Nerini jumped and spun at the sound of the voice, bringing the new blade up defensively as she rounded on what appeared to be a semi-transparent man in ancient looking battle armour. He looked confused, and his form shimmered irregularly as she watched him. "What?"

"The sword understands you, so I can understand you as well. You should keep moving, you have a bit further to get out of here." He seemed unaffected by her defensive stance and merely nodded down the tunnel, away from where she had come and towards the unknown.

"Who are you?" Nerini remained facing the man as she inched down the tunnel in that direction.

"Prince Aupan, or I was. Now, I'm just a memory, a soul left in the sword." His voice was thoughtful, almost bemused.

Nerini stumbled to a stop, her blade lowering a couple inches. "You're who?"

"Aupan." He said flatly, his expression looking unamused, though he continued walking. "How long have we been resting?"

"Since you died, I'd wager a good five or six centuries?" Nerini started walking again, though she kept to the opposite side of the tunnel, following him cautiously. "Who hid your sword down here?"

"I did. After the battles. When I died, I guess returned to where I buried it. Beneath this blasted castle." Aupan glanced down the way she came with an angry expression, then back to her with a sigh.

Nerini frowned, following his gaze, then glancing back to the ghost of the founder of her country. "Why d'you bury your sword?"

Aupan paused, then gave her a dark smirk. "If we're going to exchange a bit of information back and forth, I'll only answer a question when you do."

"You're the dead guy." She shrugged and continued walking, finding the pace he was setting brisker than she had intended. "Ask away."

"What language are we speaking?" Aupana murmured as they paused to let her pull out her knife from the wall.

"Aupanan." Nerini mumbled dumbly before shrugging as she realized how unhelpful that might be. "They named the country after you."

"Really?" He grinned, pausing long enough that Nerini wondered if he'd ever answer. "All the Family Pieces were buried, when they ran out. They came from the earth and we used up all they had, so after their last battles, we had to bury them, in the hope that they would regain their magic. It appears to have worked. What happened to my brother?"

"He founded Sellexu, had a family, went mad I think." Nerini shrugged, knowing her Sellexun history wasn't as in depth as it should be. "There was no peace between our two countries until about four years ago, give or take. Did you really disagree over a diamond?"

"A diamond?" Aupan's expression grew distant, even as he turned to look at her. "That saddens me. I never stopped loving him, he was my brother. But, we fell in love with the same woman. She fell in love with me, and he never forgave me for letting her fight beside me with my armies. He wanted me to keep her safe, I thought the sword would be enough for both of us, but it failed, and she died... and we never really spoke again. Why were you in my castle? I ordered it to be abandoned. I hated this place, it is where she died. Her blood still seeps through the walls, I feel the pain as if it happened yesterday."

Nerini fell silent for a long while, watching his sad expression, feeling his anguish wash over her own soul. "Those creatures you fought, they're coming back; they attacked my brother, held him hostage, I was rescuing him when I fell into this tunnel. I couldn't get out, so I figured I'd try to follow it, see if I could get out a different way. How d'you beat them?"

Aupan started in surprise, his expression going confused as he watched her. "We killed them, and killed them, and killed them, until there were none left. As tough as they were, if you throw enough fighters at them, you can take them down. I thought I had killed the last one. The powerful one, that killed Shariana. Do you remember her at all?"

He had a rambling way of speaking, most of his words tumbling over one another in an accented cadence that was beautiful, though Nerini suspected that laying in a sword for several centuries had caused some cobwebs in his mind. In the same way that he seemed to ramble and focus, then get lost in thought, his form would fade in and out, flickering.

"That's funny. I found that out while travelling there this winter. One thing both Aupana and Sellexu share, the mother goddess Shariana, the keeper of lights, decider of love." Nerini offered softly, shrugging slowly. "Our winter festivals celebrate her rebirth from her journey through darkness. Can you show me where the other Family Pieces are? I've found the Diamond, and now this sword."

Aupan smiled gently. "Goddess. She'd have a laugh at that concept, but... that's beautiful. Her birthday was the shortest day of the year. She used to love the snow, said it brought her peace, and stillness. So, you are a Truth Seeker, then? And your Aupana, it lets women fight?"

Nerini almost quipped to him about the double question, but just smiled thinly. She wasn't sure how well he could take a joke or her sharp humour. So she nodded and dutifully answered. "Is that what it's called? I just... get pulled in certain directions. And it usually leads me into trouble. And yes, women can inherit, control government positions, fight, we're equals to men in every way. Its only when we're pregnant that we're forced to stop fighting, until the child is born, for obvious reasons."

"She'd be thrilled to learn that." Aupan smiled, nodding to himself. Then he stopped and gave her a bewildered look. His form faded until she could barely see him. "Did no one teach you how to use your gift? Why weren't you sent to the elders? All those born with a gift should be taught how to use what they have."

"They don't do that anymore." Nerini gentled her voice, half afraid that the spirit would complete disappear. "People have gifts, or talents, but we're taught to hide them or not let people know about them. It's abnormal to be able to slow time, or breathe underwater, heal injuries, read minds, know where things are, see through magic that shouldn't exist at all. What are these things that we're fighting?"

Aupan looked at her, frowning darkly for a long moment, then he faded back into view, his expression severe. "These gifts are deeper than that, more than that. Not only could I change into an Owl, but I could also change the winds and move things with them. But I only learned that from my teachers, I can't imagine how helpless I would have been without lessons. You, you should be able to find anyone or anything, just by thinking about them. Shariana used to be able to point on a map and tell me where entire armies were, where trade ships were heading. She could feel the pain of others, it would call to her. She knew things would happen before they did she could feel what was going to happen, her gift was so honed. She said goodbye to me the day she died, hours before we ever stumbled upon the last battle. She was a Truth Seeker, like you. They are extremely rare. None of the teachers had seen or heard of one for centuries before she came along."

"Oh." Nerini frowned softly, glancing down at her feet as they walked and falling silent.

"All other gifts follow bloodlines. If you have a friend who can breathe underwater, they are most likely descendants of the ship captains recruited by my brother. They could control the very waterways, I've seen one stop a river." Aupana murmured thoughtfully, watching her as they moved down through the tunnels during their conversation. "But Truth Seekers, they just appear, no relation, other than... well, their gifts make them similar, though the scholars never figured out how one was chosen."
"So that's why Rael shares your affection for Owls." Nerini murmured softly, offering a shrug as she directed the conversation away from herself. "The creatures?"

"Who? I have descendants?" Aupan appeared surprised at the concept, though Nerini couldn't remember why he would be. What had she learned about the Royal line, all those years ago in lessons? Aupan sighed before continuing, his words coming out rigid, but quickly. "The creatures? Oh, the Sanyuinels. They're powerful, but not unbeatable. We found out a fair bit of information on them. They are semi-sentient beings, all joined together through their minds, single-minded, really. They came from a ruined island, that was destroyed by a volcano, or so they told us. They settled into the mountains in my grandfather's time, and though we had a very uneasy truce, we tolerated them and no one sane would go near where they were. They fed on the blood, pain, flesh, and suffering of the living. But they were a dying race, because they need a mating pair to grow larger. There were plenty of them, but they couldn't be replaced. Other than through what they called a 'mother' and 'father'. Rarely, a female human could be bred, but would die after the first child, and thus they could slowly, replace their numbers, but not quickly enough to save them."

Nerini scowled at the concept he was so haphazardly suggesting. "So assumedly, for the last five hundred years, they've been kidnapping women, forcing them to die in childbirth with this 'father' creature, after being tortured and raped, but why are they suddenly coming out after us?"

"First, my descendants?" Aupan asked, giving her a queer look.

Nerini remembered then, drudging up her old memories of the ancestry of their country. She had hated the lessons as a kid. "Oh, yes. Rael. Her family descended from your daughter, Ana. The first Queen Regent of Aupana. They had kept her in hiding in Cleandria after the war. We never learned about your wife or why she was raised in Cleandria, but after you died, recognized by your council, and put on the throne."

"Ana lived? Shariana never married me, we were going to after the battle. She had been pregnant during the first battle, I had sent her away to be safe, to have the child. When I next saw her, Shariana told me she had lost her." Aupan let out a sigh and looked at his hands, shaking his head. "I don't know why she wouldn't have told me, why she would have lied."

"She probably meant to." Nerini offered a careful shrug, catching herself from reaching over to pat his back.

Was it rude to try to touch ghosts? Nerini was pretty sure that it would be.

"The sea is close. But now you're going to have to fight. A Sanyuin has followed you down here. I can be of no use to you..." Aupan blurted, looking back behind them, giving her a forlorn look. "Ignore the claws and go after the darkest part of it, that's the solid part of the body. It's fast, but if you charge at it, it won't know what to do. It's afraid of the power of the sword. Use that hesitation and finish it before it can turn its speed on you."

Nerini spun and pulled out her normal blade to hold in her stiff left arm as she fell into stance. On cue, she heard the growls and sounds of claws on stone. "Right. Easy as that."

Aupan pressed into the side of the tunnel, his expression frustrated. "Your gift knows where to lead you, you just have to stop trying to fight with your skills, and fight with your power, Truth Seeker."

Nerini didn't have time to answer him, though she wanted to snap at him for talking in riddles. There in front of her, the red eyes and shifting blackness of the Sanyuin came into view. It was growling and snarling while running at her on all fours like a giant bear.

Nerini wasn't sure if taking hints from a dead guy was a good idea, but she didn't hesitate. She sprinted straight at the creature, letting out a yell of challenge as she charged toward those claws and teeth shifting in the darkness.