Jeff Inlo - Nightmare's Shad

The ghoul, however, took shape and form in the shadows. His lack of total substance in the physical world allowed him certain advantages in a realm that lacked solid composition. Baannat could interact with nothingness.

"Is it painful for you? I know it is. You might be beyond certain things, like eating and sleeping, but you're not beyond pain. We've already established that."

That much was also true. Despite being separated from his body, the wizard was not shielded from pain. It was not a surprise. Certain feelings rested not within physical properties, but within emotional conditions.

Enin focused on controlling his emotions as these were all he had, all that was left for him to experience the grayness around him. He had spiritual awareness, but he was locked away from the spirit world. Back in the dark realm, his physical existence remained intact but totally blocked from his consciousness. He could think, and he could feel, but not with his fingers or hands or any other part of his body. He could only feel with his emotions.

He had not yet lost the wisdom of his experience and he understood that under his current circumstances, these emotions would be his weakness. Baannat had already inflicted pain on his consciousness by tearing at it with claws that found purpose in an empty existence. Even as the ghoul could slash at the wizard, it was not physical pain that resulted, but emotional anguish. Fear held greater power than a blade in a realm that lacked true substance.

The slink ghoul chuckled, as if he could sense Enin's thoughts.

"You don't wish to talk to me, brother?" Baannat pressed.

"You still call us brothers?" Enin finally responded. "You used to call us brothers because you saw us as equals in magic. That is clearly no longer the case. I am now separated from the magic and you are a mere shell of your former self."

"And you don't see the connection that remains between us? I am not whole, and now, neither are you. We still remain brothers." And Baannat cackled with laughter.

"Fine, we're brothers," Enin muttered.

The ghoul's laughter abruptly stopped as he tilted his head in confusion at the wizard's spirit.

"You give up so easily now? Why? Because you no longer have any power? Are you now just going to give in to all my demands?"

"Not all of them," Enin replied with as much courage as he could muster.

"You still wish to hide the location of the woman from me?"

"I will not offer it freely."

The slink ghoul considered the meaning behind Enin's words.

"What must I pay?" he asked.

Enin considered the request, and surprisingly, he made an offer.

"Release me and I will tell you exactly where she is," he stated quickly.

The ghoul sneered in disgust.

"Once I will release you, you will not tell me anything."

"There is a way you can guarantee my response. We can make the pact binding with a spell of your own magic, a spell that binds us both. I tell you where she is and you immediately return me to my body. A spell pact would guarantee my honesty and I would know you could not back out. Surely you would allow me this?"

Baannat almost agreed, but then caught himself.

"Very good. You almost had me there. Yes, you would tell me. You would even reveal the truth, as the pact would force it, but then I would have to release you, and what would you do? You would be back to the all-powerful wizard you can be. Then what? You would streak toward her and move her once more. You would have kept your bargain and still managed to save the woman and yourself. No, there will be no spell pact on this. You will tell me. It's just a matter of time."

Enin didn't wish to agree, but deep within, he knew the ghoul was probably right. His ploy was easily detected by the ghoul, and that was all he had left-bungling attempts at deception. He had fallen from his lofty perch of magical power.

Baannat disregarded the wizard as he once more gazed past the veil and into the land of Uton, into the desert.

"I have some good news for you," the ghoul noted. "The algors are actually doing quite well. Strange creatures, these tailless lizards. Looking at them, you would think they would die easily, but they cling to life and they cling to each other. They have this unending sense of… belonging. At the same time, most of them wish to discard their connection to the community. Right now, I can sense most of them would like nothing more than to walk off alone into the desert, but they won't."

"It is important to belong," Enin offered. "I doubt that's something you would understand."

"Oh, they belong, but then again they want to be alone. Isn't that interesting? They seek solitude, they seek independence, but they just won't give up their little hole in the desert. I think it's almost adorable."

Adorable?

A strange word to be used by the ghoul. Nothing about Baannat could ever be confused with adorable . Cruel-certainly.Twisted-absolutely. But there was nothing remotely close to adorable within the slink ghoul.

As Enin considered such inane observations, he realized just how desperate his situation had become. There was nothing he could do. It went far beyond being caught in some trap. He fought against the mind-numbing grip of emptiness. It was as if he could stare into his own hollow grave and realize that an eternity of pointlessness would swallow his thoughts.

Enin found the situation maddening. He couldn't do anything. He simply floated in the nothingness of nonexistence. He wondered how long he could last under such circumstances, how long before insanity took his mind.

Maybe that was the answer. If only he could be sure he would lose all his memories, he would have embraced madness in an instant. Unfortunately, he might hang to a shred of reality, and if he did, he would end up releasing Linda's location. He would fight against that, and so, insanity would have to wait.

Baannat ignored the wizard, or so it appeared. He continued to narrate the battle in the desert.

"They fight well, these algors. They sling rocks, they throw spears, they even club their enemies when they can. Somewhat savage, wouldn't you say?"

As he had nothing else to do, Enin argued with the ghoul to the best of his abilities. Perhaps remaining in conflict with Baannat would allow him to keep his wits long enough to find a way out.

"It is not savagery to protect one's home. That is all they're doing. Your fiends are the attackers-the savages."

"I suppose they did go into the desert looking for a fight, but a fight takes two willing combatants."

"Would you have expected the algors to run?"

The ghoul shrugged.

"I really didn't know what to expect," Baannat stated with an almost innocent grin. It appeared so out of place on the slink ghoul that the smile turned disturbing in but an instant.

"Nonsense. You knew the algors would fight. You said as much."

"I've said many things, but not all of them are true."

Enin wondered if Baannat would speak any truth at all, and he posed a question that still burned in his mind.

"Would you be truthful if I asked how you can control so many?"

"Certainly, no need to lie about that. It's actually quite simple. Dark creatures need magic to exist in your land of light. That's already been established, but for them, it is an artificial reality. Still, most prefer it to life in the dark realm. That's why when a portal opens they usually take advantage of it."

The explanation seemed empty.

"So you promise to open portals for them? Is that all?"

Baannat hissed with dissatisfaction. "If we're going to play this game, I need you to concentrate a bit more. What's wrong with you? I told you I cannot open a portal of my own. Seems you don't listen to me. Or maybe you think I'm lying about the portals. I'm not. Think about it for a moment. How could I possibly link two physical planes together when I'm not completely physical myself? It's just not possible. But linking the physical to the nonexistent, that's now within my power."