Anecus POV
No more prophecies, no more reflections.
I have water for the moment, that is enough, next is food and then…Malice.
Scanning the chamber there was nothing edible down here, no roots or fungi clinging to the black walls. Just stone, moisture and the looming blade hanging above my head.
Tearing a part of my sleeve I soaked it in the pool, wrapping it around my neck to preserve the cold. Climbing the steps again took more effort than I had thought it seems that even if you know the trick, it's still burdensome.
Leg aching from the injury I noticed it has healed more than I remembered "how much time has passed?"
I welcomed the pain though it kept my thoughts sharp, kept them mine.
The hunger was building as well.
Emerging beneath the pale dusk sky again, the wind was harsher now making the sands sing against the rock with distant assault, but nothing of Malice, not yet.
I could feel the malignant creature circling just out beyond the light, waiting, testing the limits of the boundary. "And here I thought you'd piss off." I said not expecting a reply.
Taking some time to list off the things he knew about Malice, It mimics those I love, feeds off something I have…'The soul maybe?' is it hunting mine because it has none?…
'has none, that still doesn't make any sense.'
I get this feeling from Malice that it doesn't want to kill me, not right away at least it wants to feed off me, make me forget who I am. 'I need to deny that.'
Shaking my head to brush the problem away, food was next but hunting was going to be hard. No bow, no traps. Just sharp rocks, my training, and a body running on empty.
The vine beasts came to mind, they hadn't noticed me this entire time, and seemed relatively docile. More importantly they had souls, 'a chance for a core'
I couldn't waste energy running from Malice anymore, needed food, freedom. If I am to survive this place I have to stop reacting, and start acting. The vine beasts were still out there traveling in wide loops, sluggish and blind to most things it's just…dam Malice.
That was another matter I couldn't hunt them without being hunted myself. Crouched low behind a shard of obsidian. I can track Malice…kind of. SoulRend picks up faint emotional traces…I can't look at it, not directly. "Why?"
Closing my eyes, why does it want me to? It always tries to get me to turn to see it with their faces? What's it gaining when I do?
Pulling a jagged chunk of obsidian from the sand, it was tall, sharp veined with reflective glass.
Angling it, testing it I could see my own form, adjusting, I could see…something. A flickering shape in the distance like smoke wrapped in a skin it didn't own. Shifting, glitching, wrong.
My eyes widened involuntary "there you are" The reflection of Malice didn't hurt it didn't cause my soul to shake, no nausea but it still didn't make sense no eyes, no mouth , no ears.
Just a semi humanoid silhouette bound by threads of silver light and void dark crystal limbs flexed and unfurled like muscle trying to remember its use.
'It doesn't sense the way I do. Then how does it find me?' My heart thudded, not from fear but recognition. A single piece of information slid into place. [your soul gives off a radiance] "My aura…"
Like dominoes, things fell into place that's how it tracked me! Then another click. The kind that doesn't make noise, but shifts something foundational in your chest. "SoulRend lets me touch souls…including my own."
A smile tugged at my lips, not in triumph but purpose. I wasn't safe, still no food but I had a direction.
Malice is blind and hunts soul resonance. Why would it need to see me when I shine like a star in a world of ash.
"Could I dim the star?" That would mean touching it. If the soul can radiate outward than can I also fold it inward.
"There could be something to this."
Sitting cross legend just beyond the archway fingers interlaced, palms to chest I slowed my breathing, reached inward. Trying to touch what can't be touched, not in some poetic sense, literally.
If I can figure out a way to fracture my soul into frequencies…maybe I can fold them tuck them in, dampening them 'dim the light.'
Hours later…
My head throbbed the first time I even tried to touch my soul, 'I was too forceful' the second left me briefly numb from the neck down. Third attempt I thought I got it but when I tried to splice a piece of my soul I blacked out.
waking up I was staring at the dusk sky, 'dam it!' sitting up "it's my damn soul! I should be able to touch it."
Let's see, when I called upon the water Pillar it was like breathing, I just thought and willed what I needed the water to do. Fire wasn't much different, it just came from passion and was unruly.
So I just need to find what allows me to call upon my soul. Standing Anecus paced back and forth "let's see, water was will, fire passion." spinning on the balls of his feet
Anecus started to act like he was giving a seminar…to one audience member "father said Vector called upon logic, and mother mentioned that connections and bonds are what form spirit contracts…so what would the soul call upon?"
"Mmmh pride? No."
"Will power? Lame."
"Power of friendship! and love!? No no too corny." Turning over possibilities in my head I felt the wind sap away my warmth.
I had stopped pacing and turned to look toward the horizon, endless dunes of sand that were too fine and obsidian to black. The breeze blew as if insulting me
a big sigh escaped me "this is going to take a while."