Voen
After gathering myself, I made my way back to the rendezvous point.
My ears stayed on edge the entire way back, listening for the slightest fluctuation in the echoes' voices as I eavesdropped on the city around me. There was no telling when one of them would finally break, descend into madness, or manifest another from my past.
I had to be alert because the poacher was just the beginning of my past, and it had me wondering if the phantom echoes were limited to just people. If they weren't, it could spell disaster for our cluster and everyone inside the rift.
As I neared our meeting point, a flood of voices poured through the city. They were all talking to Sora.
"Is it really just you two?" A voice that sounded like an annoyed prick.
Stravos.
As I got closer, the voices were clearer.
"No, our vitalist Voen is here too. He should be back anytime now."
"That's not much at all," Stravos said as I walked up to the crowd of students.
Everyone looked terrible. Their clothes were soaked, whether from the flood or sweat, and were torn and damaged. Cuts and scrapes covered their bodies.
Nerena and Sora turned towards me, the ease of their heartbeats indicating they were relieved that I made it back.
"Good news, guys. I did find a station to gather some herbs, so I should be able to make more medicines soon for us."
Sora nodded, while Stravos stepped up closer.
Her heart rate increased as he stood over her.
His face was stern, and his cosmic energy was fluctuating rapidly.
"The vitalist in my group needs patching up. Tend to it." Stravos said with a piercing gaze.
I looked at Sora.
She released a shallow sigh, nodded, and rolled her eyes.
"Fine, but I'm gonna need more supplies. Anyone wanna come back with me? The echoes are growing more unstable."
"I'll come," Nerena said, stepping towards me.
"A Wait… It looks like more students are entering the city. And… I think Professor Thorne is leading them." Sora said.
Thank the Pantheos, a teacher finally showed up. I was beginning to think we were goners.
In a few moments, Professor Thorne walked towards us with at least twenty students trailing her, and then a few more clusters came in shortly after her.
Professor Thorne could barely stand; her cosmic energy was low, and her eyes looked lifeless.
Some of the students said she put her life on the line multiple times to save students, constantly reassuring them she was going to let any of them die.
I've had very few interactions with her, but I could tell she was a domineering person, and I wouldn't be surprised if she were just looking for a way to climb the ladder by gaining the favor of future heirs.
I would not have done the same if there wasn't some benefit to be gained from the act.
As one of the students set the Professor up on a bench, the Professor called over all of the arbiters she taught.
There should have been ten that huddled around her.
Two Arbiters never made it to the central city, and five students total never made it here out of the sixty students who entered this rift.
Curious, I scanned the group of students. Simon, of all people, had actually made it back. But the longer I looked, the more it became clear that one person was missing.
The kid was Cyrus.
He can't be in good shape.
Then I turned my attention back to Professor Thorne and the group of Arbiters.
"Only five students are unaccounted for. Not bad given the circumstances. But the academy is going to catch a lot of flak if we can't find the rest." Professor Thonre said, drinking water a student provided to her.
"Everyone knew the risk of coming here; now let's focus on how to defeat this thing," Stravos said, shining his blade.
As they were continuing their conversation, I found my attention being brought back to a couple of phantom echoes talking in a small group in the merchant center.
"The play is getting ready to start. What do you think today's play is gonna be about?" One of the echoes said, as it gestured for the others around him to follow.
The idea of a play piqued my interest, and I found myself slowly creeping towards the crowd that was beginning to form.
"Come one, come all, for the next installment of the rebellious Trials of the Atë!" One of the echoes called, standing atop a raised stage in the middle of the broad road lined with merchant stalls.
"What do you think this one will be about?" an echo asked another a few feet away from me.
"I'm not sure, but I heard it has something to do with the raids in territories controlled by the Pantheons' paragons"
"I heard that the Zmei paragon lost one of its prized dragons."
"I hope they succeed. These paragons have done nothing but ruin this world by abusing the power they were blessed with."
"But do we really want them taking over either? I've heard all of the Atë's members have gone mad, like it's a requirement to join their ranks."
"Yes, but anything is better than what we have now." An echo said to their counterpart, while they waited for the play to start.
"I don't know about that. I trust the High Pantheons have chosen the right people to be their Paragons and lead us when they are gone from time to time."
"Shhh. It's starting." The echo said, pointing to another echo in a hooded cloak stepping onto the stage.
The merchant area fell silent. I looked back and saw my comrades were still chatting, coming up with a plan to defeat this rift, unbothered by what the echoes were doing. They didn't need me now, so I turned back to the play.
Then the echo in the hooded cloak spoke. Their voice was elegant and soft, yet carried effortlessly across the crowd of echoes.
"We, the Atë, the Mad Titans of Valonara, the spirit of yet another one of your so-called paragons. And the rest will soon follow."
The cloaked echo said as more hooded figures stepped onto the stage.
As the echoes continued their play, an incessant crunching noise gnawed at my ears.
Left…
Nothing.
Right.
A hundred feet away, I saw a glowing echo hand, clutching a handful of squirming insects.
My eyes followed the hand back to its owner; I stared at its hovering feet, slowly tracing upward until I reached its… face.
The echo stood around eight feet tall, with pitch-black eyes and glossy chitinous patches blotched across its skin and short silver hair. Thin appendages rose from its temples, twitching constantly. They seemed almost conscious, moving with small, deliberate motions.
The corners of its mouth stretched farther than a normal human's.
I watched the echo pluck a few more insects from his hand and bring them to his mouth.
The echo let a wide smile etch its face as it pointed toward the stage, where the cloaked echoes performing the play brought out a wooden carving of a severed dragon head. Chanting hymns of glory.
"You know this is one of my favorite parts of the play," The echo said, opening its mouth wide, floating towards me.
My heart raced.
Behind the set of human teeth were pincers and mandibles projecting outward, crunching down on the small insects.
What is he?
Then he stopped and turned to me.
"What about you? Which of their plays is your favorite?"
I stood frozen.
"I-I don't know any. This is my first time. What do you recommend?" I asked, hoping to keep this echo from going crazy.
The echo paused, throwing a couple more bugs into its mouth.
"Then… you should start with their most iconic one."
"W-Which is?"
He tossed the rest of the bugs into his mouth.
The earth beneath me began to shudder.
He wiped his mouth.
"The Merciless Tale of the Cannibal, Gula Buros."