Hours later…
'I had it working! Almost perfectly.' My pulses had rhythm, the echoes drifted just enough to give me seconds to move but the pattern broke, not mine, Malice's. I released and cast the echo but Malice didn't move, just twitched.
and now we were at a stand still only a couple meters from each other, silence shifted like weight in the air. I could just imagine it's faceless head titling, like it was waiting for me to make the next mistake.
My voice just a whisper "you're learning...dam bastard." a low groan escape from his lips. 'dad always said it was the smart ones that gave more trouble.'
I tried again but this time it only caused a three second distraction. Only a couple meters from the light that would have to do. With a final pulse I did my best to make it brighter than the others hoping Malice would confuse it for the original me.
Anecus dashed to the light, sending the echo flying away. Malice charged to where he had once been and performed a wide sweeping slash cleaving a obsidian pillar in two, seemingly only distracted for mere seconds it turned to his direction no longer looking at the echo.
However, that was all he needed, darting back to the safety of the light Anecus began to pace frustration boiling, fists clenched his voice hoarse from thirst. "Dam it! This is taking too long!" looking for the reflection of Malice.
"You could at least pretend to fall for it! Just once more!" resting his arms on his knees, head down, "or…I don't know give me a damn hint." All of this was supposed to be an attempt to make my soul invisible to Malice.
"and all i've managed to do is create a couple of tricks."
The creature didn't blink, it couldn't. Its form shifting, a fingerless hand forming and dissolving, legs stretching into stilts before folding again. "How do you do it, huh? How do you suppress it? Your whole presence."
The wind blew across the jagged rocks as Anecus's hair, longer now swayed with it.
No answer came.
Cassia's POV
We were all gathered together in the living room surrounding the hearth being basked in its glow, but the warmth from it felt less today. Mother sat close to me mending a cloak for me, Father was standing in front of the fire hands in his pockets.
Turing the smooth leaf over and over between my fingers. "Dad…how long has he been in there?"
Father glanced at me, his eyes thoughtful. I felt Naia's attention turn to us.
"Five days." his voice teetering on the edge of worry.
I shook my head at his answer, "No, I mean…for him." I knew of Echo stream dilation, mother mentioned it during lessons. 'I wish I had paid more attention.'
Father took a seat across from mother and I. "Normally A few hours here could mean a day, maybe two in there. Some drastic cases…a week or more."
I stared into the grain of the table. "So he could be starving."
I felt mothers hand hold mine "That's why we prepared you."
I tried not to picture it. Anecus alone in some twisted place for days, maybe weeks. With no food, no help.
Before I fell into despair Naia placed her arms around me pulling me out of my spiral.
"He's alive. I can feel it."
Anecus POV
My ribs showed more distinctly now, my skin was getting tight as well. I couldn't remember when I ate last. The last Attempt to eat the leather lining in my shoes just made my teeth ache.
It's strange…I know I'm starving to death but without the god that is time here, my mind seems to be compartmentalizing my slow death.
Malice still just stood there, like a painting watching you from behind glass.
Sometimes it almost looked human…almost and when it did I found myself talking to Malice out of loneliness or maybe to remind myself of my voice and that I was real.
"Tell me something Mal…Do you like it here? Were you born from this place?"
No reply. 'Of course not'
"As for me, I was born in a place blessed by the sun and even more blessed by its people... a place of comfort, a place of nurture. A place of dreams."
Anecus let out of wistful sigh, "Do you dream?"
The wind howled through the porous rock giving an answer inplace of his silent companion. " As for me I have had this dream repeating ever since I came here."
Sitting up Anecus rested his chin on his palm. "It starts with this feeling, a cold feeling but comforting, close to a cool towel on my aching muscles."
moving his hands to help him describe his thoughts he continued "Then a sky is revealed by this silverlight, a ball of fire streaking across the sky and as it caresses the horizon it eclipses a black spire...
In the dream I climb that spire and whence at the top there is this glowing silhouette, like a human made of white flame and that figure was holding something. I can never tell what he is holding but its precious. Then the radiant figure looks at me before falling into the sky. Everything goes dark again, no more light."
Anecus not expecting an answer asks "What do you think it means?" Malice writhes and thrashes in the sand like usual. "Not a very insightful theory Mal. As for me I think its a vision more than a dream."
Contemplating for a few more minutes Anecus shakes his head "I need to get back to work. I have been pacing myself with Echo pulse and Shard lure, using them too many times made me feel hollow, a lack of motivation.
"I need something different." All I'm doing is creating bandaids to the solution. Other than food something has been coming to my mind consistently since meeting Malice.
'No soul…it felt so wrong for something that felt so alive, so hungry, so hateful.' Sitting up slowly, I carefully looked at the reflection of Malice.
"I shouldn't throw out the possibility that I am wrong." This entire time I've been trying to suppress or distract, thinking this was how Malice was doing it.
I found my first breakthrough when referring back to my Divine Circuit description. So maybe it'll happen again, recalling the other parts of my abilities. [▸ Emits a radiant field that accelerates star progression and attracts outside influence.] No, I don't see how that'll help.
[▸ Allows the soul to fracture into reflective fragments, each resonating with different aspects of the world.] I thought for a moment, "resonating …with the world."
lifting my eyes slowly, carefully to the reflection. It stood there, still and wrong.
Yet somehow familiar.