“Who’s he?” Quyon asked before Ilon had a chance to respond. They didn’t know anything about the conversation that Ilon and Isoko had, so they didn’t know that Isoko had revealed that the person with violet eyes was male.

 

“The person that you were concerned about. He’s finally left.” Isoko said with her cheerful grin still plastered on her face. Ilon couldn’t tell if it was an act or if she was genuinely glad that the person had left.

 

“He left? Then what was the deal with the nightmares?” Ilon questioned. It was possible that it was totally unrelated, but he had to ask and make sure.

 

Isoko’s grin soured when he asked the question. “He was performing one last test.”

 

“Sorry for interrupting.” Maymun spoke up. “But, who are you and how do you know all this?” Ilon had told them about Cudlin’s wife telling Ilon to go to the bathhouse where he found Bi’wan, but she couldn’t bring herself to trust the words of a stranger she had no idea about.

 

Suddenly, the sounds around them started to fade away. Ilon smelled the sweet scent of blooming flowers and fresh grass. Their scenery remained in the inn, yet it felt more like they were taking a picnic in the prime of springtime.

 

“What just happened?” Quyon muttered in awe. She looked around and noticed that none of the other patrons of the inn seemed to notice the changes. 

 

“I used a bit of my totemic presence to essentially isolate us.” Isoko said. Her hair seemed to be more green than ever and her eyes a brighter red, giving her an unnatural and unsettling look. It was like looking at something they were familiar with, that being a human, and yet they couldn’t recognize it was human.

 

“Totemic presence? You’re a totem?” Maymun raised her voice as she asked with widened eyes.

 

“I am a partial manifestation of a totem who Blessed a grand figure in ages past.” Isoko said as she continued to explain the rest of what she had told Ilon before. “Had I known I would have to explain this again, I would have just waited so I could do it all at once.” She joked.

 

“So you know a lot about the man with violet eyes, but you can’t tell us? Can you tell us what the nightmare business is about then?” Quyon was annoyed. They had a source of information in front of them that could solve a lot of their problems, but it couldn’t tell them anything due to some ridiculous thing.

 

Isoko had to think for a moment to determine if there was a loophole she could abuse to give them hints. “Someone you knew recently perished in a way that removed them from the fundamentals of the world. Then, there was an amplification of nightmares in the district of Mazual that you stayed in.”

 

“But the person with the Totem of amplification perished.” Ilon said in realization.

 

Quyon widened her eyes as she asked. “Does he have a way to use other people’s Totems?”

 

“What happened to the person before they perished?” Isoko asked, trying to get them on the right track.

 

Ilon remembered back to the fight that day. “Bi’wan was covered in violet cracks that were emitting a mist and there was a violet flame on the left side of his face.” 

 

“The totem was corrupted.” As soon as Isoko said this, there was an extremely large cracking sound, followed by a whizzing sound that was like pressurized air trying to escape through a small opening. The sounds of the inn started to return shortly after.

 

“What’s going on?” Maymun shouted over the whizzing sound. Ilon was directly across from her, but he could hardly hear her shouting. 

 

Ilon looked over to Isoko who had put her finger up to her lips, signaling for them to be quiet. After a couple of more seconds the whizzing sound faded and the sounds of the inn fully returned.

 

“It looks like I said a bit too much.” She said with a tired voice. 

 

“Will you be okay?” Ilon asked.

 

Isoko nodded. “I’ll be fine after I rest for a bit.”

 

“And what exactly was that?” Quyon asked with fear staining her voice. There was nothing visual that happened, which made the cracking and whizzing sound far more frightening. 

 

“That was me crossing the line of what I was able to tell you by an inch. What just happened was a warning.” Isoko said, the tiredness fading from her voice by the end of her sentence.

 

“What would happen if you continued?” Ilon asked out of curiosity. He had several other questions brewing in the back of his mind but he wasn’t sure whether she’d be able to answer them or not.

 

“I’d de-manifest and be sent back to the Totemic Realm. The sound you heard was a slight fracture between our realms.” Isoko said casually.

 

“What does that even mean?” Maymun could hardly follow the conversation in the first place with all the tiptoeing around, nevermind what realm fractures were.

 

Isoko clenched her hands together. “What it means is that I would get ripped from this realm to the Totemic Realm.” She tore her hands from each other with great force. “And a large portion of the realm would come with me.”

 

“How large, exactly?” Quyon spoke slowly, almost cautiously even. Ilon doubted that she would ever tell them anything that would cause a realm fracture, but Quyon seemed like they were treading on thin ice. Then again, mistakes were things that all beings made and Ilon doubted Isoko had never made a mistake before.

 

Quyon continued before Isoko had a chance to respond. “This inn? All of Mazual?”

 

“More like the majority of Antoss.” Isoko replied calmly. Ilon instantly felt himself get clammy. One innocent question that seemed harmless had the possibility of destroying the majority of the Antoss Kingdom.  “Of course, that’s only if I tell you about the highly forbidden things. Small things will only cause cracks like what previously happened.”

 

“What if you kept answering questions that caused cracks? Would it cause a fracture?” Ilon thought it might be the case, but freaked out a little more internally when Isoko confirmed it.

 

“Correct. Multiple cracks would chain into a fracture and multiple fractures would chain into a rupture.” Isoko maintained a calm speaking voice.

 

“What sort of damage would a rupture cause?” Quyon asked.

 

This time Isoko didn’t respond and only gave them a smile. It was a chilling smile to the point that Ilon felt like his eyes were getting colder looking at it.

 

“All of Nyana?” Ilon guessed in Quyon’s place. If one fracture caused as much damage as it did, then it wouldn’t be unrealistic if all existence was erased by several of them chained together.

 

“I won’t answer that for your sanity's sake. All I’ll say is that a rupture is fundamentally different from a fracture.” Isoko responded, which in no way helped protect their sanity.

 

“So why are you able to tell us this, but not about other things?” Maymun questioned. She understood that it had something to do with the fundamentals of the world, but realm cracking and fracturing sounded pretty fundamental to keeping the world intact.

 

“The main things that I’m not able to talk about are usually not imprinted into the world’s will. Granted, there are some things that are imprinted that I can’t talk about, case and point.” Isoko gestured at the three of them.

 

“The Cursed?” Quyon asked. She knew that they were different from all other people of Nyana, but she didn’t get why they were so important that talking about it to a Totem could cause a crack or fracture between realms.

 

“Correct.” 

 

“What if a regular person were to talk about these things?” Maymun asked even though she pretty much knew the answer. If it did the same as talking to Isoko then Antoss would have already been gone due to them.

 

“I’m sure you already know the answer. The only reason why it’s so bad for me is because I’m a Totem of considerable power. The more power you gain as a Totem, the more restricted you are in this realm.” Isoko said a bit wistfully. 

 

Ilon was relieved at that note. If he was correct in his assumption of who Isoko’s Blessed was, then there was a possibility of only three others like Isoko in Nyana. 

 

Isoko continued before the three of them had a chance to ask any more questions. “Unfortunately the crack has taken a lot out of me and there’s still plenty of work, so I must go.”

 

“Sorry, but can I quickly ask two more questions? I doubt you’ll be able to answer them, but I need to check just in case.” Ilon stopped her before she got up.

 

“Fine. What is it?” She asked impatiently. 

 

“What are Horrors exactly? How was the man with violet eyes able to make an artificial Horror?” Even if she said that she couldn’t answer, that in itself was a form of information. It meant Horrors likely had something to do with the fundamentals of the world in that case.

 

Isoko let out an exacerbated sigh, “I can’t answer that. Hmm, the only thing that I can confidently say is that artificial is not the correct term for it.”

 

“What do you mean by that?” Quyon tilted her head. 

 

“Figure it out yourselves.” Isoko said as she lifted herself up using the table. Ilon noticed that her hands were slightly shaking when she did so.

 

“Are you okay?” Ilon asked with concern.

 

Isoko gave him an annoyed look as her face dropped back into her stone cold mask. “I’m alright, I just overdid it a bit. I’ll be fine with some rest. Don’t forget our deal.”

 

“I won’t.” Ilon responded as Isoko started to leave. “Rest well.”

 

“What was that all about?” Maymun asked as she watched her go. “She got super bitchy towards the end.”

 

“She probably didn’t want us to see her in a weak state. She did subtly boast that she was a grand totem after all.” Quyon could only assume that beings such as Isoko would have a certain level of pride.

 

Ilon mulled about it for a moment. “It’s also possible she left because her tiredness could cause her to easily make a mistake.” A single mistake that could have disastrous consequences.

 

“Still, she could have been nicer about it.” Maymun pouted. “Whatever. What did she mean by not artificial though?”

 

Quyon and Ilon took a while thinking it over, yet neither of them could come up with a solid answer. It was possible that they were mistaken in the thinking that it was the man with violet eyes that created the violet orb in the first place.

 

“Artificial means man-made, right? Maybe the violet orb was a natural thing in and of itself, just that He gave it to Bi’wan.” Ilon was frustrated with only being able to theorize. He wished that they had more answers. He let out a sigh as even if they did obtain more answers, they wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

 

“That leaves the question of what the violet orb exactly is then.” Quyon said as she leaned further into her chair, sinking down slowly.

 

“What if it’s concentrated Horrors blood?” Maymun offhandedly said as she leaned her head on her hand.

 

Both Ilon and Quyon looked over at her, not expecting her to get involved, not to mention provide a plausible theory. 

 

“It’s definitely possible.” Quyon said as pinched her chin. “Bi’wan’s power increased far more than when Hellion took the small amount of Horrors blood.”

 

Ilon also chimed in, “I think the fact that he faded into violet mist is also a pretty good indicator.” 

 

“You two always overthink things. Why does it matter if it’s artificial or not? A person was still turned into a Horror.” Maymun scoffed at them. Maymun didn’t get why they talked and talked about things that didn’t have to do with them or the enemies in front of them.  

 

“That’s true.” Ilon couldn’t say anything else in response. She was right in a sense. Ilon certainly thought that trying to expand upon their information through theorizing was important, but there were times where they got so bogged down by the details they lost track of the bigger picture.

 

“We need to attempt to find out everything we can since we’re going to be reporting it to the other Cursed.” Quyon retaliated. 

 

Maymun let out a loud huff, “They’ll probably tell us to not get involved since we’re still ‘young’.” Maymun said with air quotes. It was true that they were young at just 18 years old, with Ilon being 16, but the average lifespan of a Cursed was around 35 to 40. 

 

 “Doesn’t matter. We need to do what we can.” Quyon said as she turned and stared Maymun in the eyes.

 

“And what is that? Speculate on things we have little to no knowledge or information of?” Maymun flared out the arm she was resting her head on. “Fat chance of them putting it to use anyways. They’ve got their own problems they need to deal with.”

 

“This isn’t just about us though, this is about all of Nyana. You do realize that a war could break out at any moment due to His actions.” Quyon narrowed her eyes. “This isn’t something we can be wishy-washy on. They’ll understand the seriousness of the situation, they have to.” 

 

“Now, now. Calm down you two.” Ilon said as he noticed they were getting some stares as the two of them got progressively louder. He realized that it was probably a bad idea to tell them to calm down considering their personalities.

 

“Don’t tell me to calm down.” Maymun said sharply.

 

Quyon didn’t bother looking at him, “I am calm.” 

 

They both said at the same time. They continued staring into each other's eyes for minutes while silent, not even blinking. At this point Ilon was starting to get worried that they were genuinely angry at each other. 

 

“Gahh.” A second after Ilon thought that, Maymun shouted out, startling him.

 

“It’s my win.” Quyon said smugly. “That makes it what, 57 to 52? You’re falling behind.” 

 

“Uhh, what are you doing?” Ilon asked precariously. He had never seen them do this before when they were young, so it had to be something more recent.

 

“A staring competition, obviously.” Maymun’s tone was leaking with sass, as it did whenever she lost something.

 

Ilon felt like an idiot for a moment. “I know that, but why?”

 

“It’s what we do whenever we want to settle an argument. It doesn’t get ugly that way. Believe it or not we fight pretty often, even though it’s usually over pretty small things.” Quyon came to his rescue and responded.

 

Ilon supposed that it was better than staying mad at each other every single time they had an argument. 

 

“Oh right.” Maymun suddenly exclaimed. “You were all talking about some grand figure that she blessed, who was that? You seemed to have some sort of idea.”

 

Ilon looked towards Quyon to see if she wanted to answer instead, but she gestured for him to go ahead. “The only person ever recorded to have been Blessed by more than two totems, the founder of the Duhnovo Empire.”