Nia - Farewell (1)

Lera paced back and forth in her tent as if she were about to explode at any moment. Nia tried not to look at her. The pounding of boots and the uneven snorts of the Exorcist made her tense. Her thoughts drifted to the three Hunters who were probably still holed up nearby, trying to pull themselves together. Nia’s restless mind also kept circling back to Exorcist Immesh, who was being treated by Kelwin. She wasn’t sure whether Lera secretly hoped to get rid of her Aspirant this way; more likely, she wanted to train him again or humiliate him.

Despite the tension still cramping her muscles painfully, Nia couldn’t help wondering what had happened to the Exorcist. Hadn’t he gone out to investigate the… incident? Along with half his unit and his Aspirant? Where were they now? Were they all right? What had burned him so badly? A Nightmare? Several of them? A Deepest? perhaps... Probably not the abyss, though. While frightening, it hadn’t been that terrible—almost familiar…

Rufus pushed into her thoughts, and suddenly Nia was standing again beside his pierced, dissolving body.

What did I do? How did I stop the Nightmare? There was darkness and pain… and it felt good. Could I really be a Possessed and not even know it? Nia doubted herself.

She glanced down at her hands, where the spreading red hue had now almost fully changed all her skin.

“Speak! What happened?” Lera demanded, whipping around to face her.

“I carried out my task, Exorcist. I tried to get information out of them, as you ordered. I promised to save them, and they started to trust me. Then I felt it…”

“The Nightmare?”

“Yes.”

“So did I. It was impossible to miss—a darkness that ends everything, that drags you down into fear, terror, and the other chasms of your being. I’ve always been sensitive to it, ever since… well, it doesn’t matter. Clearly, those fools weren’t. They let it get too close. If we’d lost you, that would’ve been a heavy blow to the Light. Oh, don’t flatter yourself that I care about you. Quite the opposite: I want to wring every last drop of information out of you. And I want you to suffer for as long as possible. Nightmares are bad enough, but you… you worthless creature…”

Shivering, Nia felt the Exorcist’s piercing gaze resting on her. 

“I’ve had enough. We’re leaving soon, understood? We’re heading for the Seed, if it exists. You’ll be useful as bait again, and don’t worry—I won’t leave you alone this time. I’ll make sure you watch as your kind is shredded and burned by my whip!” Lera stepped right up to her and spat in her face.

“Maybe I’m being too kind to you. I let you bathe, gave you new clothes, yet you’re nothing but a Nightmare wearing the body of an innocent woman. Maybe I should be even more careful with you than with your companion. You know how to pretend submission, but you’re waiting, aren’t you? I know that. Still, your chance will never come. You’ll keep doing as I say so you don’t end up like your friend—or worse. Right?”

Nia hurried to lick her boots, but before her face touched the ground, she felt a sharp pain in her cheek and was flung hard to the floor.

“No. Don’t try to grovel now. I don’t have the patience for you at the moment. Maybe I should cut out your tongue as well,” Lera mused, her lips twisting into a mocking smile.

She was already lifting her foot for another kick when Diga hesitated into the tent and saluted, visibly nervous.

“Exorcist, Aspirant Kelwin has stabilized Exorcist Immesh enough that he’s responsive. He wants to see you. Now, he said,” she reported, trying to make herself as small as possible.

Lera turned to her slowly, narrowed her eyes, then let out a low laugh.

“Of course he does, that old worm. Fine. Let’s humor him.”

She motioned for Nia to come along. At the same time, she increased the heat from the chain. Nia gave a muffled sound of pain, and both Diga and Lera reacted with brief, satisfied smiles. Still, Nia hurried after them.

They went to a blocky, cheerless building like the others, only slightly taller and with several floors. They climbed a handful of stone steps to reach the upper level, and Nia felt the Hunters posted there stare at her with disgust.

They’re right. I really am someone to hate, aren’t I...?

At last, they reached a roomy chamber with a large, surprisingly new wooden table in the center. A Skystone glowed atop it, bright and steady. Chairs ringed the table, and in one corner a cot held Exorcist Immesh. His wounds had mostly closed into a few small scars, and he was sitting up, snapping at Kelwin.

“…so slow? Have you ever healed anyone?”

“Exorcist Immesh, I was trained for war. I specialize in Nightmares.”

“You talk nothing but nonsense! I’d do it myself if I weren’t exhausted, but apparently I have to rely on people like you. By the Goddess, what did I do to deserve this? Damn it, Lera, what kind of fool did you bring here?”

The Exorcist jerked his head toward them as they climbed the last steps and made a face.

“Aspirant Kelwin isn’t good at healing, so he should practice on you. You wouldn’t have died if he failed, correct? Good training, then. I can assure you he’s extremely talented in combat,” Lera said, an unusually vicious smile curving her lips.

Kelwin shot a brief, confused but grateful look at her, then hurried to pull out a chair. Lera sat with a graceful, almost playful motion and crossed her legs, never taking her eyes off Immesh. Nia, however, tried to melt into a corner of the room so she wouldn’t be noticed. The bald Exorcist gave her an uneasy feeling; she didn’t want to give him any reason to take an interest. The rumors she’d heard were bad enough. Seeing him now, she worried they’d been understated.

“So, Exorcist Immesh, what happened? Tell us,” Lera demanded.

Immesh bared his teeth and began to laugh, hollow and cold. “Ah, straight to business! As you wish. We went out to investigate the incident. After all, we’re explorers first, not mere Nightmare Hunters like you. We just wanted to look at this town initially. You see, whoever built these houses clearly had a very different sense of aesthetics than we do. And where they went, I don’t know. So many mysteries—it only makes this place more alluring.”

“Different… aesthetics?” Lera raised a skeptical brow.

Immesh bared his teeth again. “It looks like trash here. Who builds such dull, lifeless junk?”

“I know what that means. It is simply odd to hear you use such pompous words.”

“Right. Normally you vomit that high-sounding nonsense at others. Still trying to convince people you’re special merely because you became an Exorcist? Ha!”

“Let’s get back to your expedition.” 

Nia could almost see the anger rising in Lera’s face as she gripped the arms of her chair.

Immesh stared at her for a moment longer, then leaned back against the wall and folded his arms.

“As you wish, esteemed colleague. When that emptiness hit, we set out. I took half my Hunters—my best. After all, we didn’t have a spare Skystone, and someone had to keep working here. Besides, there are rumors of a Seed to the north, and I have no intention of sending all my people into a potential Waking there.”

“No intentions? Esteemed? If you keep provoking me with your mockery, I’m going to make sure those burns are the least of your worries! Stick to the matter at hand!” Lera snarled, her face flushed now.

Immesh ignored her. “We ran into a Nightmare. One of the Deepest. It’s probably what caused that feeling we all had. Maybe a Panic, or a Loneliness. Who knows? I can never tell them apart. Doesn’t matter. We destroy them. That’s what counts.”

“A Panic?” Kelwin blurted out in shock.

Lera and Immesh both turned on him with flashing eyes, and he hurriedly mumbled an apology.

Frowning, Lera shook her head. “A Panic? I hardly think so. Something like that hasn’t been seen in thousands of days, as far as I know. There’s so little information that some wouldn’t rule out they don’t even exist. But that would be stupid and naïve, right?”

“I’m pretty sure it was a Panic. The feeling I had was a bottomless abyss—what else could it have been? Probably no different for you all. I would’ve loved to see you soil yourself when it hit you,” Immesh said, laughing bitterly.

“Yeah? I bet you would. You were probably off indulging your unholy desires again, mentally somewhere else, weren’t you?” Lera shot back.

“They’re not unholy when I control them and not the other way around. As long as I only use them on these horrid creatures, why would it matter? I have no such desires for humans. Also, my mastery in that regard is far more effective and powerful than your amateurish attempts to gather intel.”

“I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU, YOU OLD PERVERTED FOOL!” Lera suddenly screamed, sprang up, and sent her chair crashing to the floor, embers sparking from its wood.

Immesh looked at her for a beat as if he might stand and attack. Then a loud laugh burst out of him.

“Ha, I knew you had fire under your ass. I knew it! Very well, be my guest—Forgive me, oh great, wise Lera! Satisfied? Now, let’s stick to important things. We had the Panic contained, but without a shield we had no fallback. My Aspirant fell in the process. Shame; he wasn’t with me long but had great ambitions and potential. He could’ve been something—curious and eager to learn. But what can you do? There will be others. You don’t linger long out here in the Dream, with those horrors waiting outside, do you?” Immesh asked.

For a brief second, something like sorrow passed over his hard features. When Nia looked at Lera and Kelwin, she noticed the Apprentice had gone pale and was trembling as he gripped his whip. Lera’s face, however, was only a mask.