The Dreamer's Fall

Chapter 6 - The Useless Spirit

Arthur nearly vaulted from his chair but reined in his fear as quickly as it came.

"What's wrong?" Levin asked after catching his strange expression.

"Nothing, I just had a cramp in my leg." Arthur hurriedly explained.

The human head grinned at Arthur eerily before breaking out in a bellowing laugh and phasing through the desk. The disembodied head then appeared next to him, this time with its scar-riddled, brawny body attached.

"HAHAHA! I almost got you that time kid... Hey, who's this brat?" The man said as he noticed Levin.

A quick peek by Arthur revealed the man was all but naked except for a pair of baggy black pants that people used as pajamas in Nithe. Curiously, Levin appeared unphased by the commotion, but that wasn't a surprise to Arthur.

Arthur did his best to ignore the behemoth of a man standing over his shoulder and stabbed his fork into the blue-tinted sausage.

"Hey!" The man shouted in Arthur's ear, forcing him to drop his fork onto the ground.

"Is everything ok?" Levin asked again, now seemingly worried for Arthur.

"Yeah, sorry... I think I need to use the bathroom. I'll be right back." Arthur replied as he hurriedly ran out the door.

"Ah, young master-" Foster began to speak before Arthur dashed past him toward the bathroom at the end of the hall.

Once inside, Arthur waited impatiently, and after a moment the half-naked man phased through the door after him.

"What the fuck are you doing?!?" Arthur shouted quietly without realizing he was speaking English.

"Fook? Foowk? Hey, what does that mean? Fewk?" The half-naked man said as he exaggeratedly mouthed the foreign word.

"What are you doing?" Arthur asked after calming himself down, this time in Nithian.

"What? I can't come and hang out with you anymore? You too good for me now that you got a new brat to play with?"

"What are you a woman?" Arthur shot back, wearing a look of disbelief.

"HAHAHA! I'm just messing with you, kid! Buck up, will ya!" The half-naked man replied in his usual boisterous manner, driving Arthur to rub his temples in frustration.

"Kyren... I told you last week that a tutor was coming. I specifically asked you to wait until he left before you showed yourself. It's hard enough pretending to be a kid without you making me seem crazy in front of people."

"Ya know, when I was alive, no one in the Dominion would—" Kyren attempted to brag, but Arthur had heard the line far too many times and cut him off before he could start.

"—You're not alive, though, are you? Sparnia's second prince killed you. And enough of reminiscing about the glory days. You're not even that old... I've got to get back, so don't cause any more trouble."

The half-naked man was Kyren Drent, a ninth circle mage from Ollerin's main rival to the east, The Dominion of Sparnia. He had been killed nearly eleven years ago from poison, but he existed on Nithe as a spirit instead of passing on like Arthur. Kyren was unsure how he ended up that way and wandered about the world's libraries, trying to find out the reason for his predicament.

Two years ago, Arthur had noticed him hanging around the study and spoke with him without realizing that the man was a disembodied spirit. After discovering the truth, he agreed to help Kyren in hopes of using the ninth circle mage's knowledge, but he soon found out that reality was rarely like the fantasy stories he read on Earth.