Fone was floating in an ocean of blackness. He couldn't see anything, nor could he feel his own body. The only thing that let him know he was still alive was the whispering all around him. It was just loud enough that he could hear it, but not loud enough that he could make out what was being said. He strained his ears to try to make some sense out of the whispers, but his effort proved mostly fruitless. All he could make out was the word "Catalyst."
"He's waking up!" The words cut through the darkness, driving the whispers away and bringing Fone back to his senses. Slowly, he began to feel the sensation of his muscles stirring, and his eyes began to open. He was lying on a cot in a medical tent. Thorn, Phoney, and Jigafta all stood in the tent as well. Thorn was next to his cot, grasping his hand. Phoney was sitting in a chair on the other side of the room. And Jigafta was standing by the tent flap, staring at Fone with a look that Fone could only describe as angry. It was the first time he had ever seen Jigafta angry at anything.
"Finally." Phoney commented as he stood up. "We can get this over with."
"He woke up too quickly." Jigafta commented. "We aren't out of the woods yet."
"Are you capable of any emotion besides cryptic?" Thorn snapped back at him.
"Thorn, what's going on?" Fone asked as he sat up, drawing everyone's attention. "Where are we?"
"What do you remember about the temple?" Jigafta interjected.
"What?" Fone responded.
"Answer the question." Phoney crossed his arms. "The faster we get this over with, the faster we get a real explanation."
"I don't know what you want, but I…" Fone trailed off, trying to think back to what had just happened. Suddenly, as he recalled what had transpired, he screamed and clutched his chest where Smiley had stabbed him. "Smiley…" He began panting. "What happened…? I…"
"Smiley's fine." Thorn tried to reassure him. "We have him restrained and under guard until we can figure out how to fix him."
"But… He stabbed me. Shouldn't I be dead?"
"You're alive." Jigafta said as he approached the other side of Fone's bed. "And I'll explain how in a minute. But first, tell me what you remember after that."
"After Smiley stabbed me? I can't recall anything... Except the sun, I think."
"Well, that's not helpful." Jigafta sighed as he walked over to the tent's flap. "You can join us when you're feeling up to it. We'll be starting the briefing soon." He walked out of the tent. Phoney followed him, not looking Fone in the eyes.
"Thorn, what just happened?"
"You've been out almost six hours." Thorn explained as she let go of his hand and sat down in the chair Phoney was sitting in a moment ago. "In that time, we killed Glaian and Deyavara, subdued Smiley, and somehow managed to prevent the Crystal Councilman from attaining his full power after he woke up, though Nagratek still hasn't explained what happened."
"Nagratek?" Fone asked as he swung himself off of the cot. "Who's Nagratek?"
"Right, you missed that. Jigafta's real name is apparently Nagratek. And it turns out Gabriel was right about where the Bones came from too."
"So, you're telling me Jigafta is three thousand years old?"
"Apparently so. I'm still not totally sure what's going on, but that's about all I know." Thorn got up and headed for the tent flap. "Oh." She stopped. "Also, Jigafta has a First Folk friend named Shard and used an amulet and a giant crystal to resurrect Ven."
"Ven?" Fone began walking for the tent flap as well. "As in Ven Harvester, the first human queen?"
"I think so." They both walked outside. "I'm still processing what's happening. A lot is still unclear."
"Well, it's about to get a whole lot clearer." Nagratek commented as the two of them emerged from the tent. Standing outside, arranged in a big circle around Nagratek, were Phoney, Bartleby, Gran'ma Ben, X'lish, Nibet, Rankyne, Sybron, Breshet, the Great Red Dragon with Ted perched on his shoulder, a red haired woman Fone vaguely recognized as Ven, and a walking human crystal that, by process of elimination, must have been Shard.
"Ted?" Fone asked as he and Thorn merged into the circle. "When did you get here?"
"He was waiting for us when we got back." Phoney said. He still wouldn't look Fone straight on.
"I came back to warn y'all about th' hiccup at the gate, but by th' time I arrived, you'd already split fer Atheia." Ted spoke, jumping in his usual excited manner.
"Thank you." Nagratek interrupted. "Now, if there are no more distractions, we can get this underway."
"Get what underway?" Fone asked.
"An explanation." Nagratek responded. "For starters, my name is Nagratek, and these are my associates. You already know Breshet. The two next to me," Nagratek motioned to Shard and Ven. "Are Shard, of the First Folk, and Queen Ven Harvester." Everyone in the circle immediately began to ask questions, but Nagratek cut them off.
"Everything will be explained shortly, but for now just listen to what I have to say. The four of us, along with Deyavara before he betrayed us, founded an organization three thousand years ago to keep the world safe from the forces that are trying to destroy it. And we have waged a war in the shadows ever since, keeping the world in balance by a hair's breadth. Now, that war appears to be coming to a head. So, if you want to continue, you all are going to have to join our organization, do as we say, and help us ensure that, when the time comes to end our war, the world isn't destroyed in the process." Everyone around the room nodded. "Good." Nagratek clapped his hands together. "You are all now officially members of the Vedu."
"What!" Gran'ma Ben exclaimed. "The Vedu? As in Tarsil's mercenaries? You can't be serious."
"Tarsil and his gang of thugs were not true members of the Vedu." Shard responded. "I exiled him from our order over twenty-five years ago for his radical ideas. He took all of our human members with him, and started a campaign to destroy the dragons. You know how well that worked out for him."
"Your human members?" Sybron asked. "You mean the Vedu existed outside of the Venu monks?"
"We still exist." Breshet interjected. "Our few remaining members, other than the people in this circle, are the Sky Legion and a handful of other dragons. We had other members among the First Folk, but they were all slaughtered at the hands of the Nacht."
"Anyway, the point is that the Vedu you know is not who we are." Nagratek continued. "We are the only people left in this world who know what's really happening."
"And what is happening?" Phoney asked, growing more frustrated as the whole affair dragged on.
"It's… complicated, to say the least. So I suppose the best place to start would be the beginning: Before the physical universe, what the people of the Valley call the Waking World, came into existence, an immaterial bed of energy was all that existed. And while it was not alive in the traditional sense, it possessed a kind of intelligence, an awareness of its own existence. It would not be entirely inaccurate to refer to this energy field as a god, or at least the closest thing to a god that has ever existed.
"We don't know how long it was around, or if it was ever not around, but we do know that at some point there was a ripple in the field of energy. We don't know if it was caused by something or just simply happened, but this ripple, this excitation, quickly spread over the entirety of existence.
"Out of this ripple came physical matter, exploding in all directions out of this field of energy. On either side of the field, this matter coalesced into two distinct universes. The people outside the Valley call this event the big bang, the people here refer to it as the separation of the Dreaming and Waking Worlds. This side is the Waking World, the other side the Dreaming World. Separating them is the field of energy they had originated from, which in its reduced state we call the Dreaming.
"I say reduced state because, after the rippling occurred, its consciousness was transferred into two small golden crystals, one in each universe. We call these the Sparks, and the intelligences locked within them perceive the physical universe as a flaw that they must correct. To this end, the Sparks have each pursued their own strategy with the ultimate goal of reuniting their respective universes with the Dreaming.
"In the Waking World, the Spark created Mim, the first dragon, as a conduit for its power and an assistant in building life. Its plan was to create a vast array of living beings that would thrive off of the energy of the Dreaming, and in turn broadcast their own energy back into the Dreaming as they slept. He would draw upon that energy continuously, growing ever more powerful until he had enough to jump start a chain reaction that would convert all matter into Dreaming energy.
"Together, Mim and the Spark built a thriving world. But Mim began to grow increasingly attached to her creations, especially humans, their greatest creation and the Spark's greatest source of energy. Her attachment would eventually lead her to betray her creator when she learned that the Spark had designed the humans with a crippling failsafe. If they were ever separated from the dreaming energy, their bodies would warp and tear themselves apart. After all, the Spark had no need of servants that could not contribute to his cause.
"Appalled by the level of cruelty the Spark showed in his design, Mim grew increasingly disillusioned with his mission. Until one day, when her love of her creations outweighed her duty to her creator, she rose up against the Spark and shattered it with her bare hands. After it broke into several pieces, she buried each piece deep underground so that no one could put it back together again. Then she created a race of reptilian children, the Dragons, to serve as agents of her will and guardians of her realm. However, she purposely didn't inform any of her children of the true nature of the Spark, or of reality, for fear they might overthrow her like she had done to her creator.
"In the Dreaming World, however, the other Spark had much better luck. Instead of creating one singular being to serve as its conduit, it created a race of immaterial beings who inhabited the Dreaming and possessed bodies made of inanimate or non-sentient material. These were the First Folk. Together, they built massive crystalline machines designed to store and magnify dreaming energy, and eventually succeeded in turning their entire universe into Dreaming energy, merging it with the Dreaming itself to form the construct the people of the Valley currently understand the Dreaming World to be.
"When the Dreaming World's Spark finally rejoined the Dreaming, it looked out into the Waking World and saw the fate that had befallen its counterpart. Determined to snuff out all of reality, no matter the cost, it gathered up all the energy it could and tore a hole between the Dreaming and the Waking World. In the process, it destroyed many of the First Folk, leaving only a few thousand remaining. Weakened by the process, it merged itself with a First Folk named Mon'Yaran, the first of its creations, and went into hibernation. It left behind orders instructing Mon'Yaran to find, reassemble, and assist its counterpart in converting the Waking World.
"Mon'Yaran led the few thousand remaining First Folk through the portal, and emerged in an underground chamber inhabited by Dragons. They greeted the Dragons as friends, and claimed to be spirits from the Dreaming here to help the Waking World flourish. Mim and the Dragons tentatively accepted their offer of friendship, and slowly forged an alliance between the two peoples.
"Secretly, Mon'Yaran plotted against Mim and the Dragons. Soon, however, he found he lacked the power to attempt to destroy them in a conventional war. So he instructed a group of his greatest scientific minds, including Shard and led by Mon'Yaran's brother, to forge a weapon capable of destroying Mim. After decades of experimenting with the effects of negative emotions on the Dreaming, they were able to bundle together all of the negative energy generated by the First Folk during their destruction at the hands of their Spark, creating a titanic and powerful hive-mind entity known as the Lord of the Locust.
"Mon'Yaran unleashed the Locust on Mim, driving her mad and forcing the Dragons to imprison her and the Locust within stone, forming the Valley and reducing much of the continent to an uninhabitable desert. In order to keep the Locust locked away, Mon'Yaran used the immense power of the Spark contained within his soul to contort the flow of the dreaming, focusing all of the Dreaming's coverage of the continent into the newly formed Valley, depriving the rest of the continent of Dreaming energy and cutting Mon'Yaran off from the Dreaming of the rest of the universe. The process was so taxing on his soul that he nearly died, and his soul became tied to a large crystalline structure that the First Folk grew around the portal, cutting off physical travel between the Dreaming and the Waking Worlds, and making Mon'Yaran's soul the anchor point for the Dreaming's influence. This crystal structure is what you all know as the Crown of Horns.
"Mon'Yaran's actions had two unintended side effects. Because of the heightened Dreaming presence in the Valley, many animals were suddenly granted higher brain functions normally only seen in humans and Hairy Men. The other side effect was much less beneficial. While the various Atheian and Pawan clans began to inhabit the Valley, which the First Folk had begun filling with plant and animal life shortly after the mountains cooled, there was another clan of humans on the continent who became trapped outside the Dreaming when Mon'Yaran created his prison for the Locust. They were called the Morudagni, and they were all but wiped out by the effects the loss of Dreaming Energy had on their bodies.
"As the entire Morudagni people suffered in the desert, Mon'Yaran's brother and his fellow scientists began to doubt whether Mon'Yaran's actions could be justified, and in turn questioned why Mim's creations had to be sacrificed for the sake of the Spark's goals. The group came to calling themselves the Awoken Council, and Mon'Yaran's brother took the mantle of the Crystal Councilman, the leader of the Council.
"Turning their backs on Mon'Yaran's leadership and pledging themselves to protecting what Mim had created, they moved from the Valley to the former Morudagni heartland. Once there, they began to undertake experiments to save the Morudagni from extinction and prevent Mon'Yaran's plan from coming to pass.
"Through years of research, the Council was able to alter the Morudagni so they could survive outside the Dreaming while remaining essentially human. This inflicted them with an ailment referred to as the Black Dreaming Eye, severely limiting the amount of energy they could draw from the Dreaming when in contact with it, and slowly morphing the Morudagni into the Bone people over successive generations.
"I lead the other experiments," Shard took over the storytelling, "With the goal of developing an array of means to banish or destroy Mon'Yaran's soul. Eventually, we were able to develop a device capable of erasing anything's soul from the Dreaming entirely. Mon'Yaran's brother was unsure of its abilities, and created a backup plan called the Extinction Drives: a series of nodes that would broadcast a frequency of energy throughout the Dreaming capable of killing anything connected to it as a means of depriving Mon'Yaran of his fuel source.
"Once I learned of his intentions, I was appalled that he would be willing to destroy Mim's creations in order to protect them. When I confronted him about the Extinction Drives, he attacked me, claiming I was too weak willed to carry out our mission. During our battle, he shattered my soul into many fragments. I barely survived. After gathering up what pieces of my soul he could find, he merged them with fragments of the Lord of the Locust's soul. He would later combine the fragments with large masses of crystal to create beings called Falsely Oneiric Nightmare Entities.
"Which Is what I am." Nagratek returned to speaking. "A Falsely Oneiric Nightmare Entity, or just Nightmare Entity for short, is, in essence, a sleeper agent. They are beings born with two souls: An inner soul and an outer soul. The inner soul is filled with orders and enough functionality to allow the Nightmare Entity to carry them out. The outer soul is created empty, but filled with a soul the Nightmare Entity steals from a host being. Wearing that outer soul as their own, the Nightmare Entity exists as whoever it replaced without any memory of its original programming. It only activates when it receives a specific signal via the Dreaming, which forces it to cast off its outer soul, reassume its original programming, and carry out its orders, be they assassination or sabotage. That having been said, the Councilman didn't create Nightmare Entities right away.
"After he fragmented Shard, the Councilman began setting a plan in motion to destroy Mon'Yaran. The early stages involved doing experiments on himself and the Morudagni in order to create a force capable of matching the dragons. He created a highly skilled warrior race from the wandering, nearly dead Morudagni clans, and used massive amounts of negative energy siphoned off of the Locust to forcibly transform his soul into one of the most powerful entities in the universe. After almost a decade of biding his time and building his power, his armies struck out at the dragons, slowly beating them back in a long guerilla war.
"After the Councilman began his war, the dragons realized they needed more weapons to fight back the Morudagni." Ven began speaking. "So they began looking for a human capable of harnessing the power of the Dreaming like the dragons and the First Folk could. Eventually, they found me, and taught me how to control my gift, formally making me the first Veni-Yan-Cari. I used my gift to unify the warring clans in the southern Valley and found the city of Atheia from where I ruled the Valley.
"Not long after, however, one of the dragons' three major strongholds at the time, the desert fortress of Hoken Guard, came under attack by Morudagni forces. The fortress was overrun, all the dragons were slaughtered, and the Councilman built a city around the ruins where he exponentially increased the scale of his research into Shard's soul fragments.
"The Dragons called upon me and the forces of Atheia to assist them in retaking Hoken Guard. So I lead the Atheian army in a march to the Dragon's Stair to engage Morudagni forces attempting to invade the Valley. In a long, grueling battle, we turned them back, thanks in part to my Veni-Yan-Cari battle prowess.
"After suffering such heavy losses, the Councilman decided to change tactics and destroy his opponents from within. It was then that he created the first Nightmare Entities. By turning the dead and dying on the battlefield, he was able to send these Nightmare Entities into the ranks of the dragons and of my army. The only flaw in his plan, however, was once they received the signal, they immediately reverted, losing all of their original emotional attachments and personality traits, making them easy to spot and subdue. In addition, the first Nightmare Entities lacked the power the ones like Nagratek would come to wield, so they were easily dispatched. Few of these originals survived, and those that did were all masquerading as humans on the front lines.
"Of the few that survived, even less made it back to Hoken Guard. Nevertheless, the Councilman was able to retrieve enough of them to improve upon his designs, and eventually, after several years, he created a newer, more powerful class of Nightmare Entity. He created seven of them initially, all containing enough power to go toe to toe with a fully formed Veni-Yan-Cari. Unfortunately, their new power levels weren't the most useful if they couldn't get close to me without being discovered and driven back. All seven were eventually discovered and forced to flee. In a fit of rage, the Councilman killed his entire research team, appointing the seven Nightmare Entities as his new Awoken Council.
"Then he hit upon a revelation." Nagratek took over the story again. "One he assumed would grant him victory. He managed to improve the Nightmare Entity design even further, allowing them to retain their original personalities and emotional attachments after the received the signal. So he made a myriad of Nightmare Entity shells, as well as the smaller Nightmare Egg prototypes, using up the remains of Shard's soul in the process. He then sent his Awoken Council out to turn two individuals close to Ven to test the new prototypes.
"The Awoken Council initially had trouble finding individuals in Ven's inner circle to turn. Until one fierce battle where both her brother, Deyavara, and I, the founder of the order of Venu monks, were mortally wounded. During the chaos of the battle, the Awoken Council found us and turned us into Nightmare Entities ordered to assassinate Ven when the time came. We were unaware of our orders for quite some time, until one night where we both attempted to sneak into her chambers and kill her. Unfortunately, our ability to retain our previous emotional attachments hampered our willingness to carry out our orders, and we defected before carrying out the mission, vowing never to return.
"We both fled to Hoken Guard, where we learned the truth behind Mim's death and Mon'Yaran. When we refused to join the Awoken Council, however, we were thrown in cells and tortured. It was during our incarceration that the Crystal Councilman began developing his final project: Falsely Oneiric Nightmare Entity prototype 127, also known as The Successor. It was a Nightmare Entity he created using a fragment of his own soul to replace the fragments of Shard's soul in the original recipie. He would never complete it however, leaving it fully formed but lacking any orders or basic personality structure. But I digress.
"In the dungeons of Hoken Guard, the one surviving fragment of Shard's soul found me and helped me and Deyavara escape. The three of us fled to the outskirts of Deren Guard, where we met Breshet, a fledgling guard just assigned her first combatant role. Initially, she was hostile, but we managed to convince her we were friendly. Shortly thereafter, she received word that the Nacht, her father and the leader of the Dragon Council, had been captured, along with Ven, during a Morudagni raid.
"Instantly we formulated an escape plan. Shard, Deyavara, and I snuck back into Hoken Guard to free them, while Breshet and the dragon army staged an all-out assault on the fortress. The three of us interrupted a ceremony where the Councilman had intended to ritualistically devour Ven's soul and gain even more power. By the time we arrived, however, the Crystal Councilman had already turned the Nacht into a Nightmare Entity, though none of us knew that at the time.
"After freeing Ven from the Councilman's grasp, the four of us fought him and the Awoken Council to the death. They overpowered us in a long battle, mortally wounding Ven and nearly destroying the rest of us. But the chaos we created allowed the dragons the opening they needed to attack Hoken Guard and overwhelm the Councilman's forced. Facing a no win scenario, he crystalized himself and the entire Council, trapping their souls in cages we could not open. Mon'Yaran quickly capitalized on the Councilman's move, surrounding the crystal prisons in chains of Dreaming energy to ensure they would never wake up.
"Our victory was short lived, however, as Ven began to succumb to her wounds. In a last ditch effort to save her life, I placed her soul in the shell of an incomplete Nightmare Entity, which I would later set into an amulet. As the dust cleared, Mon'Yaran's assistant Lorimar approached us with a proposition. Me and Deyavara would be allowed to live if we took the remaining Morudagni forces into the desert and wiped their memories, exiling them to an existence of wandering the scorched wastes. We accepted.
"Before we left, however, we founded the Vedu and put several contingencies in place in case Mon'Yaran or the Crystal Councilman were to ever gain power again. We created an object called the Cipher, capable of storing a massive amount of dreaming energy and redirecting it at an object, for the purpose of weakening either of the brothers should they wake from their slumbering. We also moved the Awoken Council away from the Crystal Councilman's prison in Hoken Guard to a cave beyond the Eastern Mountains where Shard could keep a better eye on them. Finally, Shard destroyed all the remaining Nightmare Entity shells just after Deyavara and I left, ensuring no more could be made.
"Deyavara and I wiped the memories of the Morudagni people and led them into the desert. After a few centuries of wandering, we led the clans that had named themselves after us, clans Nagratek and Deyavara, out of the wastes and into the lush fields on the other side. For centuries, we guided the clans from the shadows, ensuring relative peace and stability. Eventually, when we felt we had done all we could to guide the clans, Deyavara and I cut ourselves off from the rest of Bone society. I began looking for ways to rebuild Ven's body, and Deyavara started a family.
"Without our leadership, the clans quickly deteriorated into squabbling. Within a year, war broke out between clan Nagratek and clan Deyavara. As the war spread, not even Deyavara's isolated homestead was safe. Nagratek soldiers burned his house and killed his wife while he was away. Their infant son barely survived. After Deyavara returned and massacred all the soldiers, he became greatly disturbed. He discovered that, unlike in the Valley, or even the human realms, where a dead soul can rejoin the Dreaming and exist forever as Dreaming energy, the soul of a dead Bone has nowhere to go, and simply vanishes.
"Realizing that we had robbed the Morudagni of the afterlife by leading them away from the Dreaming, Deyavara began to foster and intense hatred for me, the rest of the Vedu, and especially for Mon'Yaran and the dragons. He turned away from our mission and began plotting to return the Crystal Councilman to full power.
"He forced the Deyavara clan to construct a large mountain fortress in the far north, the Norgabard, where they would be safe from all attacks. He then fled to the Western Coasts, where he found a small scouting party of humans. He managed to convince them that a series of weak kingdoms guarded vast stores of treasure further inland, and that all they had to do was roll through with a large enough army and take it for themselves.
"The humans soon returned with a large invasion force. Blinded by revenge, Deyavara led them straight to the lands of clan Nagratek, destroying everything in their path. The Bones were caught off guard, and almost everyone in the clan was killed practically overnight. I arrived too late to the fighting to save the clan, but I did manage to save a young man named Argus. I had him warn the other clans of the invasion, and he managed to put together a force to stop the humans' advance.
"In the meantime, I confronted Deyavara, who had taken his son and fled to the Yadrek Mountains in the north. I tried to talk some sense into him, but he wouldn't listen. Still blaming me for the death of his family, Deyavara attacked me. Our battle drove us into the side of a mountain, where we temporarily unleashed enough energy to crystalize the walls, trapping him and his son inside. There I would remain for the next thousand years, attempting to separate his son's outer and inner souls, removing his Nightmare Entity heritage and bringing me a step closer to reviving Ven.
"And there I thought I would remain, until fifty years ago when Fone's grandfather, Harrison Bone, accidently set Deyavara free. Deyavara injured me and fled, forming the Order of the Hollow Soul. I spent twenty years recuperating from my wounds before reemerging to take his organization down.
"After five years of hunting and recruiting my own team of assassins to assist me, I managed to find Deyavara and kill him in Boneville, ending the threat his organization posed. Or so I thought. Deyavara managed to survive the battle, but more than that he had already set events in motion that would ensure the Councilman's release. He made contact with another Nightmare Entity, Sozenga, who accelerated the war that would lead to the burning of Atheia and the release of the Locust. He set up Glaian's crusade with funding from one of his personas, Silas Cohen. He infiltrated the government and slowly began shaping the memories of Daniel Deyavara, for when the time came. And he guided Phoney every step of the way, eventually getting the three cousins thrown out of Boneville and toward the Valley.
"With this last act, he ensured the release of the Locust. When the Locust was destroyed, it broadcast a broad range of energy signatures throughout the Dreaming, activating the Nacht's dormant programming. Three years later, when the Nacht threatened the Valley, this side's Spark was brought back together to destroy him, putting it in the hands of Lorimar and her master Mon'Yaran. With the Locust gone and the Nacht out of the way, Mon'Yaran began expanding the Dreaming's reach in an attempt to reconnect with the Dreaming field outside the Valley and gain access to seven billion more humans to draw power from. Unfortunately, the Dreaming energy freed up by the Locust's death only took him so far, and he was unable to reach even the edge of the Republic.
"Unfortunately, that problem was solved for him when, last night, the Successor went berserk and unleashed enough energy to break the Councilman's chains, freeing up enough Dreaming energy for Mon'Yaran to continue his plan, and forcing us to use the Cipher to forestall the Councilman's full return. Unfortunately, the Awoken Council also freed themselves, and are currently hiding out somewhere in Pawa. Which brings us back to our current predicament. Any questions?"
"You said the Successor went berserk last night." Fone asked. "I don't remember you mentioning it was ever even completed."
"Right…" Nagratek rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I sort of danced around that. Twenty seven years ago, the Boneville Explorer's Society began excavating Hoken Guard. They recovered the Successor just before I showed up to secure it. The night I was going to take it away and destroy it, however, something unexpected happened. There was a birth on site. The baby was stillborn. My emotions got the best of me, and I used to Successor to resurrect the child, rationalizing that because it lacked orders, it didn't really pose a threat.
"Grateful to me, the parents asked me what they should name their child. As one of the options presented was the acronym for Falsely Oneiric Nightmare Entity, Fone, I thought it fitting the Successor should bear such a title. That was the option I picked, and the option they went with." Nagratek turned to Fone, looking him directly in the eye. "That was also the night I met your parents, Fone Bone. And the night I met you. You are the Crystal Councilman's Successor."
Smiley was in pain. Intense, twisting pain that felt as if his flesh was being torn apart. But at least he was breathing. After Archibald had shot him, he wasn't sure he would survive. But if he could still feel pain, he was still alive. And that meant he still had a chance.
With all his might, Smiley attempted to sit up. It took him considerable effort, but he managed it eventually. As he did, the pain began to recede from his body, crawling up the left side of his torso before slinking backward up the back of his neck. It finally disappeared after reaching the left side of his face.
"Cuz…" Smiley breathed as he attempted to open his eyes. "You there?" He found he could only open his right eye. Something was sealing his left eye shut.
"Your cousin isn't here." A man on the other side of the room from Smiley spoke. As Smiley turned to face him, he noticed his surroundings for the first time. He was in a small stone room, sitting on a cot bolted to the ground, with his wrist handcuffed to the frame. There was a human in his late sixties sitting on a cot opposite him in the same predicament.
"Who're you?" Smiley asked, unsure of where he was.
"My name is Gabriel." The man answered.
"Why are you handcuffed?" Smiley asked. "Why am I handcuffed?"
"I'm handcuffed because of what I know. You're handcuffed because they don't want you breaking out and causing any damage." Gabriel smirked.
"Damage? I might be a bit of a klutz, but I ain't that careless."
"They aren't worried about you. They're worried about that abomination lurking in your eye."
"Hey!" Smiley exclaimed. "That ain't very nice." Smiley stood up. His momentum snapped the chain of the handcuffs. As Smiley examined the broken handcuffs, Gabriel began chuckling.
"Case in point." Gabriel pointed at the handcuffs. Before he could continue, indistinct voices drifted down the staircase just outside the room.
"What's goin' on up there?" Smiley wondered aloud.
"If I had to guess, I'd say your cousins finally learned the truth." Gabriel leaned back.
"Th' truth about what?" Smiley raised an eyebrow.
"You're free. What's stopping you from finding out for yourself?" Gabriel mused. Smiley considered his words for a moment before shrugging and walking up the stairs. He emerged from the staircase in a stone hallway. Following the sounds of the voices, he turned down the hallway and followed it until he reached a larger chamber.
"You can't be serious!" Fone shouted as Smiley tentatively entered the room. "You honestly expect me to believe this?"
"Yes, I do." Nagratek responded. "Because it's the truth. You may not remember what you did last night, but-"
"Last night?" Fone laughed. "I was unconscious. What could I have possibly done?"
"You weren't unconscious." Phoney spoke, looking Fone in the eyes for the first time that day. "You died. We all saw you die. And then you began floating and spewing flames from your skin."
"Wha…" Fone looked around at everyone, dumbfounded. "Is that…"
"It's true." Thorn sighed.
"You liquefied Glaian's entire army." Nibet beamed. "The carnage was quite impressive. Metal melting and flesh boiling and-"
"Ok, that's quite enough." Nagratek cut her off. Fone began to look sick. Nagratek turned to him. "Are you going to be alright?"
"Yeah…" Fone stared at the ground for a moment. "Hopefully. I need to take some time to… process this."
"It's a lot to take in, I know. But the important thing is you are still you. You always have been."
"What's goin' on?" Smiley asked hesitantly.
"Smiley?" Phoney asked as everyone in the room turned to face Smiley. "Is that… you?"
"Who else would it be?" Smiley responded. Instantly Phoney ran to him and wrapped himself around Smiley's wire frame. As Smiley reciprocated the hug, Phoney began to cry.
"I missed you, man." He sobbed. Smiley did his best to comfort Phoney. After a minute, Phoney managed to stifle his tears and separate himself from Smiley. "Promise me you won't ever take a bullet for me again, ok?"
"Sure, cuz. I promise." Smiley laughed sheepishly. Bartleby plodded up to Smiley and nestled his head against the lanky Bone's leg. "I missed you too, bud." Smiley patted Bartleby on the head.
"Alright." Phoney clapped his hands, smiling in a way he hadn't in months. "We've got a lot to catch you up on." Phoney began relaying the details of the last two months to Smiley.
"I think I'm going to go take a walk." Fone groaned as he headed for the exit. "I need to clear my head, process what just happened. I'll be back when I can."
"You're not going anywhere." Shard moved in front of Fone, blocking the exit.
"Get out of the way, Shard." Fone strained his voice, his anger suddenly rising.
"That's not happening. You're too dangerous to let loose. You're staying here, where we can keep an eye on you." Fone balled his fists. Shard's eyes began glowing. Thorn grabbed the hilt of her sword.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Nagratek stepped in between Shard and Fone. "Let's all keep calm. There's no need for violence."
"Tell that to your crystal guard dog." Fone and Shard locked eyes. "He's the one itching for a fight."
"I'm not itching for anything." Shard shot back. "I'm just trying to keep everyone safe."
"Like hell you are!" Phoney shouted at Shard. He turned to Nagratek. "Get this maniac to back off my cousin.
"Shard, stand down." Nagratek gave Shard a stern glare. "Stop escalating the situation. Fone just needs to take a walk." Nagratek turned to Fone. "That's all."
"Nagratek, you don't honestly expect me to believe him, do you?" Shard pointed at Fone. "He's the Successor. And he's got the Catalyst. We don't remotely know what his intentions or his loyalties are. We don't even have the slightest grasp of what he's capable of."
"You want to know what I'm capable of?" Fone smirked. Suddenly he bared his teeth. "Well let me show you!" He shouted, slamming his fist as hard as he could into Nagratek's chest. Nagratek collided with Shard. Faster than anyone in the room could register, the pair flew down the hallway behind them until they reached the end, imbedding themselves two feet into a stone wall.
As Fone calmed down and his expression returned to normal, he looked down the hall at what he had done. Then at his own hands. Finally, he looked at the shocked expressions of everyone in the room, particularly Thorn's and his cousins'. Without a word, Fone ran off down the hallway he had sent Nagratek and Shard down. Without stopping to check on them, he ducked into a side tunnel that led to the outside. Without hesitating, Thorn, Phoney and Smiley ran after him.
"Fone, stop!" Thorn shouted as she followed Fone through the passageway. "Where are you going?" She emerged into the open air. Fone stood a dozen yards in front of her, shaking, but otherwise immobile.
"I…" Fone stammered. He turned to face her. "What did I just do?"
"Nothing that merits you running away." Thorn approached him. "No one was hurt. It was just a misunderstanding. Come back inside, and we can get it sorted out." He backed away from her.
"Thorn, I don't know why I attacked them, but I know it wasn't self-defense. I can't control my power. I don't even know what my power is. If you get near me, there's no telling what I could do."
"That's not an option. I love you. I'm not willing to give up on us, and I will not let you give up on us either." She walked up to him, bent down on one knee, and embraced him. "Don't leave me again." She whispered.
"Ok…" He sighed. "I'll stay."
"Why is it always her?" Phoney asked as he and Smiley came outside to join them. "I had this long winded speech prepared about how our family was just made whole again, and how dare you run off and ruin that. And then she comes along and batts her eyelashes and you do whatever she says."
"Can't you ever let me be happy for five seconds?" Fone asked as he and Thorn separated.
"Well, you know me." Phoney smirked. "It's good to have the whole gang back together again. Feels like old times."
"Well, not quite." Thorn smirked. Still kneeling on the ground, she leaned her head to the side and kissed Fone on the lips.
"When did this happen?" Smiley asked, blushing slightly.
"Like I said, there's a lot I have to catch you up on." Phoney responded. As Fone and Thorn continued to kiss, Fone's skin began glowing. He broke off the kiss and backed away from her.
"This is new." He muttered to himself.
"Did I say we were done?" Thorn tried to pull Fone back to her. When she touched his skin, however, her hand began to burn. Instantly she pulled it away, wincing from the pain. "Your skin is… burning."
"I'm so sorry." Fone moved to comfort her. She backed away. "I didn't mean to. I can't control this… whatever it is."
"It's alright." She stood up, nursing her hand.
"It's not alright." Nagratek said as he emerged from the hallway. "This is extremely bad." He approached Fone.
"Nagratek." Fone asked. "What's happening to me?"
"I'm not entirely sure. This is… unprecedented, to say the least. Go back inside. We'll need to keep you under observation until we can figure out what's happening."
"Yeah. Sure." Fone began walking toward the entrance.
"Cheer up, kid. I'm sure we can get this all figured out." Nagratek put his hand on Fone's shoulder, ignoring his super-heated skin. Suddenly, Fone screamed. A voice began speaking in his mind. It was Nagratek's.
"We need to extract the Catalyst before it's too late." It spoke. "Tell Shard to prep for the procedure as soon as possible. And don't let the Successor out of your sight. We don't want him to get spooked before we can neutralize him." Fone collapsed on the ground.
"Kid?" Nagratek asked. "What's wrong?"
"What were you planning to do to me?" Fone stood up. "What's the procedure? What's the Catalyst?"
"That's just great. Now we're blown." Nagratek said. The black substance began to cover his skin. "Last chance. Go back inside or I'll drag you back." Fone backed up, away from the entrance. Nagratek drove his arm through Fone's gut.
Instead of bleeding, the wound began to emit a honey-gold light. Before Nagratek could back away, Fone grabbed the sides of Nagratek's head. Fone's glowing skin began to burn the black substance, forcing it to retreat across Nagratek's body. Nagratek grunted, but otherwise remained undeterred.
He pulled his arm out of Fone's stomach and swept him off his feet with a roundhouse kick. As Fone fell to the ground, Nagratek punched him in the temple. Before Fone could recover, Nagratek wrapped his arm around Fone's neck, picked him up, and began dragging him toward the entrance. Fone struggled with all his might, punching and kicking Nagratek as they slowly inched their way to the temple.
"This isn't you, kid." Nagratek grunted through Fone's repeated attempts to free himself. "It's the Catalyst. Fight through it." Fone wasn't listening. They were halfway to the entrance. Fone elbowed Nagratek in the kneecap, temporarily knocking him off balance. Then he slammed his fist into Nagratek's temple, loosening Nagratek's grip on his neck. Fone then grabbed Nagratek's arm and pulled in straight out of its socket. Standing up, he proceeded to beat Nagratek with his own severed arm.
Nagratek caught the arm with his remaining hand during its descent, ripping it from Fone's grasp and reattaching it to his shoulder. He then leapt up and kneed Fone in the jaw, sending him flying backward. As Fone landed, Nagratek jumped after him. Nagratek descended on him, raising his fist to strike. Fone recovered and caught Nagratek's fist midair. He ducked under Nagratek as he continued to descend. Before Nagratek could alter his course, Fone swung him into the ground. Picking up Nagratek by his forehead, Fone threw him over the top of the mountain they had all emerged from. As Nagratek sailed out of sight, Fone's skin lost its glow. Standing behind him, Thorn approached him with her arm outstretched.
"Fone?" She asked. "Are you alright." He didn't respond. She touched his shoulder. Instantly he whirled around and punched her in the gut, sending her flying several feet. His eyes were glazed over.
As she landed, Fone's eyes began to clear. Thorn began to recover. She looked up at Fone, both shocked and hurt by his actions.
"I'm sorry." He whispered. Before she could respond, he ran from her. He ran down the mountainside until he reached a forest. As soon as he thought he was far enough away, he stopped and leaned against a tree.
"What have I done?" He asked as he cupped his head in his hands.
"You've discovered your true power, dear Successor." Said a voice next to him. Fone jumped to the side and turned to face whoever was speaking. Standing in front of him was a small, dark haired human boy.
"Who are you?" Fone asked, raising his guard.
"My name is Havaki." The boy spoke. "I'm a friend."
"Where did you come from? How did you know who I was?"
"I've always been here. Waiting to guide you once you unlocked your potential. You called out to me when you fought the Nightmare Entity, and in turn I guided you here so that we could speak in private."
"What do you want?"
"The same thing you want." Havaki approached him. "For you to gain total control of your newfound abilities. But we cannot accomplish that here, with your friends no doubt looking for us as we speak. We must go somewhere far from here, where you can focus, and where I can train you."
"I can't just abandon my friends. I can't abandon Thorn."
"And what happens if you go back there? You'll lose control again. Hurt her again. Maybe even kill her. If you want to keep her safe, you have to learn how to control yourself. And you cannot do that locked away by people that don't understand you themselves."
"Ok, fine. I'll go with you." Fone lowered his guard. "Where exactly is it we're going."
"All in good time, Successor. For now, just follow me." Havaki slinked backward into the darkness of the forest. Before he realized what he was doing, Fone followed him.
"So, how much of that did you know already?" Gran'ma Ben asked the Great Red Dragon. The two of them stood in a circle with Phoney, Smiley, Bartleby, Sybron, Rankyne, X'lish, Nibet, and Ted.
"Bits and pieces." The Great Red Dragon responded. "I was there when the First Folk arrived in the Waking World, so I can confirm the existence of Mon'Yaran and his brother. After we were forced to imprison Mim in stone, however, I became distant. I gave my name to my newborn nephew, Breshet's baby brother and the dragon you know as Stillman. Then I left the Valley and wandered the desert for several decades, doing some rather intense soul searching. I only came back after I found out my brother the Nacht had been kidnapped, so I can also confirm that event took place. Everything else in between, as well as the origin of the Vedu and the existence of Nightmare Entities, I can't confirm."
"Do you think we can trust the rest of what they said?" Sybron asked. "It sounded rather outlandish to me."
"We just repelled an invasion by an army of Bones in metal giants and disappearing flying machines, and learning our old legends were incomplete is what you classify as outlandish?" Rankyne responded. "You need to seriously adjust your mindset, old man."
"I'll take that as a yes." Sybron muttered.
"Speaking of adjusting, how are you holding up?" Phoney asked. "You know, after Caydmar…"
"I'm not going to break down crying of freeze up, if that's what you're asking." Rankyne said. "I'm still angry, mind you, but Roque Ja, Glaian, and Deyavara are all dead, so I've got no one left to blame for his death. I suppose that makes me even angrier."
"Well then, you've got the perfect opportunity to find some closure." Nagratek said as he, Shard, Ven, Breshet and Thorn all walked back into the room.
"Any luck?" Smiley asked.
"No." Thorn responded. "We gave up the search. He could be anywhere in the Valley right now."
"And we have more important things to focus on anyway. I never did finish answering questions." The five rejoined the circle.
"I've got one." Phoney spoke up. "Not that I'm complaining, but how is Smiley still alive? And why is his eye a crystal?"
"My eye's a crystal?" Smiley asked, touching his left eye to confirm. "Well, that explains why I can't see out of it."
"I'm actually not entirely sure what happened to him." Nagratek said. "I know Deyavara put part of his soul in the crystal he implanted Smiley with, which took over his body and began acting semi-autonomously. I extracted the soul fragment last night, but left the crystal intact. I thought it would have killed him again, but it seems his original soul stuck around and filled the void."
"That doesn't make any sense." Ven interjected. "If he died, then his soul should have disappeared."
"Unless Deyavara implanted him with the crystal when he was still alive. If that's the case, Smiley was never actually dead in the first place. He was just subdued by the crystal."
"Are there going to be any lasting effects?" Phoney asked.
"There shouldn't be."
"Am I gonna be stuck with no left eye for th' rest of my life?" Smiley asked.
"I can take care of that for you, actually." Shard responded. He walked over to Smiley and stuck a finger into Smiley's crystal eye. It glowed for a moment. When Shard removed his finger, the eye was normal again. "I've restructured the crystal to mimic an eye. It should work fine."
"Thanks." Smiley muttered, blinking, as Shard returned to his spot in the circle.
"Now that that's cleared up, explain to me what happened to Fone." Thorn locked eyes with Nagratek. "Why did he flip out like that? And what's the Catalyst?"
"I didn't want to mention it before, because I was afraid it would spook the Successor. But the Catalyst is the Spark." Nagratek responded.
"The Spark?" Gran'ma Ben asked. "I thought you said Mon'Yaran had the Spark?"
"He did, but he can't use it. We think it's because his soul can only handle fusing with one Spark, but whatever the reason he entrusted it to Lorimar. When we met her in Deren Guard, she gave it to Fone without his knowledge."
"How'd she give it to him?" Rankyne asked. "I thought it was a crystal… thing."
"It's more complicated than that." Shard responded. "First Folk exist entirely within the Dreaming, sending parts of our souls into host bodies to interact with the world. We can also fuse our souls with various objects and make them parts of ourselves permanently. If she fused herself with the Spark, she would be able to transfer the part of her soul that contains the Spark's power into another person just by touching them, even if the physical shell of the Spark stays with her, and even if she is unable to use the Spark's true power herself."
"Which is exactly what she did when she pricked Fone in Deren Guard." Nagratek continued. "She transferred the Spark's power to him, along with a part of her soul. That power is now attempting to fill Fone's inner soul, which, thanks to the Crystal Councilman not finishing the Successor in time, contains no orders or information of any kind."
"What happens if his soul gets filled?" Thorn asked.
"Then Lorimar takes control of his body and uses his power to bring about Mon'Yaran's plan. We can prevent that so long as we act quickly. So starting now, we're going to have to go on the offensive if we want to stop both the Councilman's and Mon'Yaran's plans. So, from here on out, you all do exactly as I say. Is that clear?" Everyone around the room nodded.
"Good." Nagratek rubbed his hands together. "First things first. How many people did we rescue from the camp outside Atheia?"
"Well," Phoney pondered the question for a moment. "With the exception of the people we got out two months ago, the kids Fone found at the Elm's farm, a few missing civilians, and some of the Dreaming Council, we recovered what appears to be every inhabitant of the Northern villages and Atheia. Twenty-five thousand people in total."
"No Pawans?" Rankyne asked.
"Not a single one. And from what Breshet told us after her various scouting missions, Glaian's army took them all as well."
"Which begs the question," Nagratek said. "Where did they put fifteen thousand people without us noticing? And why did the remaining Nightmare Entities gather in Pawa, when there's no one there to consume?" Nagratek was quiet for a time. "Unless the people were gathered into one location to make it easier for the Nightmare Entities to consume them and regain strength. Shard, after we're done here I want you to go to Pawa and begin looking for spikes in Dreaming Energy."
"Sure thing." The First Folk responded.
"I'm going with him." Rankyne interjected. "Those are my people, and I won't leave their fate in the hands of someone else."
"I would prefer you stayed here and trained with Ven and Thorn to control your Veni-Yan-Cari abilities." Nagratek responded.
"I can teach him on the road." Ven suggested. "Besides, if Shard does run into any of the Awoken Council, he'll need backup."
"That's a good point. We should probably send someone else with you, just to be safe."
"I'll go." Breshet said. "I've fought Nightmare Entities before."
"No, I need you for something else."
"I'll go." The Great Red Dragon said. "I've got plenty of combat experience."
"I'll come too." Ted began jumping. "I'm pretty keyed inta th' Dreamin', so I can help with th' search."
"That's fine." Nagratek responded.
"What about me?" Breshet asked.
"I need you to contact your brother Stillman and-."
"Stillman?" The Great Red Dragon interjected. "What's he got to do with any of this?"
"We've already got Taneal spying on the Dragon Council for us. I'd prefer it if Stillman went to Tanen Guard to keep an eye on Mon'Yaran."
"Why are we spying on the Dragon Council?" Thorn asked.
"They're Mon'Yaran's puppets." Breshet responded. "They have been since the death of Mim. Eventually, we're going to have to destroy them as well, if we hope to prevent Mon'Yaran's plan." Breshet turned back to Nagratek. "What else did you need me to do?"
"I also need you and the Sky Legion to go looking for any trace of the Councilman or the Extinction drives."
"The Extinction Drives?" Gran'ma Ben asked. "What happened to them?"
"Someone moved them." Breshet responded. "When we arrived at Hoken Guard, they were gone. Which means Deyavara must have hidden them somewhere."
"Breshet will look for them in the Valley. But there's the chance Deyavara sent them to the Republic, or even to another human country." Nagratek turned to X'lish and Nibet. "Which is why the two of you are going back to the Republic to see if you can track them down."
"I'm not sure I understand everything that's happened today." X'lish said. "Especially the part where you're some sort of eldritch horror. But as long as we're going back to the Republic, I don't care."
"I'll take any chance I can get to get away from this nest of weird." Nibet said. "What do you need us to do?"
"You'll need to look for anything you can find about the shipments Silas Cohen's company have been making, for Glaian's organization or otherwise. See if you can find and evidence for where Deyavara could have moved the Extinction Drives. If you can, you should also assist Admiral Haenkos in combating Glaian's remaining forces, but not if it interferes with your objective."
"Got it." The twins spoke in sync.
"Why do I feel like they don't know what's going on?" Phoney whispered to Nagratek.
"If you feel that strongly, the perhaps you should join them. You do have a duty to your country as President anyway." Nagratek responded.
"Fine. I'll go too."
"Excellent." Nagratek turned to the sisters. "Phoncible will also be joining you. He has extensive knowledge of Silas's company. Between the three of you, you should have an idea of where to start."
"What about the rest of us?" Thorn asked. "We still don't have anyone going after Fone."
"It's not a priority."
"Like hell it isn't. If the Spark takes full control of him, we lose, no matter what."
"Fine. You and I will search for him."
"I'm comin' too." Smiley spoke up. "I may not know what's goin' on, but Fone deserves to have someone from his family out lookin' for him."
"I'll go as well." Bartleby said. "I'm sticking by Smiley, no matter what."
"Even if your people needed you?" Another rat creature hissed. Everyone in the room turned to see Zel and Yir enter from the main chamber of the temple.
"Not you two again." Thorn groaned as they approached Bartleby. "What do you idiots want now?"
"Well, what I'd like is a nice baked quiche, but unfortunately, we're not allowed to have any." Yir said, glaring at his companion.
"What my comrade is trying to say is that we've come her to talk to the small one you call "Bartle-bye"." Zel answered.
"You're here to talk to me?" Bartleby asked. "Why?"
"As you know, King Agak was killed in battle last night, leaving us without a King. So the commanders got together and decided to appoint a new one. Quickly, they realized that the only logical choice was the only rat King Agak had ever bowed to during his reign. So they sent us here to tell you that they have decided to appoint you our next King."
"I… I… That's… What do I say?" Bartleby asked.
"Say yes!" Smiley exclaimed, hugging Bartleby. "Oh I'm so proud of you!"
"I'm King now…" Bartleby stared at Zel and Yir. "I suppose this means I'll have to go back to the obsidian fortress and start figuring out how this is going to work."
"I'd prefer it if you stayed here, where it's relatively safe." Nagratek interjected. He turned to Zel and Yir. "Can you two tell your military commanders to come here themselves and assist your new King?"
"Of course." Yir responded. "We'd be happy to." The pair left the room immediately.
"Any other world-shattering revelations you'd like to drop on us today, universe?!" Phoney shouted at the ceiling. "No?! Ok then!" He recomposed himself. "Please continue."
"Since Bartleby's staying, I'd like to stay here with Sybron and help sort out the people we pulled from the camp." Gran'ma Ben spoke. "We've got a lot of wounded, and we'll need some experienced and able fighters guarding the home base in case of an attack."
"Suit yourself." Nagratek clapped his hands together. "You all know what you're doing, so get on it." Everyone began to trickle from the room. He turned to Thorn. "Now let's go find your boyfriend."
"My What?" She asked. Smiley chuckled.
"Right, I forgot culture here has been basically frozen for three thousand years. Let's go get Fone." The three of them started for the exit. Suddenly, Tom Elm ran into the room, panting.
"You guys are looking for Fone, right?" He asked. "Well I think I know where he's gone."