Darkness. Jonathan Acrophies woke up from his temporary daze to find himself completely blind, as if he hadn’t woken up at all. He fumbled around for a match in his pocket but couldn’t find one. Carefully edging his hands around the desk, careful not to burn himself on hot wax, he continued his search. After about ten minutes of gently surfacing the desk with his fingertips he finally found one. He struck it and lit two candles, one either side of his desk.

He looked at the scroll in front of him and scanned it to see what he had already written. Only a few more paragraphs to go. He stretched his arms to prepare him for writing, then put his hand on the space where his pen should have been. It wasn’t there.

“How strange..” Acrophies muttered, his eyes darting around the desk. He froze. He had heard something behind him. He gulped. Another sound.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

The sound of heavy boots echoed around the room, getting louder and more threatening every second. Acrophies moved his mouth, but no sound came out. He was completely defenseless without any weapons.

Silence. Acrophies waited in fear. Time seemed to nearly stop as he felt the mysterious man breathing on his neck behind him.

“Acrophies, we meet again.” the man whispered, sending a chill down Acrophies’ spine.

“Wh..” he started. He seemed to be having trouble speaking.

“What do you want?” Acrophies finished. All of a sudden, his chair was spun around so that he was literally an inch away from the stranger’s face.

“You know very well what I want, Acrophies, and you still haven’t given it to me. This time, however, I am going to make you.” the man hissed.

“I’d like to see you try.” Acrophies sneered, narrowing his eyes. In a flash he was lifted out of his chair by his neck and was forced against the wall. This was abnormal strength for a mage which scared Acrophies even more. He considered himself fairly strong, he had to carry heavy bows for hours at a time after all. However, the strength of the mage in question was enough to completely immobilize him. He felt himself choking. The hand around his neck hadn’t completely blocked his windpipe, but he was still having trouble breathing.

After about a minute, he was thrown away from the wall and onto the floor. Acrophies lay there, clutching his throat and gasping for air. He looked up at the mage, who was glaring straight back at him.

“You are going to die tonight, Jonathan, I will not lie to you. It is your destiny.” the mage muttered.

Silence.

“Before I kill you Jonathan, I need you to give me what I’ve been asking for.” he added, causing Acrophies to stand up. He suddenly found his strength and pointed threateningly to the mage.

“Now look here! Why should I tell you if you’re going to kill me anyway?!” he bellowed. The mage closed his eyes and smiled. He took a few steps towards Jonathan and opened his eyes again.

“Does the name Brian sound familiar to you, Jonathan?” the mage whispered. He recognised the look of shock on Jonathan’s face and laughed.

“I know excatly where Brian is. You gave him a letter to send. Tell me where Freinz is, or I will kill Brian as well as yourself and retrieve the information quite easily elsewhere.” the mage finished.

Not taking his eyes off the mage, Acrophies calculated from what he had just heard that the mage knew where Brian was, but did not know that he was delivering the letter to Freinz. Acrophies had a number of choices. He could point-blank refuse to give any information and risk the mage killing Brian and finding Freinz at the same time, or he could lead him in the wrong direction, which would only work if he didn’t know where Brian was.

A thought suddenly struck him. If the mage was bluffing about knowing where Brian was, he could tell the truth and say he was delivering a letter to Freinz. If the mage asked further questions about the subject, he would know that the mage was bluffing, and could therefore lead him in the wrong direction. If however, he was not bluffing, he would find Freinz, but would not kill Brian. Either way, he was going to find Freinz through following Brian, so he decided he had no choice but to tell the truth to save Brian’s life.

“Brian….” Acrophies muttered. He was extremely reluctant, but the hungry look in the mage’s eyes told him what he had to do.

“Brian is delivering the letter to Freinz. If you follow him, you will find him.” Acrophies whispered, hating himself for it. He closed his eyes and sank to the floor. He hoped Freinz was going to be alright, but feared for the worst. The mage stepped right up to Acrophies and pulled him up by the hair so they were level. He pulled his other hand back, muttered an incarnation, and launched it into Acrophies’ stomach, letting go of his hair a second later so he would drop to the floor.

“Your usefulness has expired.” the mage spat, smiling with a freakish glimmer in his eyes. “And in thirty seconds… so will your life.” he added triumphantly. The mage turned around slowly and walked out of the room.

Panic suddenly struck Jonathan Acrophies. He had no idea what the mage had done, but could feel the area where he had been punched heating up.

29

28

27

Acrophies ripped off his shirt and scrambled towards the bathroom to find an antidote.

15

14

13

His body was shaking involuntarily. He felt like he was being soaked in a very hot bath. The heat was spreading to every cell in his body. He started screaming. He was burning.

7

6

5

“Aaah…. Aaaaah….. AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!” Acrophies screamed so that birds in the distance flew away in fright. His skin was bubbling, he felt he was going to explode.

2

1

Zero.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!” Freinz jumped out of his coma screaming. Cold sweat ran down his forehead. He was breathing heavily, and when he tried to stand up he fell forwards and landed clumsily on his chest. Still breathing heavily, he sat himself up. His eyes darted around the area, then he felt his stomach rumble. He dived towards the nearest tree and proceeded to cover it in a mixture of stomach acids and what he had last eaten.

“Ugh…” Freinz wiped his mouth. He had just had the most horrible, graphic dream of his entire life. The mysterious mage had killed someone called Acrophies. Before Acrophies got killed, he had told the mage about someone called Brian…

“Brian is delivering the letter to Freinz. If you follow him, you will find him.”

Freinz held this thought. He hadn’t received any letters, so he couldn’t quite put his finger on who Brian was and where to expect him now that his hometown had burned down.

Something suddenly clicked in his mind like a jigsaw puzzle. He HAD received a letter only a few days ago, telling him that his father had died. Freinz swung around suddenly and fixed his eyes upon the tall boy, who was just a few feet away, giving him worried looks. Shaking, Freinz lifted up his outstretched arm and pointed at the boy.

“Y…. you…” Freinz stuttered. He seemed to have the same problem talking as Acrophies did.

“What is it, Freinz? Are you OK?” the tall boy asked, walking over and kneeling down next to him.

“Is… is your name… B-Brian?” Freinz spluttered after a few seconds. The boy looked shocked and stood up quickly.

“Freinz… what did you just see?” the boy said in a serious tone. Freinz gulped and repeated his question more firmly. A few tense minutes passed.

“You are correct. My name is Brian.” he said in the same serious tone, nodding once.

A mixture of ash and cloud hovered over them. A gentle breeze swept Freinz’s hair out of his face. Freinz closed his eyes. He had just realised how much danger he was in. A murderer wanted to kill him and knew more or less exactly where he was. The mage had followed Brian to his hometown and burned it down in hopes of killing him. He looked up at the clouds. They were getting thicker and darker. It was probably going to thunder soon. A sense of urgency took a strong hold of Freinz. He needed to get as far away from this place as possible.

Quickly.