I felt like her tears were going to come again. “Don’t worry, we’ll get out of here. I just need…” I let go of her hand and walked a few steps away. “I don’t understand… Hm.” I switched my vision to begin searching for heat with passive Pyromancy. I saw her and the trees, but nothing seemed out of place. “Why…”

“Where are we?”

“Wait, before that- What do you remember before you came here?”

“Uh… I don’t really remember. It’s been so long, but… I was at home, then… a flash… and… here.”

I wasn’t getting anything I actually needed from this girl. “You don’t remember anything else?”

“Well… It’s embarrassing…”

“I need to know.”

“I… well, I had a shrine at home. A shrine to, uh… the Void.”

At least I knew that she was taken by Eleanor as well. “What about voices? Did you hear anyone, see anyone?”

I heard her sit down and a depression was made into the grass. “I heard voices a lot. They told me to listen and connect my mind to the Void, but… I didn’t think anything like this would happen.”

I looked up at the blue skies. “Connect your mind… your mind… I got it!”

“Huh?”

“I understand now! The mind. We’re in her mind.”

She stood up. “Alright, so what do we do?”

I held out my hand, which she promptly took. “ I know exactly what to do.” I led her away until we were in the same place the Akans were walking by. We waited for them to start walking again. “We are in a part of her memory- something that happened that was significant to her. We need to figure out what moves this memory along and we can try to break it.” From the distance, they started coming, walking in their slow trance. “I want you to stand right in front of them.”

“Alright,” She said quietly. She stepped out into their way while I went to the side of a tree. I placed my hands on the trunk and shoved it with all my strength. The tree began to groan and snap, then suddenly launched itself down into the path. I heard the girl fall and she yelled out in pain. “Agh, why?!”

“Hey!” The first Akan in line began to run and the others disappeared. He reached the girl and kneeled down in front of her. “I’ll get you out of here!” He pulled an amulet from around his neck and pulled on it, snapping the chain. “Here, hold this,” he said as he gave it to her.

The amulet floated in mid-air while the woman held it. After a few moments, it began to glow. The tree shifted, then began to break down around her body. Like she was toxic to the tree, the part of it holding her down completely broke down and let her free. Akan took her by the arms and pulled her out from under the tree.

“Oh… Thank you,” she mumbled.

“Why don’t you come with me?” He asked with a smile.

“No,” I interrupted. “Say no to him!”

“Uh… No!” she finally shouted.

He held out his hand, then froze. The memory was breaking up, I just needed to finish it. I jumped forward and slammed a foot against his body, making it explode into dust. After, the trees began to break down as well. It looked like the sky was falling and the sun’s rays crumbled until there was nothing left but the black, starry Void.

She spoke first, “What…?”

“We broke it. Now, we push out of it.” I smiled, feeling refreshed.

“How do we-“

She stopped talking as soon as I lifted from the ground. I was in my domain now- not even Eleanor’s mind will stop me in the Void. I physically grabbed at the ends of the Void with black tethers and pulled it closer to me. I dropped back down. “Where are you?”

“Here,” she called, letting me find her.

I tracked her heat signature and took her by the shoulder. “Trust me,” I said as I pulled her to the side, dropping her out of the black world. I followed quickly after and left it with her, falling out into a cathedral floor. I heard her coughing, almost choking; she probably wasn’t ready for her first shift in and out of the Void. “You’ll be fine, Bellamute.”

She got herself up and I saw dust fall off her invisible body. “I wasn’t ready for that. Oh… my name is Iyo, priestess of Teyalu.” Teyalu, goddess of wisdom.

“For a priestess, you seem to have a lot of loyalty to the Void.” She seemed to shy away from my words, so I didn’t continue.

“Eh-excuse me?” An old man dressed in robes was standing in a doorway of the holy place.

I looked over. “Oh, Father, sorry for the intrusion. Did you happen to see a woman with… many colored hairs around here?”

“Ah, yes. The one with a few… extra appendages was looking for a holy sanctum not too long ago.”

“Could you tell us where she went?”

“She left up the road towards the Pontiff’s Isles, I believe. My apologies, this old mind escapes me at times.”

“Thank you, Father. I appreciate your help.” After I thanked him, he hobbled off back the way he came. I looked to Iyo, “Come on, we’re following her.”

“You want me to come with you?” she asked.

“Well… yes. You will want help getting home, won’t you?”

“If we are where I think we are, my home should be nearby.”

I was disappointed to say the least. “Alright, let’s get you back.” She took my hand and led me out of the cathedral. The sun was setting and there were people sitting out on their porches. The walk was quiet and uneventful. At least here, no one watched me like a harpy, but there were still a few prying eyes.

“Your name is Emily, right?” she asked out of the blue.

“How do you know?”

“I heard the name a lot in there. She stopped saying it when you arrived.”

“She’s obsessed with me. It’s my fault she is like this.”

“Oh.” She stopped talking as we approached a house outside of the town. The door was open and an older woman was standing in the doorway, completely visible. Iyo also became visible as she approached, revealing herself as a gray-skinned, Elf-looking girl. No wonder she sounded so young; she's Elven.

“Iyota Mertycen, we need to talk. What is this and why was it in your room?” The woman, her mother, I assume, was holding a dark crystal. Oh no.

Iyo dropped into a bow on her knees. “Mother, I have been unfaithful.”

Her mother saw me, but probably just the corrupted skin around my eye. “You associate yourself with the unholiest of places, the pinnacle of heresy, and you call yourself a priestess?” Iyo stayed silent, so she continued. “You are not one of mine anymore. Leave my sight and do not come back… ever, ever again.” The crystal was thrown to the ground and the door slammed shut.

 Iyo raised her head as soon as her mother stopped talking. I could almost feel the sadness and regret coming off her. She put a hand to her face and began to run, cloaking herself in the process. I tracked and followed her out to a pond near the house. She was sitting against a tree completely visible, so the cloaking must not have been a passive ability, but active. I went over and stopped in front of the pond, now able to hear her quiet weeping. I could tell that she didn’t like crying… she probably didn’t really enjoy me knowing she was crying, either. Her cries were soft and a bit tantalizing, like there was more to it than I heard. I disregarded the feeling, though; I had somewhere to be and wanted her to come with me.

“You know,” I started, “the gods resent me quite a bit for my actions. They aren’t very fond of Void creatures.” I heard her quiet down; I had her attention. I crouched and watched the small ripples in the water as I tossed a stone into it. “One time, Argoncin, the oh holy god of light, tried to ‘deal’ with me. He almost smit me, but decided not to. You want to know why?” I looked back and saw her eyes looking in my direction, which was a fine answer to me. “This body belongs to a still living girl, my childhood friend’s sister. My mother moved my spirit into this one when my body was destroyed, which was alright by my friend because her sister wasn’t supposed to wake up. See, she was cursed by some no good, evil magic that made her permanently unconscious, or so we all thought. I still hear her sometimes, though,” I said as I put a finger to my head, “in here. A lot of what she says is about what I see, like she is just watching another life being lived. Sometimes, she disagrees with me and sometimes, she agrees. Sometimes, I want to change how I act for her sake and to make her happy, but… when it comes down to it, it’s my life, right? Should I change my life and behavior because of one person?”

Iyo was looking at the ground now, probably thinking about what I was saying. Or, she was too uncomfortable to make eye contact anymore. I decided that she was actually taking in my words, so I continued, “Don’t let one person change you if you don’t want to change. You believed in the Void and wanted to know more about it… well, you have your chance. It isn’t some mystical, mischievous place designed to usurp the gods. The gods just don’t understand it, so they resent it. I was born from a Void creature: the Voidwalker, one of the most disgusting, evil, vile creatures to ever live… or so the legends say. The Voidwalker is a regular father with some extraterrestrial powers, that’s all.” I stood back up and went over to her, then held out a hand. “I have to ask you to come with me, Iyo, so that I may help you understand the Void. And you, you must ask to come with me so that you can help me retrieve what I’ve lost. We’re in this together, not because I’m making you or there is no other choice, but because you want to. Are you with me?”

Iyo looked up at me with her bright green eyes. She wiped the tears from her face and then nodded before taking my hand. “Okay, okay… I’m with you.” After I helped her up, she smiled at me. “Thank you, I needed that.”

I returned the smile. “You’re welcome, now let’s go.”

Erzen, the Demon Slayer

From a very early age, I’ve come to understand three key concepts in life. One: never turn your back on anyone. My granddad fell into his own grave at the hands of his nephew because he wasn’t in the will. That same nephew, my uncle, tried to take the inheritance from my dad, but failed when I put a knife in his back. Later on, a kid who I remember as Ugo tried to pickpocket a woman he just helped walk to a market. Good thing I was fast, because I caught him, shook him down, and took that money for myself. Best escort money I’d ever gotten. And, just recently, I found out that if you fake putting your back to someone, you can find who your enemies are veeeeery easily.

Two: demons are the bane of all existence. A group of demons destroyed the village I lived in when I was just a baby and killed my own ma along with too many others. I’m no saint, but they have no care for any life other than their own. Plus, it turns out that in this day and age, their claws, horns, and wings go for a real pretty coin. If I were to find and sever the head of all demons, the Dark Ruler herself, I could both make a title and fortune for myself overnight. Finding her was the easy part, all you gotta do is follow the trail of destruction in her path. Look around and you’ll see it: blood, gore, and darkness reeks wherever she’s been. I’m not even sure if she’s a she; maybe it will let me look when its head is on my slab.

As for the third one… I forgot it, but it will come to me. I have to repeat these things to myself or I’ll risk dying again. After all, traitors and demons, usually both, are the reasons I find trouble. They’re the reasons I keep myself going in this shite hole of a world, because without them, I would have found a space to die in long ago. Oh, right, three: never turn down a discounted escort. That one’s saved me quite a bit of coin and is the third and final reason I don’t let myself die already.

I’m a bounty hunter. Well, not really. I’m a demon hunter- no, the Demon Slayer. The one and only, so none of those wannabes better try to take that title I’ve already made for myself. They don’t tell you you’re the best for nothing. Well, no one has actually told me I’m the best, but I know it! No one drops one of them black-winged, horn using beasts like myself, and that’s a fact. Now, I know my methods aren’t always the best, but I get the job done no problem, like the job I’m on right now.

I’m hunting a demon lady who rules over the worst of the worst in the region, and it turns out she is out here all on her own. She’s a little brown-haired number named Emily with a mean tendency to spook everyone within a few hundred-foot radius of her. The rumors say she is a powerful magician with fancy tricks up her sleeves, but I’m not afraid. I have my own tricks and toys that I use to hunt and no amount of silly magic is going to stop me. With my personally patented- as in I bought it from a good friend back in Andover- rifle named Hipshot, pulled right from how I always shoot my targets in the hips first. See, some would go for the head, but that makes too much of a mess and how are you going to tell your kills that it isn’t personal if you end their lives right away, right? So yes, I shoot them in the hip. They go down pretty quick and I have plenty of time to give them the ole spiel about how it isn’t their fault, it’s their race’s fault. Goes nicely after that.

I’ve been tracking this demon for a few days and suddenly, her trail disappears without a trace. I’ve completely lost where she went, but luckily for me, there were locals nearby. I went and asked them about any odd-looking lassies heading down yonder, and it turns out they happened to catch sight of one or two. They directed me to the east towards the Isles, somewhere I didn’t exactly fancy. Too many ghost stories make me think that’s not where I want to go, but if it gets me my crown and money, I have to do it. Oh, and the pleasure of knowing I killed the mother of demons.

Before I got to the edge of the Isles and saw over its dense fog, I took a moment to take out the locket attached to my belt. Inside, I had a picture of Melina, my wife. Er, she was my wife. Now, she’s a skeleton in the ground because of a marauding monster. Had the gods not let those beasts enter the living world, my Melina would still be with me today. I wasn’t one to sit and sob over the little things, so I clicked the locket shut, stowed it away, and hoofed it right into the Pontiff’s Isles in search of my trophy.