Arnimos floated in a seemingly empty black void, he could feel nothing, hear nothing perhaps he couldn't even see anything. As he moved his hands it felt like he was moving through water. As he tried to take a breath nothing came, his body reflexively kept trying to breathe but no air reached him. He moved his hand up to his mouth and felt nothing but the air, he trashed around reaching for something. As he did so his mind began to race and he felt something in his soul stir.

  A moment later a searing feeling permeated his body and this empty void flashed with a dark purple light. As the light dimmed he felt air reach his lungs and ground beneath his feet. He looked down and saw a section of limestone just large enough for him to stand on and the air around him no longer felt like moving through water. He reached his hand out and after a foot or so his hand seemed to pierce out of the pocket he seemed to have made. He drew his hand back in but none of the strange air followed.

  As he looked around once again he heard the faint sound of something clicking in rapid succession, like a strange ring of keys. He looked towards it direction and as he did-

  Arnimos shot up, he looked around and saw himself under the tarp of a small campsite. There was a fire making some food and John and the Vishashi sat a bit away. John was covered in scars that seemed to be slowly fading and the Vishashi sat talking to him. As he awoke the two looked at him.

  "You're finally awake," The Vishashi said.

  "Had us worried there for a bit," John said.

  "What happened?" Arnimos said. "I remember us fighting some strange guys then..."

  "We beat 'em," John said. "Especially with the use of that power you got there,"

  "Yes, it was unlike anything I had ever seen," The Vishashi said.

  "Same here," Arnimos said. "Never used it before,"

  "It outputs a large amount of power," The Vishashi said. "And it destroyed the clones and the Fragment,"

  "Is this what my Luxicon Dichotomy does?" Arnimos said. "Did it damage anything else?"

  "Just my Fragment and the clones," The Vishashi said.

  "Hold on," John said.

  John quickly rifled through a bag lying beside him and pulled out a crossbow that looked to be made of marble, it had cracks running along its frame.

  "This Fear-Made weapon wasn't this damaged when I picked it up," John said. "Think his Dichotomy could have done it?"

  "To damage a Fear-Made weapon takes great power," The Vishashi said. "For one of his abilities to do such a thing..."

  The Vishashi seemed to be lost in thought while John slid the crossbow back into his pack.

  "What does this mean?" Arnimos said.

  "Means you got some strange as hell abilities," John said. "Not that i'm gonna complain, saved my life and all that,"

  "We will have to spend time training them," The Vishashi said.

  "Sounds good," Arnimos said. "When should we start?"

  "Immediately," The Vishashi said.

  "Right now?" Arnimos said.

  "I'll give you a few minutes to eat and wake up," The Vishashi said. "Then we start,"

  Arnimos got up and quickly ate the food that was being prepared before following the Vishashi a short distance away from the camp. The Vishashi stopped and looked back at him.

  "From what I have seen you seem to have little control over your Dichotomies," The Vishashi said.

  "I'm aware," Arnimos said. "Had enough teachers tell me that by now,"

  "Your lack of control is not only your fault however," The Vishashi said. "Quad-Dichotomies are exceptionally hard to tame, they require a different approach for each person,"

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  The Vishashi raised a hand and the sand around him seemed to begin dancing.

  "It took me many years to control mine," The Vishashi said.

  "That brings up the question again," Arnimos said. "What are you? An Archon as well?"

  "I am not lucky or unlucky," The Vishashi said. "But I am a member of the Quad-Dichotomy races,"

  "Tages never got around to telling me much about the others," Arnimos said.

  "Then let me teach you," The Vishashi said. "I am a Scribe,"

  "What does that mean?" Arnimos said.

  "You Archons have access to all of your Dichotomy's abilities and can even combine them. Empaths, the third and last of the Quad-Dichotomy races, focus on drawing their fear out of the environment to fuel their powers," The Vishashi said. "But us Scribes do something else, we only have 3 Skills and our Ultimate but our special ability is that we can "Redefine" our fear. For example,"

  The Vishashi waved a hand and suddenly for around a meter around him the top layer of sand vanished.

  "That was a redefinition of one of my Skills to be Luxicon instead of Taniberas," The Vishashi said. "We can only redefine a limited number of times per day and, unless we have a definition we would like to get back, we do not get to choose anything other then the Dichotomy the redefinition should use,"

  "That's interesting," Arnimos said. "But we have the same Dichotomies, why are our power sets different?"

  "It is the nature of their formation," The Vishashi said. "My Tyross and Taniberas Dichotomies formed and merged before my Arbeross and Luxicon which is what creates Scribes, Empaths are made by the merging of Arbeross and Luxicon then the manifestation of Tyross and Taniberas while Archons have their Dichotomies all manifest at the same time creating equilibrium,"

  "So the difference between me and you," Arnimos said. "Was that I was lucky enough to have all my Dichotomies come in at once?"

  "Yes," The Vishashi said. "And it because of that they are so hard to control,"

  The Vishashi put his hand straight out and furrowed his brow, sand began to flow from the ground and formed into 4 small balls in his palm. One of the balls then merged into another.

  "My merged Dichotomies mean that one is stronger than the others and since the stronger one is Tyross and Taniberas it means I can command mine to listen,"

  The balls then separated back out into 4.

  "For you however your Dichotomies are equal," The Vishashi said. "They require a firm hand and resolve to work together in the way you wish, they must learn listen to your mind over their wishes,"

  "And how do I train that?" Arnimos said.

  "It comes with time," The Vishashi said. "During our travels try to make DE then hold it but our training here isn't about that, it is to try out your first Skill,"

  The balls of sand fell apart and blew away in the wind. The Vishashi then put a hand out to the side and a large snake made of sand formed.

  "Focus your mind and draw out DE then try channeling it into your Luxicon Dichotomy," The Vishashi said. "Then focus on whatever feels natural, your first Skill should come easily,"

  Arnimos closed his eyes and focused on his Dichotomies. They came alive and flooded his mind with fear, he focused on breathing as images of all the worst things flashed in his mind. The Dichotomies then began to feast and grow fat pumping out DE then he sharpened his mind past the horrible images and directed the flow of DE towards the Luxicon Dichotomy. The energy flowed into it and part of his soul felt filled to bursting. As he stood there silently for a moment wondering what to do he let instinct reign.

  Arnimos opened his eyes and saw the Vishashi there with the Fragment. He raised a hand as the energy swelled inside him. He directed it outwards, towards the Fragment. As the energy surged he heard the faint ring of a key.

  Energy exploded outwards and rushed over the land, parts of the sand ground beneath them, a construct of the Region, was annihilated as the energy passed over. As the energy hit the Fragment it made a horrible screech, something it shouldn't be able to do, and was seemingly blown apart. The Vishashi recoiled as the energy passed through him.

  Arnimos fell to the ground panting, what he had just done felt horrible. There was something horribly wrong with what he just did, he didn't know what but something within told him so. He took a few deep breaths and looked back up at the Vishashi who was stood with a partially horrified and partially intrigued expression.

  "You just..." The Vishashi said. "The sand... You Destroyed the sand..."

  "What's so important about that?" Arnimos said.

  "The sand comes from the Region," The Vishashi said. "It should not be possible to Destroy it..."

  "Didn't your Luxicon ability do that?" Arnimos said.

  "In a sense," The Vishashi said. "But not how you did,"

  "What's the difference?" Arnimos said.

  "I just removed the sand by destroying the desert," The Vishashi said. "You destroyed the sand itself,"

  "So my Dichotomy destroyed part of the Region?" Arnimos said. "What could that mean?"

  "Whatever it is," The Vishashi said. "We shall have to experiment more, but we'll stop todays training here,"

  The Vishashi walked over to Arnimos and offered a hand.

  "It seems that your Skills take a lot out of you," The Vishashi said. "We'll have to spend some more time later figuring out how it works fully,"

  "Agreed," Arnimos said. "Something feels off about all of this,"

  Arnimos took the Vishashi's hand and pulled himself up, then they went back to the camp.