, repeating the order many times.

The spell wore off, and Karon's body returned to its usual weight. With a grunt he heaved himself off the floor and brushed nonexistent dust from his sleeves with a carefully-constructed look of nonchalance.

“Right, Trixie can come.”

“And here comes the hard part.”

“But, I'm afraid there's no way you can join us, Promise,” he added, then swallowed hard.

The words didn't seem to register first, instead the former spirit kept looking at Karon with an eager glint in her eyes. The other three of them kept staring at the woman, waiting for her to react to Karon's proclamation. But she never did.

“Ehh, Promise, did you hear what I said?”

“What?” she asked.

“I said, 'you can't come along for this one'.”

She stared back at him, looking confused.

“I don't understand. You want me to trail behind and cover an escape route? Lay an ambush? Pick off sentries?”

Varsif gave another rumbling laugh. “I can't fault her devotion.”

Karon winced, then looked at Promise with pity, while Trixie was looking at her with smug satisfaction.

“No, I mean you can't come with at all. You're gonna have to stay here. In the house. With Varsif.”

Realization started to sink in, and Promise's face underwent a very gradual change, where it morphed from confusion into a look of complete and utter disbelief. And then something impossible happened.

“No,” Promise said, shaking her head in denial.

“Promise, you've gotta understand. This place is insular; it's like Valvek, Ohja or that world we first met Leti on. Magic keeps in the background, and most people here are unaware of its presence or very suspicious towards it. There are no other beings walking around openly here besides the humans, and someone like you would stand out too much. Trix and I can disguise ourselves.”

“No! Master, I can't let you fight alone!” She kept on shaking her head.

“Promise, I get that this is hard for you. And I know you are itching for a fight; I understand what it's like to deal with a hunger that doesn't want to let up. But we can't change this unless you want to chop off your wings and shear off your claws,” Karon told her.

For a second, for one dreadful second, Karon thought he saw Promise actually consider giving up her wings and claws for him. He quickly hurried over to her, putting both hands on her shoulder. Promise instantly shivered at his touch, and she stared up at him with an unreadable expression.

“That, by the way, isn't an option. As your master I command you to remain here and not cause trouble. I'm sure Varsif could find something to entertain you with while we're gone,” Karon said, and shot the wizard a pleading look.

He huffed, and grunted something that sounded like, “Guess I might be able to find something.”

Promise's head dropped low, and she nodded her consent silently. Karon gave one last squeeze of her shoulder, then let go and walked back to his seat. He sat down, then turned his eyes to Varsif.

“If you could give us an exact location of where they're holding Lyra, we can start going through ideas of getting there, and getting back with her. In the meantime, you got any less conspicuous clothes we can use?”

Varsif grunted. “For you, yeah. For her, not so lucky.”

Karon grunted, involuntarily falling back into copying his old teacher's mannerism. “Then we'll have to buy her something...”

Varsif rolled his eyes, then stalked over to a nearby dresser and got a roll of bundled-up euros. “Here, I got a lot of this lying around. I might be able to teleport you somewhere north of London without attracting attention. The fay cause energy disturbances there all the time, anyway. The rest of the trip is up to you.”

Karon withdrew with Trixie to a corner, where he changed his red robe and black pants and leather boots for jeans, a white t-shirt with a dark gray jacket and sneakers.

“James Bond can go suck it!”

Trixie was looking him up and down with a poorly-concealed smile on her face, and Karon wiggled his eyebrows at her. “Like what ya see?”

“You certainly look less... imposing,” she answered.

Karon grinned in return. “You realize there is no way that you can keep that armor or sword of yours on, right?”

Trixie scowled, but gave a curt nod of understanding. They would have to go into a store somewhere and get her something a little less renaissance-faire, and a little more action girl of the 21st century kind.

“I can almost see the look on the customs guard's face when he sees why the metal detector went off.”

“'Please empty your pockets, keys, loose change— HOLY SHIT!”

“Now I'm stuck imagining Trix in a tight leather catsuit.”

“I wonder if she would be able to do all those kinds of slow-mo jumps and wall runs and everything. But instead of guns she'd lay waste with a god-killing sword. That might possibly be even more awesome.”

“Huh? Ohh, sorry I'm still stuck on Trix in a leather catsuit.”

“Karon,” Trixie asked with a slightly disturbed look on her face.

“What?” he asked as the mental image was torn from him.

“Why is there drool coming out of your mouth?”

“There's not,” he mumbled, quickly turning away while wiping his mouth.

Five minutes later they were sitting at the table again, with a map of London spread out before them, marked with a very distinct red X. It marked a square of apartment complexes, just another unmentionable block of buildings in a city of hundreds of others just the same. It was located southeast of central London; close enough to the mass of people, yet far enough away for them to be able to reach the outskirts pretty quickly if need be.

Above the little complex, there stood, in tiny letters along the road leading into it from the larger Kender street, 'Godley close'.

“How certain are you this is the right place?” Trixie asked Varsif, tapping a finger against the X.

Varsif nodded gravely, “It's no mistake. That's where the sorcerers are keeping her, and so it is most likely they are all gathered there as well.”

Varsif's eyes turned to Karon. “Getting to them without raising any alarms will be your job. But it will be far more difficult getting out with Lyra in one piece. What little I've been able to gather about this group is that they're cunning and don't waste time on unnecessary displays of power. They'll have traps and contingency plans ready.”

“Do you have any friends or allies you can call on to help with this?” Trixie asked.

“In London, no. In the UK, yes, there's a few in Wales and Ireland. And there's always Jörmungandr in the loch to the north. However, a wyrm and fay wouldn't do for an operation in London, and the human ones...”

Varsif made a sound in his throat that should only be possible by chewing on gravel.

“The human ones would never agree to work with a soul eater.”

Promise hissed angrily, Karon himself only scowled, then looked down at his hands. Maybe he should try and permanently stain them with babies' blood just to live up to his image.

“Then we'll deal with this on our own! We've handled worse before,” Karon exclaimed confidently.

“An entire cabal of real sorcerers? Let's see: have we fought against any gods lately... no. Not even demigods, actually. Hmmm, no I think the only thing that might have topped this is that thing with the soul eaters, and we all know how that went.”

“Shut up.”

Trixie supported him with an easy nod, her face showing no concern. Promise was carving lines into the table with her dagger-claws, wearing an expression of pain and denial. Karon sighed, then put a hand on the map, tracing a finger along the described path as he spoke.

“Varsif will drop us off to the north. We'll be taking the train into the heart of London, then continue on foot. First chance we get, we'll acquire new clothes for Trix. When we get to the sorcerer's place I will scout it out very carefully, then once we've got some measure of their power and defenses, we'll make the approach. The smart thing would be to get them on our side, or at least make it seem like we're on theirs. We might be able to locate Lyra and sneak her out, if that's the case. Otherwise, we're looking at a quick smash-and-grab.”

“You grab, I smash,” Trixie said with a grin.

“You're too good for the whelp, you know that?” Varsif told her with a chuckle.

“Hard not to notice,” she quipped, and tossed her hair.

“How about we focus on the job,” Karon muttered.

The rest of the discussion passed by quickly. While Varsif and Promise went outside, Karon remained inside and helped Trixie out of her armor. When it was done, it was put down next to a gigantic pile of junk, toys, electrical equipment and random wares stacked next to a bunk bed. Of which the bottom bed was completely covered in stacks of books.

Varsif had referred to the corner as 'Lyra's scrapyard'. They carefully nudged the armor a little more away from it, finally putting the sword neatly on top of the stack. Trixie was looking at it with sadness, and to Karon, she seemed a lot more vulnerable now, and smaller. He wasn't used to seeing her like this beside when they were going to bed.

She put on her blue robe, which now appeared several sizes too large, and they went outside, where Promise was busy sulking, doing her best to shoot Karon looks of sorrow for being abandoned, complete with an attempt at puppy dog eyes.

“Girl, please, I spent a year with anthropomorphic ponies with eyes as big as dinner plates.”

“Don't be mean, it's Promise. Ever since her creation we've barely spent a day or so apart, except for one occasion...”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“I bet she does, too.”

They gathered in a circle, and Varsif held out both his arms, waiting for Trixie and Karon to join hands with him so they could get going.

“Wait, I'll need a minute with Promise first,” Karon said, and motioned for her to follow him aside.

They stopped at the far end of the little glade, where the trees rose up to block out the rest of the world. Karon sighed deeply when Promise turned a grief-stricken face towards him.

“Seems like she's convinced we're doomed without her.”

“Promise, I know this hurts, but there's no way around it. You will stay here, and you are not to make any trouble with Varsif. And stop looking so heartbroken—this is just one trip without you. We'll be gone maybe a few days, a week at most, then get back with Lyra.”

“You don't understand,” she murmured, her voice sad.

Karon cocked his head, eyebrows raised slightly. “Meaning what?”

Promise whined, a slight sound of pain as her nose wrinkled, and squinted her eyes while staring down at the ground. Karon didn't need to be sensitive to energies to feel how Promise's thoughts were racing, it was written plainly on her face. And it was obvious it also pained her to do so.

Eventually, her face relaxed as an irritated sound escaped her lips. She looked into Karon's eyes, an angry glint present in her gaze he had never seen before.

“I can't explain it!” she spat, and stared at him like it was his fault.

“Why don't you at least try,” Karon asked, not quite sure if he should be worried or amused.

“No, I can't...I...you...” she huffed, then a look of outrage came upon her face, and Karon decided he should probably be worried.

“What?” Karon asked carefully.

Promise hissed and growled, then stomped her foot in the ground. “I don't know any profanities!”

“Shit,” he offered helpfully.

“Shit! Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!” Promise screamed, stomping her foot with each word.

Karon took a careful step back, keeping a careful eye on the woman's dagger-claws, which she waved around in wild gesticulations. Thinking it wise to remain silent, Karon waited until she had vented her frustration, then took a step forward and peered into the woman's eyes, then he relaxed, and with a push of his will, he stared into her mind.

Feeling would have been a more accurate descriptor, but the brain easily translated the information into whatever sense Karon wished for. And so a network of trickling streams of energy appeared around Promise, the beating pulse of her aura, her spirit. The thoughts and emotions rose and fell in displays of vibrant colors, like the weather in the sky, but sped up in rapid motion with hours and days passing by in seconds.

Karon didn't watch for any specific energy; it was the patterns that were important. It was the pattern that would reveal what the reason behind Promise's behavior was. However, as the seconds passed, and Karon became aware that physically Promise had stopped her tirade and was staring at him, nothing apparent stood out. Within Promise there was simply a cacophony of emotions and thoughts screaming, ranting against on another, without any real reason that he could detect.

“Yeah, I can see you're having some... issues,” Karon told her.

Promise's eyes narrowed, then she cleared her throat, and a little of her old self seemed to reassert itself.

“Well, I don't want to inconvenience you, master, I just—”

Karon held up a hand. “I get it, you can't find words to describe it. So how about you simply think about it some more, and maybe when I get back you've found a way to tell me what this is all about.”

Promise sighed and turned her face towards the sky, then sighed deeply and shrugged her shoulders.

“Yes, master.”

The two of them returned to the others, and with a nod of farewell to Promise, Karon joined hands with Trixie and Varsif, and the three of them vanished.

The shift was instantaneous. Karon hardly felt it; one moment they were in the glade bathed in sunlight, the other they were standing in a dingy back alley with a gray overcast sky above them.

“We're about half a day north of London by train,” Varsif said, and headed towards the end of the alley with Karon and Trixie following behind him. “You should get some clothes, then take the next train available.”

The exited the alley and come out into a cobbled street, flanked by second story houses with little windows on the ground floor, offering a view of the wares the various stores sold. Varsif pointed to the right. “That's a pub I'm familiar with. I will be spending most of my days there until you return. If I'm not there when you get back, just ask the barkeep; I will make sure there's a note saying where you might find me otherwise.”

Karon nodded, then looked over at Trixie. She eyed the buildings and the relatively-empty streets with a critical gaze, then turned to Karon and nodded. “Let's go,” was all she said, and together the two of them veered off to the left while Varsif headed right.

It didn't take long before they came across a clothing store and went inside. The interior of it was much the same as Karon remembered Earth's stores as; lots of fluorescent lights and the sections neatly separated with stupidly-obvious signs and pictures.

Trixie went over the female selection, twisting her mouth in disgust every now and then, greatly bemoaning the fact that not a single item had any kind of protective material, hidden pockets for weapons, or even enough of a quality to hold more than the most rudimentary of enchantments.

“Stop thinking like a warrior, Trix,” Karon told her as he stood outside the dressing room, his eyes fixed on a clock high up on the wall. They had arrived before lunch, and now it was a good bit into the afternoon.

“Then what am I supposed to think like?” a snide voice answered back.

“An infiltrator, a spy or sneak, someone that doesn't want her enemies to know she can fight. We want these people to know us as competent people, but not too competent; enough to be useful and inspire respect, but not so much as to actually be considered a threat."

A growl issued forth from inside the booth. Apparently Trixie did not approve of such tactics.

“These are all ridiculous!” Trixie exclaimed loudly and slammed the door open, letting Karon and everyone else nearby get a good look of her in nothing but her underwear as she stalked out with a furious expression on her face.

“Trix, go inside. I'll get some new stuff for you to try out,” Karon muttered.

“What!?” Trixie asked, holding out her arms.

“People on this world are stingy about nudity and stuff,” he answered with a tone of strained tolerance in his voice.

“But I'm not even naked,” she pointed out with a frown.

“You're close enough, especially for Brits,” Karon said and ushered her inside again, then went in search of new clothes.

“Maybe we should try and find another store. Like a goth place or whatever the kids call it these days. You know, leather and spikes and stuff. I bet Trix would love that.”

“You just want to get her into a leather catsuit, don't you?”

“You say that like it's a bad thing.”

“Focus, please. Don't forget that the reason why we're doing this is because Lyra is in trouble. We shouldn't waste any more time than is needed before saving her.”

“You know there is no need to rush things. Either she is already dead, which is wasteful and not what these guys would do according to their rep; or they're using her for something spooky, maybe tapping her aura, or holding her until they can find a proper use for her.”

“Yeah, but still...”

“I get it, you want to see her again.”

Gathering his arms full of another pile of clothes, Karon returned to Trixie and gave them to her, silently praying there would be something she could approve of among them.

Half an hour later, and an eternity of listening to complaints, Karon let out a breath of relief when Trixie came out from the dressing room with a bundle of clothes in her arms.

“These will just have to do,” she said, and together they went and bought them, ignoring the looks the cashier was giving the odd pair. They went back to the dressing rooms to allow Trixie to change, and when she exited, she did so dressed in black slackers, a pair of heavy leather boots, and a dark blue hoodie.

“Sexy,” Karon remarked dryly.

“I just can't see it,” Trixie replied with a shake of her head.

“Ohh, stop it. You don't look that bad.”

“I'm not talking about the clothes, I'm talking about you,” she said, and looked at him strangely.

“What do you mean?” Karon arched an eyebrow.

“What I mean is you, like one of these... people,” she told him, making a vague gesture meant to include everyone on the planet.

“Well, I didn't live or grow up in this country,” Karon pointed out, not quite sure if he should be offended or not.

“I still can't see it. This is nothing like the place I imagined could birth someone like you,” she explained.

“It didn't, really. I wasn't Karon back then. But it's still home,” he said a little wistfully.

Trixie shot him an annoyed look that said she didn't agree, but wasn't prepared to argue with him over it. Instead she nodded her out towards the exit. “Come on, we still have to get a train to Lomdom.”

“London,” Karon corrected, and the two of them went off in search of a train station.

With luck, and a bit of guidance from the locals, who all gave them equally weird stares, the duo made their way to the train station and got tickets for the next ride to London. They had to wait for a little less than an hour, and during that time Trixie kept walking around, exaggerating her movements as she tested out her new clothes.

Karon didn't bother to tell her she was making a scene, and that everyone else was trying to stare at her without it being obvious. It was far too amusing hearing the surprised gasps as she started to making tumbles on the stone floor, anyway.

Eventually she sat down on the wooden bench next to him, and grabbed the large sandwich he had bought at the station store, wolfing it down before he had a chance to object.

“I admit, this sport bra thing is a lot more comfortable than the wrappings I normally use,” she said with a mouth full of bread and meat.

“Why do you do that, anyway? Isn't it uncomfortable?”

“Of course it is, but the armor wasn't exactly made for a woman. I need to fit into it somehow,” she grumbled.

“Want to tell me how you got it?” Karon asked carefully, trying to make the question sound innocent.

Trixie froze, and a conflicted expression came over her. But she relented. “It's very rare, and very expensive. I only ever managed to find scraps, never laying an eye on a full suit of it except when I got attacked by... bad things. And they were always banished back to their own dimension when they died, taking their armor with them.”

“So how did you get it?”

“I met this old, really old wizard who had a full set on him. Wore it everywhere,” she said, and suddenly looked uncomfortable.

“So what, you killed him and took it?” Karon asked with a frown.

“No, I stole it,” she replied curtly.

“How?”

She sighed. “It involved getting him out of it first.”

Karon stared at her blankly.

Trixie groaned. “He was over four thousand years old, Karon; I never could have taken him in a fight. I had to use... other means,” she said, and her cheeks reddened slightly.

Realization ever so slowly dawned upon him.

“Eww,” Karon muttered.

“He was very virile for someone his age, hardly aged at all!” she exclaimed defensively.

“Eeeewww,” Karon repeated louder, looking slightly ill.

“You'd think for a guy with his own harem he'd be a bit worn out, but—”

“Lalalalala, not listening, not listening!” Karon shouted, covering his ears.

Trixie glared, then swatted him upside the head.

“Aouch!” Karon protested.

“Like you're any better. Just how many times did you decide to get it on with that soul eater trollop, hmm?” she asked, fixing him with burning lilac eyes.

“That was different. The situation wasn't exactly normal,” he said in a low voice.

“Oh. Well, good to know that your relationship with that sickly paled, gray-skinned, big-breasted, cleavage-showing, psychopathic bitch was a special one. Must be a relief that Promise got to inherit a body you know so well.”

“Abandon ship! Abandon ship! Tricksters and children first!”

“Trix, you know there's nothing like that between me and Promise,” Karon said calmly, ignoring the alarms blaring inside his head.

“You sure she knows that? Because I've seen the way she reacts to you touching her.”

“She's still getting used to physical sensation, that's all!" he said exasperatedly. "She's like a child putting things in her mouth to see what they taste like."

“You better be careful with what she decides she wants to put in her mouth,” she replied icily.

“Oh, snap!”

“Trix, please," he sighed, his shoulders slumping wearily. "You know I don't see her that way. She's more like a child to me than anything else."

“A child that's growing up awfully fast, Karon. She's got a matured body with very mature responses to these novel sensations she's experiencing. You can try and ignore the way she looks at you, but I refuse to.”

Karon rubbed his face, then rose from his seat at the sound of a train rolling into the platform. “Fine, I get it. But could we please maybe save this for later, maybe sometime after we've saved Lyra?”

Trixie stood up and stretched her limbs, then walked by him without saying anything. Karon rolled his eyes, and the two boarded the waiting passenger car and found their seats. Instinct took over for both of them, and they fell asleep almost as soon as they sat down, waking only once to show their tickets.

Infiltration mission or not, they would need to be rested when they arrived in case a fight couldn't be avoided, and they didn't need to exchange words to understand that. They arrived a few hours later, when the sun had set and evening was shifting into night.

The fact that dimensional travel wreaked merry havoc with sleep patterns was something Karon had discovered long ago. The day and night cycles could vary in the extremes, and where you might have just been in a world where the day was coming to an end, you might find yourself the next second on one where it was midday, or morning. Not to mention the different time flows one needed to keep an eye on.

As such, one nabbed sleep whenever there was opportunity for it. However, because of this it was unavoidable that sometimes they were forced to endure a long time going without it, or make do with only a few hours at most.

Karon had learned to fear the latter, as Trixie's mood could plummet like a lead brick when she didn't get enough sleep. So when they woke up in London, he kept a very careful eye on her, waiting for any sign she wanted to take her ire out on someone; like a conveniently-located group of sorcerers. Asking Trixie to hold back her natural impulse of decapitating a threat immediately was stretching it enough, but asking her to do so while cranky from lack of sleep was tantamount to suicide.

“You feeling ready, or should we wait until morning?” he asked.

Trixie remained silent as they navigated through the crowd, and it went on long enough for him to begin to suspect this might be some form of silent treatment she was giving him. Of course such methods wouldn't be very effective against a partner that could read minds.

“I'm ready to play this game if you are,” she replied as they managed to detach themselves from the throng of people.  

Karon nodded, thinking everything over. “It's night, so it might be easier for us to remain undetected physically. But without the sun, every energy signature is going to stand out more sharply. And if they've got any form of servitor spirits guarding or just keeping an eye out, we'll be spotted way before we get anywhere close. Both of us will stand out like torches next to a bunch of candles.”

Trixie nodded. “I know. But I don't know any way to cloak our approach; I'm not good with that kind of thing. Illusions and mind tricks are your area of expertise, Karon. If you want to silently kill off anything or anyone, I can do that with a touch; as long as we can clean up the ashes before we get noticed, that is.”

Karon nodded. “Anything else you think might be useful?”

Trixie remained silent, holding up a hand to let him know she was thinking it through. As they went on walking, Karon pulled out the map Varsif had marked with the sorcerer's location and navigated their way forward.

After a few minutes, Trixie spoke up. “I can cast spells to allow myself or others to walk on water or breathe it for about ten minutes each if we want to escape by way of that river we passed by. Otherwise, I can always cast a feather-fall spell to myself for an easy landing if we need to jump from somewhere high, but no one else. I can also pull off levitation, but it's slow and only lasts for a minute at the most. Besides that, the only new stuff I've been working on is healing.”

“Healing? Really, that's pretty complicated, and...” Karon trailed off.

Trixie scoffed and gave him a loving smile. “I'll have you know I was very good at it when I was stuck on that world. It's just taken me time to adapt the techniques to work outside of it, since the energy flows differ and all that.”

“How good healing are we talking, here?” Karon asked, his curiosity piqued.

Trixie shrugged. “If it doesn't kill you or sever a limb or anything really extreme, I can fix it. Diseases and poisons, too, for that matter. It should work fine now thanks to the instructions on the scroll we got from that furry creature you... you know.”

Karon winced, but nodded. “Good, hopefully we won't have to make use of those talents just yet.”

As the night deepened and the city became flooded with electrical light, they came closer to their destination. When the map showed them to be just a ten minute walk away or so, Karon stopped and nodded his head towards a nearby cluster of trees and bushes. Trixie followed him into it, where she took position over him as he sat down with crossed legs, and relaxed.

The night air was chill, and Karon regretted not wearing something warmer. But gradually, as he steadied his breathing and relaxed, energy flowed freely in his body, warming it, and making his head feel light.

Once, it had taken him considerable effort to detach his spirit from his body, and the return had always been an unpleasant sensation. Now his consciousness left the fleshy confines of his body and drifted into his spirit as easily as if he was slipping into a pool of water.

The world shifted in appearance, becoming alive with energy and colors his normal eyes couldn't register. His other senses sharpened and changed as well; he could feel certain movements in the ethereal, like ripples spreading outwards, carrying with it traces of the source.

It took less than two seconds before a certain sensation became obvious to him. The feeling was so much like being covered in a warm blanket, then sung a sweet and peaceful lullaby into sleep.

Instinct and experience saved him, born of countless times when Karon had been the one sinking hooks into a victim's mind. He knew it was simply a manner of finding the right kind of poison to coat them in. To make the victim want to feel them dig in deep and firmly attach themselves.

Karon rejected the sensation, erecting a barrier in his mind that pushed the seductive bliss aside, but allowed the energy itself to remain within his conscious reach. He carefully grasped the energy with his mind and his ghostly hands reaching into the air, before pulling out a handful of golden strings.

The weave of magic was simple in its construction. It didn't work by slowly inserting itself into the victim; it simply slammed the full force of it into them, trusting that no being would want to reject such a pleasant experience.

Karon bit a translucent lip. It was either a sign of considerable, but not really awe-inspiring talent, or the sorcerers had constructed it merely to keep out the riffraff, the ones not able to resist the magic. If the latter was the case, that meant the group was fine with having someone that could shake it off to stop by for a visit. That was a bad sign.

“You're a soul eater and trickster, accompanied by a sexy ass-kicking machine. Pull yourself together,” the thought rung out as a low whisper.

“Yes, we will infect them. Seep into their minds and feed on their life force. It is good they have power, it will be ours as we feast on them,” the voice drifting out from Karon's mind deepened.

“We must fear the powerful, we must be ready to run from those that would hurt us,” his mind spoke out loud again, this time the voice sounding light and frightened.

“We must find a bargaining point. All creatures understand the concepts of value and even exchange, it is simply a matter of finding the right wares to trade. Junk to one is treasure to another,” his voice said in a factual and feminine tone.

Fear rising like a spectral bile, actually visible as a sickly yellow light trickling forward throughout his spirit body, Karon steeled his mind, and exerted his will.

“I am Mendax Karon Bellum,” his mind spoke, finding clarity within the words.

He repeated it, several times over, until he felt them sink into him with a firm surety.

There might be many advantages to drifting throughout the spirit world as one himself, but without the machine that was the physical brain, there was nothing neatly stacking the pieces of his self into categories, keeping them in check with strong boundaries, and keeping much under the wraps of an unconscious that could operate on its own.

Without the brain, his self flowed without such rigid restrictions. His beings answering to his will and intentions fluidly. It was not a dangerous thing to most spirit creatures, but to a soul eater...

To have the complete memories and powers of another being, their pattern of behavior, history and hopes for the future, and then not being able to pick and choose from it, tapping into what one wished and letting the rest sleep in silence, was a sure way to lose oneself.

The old adage 'You are what you eat' was doubly true for a soul eater. What if a certain emotion from a victim was stronger than all the other feelings Karon had before was? And he couldn't separate it arbitrarily, labeling it 'me, but not me'?

Then he would simply feel it as his own, the way of thinking and feeling of another creature melding into his consciousness. And if that happened, the most intense ones would simply win and overpower the others, sending the rest into the obscurity of that which one registered as unimportant, and eventually forgot.

If Karon did not know who he was, and he ate something more powerful than he was, more powerful and sure in its identity than the creature named Mendax Karon Bellum, than the latter would be swallowed. His hungry wounds did not make distinction, for it was blind hunger, and it would swallow Karon as readily as everything else.

He needed to be careful, but more than that, he needed to be strong. Strong enough not to be dominated by his hunger. Strong enough to wield what he had absorbed from the souls he'd devoured without losing himself in it. Because it would grow. The chorus of voices would grow into a storm, a gale of thoughts, memories and feelings Karon himself had never lived through, but would still carry.

He hovered above the ground, turning his spirit around to look down at Trixie. She couldn't see him, but he could see her, all of her, very clearly. Her aura blazed in scarlet, spotted with clouds of black and purple, and he understood that the anger he had seen displayed in Trixie's action was merely a hint of the true rage she hid inside.

“No, focus,” he whispered, and he felt his wandering thoughts crystallize and fall into place.

He turned towards the source of the lulling magic, and started drifting through the air towards it, senses on high alert for any traps or guardians.

As he drifted closer, it became more and more obvious that there was something amiss. There was a certain tension, manifesting as a slight icky feeling across his immaterial body; like passing through a spider web too fine to see with one's eyes.

He reached the apartment complex Varsif had marked on the map. Gathered together in a square, the white painted buildings rose up several stories high, with balconies jutting out towards the street. Nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary.

No traps, no guards, nothing.

With a final attempt, Karon reached out with his senses, trying to pick up on any emissions of energy, any echoes of a magical working. As soon as his senses touched upon the stone of the building, he felt something. Like a cloying presence recoiling from his own energy.

And it sensed him, too.

“Oh, crap,” he managed to sputter before speeding off like a bullet back towards his body.

The transition came easily, and Karon's eyes jerked open as he stumbled up on his legs.

“Fuck! They felt me snooping around,” he exclaimed.

“How many?!” Trixie quickly hissed in return, her hand darting to where her sword would normally be, then grimaced when she remembered it was back in Varsif's cabin alongside her armor.

“I can't feel anyone coming,” Karon said through gritted teeth, his mind searching for any pursuers.

The seconds ticked by painfully, sweat appearing on both of them as they strained to sense any incoming attack. The longer it took, the more tense they grew, eyes darting from side to side, and snapping their heads in the direction of the slightest sound.

But nothing happened. Eventually, the burden of not knowing became too much, and Trixie swore.

“Filthy n'wah! Karon, we need to move. We're too exposed here, and if they did sense you, then they must still be waiting for us to make a move.”

Karon bit his lower lip, then wiped the sweat off his brow and nodded. Moving as silently as possible, the two of them made their way out to the road again, scuttling from cover to cover. Trixie kept her eyes out for anything physical, while Karon had a dazed, faraway look upon him as his mind was mostly engrossed in the spirit world, scanning for any unseen assailants.

However, they did not retreat, but kept moving towards the apartment complex. The sorcerers might know that something was out there, and had come close to invading their territory, but they didn't know what. The operation could still be salvaged, as long as they didn't give anything more away about themselves.

It had taken just one look for both of them to understand that, not through telepathy, but simply through knowing each other.

As they moved down south Kender street, the complex came into view near the end, rising several stories above the rest of the buildings lining the street. Karon's eyes narrowed when he felt the presence of that sticky web, clinging to the location as if some gigantic spider was sitting in the center of it, waiting for an unsuspecting fly to come dancing upon it.

“Yeah, thanks for that mental image. It wasn't like things were tense enough already, you just had to ramp it up to horror movie levels.”

“Most of our life could be seen as a horror movie with slapstick humor in it.”

“Quick! Find a black guy to tag along with us, that why we can be sure that we won't be the first to die.”

“Dude...”

The streetlights outside blended with the light shining out through the apartment windows, sometimes rising and falling as the light from a television flickered through different scenes.

Trixie held out an arm in front to stop him, then give him a hard look. “Do you sense anything?”

Karon frowned, then tried to explain; as always, it was next to impossible to describe the sensations of the ethereal into something understandable with mundane words.

“There's like... a web, or a net. It's very delicate, which makes me think it has something to do with affecting the mind or spirit rather than the body. I don't know what it does, and it's not aggressive or anything, it's just there. Like a binding, or something. If I had to guess, than I might say it's sustaining something. Maybe an alarm system, maybe a system of protective runes or symbols... or maybe a system of explosive runes.”

Trixie looked up at the building, imagining the entire thing laced with precision explosives a group of extremely powerful practitioners of magic could control through will alone. And they were supposed to break someone out of that place.

“Karon, I don't often say this, but maybe this time we really do need to be careful. If you can keep yourself from doing something too... trickster-y, and piss someone off, I can keep from punching or blowing someone up.”

“Good, because I'm just saying, if it actually is a system of explosive runes, than throwing fire around might have something of a domino effect.”

Trixie visibly swallowed. “You ready, then?”

“For Lyra? Yeah, I'm ready. Now let's go get that anthrophile and get her home.”

Together, they slowly made their way into the complex courtyard. Nothing stopped them, no invisible guardians, or even physical guards, were present. For all appearances the place seemed to be incredibly normal. It unnerved Karon.

“I hate this.”

The voice sounded almost frightened for once, and the usual dry, perpetually sarcastic tone was lessened, though not entirely gone.

“It's not that bad.” Karon thought as they entered the courtyard. Which was nothing but a square of yellow dirt, with small patches of grass and a trio of trees growing snugly together.

“This is unnatural.”

“What? You mean the web?”

“No, the normality. It's freaking me out.”

“We might not be used to it anymore, but this is our homeworld, and this is our kind.”

“You're a trickster, not human.”

“I'm a human trickster, so technically I am. Just a different version of it.”

“A slightly enhanced version, you mean.”

“That could be argued. Point is, this is still the homestead, the foundation from which I was built.”

“You're wrong about that. This isn't a long awaited homecoming.”

“Then why does it feel like it is? If this is not us coming home, even temporarily, then what is it?”

The voice didn't answer. Instead a door leading into a stairway opened, and a brightly-smiling middle-aged woman stepped out. She was dressed in a knitted green shirt and loose-fitting jeans, topping off the motherly look with a sensible haircut ending her hair just above her shoulders.

“There you are! Come inside, dear. It's still pretty cold at night, and the others are expecting you,” she hollered happily, and waved them inside.

Trixie and Karon gave each other very skeptical looks, but realizing they didn't have any real alternative action available, they obeyed. The matronly woman waved them inside, providing each with a huge smile as they passed her by, then hurried past and led them upstairs.

“I must say, we weren't expecting guests, but then the others told us there would be one or more coming along, and that we should be sure to be hospitable. I understand that it's a very hectic world today, but you should still try and call ahead of time to let us know you're coming,” she finished, and gave them both a slightly reproachful look.

It didn't matter how or which way Karon turned it, he just couldn't imagine the woman as a sorceress if his life depended on it.

Besides, he couldn't feel a hint of real power over her, and her aura revealed nothing outside the ordinary. Except...

There was something about it. Like it was too steady, forcefully held in check by some unseen force. Karon prodded her with his mind, very carefully. And then he felt it, the web again, but this time it wasn't just clinging to the area, it was actually clinging to the woman. Guiding her thoughts and feelings, keeping her under a constraint she wasn't even aware of, forcing her into a peacefully compliant mold.

Karon was slightly horrified, and, he had to admit, a bit impressed. The enslavement of her mind was so skillfully done, with such expert precision it was almost baffling. Karon was good, but more geared towards immediate action in his use of the arts. This was different. This was a construct made to last. And more than that, it was spread throughout the entire complex, which would mean that the sorcerers could potentially have everyone living there under their thumb.

“There has to be at least a hundred people living here.”

“Great. So not only are we dealing with a cabal of heavy hitters, but now we might have to tangle with an army under their control.”

“An army that is, in every sense of the words, full of innocents.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah, no kidding. It doesn't matter how clever we might be in coming up with an excuse, if we end up slaughtering an entire fucking block of mundanes who attack us only because they are unknowingly enslaved, and probably reasoning we are terrorists or threatening their children or something... yeah, we're not coming back from that. The devil himself will pop up just to give us special seats on the express train to hell.”

They kept ascending the stairs while the woman kept chatting chirpily, something about baking if Karon wasn't mistaken, but he hardly listened.

“I'm not really worried about hell.”

“You're not?”

“No, Trixie would bust us out in a matter of hours.”

“Yeah... she would, wouldn't she.”

Karon took the time to look at his companion, walking a step in front of him, giving him a very nice view of her behind. He restrained the urge to slap it, and gave her a glowing smile she couldn't see.

“But, there are worse things than hell.”

Karon shuddered, the memory of a creature pleading for mercy as Karon cast him out of existence drifting up from a dark corner of his mind. What Karon did when he ate a soul was horrible, but it wasn't wasteful. He kept what he ate, and although he knew that the will within the being, the spark that made them alive was snuffed out, he didn't know if they kept existing in some other form, in some other, higher dimension, or not.

But what he had done to Discord was different. He hadn't eaten him, he had banished him from existence. Thrown him out from the ALL like he was trash. Yes, the creature was never supposed to exist, and through his mere presence he disrupted the natural flow of Equestria, threatening to doom it. But he hadn't deserved the fate Karon brought down upon him.

He could have been killed, in some way, by someone possessing more power than Karon had at the time. Or maybe he could have been changed, undergone a transformation all the way down to his soul, or maybe—

“Stop it. What's done is done.”

“Yeah, and we can't change it. But, we have done questionable things, too. Never laid siege and tried to exterminate an entire world, sure, but we're definitely on Santa's naughty list. And if we ever happen to find ourselves in the same situation, but this time there's someone else trapping us, burning with hatred because we did something bad to them... I would want mercy.”

“You think we wouldn't deserve it?”

“Do you?”

“We're not that bad.”

“Not yet.”

Karon walked in silence the rest of the way. Finally, they stopped at the top floor of the building, outside a white-painted wooden door, just like all the others they had passed by. There was a mail slot on it, and the name that stood upon the placard read 'Markus Valestead'.

“Markus the sorcerer? Yeah, I'm not feeling it.”

“So, who is it exactly that's living here?” Karon asked, trying to sound polite.

The woman blinked, then frowned at them. “Well it's the others that live here. Sometimes, at least, sometimes they come to stay with the rest of us, the dears. Everyone is happy to let them stay as guests, bless their hearts.”

"She seems to be absolutely sincere. She actually believes that the sorcerers are good people."

"Probably some sort of geas, or charm... either way, not a good sign."

She opened the door with a smile, and called in, “Hello? The people you said were coming are here, and they're looking hungry.”

The hallway was simple, with a white painted wall with a mirror hanging right next to the dressing hooks, which held a single black coat hanging above a pair of brown leather shoes. Then, from the other end, a man appeared.

He was wearing a knitted shirt in a dark green color and black pants. His hair was a golden blonde, and gray eyes stood out starkly against the deep tan the man had. He put up a hand against the doorway he stood in, and examined his guests from across the hallway.

Karon felt the stranger's touch upon his mind, delicate but firm, like someone dipping a toe to test the water. It took him just a few seconds to gather whatever information he required, because the sorcerer's expression turned sly, and he gave a tiny bow with his head.

“Come on in. Sarah, would you let the others know that the guests have arrived, two of them, even. One potentially very special.”

Trixie's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Oh, burned!"

The sorcerer turned around, and Karon and Trixie followed him inside while the woman, Sarah, closed the door behind them.

They went inside to a living room, where two sitting chairs flanked a three-seat couch, positioned in front of a huge flat-screen TV. The sorcerer motioned for them to take a seat.

“You are free to eat if you're hungry," he said, gesturing toward a pizza box lying on the table in front of the couch. "I'm afraid I don't have anything else to offer in way of food. I'm not much of a cook.”

“It's fine. A drink would be nice, though,” Karon said, draping one leg over another in what he hoped looked like a relaxed manner.

“Of course, what would you like?” the sorcerer asked, the epitome of British politeness.

“Whiskey, if you have some,” Karon said, deciding that a vodka martini, shaken not stirred, might be taking things a little too far.

“And you?” the sorcerer asked, turning his eyes on Trixie.

“Same,” she replied, her tone and expression far less polite.

The man disappeared through a door into what Karon suspected was a kitchen, and appeared half a minute later with three glasses and a bottle. He filled the glasses to half, then took one and sat down in one of the chairs, swiveling it to face his guests.

“So, what might I help you with?” he asked.

“Maybe introductions are in order, first?” Karon asked, trying his damnedest to sound suave as he took a sip of the liquid.

“Don't cough, don't cough!”

“Ah, I apologize. I have to admit it's been some time since my colleagues and I received this kind of unexpected visit. Once we gained our present reputation, few seemed to want to associate with us. Or simply can't reach us.”

He stood up from his seat and extended a hand in greeting, Karon clasped and shook it, once, twice, thrice. With each shake a mental battle took place, where they both tried to slip into the other's mind without being caught. Neither succeeded.

“Markus Valestead, sorcerer and leader of the south London cabal,” he said.

“Mendax Karon Bellum, trickster, soul eater and leader of the interdimensional friendship club,” Karon replied.

The sorcerer grinned, then turned to Trixie, who before he could reach out a hand towards, raised her glass in greeting and said, “Trixie, god-slayer, arch-magister and bodyguard to the trickster.”

Karon had to exercise all of his willpower not to spit out his drink, and instead forced himself to swallow it before turning to her with a strained smile. The sorcerer didn't seem to mind, but he didn't appear to be very impressed, either. Instead he chuckled, then sat back down and took a sip of his drink before speaking.

“So now that we are all introduced, we can move beyond the pleasantries. What do you want?”

Karon considered his words very carefully. He could lie, say they wanted to move into London, and were considering a partnership. But Markus didn't appear impressed with either of them, despite their rather imposing titles, and obvious level of power.

He could always tell the truth: 'We're here for the girl, give her to us and we won't burn down everything you hold dear'. That might work, especially since things like god-slayer and soul eater were generally things ascribed to people you didn't want to piss off.

But whatever he could say, it all harkened back to the fact that Markus didn't seem intimidated by them. Which was dangerous. Outright fear might have been expecting too much, but Karon had been counting on some degree of respect for their power, and the potential damage they could cause.

Instead the sorcerer sat back, confidently nourishing his drink as if the people sitting mere feet away couldn't touch him.

“Yeah, something isn't right here.”

Worst of all was the fact that Karon couldn't read him. The sorcerer was as good as he was, if not better, at the subtle mind games. And without being able to gauge his strength, or get a peek of his plans or backup, well, he was kinda screwed.

So, did he want to try and dance around the issue, weave a web of lies and gain what he came for through subtlety and deceit? Did he want to play a game of power with someone who might be a better player at it then he was?

Or did he want to go with truth? Trust in the experience and power of himself and Trixie in order to bully their way to Lyra and get her out? Try and get by force and threaten something out of a man that didn't show even the least bit of concern over their presence?

For maybe the first time ever, Karon realized he wasn't as clever as he thought; he was used to the idea of being the trickster, the one that managed to outwit his opponents, finding the loophole or trick that left his enemies defeated and everyone else baffled. But the truth was that most of it was luck, and maybe a little nudge from on high.

He had managed so far, but that was mostly because he had played against lesser opponents that he already had a clear advantage over. Now, he was seated across one that had looked at Karon, measured his potential, and found him no more deserving of fear than if he were a peasant with a pitchfork and delusions of grandeur.

“I fucking hate character development.”

The silence stretched on for several seconds, Markus patiently waiting for Karon to answer the question. To buy time, Karon slowly emptied his glass, thankful for the burning sensation that numbed some of the more rebellious thoughts threatening to rise, and hiding just how badly his hands had started shaking.

Finally, he set the glass down on the table, and flashed him a wolfish smile.

“I've come here from the Walker's Rest. Maybe you've heard of it?”

Markus blanched, his tanned skin growing a few shades paler in the first sign of real fear.

One thing all sorcerers had in common was a perpetual fear of retribution from on high. Even creatures like Karon were governed by rules, though he danced at the edge of most and knew how to bend the rest. Sorcerers were different; there was no code of honor or conduct. And while sane creatures knew not to break the rules of greater beings, sorcerers not only walked all over them, they gleefully set them on fire then pissed on the ashes before flipping off everyone watching.

There was but one law in the worlds of the sorcerers, and it was a very simple one: 'Everything goes'.

However, most sorcerers were smart, and knew how to use the convoluted and highly complex arena that was universal politics to their advantage. Doing enough damage to benefit them, but not enough to become the actual focus of something greater.

But always, there was the fear of the angelic hit squad knocking on their door because of that final step where they'd gone too far. One eye on the ground looking out for rivals, one eye on the sky looking for divine judgment. That was the way of a sorcerer.

And Karon had just stated he had come from one such divine place.

“Oh? And what business might have brought you here to quiet old Terra?” Markus asked, clearly emphasizing the word quiet.

“The disappearance of a very important individual. A woman, name of Lyra. She disappeared a few days ago here in London, and I was informed by a very... reliable source that you might know how to find her.”

Karon didn't elaborate on his source. If he even mentioned Varsif's name, violence would be unavoidable. The trickster knew his old master far too well not to understand the kind of reputation he would curry in his dealings with sorcerers. To them, he was the bastard offspring of the boogeyman and an angry bear god. Better to let the sorcerer think Karon's source was an angel, or maybe even someone higher up on the food scale.

“Ah, of course. I know the woman you're speaking of,” Markus told him, a slight twist of his mouth saying he wasn't liking this turn of events.

“Excellent. Then you might know where to find her? There are some who are very anxious to get her back,” Karon said delicately.

“Good. Let him think this is official angel business. Let him think there's a cavalry of sexy angel amazons ready to descend on this place at our orders.”

“Uhh, you might be stretching credibility with that one.”

“A guy's allowed to dream, right?”

Hands steady once more, Karon leaned over the table and poured himself another glass, enjoying the flash of annoyance he saw on Markus' face. Trixie had been quiet so far, observing the situation the same way a tiger observed its prey, ready to pounce at any moment.

Markus' eyes grew forlorn, and a white mist came over them eyes for a moment. Then the tension in his face seemed to ease up, and he leaned back in the same casual manner as before.

“What the fuck just happened?”

The sorcerer played with his drink, looking down at the last shred of amber liquid with a pleased expression on his face. Then he looked up, a hunger present in his eyes Karon didn't like.

“Of course, she is actually present here in the building, under our protection, so to speak.”

“It is very noble of you to extend your protection to her, but we are quite able to do so ourselves, and she is needed back home,” Karon replied diplomatically.

“Ah, 'home', you say?” Markus spoke, pronouncing the word strangely. He drained his glass, then rose from his seat. “Follow me, and I shall take you to her.”

Karon and Trixie left their drinks on the table and followed the sorcerer, naturally falling into their normal patter; Trixie in the back watching for physical attacks, Karon in the lead keeping his senses peeled for anything magical.

It was hard to detect anything through the web. It was like a conduit for the sorcerers themselves, allowing their will and projected energy to travel faster and shape itself more efficiently, and maybe even functioned as some kind of collective hive mind. But it dampened anything else not connected to it.

And Karon couldn't get access to it no matter how hard he pressed. Had he tried to unravel it, there was no doubt in his mind the sorcerers would come down on him like a sledgehammer. It didn't matter if all the sorcerers were as talented as Markus, the kind of construct the web was took years to build.

They went down the stairs, all the way down to the basement level, and eventually passed into a room that showed traces to have once been meant for storage. But most of the individual cages had been cleared away, leaving a large empty space of concrete floor and walls.

However, some of the cages were still present, made of wood and cheap metal nets. Inside one of them was Lyra.

Karon recognized her immediately. The pale blonde hair, bordering on white, and slender frame. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a huge, puffy, white winter jacket with the lines of the hood furred. Her feet were cradled inside black leather boots reaching all the way up to her knees—knees that were pressed up against her chest as she laid still in a fetal position.

Her back was turned towards them, which was just as well—Karon was certain that if his eyes met hers from within that cage, he would have strangled Markus on the spot.

“Wait, think. That cage is meant to hold possessions and crap people don't want to get rid of, not people. If she had wanted to, she could have kicked her way out of it within minutes.”

“I think you might be a bit overzealous in your protection,” Trixie said in an icy voice.

“It was necessary. You see, this one is quite the genius when it comes to shapeshifting. I have seen her shift her form with an ease I'd only think the gods capable of. Even though the rest of her magical abilities are average, at best. We thought it best to keep her contained and... docile.”

“In order to do what?” Karon asked, taking a few steps forward and coming to a stand at the sorcerer's left. Trixie herself passed by them without sparing them a glance, her eyes firmly fixed on the prone figure inside the cage.

“Well, since you mentioned that she was wanted back 'home', I will admit, getting her back there has been our intention since meeting her,” Markus said.

Karon's eyes narrowed, sensing no deceit in the words. Still, that didn't have to mean much.

“And why would you do that?”

“Because she is different. Her body might be a human's when she isn't shifting into an animal, but her mind, her aura speak of some other origin. The ease at which she changes shapes is demonstration enough that her physical shape is no real indication of her true nature.”

Karon remained silent. He needed to hear just how much the cabal had figured out, and what their game was.

“We're very skilled in the workings of the minds of many creatures, as you have no doubt gleaned from the weave covering this place. But how to work this one has eluded us. I suspect it is either her alien nature, or someone has put a block in her mind, denying us free access to her memories.”

“Thank you, Varsif,” Karon thought quietly, suspecting who was behind that little trick.

“And why would you be interested in that? There are countless beings present on this planet who count other worlds or even dimensions as their home.”

“Ah, but that's the thing. This creature is particularly interesting, because even though we can't get into her mind completely, we can still read the energy and structure of her being. And it is obvious it is naturally inclined towards magic, even if she no doubt is a poor representative of her kind going by her abilities. More than that, I sense no inherent aggression or killer instinct. Whatever she truly is, it is most likely a prey species of some kind.”

“Oh, I see what they're after.”

The south London cabal was looking to expand their business. Markus and his crew wanted to use Lyra to gain access to Equestria, to use her to somehow create a link to her world, not entirely unlike how Karon had once used Twilight to create a bridge there. How exactly the sorcerers planned to make the crossing without garnering the attention of the powers guarding against such unauthorized travel was unknown to him. There were only a few ways with which one could legitimately jump across worlds without raising alarms, and those methods were usually safeguarded by people of some moral fiber.

“Is that a compliment or insult against us?”

Of course, someone like Markus might have found a way to wrangle one of those methods into his keeping. If that was the case, trouble might be brewing. However, most worlds had powers present that could deal with his ilk should he start making trouble.

Equestria, though...

It was a buffet of natural resources, powerful but not combative creatures, and a world that itself was radiating power. It was insular from the rest of the universal game of power, forcefully made to be harmonic within itself to prevent a repeat of the original world's fate. It was simply a place that hadn't gained the attention of the rest of the universe so far. But if Markus and ones like him would decide to stop by for a visit...

Equestria wouldn't stand a chance.

“More than that, though, I can sense no divine presence within her aura, not even a shred of it anywhere in her entire being. Nor can I sense it within you, trickster and soul eater. Your god-slaying bodyguard doesn't have the stink of angels on her, either.”

“Uh-oh.”

“So whatever reason you have to be here, it is not at the behest of the deluded beings that would call themselves greater. That makes you one thing and one thing only.”

“Time to get dangerous.”

“What's that?” Karon asked in a low voice.

“A rival,” Markus growled, then raised his left hand toward Karon.

The sorcerer had taken the trickster's measure; he knew the nature of such a being, knew that he primarily relied on deceit and trickery to win. No doubt he expected Karon to attack his mind, a battleground the sorcerer knew well. Or maybe the trickster would do something more base, and fling raw energy or fire at him in a display of heat and light.

What he did not expect, if the expression that appeared on his face was any indication, was for Karon to attack him physically. He didn't expect the trickster to simply slap away the sorcerer's hand and move in closer.

Faced with a kind of fighting very unfamiliar to him, the sorcerer reacted in a primal, unthinking manner. Drawing upon very rusty animal instincts, he lashed out with his right hand in a clumsy haymaker towards Karon's head. The blow struck true, but was so weak it barely staggered Karon.

Yes, the sorcerer did not expect a fist fight. And he definitely didn't expect Karon to draw back his leg, then send it speeding into the sorcerer's crotch.

With a high-pitched scream the sorcerer fell down on the ground, his eyes bulging and face turning bright red. By the time the sorcerer had crashed to the floor, Trixie had already ripped apart the flimsy cage holding Lyra, and was trying to rouse her.

“Karon!” she screamed.

Kicking the sorcerer again for good measure, eliciting another squeal, Karon ran over to Trixie, and looked down on the woman she was holding. Her eyes were still the light hazel he remembered, but they were misty, coated in a white film.

“Fuck!” Karon swore as he realized how the sorcerers had kept her 'docile'. They'd bound her to the same web they used to control the people. She had remained outside of their direct control, either because of her inhuman nature, or Varsif's precautions, or both. But though they had not been able to control her, they had managed to deny her control as well.

The trance they had put her in was deep, and they didn't have time to wake her from it. Karon could already feel the shivers through the web, the echo of the other sorcerers moving in on them.

“I'll have to carry her,” Karon said, and with Trixie's help he managed to get her across his shoulders, legs dangling off one end, and the arms the other.

“Thank god she's not heavy, we're not built for this kind of shit.”

“Trix, you cover us from behind, keep any pursuers from frying us,” he huffed, feeling his spine protest loudly at the extra weight.

“What about the normal people?” she asked, her eyes wide.

“Jesus Christ, I hate my life.”

“Fuck, I didn't tell you. The sorcerer has pretty much everyone here under their control, not just a few!” he hissed angrily. “I'll have to cloak us.”

“That won't work on the sorcerers,” she frowned.

“They might sense my presence, but I can send out echoes to confuse them so they'll think we're in several places at once. The regular people won't be able to detect us, and if the sorcerers try and direct their movement they're just gonna end up tripping over each other.”

“You sure you can manage all that, with her?” she asked, nodding at Lyra.

Karon was about to respond, when he felt power gather from behind him. He turned around to see Markus rising from the floor, eyes brimming with tears and a face shining red. With a wordless snarl he brought up both hands, and energy lashed out against them.

The sorcerer was obviously angry, because what he lashed out with was pain. Not really pain itself, but a mental command, meant to send the brain haywire and delude itself into thinking it was experiencing as much pain as it possibly could.

It would have knocked out any normal being instantly, and rendered many more powerful ones helpless. But Trixie had endured much during her exile, and Karon knew pain like an old friend. Like an old love.

The scream tore itself from his lips. He staggered, bracing himself with all his might to keep from falling over. Next to him, Trixie screamed as well, but there was as much anger as pain mingled in her scream, and with an effort of will she flung her hands at the sorcerer, and blue fire lanced out towards him.

Karon felt how it sucked in the air around them, leaving Karon feeling lightly singed just from having been near it. The lance struck against a shield the sorcerer had hastily erected, blue fire crashing against a purple-colored bubble of energy.

Before the first lance had entirely died, Trixie was already sending another. While Markus was busy keeping himself from being incinerated, Karon hurried towards the door. Trixie followed close behind, walking backwards with her front faced towards Markus, sending lance after lance against the sorcerer.

The air was shimmering from the heat trapped in the concrete room, the wall and floor around the sorcerer blackened and even melted in some places. When Karon was out of the room, Trixie didn't bother sending any more, instead she simply held up her hands threateningly, breathing hard.

The sorcerer was in a worse state, breathing heavily, and looking on the verge of passing out, either from the lack of oxygen, or from the mental strain of shaping so much energy into a defense. When Trixie passed through the doorway and reached the stairs, the sorcerer called out after them in a wheezing voice.

“This isn't over, trickster!”

“You punch like a girl!” Karon yelled in farewell.

He hurried up the stairs as fast as he could, which, judging by the impatient sound Trixie made, wasn't fast enough. It was just one flight of stairs, and the sorcerers had all remained on the top floor as far as Karon could tell, and so they reached the door opening up into the courtyard first.

When they exited, however, they found themselves staring down a mob of extremely angry Brits.

“Murderers!” someone cried.

“Terrorists!” another screamed.

“Pedophiles!” the matronly Sarah shrilled, brandishing a kitchen knife in her hand threateningly.

They were all under the control of the sorcerers, but it was a light-touched control, one that guided the victims instead of completely dominating them. Hence, the people had concocted their own logical reasons for what was going on, their minds trying to make sense of impulses and commands they could not understand.

If Karon made them see the three of them as harmless, as people that could not reasonably be seen as any one of those things, then they wouldn't be able to make sense of the situation. At best that would break the sorcerer's control, otherwise it might confuse them.

“How do you gain the trust of a mob of pissed off Brits?”

“Uh... God save the Queen!” Karon shouted.

The words left a heavy silence in the air. The mob seemed to hesitate, and then someone took a step forward, mostly to assume a more comfortable stance by the look of it. But the motion was picked up by the entirety of the crowd, and a nervous rustling came over them. All of them waited for someone else to make the first move.

Karon's eyes darted from side to side, looking for a viable escape plan.

Behind them, the door was flung open, and Karon and Trixie turned to see a group of figures come rushing outside. They were all wearing black and dark green clothes, in what Karon guessed amounted for some sorcery version of gang colors.

“What are you waiting for?! Get them!” one of the sorcerers cried out, pointing at Karon and Trixie.

“Trix!” Karon screamed, and began gathering power to cloak the three of them.

She reacted instantly, raising one hand towards the crowd, the other against the sorcerers. From the one directed at the crowd, a ball of ice was sent soaring through the air. When it impacted against the first person, it exploded in a brilliant white-blue light, and encased all the people in the front of the mob in frost.

The hand that was raised towards the sorcerers spat the same blue lances of fire as before. The sorcerers easily raised shields in their defense, but the ordinary people of the mob didn't have such instincts or abilities, and they all halted in shock, and cried out in fear when magic was brought upon them.

The few seconds it bought them was enough for Karon, and with a push of his will, a field of energy expanded to cover the trio, and they disappeared. No physical sense would be able to detect them now, though the metaphysical senses the sorcerers possessed could still track them through sensing the very field that was cloaking the trio.

Unseen by the mob, Karon and Trixie skirted it, watching the frightened and angry faces of the people within it.

“There they are! Catch them alive!” a female sorcerer called out, and the mob shifted towards where Karon and Trixie were in a motion not entirely of their own will.

Drawing a deep breath, Karon tried to divide his attention. Walling off a section of his mind to keep the cloaking up, and another section to keep him moving, this time following Trixie's lead, he mustered all the mental energy he could, then sent it all out into the courtyard around them.

The energy bounced off everything material, crashed into the people, staggering them mentally, and generally wreaked as much havoc in the ethereal as Trixie's explosions did in the physical. In all that noise, the sorcerers wouldn't be able to make out which energy field was the one cloaking the fleeing trio.

But it took a lot of effort, and they had barely made it out to the main road again before Karon felt his concentration tearing at the edges, the magic flickering uncertainly. Trixie couldn't feel it, but she could see Karon's expression.

“Come on, Karon! I know you can do it, just a little more,” she whispered, doing her best to help him move forward.

“This... is really... hard,” he gasped.

They ran north in a straight line. Behind them the sounds of the confused and raging mob could be heard, scattering into smaller groups sent out in different directions.

“We need to stop,” Karon wheezed. His vision was getting blurry, and there was little energy he could draw upon to steady his mind, having spent most of it on the distraction.

Trixie hissed, then directed him towards the same cluster of bushes and trees they had stopped at before. It wasn't particularly well hidden, but it would provide enough cover for a few minutes.

With a relieved sigh Karon lowered himself down on his knees, and allowed Lyra to slide off, dropping to the ground softly.

“We can't stay here,” Trixie said to him, her eyes peeled on the road.

“I just... need a minute,” Karon huffed, breathing heavily. He turned Lyra over and opened her eyes, a tiny smile spreading over his lips when he saw that the white film was gone. The web was powerful, but localized. The further someone bound to it went away, the less influence it would exert over them.

Karon blinked in realization.

“Trix, the web that's controlling the people! It's limited to the area, so if they go away too far they'll break free automatically. The sorcerers won't be able to send them after us for more than a kilometer at most, or they might lose them!”

Trixie nodded, a slight easing of her shoulders revealing the relief she felt. Then she frowned.

“Karon, the sorcerers are coming.”

Hissing, Karon stood up and joined her, peering out towards the street. The sorcerers were there, further down, not moving.

“Do they sense us?” Trixie asked.

Karon closed his eyes for a moment, forcing himself to focus on the sorcerers' presence. Then he opened them with a tired sigh.

“Yeah, they feel us.”

“What are they doing?”

“I don't—”

Karon didn't have time to finish before the curse struck.

It was unbelievably powerful, the result of the entire cabal linking their power into one unison goal—to curse their enemies. The energy struck like a tsunami, with a power that could easily have turned the entire neighborhood into a smoldering crater—if the energy had been focused on the physical.

But it wasn't. It was far more insidious than that. It attacked the three of them, all the way to the core of their being, into the heart of their souls.

Karon had a split-second warning before it happened, and brought to bear all the energy he had left. It was almost not enough. Like a single cliff trying to stand firm in a terrible storm tearing away at it, but he managed.

Exhausted beyond measure, Karon fell down on his hands and knees, breathing shallowly. His stomach lurched, and there was absolutely nothing he would rather do then lay down on the soft grass and sleep.

“Karon,” a terrified voice spoke.

There was something about it, something so insistent within her tone that it drew Karon's attention. Slowly turning his head, he looked over at Trixie, and it took him a few seconds to understand what he was seeing.

To his right, a blue-coated, silver-maned unicorn was untangling herself from the mass of human clothes she was trapped within. Karon watched her struggle, forcing himself to try and think, to comprehend.

Eventually, the unicorn managed to break free of her restrictions, and stared at him with an expression of abject horror. Karon's eyes drifted downward, where he saw Lyra, back in the shape of a turquoise unicorn once more, then turned his gaze back up to Trixie.

“Shit.”

The Great Game (Part 2)

“Karon...” Trixie whimpered.

Karon was too tired to think. His eyelids felt like they were made of lead, and it was a struggle just to open his mouth and form coherent words.

“Trix...” he muttered weakly.

The unicorn stared at him with terror-stricken eyes, which were now ten times the size they had been just a moment ago. Karon looked back dumbly for several moments, but soon the drained feeling in his body proved too much.

“Don't let anyone see you," he blurted out just before his eyes rolled back in his head.

Trixie looked at Karon, shock and denial spreading across her features. She shook him by the shoulders, yet elicited only a listless bobbing of his black-feathered head.

"Karon, no! C-Come on, talk to me! This—"

"Ugh, what..."

Trixie stopped, then turned around to meet the bleary eyes of the other unicorn in the party.

Lyra rose from the ground, shaking off the last remnants of the trance that had had her captivated before. She frowned deeply at Trixie, then she lifted up what should have been an arm, her brows knitting together in consternation when she instead found a hoof. She made a quick evaluation of her current form, then squeezed her face in concentration.

Nothing happened.

"What the he—" Lyra's eyes snapped back to Trixie. "What's going on? Where are we? And why can't I use magic?" she asked with strained calm.

"You were kidnapped," Trixie explained, casting a nervous glance toward Karon. "We freed you, but the sorcerers— oh, shit!"

She turned back towards the street, taking a few tentative steps forward to get a better look, yet keeping herself lowered expertly under the shade and foilage that made up the forested patch they were in.

Trixie spotted the sorcerers exactly where they'd been standing before; but of the eight there were last time she counted only four still standing, and they were busy trying to rouse the others, who were down on the ground just as unconscious as Karon.

"What's going on?" the unicorn behind her whispered urgently.

"Lyra," Trixie said hastily. "I can explain everything later, but right now we have to get out of here."

She turned sharply away from the sorcerers and hurried over to Karon, then began to wriggle her head in underneath him.

“Where is 'here'? And what's the rush?” Lyra asked Trixie's butt, which was swaying high in the air while the rest of her was buried beneath Karon.

“Londom, or something! The sorcerers that kidnapped you are still after us!” a muffled voice answered from somewhere under the blanket of flesh and sweaty robes.

Lyra blanched slightly, and then staggered woozily. Pressing a hoof up to her head, she turned and looked out towards the road Trixie had been staring down, and then spotted the sorcerers.

“I remember,” she said with a wince, then frowned down at Trixie. “Why are you doing that? Just lift him up with your horn.”

“I tried!” a shrill voice answered as her head popped up on the other side of Karon. “I tried the second I turned back into this... thing! It doesn't work!”

Lyra blinked, then her face fell as she absorbed the information. “So, what you're saying is that we're both stuck as ponies, with no ability to use magic, in the middle of London, with a group of sorcerers chasing us?”

“Yes! And Karon used too much magic while we escaped and now he's out cold, and I have no idea how long it'll take before he recovers! We'll have to carry him,” Trixie huffed as she forced herself to stand up on shaky legs, the entirety of Karon's weight pushing down on her.

Lyra groaned loudly, all of her frustration manifesting itself into a single, glorious facehoof.

“So where do we go?” she asked.

Trixie spun around, looking in every direction for a viable escape route, before she gritted her teeth in frustration. “I don't know. We can't go north to the trains again; Karon said we can't be seen like this or the humans will panic, or something.”

Lyra nodded. “We need a place to bunker down,” she said.

“Bunker what?” Trixie asked.

Lyra sighed, then her eyes widened as an idea struck her. “I know a place. It's east of central London, south of the Thames. The guy who lives there likes me, so I'm sure he'd let us stay there for as long as we need.”

Trixie looked back out towards the road nervously. The sorcerers had carried their unconscious comrades to the sidewalk, and were sitting down next to them, looking haggard and ready to fall down themselves.

“We need to go somewhere before the sorcerers recover. But are you sure this person can be trusted seeing us like... this?”

Lyra looked away with a sheepish look on her face. “Well, he might... kinda somewhat think that I'm a goddess.”

Trixie's eyebrow shot up, and her expression turned deadpan. "Really?"

Lyra shrugged. “He saw me shift from a bird once, and... well, the attention was nice, you know.”

Trixie shook her head in exasperation. “We don't have time for this. If you know the way, then let's go. If this guy makes trouble, then we'll deal with him later.”

Lyra nodded, but cringed a little from Trixie's harsh tone. Even so, she looked up into the sky, then around to get her bearings, and eventually she set off to the right, away from the road where the sorcerers were still recuperating.

They moved slowly, with Lyra running from cover to cover, and Trixie doing the same, although at a much slower pace. They passed through backyards and private areas, most of them covered in shadows, allowing the ponies to move unseen on their way north-east.

                      ***************************************************

“What now?” Marie asked, looking over at Markus who, beside herself was the only one now that hadn't dozed off on the sidewalk.

The sorcerer turned to her with a dark expression, his eyes noting the sweat covered brown hair plastered over her face, then looked back at the distant cluster of trees the three refugees had taken shelter in. Their presences were fading even now, but it didn't matter; the curse had done its work exactly as intended.

“We return home, and we wait for them to come back to us,” he said with a wolfish grin.

“You're certain they'll come back?" Marie frowned, pulling her black coat tighter around herself, then glancing at the rest of their unconscious comrades. "They just barely escaped this time, and we allowed them to get close. They can't be stupid enough to think we'll give them such an advantage twice, can they?"

“They have no choice now if they want to get rid of the curse,” he answered simply.

Marie didn't respond. To bind the curse with their own lives as the focus had been a foolhardy decision, in her opinion. Yes, as long as they continued breathing the curse would maintain its effect, but that also meant that the only real way to lift it was to kill every single member of the cabal, since they had all linked to perform the curse.

They had just chased off what might be very dangerous people, and Marie wasn't sure she wanted to give them a bullseye to aim for—especially not if it happened to be on her back.

“Wake the ones that can stand. We need to get back home and begin making preparations,” Markus told her curtly.

Marie nodded. Targets or no, their cabal still held the advantage, and they'd forced their rivals to come back to their home turf.

Still, though, she couldn't shake the nagging feelings of dread she'd felt ever since she'd sensed them. No matter what Markus said, this wasn't going to be easy.

                 ******************************************************

They wouldn't have made it for more than ten minutes if it had been during the day, but thankfully, the night was kind enough to provide a shroud of darkness that left many a nook and cranny as viable places to hide.

Trixie kept on following Lyra's lead, who stopped almost every few minutes to once again get her bearings. She had offered only the explanation that she was used to viewing London from a bird's perspective, which did not do much to inspire confidence in her fellow unicorn.

However, the further north they went, the more people could be heard out and about. More than once Lyra had bounced back into cover as a group of people passed them by. It was especially awkward for Trixie, since she was burdened with an unconscious trickster on her back, but with luck and many a panicked hiss from Lyra, they managed to make it to their intended destination.

The apartment was located on the second floor, with a wooden stair leading up to the door on the outside of the house. It must have once been a grand manor of some kind, or maybe a boardinghouse, Trixie couldn't guess. But it was obvious from the many entrances and array of mailboxes that the building had now been chopped up into smaller apartments.

The two ponies were hiding in an alley, located on the other side of the road the building stood on, and were keeping an eye out for any sudden figures appearing in doors or windows.

“Ready?” Lyra whispered, her eyes jumping from one window to the next.

“Yes, just say when,” Trixie wheezed, nearly out of breath.

“Go!” Lyra exclaimed, and together the two of them ran forward as fast as they could, heading straight towards the stairs.

They went up them loudly, the clopping sound of their hooves upon wood making both ponies wince as it echoed out into the still night air. With her breath held, fully expecting every human within earshot to poke their head out to investigate the ruckus, Lyra banged a hoof on the door. She kept banging on the door, the seconds passing by at an excruciatingly slow pace.

Eventually a voice could be heard from the inside, “Who is it?” it asked.

Lyra reached up a hoof to wave in front of the peephole in the door, hissing loudly, “It's Lyra. Open the door, now!”

There was a mumbling sound as the man said something, then a chain rattled and the door opened outward. A red-haired, blue-eyed man peered out the crack, his face moving downwards until he was staring right at the ponies.

“What?” he slurred and rubbed his eyes.

With a growl Trixie pushed past both Lyra and the man, bursting into the apartment. Lyra followed her lead while the man remained standing in the doorway with a dumbfounded look on his face.

“Close the door!” Lyra exclaimed.

The man obeyed, never taking his eyes off the two brightly-colored unicorns that had just invaded his home. Then he slapped his head.

“Man, I knew it was something fishy about that last batch,” he mumbled.

Lyra sighed and rolled her eyes. “There's nothing wrong with your drugs, I think. You're seeing us exactly as we are... I think. How much have you taken?”

The man went down on his knees and leaned in close towards Lyra, peering into her eyes, studiously moving up and down her body.

“Holy shit, what happened to you?” he eventually asked.

“Complicated,” she answered, then looked over at Trixie. “She could probably explain it better than I could.”

The man rose up and shook his head, bloodshot eyes staring at the both of them in incomprehension.

“I get that, like, we mortals aren't supposed to question the gods and such, but why would you change into a small, chubby unicorn? You could give someone an epileptic seizure with that color, you know,” he said and walked over to a nearby couch, which he fell into with the practiced ease only attained by a professional slob.

With a great sigh of relief, Trixie dumped Karon's body to the floor. She turned to Lyra. “This is the kind of person you think might help?” she asked with a raised brow.

“Hey, I take offense at that... whoever you are!” he protested.

“Andrew's an alright guy,” Lyra reassured her, then moved in closer, clearing her throat before whispering. “He used to think I was an alien, which I thought I technically might be; but then Varsif explained Equestria is in another dimension entirely, so when I told Andrew I wasn't even from this dimension he kinda assumed I must be a goddess.”

“And how exactly would that be a good thing for us?” Trixie whispered back.

Lyra looked away with an amused expression, then cleared her throat again. “Well, I kinda happened to mention I live far up north, so he started going through all these different kinds of  northern goddesses, and eventually figured I must be Freya.”

“Still not seeing the point,” Trixie said impatiently.

“Well... Freya is kinda a fertility goddess... and Andrew is a pretty lonely guy. I think he expects that I somehow will fall prey to my fertility goddess instincts sooner or later and... you know.”

“So, you're counting on him helping us because he expects you to jump into bed with him at some point?” Trixie asked.

“He's a twenty-seven year old virgin with a social anxiety disorder, he would die for me if he thought it would up his chances of getting laid,” Lyra deadpanned.

Trixie shook her head, resisting the urge to facehoof.

“And are you actually planning on ever doing that?”  she asked.

Lyra looked away, her cheeks reddening slightly. “Well...”

“Really?” Trixie asked skeptically.

“What? I'm lonely, too,” Lyra muttered.

“So you're basing our safety here on a guy's sexual frustration?"

“Basically.”

“Sounds foolproof,” Trixie said, and the two females nodded with sagely wisdom.

“Always is.”

                 ******************************************************

It took eighteen hours from the time they arrived in the apartment before Karon regained consciousness. During that time, Trixie had been forced to deny herself the pleasure of kicking Andrew in the head on twice that number of occasions.

The man had been insistently pestering her with questions, and in between the slight scraps of information Trixie had given him, tried to feed her some very suspicious-looking pills. They had smiley faces on them.

When Karon finally opened his eyes, it was to the sight of a red mess of hair, located on top of a scruffy-looking man, dressed only in a stained white bathrobe, munching on a bag of chips.

“Oh hey, man, good to see you're awake. That blue one has been complaining all day about you sleeping,” the man snorted, then gave Karon a wide smile, complete with half-chewed flecks of chips. “Women, ehh,” he said with a nudge of his elbow.

“Charming.”

“Uh, yeah...” Karon muttered, and threw an arm over his eyes. The stranger was sitting on the end of a couch Karon was almost completely sunk into, providing such a degree of comfort it was actually uncomfortable.

“Where am I?” Karon asked out loud, grimacing at the pounding in his head.

“We're in the home of Andrew, who you've just met,” Trixie's voice answered.

Karon sat up sharply, and was faced with the sight of a light blue unicorn looking at him with displeasure evident in her lilac eyes.

“Crap, that really happened,” Karon grunted and gently massaged his temples.

“Yes, it did happen. I'm stuck in this form now; actually, I can't perform any magic at all, Karon. Would you mind explaining to me why?” she asked in a tone promising suffering and death.

Karon closed his mouth tight and held up a hand as a wave of nausea swept over him. When it passed, he let out the breath he'd been holding, and considered the situation.

“Well... no, fuck, I got nothing,” he eventually offered, holding out his hands helplessly.

Trixie stared at him. “You're joking, right? Karon, you're the one with the sensitivity for this kind of crap! I've tried to make out what it is that's binding me to this form and keeping me from using magic, but I can't! You're the one that's supposed to handle this stuff!” Her voice had risen higher and higher in octave, until she eventually ended up shrieking.

Andrew was observing the scene with wide eyes, occasionally popping a chip into his mouth, chewing on it slowly.

Karon sighed. “Trix, come over here.”

The unicorn moved closer until he could put both his hands on her, then he closed his eyes, and focused all his senses on her. The web of energy that had been spun around her was ridiculously complex in its design, and the more he tried to discern how it functioned, the more complicated it became.

He let his hands fall down from her in defeat. “No, sorry Trix. I can sense it, that's not the problem. But this kind of magic... this is high level stuff, higher than what I'm on, and higher than what any sorcerer in that cabal should be capable of, or they would have been able to take over all of Britain by now.”

“What does that mean?” Trixie snapped.

Karon shrugged. “Dunno. Either they used some kind of artifact that they just needed to put some juice into and aim... or they used that weird web of theirs. It linked all of them together, so that could give all of them some freaky tricks they wouldn't be able to do otherwise.”

“Karon, I want you to answer me honestly,” Trixie spoke very carefully, then took a deep breath and braced herself. “Can it be undone?”

Karon leaned forward and cradled her face in his hands. She started trembling at his touch, and the anger in her eyes melted away, replaced by a shimmering threatening to turn into tears.

“Of course it can, it's just a matter of figuring it out. Exactly everything that exists is governed by some kind of rules, even this. All we need to do is figure out how it works, and then we will know the best way to unravel it.”

Trixie nodded, not trusting her voice not to break. She climbed up into the couch, and the two held each other, shifting slightly before finding a way that was comfortable for both of them. In the silence that followed, the slight crunch of Andrew chewing his chips grew significantly.

Karon gave him a glance over Trixie's shoulder, and the man stared back at him with a jovial smile, and gave him a thumbs up, before letting the hand dive down into the bag.

“Maybe human sacrifice would be enough to unravel the curse.”

“He did offer up his home to us.”

“Yeah, uhh... why?”

“So... Andrew, why exactly are you letting us stay here?” Karon asked while the unicorn nuzzled against his chest.

“Well, Lyra showed up with the blue one, and you on her back, and was all, 'let me in, we're in terrible danger, please I'll do anything if you help us'!” he told with a smile.

Trixie snorted, and climbed back down onto the floor. “You sure that's what she really meant?” she asked the munching Andrew.

“And as the gentleman I am, I offered up my home to save the fair ladies... and you, of course,” he continued, then gave a slight bow as if acknowledging their praise.

A door opened, and from the room it led into, Lyra came walking out while stifling a yawn. Her eyes brightened when she saw Karon awake.

“Karon!” she called, and ran up to embrace him.

“Hey, it's been a while.” Karon smiled while putting his arms around the small equine.

A jealous look of anger flashed across Andrew's face, then faded quickly as he noticed Karon had turned his attention towards him.

When Lyra moved back from the embrace, her hoof flew up and punched Karon in the chest lightly. “Yeah, it's been a while. You've been too busy to visit, or something?” she asked him half-jokingly.

“Something like that,” he muttered.

Lyra frowned, then dropped the subject, and climbed back down to the floor and went to stand beside Trixie.

“So now that you're awake, what are we going to do about all of this?” she asked, and the mood in the room turned somber.

Karon relaxed and leaned back into the couch—which resulted in half of him disappearing—and rubbed his hands together. “I can't break this curse they've put on you. I managed to keep it from sticking to me, but I didn't get any sense of what it was about when it happened. You're back to ponies, and can't do magic, but for all we know there might be more—a lot more—to it then that.”

Lyra swallowed, and Trixie nodded with a grave look on her face.

“So,” Karon went on, “We need to get to Varsif. Technically, we succeeded in rescuing Lyra like we were supposed to, and he's waiting for us to return. The man knows more about magic than I'll be able to learn in a century, and he's got the power to match. It's a given he'll be able to fix this.”

Trixie let out a breath of relief, and Lyra smiled.

Karon however, groaned. “The problem is just getting there without half the nation freaking out because a pair of colorful pony unicorns are walking down the streets.”

Andrew scooped out the last of his chips and shoved them into his mouth, them crumbled the bag and threw it over his shoulder. “I gt a cpt tr bi fou wan bot em,” he said through the chewing.

“Andrew, swallow first,” Lyra admonished in a voice that said it wasn't her first time doing so.

Andrew complied, then repeated himself. “I said that I've got a couple of big travel bags if ya wanna use 'em.”

Karon stared at the man, and Trixie and Lyra did as well, then turned to stare at each other.

“What do you mean? Why would we need travel bags, we haven't got anything with us.” Trixie said.

“I mean, you know, for you guys. You're pretty small, and if ya wanna keep anyone from seeing you, that would work,” Andrew answered her with a shrug.

Realization spread over both the unicorn's faces in the form of angry frowns, then Trixie turned to Karon when she noticed his poorly-hidden smile.

“No.”

“It would work,” Karon pointed out.

“I'm not getting stuffed into a bag, Karon!” Trixie exclaimed with an angry stomp of her hoof.

“Neither am I!” Lyra joined in, and both the ponies gave the two men angry stares.

“It's either that, or nothing. I can't pull a veil over us and keep it up for hours on end. But if you've got another idea, I'm listening,” Karon told them.

The glare both the unicorns gave him was responded with only a smile, and eventually, Trixie broke the silence.

“I hate you.”

                       ********************************************************

Two men stood at the train station, waiting for the arrival of the transport that would take one of them away, and the two heavy-looking bags that stood beside them. One of the men was wearing a brown leather jacket, and a fedora on his head, with red stripes of hair poking out from underneath it. The other one was dressed in regular clothes, but his hair made it look like there was a bunch of black feathers glued to his head, and his glowing orange eyes were obviously not normal.

People gave the two men weird stares as they walked by them, and Karon was looking right back with a frown. Andrew on the other hand was ignoring them, to the point he seemed almost oblivious, or what was more likely, because he had grown used to it long ago.

Karon's stomach rumbled suddenly, and he became painfully aware of its lack of content. “I'm gonna get something to eat,” he told Andrew, then gave one lingering glance on the bags, before turning around and heading towards one of the stores present in the station.

Inside were stacks of candy, chips, drinks and magazines. As Karon looked around, he managed to gather up an armful of energy bars, sandwiches, and other items in colorful wrappers promising to be both tasty and nutritious. Karon doubted the truthfulness of the claims, but he was a trickster, and he could appreciate the theatrics.

He brought it all to the clerk, a bored-looking young man dressed in an store uniform obviously a few sizes too large. He raised his eyebrows at Karon as he scanned the mountain of goods, but didn't say anything until after Karon handed over the money.

“Nice lenses, man,” he said, looking into Karon's eyes.

The trickster blinked, then racked his brain for information, trying to remember what that meant. Eventually, sluggish memories rose up to help him.

“Uh, yeah, right. Bought them at... uhh.... 'Lense world... store',” he said.

The clerk gave him a fairly condescending smile. “So how did you get them to glow like that? Do they reflect light, or something?”

“Yeah, that's it,” Karon replied quickly, then took the plastic bag the clerk had put everything in.

He left the store with a frown on his face, and absentmindedly unwrapped one of the bars and began eating it.

It had been far more difficult getting his memories to return than he liked; the ways of humans and his homeworld had grown to be distant things, unimportant. Even now, as he looked at the people around him, he felt how his mind analyzed everything the same way it did when he encountered a new world.

When he returned to Andrew and the two bags he stood guard over, the train had arrived, and people were already pouring into it.

“So, guess this is good-bye then,” Andrew said, appearing to be close to start crying.

“Looks that way,” Karon responded absently, eying the people climbing into the train.

“I'm gonna miss you, man,” Andrew sniffed, then threw his arms around the trickster in a brief hug, then gave the bag with Lyra hidden in it a quick pat, before turning around and forlornly walking away.

“I'm so happy we don't take drugs.”

“I dunno, might make life a little easier.”

“Doubt it. With our luck, the stuff would turn out to be possessed by an evil genie that would spend the next century riding shotgun in our mind.”

“Hope not. It's cramped enough in here.”

Karon watched Andrew disappear into the crowd, then moved down to where their cart stood, and with no small degree of difficulty, managed to hoist both bags up into the train, and finally into their compartment.

They'd been lucky the money Varsif had given them had been enough to get a car for themselves, otherwise the ponies would have had to remain in the bags for the duration of the trip. But as it were, Karon shut the door behind him and drew the drapes over every window, then zipped open the bags.

A light blue head popped up from the first one, and with a sound of great disgust, Trixie climbed out and stretched her legs. Lyra followed her example after she'd freed herself, and the compartment was filled with popping and cracking sounds as they stiffly reacquainted themselves with movement.

“Never. Again.” Trixie moaned with a final crack of her neck.

“You still have to get back in for when we get off,” Karon pointed out as he flung himself into one of the seats.

Trixie responded with a bloodthirsty growl that no herbivore should have been capable of.

“Can't you go get Varsif and bring him here instead?” Lyra asked with a sour look towards the empty bags.

“Since the train stops for only a few minutes at our station, no,” Karon explained, and put his feet up on the seat in front of him.

Trixie jumped up next to him, and Lyra took the seat opposite her, next to Karon's feet, which she sniffed cautiously before edging away.

“How many hours until we get there?” Lyra asked.

“Somewhere between four and five hours,” Karon answered.

Lyra nodded, then locked her eyes on Trixie, who had her head stuck in the bag filled with foodstuff Karon had purchased. She emerged from it with her mouth stuffed with wrapped bars and sandwiches, then spat them out in front of her. She looked down on her haul critically, then up at Karon with wide, sad eyes.

“You want something?” Karon asked innocently.

“I will hurt you,” she said without losing the puppy eyes.

With a snort Karon started opening her chosen meal, and then did the same for Lyra, after said unicorn had made a squealing sound of hunger.

“I hate this,” Trixie muttered as she stuffed a candy bar into her mouth, precariously balancing it on her hoof.

“You managed to survive most of your life as a pony, Trix, I'm sure you can manage an additional day or two,” Karon said with a smirk.

Trixie didn't look amused. There was a dangerous, almost feverish look of scornful hatred as she glanced down at her own body.

“You really don't get it, do you?” she spoke in a distant voice.

There was a grinding sound from the outside as the train started slowly moving, picking up pace with every spin of its wheels. The drapes over the windows swayed gently with the movement.

“What's there to understand?” Karon asked, and absentmindedly grabbed a bottle of some red liquid promising to be full of vitamins.

“Of the two former Equestrians in this room, which one seemed to be happy with their old lives and world?” she asked frostily.

“Uh,” Karon stalled, looking from the angry blue unicorn, to the awkwardly squirming turquoise one. “Neither,” he finally answered.

“Exactly,” Trixie spat.

“I still don't get why you're so upset, Trix. My own state as a human can be contested on multiple accounts, and I'm not talking about the moral side of it. But that doesn't mean I need to hate humans, or this world.”

Trixie sighed angrily, then rubbed her forehead with a hoof, which she then stared at angrily before turning her gaze back to Karon.

“It's not about physical shape... okay, maybe a little. It's not exactly practical having these hooves instead of hands.”

On the opposite seat, Lyra nodded sagely.

“The real reason I hate Equestria and every single pony on that forsaken world, is because they are wrong!” she hissed, her lilac eyes burning.

“What do you mean?” Karon asked carefully.

“They are so sure of themselves, so self-righteous and certain in their beliefs. They're all like children, Karon. I was like a child back then. The entire pony world is like one big stupid dream that they're too afraid of waking up from. They've never faced true darkness, seen what it does to you, and to others! They don't live with the terrors of the universe, the cold and heat, how life and death mingles with everything, in everything. They shut it all out, and will do anything to keep their vaunted harmony safe and secure. I HATE THEM! Every! Single! One of them! I hate how they can look at someone suffering with eyes that don't understand, because they've never faced, they've never felt what that's like! They understand nothing! They don't WANT to! They're content with living in their fantasy land, where nothing goes wrong, and every wound is healed without a scar, where every life is saved and good beats evil! They're WRONG, and they refuse to face that because it would END them!”

Karon let out his breath quietly when she finished. Trixie was hunched over, breathing heavily with unfocused eyes burning with hatred, fixed on something only she could see. On the opposite seat, Lyra was looking at her sadly.

“Where the hell did that come from?”

“Don't know, but she must have carried it around a long time for it to come flying out of her like this.”

“You think she means it?”

“Yeah, she definitely does.”

“You think she's right?”

“...”

“Well?”

“I don't know.”

Karon reached out with a hand, and carefully placed it on Trixie's shoulder. When she didn't brush it off, he pulled her into an embrace, and held her there. After a few seconds, he could feel her soundlessly sobbing into his chest.

The compartment fell into a deathly silence, and when Trixie removed her face from his chest, she wiped her eyes quickly, then laid down on the seat and closed her eyes sleepily. Karon stroked her back once, then took off the jacket he wore, which upon further inspection had a slightly face-like imprint on it, drenched in tears.

Both Karon and Lyra were giving the unicorn worried glances, until eventually a slight snoring rose from the light blue shape. Karon shifted his awareness to his other sight, and scanned her aura. She wasn't faking it, but had fallen asleep for real, and it was a deep sleep if her aura was anything to go by.

Karon moved over to the seat next to Lyra, and leaned in close and whispered. “Do you have any idea what that was all about?”

Lyra gave him a slightly amused look. “You're the one that's been spending years on end with her. I haven't seen either of you for a long time.”

Karon winced. “Sorry about that. At first there was just so much to explore and discover, and Trix wasn't exactly slowing down for anything, jumping into every pit and hellhole we came across gleefully. Then... something happened, to both of us. And we've been trying to deal with everything that's changed since then.” Karon said in a tired voice.

“Want to tell me about it?” she asked carefully, and put a hoof on his knee.

“Not really,” he answered. The silence afterward lasted for less then a minute, and then, almost by its own volition, words started flowing from his lips, and he told her absolutely everything.

He spoke of the time after they left Earth, of discovering The Walker's Rest, of the wild adventures and exploration of distant worlds. He told of growing into their role as mercenaries and troublemakers, of doing both good and bad all across the wide expanse of the universe. And then, he told her of the soul eaters.

The memories pressed themselves upon Karon's mind with painful clarity, and he told Lyra of the despair of losing Trixie, of finding himself the prisoner of a sadistic seductress who took pleasure in breaking him. He told her of the pain, so intense it had made him forget everything else but what Dolor had offered him, of how it had almost burned away everything that made him who he was. And eventually, he told her how it had changed him... what he had changed into.

Lyra didn't interrupt, didn't even make a sound as he relived his time in the mansion. If she had, Karon didn't think he would have been able to go on. But he did, and he told her of how he had grown to love Dolor, how they had hunted together, and how he had plotted to free her from the influence of her father.

And finally, he told her of Trixie's return, and how he had betrayed the woman he loved.

The tale of what happened after the mansion was quick, until Karon had finally told her everything, and closed his mouth to wait for her verdict.

“Karon,” she said, her voice thick with emotions. Her eyes, those big expressive eyes, were looking at him fearfully. “What have you done?”

“Mistakes,” he answered, his voice raspy after speaking for so long.

Lyra watched him silently, taking careful note of the slight ashen gray complexion she hadn't quite noticed before. Then she sighed, and of all things, started to laugh.

“What's so funny?” Karon eventually asked.

“We are,” she managed to gasp and hunched over as her body was racked with belly-deep cackling.

The tormented light in Karon's eyes receded, and an amused glint rose to replace it. He chuckled, then pushed her off the seat.

She gave a surprised shriek as she landed on her face, and struggled to stand up on her legs, but fell down several times as the laughter kept spilling out of her. The turquoise color of her face turning into a deep scarlet.

“Breathe, or you're gonna faint,” Karon advised with a smile.

She struggled to gain control over herself, and with a few final giggles, Lyra turned to Karon with a red face and lines of tears streaming down from her eyes.

“We're crazy,” she blurted out with a face-splitting grin.

“Can't deny that,” Karon agreed.

“No, you don't get it. We're really crazy.”

Karon blinked.

Lyra explained. “I was a unicorn obsessed with legends of creatures there was absolutely no evidence actually existed, and then one shows up, and I start stalking it, taking notes. And then, I ran away with it to a bunch of distant lands I had no knowledge of, and go through a bunch of adventures where we nearly died on a daily basis. Finally, I get shipped across several dimensions to a world full of the people I obsess over, and I become one, then learn how to become anything as long as I get to know it well enough.”

“Yeah, when you say it like that you certainly sound a bit off,” Karon agreed with a smile.

Lyra shook her head. “That's not the crazy part. The crazy part is that I was in a world full of humans, something I would have drooled over back in Equestria; and once I'm actually here as a human, what do I do? Insert myself into their society so I can experience what it's like to live as a human; because, since we're being honest, that was what I always wanted. No, I don't. Instead I live in the middle of a forest with a cranky old wizard that has done everything he can to hide the place from the outside world. And I stay on the edge of society, I watch and observe but I never become a part of it. Every time I try and talk with someone, every time I try and make friends and become part of a human group, it ends in disaster. I don't understand humans, no matter how much I study their books and technology. The only person I've ever made any kind of connection to is Andrew, and he thought I was an alien, and now thinks I'm a goddess that's going to sleep with him.”

Karon absorbed the information, then nodded his head. “Yeah, you're crazy.”

Lyra snorted, then turned a sly look on Karon. “And you. If anyone that doesn't know you very well ever heard the tale of your life, they'd think you a complete and utter monster. They'd have warning bells for whenever you got close to town, and hide their babies while brandishing pitchforks and torches. I've seen how close to the edge you can get, Karon. Everyone could see it back in Canterlot. But what you've done lately, Karon... you're edging closer to becoming a real bad guy, and no amount of jokes and sarcasm can hide it.”

Karon's smile was crooked, and existed somewhere between amusement and desperation. “I know.”

“So be careful, Karon. Because even if you'd cross over that line completely, I'd still stand with you if you needed me,” Lyra said.

“Thanks,” Karon replied, and placed a hand over her hoof.

“I'd be the worst evil sidekick ever, though, just so you know. I would criticize every action you ever took, talk smack behind your back, undermine discipline by flirting with your minions.”

“What if my minions are ugly trolls?” Karon asked with a grin befitting an evil overlord.

Lyra shrugged her shoulders. “I can shapeshift into almost anything given time, and I've been alone for so long I'm considering hooking up with Andrew.”

Karon gave a mock sound of compassion. “You poor thing. If it weren't for Trix, I might actually consider...” he winked at her.

Lyra snorted and gave him a contemptuous sneer. “I'm not that desperate.”

Karon gave a dry chuckle, and Lyra climbed back up on the seat next to them. She made a content sigh and shook her head slightly. “What I'm trying to say, Karon, is that's it's okay to be crazy. You and I and Trixie, we live in the real world, the big world. The one that spans stars, and where a great game is going on between everyone living in this world. That world is crazy, Karon, so it's only right for everyone part of it to be crazy, too. We're not doing anything wrong, we're just playing by the rules.”

Karon folded his hands on his stomach and nodded. “Yeah, guess so.”  

Lyra gave him a superior look, like there could never be any doubt she was correct. Karon rolled his eyes in response, then grimaced as a thought struck him.

“So all my insane stunts is really just me playing by the rules?”

“Yeah,” she said, raising an eyebrow.

Karon groaned. “I must be the worst trickster ever.”

They both looked at each other, then started laughing.

                                   ******************************************

With loud grunts of exertion, Karon hauled both bags down the steps from the train. The overcast sky ahead had decided now was a good time to dump some of that excess water, and so Karon was greeted by a slight trickle gradually dampening his clothes, making them soggy from the combination of water and sweat.

He pulled both bags behind him, giving silent blessing to whomever came up with the idea of putting wheels on travel bags, and cursing whatever idiot that invented rain. On an afterthought, he took back that later part, or he might find himself less than welcome back at The Walker's Rest.

He managed to drag himself and his great burden all the way to the street where they had left Varsif, and eventually the pub he had spoken of came into view at its far left corner. With a relived sigh Karon increased his pace, and stopped only to wipe the rain from his face.

As his view was blocked by the sleeve of his jacket, someone bumped into one of the bags and cursed loudly.

“Oi! Watch we're ya place those things, ya clutz!” A thick accent shouted just a few steps away from Karon.

When lowering his arm, Karon came face to face with a very angry-looking man staring back at him. He had a blunt face with yellow teeth, and he had shaved his head and wore a leather jacket with a colorful scarf something was written on.

“I'm sure the bag didn't see you coming,” Karon apologized with a wry smile.

The man stood dumbfounded for a moment, and Karon could see the rusty gears slowly turning inside his head.

“U avin' a giggle, mate? I'll wreck u, I swear on me mums life I do!”

“What?” Karon asked with an expression betraying only confusion.

“I think it's trying to communicate with us.”

“Okay, remember to use slow words and lots of gestures. And if it should become hostile, just remain very still, they react on movement.”

“I said I'll wreck ya, mate! Ya freaky cunt,” the man finished with a kick to the bag he had almost stumbled over.

“Uh oh.”

The man's kick tipped it over, and as it fell to the ground, an angry voice shrieked from the inside. “Whoever did that is going to die!”

Karon facepalmed. The man stared down at the talking bag, from which angry growls were issuing forth while something appeared to be trying to get out.

“Trust me, this is a mercy,” Karon said, and the man turned to him with a look of stupefaction right before Karon's fist connected with his lower jaw.

The stranger's face glazed over, and he fell down to the ground with a wet thud. Looking around but finding no one staring, Karon kneeled down next to the bag and whispered. “Trix, calm down, I knocked the guy out. But if anyone spots us like this, there's gonna be trouble.”

A growl that might as well have come from a cave bear drifted out from the bag, but went quiet after that. With a final look around, Karon grabbed the bags and pulled them behind him as he walked as fast as possible towards the pub.

He reached the entrance without anyone calling out in alarm, and nudged the door open with a shoulder before heading inside with both bags trailing behind him.

It was warm and cozy inside, with the table and chairs made out of rich wood, and an aroma of stale beer and cigarette smoke soaked into the very foundations. There were only three other customers present, and one of them was a familiar white-haired, bearded old man dressed in a fur coat, sitting at the far end of the bar, nursing a glass of whiskey.

He gave a nod of greeting towards Karon, then drained his glass and left a bill on the counter before walking over to the trickster. Halfway there he turned his eyes towards the bags Karon was pulling, and his eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch.

“Encountered trouble, I see,” he commented with a deep rumble of his voice.

Karon nodded, and had to keep himself from squirming like some schoolboy caught peeking into the ladies dressing room.

The old wizard hummed. “We'll have to get back to the homestead before I dare taking a closer look at this.”

Karon nodded again, and at the wizard's wordless command, he turned around and went out the door into the rain once more. Varsif passed him by, leading the trickster and his two bags into a nearby alley, where he stopped, then looked down at the bags and grunted.

Karon unzipped the bags, and two unicorns, one looking very angry, climbed out of them.

“Where is that idiot that kicked me!?” Trixie spat furiously.

“Unconscious on the sidewalk,” Karon told her.

“I'm gonna impale him on my horn!” she hissed, and turned around towards the street.

“Not if you want my help removing the curse placed on you,” Varsif commented calmly.

Trixie gave him a baleful glare that had no effect whatsoever, then growled and went to stand between Karon and Lyra. They all joined hands and hoofs, and with a quick wrench of their entire beings, found themselves standing in a sunlit strewn glade.

Moments later, the door leading into the cabin banged open, and Promise came rushing outside. However, she came to a halt when she spotted Trixie and Lyra, and the less than human shapes they were in.

Her look of ecstatic joy turned into a malicious grin as she locked eyes with Trixie. “Has master finally gotten tired of you and decided you should return to your homeworld?”

“That's it!” Trixie shrieked and flung herself at the winged woman.

The attack caught promise off guard, and she crumpled to the ground as Trixie rammed her in the stomach like a light blue projectile of fury. The former spirit hissed in anger as Trixie raised a hoof to punch her face, and drew back a hand ending in razor sharp dagger-claws in response.

Before either could strike, Varsif flicked two of his fingers, and Trixie was flung aside like a rag doll by an unseen force. The wizard smacked his lips in annoyance, and Karon rushed over to position himself between the two combatants.

“That's enough, no more fighting!” he shouted.

Both Trixie and Promise rose from the ground, neither of them looking ready to surrender the fight. Karon turned to Promise first, and gave her a disapproving glare. “I have told you many times Promise, you are not allowed to hurt Trix in any way.”

“She attacked me!” she protested.

Karon turned to Trixie. “And you should know better. Varsif is going to fix this, Trix, so go inside with him and Lyra so he can check up on you. I think it's best if Promise stays outside until that's done.”

“Aren't you coming with us inside?” the light blue unicorn asked, glancing at the former spirit with disgust.

“I'm going to have a talk with Promise, first, and then I'm going to have a talk with you, don't you worry about that,” he said without flinching.

Trixie huffed, then walked up to the wide open door and went inside. Varsif followed after her with a rumbling chuckle, and Lyra tagged along after giving Karon a sympathetic look.

After the door closed behind them, Karon turned to Promise and waved her over. She walked to him with her head down turned, refusing to meet his glare. When she stopped in front of him and he didn't say anything, she scraped the ground with a foot and said in a small voice “I'm sorry.”

“You're gonna say that to Trixie later, just so you know,” Karon told her sternly.

“She started it!” she shouted and looked up at him with outrage.

“Yes, so she's gonna apologize to you, too. But I saw you about to slice her open, and that is not okay under any circumstances. Ever!”

The deep blue eyes shimmered, and she turned away and nodded silently. Karon's visage softened, and raised his hands slightly like he was going to give her a pat on the back, then changed his mind.

“So... figured out what it was you wanted to tell me but couldn't figure out?” he asked.

Promise scowled. “Yes, I mean...no... I...” She made a frustrated mewling sound.

Karon bit his lip, then spoke as kindly as he could manage. “You gotta give me something to help me understand, Promise.”

Promise looked him in the eyes, searching for something, then scraped her foot on the ground again.

“I'm bleeding,” she murmured quietly.

“What? Are you hurt?” Karon asked and grabbed her shoulders, looking her up and down in search of any wounds.

“No... not like that,” she said, shivering at his touch.

“What do you mean? Has something happened to you?” He let her go and peered into her eyes.

She looked back at him with an embarrassed expression, and when she didn't see anything but confusion in his eyes, she scowled.

“You are so... Argh!” she screamed at him.

Karon took an involuntary step back and stared at her.

“What the fuck is going on!?”

“Christ, you're stupid. She has a physical body now, idiot. It's not exactly a normal one, and I figure it's taken a few months for all the systems to fine-tune themselves to the new soul possessing it, but it seems like the normal cycle is reeving up.”

“What the fuck are you going on about!?”

“She's on her period, dumbass.”

Karon's mouth formed a perfect O as he stared at the angry woman. From his expression, Promise must have figured he finally got it.

“It's gross,” she complained. “And it hurts in my stomach! And whenever I eat I sometimes get really hungry, and then I feel sick, and sometimes vomit because food is so disgusting. And feel angry, and sad, and... and...”

“Uhh, it's okay Promise, it's okay,” he tried to calm her with while holding out his hands in front of him.

“And I feel like doing things! With males. With you!” she screamed and stomped her foot, glaring at him like it was his fault.

“Maybe we should throw in the discussion about bees and flowers. It's not like this could get any more awkward.”

“Uh, it's okay, Promise. Those kind of urges are completely normal for a... uh...”

“Woman? Girl? Homicidal spirit possessing the body of a former lover?”

“I know they're normal because I remember!” she shrieked at him.

Karon stared at her with a look normally reserved for deers caught in a headlight.

“I remember you and her. I can remember some of the things she did,” she finished with a stomp of her foot.

“Her? Wh-... Oh, shit.”

“Yeah, now in hindsight it's kinda obvious there would be some residue of Dolor's spirit in the body Promise inherited. I mean, they even shared it for a brief moment. If nothing else the neural pathways in the brain must have been pretty fixed after all those centuries.”

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.”

“Say something!” Promise demanded.

“I...uh... there, there Promise, it's all gonna be fine,” Karon tried to sooth her, then winced when he realized how it sounded.

“FINE!? You think this is FINE!?" she wailed.

“Yeah... I'm sorry, but I have no idea what to do about all this,” he meekly offered. “This is just a part of being of woman... or something. Comes with having a body.”

“But I HATE it!” she whined and stomped her foot again.

She looked at him with a face flushed red, contorted in an expression of anger and embarrassment, and eyes pleading him to fix what ailed her. Karon stared back at her helplessly.

“Promise, listen,” he began cautiously, taking a step closer to her. “I can't make this go away, it's just a part of how your body works, and you'll have to find a wa—”

From the look of fury that came over her, Karon suspected that wasn't the best way to put it, and changed tactics.

“I mean, look, I don't know what it's like... what you're going through, that is.”

“Thank god for that.”

“But pretty much every other woman does, so we'll just have to make sure you get to talk with one about all the... uh, stuff... that comes with being one.”

The image of Promise sitting down with Trixie and discussing the woes of womanhood while complaining about men briefly flashed through Karon's mind, and left an ice cold shiver running down his spine.

“We'll ask Lyra if she might be willing to help you,” he said after a second's consideration. “But you'll have to be on your best behavior if you want her to help you. She's not going to agree if she thinks you might decide to slice her open in a tantrum.”

Promise wrinkled her nose and clasped her hands together, fiddling with her fingers while she looked to be thinking it over.

“You're sure I can't make this go away?” she asked, looking close to tears at the prospect.

“Yeah, I'm fairly sure about that,” Karon told her.

She sighed angrily, then turned her head towards the cabin. “Should I go inside with you?”

Karon grimaced. “It might be best if you stay out here. Trix isn't in a very good mood right now, and she's going to be looking for someone to take it out on.”

Promise nodded, then gave him a faint smile. “Master?”

“Yeah Promise,” he sighed, fully expecting to hear of a new problem.

“Thank you... you're the best master there is,” she told him, and her smile turned radiant.

Karon cleared his throat, then rubbed at the back of his neck, “Hrm, yeah well, I try my best.” Gingerly, he reached out with his arm and gave her a pat on the head.

She gave him an incredulous stare, then spun around and marched away with an annoyed, “Ugh!”

Karon frown was deep as he watched her stomp away for reasons apparently above his ability to comprehend.

“I don't think there's a lot of wisdom to find in the man, but I'm gonna quote Andrew here and say, 'women'.”

Karon snorted, then turned and started making his way towards the cabin.

“We should have considered that Promise wouldn't be ready for all the million little hassles that comes with being corporeal. I don't know what kind of view she had on us fleshy creatures back when she was just a spirit, but I doubt it was very accurate.”

“Probably not. Even so, though, she's been handed a card that's especially hard to deal with.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning that she was created by the fusion of two very different creatures, both of whom were pretty damned unstable in their own right. Reconciling their respective selves into a functioning personality can't have been easy. We saw how she got there for a while. And then pile that up with getting attached to a body where there's spiritual residue from a centuries-old sadistic soul-eating seductress that we had regular kinky sex with, and... yeah, shit can't be easy.”

“Fanatically loyal and loving servant plus amoral bloodthirsty spirit of conquest plus pathologically torturing cock tease...”

“Then throw in a functioning reproductive system and heaps upon heaps of hormones and that equals one giant clusterfuck of a situation.”

Karon reached the door, then stopped himself as he was about to open it.

“Holy shit.”

“What?”

“Promise is going through super-puberty.”

The voice didn't say anything, but there was a sound that could be interpreted as begging for mercy.

“Do you remember back when you where Erik, back to how this all started? How you got all frothing at the mouth crazy and obsessed with bringing your family back to life? And how that eventually led us to where we're standing now?”

“Yeah, kinda hard to forget.”

“Maybe you should have tried therapy instead.”

Karon gave a dry chuckle, then opened the door and went inside. Varsif stood in front of the two ponies, who where confined within a circle glowing faintly red, marked with runes on the outside. Karon silently joined the wizard, and reached out with his senses to try and discern what he was doing.

“Don't meddle,” the old man warned.

Karon nodded, and touched upon the lines of energy, snaking unseen from the wizard to the circle and back, transferring energy and information, slowly taking apart and analyzing the design of the curse placed upon the two women.

It took a little more than half an hour before Varsif made a grunt and relaxed, and the circle instantly winked out of existence. A feat that made Karon's eyes widen.

The old man hadn't even had to draw the circle or the symbols governing its function; he had created it all directly from his mind, keeping it going through nothing but pure focus. Karon tried to calculate the amount of training he would need to be able to perform such a feat, but the result was nothing but a headache.

However, impressive as it may have been, there still remained two unchanged ponies standing where the circle had been.

“Well?” Karon asked Varsif.

The old man walked over to a nearby couch, a dark brown thing that looked ready to fall apart, and sat down on it. He pulled the same mug Karon had seen him with back at The Walker's Rest out from inside his furry coat, and took a swig from it. Where the content had come from Karon could only guess.

“It's a tricky sucker,” the wizard said after he had drained the mug. “And it's linked to one or more living beings, so a life was used as a focal point.”

Karon frowned. “That sounds suicidal.”

The wizard nodded. “Especially since they've been so clever in creating this curse. It's lodged into their brain, creating a dam of sorts. If the ladies would try and force themselves to break through it and channel magic, they'd end up frying their heads.”

The sound of two unicorns swallowing loudly filled the room.

“So why did they turn back into ponies?” Karon asked.

Varsif shrugged. “The curse must have caused a real impact when it struck, probably set every meridian in their being on fire. To put it simply, their aura rebooted to try and limit the damage. The design of their bodies are stored neatly in their soul, and they would just have reverted to that state naturally.”

“This is not who I am.” Trixie spoke through gritted teeth.

Varsif shrugged again. “You might have changed, but the foundational design in your physical DNA remains the same. Be happy there wasn't anything lost in the process—like all your memories.”

Trixie made a sour face, but made no further comment.

“So there's nothing you can do to lift the curse?” Lyra asked.

Varsif cast an apologetic look her way, and nodded. “Taking the curse out would mean ripping a chunk of yourselves with it. A big chunk.”

Karon looked at Varsif, and gave the wizard a lopsided smile.

“So, the only means we have of getting rid of the curse is destroying the focal tool it's bound to.”

“Indeed. Which in this case is one of the sorcerers.”

Karon shook his head. “No, I felt the power of the curse when it tried to latch on to me. There's no chance any single one of them could conjure up that much juju juice. They had this freaky linking web placed around the buildings they had claimed for themselves. It connected them and the people they had enthralled.”

Varsif made a disgusted sound. “Bad, really bad. With something like that they could all work as a hive-mind, and combine their power.”

“Any suggestions on how to beat them?” Trixie asked.

“Humans aren't designed to work like that. If they want to work as a hive mind, they have to have a dominating presence, someone that's directing the others. A queen, so to speak.”

“A king, in this case,” Karon muttered, thinking back to Markus.

Karon and Varsif stared at each other, and unspoken thoughts passed between them. It was partly telepathy, and partly the bone-deep instinctive understanding of one another that was created between a master and his pupil.

A hungry, almost evil grin spread across the wizard's lips, and Karon nodded, his eyes glowing with an amber light.

“What?” Lyra asked, her eyes narrowing at the unspoken conversation.

“Just coming up with a plan,” Karon said, then he turned towards the two ponies. “Varsif will take all of us, including Promise, far up north of London. Close to the Loch Ness where Jörmungandr sleeps. It will be so far away the sorcerers wont be able to sense it, even if they're on high alert. We three will head down south to London while Varsif and Promise remain behind, a—”

“Why don't we all just teleport to the middle of their place and start torching sorcerers?” Trixie demanded.

Varsif explained. “These sorcerers have a linking web that will let them combine their power. They're not gonna do that unless they are prepared to cause some real damage. A curse like the one placed on you is very focused, but if they were to channel all that energy into something a little more destructive, it would turn a large part of London into a smoking crater. And if they sense me coming in, that's exactly what they'll do just on the off-chance it'll allow them to get away.”

“What makes you think they won't do that even if it's just us?” Lyra asked.

Karon answered. “They could have done a lot of nasty stuff with that curse, but instead they just tried to lock all three of us down magically. They want us to come back. And since last time didn't end so well, I think they're pretty confident they can take us.”

“And are they wrong? Both Lyra and I are next to useless now, and you can't take on an entire cabal on your own, Karon,” Trixie told him.

Karon held up a hand to his chest in mock pain. “You wound me, Trix. Last time, we accepted their invitation. This time we're there to exterminate every living sorcerer around. I'm a trickster, Trix; fighting dirty and outnumbered is what we do.”

The unicorn didn't look convinced, and neither did Lyra, who smacked her lips and gave Karon a look that questioned his sanity.

“Just trust me,” Karon pleaded with open palms.

Lyra turned to Trixie. “What was that thing about tricksters, again?”

Trixie brought a hoof up and tapped her chin. “Something about them being liars and cheats and you should never ever trust them, I think.”

“Ha, ha,” Karon said dryly, then turned his gaze to Varsif. “You got any toys we might have use of?”

The wizard raised an eyebrow, then heaved himself out of the chair and headed over towards a corner where there stood a mahogany cabinet, which he started rifling through.

“Oh! I've got something we can use!” Lyra shouted, and ran over to the pile of items she could call her own. Karon and Trixie watched as she dug into it, flinging whatever she could grab aside in her search.

“I'm actually curious about what she cou— HOLY SHIT, DUCK!”

Karon threw himself to the floor as Lyra straightened, turning around with a huge assault rifle in her mouth, pointed directly at where the trickster and his consort stood. Trixie didn't know what it was, but she hesitated only for a fraction of a second before following Karon's example, and fell sprawling down on the floor.

“What?” she asked after dropping the weapon.

“Maybe you shouldn't point that thing at someone when you might accidentally fire it with your TONGUE!” Karon shouted and stood up at the same time as Trixie.

“Don't worry,” Lyra said and waved away his concerns. “The safety is on, and besides, its not like it would be very accurate if I held it in my mouth. The recoil would send me flying.”

“So you wouldn't just hit us, you'd spray the entire room with bullets?” Karon clarified.

“Well, if I accidentally fired, which I couldn't sin—”

“Alright, alright,” Karon held up his hands in defeat. “Where did you get that thing, anyway?”

“I took it. There's this military place in the forest pretty close to here. I took a look inside and found all this cool stuff, “ a maniacal gleam entered into the unicorn's eyes when she spoke, “and guess what?”

“What?” Karon asked, trying not to cringe in anticipation of the answer.

“I have ammunition that glows when you shoot it,” she whispered reverently.

Karon blinked. “That's it?”

Lyra nodded fast enough to make her neck creak. “Yes, but it's not magical, it's chemical.”

“So she broke into a military base and stole a weapon and ammunition.”

“I can already feel the satellite looking down on us.”

“Yeah, uhh, how exactly are you planning to make use of that? You don't have any fingers at the moment, remember?” Karon noted.

Lyra shrugged and looked down at the assault rifle with a tender expression. “I'll figure something out,” she said while stroking it gingerly.

Karon took a moment to allow the situation to properly sink in.

“Yeah, definitely should have gone with therapy.”

                          ***********************************************

The wind was biting, and carried with it a drab cold that somehow fit in completely with the landscape around them. They stood upon the southern bank of the Loch Ness, where they had arrived mere moments ago.

After a quick discussion it had been agreed by all that it would be best to rest, recover and resupply at Varsif's place and await nightfall before returning to the British Isles; to gain the cover of darkness, if nothing else.

Promise's wings fluttered excitedly upon arrival, and her head darted from side to side as she scanned for something.

“What is it?” Karon asked.

“There's something here, I can taste its presence,” she replied.

Varsif chuckled. “That'd be Jörmungandr,” he said. The wizard pointed out towards the black waters of the lake. “He's sleeping down there, waiting for when the time has come to wake up.”

“When's that?” Lyra asked curiously.

“When the world ends,” Varsif answered with a grim smile.

All present stared out over the lake, but saw nothing save the wind brushing across its surface. All turned their eyes away from it, except Promise, who kept staring with a slight frown.

“What's wrong?” Karon asked.

“I can taste it. And it tastes... familiar,” she said, and gave Karon a thoughtful look.

Karon stretched out his senses towards the lake, into the lake. It wasn't difficult to detect the presence of the creature slumbering beneath the surface, as the power it radiated even in sleep was formidable. Karon felt a kind of timelessness over it, and he knew from the moment his mind touched upon the creature that it was indeed a true wyrm of old.

However, at that moment, something wet and slippery reached back into Karon's mind, and the trickster had to force himself not to recoil at the presence.

“Greetings to you, my brother.”

Karon shivered at the sheer, raw power that rung throughout his mind.

“I think you are mistaken, great Jörmungandr. We are not brothers through any relation that I know,” he answered.

There was a sense of great amusement from the being in the lake.

“Perhaps I was mistaken, then. It is difficult to discern the strings that binds father's games together.”

“What do you mean?”

“You will discover that on your own, or you will lose.”

Karon suppressed another shiver, and knew it would be futile in trying to get him to elaborate.

“How come you are speaking with me, great Jörmungandr? I thought you were sleeping, awaiting the time of the Ragnarök.”

“Can a sleeping mind not dream? I dream now of a trickster standing on the shores of my bed, readying himself for battle, accompanied by allies who carry the sound of battle in their spirit. A sound so clear I can hear it even through my slumber.”

“I am preparing for battle, yes,” Karon admitted, then took a leap of faith. “And if you have any advice or blessing to bestow upon me, I would appreciate it.”

There was a shiver across the entirety of the lake, like a vibration rippling out from its center, and Karon realized that the wyrm was laughing.

“Bold. I can detect the pyres of his arrogance within you. I can bestow no blessing without breaking my slumber, and I believe you would not like what would happen should that occur.”

Karon swallowed. “No, I don't think so.”

“However, you who I 'mistook' for my brother, I can grant to you advice.”

“Anything that might help.”

“You call me Jörmungandr, but that is not my name; that is a title I carry. But name and title are equally part of our being.”

“How... does this help me?” Karon asked carefully.

“You have both name and title branded upon your soul. They reveal the secrets of who you are, and what you are. If they are clever enough, all who can sense such things will know your weaknesses.”

Karon nodded, slowly. “How can I protect myself, then?”

The lake shivered once more as the Wyrm laughed.

“You cannot protect yourself from your own nature, trickster. You must embrace it, and gain all the strength it can offer you.”

“How?”

“Know yourself, Mendax Karon Bellum, vulture of war and deceit. These are your names and titles, and through knowing them, you will know yourself.”

Karon considered what the wyrm had said, but he couldn't discern the meaning of his name and titles. He wasn't sure he wanted to.

“Often I am discounted from the great games, despite being unshackled and without a tiresome duty weighing me down—far too often, in my opinion. I do not appreciate being viewed as impotent, and so I will make my own contribution to this game, and all the other players will know that I am not without influence.”

Karon held his breath as he felt power gather in the deep center of the lake, then the presence of the Wyrm struck against Karon's mind like a sledgehammer.

“Heed my words, Mendax Karon Bellum, vulture of war and deceit. There will come a time of war, and the heart of this war rests in a lie, and you will be drawn to it like a vulture circling a carcass. Know then that this war is the moment where all the stakes in this game are raised, and all the players will be at the edge of their seats, awaiting the final outcome. Know then this, trickster, for I will now reveal to you secrets of how this game will unfold.”

“Tell me,” Karon said. There was a ringing in his ears and his vision had grown blurry. Distantly, he could hear someone shouting.

“There are many players in this game. Some watch from on high, others from a darker place. Know that you will be betrayed by the one you think closest to you, and know that the one standing behind the betrayer is even more dangerous. You will think you know your enemy, but your true nemesis is hiding in the last place you would think to look. If you do not master this enemy of yours, and win the war through a great victory, you will drown in damnation for all eternity.”

“Who... is my enemy?” The ringing had grown louder, and Karon could taste blood in his mouth.

“There is a title and a name, and if you do not realize who that enemy is before the final moment, you will lose... and if you lose, brother, you will BREAK!”

The power of the wyrm lifted, and Karon blinked his eyes rapidly to find himself laying on the ground, with everyone else standing over him with frightened faces. Everyone except Varsif.

“What did he say?” he asked when he saw that Karon was back with them.

“He—” Karon began, then turned to spit out the blood gathered in his mouth. “He spoke of a war... and enemies.”

Trixie ran a hoof along Karon's chest, and he took comfort in her presence, in the presence of all of them. Then he narrowed his eyes at the old man.

“Varsif, you know the name and titles I carry now.” It wasn't a question.

The wizard nodded. “I do.”

“You know my fate, you know what the great big secret of what's coming for me is.”

He nodded again. “In part.”

“Tell me.”

The wizard shook his head. “I don't dare to. What's waiting down the line for you... even a careless word could change everything for the worse. But I will tell you this; no matter what anyone says, and no matter how convincing they might sound saying it, understand that you choose this path.”

Karon relaxed, and rested his head on the ground. The others standing over him had calmed, and Varsif had walked over to the shores, probably giving Jörmangundr a piece of his mind. The others shifted their weights around awkwardly, unsure of what to do. Karon didn't pay them any attention, there were far too many questions swirling around in his head.

“What the fuck have we gotten ourselves into?”

“I don't know.”

From a dark corner of his mind there rose a memory, of a final smile, and orange red-streaked eyes looking up at him sadly.

“Karon, my sweet Mendax. Your destiny is what I have always tried to teach you. You will find your truth in pain.”

Karon shuddered, then closed his eyes to keep the others from seeing the tears gathering. No, Dolor hadn't given him the answers he needed, and Varsif held back out of fear of messing him up even more than he already was. The angels kept to their cryptic ways, and Jörmungandr had already given more than could be expected.

“But there is one that's definitely in need of questioning.”

“Yeah, guess it's time.”

Karon opened his eyes and rose from the ground, giving the others a quick smile to reassure them everything was alright. He started to move away from them, heading for the hills rising from the banks of the Loch, but when the others tried to follow, he motioned for them to stay.

Alone, he ventured out into the dark, and when he had reached far enough to ensure privacy, he stopped, and called out.

“Loke, you smug fuck, get over here right this instant!”

The Great Game (Part 3)

There was no flash of light, or even a whisper of wind. Karon simply felt the enormous presence slide through the veils separating the worlds, and then the bare-chested, darkly-smiling god appeared before him.

Loke took a bite out of an apple that had instantly appeared in his hand, then threw him a knowing smirk.

"Welcome back home, junior."

“It's true, then,” Karon said through gritted teeth. “Somehow, I'm...”

“My son? In a way, trickster, in a way.”

“How!? How can this be possible!?” Karon exclaimed.

The god brought up an arm and wiped away the juice trickling down his chin, then tossed the remainder of the apple away and brushed his hands on his pants.

“You were indeed desperate back then, but after all, that wasn't you. Did you think one could venture into the void without there being consequences?”

Karon scowled. “I knew there was danger, but I prepared—”

Loke gave a shrill laugh, sending half-chewed apple pieces flying out of his mouth. “Karon, you really think the efforts of a slightly-talented magician is a match for something that dwarfs all of existence?”

“The book said—”

Loke rolled his eyes. “The book lied. It was written by a madman, which you'd known if you'd bothered to ask any other practitioner out there. But you didn't, because you were too busy locking yourself away and festering in guilt. You really don't understand just how damaged you were back then, do you?”

“I remember.”

“But you don't understand. This is really amusing, giving you a fatherly stern talking to, that is. We should do this more often.”

Karon clenched his jaw so hard he could feel his teeth threatening to break. “So go on then, father. Enlighten me.”

“Now, now," Loke smirked, wagging his finger in Karon's face. "I'm not really a fan of the physical teaching methods, but you need to learn to have some manners when talking to your maker.”

Karon forced himself to breathe steadily, then relaxed his clenched fists, and spoke in a calmer tone. “Loke, tell me what you're hiding. Tell me what I'm missing.”

The god raised his eyebrows, then chuckled. “Absolutely everything. And you're a true fool if you would ask a trickster god to reveal all his secrets. However... there is a proper time and place for revealing truth—slivers of it, at least. If it's all lies then there's no fun in the game, after all.”

“So tell me, Loke, what the f... what do you mean when you talk about the void demanding a price? And what's the great big secret about the destiny I'm pushed towards?” Karon wrung his hands and really tried to keep the desperation, the feeling of helplessness, out of his voice.

Loke wasn't fooled. “Karon, Karon, Karon. The price of the void is everything you are. The moment you ventured into the embrace of nothing, you became nothing.”

“That doesn—”

“Don't interrupt! I will slap you. Now, as I was saying, the moment you ventured into the void, you ceased to be. You still had consciousness, form, because it takes time for the mind, the soul, to actually admit to itself it is surrounded by nothing. When that happens, though... poof! Gone forever.”

Karon shuddered. “But I didn't. I didn't stick around long enough for that to happen.”

“Tut, tut! Time technically doesn't exist in the void, only a falsified, self-imposed version of it. But that doesn't matter; you are right, in a way. You only lost a fraction of yourself in your time there. The unicorn lost more, but I think she managed to replace it during her brief stay at Casa grumpy-and-sexually-frustrated-magician. You tethered on the brink of going poof... well, the one called 'the magician' did, the last hollow remnants of the child Erik.”

“So why didn't I?” Karon demanded.

Loke leaned in close. “Because I saved you. And from that pathetic little yarn of memories, self-disgust and potential, I spun a new web, and I made you. The void is one of the few places that allows such blatant manipulation of the soul. I created Karon, from my energy, from my spirit your spirit, your heart, was given new shape, and you were born again to a new path. That little trip to the land of sunshine and tiny equines was just meant to give you time to reconcile your new self with those memories and guilt of 'the magician'; something he had idiotically locked down so deep it touched the very foundations of his soul, and so unfortunately, they needed to be dealt with before you could properly start to grow into your new... role.”

Karon's face had grown stark white as he'd listened, and he opened a dry mouth to speak.

“You... made me?”

“Yes. Not my finest work, I admit, but you have turned out alright so far, and have some promise for the future.”

Karon swallowed a lump in his throat, and he could feel his head shaking itself in a small gesture of denial.

“Don't be like that, you can't say you haven't had hints of it. I mean really, you think it's normal to sleep with equine creatures while you're clearly still designed as a primate? Got that from your old man; though at least I had the good manners to change my form first. Slapping the fine behinds of ladies? Got that from me, too. The very DNA of your spirit, Karon, that which makes you a trickster, is inherited from me.”

“What does that mean?” he asked, glaring at the god.

Loke held out his hands, shrugging. “We'll see what you make of it. There is that bothersome destiny crap you have to deal with, that's true. The hands of fate are always busy with spinning its webs. But you're a trickster of my line, so I am sure you'll find a way to make it interesting.”

Karon turned around, staring back the way he had come, down the grassy hills hiding his companions. Their auras burned with energy, standing out like candles in the dark, beckoning all who could feel them closer to share in their warmth.

“Loke...” Karon asked quietly.

“Yes?” Loke asked, the sound of him biting into another apple drifting through the air.

“Why? Why am I the one saddled with this grand destiny? I'm a trickster—you made me a trickster—and I can't really deny it's better than what I had back before, when I was Erik, but... I... I'm no hero. Why isn't some heavenly warrior filled with goodness and strength doing this? A trickster filled with hunger and doubt doesn't belong in a game like this, where angels are watching, placing their trust in me.”

“Why do you care?” came the question, barely distinguishable through the sound of chewing.

Karon frowned, and turned to face the god with his amber eyes glowing. “I'm not a monster, Loke.”

The god gave him a crooked smile. “Depends on who you're asking. You're a killer, Karon. Even worse, you're an eater of souls. You steal life and memories, you lie and betray for fun because that's your nature.”

Karon shook his head and a pained expression flickered across his face. “That can't be all I am.”

The mask of amused detachment slipped off the dark god's features for a moment, and in its place fear and rage took turns, too quick for Karon to notice. Then the mask returned, and with a shrug of his shoulders, Loke gave the trickster a haughty smile.

“Think what you will. Your name and title speaks clearly of your true nature, Mendax Karon Bellum. You are the vulture of war and deceit. It is your nature, your destiny, and you can fight neither. Embrace it, use it.”

“To what end?” Karon balled his hands into fists, and the words came out as a growl.

“You're a trickster, you are my spawn. You will follow your instincts, act on your impulses and desires, and laugh at the fools that would try and chain you. Don't fight yourself... but if you would ever find yourself lost, unable to decide what to do, then just listen to your own self... listen to your inner voice.”

“Sounds like wise council.”

“Am I supposed to trust Loke? Are we really that naïve as to trust a trickster god?”

“He is our father. That wasn't a lie, and so he cares about us in some way. Look at all the times he has interfered, acted on our behalf. We're of his line, a trickster of his own making. That means something.”

“But why? Why is he doing all of this?”

“Probably for fun. Because it's all a game to him, but it's a game where he is on our side. Trust him. What other reason could he have for helping us?”

“I guess it's not like we have much of a choice, anyway.”

“Exactly. Besides, he is obviously suited to give advice to us if he advocates listening to me.”

“You done talking to yourself?” Loke asked with a bored look.

“So what am I supposed to do?” Karon asked with a sigh.

“Move forward. You'll reach your destination eventually.”

“And then?” Karon asked with a frown.

Loke gave him a grim smile. “You will know what it means to be a vulture of war and deceit, and a hungry one at that.”

Between one heartbeat and the next, the god winked out of existence, and Karon stood alone in the dark. He clenched his fists tighter in a useless gesture of rage. He could always try calling out to the angels; they were certainly next on the list of people in need of questioning.

Karon relaxed his hands, straightening his fingers before letting his head fall down to his chest and taking a deep breath.

No, it would be useless. It was useless trying to demand answers from anyone. They were the game masters, and Karon was just one of the players, unaware of the greater scheme going on around him. Maybe if Dolor had still been alive, she could have—

“Dolor.”

“What?”

“Dolor knew our destiny. She had tasted it the first moment we met.”

“And? She dead, son.”

“But Promise... she said so herself, she has inherited some of Dolor's memories. There was residue of her spirit still lingering when Promise took possession of her body.”

“Dude, I'm warning you here, be careful. You heard Varsif, even the slightest hint of what's coming could send us spinning down a very bad spiral.”

“Am I just supposed to ignore the fact that Promise might have the answer to my future in her head somewhere?”

“Yes. It's probably just a fragment that's left, and knowing it will just mess us up even further. Let it go, listen to what Loke said. Just move ahead, and we will get to this big bad war we're destined for in time.”

“I can't. I need to know.”

Ignoring the warnings the voice kept on shouting, Karon turned back towards the shore and started running. He arrived at the beach in less than a minute, and the others all turned to look at him sharply.

“What's wrong?” Trixie asked quickly, her eyes turning towards the darkness Karon had emerged from.

“Nothing's wrong... it's just...” Karon's fixed his gaze on Promise, and the woman blinked in surprise.

“What?” she asked confusedly.

“Come with me?” Karon said and grabbed her arm, dragging her with him back out into the night.

“Karon, what's going on!?” Trixie shouted, starting after them angrily.

Karon let go of Promise and held up a hand to stop his pursuer. “Not now, Trix. I need to talk to Promise. It's important. I'll explain later, I just... need to try something.”

Trixie's eyes narrowed suspiciously, but she didn't move when Karon grabbed Promise and the both of them melted into the black.

Karon led them out further, until they had reached far enough that Karon was certain Trixie or Varsif wouldn't overhear them. He doubted Trix would appreciate him trying to dig up whatever remnants existed of Dolor in Promise's mind, and the wizard might object to him trying to figure out his destiny.

“What's wrong, master?” Promise asked.

“I need to ask you something. It's very important that you do your best to answer it,” Karon told her, finally releasing her arm and stopping on the cold turf.

“Whatever you need, master,” the woman told him with a bright smile.

Karon opened his mouth, then frowned and closed it. He furrowed his brows and stared down into the ground thoughtfully, then eventually turned his eyes back up to the former spirit.

“How much of Dolor is still left in you?” he asked carefully.

Promise shrank back from his gaze, and her mouth turned into a thin slit when she answered him. “I'm not sure.”

“Promise, it's really important that you try and remember something. Dolor knew my destiny, she knew what was waiting down the line for me.”

Promise shook her head. “Please master, please don't make me go down there.”

Karon leaned in closer, his eyes shining with a feverish need. “I must know, Promise.”

She whimpered, and squinted her eyes shut with a pained expression. Then, with a frustrated sigh, she spoke without opening her eyes. “There's... memories. And feelings. And thoughts... and they hurt.”

“Focus, Promise. Focus on anything that has to do with me, with my destiny.”

She whimpered again, and her breathing grew shallow. “It hurts. She... she...”

Promise opened her eyes, and they were no longer their usual deep blue. Instead they were amber, not unlike Karon's own, but shot through with angry streaks of red.

“Dolor...” Karon whispered.

The woman shook her head. “No, not really.”

“It's just a ghost; an echo still lingering in Promise's mind. Don't trust it.”

Karon swallowed, then reached out and brushed her cheek. Promise—no, Dolor leaned into his hand and purred.

“I've missed you,” she said.

“And I you,” Karon replied hoarsely.

The woman smiled then, a crooked, bitter smile. “So why did you kill me?”

“You know why,” Karon whispered.

Slowly, she nodded. “I guess I do. I always knew.”

“What does that mean?”

She smiled a brief, sad smile, then shook her head. “It doesn't matter now. What matters is the answers I can give you.”

A shiver ran down Karon's spine. “Tell me.”

She held up a finger. “One thing first, my sweet Mendax, something I require in payment.”

“What?” Karon asked. She had him, and she knew it. She could ask for anything- a new body, to be allowed to dominate Promise's mind, or whatever this ghost, this echo of the real Dolor desired.

“A kiss.”

Karon flinched, then swallowed hard. “Fine.”

With a triumphant grin, she carefully grasped Karon around his neck and brought him down to her, careful not to let the dagger-claws cut into him. His lips hovered above hers for a moment, hesitant, then he closed the distance, and kissed her.

It lasted long, and there was a hunger, a depth to her tasting of him. Like the drawing of one final breath, trying to take into as much of the world before passing from it as possible.

Their lips parted with a final lick of her tongue, and Karon draw back, casting a nervous look around to make sure they were still alone. Dolor blinked her eyes lazily, then smiled at him.

“Yes, just as I remember it.”

Karon cleared his throat. “The answers.”

Dolor tilted her head. “What do you want to know?”

Karon suppressed a growl. “I told you, I want to know what my destiny is.”

“And I told you long ago, you will find your answers in pain, my sweet Mendax.”

Karon couldn't suppress the growl a second time, and took a step closer to her with a dangerous look on his face. “Stop playing. Tell me what I need to know.”

There was a hungry glint in Dolor's eyes, an expectant light that dared him to make a move, to try and force it out of her. With an angry hiss, Karon backed off and crossed his arms.

With a disappointed sigh, Dolor spoke. “What do you think it will change, knowing what is to come?”

“It will prepare me!” Karon snapped.

Dolor looked at him in surprise, then a bitter, hollow laugh escaped through her lips. “Nothing can prepare you for what is to come. Just like nothing could prepare me; but you have a choice, where I had none.”

“What are you talking about?”

She held up a hand before her eyes, curiously eying the long dagger-claws. “This creature, Promise... she's conflicted. She doesn't know who she is, not yet. You shouldn't have let her dig so deep; she's not ready to face all she carries within herself.”

“I need answers,” Karon said with a helpless look on his face.

Dolor shook her head. “You don't understand. Knowing what is to come, to hear me speak the words would change nothing. You are who you are, my sweet Mendax Karon Bellum, and you can't avoid the path your own nature will lead you down. Nothing can prepare you, nothing can make what is to come easier. But you have a choice. You're like this creature—conflicted. Like her, you know what it is to be divided inside, to be torn in different directions. Be careful, Karon. Some will try and lead you to places you don't want to go.”

Karon reached out and placed both his hands on her shoulders, glaring into her eyes. “Tell me, please."

Dolor smiled up at him sadly. “You must learn your destiny on your own. It is the only way you can win the conflict that is to come. Don't be fooled, Karon. Know your enemy. It's only when you know what you're fighting against, that you can understand what you're fighting for.”

Karon squeezed her shoulders hard. “Tell me!”

“My memories still linger within this shell. And now that she's accessed it, she will know all I knew... I can't allow that. I'm sorry, my sweet Mendax, but my time with you is over again.”

“Don't,” he let go and stared at her fearfully, “Please don't.”

“Goodbye, my love. But don't worry, I won't fade away... a small part of me will remain in her. Enough to make sure what I felt for you isn't lost.”

Before Karon could speak, Promise's eyes grew dim, and the amber color faded, shifting into a deep blue. She stared at him confusedly, then gradually, understanding dawned, and she fell down on her knees and started crying.

“Promise,” Karon tried to comfort her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

She shrugged it off and stared up at him angrily, tears streaming down her face. “You... you...”

She looked about ready to lunge at him, and for the first time ever, Karon looked at Promise with real fear in his eyes.

“You... you...” she went on, her face twisting into a mask of fury.

“What?” he asked with a suddenly dry mouth.

“Go away!” she shrilled, slashing at him with her dagger-claws.

Karon narrowly avoided the blades, throwing himself backwards in the nick of time. He landed on his back, staring at the raging woman who glared at him with a look of anguish.

“GO!” she screamed, and Karon crawled up to his legs and sprinted back towards the beach.

His heart was hammering, and somewhere in his mind the voice was speaking, trying to say something in its usual dry, factual tone. Karon didn't hear any of it, every sound around him was muffled as he tried to understand what has just happened. The scene replayed itself over and over in his mind.

He slowed down when he got closer to the beach, allowing himself to arrive in a quick march. When the sound of his footsteps reached them, both Lyra and Trixie ran up to him, their faces showing concern when they realized Promise wasn't following behind him.

“What happened?” Lyra asked, frowning as she looked towards where Karon had emerged.

“There were... complications,” Karon told them and sank down into the soft grass.

“What did you do?” Trixie asked, her eyes leveled at him with a hint of suspicion.

“I... don't know. Everything's just so...” he said and stared out into the lake, the waning moon casting its reflection across the dark waters.

“Where's Promise?” Lyra asked, turning to him.

Karon snorted. “Good question. Locked somewhere deep inside, maybe gone and just a memory, maybe Promise never really existed... I don't know. Don't think this is a good time to ask.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Lyra asked with a confused expression.

Karon gave a sigh and shrugged. “Don't know, but I think it might be best if we gave Promise some time alone...and maybe we should move ahead with the plan. She and Varsif are going to remain behind, anyway.”

“Are you sure that's a good idea? If something happened—” Trixie began.

“Trix, just trust me. Right now going anywhere near Promise is a really bad idea, especially for you. It might be best if we left and let Varsif keep an eye on her, just in case she cracks and begins hunting for people to kill,” he finished with a sour look.

“That bad?” Trixie murmured with a frown, then narrowed her eyes at Karon. “What exactly did you do?”

“Nothing. Never mind, let's just prepare to get out of here and down to London.”

She didn't look pleased with his answer, but with a final glance out towards where Karon had appeared from, she slammed her mouth closed.

Varsif walked over and injected himself into the conversation. “The whelp is right, there's no point in dawdling. It will take you some time to make your way to London, and the sooner you get going, the better.”

Karon nodded with a grateful look. “Yes, exactly.”

Varsif grunted, then reached into a pocket inside his robes, and his hand came out holding two leather collars, each with a single black stone attached to their center.

“What's that?” Lyra asked and tilted her head.

“These are something you might find useful. I made them a while back. They're not powerful enough to withstand any magical scrutiny, but for the mundane attention people in London give their surroundings, they should work fine in cloaking you.”

Trixie let out a relieved groan. “Please tell me that means I don't have to get into another bag.”

Varsif nodded. “These should be enough. Just remember that they're flimsy in some ways, so if you bump into someone or do something that affects the environment in a noticeable way, they won't hold up to scrutiny. Just remain in the background and don't do anything that can attract attention, and everyone's minds will just slip over you.”

“Why didn't I get one of these back before I learned how to shapeshift?” Lyra accused the wizard with a frown.

“You would have just made trouble. Besides, all the eagerness to get out and gawk at humans was a good motivator.”

Lyra mumbled something beneath her breath that sounded vaguely insulting. The old man smiled, then went down on his knees and clasped the two collars around the equines' necks. They were attached firmly, and Lyra twisted her head around with an uncomfortable expression, before she eventually gave up.

“You know the way to the town, yes?” Varsif asked Karon.

The trickster nodded. “I remember the maps. We'll get to the nearest train station from there.”

Varsif grunted, then his eyes flickered towards where Promise was located, far out in the dark. “I'll keep an eye on her. But what she's facing now she has to face alone, otherwise she'll always be trying to escape it in vain.”

Karon swallowed and looked away with regret in his eyes. “Take care of her... until I get back.”

“Don't worry, whelp. Keeping you out of trouble was far harder than keeping a rein on this lot,” the wizard said with a wave towards Lyra.

“Hey!” Lyra protested.

The wizard chuckled, then gave Karon a push. “Get going.”

With a final look back out into the dark, where Promise was alone, weeping, tormented by a ghost Karon had forced her to wake.

He closed his eyes for a moment, then turned his back, and started walking.

                    ***************************************************

The landscape rolled by outside the window steadily, green and brown interrupted by the occasional dots of color as they passed by towns and cities, all of it framed by the gray of an overcast sky. Trixie laid curled up next to Karon, her mouth slightly open as her chest rose and fell in tandem with her breath. Around her throat, the collar pulsed with a similar, steady beat, the magic drifting out like a music below ones ability to hear, but affecting you all the same.

Karon had been dozing in and out of wakefulness for most of the journey so far. The last anguished look etched into Promise's face refused to leave his mind, and there was a squirming, acid feeling churning in the pit of his stomach.

Only Lyra remained fully awake, spending most of the time pacing back and forth in the tiny compartment, or staring up at the ceiling while making sounds of impatience. Despite her idle hooves, she didn't try and start up a conversation with Karon. They had all felt it when they had boarded the train, that slight shiver of anticipation mingling with fear that passed between them, like a current, passing through each and every one in steady waves.

“Too many secrets,” he thought, closing his eyes.

“We're a trickster, what do they expect?” The voice was clearer than usual, the borders of Karon's consciousness blurred by the closeness of sleep.

“Maybe to be treated as more than pawns.”

“They're not stupid, they know they're more than that to you.”

“Yet we keep them in the dark as usual, inventing plans they never hear in full, and relying on improvisation to take care of the rest.”

“There's a good reason for that this time.”

“I'm not arguing against that. I'm just saying... I find it hard to believe that just because I'm a trickster I'm somehow forced to treat everything like a game, and everyone else like pieces on the board.”

“We're of Loke's line and spirit.”

“But we're not Loke.”

“Which is a shame, in my opinion. Say what you will, the man has control and knows what he's doing; which is more than what could be said about us.”

“Maybe.”

The train kept its steady pace, the landscape passing by without acknowledgment. After a while, the sound of rain could be heard smattering against the window, and Karon was lulled back into sleep.

                    **********************************************************

Through the slight static of the speakers, a female voice announced that the train was about to arrive at its final destination. Karon opened his eyes and shook off the bleariness threatening to cling to him.

Lyra was practically bouncing up and down with excitement, her face showing unbridled relief at finally being able to leave. Trixie was already awake, positioned near the window she was staring out, observing the first scatterings of people leaving the train to go their separate ways.

Karon glanced at the both of them, then rested his eyes on Lyra, and snorted. “Eager to get off, huh?”

She sighed in pleasure. “Yes, please let's go. I'm dying of boredom and if I don't get to do something soon, I'll—”

“I get it. Trix, you ready to leave?” Karon asked quietly.

She nodded, but remained silent.

Karon kept his eyes on her for a few more seconds, then turned to Lyra and tilted his head towards the door. “Ladies first.”

The unicorn in turn grabbed the doors handle in her mouth and pulled it open, sticking her head out into the passage and looking down both ends. Karon could hear the cacophony of sounds as people shuffled towards the exits, gathering their belongings and trying to stick to their groups without getting lost in the flood of strangers.

Karon grabbed Lyra's tail and gently tugged her back into the compartment. People passed by the open door without sparing a glance inside while Karon and the two unicorns waited for them to leave.

The herd eventually thinned out, and only a few stragglers remained, straining underneath the weight of the heavy bags they carried. The carriage fell into silent, a pressing absence of the unintelligible sound of crying children and muttering adults that had filled it just a few brief moments ago.

With an annoyed look back at Karon, Lyra grabbed her tail and yanked it out of his grip, then went out the door. Her hooves made muffled thumping sounds as they fell upon the carpeted floor, and Karon followed behind her, Trixie coming in close behind him in turn, and the trio ventured to the exit.

Karon passed by Lyra when they reached the door leading outside, and with a nervous lick of his lips he jumped down the steps onto the platform, then scanned the surroundings. Night had fallen, as the journey had taken the entire day, but the station was flooded with artificial lights, granting few shadows to hide within.

Behind him, he heard how Lyra jumped down to the ground, the sound of hooves clattering on the tarmac loud and distinct enough to make him wince. His eyes sought out the people present around them, waiting for any of them to turn and acknowledge the fact that there was a brightly-colored pony unicorn standing there in plain sight. No one did.

Trixie followed Lyra's example, and soon the three figures were walking down the streets of London, two of them unseen, one constantly casting nervous glances at the people they passed by. The magic of the collars held true, but as Varsif had said, it was fragile, and one single bump into a passerby could spell disaster for everyone. Despite of this, Lyra was grinning like a maniac.

“This is exciting,” she whispered.

“This is fucking insane,” Karon whispered back out of the corner of his mouth.

“I've walked around in human shape, I've flown above as a bird, but I've never considered how much fun it would be walking around like a pony. It feels almost... naughty, like walking around like a human, but naked.”

“God dammit, Lyra, stop being so freaky!” Karon hissed, and tried to cover the outburst as a cough.

A laughter tickling at the edge of hearing reached Karon in response.

However, despite his worry, none of the thousands of people they passed by seemed to pay the trickster any attention, and they showed absolutely no sign of being aware that two interdimensional creatures were walking right behind him.

Either the magic of the collars were stronger than Varsif had estimated, or people simply were too busy with themselves to notice what was right before them.

“Yeah, because that's so hard to imagine.”

“Still, I would think at least one person would be observant enough to notice something this outside the norm.”

“You see what you want to see. Anything else would just be unpleasant.”

Karon gave a contemptuous snort.

“Seems a bit too much on the pathetic side of things.”

“Ohh... can you see?”

“Well, I have you here to tell me what I should be seeing, right?”

“Exactly.”

The crowds grew smaller, and appeared sparser the further towards their destination they went, and when they reached the edge of what could be considered the sorcerers' territory, Trixie rushed past the other two and turned around, planting her hooves in the ground firmly.

“Okay, Karon, enough with the mystery. You have something planned, because there's no way you actually think you will be able to take on the entire cabal on your own.”

“But I've got you and Lyra with me,” Karon said with a disarming smile.

Trixie didn't buy it. “Yes, and we're useless like this,” she said, shaking a hoof at him.

“I wouldn't say you're useless,” he muttered.

Trixie growled. “Karon, if I'm going to be part of an assault on a cabal of sorcerers when they're in their own stronghold, and after they've already kicked our asses once, then I want to know what the plan is.”

Lyra turned to Karon with an expression not all too dissimilar from Trixie's own, and their combined glares burned into the trickster. He felt himself squirm beneath their focused attention, and he grasped for any response that would satisfy them.

“Well, obviously the truth won't do.”

“No, but maybe something close to the truth.”

“Look, I can't tell you the details of what I have planned. Let's just say, we have to hit them as hard and fast as we can.”

“And then what?”

“Then they'll capture and wring every last drop of information out of us.”

“We'll run if they manage to recover from the first attack, and we keep going with quick hit-and-runs. Divide and conquer tactics.”

“As in, they'll divide their attention and still kick our asses, and then conquer our minds.”

The two unicorns stared at him. “That's it?” Trixie finally asked in disbelief.

Karon rubbed his face. “Look, I might have a surprise I got from Varsif, but I can't tell you about it.”

“And why's that?” Trixie asked, her tone dripping with skepticism.

“It'll... ruin the magic. It's complicated stuff, just trust me.”

“That isn't easy right now,” Lyra told him, twisting her mouth in displeasure.

Karon looked down at the two unicorns he was supposed to lead into battle against an overwhelming force, and he groaned on the inside.

“I can't blame them for doubting me.”

“They don't need to know the whole thing. We haven't failed them before, have we?”

“Honestly, it's more like they haven't failed me before.”

“Please, trust me,” Karon asked.

Trixie sighed and shook her head, then gave him a crooked smile. “Fine, but only because you look so cute when you're begging.”

Karon raised his eyebrows. “I'll take it. How about you, Lyra?”

“I miss my gun,” she whined, scraping a hoof on the ground.

Karon rolled his eyes. “Nothing to do about it. Unless you actually want to go through with trying to wield it in your mouth.”

Lyra shook her head, then shrugged her shoulders. “Well, lead on, then, I guess.”

And with those rousing words, Karon set off towards the sorcerer's apartment complex, flanked by the two unicorns. The collars wouldn't help the least in covering the two equines from the sorcerer's senses, and Karon didn't want to waste energy trying to cloak them when it wouldn't last more than a minute at most before they broke through it.

“No, we want a really big boom tonight.”

“What of the mortal authorities and all that?”

“Can't you feel it?”

Karon and the others came within sight of the complex, the buildings rising from the ground like concrete fortresses.

“Yeah... seems like the sorcerers have invested quite a bit of energy cloaking the entire place from the outside.”

“They know we're coming, and they don't want anyone interrupting us.”

“Well then, let's knock.”

Karon reached down into himself, into the swirling vortex of memories that belonged to the souls he had eaten. It was a maelstrom of emotions, thoughts and impressions from worlds and dimensions all over creation. And memories carried power.

Karon felt giddy with the energy that coursed through him, setting every cell in his body on fire, and making his hands shake like they were struggling to hold back a tidal wave.

“Trix,” Karon asked, his voice carrying echoes of other voices.

“Yes?” she asked with wide eyes.

Karon turned to her, his amber eyes burning with the restrained power, trashing against his will, yearning to be released.

“When we get inside, keep behind me, both of you. I will try and distract or stun them, and you will have to rush them once that happens. If even one of them manage to focus on you, you're screwed.”

Both the unicorns nodded somberly, and Karon turned his eyes towards the complex. He reached for the web that connected the sorcerers, felt it shiver at his presence, and then he grasped it with his mind.

“Knock, knock,” Karon grinned, then released the energy.

It didn't strike against the web with a force that sought to shear or rupture it. No, Karon would have had to summon all his power just to make a crack in that construct. Instead, it flooded the web, the network that connected the sorcerer's minds, combining their power, and granting dominion over the mundane humans they had hooked into it.

The memories Karon had drawn from rushed into it in a tidal wave of love, pain, excitement, days of childhood and discovery, anxiousness and terror. The power of the lives that were contained within the souls Karon had devoured crackled throughout all the minds within the web, and it all hit them at the same time. Memories spanning combined centuries, all experienced within a few seconds.

A chorus of screams rose from the buildings, hundreds of voices wailing as they were assailed with memories not their own. And then, abruptly, the voices died out.

Karon panted, and wiped away the thin sheet of sweat that had gathered on his brow. The sorcerers wouldn't allow themselves to be overcome with the flood Karon had unleashed upon them—they would have too much discipline and experience for that. However, in the face of such power, of such intensity and just sheer amount of impressions, they would have no choice but to disconnect themselves from the web.

But the regular people they had enslaved would have no such opportunity. They would be overcome by the memories Karon had forced upon them, and, unable to cope, they would shut down.

In the silence that followed the screams, Karon couldn't hear anything, but he could well enough imagine how hundreds of people collapsed into unconsciousness.

“Well, that takes care of their little army.”

“The sorcerers are far more dangerous. We'll need to face them now before they come out and catch us in the open.”

“Just remember the real plan.”

“What did you just do?” Lyra asked, staring up towards the buildings that just moments ago had been filled with screams.

“Took care of the people inside, they won't be supporting the sorcerers now. And that web of theirs is out of the game for the moment,” Karon told her with a smile.

“Okay... that's good,” she said, and audibly swallowed.

“You ready?” Karon asked.

“Yeah, close in on the ones you stun while you keep the others distracted,” Lyra said and stomped her hoof nervously.

Karon nodded, then smiled. “Let's go, then.”

The three companions started jogging towards the building, passing around it without being harassed, until they came around and entered into the courtyard. It was completely empty, a deathly silence filling the air, so profound it seemed to be almost sucking in all sounds.

Karon narrowed his eyes suspiciously and looked up towards the hundreds of windows that opened up to the courtyard. Any one of them could be a viable spot to launch a surprise attack.

The trio walked slowly, their back turned to each other while they moved circularly, keeping an eye out for any sign of movement or a flash of energy. However, despite the obvious advantage it would grant the sorcerers, nothing happened.

When they reached the entrance Karon and Trixie had been led through before, Karon halted and turned to the two unicorns. “Tight space will work better for us. Just keep behind me, and I'll charge past any sorcerer I managed to hit hard and leave them to you.”

“Karon,” Trixie said in a worried tone. “If they get pressed hard enough, they might not think about casualties of the regular people inside.”

“I know, Trix. That's why we have to move fast.”

The unicorn nodded, and with a deep breath, Karon yanked the door open and rushed inside. The hallway lights flickered uncertainly, most likely disrupted by the overflow of energy still crackling through the sorcerer's web. Like a string pulled that kept on vibrating.

“And we need to keep that going if the plan is going to work.”

His head twitched upwards when the sound of footsteps echoed down the stairwell. Throwing out his senses, Karon felt the presence of one—no, two—sorcerers running down the stairs towards them. They were three flights above the ground floor, and would arrive to greet the intruders in seconds.

“Two incoming,” Karon told the others.

There was no point to stealth. Even without the web to enhance their abilities and grant them supreme awareness of everything going on in the complex, the sorcerers were still talented and powerful, and would sense Karon's and the others presence as readily as he did theirs.

In the brief seconds Karon had to prepare, he turned his attention inwards, drawing on more of the power stored within his center, the heart of his soul. There was still plenty to draw from, despite his earlier trick rendering the civilians unconscious.

Even so, his bones felt hollow, and there was a feeling of weariness in his flesh, as if his heart was forced to pump syrup rather than blood. He had never tried to use as much of his energy as he would now, not when he was powered with the force of the devoured souls. The consequences were unknown.

“So, unknown possibly horrible result of using too much of my power while confronting an entire cabal of dangerous sorcerers, backed up only by a couple of pissed-off ponies without any real offensive capabilities? We're outmatched, outgunned and, honestly, dressed like a slob.

“Fuck yeah, I live for this shit, son!”

The running footsteps grew louder, until Karon saw the feet of the sorcerers appear at the top of the stairs, and in a moment the rest of them became visible as they practically threw themselves down the steps.

Karon had stood completely still, waiting for them to reach the ground floor, then he rushed forward, a cackling high-pitched laugh his only cry of battle.

The first sorcerer was dressed in the same dark coat and black pants that all the others sorcerers, barring Markus, had been wearing. His brown eyes grew wide when the cackling trickster came flying towards him, and he raised his hand to meet him, a light blue cloud of energy gathering in his palm.

Karon ran straight towards the man, eyes burning with a maddened glow. Then he vanished. It was just a split second, but the surprise of the sorcerer as he was forced to change his perception from what his eyes told him, to what his trained mystical senses said the trickster was located, was enough.

The sorcerer had been focusing entirely on the trickster, and had failed to pay any attention to the two unicorns following right behind him. It was a split second, where the sorcerer was focused on finding Karon, before he became aware that there were two equines charging straight at him.

It was enough. Before the sorcerer could change his target and launch the bolt towards the new threat, Trixie's horn caught him in the stomach, making the man crumple over her with a high-pitched squeal of denial. Behind Trixie, Lyra spun on her front hooves and came around, raising her hind legs and kicking both of them right into the mans head. There was a loud crack at the impact.

While the ponies had dealt with the front sorcerer, Karon had appeared behind him, right in front of the other one. He had a red-dyed mop of hair and beard, a color so stark it almost shone. Pale blue eyes snapped to the trickster, and with impressive reflexes, the sorcerer didn't bother trying to raise his hands, knowing he didn't have the time. Instead his right foot launched out in a stomping heel kick, catching the trickster in his upper left thigh.

Karon's laughter ended in a loud “GAH!” sound as his left leg was thrown backwards, and he landed on the ground hard, his teeth rattling as his jaw struck the stone floor. He rolled unto his back, and got a clear view of the sorcerer raising his leg again to stomp down on his head.

Before the sorcerer could complete the movement, Karon reached up with his hands and grasped the mans ankle. Electricity spark with a loud screeching sound, and the mans body shook with the power that tore through him. With a final spasm, the man fell back on the stairs, the smell of burnt hair rising from his corpse.

“Woo!” Karon shouted, getting up on his feet and rubbing his jaw tenderly.

Trixie and Lyra walked up to him, blood trailing down the formers horn, drops of it catching her muzzle. She stared up at him with a stony expression, while behind her, Lyra was looking down on the two corpses with a slightly more greenish cast to her face than usual.

“Hah! Order up, we've got one crispy dude here with a raw mangled one on the side!” Karon screamed up into the stairwell. There was no answer.

“Where are they?” Trixie asked in an emotionless voice.

Karon reached out with his senses. The entire complex was crawling with the dull, unconscious minds belonging to the normal people the sorcerers had enslaved, but the masters themselves burned brightly with gathered power.

“They're on the fifth floor, six in all. I think that's the rest of the entire cabal.”

“Why would they send these two down by themselves, then?” Lyra asked.

Karon shrugged. “No idea. Maybe they were just lowly members best served as cannon fodder. Maybe they just wanted to test how well we'd do against them.”

Trixie looked at the corpses, then shrugged as well. “Scouts, most likely. If they can't use that web anymore than they probably wanted someone to investigate in person. Besides, maybe they didn't think we'd attack them outright without even attempting to negotiate.”

Karon grinned. “Good for us, then. Two easy kills, only six more to go.”

“I wonder if we might actually manage this without the plan.”

“No chance. Two grunts we can handle, but Markus alone would be too much, and with him backed up by five more, we'd be screwed. But we still need to cause some damage before going down.”

“As long as the assumption that they want us alive holds, yeah, sure.”

“Don't be so pessimistic.”

“Come on,” Karon said, cracking his neck.

The trickster started up the stairs at a jog while the two unicorns followed close behind, their hooves clattering against the stone loudly. They ascended steadily, never once assailed by wards or other invisible sorcery meant to hinder their advance.

“That means they're preparing something for when we reach them.”

“Any other brilliantly obvious advice?”

“Maybe if you took a bath more often our hair wouldn't look like a dead bird is clinging to our skull.”

With a final step, Karon arrived at the fifth floor. Two hallways led down to the right and left, each of them filled with lines of dark brown wooden doors, and light beige painted walls. Trixie and Lyra came up to stand at either his side, and when Karon stretched out his senses, he felt the presence of three sorcerers on each side.

“Well, there goes that strategy.”

“Trix, Lyra. We've got three of them on the left and three on the right.”

“You can't cover us in two directions at once,” Trixie told, her voice calm and her eyes taking in everything around them in a cold, calculating manner.

“What do we do?” Lyra asked nervously, shifting her weight from hoof to hoof.

Karon twisted his mouth, then he looked to his right, where the stairwell kept on going further up. “If you two remain on the stairs there with the wall covering you, you can wait for the sorcerers to appear, and you might be able to hit them before they've got a chance to do anything.”

“Karon, they can use magic that isn't stopped by an ordinary wall,” Trixie noted dryly.

The trickster grimaced. “It's all I got, Trix. You've got no magic, and I can't cover you and attack the other group at the same time.”

“Why don't we just keep going, force them to come after us?” Lyra asked. “If they're waiting like this, doesn't that mean they've probably laid a trap? Isn't it smart getting away from them?”

“We're the ones that need to kill them,” Karon told her. “And they know it. They've got no rush, so they can just wait until the web is usable again and the regular people wake up, then send an entire army after us.”

Lyra nodded in understanding, but with a sour look on her face. “So we hold here, waiting for any of the sorcerers to come along and jump them?”

“Yeah, that's the plan. If it goes badly, just run and don't look back.”

Lyra nodded, and walked up a few step on the stairs, then hunched down, looking ready to leap forward at any moment. Trixie looked at her with one eyebrow raised, then turned to Karon.

“Don't die on me,” she told him sternly.

He grinned. “Likewise, blue one.”

She punched him in the midriff. “Don't try and sass me. I'll be fine, I've been through far worse than this.”

Karon reached down and scratched her behind an ear, to which she looked both annoyed and pleased at the same time. Then, without any further words, they both turned around, Trixie taking position next to Lyra, and Karon taking a left and walking down the corridor.

He could feel Markus' presence, standing out very clearly as the most powerful of the six. He walked almost all the way down the corridor, until it opened up unto another hallway leading left again—where Markus stood, waiting.

He was positioned in the middle of the corridor, with two closed doors flanking him at left and right, within which Karon could sense the presence of the other two sorcerers.

“You have any last words?” Karon asked him with a grin.

Markus raised both his eyebrows. “Do you?”

The trickster snorted, cracking his fingers and letting lightning run in small tendrils between them. A static buzz rising as the energy charged.

The two men observed one another, then, Karon raised his right hand, and a bolt of lightning shot out from it and struck the sorcerer. It was absorbed harmlessly against a purple bubble of protective energy that shimmered as the electrical currents ran through it, then disappeared harmlessly.

“Since your female bodyguard was a lot more impressive, I regret to inform you, trickster, that you too, hit like a girl,” Markus smirked.

“Oh, you cocky motherfucker.”

“There's a difference between fists and magic,” Karon said irritably.

Markus raised one eyebrow. “Oh, you're right about that.”

The sorcerer threw both hands forward, and a shock wave rippled through the floor, charging straight at Karon. It shattered the stone plates covering the concrete underneath, sending thousand of shards flying in its wake.

“Oh, shit!”

Karon ripped the closest door on his right open, throwing himself inside and covering his face with his arms. He heard the thunder as the shock wave passed him by and struck the wall at the far end of the corridor, smashing it into pieces. Small shards of the tiles rained in through the open door and landed on Karon. The miniature blades cut into his hands, opening a dozen tiny cuts.

“Okay, trickster time.”

Karon rose to his legs, then cleared his throat, and started wailing. His screams cut through the air, and he injected as much pain and torment into the sound as possible. He held up his hands to his eyes, pressing them against his face while blood flowed through the cuts.

Staggering out into the corridor, he slipped on the shards and slammed into the opposite wall, never once stopping his desperate wailing.

He couldn't hear Markus sigh, but he could feel the mental command he sent to the underlings flanking his sides. “Go get him, we don't need his eyes anyway.”

Resisting the urge to smile, and projecting as much torment as possible, Karon kept up the performance. He heard the careful footsteps as the two sorcerers came out from their hiding and went down the corridor, careful where they stepped.

When they got close enough, Karon wailing suddenly stopped, and with a nasty grin, he drew from the power he possessed and lashed out. The telekinetic blast caught the thousands of shards littering the floor, sending them spinning towards the two sorcerers.

Neither had the chance to react as their bodies were pierced by hundreds of the jagged blades, sinking into them with a squelching sound. Blood trickled out in tiny streams as they staggered, then sagged down to the floor.

Markus roared in anger, and Karon dashed forward, grabbing one of the larger shards on his way, then threw it towards the sorcerer. The sorcerer merely took a step to the side, allowing the spinning blade to pass him by and clatter to the floor harmlessly.

“Enough!” he roared, then clapped both his hands.

The force struck Karon and sent him spinning through the air, but before he could land on the floor, Markus made a quick, yanking motion. Karon was thrown to the left, the force so massive and unfocused, it blasted the wall he hit and shattered it.

The trickster landed on his stomach inside the apartment, concrete dust filling the air. He groaned, and forced his head to turn towards the giant hole in the wall.

Right next to him was another man, dressed in ordinary jeans and a red t-shirt. He was unconscious, as he had been ever since Karon first struck the web. But he was surrounded by a growing pool of blood, originating from his shattered skull, where a big piece of concrete had landed.

Karon closed his eyes for a second, trying to block out the image of the dead man. Then with a snarl, he pushed himself off the floor and limped out the hole he had just been thrown through.

Markus had been approaching the hole, his face twisted with anger, then he caught sight of Karon and stopped. “Enough, trickster! Look behind you!”

Karon did, his left foot protesting against carrying any weight. There, at the far end of the hallway stood three sorcerers, one of them with a bloodied nose, but otherwise unharmed. In front of them, bound in invisible chains holding them aloft in the air, were Trixie and Lyra.

“We've got your companions. Give up and do as you're told, and we wont hurt you more than is necessary,” Markus told him.

Karon's eyes scanned the two unicorns, looking for any outwards signs of damage, but found none. He allowed himself a tiny sigh of relief at that, then turned around to face Markus.

“We've got one more shot here before they'll take us down.”

“Then we better make it a good one.”

The sorcerers felt him gather power, felt the swirling lines of energy being shaped as Karon drew from the power residing within himself. And they answered in turn, channeling their energies to strike at him.

A heartbeat, that was all the time Karon had to focus his power onto a target and shape it. And he did. He gathered all the power he could grasp in that brief moment, then sent it slamming into the sorcerers' web, sending shivers of alien power running along its currents, overloading it even further than before.

The sorcerers' attack hit him a second later, and he didn't try and deflect them. All four had launched a strike against his mind, and when they struck, Karon was sent spinning into the dark of unconsciousness.

                               *********************************************

He awoke with a groan, his head hanging down on his chest and his arms suspended above himself. Karon squeezed his eyes, dispelling the foggy vision and forcing his eyes back into focus.

He was out in the courtyard again, hanging above the ground, suspended a feet into the air. Trixie and Lyra hung in the air beside him, and when he turned to look at them, he saw Markus standing before Trixie, his hands on her head. She was sweating, an agonized expression on her face. There was a similarly agonized expression on Markus face, and Karon understood what he was doing.

He was sorting through her mind, going through her memories and knowledge. Lyra hung on the other side, furthest away from Karon, and was still unconscious.

“No, not still. Look at her face, the dried sweat and the set of her jaw.”

“Markus has already worked on her.”

“To whatever degree he could more than he already had before we rescued her. However, Trix hasn't whatever block Varsif managed to install in Lyra.”

“I know.”

“He'll come for us next.”

“I know.”

Karon turned his eyes to the other five sorcerers, standing gathered a few meters before them, huddling together with displeased faces. He didn't have time to consider what that meant, before Markus groaned audibly and released his hold on Trixie. The sorcerer blinked rapidly, trying to sort through all the information he had absorbed from the unicorn's mind. Then he turned to face Karon.

“Awake? That's unexpected,” he said.

“What can I say? I'm special like that,” Karon told him.

The sorcerer shook his head. “No, this woman, she's special... do you have any idea the things she has seen? The things she has done and endured?”

Karon winced. “She's told me enough.”

Markus laughed. “She's told you nothing. I only skimmed her memory; a lifetime of them is too vast to absorb at once, after all. But what I've gathered from he—”

“You mean stolen,” Karon interrupted.

The sorcerer tilted his head. “You would know about that, wouldn't you. I've seen you as she has, as she looks at you. And it would surprise me if you turn out to be even half as impressive as her. Turns out that there was a special guest coming to visit, but it wasn't you.”

"Oooh! That's gotta hurt."

Karon held his tongue as the sorcerer walked up to stand in front of him, and raised both his hands to grasp the trickster's head.

“What, no friendly banter or villainous exposition first?” Karon asked, his voice quaking slightly.

The sorcerer caught it, and smiled. “I will get all my questions answered whether you wish it or not.”

Without hesitation, the sorcerer grabbed Karon's head, and closed his eyes. In the second before the sorcerer bridged a connection, when he was preparing himself to invade the mind of another, he was blind—and so, didn't notice the trickster's mouth twitch into a smirk.

“Got you!”

                    ********************************************************

Markus watched impassively, the heat of the burning building unable to touch him, despite the fact that he was standing just a few steps away from the flames. His eyes turned upwards, towards the parents, screaming in their final moments.

Then his gaze sought the children, a boy and a girl. It was strange, he thought, that the boy was so unlike the trickster he had encountered, who the boy would eventually become.

“Quite a transformation,” he said to himself.

“I'm gonna take that as a compliment,” a voice responded.

Markus spun around, and found Karon standing behind him, his hands clasped behind his back, and observing his past self with a curiously neutral expression.

“How? You shouldn't be aware of this,” Markus demanded.

Karon gave him a crooked smile. “I'm a trickster, It's my job to find a way around things. And this is my mind, sorcerer.”

“So, you want to keep fighting? You're already beaten, there's no point in denying me the knowledge I seek. It will only mean more pain for you,” Markus declared.

Karon's eyes hardened, and his smile turned into a nasty expression of contempt.

"Pain?" he asked, and walked over to the sorcerer, until their faces almost touched.

The sorcerer didn't back away, and showed no concern when Karon raised his hand to point to the burning building.

“You know nothing of pain,” the trickster whispered.

The scene changed as the world around them—the memory—turned into a blur, and then came into focus as something else.

It was a dark dungeon, and the two of them turned to see Karon bound to a table, a woman running her finger on his naked, blood-smeared body. She was looking down on him with a tender smile, and she pouted whenever he let out a pained groan.

“Interesting,” the sorcerer remarked. “But what is this supposed to accomplish?”

“This is where my real pain began. And I wanted you to understand that there's nothing you can do that could measure up to what I have endured. They say a broken bone that heals is made stronger; and sorcerer, I have been broken so many times you couldn't fathom what is needed to even scratch me nowadays.”

Markus smirked. “Oh, then perhaps we should pay our attention to your companions, instead. I wonder if maybe seeing them in pain will be enough to... 'scratch you'.”

Karon met the sorcerer's smirk with one of his own. “Things have changed, sorcerer.”

“Explain, if you please,” Markus asked in a polite tone.

“Focus on your body's perception, allow some of the outside sound to drift in here... if you please,” Karon told him with a tone mocking the sorcerer's own.

With a frown, Markus made a waving motion with his hand, and a distant sound rose from their surroundings, while the sound contained within the memory they were viewing dampened. The distant sound rose in volume, until eventually, they could make out what it was.

Screaming.

                             **********************************************

“Ugh, how much longer is he going to take?” one of the sorcerers, a man with short-cropped brown hair, asked.

Marie turned to him irritably. “Could you please shut up and stop complaining? Markus will be done whenever he's done.”

The sorcerer rubbed his forehead with a wince. “Damn that trickster. I don't care what Markus says, we should kill him right here and now.”

“He's got valuable information,” another of the sorcerers, a woman with waist-length hair dyed a midnight black said.

“I don't care about that!” the man snarled. “My head feels like it's going to explode with what the trickster did to our web. It's going to take days before it settles down, and until it does we're practically blind. God himself could appear just outside our doors without us sensing it.”

“No such luck, I'm afraid,” a gruff voice spoke from the dark. “He's a lot more merciful than I.”

The five sorcerers spun around, just as an old man with long white hair and beard stepped into the light shining down from the windows. He was dressed in a fur coat covering him from throat to toe, and in his right hand there was a mug, which he lifted to his lips and took a swig from.

Marie narrowed her eyes, forcing her senses to stretch through the cacophony of the surrounding web. It was like trying to hear a whisper over the sound of a gong being struck right next to your ears—but she managed, and her eyes widened in fear.

The old man was blazing with power, like a second sun appearing in the night sky, and the very ground he walked on seemed to shiver at his presence.

“Who are you?” she croaked.

The old man smiled, and brought the mug down from his lips.

“Varsif,” he simply stated.

All five sorcerers instinctively took a step back, a collective hiss rising from their ranks. Marie was the first to act, and she threw her arms out wide, her mind stretching into the web. But she didn't try and command it like they had always done, no, she simply grasped the construct in its entirety, taking hold of the strings binding it together, then slammed all her power into it, forcing a crack.

Her power wasn't enough to break it, and that wasn't her intention, either. No, she simply damaged it, and fissures soon began spreading throughout the web.

“Hold!” she screamed to the other sorcerers, then fell down on one knee, coughing violently from forcing herself to perform such a raw channeling of her energies. When it ended, she rose up and wiped her mouth, staring at the wizard with a baleful look.

“You feel that!? I just made a crack in the web surrounding this complex, and if anyone tries and channel any additional energy within, if anyone here tries to perform magic, it's gonna send the whole thing into hell. You can't hurt us, wizard, it doesn't matter how powerful you are; if you try anything now it's gonna cause a chain reaction and annihilate everything here... including all those innocent people.”

The wizard chuckled, and shook his head. “Sorcerers, always so predictable.”

A confused expression spread over Marie's face as she stared at the wizard, as they all stared at the wizard—never once looking up.

Promise descended silently, her wings spread out completely as she glided down from the roof. Her eyes were focused on her prey, dagger-claws twitching in anticipation. Marie was the one she had homed in on, as she stood in the middle of the five sorcerers, lined up so neatly to face the wizard.

The woman screamed as the dagger-claws buried themselves into her neck, ten razor sharp blades parting flesh and bone aside with equal ease as Promise's entire weight pushed down on her. The scream ended when the former spirit yanked her hands to either side, blood spraying with the movements and staining the sorcerers as Marie's torso was shredded.

The one closest to her from the left raised both his hands, but the blue-haired woman behind him shouted, “No magic!”

The man's eyes widened in realization, then in pain as Promise slashed at his abdomen, opening up a wound from which his entrails spilled out, and fell to the ground with a wet splash. The man went down of both knees, then reached out with shaking hands to grasp at his own entrails.

With a casual flick of her hand, Promise slashed the man's throat open, and he slumped to the ground with a gurgle.

The three remaining sorcerers screamed in fear, and turned to run. With a shriek of fury Promise spread out her wings and threw herself after the blue haired sorceresses. She flew through the air and landed on the back of her prey, digging her dagger-claws into the woman's sides.

The sorceresses landed on her stomach, spraying blood from her mouth in a whimper of denial. Promise pushed her hands in deeper, seeking the woman's heart. With a twist of her wrist, she reached it, and the woman fell silent, then her body went limp.

Promise jerked her head around, and saw that the other two sorcerers had almost managed to escape the courtyard, and with a shriek of rage she spread her wings, and set off after them.

Varsif hadn't moved during the fight, and watched while Promise chased the remaining pair of sorcerers, an amused expression on his face. Then he brought his mug up to his lips, and took a hearty swig.

                        ***************************************************

“What's happening?” Markus roared.

Karon laughed. “You're an idiot, sorcerer. I'm a trickster, and I don't blindly charge into battle without a plan. I'm not a warrior, I didn't come here as a fighter—I came here as a distraction.”

“For what?”

Karon grinned. “Not what, who. His name is Varsif. Maybe you've heard of him?”

The sorcerer paled, the screams of his fellows sounding throughout their minds, and then, everything went silent.

“Well, that was quick.” Karon sounded disappointed.

“No, no, this isn't right,” Markus whispered.

Karon's grin twisted, and something dark appeared in his gaze. This was the plan, to divide the sorcerers, give Varsif an opportunity to teleport in while the web was out of the game, and they wouldn't be able to detect his arrival. To lure Markus into the trickster's mind, where he would be forced to listen to the other sorcerers dying. Shattering his concentration.

Breaking his will.

Karon struck out with his hands, grabbing the sorcerer's head and forcing him to stare into the trickster's eyes.

“You know nothing of pain, and you know nothing of hunger. Let me teach you!” he shouted.

The world fell into a blur once more, and then the two of them stood standing in a dark space. There was a single light hanging over them, an orange wellspring of energy that shone brightly. However, within the light there were dark, ugly, gaping wounds.

“You wanted to see what there was inside of me! Here it is,” Karon screamed, then threw the sorcerer towards the heart of his soul.

The yawning, empty wounds sensed his presence, and reached out for him. The sorcerer wailed in agony as the heart tore into him in a frenzy.

The sorcerer dissolved into a ball of gray and yellow light, and then, it was sucked into the wounds, which absorbed—no, digested, Markus' soul.

Karon staggered, the force he felt growing within himself beating like a second heart, pressing its knowledge, memories and dreams upon him.

With a push of his will, Karon forced himself to wake.

                         *****************************************************

The sun had just started rising, and Karon breathed in the scent of the pine trees and flora wakening up to the coming spring. The few remaining scatters of snow added a cold sting to the wind carrying the scents, and it bit the trickster's skin in an almost tender sensation.

“At least it smells nice. Your home, that is,” Trixie said, walking up to stand beside him. She was in human shape once again, wearing the blue robe covering her armor, and her sword hung in its scabbard at her side.

They were standing in the glade surrounding Varsif's home, alone, for the time being. Lyra was inside, reacquainting herself with the pile of junk she called her own, and the old wizard himself was busy still in London, cleaning up the mess the sorcerer's gruesome ending had left. Of Promise, there was little sign, but Varsif had assured him that he had her under watch, but that she needed some time alone still, and would return on her own.

“No, you were right all along,” Karon replied, a forlorn expression on his face.

“I usually am. No idea what you're referring to this time, though.” The corners of the woman's mouth twitched.

“This isn't my home, not really. It was Erik's home, and the magician's—but not mine. It was just... nostalgia. A last echo of my old self reaching out, I think. But it's gone now, and I can see clearly.”

“And what do you see?” she asked quietly.

Karon raised his eyes towards the blue sky, white clouds passing them by, lit up in fiery explosions of orange and red from the rising sun.

“A starlit path, leading to my real home. The home of Mendax Karon Bellum, and whatever is waiting beyond.”

“Since when did you become so poetic?” Trixie smirked.

Karon grinned, then put an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. “What? Haven't I always been a romantic at heart?”

She snorted. “Sorcerers, curses and sports bras. Yeah, you definitely know how to show a girl a good time.”

Karon kissed her head and leaned in close to her ear. “Right... doesn't it just turn you on?” he whispered.

Trixie let out a sound between a giggle and snort. Karon turned his head around towards the house, then fixed his gaze on Trixie with a mischievous look in his eyes.

“You know, if we kick Lyra out of the house, we'll have it all to ourselves. It'll be hours until Varsif gets back,” he said archly.

The armor did much to hide the shiver that passed through her, but Karon noticed the hungry glint that flared in her eyes. With a grin, Karon took her hand into his, and started leading her towards the cabin.

He understood hunger, after all, and how important it was to sate it.

                            **************************************************

Varsif sat down on the bench with a grunt, brushing his hands on his knees before pulling out his beloved mug, and pulling a deep swig from it. He smacked his lips and sighed in content as he leaned backwards. The sun was just barely showing its presence, a slight streak of blue and purple grazing the horizon, heralding the arrival of dawn. It had taken most of the remaining night to clean up after the fight, but he had managed before the ordinary people had regained consciousness.

A man walked up from behind the bench and sat down, his presence somehow having went unnoticed, despite that the park consisted of mostly open fields of grass. He was dressed in beige pants and a white t-shirt with sneakers of the same color. His hair was short and the color of newly-fallen snow, as was the neatly-cut beard. Gray eyes turned to the wizard for a moment, then towards the horizon.

They sat in silence, minutes turning into hours as they watched the sun rise into the sky. Until eventually, as more and more people were seen walking through the park, and the increasing noise announced that city was wide awake, Varsif spoke up.

“I hope the whelp hasn't caused too much trouble out there.”

The man smiled, and shook his head slowly. “No more than could be expected. He is quite conservative, actually, considering what he's been through. Most of his kind would have done worse, I believe.”

The wizard grunted. “That's a good sign. But I don't know if it'll be enough. He's always been brash and impulsive, and his change into a trickster doesn't surprise me; though that it came from the scheming of that god does worry me.”

The visage of the angel darkened for a moment. “Yes. The meddling of Loke was something none of us took into account. It was unexpected, but that fits well into how he does things.”

“I should tell him,” the wizard growled. “Erik turning into a trickster is one thing, even if it was at the hands of Loke... but shouldering the mantle of the Karon at the same time—”

“He chose the path. He needs to realize why he did so if he's to succeed.”

“But Loke—”

“The schemes of the trickster god has been set in motion. His patronage of the Karon will stand. As to what he will do with it, and why he wanted it... that remains to be seen.”

“Most likely the thought of meddling in such a dangerous path tickles his fancy,” the wizard spat. “I should be allowed to reveal something to the boy.”

The angel shook his head, harder this time. “No. You will tell him nothing further. There's been enough revelations for the time being. Anything more will just confuse him, and should everything be revealed to him, it would prove disastrous. Giving him a sense of control—making him think he knows what he's fighting—would lead to his undoing.”

“So he's just supposed to fight blind?" Varsif grumbled in exasperation. "Have you heard his complete name? The title he's gained?”

The angel sighed deeply. “Of course. It means he will have to learn the hard way; but he's a trickster, and despite that unexpected turn of events, it might prove to Karon's advantage. Had he grown into any other nature, be it warrior or priest... or wizard, he might have found himself playing a game unfamiliar to him. But a trickster is well suited for the shadows and deceit his destiny will take him through.”

The wizard grunted, then looked down on the ground sadly. “He's not coming back, is he?”

“To Earth? No, he's leaving for good this time. He's just realized it.”

“He's cutting his old ties, then? Good for the boy, growing up finally, leaving old ghosts to be buried in the past.”

“You won't be seeing him again, you understand that?”

The wizard nodded. “I do. Better make sure my last words count for something, then.”

The angel smiled, and looked at the old man with eyes that had seen uncountable ages pass by. “I'm sure you'll think of something.”

                   *****************************************************

Karon pulled his old well-worn boots on with a languid smile, then straightened his back and pulled his red robe over his head, letting it settle across his body in a snug fit. Next to him, Trixie was just buckling her sword to her belt, and the smooth smell of newly-oiled metal hung in the air.

Lyra's bed was a complete mess, and one of the legs it was standing on had cracked, leaving it tilted at an odd angle, leaving the top bunk dangerously close to tipping the whole thing over.

“So, when are we leaving?” Trixie asked while stretching her arms.

Karon shrugged. “Need to have a few words with Varsif first, and obviously Promise needs to come back. Lyra will be furious if we leave without saying goodbye, too.”

Trixie nodded. “No rush.”

The two of them went out the door into the afternoon sun, and when the sound of their footsteps sounded through the glade, Lyra turned her head and rose from the blanket she'd been sitting on. She dropped the book she had in her hands, and asked dryly, “Are you two done defiling my bed, then?”

Karon flashed her a smile. “Yes, though I would be careful around it if I were you—it's kinda unstable right now.”

“What?” Lyra deadpanned, then rushed inside the cabin. Soon, an angry shriek sounded from inside, followed by a lot of swearing.

“I think you just negated whatever good graces you earned by saving her,” Trixie noted smugly.

“Hey, you did at least half of the work, too,” he protested.

“Rescuing her, or what we just did?”

“Rescuing her. What we just did was more like seventy percent your work.”

She grinned, but otherwise remained silent. They laid down on the blanket Lyra had left behind, turning onto their backs and staring up at the sky.

“Karon?” Trixie asked sadly, breaking the silence.

“What?”

A pause. “Can I trust you?”

Karon grimaced, but held his tongue, thinking it over for a long minute.

“Honestly, Trix, I don't know if I should be trusted. For better or worse, I'm a trickster—it's my nature to deceive and lie.”

“You make it sound like you have no choice.”

Karon frowned, his mouth opening and closing several times before words finally came out. “I can't explain it, Trix. It's more like... it feels right. It comes so fluidly, so naturally, to trick someone else and deceive them, to work the rules and beat them at their own games. That's when I feel most at home... like I am myself.”

“So, I shouldn't trust you?” she asked.

Karon sighed. “I don't know.”

Trixie turned over, and when Karon moved his head to look at her, he saw that she was wearing a grin stretching from ear to ear.

“What?” he asked.

“I can trust you,” she said confidently.

“How do you figure?”

“Well, you were honest just a moment ago, doing your best to try and answer me truthfully about yourself.”

Karon blinked.

“Did... did she just trick us?”

“Holy fuck, she did.”

The expression on the trickster's face became alarmed. Trixie saw it, and her grin turned into a smug smile. “Karon, you might be a trickster, and know how to play the game, but I...” she leaned in close and kissed him, “I am a woman.”

Karon's eyes remained wide and terrified. “I never really had a chance, did I?” he asked.

Trixie chuckled. “None whatsoever.”

Karon stared at her, then relaxed, and pulled her in closer.

“I guess I can live with that.”

                     ****************************************************

The smell of grilled meat, potatoes and vegetables permeated the air. Varsif had returned a little more than an hour ago, announcing that he had cleaned up the sorcerers' mess, and that he was starving. Not long after, he was standing in front of a grill covered in sizzling meat.

While Karon and Lyra had prepared the table inside, Trixie had been keeping the wizard company, the two of them exchanging tales of adventure, and the thickheaded ways of Karon.

The food was ready as the sun was setting, and flies were starting to fill the outside glade in hungry swarms, forcing the humans to retreat inside. They sat down at the table, and with a grunt from Varsif, started filling their wooden plates with food.

The dinner passed on mostly in silence, interrupted only by the sounds of chewing and metal knives cutting on wood. As the food dwindled down, and the pace they were eating at slowed, Lyra leaned back in her chair and rubbed her stomach.

“Ohh, that was good,” she moaned.

“I can see that,” Karon told her with a smile.

She flashed him a wicked smile. “Well, at least I have the good manners not to sully some innocents girl's bed with his—”

“Okay, maybe you should eat some more,” Karon cut her off quickly.

Varsif gave a rumbling chuckle. “Might as well get rid of it, anyway.”

“What do you mean?” Karon asked.

Varsif flashed Lyra a questioning look, then raised his brows. “Ah, you haven't asked him yet.”

“Asked what?” Karon's eyes shifted between the two.

Lyra rubbed her neck and looked faintly embarrassed. “Well... thing is, I've kinda seen a lot here already. I mean, I've tried out being human, and I've discovered and learned so much but... I'm... I'm...” she stammered.

“Bored? Lonely? Tired of the people on this planet? Reality not living up to the fantasy?” Karon helped.

“Yeah, I mean... yeah, kinda all of it,” she admitted with a blush.

“So, humans weren't all you've made them out to be huh?” Karon asked.

“Shut up! It's been great, but I don't feel like I belong here, I'll never be human, not like these people, no matter how hard I try.”

“So, what are you going to do?” Karon asked, wiping his mouth with a napkin, which also helped to hide his knowing smile.

“I was kinda hoping that, maybe... you'd let me go with you?” she asked carefully, nervously fiddling with her fingers.

Karon leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, then raised a finger as if to bring up a valid point.

“Ignore him,” Trixie interrupted. “You can come with us; he's just trying to play with you,” she told Lyra, then turned her nose up at Karon.

Karon looked at her glumly. “You could have let me string her along for a minute, at least.”

Lyra threw a piece of carrot at him.

Varsif observed the proceedings with a smile, then turned his face towards the door, and frowned. “Karon,” he said, then nodded towards the entrance.

The trickster turned his head, as did they all when the sound of footsteps could be heard from the outside porch. The door opened, and Promise walked through, her wings folded tightly against her back to allow her passage through the frame.

Karon swallowed, then rose from his chair. “Do you want to talk?” he asked.

She nodded, and Karon motioned her to go outside. He followed after her, and together they walked onto the glade, Promise with an unreadable expression, Karon with an annoyed one as he tried to swat the flies that immediately assailed him.

They stopped when they had gone far enough that their voices wouldn't drift to the inside of the cabin. They stood facing each other, a mere step away, and despite the darkness Karon had no trouble seeing the conflicted expression Promise's face fell into.

“Master—” she began, but Karon held up a hand to stop her.

“First, I want to say I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made you drag up those memories. You shouldn't even have to carry them in the first place.”

Her lips started trembling, and Promise nodded, then sniffed loudly. “It hurts... everything hurts. Inside, outside... and it doesn't stop,” she said, her voice cracking.

Karon grimaced, and shifted his weight uncertainly. “What happened, after...?”

Promise groaned, then tapped her head gently with the flat side of a dagger-claw. “She's still inside, but gone, too... like, a piece of her is stuck, or wants to be stuck. And I can't get it out.”

He reached out with his arms and embraced Promise, pulling her against his chest, and started stroking her hair. “It's going to be alright,” he soothed.

“Don't lie to me, master,” she told him weakly.

“If you can't get her out, then bring her to the surface again,” he said, and felt her stiffen at his words.

“No,” she tried to protest.

“Promise, if she's lodged into your mind, it's because she wants to stay. It's just a memory; an echo of the soul that possessed the body that is now yours. Dolor gave you that body, and if some residue of her is still haunting it, then it's for some reason. Let her speak, and I'll do whatever it takes to convince her to leave.”

“Do you promise I won't... disappear? That you don't want her to stay and me to go?” she sobbed.

It was like being stabbed in the chest with an icicle.

“Ah, that explains her mood swings. Well, besides that whole icky period business.”

“She thinks I want to replace her with Dolor.”

“It's not like the idea isn't without merit. You loved Dolor, really loved her, and you've kinda taken Promise for granted and treated her... ehh, not so good, sometimes.”

Karon squeezed the woman hard, careful not to break the delicate bones that made up her wings, then brought her out in front of him, looking straight into her deep blue eyes. “I would never abandon you. Never. Dolor is dead, and you're alive; and if I have to choose between her and you, then that is the way I prefer it.”

Promise's smile was radiant, and the hiccup that followed only helped in the endearing image. “Do you promise?”

Karon quirked an eyebrow. “Are you trying to lead me into a pun of some kind?”

Promise wiped her nose and looked at him awkwardly. “I don't know what that is.”

Lifting his hand up to stroke her hair, Karon only shook his head. “Never mind. Yes, I promise I won't let Dolor take you. I'll go inside your mind and kick her out personally, if I have to.”

Promise leaned into his chest, and whispered, “Thank you.”

“So... whenever you're ready, you can—”

“Already done, my sweet,” Promise's voice purred, and she pulled back her head to reveal orange, red-streaked eyes looking up at him with amusement.

Karon's face hardened. “Why are you hurting her?”

She sighed. “I'm not doing it intentionally, the poor girl just doesn't know how to handle heartbreak. The memories that remain of me are fleeting, but the emotions... oh, the things you made me feel, my sweet, sweet Mendax. They're burned into me, and the girl is just experiencing some splashes I can't contain.”

“What you felt for me wasn't real love, I can see that now. It was desperation; an attempt to flee from your own pain by making me share it,” Karon said bitterly.

Dolor tilted her head. “So, you never loved me?”

The trickster closed his eyes. “Yes, I did... and I still do.”

Dolor looked at him with something approaching pity. “My sweet Mendax, you think I didn't love you for real? I can prove it.”

Karon snorted. “How?”

She drew a dagger-claw down his chest slowly, tracing lines across his chest, just like she used to once upon a time, while painting patterns on his blood-covered body.

“You were right. I tried to break you, deny you what you were and make you my own. Something to play with... to distract myself with, as you said. But then... you fell in love with me.”

“You made me love you.”

She shook her head. “No one can do that with true love. Timor thought he loved me, but it was only fear that drove him.”

“It was pain that made me love you, because you took everything else away.”

“In the beginning!” she said sharply. “But then, you started to think, to feel outside what I tried to make you into. You didn't break, you just forgot for a time... and when you started growing into yourself again, you didn't stop loving me.”

“You still haven't said anything that makes me believe you,” Karon told her.

Dolor looked up at him, eyes shimmering. “Karon, when you finally became like us, it should have ended you. It should have shaped you into something else entirely, but instead... you remained Karon. When father proclaimed you remained yourself, and I had succeeded only in making your grow into something... more... that was the moment I realized you would kill me.”

Karon blinked.

“I tasted the destiny of Karon the moment we met, and I knew it was a grand one, filled with darkness and pain, a path that led far beyond our forest. When you refused to break, and held to yourself despite that I had done everything I could to change you, I knew that you would leave our forest, that you still had a destiny waiting for you.”

“Dolor—”

“Shhhh, I'm not finished,” she said, holding a dagger-claw up to his lips. “I knew you would leave, but I also knew you loved me—truly loved me. Not like Timor, because he wanted me only so I could keep him safe, to take away the fear he cradled so close. But you... you wanted to save me. You loved me in a way I didn't think anyone could... and it made me feel things, it made me feel what love was supposed to be like.”

Karon held his breath, remaining silent.

“You loved me so much that I knew you would never agree to abandon me, yet the path you were still destined for led away from me. You would never have allowed anyone to hurt me, my sweet, and that left only one...”

She stepped up on her toes, and kissed his lips tenderly. “You, my sweet murderer.”

“You knew,” Karon croaked.

“Yes. And all I did after I realized that, my sweet, was to prepare you. Because you will walk a path of pain without me, and I wanted you to be strong enough to do so. Because—”

“You love me,” Karon finished.

Dolor looked up at him, smiling sadly. “Yes. Now and always, my sweet.”

Karon felt his head growing light, a numbness settling in that worked to keep whatever he was feeling somewhere far away.

“Bu— but you're dead. What am I supposed to do? I can't... I can't just let you hurt Promise like this.”

Dolor leaned into his chest, breathing in his scent deeply.

“You know what you're supposed to do. What remains of me are memories, feelings and thoughts. I am a fragment of my soul, something that broke off to remain, because I couldn't leave you. I want to be closer to you. I want to be closer to you than anyone else you will ever love can be.”

Karon's face drained of all color. “No.”

“You owe me this. Don't deny it.”

He gripped her shoulders to push her away, but she grasped him harder, the razor-sharp dagger-claws leaving shallow marks on his skin.

“If you don't, I will never leave this body. I will remain and torture this creature for the rest of her life.”

“Please, don't make me do this,” Karon begged in a horrified voice.

“Your wanted to save me, my love. But you were right, when we played our first game of riddles and questions; I am broken, and some things can't be saved.”

“Please...”

“You can't save me, my sweet, but you can eat me.”

"No!"

“Do it, or I will squeeze every last drop of suffering the girl is capable of out of her.”

Karon took a shuddering breath, then grasped Dolor's chin, tilting her head up to face him. He stared into her amber eyes, shot through like cracks of blood, then he leaned in and kissed her.

A kiss is a connection, a reaching-out to another person to meet in something intimate. And Karon reached into Promise's body, found the connection to the one he was kissing. It was just a fragment, a splinter of Dolor's soul, shattered from the whole by a longing that could never be fulfilled.

He grasped that fragment, and he felt her reaching into him like he did her. From her presence, the fragility of her being, the weakened state of her emotions, the wounds in Karon's soul stirred.

She didn't resist. She gave in to the hunger grasping for her willingly, and Karon felt her dissolving, slipping, drawn into his wounds and torn apart, until all that was left of Dolor's soul was devoured and absorbed into the core of his being. And in the last moment of that connection, he felt nothing from her but satisfaction.

Karon began to weep, but then felt the lips he was kissing stiffen, then jerk back quickly. He opened his eyes, and found two deep blue orbs staring back at him with awkward confusion.

“Uhm... master?” Promise asked, blinking rapidly.

“Sorry, didn't mean that?” he responded lamely, then raised an arm and wiped the tears from his face.

“What happened?” she asked, then licked her lips. Her brow furrowed in curiosity.

“I took care of it. She's gone, now,” Karon said, forcing a smile to his face.

Promise blinked, but her expression remained thoughtful, almost detached. "Oh, okay... should we go inside?"

“You go ahead. I need some time alone."

Before Promise could respond, Karon turned sharply and walked towards the path leading out from the glades, out into the woods. Promise remained still, looking at the retreating back of the trickster. When he had vanished, she licked her lips slowly, and the corners of her mouth twitched upwards until it split into a grin, then she thrust a hand into the air and squealed victoriously.

                                 ******************************************************

They were all gathered upon a dirt road located a few hours walk away from Varsif's cabin. After dinner, they had spent the remainder of the night making small talk, and generally savoring the peacefulness of the evening. The day thereafter had been spent packing, and helping Lyra sort out what she wished to bring along, and what she was forced to leave.

When the sun was beginning to set, Varsif had led them to the nearest road, where they'd waited for nightfall, and the emergence of a starlit sky that would lead them back home.

When evening finally descended into night, there were few stars visible in the cloudy haze blanketing the sky, but it would be enough. A thickening silence stretched over the group as they all waited for someone to speak up, until Varsif finally lost his patience.

“I'm too old to waste time like this,” he growled, and turned to face Karon.

The trickster gave him a crooked smile. “Yeah, you might drop dead any moment now.”

“We'll see how good you look after six hundred years,” the old man rumbled.

Karon's mouth fell open, to which the wizard started laughing. “Better close that before the flies start pouring in.”

“There's a lot you never told me,” the trickster said quietly.

Varsif grunted in acknowledgment. “Aye, much I never said.”

The old man looked thoughtful, a thousand words and meanings passing through his mind in the blink of an eye, searching. Finally, a scowl crossed his face, and he shook his head angrily. “See you around, kid.”

The wizard turned to leave, a grunt his final word of parting. Karon watched him disappear into the night, his white hair flowing in the breeze, and he smiled sadly.

“Goodbye, teacher. Maybe in another life, I'll do better.”

Trixie walked up next to him, and stared into the dark. “Did you miss something?” she asked.

Karon shook his head, then turned his eyes skyward. It wouldn't take long for him to guide them to the Starlit Path, and he was confident Lyra would appreciate the opportunities their home provided. Although, he wasn't sure what their host would feel about her bringing an assault rifle.

He closed his eyes for a moment, and savored the scents carried upon the wind. This was the last time he would set foot upon this world. It was a return to the start, in a way; the serpent biting its tail as the circle came to a close. When he left Earth, he would be leaving his past behind him. The Starlit Path was calling him, and the future that rested ahead. Destiny was waiting.

With a final breath, Karon turned to the others. “Time to go.”

                                        *********************************************************

The sun was soon to rise as the princesses would trade places, and Equestria was preparing to rise and greet the day. In Canterlot, the city was already awake, the first trickles present that would soon grow into a swelling tide of movement and noise.

Inside a beaten-down cafe, there sat two ponies, one of them an earth pony, his coat a dusky midnight color, and his eyes golden with reptilian slits, marking him as one of the nocturnal guards; only, that wasn't true anymore.

Sitting on the opposite side of the table was a pony cloaked in a garishly yellow and green mantle and hood, effectively masking his appearance in the dim light, but the bulge on his forehead betrayed him as a unicorn. When he spoke, the words came out in a jovial tone. “How goes the preparations?”

“Fine. The army is growing, and there's more and more joining us every day, whether they know it or not,” the earth pony answered in a emotionless voice.

The unicorn smacked his lips. “Excellent. Her plan is coming nicely, then.”

“You ever doubted her?” the earth pony asked with an edge to his voice.

“Of course not, I'm just surprised how fast it's been going. I never thought the end of the world would arrive with such ease.”

“She knows what she's doing,” the former guard grunted.

“Yes, she does indeed. But there's still a few snags in the plan.”

The earth ponies eyes sharpened. “Problems with the elements?”

The unicorn shook his head. “No, no that part is coming along just as nicely as the rest. I was referring to the, how to say... the outside danger.”

“You're talking about Karon,” the earth pony said bluntly.

“That is its name, yes. I'm failing to see why it could pose such a threat, especially since she—”

“Karon is no ordinary creature,” the pony growled. “Don't underestimate him. I've seen him kill hundreds of ponies with the help of some shiny rocks. He will come back to fight us once we begin. She herself has said that this world has marked him as a champion.”

The unicorn smacked his lips again, this time in annoyance. “We'll see just how much of a danger he can truly be. Besides, he alone can hardly defeat an army, and we have you to make sure Equestria will crumble within days, ehh, Dusk Keeper?”

The former nocturnal guard fixed a glare on his compatriot. “Don't act like this is something that brings me pleasure. I do this only because the princesses need to learn; they need to see what others sacrifice so they can remain on their thrones.”

A dry chuckle drifted out from within the hood. “Oh, they will learn, my friend. They will learn.”

The Greatest Victory

The swarm of sounds and motion faded into the background as Karon allowed the cloth to fall back into place behind him. He stepped into the tent, where exotic wares were spread out inside without sign of rhyme or reason to their placement, many of them covered in dust that looked to have remained untouched for decades.

The trickster came in alone, stepping across the smattering of rugs serving as the shop's floor, “Bitz, are you in here?”

From behind a bookshelf, a horned head poked out, and a smile spread to reveal sharp teeth. “Ah, the trickster returns to noble Bitz's shop; here to hunt for wares, perhaps? Or hunt for work more likely, yes?”

Karon raised an eyebrow at the creature. “Depends on what work you have for me.”

Bitz stepped out from behind the bookcase. His body was draped in silken cloth of all the colors of the rainbow, his reverse-jointed legs carrying him forward in a kind of bobbing walk. “This is meager place to hunt for work, Bitz is sorry to tell, and what this humble predator of good prices can offer is but the work trickster has already been provided with, but chased in vain.”

Karon looked at him irritably. “If you're talking about the answer-seeking, than I've done no worse than any other has for generations. Questions like 'what is the greatest victory' are too open-ended to come by easily.”

The trader nodded hastily. “Bitz understands, that he does. Honorable trickster Karon has done fine work with Bitz, together hunting favorable prices and just rewards. But, Bitz is glad to say, this time work is hunting for trickster.”

Karon frowned. “What do you mean?”

Bitz looked away uncomfortably, then spoke up. “A human male came here. He smelled of righteousness and oil. He hunted for you by name. He claimed to have need of the trickster's services, but wanted no part in the usual arrangement of speaking through humble Bitz, so naturally, Bitz told the hunter that the Walker's Rest is the territory in which the trickster can be found.”

Karon fixed a glare upon the trader. “And what makes you think this stranger isn't out to hurt me? Or are you telling me you would willingly tell a potential enemy where I live?”

The creature's eyes widened and he held up his hands defensively. “Noble Bitz would never betray fellow hunter Karon! No, the man that hunted for trickster carried the scent of desperation beneath the surface, as do most of those who come here hunting for the trickster's assistance. Bitz is sure he did not hunt for trickster's life, but for help.”

Karon's glare softened, but there was a hardness present in his eyes still. “Looks like I should get back home, then, and see what this man wants with me.”

Bitz nodded emphatically to Karon's words. “Wise maneuver—hunt the hunter. Within the lair of the great white one, the advantage will belong to the trickster, and not the foul-smelling stranger.”

The trickster in question gave the trader a loop-sided grin in response, then with a nod of his head in farewell, turned his back and ventured out into the bazaar again. After he had gone, Bitz grabbed a piece of the cloth wrapped around him, and dabbed his forehead.

“Bitz very happy to hunt with trickster, good bounty... Bitz just hopes he will never be hunted by trickster, oh no, Bitz most certainly hopes not.”

                            *************************************************

Trixie took the final step down the stairs and walked out into the tavern below. There was a bustling that she had only seen a few times before, as beings from across the universe came to seek sanctuary and succor. Of course, the greatest prize to find in The Walker's Rest was neither sanctuary nor succor. No, the greatest prize was advice. However, it was sparsely given, if at all.

The woman's eyes moved over to the bar, where a creature vaguely resembling a preying mantis with yellow chitin stood, making clicking noises towards the bartender, who responded with short clicks of his own.

Trixie put an arm up and leaned on the bar disk with an amused expression, observing the alien conversation with idle curiosity. The insectoid turned its head towards her once, and its mandibles twitched in a way Trixie interpreted as annoyance. She responded by tilting her head and grinning.

The conversation ended shortly thereafter, though Trixie doubted it was because of her presence as much as the taciturn answers of the bartender.  

When the creature finally moved away, Trixie slid up to face the bearded old man behind the bar, but before she could open her mouth, he produced a plate of food and a mug filled with ale and placed it before her. Trixie smiled at him, then reached for the food and drink.

The bartender looked her in the eyes as she did, and the woman froze. There was no external pressure she could feel that glued her eyes to his, but nonetheless, she found herself unable to look away. With a slow nod, the old man motioned towards one of the round wooden tables standing like lonesome islands in the middle of the tavern floor, where a single creature sat.

Trixie found herself released from the bartender's gaze, and looked over towards the table he had indicated. “You want me to go over to him?” she asked, frowning.

The old man hummed in response, and Trixie grabbed her plate and mug and stalked over to the table. The man in question was wearing some kind of armor made of fused plates of bluish steel, with a matted gray cloak covering most of it and himself, and a badge made out of gold fastened upon it. His hood wasn't drawn up, which revealed a bald head a deep brown in color, bordering on black. When she placed her breakfast on the table and sat down in the chair opposite him, bright verdant eyes locked on her with a suspicious glimmer.

“Relax,” she said, then grabbed one of the loaves of bread and dipped it in the thick sauce covering her plate.

“What do you want?” the man asked in a raspy voice.

“The host of this place thought I should come over here and talk to you,” she told him with a shrug.

The man turned his head towards the bar with a nervous look, then swerved his eyes back at Trixie. “This place is unnatural. Its presence is like crawling maggots digging underneath my skin.”

Trixie raised both her eyebrows and took a bite of her food. “Maybe you feel uncomfortable because you've got something to hide. Don't try, you can't hide anything from Him anyway.”

The man opposite her growled deep down in his throat, and made a move as if he was about to stand up and leave. Trixie swallowed her food and kicked out one of his legs, causing him to fall back into his chair. When his right hand darted inside his cloak in response, she held up a hand.

“I told you, relax... if our host wanted me to come over here, then it's because I am supposed to talk to you, and you're supposed to talk to me. So maybe you should just tell me what you're doing here so we can get this over with.”

“Maybe our 'host' is wrong,” the man said acidly.

Trixie snorted, and her eyes turned wearisome. “I've had personal experience with His suggestions, so I recommend you don't argue with them.”

The man stared at her silently, then leaned forward and placed both arms on the table, resting his chin upon clasped hands. “I'm looking for someone. We... the place I'm from has a problem, and after I was sent to find a solution, I heard there was an individual here who could help me?”

“This individual wouldn't happen to be a red-dressed trickster with a terrible sense of humor named Karon, would it?” Trixie asked dryly.

The man blinked. “Yes, it is; I mean, the name, not the humor.”

Trixie snorted. “You can't get one without the other, in his case. But he's not here right now; he's off at the bazaar looking for something to do.”

With a tilt of his head, the man straightened his back and punched his chest once with a closed fist. “My name is Ella Sov. I come on the behalf of the Department of Otherworldly Investigation. I greet you, stranger, with the warmest and best of intentions on behalf of the world of—”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Trixie interrupted him, then took a long pull from her mug of bitter ale.

Ella looked dumbstruck by her interruption, then faintly offended. “We're supposed to greet any outer-worldly beings with the full official greeting,” he told her in a slightly hurt voice.

Trixie raised an eyebrow. “Your 'department' thing wouldn't happen to be the incompetent kind? Because if you go around greeting everyone not of your world like that, you're going to be laughed at a lot,” she told him.

“The scriptures concerning outer-worldly operations are firm concerning the proper protocol—”

“Not that I like interrupting people, but if you want anyone to take you seriously here, then you need to forget all about that. The kind of people that end up here are the ones that have seen a lot, and don't find much point in sticking to empty rituals. I'm no exception,” Trixie said firmly.

Ella looked thoughtful for a moment, then focus returned to his eyes. “I'll keep that in mind, but we were discussing the one known as Karon the trickster.”

With a swift motion, Trixie scooped up the remainder of the sauce with the last piece of bread and shoved it into her mouth. Ella waited patiently for her to swallow, and she observed him in turn with a calculating look.

“Okay, what do you want with Karon?” she asked.

The man looked away angrily. “There's trouble back in my world, and the incidents fall under my section's jurisdiction. Thanks to a witness, we've established that it is outer-worldly in origin, and I was sent to discover the reason for his actions and a way to track him.”

“Him?” Trixie asked.

“Yes, him. Our witness was very descriptive in this outer-worldly creature—a man by the name of Nagrosh the Dark.”

Trixie stared silently at Ella for nearly a full minute, the she sank back into her chair with a tired groan, dragging the palm of her hand across her face.

The man frowned, then his eyes widened. “You know of him?!”

Trixie blew through her lips in frustration. “Yes, more than I ever wanted to. What's the idiot done this time? Sabotaged some mining operations? Stolen some 'priceless artifact' that's actually junk? Tried to take over a world with a hopelessly-flawed scheme?”

“So far, he's taken and sacrificed seventy-eight young women, all virgins, in some mad attempt at summoning a demon,” Ella told her in an icy voice.

Trixie's mouth fell open, then closed with a loud snap. “That... doesn't sound like Leti,” she murmured.

“Who's Leti?”

“It's 'Nagrosh's' real name,” she told him off-handedly while staring down at the table, chewing on a nail absently.

It didn't sound like anything the bumbling sorcerer would do, to Trixie's ears. The man had ambitions, for sure, but his ability had never stretched far enough for him to be able to even work out a plan to achieve them. And there had always been a sense of some restriction, like there was some lines the man wasn't prepared to cross. But maybe Trixie had underestimated him. Maybe he had finally grown as tired of their games as she was.

“Karon needs to hear of this,” she finally decided.

“Good. Will you help me in tracking him down, then?” Ella asked with a spark of excitement.

Trixie shook her head. “There's no need, he'll come back here after he's seen Bitz.”

“Bitz? As in the merchant of the tent, the one that speaks in words of hunts and hunters?”

Trixie looked at him curiously. “Yes, that's him.”

Ella nodded. “It was through him that I was lead to this place, where he revealed I could find the one called Karon.”

“Then Karon should be back any second, now,” Trixie told him.

While they waited for the arrival of the trickster, Ella revealed more of what he had learned of Leti's activities. He told of the disappearances of young women, steadily rising in number while the normal peacekeepers were frantically scrambling for clues, of how they eventually found the place where he had performed the murders, soaked in the blood of innocents. It was there they discovered, through the workings of their machines and the involvement of their department of outer-worldly investigations, that the culprit was not a native to their planet.

They had chased the man, and he had narrowly made an escape twice, leaving them a blood-stained altar. Eventually, one of the women had made an escape, and told them of the man who called himself Nagrosh the Dark, and how he had apologized to her, before revealing that she would be the conduit to a demon that would grant him powers.

The department believed that there would be no reason for such a depraved man to reveal his plan to the woman, and figured he had told her because he allowed her to escape on purpose, in order to taunt the department and their efforts.

This belief had led to Ella being sent off-world, with orders of finding out more about this Nagrosh, and a way to track him down and stop him.

Trixie listened to the tale, her expression growing darker by the minute. After he was done, she had gone to gather drinks, which they both consumed in silent contemplation.

Then a hand slapped down on her shoulder from behind. “Making friends?” a familiar voice said.

Trixie turned, regarding Karon with a dark expression. His eyebrow arched upward, and he looked over to Ella questioningly. "What's going on?"

"You need to hear what he has to say," Trixie said quietly.

Karon frowned, then took a seat to Trixie's right, and listened as Ella introduced himself, then recounted the tale once more. When he was finished, Karon stared down at the table in a way that mirrored Trixie just a few minutes earlier.

“I told you we should have killed him,” she eventually said.

Karon closed his eyes, but didn't argue against her.

“You've encountered this monster before?” Ella asked sharply.

“He's not a monster,” Karon objected, ”He's...” Words failed as he stared into the man's green eyes, where outrage and shame burned in equal measure.

“He's a monster,” Ella said in a tone that didn't broker any compromise.

Trixie laid her hand on top of Karon's, and looked at him sympathetically. “It was inevitable. We've put a stop to his schemes many times; he was bound to realize that if he really wants to become a sorcerer, he needed to get serious about it.”

Karon grimaced. “He's just confused, and doesn't know how to—”

“And he's scared, and alone, and hungry, and in need of a blanket and cooing words of comfort,” Trixie continued in a mocking tone, then glared at him. “If you insist on looking at him like a stray pet, then feel free to do so. He's a pet, a dog that's gone rabid and is now busy killing people, a lot of people. So we put him down,” she finished harshly.

The trickster drummed his fingers on the table, and licked his lips nervously. “It's not too late for him.”

Trixie stared at him reproachfully. “It is. It's far too late. If we'd done as I asked—and kept asking over and over—then the women back at his world would be alive right now,” she said, indicating Ella with a pointed finger.

Karon tried to smile. “Statistically speaking, I'd say at least a few of them would have found another way to get themselves killed.”

Ella growled, and Karon rose from his chair and went over to the bar, his steps heavy and shoulders slumped.

The green-eyed man looked at Trixie with disgust written all over his face, and when he spoke, his voice dripped with contempt. “To try and make light of this tragedy... I can't imagine what kind of careless creature this trickster is.”

“I told you,” Trixie said and waved him off. “If you want Karon, then you also get the sense of humor.”

“He needs to take this seriously. The scriptures of our department are clear—the cold focus of harnessed rage is a valuable resource in cases like this, and if this Karon is going to help us catch this... sorcerer, then that's what we'll expect of him. We need someone seeking vengeance, not making jokes about dark dealings.”

Trixie looked at the man with an unreadable expression, then turned her eyes to Karon's back. “He is who he is, and he's more than capable of handling Leti. As for the humor... you should pray that you never get to see him in a cold rage, seeking vengeance.”

“Why?” Ella demanded.

With a crooked smile Trixie got up from her chair, and grabbed her empty plate and glass. “Because, that's a thought that scares even me.”

With those words she left Ella at the table, an uncertain expression on his face, and went over to the bar. She placed her plate and glass at the disk, then moved in and put an arm around Karon's waist. He responded by absently sliding an arm over her shoulders, though he did not turn around.

“You okay?” Trixie asked.

Karon shook his head. “No, not really.”

“Want me to go find Lyra and Promise so we can go after Leti?”

Karon shook his head, firmer this time. “No, I... where are they, by they way?”

Trixie rolled her eyes. “Lyra told me they were off so she could teach the insipid little winged thing how to better control herself.”

“After four months, you'd think they'd have made some progress,” Karon muttered.

“Considering it's Promise we're talking about, I'm surprised Lyra hasn't returned with missing limbs.”

“Let it go, Trix. But that's good—it should keep them occupied for a couple of days, at least.”

“So you want just me going with you?” she asked.

Karon sat quietly for several moments, fingers drumming idly on the bar. Finally, he gave a sigh of resignation, and spoke.

"I'm going alone."

Trixie frowned, then shook off his arm and released her own hold of him. “You're joking, right? You can't be serious about going alone to this world and chasing Leti with some department that might decide you're as much a threat as he is!”

Karon turned to face her and crossed his arms, staring down at her without budging. “I'm not stupid, Trix. I'll stick with Ella as long as I need to, but no further than that. Once I've found Leti, I'll deal with him on my own.”

Trixie glared right back at Karon, but there had been something about the way he pronounced those last words that made her hesitate. “Fine,” she relented, and blew air out of her nose angrily.

Karon leaned down and kissed her on the lips. She resisted him for a second, then started to return it. When they parted, she licked her lips and looked up at him worriedly. “Don't do anything stupid.”

He grinned. “You know that's a hopeless thing to ask of me.”

Trixie smiled sadly. “I know, but I do it anyway.”

The trickster looked down at his lover without losing the grin, and she looked back up at him, the sympathy in her eyes telling him she wasn't fooled. She grabbed his hands and squeezed hard, “I'll take a look around the bazaar, see if there's anything worth picking up. If you haven't returned in five days, I'm coming after you,” she said.

Karon nodded, and she stepped up on her toes and gave him a quick kiss, then turned and walked out of the tavern. It took a few minutes before Karon returned to Ella's table, and when he did, he slumped down into it with a casual smile that revealed nothing but a vague sense of amusement.

“So? Tell me more about this demon summoning stuff.”

                                 ****************************************

Karon and Ella were making their way through the winding pathways of the great bazaar. The trickster was walking with his head lowered, deep in thought, while Ella on the other hand had trouble not gawking at everything he saw.

They had gone back to Bitz's shop, at first. After Ella had told more of the attempts at demonic summoning Leti had been performing, Karon had suggested they seek more information about the subject, since both admitted they had little to no experience with it.

Varsif had taught Erik a lot, and Karon even more, but the knowledge pertaining demons and the magic concerning them was something he had firmly kept out of reach—most likely because he didn't trust his impatient apprentice with it.

Unfortunately, Bitz could offer no enlightenment, as he himself knew little about the beings. However, he knew about one who did, which was why Karon and Ella were now on their way towards a tea house by the name of 'The King's Joint'.

“So, uhm... you know nothing about this place we're going to?” Ella asked while staring up at the shifting sky, marveling at the four suns present in it.

“Yeah,” Karon turned his head to face the man. “Never heard of it.”

“What if it's dangerous?”

Karon rolled his eyes. “Calm down, super-cop. This is the day and night harbor, the great bazaar, the divine market. There's a protection over this place, and if you make trouble, you disappear.”

“Disappear?”

“Yeah, disappear. Now heads up, I think that's the place,” Karon said, and pointed towards a building made of yellow stone with a flat roof. There was door that looked to be made out of a red metal, and the sign hanging over it proclaimed that it was The King's Joint.

Karon opened the door and headed inside, while Ella trailed behind, his movements tense and eyes scanning for danger. Inside, the place was shrouded in what felt like a perpetual gloom; candles flickered with green and blue flames, casting long shadows over the walls as the patrons were seated on cushions around low standing tables, sipping on amber-colored drinks in ceramic cups.

There was a desk standing in front of the entrance, behind which rows upon rows of jars filled with herbs and powders rose up. There was a man standing behind the desk, with shaggy dark hair and a truly epic black beard stretching all the way past his waist. Dark charcoal eyes flickered to the new arrivals, and he wiped his hands on the sand-colored robe he wore.

Karon approached the desk, while Ella remained just inside the door, looking around the establishment nervously. The man's eyes turned upwards as he noticed a giant furry shape standing to the side of the entrance, its arms crossed in a threatening stance. Black, beady eyes looked down on him from nearly twice the height, and the deepest squeak ever heard by man rumbled out from its chest.

“Can I help you with anything?” the bearded man asked in a friendly tone.

“I heard this is the place to ask about demons, is that correct?” Karon asked, and rested his arms on the desk, leaning forward on his elbows.

The bearded man looked him up and down, and his eyes unfocused as he did, as if he was looking with more than just his vision.

“A trickster. Alright, we can talk. Just a question, first—why are you interested in demons?” he asked, just as friendly as before.

Karon spread his hands, “There's this guy who's killing virgin girls trying to summon a demon to—if my friend's guess is correct—possess him and grant him power.”

The bearded man snorted. “Well, that's— hey! Stop standing there looking lost and come over here!” he shouted at Ella.

The man winced, clearly unable to take his eyes off the furry creature staring back down at him. Karon looked back and snorted when he saw the object of Ella's fascination, then walked over and grabbed the man's arm.

“Come on,” the trickster said and yanked him away.

“What is that?” Ella whispered, his voice edging on hysteria.

“Space hamster. Big bastards. You're safe in the bazaar, but don't piss it off anyway, or it'll follow us until we're outside, and then we'd be in trouble.”

“S-space hamster?”

“Yeah, I said that didn't I? You don't want to make trouble with them, they fight dirty—goes straight for the eyes. Only an imbecile would hang around with them.”

The black-bearded owner listened to the whispered conversation with amusement shining from his eyes, and when they finished, he tapped his chest and spoke.

“Good, my name is Solomon, now you tell me yours.”

“Mendax Karon Bellum, and this is Ella... uhh...”

“Sov,” the man supplied.

Solomon ignored Ella, and kept his eyes on Karon. “That's an interesting name you've got there.”

Karon grimaced. “Glad you like it. I'm not quite sure what to make of it myself.”

Solomon hummed, then tilted his head. “I think I can feel the presence a certain someone on your spirit. Why didn't you ask Him about it?”

Karon rubbed his neck. “I, uhh, wasn't sure I'd be able to get much out of Him.”

Solomon threw back his head and laughed, slamming his fist down on the table hard enough to make the whole thing shake.

“I know exactly what you mean,” he said when the laughter died down, and he wiped away the tears that had gathered in his eyes. “But say hello from me the next time you see Him.”

Karon nodded, and Solomon cleared his throat. “As I was saying, the whole sacrificing virgins thing is a complete sack of camel dung. Now, before I continue I need to point out that what one means when they use the term 'demon' is different depending on the language and area you're in. The language thing is taken care of since we're in the bazaar, and I understand what you're trying to say without fault. The area thing, though... well, for example: that guy sitting down over there, Candrian Illborne is his name, and he travels around a lot—so much, in fact, he's not even from this universe. In the place he's from, the term 'demon' is referring to something completely different from what we use around here. So, can I assume when you want to talk about demons, you're talking about the local variety?”

Karon nodded, “Yeah, Leti definitely doesn't have the knowledge to move beyond the confines of this universe.”

Solomon bobbed his head with a pleased look. “Good, makes things simpler. I won't go into some detailed description about demons, you don't need that if you just want to stop a guy from making trouble. Suffice to say, demons don't care about us. No matter what you've heard about their evil wicked intentions and bottomless penchant for spreading sin and destruction, they don't care about us, at all. So when you try and summon a demon, you've gotta understand that you're trying to force a being that has no interest in coming here to do so anyway.”

“So why all this widespread belief about sacrifice to please them, then?” Ella demanded.

Solomon looked annoyed. “Because people like me who actually know the reality of it usually don't go around blabbing about summoning demons. It always had a bad rep; in fact, nearly every tome and the like on the subject is deliberately flawed, with pieces either cut out, distorted, or mixed in with a lot of mumbo-jumbo. The point is to make sure that the only one who can read and understand what's real is either the writer, or someone who already knows enough to pick out the truth and discard the rest.”

Ella gritted his teeth, clearly uncomfortable with the careless tone he used. Karon merely nodded, and spoke. “Makes sense. So there's no chance of Leti actually summoning this demon?”

Solomon stroked his beard. “I didn't say that. Tell me more about this summoning; what do you know about it?”

Ella once again recounted everything he knew about the case, as well as everything he had witnessed himself while investigating the scenes. When he was finished, Solomon looked worried.

“No, some of that is the real deal, alright. The symbols were correct, though placed completely wrong—which tells me you're dealing with an amateur. You never told me the name of the demon he's trying to call.”

“Right,” Ella said, “It's 'Nareeth'.”

Solomon turned completely white as fear flashed across his weathered face. “That's not good, not good at all," he muttered darkly. "I've gotta say, either this amateur has a manhood to rival a god, or is a complete and utter idiot.”

“The second,” Karon sighed.

“That's the worse alternative,” Solomon grunted. “That's a very tricky one. Mostly because he's not supposed to exist, and the circumstances of his existence and arrival is murky, at best. There's no chance this fool would be able to bind him, or convince him to agree to a possession.”

“So, if Leti would succeed, the problem should take care of itself?” Karon said.

Solomon looked conflicted. “Certainly, but the question is if it would settle at that, or if it decided it wanted a whole city or two to take out its irritation on. Demons are, at their core, amoral beings with no interest in tiny, tiny beings like you and I. They are of the greater variety, no doubt about that. You have to try and understand; a demon looks at you like you look at an ant that were trying to convince you to drop everything else and focus on its ant-like business, and obey its commands. The trick is, then, that if you can't help but appear like an insect, you've gotta appear like the right kind.”

“You'll have to elaborate on that one,” Karon said with a crooked smile.

“Like this: when calling a demon, it is going to be irritated, at the least. So you've gotta approach it the right way, present yourself in a manner that makes it like you. No matter what, you're still an insect. However, you can make it look at you like you and I would look at a butterfly; something beautiful and worth leaving alone, or even appreciated and helped out if it gets you in the right mood. If you don't, and start making demands and treating the demon like a slave, though... well, then you're just an ordinary fly, trying to steal its blood and leave a poison in exchange. Prepare to be swatted.”

“So the trick is to be a butterfly,” Karon grinned.

“Yes. And wipe that smirk off your face, I know what I'm talking about.”

Karon's grin grew wider, then it faltered as he considered what he'd just been told. “So, in your opinion, would Leti be able to summon this demon going by what you've heard of his workings?”

Solomon scoffed. “Never in a thousand years. Which just makes the death of all those girls all the more horrible.”

Ella's hands cracked as he balled them into fists. “You're right about that. He needs to pay for every one of the innocent people he has murdered.”

Karon looked down on the floor, then took a deep breath and looked back up at Solomon. “Thanks for the help, we appreciate it.”

“Happy to help. Anything else you need?” he asked and looked at them with a kind smile.

Karon hesitated. “You wouldn't happen to know the answer to 'what is the greatest victory'?”

Solomon chuckled. “Afraid not, people have been looking for that one for a long time.”

Karon shrugged. “Worth a try.”

Together he and Ella left the tea house, and once outside the man turned to Karon with rage in his eyes. “We know enough. This Leti's despicable mission is all in vain, and he shall be judged for his crimes in our tribunal without mercy.”

Karon nodded, then looked into Ella's eyes. “I should join you in the search. I have experience with Leti, and I know how he thinks. He will be caught much faster with me on your side.”

Ella looked uncertain, so Karon reached into his mind carefully, and gave the man a small nudge.

“Well, you've been helpful so far,” the man admitted, then gave a sharp nod. “Yes, you will be allowed to help. I can convince my superiors that you will be a credit to the department.”

Karon suppressed his desire to smirk, and followed behind while Ella led the way back towards his homeworld.

                                     ******************************************

Misk. That was the name of Ella's homeworld; and in Karon's opinion, it was a terribly depressing one. Tall spires of gleaming dark metal stretched tall into the sky, a dark blue and gray ocean of floating clouds which crackled with energy. From the rooftops of the spires there rose rods, somehow controlling the sky, and harnessing the power within it.

Bright red and yellow lights spread from big bulbs hanging over the walkways stretching between the spires, upon which people crowded in teeming swirls of life. Karon and Ella arrived upon a platform linked to one of the walkways, a gateway having been opened through a machine of some kind.

At their arrival, a group of ten armored people raised a disc-like object Karon guessed was a weapon, and pointed it at the two of them. Ella said something in his language, and with an inward groan Karon remembered he didn't know it, and would probably have to absorb the knowledge from someone.

The guardians lowered their weapons. The helmets they wore covered their heads completely, insulating them in a shell that left a smooth plate in place of their faces.

Ella turned to Karon and said something in his language. When Karon didn't respond, he looked at him strangely. The trickster rolled his eyes, then stretched out into the man's mind.

“I can't understand you here. Places like the bazaar and The Walker's Rest have a kind of built-in translator.”

Ella flinched when he heard the trickster's voice within his skull.

“Then... how can I understand you now?”

“Your mind is just translating the data. I'm not really speaking, and you're not really using your ears for this.”

“This might prove... problematic.”

“How so?”

“Magic is frowned upon here, and your reckless use of it won't pass by unnoticed.”

“That time, that sorrow. Just lead the way to your boss or whatever so we can begin the hunt.”

Ella's right eye twitched angrily, but he barked an order to the guards blocking their path, and they hastily moved aside to allow them passage. Karon was guided through an endless mass of bodies that seemed to infest every square inch of the city, and eventually arrived at an elevator made purely out of a crystalline material, which took them up to the top of one of the spires.

The elevator opened up onto a floor covered in small blue glowing pads inserted into the floor, around which holographic displays shone in pulsating green and red lights. All the people wore the same dark blue metal armor of fused plates, giving them an appearance of futuristic knights, with U-shaped devices hanging at their belts.

They all turned as one when Karon and Ella stepped onto the floor, and a deathly silence fell over the crowd. Karon raised both his eyebrows, then grinned and took a sweeping bow.

Ella grabbed the back of his robe and yanked him up with a growl, and the trickster turned his head and flashed him a smile, and kept on smiling as Ella led them froward towards the other end of the room, winking at some of the women staring on the way.

They two of them stopped when they reach a group of three people, two of them women with black skin and yellow eyes, curly hair falling down to their shoulders in grayish brown. The third was a man, bald like Ella, his skin completely black and possessing a pair of steely blue eyes that settled on Karon.

He was the one exception to the dress code, it seemed, for he wore nothing else but a simply dark red shirt and pants the same color, with a golden badge the same color and symbol as Ella's marked on the former.

Ella slammed a fist on his chest, and said something to the man. He didn't take his eyes off Karon, and barely seemed to be aware of Ella's presence for a moment, until his eyes changed their target and turned to him.

There was a quick exchange of rapidly-fired words, and although Karon couldn't understand it, he understood much simply by observing their auras. The suspicion, the anger and accusation—and, underneath it all, rising fear.

Ella looked more and more distraught by the second, and Karon didn't try and hide his amusement at the ongoing condemnation. Though, eventually he tired of hearing Ella being chewed out by his boss, and stretched his ethereal fingers into the chief's mind.

“Not that I'm not enjoying the show, but maybe we should get down to business so Leti doesn't slaughter more innocent people.”

The elderly man flinched like he had been struck, then very carefully, Karon felt how he tried to sense the alien presence inside his own mind, clumsy attention focused in weak spurts, something the trickster easily avoided.

“Are you done yet? Because we should get on with the chase.”

Once again, the man flinched, and stared at Karon, not quite able to hide his fear. He barked something at Ella, and Karon could practically hear how he swallowed in response.

The conversation then took a turn into another dimension of uncomfortable entirely, and the two women flanking the leader squirmed visibly as the tension in the room rose with every uttered word.

Karon sighed while making a bored face. He then turned and walked over to one of the holographic displays, flashing a wide smile at the lone red-haired girl standing there.

She shrunk back when he approached, and somehow managed to blend into the background and still remain on the small platform at the same time. Karon rolled his eyes, then turned them to the display.

The red and green lights were shaped into moving geometrical patterns, somehow flowing into one another, creating symbols that appeared to be almost spontaneously growing without any discernible pattern.

Karon started hitting them randomly.

A choir of protests rose from around the room, carrying with it a hint of panic as the boss stalked over and grabbed Karon's shoulder before yanking him away from the console.

He growled something threateningly at Karon, and the trickster blinked rapidly with a look of innocence on his face.

“I was just trying to help, you know, since you seemed to be too busy arguing to do anything useful.”

The man's expression turned sour, and with anger rising in the man's aura like scarlet bile, he responded.

“The search is continuing at full capacity. The machines are tracking the whereabouts of any females under the age of thirty who fit the... profile of the victims.”

The amused glint in Karon's eyes fell away.

“So, let me get this straight... you're tracking young females who are virgins—and it is terribly creepy you can do that, by the way—and are now waiting for... what? That they drop off the radar and die?”

“In essence, yes.”

Karon stared dumbfounded at the man.

“Are you fucking insane, or just plain psychopathic? It's okay if you say yes, I've got history with both kinds.”

Apparently that was taking it too far, because the man shouted something, and the five closest people, barring Ella, pulled up the U-shaped devices that hung from the belts at their hips, and pointed them at Karon. With a melodramatic sigh, he held up his hands and reached out for Ella's mind.

“Can you do something about this?”

“What did you do!?”

“Called your boss insane for waiting on some other girl to get killed.”

Ella's mental groan was impressive. “He will never forgive that. I was already in trouble for bringing you back here, and your display of magic isn't helping me convince him you could be an asset.”

“Uhh, isn't it my ability to use magic that makes me an asset?”

“Yes, but we need to control you; otherwise you don't count as an asset, according to the scriptures. If you're uncontrolled, then you're... a threat.”

Karon groaned with an annoyed look on his face, then shook his head firmly.

“Looks like we'll have to do this one solo.”

“We were gonna ditch these clowns eventually, anyway,” a dry voice rose from inside his mind.

“So, should we do this Rambo style, or try something more subtle?”

“You could just reveal that we're a soul eater. That boss dude would probably shit himself in fear.”

“And then they'd make me a priority target over Leti.”

“They're going to do that, anyway; well, not a priority over, but we will definitely make the wanted list.”

“Okay then, Rambo style.”

“You are an inspiration for tricksters everywhere.”

A nasty, crooked grin split Karon's face, and his eyes turned to the elderly man that would act as commander for the lot of them, the one who considered it perfectly acceptable to sacrifice young women if it meant staying within his comfort zone.

“And here I thought I was supposed to be the morally ambiguous one.”

“We're having a bad day, that's all.”

A growl rose slowly in the back of Karon's throat.

“And now these people are about to have one, too.”

The blue eyes of the leader flickered uncertainly when he heard the growl issue from Karon, despite that the trickster was still holding his hands up in surrender. With a last smile Karon reached into Ella's mind, and sent an apologetic feeling to him. Then he vanished.

A shocked cry issued forth from the people in the room, and at a bark from the commander, the brandished weapons fired blue charges that screeched with electrical power. The projectiles sailed through the air, and eventually impacted on the walls where they stuck in sticky blobs of glowing blue, not one finding purchase with their unseen target.

Karon chuckled as he made his way towards the elevator. When he pressed the glowing display, the doors opened with a soft whirr, and instantly blue projectiles came flying into it, filling the small crystalline chamber with the sticky goo.

Waiting patiently for the barrage to end to the left of the elevator, Karon observed the people inside the room—the fury of the commander, the uncertain looks present on the goons, and Ella's conflicted expression.

When they finally stopped firing into the elevator, Karon quickly stepped inside, careful not to touch the goo, and pressed the bottom symbol on the display inside. The doors quickly slid shut, and the elevator went downwards with a silent hum, giving Karon one last look at the shocked faces of the people he'd just evaded.

“That wasn't exactly Rambo.”

“No, because that part comes now that they've probably sounded some kind of alarm and we need to deal with anyone that gets in our way.”

“Good, you had me worried you'd solve this without violence for a second.”

“Since when has that ever worked?”

The elevator descended smoothly until it stopped, and the doors opened up to the walkway Karon had arrived from. The air outside smelled faintly of oil and metal, and the charged air made the hair on his arms stand up.

Almost the second the elevator opened up, five of the metal-clad guardians standing outside raised their weapons and fired into it, forcing an invisible Karon to fling himself out onto the ground. He crawled forward until he reached the crescent line of trigger-happy cops, and pulled up into a crouch right underneath the man standing in the middle.

With a swift motion, Karon sprang up and grabbed hold of both the man's hands, turning them and the weapon up into the air, before completing the movement by striking the mans chin with an elbow from below. The uppercut caught him off-guard, and he fell back unconscious.

The other four, two flanking Karon on each side, reacted with admirable speed, bringing their weapons to bear at the invisible presence. In response, Karon crouched down once again, a smile finding its way to his lips as the projectiles whizzed past him, narrowly passing by the guards opposite one another. He stretched out both arms towards his opponents, and the field cloaking him dropped as the electrical charge surged out from his hands, striking all four of the assailants—

And harmlessly dispersing across their blue-black armor.

“Uh-oh.”

Four of the U-shaped devices pointed down at the now-visible Karon, and although the featureless helmets hid their faces, he could practically feel their smug smiles.

A split second to gather energy, then the projectiles struck him, searing his flesh with a sizzling sound. The bolts stuck to him, and the wave of pain caused white dots of light to appear and dance in Karon's field of vision.

He sank down to the ground hissing, and the four guards ceased firing, spreading out in a circle with their weapons still aimed at him unwavering.

“Not very Rambo-like, but maybe they'll give you a gold star for effort.”

“I'm not done yet!”

The men surrounding him had their attention fixed on his prone shape, waiting for any sign of further resistance, waiting for him to do something physically.

Instead, Karon reached into their auras, sinking into their minds and bridging them to himself. Once upon a time, it would have been far beyond his ability to share his mind with four others all at once.

Once upon a time.

He flowed into them like black oil, filling their minds with his presence, opening up cracks in their mental defenses. The men started swaying drunkenly, a haze coming over their senses as their brains tried to handle the sudden surge of new input by shutting out more and more of it.

Karon bypassed it easily, then allowed the men to feel only what he felt, the pain still surging through him as the currents of the bolts kept on racking his body.

The men screamed in unison and dropped their weapons, falling to their knees while cradling their heads, no doubt pounding as pain they didn't actually feel were forced upon them. The sensation alone would have been hard to deal with, but together with the trauma caused by trying to understand how they could be feeling it, when their body didn't even register it in the first place, was too much.

And besides, Karon knew pain intimately. The men, not so much.

One by one, they fell silent and dropped to the ground as unconsciousness finally took them into its blissful embrace. With a groan Karon stood up, and cleared off the sticky bolts still sticking to his clothes.

“Maybe we should invest in some armor like them.”

“What, and sound like Trixie walking around, squealing and unable to sneak worth a damn? No thanks.”

“Just a suggestion.”

“Leave the armor thing to the tin man patrol, here. Our mind is our armor.”

He walked over to one of the unconscious men, and gently kicked him a few times. The impact made a soft chiming sound as his boot struck the metal. Then, Karon held out his arms in open invitation.

“You got trickster'd, bitch! What now?”

In answer, a blue bolt whizzed past Karon's left ear, and the trickster turned to see eight more of the guards running towards him. The walkway had cleared almost entirely of people, and what few remained were firmly pressing themselves towards the buildings, trying to make themselves appear as small as possible.

The walkway they all stood on was suspended high into the air, and Karon had been unable to see the ground when he had first passed by with Ella, as a mist rose to cover the area a few floors below.

“Hey, I wanna try something.”

“Fuck, that can't be good.”

“The atmosphere here is charged to the max with those rod things.”

“And?”

“Seems a shame not to use it.”

Something flowed up from the depths of Karon's mind- no, not mind, but deeper. An instinct borne in the cauldron that Karon's soul had turned into, the chaotic puzzle pieces that were the energy of the beings he had devoured shaped itself into a flash of inspiration, as memories and powers joined into a new understanding.

In the depths of what had been destroyed and devoured, something formed, and was created in response to Karon's need.

The trickster cackled madly as he rushed to the edge of the walkway and threw himself off of it. He sailed through the air, his laughter spreading outwards as he fell down, and the mist devoured him.

As he fell, he reached out into the world around him, up into the air above the tall spires, where energy blossomed and discharged in thunder and light. There were layers of heat pulsating throughout the sky above the clouds, and the complexity of the intermingling forces was vast.

Karon drew upon it all.

Electricity surged into him with a thunderclap, and it felt like several lightning strikes were unleashed into him all at the same time, but nothing but a faint nimbus of light appearing around him could be seen.

The power built, and kept on building as he fell. A buzzing rose to fill his ears, and colors Karon had never seen before seemed to bleed out into the world. Falling through the air, the adrenaline and rushing wind blended with the energy to create a cocktail screaming inside Karon's head in ecstasy.

His body felt like it was dissolving, becoming more and more like the air and energy surrounding him. Gradually, Karon's descent slowed, until he wasn't falling anymore, but floating through the mist. His red robe fluttered in the wind, spreading out to cover his arms like billowing wings, and his cackling laughter grew to sound more like the shrieking of a bird.

He wasn't shapeshifting; that was an arduous process that took hours, and involved systematic shutting-down of the sensations of the body as it was broken down and reshaped itself. No, this was something else entirely. Karon's body didn't change; it dissolved, until he appeared almost translucent, a half-spirit covered in a blood-colored robe, amber eyes glowing as his head snapped from side to side, seeing something blind to ordinary eyes.

Out of the mist, the ground suddenly rose to greet him, and as soon as Karon's feet touched the dark soil, the energy discharged into the earth with a wrenching that left Karon feeling hollow.

He staggered, momentarily dazed as his ordinary senses returned to him, and the world steadied itself.

“What the fuck was that?”

“I don't know... it just... felt right.”

“Yeah, I kinda noticed. Still, don't do shit like that again.”

“What? Afraid, or something?”

“Did those bolts do something to our head? Brain damage, maybe.”

“No, I just feel great. That felt great.”

“Yeah, so what now?”

Karon looked around. There was nothing in sight, as the mist thickened into an impenetrable soup after a few meters in every direction. The ground he stood on was hard soil, black dirt with small glimmers of loose rocks.

He furrowed his brow and brought a hand up to massage his head. There was still a faint buzzing in his ears, and the tips of his fingers tingled. He wasn't sure what he had just done, as it had been a thing of instinct. He hadn't forced something, it was more like...

“I let go, and allowed it to happen.”

“Maybe you shouldn't do it again. This was unexpected, and could be disruptive.”

“Disruptive to what? It's not like we got anything big planned. We need to deal with Leti, but we're not exactly engaged in anything else at the moment.”

“I'm just saying, the way things have gone for us the last few years, maybe some caution would be wise unless we want to find ourselves in even deeper shit than now. Or have you forgotten just how much has happened in the last decade?”

“I see your point.”

“Good, so what now?”

Karon turned his eyes upwards, but the mist was just as thick in every direction but down. With a sigh Karon kicked at some of the dirt, then tilted his head and looked down at it curiously.

“I might have an idea.”

“More impromptu sky-diving?”

“No, this dirt is pretty loose.”

“And?”

“And it's pretty perfect for drawing symbols, and I happen to remember the ones Ella described Leti using, the ones Solomon said were the real deal.”

“Fuck, no! We are not summoning a demon!”

“What else are we going to do? We've got nothing to try and divine Leti's location with, and even if we had the freaky atmosphere might interact with the attempt in a weird way. If Leti has sacrificed almost a hundred virgins to this demon, it seems unlikely it wouldn't at least have sensed it, even if it chose to ignore it.”

“Maybe, but what makes you think this demon won't squish us if we do actually manage to summon it?”

“Because,” Karon grinned. “I'm a pretty butterfly.”

The description for the symbols was still fresh in Karon's mind, and he draw them on the ground with his feet, dragging them through the dirt firmly. It took time, and as he worked, he felt himself beginning to understand them, how the lines moved into one another, transmitting forces, instructions and information. Finally, he completed the sigil, and took a few steps back to look at his handiwork.

It would work, he was certain of it. Whether the demon would appear or not was another matter, but the symbolism itself was ironclad. All it needed now was a spark to get it going.

“Here we go.”

“Wanna guess who I'm blaming if this thing obliterates us?”

Karon reached out with his hands towards the sigil, and a purple light shone from them, striking the symbols with an almost tender force.

The sigil lit up instantly, and it was like a crack appeared as the energy spread, not outwards, but inwards—as if it was reaching through the very fabric of reality, into another place.

The light kept on shining for half a minute, then faltered, and finally went out. Nothing had appeared within the sigil.

“Well, it was worth a shot.”

“What is this? A trickster in need of aid? And so in keeping with the foolish ways of your kin, you call upon me. How amusing.”

Karon spun around to see a shape emerge from the mist. It appeared like a human, dressed in a dark coat, buttoned up in a strict fashion, with black suit pants and shirt, and a blood-red tie the same color as Karon's own robe. The demon appeared bald with skin the color of tea, and green eyes with no whites looked at him curiously, red reptilian slits dividing them into half orbs.

It kept watching, unblinking, until Karon bowed his head and spoke, a faint trembling present in his voice.

“I called on you because I am in need of your help,” he said.

The demon blinked then, slowly, but remained silent.

Karon felt sweat starting to gather on his forehead, and quickly continued. “There is a man, killing innocents, sacrificing virgin girls to try and gain your favor; to summon you, and convince you to give him power by joining with him in possession.

The lips of the demon turned upwards into a faint smile. “And why should it bother me what one human does to another? He may know my name, but that grants him no power over me. There are many who call out to me, who perform deeds in my name, thinking it pleases me. What would they feel, if they were to find out that their deeds and hopes mean nothing, and does nothing, I do wonder.”

Karon cleared his throat. “Perhaps there's no reason for you to care right now, but the people of this world have taken this seriously, and they know your name. When they find Leti, they will most likely decide they should summon you, to trap or even destroy you, to keep this from happening again.”

The demon's smile turned into a grin as its eyes flared with a fiery light, and Karon looked queasy. There was a shivering energy slowly spreading out from the demon; energy that spoke of an alien nature that could never be truly defined.

“Why should that bother me? Another flock of apes busy chattering, expelling air in sounds that hold little meaning. Lone candles flickering in the gale of the world they inhabit, clinging to the skin of a planet all the while thinking themselves more than simple parasites.”

“This planet has power, and they have tamed it; you can sense it, surely. They will use that power against you,” Karon insisted.

“That would be amusing. But they might as well try and assail the heavens, for all the good it will do them. Is this all you have to say? You would risk calling me, armed only with pleads that even you find unconvincing?”

“I'm a pretty butterfly, I'm a pretty butterfly, I'm a pretty—”

“Butterflies do not entice me. Try again,” the demon said.

“Oh fuck, oh, fuck, oh fuck.”

“I'm afraid that does not entice me either, and I am in the wrong form for that with your preferences,” the demon smiled.

“I... I need your help. Surely it wouldn't take much for you to—”

“Mortals. So small and ignorant, hands eagerly grasping for everything you take as precious. It is an artful irony, and I am a big fan of irony. You see something greater than you, and shudder, insisting that the only way your answers and deeds can have value is if the rest of creation bows to your importance. There is an immeasurable hunger within the mortal shell for immortality, for eternity, and that is the greatest irony of all; but you can't see that, and so the spiral ever carries mortal struggles, along with the muted laughter of gods and demons alike.”

Karon's mouth had turned dry, and he opened his mouth to speak, but found himself unable to utter a word. His voice stolen by a mere glance from the demon, and it grinned at him before continuing.

“I did not come here to answer the call of the one who calls himself 'Nagrosh the Dark'. He does not interest me. But you, trickster... you interest me.”

Karon felt a cold spread throughout his body at the fierce attention he felt focused upon him. A mind that seeped into his very being and picked it apart, undressing his soul with careless ease.

“You struggle as all mortals do, but your struggle is almost... unique, for there is a possibility, a road growing from within yourself. Destiny.”

It took Karon a moment to realize the demon had not spoken the last word out loud.

“Your mind is as open to me as any others, and you can not hide from me what you would from them. With every choice you make, a foundation is laid. Twin paths you carry within yourself, and there are others, who invest their greedy hopes in you, while at the same time fearing what you could become.”

Karon started trembling. The demon's voice sunk into him like barbed wires, wrapping itself around his mind.

“Questions burn within your shell, and you can respond only with half-formed answers. Voices whisper, and rise with each choice made, power growing, growing, growing... what can be born from such things, I wonder. But perhaps you would rather dispense with the trappings of destiny, roam free without burdens and murky waters waiting for you? What does it mean to be a trickster? Do you know the answer to that question, or do you carry it still? Can you see the truth, or is the lack thereof the answer itself?”

“What do you want?!”

“To observe, nothing more... but you called me here, so now I must also act. Mendax Karon Bellum; there are two paths within that name, as the meaning of the name is not yet clear? Or did you think all those who heard it actually knew what it meant? They didn't, no one does, for you haven't made that choice yet... it is the irony of destiny. To leave such events, such crossroads of change into the hands of mortals. Is it mercy? Or is it just another experiment? It is amusing, either way. The power of a god, free will, wielded by a mortal who does not even know himself... I could not ask for better entertainment.”

“I just wanted help—”

“Of course you do. You struggle ever forward- but what do you struggle for? The questions burn, and the answers beckon as destiny is built, and the possibility of choice is born. But make yourself all lies, and truth will break you. There are laws, trickster, and your kind is like a parasite feeding on them, exploiting the works that moves the universe, and which allow it to survive another day. Has it ever occurred to you that, like you mortals, there is no certainty in this existence, that the universe itself is struggling to survive? But it does not matter to you, little trickster, does it?”

“I...”

“No. You are a rebel, and no rules will constrain you, isn't that right? Destiny will carry you forward, and you will do your best to spit in its eye, so much like your patron. But your choice is not yet made, two paths you have before and within you, and I look forward to seeing which one you'll take.”

“Always bet on black, once you go black you'll never go back.”

A surge of amusement flowed into Karon, and something like a reptilian hiss cackled in a version of laughter.

“Oh, you have no idea the truth hidden within those words, trickster. Perhaps you will one day see it. And if you finally do, then you will know that no joke can shield you. I know the name of your true enemy, and it is one all beings, from god to man, fear facing.”

“You speak of my destiny. Will—”

“No, I don't want to tell you. The truth means nothing to a trickster after all, isn't that right? It is your nature to deceive, or so I've heard. But whom do you deceive, and for what? So many questions, and so many answers. I don't want to spoil the... surprise.”

“Then will you at least help me with Leti?” Karon felt some of his strength returning as the demon's grip on his mind eased.

“That depends. What will you do?”

“I'll...”

Karon stared down at the dark ground, a sickened expression on his face.

“I'll kill him... I'll... devour him.”

The demon's amusement spread like a blooming warmth through his mind.

“So you surrender to necessity? You choose to give in to the path you feel must be taken, the demands of justice, of vengeance?”

“I must."

The demon hissed in laughter out loud, and its presence within Karon's mind faded.

“Very well then, trickster. A choice has been made, and the path is built with every one you make.”

“How will you help me?” Karon frowned, ignoring the chill at the demon's words.

“I will send you to him. I can feel his presence even now, reaching out for me with a hopeless yearning. You will face him, and his soul, you will take it for your own. Is that right?”

Karon nodded, his shoulders sagging as if a great burden was placed on them.

The transition was effortless, and the world began to blur. Before he completely disappeared, Karon heard the demon speak inside his mind a final time.

“I wonder, what kind of victory is that?”

The world settled into a dark haze, then abruptly, Karon found himself staring at a metal door, inserted into a metal wall that looked the same as the tall spires of the walkways. But this one stood on the ground, and going by the mist surrounding him, Karon guessed he was at the foundation of one of the tall buildings.

He moved his hand over the door, and briefly a symbol flared up on it with a harsh red light. Karon snorted and shook his head.

“Always the amateur, Leti, even unto the end.”

With a burst of energy from Karon's hand, the symbol shattered into sprinkles of light that fell to the ground, and died out. Stepping forward, Karon grabbed the bar situated across the middle of the door, and pulled outwards.

The door opened with a shriek of metal, flakes of rust drifting down from the hinges inside, and Karon plunged into the dark corridor it opened into. Inside, there was just a faint line of light running along the corners, giving just enough to make out simple shapes.

At the end of the corridor another doorway opened up on his left, and when Karon stepped across the threshold, he felt the emission of energy in the room. It was big, with metallic boxes stacked upon one another, marking it as some kind of storage facility. In the middle of the room an area had been cleared, and there now stood an altar with two candles lit upon it, their light framing Leti as he stood before it, waiting for Karon.

The trickster walked forward slowly, as if measuring each step he took. His hands flicked out to the side now and again, as if grasping for something. He stopped when he was almost within reach of Leti, and the two of them stood observing one another, waiting for the silence to be broken.

“So you've come to stop me once again,” Leti snarled.

Karon nodded, a pained expression flashing across his face. “I need to, Leti. This time you've—”

“My name is NAGROSH!” he roared at the trickster.

The words echoed across the vast room, and left a deafening silence in its wake, broken only by Karon's tired sigh. “Yes, I think you've finally become Nagrosh the Dark. Congratulations.”

Leti appeared taken aback, then his mouth twisted into a crooked smile.

“Yes, and now I get to stare into your eyes and watch you die.”

The sorcerer made a yanking motion with his hand, as if pulling a lever or rope. Nothing happened.

Karon shook his head once more. “Nagrosh, you might have earned that name now, but you're still as dumb as Leti was. Within two steps I had already sensed your traps, within four I had already identified what kind they were. When I had taken eight steps I had started working on them, and within twelve steps I had unraveled them. I now stand two steps away from you, Leti. Two steps, that is all I need to end you, so before you do something stupid, ask yourself... can you say the same?”

Nagrosh stared at the trickster as he dismissed his plans as if they were nothing. Rage burned within the sorcerer's eyes as the trickster foiled his plans once more—spoke to him like he was nothing but a child.

With a furious cry Nagrosh reached inside his robe and withdrew a dagger, then lunged forward. The dagger sank into Karon's chest—

Then passed through the illusion harmlessly, as the sorcerer staggered forward.

Hands reached out from behind and grabbed the sorcerer's head, then slammed him down to the ground. The dagger clattered away, and Nagrosh stared up in a daze. Karon went down and placed a knee on his chest. The sorcerer weakly reached up with his arms and tried to push him away, but Karon only pressed down on him harder, forcing a squeal of protest from Nagrosh.

“No more chances. I've tried so many times, to give you another chance. I have showed mercy, and all you've done is cause more damage—and now, death. You've gone too far this time, and I can't... I'm sorry Le- Nagrosh, but I can't let you go this time. No more mercy.”

“You've shown me nothing, trickster! Every time we have met, you have mocked me, and I've not seen any mercy in your eyes, but only how much you despise me!”

“No more chances, Leti,” Karon said, tears gathering in his eyes. “I can't save you—some people are broken and can't be saved.”

The sorcerer screamed in rage, then in terror as Karon reached into him. Wounds opened up inside the trickster's soul, awakened by the pain, the rage and regret that howled inside Karon and Nagrosh alike. The sorcerer had nothing to resist with; he had long ago lost his will.

The sorcerer's howl echoed throughout the room, then, it died out.

Karon didn't move as tears fell down on the dried husk that was all that remained of Leti, the man who had sought for years to become Nagrosh, and finally succeeded.

Memories flowed inside Karon, and this once, he did nothing to suppress them. Leti's life flashed before his mind's eye, and he witnessed how he had grown from child to man, and then how the man's hopes had turned to despair, his pride to self-loathing, as everything he did was met by failure. And finally, how he had met a trickster, who looked at him exactly like he had come to look at himself.

Karon felt the final resolve of the man, the yearning to make those eyes look at him any other way. With pain or fear, rage or pride, it didn't matter. Just as long as they didn't pity him.

And then, a final memory, as he looked up at the trickster, and saw sadness in his eyes. Sadness, and hunger- then nothing more.

The memories sank down into his soul, and the essence of Leti Hakonaris, grandson of the witch Amygda, joined itself to the river flowing within Karon's wounded soul. Then the trickster rose, and left the corpse behind.

It was just a shell. What he had killed, he would carry with him.

                                             ****************************************

Karon sat at the bar. Two empty bottles stood in front of him, and he was well on his way emptying a third. On the other side stood the bartender, cleaning a glass as usual. Trixie had been waiting for him to return, but once he had, it only took one look at him for her understand that he didn't want her company.

There was no truer sign of how deeply she loved him, than when she turned around and went out of the tavern without uttering a single word.

Not needing to ask for it, the bartender had provided Karon bottle after bottle—of what, the trickster had no idea, and didn't care. They seemed to be doing their job, and it hadn't taken long before a dulling numbness had spread throughout his body, leaving only a sickened feeling that went far beyond the physical.

Karon hiccuped, then his eyes grew wide as a realization struck him, and he chuckled darkly.

“I finally... I finally figured it out,” he slurred.

The bartender stopped his polishing, and turned his eyes to Karon.

Too drunk to react to the attention, and what it meant, he continued.

“'What is the greatest victory'? Well, I know now: it's to reach into someone, and make them destroy themselves. Leti was always a fool, but it was meeting me that tipped him over the edge, because,” Karon snorted, “because of the way I looked at him. I sent Leti on a mad quest with a glance, and when he finally broke completely, I arrived to take whatever was left of him, and tear it to pieces. I understand now—the greatest victory is to make someone destroy themselves.”

“You're wrong."

Karon blinked, and red-shot eyes focused on the bartender.

“The greatest victory,” the bartender said in a soft voice, “is not to destroy someone at all. It is to understand them, to reach into them. The greatest victory is to take an enemy, and show them a better way.”

“I can't fix a broken person. I can't save someone that's lost,” Karon insisted, his voice cracking.

The bartender looked into his eyes compassionately.

“No, you can't.”

Karon's mouth opened as he struggled to understand, his drunken mind grasping for even a semblance of logical reasoning, but failing miserably. So instead, the trickster snorted, and shook his head.

“The demon was right,” he said, then took another swig of the bottle. “I don't know anything. I don't even know what it means to be a trickster- I thought I did, but I was wrong. It's like all I can do is destroy people, completely. Shredding their souls and eating the scraps... a vulture feasting on a carcass. No mercy, from Discord to Leti, I can't do anything else, and I don't even know why. And I don't know where I'm supposed to find answers.”

The bartender met Karon's eyes, then looked over his shoulder, and nodded towards something behind him.

The trickster turned around, and saw a human-shaped form, made entirely out of smoke, with fire flickering throughout the haze. Two yellow eyes with red, reptilian slits focused on Karon, and the presence sent a shiver of recognition through him.

“Eldros?” he croaked.

Within the trickster's mind, a voice responded.

“Greetings to thee, I come on behest of one in need. Equestria is calling for its champion. Wilt thou heed the call?”

Karon stared at the shape for what seemed like an eternity. Then, he turned around and grabbed the bottle, putting it to his mouth and turning it upside down. The liquid ran down his throat, setting his insides ablaze. When the bottle ran empty, he put it down gingerly on the bar, and looked at Eldros, smiled a crooked smile, and hiccuped.

“Well, why the hell not?”