Midnight Whispers (2)

Walking within the city at night was quickly becoming Elian's favorite activity. Even if he was stopped at first by the patrolling guards, they very promptly memorized his face, especially after the Princess's decree to let him wander freely. There was something magical in the sleeping city, its colorful buildings standing under the millions of stars and the light of the double moons. They were occupying the skyline tonight too, so big that he could see their surface, covered in a multitude of craters, some looking like bullet wounds. One of the moons was almost purple in color, huge, covering more than a third of the western part of the sky, while the other, the more bluish one, was half its brother's size, following right after it as they crossed the night sky from west to east.

"That is for sure not the Milky Way," Elian mumbled, mesmerized by the countless twinkling stars, subconsciously arriving at the same cemetery they visited with Nika.

"No, it isn't."

"HUH?!" With a stunned yell, Elian whirled around, tripping over one of the headstones and landing on his back. The thing that scared him the most was not the sudden voice interrupting his thoughts nor the fact that he didn't sense anybody coming up to him. It was then that he understood... That whoever spoke to him... knew what the Milky Way meant. Was this Dalen? Back to the city?!

"Careful. Don't knock over others' memorials." The voice spoke again, chuckling, playfully reprimanding him.

"What...? Ah... yeah, sorry... um?" Elian mumbled, standing up and looking around, but nobody else was there. Was... was there a ghost? Did Heroes Rest have spirits roaming around? Wait, does that mean specters and the afterlife are real here? Too many questions were zig-zagging within his mind, making it hard to think as he tried to pinpoint the source of the voice.

"Come to the top; we can talk there." Said the same, now a more clearly male voice as Elian focused on it, dispelling his initial fear.

"If this is Dalen... I already said too much. Shit. This is not good. Will he kill me? I will need to come up with something... If anything, I need to make him leave the city to avoid causing too much destruction. There are millions of civilians here! Damn it. Maybe if I say I want to work with him? Ugh. Would that even work?"

There were too many thoughts swirling in his mind to settle on one, all of which were nothing but stupid fantasies, relying on way too much coincidence to work. There was simply no way out of this, no matter how hard he was thinking... right until he arrived at the same hill they all stood on only a week before.

"I will be damned..." He cursed, seeing the half-transparent man floating there. He could clearly see through him as he was nothing but a golden specter, looking like he was surrounded by slowly dancing flames. At first, he could only see his back and his long, golden hair, which ended in burning twigs that threw off embers every time he moved. Yet, before they could set the grass on fire, they disappeared, acting as little fireworks. Hearing his cursing, the figure turned around, wearing a half-smile, looking relatively young and extremely handsome. For a ghost, that is.

"Damned? No. You are not, and neither am I. What you are talking to is not a spirit but an ember that I have left behind on purpose."

"Wait, wait, wait! What ember? Who are you?" Elian grunted, waving his hands without understanding anything.

"Hm... I thought you came here because you found my clues. I left it on my monument, in plain sight, duh! Your predecessors, all of them, figured it out. But not you? Huh... Interesting."

"What?" He gawked, looking at the man, slowly beginning to understand it.

"Take a closer look. Let me see if you have the brain or not." He chuckled, letting Elian scrutinize him without interrupting his thoughts.

"A specter that looks like it is on fire. Calling itself an ember. Fire... mural. Mural with fire... a phoenix." Elian thought to himself, remembering the giant monuments, and finally seeing the possibility, he asked the question that had bubbled up in him loudly, "Are you Susaria?"

"Good! At least you are not a nitwit. By the way, that was my character's name in the D&D setting I used to run with my friends... but it stuck with me. And don't ask, I am not telling you my real name. That one was lame."

"Thanks? Geez... for a good guy, you are a dick."

"Good guy? Ahaha, I burned down dragon-worshiping villages in the hundreds, murdering so many people that my trial would have put Nurnberg to shame. Lucky me, there were no Geneva Conventions here." He answered with a loud laugh, making Elian twitch his mouth. "You must be careful with the dragons; they have a mind-dominating power and presence. It is in their nature to want to rule over everything and overwhelm and overpower all other existences. They do not tolerate anybody else, even amongst themselves. Those that bow to a dragon get lost in it... Sink deep enough, and they can never come out of it. The only thing that remains is to give them a quick death."

"Thanks? But I think you made sure they are gone for good. Sakku told me they have been extinct for a long time."

"They are exiled, not extinct. Even I couldn't kill them all, nor could the ancient phoenixes, hence why they all died out."

"Can a phoenix even die?" Elian questioned him, shrugging, mainly because he was talking with someone whose Aspect was supposed to be one.

"Of course." Susaria shrugged, shaking his head. "I also died. What is weird about that?"

"Wait, wait! So you ARE a ghost!" Elian shouted, pointing at him.

"Nooo, I am not. I left behind multiple avatars of myself. I called them embers. They are infused with my personality; think of them as some kind of holographic AI construct you can have a conversation with. Pretty cool, eh? The idea came from a sci-fi book I read..."

"Haaah... What period were you from?" Elian asked, shaking his head, sitting down on the nearby bench, scrutinizing the overexcited echo of a long-dead man. Whatever he was saying... he was talking to a ghost.

"The best one. I almost died in 2004 before being whisked over here. I was graduating from high school... The first time I got drunk... and, well, I had an accident! Oops... But I woke up here the next moment. It wasn't a bat graduation if you ask me; I loved it here. It got me a wife, kids, a good, long life... Paradise, really."

"That wasn't even that long ago!" Elian mumbled, being someone from the 2020s, surprised that there wasn't a larger gap between them.

"Yeah, time is fucky-wucky here." Susarian nodded. "So don't try to figure it out, it's not going to line up.

"Wait... you weren't sent back? I thought it was a rule!" Elian exclaimed, finally catching the last part of his monologue.

"I made that rule." He hummed, crossing his arms. "I also told them to be careful summoning people from our world. Not everyone would play nicely, so they had better send them back! I wasn't keen on letting other bastards destroy what I have built... Would you trust the others...? Seeing how our world is?"

"Haah... Maybe not... But... Tsk! You are weird..." Elian exhaled, groaning, rubbing his temple in frustration. "So... Dalen found you, too?"

"All the later heroes did. My embers are only visible to them, and he has also received a brief introduction from me. There are things that nobody else can teach you..."

"So... you are going to become my mentor?"

"Nope."

"Wha- The hell? Are you defective?" Elian gawked, feeling he had misheard him, "Did the years erode your personality construct or something?!" He jumped up from the bench, looking at Susaria as if he were an unhinged idiot.

"Nah. It is because of your Aspect. I won't teach you."

"You... you know what mine is?" He paused, taking deep breaths, feeling shocked.

"Yep. And no, I won't tell you; you must discover it. Otherwise, it will never work... But I am not teaching you because of what it is... Sorry. You lucked out with this one."

"But you taught a dragon." He countered, looking accusingly at him.

"I also did not teach Dalen. I only spoke with him."

"Huh?"

"Surprised?" Susaria smiled, enjoying Elian's constantly shocked expression. "I ain't teaching a damned dragon! I fought them enough times! Heh, I saw through his fake persona from the get-go; that is how those lizards act whenever they meet someone stronger. Bootlicker bastards, all of 'em! He should have been a weasel instead of a dragon. Anyway, I have to give it to him; he did find multiple of my embers and has been going around the world, snuffing them out."

"What... do you mean?"

"Long story short," he shrugged, "I left behind multiple defenses before my death. This city has my strongest one, and that bastard figured it out. Even for a dragon, he has a sharp instinct, and he is not an actual idiot... To make sure he can assault the city and I can't do anything about it, he is weakening me, and he is going to succeed with it, I'm afraid."

"Fuck... do Nika, the royal family know about this?!"

"Nope." He smiled, unbothered, "Not that it matters; they can do nothing about it, as only people like us would be able to interact with my embers. You need to find the remaining ones I have left and consume them all. Think of it as me... power-leveling you."

"Huh?!"

"Can't you ask your questions differently?" Susaria groaned, feeling annoyed for the first time, "Whatever, look, my dude..."

"Dude? Well, listen, DUDE, then! Where are they? Can you tell me that then?"

"Nope."

"FUCK YOU! It is hard to believe your strange ass anyway!" Elian shouted, finally losing his temper, "Now you want to help me by not helping me?! Really? You are just a dick!"

"Chill, man, damn... You are a calm bastard, but you explode with fire when you are angry, huh? Typical. I like that! Ahahaha!" When he laughed, it was honest, and surprisingly... it resonated with Elian, "So, look, I can't tell you because every ember I left behind doesn't know of the others. It was deliberate on my part; you can see why, no? But I should have left clues, so talk with my descendants, get access to the library, and look for my notes. I think the dragon-boy did the same. If he could figure it out, you can too!"

"Haaah... Okay... Okay! Let me take a step back..." Elian moaned, rubbing his eyes, feeling tired all of a sudden, "So, if I believe you- Huh? Susaria? DUDE?! Where the hell are you?! Don't you dare pull a Batman on me! BASTARD! COME BACK! I STILL HAVE QUESTIONS!"

Yet, no matter how loud he shouted, the image of the First Hero was already gone, and no answers awaited him besides the silence of the cemetery.