Berit: ....nightmares, it started with me seeing myself in this realm, walking places I have never been, seen or heard of before. I doubt if these places actually exist, although they seem real. When winter came, I began seeing other things, like invisible beings, sometimes feet... mighty feet like the height of the tallest house in this village. Until recently it all changed; I now see these beings as they are. They are four-fingered and four-toed giants with dreadful stature. They are all bald with dark inked inscriptions on the head. Their skin is so glabrous and smooth. They roar like lions. They run like horses. Their eyes are faintly blue. They come to me without words. They come to me with open arms. All these times I end up running from them, but each ten steps I make happens to be their one step; caught with those coarse massive hands of theirs, I would wake up.
"And?" Asked Tumo with more demonstrative hands, while Bekker remained dumbfounded with his mouth wide open. Berit reaches out to the left sleeve of his cloak, showing dark inked marks on his left hand.
These. I wake up to find additional marks on my skin. I don't know what this is." Berit said with sad eyes. Bekker quickly rushed to him to access the mark.
"Un...believable!" Bekker exclaimed after a moment of assessing the mark on Berit's hand.
"What?" Tumo asked, aroused by curiosity.
"I have only heard about this. I never thought it to be true. Listen, when I was in the citadel of mystics, they said it happened centuries ago but had no proof to show other than books. I didn't believe it."
"Please make me understand," Tumo politely asked.
"I am only fifteen, sire. Am I going to die?" Berit asked with sobbing eyes.
"No! No, son! You're not going to die. The Land gods won't allow it." Bekker said in a fatherly manner as he embraced Berit.
"This right here is the Nexus mark." Bekker added.
"Liar!" Tumo barked.
"Believe it or not, your son is the Nexus."
"I'm not getting it at all, sire. What is wrong with me, sire? Why do I mark these marks on me" Berit asked with sobbing eyes.
"Son, I will explain to you. You see, it was said that many ages ago, the ante-men came in contact with the Rayhem, immortal soldiers of the Xertos realm, when Biros, a prince who became the first Nexus, crowned his peaceful uncle, the Uris, in order to fight the dreadful Archig." Bekker cleared his throat.
"The Archig! The Archig were said to be mysterious shape-shifting beings from an unknown realm that found their way into the human realm and began feeding on the ante-men. The realm population was drastically reduced to nothing until Biros, through self-indulged revelation and connection with mystics, discovered the Rayhem. Biros found a way to connect with the Xertos realm and eventually discovered a way he could bring the Rayhem, immortal soldiers of the Xertos realm, to the human realm." Bekker coughed.
"Here, take my friend." Tumo handed him a cup of water. Bekker thanked him and then continued.
"The Rayhem are only loyal to their king, the Uris, the possessor of the realm through knowledge of the ancient Ode of immortality, which is their creed and reason behind their immortality. They said it was a horrific battle with the Rayhem clashing with the dreadful Archig under the command of the Uris, who rides a four-element dragon called Dragulf. The dragon was said to have countless abilities, but none was mentioned in the book. Do you want to say something?" Bekker asked Berit.
"I saw a dragon once. A very big red dragon. It spewed fire on a tree. It spewed water to quench a wildfire." Berit confirmed.
"It could be, son. It could be. I read that the Archigs were all destroyed, but after the victory, the Uris grew heartless and pompous and became a treacherous tyrant in the human realm. He subjected humanity to all forms of unimaginable subjection in spite of what they had suffered under the Archig era. Out of empathy, pity and benevolence of goodwill, Biros got angry and begged his Uncle, the Uris to stop subjecting the human race to treachery. The Uris intoxicated by his immortality, and his immortal soldiers of Rayhem and Dragulf, abducted Biros and he shape-shifted him to the Realm of Sobriety forcing Biros to be sober for years in the realm filled with sad, lazy creatures. Unfortunately for the Uris, he didn't know that Biros would shape-shift with help from some Night Elves called "The Oak". The Night Elves helped Biros shape-shift to Xertos realm, and there they performed some rituals that led to the Uris turning back to a mortal man. Bekker paused.
"In three occasions, I found myself beside a dark cave filled with crawling whispers. Each time I only saw torrential eyes looking back at me and possible giggling from the deep darkness" Bekker confirmed.
"The Night Elves also made Biros nullify the throne, but sadly the Night Elves were against Biros instant desire to be reborn as a god, as he tried to crown himself as the new Uris. The Night Elves stirred a disagreement; immediately one of them shape-shifted Biros's uncle from the human realm and they transferred into Biros and his uncle chaos that eventually led to a duel that saw Biros stabbed with an Archig steel by his uncle and he died. His uncle grew older alone in the Xertos realm and with immortality stripped from him, he passed on. No story was documented in addition to this. For centuries now, the Rayhem has not been heard of, and people in this realm, and I am not excluding myself, had come to believe it to be a mere fable rather than a reality. It was also mentioned in the book that only the Uris can bring them into the human realm. And for them to have a king, an Uris, there must be a Nexus, he must possess the tongue of the ancient Ode of immortality and journey through the fourteen deadly seas into the fortress of invisible beings to the Altar of Ashere and there would sing into the ancient tusk of immortality the entire ode ceaselessly, awakening the powers of the Uris and Rayhem. At this time, the Nexus would be filled with shape-shifting powers and must walk through the inked wall to reappear in the Xertos realm in order to ascend the Xertos throne. A throne made of flames they said, and whoever sits on it is reborn as a god and he becomes the god of the Xertos and the human realm, and every other realm he so wishes to conquer. So, Berit you are the Nexus, the way to make a Uris or become one yourself.