Assembling the Pieces

Author's note: Edited last chapter to reduce confusion (although not eliminate it). Please reread/skim.

"Damn them," father cried out. "Damn them. Damn them. God of Evil. I invoke your name in hopes they will be slaughtered by your hand. Spare none of those hypocrites. Those fucking humans, they'll pay."

The same nightmare greeted him. Cerlius was nothing but a consciousness floating in a dark, bloody ocean. The waves would rise and fall. He would sink and rise. The voices would scream and writhe, two of them in unison.

"Cerlius." Cerlius opened his eyes to see Olpi's bloody face. "Thank the goddess that you're alive." She tightened something around Cerlius's arm and scooted back against a broken counter. Several broken light crystals around the room flickered, weakly fighting against the natural darkness of Mage's Shadow. She let out a long sigh and put her head in her bloody hands. "Please don't scare me like that."