Rise of the Warrior of Everfen

Chapter 104: Where Forgotten Souls Lie

"What does it say?" Erinne asked from her chair as Khash translated pages of the book. He'd found something before Wren had turned, something that had made him believe he'd found the cure.

"Things that wouldn't have made sense had she not told me you had to walk into...the afterlife?" He still seemed uncertain as he said it. He glanced at her as she was wiping her mouth off but every time the creature outside howled, her body became violently sick. She was feeling weaker with every bout of it, uncertain of when it would stop or why it was still going.

"Does it say how to use it safely?"

"Yes."

"You should come with me." He peered up at her, eyes wide. "Khash, please, come with me?" Another howl tore through the world around her and she heaved into the bucket before her, tears swimming in her eyes again. "Please!" She coughed through it and then tuned her eyes to Khash as he finished grinding something in a bowl. His brows were furrowed as he approached her, and he looked terrified.

She plead with her eyes, watching him approach and he held the bowl out to her, "It's ready." She still plead silently as she accepted it and he created fire with his hand. "I will...go with you." He sounded as scared as he looked. She knew his feelings on the afterlife, on death. It was the only thing that seemed to truly scare him.

"I'll be with you, it'll be okay, Khash." She squeezed his hand and he sat down on the floor, then wafted his hand over the ingredients. Crushed Loostqa flower and some other herbs that surely countered it's deadly affects. The mixture burst into a cloud of smoke and she barely inhaled before she blinked and found herself, once more, in the land of mist.

Erinne's hand was still clutched around Khash's and she turned her head to see him blinking at the world around him. His jaw fell open, then closed, then he heaved for a breath and Erinne grabbed his shoulder, "You're not dead."

His lip quivered, "It's just like last time, there's nothing here. Erinne, there's—"

"Shh!" She cut him off, then more gently, "Shh...An Ancestor told me once it's beautiful, but we're not dead, Khash. We can't see it until we die. We're not dead." She pat his arm.

Still trembling, he looked around, the fog swirled around them as he searched it and shook his head, "There's nothing to see here...it's so dark," he turned his hand over, palm up, and waited a long moment before he frowned and looked down at his hand. "My magic isn't working here." He reached up to feel his face, "My illusion is still up."

"I don't think it's an illusion, Khash. I have never seen someone appear old here, although sometimes they feel old."

"They? Feel old?"

She shrugged. She didn't know how to explain it. Sometimes the people and orcs she met here had a feeling about them and she knew they were older beings. Not sure what she was supposed to be doing, she took Khash's hand again and began to walk, but after several steps, Khash pulled back on her hand, "Erinne, there's something following you."

"What?" She turned but she saw nothing, but his eyes followed it.

"I think...I think it's attached to you."

Erinne turned again and twisted but saw nothing and he reached forward, wafting his hand through the fog and, though she couldn't see it, as soon as he touched it, they both felt it. Erinne felt a howl, a foreign sensation, everything within her seized and tightened and she cried out and Khash yanked his head back and she saw it. Something jumped out of her, lashing out at him, sinking it's teeth into his flesh.

Khash screamed as it wrestled him to the foggy ground. It was a dark shadow. She'd never seen anything like this in this realm. She tried to pull away, tried to step back but the thing crawling out of her kept her feet frozen in place. Khash shouted a spell but his magic did nothing as the thing attacked. She fought against it and witnessed it crawling out of her and sliding into the warlock.