Mnemosynis/RWPartFour

Hate them. Break them. Why are we silent in their faces?
Take them. Cast them down. None dare chain you. Chain us.

I wake up in a cold sweat. The nightmares are talking to me again. Giving me urges. Urges to fight and kill. I don't want to give in. I've never killed anyone. I don't think I could. They've gotten worse in my couple weeks on the boat. Sometimes they talk to me while I'm awake. The Gale of Blades takes offense to being chained, and he's letting me know it. Somehow I think these are more than mere nightmares. Maybe it's inside me? Is that the demon trying to take over me body? It's a chilling prospect. Up until this point I thought I was the demon, but at least I was still me. Maybe it's that I've been inhabited by this creature from the past. Maybe the nightmares are it's memories. If so, the haven't provided much useful information. Just this... thing... slaughtering and torturing.

Nexus is still so far away, and it's getting harder to resist the urges. Great Forks is closer. Maybe I should get off there instead.

I've been lucky enough to keep my captors from noticing the brand. Part of it's because of the dark, and part is because I keep my hair in my face and my head low. It's worked so far.

Most of the other people down here are barbarians from the East. It must have been a fantastic culture they once belonged to, now they're slaves. Such is the way of things though. There are a couple locals like myself. They talk to each other. They tried to talk to me, but I've been silent the whole time. They believe me deaf and that suits me fine. I'm not so much looking for conversation as I'm trying to keep my head low.

The barbarians are mostly quite except for their nightly ritual of angry screaming. Apparently their women are being kept in another part of the ship. Most nights we can hear them whimpering and sobbing themselves to sleep in the quiet dark after the sailors have their way with them. The men begin screaming and they rail against their captivity. The sailors come down and beat them into submission. The sailors think they're praying to some obscure war god. They're really just pissed. Really, really pissed.

It's one of those quiet nights now and I can hear the sobbing. Some of the barbarian men begin to cry and mutter angrily. Some of them might be listing to wives or sisters. And it begins as it always does. One goes crazy and the rest quickly follow. Sailors come down with sticks and begin to beat them. This is a poor kind of justice.

We are justice. We are that which cannot be defied.
We will stand here no longer.

I'm angry. It's not my anger, but it's there. I stand up. We won't be defied. One of the sailors notices us and rushes forward, asking if we wanted to be punished as well. We won't be punished. We burn through ourself to snap the chains. We burn through ourself to bring the light. The sailor stops and stands aghast as the light floods the hold. We grab him and throw him into his fellows. The sailors flee, screaming about Anathema and needing swords. Excellent. A battle. A long time in a dark prison has had us wanting a battle. However, we've always loved an ironic twist to things. We address the slaves. Most of the are huddled, fearful, unable to flee the demon because of their chains.

We ask them, do they want their freedom back? The couple who can translate do so. We have their attention now. Do they want their women back? My, but they're excitable. We focus our essence through our charms into our muscles and we begin to break the chains. Maybe a dozen or so are free when the first of the sailors return, armed with swords. We continue freeing them as quick as we can. We don't have the charms to deal with a boatful of sailors ourselves. Soon the ship is overrun by the barbarians. We go above deck to watch the festivities. As payment for their freedom we ask the men to bring us the spoils from the captain's cabin. A small chest full of jade bits and silver coins. Excellent. They present us with the saber they took from the captain. We thank them all. In all the glorious chaos the ship ran aground. It looks like our journey will continue on foot. We set off into the night alone. Thankful as they are they won't trust us. They won't trust the Anathema.

And I'm back.

Glorious chaos.

And it's still here. It had... taken over. And now I am free, as are the barbarians. And I've got a chest full of money. More than I've seen in my life. More than I ever expected to see. And some of the thoughts that we had during the episode helped me understand a little more about what I've become. And while the whole experience left me feeling a bit more confidant, I'd still like to not be so taken over again. Over the next couple days I experiment with my... charms. I can indeed turn completely invisible, even in daytime. I can boost my strength to titanic proportions. I uprooted a couple large trees and threw them into the river. The brand put off quite the display, but there was no one around. I feel pretty good about handling the saber too. Maybe someone out there can use a strong-arm for hire.

I'll still be going to Nexus, but I'll get on a ship at the next town. And I'll pay for it, rather than be the cargo. It's Resplendant Wood now and the wild berries are in bloom. It should be a pleasant journey to town.