Harsh winds and burning pressure, like a speck of life, plunged into the deep ocean. Guisei lingered in the dark. A sharp pain slithered through his system. His eyes opened wide at the darkness before him as the venom flowed through him. Despite all that developed around him, it seemed familiar.

With the snap of a finger, Guisei felt his mind exit his soul. The same phenomenon, that intimate feeling, only to have himself plunge forward as if led by strings. Light burst through the black, flooding his golden eyes, only for it all to end at once.

A carriage.

Guisei sat on the wooden seats, gaining awareness of his surroundings. His gaze moved like beams analyzing the brown that surrounded him and the dull grey outside of the window he was provided. The sound of hooves meeting the road filled his ears, accompanied by the metallic rhythm of soldiers in armor marching. He looked down, feeling enveloped by a warm and nostalgic sensation; golden robes. Like built tension finally released, Guisei allowed a sigh to escape him.

The golden light of his eyes focused on the grey sky. Guisei could not help but remember a similar sight in his mind, left in a room filled with books and his mind longing for the outside even if shrouded in darkness. Despite his thoughts being in disarray, his gaze grew heavy, bored almost with the world around him. A single voice rang through the monotony, sweet like honeycombs.

"My Lord."

The young man shifted his sights to her, feeling an odd weight at the top of his head as he was met with the sight of a servant, or rather a girl appearing only a few years younger than himself. A calming wind blew through the carriage, pushing her crimson hair from out of her vision as she gave him a stern gaze.

It was all so familiar. Guisei sat up, almost compelled to do so from her demeanor despite his aversion to such things. He moved a hand from propping himself up as he focused on the hazel of her eyes carefully. He spoke naturally, yet the sound of his voice was nothing like his own; carefree, but also lower, older.

"What is it, Alina?" Guisei asked. His eyes flashed away from her to the guards outside. Black armor with gold engraved within it. He recognized them well, shifting his gaze to the girl whose name he had not known until it left his lips instinctually.

Alina gave a respectful nod, her gaze soft and kind as she allowed her words to flow forth. "Sorry to interrupt your thoughts, but I would like to request that you stay with the caravan while we venture through the 3rd District to avoid any skirmishes between you and the commoners," she nodded once more, dipping her head lower.

"That's a bit boring, don't you think, plus what kind of ruler would I be if I didn't walk among my people?" Guisei said despite not fully understanding how he said what he did, questions shot through his mind, yet the pieces did not fit entirely. He still could not shake that familiar feeling, yet he opened his lips only to be interrupted by Alina.

"One that could listen to his superiors just like how I have to," Alina said with a giggle, "There is also the fact that you have yet to secure an heir of your own, let alone find a candidate if it isn't someone from your bloodline."

"You would have had me if you didn't bring up that because this is the opportune time to go look for one, per your suggestion. It's better than sitting in a carriage for another boring meeting with the nobility of maintaining their provinces and milking cultural and working assets to death."

Guisei found himself at the whims of his instinct, replying moments before he could formulate a thought, like a viewer in the perspective of a character. It felt overdone to experience things in such a manner. He looked towards Alina, watching as her expression shifted from soft severity to disappointment.

"Let us call it a tie since you want to beat me at my own game, my Lord. I will put them to sleep with my Anima for four hours. That should be enough time for you to stretch your legs and hopefully find a candidate or whatever else you wanted to do," Alina said with a devilish grin, a grin that Guisei reflected.

The air shifted, and Alina parted her lips, allowing an incantation to be released from within her.

Surrounded by the void

At rest, my mind.

My body dormant.

Let me lead the lost to their rightful rest.

The weary eyes of mine will follow them.

I reject

Alina's hazel eyes held an odd shine to them like ignited by flame they burned, energy unlike Reiju surrounded her. She placed her hands together as if in prayer, closing her eyes, finishing the hex.

Anima Series

Pasithea

Somnum

The carriage stopped, Guisei closed his eyes for a moment. When opening them, he was met with something different altogether. Beaten earth laid under his feet, the blurred sounds of life hit his ears. He looked towards the scene, capturing the sight of people selling things from weapons to metal trinkets. The stores were rundown, and people lay hungrily along the street. When his gaze fell upon the people, they disappeared from his sight, dashing behind market stalls or into the deep alleyways. Discomfort. An odd ring echoed in his ear like a high-pitched chime of an instrument. Guisei continued forward, his robes slithering behind him, leaving a small amount of gold in the earth.

It all felt familiar to Guisei, a path he walked in the past or a different life he walked faster, feeling like all around him was a blur only to be met with a sudden impact. Crow feathered hair. Guisei looked upon the familiar boy, the ringing growing more violent and his vision distorting.

Him.

A voice drifted into his mind, that of his own like an eerie echo. Guisei reached out towards the boy, but like mist, the boy disappeared before him. His eyes flashed around in pursuit, tipped baskets of fruit and footsteps meeting the earth. Somehow Guisei could hear it all. Like a hollow echo, he could feel the child's presence, and his arm burned as if reinvigorated by the sight. He closed his eyes for a moment, only to see them flash to a different scene.

Atop the marketplace, grey skies shielded the two from sight as Guisei felt the wind slice at his face. Transfixed by the boy, he followed him, the sound in his ear growing harsher, and the body he lingered within slowing by the second. Thoughts shot through his head as if like a bullet in a gun of what this all was, Dream? Memory? It all felt familiar, and instinct told him his answers would be found if he could just.

His vision cleared. The ringing stopped.

He found himself in the dark of an alleyway. Three boys stood in front of him. All of them holding those same golden eyes and pupils like crossed stars. Guisei reached towards the one with bright silver hair, shielding the one he wished to see fully. His vision distorted once more, a swipe of his hand and a crimson line. The boy's eyes were slashed. He advanced, locked onto the boy with hair as dark as a crow's feathers.

So familiar, yet distant. Their gazes locked for a moment, and their minds linked. Guisei shut his eyes, only to open them at the sight of Mammon towering over him. The smells, the sounds so familiar to him as he watched Mammon's hand draw close as if instinctually he shut his eyes only for them to open.

Like water meeting stone, Guisei felt his body plunge to the floor as he opened his eyes. His body in a cold sweat and his racing thoughts worked to make sense of it all. He was dead, yet here he was alive and well. He opened his mouth to speak, his voice pained, his throat burned, but the voice was his own.

"Mammon! Mammon, you bastard, where are you!?" Guisei yelled into the empty darkness, the memories flooding into his mind, imprinting themselves a scene he should never have forgotten.

He reached forward. His skin burned as he gripped at the stone beneath him. Like a weakened calf, he tried to lift himself, his limbs wobbling, only for him to plummet to the ground. His body hot, yet the floor felt like ice. Guisei frantically gazed at his arm, remembering the pain that he felt. A single black tattoo lingered on his arm, seared into his skin. It spanned from the top part of his shoulder down to the back of his hand. It all burned.

It felt endless, like needles stabbed into his skin and were set ablaze; he writhed in pain, letting out a bloodcurdling scream. He clutched his arm, wishing for the pain to end if only it would end. His mind flickered through every possibility, clouded by a voice muffled within.

"What... What did he do to me?"