Phantasia

“Even unpopulated, this place is filled with loud thoughts,” said Faye, “I have already noticed the shallow thought-patterns of students such as Doyle Kennedy and Byron d’Arcadie, both obsessed with carnal pleasures,”

“It’s not a nice place to be in at the time,” said Phantasia, “It’s like some kind of human underworld or something…”

“Indeed. Such a density of thoughts, feelings and desires can only cause mana degradation. It is no surprise to find such an area attached to demonic affairs,”

And yet some of Phantasia’s friends felt at home here, once again reminding her that the world worked in ways deeper than light and darkness. Moving away from the bar and seating area, they approached the dance floor and stage, behind which the long mural of Erebus and the Great Cataclysm, and the raw emotions contained within it, overshadowed everything. Phantasia kept back as Faye approached the wall, her senses a gentle drizzle against the surface of corruption.

“The thoughts contained within this mural date back to the time this place was used as a shelter,” she said, “I would ascertain that it saw its beginnings there and, from the thoughts I can read, that the choice of this locale as a social gathering point for those obsessed with death was not coincidental,”

“Last time I came here I was so naïve,” said Phantasia, “I opened myself up to everything and let the corruption seep into me. The mural kinda kicked it off because of all the emotions and thoughts trapped inside it. It’s like a abscess,”

“That you stand here now unaffected by its sight demonstrates how much you have grown these past four weeks,” said Faye, and for the first time Phantasia realised just how far she’d come. The last time she was here, the leansídhe had escaped and gone on to torment her friends – now she was sure there would be no such failures.

With the main club analysed, the two faeries made their way through the catacombs beyond it, Phantasia trying in earnest to remember her way to the leansídhe summoning chamber. As they explored the passageways, Phantasia paid more attention to her surroundings than she had the last time. Every so often they would pass small antechambers and rooms set aside for a variety of purposes, from relaxation and socialising to drug-taking and seduction. Some areas were marked off-limits and beyond them Phantasia could feel shifting human auras behind walls of fierce corruption, but nothing that suggested demonic activity.

“The thoughts contained within these walls are consumed with the same wanton desire for physical gratification that plague the mind of Doyle Kennedy,” said Faye, “A desire to escape the world by embracing a transitory moment of euphoria, and the constant search to replicate that fleeting feeling for an eternity. Understanding of such things is not within my element,”

“Sounds like what that ceremony that created the leansídhe was all about,” said Phantasia, “Those shaman gave people visions of bliss in exchange for their deepest fears, then once the leansídhe had a hold of them it hunted them down and forced out those fears, even if it killed them,”

“I would extrapolate that it was a similar occurrence with the other shadows,” said Faye, “Each would harness a powerful emotion, devouring it until its masters reduced it to a raw, crystalline form. Fear – the lack of knowledge – is a Water-element emotion and I would extrapolate that these ‘shaman’ have collected shadows of all primary elements,”

Chapter 47
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