From The Ashes [#NaNoWriMo16]

Chapter Five - Helio

Helio had seen many, many things in his lifetime. Being a spirit who was over three centuries old, he had many stories to tell; all of them fascinating and enthralling. The one thing that he disliked about being a spirit who could live forever, though, was the fact that he couldn't tell any of these experiences to anybody except other spirits. Frankly, he was used to it; most of his journeys were too exciting for him to want to share with anybody. But when it came to matters that concerned the possible destruction of the world, he just couldn't help himself.

Okay, maybe he could. It wasn't like he could just walk up to someone and say "hey, I've seen visions and dreams, and I have reason to believe that someone is creating an evil race that can quite possibly destroy the world." No, it wasn't that easy. If he spoke of any of these 'visions' he had to anybody that wasn't a spirit themselves, then he would die. His spiritual form would leave the body it was in and dissipate, taking all of those mesmerizing stories with it.

But no one said he couldn't hint about it.

Many centuries ago, Helio's spirit joined this world and took the body of a dying Fae. The spirits were obviously very peaceful beings, and the only way they could enter this world physically was if they took control of one of the bodies. The Fae was the only race that was both fit and willing for this job; whenever a Fae got sick or injured, they decided whether they wanted to sacrifice their body to the spirits if there was a chance they couldn't make it. Because the Fae and the spirits were both passive, harmless beings of existence, they worked wonders together, and this allowed spirits to roam Reichon. Many didn't leave the Ashlands – the native land of the Fae – because outside this small, peaceful island, wars and hatred were the only things that could be seen, and spirits weren't violent at all. So they explored the life of each race in the Ashlands, where there was no possible way for anything bad to happen that Yzther didn't wish on them in his ultimate plan for Reichon. Well, except for the massive volcano that gave the Ashlands its name when it was discovered. It wasn't that the volcano had erupted already, but that it hadn't. Many spirits communicated with each other, saying that one day, it would erupt and could very well kill the entirety of the Fae race. That would be disastrous, because the moment the peacekeepers of Reichon were out of the picture, war would start straight away. Just like the war that would have happened between Adrana and Voleai, had Helio not seen a vision that the messages sent were forged by a crazy, lonely boy who lived alone in Milos.

The body that Helio had taken possession of was of a twenty six year old man, who had the distinctive dark skin of every Fae and short, almost non-existent black hair that never grew. His features were soft, along with his dark eyes, and his body was neither built, nor overweight or thin. It was just there.

This man's name had been Harwen Spur, and he would have died of a sickness if Helio hadn't come to put his mind at ease. He communicated with the man sometimes in his head; he guided him in the natural ways of the mortals, which Helio found very helpful.

His dreams, no matter how vivid and real Helio knew they were going to become, could stay only with him. Unless, perchance, he found someone who already knew everything he had seen. Someone who wasn't a spirit. Someone who came directly from the source.

"So," Helio announced as he paced back and forth in his hut, "you are telling me that you are an elf that came from an island that does not exist, and you have an ability that literally no other creature in Reichon has ever possessed before...?"

"Knew you'd understand," the girl muttered, holding a grey hand to her head. "Look, I knew that the Fae wouldn't tell anyone that I'm here, and that they're the only ones who have a chance at helping me stop this threat. Clearly, you already knew this, so I'm asking you for some kind of 'wisdom' or something. You're a spirit, right? You know how to stop this."