Dark Resurrection: Shadows of Nekrom

The tales Lucahn told her were closely related to the Three Aspects that influenced Nekrom's designs. Whether through thaumaturgy —the ability to apply magic in a practical way— or supernatural abilities granted to certain individuals called Divinities, the gods were always there, moving their chess pieces behind the scenes.

For Tristessa, given the very limited experiences she remembered from her life on Earth and the common sense that prevailed there, everything the boy was reading to her should have been pure fiction; tales drawn from the imaginations of people who never expected their words to endure for centuries.

However, in Nekrom, reality surpassed fiction. Tristessa already knew the influence of the divided Aspects of Nekronomika. She knew it, she felt it in her recomposed soul, manipulated by beings from the immaterial world.

She was a believer from the first moment she set foot in that world, and even more so when she died and came back to life.

"…and that was how the Dark Tower collapsed, leaving the alchemist Sarjoule with the lesson that there are forces in the world that men and women are not ready to control, and never will be." Lucahn finished reading the story, more than happy for the attention Tristessa was giving him but equally tired of talking so much. He took a sip of water, removing the dryness from his lips that had not been so busy for a long while. "Do you want me to continue, miss?"

"If you want. I'm not going to force you, Luc… Wait, wait!" the girl exclaimed, forcing the startled boy to turn two pages back. "What is this...?"

"Oh, it's the story of Endrel and Margules. It's a boring love story..." Lucahn complained, puffing out his cheeks and frowning at Tristessa's astonished look. "Do you know it?"

The black-haired girl was in shock: the illustration that accompanied the text in glyphs was of two women, one wearing a revealing robe and snuggling passionately against the chest of the other, who was naked and had two black, angelic wings on her back.

But the most curious —and dreadful— thing was that both women were holding on to a single golden chain, connected to a portal whose access was completely blocked by it.

"No... I don't know the story," she whispered, as the tickling in her shoulders intensified and the anxiety became unbearable. "Can you read it to me? Please!"

"Uh, daddy taught me that I can't refuse the request of a lady I like! Okay..." said the boy, sighing. "But then let's go play with Gaal, okay? He's my dog!"

Lucahn took a breath and began.

"A beautiful woman named Margules lost almost everything in one night. The Red Knives gang invaded her home, burned it down and killed her husband. She managed to escape and took refuge in the local lord's abbey, keeping in her possession only the baby growing in her womb.

Unfortunately, the baby was stillborn. And Margules despaired. She prayed with all her might to the three gods and all their angels to bring her son back to life, but no one answered to her pain.

She prayed day and night, never letting go of her baby's cold body. Until from the heavens descended the most beautiful woman ever seen, with wings as black as night and surrounded by chains of gold, and said to Margules:

"I am Endrel, Angel of Rebirth. Your grief has moved me to pity, and I have begged my master, He who rules over Death and Doom, to have mercy on you and your unborn child."

And Margules asked her: "And what has been your judgment, oh divine heavenly messenger?"

And Endrel answered: "The will of my lord and master is absolute. As Angel of Rebirth, I can bring your son back to life, but there is a very high price for you to pay."

And Margules said to her: "Anything, oh holy lady! I will give you anything for a miracle that will give life back to my son, so cruelly taken from him! I will give you my soul, my heart and my eternal love!"

And Endrel said to her: "Then hear my demands. You shall make me known. Let the people of your village revere me. Make them pray with every birth and every death, in my name and the name of my master. Let my name bring comfort in death and hope in new life. And you, Margules, when you have no more strength to utter words of love to me, when your body collapses and your soul trembles at the inevitable end, like everything that sails the turbulent waters called time and Chaos, I will come for you and you will be my consort, until the end of time."

Endrel breathed life into the face of the unborn child and returned to the heavens. The child opened its eyes and its cries filled the abbey. Margules cried, gave her child all the love a mother can give, and kept her word.

With every denying priest, Margules convinced them of Endrel's love.

With every skeptical lord, Margules convinced them of Endrel's hope.

With every son and daughter mourning the death of their parents, Margules convinced them of Endrel's comfort.

And on the last day of her life, surrounded by the family of her beloved son, the priestess of the angel Endrel, Margules, died happy for the life she led.

And the Angel of Rebirth came to her side, captured her fluttering soul and blew divine air into its essence.

And Margules ascended among the souls of mortals.

Endrel said to her: "You fulfilled all my demands. And for that you were rewarded with a long life, to see your son grow, and have a peaceful death. Now you will stay by my side forever, for that is the last price for you to pay."

But Margules told her: "Immaculate lady, loving you is not a punishment if it is a blessing. Loving you is priceless if it is a gift. Loving you is not deference if it comes from the very core of my soul."

Margules took Endrel's Golden Chains and wrapped herself with them, joining with the angel, embracing the angel and fixing her loving gaze on the angel's divine face.

And Endrel loved Margules, her most faithful servant.

And Endrel loves Margules today, and Margules loves her today.

And Endrel will love Margules until the end of time, and Margules will love her until the end of time.

Lucahn finished reading the tale and let out a deep yawn, totally ignoring the look of concern that dominated Tristessa's face.

The tale was meant to be a sort of religious romance, but for the girl, it had been chillingly revealing information. Along with everything she learned about the Gods, about what she experienced with Darkness, the concept of Discord that seemed so natural to her despite never even having heard the word out loud.

The In-Between and its inhabitants, their identities now revealed. Endrel and Margules, the guardians of the Infinite Corridor. The Angel of Rebirth and her consort, pulling on the chains to perpetuate the corridor's eternal loop, moaning in pleasure as their hybrid bodies of rotting flesh, gears, and miasma of Discord rubbed against each other… Tristessa saw the tale's representation, them immortalized as two beautiful lovers in transcendence, when reality showed two monstrous creatures, worthy of nightmares.

"They are to blame for… this," the girl thought, bringing a hand to her chest. Behind her white shirt, her heart beat against her Baptism in Ruins, the unholy mark that evidenced broken laws that were not to be violated. "Them…and Vel'Moran…"

The name of the God of Chaos echoed in her head, his colossal shade growing ever more present. She said his name aloud, drawing the sleepy boy's attention.

"It's one of the few tales left about Vel'Moran's angels. And let's not even talk about him, there are no books dedicated to his name left," he commented, flipping through pages, thoughtful.

"Why not?" she asked in return.

"Well… Because Vel'Moran blessed the Dark Lady with his power, right? That's why the Empire forbade worshiping him and his angels. Everyone knows that…" the boy explained, shrugging and quickly realizing what he had said. "…or at least everyone who hasn't lost their memory. I'm sorry."

"I'm not offended, don't worry. It's not your fault that I don't know anything about Empires, or Dark Ladies, or the gods. At least I know a little more now, thanks to you." Tristessa placed her hand on Lucahn's head and stroked him, causing the boy to giggle and his ears to turn red. "Do you have any other stories about Vel'Moran?"

"No… See here? There used to be pages, but they were torn off a long time ago," he explained, stopping the turning of the pages over a part of the book where only pieces remained stuck to the spine. "Even if I use my gift, it's not enough to read them."

"Gift?"

Lucahn focused his gaze on the book and grimaced in pain, as if he was suffering from a severe headache. Suddenly, flickering intermittently like a light bulb about to go out, ghostly versions of the book's pages appeared, filling the missing space perfectly. Amber-colored and phantasms, the pages materialized and disappeared nonstop, paralleling Lucahn's effort as small beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"What the…?! W-wait, Lucahn!" Tristessa grabbed the boy's wrist, more shocked by what she was witnessing but equally concerned by the way he was suffering. "Whatever you're doing, stop!"

She was about to let out a cry for help to get Tiara's attention, but Lucahn gave up, breaking his concentration and simultaneously stopping the supernatural activity in the book.

"I tried. Please don't tell mommy," he pleaded, taking a deep breath and pouting to keep from bursting into tears. "That hurt a lot."

"Calm down, it's over now. It's okay," the girl comforted him, using the back of her right hand to wipe away a few tears that managed to escape and begin to run down his cheeks. "What was that? It seemed like… Wait, was that what your mother mentioned? A Divinity?"

Lucahn nodded, not letting go of Tristessa's hand for the time it took her to regain her composure.

"The thaumaturge who tested me said it was called Divinity of Fragmented Reality. I can reconstruct events from the past, according to him, but for now I can only do it with small things and for a few seconds."

"That's amazing!" she exclaimed. She helped the boy by holding the brass cup for him to take a sip of water, noticing that his hands were still shaking. "In your stories you mentioned several people with abilities called Divinities, right? People like you."

"Y-yes. It's not normal for someone to be born with a Divinity. Mommy and Daddy say I'm lucky… And you know what, Miss Tristessa? I am, because I met you! You're my second friend, after Mr. Severus! With you here, the house doesn't feel so empty!"

Tristessa couldn't help but hug that adorable boy, earning a few affectionate laughs from him, and without him seeing the sad expression that formed on her face.

From the photo she had seen in the room on the second floor, she sensed that Lucahn had surely lived his whole life in that house, far from the so-called End World Town, and was blissfully ignorant about family secrets. About the absent children, not mentioned but indirectly confirmed. Why the Mercer and Archeos family had been banished, for reasons only Jin and Tiara know.

What a blessing it was, to live in ignorance, oblivious to dark secrets; ignorant about what was outside the house, what Jin and Tiara feared. Tristessa wished she could say the same for her situation, but if there was something she was sure about, was finding the missing pieces of her memories and answers about her arrival to Nekrom.

"Miss Tristessa? What did you think of my gift?" the boy asked her once they both separated. "Do you think I'll ever be able to read the missing pages?"

"I would like to tell you that I do, but the reality is that I don't know anything about Divinities. You know millions of times more than…" The admiration she felt for the knowledge the boy possessed made an idea pop into Tristessa's head. An idea that filled her with an interesting mix of excitement and fear. The realization made her take the boy by the shoulders. "Lucahn, do you know if there is a Divinity that can bring someone back from the Dead?"

The boy frowned, his eyes pointing in a direction other than Tristessa's expectant face, thoughtful and analyzing his mental repertoire on the subject.

"Perhaps…? I never heard about someone with such a rare Divinity. Why do you ask?"

At last, an opportunity had presented itself. Could she trust Lucahn with her secret? It was one thing to reveal her Resurrection to the two adults, which was a more than risky bet, but it was another thing to have this child who undoubtedly trusted her enough not to inform his mother of his Divinity demonstration. They were only a few years apart in age, there was no one else in that house who could understand her, much less with knowledge of supernatural abilities and miracles.

Tristessa gulped, nervous under Lucahn's inquisitive and curious gaze. She took a deep breath, and said:

"Perhaps I possess a Divinity. You see… I died in the Sea of ​​Trees, and then I came back to life."

 ***

Silence.

The kitchen had sunk into an atmosphere of cold and strange stillness. The birdsong from outside was gone, not even the constant wind blowing the tops of the Sea of ​​Trees to the south could be heard… The dripping of the sink faucet, held back as if frozen. Tristessa could only listen to the calm beating of her own heart, free from the weight of the secret about her Death and Resurrection, and wait for Lucahn to react.

He was looking at her with eyes lost in nothingness, his mouth half open. Tristessa wondered what things were going through his head. Perhaps some background he had read in some other book? Or perhaps he was so impressed that he was literally loss for words?

"Lucahn?" she asked, almost on the verge of laughing at finding her new friend's strange face a little funny. "Hellooooo, Lucahn? Cat got your tong…?"

"Liar."

Finally, he spoke. A cold voice, completely different from the soft and tender one she had already grown accustomed to.

"What?" she lowly asked. She had not expected that reply.

Nor had she expected to see the way Lucahn's face twisted into a demented grimace, gritting his teeth and opening his eyes so wide that they seemed about to pop out of their sockets. And much less, when he opened his mouth and began to scream.

"LIAR! YOU LIE, YOU LIE, YOU LIE!"

Chaos broke out. Unbridled screams, capable of deafening anyone who enters the kitchen. Tristessa felt the shock rise from her bladder to her chest, but she remained frozen in place, unable to understand what was happening as Lucahn spat, screamed and shouted beyond what he could without the support of fresh air in his small lungs.

"WHY ARE YOU TELLING LIES!? ARE YOU CRAZY?! CRAZY, YOU'RE CRAZY, LYING LIKE THAT! WHAT DID I DO TO MAKE YOU LIE TO ME?! ARE WE NOT FRIENDS!? I SEE THAT WE ARE NOT, SINCE A FRIEND WOULD NOT LIE TO ME! DAMN LIAR! YOU THINK YOU CAN LIE TO ME LIKE THAT JUST BECAUSE I'M YOUNGER THAN YOU!? BESIDES A LIAR, YOU'RE A HORRIBLE PERSON! AND A MADWOMAN, IF YOU THINK I'M GOING TO BELIEVE THAT LIE BIGGER THAN A HOUSE! COMING BACK FROM THE DEAD?! NOTHING BUT LIES!

Tristessa couldn't even react when out of nowhere Lucahn took his book and hit her face with it with all his strength. The book spine hit her right in the nose, breaking bone and cartilage, and spreading a cloud of blood in the air. Coming from a ten-year-old child, the blow shouldn't have been so powerful, but there was no doubt that something was more than wrong as the girl was thrown backwards violently, hitting the back of her head against the bottom of one of the cupboards.

"Ah…! Luca…!" Tristessa wanted to scream, to complain about the terrible pain that spread both in front and behind her head. She didn't know where to grab onto, with one hand squeezing her bloody nose and the other desperately trying to grab something in the air, faced with the dizziness caused by the blow when she fell and her eyes covered in tears that clouded her already poor vision. "T-Tiara…!"

The name of the boy's mother, who continued to shout curses and insults without having let go of the blood-stained book, was barely a whisper between Tristessa's lips. Soon the blood that escaped between her nostrils and from the deep cut that fractured the bone of the nose came down to cover the lower part of her face. The metallic taste soon came to filter through her fingers, into her mouth…

"DIE!"

Tristessa's eyes quickly focused on the shadow falling over her, and she barely managed to cover herself with her arms from a new attack by Lucahn: the boy had thrown himself at her, trying to hit her face with the book again.

"DIE ALREADY! DIE, LIAR! THE WORLD WILL BE BETTER WITHOUT PEOPLE WHO LIE! WITHOUT PEOPLE LIKE YOU! WHAT THE HELL WAS DADDY THINKING WHEN HE LET A LIAR LIKE YOU INTO THIS HOUSE?! YOU MUST DIE! DIE NOW, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE…!"

As Lucahn tore his throat apart screaming, he raised his book and brought it down on Tristessa, wanting to do as much damage as possible. Each blow was a wave of pain pulsing against her forearms and hands, and they didn't seem to be about to stop. It was as if a strength and physical resistance unbecoming of a child of his age had possessed him.

As if he had been seized by a sudden wave of madness that converged into a single instinct possible for the boy: the overwhelming need to kill Tristessa.

"Lucahn! What in the Gods is going on?!"

Tristessa heard Tiara's voice joining the deafening chorus of her son. The chaotic sound mixed with the sound of chairs falling to the floor, the clink of glasses and glass breaking into a thousand pieces.

"What are you doing?! Lucahn! LUCAHN!?" She heard Tiara scream, her shadow extending behind the unbridled silhouette of her son who continued to attack with the book, and pages flying in all directions. "BY THE GODS, JIN! JIN!!

"H-help me…!" It was all Tristessa managed to say before her arms, with deep cuts beneath the bloody sleeves of her shirt, lost what little resistance they had left, and her head was at the mercy of Lucahn and what was left of his book.

The blow hit her again in the center of the face, and suddenly, darkness.