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.

Next Chapter: The Great Game (Part 1) Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 14 Minutes