FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

As he entered the city, the dusk had grown warmer since thanks to the flames dotted round the streets, burning the bodies of corrupted beasts that smiled at him in rictus. With the Hunt now over, Travers could enter the city proper as he cantered softly beneath his filthy cloak of scarlet damp. The churchfolk were all around them, searching the streets whilst people returned to their houses despite a few stragglers taking in the filthy air. Other horses passed him by, some from the church as the lemming bowed in respect, their clean white smocks a world apart from his own as he led the mule down towards Beth's bookshop and nook.

"Hello!" he opened the door and staggered in. "Mind if I sit down I'm feeling rather woozy!"

"OH me saints!" she gasped rushing over. "I wuz certain ya snuffed it out there 'til I got yer letter, are you alright?!"

"Y-yes," James gasped, "I just...well, long story short I needed some ingredients and donated my blood to a witch."

"Oh goodness, wot in god's name you been up to?!"

"I would rather not say."

"I'll make ya some tea, cripes you look pale as death!"

"Hah, funny."

Heading to the back of the shop, the sound of a kettle boiling could be heard as James took a breather and listened to the rumbling carriages from the street.

"So," she leaned over her desk, "wotcha geg from me master James?"

"Well," he sighed, "I have come for books, firstly, do you have a copy of Dread Mountain Fiends?"

"Hmmm wot sorta book is that?"

"A fantasy story, it's for a friend."

"Right you are."

She wandered to her shelves, tracing her fingers along every spine as she went through her own system.

"Anythin' else ya wantin' while 'ere?"

"Yes actually, "James rubbed his sleeve, "maybe two more books along those lines, something involving pirates that I'll let you pick, also that...thing you said you managed to source some?"

"I did indeed, cost ya a fair bit more than a book!"

"Yes I understand, I know this is rather troublesome-"

"OOH NO!" she waved her hand dismissive. "No skin off my back, just so long as them blue bottles don't trace it back to me!"

"I assure you they won't," he shook his head, "as part of the castle they won't get involved with me."

"You can still get caught!"

"I can fend them off, as I did before."

"Wotcha mean before?!"

He shuffled in his seat as she loomed over him, handing the lemming the book of pirates before pulling it back from him with a grin.

"Give you a discount if you tell me wot 'appened."

"Heh, always driving a bargain aren't you Beth?"

"Too righ' so come on. spill while you have a cuppa."

Putting the book on the counter she rushed off to the back kitchen to grab two cups of tea as James sighed with a soft sip. The bitter herbs swilling in his throat marked by a smooth hot flavour of warm sugary grass helped soothe him enough to feel strength back in his arms.

"I'm looking after a child," he began, "his father turned into a beast, his mother I know not what happened but I hope she is still alive."

"Oh my goodness," she gasped, "how'd you end up with the li'l sprog?"

"He was being hunted, by hunters who thought he had been infected. He is fine, but...I had to kill them to save his life, and now the church are after me."

"You...you murdered hunters?!" she put a hand to her lips. "O-oh...dear master James that's quite a fix!"

"Yes well," he shrugged, "I had to do something, I couldn't let them just hurt a child."

"An' he's not infected you say?"

"It's been almost a week and his mind is still clear, if he were to turn on me he would have done so already."

"Mmmm that's true, it does 'appen rather quick," she sipped her tea, "poor li'l mite, is that book fer him?"

"Yes actually."

"That's sweet of you...he got enough food, sum clothes?"

"He only has a vest, but he's managing."

"Wait one tick."

She went to the kitchen once more as he heard cabinets opening, the lemming drinking up his tea as he grabbed the book off the counter and gave it a brief read. He was startled a few minutes later by Beth thumping down a bag on the desk.

"Eeeere you are! Got yer ritual blood 'ere and also a few things for the mite."

"W-wait, what?"

He looked inside to see it packed with food, the jar of blood, several vials, and a large coat that covered it all.

"B-BETH, what is this?!"

"Sum food fer the sprog, an' a coat I been meanin' to get rid of, might as well let 'em have it."

"Th-thank...thank you!" he hugged the portly woman as she chuckled. "You are too kind, truly the light in this cursed city!"

"Awww it's nuffin," she waved him off, "wuz inspired by that nice lady from the clinic, she gave me some vials to keep meself healthy!"

"Really, is that what those are?"

"Too righ' they been makin' them at the clinic, replaces blood you lost, want me to show ya?"

"Uh...it IS safe right?"

"Course it's safe go on roll up yer sleeve!"

Pulling out a vial full of red fluid, Beth demonstrated the sharp tip resembling a syringe that had a closed cap she took off.

"So you push it righ' in, an' the blood just goes where it wants to."

"It...goes where it wants to?"

"Yeah, just jab yerself anywhere on yer body, like this."

"A-AAAH!"

She punctured the skin on a random part of his arm much to the lemming's fright. The blood pumped inside his body with a sudden gush as his eyes suddenly withered, his veins turned thick and his throat became a desert. A flooding surge of energy came back to him, his eyes dilating proper and his heart pumping faster with the strength of a dozen horses as the woman pulled out once the vial had been drained.

"Wh-what...what was THAT, DID YOU JUST DRUG ME?!"

"GOD NO!" she gasped. "Wot you take me for a ruddy poppy seller?!"

"N-no, just that....hoo, that felt incredible but also quite frightening, this is not addictive is it?"

"Naaah, I asked about that an' they assured me it wasn't, just only use it if yer runnin' low."

"Why would YOU get these then?" he squinted at her.

"They were givin' em out to everyone!" she thumped her desk. "Just doin' something nice fer the community master James, don' look a gift horse in the mouth!"

"Oh, I-i see, you're right." He bowed his head. "Thank you this is, well, I certainly feel all the blood's back in my body!"

"I gots plenty more an' I don't get out much so, might as well spread the wealth!"

"You are truly the kindest person I've met," he sighed taking her hand, "I appreciate all you've done for me-"

"Now now, none o' that!" she batted him away. "Just pay me wotcha need, the food an' coat's free an' make sure not to mix up yer bloods!"

"Haha I won't." He took up the bag after paying her. "Thank you again Beth."

"Not a problem my love," she grinned with yellow teeth, "you just get yerself 'ome safe, church is gettin' rowdy!"

"When are they never?"

"Ooh but more than usual, they're firin' up to do in some big estate, barkers lined up an' ready to shoot!"

"An...estate?" James blinked. "What for?"

"Now I didn't 'ear too much cuz I wuz gettin' me dobbins but, you know Ms. Pendlethwaite from the tailors down Copper Lane?"

"Vaguely," he lied.

"Well, her son's part o' the powder kegs an' they got a whole workshop sendin' arms to the church, yanno 'if it ain't got a kick it's just not worth 'aving'?"

"Ahhh yes I do recall their name, what of it?"

"Well, HE said that the church ordered guns by the crateload, said they were gearing up fer something bad this week! Now I don' wanna jinx nuthin' master James but I reckon you should be right careful if you come round 'ere next few days."

"Alright, in that case I'll be careful."

"Ta-ta, give that li'l mite a kiss from me!"

"I will, take care Beth, and stay safe!"

Heading out the shop he tied the bag to the saddle, fastening it firm with the coat inside acting as a cushion.

"What savagery is the church planning now?" he muttered shaking his head. "As long as they stay out my way I shouldn't care but..."

He leapt on his horse and took out the vials from the bag

"I don't know this even works," he muttered putting them in his satchel, "possibly some universal donor, or even artificial...that said I'm not even human so I hope it doesn't have any side effects. I certainly feel a lot more healthy so...alright."

He patted Travers to lead him out.

"Time to find this college."

With his head down he ventured through the city, trotting along cobbles as he found the winding streets that crept deeper into the subterrane. The smell turned thicker as their nostrils clenched, the fluttering of windows as they passed making Travers feel nervous as James kept soothing him, the walls closing and the streets turning thinner with jagged fences and twisting stones forming rat runs they had to budge through.

"It's alright, just take it slow."

Travers snorted with a gasp as he felt the scrape of an iron spike against his side.

"I know this is rough but we have to get through."

The stallion shivered and kept walking regardless, tightening his legs as he forced himself through an alley and they soon reached a door at the base of a ramp. Above it was inscribed the symbol of the college that James recognised from the castle's books, now scarred through to almost be erased as he approached the door's slat, which opened to reveal a pair of eyes.

"[b][i]p a s s w o r d ?[/i][/b]"

"...fear the old blood."

"[b][i]w e l c o m e .[/i][/b]"

A sinister cackle came as the door opened before him, screaming with a dark laughter as a cold mist swept past their feet. A skeleton sat behind the door in gentleman's finery, and no one else within the circular room. A winding path led on downwards as Travers stepped forth to the base of the building where lied a set of broken doors. Beyond that was a forest, dead trees of skeletal bark as far as the eye could see. Some still had leaves, but they hung by a thread as they heard the sounds of a river faintly babbling like voices of the damned.

"I've never seen this forest," James muttered, "certainly much larger than I expected."

He looked back to find the city's walls rising above them, a sigh of relief as he pulled off his hood and beckoned Travers to march on through the sloping grass. A few wanderers could be seen, their torches flickering in the dim light as James avoided them to head towards the stream. A giant windmill stood beside a bridge, old and creaking like the wings of a dragon as they walked deeper into the woods of sin, the sound of ravens shrieking from every tree, calling for their flesh as he kept patting Travers.

"Easy now, just keep walking. They sense fear, they won't come unless we run."

The stallion disagreed with a gentle whinny, shaking his head until James pulled him back in line.

"Do you trust me Travers?"

He stroked up to his ear.

"I will keep you safe. Nothing will harm you, you have my magic, and my blade at your behest."

The mule started to settle, his tail swatting less as he kept trotting at a generous pace. The ravens watched with eyes of cruel white as James felt something follow them, a black shifting form amongst the trees as he took the path further through the copse. From the banks of a river he saw what appeared to be a boulder shifting slightly. Then he saw fangs, and the dozens of tails from a grand mating ball of snakes, twisting and writhing in blasphemous copulation as he had Travers pick up his speed. Things almost went by without a problem, until he heard the screeching bellow of a monster.

"GO, GO!"

Behind them came a huge boar, a vicious black pig with teeth sharpened red as it thundered forth trying to bite at Travers' hind before he picked up speed. The stallion pumped his legs against the earth, thudding hooves matching that of the boar who loomed behind with a shadow of fury as it chased them through the gloaming, turning a sharp corner and into the valley where large walls of jagged stone reached up around them. From the holes inside the rock there came dozens of serpents, vipers shooting fangs as James struck them back with his staff in their hurtling run, Travers keeping on the path that was easiest for him until they found an old iron gate in the distance. The moment they rushed past its boundary, the pig would stop with a skidding halt and a snort of trembling fear, stiffening its haunches and turning back the way it came.

"HAH! Hah, hhhahaha...there, that's good yes?"

Travers slowed down as he walked further in, his muscles tensing harder as his breath became a shuddering gasp.

"Hey, hey, calm down, caaaalm down." James stroked his neck. "We're out of the woods, we just have the college to get to and then we're safe."

Had James understood the language of mules, Travers would have told him that there were darker things beyond their ken that he sensed with his feral heed. This was a land that no creature born would come, a place that was blighted by gods and where nature feared to tread. Upon this land full of half-buried bones, where large tombs rose out from the earth like the fingers of giants, no mouse crept through its puddles and no bird ever flew past. But all Travers could do was neigh in protest and try to push back.

"I'm scared too," James admitted, "but I must go in. I have to help Andrieu, I need you Travers please, do not abandon me. You like Andrieu too, yes?"

The mule snorted with a struggle to argue but eventually would relent.

"Thank you," he kissed the back of his neck, "come, the sooner we arrive the sooner we leave."

"Is that so?"

He looked up to find a tall raven standing upon the highest tomb.

"Perhaps, 'the sooner you arrive the sooner I leave' would be fitting."

His eyes squinted to see it was in fact a human that launched from above with a grand cloak of infinite night, her face a hollow mask of curving beak as James quickly leapt off his horse and slapped his side to have Travers bolt to safety. With a twist of his staff he turned his cane to a vile whip that struck against the hunter's sword andd forced her back to land in front of him.

"Y-...YOU!"

"I warned you." The raven twirled her crooked blade. "Should I find evidence of your crime through lawful means, then no force shall protect you."

"I do NOT have time for this!" he snapped. "And don't talk to me about how I'm on forbidden ground, you are as well!"

"But how did you come upon this forbidden ground?" she stroked her beak. "I merely followed you through the door, without use of that phrase the church banished all mention of."

"I don't give a bastard damn what the church thinks!" he slashed the ground before him with threaded whip. "I am here on a mission, one of mercy, regardless of what you think-"

"Regardless of what I KNOW, James."

She walked forth with a swish of her blade.

"Your clan at the castle already commit perjury against life, or so the church says. But that's not my mission. My mission is to hunt the hunters, those who for whatever reason, be it lust or madness, would kill those of our fair city."

"Even in self-defence?!"

"If that is what you claim, then you'll let me take you in." She stabbed her sword through a skull in the dirt. "I assure you that if you can prove thus, you shall be exonerated."

"I have no faith in your wretched city," James snarled tightening his grip, "and even with that, you have no proof of the crime you so accuse me of!"

"Don't I?"

The hunter produced a lock of green hair from a small bag.

"Know where I found this?"

His eyes clenched with a tension from his chest.

"Tied to a fence, right next to the body of one of three hunters in Burdock Yard, one of whom had on their blade the blood I have since identified as that of the castle's servants."

"So what?!" he spread his arms. "You accuse me because of my hair, what if some other servant dyed theirs?!"

"The blood was not human."

James looked past her to see Travers waiting at the exit.

"I know not what sort of people the castle employs, but if most of them are human, it'll hardly be a line-up I'll have for those whose blood AND hair match what we found at the crime scene. Now..."

She put the hair back in her bag and took another step.

"Are you going to come quietly? Or shall I sentence you now to the laws of the hunt?"

"Hm." He stepped back once. "It seems...I have no choice."

"Indeed." She offered her hand. "I'm glad the madness has not taken you...is what I wish I could say."

The moment his hand clenched she punched his shoulder hard, sending the fireball from his fingers to go flying past her head when her blade came out thrusting. Dodging slow he felt the scrape of his flesh as she gouged through his cloak, causing James to spin to the ground before staggering back up and swinging his threaded whip to lash at her face. She ducked under the viper's strike and rushed for him again, the scribe rolling fast and retracting his cane to fire shards of ice with his other hand. The hunter ran into a sliding tackle underneath, grabbing his leg in passing to trip him up and send him falling hard before she rolled up above him with her sword coming down for his head. James blocked her sharp with a frigid dagger forming from his hand, crackling white and blue against her twisted blade.

"Hmm! So that's where the ice came from."

"Wh-what, NNNNGH!"

"Cold water, fresh, on your victim's CORPSE!"

Her sword pushed harder until it kissed his hair, her eyes burning from beneath the mask.

"Everything you've done, only incriminates you more James."

"SH-SHUT UP!"

"You have the right to remain silent. Either by your will, or mine."

"I WILL NOT BOW TO SOME [i]RAT-FACED BASTARD![/i]"

Striking her back with all his strength, he followed with a burst of wind that shot her body back by several feet, landing on her boots in a hard skid as she pulled out her gun and fired at the lemming trying to flee. The blunt pellet stabbed him in the leg with a perfect hit, his muscle trembling as he fell screaming into in a roll before stumbling up to face her again. The raven advanced with furious sword glinting from the moon, the scribe tensing himself as he tried to stay on his good leg when she came charging with cloak open wide. His threaded whip went tearing across the ground, scattering bones towards her as the raven parried them with her sword, driving through as James reared back his lash and came crashing down in a cleaving strike towards her head, snapping it sideways when she dodged to try and tangle her feet.

The hunter stopped in her tracks feeling the threads tighten round her ankles, feeling him pull hard on his long vine-whip to make her almost fall on her back. She resisted his efforts by digging her heels as she aimed for his head, the lemming blocking with a handful of ice forming a small shield before she hurled her sword like a harpoon straight for his unguarded hand, frightening him to drop his weapon and loosening it from her feet. With a flying leap she slammed her boot into his icy guard, jumping like a spring-heeled jack on top of his shield to dive into the mud behind him and grab her sword, pulling out her gun mid-roll to shoot him in the arm with a cry of shock.

"[i]DA-AAAARGH! YOU, FILTHY WRETCH![/i]"

"Says the one with blood on his hands."

He felt her smile beneath her beak as she twirled her blade.

"En garde, my little scribe."

"[i]EN GARDE THIS![/i]"

Snapping his staff back in one piece, he channelled a surging shot of flame towards her with the force of a sniper's bullet, surprising the hunter enough to stagger as she dodged barely the shrieking fire that tore past her beak. Following after came James himself, surging a furious wind that shot him forwards in a spiral crash that slammed his head in her stomach, landing on top of her as he started to beat her with savage abandon. She took three blows before she grabbed his throat, choking him hard with iron grip and pulling up her legs against her chest to crunch her boots into his stomach.

Launching him over her body, the raven rolled back up with the lemming who turned his cane back into a whip, cracking his fingers in his other hand to summon a fierce gale around him once more. But this time he called the wind to form around his weapon, turning the threaded staff into a living serpent as the hunter smirked behind her mask.

"You think I'm afeart of your arcane tricks?"

"No, but I will teach you not to INTERFERE!"

The dreadsome whip shot forth towards her, James controlling its body by both his hand and the force of wind to cause it to snap and slither through the air at odd angles that none could mimic. The hunter struck against its searching tip, the sharp venomous head of the blade stabbing towards her as she blocked with her sword, ducked under the shooting tip and whacked the serpentine body aside that tried to suddenly dart towards her. James pulled back his whip and turned his body in a violent spin, lashing for the back of her head as she rolled to the side hearing the song of steel through the air, grabbing a skull from a muddy puddle and hurling it at the lemming who snapped back his weapon to slice it in half.

It was all the distraction she needed to come rushing after him, but the scribe's threaded cane was much faster than she expected as the wind sharply turned to bend its body to her head and carve through the side of her hat. She ducked in time, but not enough to save her cowl, the top of which now drooped sadly from its steepled top as she fired for his leg. James hopped aside as he was forced to pull back his vine, before the hunter came sliding to a halt in front of him and with a violent turning kick forth, slammed the heel of her boot across his face as he stumbled back to hit the base of a tombstone.

"Hmhm...not a bad trick," she dusted her shoulder, "let me show you mine, but I warn you...the price is steep."

She grabbed her weapon in both hands.

"And you've already paid, in debt with your BLOOD!"

Cracking the sword in half, she formed two smaller blades from the crooked length as she lunged towards him, the scribe blasting the earth with a small gale to send himself high when her blades scarred against the tombstone. Whirling his body he sent out his threaded whip, striking upon her head as she blocked with both swords in an X-strike to force it back before James landed on top of the grave, an epitaph the height of a pillar. The raven suddenly leapt upon a rock, climbing with her feet and scaling the crumbling old hill beside the column where James stood ready with a burning shock inside his fist.

Summoning a fireball that smouldered from the wind, he drove forwards to punch it in the hunter's gut but she parried just before he fired with a slash of one sword to his arm, cutting it downwards to cause him to blast the tombstone itself and throw both of them off in a fierce explosion. The scribe struggled to land on his good leg, the hunter digging her sword like a piton into the hill and launching herself forth like a black eagle to dive headfirst towards the lemming. With a harrowing scream James summoned a roaring hurricane that shot the hunter upwards, spinning her in its clutches and followed by his whip extending out to form a steel tornado with jagged teeth ready to gouge her flesh.

The hunter struck out against every blade, her twin swords slashing and parrying from all directions as her body kept spinning in turn from the maelstrom around her. Sounds of clanging and bitter cracks of steel could be heard and seen as sparks came flying out, the body of black turning faster as she parried quicker against the rabid vine that struggled to close in on her, kicking her boot between the steel threads and striking her swords against every metal thorn that came stabbing for her eyes and chest. Suddenly James felt a deep cold in his thigh, a rending fang when the hunter threw one of her swords in the midst of the typhoon as it plunged through his crippled leg.

"[i]A-AAAAAAA[b]AAAARGH![/b][/i]"

He crumpled onto his knee, the hurricane stopped and the raven landed on her feet with a graceful step. Pulling back his cane into its single form, the lemming was overcome by a fury birthed from anguish as he ripped out the sword in his thigh and came charging for the hunter with blade and staff.

"[i]YOU [b]BASTARD SNAKE![/b][/i]"

Striking with both weapons he was blocked twice by her single sword, stomping through puddles with every crack of metal when he met her blade, bones and maggot-ridden flesh twisting under their boots as he sliced at her face and she would block faster; he stabbed for her gut but she smacked him down with her pistol whipping his hand; he swung for her neck but she headbutted him hard to stop him dead in his strike and crunched her knee into his abdomen. Every swipe he made would grow weaker despite his rage, clenching his teeth through the pain as he abandoned dexterity for pure strength, screaming at her face as he lashed for her head faster and faster, whilst the raven kept up with him in a flurry of steel and scraping swords that sang with violence until he punched her straight in the throat. It surprised her enough to give him time to rear back for a vicious blow, until he felt the bullet punch his gut.

"[i]HR-[b]RRRRKH![/b][/i]"

He staggered hard with arms outstretched, stumbling on one knee with his already-wounded leg turning worse when his eyes widened in fear for the raven's visceral strike. Her sword pulled back, and plunged deep into his stomach.

"This, ends, now."

The blade twisted inside before she ripped it back, a crimson burst from his cloak as blood flew across his face, her hand besmirched in scarlet hue as James crumpled back and fell to his side with a shivering sob. His body shook with a deathly fear as he struggled for his satchel, blood running faster with wheezing gasp.

"You fought well...as beasts always do."

He coughed with a choking retch as he felt glass in his fingers.

"I offered you a chance of peace."

She bent down to grab her other sword.

"You only have yourself to blame."

She locked the two blades back together.

"The hunt is over, along with your cimes against humanity."

"[b][i]HRR-RRRGHKH![/i][/b]"

Her boot pressed on his chest to force the air from his lungs.

"Hold still. I'll make this painless as I can."

"[i]N-no...no I-i...I must...A-andrieu.[/i]"

The blade rose high above his head, shining in the dawn as he wept with burning tears, his hand reaching for the sky, smothered in red with fingers trembling.

[b][i]You were too weak.[/i][/b]

"[i]N-n-no...A-andrieu-[/i]"

[b][i]Now he is free from you, you disgusting filth.[/i][/b]

"[i]P-please...no, I'm not ready, I-i'm not ready.[/i]"

[b][i]Accept it.[/i][/b]

"[i]NOOO![/i]"

The raven stopped, but not because of his scream. A flaming lash suddenly struck her face as she countered with her sword deflecting it back.

"WHAT, WHO'S THERE?!"

"[i]JAMES, RUN![/i]"

The voice of a male cried out to him as he pulled out a vial from his satchel, stabbing himself in the chest as thick red pumped into his system with a surge of rejuvenation. His torn belly started to knit its wounds through some dark infernal will, his heart stuttering with shock at this fresh unearthly blood mixing with his own as the woman walked past him.

"This is a criminal affair that YOU are interrupting!"

"I know enough what it is," said the stranger, "but I'm not letting him die yet."

"So you're with him? That means I have two criminals to apprehend."

"I'd like to see you try."

The sound of a burning whip came tearing across the air as she countered with her pistol, firing at the stranger as James staggered onto his feet. With stomach bleeding less he tossed the empty vial and ran for the exit where Travers stood waiting.

"HALT, GET BACK HERE BEAST!"

The hunter pointed her gun at him before the flaming chain knocked her off-aim as James quickly leapt on his horse.

"GO, TRAVERS GO!"

With a snorting shriek he galloped off escaping the raven, the lemming heaving forwards with a gasping struggle against Travers' mane before he looked back to see who she was fighting.

"Is that...Elliot?!"

The pale blue cloak stood before the hunter, a pair of long steel chains wrapped in fire twisting out his sleeves as he swung for her face and legs. She dodged both in a leaping roll before firing at him, the stranger evading faster as he tore the ground in a burning screech that forced her to step back.

"How...h-how is he, is he a sorcerer too?!"

The pain in his belly brought him back as he winced sharply, the blood running deep inside his veins sewing threads of crimson into his flesh, twisting it back together as he clutched firm against the reins.

"AAAGH, a-aaargh! Hohhh...I...I-i really thought I was dead."

He half-expected the voice of despair to mock him for it but it never came, the galloping thud of hooves trampling all his thoughts as they raced to the end of the woods.

At the end of a small path between the hills, they found an old iron gate with the college beyond, looming high above the edge of a lake where the moon watched eternal. A grand institute of circular dome with tall windows where shadows could be seen, the weeds having overrun the gardens and wrapped around fences with the light of the moon drenching the land in a clear bone white. They saw creatures shambling around the college campus, once they had been human but now they limped with searching tentacles for mouths, their flesh a putrid grey that was constantly moist. Other creatures resembled a trifecta between man, spider and fly with giant heads that were covered in eyes and long tendrils with curling tongues. The wings of a broken butterfly flapped feeble on their backs above several unused legs sprouting from their shoulders, shambling, hissing, searching for blood.

"Are those..." James whispered. "Is this...what remains of the scholars?"

Travers clenched his neck trying to pull back.

"It's fine, you're not coming with me. I must do this myself, help me up."

With a click of his teeth he guided his stallion up to the gate, grasping the iron bars and standing on the saddle to launch himself up with a spirit of wind from his hands to vault him over and land haphazard on his feet.

"I'm alright!" he shouted quietly back raising his hand. "Just...g-guh...give me a minute."

Taking a firm breath he felt his legs struggle to lift, grunting with a hobble that made him lean on his cane as he walked back to the gate.

"Wait here, please." He stroked the horse's snout. "If you have to run, then do so, your safety matters most."

The stallion understood, sniffing his hand with a sad little sound escaping his lips as he nuzzled the lemming's face.

"I'm sorry I made you worry. I will try to be back soon, but until then keep watch and stay hidden."

Grabbing the bag of supplies from Travers he pulled out the jars of blood and eyes to take with him. The sounds of skittering beasts made his hair stiffen on the back of his neck, his stomach burning with the deep wound that though managed to heal to some extent, took most of his stamina from his body as he walked carefully through the campus. Sometimes he would pick up a stone and hurl it towards the other side to distract a beast, their slathering snarls intensifying at the prospect of food as he raced past to another iron gate. His mind however was partly distracted by thoughts of Elliot and his strange burning power.

"Why did he...did he follow me? Did he just happen to find me? ...no, regardless of what he is I know him as a friend, and that will not change."

"AH, you've arrived!"

The spider came dangling down from the side of the building.

"And here I thought you had forgotten about dear old me."

"I have your ingredients," he lifted them up, "can you open the gate?"

"Now, whether I can or not is up to me, what is up to you, is whether I MAY open the gate?"

"Is this really the time?!" James snapped. "I almost died coming here when some bastard stabbed me!"

"Language!" the spider hissed. "This is a place of reverence, of higher minds where eyes shall not be witness to such crude informals."

"Yes...I'm sorry," he pinched the bridge of his snout, "please let me in, sir."

With a smile across his bald withered face, the arachnid clambered down to the gate and with a key from his furry belly twisted the lock open. James stepped through and caught sight of a living flower at the lake's edge that rose to a horrific 12 feet, with mouths that ran down its entire stalk to reveal a scar filled with teeth. Budding lights twinkled on its hairs covering its centipede body, flickering to search for some morsel of soul not yet extinguished.

"Quickly now, time is sanity!"

"I don't think that's how that phrase goes," James said.

"A common expression here, for reasons you shall see."

When the spider opened the door to the college, James felt a sudden rush of his senses take leave of him. Something was different when he stepped through the entrance, a strong familiar sensation that took him a moment to comprehend when he found an enormous hall far too big for the outside building to contain. Grand and rectangular with oaken walls and tables worthy of a feast, James heard his steps echo in the darkness as the creature went after him.

"Did...this cannot be."

"And yet it is," the spider giggled, "welcome to the halls where knowledge comes to roost, hope your wits aren't as fat as your feets!"

"What do you mean?!" he looked down at his shoes. "You could stand to be more polite considering-"

"YOU could stand to be more gracious, you're in my debt!" he jabbed a leg at him. "Glory be, it's rare I find someone who would tread measure with the gods and still natter like a shrew!"

"I was almost KILLED!"

"SHH!" He pressed a limb to his lips. "We're not alone, many lecturers await."

"Oh, are they studying?"

"Perhaps. I never ask."

"Are you a lecturer here too?"

"Perish the thought! I'm simply a traveller, passing through corridors built upon godstones."

"Will they mind my presence?"

"Only if they see you."

His smile widened as they walked further between the tables. The sound of soft dripping could be heard from the ceiling as James looked up, disgusted by what he saw as giant grey slugs crept along the walls with sagging hiss. The spider led him towards a lecture room, currently empty with shelves full of books and crates where unsightly smells oozed out from the wood. The table was littered with books, but at its centre was a glass case where a slug the size of a cat sat within, shining with pearl skin that gave a turquoise sheen.

"Our little friend's here," said the spider scratching his leg, "now your part."

"Here," James placed the two jars down, "now you have all you need to make the cure?"

"Ohoh yes absolutely! AH, but there's one thing I forget-"

"Of course there is," he rolled his eyes, "what have you forgotten?"

"Nothing terrible, just something here from another room close to god, and well, my hands are what you call non-existent."

"Hmm..." James squinted sitting down, "do you mind if I take a moment to rest, my body is...well."

He lifted up his robe to see the wound the hunter gave him, a deep vicious cut with scarlet bruise around its edge.

"OHO glory be!" the arachnid shuddered. "That's certainly a shiner you found there!"

"Yes, I uh...aah." His eyes closed with a heavy sigh. "I don't suppose you have something to help with this?"

"You have blood vials don't you?" he jabbed at the cut making him flinch. "Physician heal thyself and all that, I'm doing you a service with the cure already!"

"You must have spare medicine surely!"

"Not a bit, not for you when you can still stand!"

"I can BARELY stand!" James clutched his chest. "I want to help my friend, and I appreciate your help, but you must realise I almost DIED facing a hunter!"

"Almost but not!" the arachnid tapped his head. "Take your breath, savour it and when you're ready I'll tell you what to get."

"Fine."

The scribe took his time to rest, ending up sleeping for an hour in his chair as his body healed itself best it could with the invading blood twisting into his own. His organs recovered, but his flesh felt tense and his muscles like wet paper until he woke up again staring at the spider's face grinning from the table.

"Better now?"

"Barely," he sighed.

"No jabberwocks this night?"

"Thankfully not, alright what do you need?"

"At the back of the lecture hall is a door," he offered James a black pebble, "this will open it up, it's a very strange door well-locked for its sundries."

"I see."

He took the stone and felt over its holes, feeling like a sponge that felt oddly warm to the touch.

"What am I looking for exactly?"

"A...box." The spider rolled his human eyes. "A box of...why, it's marked with the clinic's symbol of course, it is quite heavy unfortunately but your youthful vigour shall see to that."

"Hah, youth." He forced himself up with a heave. "Alright, how long will the cure take?"

"Not more than a day or two, the plan is set, we just need the bread for the oven!"

"Good, I shall return in a bit."

Heading out into the hall James felt his limp return with a gasping twinge in his thigh, remembering the stab he suffered in his leg as he leaned against the wall and took a breath every few steps. In some of the other rooms he found more of the giant slugs, but on closer inspection realised that they were garbed in the clothes of scholars and students. Their faces were melting when they turned towards him, eyes of black and gaping mouths with dreadful moans as he quickly picked up the pace towards the lonesome door at the end of the atrium, with a symbol like that of the stone in his hand that was oddly familiar. Something tingled in his mind as he approached, a soft ringing in his ears from the depths of his dreams. The door would open by itself, a darkness looming before he was suddenly pushed and fell into the abyss, the spider's voice fading behind him.

"[i]Khhhahahahahahaa, ohhh what a fool what a fool! Ohhh to my god I grant thee a most Wondrous gift, a gift of minds that can see beyond and further than you would reach! Ohhhh, grant this poor sod the gift of eternity![/i]"

James woke up once again. The college was gone, his eyes adjusting to the inside of a cave as he pulled himself up.

"Where...where is this?"

The stone in his hand felt much warmer than before as he put it in his satchel. There was light from nearby as he stepped out of the cavern. It was the first time he had seen morning in four years, and it frightened him. A world unfamiliar opened up before him with a pale sun he could not see, clouds covering the sky stretched thin like vellum to bathe the land in a jaundiced light. A wide mountainous vista, floating in the sky where rocks shaped like hexagons led a path through crumbling stone of the exact same texture as the one he was carrying, filled with holes both soft and unpleasant.

"What...wh-what did...what did that fiend do? Did he trick me?! Why am I here of all...ANDRIEU!"

He turned back to the cave as he searched for an exit, scrabbling the walls for a door but he found nothing. The wind shivered from the outside with a sickly breath as he ventured into the twisted land that guided him over its odd smooth steps into the rougher parts of its scape. The sounds of monsters could be heard slumbering as James peered over the edge of a hill to a lower section, where two gangly giants the same beastly countenance as Andrieu slept beside a fire.

"Alright...just think, there has to be an exit someplace. Wait, what's that?"

Far beyond the ledge he stood upon, floating on its own, was an island with a single tower looming upon a grand barren courtyard circled in with rugged walls. Squinting his eyes he saw someone vaguely human waving at him from the pillar.

"Yes, YES, oh thank the talisman there's another soul here!"

He waved back eagerly as the stranger beckoned him to come, gesturing how he had to traverse the whole of the land in one widening arc before reaching to them.

"Yes, alright I understand," he nodded pointing back the way he came, "I'll come, please just...tell me you have an exit from this evil place."

Stepping back he walked to where the beasts were sleeping, as he crept down a slope and hugged against the wall of a small cliff that looked upon a river of oil, damp with poisonous fumes from which he heard the sounds of a slithering mass that made his spirit clench with disgust. The beasts however were light sleepers, as their ears perked at the sound of the intruder's passing when they stood up to their full height of a towering 9 feet. Then they opened their mouths, which suddenly cracked sideways in a horrific vertical smile before they lunged upon him.

"GET BACK!"

Shooting a burst of fire, the beasts were startled with a howling shriek and staggered back towards the cliff. He took his chance and slammed his shoulder into one monster sending it over the edge to crumple into the toxic river, a rancid screech from the acids eating away at its fur when James turned upon its partner just before its claws raked at his face. Scarring his cheek and just missing his eye, the creature grabbed a burning torch from the fire and swung with rage upon the lemming who lashed his whip-cane against its hand, causing it to drop the torch and set its foot alight with a scream of panic before he shot his threaded tip into its throat.

"[i]GET, BACK![/i]"

Choking with a foul gurgle it crumpled, stumbling onto its knees and coughing with a bloodied spit. For a moment James saw its eyes change to a human despair, almost pleading towards him. Then it collapsed. James felt sick to his stomach as he stared at his bloodied whip.

"Is...is that...what Andrieu will become? N-no. No, no I have to find a cure, I must...prevent any further corruption that may come."

He walked over the moors with a sullen look.

"What if...what if he will turn? What if the death of his soul is just...delayed? Is it better for me to keep him alive or must I...no. N-no, there must be a way."

He clutched his face and retracted his whip.

"I have to help him. Whatever I must do, I have...to help him."

Skirting round the valley he found a hill of graves all marked without names that he weaved carefully through. Some of them were intact, some however were split in two to reveal flesh within the stone that twitched against the breeze, red pulsing veins that were plucked by the softest wind. Some of them were breathing. James walked faster to find a path that zigzagged up a hill, surprised by a large pale man with a swollen chest staring at him from above as tall as the beasts he had just fought.

"H-hello?!" He asked plaintive. "I...I found myself lost, I-i need help. There's a tower around here and I ask if you could guide me wh-what, wait what are you doing?!"

The stranger grabbed a boulder from nearby and lifted it over its head with disturbing ease. James ran towards the path soon as he could to evade its throw, a roar of strength as the huge rock crunched where he had been and shattered into several chunks against the smooth uneven stone. James climbed up to meet the man face to face, or rather face to thigh as it swung its long milky arm at his face when he ducked and stabbed hard into its stomach, the whip forming once again as he slashed down its leg and ripped through its back with a flailing strike. The humanoid tried to scoop a large chunk of earth to throw at the lemming, but he shot it back with a burst of wind to pelt its body before he sent his vile lash to wrap round its neck and garrote it with a fierce crack. Whether it died or not James did not care as he ran past when it sputtered with coughing red.

Greater troubles awaited him when he found a lake full of poison, the same acrid water from before along with the slithering entities he had only heard but now would see. Thick slippery tentacles that crawled over the ooze, a rotting placenta in its stench and texture with a puckering tendril sniffing out the scents of its environs. Several islands stood safe in the mire as he formed a path in his head, mentally tracking the least number of steps he could take to avoid the gangrenous inhabitants. With a bursting gale he leapt to the first islet, then to the next and the next as he hopped fast with the wind in his heels over the reaching tentacles. Things went well until he reached the halfway point, upon which he saw more of the pale giants who lifted boulders with a heave as he raced faster to the other end. The crumbling burst of rocks behind made him stagger when he hit the last island, a shuddering quake that almost had him fall back into the water with one very excitable oil-beast scrabbling forwards like a legless puppy eager to bite. He shot back with a flame to frighten it off before he found a cave on the other side of the lake, heading inside quick as he could before he sat with a moment to rest.

"H-hah...aaah...ohhh this, this must be the Great Darkness, nothing else is more hell than this place. What did that bastard spider want with me, WAS THIS A TRICK?!"

He slammed his fist into the spongy walls.

"WH-WHY IS THIS WORLD SO TWISTED?! What...what calamity befell these wretched abominations to make this place EXIST?!"

Exhaustion forced him to weep, shuddering tears of frustration as he huddled up his knees and sobbed into his cloak. For a moment the world stopped whistling its sinful wind, where the toxins drifted under the yellow sky with knotted cliffs and walls of infinite holes that gave him the constant fear of being watched. At one point he stared so intently at the walls that he started seeing holes in the back of his hands, causing him to rub them frantically with a sudden itch that burned under his skin. Then he heard a song. A warm peaceful song that tugged at his heart.

"Wh-...what? Who's there?"

Pulling himself up the lemming walked further through the tunnels of the cave, making his way slowly round to the side of a larger cliff beneath the floating island. A narrow path forced him to hug the wall seeing only the endless abyss of clouds with paper skin, the song guiding him through the tunnels and walkways he wove in and out of best he could. At one point he saw the tower, and his heart swelled with relief knowing he was on the right track, but the song continued to entice him. It was so familiar, so soothing that his smile grew with dreamy eyes and he almost wanted to sleep. Then he turned a corner to find who was singing it.

She wore a robe of deepest blue like those of his people. Her face had grown wide to encompass the dozens of eyes now dotted across her warm pink skin where tufts of green hair sprouted between every pupil. Her arms stretched out so very like his own. It sang with his mother's voice, and the sound of his blood trickling from his ears. His body shook as he clutched his face, crumpling onto his knees as she approached. Her eyes glowed brighter, burning like the sun, and even when he closed his eyes he could see hers inside his lids. It knew his name, and it knew his fears as she embraced him with his mother's arms. James was shivering, clutching against her body, whimpering like its babe.

"[i]I-i-i'm sorry...I-i'm s-sorry, wh-why did you...why did you...f-f-father, father scared me, b-but you wouldn't pr-protect me from him-[/i]"

[b][i]my little james[/i][/b]

"[i]M-mah...m-mother?[/i]"

[b][i]it's alright...mummy's here now[/i][/b]

"[i]M-mother...I'm s-sorry, I...p-please, tell me Alistair's alright, t-tell me.[/i]"

[b][i]shhh...it's time to come home james...come home to mother[/i][/b]

"[i]Yes.[/i]" He smiled from his red bloodied cheeks. "[i]I...I'm home now.[/i]"

He felt her kiss upon his head, as it started to eat his face. Her teeth would pluck at his cheeks and slowly tear a strip of flesh, before something glowed in his satchel that made it stop and pull back. The mask would slip as the infernal light shone brighter and it recoiled with insidious shriek as James fell into the dirt, clutching himself as the dream would fade and his mind felt emptier of precious blood when he drifted to a terrible sleep. Time disappeared from him as he struggled to recover, that same exhaustion of a grievous wound returning as he eventually woke up again, pulling another vial from his satchel and stabbing himself in the neck to pump the thick scarlet rich into his cranium.

"[i]HHHHAAAAAH...a-aaaarhh![/i] G-guh...damn it. D-damn this bastard place and every sickening thing in this wretched pissing realm WHY WON'T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE?!"

He dragged himself back towards the cliff and headed for the tower. A pond of venomous drool awaited him that he easily stepped over with the help of sunken epitaphs forming bridges. The tower stood peerless, reaching the sky as he trudged up the path towards its circular court.

"HELLOOOO?!" he screamed at the peak. "WHOEVER YOU ARE, ARE YOU THERE?! CAN YOU HELP ME OUT OF THIS WRETCHED PLACE?!"

"I can't."

A voice slithered behind his ear.

"Because you're already wretched, that is why you are here."

The moment James turned he regretted it. His heart stopped with a clutch of fear as he stumbled falling back, his legs failing and his tongue turned to lead.

"Y-y-you...n-n-no...[i]it can't be.[/i]"

"Have you forgotten so much since you've arrived in this godforsaken realm? Even the one you were named after, James?"

Standing in the empty lot of the tower's front stood the saviour of his people. A brown reptilian anthropomorph that in another world would be known as a velociraptor, with long thick tail and burning eyes of green wearing only a pair of blue jeans and a weapon's sheath on his back. With purple marks on his snout and trailing down his spine, his presence was somehow more alien than anything else, and even more frightening.

"No...n-n-no, no y-you cannot be here-"

"Why not?" He spread his arms. "You know I'm a traveller between worlds, why's this place any different?"

"B-because...because it's not possible," he stumbled back on his feet, "this...this land is cursed, f-full of wretched things why would you be here?!"

"To show you your destiny." The raptor grinned. "You've done well to get this far, I almost thought we'd never meet for how much you struggled to reach me."

"What? Did you, w-was that spider your minion?!"

"Mmmmm well, he's a follower of sorts but nothing like you."

He stepped up to the lemming and stroked through his hair causing him to flinch.

"Such a powerful mind your people wasted."

"D-don't touch me!"

"Is that how you greet your namesake?"

"Not if he's...truly here, and not some apparition I-i don't even know-"

"But I am here."

The raptor's claws stroked under his chin.

"I'm here James. See? I'm real."

There was a moment of silence. For the smallest fraction of a second, James wanted to give up and embrace his saviour, bend to his knees and beg forgiveness. But the logic that remained, hardened by years of travel and the scars of corruption pulled him back.

"This...this feels wrong," he shook his head as the fingers brushed him, "i-it might be because I just had the blood sieved out of my head-"

"Ahhh yes." The raptor looked back as a faint song could be heard. "The lanterns are deadly but beautiful...of course, they only target those whose minds are wracked with weakness."

"Weakness?"

"Yes." He turned back to James with a sudden sneer. "You failed me."

"What?! But, I-i never even met you!"

"When you were a child. Too sick to ever meet me, too weak more like."

"That..." James rubbed his sleeve, "th-that was because, I was-"

"A feeble-headed lemming." The raptor shook his head. "I had hopes for you, I told the chieftain himself 'see that boy there? He has my name, he knows his greatness'."

"H-he never said that, he would have told me if you did!"

"I didn't want you to have an ego, so of course I told him not to tell you. Let your talent grow naturally, and lo it did. But after all your village tried to do to keep your mind safe from temptation, you took your rarest skill and turned it into a selfish crusade just to be greater than me."

"NO, THAT'S NOT TRUE!" he jabbed his finger at him. "I DID IT TO SAVE MY PEOPLE, THE GREAT DARKNESS WAS-"

"A minor threat that if I had been there, I would have dealt with."

"WHY WEREN'T YOU THEN?!"

"Because I [b]expect[/b] you to be greater." A flicker of black appeared in the saviour's eyes. "I did not save your people from a quiet holocaust, just so you could whimper at me everytime a dark cloud hangs over your village."

"IT WAS THE GREAT DARKNESS!" he screamed grabbing his hair. "It would have consumed my home, my island, my PEOPLE WOULD BE GONE AGAIN!"

"And yet you failed." James the raptor walked closer looming over him. "Am I supposed to rescue you everytime you fail? There's a saying out there about teaching a lem to fish, but you couldn't even catch one without falling in and drowning, like the pathetic, little, cavemonger you are."

"Wh-what...wh-wh-why are you saying these things?" the lemming whimpered pulling back his throat. "This...this isn't, th-the chief said you were kind, you cared, that's why you saved us!"

"Oh of course I cared. I cared [b]once.[/b]"

His teeth clenched like scraping daggers.

"You have no idea how much it disappoints me to see someone as toothless as you to come out of my achievement...your parents would understand."

"What, what do you mean?!"

"Yyour mother was right to choose your father over you. At least he was strong, he carried himself with dignity unlike his first-born whelp."

"SH-SHUT UP!" He clenched his fists trying to stand up straight. "YOU, Y-YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT HIM, YOU BARELY CAME, ALL YOU DID WAS SEE ME THROUGH A WINDOW!"

"And yet here you are, proving your father right."

"I ACHIEVED MORE THAN HE EVER COULD, BOTH OF THEM!"

"Yes, what did you achieve?" the saviour walked round him in a slow circle. "Travelled to several worlds contributing nothing, disgraced the friendship you built for my son who you ONLY cared about because of your undying adulation for me-"

"N-NO, HE, HE WAS MY FRIEND!"

"Forced yourself into a fugitive's heart only to break it in pieces-"

"B-but, Chanoch he...h-he said he would wait for me-"

"Does your family wait for you, even your brother?" the raptor smirked behind his shoulder. "Your brother whose life is now ruined because of your selfish piety, his idol now broken and his faith in tatters?"

"I-i-i...I-i told him, before I was banished...I-i told him-"

"Killing your mentor in cold blood."

The first James stepped back in front of him.

"What part of anything I said would make you a saviour? Those aren't the actions of heroes, are they James?"

"No...n-no they aren't," the lemming drooped his head, "I...I-i did...all of that."

"Your brother is lost, your lover is broken-hearted and your mentor is dead along with the love that he had for the woman that you've ruined. She was quite an important person at the human base yes?"

"She...sh-she was."

"Do you think she can focus when you murdered the only man she loved? What if..."

James felt the cold steel of two blades pressed to his chin.

"What if your senseless murder condemned the humans to a slow extinction?"

"...n-no. O-oh no." His throat trembled. "Y-you do not think that-"

"A brilliant mind is undone by emotions, such as yours. Perhaps you infected her with your rage and now she has condemned her kind. You were never a saviour James. You're but a traitor to your race, and to your friends."

The raptor stood apart from him with a large pair of scissors, long rusted blades the length of a bastard sword with two odd circular handles he gripped with a single hand like a rapier.

"That is why I'm here, James of the Lemmingfolk. I can offer you a true death...or repentance."

"Re...r-repent?" he gasped choking.

"I have a problem, and I require your brain to help me decipher it. Your mind is precious, wasted but precious nonetheless to me and me alone. If you would rather die, I'll end you the way you deserve. But if you want your life to have some hopeful meaning...then you will swear to me your full allegiance."

He opened his scissors wide to press on either side of his neck, brushing the cold wicked steel against his skin.

"So what will it be? Death...or servitude?"

The blades clenched softly with every breath he was allowed to take. He looked up to the sky wrought in its ill splendour, a far cry from the eternal darkness back in the world within the dusk. His mind wanted death, closing his eyes and bracing himself for the cull. But his heart remembered Andrieu.

"I...I will serve you." He struggled to swallow. "I-i choose to serve you...my saviour."

"Good." The blades slipped from his throat. "I knew you still had that spark, of dark intelligence."

"Th-thank you," he clutched himself falling to his knees, "what...what should I do?"

"I want you to teach me the Art that your people have learned."

"...wh-what?"

James looked up seeing the scissors almost push against his eye.

"Did I stutter? I thought you said you would serve me."

"B-but, why do you...do you not travel between realms already without the Art, why would you need to know?!"

"Because I have friends I must take with me." The raptor nodded carefully. "I can only travel on my own, and there are those I wish to take with me to a better place. A place of...unspoilt beauty, and paradise...that I may rule in peace from this godforsaken realm."

"O-oh...I see. Well," James rubbed his knees, "I will need some ink, special ink, I know how to make it, I just need ingredients, also a book, a blank one I must cure to receive the ink especially."

"Does that require you take leave of me?"

"Y-yes but...how will that work? I tried before to leave but the Art does not work in this realm, the fog, this oppressive mist confounds me and the words do not come through-"

"Do they come through now?"

Campbell grinned waiting for the lemming's response. Something tingled again in his mind as he felt a word drifting from a place unknown. Then a verb, an adjective, a future tense slipping between the contours of his mind like the dragon through the valley. His hands clenched into the dirt when he fell, with tears coming through."

"Th-this...th-th-the words...h-hoh saviour bless me, you brought the words back!"

"Yes," the saviour bowed, "this realm we stand in is not truly part of the world beneath, for we stand in the realm of nightmares."

"N-nightmares? Truly?" He clutched his chest. "So we, we are on the edge of this realm?"

"If even that, and yet to the mind that seeks freedom, this island remains but a prison. But not any longer."

His hand stretched out to the lemming.

"Come. Open your heart to me James...let our eyes grow, and birth anew in realms unseen."

His pale fingers reached out to the raptor. Something flickered in the saviour's eyes that caught the light from the sky, a tremor in the back of James' mind that warned him too little and too feeble to pull him back. What instead pulled him back was the chain that snapped towards the saviour's hand and struck it alight with flames causing him to reel back in shock and burning fury.

"I didn't hear half of what you said."

A cloak of pale blue landed beside them.

"But I can already tell you this is a bad deal for you James."

"Wh-WHAT?!" the raptor snapped at the stranger. "WHO are you to dare defy me in this realm?!"

"E-ELLIOT!?" James gasped. "What, what are you, HOW DID YOU-"

"I'll answer that later," said the newcomer with burning chains, "right now you need to step away from this bastard, don't take that deal whatever you do!"

"You DARE to speak back to me?!" the saviour swung his scissors towards him. "This affair concerns only me and this poor wretch."

"And I'm here to stop him from the biggest mistake in his life."

"Who...who are you?" James shook his head. "Elliot how, why would you say that, what do you know about this?!"

"I used to be a lawyer. Trust me, I know a bad deal when I see one."

"WORTHLESS [b]INFIDEL![/b]"

The raptor lunged with his piercing blades as Elliot dodged with a lashing strike, tearing against the saviour's scissors as he spun with a second chain to crack the back of the raptor's head. He barely staggered and turned with plunging stab that the cloak struck down with a burst of embers from his steel whip, the raptor jumping forth using his blades like a polevault to somersault over Elliot's head and slash through his skull causing him to fall hard to the floor. The stranger rolled upright and swung his steel whip towards his foe, wrapping round the saviour's legs to drag him close with savage heat, charring the flesh through its iron tongue as the raptor shrieked and hurled his scissors like a spear towards Elliot's head. He countered with his other lash, cracking it upwards as the saviour tore free from the binding and shot up into the sky with a burst of furious wind, grabbing his blades and coming down towards the cloak with a plunge from the heavens.

Elliot quickly rolled out its path when the scissors crunched into the rock, causing the ground to splinter in jagged pieces that punched upwards into jutting shards as the stranger spun his body fast in a whirling slash towards his opponent. The first two strikes were deflected, but the other four made scars of deepening black across his body before Elliot stopped on his back foot, swinging both chains combined into an X that struck the raptor's shoulders and knocked him down onto his knees.

"ELLIOT, S-STOP!" James shrieked from the side. "H-HE, HE IS MY SAVIOUR YOU CANNOT-"

"HE'S NOT YOUR SAVIOUR!" he snapped look back. "It's a trick of this place you're in the nightmare realm right?!"

"W-well...yes, even he said so-"

"Don't you think it's even a LITTLE bit weird the guy you've worshipped for years would suddenly just be here?!"

"[b]BEGONE YOU WRETCH![/b]"

The raptor came lunging with scissors raised high, Elliot blocking hard with his chains but his foe charged through with a brazen slash that tore through his robe before following with a shoulderbash to knock him down. With blades ready to stab downwards he was halted by a fiery burst from Elliot's hand, shooting from his fingers to force the raptor back and give him time to step back on his feet. Sending out his chain between the saviour's legs he made a lashing uppercut to scrape hard along his chest and crack into the skull, throwing his enemy back before following with a blunt piercing stab of his other whip straight into the raptor's chest. The saviour barely reacted to the punch of his heart, until he saw James behind Elliot and clutched his chest with a startle of pain delayed.

"A-AAARGH! JAMES, ASSIST YOUR MASTER, KILL THIS INFIDEL!"

"DON'T WORRY!" Elliot shouted. "I WON'T KILL HIM! Can't kill what never was, right?!"

"Wh-what do you mean?!" the lemming cried stepping back.

"Are you gonna show your true face, mister saviour, or you wanna keep up this charade?!"

"The only charade here is your [b]INSOLENCE![/b]"

With a hurl of his scissors the raptor aimed upon Elliot who struck back the whirling blades, sending them back to their owner who grabbed the handles and spun faster to throw his entire body forwards in a spiral cut of sheer momentum, surprising the cloaked stranger enough to fail his guard and get stabbed deep through his stomach by the twisting tearing plunge. James gasped in fright seeing the piercing tips burst out of his friend's back, the raptor landing his feet with a skidding shriek and lifting Elliot high impaled into the air.

"Shall we end the charade NOW?" he hissed with superior grin. "Let yourself be an example for those who defy the gods."

"[i]H-HRRKH...heh...you think I'm scared of gods?[/i]"

Elliot coughed with a sputter of white mist from his head.

"[i]I've already met...worse demons than you.[/i]"

"Not yet. My true face you have yet to see."

"[i]Oh, I've already seen it.[/i]"

The cloaked stranger grabbed at the scissorblades.

"[i]Wanna see [b]mine?[/b][/i]"

Something crackled under his sleeves, a wisping smoke that turned his claws to a thickening heat that warmed up the scissors, a smouldering volcanic wroth that made the raptor cringe with discomfort as he tried to hold on against the searing burn. A smile came from inside the hood, eyes of silver glimmering sharp before his body suddenly exploded with a violent scream of sorrow, a molten sphere of amber roaring across the land and forcing the saviour back with foul shriek, feeling the flames tear his flesh to a darkening crisp before he burst with a pulse of deep cold from his body that snuffed out the fire. Elliot's cloak had faded to ashes, as both raptor and lemming stood shocked upon his true appearance.

"What...E-elliot, you're-"

"I'll explain later." He looked back with a burning smile. "Just stay back, I'll keep you safe."

"So you desire his mind as well?" hissed the saviour.

"I don't want anything but his safety." His chains slithered across the ground. "And if you threaten that, you're dead to me."

Standing before James were now two different raptors. One the very image of his namesake, the other of similar earthen scales in a blue polo shirt and black jeans with a severe bump of displaced bone on the top of his skull. Elliot looked so bizarrely normal, so mild-mannered that if it weren't for the binding chains wrapped around his wrists he would have looked the frailest creature in this realm. The saviour lunged with shrieking scissors carving through the earth as Elliot stepped back, hurling his chains of steel crackled with sparks of flame as he lashed one for the head and one for the legs in alternate direction. The raptor of green eyes dodged between them in a diveroll to slash Elliot's chest, a grievous wound from there came white mist trickling into the air as his clothes reknitted themselves. Shoving his enemy back, Elliot put his hands together and twisted his chains into one single vine of monstrous force, swinging like a bat to crunch into the saviour's head and send him flying several feet through the air.

With a sudden advance Elliot came flying towards him, his feet lifting off the ground as he spun in mid-air with a whirling strike that cracked twice into the saviour's body, knocking him down once again before one of the chains wrapped round his leg and swung his entire form up high before crunching down once more, cracking the stone beneath in fractures until the saviour grabbed the other chain and suddenly pulled Elliot down with a vicious force. He sputtered briefly from the strength before one raptor swung the other, throwing him towards the wall and crushing Elliot into the rocky cliff, the saviour following after with a brutal slam of his knee into the second raptor's stomach.

Grabbing Elliot's head as he groaned with agony, the saviour dragged him across the stone with a hard tear and threw him to the ground before raising his scissorblades high for a cleaving strike, before Elliot shot out one of his chains to wrap round his wrist and jerk the swing of his blades off-course before booted his feet hard into the stomach. When his opponent bent over in a gasp of shock, he swung his other chain round the throat and strangled him hard in a full tug that sent him head over heels over Elliot's body, pushing himself up quick to start savagely whipping him with iron lashes raking hot coals over the saviour's chest. He struggled to guard with his scissors but Elliot picked up his speed, blurring to silver ash as he roared with a dozen tails of ferocious fire, a storm of crimson embers surrounding him before he made a double strike upon the face.

But he soon met the open blades of the scissors clamping shut upon his chains, the raptor twisting his handles sharp to throw Elliot aside forcing him to pull back, which in turn pulled the saviour up on his feet when he wrenched hard to bring him close with a raking slash of claws upon his face. Elliot in turn grabbed the other raptor's throat and drove his fist with a sudden frenzy into his face, thrice into the eyes before the scissors struck his head from the side with the blunt side of their blades to knock him down. The scissors went deep into his chest once more, stabbing into his gut as he screamed with foetid roar.

"[i]A-AAAAAAARGH![/i]"

"Pitiful." The saviour's image grinned twisting his blades. "What poor faith a heathen must have to fall before our greatness."

"G-GUUUUH!"

"S-STOP, MY SAVIOUR PLEASE!" James cried hurrying close. "D-DO NOT KILL HIM, PLEASE NOT MY FRIEND!"

"YOU HAVE NO FRIEND BUT ME!" the raptor shrieked back at him. "You now owe me a debt, only to ME you shall obey!"

"B-but, but he helped me, please I beg you don't kill him! Punish him if you have to but don't kill him!"

"We have barely shaken hands." He twisted harder as Elliot's stomach tore wider. "Already you are taking more than I give like an errant child."

"I-i-i, I wouldn't ask unless it was-"

"THEN NEVER ASK UNTIL YOU [b]GIVE![/b]"

Elliot wheezed with gasping shriek as more of his white spirit poured out to a river in the sky.

"You wish to seek asylum with me, you shall obey and ask only when you have offered me your gift. I will reward you, greater than any migrant fool of your pitiful little race has ever seen, with eyes beholden on every facet of your soul, but UNTIL THEN you ask not what I can do, until I have witnessed what you can WRITE!"

In this moment of distraction the saviour had not seen Elliot's flesh start to pimple with heat his blood or what would have been turning to a molten magma as the pale smoke became a blackening char that crackled like smallest thunder. By the time his foe turned back it was too late to react, the other raptor's body now transformed from its brown scale to infernal black, hardening sulphur that burned his wounds to a cauterising seal as he raised his fists and punched two jets of fire straight at the saviour's face to knock him on his back.

"[i]You...[b]disgust me."[/b][/i]

Elliot forced himself up with a barren hole through his chest.

[b][i]"How...dare you impersonate my SON?!"[/i][/b]

"Wh-what, what are you," James staggered back more frightened and confused.

[b][i]"I won't let you disgrace him with this, no one, NO ONE WILL TAKE ANYTHING FROM ME, NOT EVER AGAAAAIN!"[/i][/b]

He slammed his fists into the earth as the rocks burst from underneath, his entire form a beacon of rage incarnate as the chains of steel became living serpents of gold, burning with such frenzy that the stone itself would blacken blacken beneath his feet, struggling to walk forth as if the flames were eating his muscles and warping the bone to dust. The saviour tried to pull himself up before Elliot hammered his foot into the earth, causing the stone to shoot upwards in a violent crack that threw his foe up into the sky as Elliot pulled back his fist, searing white hot to the knuckle that crunched into his face and caused a small explosion that bloomed into a flowering flame, sending the supposed saviour hurtling across the empty yard and crunching his head into the base of the tower.

The raptor smouldered with coiled wreaths of flame surrounding him, shivering through his head and clenching his neck to calm himself and force his anger deep back down as his scales returned to their regular brown.

"H-how...who are you?" gasped James.

"Ready for that...explanation?" Elliot said grabbing his arm. "Come on, we gotta go, now."

"But who-"

"JUST RUN, NOW, BEFORE THAT THING GETS BACK UP!"

"[b][i]INFIDEEEEEEEL![/i][/b]"

The screech of the false saviour came roaring from the tower, a voice that James knew in his heart was not something any creature born from earth should make. Elliot was clearly struggling, his hands still warm just beneath the threshold of burning as James held him tighter, running from the tower's court and back towards the poisonous lake whilst his foe came charging across the stones with a screeching bellow that tore the clouds apart. The moment they passed through the arch that was the entrance to the courtyard, they were safe as the creature screamed with thundering fists crunching into the dirt, sending up a storm of dust from which James saw eyes blinking from a larger mass above the saviour, just on the edge of his vision.

They didn't stop until they raced up the hill beside the toxic pool, the opposite way that James had come from as they soon found a narrow crevasse hidden in a nook, inside which was a single eerie stone of emerald encircled on the floor.

"Get on, quick."

"Where are we going?!" cried James.

"Back to the castle, that's where you wanna go right?"

They stepped onto the stone as it shuddered with life, glowing with insidious energy as it levitated up through the shaft above like an elevator. The grinding of its sides against the smooth stone rumbled in their ears before they reached the top and James found himself back where he began near the small cavern he had awoken in.

"Is...did the tower move from us?"

"No," Elliot shook his head, "this place just messes with your sense of space, you alright James?"

"I-...No." The lemming stepped back from him. "N-no you, you tell me who you are, right now, why are you, wh-why are you here, WHY did you fight that hunter WHY DO YOU RESEMBLE THE SAVIOUR?!"

"Because...I'm his father." He put a hand to his chest as the chains disappeared from his wrists. "That thing down there was NOT my son, I can tell you that, it was a monster pretending to be-"

"N-NOOO!" James staggered back against the wall clutching his face. "YOU, SHUT YOUR [i]DAMN MOUTH![/i] THIS WORTHLESS LAND IS TRYING TO TRICK ME AGAIN!"

"It was, that's why I came to save you-"

"[I]SHUT UP![/I]"

He swung with a desperate strike of his cane that Gerald swerved past with a startled look.

"I WAS TRICKED BY A BASTARD SPIDER WHO PROMISED ME A CURE, I WAS THROWN INTO THIS HORRIBLE PLACE THAT EATS AT MY SOUL, WEARING THE MASK OF MY SAVIOUR AND NOW YOU CLAIM TO BE HIS [i]FATHER?![/i]"

"Alright, alright." The raptor put up his hands. "I can see why you'd be stressed, let's just take a moment. Why don't we get oot here first and find you someplace to rest-"

"I will go NOWHERE with you!" James thrust a finger at his face. "What proof have you that you're the real Elliot I knew, you could be another trick of this place!"

"Well...actually that's a good point," he rubbed his chin, "I could be an illusion for all you know."

"So you admit it?!"

"No, I'm just saying I can't prove I'm real until we get oot this place. Tell you what, I'll walk ahead of you first and leave first, that way you'll know, because nothing can leave this realm by itself."

"Is that true?" James crossed his arms.

"That faker down there can't leave right? He couldn't follow us out of his little pen, that's why he wanted you, think aboot it. Why would he want to learn your Art if anyone here could just leave?"

"That...I suppose that...does ring some truth to it," James slitted his eyes, "I still do not trust you, but you may lead me towards this supposed exit, but if I detect one trace of a dark intent I will run you through!"

"Got it. This way."

Elliot took him back to the cavern, searching the back wall just as the lemming had done when he entered but with more fruitful results, touching deep through a crack that would normally be too small for any hand to reach. With his spectral fingers he felt for a button as the wall sliding open to show a strangely normal door, a solid oak single that James recognised as the door he entered through, the same darkness yawning before them.

"After me."

He chuckled walked through first as he had promised, the dark depths consuming his form with a gasping wind of eternity that sucked the lemming in. With a last look behind him he ventured after a minute later, the cold familiar depths between dimensional states briefly taking him with a nostalgic bliss until he arrived back in the lecture hall.

"It...it truly is."

"See?" the grey-eyed raptor stood beside him. "Now you believe me?"

"Well...I...I-i am still not certain, especially when I had known you as Elliot for weeks and nothing but a bard."

"I was a musician, that wasn't a lie, I just had more to me than I told you. Let's start over."

He offered his hand with a plaintive smile.

"My name's Gerald Campbell. For real."

"...alright." The lemming shook back with resignation. "I am...James."

"Heh, good name, of course I would say that."

"Is that a joke?"

"Only if you laugh."

"Whatever. Now, if you'll excuse me," James pulled away and walked down the hall, "I must find that little bastard and break all eight of his legs."

"I'll come with," Gerald smacked his fist, "I'd like to see him too."

"What issue you have with him?"

"He tried to kill you, that's good enough a reason right?"

Befuddled by the raptor James shook his head and went back to the study where the spider still waited. He slammed the door open with his foot to frighten the arachnid who bowled over the table and fell on his back with crumpling legs.

"A-AAAAH, OHH GLORY BE H-HOW DID YOU...wait, w-wait you shouldn't be here!"

"Ohhh, is that right?!" James pushed his cane upon his abdomen. "Sorry for the wait, I found it rather difficult to find ingredients when in a LIVING HELLSCAPE!"

"A-AAH, MERCY, P-PLEASE HAVE MERCY I AM NOT ARMED!"

"YOU HAVE EIGHT OF THEM, FOR NOW!"

"A-AAAAGH, MY GOD, MY GOD WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?!"

"Start talking," Gerald loomed over with a fist thickening in flames, "he can break off your legs, but I can burn the stumps so you don't bleed."

"Wh-WHO ARE YOU?!"

"A friend, now talk, why did you trick James?"

"I-i-i serve a higher call, m-my god, so precious and pure demands only the richest of minds pure and unsullied!"

"Why?"

"To ascend, beyond the flightly bonds of this realm, th-this one!" he jabbed a leg at James. "He has a mind so unique, a gift so rare that can break the bonds, through the mist as we fly!"

"Fly?" James sneered. "So that's all you cared about, using me to serve your own needs?"

"Are we not brothers in greed?! What makes you different from me, you only care about a cure!"

"NOT FOR ME BUT FOR A CHILD!"

He punched the spider in the thorax with his cane, causing him to shriek with a sputtering cough and wheezing tremor.

"I may be a wretched outcast, but I'm not so SELFISH as to trick others into being patsies!"

"A-AAH, I never told you my names h-how do you-"

"Shut up." Gerald leaned closer showing his hand dripping with fire. "Your plot failed, now we won't kill you unless you tell us what we want."

"YES, ANYTHING!"

"Do you have the cure for beasthood? IS there one?"

"N-...n-no." The creature shook his head with pitiful whinge. "There is...n-no cure for the beasts."

"What?" James pressed his cane harder. "Are you certain?"

"Y-YES AAAARGH, OHH MY HEART, MY HEART P-PLEASE HAVE MERCY!"

"If you lie to me now I will kill you slowly, now IS THERE A CURE?!"

"NO THERE ISN'T!" the spider screamed. "TH-THEY'VE BEEN TRYING FOR YEARS AND NOTHING'S COME, I'M NOT EVEN FROM THE CLINIC!"

"You lied to me before?!"

"Y-YES, YES FORGIVE THIS PARLANCE, m-my tongue do run away with itself b-but I had to, my god willed it you must understand!"

"How do you know there's no cure?" the raptor asked bending his knee.

"Do you really think, that they wouldn't know a cure by now after hard decades of work?! This blood, this corruption that man had brought to himself, washed ashore from a violated village many moons ago and STILL they found not a drop of panacea!"

"Alright. If we do find there's a cure, we'll come back and kill you, you realise."

"I-i don't lie this night, never, this night only I shall speak a truth and that is that!"

"Good." He stood up as James backed off to let the spider breathe. "You ever trouble him again, I'll put you on a furnace just cold enough to make your last week on earth a living hell."

"I-i-i swear, to my god and all their eyes as my witness I shan't!"

They walked out of the study, heading through the lecture hall and exiting through the college grounds where monsters still roamed. Gerald assisted with his fire, warding them back as he shot out flames that startled them before he helped James over the gate.

"Travers!" He hugged the stallion. "Ohhh...oh I'm so sorry, I'm sorry for leaving you so long."

The horse snorted with a gentle whinny and sniffed his hair with sighs of relief. Clambering onto the saddle, Gerald joined behind him as they trotted off back through the woods.

"The hunter's gone by the way," said the raptor, "I chased her off, couldn't kill her but damn if she wasn't tough."

"Thank you," James said, "you did save my life, I have that much to owe you."

"Nah you don't owe me anything, you gave me plenty food."

"Are you...I saw how you battled that, well...whatever was pretending to be James Campbell, but are you an undead?"

"Not exactly," he reached his hand forth as it faded opaque, "I'm a ghost, died back fifty-four years ago."

"I...I-i see," he shook his head, "why did you need food then?"

"I don't, but you offered me some and I wasn't gonna say no, it still tasted good."

"So, what was that thing exactly, that pretended to be the saviour?"

"I don't quite know," Gerald stroked his chin, "but it was definitely the master of that realm, some kinda deity that said it wanted your Art?"

"Yes, the Art. That was how my people banished me here, but I have not been able to wield it because of this realm's ether."

"But in that nightmare realm it said you could."

"Yes..."

His hands trembled against the reins as Travers took a slower path.

"I-i felt it, the words drifting back to me. I don't know what to think, it was like...an old friend embracing me."

"I'm sorry aboot the cure." Gerald patted his shoulder. "I was hoping you'd find one too."

"Honestly...I was a fool to give that much hope to such an absurd little demon. I deserved to be tricked-"

"Hey, none of that, you had good intentions-"

"Roads to ruin are all paved with such, it does not matter."

His head bowed as they passed through the thicker brush of twisting trees overhead.

"Why did you give me a false name?"

"I had to hide myself," Gerald rubbed his arm, "didn't want to show my hand before helping you."

"Are you an outcast too?"

"No, I just wanted to be careful. I know what it's like to get tricked, to be abused into a cult, I want to help you James, believe me I really do."

"Why?" He looked back at the raptor. "Why do you...care about me, why seek me out?"

"Because...I want to make amends, for my family." He sat up straight with hand over fist. "I couldn't save my son...I've accepted that failure. But I thought, maybe...I could save someone else's James-"

"Stop."

His face turned bitter as Travers halted.

"Get off. Now."

"Wait, what?"

"I am NOT going to be your surrogate."

"James, hold on what I meant was-"

"I KNOW WHAT YOU MEANT!" he turned with a snap. "I deserve no pity, I am sick and tired of being taken as a poor little boy, I am a GROWN ADULT, AND A MURDERER!"

"I-i know, but I still wanna help-"

"Because you feel guilty you orphaned your son?! No, get off, I'm not having this conversation."

"I'm not leaving you."

"And I am not moving until you do!"

The raptor cracked his knuckles and pulled back from him, before the sound of chains slinked from his arms and suddenly wrapped round the lemming's body.

"I am not leaving you. That is final."

"G-GET OFF, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"I'm not going to hurt you, I never will, but I'm staying with you until I can help you."

"You can help when you STOP HAUNTING ME!"

"I can't, I'm a ghost what you expect?!"

"What do you want then?! To absolve me of my crimes, to wash the blood from my hands?!"

"I want to help you find peace and escape this world," Gerald tightened his chains, "I know you were punished and you can't go home, but I don't want you to suffer here any longer than you had to-"

"THIS, IS MY [i]PUNISHMENT![/i]" he shouted back. "You have NO RIGHT to judge my sentence!"

"So that's all you want, to suffer here forever?"

"It's what I deserve! I murdered my mentor, and I doomed my people."

"Did you do it of your own will? Or were you possesed?"

"...how do you know that?" the lemming turned stiff.

"I hear a lot of things through the grapevine," Gerald grinned, "people talk a lot in the afterlife."

"You didn't...meet my master did you?"

"No, but I'm right aren't I? Something took control of you, you weren't in a-"

"Finish that sentence and I will purge you from this realm." He turned his body far as he could as Travers shifted to keep his balance. "My body, committed the crime, regardless of my mind's intent. I must pay for that, and nothing, not even you, will change that Gerald."

"...fine." He put his hands up. "I'm sorry, I can't force you to not live your whole life in penitence."

"Thank you."

He sat up straight once Gerald removed his chains and the horse cantered on, slipping through the woods as the raptor sighed clenching his hands together.

"You're gonna hate me for this."

"What?" James groaned. "Could you at least wait until we get back, I was almost killed by a hunter, then tricked by a worthless fiend who claimed he had a cure for Andrieu, only to offer me to his god who almost drove me to insanity in his twisted bastard realm-"

"I found Andrieu's mom."

The horse stopped in his tracks again as James loosened his grip. Nothing was said for a moment, the sounds of the forest through whistling trees and the caw of ravens punctuating the silence.

"Can you take me to where she is?" he asked eventually.

"I can," Gerald nodded.

"...show me."