35 Vienice Aramon

_Vienice Aramon_

Vienice did not know what he had been expecting in being brought here, but surely it was not to be a student. That is what he had been treated as though, and it was an odd feeling. He had daily tasks to do, and lectures to listen to; not to mention they gave him graded work. It was a hard routine to get into, and no one ever stopped to explain its purpose. It was a confusing time.

One thing was for sure, Vienice was not like the other students here. Sure they seemed to possess abilities themselves, but those were nothing like his own. The most noticable difference between him and the other students was the way he was treated- the boy often found himself in one of two situations: Those around him were overly fearful and cautious of him, or they were very rude and seemed to hate him. Did the people here know what he had done? Had Wymon told them all what had happened?

For some reason Vienice found himself hoping he had not, but as soon as he noticed, that hope faded away. Why should he care if the people here knew what he had done or not? It did not matter to him. Frankly nothing mattered. He was a dead man after all. Dead men didn't care about how people thought of them- they were dead after all.

This place could be brutal at times. He was often picked on by others, and not only that but if he did not do his work correctly, he was often punished. Once they found that physical punishments did not bother him, they gave him chores. But he didn't mind. Dead men didn't care about anything, after all.

Vienice had found that pain was no longer what it used to be. He felt it. And it hurt, but it no longer bothered him. The original punishments that they had tried to give him included being slapped by rulers and paddles, and at one time he had been punched in the gut by a particularly cocky student. However, it was all the same in the end. It hurt, but he did not react. The tortur and the fire had taken that humanity from him. Taking his pain and only leaving him with the mild discomfort instead.

So why didn't he care? He supposed... dead men didn't care.

Now, Vienice found himself lying in his bed, as he did every night he had been here. It had been perhaps a good two weeks and he was still trying to get used to this routine. He never let himself sleep, afraid that if he did, it would dissorient him or prompt him to act out. The last thing he wanted was to cause Wymon trouble. The man was so busy he had only been able to check on Vienice once in these last two weeks.

He started to feel an itch to move, to stop laying on his back staring at the ceiling above him. He tried to ignore it and stay where he was supposed to but soon he could not resist so he slipped down from the top bunk of his bed, past the sleeping boy below him and walked to the door of his room and slipped on his shoes. Next he was making his way down the hallway with much care not to be too loud, and then before he knew it, he was outside, the cold air greeting his indifferent skin.

He found a decently sized rock to go sit on and stared up at the night sky, taking in the stars that littered above.

He had heard that there was constellations, groups of stars that made up characters and objects from stories... but he didn't know any of them, and for some reason that stuck him with a deep feeling of melancholy. Anne, his elder sister, loved those stories- but she had never shared them with him. She hated him... he wondered if she somehow knew one day he would ruin everything. She couldn't have known... not even he could have known.

He was lonely here. Perhaps he had always been lonely, but it was really hitting him now. He had never had a friend, never had someone that didn't hate or fear him for who he was or try to seek him out for who he was. He was not a fool. Wymon did not take him into a place like this to be kind. He wanted something from Vienice. And at the surface level, that thought was an offencive one, but Vienice had to remind himself once more, that dead men didn't care about being used. If anything, this gave Vienice the purpose he had been waiting for. Something to devote his life to. Something to do with himself besides destroy things.

Time seemed to slip past, he did not know how long he sat there on the rock, staring up at the sky and thinking to himself. Soon the sun had crept up from the mountains in the distance and made the sky turn blue, hiding the stars that he had been marveling at. Where did the stars go when the sun came up? Was it their turn to sleep? He did not know. He was not sure he cared.

"You are quite the odd one," A voice told him. It was Wymon.

"I suppose," He mumbled now, keeping his eyes on the sky.

"How long have you been out here?" The archdruid asked him now.

"A while."

The man hummed. "Students aren't allowed out at dark. It could be dangerous,"

Vienice turned to the man with a face that lacked any expression. "More dangerous than me?" He asked.

Wymon chuckled a little. "I suppose not."

Vienice's eyes narrowed slightly. "Wymon, why am I here? What is the point? I know I am not like these other people."

Wymon smiled a sly smile, he seemed to always know something that Vienice did not, and the thought was a little unsettling. "Do you know how you are different from them?" Vienice shook his head. "You were picked by the elder god. Your astounding abilities are a gift from him. All of these children merely manifested their gifts without his permission." He explained.

Vienice only felt more confused now, but the man continued. "I do what I think is best, Vienice. And what is best is that we take you in and allow you to learn not only basic things, but how to control your abilities. Not to mention, you are quite useful."

"Useful?"

"You are quite the subject to research. In knowing you, we may be able to know the elder god better. Not to mention your ability to come back from death is quite useful for a predicament we are facing right now."

"What kind of predicament?" He asked wearily.

"Those here with abilities only have one or two, and they can learn how to fully harness and control it. They are hardly dangerous by themselves. Sometimes, there are individuals born however, who have more than a few of these abilities. Their magic is unchallenged by anyone else's. They are very dangerous. Now I do not just go out of my way to harm someone for no reason. But people with this amount of abilities are under a constant mental strain. They may start off normal and sweet but their magic will eat away from their mind and no matter what they try to do to stop it, they will always end up going mad. And with that amount of magic in the hands of a mad person means that disaster will always follow. So we seek them out, and kill them. I need you to assist us with this, since this current one has eluded us for years. If he kills you, you can just get right back up. An infinitely expendable soldier you would make."

"What if he doesn't go crazy though? I do not want to hurt anymore innocents," Vienice told him.

"He will. They always do."

"How do you know?"

Wymon gave him a confident look, a warning not to question his words any longer. "I have known few in my life that had made it to adulthood. All of them had gone mad. Not a one in our recorded history has ever kept his or her sanity."

Vienice looked down now. "I see," Was all he said.

"When you are ready, I will send you out into this world to find the one who is alive now. And after him, whoever is next in line."

Vienice's violet eyes found Wymon's again. "When will I be ready?"

"When I deem it so." He answered vaguely. "Class starts soon, don't be late." He commanded Vienice and the boy nodded, watching the heavily robed man walk off. What was his ability? Vienice was starting to grow more curious about the man. His eyes flicked back out to the forest, violet orbs looking through the trees and brush as he thought. Just how long would he be here?

______

"Demons, devils, ghouls, and beyond, one thing they all have in common: possession. They steal the body and mind of their host and feed off of their soul." The robed man preached to a group of sixteen to seventeen students. Today's lecture was about demons and possessions- something that for once was pricking Vienice's attention. He normally found these presentations as quite the bore, but today he listened closely. He had been called a devil child all his life so learning about the subject might fill him in more about these sort of things. Wouldn't it?

"Now, there are many untruthful tales and legends of demons, not to mention there are even more misconceptions. One of these common misconceptions would be that thinking one might be possessed due to excessive sinning- or doing something that one's own god is against. Sinning under whatever god it is you choose to believe in, will not invite a demon, devil, or ghoul, to possess you. In fact, possessions are quite rare; especially natural ones." The man continued one, pausing briefly to run a hand down his long thin beard and letting his eyes roam over the class.

"That brings me to my next fact for you all. There are three types of possessions. Firstly you all must remember that any sort of possession is rare. Keeping that in mind, the most common type of possession we see is forced possessions. When a robed sorcerer like ourselves whether on purpose or on accident, bring a demon into ourselves or others. Normal people without abilities cannot do this- nor can most who have abilities, but a select few can. I happen to be one of those individuals." he explained to them quite proudly.

"The second most common possession we see, is natural possessions. These are demons who have for some reason or other taken residence inside of a human or animal. A demon can inhibit any creature, but most commonly we see them take people rather than animals." He said with a nod. Soon his eyes came to rest on Vienice's. The boy resisted the urge to sink back into his seat, and instead kept cool violet eyes on the bearded man's brown ones.

"And finally we see our last possession. This one has only been recorded a handful of times- quite rare indeed. A blessed possession we call this. Now the reason people are not gaining demons every day for their sins, is because all the gods you have heard about, all the gods you lots were brought up to worship- they're all a sham. They are nothing but myths and legends, fairy tales made up by foolish people. There is one god and he is the elder. And you see, the elder is responsible for our last type of possession. If he sees it fit for blessing or punishment he will grant people or beast with a demon. I say demon for all of these possessions, but do not be mistaken. Demons, devils, and ghouls of the sort are all the same thing. Evil spirits who inhabit living flesh and bone, corrupting and feeding off of its soul. They are aggressive and bloodthirsty- most lack a conscious, and all lack morals. They do not feel emotion, never, and I mean never, trust a demon."

A slow hand was raised across the room. "Yes?" He asked.

Cold green eyes glanced at Vienice as they spoke before looking back to the robed man. "If we are not to trust demons, then why do we allow one here?"

An irritated look crossed the bearded man's face, his brown eyes narrowing at the question. "I assume you are rudely referring to our newest member? Vienice Aramon." His eyes came to rest on those reserved violet ones for a moment before he decided to speak allowed. "Vienice is not possessed by a demon, if he were then he would be dealt with accordingly."

The room broke out into whispers.

Some students threw around questions like "How can we be sure?" and "How do you know?". Vienice kept his eyes forward, refusing to meet the eyes of his peers who were looking at him wearily.

"Settle down before I extend the lecture an hour and give you all extra work." The robed man called out, and that seemed to do the trick as the room quieted quickly. "We have a multitude of professionals here at the institute who are very sure that he is not possessed or anything of that sort. You are right in thinking that he is not like you all, but as to how he is different is classified information, best not shared with a bunch of children. You will all treat him as one of you, as he is a student of the institute too." the man explained. "Now if you all please, I will get back to the lesson at hand." He said next.

"Back to our previous subject, blessed possessions. They are given by the elder one. He has our own reasons that sometimes may never come to be known. Again this is rare, and should you meet one of these demons, do not attempt to disable it alone. These ones tend to hold a consciousness, however, they are cunning and smart, not to mention deadly. Always find a superior to help expel it- attempting to take it on by oneself means certain death." He said darkly. "Now do we have any questions that do not pertain to our peers?"

A couple hands raised but few were called on. "What about ghost possessions?"

"Ghosts are not real. They do not exist. The reasons we have reports of possessed individuals claiming to be someone from the past is that they are possessed by demons trying to deceive us, and at times themselves. All demons desire that which they cannot have- and sometimes that thing can be a very human desire..." Class droned on for a while longer, all the information swimming around Vienice's head made him dizzy but he paid it no mind.

Soon the class was uprooted and brought outside where two men stood, roughly fifteen to twenty feet apart. Both of the robed men had chains in their hands that extended out to a third man who was on his knees in the middle of them, the chains coming to rest at a steel collar around his neck. He looked sickly and beat, wounds festering all over having gone untreated.

"This man here will be our demonstration today. He will die to grant us the knowledge we seek- but do not fear it an unfair trade. He has committed crimes of his own that at this time I am not permitted to say. Instead we must focus on the knowledge we may learn from his deserved passing."

One of the students who were stood in the small crowd, watching the man before them spoke up. "What is going to happen to him?"

The bearded man gave a small smile and gestured to the chained man on his knees. The man had his hands bound behind his back, Viencie soon noticed. Next his eyes flicked to the robed man, who was now chanting under his breath in a language that Vienice first could not understand but then soon came to comprehend. Though he could not make out the words, the man was summoning a demon, talking to it as if to coach it into the chained man. The sound made his skin prickle like that of a plucked goose.

Eyes snapped back to the chained man as he let out a shriek that soon lowered in pitch to an inhuman sound. He lurched forward into the dirt, vomiting black liquid- in fact that same black liquid was pouring from every opening it could. It spouted from his nose and ears, and even his eyes as they blackened to become obsidian marbles. It choked and sputtered on the liquid, thrashing in the chains that pulled tight from each side of thim. Crazily it pulled and jerked in its restraints, screaming and growling. Its once human teeth blackened and sharpened, and the jaw of the mans mouth popped and moved, gaping open larger than it could have before. Skin greyed and scales seemed to press up against the inside of his skin, almost threatening to tear through. Vienice wondered if this was a painful process... it was surely hard to watch, yet he couldn't take his eyes off of it.

"This, my dear students, is a demon. Can anyone tell me what kind of possession we see here?"

"Forced possession?" Someone asked.

"Correct, and can anyone tell me how to remove the demon from this poor man without killing him?" There was no answer to this question, and the bearded man frowned, brown eyes searching his students. "Nobody? Not one of you can even guess? Come on, I will give my entire months pay to anyone who can expel the demon from this man without killing him!" He prompted them. This had the students whispering amongst themselves but still no one raised their hand or spoke up.

Brown eyes soon focused on violet ones. "Vienice, why don't you tell us."

"I do not know..." he said in response, feeling uncomfortable in the presence of the possessed man. As soon as he had spoken up the demon froze, as if sensing him for the first time. Dead, marbled black eyes came to look at him as a low rumbling came from the possessed man.

"Oh? Looks like he likes you. Think now Vienice, how do you separate a demon from a person without killing them?"

More intense silence passed before Vienice looked back at the robed man in realization. "You can't," he said now.

A smile broke out on the instructors face. "Very good. Elaborate."

Vienice swallowed and looked back at the demon who was now struggling in its restraints again, but this time fighting to escape in Vienice's direction. "The demons soul and the person's soul are no longer separable as soon as the possession occurs. The demon completely devours anything human almost immediately. The man is already dead. You cannot save or seperate them." he said without much thought, surprising even himself.

"My my, it seems someone has read ahead in their studies. If only the rest of your classmates would follow that example. You are completely right, however, I do not appreciate show offs in my class. As such, you get to extinguish this rotten demon."

Vienice looked at the man apprehensively, letting emotion finally sneak into his expression. He did not want to be around this demon let alone be the one to put an end to it. It made him uncomfortable- he was crawling in his own skin wanting to distance himself from this creature. "I did not mean to show off, I apologize," he said as he glanced back at the rancid monster. "I do not know if I can kill it-"

"Oh we know you very well can. Go on then, get to it. The archdruid tells me you are quite the impressive lad." the bearded man pressed.

Vienice swallowed and turned to the demon, wincing at the screech it let out in response. He approached it slowly, the stench of the black liquid making him wrinkle his nose. It smelt familiar but he could not put a name to its rancid smell. The monster screamed and growled at him, snapping its jaws all the while as it struggled in its restraints. It seemed as though the creature was trying to lunge at Vienice.

Vienice reached out to snap its neck, but hesitated. He realized that wasn't going to work. A sharp pain caused him to jolt, noticing that his hesitation had allowed the demon to viciously latch onto his hand with its sharp ink black teeth. He did not let out a scream of any kind, nor a gasp, the only reactions he made were wide, panicked eyes and his other hand coming up to grab the demon man by his hair. He grit his teeth and pulled against the strong jaw grip of the monster, ignoring the panicked noise of his classmates behind him.

"Boy, are you fuckin dumb?" The teacher shouted and made to approach him.

The messy red haired boy shot the robed man a sharp glare. "Stop, I have this under control. I can do it."

He scoffed at him. "That thing's gonna take your bloody hand off because you weren't careful!"

Vienice ignored the robed instructor as he started to pry at the demon's jaw, but the creature had a firm grip. Vienice's own dark red blood spilled from his hand, dripping down the creatures chin and Vienice's own arm. He pried harder at the creature's mouth until there was a snap, and another gurgling scream. Now the creature's jaw hung loosely at the bottom of it;s face, the large gaping mouth, open all the more wider. He realized with disgust that he had broken its jaw. He spared the bearded man one last glance before he brought his hands forward without hesitation and with as much inhuman strength as he could muster up, ripped the demon's head from its body and dropped it, watching the whole thing go limp. Black oily blood rained down everywhere, soaking him in the putrid stench of something he now recognized.

A smell he'd smelt in his dreams.