A World of Spiritualists

A pale , sickly sun shined dully in the sky.

Freezing Winds ripped through the land below . The entire town was covered with a blanket of white snow . The silence that enveloped the land was deafening ; even the drop of a needle could be heard clearly in that silence which was highly unusual since the Willow Town was a town that lay amidst a prominent thoroughfare .

Not far from the town lay the vast Blue Mountain Range which was called so because the peak of the

mountains that touched the clouds appeared to have a bluish tinge when viewed from afar. Across the Mountain Range on the other side was the vast Blue Wind Empire ; caravans of merchants that traveled to and from the Blue Wind Empire towards the other side of the Blue Mountain Range had to cross Willow Town as the only navigable path passed through there . Moreover , teams of Adventurers who ventured out into the Blue Mountain Range in order to search for valuable materials also made Willow Town as their base . As a result even in the peak of Winter when the frost set in , a great deal of hustle and bustle could still be seen in the town .

It was thus uncanny that not even a single sound could be heard anywhere . Not even the bark of a dog or a caw of a crow that should have been ubiquitous.

What in the world had happened for the entire land to fall silent ?

The only person who could answer this question was walking nonchalantly along the main avenue of the town .

The once busy path now lay desolate , the shops and houses cluttered on either side of the road that were once full of raucous laughter and joyful cheer now lay empty and broken , their doors hanging off their hinges , their signs covered with a new layer of frost .

The person calmly took in the sight with a subtle grin spreading across his face .

He took pride in a job well done even if the job had been totally unscheduled and a tad rushed .

He pulled the thick coat made of animal fur that hang below his knees closer to himself . Although he didn't fear the cold for his body was protected by a thick coat of natural fur it was precisely this characteristic of his that he wished to hide by covering himself.

Although he was sure that his action had been clean and thorough it will still be bothersome if someone else suspected him . His physical traits were unfortunately too well known .

Of course , although many were aware of what he could be identified with but few failed to take into account that he was not a mere beast .

A mere beast only knew how to use its instincts he however was a beast with wisdom which had a great deal of intelligence!

With a deep breath his figure which exceeded two meters shrank to a more reasonable size and simultaneously his form morphed till all the beastly characteristics that were present such as the protruding fangs and the wolf like face and ears and naturally the claws and the fur were lost completely .

In place of the monster which had been there earlier , now stood an amiable seeming youth with a scholarly appearance that suggested weakness.

He lifted a porcelain bottle from his long coat and shook it gently .

The sound of a liquid splashing inside could be heard .

He gently unfastened the cork and stared at the inside contents . Clearly satisfied with what he got to see he refastened the cork on top of the bottle and then placed it back inside his coat.

"Now , that was quite a productive diversion . " He fished for his timepiece and after gazing at the time made an estimate of how long was needed for him to reach his destination.

"If I rush along I should be able to make it in time . " He concluded .

He then began to walk along the path as it slowly winded its way out of the town .

The town was just as still as before.

It was just as silent when the cavalry came by the next day and discovered the corpses .

Not a single living being had been spared from men to women to birds and beasts even the aged and the young were bereft of life , their faces still rent in horror as in their final moments they bore witness to the being that brought down the curtain on their lives .

Although the best attempts possible were made to track down the culprit even so the actual culprit managed to get away scot free .

After all who could have believed that such a frail scholar would have been capable of consigning an entire town into oblivion ?

Far away from Willow Town in a place known as Blackdown Moor stood a lone tower made of obsidian that rose sharply from a sea of mist that obscured its lower reaches.

Blackdown Moor was a forsaken place where the sun hardly shone if ever and now that it was winter even the little wisps of light that had managed to reach the land previously had vanished . The entire moor was now a province of mist and shadow .

In the words of the people who dwelt nearby the moor was a terrible place that was best avoided . Deep within the thick fog it was easy to get lost and then any foolhardy trespasser would become food for the malevolent beings that had made the moor their abode .

Even the least harmful the Will o' the Wisps which appeared as randomly dispersed ghostly fires were capable of slowly weakening a traveler's will and then in his moment of despair tempting him to certain doom .

As for the far more powerful wraiths and demonic beasts that lurked deep within the mist the less that was said of them the better . These beings had a rabid hunger for human blood and flesh and would go to great lengths to satisfy their craving .

Thankfully , though for some mysterious reason they didn't venture out of the bounds of the moor otherwise the human settlements would have been devoured long ago by these foul creatures.

Unless it was an especially dark winter night when a few beasts that lived in the outer reaches would enter into the surrounding settlements the people who lived in the surroundings didn't need to worry much about being attacked .

If the moor was truly was such a horrifying place then what was that tower all about ?

If this question were to be asked the villagers would do their best to avoid the eyes of the questioner and shift the topic abruptly without providing a coherent answer.

Even if the moor was a terrifying place they would still prefer it to the tower regardless of how many times the choice were to be presented . After all , even if bloodthirsty monsters lived in the moor they would at least make quick work of their victims unlike that rumored master of the tower .

Many a night when the wind was still and the moor was relatively clear eerie screams could be heard that made the hair on the back of their necks stand up and their skin crawl .

Once they associated it with the caravans of condemned prisoners and slaves that passed into the moor , the only sort of goods that went into the moor apart from the caravans laden with food the conclusion was obvious .

Rumors bespoke of a mysterious existence that was the master of the Tower . Known only as the Spiritualist he was in fact the true owner of the moor and it was said that the many monsters inside followed his bidding .

The Spiritualist had tremendous strength and was capable of annihilating an entire village without effort. His powerful strength combined with an extremely notorious temper made people afraid to discuss about him aloud for fear that they would be cursed and would rot away till no life remained in their bodies .

A valid concern if any of the tales brought from the traders from far off towns had an element of truth in them . According to them , the Spiritualists who wielded immense power far beyond the range of a mortal were in fact the true rulers of the land with most mortal kingdoms being nothing but their puppets . Luckily Spiritualists for the most part ignored the existence of mortals , there were even some of them who were benign and chivalrous and helped mortals actively .Unfortunately in this part of the world the Spiritualists encountered were often twisted and antisocial in nature.

Highly temperamental and ruthless they would often harvest the lives of mortals at a mere whim especially fearful where the organisations called the 'Devil's Sects' that were based in the Far South unlike most Spiritualists who ignored mortals unless provoked the members of these organisations would actively seek out mortals and torture them and use them as experimental subjects for their pleasure .

Although the Spiritualist who lived in the tower was nowhere as fearsome as a member of a Devil Sect he was certainly no amenable soul and legends handed down from father to son spoke of the terrible fate that awaited if they offended the exalted being .

Lu Yan was thus avoided by any villager who managed to came across his path as he walked through the village . Parents would close the eyes of their young children and edge away from the path quickly . Houses with open doors and windows would be shut tightly without any ceremony as he crossed them.

He stared at his red apprentice robes and couldn't help sighing once .

Truly , ending up at that tower had closed off all possibility of a normal life for him .

But then it was not as if he had any other choice to begin with ; as an orphan from a derelict orphanage it was either the tower or the streets .

At that time he had chosen to be sent into the tower with the vain hope that one day he could become a Spiritualist and wield immense power in his hands thus freeing him from the fate of a bottom feeder .

Now he couldn't help but feel differently .

The life as an apprentice wasn't glamorous at all for want of a better term he was nothing more than a glorified slave of the master of the tower . He was supposed to complete the tasks assigned to him and simultaneously learn by himself the ways of a spiritualist if he faltered in either then his fate was fixed , to be cut open at the experimental table where if lucky he would be turned into an Abomination and if worse .. he he .. Of course , all this was under the assumption that he didn't fall prey to a murderous wraith when patrolling the boundary of the tower's premises or become victim of a crazed villager's ax who saw him as a devil that would eat his children.

Although the master of the tower truly controlled the moor and the villages around it he didn't have enough time to instruct each and every one of his subjects personally not to mention he wouldn't even bother if one or two apprentices died .

After all apprentices were disposable and could be replaced quite easily valuable time that could be used to conduct an experiment however could not .

It was thus with a heavy heart that Lu Yan walked to the village grocer's to take the supply of material that had to be delivered to his master .

The grocer who was the only villager brave enough to deal with the Spiritualist directly received a handsome remuneration for collecting the Spiritualist's packages which he was supposed to hand over to an apprentice .

The grocer on seeing Lu Yan soundlessly handed over a tightly sealed burlap sack over to Lu Yan who in turn handed out a couple of silver coins to him . Although the grocer was brave enough to transact with the Spiritualist he certainly was not capable of starting a conversation .Lu Yan however didn't fault him for this and without a word left the store.

Lu Yan hauled over the heavy sack over his shoulder as he headed back the way he came from .

He couldn't help but ponder his fate ahead , there was not much time left before the Spiritualist made another inspection and unless he managed to pass there was no future left for him .

A sigh leaked out as he wondered how long he had to stay in such an environment full of dread and trepidation.