NEXUS: King of Warkinles

Chapter 3

When I was just a boy, my father was teaching me some basic chores to help out on the farm. 'Such dreary work isn't meant for me,' I said to myself, so I sneaked away when he told me to fetch our water.

Soon I was bounding through the woods, gleefully laughing in the wind. Throughout the day I raced through the trees, flying across the forest floor. It wasn't til sunset I noticed the day had gone by, and I'd best get home. Father would more than likely give me a beating, but I knew he was growing worried. But when I tried to return home, I found that I'd become lost.

Try as I might, I couldn't get my bearings. Any other boy might have sat and cried until someone found them, if someone found them at all. But not I. I kept my wits about me and pressed on. The trees guided me somewhere, like water down a funnel. After a time I found the thickets parting to reveal a clearing. Yet this was no ordinary meadow.

It held magic!

By now, everyone grew spellbound by Nexus' words. Even Lady Kristen stopped her stroking, clinging to him and his every word. Franklin also stopped his chores, to better listen to the story.

A tower in the clearing rose high above me, reaching its clawed hand at the sky. It appeared abandoned, for the forest sought to tear it down with vines and trees. But my teeth buzzed in my mouth, so I knew magic was still present here.

Cautiously I approached, wondering how long the tower had stood among the trees, waiting to be discovered. Its grand size grew more and more clear as I approached, dwarfing even the tallest tree I had ever climbed. A wooden door sat at the base, aged but in good condition. I knocked on that door three times...

Nexus rapped his knuckles on the arm of the chair.

And it swung open, though no one was there. Step by step I entered, my footfalls muffled by a dusty red carpet underneath me. I'd just entered the grand hall, when the door slammed shut behind me. Again, there was no one there. Now naturally, there was an inkling of fear in me. But I gathered by courage and pressed on.

The tower was bare, save for the carpet on the floor, and tapestries hanging from the walls. I still remember some of those tapestries, like it was yesterday. They depicted odd places, odd events, their colors more like stained glass than anything made of cloth: one showed a swarm of tiny, glowing figures fighting a larger, dark, demonic shape; another displayed souls waiting at the Zanmu River to be carried to Devasnus. At the center of the tower was a winding staircase that wound up, and up, and up, all the way to the top. I followed those stairs until my legs ached and my breath burned in my chest. When I made it to the top, I found myself in an empty chamber. Empty, save a throne, and the thing that sat in it. At first I thought it to be a skeleton. Until it groaned. And breathed.

"Who disturbs my slumber?"

That voice... That voice!

It was cold as the grave, hollow and empty, but had enough life to listen to. It rooted me to the spot, unable to move. For a long moment I couldn't even speak the words stuck in my throat. But, eventually, I forced them out.

"N-Nexus, sir," I said, my voice trembling with fear. "Nexus!"

It shifted under dusty, cobweb covered robes to get a better look at me. I nearly fainted when I saw its face. It still had an eye, one eye that was fresh and clear as though born yesterday. But where his other eye should be was an empty hollow, a blank, bottomless blackness. I felt both stare into my very soul and felt unworthy.

"Poor thing," Lady Kristen murmured, but her voice had lost that commanding, enticing purr. Like the rest, she was caught up in Nexus' story.

Now that the ball was rolling, Nexus fed off their attention, growing bolder with his tale.

"How old are you, boy?" the skeleton asked me, jarring me from my thoughts.

"T-Ten, come this summer..." I was just able to answer. "Nayuma 31st."

"Ah, close to becoming a man, then!" the skeleton crowed. "Come closer, boy. Let me look at you better." It lifted its hand, just as bare of flesh as its face, and curled a finger for me to approach. I shuffled closer with great reluctance. But I was never close enough, and that fleshless finger still curled. It only stopped when I was but a few feet away.

"So you speak the truth. My sight isn't what it used to be, you know." I thought it grinned at me, but then again, skeletons always grinned, didn't they? "I thought you were an adventurer, coming to steal my fortune. But, as you've claimed, you are just a boy. Now leave me! Return to your mother and father before they wonder where you've gone."

At its words, my fear heated into anger. "Why can't boys be adventurers too? I'm just as much an adventurer as anyone else!" A moment later, sanity returned, and my hands flew to my mouth. Its one good eye gave me a funny glance, and I regretted ever shouting at it. I was sure it would punish me, perhaps even kill me.

"So you are an adventurer, eh? Then you must have come for my fortune, for why else would you be here? But alas, you are too late. Others before have come and pilfered my riches long before you were even born. Many times I've driven them off, yet more and more of them came. Eventually they killed me right here, on my throne. My spirit has been here ever since, never brought to Devasnus and given rest."

As I was just a boy, much of the depth of his words escaped me. But Mother and Father had taught me right from wrong, and I understood enough to know this... thing had been dealt a great injustice. My fear once again transformed, not into anger, but into pity for the dead thing sitting before me.

"I'm sorry, sir," I said. "I'm sorry for shouting, and I'm sorry that bad men took your things."

Again it gave me a funny look with its one eye, and said in a softer voice... "There's no need to be sorry, boy. What's done is done. They picked my once great treasures clean, and only dust remains. However, I still have one treasure with me. I still have one thing left. Would you be like others and come to take it? Or would you rather earn this reward?"

Father had taught me that stealing was a great sin, and that Nasin hated thieves. I told him I would earn his last treasure, instead of taking it.

"Very well. You must solve a riddle for me. Only by proving your wit may you earn this reward." Then he cleared his throat, which I found odd, seeing as he had no throat, and began.

I am but one of many. Together grand, but separate small. I am found anywhere, and everywhere. Bringing life or death to all. Gods may move me and shape me. If not here, I fall another place. Can be heard, or seen, or felt, or smelled. Yet I have no taste. What am I?

In silence, the patrons of the tavern pondered Nexus' riddle, from the simple to the enlightened. A few of the more intelligent patrons smiled when they guessed the answer, but kept it to themselves. Others had furrowed brows, or chewed lips, or muttered and whispered questions.

I stood there for a long time, trying to solve the mysterious riddle. Even today, I found it clever and vexing. As I mulled it over, there came a faint pattering from above. And it was then I had my answer.

"Rain!" I answered in triumph. "The answer is rain!" The skeleton laughed at my enthusiasm and nodded its skull.

"That is correct, young adventurer. Many raindrops together create rain, found almost everywhere. Rain-or lack thereof-gives either life or death to those in need. The gods bless or punish us by shifting rain clouds to other places. And though it can be heard, seen, felt, or smelled, water has no taste."

We stood there, each lost in our own thoughts. As young as I was, my thoughts ran through quickly, and I grew impatient. By now it surely would be late, and I needed to get home.

"In our brief time together," the skeleton said, "have you ever wondered why I only have one eye?" At first I thought it was another riddle, but I soon realized it was a genuine question.

"I have wondered, sir," I said. "May I ask why?"

Its hand shifted to gesture at it, and the skeleton continued. "It is a pretty thing, this eye. A close friend of mine gave it when I was in my prime. It is an artifact called frosted silver, specifically enchanted to serve as an eye. With it, I can see farther than any man, even peer into the future.

"It is my last treasure, and I have held onto it, even in death. But now, I believe it's time to pass it on to someone worthy of its gifts. And I believe you to be worthy, Nexus." I stood, frozen to the spot as crackling bones reached up to his eye. Fingers twisted, and hollow breathing came in pained gasps, but the eye came to rest in his hand.

"May the gods bless you, young adventurer. And may others follow your example of wit and kindness."

Then, with a strength I never knew he had, he threw the piece of frosted silver at me. It struck before I could react, embedding itself into my head. Icy fire flared up in my head, and I howled in agony as I sought to dig it out. When my vision cleared, and the pain had passed, I saw that I was no longer in the tower. For there was no tower to begin with, only ruins and rubble. I thought it all a crazy dream, a scary dream, and rushed back home.

As I expected, my father beat me for giving him such a fright. But not as much as I expected him to; when he saw me, I saw him shudder. I asked him what was wrong, but he never said. Later that night, I found a mirror that used to be my mother's and gasped at what I saw. It hadn't been a dream after all. For instead of two brown eyes, I only had one. The other was gray, almost white, with a hint of blue.

The color of frosted silver...