Hearthsoul Chronicles 84 I am Yoid

"He was seductive. That radiance of his was enough to bind the minds of lesser beings." Yoid sighed, "I miss him." He looked to rrin. "I miss you."

"Miss ?"

There was a change. rrin saw it, felt it. Moreover, it wove itself into a sense of deep familiarity. A warm one.

Yoid grew taller, not much, inches at least. His hair flowed long, fading into a whiter, radiant hue. His clothes, the prior dark rags, lded into a brown tunic, and a large, pooling white coat followed. In a mont, he beca luminous, dazzling.

A corona of light rayed from him.

rrin saw this and resisted the urge to bow, to worship. "Who are you?"

"I am Yoid the Truthful, and I am the eternal companion of the El'shadie." He smiled, genuine. "I don't know what to do now…" There was a shyness to him. He knelt, "Do you accept ?"

"Accept you?"

"Would you once again allow into that beautiful splendor of a world?" His face softened, brows a certain upward bend, lips a thin line. Sadness.

Why sadness? "How would I do that?"

He moved closer, his features lightened by the other radiance: rrin's. "Just say it. Say you allow access. Let in. Let please bask in your glory again. To move through those white fields, below that clear sky. Let in."

Clear sky?

White fields?

rrin sensed fragility.

"That's not how the grey world is—"

"He's lying." An interruptive voice, a soft contralto. Catelyn.

rrin peered past. Catelyn, on the floor, was crawling, gasping. Her clothes were drenched from the prior perspiration. "What are you saying?"

Yoid seized his face, eye to eye. "Don't listen to her; rember, she did not even tell you about the Telemir. She just wanted to use you, but I want to love you. Be with you. Your companion."

"You do?" rrin tried to think, couldn't.

"He's lying," Catelyn said. "He is not Yoid the Truthful."

"Then who am I?" Yoid roared, a chaotic tremble through the chamber, dust raining.

Catelyn shouted, "Look at it!" She pointed at the stele. "There's no ntion of a Yoid the Truthful, but there's another."

"Who?"

"Yoid the Deceiver."

Yoid scowled.

"The one that was split by the mighty Shaedoran: Taka!" Catelyn collapsed, weak. "He is the great deceiver!"

"Ah, that's enough!" Yoid said, standing. "That's plenty talking. I don't see what use you have for an orifice. You don't need a mouth!"

Catelyn trembled, her lips twisting back, blurring as a thing cleansed. She murmured, muffled.

"What did you do?" rrin said, still plagued by a dull mind.

"Ah, this was too rushed, wasn't it?" Yoid rubbed his brow. "But I had to. I just couldn't wait." A wide smile curled on his face. "You practically spill your power. What can I do but fall into that seduction?"

rrin was lost.

"El'shadie and his companion… What a joke, but I suppose there's a certain truth to that. I have known my share of El'shadies."

This tale has been pilfered from . If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

rrin tried to move.

"But I tried, didn't I?" He glanced at Catelyn. "You are annoying, you know that? Also, calling a liar? That's an insult. There is a truth to my words; I am truthful. But you, you are an annoying thing. To know the old tongue, to read the stele. I call that an anomaly. But I suppose such things would have to always happen in this odd world of yours."

"Who are you?"

Yoid regarded him. "I am Yoid. That is enough."

"Where is Kzeith?"

"Ah, always the savior." Yoid smiled, pointed at himself. "Here."

"What?"

"I did tell you he will never do anything to you." Mischief in his tone. "As I said, he is close. Very close. Practically the sa."

rrin knew logic in those words, but simply couldn't find it. "What are you talking about?"

"Surely your mind isn't that languid. Think, rrin, think." Yoid smiled. "What did I say to you?"

He sorted the mories, and found them.

"You said you were related to Kzeith. Closer than I think. A housed family."

"Yes," Yoid said. "He is a house. My house. And I live in it. Why not offer yours?"

That stirred the deepest awareness—that identity that grew for the honorific words. A resistance arose with it. Not this one, it felt like. An envious defiance. Not this one. Not this body. rrin bathed in that cognizance, allowed its desired ascension. His ascension.

In a mont, his mind surged with a sensory maelstrom. Disengage. Disengage. He knew danger, felt it, dreaded it. He lifted his head, t Yoid, that luminance about him, almost blinding. "No!" He achieved.

A corner smile. "And you think therein lies a choice?" Head tilted. "No. Today, a change of power must rise. A new El'shadie."

That did sothing.

A mont, he stord the force; that rilling tide of power. Igniting it gave strength to the frailty. That aweso power—the seduction. Sense proved Yoid's desire. A want that would not be allowed.

Whatever this was, whatever he was. Today was not that day!

The wind howled, air rifts spiraling through the oval dark chamber. Within, two human lamps stood, casting brilliant white over its space. One, however, was brighter. rrin reared his hands, the weaves curling through as he spun them. Caster ans.

"Go!" He said. "Please go!"

Yoid rolled his eyes. "Seriously, aren't you even curious about what I know? Of what I am? The El'shadie has more mysteries than this world can handle. Silence, and I will tell you."

"Hold your silence."

"If you say so." He smiled. "Catelyn cannot breathe!"

A gurgling rattle swelled into the loudness—through the violent spinning, he heard it. He glanced, broke intentness, the wind, unreeling. Catelyn, sprawled on the searing floor, curled, legs bent, fingers clawing on her face—lips. Searching.

"Stop!" rrin said. "Stop that."

"Simply give access," Yoid said, features soothing.

Why does he want my permission? rrin considered that ntation. "How?"

"Again with the dawdling… Just say it. Say the words."

Catelyn twisted, her face paling.

"Free her first," he said.

"Say the words." Yoid smiled, closed the distance. "I am trying to be very cordial now. I am old, very old. You might be El'shadie, the one who will never die. Except you do; you all always do. I, however, will persist. Forever and ever, I will persist. And I am patient. I can wait. Years, hundreds of them. I can linger." He whispered. "Can she?"

The choice bubbled now in rrin's throat. To say them, a breeze of words, passing in a snap. Should he? Logically, she was nothing now—a teacher, yes, but in weight, nothing. The witnesses needed to live, survive these mines, and the freedom that awaited them. They deserved it.

Sacrificing one for the many. A simple choice for an Ashman. Would he? rrin closed his eyes. But I'm not only an Ashman, am I?

No!

The other then…

He regarded Yoid, said, "If I am to die—"

"Die?"

"Isn't that what would happen?" rrin said. "I doubt Kzeith exists within you. No. What you do kills."

"I could have answered if you had asked," Yoid chirped.

"Then answer this…" rrin paused, then: "Who are you?"

"I am Yoid."

"Answer that, and I will give you what you want. You say you are truthful, then you would allow Catelyn to live. Firstly, answer my question."

Calmly, he stirred the internal force—this he achieved by the other. The mind provided a reality where the llow masked the power.

Yoid smirked. "You are not like him at all," he said. "Very well. I suppose this marks your final knowing."

His light brightened. Ornantal. A thing rrin noted served a purely aesthetic purpose. Or perhaps so secret ans of casting.

With it, he answered. "Before the first creatures developed the awareness of being. Before the Maya ca to these lands, before the Orvalen and their high cities, I was. And in that ti, I have been many things. Deceiver to the Orvalen. Lord of Crafts to their highlords. The splitted by the wheel of Taka. I have been many things except one: El'shadie. Now I, too, will beco that."

There was a certain weight to his words—a heaviness that required a mind greater than his.

Yet.

rrin sighed. "You arranged my snapping, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"How?"

Yoid smiled. "Stones infused with lightning have an odd value in this world."

Money.

rrin understood. This had been a plaguing question: Why did the slaves watch him after the battle against Kzeith? There was no reason; certainly, before him, many had achieved such. That should have been dismissed as the act of a dying man.

They did not.

That fear for them had driven his race, and it was that race that sealed his faith. Unconnected, yet it was.

Horror, such planned control.

Finally, he t Yoid's gaze. "I believe in the Almighty."

"And you make them believe you are god." Mockery.

"Maybe. But I believe. The symbols are a thing of flux-motions. Fate, destiny. I might die here. You might get what you want… But I do not believe it. This is not my glorious purpose." rrin glanced at Catelyn, sweat steaming off. "Neither hers."

"What are you?"