Ilon’s eyebrows raised and his mouth slightly opened. “You’re a totem?” Ilon felt he kept getting more and more surprised the more he talked to Isoko.

“Of sorts. The reason why I said partial manifestation is because this isn’t my actual form.” Isoko said as she raised her hand. One moment it was a regular looking human hand, the next it was a blue translucent amalgamation of totemic energy in the shape of a hand. She held it in that form for a second longer before returning it to its original human-like form.

Ilon massaged his brows trying to take in the new information. A Shaman's natural progress would eventually allow them to manifest totems, but he had never heard of a totem that was permanently manifested, nor one that could form a human shape through the use of totemic energy.

“Was your Blessed in the Culmination realm?” It was the only thing he could think of. There were three main tiers of power for all things besides monsters on Nyana. The Sublimation realm, followed by the Manifestation realm, and finally the Culmination realm.

In the entire history of Nyana, those who reached the Culmination realm were beyond rare. The Master had once told him that She had only known about four people who managed to achieve the Culmination realm. There were dozens, perhaps hundreds who had reached the cusp of it, yet only just four had managed to take that final step.

“I cannot answer that, nor can I tell you anything else about them.” Isoko said with a bit of sadness leaking through her tone. Ilon decided not to press any further on that matter upon hearing it.

“Does Cudlin know about you?” Ilon asked what he was most curious about at that moment, rather than trying to get more important information.

“He does, but Fessal does not.” Isoko responded without any delay, happy to get off the previous subject. “Speaking of which, it seems they are about to awaken. I’ll answer one more question of yours.”

What do I ask? There were so many questions fluttering through his head that he was considering. How did she meet Cudlin? Could she interact with the Will of the world? What was the realm of totems like?

“What can you tell me about the Deadzone?” Ilon finally decided that it was best to try and get some information about his task instead of fulfilling his curiosity.

“I’m sure you know the basics of it. There’s no seasons, no clouds form or enter above it, so there’s no rain. The ground is like ash, no plants, grass or anything living remains in it. Any regular person that enters will perish minutes after.” Isoko listed off some of the things that most everyone knew about the Deadzone.

She continued. “There are a couple of things that people don’t know though.”

“What are they?”

“The Deadzone didn’t always exist. It was around four to five hundred years ago when it suddenly appeared without warning. Originally it was the size of several villages, but over time it kept growing and growing, until it finally swallowed the Empire it originated in. It eventually slowed, but recently it has started to speed up again.” Isoko explained another jaw dropper with her deadpan face.

“What was the name of the Empire?” Ilon figured it would be useful to do research on the Empire to see if there were any useful hints. It was possible they were doing some sort of experiment and messed up big time. It was also possible that it was completely unrelated, but it was better to try and find something.

Isoko’s eyes shifted away from Ilon as he asked the question. “As embarrassing as it is to say this, I’ve forgotten.”

Ilon slowly blinked at her. “You’ve forgotten?” How was it possible to forget the name of an Empire where one of the greatest threats to the world existed?

“It pains me to admit it, but I never really cared all that much about the mortal world. The only one I cared about was my Blessed and they had already passed by then.” Isoko guiltily said. “That’s why I’ll give you this.” Isoko reached into her right palm and pulled out something.

“What is it?” Ilon unconsciously leaned forward. Isoko opened her left hand revealing a rusted ring, ornate by grooves resembling blooming flowers.

Isoko passed the ring over to Ilon and looked directly into his eyes. “It is my symbol, granted to me by my Blessed. Once you reach the Capital of Antoss, put it on. It will lead you to my sister who knows far more about the Deadzone than I do.”

“So, you are ... “, Ilon trailed off his sentence, but seeing her nod confirmed his theory about who her Blessed was. If She was Isoko’s Blessed, then a ‘grand figure’ was barely enough of a description.

“Now then, it seems like we’ll have to end our conversation here. My husband is awake and I wish to greet him.” She said with a natural smile.

Seeing that she was already getting up, Ilon stored the ring. “Thank you for everything. Without you the fate of Mazual likely would have drastically changed.”

“Who's to say it’s for the better though?” Isoko said cynically. “Not that it matters much to me, since we’re likely going to be moving elsewhere.”

“Where can I find you?” Ilon asked. He would eventually need to return the ring and report the results of his task.

“I’ll find you, don’t worry. Now if you’ll excuse me.” Isoko said as she gathered the remains of the tea and cups before leaving.

Ilon sat there for a moment longer, tired from all the revelations in the past day. He felt like his world view had been flipped thrice over. An artificial Horror, memory sapping leeches, and a permanently manifested totem. Not to mention all the fact that they were pawns on the gameboard of politics the truly powerful ones played.

He let out a ragged sigh as he slowly stood up and returned to his room. If he was lucky, his thoughts wouldn’t nag at him for hours upon end and he’d manage to get some hours of sleep.

Ilon got changed into something more comfortable for bed and laid down. In a manner of seconds he was conked out, snoring up a storm.

It was a dreamless sleep, which Ilon was thankful for when he woke up. He loved the comfort of a bed and the action of sleeping itself, yet the one thing he hated about it was the nightmares that came with it. Memories from past times that he avoided like the plague haunted his unconscious mind, making him relive his torments.

Sometimes it was the Punishments from the Master when he was younger, where She decided to test the limits of his innate legacy of regeneration. She would slowly flay his skin as she explained all of his muscles and parts of his body in intricate detail.

Sometimes she would explain what the effects of certain poisons were when ingested, applied, and mixed with others by testing it on him.

He put the thoughts into the back of his mind once again and attempted to get out of bed, failing twice before managing to finally scoot out of it during the third attempt.

Today was their last day in Mazual before they left, so they had to go shopping for travelling supplies. A long journey was coming up and they wanted to be prepared for it. Ilon was starting to feel antsy from staying in one place for too long.

He had been raised while on the move. Their band rarely ever stopped in a place for over a tenday, causing them to spend most of their time travelling.

He got changed back into his combat gear and left his room. He knocked on Maymun and Quyon’s room to see if they were still in there, but got no response. Ilon figured that they were probably having breakfast downstairs, so he casually walked over to the staircase.

In an instant he could tell that something was wrong. Blood was splattered all over the floor at the bottom of the stairs. For a moment there was a strange feeling in the back of his head, a strange dissonance that he glossed over in panic.

Ilon rushed down the stairs as fast as he could. Dozens of bodies were strewn about at the bottom. He looked over at the front desk and noticed the body of Cudlin, collapsed against it. His right arm was severed and there was a massive slash wound going from his right shoulder to his left hip.

Ilon looked over the bodies one after another and recognized the majority of them as the customers staying at the inn. Near the front entrance there was a familiar body with a familiar head nearby, Fessal, who had been decapitated.

Ilon ran over to the restaurant portion of the inn as quickly as his body would allow him. There he saw three cloaked figures with their backs turned to him and dozens of more bodies. Two stood out to him.

The dissonance grew stronger as he saw the bodies of Maymun and Quyon laying before the three figures. They were both covered in countless cuts and had swords sticking out of their chests.

Ilon felt like he should be crying, yet no tears were falling. The strange dissonance in his head grew louder and louder as he observed the three figures. Even from the back, they were all very familiar to him in a way he couldn’t put his finger on.

Slowly, they all turned around in synchronization revealing their identities. Tain, Hellion, and Bi’wan all stood before him, their eyes shimmering violet. At that moment, Ilon realized what was wrong.

There’s no smell. The inn was covered in blood with dozens of corpses all over the place, yet the familiar scent of blood and death wasn’t there. A contradiction.

Ilon awoke, shooting up while gasping for air.

“Fucking nightmares.” He said, heaving air. After taking a couple of moments to calm himself down, he breathed in deep and took in the light scent of musty wood and morning dew.

It wasn’t the worst nightmare he had ever had, not by far, but it certainly wasn’t a pleasant experience. The thought of Maymun and Quyon dying brought a stuffy feeling to Ilon’s chest and nose. Even though it had only been a couple of days since they had met again, it felt like they had been together for far longer. It was almost like they had never been apart for several years and that they were all children again, fighting against what the world threw at them.

This time Ilon had no trouble getting out of bed. He slipped out of it seamlessly and changed into his combat gear. The dream had brought back the paranoia that the man with violet eyes had induced when he first learned about him from Kachuk.

He was afraid that the man with violet eyes had done something again and that tragedy was just outside his room. That he would go down those stairs and see the floor littered with bodies once again.

It was just a dream. Calm down. He thought to himself as he took a couple of deep breaths. He opened the door and instantly took a whiff, trying to smell any blood. Instead, the only scent that he got was that of the breakfast they were serving downstairs. The hustle and bustle of the inn calmed him down greatly and the fact that there was no screaming gave him relief.

“Maymun, Quyon. Are you up yet?” Ilon called out while knocking on their door. Getting no response, Ilon figured that they were probably having breakfast downstairs. The thought gave him a slight pause in his step due to the deja vu of having thought the same thing in the dream.

He stood there for a moment as he realized that something was definitely off with the nightmare that he had. It seemed way too realistic for it to be a regular dream. He could feel the comfort of the bed, the softness of his clothing, the hardness of the door when he knocked on it. All of it he distinctly remembered, which in itself was weird as he never remembered the little details of his dreams.

I’ll bring it up with Quyon and Maymun. Ilon thought as he made his way downstairs. When he reached the bottom, he noticed that while there wasn’t any blood or corpses, there was an uneasy feeling in the air.

Ilon looked over to the restaurant and noticed Quyon and Maymun sitting in the same place where they had reunited. As he made his way towards them he gave a precursory glance towards the other customers as usual and noticed that some of the usual customers who stayed at the inn had bags under their eyes.

“Took you long enough.” Maymun said once he reached the table.

Ilon took a seat as he decided that it would be better to subtly bring up his suspicion. “Sorry about that. I went to bed late and had a weird dream.” Ilon said to test the waters. He wouldn’t be able to tell if Quyon and Maymun were tired as they would look fine even if they stayed up for days straight.

“So you had one as well.” Quyon said as she sipped her water. “Both Maymun and I also had nightmares, and from what I’ve overheard so have most of the patrons at the inn.”

“Did yours also have,” Ilon tapped below his eye, “or were they regular nightmares?” It was one thing for him alone to have a dream about violet eyes, but if it was everyone then that presented a much bigger problem.

“Both of ours did, but I haven’t heard any mentions of it from anyone else. It seems like they just had regular nightmares.” Quyon answered.

“You think they did it?” Maymun asked.

“It’s possible, but I don’t see the point in doing so.” From what Ilon could tell there hadn’t been any actual damage done. “Maybe we weren’t the direct targets and just experienced a portion of it, but who knows.”

“What if it builds the nightmares up night by night until they finally consume you.” Maymun said in a joking manner.

“Oh,” Ilon said in realization, “I need to tell you both about something that happened last night.” The whole talk about the nightmares had made him forget about telling them about his chat with Isoko. He planned on telling them in private as he didn’t trust people not to eavesdrop, even if the inn was noisy.

Quyon gave Ilon a look and asked, “Later?” Every single time Ilon brought up something that he experienced, it was always something that gave her quite a bit of shock.

Ilon gave her a nod. “It was probably one of the most shocking conversations I’ve had.”

“What’s it about?” Maymun asked. Right as she asked, a voice sounded out from behind Ilon.

“Should a boy be going around telling about a ladies’ late night secret conversations?” Ilon jolted and instinctively reached for his weapon, before forcefully stopping himself. He heard Quyon and Maymun chuckling as he turned around and saw Isoko behind him with a cheerful grin on her face.

“Sorry, she signaled for us to be quiet and she didn’t have any harmful intentions.” Maymun said as she stopped chuckling. Ilon trusted her judgement when it came to things like that considering she had her innate legacy of danger sense, but even then he didn’t like that they let someone sneak up on him.

It also stunned him how easily she did it. He didn’t sense her at all and didn’t hear any footsteps either. She was like a ghost who suddenly appeared behind him, which she sort of was in a way considering she was literally a being made out of totemic energy.

Isoko slid into an empty chair beside him and said, “Sorry about scaring you. I just couldn’t resist.” She had her same cheerful grin on. The stark contrast between the her of yesterday and today was blaringly obvious.

“Why are you here?” Ilon asked. It was likely that she had something to talk about, and the most recent thing that happened was the mass nightmares.

“To tell you that He’s gone.”