Beyond the Void

Chapter 33, New and foreign thoughts

of Sin 336 - After capturing the ninth Alyar city with a sunshard, the nine Voidstones that still exist to this day were created.

An excerpt from the diary of Pia...

ANDREW

One moon and two tens since the Mark of the Other One blossomed.

Andrew woke to the sound of shattering wood. Looking around, he saw Anna breaking up wooden furniture and throwing the pieces into the fireplace. Several books and pieces of wood littered the front of the fireplace. Small flames were eagerly eating away at the wood and rising higher by the moment.

Slowly, the where and how was returning to him. The two of them had fled into the safety of this castle. He tried to get up but fell back onto the mouldy blankets. All strength had left his body.

"How are you?" Anna asked as she approached him. She lay a hand on his forehead. "You are burning. The fever has gone up again. It's cold, but get those clothes off of you. We need to change the bandages, at least."

"I don't feel too bad. Just weary." With help from Anna, Andrew sat up on the bed.

It was a huge king-sized bed, complete with decorative beams and curtains. But all colour had faded from the fabric and wood as it had from everything else. Once upon a time this city had been full of life and colour.

"I found piles of clothes. They should be clean enough to be used as bandages. Maybe we can find something better to change into."

Getting the clothes off Andrew was slow and painful. To keep warm, he had gathered four layers of clothes under his armour and cloak. The heavy leather armour he had picked up from the gateway village easily fit on top of all the clothes he was wearing. It had been made for a man much wider than he had been.

During these months Andrew had lost weight. The sight of his lanky body was annoying. He had been relatively thin before, the only thing going for him was his height.

Despite the pain, he sat still and let Anna clean his shoulder and replace the bandages. His left hand kept caressing the hilt of the blood-red blade Andrew had claimed yesterday. A blood red straight edge. With a simple silvery cross-guard and a pommel in the shape of a bird head. The hilt was covered in black leather.

"Found yourself a new toy?" Anna smiled a little as she said that.

Andrew grunted in response, and his face twisted into a wry grin.

"What happened yesterday? Where did all those people go?" She then asked.

"They are dead." Andrew's mood quickly turned sour.

"I thought you said you can set them free? For a moment I thought we might get help." Anna's voice was filled with sorrow.

Andrew squirmed and twitched where he was sitting. The inside of his head was screaming. Yesterday it all had been so perfectly clear. He had known exactly what needed to be done and why everything here was the way it had been.

Suddenly he wanted to rub his eyes until he gouged them out. He had forgotten about his right shoulder, and Andrew swore loudly. Anna placed a hand on his chest and looked him straight in the eyes.

"It's not that easy around here, I suppose. I don't know." Andrew laughed, and he did not stop for a while. "I do not have a fucking clue. They are dead, but I know it is better for them than... than whatever that thing in the city square is." Andrew kept laughing. "Now I see things, I have new ideas about things I have never seen or heard about and it all makes sense. And then it's all over. I am pushed aside and I have vague memories of being elsewhere. All I can do is give in, so that whatever happens, happens and I can have myself back."