Deception

[Xalstad]

(Closed to Talon)

A young couple held hands as the night fell on Radasanth. They chatted lightly until a commotion broke out to the South. Three armed soldiers were running right at them! The soldiers had their swords drawn, and were looking around frantically as if they had just seen a ghost. Their attention was turned towards the alleyways, turning from one shadow to the next. They couldn’t see them standing there! The couple didn’t think to move until the soldiers were right upon them.

“Watch out!” The young man cried as he grabbed his partner from the waste and pulled her to the side. The soldiers said nothing as they ran by. The couple turned and watched them go with a puzzled look on his face. Though he couldn’t be sure, the young man thought he heard one of the soldiers remind the other to watch the shadows. Whatever could it mean?

Eventually the soldiers were out of sight. The young woman shrugged and the young man shook his head. Then they fell back into pleasant conversation.

-----

A shadow, known only by his nickname ‘Talon’, ran down a dark alleyway to escape his pursuers. He turned a corner and disappeared into a shadow, waiting for the soldiers to pass. The clanks of their armor grew louder and then quickly dissipated as the soldiers ran past where he was hidden. Talon let out a sigh of relieve.

He emerged from the shadow and turned to leave the alleyway. But before he could take another step, he found himself staring right into the face of a very well dressed man. The man, unlike Talon, was not shocked to be face to face with him. He wore a warm smile and held his arms behind his back.

“Hello there.” The man called out.

Talon jumped. The man looked like a constable. Without warning, Talon ducked under the man and disappeared into the nearest shadow. He jumped from one shadow to another until he was at least 500 feet from the eerie man. When he reappeared, he turned to make sure the man hadn’t followed him. All he saw was the dark road. He sighed once more. When he turned his head to leave, he nearly jumped out of his boots.

“Why are you running?” The man had appeared right in front of him.

“Get away!” Talon cried before running back where he had come from. He disappeared into another shadow. This time he continued to jump farther and farther from the road and the odd man. A short time passed, and Talon grew tired. He stopped, and waited in the shadow for a moment before materializing. This time he was not surprised to see the man waiting for him once again.

“How do you do that?” Talon demanded while making an obvious motion towards his dagger.

The man’s eyes were locked on Talons. The smile was still on his face. “You aren’t the only one with talents, Zachary,” the man called while tapping his index finger against his temple.

Zachary!? “How do you know my name?” Talon’s hands were now wrapped firmly around the hilt of his dagger.

“Oh, I know much about you, Zachary. You are quite the dreamer.” The man finally broke eye contact. He placed his hands behind his back and starting circling Talon. “A satisfying taste has touched your lips, yet you persist in rejecting it. It’s fascinating.” The man stopped at Talon’s left. “Why do you run?” He asked once more.

(Bunnies are approved)

[Talon]

Zachary Talion had no idea what was going on. It had started as a rather ordinary night. He had a mark, a wealthy politician that had both of his meaty hands deep in the black market. The assassin who had taken the name Talon had plunged his trademark dagger deep into the man’s forehead, and watched in silence as blood had run straight down the middle of his forehead. It all was quite routine, a murder just like many others. However, Talion hadn’t counted on his wife entering the room as the cloaked figure pulled the knife out of her husband’s head. She had screamed and fled from the room in fear. Talon did not wait around for pursuit, simply turned and jumped into a wall.

Talon had a skill unlike many others. He had the interesting ability to push himself into the shadows of inorganic objects. Known as Shadowmelding, only the clan he was born from, the Deimis, had this talent. Merging into the plane he called the Shadow World, he quickly found another shadow to emerge from outside the house. Of course, it was at the precise time that the Radasanth Guard had decided to make their appearance at the house. They caught sight of him and the chase was on.

The assassin had thought that he had escaped; the guards couldn’t meld through walls so he had no trouble losing them. However, now he had a different problem. This strange man seemed to be able to follow him, no matter where he went. He found himself, back up against the cold wall, staring at a madman.

“Get away from me!” The dagger slid from its hilt at his hip, spun once around his finger and the familiar grip sunk into his palm. He threw the dagger at the man and the gnarled dagger sunk into his chest up to the talon shaped hilt. The man looked at the hilt sticking from his chest, almost amused. He wrapped his hand around it and pulled it from his chest.

“Oh, come now, Zachary. Do be civil. Here, I know you would not want to lose this.” He tossed the dagger back to Talon, who caught it with his left hand. The assassin stared in amazement as the gaping hole in the man’s chest closed up as though it had never been there. Talon had to get away. Get to somewhere this strange man couldn’t follow. With a bit of concentration, Talion melded into the wall at his back and found himself standing in Shadow World.

Shadow World was an interesting place with many numerous rules. The first and most important rule was that only those that the Deimis brought could enter it. The second was that the shadow portals were different by each light source that created them. Which means that a portal can be destroyed if the light changed, and would effectively trap the melder within. The return of the shadow and light source would bring the portal back. Lastly, each melder had a limit on how far they could travel. In Shadow World, it is shown as the walls of the room. The more talent one has, the bigger the room and the more shadow portals.

Well, the creepy constable man decided he just had to break rule number one. Talon dropped to a crouch once he was inside to rest, when the man just appeared in front of him. Talon’s jaw dropped in astonishment. “This cannot be! I must be dreaming.” He ran one hand through his jet black hair. “Just leave me alone. Why are you hunting me?”

[Xalstad]

“Don’t you understand, Zachary? You are the one who allows me to be here.” The man reached forward and Talon’s dagger appeared in his hands. “You are the one who grants me these abilities.” He took the dagger and slammed it into his chest. This time, the dagger merely passed through as if the man were a shadow. “And you are the one who can defeat me.”

Talon paused, and then lifted his eyebrow. Could this man be the culmination of the strange appetite that had taken control of him lately? “Are you, me?”

The man laughed warmly and then smiled, both of which puzzled Talon. “I’m nothing that trite, I’m afraid…” he began to explain.

“My conscious then?” Talon interrupted.

“Your conscious is a mixture of the rhetoric and ‘societal values’ that you assimilated while your mind was still developing.” The man snapped back. The smile was replaced with a stern glare as though somehow Talon’s question insulted him. “I can assure you I am neither. I am just a friend, a problem solver if you will, who was sent to you to help you figure out you.”

“Who sent you?”

“You did,” the man replied coarsely.

“Who are you?”

“I am Xalstad.” The man continued. “Like you, I was born with a very special ability, one that allows me to enter the dreams of any person that I want. People in your world call it ‘dream walking.’” He took a breath. “Long ago, I discovered the power associated with my gift. It has the power to write history or to change the future. It can destroy the strongest of men, or heal the weakest of fools. It is dangerous and to protect myself from that danger, I have decided to use it to help people.”

“A ‘dream walker,’” Talon mumbled. Then he recalled what the man, this Xalstad, had told him earlier. And you are the one who can defeat me. “You enter other people’s dreams.” Xalstad nodded. A bright grin appeared on the young assassin’s face. “So all I have to do to ‘defeat’ you is wake up.”

“Very clever deduction, Zachary, but I am not a dream. Your ‘victory’ would be only temporary. The moment you slip into unconsciousness I will be there again.”

“Then I won’t go to sleep,” Talon retorted, while becoming even more upset with his predicament.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Men have gone mad when they neglect sleep. I am only here because you need me to be here.” At this, Talon started to walk away. He pinched himself several times on his hand but did not wake. “It is unwise to leave, Zachary.”

“Is it?”

“Yes.”

“Just like it’s wise to listen to a madman’s voice when it’s stuck in your head,” Talon mocked.

“I might be a madman, but who else do you know that knows why you were forced from your village years ago?

Talon paused. Xalstad smiled.

[Talon]

Talon was starting to grow angry. Who did this man think he was intruding on other people's dreams? Now he knew about things that were kept so far in his soul that no one else even knew about them. Zachary Talion was a very secretive man; he didn’t like others nosing into his business. His past was not something that was spread around very widely.

”I know exactly why I was banished from my home those years ago. My best friend did something incredibly stupid and was sentenced to death, I spoke out against the council’s decision and was removed from the city, leaving my greatest love behind in the process.” Talon realized that his babbling really made little sense and that he left out many details, but at this point he was growing anxious. He liked to be in control and at the moment he was not.

“I know all about your past, Zachary, all about your precious Aleitha, the requias.” Talon snarled at the name of his beloved. She was one of the requias, those incredibly gifted in the Shadowmelding art. Her abilities far outshined his own, and he knew she could never love the man he had become. “I also know about Jack and about how he had gone into the forbidden ruins. You dream a great deal about them and I have been watching you for a while now. I visited your village recently and did a bit of snooping and discovered something I thought you should know. Your friend was never killed; in fact the whole thing was merely a setup. They wanted to banish you. Never wanted a weak fool like you marrying one of the gifted. She was meant for another of the gifted, to breed the most talented Deimos alive.”

Talon leapt at Xalstad, fury built up from within. “LIES!” he snarled aloud. The assassin flew through the man as though he weren’t even there. Which, in a way, he wasn’t. Standing slowly, he turned and glared at the dream walker. “Stay out of my head,” he said softly. “Or I will hunt you down and slide my sword through your chest.” Concentrating, he pulled himself from sleep.

He awoke with a start, panting heavily in the darkness. Sweat ran down his face and soaked his clothes and his bed sheets. He found his hand wrapped around his dagger, aching as though he had held onto it for dear life. He kicked off the light covers and swung his legs down to the floor, dropping his dagger in the process. It fell to the floor with a clatter. He found himself rubbing his eyes and his face, trying to break away from the terror that still gripped him.

It couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t. His people would not do such a horrible thing. It was not possible. Aleitha would never marry another man. Dark thoughts crept into Talion’s mind. She would not have to be married to be raped. Talon could just not imagine the Council allowing that. He would have to find out.

“If they did do that to her, there won’t be a soul among them that will still walk this earth.”