Chapter 126: Book 3 chapter 27

Tinaka did not know how long he screamed for, pain unlike anything he could ever have imagined pulsing through him as the all encompassing darkness invaded his very soul. His entire world was darkness, endless, all-consuming darkness. No matter where he cast his gaze he found no salvation from the endless abyss, the mind numbing pain that pulsating from his own face. The only thing left was the pain of what felt like burning barbs in his cheeks that drowned out everything else.

After an eternity the barbs were ripped from him, releasing him from his torment as the pain dulled slightly. Now, where it had felt as if he had hot barbs digging into his very being, he could feel a bone chilling cold. A slight breeze sent another wave of pain though him as it worked its way into the now vacant holes, Tinaka screamed again. 

Another eternity, another lifetime, another endless cycle of pain, begging for a release from this prison of darkness….

“You’re too loud.” A voice hissed, the distorted inhuman growl digging into his mind as something slammed into him. 

His very being crumpled from the force, any noise being violently ripped from his throat as he found himself pinned so completely against the nothing around him even his very thoughts stilled to nothing. 

Slowly, so slowly, the pressure released him. Time itself bending around him, distorting in the absolute darkness, he was finally freed. Where… where am I? His mind finally coalesced enough for him to form a thought.

“I think this is my void.” The distorted voice in the darkness replied, again gripping his mind with an icy fear he hadn’t known possible.

Who… your void? The very darkness itself seemed to shift at his thoughts, ignoring the intrusions into his mind as he desperately attempted to piece together what had happened. 

He had been tasked to look into the minds of the humans for any information; the elder had been clear to look for anything pertaining to Eryl herself, but the two girls he now knew were Amethyst and Himari would also be acceptable. As an afterthought  the missing girl, Hecatolite, had been added to that list though it was clear Astari had written the child off, assuming she had perished much like many of the young who wander into the forest.

Having let the humans come ashore to calm them enough to be susceptible to his magic, and with his spell being so short ranged, Tinaka prepared himself to dive into their minds. Again, like countless times before in his long life, he cursed himself for never bothering to learn more powerful soul magic. 

Yet again he did not see the need to. Sure he had to wait for someone to sleep to dive into their mind but why would he ever have needed to read more than someone’s surface thoughts while they were conscious? The mind was so much more pliable when sleeping, easier to guide to what he wanted instead of digging around for it. Much more so than when someone’s conscious mind was fighting against you every step of the way. That and with his own soul magic, it was much easier to keep someone asleep than actively dodge someone who was attacking him while looking for what he needed.

Again he rationalized in his mind his fighting style; weaken the person with curses and hexes, wait for them to either pass out or fall asleep, root around in their minds unhindered, then either be gone when they awoke or pop a few core memories leaving them a babbling husk or dead. Sure it wasn’t glamorous but it had been a tried and true method for centuries, why muddle it with a completely different branch of soul magic. 

The excessive casting time for his spell, and the limited utility of his magic was not optimal, but it had its uses. 

Once the humans had settled in it did not take long for the first of them to fall asleep, and he quickly learned a few very important things.

The first being the four women had not been on the ship originally, appearing halfway through their journey; strangely they simply appeared while the ship was at sea. 

The woman known as Himari was clearly a very powerful healer, falling into the role of the ship's doctor with amazing ease and efficiency that Tinaka found odd. Though he did not understand why most of them only knew her as “Fish eggs” it was clear that everyone in the crew revered her, no one he looked into seemed to think ill of the woman at all. 

It was only slightly worrying to him; given he knew that healers of that level in the human lands were always tied to a divine of some kind, though she lacked the haughtiness of the church of Valor. Even still, he noted that as something to share with the elder.

Next was Amethyst, immediately he found himself confounded by her. The girl he felt no magic from was apparently a master of space magic, a fact he would have written off as a delusion if so many of the minds he looked into had not witnessed her utilizing her magic in strange ways. That, along with the fact she was clearly not human; sure he had to piece together some of the crew's dreams to clarify that fact. All of that combined made him very weary of the woman. 

He did note that no one in the crew had any glaring problems with her, some envied her, others looked up to her, but overall she was well liked. Some even see her as a calming presence for some reason despite her clearly young age. 

Much to his amazement the information the crew had on Eryl seemed… sparse. Eryl was always seen stoically standing in the background as if she had an impenetrable air around her. It took him longer to figure out than he would like to admit that all three of the mentioned women seemed to have an unapproachable air around them, something that kept the crew from getting close to them despite training with Amethyst and speaking with Himari. An odd fear he couldn’t explain kept everyone at arms length...

The missing Hecatolite was even more aloof than Eryl, only ever appearing in their memories in flashes; always with the man known as Wolf or one of the other three girls, the handful of crew members he managed to capture in his spell always avoided the woman. Any time he would try and guide their dreams to her for information the person would resist thinking about her, a creeping fear twisting their dreams away from her.

Tinaka had thought it strange at first, but after hours of digging through the crew's mind as they fell asleep he finally got his break. Having resigned himself to being unable to get information out of Amethyst or Himari, and not wanting to risk trying with the elven woman Eryl; Wolf finally fell asleep. He did attempt to get information from the woman that was with him but she was… unstable, her mind focused solely on Wolf himself she was all but useless to get anything out of.

Much to his amazement getting Wolf’s mind to focus on Hecatolite was… easy. With barely more than a nudge he found himself staring down at the clearly sleeping doll-like woman, her snow white skin and messy hair causing him again to wonder why everyone seemed to fear her. Even Wolf, who had a picture clear memory of standing over her, was gripped with fear as he inspected her features. The girl's eyes sprang open, the blood red color catching Tinaka off guard for a moment as she clearly looked the man over.

He noted that Wolf, though seeming harmless, may need to be watched. If he had memories of inspecting sleeping girls, the man may not be a danger himself. Regardless, he nudged the man’s mind to show him why he was so scared of this tiny girl.

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He did wonder briefly if this Wolf was some sort of deviant when he next found himself in a closet, pressed against the unstable woman he now shared a room with only for his thoughts to be interrupted when the door was violently ripped from the wall. Then… darkness…

Tinaka, finally remembering what happened, immediately attempted to cancel his spell only to find that his link with the man had already been severed. In fact, as far as he could tell, he was currently not burning any of his mana…

Did the humans attack us? Maybe a darkness illusion… but that wouldn’t explain the pain. He thought, his mind flashing to the still throbbing sensation in his own head. 

He found himself at a loss as again time seemed to creep by, though thankfully with the added time he was able to collect his thoughts only for the voice to return.

“Have you calmed down?” The distorted voice caused the darkness to ripple as it brought back a creeping feeling of fear that he could not explain. 

Taking a deep breath he fought to come up with a plan, without sight on the voice he couldn’t try any of his soul magic; and whatever spell he was under made pinpointing the voice near impossible, the paralysis was a new hurdle but the voice appeared to want to talk… first I need to find a way to see. He ground his teeth as he focused everything he could on a spell. The pain made it difficult, but thankfully it seemed as if he had all the time in the world. 

The spell he cast was a simple one, a very basic fire spell any adventure worth their salt would know… “torch”.

Tinaka’s heart sank as the faintest light flickered into existence before him revealing… nothing. as if the world itself simply did not exist, the darkness around him seeming to scoff at his attempts to beat it back before the light flickered out of existence. He tried again… and again… each time the light uselessly flashed, struggling against the absolute…

How? He felt panic creeping up his spine as he watched the final flame die out, if he were a flame mage he could likely have kept the fire going but as it was now all he could do was create the spark; without fuel like an actual torch or tinder he could do nothing more than uselessly strike a match against the abyss that surrounded him. 

“Well… this is boring.” The voice grounded into his mind, “I’m going to go, you stay away from Plague's wife, you hear me. I don’t know who you are but I will find you…” Tinaka felt something grab him around the waist, his entire body seizing as it was ripped forward. Emerging from the darkness a face appeared before him, snow white skin with clear blood red eyes that bore into him. “and I will eat you.” The voice said as the face split, a wide inhuman smile flashing rows of dagger like teeth. 

He instantly recognized the woman, but he found himself unable to reply as her face sank back into the darkness, whatever had been wrapped around his waist releasing him, leaving him to float back in the darkness.

The world shifted, the endless void around him suddenly feeling… crowded as something moved. A flash of white out of the corner of his eye caused him to whirl around only to find nothing. Again, a flash of white in the distance… again… finally he heard a sound, the faint distant rumble of a thunderclap then nothing… 

He could physically feel his mind bending as the darkness encased him… something moved in the corner of his vision causing him to twist as he tried to catch a glimpse of whatever it was… again nothing… Again something moved… A hallucination? Possibly… 

After what could have been moments, or a lifetime, he saw a faint glow in the distance. His mind latching onto it like a fish to a lure he raced towards it. The hope of salvation from this prison, escape from whatever monsters danced in this darkness… 

For what felt like days he struggled against the darkness, his entire body feeling heavy as his mind was slowly chipped away. Until finally he found… her.

Sitting on a small eerie white platform with her eyes closed was… Hecatolite. Though even he could see something was off, ignoring that she was floating upside down, her entire body seemed… off. Hazy, her pale snow white skin looking nearly translucent, as if she was both there and not; the faint glow of the platform illuminating her as if she were a statue, her long tail lashing out around her as if fending off the encroaching darkness itself.

She took a deep breath, the sound would have been barely audible normally; but in the all consuming void it might as well have been a thunderous drum that assaulted his ears causing him to wince.

He fought against his fear, opening his mouth as if to speak only to find the words catching in his throat.

“It’s rude,” the girl's voice no longer distorted yet distinctly not human. It was feminine, but it came out broken… Robotic. “To dig around in people’s minds.” She opened her eyes, the crystal red glowing in the darkness as they locked with his. “To look into someone’s soul.” She cocked her head as every word bore into him, a weight pushing down on him as he struggled to stand. “I could forgive all that.” A smirk tugged at her lips as if amused as he struggled to even think. “But you,” he could feel it now, the weight wasn’t on his body but his mind; like claws digging into his very soul he could feel her peeling away his mental defenses like paper. “Had the audacity to turn your eyes onto me.” 

He watched in abstract horror as a third eye opened on her forehead, a glass like orb that shown with a brilliant red. He tried to scream as he watched black blood like liquid ran down her face, pouring out of all three of her eyes. He could barely make out something floating in the eye… no, not something… words. Strange symbols flying by faster than he could even comprehend, only rarely slowing for the briefest of moments allowing him to catch a glimpse of the scrolling text. His entire body wilted as he watched the words scrolling by, trying desperately to comprehend what he was seeing as his very soul warped, until finally he saw it. Three simple words in elven tore into his mind, his soul itself breaking under the pressure as his mind frayed,

“"̸͙̘̽̔͠Ì̴̧̫ ̸̡͇̬̼̥̑͊ş̸̢̰͍̫́͗͒̓̇e̶̬̍̎̍͋̒ͅȩ̴͎̈́ ̵̲̪͔̘̰̂͆̀̈́͛̒ÿ̷̘̥̼̣̟̝̈́̕o̸͍̼̤̞̥͂̔̈̎͘̕ṷ̸̄̑̏̒̋͘.̴̈̔̕͝͝ͅ"̴̙͂̀̽̌͘͜͠

“Tinaka, the dream eater. Third son of…” The voice trailed off as the being cocked an eyebrow. “Well, I guess that doesn’t matter anymore, now does it?” It let out a haunting laugh as it swatted him with its tail, launching the pitiful soul from the void back into its body. “It’s a pity, I don’t get many guests anymore.” It laughed again only to violently cough, black blood spraying from its mouth across the red terminal it sat upon. “Oops, did I strain the body too much?” It asked holding a hand to cover its mouth. “I guess so.” 

With the sound of shattering glass the glowing red eye exploded, black shards raining down as the white dissipated into the darkness of the void

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