Falias, Finias Chapter Twenty-Three

His hand is not his own. He can squeeze his fingers together and make a fist. He can rotate his wrist and make an insipid wave. He can feel the irregular patterns of the gauze covering his arms and fingers. It is his hand, but there's an impossible echo to it. Like the ghost of another hand is just hovering above his own. This phantom can be felt throughout his entire body. Twenty fingers instead of ten. Four eyes instead of two. Two heads instead of one.

He'd be screaming, but there's such a tightness around his throat. Someone applying pressure to his throat to suffocate the scream. He can still breathe, but he's not the one breathing. He has a body that is entirely not his own.

All he wants to do is scream.

His Caretaker still hasn't woken up. It's been three days since Chaor brought him back from Melinoë's memorial garden. Sometimes, he would make a fist or raise his arm up, but his eyes would remain closed. Ulmar believes it might have to do with the human's code. He believes that the human code is in their blood. He's been drawing blood daily from Kazdan, seeing if time altered the blood in any way, which it didn't. Iso would worry if it weren't for Iaen. The healer prevents Ulmar from drawing more than strictly necessary.

Iaen is strange for an UnderWorlder in the sense that he doesn't look like most UnderWorlders. He's not an Ethereal like Blaaxa, though he has some connection to her since Iso has seen them conversing with each other often outside of the castle. He can be hard like a yellow crystal or nearly liquid like molten golden. Dairus says that most of the time Iaen is like blood jelly: gelatinous but solid enough thanks to the bone shards. His head reminds Iso of a fire hen's egg if the top of it was crushed in, while his eyes are hot coals. He has no mouth, so he communicates through writing or hand gestures. Iso once asked how he ate, and Iaen responded by turning semi-solid and shoving his plate of hen nuggets into where a stomach would be and then turning crystal again.

Iso likes Iaen, even if he did eat all his nuggets.

"Will he wake up today?" Iso asked during Iaen's daily check-up. Iaen answers after the check-up and hands a small piece of paper to Iso.

"I don't know."

It's the same answer he's gotten since Iaen was brought in.

This must be madness if I keep expecting a different answer every time.

"What will happen if he never wakes up?" This is the question he's avoided asking. He didn't want to dwell on this possibility, but, considering Caretaker's lack of response and how Blaaxa seems to be hanging around, he needs to prepare himself for the worst. Or at least that's what Agitos and Dairus have been thinking lately.

Iaen is scribbling away on his notepad, something long like the good doctor is trying to sugarcoat death.

"Help."

Iso turns his head back to Caretaker's bed and sees those brown eyes again. They look at him with a mix of pure fear and joy. His mouth opens but no sound comes out at first.

"Iaen, something's—"

"GET OUT OF ME!" Caretaker screamed as he fell out of his bed. Iaen rushes over to restrain him, and all Iso could do is just stand there and watch as the madness plays out.

He's been screaming since regaining semiconsciousness. She wonders if her own feelings of horror compounded his own. This shouldn't be happening. She was dead and that was it. She never believed in the Cothica and figured her code would simply cease to exist. Apparently, there was enough of her left to be pulled back into this plane of existence.

She wants him silent. She imposes her will, but this winds him up more. He jerks with his newly regained awareness and sends them tumbling to the hard ground. He screams again, and Melinoë finds that her patience has run out.

Won't you just shut up!?

"GET OUT OF ME!"

I can't!

"THIS IS MY BODY!"

Did you not hear me the first time? Stop your screaming if you can hear me.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Oh, you can't hear me, but you can feel me.

She takes control of his hands, since he wasn't focused on them, and reaches up to touch his face in a gesture of nonviolence. It causes him to stop screaming, but then he recoils from his own hands. He struggles against his own body like hundreds of lava mites nipping at him.

Would you stop wriggling around!

"Then, let go of him." She hears a child's voice and then remembers Isolor. Or Kazdan remembers him. He was once an extremely pale baby with sharp teeth and claws, but then he grew up. Far too quickly.

She wants to see him. She died bringing him into this world. She wants to see him in the flesh. She lets go of his hands and gains control of his eyes.

"I can't see!" The boy shouted, but she can see Isolor. He looks so much like her, but he has Chaor's bright blue eyes and very sharp teeth. He even frowns at her like him.

"You see me, now let go."

You can hear me.

"You're so loud!"

He's loud too.

"Because he's afraid."

I didn't ask for this.

"Neither did he. Now—wait—don't!" Isolor looks away from her and to something else. No, someone since she feels something like glass touch the side of the boy's neck.

And then they're gone again.

Iaen changes his fingers back into semiliquid and brings the human gently down onto the ground. Then, he's attacked by Isolor. The child, not even two solons old, tries his damndest to maul him with his very sharp claws. It doesn't work due to his current form, but he can feel the child's fury with every slash. He withstands it since Isolor only has a child's strength. He waits a few minutes before the child stops his onslaught and pants for much needed air. Iaen retrieves his notepad from his satchel and writes another note. He tears it from the metal spiral and holds it out to the child. His blue eyes burn with fury, and he snatches the note.

"I had to sedate him for his own good."

"What do you mean it was for his own good?" The child demanded. This time Iaen writes a more detailed explanation and then hands it to the child. It takes a minute for the child to read through and then looks at him with more understanding and less fury.

"He was going to hurt himself. He was reacting like his body was being controlled by someone else. I think he might have had mental break."

"Yeah, he is having a breakdown, but it's because there is someone else controlling him. I think Melinoë is possessing him."

Possession? I remember she wrote a play satirizing this phenomenon. Nivenna must've taken him to a revival of that play, and he took it as absolute fact. But I can't dismiss the possibility entirely. Cothica, Chaor will not…be pleased that his lady love returned from beyond the grave? No, he's moved on and having her suddenly return will just…I don't know. Enrage him? Sadden him? How does one react to something like this?

"At least you believe me. I just don't know how and why now. She didn't die around this time, did she?"

Did no one ever tell him of his birth date? It must be still painful if Chaor never got around to it, but I thought Dairus would've mentioned it. She loves celebrating birth dates since catering parties supplements her income.

Iaen keeps it short and just writes the date of Melinoë's and Isolor's birth date. He shows the pad to the child.

"The Festival of Cold Flames."

"That's more than a month from now," The child paused, "maybe she didn't come back on her own."

It would explain the wounds on the human. Some Creature, or maybe Creatures considering the different markings, decided to mess with Mugic they shouldn't have. Kazdan the human was their unfortunate test subject. Ulmar couldn't have done it since Mugic isn't his forte, and he has more rats to experiment on.

"Iaen, I think Lord Chaor needs to know about this."

He does. Yet, I don't know if Chaor would readily accept all this. He believes in the Cothica, but a Spirit inside a human? It'll take a while.

"We can tell him what we saw and heard. And when Kazdan wakes up again, I'll just talk to her again."

Iaen feels a crystal light up in his mind.

He can hear thoughts.

"Yes, I can hear you."

Author's Comments- There are no links.

Considering how Mommark is the OverWorld equivalent to Dr. Frankenstein, I wouldn't be shocked if Ulmar does some mad scientist experiments when he isn't making Chaor some Battlegear. And some of his experiments involve these Chaotic players also known as humans. Am I saying he hunts down humans and cuts them open for science? No, but it wouldn't shock me if some player barged into Ulmar's lab and Ulmar lucked out in his poor aim and hit a player with some chemical concoction, possibly killing them. Since players aren't recognize as a Tribe or even as Creatures, he'd figure it would be like experimenting on the rats that overrun the city. And it's not like Chaor cares so long as he gets his Battlegear.

Iaen's name comes from two of Apollo's epithets for healing and disease. Iatrus literally means physician and Paen means physician or healer. I figured that Lord Chaor would have his own physician that he trusted instead of going to the local hospital, which are doubt there are many in the UnderWorld, and he'd have his doctor take care of very private cases.

This was supposed to be only three chapters, but upon re-examining my initial plans, I realized that wouldn't be enough to tell this part of the story. I decided to add a couple of more arcs to this story. Currently, this first one is "The Tower" arc, which should be the initial three chapters I planned. This might take three arcs to conclude the possession conundrum and get into some of the secretive acts that a certain CodeMaster commits. Next chapter should be more about Chaor and his mixed feelings on this situation.