In the morning, I got up early. I brushed through my hair, got my clothes on, readied myself to leave, and then got to the bedroom door. I looked back to see that Elysewhyr was still asleep. Good, I didn’t want to bother her and I didn’t need her worrying about me. I slipped silently through the door and found the two brothers outside of it. As we were leaving the castle, I asked them, “Why did she say that you weren’t in front of the door last night?”

“We were, Empress,” Xin’ier seethed through his flaming face. “She went in without permission.”

“Well, what good guards you are, huh?” I was halfway joking.

“It was her room.” Good point, Xinex. So, she lied to me in order to, what? She couldn’t have known she was going to get a lewd look at me or anything, so she must have just been trying to sneak up on me, which she did just fine. That doesn’t matter at this point, though, because if all goes well, I don’t have to see her until the next time she wants to have another get together feast… thing. I left the castle and strolled down the steps and into the Fae city. It’s called Alexiandeir, if I remember right. The people were all afraid of me, probably because of my guards and my face. At least the white spot in my hair was somewhat pinkish, so I was at least trying to blend in with the culture.

“Emmeline Everloooock!” Her yelling rang out from her bedroom window in the castle. Shoot, she realized I was gone. I gave her a big smile and a wave, then quickened my pace as I walked farther into the city. I wasn’t about to wait around for her to say her goodbyes… or scold me for stealing her nightgown and hair gels.

Jeez, times were really flying. A metal carriage was running through the city on metal rails with all kinds of people inside. How do the inventors and builders make these kinds of things happen? My people traveled on foot or by wheel, not this… contraption. The buildings were changing, too. Many were pushed together and they had all kinds of new things on them, like metal tubing that ran around some. The ground wasn’t dirt, but some sort of stiff, gray floor. Was I falling behind, or was I still living in the past out in my fortress?

Nobody tried speaking to me when I was leaving, but I got plenty of looks, whether they be looks of fear, surprise, or infatuation. Sorry, Fairies, but I don’t want any man with silly wings, and the same goes for the ladies, too. Maybe that’s why I don’t have any partner: I’m too picky. There are hundreds of races and species of sentient creatures that I could choose from, but I hardly like any. Fae people are far too flamboyant and feminine, orcs are extremely barbaric and disgusting, dwarves just make me feel odd on the inside. Beasts like those dog and cat people make me feel unnatural and centaurs are just… I don’t like getting split in half is all I’m trying to say with them. Most Elves and humans are about all I can look for because of my stupid preferences, so there is a very small amount of fish in the sea right now.

What I would really like to get my hands on is one of those Dark Fairies. Those are truly beautiful creatures, but they are so quickly banished from any land they arrive in. I think it is because of their way of making all plants they come in contact with poisonous, but I could be wrong. Oh, and one of the Naga or Serpent women. I’d settle for a demon, but demons usually aren’t domesticated or tamed well. There are so many races of sentient beings, it’s almost too difficult to choose which I should experiment on next.

At home right now, I’m working on replicating some Spriggans. They are these Fae creatures that are completely primal-minded and are made of some part of nature. I want to make special ones made of Void rock, the black marble material all over my father’s world. The only problem is that I want them to be sentient and Void rock doesn’t break easily, so putting gem stones into it doesn’t usually work out that well, so I’m stuck improvising.

When I was a bit out of the city, I got a bit bored, so I told the two brothers to keep heading home. I dropped myself into Xinex’s shadow, a trick I’ve almost always had that saves me both from attacks and from making my feet sore. Within the shadow, I pushed past the boundaries into the Void, the starry, desolate place I would call my first home. I displaced myself into the home that I made for myself there and stopped at the entrance. There were bleeding heart bushes on the sides of the door, but made of the black marble.

“Thanks, Father,” I said out loud before stepping inside. He liked to look at what I was doing here and sometimes made little changes to make it all look better. A few years ago, I found out that Void rock is very easy to change in terms of color, so on the inside of my home, it looked like a regular place. If I looked outside, there would be the dull backdrop of the Void, but that didn’t bother me much at all. I went far down into the basement and stepped into the cell room. I heard the clinking against one of the cell bars, which told me that he was awake.

“Nirrrrrrgir. Hey, boy.” I turned the corner to see my pet rising from its slumber. It stretched its wings and legs, then looked up at me with its six eyes. “Hello there, handsome. Have you been good since mommy left?” It began to rapidly stomp its front feet out of excitement. When I put a hand up to the bars, its polychromatic tongue flung out and began to lick it over and over again. “Alright alright, thank you.” I unhooked the lock and let the door swing open about a foot. Without hesitation, Nirgir walked right through the gate, its body phasing through like the bars weren’t even there. I love how loyal pets can be.

“Come on, Nirgir. Let’s go check on the prisoners.” Nirgir bared its four rows of razor sharp teeth. “That’s right: game-face.” I dropped the baby-like tone as we walked down the halls of the dungeon. I began to hear the dramatic screams of Yorshick, the ‘Undying.’ He was a necromancer that posed way too many problems dead or alive, so I took it upon myself to get rid of him. Before I got to the prisoners’ cells, I put an illusion over my body to make me out to be a demon. Horns grew from my head, my eyes turned red, and all of my skin turned black. My fingers stretched into claws, my backside sprouted a tail, and I split my tongue like a serpent. The look wasn’t necessary, but I liked to make them think there were actually jailers in this world.

I turned the corner to face Yorshick’s cell. He saw me and instantly began pleading for mercy. He cried something about how dying would be better than this torture, but I wasn’t torturing him. He didn’t get to practice his Necromancy, so his mind was driven further into insanity, but I wasn’t doing anything like ripping his limbs apart or keeping him chained up like the others, so he should consider himself lucky.

I changed my voice to be two-toned and much darker, like a Void creature’s. “Nirgir, kill!” My pet lunged against the cell bars, not phasing through anymore, and clawed at the air. Its eyes were staring straight at the horrified man as it tried to push through the gate. After I began to walk away, Nirgir growled at the prisoner and then left him alone. I pushed through a few soundproof doors, thanks to enchantments, and smiled at my pet. “Good boy, you put on such a good show!” Its serrated lips smiled wide and it tilted its head with enjoyment. It was my Void Lurker, a hunter in the dark world that preys on anything smaller than it, including human and human-like beings. I found one crawling through my walls at home one day and decided that I would tame and domesticate it. It’s able to phase through Void rock, but not earthly materials like stone or metal, so capturing it was an easy task. Training was a bit more difficult, but I managed.

The next cell held Dolly the Junkie, one of my home experiments. She had an addiction for Fairy Dust, an illegal drug made from shavings of Fairy wings. It would be ingested and then she would hallucinate and often go into some sort of minor coma, waking up weeks after use. I am not one to police drug users, but I thought I could do some good with my intelligence. I ‘captured’ her, which consisted of me carrying her away when she was passed out, brought her here, and set up an alternative reality for her. That part of the plan was as easy as stealing hair gels from Elyse.

I pushed through the next door and switched the appearance of both Nirgir and I. Nirgir now looked to be a wolf and I looked to be some kind of angel with perfect skin, a much more beautiful face, and lightly glowing wings coming out of my back. I tapped on the thin encasement of her cell and she looked up at me. Her body was completely chained down to a chair, but her eyes still looked to where she thought she heard me, even though her eyes didn’t really see me or the cell.

“Yhannason, my Goddess,” she exclaimed in her matured, lovely voice. Yhannason, Goddess of Love: that was me in her eyes. I looked a bit like her, but her own mind made the changes to perfect the image. I could tell by her eyes contracting that her mind thought she was looking at a brightly glowing being, her goddess. I didn’t know exactly what she was experiencing, but I can only imagine that it is truly amazing.

“Good day, my child,” I spoke in my regular voice. Her mind would correct the voice to sound like how Yhannason sounds, or how the people from where she was before here thought she sounded. Dolly has been completely cleaned of Fairy Dust for months now, but I still had to ease her back into regular society. If I were to pull her from the ‘dream’ now, she would surely go insane, which would destroy all progress I’ve made with her. Before moving on to the next room, I gave Dolly a smile and she watched me leave with a wondrous look on her face.

I stripped the illusion from Nirgir and myself as we got out of sight, then I prepared myself for the next cell. I put a hand on the door, pushed it open, then stepped inside. A simple, empty cell was inside with nothing but a minute layer of dust on the ground. I left Nirgir outside and closed the door behind me, then sat down against it. I eyed the cell, every spot that something could be hiding in, but found nothing, so I closed my eyes. When I opened them, it was sitting on a pillar in the middle of the room. The disgusting, hateful creature known as Algathan with its tattooed, naked body and huge, deer-like antlers attached to its elongated skull. Its hairless tail wrapped around the pillar next to its bloody hands and feet. Its completely smooth body, including a lack of reproductive organs, disturbed me to no end. How this thing came to exist or managed to end up in this cell is a mystery to me, but it plagues me all the time.

About a decade back, I was taking a stroll around the unfinished house as I was enjoying a break from painting the walls and items. I looked at all of the empty cells, then came across this one. In it, I saw Algathan. It told me its name one, single time in a brutally rugged voice. It was all it has ever said to me, but the words still remain in my mind. It didn’t answer my questions other than when I asked what it was and it silently refused to leave the cell when I asked. A week after its arrival, I began to have nightmares about it. I would wake up, regardless of being in the living world or the Void, and think I could see it on its wretched pillar in some dark corner or some shadow by a tree. The nightmares consisted of atrocities I and others I have or had worked with committed. I witnessed Xin’s razing of a Fae village, the poor citizens, with no remorse even for children, burning alive. I watched the lives of every guard the three sisters’ killed go through my mind and then slow down just enough so that I could see their final faces and hear their final breaths. Countless times have I watched the moment of complete and utter despair when I sent numerous foes into the Void. Some- no, many of them didn’t deserve it. I remember on the day of the fall when I stabbed a woman named Chelle and pushed her into the dark abyss, Algathan makes sure of it. Every single horrible thing I’ve done- it makes sure the memory stays plastered in my mind.

Today was like many other days. I asked what it wanted and got no response, then I tried to kill it with magic and failed. I tried to sense its presence by locating its mana source, but found nothing. Algathan was like a ghost; it wasn’t there but was there all at the same time. I wish I could make it go away, but it was going to stay. I talked with my father about it, but he didn’t know what I was talking about. I’ve played with the idea of Algathan being a part of my imagination, but I have never seen anything like this creature. I hardly believe that I could have conjured up something so grossly inhuman and made myself think that I saw it and that it was giving me nightmares, I just can’t.

“Get out of my head,” I ordered, but it made no movements. I’ve tried to bring others to see Algathan, but I have no luck. Nirgir senses nothing, fake soldiers don’t detect a thing, and other sentient, living people think I’m going crazy after seeing an empty cell. I probably am going crazy, but that’s beside the point. Algathan was real, and Algathan was the complete and utter bane of my existence. I got up from my spot on the ground and opened the door, not daring to look back as I stepped out and locked it behind me. If I didn’t know I was already paranoid, I would swear that I heard the beast chuckling under its breath.