The Shadow of the Accursed Executioner

Chapter 6: Nobody

"Another eye." I said. "I saw...another eye. I saw...three eyes within one eye... Brown... Green... Blue..." I confessed. "But the curse... Some believe that the curse is like a sickness. And others, an affliction. To lose purpose and existence."
        "This curse...must it be of the Shadowmens' doing." Panamex added.
        "Whatever it is..." I thought, gazing down at my cursed limb, "clearly, there must be some kind of relation to the shadows. Or the Shadowmen. But there's too many questions..."
        "There, are many unanswered wonders, such as these 'Accursed Men and Women' you speak of."
        "..."
        "You, were to execute these men and women who were deemed as 'guilty', or 'accursed' in this new world."
        "I don't know." I said, a slight harrow etched my voice. "I only knew that...only I held permit to directly execute the guilty."
        "How unusual..." Panamex's white eyes glowed.
        "..."
        "And these eyes...for their eyes, they, had bear the dark." Panamex added. "A void, dark as the abyss, from the Realm of the Shadowmen."
        "Again, too many questions, Panamex."
        "Then, must we to journey farther!" He said. "Must we to explore this alluring place!"
        For eventually accepting his willingness to explore, I rose from my rest against the grey wall, to stare at the depiction of the mysterious woman one last time, as now I look down at the face of the stone block, to see an inscription.

Embrace the new bodies you have been given, for to be a shadow is to be.

        For what had the inscription truly meant, I thought.
        As I turn away from the sculptor, crunching through the wild flowers then to follow another path from the opposing direction of the abandoned mine. For I approached a black passage as the walls, the earthen ledge of the island, had widened into a cave through the wall. For Panamex's eyes flooded the dark entrance with his light as the battering winds of the peak abruptly ends inside, now entering through a cave which had looked like the carcass of an old, grey shell inside.
        For the passage of the carcass-shell cave was completely hidden, it, being unseeable from the shores of the island, when I had peered up at the face of the gargantuan island from below, during my arrival at the shore.
        For inside the dark passage was a steep plain then another, which glowed dimly beneath, revealed by the light of Panamex. As it were an unusual cave, it, to reside as a stretch of carcass and stone then leading down into seeming pits, which were ledges leading down to more plains of earthen stone beneath. For there too were no way to climb back up from the ledges and steep walls which were as smooth as grain.
        "Ready?"
        "'Ready'?" Panamex repeated, his deep, spirit-hum voice edging toward confusion. "You, have removed me from your body, and now...are you to assume my use as to journey me down?" He wondered, sitting by the edge, his golden light now flooding the stone ground beneath.
        "Yes."
        "Intriguing..." He replied, amused. "And this method... This method is of recollection, of when you had freed me from the depths of darkness!"
        Then I spiralled my gauntlet with a few layers of rope, now descending Panamex, lowering him by the base of his jaw as he were to touch the stone ground.
        "What do you see?"
        "There is nothing for the needs of kin, nor brethren, here. There are, but only small plains of stone to slumber little!"
        Then I dropped down to Panamex, my boots echoing throughout the rest of the grey cave by the force of my landing. As I push Panamex toward the edge of the plain, the base of his jaw scraping with a light rumble against the ground. Then I lowered him down once more, and once more, down through a spiral of descending ledges.
        Yet during the descend, the noise of sudden buzzes were heard like a low hoarse, echoing from afar. And along with the blow of hollow winds throughout the cave, the noise of the hoarse buzzes were heard again, then shortly again. As the eventual light of dull, grey air shined from beneath the final ledge, which shined of an opening from the grounds of the cave through a gape.
        Now passing through the stone's gape, I raised the rope for Panamex to hang against my back once more, now to appear outside, the sky shining down pockets of white and gold.
        Shining, yet the skies to remain as a confliction of black and grey, as a stalk of lightning flashed above.
        For outside was a narrow fissure leading toward a hidden sight within the island, and the walls revealing the inner-earth of the grey, high walls and the growth of green shrubs residing within the stones, as I look back toward the gape of the cave.
        A hole through the island's wall at the end of a narrow fissure, I thought, leading down from the peak of the island, yet the ledges inside were too high to reach and the walls too smooth to climb from my place now in the fissure. And with the walls of the island's stony world and pierced greenery looming down at my shoulders, I ventured through the fissured alley toward the hoarse buzzing.
        "Do you hear that?" I said, concerned.
        "I hear the prey of my chosen, the Great Sea Ones of the blue. But, are you to speak of the altered cries of Un-kin?"
        "The buzzing noises, Panamex."
        Then I stopped part-way through the fissured alley, now proving of the hoarse tones in silence.
        And the buzzing returned.
        "..."
        "I now hear the altered cries of the Un-kin you speak of. I sense it...to be of an unwelcome kind." Panamex's eyes dimmed.
        Then steadily I resumed my steps through the fissured alley, able to almost see what resides at the end of the fissure.
        Now appearing at the end of the fissure, there had appeared of wooden planks forming down as crudely steps into a valley. Yet, I thought, before stepping down the first plank of wood, I peered down at the valley then to look into a sky of iron, yet of wonder and confliction of light as lightning flashed again from afar. For hanging above, their lives abandoned long ago were the remains of bodies, all which had diminished to the bone long ago, their skeletons now like dull ivory. The husks of the many skeletons hung in cages, each from an iron chain which were linked to steel ledges like rows of sturdy poles through the grey walls and protruding trees and roots like gigantic fingers, as the chains continue to creak like whining shrills from their brief sways. For residing down the valley too were stacks of long ladders made of wood and weaved hairs, and across from the opposing direction had reside of old barricades facing toward the valley of cages. As it were a wide valley from a fissured path, the grounds of the valley had descended of a downward slope, the barricades facing toward the many cages from the upward ends of the slope. And upward, that direction had reside of additional barricades abandoned beside one another, with enough space to pass between them as spikes protruded from their wooden faces. But toward the upward stretch of the valley too, had stood of a giant gate, sturdy yet desolant like an abandoned stronghold, which loomed down at the valley walls filled of trees, shrubs and roots, and the iron cages throughout which hung like frozen rain.
        Then I stepped down to the first plank, then the next, as I head down to the valley before confronting the gate.
        For the downward growth of the valley eventually rose to an even plain, which had reside of brown crates and barrels and tables (which were large enough to dine with many), as now I wandered through a maze of caged skeletons. And wandering beside the cages, I now stopped in my place to examine the many cages and, all but one, I thought, empty. Dry of the faintest of blood, it were, splattered across the bars and the floor of the cage.
        For the door of the cage was open.
        For yet, there too were another cage, bearing oddly, half the body of a skeleton.
        The body—the skull and all, half. All, had gone, the split of the body to look as smooth as the work of a master carpenter, grounded away seemingly, though neatly, the face of a skull bearing a single socket and half a jaw, like it were to depict a hidden expression.
        "...Half a body?" I thought, eyeing up at the cage of the bearing-half skeleton, then at the cage of no bones but of faint blood.
        "It is..." Panamex spoke, his eyes dimming, "the remains of 'man' and 'woman' in this world..."
        "How did you know that?"
        "They, are not the remains of kin, nor brethren, Ghen."
        Then I inspected the crates and barrels of detached ladders and tools inside. Then I raised my gauntlet, clutching the hilt of my pointless blade, as the noise of the hoarse buzzes were heard again, their groans now like the sounds of quakes. As toward the end of the valley, the dangling cages gradually filled the black and grey skies.
        And the noise of the hoarse buzzing was heard from all ways.
        For they buzzed greatly—then to see the bodies of the grotesque creatures as the overgrown beasts they were, as I appear from beneath a cage, then to appear within a circle of cages.
        For my body flushed cold in fear, as I tightened the grip of my pointless blade.
        Then I looked up—as they latched against the metal stalk of the cage of infested wings and antennas, with many brown legs like hairy pins and their eyes, like faint-red crystals, swarming the cage.
        For they were gigantic flies, each buzzing like hoarse quakes. I eyed up at the gigantic bugs as they stared back. Now they froze, now scattering—abandoning the cage like the breaking of a cryptic seal.
        But one of the blackly flies charged toward me as the rest scattered away like dark spells. For I readied my pointless blade—then swung with a downward strike between its red eyes, now dragging the blade through, crunching though its twitching body as green blood and black pigment painted the blade's steel.
        "Is...someone there...?" Then a bleak voice called out from above.
        As there had sat of a black-hooded man from inside a cage, the cage which was submerged of the monstrous flies.
        For his legs dangled down from the bars, as his feet were stained of filth, yet were dirtier, and as black as char toward the tips of his toes and the bottoms of his feet. For he wore a pair of grey braies (though seemingly they were once white) with a slim-fitting, dark coat, and his arms—seemingly to have been burnt in fire, (or so) I thought, his sleeves torn away to his elbows and his forearms marked pink, pruning skin, with spots of blistering-red peels. Yet from the strange appearance of his attire, the man's eyes and head were concealed of layers upon layers of white wraps from under his black hood.
        For perhaps were the man blind, I wondered.
        As now the noise of loud caws echoed from the skies of the valley, as they pass through the ringed roots of the protruding trees, their black wings emerging from the skies as the man reached through the bars with his right hand. Now the man pointed his forefinger out like a perch.
        For they were crows, a flock appearing from the skies as a single crow perched its talons around the man's finger like a branch. Then he unclenched the rest of his fingers for the crow to lay a piece of bloodied flesh into his hand. Then the crow had flew to his shoulder as the rest flocked about, as some perched upon the roof of the cage and inside, and some on a pile of wares and trinkets beside him.
        "These crows." I wondered. "I've seen them before. The same flock... So this is where they go. It's almost each day they find something new to put into their beaks."
        "They...have done more than what I can thank them for..." He said, raising his hand to his chest, as two crows hop to his palm.
        "I, sense of another voice, Ghen." Panamex replied.
        "...And you both can't see each other." I plainly remarked, now placing Panamex on an old cart beside a barrel of stones. "Here, a new place for you to see."
        "I, Panamex, am beyond content!" —His eyes then fattened like two suns. "But this place... This, is a strange place..."
        "Another voice..." The man's interest piqued, though his voice remained bleak. "She...had spoke of such a voice..."
        "..."
        "But I...am deeply conflicted, you see..."
        "What voice?" I asked, curious.
        "I...do not know." He shuddered. "The voice...the voice...our lady speaks of... of the light..."
        Then I stepped closer toward the cage, yearning for more answers. "Are you talking about the one? The one built and praised like some type of saviour around here? I've seen them on my way here. Sculptors of a lady, like an idol."
        "Oh..." He sighed disappointedly. "Have they begun...creating depictions of her...?"
        "Of the statue?"
        "Of our lady..."
        "Is there...anything else I should know about?" Requesting more answers, as I raise my hand, to reach for the grip of my pointless blade.
        "The Host of the Curse." Panamex added. "For 'man' are in search of this manifestation, are they not?"
        "Host...of the Curse...?" He questioned, placing his burnt hands against his hidden eyes in disbelief.
        "What's wrong?"
        "I am...ugh..." The man groaned, then he raised his head in wonder. "To tell you the truth... I...I am in fact not blind..." He admitted. "Instead I...am deeply conflicted, you see..."
        I loosened the grip of my pointless blade. Then I looked toward Panamex then across the valley then up at the skies, then back toward the caged man.
        "...I don't understand. What's your confliction?"
        "She speaks of perfection..." He expressed, raising his hands, now as the crows perch his shoulders. "We...as a form of perfection...? No. I do not see it... For I believe...that we, are a form of falsehood..."
        "No." I agreed. "No one is perfect. Nor may we ever be. But we can always try each time."
        "'We are whole', she says... 'We are perfect', she says... But the longer I exist within this world...the more I question our lady's teachings..."
        "..."
        "It is why I... obscure my vision... I do not wish to see the falsehood...which envelop my sight..."
        "No one is perfect." I strongly assured. "The world is full of imperfection. Filled with many who make mistakes, monsters who hurt others, and ones who exchange their lives for the balance of betterment."
        "Ugghh..." He mourned in pain.
        "Perhaps, we must leave him be." Said Panamex.
        Then the conflicted man brought his left hand through the bars of the cage like he were eager for freedom.
        "Wait..." He said, placing his right hand to his face. "Is it true...? True...that this falsehood exists...?"
        Acknowledging the man's wonders, I approached Panamex, then placed my hand against his right horn. "You've been inside that cage for some time, haven't you? ...Why?"
        "He knows well, for the reasons of this 'imprisonment'..." Added Panamex, as a crow spanned its black wings from the roof of the cage.
        For the crow flew down, then perching Panamex's left horn.
        And I remained in place, eyeing the crow, as it eyed back.
        "Imprisoned..." The man continued, the crows hopping off his shoulders, as he wrapped his fingers around the bars of the cage, his face now pressed against the bars. "Imprisoned...by shadows..."
        "Shadows..." Panamex thought, his eyes dimming.
        "Imprisoned...for they do not see to us...kindly... For they will not take you...for kindness, as well... For they fear...themselves... For they fear...the growing wholeness of who we are..."
        Then I raised my cursed arm, gazing into its vile dark.
        "We've fought shadows before. From inside a door."
        "Ah...one of the many seals...created by our lady..."
        For the crow waddled between Panamex's white eyes, now pecking his snout.
        And yet I thought, certain for the man not able to see my black phantom limb, I then asked. "What are these shadows? Why me?"
        "Why us...?" He too questioned. "I...do not know... But I only know that...there will be another battle..."
        "A battle? Here?"
        "A battle... here..." The man repeated, as he swivelled around in his cage, now facing a pile of wares and trinkets.
        Then within a moment, he turned back to face me as he reached low through the bars of the cage with a black fragment in his right hand.
        For the fragment had seemed to be part of a black blade, I thought, as he reveals the rest of the fractured blade by rolling back his fingers.
        "Here... Take it..." He offered.
        Confronting the man as I gradually reach up to his hand, he then dropped the blade before I were to touch it. And as the blade fell against the ground of the valley, it had made no sound. Fell, and as light as a feather, I then bent down for the blade with my existing hand.
        And to know, I had not, but now knowing, I thought.
As my existing hand phased through the blade. And as all the crows watched from the roof of the cage and between the bars, I now brought my cursed arm toward the blade.
        A true touch.
        A limb of nonexistence, now phasing through existence. 
        For my cursed arm absorbed the fragment, vanishing into my limb, it had, now terror clouding my mind in fear from the witnessing of it all. Struck down into silence from the disturbance of it too, as my bones flushed cold to the skin. Then now as I regain my stand, I continue to stare down with a gaze into my cursed limb.
        "...W-Who are you?" I wondered brokenly, then as I look up at the caged man.
        "I...am Nobody..."