Incathuga Daentsuro's Random Thoughts and Writings

Well, my garden is officially planted. It's got tomatoes and bell peppers and carrots and marigolds and Swiss chard and radishes.

Also, new story in the works. And I have other stories if anyone wants to read them. They aren't done, but leave a comment if you want me to post part of it.

And now, without further stalling for time, here is the first chapter of Once in a Lullaby.



Marius looked up from his spot on the lone green hill near the city. Dorothy, one of his best friends from school, walked to him and sat down. “You’re deciding to skip too?” he asked after lying his head back down.
“It’s just English. They’re having us read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in depth.” She tossed one of the two copies she had to Marius. “It’s one of those old kid stories. You could finish it in a couple minutes if you wanted.”
“No thanks. I remember it all from kindergarten. Girl gets sucked up in a tornado, kills wicked witch, travels to wizard, meets scarecrow, tin man, and lion, and goes back home after kill the other witch. It’s simple.” He put the book under her head and used it as a pillow.
“I’ve never actually read it. I wish it was a harder read, though. This stuff is too simple.” Dorothy opened her copy and started reading. “You should probably go through it again, Marius. You’ll seem quite the scarecrow if you don’t know anything in class.”
“I’ll go through it later,” he replied. The sun shone against the mirrors of steel that were the city behind the pair. “Have you gotten to the Emerald City, Dorothy?”
“No. I’m still on the Yellow Brick Road.” She looked up to the cloud of smog pervading the air above the city. “It’s too bad the river is as bad as this air.”
“We could always go swimming if it weren’t so murky.” He tugged at his fishing pole. “I’m not getting any bites today. School might be more entertaining than this.”
Dorothy stood up and brushed the grass from her skirt. “I’m surprised nobody knows about this spot yet. You’d think the green would be obvious surrounded by so much brown.” She picked up a rock and skipped it across the river. It landed in the sand on the other side.
“It’s because nobody wants to see emeralds anymore. They’ve fallen for towers of steel and concrete. They have no need for gems when they can make their own.” Marius sighed and looked at his watch. “We are creatures ruled by time, Dorothy. English is about to end. Will you be heading to Government with me?”
“I suppose I should.” She smiled and pulled Marius up before walking back towards school.

Dorothy skipped into her music class. It was a free day, so the students could do as they wished. She was going to practice on the piano in the back of the room for most of the period.
Marius sat in the corner by Dorothy as she played. “Do you know Raindrops?” he asked after she had warmed up.
“Chopin? It’s been a while since I’ve played it.” She tapped a few keys before breaking into a sad melody. The other musicians looked up at the melody, distracted from their games. A few moved outside to avoid the music, but most stayed in and turned up their own music players.
“It’s good,” said Marius after Dorothy finished. “I wonder how long it’s been since we’ve had a good rain in this city.”
“I blame the pollution for this acid rain we get. But we can’t do much about it.” She continued to play, switching from Chopin to Beethoven, but staying with calm, slow songs. After most of the other teens had left the room she started some more lively music, switching between Bach and Chopin’s happier pieces.
The bell rang to end the school day, so Marius picked up his books. “Ready to go home?”
“I guess I can play at home. Just let me get my things.” She covered the piano and picked up her bag before following Marius out.
The two lived on the same street, so they walked home together most days. Since Marius skipped English and Biology consistently, the pair usually talked about whichever class he missed that day. Because Dorothy had skipped class with him, they decided to talk about The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Dorothy had been reading as she played, so she managed to get through most of the book.
“Do you believe in other worlds, Marius?”
“Look up in the middle of the night and you can see them,” he replied. “There are seven besides our own circling the sun, plus many million around other stars, not to mention the uncountable asteroids, comets, and other objects travelling in space that could be called worlds.”
Dorothy sighed. “Not quite what I meant. Do you believe in magical worlds?”
“There is no Oz, if that’s what you’re asking me. There are emerald cities and flying machines, and I suppose somewhere there could be creatures that can control their energy and seem to be witches, but I draw the line at animate scarecrows. Oz is fantasy, nothing more.” He turned and walked up the steps to his home. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Dorothy.”
“See you.”

A recent article about a cure for cancer has piqued my attention for two reasons. First, this treatment is just as harmful as chemo or surgery, if not more so, but doctors are hailing it as a miracle. Second, it makes tons of money for the hospital. The article gives seven cheaper, safer cancer treatments that actually work but have been ridiculed off the market.

A nurse I asked about this said that the goal of medicine, like all other professions, is to make money. I countered with the sixth line of the Hippocratic Oath, “Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice,” and the fourth line of the Nightingale Pledge, “With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician, in his work, and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.” She said that just maintaining the sick is to their benefit.

That last sentence is what’s wrong with medicine. The goal of modern medicine should be to cure. I can understand making some money, but just keeping patients alive so one can take all of their money when there is a real cure is wrong.

We see the same basic error in politics; politicians do what’s needed to stay in office instead of actually fixing what’s wrong with their city, state, or nation. Let’s just focus on America’s problems for now; the economy can be fixed by not adding pork into important bills; the war in Iraq could be won by letting our culture flow to theirs. Instead of doing this, we see Congressmen and Senators adding teapot museums to real bills and sending more troops to die in Iraq like we’re still working with a Cold War enemy, where only brute force can win the war.

I ask everyone who reads this to tell people of these errors. Nothing bad will happen if you don’t, nor does sending this give you luck for a year, but if enough people realize just how badly we’ve screwed up as a species many of the tragedies will stop happening.

Sources:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/05/10/the-kanzius-machine-a-cancer-cure.aspx?source=nl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightingale_Pledge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath

There was a fight at school today. Ten people were arrested and two are in the hospital. If you care, google "Mills University Studies High School" and there might be something about it.

Italics are thoughts, italics in quotation marks are telepathy. And this is a flashback chappy, just in case you don't realise that it picks up from where the other ones drop off.

Just so you know, this is about 2000 words long, so get a snack. And there's implied mature content.

Pokle.

Had to do that.

I bet you're getting tired of this. You could always just scroll down.

This is pargraph 7.

Guess my favorite number.

No, not 69 you silly.

It's 13, so I'll go to that many paragraphs.

This is 11, so you should get that snack now.

I bet this is really pissing you off, but this is 12. The wait is almost over.

13!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know that annoyed you, but I had to do it. Now you get to read. Just scroll down to do so.

























Chappy 10

As Cel and Inky searched Necromancer’s Desert, Sae and the rest of the Order guarded the gate. The first few hours were uneventful, but at about midnight a pair of girls walked over a nearby dune.

“Runtsk, do you think they’ll help us? Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”

“Don’t worry Groedsk. Just let me do all the talking.” Runtsk stood up and walked slowly to the group.

Sae pointed his rifle at the woman, who had pure white hair and was surprisingly tall. “Halt! Who are you?”

“Please, sir, I need help. My sister’s sick and needs a medic.”

Well, she’s good looking. I guess I could help her out. “I’ll come and help. Everyone else, stay here. If Deathy comes back, tell him to go back to the hiding place without me. I’ll head back once this girl’s sister is healed.” He turned to Runtsk and saw Groedsk behind her. “Let me get my pack together. What are your names?”

“We’re Runtsk and Groedsk. It’s a bit of a hike to where we want to be.”

Sae lifted the bag over his shoulder. “That’s fine with me. Lead the way.”

After several minutes of walking the oasis came into view. It was a small lake surrounded by trees and shielded from the wind by hills on all sides. It seemed oddly familiar to Sae, but he couldn’t place it in his life.

“She’s underground. We don’t know her name yet, so ask if she wakes up.”

“You don’t know her name? I thought you were her sister.”

“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you when she’s not in danger.” Runtsk lifted a door next to one of the trees and pulled Sae down the stairs.

When Sae adjusted to the darkness he saw the extent of the girl’s injuries. She had a broken leg that was poking out of her skin, bruises on almost all of her body, aura burns on one arm, and scratches on the other arm. “Was this a vampire attack? Only a vamp or aurist could burn like that. And I doubt aura masters would scratch like this.”

“Two vamps, actually.”

“This is barely possible. Most people would die from just an aura burst. And this looks like at least a bronze scratch. I’m surprised they didn’t just bite and get it over with.” He pulled out a few bottles and sprayed some foam on the scratches. “Bio-foam should heal those scratches quickly, but the burn and break are a bit harder. Had me some thread, a needle, and the orange bottle.”

Runtsk sorted through the bag until she found what Sae wanted. Sae sprinkled liquid from the bottle on the wound and slowly pushed the bone back into place. He grabbed the bio-foam bottle and sprayed it into the wound. He quickly sewed the rip together and turned his attention to her scratched arm. “It’s healing much faster than normal. I’ll need to look at that again later. Pass me a black can.” He took the can from Runtsk and shook it slightly before opening it over the burn. Almost instantly the aura field around the burn sparked and healed itself along with the burn. “It’s too fast. Normally that would take days.”

“Isn’t it good that she’s healing quickly?”

“One would think. Either it’s a great thing and she’ll be fine much earlier or it’s a horrible thing that will shock her system and force us to injure her again then heal her slowly.”

“I hope it’s the first then. Are you done with her?”

“Yeah, but she should be watched for a few hours at least. Get Groedsk to watch, then you can explain things to me outside.”

Runtsk grabbed Groedsk and told her to watch for any sign the girl was waking up, then walked to the lake and set her feet in it. “What do you want explained first?”

“First, tell me why you don’t know her name but call her your sister.”

“I... adopt sand children. They’re children lost in the desert, often abandoned by their parents. They become my family, my sisters.”

“Only girls?”

“I’ve only found one boy, but he was taken by a vamp hunter after a few days. That was seven years ago.”

Seven years? I was adopted six years ago, and I don’t remember much before that. Maybe... “Did the boy have anything with him? A necklace, maybe?”

“Yeah, a crystal hourglass on a gold chain. Why?”

Sae pulled out a crystal hourglass on a long chain of gold. “I think I might be that boy.”

“That necklace... It’s the same one he had back then. I guess someone had plans for you.”

“Yeah. I’m sure Leinetsu has something up her sleeve. That’s all I really wanted to ask about. Let’s go back and check on her.”

They walked back underground and saw the girl up and moving with Groedsk sitting in the corner, trying to find something to restrain the girl. “Hi sis. I meant to call you down, but I wanted to hold her down first.”

“I’m sure you did, but you still should have called us.” She turned to the girl, who was now looking through Sae’s med kit. “What’s your name?”

The girl looked at them and tried to hide under her clothes. She sent out a telepathic message: “My name’s Trinsk. Don’t be mad at me.”

“We’re not mad,” Sae replied. “Why would we be?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Didn’t you hear her? She said her name’s Trinsk and she doesn’t want us to be mad.”

“No, they wouldn’t hear me. I’m only sending these to you.”

“What do you mean, only sending them to me?”

“Think instead of talking. They’ll think you’re crazy if you don’t.”

“Like this?”

“Yep. Your mouth is still moving a bit, but you’ll get used to thinking without speech. I’m only talking to you through telepathy, so they won’t hear me. Thanks for earlier.”

“Earlier? You mean helping heal you?”

“Of course. I would still have a hole in my aura and a few bruises if you hadn’t helped.”

“You’d probably be dead if I hadn’t gotten here. You should be dead anyway.”

“I know. I heal rather quickly, so I would only have slight injuries. I just can’t heal aura as quickly as normal.”

“What are you? No human or elf would heal that fast. Or be as tall as you.” It had taken him this long to see her features. She was taller and thinner than any elf she had seen. Her hair was white with a streak of black down the middle and thinner streaks at the sides.

“I’m just a human. Nothing more or less.” Sae seemed to think this reply came too quickly, almost like it was planned.

“Okay, I’ll let you keep that secret to yourself. Why are you only talking to me though?”

“Because the other two aren’t as kind as you. I know you won’t tell anyone what I don’t want you to.”

Sae felt her mind coming closer to his. “Nice trick. How did you do it?”

“I’m a good telepath. It comes naturally. Just like delving into your mind and finding out your personal information. I think I’ll call you Sae for short.”

“How much do you know about me from that?”

“Most of your important details. Parents, age, stuff like that. That you’re adopted, for example. And that seven years ago Runtsk found you near the gateway with a crystal hourglass on a gold chain. I could find out more if I wanted, but that should be plenty for now.”

“You know that much without me saying any of it? That’s amazing.”

“It’s nothing, really. The hard part is finding out what everything means to you. Most people have cluttered minds, filled with pointless information that never changes. What’s important is often in the back, slowly changing.” She paused for a moment and Sae felt a rush of heat in the back of his mind. He took a moment to look at Runtsk and Groedsk, then realized they’d been waiting for several minutes just watching what must have seemed like a staring contest to them. “The chain is simple, nothing sentimental about it. The crystal, on the other hand, is important to you. You don’t quite know how, so I won’t tell you until you need to know.”

“You know what I don’t and you found that from my own mind? How’s that possible?”

“Like I said, the important memories are in the back of your mind. It’s the same with everyone. I’m done with everything I needed to say like this. Tell them what you want at your own discretion.”

“Alright. I don’t think I’ll tell them any of that. Perhaps you should talk too.”

“I know I should, but I can’t remember how to talk easily, only in partial telepathy like this.”

“That’s odd. You should practice some more speech then.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that alone.”

“Okay.”

Groedsk started getting annoyed by this. “Will one of you talk normally?”

“I am talking normally. We’ve been using telepathy for a while, and Trinsk barely knows how to talk anymore. She can only use partial telepathy.”

“I guess I understand that. It’s getting late now, so you should probably get some rest. We have one spare bed, so you’ll need to share for tonight.”

“I’ll just sleep on the floor. Trinsk can have the bed to herself.”

“No, don’t feel like you have to do that for me. I’ll be fine in the same bed as you.”

“If you’re sure. I guess I’ll just take that bed with you then.”



The next day, Sae woke up with Trinsk lying down on top of him, naked except for a pair of panties. That’s odd. She was fully clothed when I fell asleep.

“I guess you’re wondering what happened last night.” Trinsk spun around and sat up so she was facing Sae. This wasn’t necessary, but she liked the effect it had on people. “I got too hot under the blankets, so I stripped down a bit.”

“A bit? You’re showing me almost everything. I’d call that more than a bit.”

“You saw more than this when you were fixing me up. What’s wrong with seeing this now?”

“Those were completely different circumstances. You were in danger, so there was no attraction. Now you’re safe, so it’s much different.”

“I guess you’re right, but I was sure you’d like this. It’s the least I could do for helping me.”

“I like it, but this is a bit... too much. I’d have been fine with a simple ‘thank you.’”

“Well, if that’s all you want, thanks. I’ll go take a shower now. If you want, we can save water. It’s a precious resource here.” She walked to the bathroom and turned the shower on, but left the door open enough for Sae to see her. After a moment of debate, Sae went in too and closed the door behind him.



“Well, Inky, Sae went with a pair of girls to help their sister. He told us to tell you to go back to the hiding place.”

“Where did he go? I refuse to go back without him.”

“Inky, I have to agree with Sateerag for once. It’s pointless to look for him, and he’ll go straight to the hideout when he’s done. We should go before we melt from this heat.”

“I guess you’re right, Cel. Hopefully he’ll be back soon.” He looked into the distance and sighed. “Alright, people. We’re heading home.”



“That was fun.”

“I know. Remember to use telepathy so you don’t wake anyone up though.”

“Oh, I forgot for a minute. Do you think you’d like to join the group I’m in?”

“Maybe. What do you do in this group?”

“Well, right now we’re trying to seal the chunk of the draconic council that has turned evil.”

“Bah. I don’t care much about politics. I’ll join you just in case I find a certain person, though.”

“A certain person? Who might that be?”

“He goes by the name Daenotsu. I’ve wanted to meet him for a while.”

“Daenotsu? He leads the Lumine Resistance. We share our hideout with them, so you could meet him as soon as we get there.”

“Well then, let’s go. I’ll pack up anything we’ll need.”

“What about Runtsk and Groedsk? Shouldn’t we tell them?”

“Yeah. I’ll wake them up and see if they want to come.” Trinsk finished getting dressed and left the room to find Runtsk.

Like I say all the time, comments are appreciated. If you want a character you'll need to comment. Same for if you want to use any of my characters.
Oh, and I still need a title.

Chapter 8

“Raining again. Why can’t you just magic all of the water away?”

“I don’t know, Inky. It just won’t stop even when I move the water in the clouds away. It’s like it isn’t real water, just an illusion or a curse.”

“Well then, we should be able to go out without getting wet if it’s an illusion and need to go if it’s a curse because it won’t be lifting soon.”

“You raise a good point, but I think we should wait a day before trying to go out. It might let up by then.”

“Alright Cel. So, what should we do now?”

“Well, we could see how much of your memory we can get back.” Cel pulled Inky down to her bed and hugged him as tightly as she could, surprising the death mage. After a moment he managed to put his arms around her and kissed her.


“So, Mitzi, what should we do with all of this rain?”

“I don’t really know what we could do. Cel should just use magic to move these clouds.”

“She could, but I’m sure there’s a reason she hasn’t. So, what do you want to do since we won’t be getting out of here anytime soon?”

“Well, we could try something like this.” Mitzi stood up and pulled Leita to her face, kissing her lightly on the lips.

“That’s fine with me. Let’s make it a bit more interesting though.” Leita pushed Mitzi down to her bed and placed one hand on her butt, the other on her back.


“It’s raining, Magu. I guess we’re stuck in our tent today.”

“Yeah, we are. Celevescent could clear out this rain in an instant. Why isn’t she doing anything?”

“She might want some time alone with Inky.”

“Maybe. She wouldn’t do something like that most of the time, but I guess she wants to make up for those years without him.”

“I guess we could try to take advantage of this situation too.” She walked to his bed and sat on his legs. “So, what do you feel like doing?”

Magu pulled her closer and started rubbing her back. “How about this?”

“Maybe just a bit lower.”


“Isn’t the rain beautiful, Sae?”

“Don’t call me that. Only Trinsk is allowed to call me Sae.”

“Okay, what should I call you? Sag maybe? Or Satee?”

“Call me Sateerag like everyone else.”

“Fine, Satee, I’ll start calling you Sateerag. So, Satee, what do you think of the rain?”

“You just called me Satee again! Stop doing that.”

“Satee, I said I’d start calling you Sateerag. I didn’t say when. You still haven’t answered my question.”

“Fine, I’ll answer. It seems a bit wet for my tastes.”

“Well, duh it’s wet. It’s rain, you know, water that falls from the sky.”

“Of course I knew that. I just don’t like water. It ruins gunpowder.”

“I see I won’t be changing your mind on that issue anytime soon. So, Satee, what should we talk about?”

“Stop calling me that!”

“Of course, Satee. I will after a while.”


Zaingol chose to fly to the church before the rain got too bad. When he entered a familiar figure looked at him and smiled evilly.

“You? But, Inky killed you. You can’t have come back from the dead!”

“No, Incathuga simply banished me. When he broke the seal for that moment I managed to break out of the Void. You won’t get the same chance that I did, though. Kairos Form!” The figure dashed at Zaingol and pulled out a long, black sword.


Ooh, cliff hanger. What will happen to Zaingol? What is Kairos Form? All of these questions and more will be answered in the next chapter of this nameless book.
It works better with a title.

I'll be ranting first about people not commenting.

I know that five people from the Opera community have visited at least once, but I've only had one person respond to my poll and Ikitsumi is the only person commenting. Anyone else who visits should really comment because almost anything helps. The only things I don't want are statements similar to "dis book is n00b, I is 1337er than dis." I know no one would post something like that, but I'm saying that just in case. Reviews pointing out flaws that can be fixed, like "This scene is a bit confusing, could you word it differently?" or "That character's personality doesn't match his actions. Maybe you should have another character do that." are wonderful because they help improve my writing style. I'll probably take your advice if it's good.

That wasn't too bad, was it? I'm warning you right now that this chapter is 2,116 words long so you can do whatever you need to before reading it.

Chapter 6

After a few days of hiking, the group reached End’s Church. It was a simple building, similar to a Gothic Cathedral. Above the door was the church’s symbol, an hourglass with a single grain of sand in the upper portion. To the left of it were twelve more hourglasses with more sand in the top portion, one for each church of the faith. Behind the church was a blood-stained fence, and sword stained red from battle was planted in the ground.

“Has anyone here heard of a car? It seriously speeds up travel.”

“Did you see any roads on the way here? End’s Church is only here as a barrier,” replied Maguses. “I didn’t want to walk here either, but it was the only way.”

Before Sateerag could counter, a figure hidden at the door attracted their attention. “Why have you come to this cursed place?”

“We need to enter the Cemetery of the Nameless.”

“Why would you wish to throw away your lives by entering such an evil crypt?”

“There are people we need to find hiding in the graveyard.”

“People? No one can survive a night in there. No one enters and lives to tell the tale.” The person stepped in the light, revealing that she was a fifteen year old girl. She had medium length black hair and amber eyes, and she was carrying a whip. She wore casual clothes and a necklace with symbols from many religions. “If there are people surviving in the cemetery they need to get out soon. If they don’t, the Nameless will kill them.”

“The...Nameless?”

“It’s hard to explain. If you really want to look for these people you can come with me.”

“Didn’t you say that no one survives in there?”

“I’m safe from the curses. My position gives me immunity. You’ll be risking your lives, so I’d advise staying behind.”

“We’re all coming. We can protect ourselves.”

“Suit yourselves. Just don’t mess with anything.” The girl led the eight to a door in the fence and unlocked it. They went through and Sialgus looked confused by what he saw.

“Where’s the cemetery?”

“Haven’t you heard the myths? As soon as you see it you’re trapped, so we built the church as far from it as we could manage.”

“That makes sense, but couldn’t you have built the fence around the graveyard?”

“We could have, but the graves keep multiplying so we need space around it.”

They walked farther east and eventually came within sight of a tombstone. “We’re trapped within the graveyard now. There’s no turning back. Not that any of you would turn back anyway.”

“So perhaps you could tell us exactly what we’ll be fighting,” suggested Maguses.

“You’ll be fighting the Nameless. They’re an interesting kind of creature, almost a ghost but with certain qualities. They can use physical weapons, for example, but are still nonexistent, so you can’t attack them. There’s also the protector of these crypts. It goes by the name of Nightmare.”

“Why is it called that?”

“It searches your soul for what you fear most and becomes it, whether something as simple as a snake or as irrational as a burning book.” Sateerag twitched at the word “snake” and Maguses put his hood up at the second phrase. “It will be nighttime no matter how fast we reach the border, so we should go straight to the graves.”

“All right, but we should prepare our weapons first,” said Sateerag.

“Didn’t you pay any attention? Your weapons will be useless against the Nameless, and Nightmare could block anything you use.” She flicked her whip at Sateerag, but didn’t let it extend far enough to reach him. “The next time I’ll hit you, and I doubt you want to be unconscious in the cemetery.”

The sun was directly overhead when they were thirty feet from the closest grave, but once they reached it the sky went black. The stars refused to shine, and the moon was just a sliver of light, so Sateerag pulled out his assault rifle and turned on the flashlight.

“What are you doing? Turn that light off before the Nameless notice it.” Almost immediately a few figures appeared. They were translucent and seemed to float instead of walking. Each had a weapon, mostly swords or pistols, but others had shotguns and rocket launchers. “When we get out of here I’m going to kill you, but I’ll keep you alive for now.” The girl took off her necklace and pushed a regular icosahedron to the front of the symbols. “Leave this place, nameless ones, unless you want the Ancient’s curse upon you.”

The tallest Nameless stepped forward. “Fool, can you not see that we’re already cursed? Roduno cursed us for entering this unholy land and Death enforced that curse by keeping us in this state. Our souls are tied to our bodies, yet separated by six feet of earth. We teeter between life and the afterlife, forced to leave our bodies but given no choice to leave this ground. We have been cursed to walk this graveyard for eternity.”

All was silent until Celevescent spoke a moment later. “Is there any way to help you?”

The rest of the living group looked shocked that Celevescent would ask that, but the Nameless focused on her. “There are rumors circulating among some of us about a way. They think that they saw a man by his tombstone that was stabbed and vanished. It might be a way to end this. The only problems are that we aren’t sure if it worked, we don’t know which grave belongs to which person, and Nightmare wouldn’t want us leaving. You can try to help us if you want, but it would be hard.”

“I’ll help you,” said Shadow. “How many graves can there be?”

“Five million eighty-three thousand ninety-five to be exact. Of course, once the person vanished his name appeared on the marker, so that reduces the graves to be checked whenever someone passes.”

Shadow looked at the Nameless and blinked. “We could just have someone hold a sword above the grave and have everyone run through it. That might speed things up a bit instead of checking for each person individually.”

One of the smaller Nameless stepped forward and poked the tallest one. “Each marker has a description of the person. We could each look for one that describes ourselves and stand by it.” Shadow took a look at the closest tombstone and noticed the description: “Here lies ------, ripper of souls.” Every marker said something similar, thief, destroyer, murderer. It seemed like the stones marked not only graves, but sins as well.

The Nameless began to search for their graves and tell the others in the cemetery, so the living group decided to split up and search for anyone from the government, despite the warning from the girl from the church. The girl chose to follow Shadow because he had argued for staying in a group. Leita followed them because they seemed to be the safest group.

“Why does this place exist? There’s no real reason for Roduno to curse some land so anyone who sees it is trapped and anyone who dies in it is doomed to walk on it forever.”

“It wasn’t Roduno. It was the founder of the church who made the cemetery and cursed it. His son realized that mistake and built the fence to stop the evil from spreading.”

“And where do you fit in?”

“The founder was my great-grandfather. That’s the reason I have immunity. The Nameless know that my family is the reason they’re here, but Nightmare's blessing keeps them from attacking me.”

“Who is Nightmare? He must be a special person in this cemetery.”

“He was the founder. That’s why I come here, so I can see him sometimes. It’s also why I preach at End’s Church so I can be close to the graveyard. I know he’s evil, but he’s family.”

“Then he shouldn’t be angry that we’re helping the Nameless leave, and he shouldn’t hurt us.”

“No, he’ll be very angry. My necklace makes me all but invisible to the Nameless, but once Nightmare finds out he’ll hunt you down.” She looked down at her necklace and a tear fell, staining the dust under her. Leita looked up as though she saw something unexpected.

“What does Nightmare look like?”

“He changes to fit his opponent’s fear. That’s why I wanted everyone to stay together, so he can’t scare the whole group at once.” Leita shrugged off whatever she had seen earlier.

Shadow had walked a few yards past the others when he turned to yell at them. Before he could do so he saw the man standing in front of him. He was wearing a black cloak but had the hood down to reveal black hair that went past his shoulders. Four sword handles stuck out of the cloak and he was holding another, a crystal claymore. His face was pale, but not a ghost’s translucent white. It was like that of someone who never exposed his skin to the sunlight. His eyes were pitch black spheres lacking emotion. “Hello, Shadow.”

“What? Who are you and how do you know my name? Why do you look like me?”

“It’s the same answer to all three questions. I am you, turned evil. I’m your deepest fear, your darkest Nightmare.” Nightmare walked towards Shadow and took up a fighting stance. “You seem rather calm for someone who has just met what they fear most. Calmer still, for one who is about to die.”

The fake jumped forward and slashed at the dark wielder. Shadow easily dodged and pulled out a katana from over his shoulder in a fluid motion. He took a defensive stance and blocked each attack. The fake’s claymore changed to become a dagger and he warped behind Shadow to stab him. He picked Shadow up and put the dagger against Shadow’s neck. “I could end this right now. I should because you trespassed into my cemetery, but I need to know everything you do so I can travel with your group.”

“Nightmare, I’m going to point out the flaws in your plan right now. First, you’re letting me live when I can do this.” He warped out of Nightmare’s grip. “And second, even if you copy my appearance and mimic my personality, you can never emulate my soul, and they’ll notice that immediately. It’s obvious in your weapon that you aren’t me, and even more obvious by the light in your eye.” Shadow pulled out the Spatha at his belt and it changed to a claymore. He charged and sliced, but Nightmare blocked and the swords met at the hilts. “You can’t copy my soul, and because of that you’ll never mimic me perfectly.” The claymore started to glow and the crystal dagger started turning black from the point where their blades met.

Nightmare dropped his sword. “It...It burns. How is that possible?” He pulled out his daggers and warped behind Shadow, stabbing into his sides while lifting the wielder. “You’ll still die in this battle, so that was a pointless effort.”

Leita looked up from talking with the girl to see the battle for the first time. “Shadow’s aura? It’s changing, growing. But, auras are constant. This never happens.” She looked more closely at the battle. “The aura it’s changing to seems familiar. It’s almost like...Incathuga’s!”

While Shadow’s aura was changing he started to glow from the extra energy of death magic combining with the dark book’s power. Nightmare released the daggers, but Shadow stayed in the air. The energy released from the changing aura was burning Nightmare’s aura away, destroying his life energy.

When Shadow fell Leita ran to him and the preacher ran to her great-grandfather. “I guess Sialgus was right about you.” She shot up a burst of her aura and ran over to Nightmare. “He’s gone. Once his aura was burnt away he lost everything that made him human. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. He was the one stopping the Nameless from passing on. He was evil from the moment he cursed this land.”

Celevescent was running towards the four as fast as she could and was followed by the other five. “We saw your signal. What’s the emergency?”

“Sialgus was right about Shadow, and he’s injured. There’s nothing we can do for Nightmare, though.” She walked to the crystal Infiniteum and picked it up. The darkness had vanished from it and it was back in the form of a Spatha. “Inky might want to keep this.” She found it’s sheathe and put it on her belt before going back to help bandage Shadow up.





Chapter 7 is in the works right now. Remember to comment on this and any other chapters. If you want to make a character for this just post major details about them in your comment. I'll need their name, species, appearance, age, weapon, whether they are a Natural or not and which element, and their personality. I'll also need to know whose side they're on (government, Order, or their own group) and whether they'll be past or present. Lesser Dieties are fine, but I can only have a few and they'll only show up once or twice. Just don't give me generic names like Sam Rogers or overly complex names like Vanduucreckhzly Webliumnax. And I don't want someone based off a movie, game, or book. They must be your original character.

Ikitsumi, did I get your character right or should I change her?