Merriment and laughter filled the night.
The Knight was high in the air above the clouds, on a platform of air.
The laughter came from Forg and Cathina making jokes down below. They were all sitting at the base of the tree that Forg had made for them to rest their backs on – finding natural wildlife was rare – and most of it was monsters.
Guilos was on the higher branches of the tree in a hammock reading. The dragons and army was with Kitrino, just south of all of them.
"Really? I didn't think your brother was really that shy…" – said Cathina.
"You should have seen him when he had to go out on patrol by himself."
"wow – he really has changed."
"He never was quite the same after grandma died – and coming back from fighting in the darkness made him less like the brother I knew."
These two were reminiscing about their lives – trying to keep it to the parts that were 'fun'. Cathina had let her brother go not too long ago – even deciding right then and there that she would follow the night. Even Though her brother was gone –the voices in her head remained silent ever since then – as if she had suddenly lost them overnight.
They talked through the night. In the far distance was the echoes of noises – noises of a raging war. It was not a priority of the Knight, but it was part of its duties clearing anything too dangerous. A small group of monsters attracted by the allure of a dungeon, got sidetracked by the smell of people and headed for the city nearby.
The city had a knight base in it – like Maroon city – but they were dealing with the darkness. The Knight offered to deal with the monsters – even though they were sceptical of the Knights capabilities – someone recognised the Knight as the dark hunter and put the minds of the others at ease.
To avoid this pincer attack from both sides the Knight sent Kitrino and the army and the dragon(s). It had ordered Red Scorch not to fuse back into one – it did not feel like wasting souls just to restore the battle grounds.
These were the sound waves that made the leaves of the lonesome tree in the baren Lands flutter so melodiously into this sparkling night filled with stars. Off in the direction of these noises was an orange haze, that could have been confused for sunset – but it was just the glow of the dragons normal flames.
Cathina and Forg laid back on the branches of the tree – gazing deep into the sky. This gaze passed through the leaves of the tree, small clearings in the clouds, and bore witness to the night that had come to them.
Just above the clouds, was the Knight.
'I have to push it.'
In the Knights hand was the compass it had made in the woods of Elleria. It had managed to manifest within it a very special and unique ability. It's main use was in battle, but it had been made to be more useful than that.
The knowledge the Knight had learned in the royal archives was a fact discovered by Forg's ancestors. Skills are resultants of compositions, which even dictate your body's reaction to learning specific powers. Their discovery was based on the realisation that skills could be directly altered, and even on how one would go about achieving this.
The creation of hereditary skills is an example. Someone unleased and taught others that by creating a specific by-print on a skill – it makes it passable by blood. For the Knight – it shared skills with the vermin through a power it had not known – a power it had just recently learned of after looking at Kitrino's stats for the first time – [Hive].
This single power probably had more uses other than just allowing the knight to share skills with them – but Kitrino did not know, and whisper was not talking. But it had come to understand that a by-print can be altered to change the specifics of a skill. Something very hard to do, as the Knight had tried and failed for so many years.
But now it knew about the method that the ancestors had used – and unlike them – the Knight knowledge about souls could not be challenged and more so it could interact with wills – and Forms of objects using Kitrino's power, so it improved on it.
After a lot of trial and error – using the additional notes from the fourth and fifth book – it eventually concatenated its resources into this compass – a compass with a simple directive.
It had been made so that it could be resistant to any further alterations – such so that no-one could temper with it. It's prime directive needed to work every time it was used.
For now, however – the Knight was using it for something else – it allowed the Knight to track the strings of fate.
At some point the Knight had come to realise that someone with the power over fate and destiny was altering the Knights path. The Knight, Kitrino, the army, and every other void beings possess no desire, no emotions, no fate, and certainly no destiny.
So, it was impossible to pre-determine any path for a void dweller – the paths did not exist – there was no way to continuously alight and revise future revisions with them not being part or being part of it – the senselessness of all of it – frustrating.
But the Knight had noticed a strange set of events. It then used the compass and realised, there was someone or something out there – manipulating the fates of those around the Knight – and by consecutive repetition – lead the Knight towards a specific path. The Knight wanted to know who would dare.
This compasses main and only directive is to track any and everything. The hand wielding it just has to know clearly what it is looking for. The Knight had also used it to track the movements of dark knights, and this is how it had found those who ran and hid as they approached – even catching those sent to fetch back-up.
In battle, one could use this to track the vital signs of someone – making one understand the opponent even better. The Knight had been itching to try it against Soo but never got the chance to. But in this instance – the Knight was using it to track the strings on Forg and Cathina.
This is why it was above the clouds; it wanted a direct path from above them. The Knight did not mind the strings – but it wanted to server any on its followers. Strangely though – Mugaw didn't have any – even though it was no void being – even slightly.
The Knight could not touch these – but it could easily follow them. And going forth – it would rather find out the being with the audacity to do something like this to the Knight.
The Knight sent a mental message to Forg and Cathina below – it had images imbedded in it using {Render} – 'I will be back. I want you guys to head to (image) and study the presence of the dark knights there – do not engage. After the battle with the monsters – just keep Kitrino busy elsewhere – she might just go after the dark knights herself.'
'Received!' – 'Roger that!'
Then the Knight teleported leaps and bounds following this lead.
The Knight tracked down this person or thing to a mysterious area – this place had an incredible density of spirits, all of them monsters – but none would cross a specific perimeter around a centre point – these spirits were all high classes.
Try as it may – the Knight could not teleport inside, so the Knight stopped and prepared to enter – but then it got flashbacks to being stuck in the dungeon. Sure, this time, it has enough souls to tidy it well for a long time – but there was the event coming up.
It took steps around the place. The perimeter was more of a sphere – covering high into the sky and low into the ground.
'Let's try this…'
It wound up heavily and punched the air right before making contact with the wave sphere – sending a hurdling beam of air into the field.
'It seems everything can pass – just not through means like teleportation.'
The Knight looked at the compass, it still pointed dead into the centre of this place. It threw in a stone tied to a string made of air and was able to pull it out.
'I guess the objects can pass freely.'
It then tried more things – throwing in a soul – which just faded – dying since it was not under the clutch of the Knight. It also threw in a shield it had made out of a soul right now and pulled it out easily. None of these tests were giving it conclusive results.
So, it looked around familiarising itself with the layout of this place – making sure to note it in its mind and set a reminder later – a to-do list feature in whisper to remind it of this place should the circumstances change – for now it was just time to head back.
'whisper… set reminder – place it under personal quests – Dome of Spirits.'
Reminder set. Personal quests updated.