Sullivan Marin found himself walking in between the spiraling brick towers of Arkana. He passed many students as he too commuted to his classroom. Every person he passed – every face he glanced at – brought him no memory of who they were.

  He was young at the time. Fair skinned, heart beating, and face exposed. In this setting, he was just a normal person wearing Arkanian apprentice robes. Marin was currently dreaming of lost memories of his former life.

  Next, he was in a classroom. All around him were fellow ice elementals, ranging in power and experience. Before him was an ice wizard who was teaching him technical workings of the power plane.

  This was a teacher Marin had much respect for, but in this dream, the face was unrecognizable, the voice of one not familiar. Despite dreaming these scenes, his brain still could not identify those around him.

  In his dreams Marin was indeed aware of this, but could not dwell on the fact without being conscious.

  “You have much potential, Sullivan,” the voice echoed from the woman wizard who taught him. “Continue to embrace what I have shared with you, and much more will be opened to your mind.”

  Marin unwillingly flew away from that scene and to a new one. Next, he was in a cozy space with a few others. One man of similar age to Marin waved their hand and fabricated bright crystals that danced in the room. An old man with a narrow beard, similar to a dangling rope sat beside him as well.

  “The flowers will cure these sick people,” the older man said to Marin. “If he can create the perfect atmosphere for them to flourish in, we will do much good for these afflicted villagers.”

  “Just got to find the right wavelength,” the younger interjected. “I can create crystals that shine in any color of the visible light, but I need to find the perfect hue.”

  Before Marin could say anything, he floated out of the scene, and entered a new one.

  These memories that flashed themselves to him barely lasted more than a minute each. Just before he could figure out where he was and who these people might be, he was moved to a new moment in time.

  Marin was forced to endure scene after scene, many of which had to do with recent events happening in his life currently. Countless memories breezed in and away before he had one that was a bit more lasting and impactful.

  He seemed to be deep in an underground temple. Stone pillars reached to the cavern ceiling above him, only barely lit by torchlight. Besides him were several people in adventuring gear he couldn’t recognize, but Marin exploded with joy when he was finally able to identify one.

  Beside him to his left was the towering black knight that Marin knew to be Sygol. He had his massive five-foot blade in hand, brought back and ready to swing.

  “Your reign of terror ends here -” A name was seemingly said that Marin couldn’t understand. “Your powers of decay have only protected you for so long. Now that we meet face to face, you will experience your demise. Despite earning much more, your death will be swift.”

  Sygol always had a particular way with his echoing, ethereal sounding words.

  More conversation was exchanged with a man in dark robes sitting upon a golden framed throne in front of them. This man, who Marin understood to be the leader of the Decay cult, was preparing to open a new portal to Kudu’s realm, where more pieces of the entity could be brought into their world.

  Before this devastating action could take place, Sygol gave the call to charge, and everyone around him leapt forward into a battle with the evil faction.

  Marin was not able to stick around for any of the action. The next thing he knew, the memory floated away from him, and his mind wandered to the next one.

  New scenes came and went, places both recognizable and not, but no one in any of these memories Marin knew, save for Sygol. It seemed like his mind was yelling at him – pleading with him, to remember. It seemed that all of Marin’s experiences and memories of everyone he knew were all still existing, just unable to reach him. It was like they were banging on a locked door that Marin had no idea how to open.

  Marin flew into a new memory, and this one was the most vivid of all of them yet, maybe due to how recent it was before he died.

  He found himself in Nocturne Castle. Marin immediately recognized the potion room he appeared in.

  Beakers of bubbling formulas surrounded him, an amount only matched by the notes and paperwork hiding every bit of the connected tables’ surface.

  “It’s nearly complete. Lets give the solution five more minutes to steep before we say it is finished,” Marin spoke with intensity.

  Who was he talking to?

  Marin gazed over the notes, and in this dream playback, the information on the papers were completely illegible.

  “Have we balanced the pH level to seven point five?”

  Marin heard a voice to the right. He looked over. Yet again, an unrecognizable person. But for some reason, Marin’s heart raced at the sight of him. He understood this man to be very important for some reason.

  “I’ve added enough sodium bicarbonate for that to be the case. But I will again check for accuracy,” Marin responded.

  Marin couldn’t believe what his subconscious was dreaming. This was the very moment before drinking the potion! He took in every bit of what was playing out before him.

  “Please do. I don’t want to redo this brewing process for the… what, seventh time? Let’s make sure everything is perfect,” the man beside him responded. He wore robes quite similar to Marin’s own, and had a short gray beard that had just started to turn white.

  He watched himself lift beakers of colored solution, studying the makeup of the liquids. This all very much reminded him of Eisen’s set up in the basement. It was incredible to him that at one time he was quite the alchemist.

  He didn’t fancy the craft so much, but his drive to achieve immortality must have thwarted any distaste of the profession. Whoever this man was beside him must’ve been the real mastermind behind it all. Marin believed there was no way he could have accomplished all of this on his own.

  “pH level is exactly where it needs to be,” Marin confirmed while shaking a test strip. “I think it’s ready.”

  “You really think this is it?” The man said.

  “We’ve fixed every issue. It should work. Let me double check everything. I will read over the notes one last time,” Marin nervously responded.

  Despite seeming to really understand what he was looking at, Marin could only view nonsense on the papers. He knew these were the same tattered notes he gave to Eisen, but his subconscious in no way had the details memorized.

  After a while of studying the papers, Marin heard the noise of liquid pouring.

  He quickly looked over to see the man he knew to be his long time friend swishing the glass vial, studying the liquid solution.

  “You were quick to pour that,” Marin said, now resting the notes down and walking over to him. Marin was surprised to see his friend so rapidly create the drink before he was even done checking all the research.

  “...It is indeed ready. This is it. The color is perfect,” the man analyzed while fixated on the potion, his eyes nearly dazzling in ambition at the finished product.

  “Do you want to be the first to try it?” Marin asked him.

  His friend took a deep breath as he finally pulled his gaze away. “...No. I think you should do the honors, Sullivan. It was you who found out what Arno’s flower was truly capable of.”

  His bearded friend extended the drink to Marin.

  For some reason, Marin didn’t want to take it. He fought his arm rising to grab it. The dream became nightmarish in quality as he did his best to battle the ambition his previous self was consumed by.

  Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t stop. He felt a wave of selfish desire overcome him as a reminder of who he might have once been. He grasped the vial from his friend. Marin could not understand why he was feeling such a determination to suddenly deny himself the ultimate goal he worked so hard to reach.

  He knew the primary result, and that was the two hundred years of darkness. Yet, he felt like there was another factor he was dreading that would come to pass. He didn’t know what that was, but he was about to find out.

  Marin took a moment to study the liquid himself. The color seemed ever so slightly off, but with his friend confirming it was correct, Marin dropped the thought.

  He gazed at his friend.

  The man nodded back.

  Marin finally went for the drink. He felt the hot liquid run down his throat.

  This was it. This was the moment he would become immortal.

  Unfortunately so.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  After downing the full amount, Marin brought the vial back down, and saw that his friend had an eerie grin on his face that made him feel uncomfortable.

  “How do you feel?” His friend asked.

  Marin waited a moment to see if he felt any different. Within a few seconds, he suddenly did. He felt his muscles tightening up.

  “Not good. I think I’m having a bad reaction to the talisdip,” Marin struggled to say. He tried flexing his arms to fight off the paralyzing feeling.

  He looked at his friend, and became quite disturbed to see him still grinning. “The talisdip, you say?”

  Marin immediately became confused as to why his friend wasn’t rushing over to help him.

  “What’s going on?!” Marin yelled as the sensation became more intense. He was now struggling to move his body at all. He stumbled to the floor.

  “It’s not the talisdip that’s causing your body to tense up like that,” his former friend stated in a wicked tone. He began walking towards Marin now that he was subdued on the floor, unable to fight the unfortunate circumstance.

  “...Rather, it was the paralysis agent I added to your drink. Watching you struggle on the ground, I can see it worked as well as I’d hoped. Nuronic beibroot is quite the drug, isn’t it?”

  “WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS?!” Marin spat, barely able to get the words out, drool flowing from his mouth as he lost the ability to move his jaw and lips.

  “Don’t babble anymore, Sullivan. Go to sleep. Your work in this world is done. Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to take good care of your Kingdom. I’ll be a better ruler than you ever were.”

  Marin wanted to yell more, but he lost all movement in his mouth. Likewise, he was unable to move any of his body. His eye lids drooped over, erasing his sight as well.

  Despite being perfectly conscious, he was unable to move and see. He could still hear, though. Marin heard the footsteps of his friend, a tapping noise on the stone brick floor that would haunt him for years to come. He heard the echoing of glass beakers and liquid pouring. He heard the noise of ruffling papers.

  Before a long amount of time passed, his old friend had left the room. He was alone now. All alone, with nothing to see or do. Before him was nothing but darkness.

  If the potion had indeed made him immortal, would he ever die? Would the paralysis agent ever wear off? How long would he have to wait?

  How long would he be stuck in the darkness? This maddening darkness.

  How long…? How long…

  This dream was forcing him to re-experience exactly what he had gone through centuries ago. Why was his subconscious refusing to move ahead to the next dream? It wasn’t ending.

  Wait. There is nothing ahead. This was the final stop. The final memory.

  Would this nightmare ever end? Had he once again stumbled into the same situation he found himself in earlier?

  Not if the mad doctor known as Edward Eisen had anything to say about it.

  In the void of darkness, Marin suddenly felt a powerful zap, a bright flash of white light. The brief moment of pain was agonizing, but even then, it was better than the lack of sensation he was feeling right now.

  After a moment, Marin heard an echoing voice miles in the distance.

  “Hit him again!”

  Marin did indeed sleep. Doctor Eisen’s potion had worked like a charm, and Marin experienced his first unconscious state since he had picked himself off the lab floor months ago. While the King was not fully deceased as Loid and Eisen feared he might be, rescuing him from the indefinite slumber would be no easy task.

  Much of Marin’s bodily functions – including sections of his brain – had ceased to work due to his two hundred years of inactivity. Needing to sleep had been stripped away, and since this was a forcibly induced slumber, his brain was no longer equipped with a way to get out of that state.

  This was a factor the doctor had missed. In his defense though, there was no real way to test for that. This entire endeavor was a gamble, and Marin had accepted the risks.

  Eisen slammed his hand down on the table, baffled by the continuous displays of ignorance from the former innkeeper.

  “I can’t hit him again right now!” Eisen yelled with frustration. “Each shock requires three point nine megawatts! Unless you want to call in an electrician, we need to wait another twenty minutes for it to charge back up!”

  “Well why isn’t it waking him up?” Loid demanded, strands of his silver hair falling forward from stress.

  “You tell me, Loid!”

  “You’re the doctor!”

  For once, Eisen struggled with exactly what to do. His knowledge and experience usually thwarted any obstacle in his way, but in this situation, he didn’t have the answers. He had to carefully brainstorm.

  The wrong action could kill Marin, if he wasn’t already dead.

  “Some doctor you are,” Loid commented after a long moment of silence. He began to walk away, but stopped himself.

  Eisen was still lost in thought, yet again ignoring Loid’s insults, as saving Marin was of higher priority.

  Loid turned around, and first looked at a puzzling Eisen, then his metal device on the table. It was a large, rapidly assembled machine that gathered electricity, then expelled it evenly between two coils pointed at either side of Marin’s decayed head.

  Loid had to be reasonable. He blamed Eisen for what happened to Marin, but it was Marin who wanted this more than anyone.

  Eisen just did what was requested of him, and now he was trying his hardest to bring him back to life. The Doctor had the best chance of doing so as well, out of anyone else in the Kingdom.

  Loid sighed. “Look, I’m sorry,” he admitted. He combed his hair back over his head with his hand. “You’re just trying to help, and I’m beating you down.”

  Eisen did a sarcastic chuckle, then gazed at Loid. “You’re just now figuring that out?!”

  “Do you have any good ideas? What are you thinking about?” Loid asked.

  “I’m hesitant to deliver another shock to him. Each one jostles his brain quite a bit, and too many may cause irreparable damage,” he explained.

  “Is there anything else you could do?” Loid demanded.

  Eisen shook his head. “...Not with the amount of time we have. I can’t administer anything to him. His stomach doesn’t work. And his body is incapable of responding to any normal means of forcing someone out of sleep.

  ...Going directly for his brain is the only thing we can do. We just have to hit him again.”

  Eisen walked over to the machine, and started cranking a handle to get it to charge faster.

  If the Doctor who claimed to know everything didn’t have any alternatives to waking Marin up, this was truly it then. Despite the risk of causing serious damage to Marin’s brain – which would likely result in his death, Loid knew it would be better to take the risk rather than have Marin experience what he had already gone through for the last two centuries.

  A while ago, during one of their long conversations in Marin’s chambers, the King had told Loid that he would rather truly die than be forced to endure one more minute of the unending darkness he was forced to dwell in during that time.

  Loid just hoped this next shock would get Marin to wake up. Not only to save his brain from further attempts, but also because both him and the King were missing in action, and that would make many worry about their status.

  “We are at a full capacity!” Eisen declared, reading a gauge on the bolted metal machine. “I am flipping the switch again!”

  In the void of darkness, Marin felt another powerful shock that warped his surroundings, puncturing a tear in his sight of nothing.

  In the real world, Loid noticed Marin’s face twitch.

  “Did you see that?!” Loid announced with relief. “He is alive! That one almost woke him up.”

  Loid grasped Marin’s body again and began to shake him.

  “Sullivan!” He called out. “Can you hear me?”

  Marin’s sight warped even more, to the point that he felt himself zoom out of his dream and back into the real world.

  His yellow, glazed eyes revealed themselves as he stared at Loid.

  “Marin!”

  Regaining his senses and calibrations, he suddenly grasped his trusted friend’s arms.

  “Loid! Doctor Eisen!” The King declared upon seeing the two of them, immediately recognizing them.

  “Thank goodness…” Eisen commented as he walked around to the side of the table, halting his endeavor of charging the machine again.

  “Are you okay? How are you feeling?” Loid asked with great concern. He couldn’t be happier to have Marin back.

  Marin thought for a moment, then immediately sat up.

  “I WAS BETRAYED!!!” Marin shouted out in his raspy undead voice, straining his throat.

  “What?!”

  “There wasn’t anything wrong with my potion! Someone I knew put a crippling agent in the potion that caused me to be unable to move! Unable to move… for so so long…” Marin’s voice trailed off.

  “Did you remember that or dream that?” Eisen asked, showing rare excitement at his words.

  “Dream! Well, both, really. I know it to be true. And it makes so much sense!” The yelling of Marin’s words without the mask sounded like it was causing a lot of damage to his vocal cords.

  “Here, put this back on,” Loid said as he handed the King his mask. “So we can hear you clearly and you don’t have to yell.”

  Marin grabbed it and fashioned it back over his face. When he began to talk again, the voice enhancer made his speech crisp and clear again.

  “...And I dreamed of many other memories,” Marin went on. “People I must’ve known. Places I know I’ve been to. Things I’ve done!”

  Loid and Eisen listened intently as he sat on the table, telling the two of them everything he could remember from the dreams.

  “I dreamt of a crystal elemental… Another man talking about the flowers. That crystal elemental must’ve been Arno Hallicent. The guy I knew. He could have quite possibly been my friend a long time ago. And I also dreamed of Sygol. I do indeed remember him!”

  Loid couldn’t believe it. The sleep worked in restoring his memory. Well, in some sense. By the way Marin was explaining things, it seemed that the memories only partially revealed themselves to him, in the form of event playbacks.

  The identities of the actual people were still out of reach. Marin could only conclude who some of them were based on what he had discovered while being alive again.

  “And this man who betrayed you, you have no idea who he is?” Eisen pressed.

  “I remembered that he was a long time friend. Someone I trusted entirely. But that’s the most I know. In my dream, he had a gray beard. It had just started to turn white. He was also balding from hair loss. I…” Marin thought for a moment. “I think he was also instrumental in running the Kingdom. And in helping me craft the potion in the first place. But that’s all I remember about him.”

  Eisen slowly nodded. This was a lot to take in.

  “There’s a lot to unpack here,” Loid began. “Now that you’re okay, I’m going to head to dinner and assure everyone you’re alright. Afterwards, we can talk down here in the basement, or perhaps your quarters,” he offered.

  “That would be a good idea. I’ll see you then,” Marin replied.

  “In the meantime, I’m going to perform a check up on you to make sure there’s nothing wrong with ya. Well… nothing more wrong than usual,” Eisen grinned.