01

I was lying on the ground, unable to focus. My chest hurt and my head was spinning, making any movement impossible. I couldn't see either, nor remember a thing.

"Wh…"

But then it came. "The King of Shadow… my companions! What happened?" I remembered we had arrived at the maniac's lair and fought our way through his minions. Neeshka had disappeared when we had stepped out of the portal and we were worrying like hell…

My head hurt and I couldn't stand up. "Where am I?"

We had moved quickly till we had reached the place where the King was going to come through – he was going to use a portal to pass from his plane into ours. He wasn't there yet, but Garius awaited us with Bishop.

The ranger was as rebellious as usual, telling me the nonsense about how he refused to be attached to anyone and how he was free to do anything he wanted to. He was so confused and confusing… I just told him to get out and leave us alone. After considering my words, he decided there was no reason for him to be there and left.

Garius was trying to turn Neeshka against us, thinking she would succumb to his promises because she was part devil… the fool. He also tried to talk out all of my friends and have them on his side, without succeeding. Neeshka was the one to give him the final blow.

The fight against him wasn't easy, but we handled it well, till the king of Shadows finally arrived. We were already tired, and that fight proved being the worst we ever had. My moral didn't help as well. I wasn't as positive as usual and my thoughts were all on Daeghun and what I had told him. It worked like a paradox on me; discouraging me and helping me concentrate on my success in the same time.

The King of Shadows was humongous and the negativity that surrounded him sucked on our will and hope. We weren't able to handle him well until Ammon screamed we had to bash the portal and the statues in the room since they were magically increasing the monster's health.

We were fighting, casting spells and avoiding deadly black rays. Some of my companions quickly fell on the ground, panting heavily. None of them was dead, but the fact they were down infuriated me so much, that I took what was left of my sorry courage to increase my attacks. I slid under his legs, resolute to reach his face and re-shape it with the sword of Gith. I climbed swiftly on his back till I reached his head and thrust my blade in it from behind with what was left of strength in my arms. I fell along with him and hit the ground so hard, that I nearly lost consciousness.

I remember Sand was shouting that the walls and roof were going to collapse, and then nothing… simply nothing.

And I was lying on that cold ground, trying to make sense of what was happening – there wasn't any sense! I was on my belly, feeling my muscles hurt and my chest empty.

Empty…

"The shard!" I began shaking while panic crawled all over my body. The shard wasn't there. Someone had taken it from my heart, had tore me apart…

I moaned. "Am I dead? No, I know I'm not…" But I felt something else also – something like a hunger deep inside of me. Not like food craving but the need to feed on something. It was like a presence inside of me, bound in me.

"What the hell is happening?" I cried. My throat was dry – for how long was I lying there?

A girl dressed in red robes came in out of nowhere. Well, I was getting used to people briskly appearing, really. I was just a little scared she was there to finish me off, you know… Thankfully, I was wrong. She disabled what looked like magic ruins around me and I was finally able to try a sitting position.

She was bald and strange tattoos were painted on her head, though it didn't make her less beautiful. She told me I had to follow her; that we had to leave the place hurriedly because it was full of spirits. I couldn't understand what she was babbling about, but I managed to get up with her help.

"Where are my companions? Where is the shard?" I cried again at the edge of hysteria.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what you are talking about. I was told you would be here, and that I had to help you get out. I want to have answers as much as you do, but for now, we really have to press on before the spirits awake."

I calmed down, resigning to follow her. The girl's name was Safiya. She was a red wizard… I didn't know much about them, only that they were very powerful and treachery. Safiya didn't look dangerous to me though, and she was my only leek at that moment. She told me I was in Rashemen, in some bear god's barrow… "Whoa… Rashemen? If this is at the Northeast end of my continent and Neverwinter is the Northwest end… how did I arrive here? And a bear god?"

What the girl had said about spirits was true though – the place was full of them and I soon learned that as we met an angry wolf spirit. It was speaking, so I tried to tell it I didn't mean any harm and just wanted to get out of there. But it didn't want to listen to me. It was about to attack when the hunger I had felt in my awakening remade surface. It was so fierce and unknown to me, that I couldn't control it. I felt myself lift up and open my soul to inhale his, after which I felt stronger. "Freaking delirium!"

I was scared to ask myself what that was about and decided to move faster towards the exit. Safiya thought I had done some kind of magic, but I didn't answer – there was nothing I could say and the more we progressed in the tunnel, the more scared and homesick I felt. Was I ever going to be left in peace?

My new companion told me there was a woman in Mulsantir, the city, nearby, who wanted to see me. Her name was Lienna and Safiya's mother had asked her to bring me to that woman. "How the hell did they know of me? I wasn;t aware of being that popular…"

I learned Safiya was an instructor in the red wizard academy where her mother was the headmistress. She made it clear her post was gained fairly and without favors. Safiya was really fascinated by magic and everything she could discover about the way to transform it. Although she was amazing me with whatever she was saying, there was too much information in a too short period of time

All I wanted was to get out of there soon and return home to find my friends… and Daeghun…

I closed my eyes at the ache my heart produced not only from emotional but physical pain. The shard wasn't there anymore and obviously not thanks to a healer. I was badly patched – badly screwed. And my sword was also missing. I thought that it had been destroyed after the battle… but then what about the shard that was in my chest…

When we arrived at the upper tunnel, we found our selves in the central den of the bear god who was waiting for us. I didn't understand immediately why, but he was really angry with me.

We left quickly after defeating him and made our way toward Mulsantir. Another messy long story began there. You know how I attract mess don't you? Things always like to get complicated with me.

When we arrived at the Mulsantir's theater, Lienna was missing and we had to fight the enemies that surrounded her crew. One of the theater ladies gave me a little black stone then and said Lienna had left through a portal in her room. We needed the stone in order to use it and follow her.

Seems I wasn't done with shadows… That portal in the mistress's room was actually a shadow door leading to a gloomy version of the theatre – in brief, another dimension or parallel world of ours… in a shadowy and dark style of course. "Marvelous and very colorless."

We went through the door and rushed towards the scene room from where we heard noises. We met another hostile red wizard – one who Safiya recognized from her academy. Lienna had committed suicide by turning herself into ashes instead of fighting against hi,. We learned some bad things had happened in Safiya's academy and that her mother was also killed. Another inevitable fight began, where Safiya almost died since we were very outnumbered. We succeeded thanks to her summoned elementals.

Safyia chose to stay with me and help as she could since it was her mother's last wish. We both ignored the reasons of our situation and it was really frutrating. I promised her to go at the academy as soon as possible.

Before we returned to the normal world, we saw a bloody table in one of the rooms. I suddenly froze as my heart gave a silent maddening thump. "That blood on the table… is mine…" Images formed as soon as reached and I touched it. They were memories.

Two women were talking together while pulling the shard out of me. My hands and ankles were bounded and I didn't have any vital force left… only the pain. One of the women looked at me and said "For love".

I snapped out of the vision, squeezing my lucky charm in my hand. Nothing made sense and I was once again frustrated at the mad author. At least I still had Daeghun's pendant, so I preyed Mystra for help.

Lienna's crew wasn't there when we retuned, and as soon as we got out of the theater, three witches ambushed us. They were protectors of Mulsantir and worshipers of gods and spirits of the land. They said the bear god, Okku, the one Safiya and I had defeated earlier, was outside the city gates with his army. It turned out we hadn't killed him, for he was a spirit god, and his defeat just made him stronger.

The witches suggested we should take any person willing to help us, including prisoners. "Marvelous." Although helpful, these three weren't very nice – one in particular. She really disliked foreigners and my origins didn't help since humans mostly populated Rashemen. I was very small as well and having to raise my head if I wanted to talk to their faces instead of their breast was very annoying and degrading.

We spent the evening trying to find willing people to join us and ended up with two new companions. It felt good to meet new people, really, but I couldn't stop thinking about my gang. Questions, questions, as Neeshka would say… but there were no one to answer me.

The first one curious enough to follow us was Gann, a very interesting merge of hag and human. He was a prisoner for no obvious reason than having a bad reputation about manhood and scaring young girls parents with it. He clearly though of himself as the most extraordinary and handsome person, but that didn't bother me. I couldn't care less about pride. Gann knew a lot about nature and spirits and provided us with hints on how to defeat the bear god.

The other person who joined us then was a celestial diva named Kaelyn. Her brother and sister promised to help us if we would look for her in the shadow version of Mulsantir.

Since we had to find another black portal, I decided to ask the witches for guidance. When we arrived at their spot on a small hill, I was surprised to see they had three statues of goddesses, with one of them being Mystra.

I touched my lucky charm and decided to do a formal prayer and offering – a statue of my goddess wasn't something I had seen often. I asked Safiya and Gann to wait and emptied the items of my pouch on the ground. I found nothing of value but an awfully small and shiny gem – it was loose in the very bottom of my pouch and I didn't know where it came from. It was beautiful, so I placed it at the feet of the goddess' statue.

"I don't have much to offer Mystra, but please accept this small gem…" I went on with the usual babbling Mystra probably knew by heart and thanked her for helping me and being patient with my ranting. I also asked her to watch over my lost companions and Daeghun. Some arrogant tears fled my eyes, but I dried them quickly. When I got up from my meditative position, the gem had disappeared. I bowed and went to speak with the witches.

They told me where to find the shadow portal and we left to look for Kaelyn. The deva was in the temple of the death god. It should have naturally been Kelemvor, but in the shadow version the temple was Myrkul's – Kelemvor and Cyric's predecessor. Kaelyn was trying to understand how to open the central door of the temple and access the second level.

After introducing ourselves, I asked Kaelyn if she would be interested in helping us. Tired of being alone and also curious about our situation, she accepted. She requested that her brother and sister don't participate in the battle though, and I accepted without a second thought – no one was obliged to help me and if I had to face Okku alone, I would have.

Before facing Okku, I decided to visit the temple of Kelemvor and ask the priest about some book I had found back in the barrow.

"The god of death is the one who judges the soul of mortals child." The priest explained. "If a mortal is without faith and had never believed in any god, his soul goes in the Wall of Faithless and slowly fades. You see, the gods are kind of trading with us – a life for a life. In brief, we give them life by believing in them and they give us eternal life when we die. Myrkul was the one who creator the wall."

"Ok, but what does it have to do with the betrayer?" I pressed on the subject of the book. I knew a little about Kelemvor while reading about Mystra, but I wasn;t interested in him at all.

"Myrkul had a very faithful servant once – a priest named Akachi. One day, something terrible happened and Akachi turned against his god and decided to bring down the wall and set its souls free. He didn't succeed and was named the Betrayer. Myrkul punished Akachi, but no one knows how.

I thanked him for what could have been my last lesson on Faerun and headed for the city gates. Okku was waiting for us with his army of animal and forest spirits. When I arrived in front of him, I surprised myself by thinking he was quite gorgeous. His fur shined with different bright colors and he stood taller than any other bear I had seen. I found him majestic and certainly didn't want to fight him. "How did I miss that when I saw him earlier?"

He laughed. "What's a matter little mortal? Like what you see? Maybe if you stay this stunned your death would be less painful."

"Cut the crap!" I hissed. Negativity was overwhelming me again. "I did no wrong to you, or your barrow or whatever it is you lie about!"

"Oh, but I don't lie..."

I cut him short, "So be it then. Give me your best shot!" and charged.

"Why in the NINE HELLS am I here?" My mind roared as the battle began. "Where are my friends? Why is none of them here with me? What happened? Did the King of Shadow survive? No, he couldn't have, I killed him… is he thinking of me… he probably hates me now… what if he killed himself because of me? Maybe I should die right here… And so the great little rogue Phael finds death under some bear god claws… such a shame after all the epic battles she won… oh shut up!" My last thought came out in a scream as I flew some feet in the air. Okku's whack didn't miss me and I landed right on a tethor bear, which died instantly.

I ran back towards Okku, but right before I lifted my short sword at him, I felt that same hunger erupt for the second time. I was once again lifted in the air while something black emerged out of me towards Okku. "No! Not that!" "STOP IT!" I yelled at it, refusing to be manipulated by whatever it was. Killing, beating and stealing was one thing. But that thing I had felt wrong… it felt evil. It stopped just in time, and I fell on my knees, panting.

Okku was lying right next to me, obviously puzzled, but very much alive. He began speaking calmly and explained that I was a spirit eater.

"That's why I tried to kill you, but I see you are stronger than the curse… exactly like the spirit eater before you." He thought for a while then sighed. "I will aid you in your journey little one."

"Why?" I asked bewildered. Safiya, Gann and Kaelyn were also all ears.

"Because he spared my life and I swore to help him fight this curse. You spared me too little one and so I will help you as well. If you don't find how to end it, you will die."

I decided against panic and asked Okku to tell me more about this curse I had. Being a spirit eater, I had to feed on spirits in order to stay alive. Okku said I didn't have much time and that other spirit-eaters had died by refusing to feed or by feeding too much.

Things were going too quickly and too slowly in the same time. I needed – had to – find a cure. There was always something that could be done and I refused to be a monster.