The inside of the shop was full of exotic trinkets and strange items. Some were various artworks from across the world, others were odd tools or foreign objects, their meanings and purposes as mysterious as their appearances strange. Natural light came into the room from openings in the ceiling where bubble windows dispersed the fractal energy evenly across the space and plants lined the walls and stools in between it all.

‘I’ll cut to the chase, I’m looking for something in particular and I was ho-

The clerk cut her off as he moved towards a desk space in the back of the shop, ‘Please take off your hood inside, it is respectful to the spirits to be transparent and true. Now what did you say your name was ydal (young lady)?’ His voice was kind, but assertive.

The young woman removed her hood as requested, her purple skin was like a deep lavender and her antannacles were pink like ephangi lightning over the western sky as she pulled them free of her cloak allowing them to run down her back. Her eyes were golden red and her lips had a circle in the center of them, the colors inverted on the bottom from the top. 

‘My apologies, I am Nobu, Lechaye. Thank you for allowing me into your shop’.

‘Ahh yes, it’s no trouble at all’ he said as he handed her a mask to wear. ‘Just in case put this on. There’s a sickness goin round, slow as it might be. I heard it’s been driving some mad and causing others to lose control of their enochi, sending them into violent fits or taking their abilities altogether. Even killing them. Ha let me calm myself down though, I don’t mean to scare you. So what can I help you with, Lechaye’, the clerk responded. Lechaye took the mask somewhat confused, her head tilted in a curious manner. 

‘I guess you haven’t heard? Yea, they say it’s not like none you’ve ever known, though to be honest I don’t think it’s such a big deal. You know how people talk, still just to be safe’ the clerk elaborated. Lechaye did as requested, the clerk gesturing for her to make her request when she finished putting in the mask.

‘Well, thanks for the information, I appreciate it. As far as my request, I was wondering if you had chip. To be more specific, Sutolis dream leaf?’

The clerk paused, his eyes looking upward as his mind considered the question. 

Lechaye spoke again, ‘If you don’t it’s ok, I can keep looking elsewhere.’

The clerk held up his hand as if to stop her from moving, ‘No, no, I think I do have what you seek. It just takes me some time to remember between everything you see before you what is all in my possession. I mean this is the best art shop in town, and to me everything and anything can be art’

Lechaye chuckled at the old clerks charm and apologized again as the clerk searched through some storage. As he returned he held a chest and placed it on the desk, opening it. Lechaye moved closer, her nose filled with the rich scent of the Sutolis flower. 

‘I haven’t done any myself believe it or not, but I hear it has enlightening and stimulating characteristics of the highest caliber. There’s not much left. Looks like Lord Thiesz smiles upon you today.’

Lechaye frowned for a moment, her face revealing her true feelings about “The great lord Thiesz” if only for a second. She quickly recomposed herself 

‘Yes, indeed it seems he has’, A semi fake smile across her lips. ‘I’ll take all you have left if you’d be so kind.’

‘Yes why of course, it’d be my pleasure ydal, Lechaye. Is there anything else I might help you with?’

Lechaye began to respond when she cut her hand on a blade that was left unsheathed, its obsidian edge giving off a dark and ominous glow as it absorbed the life fluid. She quickly jerked her hand back and put her tongue in her palm, sucking the blood from the wound. As the smoke began to pour from the wound with a slight sizzle and before she could react she inhaled, her mind snapping into a series of images that were overwhelmingly real. 

Images of war and invasion infinitely cascaded into angles infused with litanies of worship, conquest and hatred sung by a trillion voices and million stars. The voices of many became one and a song beyond comprehension spilled forth into her mind like water through a destroyed dam. Suddenly certain visions became more clear as others became more obscur, the lyrics immutable, or beyond logic but somehow still describing the actions that played out. 

Lechaye saw a specter with many eyes in a battle with an angel bird of black light, their clash the meeting of two tears made of blood that became an ocean wide as the sky. At the same time the grimace of the faceless titan howled into the night in agony as the largest flame Lechaye ever saw became the shape of a crown and was vanquished, its ashes covering a golden womb. 

There were shots of races she did not yet know and the weapons they built to defy their gods and destroy each other as well children and families of the same running towards something, or away from something, or both? A cacophony of laughing, crying, screaming and more swirled into tone that was the music that the creatures of the etherrealms must listen to in extreme delight. Kingdoms burned and then grew into newer bigger kingdoms. Worlds were destroyed and many died, but people were freed and many stars and their children were saved. A flower bloomed and died and bloomed again and died again and then became something else entirely she could not describe. 

Finally a wide as the sky splitting the void of darkness between worlds. The range of emotion and energy threatened to overwhelm her in a way she would blackout when finally a vision of her and two women she did not recognize but she knew so well, a confusion, resentment and anger between the 3 of them blooming into something unfinished and uncertain. Her mind raced so fast as if it had left on a speeding bullet, but was still attached to her feet. Her eyes rolled into her head and everything went black.

‘Ydal, ydal!? Lechaye!?’ The clerk quickly grabbed her as she began to collapse, having called out her name multiple times as she suddenly snapped back into reality, her eyes streaming tears, grabbing the man back with intensity causing him to cry out in pain. Lechaye quickly realized what she was doing releasing him, still shocked and shaken by what she had seen. She was on the ground after having collapsed, her legs curled under her as her back slouched against an antique cabinet. Her hand had stopped smoking, but was still partly slick with blood.

‘Are you ok ydal. Here take this and please wipe your eyes, I have a bandage for you as well’, the clerk said as he rubbed his sore wrist. 

‘I’m sorry’, Lechaye said, her voice cracked and low. 

‘Again, nonsense’, said the clerk, ‘It is my fault for not having put such a piece away properly. I seem to remember it never had a sheath or covering which was strange for how sharp and well made it seems, though something about it just seems.. Strange to me? Hard to explain, but what do I know? It could just be another pretty kni-

‘I’ll take it!’ Lechaye abruptly.

‘Are you sure? I mean if you are then yea, it’s the least I can do after you were injured by my short sightedness’. 

The clerk was somewhat surprised, but as he saw the serious look that suddenly entered the *nampia’s eyes he quickly wrapped up the chest with the special dream leaf and the dagger inside, deciding to give Lechaye the chest itself as a token of his apology and good will.

She took them and left the store with a myriad of emotions fluctuating in her aura. The clerk was paid, but left to wonder if there was something more mysterious to the ydal and the new cut on her hand. As Lechaye left, the nam she arrived with was right where she left him, only now he had a bowl in his hand full of steaming noodles. 

‘Ayyy this jum jum is bussin foreal’, he said as he looked up to see the puzzled look on his wife’s face. He set the bowl down where he stood, 

‘What's the matter? Are you ok?’ He said somewhat intensely, grabbing her by the shoulders before taking the chest from her and placing it in his bag as she nodded her affirment. 

‘I am. I am fine my love. I got a little cut, nothing major.’ 

Hastily, but gently grabbing her hand the nam noticed the lightly bandaged wound and felt the strange heat that came from it. 

‘This wound is not normal. What just happened in there!?’ 

The nampia hinted towards the chest and as he opened it subtly, it revealed the two headed dagger like weapon. The blade was strange and almost called out to a part of him. A part he didn’t want to answer. He wrapped the blade back up

‘Give it back. I don’t like it’, His tone was serious in a way it rarely was, ‘It feels as if it has a voice, or voices. Could this be akin to your sis-

‘She is no longer here and we will not give it back. There's something special about it. You can tell that much yourself and though it is strange, we are no strangers to weapons nor wounds. Maybe we can learn something from it’

‘No longer here? And what can we learn from a dagger other than how to cut things with it?’ The man replied, sarcasm painting his latter expression.

‘She’s been summoned to war. Though I haven’t spoken with her recently, I can just feel it ya know? We’ve always had a connection like that. All we had was each other growing up. If something’s really wrong she will reach out to us. As for the dagger I don’t know what we can learn from it but…’ she paused looking down at her hand. ‘The damn thing cut my gorgeous ass and that’s some bullshit! I was damn near flawless! Besides, I got it for free because of the cut and I’d hate to be rude’, the *nampia replied ecstatically in a slightly joking manner. 

The *nam sighed again and again a smile crept across his face before he chuckled softly looking deep into the nampia’s eyes, ‘Like the fire, always so daring and confident…’ He gently grabbed the woman’s chin ‘A cut on your hand makes you no less beautiful than it does that dagger dangerous. I still think we should talk with your sister, but I will follow test your flame today’

‘Then for now lets just go home Johkun (Empyrean). I just want to go home and see the girls’ Lechaye said, and her husband could tell she was oddly weak. She was tough, but her body language said it all and so Johkun quickly pulled her to the side underneath a storefront advertisement and shapeshifted, transforming into a great storm griffin, a rare but impressively powerful creature. His antannacles flowed from his head and covered his nape as they ran over his neck. As Lechaye climbed onto his back a commotion broke out, a young nampia ran into the street clutching at her own body as if she was covered in insects she desperately wanted to be free of.

‘It bit me! He bit meesrrrghhh, it hurts. It bites!’ She panicked, spinning and convulsing as she stumbled out of the streets.

As she thrashed in pain one of the horns on her head cut another nampia knocking her to the ground, blood spurting from her neck. It had already been a moderately crowded day, but now the commotion had made it difficult for Johkun to actually take off, his large size making it awkward as more nam came to investigate and clogged the streets like a blood clot forming inside a vein. As the crowd gathered around the nampia she continued panicking and tried to push through them injuring even more, but there was nowhere to go as the streets had become filled so quickly.

‘What is happening Johkun!?’ Lechaye asked, the exhaustion caused by her previous accident only adding to her confusion. 

‘Give her room!’ One *nam yelled

‘Don’t touch her! She has the ism’ another *nampia screamed and a moment later the pandemonium erupted across the mob as they now tried to avoid the same *nampia they had just previously swarmed around. In a span of seconds those *Nampu who could fully shift forms did so out of fear or in hopes of an easier escape while others scrambled as they were, perhaps in fear of using whatever abilities they had in such close proximity to one who had, from what they could tell, been “cursed”. 

Johkun began pushing through the crowd without regard now, his priority to protect his wife taking precedence over all else. When he got as much space as he needed he spread his large wings knocking over some and blowing gust into the faces of others as he rode into the air. 

As Lechaye looked over Johkuns shoulder she saw the original screaming nampia stop in her tracks, her body turning to stone in the middle of the chaos and before anyone else seemed to notice she was knocked over and shattered across the ground. As the streets around the nampia’s broken body continued to shake with the steps of desperation, the crowd was so panicked they hadn’t even noticed what had happened. They did not even see that others had been afflicted either, becoming terra and then dust all the same. Lechaye, perhaps the only one to notice them in their last moments, took one final look below before Johkun elevated higher and the town became a speck of light in the setting sun behind the couple as they headed back towards their home.