I Get the Feeling I Hate You

"It'll be an obvious trap though, like so obvious even you could see it." The madness that was Trezlan Lorentino would not leave Tolviar alone. She figured it would hang around, but didn't know how obnoxious it could be. From her memories of Trezlan it fit exactly with him personality wise, if only even more of an asshole as if that was possible.

"Why do you bother me so." She was holed up where there had once been a homeless camp, what happened to the homeless people living there she did not know, but could probably guess.

"Bother? I'm helping, I fought, well part of me, look whatever, I fought these things, I know their methods."

"So do I you trumped up clown! This is bigger than normal, but I've taken these creatures down, I don't need a mental breakdown here helping me do something I already know how to do." Trezlan smiled and Tolviar wanted to punch him, but she knew she could not.

"I think you are being unreasonable, yet I can see where my presence is not appreciated, so I will go for a time, I think you'll need me before you know it, but I'm willing to let you do this on your own, by the way you might want to turn around." She didn't even get to ask why before the remaining creature attacked. It had gotten partially burned in the fire, though apparently avoided dying to it, but not by much from the charred look of the creature.

Tolviar attempted to finish it off with fire, but came up empty. Whatever magic she'd used to convert the hotel fire into an inferno had sucked it out of her. Somewhere she could almost hear the voice of the madness laughing at her.

"Great, now he's not here to offer suggestions."

The Failure of Fools

"She apparently has quite the talent for fire magic god." They had drawn lots, Willis had lost and so he was the one who descended the steps to speak with their god. The quivering shape of it brought him to his knees, the smell kept him there. He knew his death could come at any moment.

"They always do, this one smells of another though, who also burned." The voice reverberated in the chamber and in Willis's mind, he knew the God would do this, to impart its strength to the unworthy.

"Her name is Tolviar does that have a memory attached?"

"No it does not, though it matters not, she will fall, pull your people back, direct her to me, I will wrench from her life all I need, and then the other will feel loss like he has not in a long time."

"Yes God." Willis felt better he felt he might actually survive the meeting.

"Come closer lesser." Willis did so reluctantly, he dared not approach the pool, he'd seen someone who had and it looked like a fate worse than simply being killed. As he approached the pool his God extended one of its tentacles, the thick black fluid slimed off the arm as it approached Willis. It touched him on the forehead and his brain was on fire, pain, and memory flooded him and Willis stopped being Willis, but became an extension of his God. His eyes clouded over and he left the chamber to inform the others and to make preparations for Tolviar, he wanted to be ready for the necromancer, he had plenty of things to show her.

Madness Is Not a Covenience Thing

The burnt remains of the security force were blowing around the area. The amount of power Tolviar had wielded felt like touching a live wire. The formerly burning hotel was now just a smoking wreck, the fire unleashed had burned so intensely the pavement was partially fused into the ground along with some of the bones of the dead.

"Overkill much?" The figment that was Trezlan was looking at the dead, Tolviar had hoped he would have faded when she was no longer in danger.

"Why are you still here?"

"I've always been here, I've just chosen now for you to see me, I figured you could use my help."

"I have your memories, I don't need your madness." It smiled.

"You act like you can just turn me off, and it doesn't work like that, Trezlan understood, sometimes you have to feed the madness. Give in to it every once in a while or it will crush you." Tolviar turned to leave.

"Right and that worked out so well for him."

"Kept him alive, which is what I aim to do with you, so you might want to run about now I hear others coming." Not wanting to argue with the madness and hearing the foot steps herself Tolviar ran. Sadly she saw that the spirit of madness with a wide grin on his face, was running along side her.

You Can Burn Or You Can Die

The creature had escaped. That much was clear to Tolviar, where ever it had gone it was no longer in the burning building. Unfortunately for Tolviar her escaping was a lot harder since the fire had spread through the rotten hotel so fast every hallway was lit up. She could also hear shouting from outside, some kind of loud speakery voice, she couldn't make out exactly what was said, but figured it was the usual "come out so we can kill you." Thing were looking not great for her. In fact she figured it was probably all over.

"Giving up already?" Bald with a red beard she knew this was what Trezlan had looked like at one point, but not anymore. It was weird to see him there staring at her though.

"Great about to die and now I'm crazy."

"Now? No no you're a part of me, you'll always be crazy its the gift of being a necromancer, or whatever you really are." Something broke and crashed to the floor behind Tolviar, she felt the fire coming on stronger now.

"Ok all that is a given, you're here to tell me something other than how screwed I am?"

"Show you something." Trezlan stuck out his hand and in it was a ball of fire, and then it vanished before exploding out ward.

"I'm confused."

"You control fire, you're stuck in a building on fire, surrounded by people who you can burn, so take one source of fire that's causing you issues and use it on the people also causing you issues." Tolviar smiled, and then moment later emerged from the building to a squad of soldiers with weapons trained on her.

"You can all leave, or you will burn!" She shouted it with a smile and patiently awaited their response.

I Feel Like I Screwed Something Up

Trezlan was in the middle of walking the ship when he stopped. SiC almost ran into him due to the sudden nature of it. The small robot had mostly gotten used to the crazy nature of Trezlan, but it could never account for his walking patterns which were best described as erratic. It was actually something the AI on the ship had attempted to properly calculate once before it gave up do to the unstable nature of the whole thing. It was one of the running jokes on the ship among the machines, the weather was easier to predict than where Trezlan will walk at any given point in a day.

"You ever get the feeling you did something stupid, but not what?"

"As we've tried to explain to you over the course of our mutual relationship, Trezlan we do not get feelings." Trezlan scowled.

"You know at times I almost wonder if this would be easier with a human crew."

"Yes a human crew that you'd have to pay, feed, and deal with their wants and needs over our slavish devotion." Trezlan smiled.

"Ok so you guys do have your strong points, but seriously I feel like I did something dumb, but for the life of me I can't recall what it was."

"Looking over our logs unless somehow reading, writing, and basic human needs like eating and voiding waste is somehow causing the galaxy to come to an end, I don't think you did sir."

" Can't shake the feeling all the same, it'll come to me eventually, though I swear this is happening more and more." The AI had noticed that facet, it was a discussion among the AI that Trezlan was losing his mind. Fail safes had been put in place should he try and harm himself again, still it made SiC the AI equivalent of sad to have to even worry about their master in that fashion.

"I'm sure it will sir, would you like to return to your cabin for another journal entry?"

"Yeah sure, still something seems off today, might be getting sick or something."

A Uniqutely Lorentino Kind of Day

"Highly Flammable." The cooked corpse of the creature had ignited with very little effort, just a simple flick of her wrist and it was screaming and burning. The other three that had been hunting her, had pulled back, waiting instead to try and get the drop on her however they could with how they smelled. The highly Flammable thing was something Trezlan had figured out, these creatures burned like they were made of oil, it was weird to say the least. She hadn't used the fire previously, just necromancy, unlike Trezlan she wasn't as gifted in it, the fire just a lingering ability from him and not one she was born with. To be fair she hadn't even been born at all.

Tolviar had backed into one of the more complete looking rooms. It smelled like mildew and looked like the last time the sheets had been washed was before the Red War, but she at least didn't see an obvious hole one of the creatures could lash out at her from. At least that was what she thought until a taloned hand snatched her from under the floor. The claws burned on her legs as she smashed through the floor into the room below, and then the floor boards there gave way and she crashed another floor to hard concrete. The impact popped her left shoulder out of its socket, the pain immediate.

The creature that pulled her through the floor fell upon her with its claws and teeth. She at least anticipated the attack so instead of it eating her it ran face first into her boots. The creature's neck cracked loud and it laid on the ground twitching. If it wasn't dead yet, it would be soon. Tolviar got to her feet just in time for another of the beasts to descend from above. She cursed that she'd left her weapons in the room now two stories above her, but she did have fire and necromancy, though Trezlan's memories indicated necromancy wasn't that useful against the creatures.

She tried to burn it, but between its superior position and her hurt shoulder the fire missed. The creature lashed out and connected on her injured arm, she could feel some kind of toxin mixing with her blood and knew that things were not going very good. But the contact with her flesh worked both ways. With a tissue connection Tolviar had the fire leap from her body into the creature, it writhed backwards on to its twitching companion which caught that creature on fire and in its flailing caught the rest of the room on fire.

Tolviar had to chuckle, there was one remaining creature, her shoulder was messed up, and the room was on fire. If there was a more Lorentino thing in the whole world she did not know what it could be.

Flesh That Does Not Smell Like Flesh

There were four of the creatures. The black had picked them specifically because of their hunger. They wanted to taste life flesh instead of the dead they had been fed. They wanted to feel the hunt, hear the screams, and bring down their prey with claws and teeth. The creatures didn't understand why one specific flesh was required to be torn. There were so many walking around, full of blood and life, why one was more deadly than others did not occur to them. They were all not deadly, all weak fleshy things waiting to be shredded and devoured. But they did not question the black, the black birthed them, fed them, and kept them, to question it would be to question themselves. So they accepted their command knowing full well once one flesh was eaten others would follow. They had escaped before, done it before, knew that the Black would not punish, he would reward.

The flesh was trying to mask itself by being near dead flesh, but the hunters knew the difference. They could smell her smell. It smelled almost the same as other flesh, but something was off, something was different. The black had warned, had told them to be careful, but the hunters paid no heed, they hunted. And so they came across her, and realized too late, they had become the hunted.