Kanu sat with his legs crossed in white void wondering if he had been met with death at last. There were nights when Kanu would be wrapped with the harshness of the world or he couldn’t find a way to keep moving. On those nights he would pray to Death, the only God he knew to care about the ordeals of men. Death came for many around him, the old, the ill and even the newborn, but it never came for Kanu. Is this what death was? There was no journey to the underworld waiting for him, just a vast emptiness as far as his eye could see.

“Do you die this easily,” the voice Kanu had searched for asked.

“I don’t think it was an easy death. It was honorable. Fighting against endless hoards alongside my comrades.”

“A useless death alongside rapists and murderers. It’s beneath you.”

“It was not useless.”

“Who did you help? Who was in danger?”

“The necromancer could have attacked at any time.”

“Who were they going to attack? You don’t know. You and your criminals attacked someone who had done nothing.”

“Was defiling the graves of those children nothing?”

“They were dead, the bodies meant nothing.”

“They weren’t nothing.”

“If the body no longer houses the soul is nothing more than a meat puppet.”

“This is pointless,” Kanu shouts, quieting the voice. “Why have you come to torment me in my death?”

“Death,” the voice laughed. “This is not death. I blessed your birth so that pain could not defeat you, so that you may live until you fulfilled your destiny.”

“Is that why you haunt my dreams?”

“I do not haunt your dreams,” the voice became serious again. “I give you the knowledge to survive and the strength to thrive. Without my lessons you would have died long again.”

“Then teach me lessons, not give me nightmares!”

“Without those nightmares you would not know how to implement the knowledge. Through my works, I sat power at your feet and you refuse to grasp it.”

Kanu sat, and thought. There was nothing else to do in the space. He had trusted the voice and it led him out of harm. Yet, he was still unsure if it was trustworthy. He had been so determined to hear it again, yet it was once again telling him what he did not want to hear or what he did not understand.

“Who are you,” Kanu asked the voice, hoping it was still here.

“I have been called many things, and you will call me many things in the future. For now, you may call me Damu.”

“Damu,” it felt strange to finally put a name to voice. “Damu, what do you know about me?”

“Everything, I’ve watched over you since before you were born, even if you didn’t know it.”

“Did you know my mother, or father?”

“That is something we should discuss later, for now, you must return.”

“What do I do?”

“You do what you set out to do. Kill the necromancer, search for me. Make the name Kanu have meaning across each continent and only then will we meet and fulfil your destiny.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It will, one day,” Damu’s voice faded away along with the empty void.

Gazing up at the moonlight Kanu knew he was back in the real world. He reached and grasped at something on his face, realizing it was Hassian’s hand after he responded excitedly. He began shouting, forgetting Kanu did not know the language.

“Hassian, Hassian, what are you saying,” Kanu pleaded with him to calm down as he sat up.

“I am so glad that you are alive,” Hassian hugged him.

Kanu surveyed the room, corpses cover nearly ever part of the ground, including those that came with them. Only Hassian and the woman with fiery hair remained. She laughed and spoke something to Hassain that caused him to react in anger before regaining his composure.

“Are we all that remains,” Kanu asked.

“Yes, the others have been carried to the other side.”

“What of the necromancer?”

“They still reside within the cave.”

“Then we shall go,” Kanu forced himself to stand.

“You are in no condition to fight,” Hassian grabbed him.

“I don’t fear death,” Kanu walked forward.

The cut still pained him as he walked but the poison was weak and had almost completely left his system. Hassian and the fiery haired woman had no choice but to follow as he headed deeper into the cave, eager for confrontation with renewed motivation. He had no interest in power, but he would seek the voice to the ends of the Earth in order to learn more about his origin.

As he walked Kanu did something he had not done in many years, he prayed. He did not pray to the Gods of his people, he once again prayed for death. This time he didn’t pray for his own death, but the death of his enemies and all that would block his path.