KAIN
AS THE EFFECTS of the river Cocytus tempered, his body calmed, leaving him feeling hollow and numb. Kain lifted his head and brushed the dried, gritty salt from his face and looked to the edge of the final river, Lethe, and wondered what this one would demand in order for him to cross.
He had lost himself, his body, his heart, and his joy. He couldn’t image there was anything else he could give, willingly or otherwise.
The barren body of water spread wide, as if the winding river took everything from the small patches of land between the two, slowly chipping away at the shore. The wind kicked up clouds of dust, obscuring the horizon.
Kain stood. His clothes were ripped, though not as much as he would have thought. Watery blood ran down his arms from the large gashes, some almost bone deep. He squinted as the flesh knit itself back together before his eyes, much faster than his Hunter’s abilities ever could.
Kain ran a hand over his arms, expecting his fingers to find the wounds beneath an illusion, but the skin was flawless, as if nothing had happened.
Though, the curiosity of the moment couldn’t stave off the overwhelming dolor in his heart.
Kain took in a shuddering breath and started the short trek toward the river Lethe. The soles of his shoes scraped at the hardened ground.
Quiet trickling of water reached his ears first then, slowly, the shadow of the river emerged through the billows of loam like a slash of paint against the coppery dust cloud. Kain stopped the second he saw familiar shapes moving along shore. Human shapes. He was torn between running up to them and asking about the next part, and hanging back, waiting for them to leave in case they, too, tried to trap him within the water.
Approaching cautiously, Kain squinted to see better. The closer he got, the more figures appeared. But it wasn’t until he was nearly upon them, and the air cleared, that he could make them out. He made little effort to hide his advance, yet none turned to look at him.
Their clothes, like his, were ripped and tattered, but where he’d retained the natural hue of his skin, theirs had turned inhumanly gray and ashen.
The haggard shades hunched at the lapping shore of the river, cupping handfuls of water and slurping it up greedily behind curtains of tangled hair, as if they were bound to do so for eternity. Though they were all similar, they still held the echoes of their living form, distinguishing them as individuals. Some were slow and timid, while others were drinking with a ravenous frenzy.
Kain walked up to one who’d just fallen to his knees, bending to take his first sip. He reached out to tap a man on the shoulder to grab his attention, but the shade’s head whipped around. And the sight sent Kain stumbling back several feet.
Save for the thin line of his mouth, the man had no face outside the general topography—a carving in the very beginnings of its creation.
Kain looked up and down the shore at all of the figures continuing to appear in an endless precession kneeling to drink. Several changing to formless wraiths that walked out into the water and vanished.
One more river.
But would he vanish as well when he entered it? He eyed several of the wraiths that drank and drank and drank. Kain kneeled down and wondered if he was supposed to do as they were.
Scooping up a handful of water, he let it flow through his fingers like liquid silver returning to the source.
Kain placed one foot into the water, then the other. It reached up to his knees then he turned to follow the river’s path. With each step, his shoulders drooped. His head felt full of cotton and lead. His chin fell to his chest and he focused on taking one step at a time. Thoughts refused to form in his mind, everything remained coated in a thick haze.
He shuffled along, not knowing how much time had passed, if any had passed. The pounding in his head had started some time ago, slow and steady as a drum beat, quickly becoming a rapid barrage of hammering.
He wanted to rest. Just for a little bit. It took all his effort to face the dry land. He moved toward it, stopping only when the water lapped at his ankles. Something told him not to set foot outside the river.
Defeated, he sat along the edge with his legs out before him. Each blink took longer than the last and soon, even sitting felt like more effort than it was worth.
With that thought, he could vaguely tell by the change in gravity that he’d lain back. The river’s gentle current washed over him, covering him like a light blanket.
Several drops of the metallic water misted his face, finding their way to his lips. His tongue darted out between and he immediately regretted it. It tasted bitter and gross, like rotten leaves. He tightened the line of his mouth.
Kharon had said not to linger, but he couldn’t seem to muster the will power to make his strange, foreign body obey.
It didn’t belong to him anymore.
“Kain?” the sweet sound of a familiar voice called out to him. “Kain? Kain, get up!”
A wave washed over his face. His eyes and mouth shot open, the endless red-brown sky loomed over him, and the water poured into his nose and down his throat. Kain sat up, spitting out the foul water. The wraiths had vanished, leaving him alone on the barren shore.
He rubbed at his head, wondering how far he had walked. The water around him was calm. Not stagnate but moving in a very slow and steady rhythm. He shook his head, unsure how the water could have splashed him.
He’d heard a voice. A woman’s voice; sweet, yet firm. So familiar, but the harder he tried to place how he knew her, the more her name slipped from his grasp.
Kain looked out at the water and saw that past the far shore, a large lake contained a giant boulder sitting several yards in. Other rivers flowed into the large body of water at five separate points, including the one he was in.
If he could get to the rock, then he could rest until the effects of the river faded, and he could go the rest of the way to the wide sprawling land on the other side, where fields of green awaited bathed in bright light like a summer’s day.
His energy waned quickly as he continued on. He wanted nothing more than to stop and lie down and sleep.
Tired. He was just so tired.
Pain like talons scraped against his mind, clawing and scratching, gouging. Forming cracks.
Images flashed in his mind’s eye, too fast for him to make sense of it at first, then slower.
He looked up into his mom’s face as she smiled and reached to pick him up. Then the image shattered like so much glass.
Kain blinked and shook his head, trying to rid his mind of the pain.
What was I thinking about? he wondered.
A pale face. Snow white hair, and eyes like ice that somehow held a warmth within them. Shy but happy.
He knew her. The voice that called his name belonged to her.
Then, that image shattered into an infinite array of shards, as many pieces as there were stars in the sky.
A figure with a face whose features he couldn’t recall. He’d just known them, but now… She lifted something to her face and took a bite. Kain looked around but couldn’t make out the details. More glass memories shattered.
A figure stood over him, faceless as it swung.
A blur moving closer, speaking three muffled syllables.
Kain blinked, shaking the array of blurs of color and flashes of images away. He turned in a circle, unsure of where he was, or why he was there.
He hurried, tripping and sliding, no longer caring that he kept swallowing mouthfuls of the repulsive water.
Shadows edged in along the farthest reaches of his mind, permeating. He couldn’t afford to stop and figure out what was happening. He only knew the river was claiming it’s toll.
Kain reached the mouth of the river where it joined the lake. He wanted to finish this journey because…
He swallowed hard, stretching his mind back as far as he could. The Underworld, blurred figures in black, and… nothing.
Other than a handful of incomplete images, muffled words, and distorted voices, there was nothing.
Only the darkness of a void greeted him inside his mind.
Kain threw himself into a hard run and dove, splashing into the perfectly round lake, needing to get out of the Lethe river. He couldn’t remember why he was there, or what he was doing… who he was anymore.
Had he ever known?
He didn’t slow until he was waist deep, but he didn’t stop then either. He had to make it to the rock ahead.
Then he was chest deep and swimming.
Kain flailed his arms and legs, his head dipping under the surface of the water again and again.
It was cold.
But not to his body.
No, he could no longer feel anything in the vessel his consciousness was currently trapped within, but to his mind.
Numbing.
The icy chill cleansed his mind of everything, just as the burning fire had for his body.
He fought to remember something, anything, as he pushed forward. With every slap of his hands on water he could feel the river he’d left continue to take its toll.
The very last threads of who he was.
He couldn’t remember how he got here, but he clung to a single thought with all his might.
Do not linger. Do not linger…
As he pushed on, the single thought still slowly slipped through his fingers like a melting cube of ice.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
He reached for the rock, feeling his body quitting.
One more push.
He started to sink.
The rock.
Reach the rock.
Kain reached out but found nothing to anchor himself to. Darkness edged in as his legs and arms stilled and he sank below the surface.
Kain floated, weightless and heavy all at once, letting the current take him where it may.
Something hard and rough brushed against the back of his hand. On instinct, he clenched onto a slime slicked rock and pulled his body up. He kept climbing even after his head breached the surface of the water, not stopping until he sat atop the highest point of the boulder where he would rest. Just for a little while.
He looked into his mind and found only a dark and empty oblivion.