=Varith=

It's just me and father walking on a dirt road that leads to Garten, the nearest town. Mother had stayed behind to keep an eye on the house. Neither Svere or Gafrin came as father didn’t want them to run into the local Wraith that was posted at the town.

Father had also told me I had to stay in my “heavy” state (normal state for normal people). Apparently because that makes me look normal in the eyes of spirits, at least that's what they he told me. They had never even told me that I looked different to them in the first place.

[Slip of the tongue?]

Whatever the complications this was a good chance for me to learn more about the world in general. Honestly, it's pretty pathetic how I only know the very basics, actually, I don’t think I can claim to even know that. My parents haven’t really taught me much about the world in general, but they’ve been strangely in-depth when it comes to the Order, Wraiths, and Revenants.

[Do they want me to be one when I’m older?]

I know that Wraiths are pretty much the only ones capable of fighting Revenants evenly, which is what their job is, so I guess that works out. Also that they all come from the Order. The only organization in the world with the knowledge and means to make someone into a Wraith.

The entire extent of my knowledge really, makes me wonder if my parents just want to keep their freak son away from the world. I never even seen a map that goes beyond Garten. That's not a depressing thought at all. They told me the reason they stay so far from town is for the privacy but….

How they drag me inside whenever a traveler or merchant comes by. Always being careful to keep me away from town and other people. Makes me question whether or not they're telling me the truth. While thinking about it I lift my face, taking a glance at my father.

I get a face full of kicked up dirt pleasure, from yours truly. I grimaced and spit the grime back onto the dirt road. I turn my eyes upwards, lazily tracking clouds across the sky as we continue our steady walk.

[Why? Why are they going to such lengths to isolate me and why now are they suddenly taking me out?]

I pull my cloak's hood further over my eyes, mulling it over.

[I wish they wouldn’t hide so much from me...]

==

[Crowded...]

I struggled through the crowd,my food I’d bought cradled in my arms, protected against the crush of bodies. I made my way over to a fountain in the middle of the packed square, I sit down, holding up my precious cargo. My father once we had gotten into the town had tossed me a silver bit and left, leaving me to my own devices.

A little perturbed at his abruptness and willingness to ditch me like, I decided to make full use of my new found wealth.

Having skipped breakfast I had of course decided to attend to my grumbling stomach licking my lips I take a bite into it, I spit it out the next moment a rancid taste flooding my mouth.

[Disgusting.]

At first I thought that I’d been tricked, but looking at the same stand I saw many other customers walking away happy, none showing signs of revulsion as they would have if theirs had tasted as mine.

[I’m probably just not used to the area’s food. No, we may not live in town but we’re so far as to have developed a different palette.]

Tossing the unfinished food to the side I eyed the copper bits dangling at my belt.

[Never realized how much a silver bit really was.] Even buying a pouch for all the change hadn't put too much of a dent in it.

[I could at the least buy one of everything from the stalls with the amount of money I have left, surely they all wouldn’t be terrible. They all can’t taste terrible.]

Thrilled by the idea of more, less repulsive food, I too rise intending to make my way to another stall. Suddenly a shrill scream echoes through the square startling me. The entire crowd shifted, moving towards the source.

[Shouldn't we move away from the screaming?]

My interest peaked, I started to move with the crowd, making my way to the front of the group. Taking advantage of my small size I struggle through the press and stench of sweat covered bodies.

Moments later I stumble at the lack of resistance, finally having managed to break through the crowd. In-front of me is an uncovered wagon, on top of it lies a cage of iron. The cage glows with incandescence veins that wrap around the bars.

[W-what is that?]

The color, the feeling was similar to Gafrin’s and Svere’s, marking it as something sprit related. The web seems to emanate from a man who sits crouched atop the cage. His features and figure are obscured by a light blue cloak that trails behind him as the carriage moves.

Not wanting to lose sight I follow alongside, just a step away from the crowd that seems intent on staying exactly five steps away. I can even see six strands floating through the air, each one attached to a guard. Each guard, no their armor, seems to shine with the same light as the cage.

Intrigued as I am, I notice that it’s not the light show that everyone's interested in. In fact everyone seems completely ignorant of it, and are fully focused on the contents of the cage.

I turn my attention to the cage insides and freeze.

A bubbling mass of flesh sits in the middle of the cage. Continually it shifts, melts and reforms faster than I what I’m able to follow. Limbs, organs, and even faces flash by as it continues to change, never stopping. Maintaining the general shape of a human being.

[T-that looks just like those ‘things’ in my dreams.] A strange deformed creature kept ‘trapped’ by a Wraith. Even with my limited knowledge I know that it can be only one ‘thing’.

[A Revenant, and it looks just like the ones in my dreams. How is that possible?]

Coincidence, it has to be.

Glancing to my sides I can see many struggling to hold their food in, some unfortunately don’t seem able to in stark contrast to my stoic observations.

[I have been seeing them, fighting them even in my dreams for years.]

While my reaction is much milder than others I still feel my stomach turn at the sight of such a monstrosity. Curiously, and perhaps impulsively, I reach out and touch one of the bars, a small spark emitting at the contact.

It’s looking at me, even without a visible set of eyes I can tell, I can feel its attention. The constantly shifting flesh seems to slow down, faces appearing all over its body. Five, ten, thirty the number just keeps going up, and for the first time it horrifies me.

Men, women, the olden and even children’s faces are all gathered on its body in a gruesome amalgamation, competing for space on the Revenants body. All at once their expressions seems to twist, their mouths hanging open like a snakes.

It screams, and oh does it scream. A thing of absolute terror, a myriad of voices, every single one of them holding a soul tearing quality to it. Even the soldiers with their weapons and the Wraith's power back away to the edges of the crowd, or where the edge would have been had people not been tripping over each other to get away.

Still I feel it's attention, that this is all directed towards me, a challenge.

Then I feel it, a deep stirring behind my belly button, and it's angry, very angry. It boils upwards its own emotions bursting through my veins, drowning out any rational thought. It rears up at the challenge. It grabs control, forcing me forward towards the cage to make up for the ground I lost when I backpedaled. Both of my, it’s arms reach forward grabbing onto the cages bar, ignoring the angry sparks that it spits at us.

My arms are laced with a dark light that pulses in time to my heartbeat, an idle thought crosses my confused mind.

[Is my whole body like that?]

A sound then cuts through the Revenants own wail, crushing it under the sheer volume and power it contains.

That's when all hell broke loose.

=Wraith=

“haaah.”

Sighing I continue to circulate energy through the iron cage and nearby armor of the troops, a very tedious task. Should I stop for even a second I risk letting the Revenant loose.

That would be bad.

"Stop complaining and lets finish this job." Faad, my spirit, says, or rather thinks from behind me.

Sparing a few thoughts from my task I think back to the news we had received at through a normal messenger. What was this? The stone age?

”Really slows down communication when no one’s allowed to spirit walk.”

”Would you like to be the one to risk getting eaten even if we could?”

”Well no.... still….”

While I haven’t heard of any similar incidents a rumor seems to be going around. Some even whisper that Revenants from before the last decimation have reappeared. Although that one is not received as well by the general Wraith community, those that believe it are all being labeled as paranoid fools.

”What ever it is I’m happy as long we’re not the ones to find it.” A disturbance, a twitch in my senses.

[Something just touched the cage. A second later the Revenants wail sounds out. A small smile crosses my face at the crowds reaction.

[Hmmm?]

I focus on the lone figure who stands by the cage looking everything but scared, seemingly unfazed by the current events, alone now as everyone else had moved far away at this point.

"A kid? He’s tiny, how old is he? Nine, ten cycles?" I remark looking at his small size.

"However old, he is, he’s got more balls then mo-”

Like a flood his spirit flows outwards from his body suffocating me, crackling against my barrier that suddenly seemed very thin and then I heard it.

A sound of rage and pure certain hate, a promise of destruction and ruin should I not heed it.

I lose control unable to keep my bearings amidst such a thing.

The Revenant chose then to make it’s escape slamming into the cage. With none of my power feeding it the cage is no obstacle for it as it hits a second time easily parting the bars; destroying the cage.

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“Uurghh…. My damn head.”

Groaning I sit myself up, blearily trying to shake off the haze that seems to have descended on me after the fall. Looking around seeing the broken cage and no Revenant in sight. Thinking to the strange aura of the child earlier I start to stand only to stop at the sound of a second roar, similar to the first.

Startled, I turned to see the child still standing there, flushed and panting.

[Is t-that all spiritual energy?]

Seeing the pure energy that he exudes I’m amazed, that's not an amount even a mid-level Wraith like me would be able to put out.

[It seems strange though…… dar- oh shit, where’s Faad?]

Thankfully he seems to have already taken shelter in my body. If he hadn’t this much turbulent energy would have ripped him apart.

It’s then that the bo- ‘it’ notices me.

==

PR - Leon Das