Chapter 19 - Who's there?

"Who's there?" Erik said in alarm.

Wait! This voice...

He got up as quickly as he could, his eyes struggling to adjust to the dark cell. There was only a small window with iron bars at the top of the far wall, the daylight coming from it, barely illuminating the space.

The dungeon room was completely made of stones, inscribed with runes that had long lost their properties.

And just as he got up and searched for the source of the voice, he noticed the figure that had also gotten up and was staring back at him from a corner of the room.

Long blond hair and striking green eyes...

"Freya?" he exclaimed, flabbergasted.

"What are you doing here, Erik!" she shouted.

"No! What are you doing here?" he shot back.

She ran over to him, and they both embraced in a tight hug.

When she pulled away, he could see dark circles under her eyes. But thankfully, she did not appear injured.

For a moment, they just stared at each other in wide-eyed shock. Erik's mind was still struggling to reconcile seeing his friend in this place.

"No, but seriously! What's going on?" she asked again.

He took a deep breath. He knew that they had a lot to talk about. "I wasn't thinking clearly, and I got captured by the people of this village."

"That's kind of obvious. I meant, what are you doing inside the Whisper? It is too soon for you to tackle one," she said with concern in her voice.

"You are telling me this?" His eyes narrowed while she fidgeted and avoided his gaze.

He signed and decided to come clean.

“Well… the reason I’m here is because I lied,” he admitted with a grimace. “I didn’t Awaken a Talent after the Mirmirsker ritual.”

“What?” Freya cried out, shocked yet again.

“Yeah… I got unlucky. After some more things happened, I remembered the stories you told about people Awakening inside Whispers. I had no other choice, and one thing led to another—bringing me here.”

"I am the cause of this?" she said, horrified.

"No, no. There was something else." He debated for a moment if he should tell her about Gravesight, but saw no reason not to.

He then proceeded to recount how he came to possess his Gift, earning a stunned look from his friend.

"Wait, how is that even possible? Gifts don't just appear out of thin air," she mumbled, with a frown.

"No idea." he shrugged.

“And hey!” She punched Erik in the chest. “You lied to me.”

Fee frowned, crossing her arms over her chest.

That, however, made him suck in a sharp breath—his body was covered in black-and-blue bruises. Only then did she notice the extent of his injuries.

“Oh! I’m sorry!” she gasped, quickly helping him toward the wall so he could sit down and lean against it.

“What happened?”

“This Whisper… it’s been a nightmare,” he said, his mind drifting to the horrors he had faced. “I knew they were dangerous, but this is too much.”

"Here, let me try something," Fee said.

Curious, Erik watched her as she bit her finger, drawing a drop of blood.

It hung on the edge of her fingertip as she closed her eyes. After a few heartbeats, the drop slowly gained a sanguine glow. She gently smeared it over his chest.

Then, something miraculous happened. Some of his bruises faded, his cuts and scrapes shrank, and even his deeper wounds dulled in pain.

Fee slumped against the wall beside him, her face pale. She looked as though she were suffering from severe essence exhaustion.

"Wow... this is incredible! Is this the Ability of your Talent?" Erik said in amazement as he stretched his limbs, feeling the effects.

“Y-yeah, but it’s exhausting. And the bigger the wounds, the harder it is. It’ll take me a few more times to actually heal you.”

“Still, this is an incredible Talent,” he said, impressed.

“Thank you.” She gave him a faint smile.

“And thank you for healing me. But now, it’s your turn,” he added, casting her a sideways glance.

She fell silent, her gaze drifting into the distance.

After a while, she gave him a sideways glance and smirked. "I also lied. I did not Awaken during the Mirmirsker ritual either. In fact, I did not even undertake it."

"What?" Erik exclaimed, now being his turn to be shocked again.

He was sure he had misheard.

"What do you mean? Taron told me you undertook it."

"Well... not exactly. I faked it."

"You did what!" Erik stared at her with a gaping mouth.

“I had no other choice! What else was I supposed to do?”

“Go through it like everyone else?” he exclaimed, exasperated, arms spread wide.

“I told you…” she mumbled defensively. “The Mirmirsker ritual is a farce. The only true way to Awaken is by entering a Whisper.”

“Hold up! How did you even do that? Surely, they would have noticed you not dropping any blood into the Mirmirsker.”

She started fidgeting again. "I had some help."

Erik did not like the sound of that.

"From whom, Fee?"

She paused and seemed reluctant to say.

"Oh, come on, don't tell me it was one of the gang leaders," he said with a worried voice.

"No, no. Not them. It's just..."

"Spit it out."

"It was Dvalin."

He stared at her in disbelief.

"You are joking, right? The old man? He helped you. Why?"

"I don't know, but I spread word on the black market that I was looking for ways to bypass the Mirmirsker ritual. He approached me when I had almost given up and was planning to bail."

Erik's frown deepened as she kept talking.

“He was quite convincing, and I was willing to try anything—I didn’t have any other choices. It didn’t seem like it would cause me any harm. All I had to do was make sure I was the first to undertake the ritual in the morning, then substitute my blood with the drop the old man gave me.” She frowned but shrugged. “I don’t know what it was that he gave me, but it worked. Then, with a bit of acting and a few tricks, nobody noticed. And on top of that, he did it for a cheap price as well!” She concluded with a raised chin.

“Why would he do this? I never knew he was capable of something like this or that he had any interest in the ritual.”

Erik’s mind whirled. He had never expected this from the old, quirky graveyard keeper. It was as if he were hearing about someone else entirely—not the man he thought he knew.

Was this why he was acting so strange that night? he thought.

He couldn't make heads or tails of it. And he wasn't going to get any answers here. There would be only one way to find out more: to confront the old man himself. But for now, he had to put this aside.

Shaking his head, he groaned.

"I can't believe this. You had the chance to Awaken a Talent safely, but you chose this suicidal way." He covered his face with his hands.

Fee only snorted in response.

Erik sighed after a bit and added, "But I have to give it to you. There might be some truth to it after all."

“You Awakened when you entered the Whisper, didn’t you?” she said, whipping her head around, eyes sparkling.

He nodded and asked, "I suppose you did as well?"

"Of course I did! I knew this was the right path. All the accounts pointed towards this. Every significant figure had mysterious stories from their past, which related to Whispers. Then there were the words left by the Exalted. Oh, and don't get me started on their backgrounds!"

Fee rambled on about this for a while before she returned to her senses and asked enthusiastically, "How did it happen?"

Erik recounted his dreams and the vision of the chariot while she listened with bated breath.

"Interesting… It was similar for me as well. But I had no chariots or forks in my road, just…" She swallowed, paling a bit. "Blood, a river of blood."

She seemed very disturbed by the memory, and he decided not to probe her.

"So what is your Talent?" he asked instead.

"It's called Sanguine Wyrda. Everything is still vague, so all I can say is that it has something to do with blood. I found out that I can heal myself when I spend my essence, and I had a feeling that I could do the same for you. I am not sure what else it can do."

"Fascinating! This is a very powerful Talent. Healers are extremely rare."

“Yeah,” she murmured, then asked as the sparkle in her eye returned, “What about yours?”

Erik wasn't quite comfortable sharing it. Since he Awakened, he did not have much time to process it, but it was a little bit... disturbing. Throughout Nelum, there were a myriad of diverse and peculiar Talents, but there were also some that were considered taboo. And the ones that dealt with the dead fell right in that category.

“It’s called Draugr Weaver. Everything is still hazy for me as well, but so far, I’ve found that it allows me to resurrect the dead and have them serve as my subordinates.” He braced himself for disgust but had underestimated his friend.

“Really?” There was only fascination in her voice.

Fee then rattled off a bunch of questions for which he did not have answers. He just told her what he already knew.

“That’s amazing! I’ve never heard of anything like this,” she exclaimed, sounding even more enthusiastic about his Talent than he was.

“Maybe… but I have a feeling others won’t see it the same way. Talents related to the dead are taboo,” he reminded.

She waved him off. “Don’t worry about it. First, we have to survive this Whisper.”

“Right. Speaking of which, what happened when you entered?”

“Nothing, really. The gang and I traveled to the Whisper on the day I last saw you, and I entered right away. After that, I found myself in the southern foothills of the valley. Once I Awakened, I made my way toward the lake. Got lost for a bit and stumbled into one of the villagers’ traps. They took my supplies and threw me in here. I haven’t seen anyone since.”

“Huh, so you don’t know anything about the general situation in here.”

She shook her head. “No. What’s going on?”

“The noble scion has entered the Whisper with his subordinates. And we’re up against a Spawned Horror as well as an Accursed Eerie.”

She just gave him a blank look.

“Oh, I almost forgot. If we don’t leave in a matter of days, we’re going to be sucked dry by mosquitoes.”

Freya massaged her temples and sighed. “Start from the beginning.”

Erik smirked and obliged.