Dark Resurrection: Shadows of Nekrom

Tristessa couldn't remember the last time she had eaten breakfast as voraciously as she had on that occasion, gulping down tea without caring about the burning in the walls of her throat and gobbling down slices of bread and butter as if there was no tomorrow. Ironically, as she finished the sliced ​​apple, she realized that she could remember banal and unimportant things from everyday life, but with no other protagonists than herself. Interactions, conversations, all kinds of exchanges with people had been replaced in her memories like shadows speaking in dialects impossible to understand.

And of course, she couldn't connect her threads of thought. An ocean of disjointed memories, chaotic by mind-breaking turbulence that prevented her from finding any meaning. Dissociation in its purest form.

"It feels like I'm dreaming… But no, I know this is real. It has to be real," Tristessa thought, clenching her fists and then relaxing them. What she could remember perfectly were the wolves' teeth tearing at her body, as well as the instruments of the Death Surgeons reassembling her soul. The memory of the sensations of extreme pain made her tremble, plagued by shivers. "That torture…"

Trying to clear her punished mind, the girl sat on the edge of the bed and arranged the tea set and the dishes on the tray. Her gaze wandered to the side, towards that abandoned photograph. Out of curiosity, she took it and wiped the dust off it with the back the sleeve of her nightgown: a colorless family photo, showing Jin and Tiara dressed in formal clothes and, to Tristessa's surprise, in the company of who were apparently their children: a baby in Tiara's arms, a boy who was not yet a decade old and who was clearly not the one called Lucahn, and a teenage girl, perhaps close to adulthood, with her hair tied in a bun.

"Lucahn must be the baby. And the other two children…?" she wondered, arranging the frame with the photo on the nightstand for anyone to appreciate it. "It's a very nice memory."

It was strange to have left the photo there, dirty and abandoned. Maybe if she asked Tiara, taking advantage of the fact that Jin was out hunting… No, thinking about it better, that idea sounded extremely dangerous seeing it in perspective. Instead of running like a madwoman straight into a wall, Tristessa had to take small steps if she wanted to gain her hostess's trust. Or at least convince her that she was not dangerous, whatever the reason for said suspicion.

She could not ignore the discussion that Jin and Tiara had. There was a vortex of sadness between the words they exchanged, and that most likely had to do with the banishment they suffered.

"First things first, I will take all this to Tiara and help her with the cleaning. It's the least I can do in gratitude," the girl said quietly, determined to stand up. It didn't happen. Her legs wouldn't respond. "…alright. Haha, sure it's difficult."

She wasn't tired. Her stomach was full and she wasn't sleepy. What kept her paralyzed, sitting on the bed and shaking a little, was the astronomical level of anxiety she had been unconsciously feeding with each passing minute. It was a level of vulnerability as great as the one she felt seconds before running for her life and losing it at the mercy of the giant wolves and their small allies, the so-called spinnaraks.

What could she say and what couldn't she? What could she ask and what couldn't she? What to reveal and what not? Clearly, her great ignorance about aspects of that region that were apparently common knowledge had been something strange to Jin Mercer, while Tiara had only needed a quick visual judgment to know that there was something wrong with her.

Something that made her wish for Tristessa's quick departure from her home.

Needless to say, the girl had then taken it upon herself to put her feet deeper into the mud, but it was too late to remedy mistakes.

"Maybe Jin could believe that I have amnesia, but Tiara surely won't," she thought, letting out a sigh that echoed in the silent room. "What can I do to gain their trust?"

She took a deep breath, purging part of the uneasiness, and stood up, knowing that she wasn't going to make any progress sitting there immersed in doubt. With the tray with the tea set in her hands, she was about to go towards the door but a thought suddenly invaded the forefront of her mind.

"If I go out like this, I'll look like a shameless girl." Tristessa looked down at her nightgown, a bit too big in the waist and clearly made for a bustier woman. "Maybe in the wardrobe…?"

Inside the wardrobe were several sets of clothes covered in dust, mostly dresses accompanied by corsets that she had no way of trying on herself. The simplest and easiest thing to wear—not to mention that it was perhaps the only articles her size—was a white shirt, black pants, and gray shoes.

After finishing dressing, Tristessa looked at herself in the mirror, which had been damaged by years of constant attack by moisture. With one eye she analyzed her own appearance, but with the other she watched her reflection with a certain paranoia, with the memory of her encounter with her doppelgänger still fresh in her mind.

"Absolutely normal. Add a tie and I could pass for an office worker. Or at least that's how it would be on Earth," she thought, stretching her shirt a little further under her pants to remove wrinkles. From her point of view it was nothing outstanding but it was the closest thing to the modern style of her world. "Anyway, there is something more important than what one wears over one's skin."

Smiling, Tristessa took the comb she had found in one of the inner drawers of the wardrobe and began to run it through her hair, now clean and without any trace of blood. The sensation was comforting, relaxing her latent nerves. With each stroke, the nausea she felt vanished and her worries seemed to lose some of the weight they inherently possessed.

Soon, that onyx-colored waterfall that hung from her head was almost perfect, smooth and soft to the touch, only lacking a touch of perfume that unfortunately she was not going to find there.

"I'm ready," she whispered, after leaving the comb in its place and taking the tray with the tea set. She let out a sigh, a last effort to ease her nerves. "…I'm not ready."

Outside she instantly found herself with the stairs that connected to the ground floor. She went down, her footsteps threatening to make the wooden surface of the steps creak. The hall of House Mercer was filled with evidence of the story Jin had told her about the place: stuffed animal heads hanging on the walls, skins used as carpets, and glass-enclosed shelves protecting valuable body parts like claws and small bones, and the occasional archaic weapon such as bows, crossbows, and hunting knives.

The cup and teapot clinked dangerously as the girl's hands began to shake, the moment she passed by the stuffed head of what was clearly a giant wolf. Her feet betrayed her, freezing in place so that she would be subjected to the gaze of the predator that killed her.

"Calm down… Everything is okay…" she whispered quietly, trying to lower her heartbeat. It was impossible not to remember their mouths dripping with warm saliva and fresh blood, those teeth piercing and tearing. The implicit evil in those red eyes, creatures that fed on the flesh and fear of their victims. "…Ugh…Ah…"

"Are you scared of Vargs, Miss?"

By some miracle Tristessa didn't throw the tray into the air in fright. Her eyes were freed from that paralyzing curse called terror and they lowered, finding the chubby face of Lucahn Archeos, looking at her with a friendly and adorable smile. He had inherited his mother's hair color, as well as her curls, and he was wearing a mustard-colored cloth sweater, shorts, and socks that almost reached his knees. He hugged a large book to his chest, with a title engraved against its leather surface and written with symbols that Tristessa had never seen before.

"You are Lucahn, right? Yeah, they scare the hell out of me," she replied, managing to form a nervous smile.

"Vargs are the most dangerous beasts in the Sea of ​​Trees at the End of the World, Miss," he explained, standing next to the glass case that housed the wolf's head and pointing at it with his finger. "Their bite is so strong that it can crush bones with ease."

She knew that much, having experienced it firsthand. Still, Tristessa's fear slowly faded at how adorably cute the boy looked like this, a scholar in the making.

"It is said that vargs used to be ordinary wolves, until the Dark Lady possessed them with her malice and turned them into these beasts. They subdue weaker creatures with fear and force them to hunt for them, such as spinnaraks. Isn't that interesting, Miss?"

It was, a frightening way. But Tristessa had been stuck with a concept that disturbed her, and as she tried to say it out loud, the words refused to come out.

It was as if they were permeated with fear.

"D-Dark Lady?"

Lucahn blinked several times, but his calm composure did not wane one bit as he explained.

"Well, the Shadow Queen, of course," he said, and put his index finger to his lips. "But don't say her name out loud, or she'll come and curse you."

With that, Lucahn trotted off in the direction of what appeared to be the kitchen entrance, connected to the foyer as well as the dining room. Tristessa followed him, ignoring the chilling wave of cold that caressed her shoulders and ran down her back.

As she entered the kitchen, she saw Lucahn sitting and reading his book at a small table by the window. Embers burned inside a clay oven, and a modest stack of plates and cutlery sat sunk in a basin filled with water. A mechanical pole with a lamp on its top, located in the middle of the kitchen, radiated yellow light with no wire transmitting electricity to it.

Tiara was chopping vegetables and putting them into jars filled with a liquid that was surely vinegar.

"Mrs. Archeos?" The woman turned her head towards the threshold of the entrance and stared at Tristessa as if she were the most disgusting thing walking on earth. Her silence was disconcerting, and forced the girl to react and go straight to the sink. She followed her with that crimson gaze of hers the whole time, increasing her nervousness even more. "I-I will clean the cup and the teapot, if you don't mind. And since I'm here, I will clean and dry the dishes."

It was incredible how a person could cause her so much discomfort. She felt her gaze fixed on her face, from that side. It had been a minute since she heard the sound of the knife against the wooden board, only Lucahn singing to himself as he read, oblivious to the tension that dominated the kitchen, and the splashing of water as she scrubbed a rag inside the teapot.

"You feel confident enough to go through our belongings?" Tiara asked, finally, cutting through the silence like the knife she held in her right hand. "Walk around freely in my house and do whatever you want?"

"N-no, I just didn't want to leave the room wearing a nightgown!" Tristessa exclaimed, turning so quickly that the cup slipped from her hands. In her desperation, she swung her arms in the air and managed to catch it. Her heart was racing, her hands shaking, but the cup was safe. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Archeos. I didn't mean to offend you, I just wanted to thank you for your hospitality…"

"I will overlook your audacity only because I would not want my son to be in the presence of an outsider who does not maintain a minimum of decorum," she interrupted her, then continued with her work. The angry grimace was still static on her face, and it was sure to remain so as long as Tristessa was in her presence.

"Mommy, what is decorum?" she heard Lucahn ask, his face still hidden behind his book.

"I will explain it to you in class this afternoon, sweetie."

For the first time, Tristessa heard that woman speak without hostility. In a way, the tension had dropped, at least in a neutral silence in which both women continued with their chores.

"Do you need help with something, Mrs. Archeos?" she asked him when she left the last plate, dry and shiny, inside the shelf with the others.

"The lamp will soon need an energy crystal change. Do you know how to do it?"

"W-what?"

Energy crystal? Change? Tristessa didn't understand what the woman was talking about.

"Are you stupid, girl? The lamp's energy crystal." Ignoring the insult, Tristessa looked at the light source and found no crystal of any kind, which drove the woman on the edge: Tiara approached her and, roughly grabbing her by the cheeks, forced her to look further down, towards the base of the device: behind a small grate, there was a tiny phosphorescent blue crystal whose light was insignificant compared to that of the lamp. "See? That crystal."

"Y-yes, thank you, miss…" the girl wanted to tell her, but Tiara squeezed her even harder and made her bring her face closer to hers. She locked her gaze with hers, transmitting her hostility without any kind of hesitation.

"Don't witches use thaumaturgy that doesn't involve dark arts?" She asked in a low voice, her blade an uncomfortable distance away from her neck. It was more than obvious that she didn't want to attract her son's attention, and Tristessa understood that perfectly. "You prefer the company of the night, eh?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I-I don't remember anything… I don't know anything at all," the girl whispered, her mouth feeling dry and her legs shaking. "Seriously, I'm not lying."

The knife closed the distance with her neck a little more.

"What's that curse on your chest? Who did it to you, what do you plan to do with it?"

"N-no… I've had this mark since I was born."

"So it's a Divinity? What effect does it have?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean."

"I don't believe you shit."

The fury in Tiara's gaze was comparable to the bloodlust of the Vargs. Tristessa was breathing raggedly, so scared that her hands were gripping the edge of the marble table tightly. If she had intended to gain the woman's trust, she had failed epically.

It was only when Lucahn put the book down on the table to stretch and yawn that Tiara quickly released Tristessa and stepped back, allowing the girl to catch the breath she had never really lost.

"Miss, come and read with me!" the boy invited her, his sleepy but cheerful face completely oblivious to what had just happened.

"What a great idea, Lucahn. You can practice with her to become a professor and follow in mommy's footsteps," the woman told him, gifting him a smile and then looking at the disturbed black-haired girl in the same way. "Besides being ignorant and illiterate, you seem to be harmless so I will let you spoil my son. And needless to say, if you dare lay a finger on him, I swear by the Three Gods that I will kill you."

Leaving Tristessa speechless and visibly terrified, the housewife went to the dining room with a mop and a bucket full of water. There was no doubt that her threat had been serious. All the anxiety that the girl carried overflowed like a drop falling into a full glass; she had to hold herself against the counter to keep from losing her balance, breathing deeply and swallowing hard.

"Don't you know what power crystals are, miss? Look, that's how you change them!"

With eyes close to bursting into tears, Tristessa looked sideways at the boy, who had approached the lamp. Crouching down, he opened the small grate at the base and disconnected the small crystal from a metal plate, instantly turning off the artificial light of the lamp but not the faint phosphorescent glow it seemed to have by default.

"We took the spare one, put it in and…done!" he exclaimed, following those steps with another crystal of the same size but a different shape. The metal plate attracted it and the lamp's light came on again, this time with a little more intensity. "Here, look!"

Lucahn approached the silent girl and offered her the almost exhausted crystal: it was cold to the touch, contrary to what one would expect given its function, and it caused a very slight tingling in the tips of the fingers.

"When daddy comes back we will give it to him, so he can put it together with the other used crystals and Mr. Severus will take them to… Miss?"

Tristessa had barely paid attention to the explanation; she had even taken the crystal unconsciously. A new technology, never before seen in her world, but the fear of Death was overwhelming, overcoming even one of the most basic of human instincts, which was curiosity.

"Miss Tristessa?"

Hearing her own name had a major effect on her, causing her to blink several times and tear her frightened gaze away from the threshold that led to the hall. She happened to see the cute face of the child in front of her, his peace waning and manifesting in a worried expression.

"It's okay, Lucahn." She sketched a smile, false and fragile, while repeating in her head over and over that Tiara was a woman who only cared about her son. Nothing more, nothing less. "S-so, crystals, huh? Where I come from, we don't have these. How are they made?"

"The thaumaturges make them in their alchemy temples, but I don't know how," he replied, shrugging. He accepted the crystal from Tristessa, while she absorbed the new concepts presented to her. "Mommy should know, she's a professor and she teaches me everything she knows. I want to be like mommy, a professor!"

"Well, let me just say that you're on the right track." Tristessa encouraged him and reached out a hand to give him a friendly squeeze on the shoulder, but regretted it almost instantly, her mother's harsh words attacking her conscience. Her hand ended up pointing towards the table, in a quick signal of guidance. "Tell me, what were you reading?"

Putting herself together as best she could, Tristessa walked over to the table and sat down next to the boy. Her uneasy gaze drifted to the kitchen entrance, unable to stop thinking of Tiara's dark countenance and the knife she had pocketed.

"It's a storybook. It has The Dark Tower, The Dawnsinger, Endrel and Margules," Lucahn commented, turning the pages carefully. The paper was a little yellowed, and the edges worn with age. "Do you know any, miss?"

"No... I haven't had a chance to tell your parents yet, but I can't remember much of my life up until the moment Jin found me in the forest," the girl justified herself, half lying. By the confused way the boy looked at her, she laughed in order to calm the atmosphere, as if her amnesia was something unimportant. "I don't know anything about stories, about crystals, about End World. Nothing at all. Not even what this world is called."

"Well... it's called Nekrom. In honor of the Goddess Nekronomika, the first and only one to die," he answered, clearly worried and looking with wide eyes at his companion, not knowing how to treat her now that he knew her condition. "Look, here."

Lucahn turned to the first page of the book, where Nekronomika was illustrated as a female humanoid entity hugging in a dream a sphere of light almost the size of her body, surrounded by the darkness of an empty universe.

"In the time before time, Nekronomika gave birth to the infinite worlds, but they were all empty and cold. Thus, she filled them with Light and Darkness, with Life and Death, with water and fire, with forests and deserts," the boy recounted, reading the glyph text beneath the drawing that took up half the page. "Tired by her unending birthing, Nekronomika fell into an eternal sleep, and her will split into the fundamental aspects that make up the whole, to finish her work: Order, Balance, and Chaos."

Forming the vertices of an equilateral triangle, three entities surrounded the Goddess: a woman with a staff in one hand and a slab in the other; a man with a scale in his right hand, and another man with a dark vortex in both hands.

"The Goddess of Order, Xiliarra. The God of Balance, Kantrus. And the God of Chaos, Vel'Moran. The Three Aspects sought to lay the foundations of reality under their own laws, opposed to each other and in constant conflict."

Lucahn turned the page, while Tristessa listened, her troubled mind calming down little by little.

"Xiliarra sought to fill the worlds with Life, Light, perpetuity, and perfection; a vision of Order destined to fail. Kantrus sought to fill the worlds with perpetual stability, without time and without momentum; a vision of Balance where everything was nothing. Vel'Moran sought to fill the worlds with Death, Darkness, strife and entropy; a vision of Chaos incompatible with any living being."

Finally, Lucahn turned to the last page of that tale, where Nekronomika vanished into the darkness of the cosmos, and her three aspects took their place around her sphere, now filled with an endless play of light, shadows, and colors.

"Nekronomika sensed the conflict of her aspects in her dreams and conveyed to them her last will: to debate each other for all eternity, subjecting the worlds to all fundamental laws. Thus the Goddess died, leaving behind the Three, who to this day and forever will impart their influences upon all things, upon the seas and the lands, upon the day and the night, until the Eternal Conflict is over and with it all."

Lucahn fell silent, leaving Tristessa to meditate in silence on what she had learned and its significance.

Nekrom, that new world, its name finally revealed to her. A first but massive step forward, towards the reasons for her presence there, towards the reason of her amnesia closely related to that world.

And, more than anything, a first step that towards the path that, hopefully, was going to take her back home.

"Would you like to read more to me, Lucahn?" she asked him, smiling at him and earning the boy's enthusiasm.

"Yes!"