The Voidbreak Crisis

4. King

"Dad?" A small voice said from the darkness. King rolled his eyes in the darkness and sighed.

"It's almost midnight, Tina, go back to sleep." He muttered, rolling on to his side and putting his arms around his wife.

"But I can't sleep." Tina said quietly.

"She's your daughter, go talk to her." Hilgred said softly, pulling the covers over herself and off of King. King groaned and sat up in the darkness. He got up and clicked his fingers until a small fire sprouted above his index finger, and he used it's dim light to find the candle and light it.

"What's the matter, Tina." He said softly, walking to the kitchen.

"I can hear voices all around the house, but there's no one there." She said softly.

"It's the dreams of the village. We can hear them sometimes if the night is quiet enough." King said, lighting a small fire under the coffee pot.

"But they sound so sad. I've heard them before, but they've never been this sad." Tina said softly.

"It's probably because we lost Alex." King said, pouring a cup of coffee. He was going to have to get up in about an hour anyway, so he might as well wake up now.

"But I thought nobody liked him?" Tina said.

"Some people liked him. And his family loved him." King said, sipping from his mug quietly. Just because he and Tina were awake didn't mean he wanted the entire house up yet.

"But his family didn't even like him." Tina said.

"Well, family is different. You can love someone, even if you don't like them. It gets more complicated the older you get." King said. Tina was quiet for a while, so King finished his coffee and checked outside to see if the sun was up yet. He heard footsteps behind him, and turned to see Tina, still in her robes, walking out onto the porch with him. She sat on the wooden bench on their porch, looking out over the town, listening to their dreams.

"Dad?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah." King whispered, sitting down next to her.

"Where do we go when we die?" She asked.

"We should talk in your room. We don't want to give them nightmares." King said, standing up and taking Tina's hand.

"But they're asleep." Tina said, walking along with him.

"They can hear us in their dreams, but not if we're in our rooms. We've got them warded." King said, leading her back to her room.

He sat down in the small, child's sized chair beside her bed and held his coffee mug with both hands, feeling the warmth, as Tina got back in her bed and pulled the covers up around her. She put a pillow against the wall and leaned back, ready for a story with eager eyes.

"Well, for the very first few million or so years of our world, we had no afterlife. Our spirits simply faded away, or lingered, unsure and confused, until they simply vanished. But one day, there were two powerful creatures, who were killed in a great battle, which left hundreds of spirits, including them, wandering, unsure. They were called back to life, against their will, by one of the very first Nosferatu, a vampire. They saved her life, and in exchange for this, she let them live on this world as vampires, instead of fading away. They played their part in the elemental wars, but afterwards, they felt lost, unsure." King said, pausing to take a drink of his coffee.

"Like the spirits." Tina said.

"Yes. Exactly. And as they wandered, they met other spirits, lost and afraid like they were. So together, they traveled back to where the elemental wars had played out, and contacted an entity known as the Conglomerate. This creature... well, not really a creature, but this... thing, was composed of a unique kind of crystal. This crystal was the only substance capable of catching, and holding, another creature's soul. Their essence. So these two vampires enlisted this crystal creature's help in creating the underworld, or afterlife, whichever. And this is where souls go when their bodies die. No one knows where it is, or how to find it, but it's out there. Somewhere on this world, there is a place where you can go, and find the souls of anyone who ever died, and meet them again." King said, finishing off his coffee.