That was . . . actually kind of funny. Attis chuckled slightly. He wasn't laughing at Dyss or anything--it was just . . . sort of funny, that's all. It was just the last thing he expected to hear from Dyss, or from anyone at all, really. Attis glanced over to Dyss, a smile still upon his lips. It was a genuine smile--not condescending or anything along those lines.

"If you could see the world in it's entirety--"

Attis paused and looked away in thought, briefly.

"--then you wouldn't be able to appreciate the beauty of a stream."

It was profound of him to say, and absolutely true--whether or not Dyss knew or accepted it, Attis's statement could have been as much a statement about individual entities as it could have been about society.

He looked back to Dyss again, still smiling, as he remarked pleasantly, "I can see just as much as I need to. I think . . . anymore would be too much. At least for me. There's no need for sympathy, my friend."

"You may be right..."

For all his sight, Dyss had never really thought of beauty... Even now, with Izumi, he didn't have any real opinion of her by sight. By hearing, by touch, and even by smell, he was attracted to Izumi, but sight did little for his feelings...

"I still don't see things like beauty..."

Dyss was a highly serious individual, though good-natured. He was... Perhaps damaged. The memories that comprised him were very cold and unpleasant, but he did his best to keep a good attitude, perhaps without even meaning to. All it took was having his friends around, particularly Izumi, to accomplish this...

"You will," Attis replied.

If not today, if not tomorrow, then . . .

"Someday."

He declared this with a hopeful smile upon his lips. Truly, he had hope for Dyss and his future. If Attis's theory-- no, his plan --could work, then Dyss would, in fact, have a future. He was still young, and hadn't learned the ways of the world yet. Given time, he'd be able to, and then, after it was all said and done, Dyss would be able to live a long and happy life. It was just a matter of time, and holding onto hope.

Dyss had kept going so far. He hadn't given up, despite what seemed like overwhelming odds... So long as he had his friends around, at least. Even when he had been blind and helpless, he had found Izumi to help him...

"Someday, maybe..."

Dyss's thoughts of just how few days he had left were kept to himself. He trusted Attis, and knew if anything could be done, Attis would do it, but there was still the thought of the other Memories, like Aria and Ozrik, who were gone, and may never return...

And for awhile, they were able to talk freely-- about everything, really. Nothing of importance, really; nothing related to Attis's secrets, if he even had any left to tell, just subjects along the lines of Recheov and Illorex, what Recheov and Izumi might be doing right around now, some of the great experiences they'd all had in Galaens--which were, incidentally, in great supply. Attis's main concern, of course, were all of Dyss's feelings regarding all of these things. He made sure to avoid uncomfortable subjects, too.

It helped the time pass, and made them forget about fatigue--as traveling from Galaens to Hillcrest on foot was a fairly exhausting and painful task. Someone like Milos could do it with ease, but Attis and Dyss weren't physical wonders of the world like him.

But once they were close to Hillcrest, it became evident that something was wrong. Attis and Dyss, who could feel spiritual energy, would likely notice in an instant.

Attis stopped on a dime. "W-- wait a second--"

There was something else here. Something powerful, something . . . monstrous. It felt familiar--to Attis, and would to Dyss as well. Where it came from, though, there'd be no indication, only that it was ahead of them, but it felt like it was inches from their feet. It was . . . spirit. Some sort of massive supply of spiritual energy, fluctuating rapidly, reverberating even, as if something were intentionally controlling it.

Attis bent at his knees and walked a few steps as low to the ground as he could without outright crouching. He was trying to walk as quietly as possible and maybe, just maybe, be a little less visible. Unfortunately, as he wore a white suit (albeit one since dirtied), that was impossible. But every little tactic helped.

"Dyss . . ." Attis was suddenly quiet, "Do . . . do you feel that . . .?

Dyss could feel what Attis was talking about, but wasn't sure what exactly it was. His sense of energy was much inferior to his abilities regarding light. To that effect, neither he nor Attis would have to hide: Dyss would simply ensure that light bent around them, rendering them effectively invisible. The protection wasn't perfect, but was certainly much better than actually hiding could be...

"What is it?"

Dyss would start to fan out somewhat with his perception of light, hoping to find the source, or alternatively, Milos. It appeared things were going to be much more complicated than he had hoped...

Attis kept walking, ignorant to what Dyss had done. That wasn't the sort of thing that could be seen easily in the dark. In the light, perhaps it would have been different, but unless Dyss informed Attis of what he had done, he wasn't going to change from walking as if, for all intents and purposes, he was sneaking up on someone.

"Dyss-- can you see anything up ahead?" Attis whispered, although it was kind of arbitrary. Dyss had already since been reaching his "vision" out towards Hillcrest.

They were still too far from Hillcrest for Dyss to get a very detailed image of it. By the time he'd be able to see traces of structures, he'd already be near-incapable of concentrating on them or any one image, and certain perceptions would have already since been lost, going that far away.

Along the path ahead of them, however, there wasn't much-- scattered objects that looked a little bit like weapons, it seemed. There were only three or four scattered about, most of which were also too far out of Dyss's range that he'd not be able to see a clear image of them. The one closest to them, however, wasn't anything like any object he'd ever seen before. As far as relative ignorance went, Dyss had literally never seen one before. In Galaens, they didn't have use for those sorts of objects, but Hillcrest was a farming village. Common tools were a lot different here.

Dyss was quiet as he searched ahead with his eyesight, and on seeing, he would speed up despite his tired body. He wasn't sure what exactly he was seeing, but he would stop trying to alter any light, just trying to perceive. He didn't know what was happening, but tools or weapons scattered were certainly a bad thing.

"I don't know. Weapons?"

Dyss just wanted to keep going, find Milos, and return...

"Weapons?" There was a tone of surprise in Attis's voice.

If it weren't for a mild level of involvement with the place, he'd have been surprised about the very fact that a simple farming village had some sort of stock of weaponry at all. However, he and the others had gotten their hands a little dirty regarding this village. A horde of unorganized bandits had taken the village over and insisted upon stealing all food and valuables that it could produce over the course of several weeks. The village inevitably revolted and ousted the bandits.

Attis and the others had a little bit of part in that. Not directly, but for some of them--those who weren't necessary "bandits" at all, but individuals in league with a fellow Dyss was familiar with--it was a two front war. One they lost indefinitely.

"But . . . the bandits retreated last week, right?" Attis asked rhetorically. He was correct. The bandits had left Hillcrest a week ago. "I'd imagine they'd have put those somewhere . . ."

Unless . . .

Dyss was mostly uninformed as to the larger events at work in the surrounding area: blindness and then the newly recovered sensations of sight had been what occupied most of his time. He didn't even know what had happened in the area here...

"Where exactly did you send Milos here?"

Dyss could look, if Attis gave him a better idea. It would be too difficult for Dyss to scan the entire area well enough to find Milos in a short amount of time... Attis might even have a better idea in something like that. If there was a problem with Dyss's powers, it was that he tended to miss little details... All the little details...

"Just to the village," Attis replied, a bit exasperated from jogging, "He could be anywhere around here."

They were getting closer-- and the farther they progressed, the heavier the world felt around them. It didn't diminish things too terribly, at least for someone that wasn't already tired. Someone like that would have just felt thirty pounds heavier, and though they would've noticed, they could keep on going without much trouble. Attis and Dyss were already tired from the bulk of the walk, having already cleared about two hours and forty five minutes worth of a three hour walk. It'd slow them down tremendously, and become far more noticeable, as every limb would feel drawn to the ground.

Of course, that was all Attis would notice.

Dyss, however, could "see" much more than Attis could. He could perceive how light was . . . dampening. It was being filter out--no--bent around an entire area. Still, much could get through, but in the end, Dyss wouldn't be able to perceive colors, or even see through anything, not in the general area. For that reason alone, it was likely that he'd notice sooner than Attis.

Oddly, it wasn't like this before, when he monitored around this area. They were close to where the scattered weapons started to appear, which seemed perfectly fine before . . .

"Attis..."

Dyss would slow down as his body started to drag, extremely uncomfortable with the situation. He wasn't sure what was happening, but it was not a good thing... And Milos was here in town. It was starting to seem like more than just a simple errand, and like it could develop into quite a problem...

"What's happening here?"

The last time something like this had happened with his powers had been during the time he'd met Aria and Ozrik... It certainly boded even less well...

As similar as it was to what Dyss experienced when he met Aria--and vaguely saw Ozrik--it was a different kind of monster. Dyss still had control over what he could perceive. He could examine specific things, and there were still numerous forms of light he could still pick apart . . . just not the kind that didn't reflect off of surfaces, and those forms of light were altered, as if they were entering a field where only particular reflections were permitted, giving a black, white, and gray color to every little thing.

Before, when Dyss met Aria, there was a certain degree of color, and details were balanced. It was like seeing the world from the eyes of every other person . . .

What he experienced now was a completely different monster. There was no flickering Memory trying to reach them . . .

"I . . . I have no idea . . ." Attis replied, now officially exhausted, "It feels . . . almost like spiritual pressure, but . . . there's no saturation in the air."

Which entirely ruled out spiritual pressure. Dyss could feel that kind of pressure just like Attis could. Dyss's might have been a weaker sense, but he had been in Galaens when it was dense with spirit. It felt much like it was constantly humid, as if the air was thickly saturated with something--spiritual energy. Ruling that out ruled out spiritual pressure completely. That was worrisome.

"Whatever it is . . . it's . . . it's getting stronger-- the closer we get to Hillcrest, it seems . . ."

"I don't know..."

Dyss just continued to move, even more confused than Attis as to what was going on. He still didn't understand the spiritual sense he had somehow developed, and was concerned, but could do nothing about it in any case. All he could do was keep going...

"Do you have a way to find Milos?"

Dyss was trying as hard as he could, but if Attis could do anything...

"No. I-- I don't," Attis sighed.

This might turn out a little harder than he anticipated, but for once, he didn't really plan all that far ahead with this one. It was kind of just a spur of the moment thing. He was worried about Milos and that was all. How he was going to find him was, for once, something he was going to figure out on the fly. Granted, Attis was good at coming up with plans on the fly, but he rarely ever did that . . .

There came a point as they walked, however, that it became painful to move. The world around them wasn't so heavy that they couldn't walk, it would just seem . . . painful. Like something was physically going through them, even though they were perfectly healthy. Attis walked only a few feet under this condition, before he came to a complete stop. They had just reached the point where the scattered weapons began, just feet from the first one that seemed to start it off.

That thing--that was the weapon that Dyss couldn't recognize earlier. Everything else seemed fairly common. They were scattered and kind of scant, but those were things like swords and staffs the like. This, though--this was different. It was a semi-crooked wooden polearm, with a handle jutting out from the middle of the pole, and a long, curved blade at the top.

"Dyss--" Attis coughed as he started to slow down. He couldn't jog anymore. The weight of the world was a little too heavy, and he was far too fatigued. "Are you-- are you sure there's nothing here . . .?"