Knife To Meet You!

Everything, everywhere was nothing but darkness and silence. The silence wasn"t the screaming kind either - it didn"t ring his ears - which made it all the more scarier.

He couldn"t see, couldn"t hear, and then he realised he couldn"t feel either. Couldn"t feel his limbs. Couldn"t feel his breath. Couldn"t feel his heart beat. All he could do was think. And so he thought.

And he thought, "Am I dead? Is this what death feels like?"

And somehow, the reply came to him. Yes, he was dead, but he wasn"t. This was what his death felt like, but it wasn"t what death should feel like. It wasn"t what death ususally feels like.

How he knew what death felt like in the first place? He didn"t know.

And now he wouldn"t know. For he felt something. And as soon as he could, he forgot all about death. He felt he could start to feel again.

It came slowly at first. He felt a presence slowly envelope his own.

He didn"t know how to describe it. Perhaps a net wrapping around a sea and somehow, just somehow, keeping it contained?

And then he felt what he could only describe as the net grow roots. Roots which spread throughout his presence, connecting the two slowly. And the roots grew, thin but numerous, until it was impossible to distinguish the sea from the roots. And then the holes in the net sealed up. Slowly again.

And he could feel it all, every single thing. Yet he could feel nothing.

And then he felt again. Something new this time.

Sound. A low rumble that slowly grew in pitch. Until he could recogonize it as a voice.

A moment more and he could tell that it wasn"t one, but two voices.

They were distant, highly m.u.f.fled. But they were there.

He called out to them, or he tried to as no sound came out.

"They don"t seem familiar. Doctors maybe?", He thought.

He strained to try and discern what they were saying. They seemed to be arguing? No, no. Just a discussion. A bit heated by the sounds of things.

He tried to call out again. Sometimes when he pa.s.sed out it would take a few efforts before he could speak. This was worse than that, but it probably wouldn"t take too long till he would be normal again. But no, he still couldn"t speak.

He didn"t worry too much about it.

"Worry, huh...", he remembered his sister"s words.

But before he could start diving down that sea of thoughts, one of the voices suddenly got much, much louder.

"It was a success but I still don"t see what it summoned.", the voice was too loud for him to process the words being spoken.

"Flip a b.l.o.o.d.y egg, you"re going to deafen me!", He cursed inwardly. Just a second ago the voice sounded like it was coming from the other side of a door. But this one felt more akin to someone shouting right in his ear! What kind of a prank was this?

It took him another second to realise he could finally start to see too. Well, "see". Looking around the could faintly make out faint outlines of objects. It felt different, and wrong, as he could only see the outlines and nothing else. They didn"t seem to be-

His train of thought got cut off again as he found his vision receding to pure black again. The last thing he remembered seeing were the outlines start to move upwards and spin before fading entirely.

"What happened? Did I fall off the bed? Did the yelling b.a.s.t.a.r.d push me off?", Kyvas pondered confusedly.

He still didn"t have his sense of touch, nor could be feel pain, so he had trouble answering his own questions.

"It talked!", He heard the ear-shouter again, though this time his voice seemed barely louder than a whisper.

The other person retorted to that. That voice was much quieter still, but he thought it had asked "What?"

"Your dagger talked to me, Krys!", The first voice exclaimed again.

The second replied with something Kyvas couldn"t make out.

"But mana distortions don"t complain about me being too loud!", came the reply from the first voice.

He furrowed his brows. Or tried to, until he realized he couldnt.

"Did I speak out somehow when I thought back there? h.e.l.lo, am I speaking?", he thought.

Although no reply came, he decided to keep thinking "h.e.l.lo" back to himself. Maybe he"d speak out eventually.

Then suddenly, his sight returned to him. Outlines still.

"h.e.l.lo?", He thought once more.

"It really did speak!", Another deafeningly loud comment hit his ears. It seemed to belong to the other person.

"WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU DO THAT?!" , Kyvas yelled internally.

"Do what?", The voice boomed again. It semed to belong to a man.

"I told you!", the other person, also a man retorted. His voice seemed heavier than the one currently screaming in his ear though, and seemed to still be barely louder than a whisper.

"SCREAM IN MY b.l.o.o.d.y EAR!", Kyvas yelled again, not yet realizing that he was still just thinking.

"You don"t have ears, you"re a dagger!"

Kyvas"s mind screeched at that comment. Not because of the content -- He had yet to process it -- but because it was loud enough that it almost hurt.

"You"re STILL doing it!", he whined.

"Did it say ears?", The distant person commented. "Oh... Oh no this could be bad. Krys? Put it down we need to talk."

"What happened?", The person close to him, Krys by the sound of things inquired. After a moment Kyvas"s surroundings went dark again.

"s.h.i.t-- I was so distracted by the noise I couldn"t look around. That"s the first thing I do next when I get my sight back."

Then he thought back to Krys and the other person.

"What"s the deal with them? Screaming in my ears... And they keep calling me "it". What do they think I am?

"Thinking back, what is their obsession with ears anyway? That person said something about how me saying ears could be bad? What the heck? And what did that Krys guy say again? "You don"t have ears, you"re a dagger."

"Wait... What? What... What kind of a prank are they even pulling here?!"

===

Jach beckoned Krys out of the lab.

"What happened?", Krys asked again.

Jach looked at Krys, his face pale, his eyes terrified. The more he thought about this, the more he realized how bad things were.

"I-- I think we summoned a person into our knife.", He blurted out.

That took Krys by surprise.

"What? No! That couldn"t be it! It"s-- There"s no body!", Krys replied.

Jach was shivering now. Krys took his hand and helf it tight in his. He sighed. "It must have been the spell. We still don"t know what those new runes do. They must have given the knife sentience somehow."

"No, no no no, you don"t understand. That was a summoning spell. The base was the same as a summoning spell. The dagger -- It talked. It sent us it"s thoughts. We know how telepathy works -- If the person is sending words instead of feelings through it then it comes across in the language the speaker thinks in. It DID send us it"s thoughts in words. And it-"

"It sent it"s thought across in our tongue.", Krys finished Jach"s ramble. It made sense, and the ramifications of it started to dawn on him. But he couldn"t accept it yet. "But that doesn"t mean it has to be a summoned person. Why are you so sure it"s a person?"

"Because it said it had ears!"

"Oh...", Now Krys couldn"t help but accept it. "But we could send him... Oh no..."

The sudden, and horrific realization hit him like a truck. It was worse than he thought.

And Jach"s confirmation of his thoughts. .h.i.t him even harder.

"Yeah, unless something is bound to a return stone, you can"t send it back. If... we actually summoned a person, the summoning is permanent now."