This is a very difference piece in AiL in both terms of the story told and the tone. Despite or in part due to that fact, it's an exceptional read.

A little sad at times, but please enjoy the tale Xodus is about to weave for you.

 
Hunger. Thirst. Can one who never fully experience these things truly know what these sensations feels like? To be without substance for days, to have your body craving nourishment yet not being granted what should be a simple request. There isn't an infliction in the world worst than denying the very things your body needs in order to continue on living, and yet it is this infliction in which the wanderer known as the Xodus is experiencing right now.

It has be twice since Xodus witness the rising and falling of the sun and moon in this unusual tundra desert, a relenting place where the very sand itself freezes one to the bone without mercy. Very little food has been found in this place, as for water, it does not exist in this harsh environment. This is not a place for the living.

What has been discovered as far as food was concern could barely be considered edible. Bones of creatures who unfortunately found themselves in this place was all that have surfaced up. Sucking the marrow of these long departed beasts barely provides any comfort for the over-baring hunger, yet Xodus eats what he can from the bones, knowing that this could be the only source of food he will find in this place.

He sucked the marrow of those bones a day ago, and what tiny nourishment it may have provided to Xodus is now long gone out of his body. If matters was not already worse, Opaque has yet to feed at all. If this abomination does not eat real soon it will begin to go on a frenzy, and when it does, the life of Xodus-the body in which the "Opaque One" hosts in-shall not even be safe from the result.

The only action Xodus can take now is to continue on moving, following the tracks of two people who may or may not be the countrymen he seeks. The ice-blue sand grains sticks upon his skin like shards of glass, chapping up his face with their hateful cold. The wanderer's heart beats rapidly and his body shakes uncontrollably from not the cold as one might imagine, but from the lack of food and water. His time is about to come. There is no way he could go on much longer. He has barely the strength to even think, less-more the strength to put one foot over the other just to continue on his impossible quest.

Xodus drops to his knees, breathing heavily with defeated exhaustion. This will be the place he dies, he thinks to himself as he slowly begins falling to the ground. The last thing he remembers feeling is angst, angst that he was not able to remove that wretched thing out of his body. It can have it now for all that Xodus cares, for he has no more use for it.

***

The smell of Zlipanout soup awakens him, a familiar aroma of his country stirs him from his slumber. It was a dish found only in his homeland of Quanadaca, a savory meal made from yenolin meat and various vegetables along with herbs and spices found only on the island of Ireaca. Xodus could not help but to slightly open his eyes to validate his senses. How could the smell of home reach him at a place like...wait, where was he?

A strong hand clamps the back of his head, holding him up to the bowl of Zlipanout soup. Another hand, it was brown, takes a spoon and dips it into the soup. The sturdy hand pulls it out and guides the spoon filled with the soup into Xodus's mouth. "Here, you must eat. You are barely alive. Eat."

Xodus obliges, though mostly through survival instinct rather from being commanded. He devours the hot soup, ignoring the pain of the heat from the meal as it scorches his tongue and mouth. The hand continues feeding him and he devours every morsel of the meal.

"Here, you must drink. You are dehydrated."

Again, Xodus obliges, though this time he listens to the voice and it stirs something in him, a memory deep inside his subconscious. At this thought Xodus decides to finally turn and take in his savior. His eyes were blurry and he could barely make out the man, yet, he knew him.

"Repenter, you must eat and drink. You were very near to meeting the ancestors until I found you."

A sudden realization comes over the wanderer.

"Wait, you. How are you--"

"Enough. We will talk on these matters later. Now, you must rest. You must heal."

Xodus responds understandably with silence. He continues taking in the food and water provided by the man. A man, which Xodus wholeheartedly knows, should be dead.

Xodus knows this because its was he who have killed this man.

***

Time passes by since Xodus was discovered nearly dead, the question is how much time, or perhaps the true question should be, is this even the right time? Since realizing that the man who have saved him should be dead, the wanderer have said very little in his interaction with him. His name was Sharluk, a man devoted to the ways of the Quanadacans, and a skilled warrior in his own right. He was married to a devoted woman, Telara, who over the passing days have came to feed Xodus, bath him, and treated his wounds. There was also the children, Tylon and his twin sister Mosha; lovely, vibrant children with perhaps too much curiosity. They would come in time and again and sneak a peak at Xodus in his bed, whispering among each other and giggling. Such innocence...

Xodus knows what shall happen, for he has experienced something similar like this years ago after realizing his quest to free himself from the "Opaque One" and leaving his home. It was this same family who have took him in back then after he barely survived an attack from those who viewed the Repenter as a betrayer to the Quanadacans when he left Quanadaca. Indeed, this family took him in, but as Xodus recalled, there was a reason for them doing so. One that would eventually prove fatal to them all..

The Wanderer's mind was still intact and he knew that he should be somewhere in the tundra desert dying from starvation and dehydration. What sorcery and magic would bring him back to his past? This he did not know, but he will take advantage of the opportunity and do whatever he can to survive.

At first he thought that this was his afterlife, and that here in this place he was to play out his most regrettable moment over and again, and then he heard it's voice.

How did we end up here? We're suppose to be dead, or rather you at least. I would have devoured your body and soul for substance and moved on of course, but that desert brought us to this familiar place. did not you kill these people years ago, Repenter?

"Yes, I did." Xodus responds, dreading to hear Opaque's voice in his head, yet glad to know that he isn't just experiencing some afterlife of some kind, at least not alone. "This seems to be some kind of vision, yet it feels too real to be one."

A thought suddenly occurs to Xodus. A memory from his past conjures up some familiarity of his current situation. When Xodus was young, before he took on the mantle of the Repenter and he was still training for the title, an elder once told him and his friends a tale of a place of a world like ours, though slightly different. It is a world where one can meet their other half, a twisted world of opposing polarity where things can be exactly opposite from the norm, or at the very least, slightly different. Irregardless, it was a world that mirrored ours and reflects an aspect of ourselves that may not necessarily exist in our own world, but strives in this one. The limit of the reflection goes beyond the physical, it expands to the emotional and psychological as well, treading even into the realms of the spirit and of the soul.

There was one particular story about this so-called mirrored world that Xodus remembered. A tale which told of an nearly endless desert and a warning for those who would be foolish enough to try to cross it: Woe unto those who discovers the mirror shard mirage, for what shall welcome thee is guilt and regret. Does thou have the heart and desire to change that which ye most regret, or will ye continue living with thou guilt? The mirror shard mirage will test thine mettle.

Interesting. Even the great hard-nose warrior known as the Repenter is capable of guilt? Hah! What an amusing thought!

Opaque laughs at seeing Xodus's thought. Furious, Xodus pushes Opaque out of his mind. What was he thinking allowing himself even a moment of weakness by allowing this creature to view his thoughts and memories? It was these kind of mistakes that caused these creatures to gain control over his people in the first place...stupid!

"How dare you violate my mind! Never enter there again, you are never welcome into my thoughts! Do you understand? " Xodus screamed aloud, only near the end realizing his environment and then starting to speak in a whisper, "Never do that again." The Opaque One only responds by mocking laughter in the Repenter's head.

Sharluk enters into the room in response to the noise. Though in his middle age the man was still in incredible shape, tall and more muscular than your average Quanadacan. His face was bearded to the tradition of Quanadacan men his age, his gray eyes show experience and wisdom as they take in Xodus with sharp observation. Sharluk leans on a tall, sturdy, wooden staff decorated with various runes and symbols. It doesn't look like he needs the staff to support his weight, yet he use it to do just that as he walks gently towards Xodus.

"Are you boding well Repenter? I heard you screaming just a moment ago. A nightmare perhaps?"

"Something like that, yes." Xodus says dryly.

"I see...well, I can tell that you are doing better. My wife is preparing for dinner right now. If you are up to it, we would enjoy your company."

Xodus slowly stands up from the bed and with exception of some momentary weakness in the legs from not being in used for so long, Xodus felt fine and could move about. "Yes, I would very much love to join you and your family. I thank you for your hospitality." Xodus says these words, knowing very well where all of this will lead, eventually.

"Excellent," Sharluk says, nodding his head in acknowledgement. " I will inform my wife to prepare for one more. We shall break bread...and discuss some important matters."

***

Many traditional Quanadaca dishes was set before the table. It was a lovely setup by Telara who obviously put a lot of effort in preparing this meal. She smiles warmly at Xodus as she prepares his plate and drink. Xodus nods his thanks to her and waits for the head of the household to eat before he begins to do so. Once Sharluk breaks bread everyone else, as tradition, follow suit. Tylon sat next to the Repenter and couldn't take his eyes away from the scar on Xodus's chest.

"How did you get that?"

Xodus stares at the scar that Tylon pointed at. "It was during my rite of passage. I was no more than a year or two older than you when I received it. As to how I got this scar, well, perhaps one day when you go through your rite of passage you will find the answer for yourself."

"There will be no rite of passage if you don't get healthy enough to eat boy, now stop bothering the Repenter and finish up your meal." Telara scolds Tylon. Xodus could tell that she was not comfortable with talks of the rite of passage for her son. Sharluk, soon begins to change the subject.

"It is good that you are feeling better, Repenter. When I found you, your wounds were nearly fatal. It has taken several weeks but it seems now that you are on the road to being fully recover."

"I already feel fully recover actually, and I thank you and your family for taking care of me." Xodus pauses and continues on, "I must, however, take my leave from you soon, tonight in fact.. I have a journey I must complete."

The majority of the meal was spent eating in awkward silence. Xodus already knows that there will be more that Sharluk would want to talk to him about, but it would not be during the meal. When the time is right the warrior will come to Xodus and discuss what is really on his mind. Though the Wanderer already knew the answer to this.

***

The night breeze blows through Xodus's black hair, the spike-tipped twists look like mini wraiths dancing in the moon-lit sky. It was time for the Wanderer to continue on, he says his goodbye to the twins Tylon and Mosha and thanks Telara once again for her kindness and hospitality. Empty gratification of course considering what is to come next, but gratification nonetheless. The wanderer walks away from the home with his unwanted familiar Opaque and with extra provisions provided to him by Telara. He walks away hoping against hope that things may turn out different this time around.

"Repenter, we must talk." Sharluk voice commanded.

"Yes...yes, I suppose we must now." Xodus says his back turn away from the voice of Sharluk, knowing now that things would not be any different.

"Repenter, when I found you, you were on the verge of death, being chased by the holy Redeemers of Quanadaca. Though you defeated them, you were inflicted with major damage to the body. It took many passing of the sun and moon to fully heal you again."

"You are correct, and I believe I have thank you and your family for your hospitality plenty of times. Perhaps one more thank you will suffice."

Sharluk takes a few steps closer to the Repenter Xodus, they are heavy steps, fill with purpose. "No, my Repenter. It is not your thanks that I want, it is an explanation. Why have you forsaken us? Why have you forsaken your people, the Quanadacans? You are the Repenter, the sworn protector of the Quanadacans and our holy example of pure penance for the sins of our past, yet you left our home to pursue some selfish quest without taking in the consideration of the consequences..consideration of the people! You are suppose to protect us, to lead and guide us to ultimate salvation. You are suppose to be the best of us. I demand an explanation, Repenter. It is the least you can do."

Xodus takes in the word spoken to him in silent response at first, but then, there was laughter; plenty of laughter. "Demand? DEMAND?! Do you dare speak to me in such a tone as if you were my equal, old man? I am the Repenter, I answer to no one Sharluk, and you would be wise to remember that. You are right, I am the spiritual leader of Qunadaca and the Qunadacans' greatest warrior. Whatever I decide to do as the Repenter is not for your understanding. Just know that I am still serving to protect my people, despite these weaklings not deserving my protection. Be content with this as your answer."

"But how, Repenter? How am I to believe that you are protecting your people when you have left the Temple of Penance? The Repenter can only protect his people when he is with his people."

"I'm protecting the people from themselves, Sharluk. From their ridiculous traditions of bowing down to these creature of darkness, creatures that will never grant the people of Quanadaca the penance that they have deserved for centuries. We are slaves to these creatures and you are all too blind by your rituals to even see it. Indeed, I am protecting my people the only way I know how to, by finding a way to once and for all end this pact we have made with the "Opaque Ones," by any means necessary.

A sound of a sword leaving a scabbard is suddenly heard behind Xodus, the metal echoing its malice in the night wind.

"You are a heretic, Repenter, a threat to our people. Your lies and selfishness will cause another catastrophe if you are not dealt with soon. I cannot allow you to go on, and so, I challenge you Repenter. A fight to the death. As one of your penances demands, you must accept any challenge given to you. Fight me Repenter, and let your death come quick."

An annoying sigh leaves Xodus's breath. He sets down his equipment on the ground and prepares his ivory spear. "I accept your challenge Sharluk, but answer me this question, if you thought that I was a heretic, why did you bring me back from the brink of death in the first place? It would have been better if you had let me die."

"Unlike you Repenter, I respect traditions. I am a true warrior of the Quanadacans and as such, I could never finish a man on the brink of death. I brought you back to health to challenge you, warrior-to-warrior."

"Ah, so that is how it is. That will be your undoing, of course." Xodus says nonchalantly as he suddenly begins lifting his spear up in the air, challenging Sharluk to come at him, his back still turned away from the seasoned warrior.

"You dare mock me by not turning to face me as a man? I will show you the errors of your ways, traitor!"

Sharluk rushes into the night towards the Wanderer Xodus, screaming out a battlecry with his sword at his ready. What Sharluk does not realizes yet is that he was running right into a trap, one set in the beginning by Xodus when the warrior first approach him. Xodus has mentally ordered Opaque to scatter many of its black parts onto the ground and transform them into black holes. Sharluk obviously did not see these holes as it was nightfall and the stars and moon offers very little light.

Sharluk suddenly finds himself falling into one of the pit traps, dropping endlessly into what appears to be eternal darkness. Hovering over the spear was yet another black spotted hole placed strategically by Xodus. Suddenly, Sharluk's form comes flying from out of the hole and drops rapidly down on Xodus's spear, back first. The old man lets out a yelp as he suddenly realizes what happens. Blood splatters across Xodus chest from the newly impaled man. His life was once again taken by Xodus, in the same matter he took the man's life years ago.

"Your so-called traditions have just gotten you killed, old fool." Xodus says coldly.

"No father! What have you done to my father?!" A young boy screams out. It was Tylon and the view he sees before him is almost too frightening to imagine. In the moonlight he sees a silhouette of his father being impaled by a spear from the man, whom which his father have saved from death, the Repenter. With no remorse, the Repenter holds Sharluk up in the air before Tylon as if he was showing off a trophy!

Hearing Tylon's scream, Xodus drops the new corpse of Sharluk on the ground, pulling his spear away from his body. The Opaque one suddenly begins gathering its collective pieces and lunges towards Sharluk, covering the old warrior's body with its endless blackness and absorbing him completely inside its body. Opaque shall not go on being hungry anymore.

A screeching scream escapes from Tylon. "Stop it! What are you doing to my father?! Leave him alone! Please!"

Telara and Mosha, hearing Tylon's scream quickly exits the house and comes outside to see what could be bothering him. Once they saw the Opaque One devouring Sharluk, they too begin screaming. The memory of the family screams engraves into Xodus's minds...yet he did what needed to be done. The Repenter walks away from the screaming family with some confusion, wondering what was the purpose of going through all of this again. He did not regret anything, at least to this point, after all.

"I...I'll get you back for this Repenter. I vow to kill you, you hear me?" warns Tylon.

It was these words that made Xodus realize why he was here, what it was he felt guilty about. The wanderer stops and turns around to make his way towards Tylon. Telara and Mosha screams at Xodus to leave Tylon alone, this of course goes over death's ears. Tylon, wide-eyed, backs away quickly from Xodus, he trips over his own feet and suddenly falls to the ground. Xodus stops, standing over the fallen young man. He takes the tip-end of his ivory spear and point's it towards Tylon's face.

"You're father, he was a very honorable man. A man devoted to his country and the traditions it carries, so devoted in fact that he would rather throw away his life than to continue his obligation as a loving husband and father. You see Tylon, your father could have finished me off weeks ago, he already made it up in his mind that I was a traitor to Quanadaca after all, so why did he not kill me when I was at my weakest? Tradition, that is why. He didn't want to fight me unless I was healthy, making his chances of actually defeating me nil, but you see that is the problem with the disease of tradition, it kills the common sense of man, and makes them slaves to words and rituals.

"You look at me and may think that I have killed your father. No, your father killed himself. He rather be a slave to his belief than to provide and care for his family. Your father had to know that he could not beat Quanadaca's greatest warrior, yet his pride as a warrior was all he cared about. Your father has chosen the mistress of pride over your mother, over your sister, over you, and in the end, his mistress forsaken him. Pride, traditions, rituals. These are the real inflictions that keep our people down and I'm sick of it...So sick of it!

"And now your father have passed along his ugly diseases to you, Tylon. Here you are standing before me plotting to one day get revenge for what I have done to your father, or rather, what your father has done to himself. The youth of Quanadacas have been romanticize with this belief that vengeance is a honorable thing to achieve, yet another cultural lie passed down through our generations. And thus you will do what you can to get inflicted with this disease. You will train harder than any other man you know, you will endure things that no human should be able to endure all for the chance to become a great warrior capable of perhaps defeating the greatest warrior of the people, the Repenter. In time you will seek me out, trained, determined, angry yet focused, and you will challenge me.

"When you challenge me, we will have our battle, and you will simply die, impaled through the tip of this very spear I am holding in my hand. In the end, your craving for vengeance shall simply starve to death, for it will not be met. And you-just as your father before you-will have only yourself to blame for your death, for despite all your training, you will never be a match for me, you wouldn't even be half the warrior your father was and your death would be even quicker than his."

Xodus leans in and clamps Tylon's jaw with one of his hands forcing the boy to look at the Repenter straight through the eyes.

"You can choose to end this disease, you know. I'm not asking you to not hate me for your father's death, no on the contrary, I want you to use it as a lesson in life, and live. I'm giving you a choice that I, myself do not have the privilege of choosing, to live your life as you want to live it, not as it has be dictated to you. Instead of focusing on revenge, perhaps you should focus on learning a skill that can better serve you, a farmer perhaps? In time, perhaps you might take a wife and bare kids? These are the things that are really important, the things that matters the most, not vengeance. You want to be free from forced obligations, then you make the choice of freeing yourself from its chain.

"If, however you want to continue to pursue this revenge thing, then take this in consideration. When you die by my hands, and make no mistake about it boy die you will, I won't stop with you. I will kill your sister and your mother in the same fashion that I have just killed your dad, and just as you watched your father's death, you shall witness the death of your remaining family members before I allow you to die. I will do this not out of malice, but to make one final point before the end of your miserable existence, their deaths will be because of your desire to get revenge over me. In trying to gain vengeance, you will lose everything. That will be the last lesson you will learn before mistress death embraces you, that is, if you choose the path of vengeance of course."

The Repenter Xodus lets go of Tylon's chin, turns around and walks away. "If you choose wisely, you will never see me again Tylon, and you and your family will be spared. For their sake, choose wisely."

Those were the last words Xodus said to the boy, perhaps they will be the last words he will ever have to say to him again.

***

As the wanderer walks away into the moonlit night he begins noticing sprinkles of blue cold grain of sands hitting him in the face. The tiny sprinkles soon became mass sprinkles of cold sand and before Xodus knew it, the sky was replaced once again by the magenta color of the tundra desert. Xodus turns around to see if Tylon and his family was there. What he finds is only endless sand.

***

Well, that was interesting. You gave the boy a choice to live this time around. Was that what you regretted the most, Repenter?

Xodus did not want to answer the creature known as the Opaque One, but he knew that this wretched thing will keep on bothering him if he did not entertain him with an answer. "Yeah. He was just a victim of traditions and misplaced pride...not unlike me. He should have a chance to live his life without those lies, I have regretted in the past not giving him that chance, not having that talk with him. I was allowed to remedy that this time around."

Xodus walks a moment in silent contemplating what he has done as well as what he have discovered. The fact that he was in the Mirror Shard Mirage meant that this world he has entered in was indeed the Mirror World. This opens up new possibilities for the wanderer. Perhaps he will be able to solve his "problem" in this world where the real world offered no true solution. Xodus keeps this in mind but also remembers that he must find his fellow countrymen Wildfall and Summer. As for the life-changing mirage? There was no need to dwell on his regret anymore, for it was now dealt with.

***

In Quanadaca, there is a saying that has been passed down to generations upon generations of its children, "A vision is a hidden path in which most shall never truly discover, but if you find yourself being one of the fortunate few who discovers this treacherous route, embrace that vision with all of your heart and follow it until the end's reach. For the award at the end of this path, if one does not stray from it, is understanding and enlightenment.

This is a path that the wanderer - the Repenter known as Xodus - shall continue to travel as his journey moves forward.

Every time I read this, I wonder why he hadn't chosen to be less aggressive and patronizing towards the father in the piece. Even so, the ending makes up for it. I just hope we get to see more of Xodus in AiL's future. Especially with this level of storytelling ability!