Introduction
Introduction
Mr. Narkayia
Cold…Frozen…I couldn’t move…I couldn’t do anything. I felt like I was floating, but I was also numb. I couldn’t feel anything except for a small pain in my heart.
Pain…I thought, I’m not supposed to feel…Pain.
I felt like I needed to move, like I had something I had to do. Except, I didn’t want to move. I wanted to stay here and rest. I felt like I had been asleep for hours, yet I was exhausted. I could feel it through my numbed bones. I could feel many things like numbness in my head like I had to remember something, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was. I couldn’t do anything but just lay with my eyes closed. I was so exhausted; I wanted to sleep.
“Wake up,” a quiet voice ordered me.
The pain disappeared with a jolt of electricity, barreling itself through my entire body. My head roughly jerked, and I felt my hand twitch. I put it into a fist, trying to keep myself down. It didn’t work, however, when I heard the voice once again ordering me to wake up.
I’m already awake, I found myself responding to it.
It repeated itself again, to my annoyance, and my head twitched again. I felt heat in the middle of my chest and slowly radiated through my entire body to the top of my skin. I suddenly felt like I was burning from the inside out. I could feel its warmth flood out of me and start to circle me as my head twitched again and again.
“Wake up,” a quiet voice ordered me, “you have to wake up…Wake up!”
My eyes bolted open and casted out a bright light. I planted my feet flat on the ground and leaned forward to try and pant for struggling breaths. I was greeted by a throbbing numbness to simulate pain, but my thoughts were quiet. I tried to gather my baring's; it took longer than I wanted it to. It me longer, however, to calm my nerves that were high in the air for who the hell knows. I knew there wasn’t any reason for me to feel uneasy. This has been my home for the last thirteen years, and it became the place I was most comfortable in. The reminder should have helped, but it only made it worse.
It felt like my mind knew something was off, but what could it be? There had to be something or I wouldn’t be acting this way. My gut feelings are never wrong. So many times has it saved me. Physically, mentally, emotionally. So many times…
So…Many…Times…
I leaned on my elbows placed on my knees and attempted to rub my face within my hands. However, a sudden vision of blood coating my hands caused me to jump from my seat. I tightly closed my eyes with harsh breathing before looking at them again to find the same clean black leather looking back at me. I rushed my hands through my shoulder length hair and closed my eyes to put myself in a somewhat meditative state. It worked enough to make me feel like I had somewhat control again, and it gave me just enough contentness to look outside the large open window.
The Dark Lands…A place I never knew I would find safer compared to the walls of Rare Heart. They’re not by all means, but inside the walls are far worse. The absence of Centrion’s energy has caused the land to become dark. Darker than midnight, and it can be toxic to some depending on how populated the Retiko’s are in the area. No light can shine through the dark clouds, nothing can grow through the ashes that laid upon the ground, and life ceases to exist without proper gear. It’s possible to have lessened effects the longer a being is within the Retiko’s energy, but it has to be at a slow pace. Patience and virtue were the key to survive out here. Arrogance and negligence got a being killed quicker than anything else in this world. I have followed those rules for thirteen years but today…Today that had to change.
What I feel and what I see began in June, and I still remember the first image I had gotten like it was yesterday. I had hoped it would go away on its own for reasons I can’t explain, but I keep seeing these images or dreams every time I open my eyes. It radiates for a time after I open my eyes, and it causes everything to be more intense. Sleep wasn’t the only thing affected, not that I slept much beforehand. It all depended on what I was doing, but it was worse when I shut my eyes. I had to put my body at a point of meditation if I wanted anything close to sleep. I didn’t need to, or used to at least, but I knew I could get Knightly and Stryker off my ass if I acted like I got anything. What worse about all of this? It always feels so familiar to me, but I can never explain it into words. I’ve tried to push away all these emotions that threaten to take my will, but it makes me more exhausted the harder I try. What’s worse? I can’t remember any of the visions. All I know it’s the same thing…All the time…Different pictures…Visions…But it’s all the same as a C.D on rewind.
I had thought in the beginning that it had to do with Knightly’s abilities. His ability is to see into the past, present, and future with realistic images and/or visions inside of his head. However, I knew deep inside of my thoughts that it wasn’t. It couldn’t be, unless his ability has evolved. Maybe not for him, but for me. I knew everything had to be connected because it’s gotten worse the closer we’ve gotten to the location. I knew I had to find out that way I could get back to clearing my mind and body to normality just in case I had to be brought down to a knee in front of them. I wasn’t about to allow myself to show weakness. No, I refuse.
Just in case all of this could be nothing, I couldn’t allow my personalities to find out. That is if they haven’t figured it out. I have my thoughts blocked, but I knew I couldn’t hide my thoughts forever like I would want. My mind was weakening due to exhaustion due to everything happening. I decided to try and cover my tracks just in case by creating a fake profile that I got from “hacking” into the Rare Heart database. I know they’ll believe it mostly because they know I love fucking with them in that type of way. But I have a gut feeling like this was going to bite me in the ass harder than if I hadn’t.
Again, however. I had to figure this out one or another.
One way.
Or another.
“It’s gotten worse, hasn’t it?” asked my Lightcaster, taking me from my thoughts.
“How far are we from the location?” I asked, switching subjects as I opened the city map of Wykiren.
“You can’t keep avoiding my questions, Mr. Narkayia,” addressed Knightly in a serious tone, “this could be more harmful than you might think.”
“Have you figure out the coordinates or not?” I asked, glaring into his bright golden eyes.
“I’m not telling you anything until we talk,” he countered.
I rolled my eyes as I closed out the map and walked to my weapons wall. “Fine. I’ll figure it out myself,” I sighed.
“Dream visions are much different compared to awareness visions, Mr. Narkayia,” he told me, standing from his seat infront of my captain’s chair.
“Yes, I know. You tell me all the time,” I quietly mumbled, studying every single weapon I had on the wall.
“Yet, you don’t heed my words,” he replied.
“And how exactly would you know if you don’t have them?” I questioned.
“A man with wise words,” he stated.
The ship filled with silence with hesitation filling every inch of me with dread. I took in a deep breath to make sure I had myself under control before I slowly grabbed a pair of daggers within my hand. I brought them to my eyes to make sure they were sharp. I blinked and saw them coated in a thick layer of blood. I gasped as pain rushed through my head the moment they crashed to the floor. I stepped back and quickly shook the dizziness out of my head. I reached down to grab them, but my blood ran from my face.
I leaned up against the wall and put a hand to my face. My eyes felt like they were trying to beat from my eye sockets, and I felt what felt like a vibration bounce away from me. I could feel my head go numb and my mind begin to blur. I quickly sliced my hand on one of my blades, and it brought me back to my senses. I peek my heated eyes at Knightly to find me watching me, but he looked away when he noticed my eyes. I sighed, unable to think from the pounding in my head, as I picked up my fallen blades from the ground. I went to put them back, but I found myself unable to.
I don’t understand why something like that would appear. Especially when I can remember everything and anything. Photographic memory was a natural gift I was born with, such as other things I’m sure. That’s why I can’t understand any of this…Why I can’t understand the image. I remember the exact day I made these blades, and they haven’t shredded a single creature with red blood. I would have to see someone from Rare Heart for that to happen. It was also the first day I began to see these illusions…visions.
Perhaps I was seeing into someone’s memories…Someone killed by the Retiko I killed. Maybe it was a piece of information that I had gained from Stryker’s abilities. Why would it affect me for this long or so hard if it was? Again, another wrong possible answer to an impossible question to find one to.
“I’ll analyze the file you sent me more thoroughly on our walk to our destination,” announced Knightly. I stayed frozen in my place as he paused. “Though, I must say,” he added in a quiet voice, “it would be easier for you to tell me what this is about with your own words.
“I would have said something if I would have known something,” I stated, peeking into his eyes. We intently studied each other's eyes for a long moment before he looked away. That’s the thing, I thought, my grip tightening around the hilts of my daggers. I don’t know. I looked down at my fists, only for my eyes to catch something beneath my sleeve. I slowly rolled it up, finding a large thick scar appear within my eyes. I don’t know…
