28 Arash - White Mist

"Hey, I am kinda hungry. By any chance can you spare me some of your memories?" Najwah flickered in an out of existence, sometimes appearing in front of Arash's face, and sometimes on his broken arm.

"You want to eat my memories?" Arash replied with a frown. The recent events had left a bad taste in his mouth. He still felt anger at the sight of the little black snake.

"Yeah, but only the useless ones which you will eventually forget anyways. It won't do any harm to you, but you will be helping me out a lot... So can I?" Najwah asked with excitement plastered on his face. Arash could even see a little bit of saliva dribbling at the sides of his mouth. Arash was about to rebuff him, but suddenly a thought occurred to him. 'I can forget that. It will be like it never happened before.' Arash pensively stared at the little black snake.

"Can you eat any memory you like?" Arash asked, his anticipation hidden beneath a poker face. He could feel his chest tightening with anticipation as he anxiously waited for the answer. His worries were immediately relieved by the fervent nodding of the little snake.

Arash forced a smile on his face as his fingers dug into the soft mattress. "Make the memory of Babak go away. Make everything related to it go away, like it never happened." Arash said with all the courage he could muster, but still, his voice cracked under the mention of that name. It felt like venom in his mouth.

Najwah could feel his discomfort by his soul-bond. He bitterly sighed. "I can't do that. Not all memories are same. You can afford to lose some, but losing others will make you a cripple. This memory is like an anchor that holds your identity together. Your whole personality evolved around it; you wouldn't be the same if I consumed this memory."

"But..." Arash tried to reason at first, but then his mask of indifference broke and revealed a wounded boy, hiding inside the body of a man. Hot tears streamed down his cheeks as he bellowed. The snake refused to obey him; he begged at pleaded, but every plea was met with a clear rejection.

"...I have eaten millions upon millions of memories. Each and every one suffered miserably." Najwah allowed Arash to live through the memory of all those people, whose memories he had devoured. Arash lived as a child who ate the corpse of his dead

mother due to hunger. He could feel his remorse, feel his hunger and the disgust as he chewed on the rotten flesh.

Arsah became an old man who toiled as a miner, barely making the ends meet. He saw his family, his daughters, and their love. He also saw the same love shattered under the hands of hoodlums. He watched his daughters get raped and killed, while he was pinned down by one the men. His face chafed against the hard rock, tears of blood turning his vision red as he screamed and cried for his daughters. He watched their innocence torn apart by the vicious wolves hidden in the guise of men, watched the life drain from their bodies, as their bodies laid beaten and bloodied in front of him.

Countless lives flashed before his eyes, each a tragedy of its own. When the visions finally ended, Arash stared at his own hand, his eyes dazed while his mind still replaying the scenes in his mind.

"These are only just a few of the memories of I own. You have lived them through their lives and you also know what happened when I took their memories." Najwah said grimly. "You will become nothing more than a bag of flesh and bones. f I take away your core memories." Najwah said solemnly. 'And I will be stuck with you for my whole life.'

It took a while for Arash to get out of the shock, but even then he sat mutely, deep in thought. His mind raced to make sense of things. Living through the lives of others, his own tragedy felt so minuscule. A strange new conviction formed in the deep recess of his consciousness that even he wasn't aware of. After laying on the bed for hours, he finally got up to his feet. Najwah expectantly stared at him, but he didn't say anything.

Arash studied the room around him, he noticed a barely perceptible glow from the wall. Intrigued, he moved closer to the wall. He could feel a familiar coldness from the wall as his fingers ran across the wall. "Mana stone?" Arash marveled at the thought, he looked around for something sharp and found a metal plate lying around near the table to his left. He used it to scrape the paint off the wall. It took quite an effort to peel off a thick coating of a sticky resin to finally reveal the smooth wall of mana stone underneath. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw the dimly glowing crystal. "Who could make such a thing?" He wondered out loud.

"What are you doing?" Najwah let out a horrified scream as he darted away from the wall, running as far from the dreaded stone as he could.

Arash turned back towards the horrified snake. "What happened?"

"What do you mean what happened?" Najwah uttered in extreme horror. "Cover that cursed thing. I can't stand the sight of it!"

Arash raised an eyebrow at the weird behavior of the little snake, but he pulled a table against the scraped wall. The little snake finally dared to come closer when the mana stone was covered.

"What possessed you to do something so stupid? Thank god that thing is dormant. It would have swallowed me whole if it awoke. You can never be too careful with these things." Najwah snapped at Arash.

"Why are you so afraid of it?" Arash asked the little snake. He could feel the fear of the little thing when it saw the mana stone.

"You don't know anything. You guys mindlessly use it. But it's a disaster waiting to happen and I am not talking about the kind that toppled his town. I am talking about the kind which ends all life." Najwah replied, his voice heavy with trepidation. "It used to be one of us, the noblest of our kind, Zinda." he shook his head in dismay. "You humans did this, killing the world for your greed and what not. With all these wars and killing. You were destroying our world. She couldn't bear the loss, and in anger and sorrow she changed and gave birth to those wretches you call, Blessed. The great mother..." Najwah looked fondly at the ever-present green mist around him. "The great mother had to do something. Zinda was killing every living thing in her rage. So, mother sealed her in this for eternity. But she grows stronger in her children and she bears resentment against our kind. Our kind has been fighting against them for a long time, but their numbers grow with time and the great war will soon be upon us." The little snake shivered at the thought of the day.

"Destruction wouldn't be such a bad thing," Arash said morosely.

"..." Najwah stared at him in disbelief. "What do you mean?"

"You know better than anyone what we live through. We are stuck in the midst of the fight between your kinds. Dying wouldn't be such a bad thing. It would put an end to this madness." Arash said bitterly. "We don't have any place in your world. We live to serve the blessed and die in our empty houses cold, hungry, and broken."

Najwah laughed hysterically, his eyes shining with insanity. "It has been a long a time since a Ruh had bonded with a human, but I never knew that I would have bonded with such a coward."

"...You yourself are no brave soul, feeding on the misery of others and hiding in the dark." Arash scoffed.

"...I" Najwah struggled for words. "I did what I did to survive, unlike you who wants to die."

"Who said I wanted to die?" Arash replied.

"Uh! What? You are wishing for the destruction of everything."

"Wishing? I wished for many things." Arash said as tears pooled in his eyes. "I wished for strength when Babak pushed me down. I wished for the health of my brother. I wished to save my brother when the Giants took him. I... I wished." He choked on his words as he instinctively reached for his right eye. His fingers traced the shape of an eye over an empty socket. "I wished for many things and nothing ever came. But now the time of wishing is over." Arash brushed away his tears as madness gleamed in his left eye. "They will have to pay. They will pay for everything they have done...Pay for everything!" Arash let out a deep guttural roar.

Najwah shivered at the sight of the boy before him. It wasn't so much the words or how he said it. It was the emotions that were brewing inside Arash that had left him shivering in fear. He had fed upon the memories and emotions of thousands, but he had never encountered something so dark.

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Deo stared at the blue crystallized eye before him, he studied it from different angles, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't find something special about it. No matter how he looked at the eye, It was a normal stone in the shape of a human eye, but he remembered the blue mist that killed the giant and he clearly remembered it disappearing into this eye. "What's so special about you? What are you not telling me." Suddenly he was struck with a strange idea. He pushed eye over his right eye and it seamlessly merged into the eye socket. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain run through his head. He could hear the sound of a rolling sea as his right eye buzzed with pain. He howled in pain as he tried to pluck out the eye, but no matter how hard he tried the eye wouldn't come out.

"Arghh!" Deo dropped to his knees as the pain became unbearable. But suddenly the pain stopped and he heard a sweet melody, his whole body shivered in happiness as he heard a heavenly voice, "My child..."

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Arash walked out of the house, everything around him was in shambles. He immediately noticed where he was. It was the town's square, the buildings around him were barely standing, but the house that he just walked out of stood

straight without a single crack on its surface. A great wall could be seen to his left. It rose to a startling height of 50 meters and Arash could see the lower half of the giant's body frozen in place. It shone with a same blue hue

of the mana stones.

"Hey..." Arash heard a man call out to him. He had seen him before at the mines. One of the high earners got to live in the best house of the town, close to the residence of the Blessed. 'He must have seen me getting out of the house.' Arash thought as he walked over to the man.

The man was a giant among men, his arms were thicker than Arash's thighs, but as Arash came closer he noticed a thin black string connecting him to the man. He frowned at the sight of the string, but soon he was baffled by the behavior of

the man before him. "Forgive me, my lord. I couldn't see you in the dark and made mistook you..." The man kowtowed to Arash, refusing to raise his head from the ground. Disrespecting a blessed was a capital offense and men had died for much less than what he had just done.

"What have you done?" Arash asked Najwah through his mental link. The little snake smugly appeared on his shoulder. 'Give you a taste of what my powers can do. Focus on the string and you would be able to control the rune.' Arash did as he was told. Just as he concentrated on the string he felt all the emotions, thoughts of the man before him. 'What have I done. How could I have been so blind? How could I. He isn't talking…''This is bad, I am done for' Arash could clearly hear the man's thoughts, feel his fear. It felt as if he was a passenger in the other man's body.

"Get up!" Arash said casually, but to the man before him, it sounded like a thunderclap. Arash found it amusing, how fear could turn a giant into a little mouse. To the man, Arash appeared to be giant that towered over him. His body shone with a deep blue luster of the mana stone armor, hiding thick bulging muscles underneath him. Arash marveled at the mastery of the little snake as he saw the frightened man gawking at empty air, refusing to make eye contact with him.

"What else can you do?" Arash curiously asked the little snake. The snake disappeared in a flourish and Arash found himself surrounded by a sea of memory globes. Every single thing that the man had ever done or seen was present here.

The little snake happily swam through the memory globes as he gobbled the memory globes at a frightening pace. Arash found himself with a new set of memories. The man before him was called Sami, a miner like Arash. He was married to a beautiful wife, but still had a relationship with the neighbor, Farah. Sami was not a good soul; he had cheated, lied, and killed his own kind for the mana stones. Countless orphans had died by his hand, all for the sake of him maintaining his lifestyle.

Noticing Arash's displeasure, Najwah decided to devour all the memories of the man before him, leaving him an empty shell. Sami stood before Arash with a blank expression on his face, staring at the empty air.

"What will happen to him?" Arash asked.

"He will stay like this forever, not moving from this place. If he is lucky, the winds will take him." Najwah replied casually as slowly digested the newly harvested memories.

"And what if he is unlucky?"

"He will starve to death, while not even knowing what killed him," Najwah replied with a matter-of-factly tone.

Arash grimly stared at the man and was surprised at his own lack of surprise. Deep inside, he knew that the man before him deserved such fate. He solemnly nodded towards the little snake as he walked towards the great wall.

"Where are you going?"

"To look for my brother." Arash casually replied. Najwah wanted to tell him that his brother was dead, but for some reason, he didn't say anything and quietly followed Arash as they scaled the walls. Countless heads and limbs of dea men protruded out the great wall of earth. Arash searched for hours and hours, digging out countless bodies buried under the destruction brought by the giants. His legs ached with pain, while his hands were bloodied from digging into the cold, hard ground.

Until finally, he saw familiar cloak in the distance. His heart drummed in his chest as he broke into a run. 'Firuz!' his heart prayed for him to be alive as he ran with all his might. He stopped a few feet away from the boy, his eyes glued to the cloak that fluttered in the gentle wind. His heart lurched at the sight of the cloak as the way it clung to the figure suggested that the boy was missing lower half of his body.

Arash steeled his heart as he crossed the longest fifteen feet of his life. He dropped to his knees, his fists clenched tightly while the nails of his fingers drew blood. "Firuz..." Arash weakly called out, choking on his own words. "Get up...I will take you outside. You can go wherever you want... Hey! Are you still angry with me? I went just like you told me and you know what I found the man... You were right, there was a man there. Hey..." Arash gently tugged at the cloak revealing a grey mud figure with the likeness of Firuz.

Arash cradled the figure as tears streamed down his left cheek, he helplessly looked around. "Somebody help me... Help me! My brother is not feeling well." Arash fiercely hugged his brother; under the force exerted by his hug the grey porcelain figure shattered into thin grey dust, drifting with the wind. Arash held onto the empty cloak as he cried for his brother. Soon his tears dried as he sat in silence, his thoughts hidden deep underneath the cold face.

He wordlessly stood up and started walking towards the east. Najwah silently followed him as he scaled the great wall climbing towards the direction of the mana deposits. Najwah noticed something beneath the ground, he felt a strong sense of fear from underneath the ground. "Arash, there is someone buried beneath here!" Najwah called out to him, but Arash refused to listen.

Seeing Arash's indifference Najwah shrugged and decided to forget about it, but suddenly a muffled cry of help fell upon Arash's ear. He froze as he looked back, straining his ear but he couldn't hear anything.

"So, you finally decided to listen." Najwah snorted. "There is someone buried over there." He pointed over to the source of the sound.

Arash rushed over to the place where Najwah had pointed and frantically dug with his hands. After digging for a good 2 feet, his fingers hit against a concrete wall buried underneath the ground. He winced in pain as he studied the broken nail as it limply hung from his index finger. Gritting his teeth, he pulled out the nail and started searching for a place to dig, finally he found the end of the wall and dug around it. Soon, he dug into a little pocket between the broken wall and the ground. He could see two tiny little figures, huddled together in a small space. Frightened eye stared at him from the darkness. It took a while for him to notice, that it was a little girl, holding onto an infant.

"Come here" Arash called out to the little girl in a soft voice, but the girl was in shock and refused to listen to him. She just held onto the baby in her arms.

"Cast your rune on her!" Arash bellowed at Najwah.

"...I am not your slave." Najwah grumbled under his breath but did as he was told.

Arash was once again disoriented by the change of perspective. He could feel the crippling fear of the girl and the numb feeling in her legs. Her legs were broken. The infant in her arms was cold to touch and there were no signs of breathing. He could see himself through the eye's of the little girl and feel her apprehension as she tightly hugged her dead brother. She didn't trust him.

This time Arash didn't need to ask Najwah for help. Suddenly he felt silent whispers in the back of the girl's mind, urging her to trust Arash. Suddenly the man before him didn't seem as dangerous as before. Najwah worked his magic and the girl started to trust Arash.

"Come here little one. I will not hurt you. Come here." Arash called out to her and this time the girl showed a response. She groaned in pain as she reached for Arash with her left hand while still holding tightly to her brother with her right.

Arash reached out to the girl but his hand came few inches short, he groaned in frustration as he searched through the girl's memory looking for her name. "Mehru, just a little bit more. I will get you to safety." Arash turned towards Najwah. 'Can you dull the pain in her legs?' Just as he asked, he felt the pain disappear from the girl's leg. His eye widened in surprise, he had called out to Najwah out of desperation he never knew that the little snake could do this.

Mehru crawled with great difficulty towards Arash, her hand reaching towards him for help. Finally, he was able to reach her, he tightened his grips on the girl's hand and slowly pulled her out. The girl looked tightly clung to his broad chest as she soundlessly sobbed.

Arash gently patted the girl's back, as she cried in relief. Arash looked at the dead infant, held tightly in her right arm. 'He has been dead for a while.' Arash lamented. He expectantly looked up to the little snake. He knew how important that little brother of her was and he knew how fragile she was at the moment. She couldn't bear the death of her brother in this state. "Can you make her forget?" Arash pleaded.

"Why ask, when you know the answer. If I take this memory away from her. She would be no better than the man we left behind."

"...There must be something we can do. Not doing anything will break her nonetheless." Arash racked his brain for an answer. He couldn't help but remember the loss of his own brother and suddenly a wild idea came to him. "If not take it away, can you replace it? Turn me into her brother. Erase this infant and place me in his place... It should be possible"

"...I don't know what effect this will have on this girl. She will be changed in some ways. I am not omnipotent, there are bound to be some holes, left into her memory."

"Just, do what you can, leaving her like this is no mercy to her. I will deal with the consequence later."

Najwah stared silently at the girl in Arash's arm before letting out a long sigh. He eyed Arash for a moment and then changed Mehru's memories. She drifted off to a long sleep and forgot all about her little brother and found herself being spoiled by an elder brother. The image of a strict but loving brother slowly formed in her mind.

Arash buried the infant in the same pit where he pulled out the little girl and held onto the unconscious girl.

"What do you plan to do now?" Najwah said.

Arash looked up to him, the answer still forming on the tip of his tongue, suddenly he noticed slight traces of white mists around Najwah's body. "What's this around your body?"

Najwah tensed as he heard Arash, but seeing the white mist around him he immediately relaxed. "Ah! this is something which I release when I devour emotions."

"What does it do?" Arash asked with curiosity as he reached his finger to touch the white mist.

"No idea. I worried about it once, but I have gotten used to it for a long time..."

Najwah's words turned to a distant murmur as Arash touched the white mist. It felt cool to touch and a sense of relief washed over him. His soul strength surged a little but soon the white mist disappeared and everything turned to normal. He stood wide-eyed as countless possibilities flashed through his mind.

"What happened?" Najwah asked.

"You asked me to get stronger before?" Arash replied as a smile played on his face.

"Yes, do you know how?"

"Before, I answer that, how much can you feel of what I feel?" Arash asked.

Najwah frowned at Arash, but deep inside he had a strong feeling of foreboding. "...pretty much everything."

"Then you are really going to hate what I have in mind."