Ivak’s POV

Ivak watched Yuer’s refined features as they creased into a multitude of emotions, ranging from confusion, bewilderment to discomfort. Eventually, his beautiful countenance smoothed itself back into a its regular calm and smooth expression. He walked toward the table and Ivak noticed how his slender hands gripped the hands of the dining chair a bit too tightly before taking a seat. Yuer had yet to meet his eyes.

Ivak didn’t wish to make him more uncomfortable that he already appeared to be. From what little interactions they had together, Ivak understood that the younger youth’s earlier vulnerability wasn’t a common occurrence and the latter probably still felt unsettled and off balance around him. The older youth had the feeling that Yuer wasn’t the type of person who liked to feel weak and emotionally bare around others. Something about his currently stiff shoulders reminded him of a young wounded Kersasi wolf biting down its canines so it wouldn’t admit to being hurt. A bit of distance, that was what Yuer needed. And so Ivak took the furthest chair from his and sat down, arms folded over his chest.

He gestured to the plates, “Meat stew, some steamed vegetables and freshly baked bread.” He smirked, “All courtesy of His Majesty of course.”

His remark had the intended effect and Yuer snorted. He took a silver spoon and started to eat. His movements were measured and methodical, no unnecessary sounds and no wasted gestures. Oddly enough, Yuer’s controlled eating posture reminded Ivak of Her Majesty, the Rezna.

Ivak pushed away the strange thought and broached, “Your personal servant, the one named Sakina, came over while you were sleeping. She meant to inform you that your Valquari servant, the little boy, has awaken and eaten already. She said he was doing well.”

A small smile, so faint Ivak could barely make it out, graced Yuer’s lips before disappearing. In an even albeit low voice, he replied. “Good.”

“I’ve seen to him while you rested. He is a slight thing, quite underdeveloped in comparison to children his age. He also bears marks of physical abuse. I take it you rescued him from somewhere. The Shefrin market, probably?”

Yuer didn’t reply instantly. He took his time chewing his food before clarifying, “No.”

He then put down his spoon and rose to his feet. He walked to the walls of the room and brushed his fingers against them. A look of pure pleasure flashed momentarily across his lovely looking face. At that moment, Ivak realized the younger youth was in the middle of conjuring his Echo, or more correctly one of his Echoes. Eventually, he finished what he set out to accomplish and returned to his meal at the table. After a moment, as if he suddenly remembered Ivak’s question, he supplied. “The Undercity.”

Ivak’s eyes which were glued to Yuer’s smooth eating movements snapped to the younger youth’s face. A look of surprise on his face, “You have been to the Undercity?”

For the first time since he woke up, Yuer looked up and met Ivak’s gaze. He chuckled softly, “Yes. I also killed one of the Shakoura’s sub-chiefs.”

Ivak, who was about to fall off his seat, managed to regain his balance at the last moment, “You did what?” He couldn’t help but glance warily around the room.

Yuer must have understood the look in his eyes because he reassured him in an unbothered tone, “I have already sealed off the room with my Earth Echo. Unless there is someone whose Earth Echo is above middle-level about the residence, no one can hear us.”

Relieved, Ivak leaned his arms over the table, giving the younger youth his undivided attention. “Tell me more.”

Yuer began to explain, “Seeing as there is a blood debt between me and your eldest brother, I have to make him pay for it but for that to happen, firstly I need to cut off his wings, one by one. I had sensitive information which hinted to me the possible connection between Jarak and this particular Shakoura sub-chief codenamed Lone Eye. The message stated that Lone Eye was serving as the link between Jarak and a certain faction within the Shakoura order. My understanding is that there is a deal of sorts between the two parties. This faction would amass support and resources from within the Shakoura in order to help Jarak achieve his ends and in exchange, he will facilitate their takeover of the order, pushing the old and core members of the Shakoura for their own. So in brief, Jarak wanted hidden underlings who would do his dirty work for him and these people wanted someone powerful enough to make their goal a reality.”

Yuer stopped for a moment, letting his words sink in Ivak’s mind. He took a sip of his water cup and continued, “So, I disguised myself and slipped out of the Ayaseen residence and into the Undercity. I had prior knowledge of Lone Eye’s codename and that allowed me to slip in easily. At first, I thought to either bribe or blackmail him but when I got to his office and saw him…” He cut himself off, a muscle working in his jaw. His blue eyes caught the light, glinting with cold anger, “When I saw him seating on his chair, enjoying the show of his men as they raped and terrorized a little boy, I lost control of my Echo and killed him.”

Yuer swallowed. His cold and hard gaze snapped to Ivak. “This is the sort of scum with whom the esteemed Malhada chooses to consort. I guess it is true when they say birds of feathers do indeed flock together.”

A sense of something cold and heavy sunk itself within the bottom of Ivak’s gut. “He…”

He didn’t need to finish his question when Yuer spoke, a sharp and vicious smile painted across his faintly rosy lips. “Oh, yes. He does.”

Ivak’s mind reeled. He had always known how horrible of a person Jarak was underneath his genteel mask. He was arrogant, vain and obsessed with power. When they were children, he never spared Ivak any semblance of kinship. He bullied him often and made it appear as if Ivak was jealous of him which would earn him the scorn of their sire and the rest of the clan. The elders would look at him and Ivak could see it in their eyes, their disdain for him and the words they wouldn’t say to his face. ‘Oh look at the son of the Shefrin whore taking it out on the young Malhada because he would never amount to anything, how pitiful.’

That was what Jarak had always been in Ivak’s eyes, a mere self-absorbed bully. But now, Yuer was telling him something he never thought his eldest brother would stoop to…forcing himself upon the unwilling. Holy Mahatir!

A jagged and especially uneven laugh came out of Yuer’s mouth, snapping him out of his stupor. Ivak looked up and found blue eyes upon him; something in their depth chilled him to the bones.

“He also had you fooled. You thought him merely a bully: a typically vain and arrogant firstborn Reznal.” Yuer shook his head, still chucking, “Oh if only that was true. Your eldest brother is a monster in human skin, Ivak. Not even his own parents who gave life to him would ever know the extent of the nightmare they brought upon this world. No one knows the real him, not even his sire and mother. Not even you who think you know him. No one does.”

Ivak’s hands unconsciously tightened around the wood of the dining table. He had no idea how Yuer knew what he was talking about but something about his eyes, about his voice and his face spoke of truthfulness, of someone who had intimate knowledge of what he was describing. Some who had….lived it?

Ivak froze. A horrible thought started to take form in the back of his mind. His eyes widened then narrowed into two slits of hard steel. His tongue felt as if it was knotted in his mouth. He slowly looked up and pinned his eyes on Yuer, who still had that broken and bitter smirk hanging off the edges of his lips.

Yuer noticed his gaze. The smirk fell off his face. He swallowed and shifted his eyes away.

Something unseen yet as sharp and violent as a black steel dagger stabbed Ivak’s right through the chest, causing his breath to stutter. A gravely low and hoarse voice that Ivak could barely recognize as his own said, “Did he…to you? He wouldn’t dare. No, he wouldn’t.”

Yuer refused to meet his eyes. Instead, he let out a small and weak chuckle as he denied, “How could he? I’m the Alikana-marked. Of course, he wouldn’t dare.”

A ball of something akin to the Nrai’s famed black fire exploded within Ivak’s insides. He jerked around without conscious thought and flung himself violently against the wall, banging his head against its cold surface. His open palms smacked the wall with great force causing the sound to reverberate across the entire room. A brutal storm raged within him.

He wouldn’t dare. You say he wouldn’t dare but you won’t look me in the eye as you say it.

Ivak’s chest rose and fell in alarmingly rapid succession. Something dark and murderous boiled underneath his skin and his body struggled to contain it. It wanted to gash out of his very flesh, to maim and to hurt, to wrap the world in a veil of blood. It wanted to cut Jarak to thousands pieces and sew him back together just so that Ivak could do it all over again.

Your sire forced himself on my mother and your mother burned her alive and now….and now, you lay your hands on my bonded? You dare to lay them on him?! You wouldn’t dare. You wouldn’t fucking dare, Jarak Reznali! You insidious piece of shit! You wouldn’t!

Ivak’s jaws were ringing with pain but he paid them no attention. His vision began to darken while his rage and hatred continued to boil within him, scalding him from the inside.

Yuer’s POV

Yuer, who was watching Ivak from afar, started to worry. His worry turned into full blown concern as his gaze fell on the veins on Ivak’s skin. They throbbed and shifted unnaturally, almost as if they had a life of their own. Their faint bluish color turned pitch black and the temperature in the room dropped significantly, almost as if it was heralding the arrival of winter. Blackness started to seep out of the ground and pool around Ivak’s feet. Like a serpent, it slithered upward, climbing his feet, sinking itself into his clothing, into his skin. The flowers within the room started to wither away one after another in a single instance.

Ripples like those upon a water surface appeared across the thin air of the room, disorienting Yuer’s sense of space. Something about them felt ominous and chilling, as if they were mouths of some invisible beast that sought to swallow this place whole. To Yuer, they felt oddly familiar as if he had seen them before. His third Echo which had been silent so far suddenly shifted within him and those eerie and grating voices started to sing and moan within his head. They hissed, cackled and laughed almost as if they were celebrating something.

((Ours! Ours!))

((He is singing! He is calling))

((Ours! Ours))

((Come to us! Return to us!))

Yuer was struck with an eerie sense of déjà-vu and he realized he heard this before. Yes, at the bookstore when he first met Ivak. His third Echo behaved just as strangely but he put it on the back of his mind, thinking it but another eccentricity of his unknown Echo.

Yuer’s heart thumped against his chest in an increasingly urgent manner. A sense of dread pooled in the pit of his stomach and some instinctive part of him told he had to act and he had to act now.

Yuer rushed toward the enraged Ivak who appeared to have lost his sense of time and place. Before he could reach him, something jetted out of him. Something he didn’t call out. Yuer felt something slick, cold and smooth wind itself around his neck. Its head eventually came before his eyes, making him take note of its empty and hollow sockets.

In a dissonant and yet weirdly familiar voice, the miniature serpent said, “Don’t listen to the voices in your head. They seek to drive out the Void in him and swallow it for themselves. He will be drained of his life force and die if they get what they want.”

Yuer who didn’t know whether to be confused or surprised, halted. He had so many questions he wanted to ask but Ivak’s well-being came first and he knew if he didn’t do something, an imaginable outcome could take place. “What do I do?”

The small shadowy creature answered, “The Void which was dormant within him has gone berserk. If it isn’t settled down, it will seek out to drain the life force everything it can reach, even himself. You are different. You also carry the Void within you and thus, you are the only one immune to his Void. Feed him your Earth or Light Echo, either Echo will do. I will keep the Harbingers at bay.”

Yuer didn’t need to be told twice. He threw himself at the seemingly unseeing and lost Ivak and wrapped his slender his arms around him. He slipped his hands underneath the older youth’s tunic and began to pour his Light Echo into his skin. The voices of his third Echo struggled and growled within his head as if they wanted to tear out of him. After a moment, they quieted down and the previously numbing pressure on Yuer’s mind eased. He focused his energy on ‘feeding’ Ivak’s his Light Echo and continued to do so relentlessly until the older youth sagged against him, asleep.

Ivak’s figure was too tall and heavy for Yuer to support on his own so the two of them naturally tumbled down to the floor with the unconscious Ivak cushioned by Yuer’s smaller and shorter body. Pain shot through the younger youth’s back but he chose to ignore it. He gingerly hauled his upper body up and gazed down at the sleeping Ivak who was sprawled all over his lap. His features were no longer creased in pain and rage but were rather serene. His breaths were soft and even and there was no sign of black shadowy substance around him. His veins no longer bulged and throbbed, looking natural. Relieved, Yuer sighed and couldn’t resist swiping away a black strand from the young man’s face. He took a moment, waiting for his previously furiously throbbing heart to calm down. Eventually, Yuer regained enough composure to address the elephant in the room. “What happened? And what are you?”

The small serpent which had disappeared at some point emerged once more from underneath one of Yuer’s nails. The younger youth was no longer surprised and came to the conclusion that this otherworldly creature resided somewhere on his own physical being and most likely his soul too.

It fixed its chillingly empty gaze upon Yuer and didn’t speak.

Yuer pushed, “You saved me before, from Cahail. I thought the voices in my head and you were one and the same, aren’t you?”

The creature finally spoke, “We are not. We are of the same source which is the Great Void but we bear different Wills.”

Yuer frowned and said in a low yet sharp voice, “Explain.”

“You and your people worship an entity called the Mahatir, do you not?”

Yuer nodded; face still etched in a frown.

“They call you her favorite child but have you ever seen her?”

Yuer bit down his lip and shook his head.

The small serpent slithered closer to his face. “That is because she doesn’t exist. None of the human gods, ancient or new, exist. Only the Great Void does. It is the womb that births everything and the tomb that buries everything. It is the core of an eternal cycle that never ends nor begins. The Great Void is a splintered entity with two Wills, two contrasting states of consciousness. The Harmonious Will which births life, peace, nature and the Destructive Will which seeks to tumble everything its counterpart builds. Since the inception of beingness, the two Wills have been locked in an endless war.”

The Serpent touched its forked tongue to Yuer’s cheek and the latter couldn’t stop the shiver that run up his spine. The touch was cold, far too cold to belong to a human or anything that was alive for that matter.

The creature continued, “What your people call the Divine Echo and believe to be a gift of their deity is in truth a force born out of the Harmonious Will. Things which are born of it are stable, coordinated and balanced and that is why what you call the Divine Echo has rules and attributes. The Destructive Will on the other hand, bears things which are only erratic, catastrophic, chaotic and lawless. The Void within your soul and this soul” The serpent turned its long neck in Ivak’s direction, “is of the Destructive Will. Unlike the Harmonious Will, things born of the former are gifted with a certain degree of sentience and that is to why you can hear them. Those voices inside your head are called Harbingers because they are a sentient manifestation of the Void which carries the Destructive Will. I, on the other hand, belong to the Harmonious Will and ought not to have sentience but because I fused myself into your soul when you died, I have subsequently become a part of you, colored by both Wills you carry which allowed me to form my own consciousness.”

Yuer listened intently to every word the serpent uttered. His mind raced to digest and break apart what was being explained to him. So, none of the gods were real and everything that existed good or bad hailed from this entity called the Great Void and this entity had two minds so to speak, one which was harmonious and responsible for life and order in the world and the other was destructive and responsible for calamities and chaos.

Two wills, the serpent called them and they had been fighting against each other since the beginning of existence which meant one of them inserted this Void into him and was the reason he was resurrected. But why would such a lofty and otherworldly entity concern itself with a mere mortal’s life or death? More importantly, was he going to slowly go insane because of this so-called Destructive Will which was infused into him with his newfound Echo…Void or whatever one should call it? And if that was the case, what about Ivak?

The serpent appeared to follow his gaze to the unconscious Reznal, who was peacefully resting on Yuer’s lap. It shifted its supple and sinuous body his way as it commented, “You are more fortunate that he is. You care both Wills. The Harmonious Will with your Divine Echo and the Destructive Will with your Void. The two manifestations will constantly repel each other, therefore your consciousness will not be affected and your sense of self will remain intact. He, on the other hand, carries only the Void within him. Eventually, it will eat him whole. But before it does that, it will eat away at the whole world.”

Yuer who was gazing softly at Ivak, jerked, deeply startled. In an uneven and almost hushed voice, he asked, “What do you mean?”

The serpent returned his gaze and its empty appeared especially terrifying to Yuer as it said in its grated mockery of a human voice, “Who do you think the Dawaha was?”

Yuer unconsciously flinched, a sense of foreboding loomed over him, making him feel cold all of a sudden. “Who? Don’t you mean what?”

The serpent’s eyes although hollow, appeared almost pitying as they gazed at Yuer. Their empty depths seemed to lament his blissful ignorance. Eventually, it broke its silence by saying, “A mythical beast of old, the originator of all evil and an escaped Nightmare of the Nrai. But no, The Dawaha was none of these things. In fact, he was only a man. A man who lost control of the dormant Void within him which eventually eradicated his sense of self and took over him, mutating him into something which is only knew one thing: the desire to destroy. This young man, here, is the new cycle’s Dawaha. For now, he has you to feed him your Divine Echo but eventually, it won’t be enough and he will descend into inevitable madness, becoming a mindless tool of the Destructive Will. Such is this young soul’s fate. It appears your world has already reached its ending days, mortal child.”