The Mook Maker

The whispers never stopped. 

 

Min Shin, the faithful, yet unworthy servant of the Viridian High Lady, now knew that he would not experience any rest, any relief, from the unceasing torrent of voices, battering down his tired mind, again and again. 

 

He rocked back and forth, trying to lull the chorus to slumber, to leave his struggling mind alone, yet they never paused in their merciless assault, trying to get into Shin’s head.

 

Maybe they were already in, and they would never leave, eroding his sanity little by little. With every passing moment, they continued clattering into his skull, threatening to overwhelm very little will he had left.

 

They never stopped.

 

They never rested.

 

They never quieted down. 

 

Untold hundreds upon hundreds of voices, always muttering to each other in the foreign, unnatural speech beyond the man’s understanding, like the busy market that never sleeps, like rain the pitter-pattering inside of Shin’s skull always threatening to burst in, or out. 

 

At first, he feared they were trying to get inside. 

 

Now, he wasn’t sure if they were inside or outside anymore.

 

From beyond comprehension, they had always lurked beyond every edge of the light, tormenting whispers assaulted the shattered mind, again and again, driving him to madness, bringing him at the brink of losing himself in the tide. 

 

It wasn’t Shin’s mind. 

 

Not anymore. 

 

His thoughts were drowning in the flood. 

 

He couldn’t bear them any longer, their whispers, their siren calls threatening to drag him into the ruby, foggy depths they had crawled from. 

 

Shut up! 

 

They did not stop. 

 

They would never stop. 

 

He couldn’t take it anymore.  

 

Shin forced himself to stand up and walk, staggering out of the gates of the Viceroy’s palace, into the courtyard, through the gate into the city proper, doomed to roam the city without any destination in mind, just to stave off the soundless noise reverberating within the priest’s skull. 

 

The temptation to give in was far too strong here. 

 

The Evil Spirits had overrun the palace. A dozen of them, in many sizes and pleasing shapes, didn’t attempt to stop him, allowing him to pass just as one of their generals had arrived with the escort of three, all mounted on the twisted creatures that served as their horses. 

 

The fox spirit, as beautiful and as terrible as the army with its banner raised, did not pay attention to him, allowing him to slip through the gates, seemingly unnoticed despite the guards they had placed there to keep the mortals out of the Spirit’s new nest. 

 

Shin wasn’t quite certain how she knew the beautiful fox was a general in the Spirit’s war host, yet he did. As indecipherable as the persistent, constant whispers were, there was an inkling in them, one he understood, insisting he must obey. 

 

Then it came again. 

 

There was a war effort to contribute to, and front with troops to distribute, or the battle to wage elsewhere.

 

He didn’t know where the thoughts about it even came from.

 

Every time he slipped, captivated by the otherworldly charm, the voices tried to command him. 

 

Part of him wanted to submit, to give up, to embrace the whispers raging without the end within his skull, while the other remained wary of the demonic forces beyond the mortal’s ken that sought to subjugate everything that was and would be.

 

The black rat spirit looked at him, her aura threatening to devour life itself. 

 

Red eyes bore to him even briefly, and Shin shook his head sharply, fighting the sinister influence. 

 

The rat didn’t tempt him anymore, her mission elsewhere. 

 

He had to go.

 

Retreat, before the white ones appear.

 

White ones were death incarnate. 

The cacophony was stronger, thicker around the white ones, and Shin was no longer certain if his mind wouldn’t shatter to pieces, easier than the fine porcelain from the noble’s table, if he came too close.

 

It wasn’t safe.

 

Nowhere was safe. 

 

The priest could feel the corruption taking root, sense the light, unseen by eyes, yet so bright it was burning his thoughts away with its very presence, sundering it up at the seams, threatening to make even more voices to assault the Shin’s tired, cracking mind. 

 

He stumbled into the city streets drowning in chaos as intense as the one that had grappled his own mind and soul, threatening to rip it apart. 

 

Voices. 

 

Voices followed him wherever and whenever he went.

 

Struggling to gather his own thoughts and feelings, the coherency of which was slipping away with every heartbeat, he staggered forward. He could never escape the inner conflict within him, yet he still tried. 

 

Neither the humans, not the spirits, had followed him.

 

Or did they? 

 

A dark bat Spirit flew overhead, the massive wings casting a brief shadow in the midday light.

 

She would have seen him walking, staggering through the main street, but the Spirit opted to ignore him once more.

 

Same couldn’t be said about the rest of the citizens. 

 

He could hear screams, and the air was filled with despair and fright. 

 

A group of city denizens, mostly women, tried to flee once the threat had passed, only to run into the mirage of the shifting air from which the wolf spirits had emerged to seize the runaways. Consort of some rich citizen met the same fate as her servants. 

 

The wolf spirit has looked at him. 

 

He was drawn to this unearthly beauty, to the soft black fur gleaming in the light of the day, the sleek figure the mortal woman would envy, only partially hidden by the cloth bindings and leather breastplate she wore. 

 

The priest felt the forbidden attraction, again, a tension when his eyes met with the blue eyes of the Spirit, yet only the whispers endlessly echoing through his skull bore witness to it, heaving in the activity that drove him to his knees in pain. Then, the voices returned to their normal, maddening, ever-present hum.

 

They had orders. 

 

The shadowy beauty lost interest, as her similarly looking kin seized the former citizens until the bat returned

 

The mental scream that came was not made for him, and soon, he was left alone again, as the Spirit had dragged the inhabitants away for some nefarious purpose he couldn’t comprehend or care to ponder about. 

 

He stood up and resumed walking. Alone, yet always accompanied, always talked to, yet unable to understand. 

 

His mind, torn by the voices from beyond, couldn’t focus, couldn’t think of anything else, but the otherworldly allure of the Spirits, ones which ignored him as he continued his pointless journey to find … 

 

Peace? Was he looking for peace? 

 

He looked back to the gates of the palace, behind which now lurked the power behind the understanding, embedding itself deeper and deeper into the mortal realm, bending the very existence itself to its will, even defiant of the Heavens above. 

 

The voices sung. 

 

Numerous, to this day, they had rested, lied down in wait, until the day they awoke to carry out their master’s will. 

 

And the priest could only think of the bewitching beauty of the Spirits that he so desperately tried to ignore. 

 

He walked away, submerged in thoughts which may not be his anymore, in the attempt to find himself inside the disorder and insanity that enveloped his very being, yet he still thought about the allure of the bristling fur from the realms beyond. A treacherous part of him wanted to submit, to beg for the spirit's attention, as he once already did, in his weakest moment, but he was beneath their notice. 

 

Min Shin has always been unworthy.

 

A wealthy family, yet unworthy to be its heir. 

 

An educated man, yet unworthy to be the Sage. 

 

A priest, yet unworthy to be noticed even if the powers were bestowed upon him, ignored not only by the Heavens above, but the mortals around. 

 

And thus Shin aged, unworthy of everyone. 

 

He wasn’t required. 

 

Neither here, in the city, nor on the holy mission the priestesses of the other gods had departed on. Only then, when he was forgotten once more, the Goddess had spoken to him through vision, urging him to take action in her name, in exchange for reward beyond his imagination. Back then, he hadn’t hesitated, finally to be noticed 

 

He hadn’t known what was about to be released the moment he destroyed all the other statues, all the other wards, left behind, and awaited his fate. His reward. 

 

At the last moment, he didn’t know what fate had awaited him, until it was too late. 

 

It was then the Evil Spirits arrived, and with them, the darkest of storms had descended upon Chunnan, unseen by the mundane against the clear summer skies, yet shaking the very being of those blessed by the Heavens to interpret the will of the divine. 

 

Yet, there was something wrong about it, a conflict within the soul of Min Shin, the faithful, yet unworthy servant of the Viridian High Lady, never knew about before he witnessed that the realms beyond the veil had to offer. 

 

More women than beasts, more beasts than women, they possessed the charm beyond the mortal ken, tempting the priest’s mind and body, making him wonder what the reward he had been promised would have to be. 

 

Why? 

 

Then the unspeakable terror from beyond had arrived, to speak to his Goddess in the midst of the ruined shrine he himself defiled on her command. 

 

The priest couldn’t possibly understand what the two beings had talked about. 

 

The words, incomprehensible and alien, left an unpleasant, repugnant echo within his head, even after the dragon goddess herself had intervened, issuing him with her last, most harrowing command - to lead the primordial terror from beyond the veil to the place…

 

…to the place. 

 

…to the places…

 

He came to in the middle of the street, his body spread on the cold stone pavement, looking at the clear sky above, his head aching with the pain an inch greater than the voices reverberating through his skull ever could achieve, as he recalled the half-forgotten conjecture beyond the direction he was given.

 

There were things no man was meant to know. 

 

Yet, Min Shin knew where to find them.

 

Scattered knowledge that promised only the agony beyond imagining.

His head was throbbing from even the briefest of mentions, the briefest of thoughts, about the Scrolls even the divine feared. 

 

But the Viridian High Lady had wished…

 

Pain. His vision started to blur again. 

 

Then, a jolt of vitality. 

 

The rat-like face with the shining, ruby eyes had appeared above him.  

 

Such grace. 

 

The whispers once again assaulted his almost broken mind with the intensity, and he sat up, as the rat spirit retreated. He looked around, confused. 

 

The spirits didn’t move him, however; he wasn’t able to tell how long he was out there, lying on the street. The power of his goddess felt ever so distant, threatening to abandon Shin once more.  

 

The city was still there, locked in its futile effort to hold against the incursion of the spirits. He could hear cries from nearby. 

 

This time, however, there was a young woman standing in the middle of the street, with long hair, tanned skin, so typical for the people from the south, yet wearing the dress that would fit among the citizens of Chunnan.

 

She smiled, unperturbed by what was happening around her, calm. A pair of wolf spirits and fox spirits had accompanied her. The rat spirit that just spoke to her briefly, a short two words he couldn’t understand yet, wanted to repeat, again and again

 

A well-dressed young woman, a girl perhaps, answered the rat spirit with the small, respectful bow, almost as in thanks. 

 

Even among the noise, the priest could hear the veiled cries from the nearby building, yet this one, standing among the Evil Spirits, wasn’t cowering, merely greeting the still disoriented priest with the small nod. 

 

The witch. 

 

Albeit human, she was the one that came with the Viceroy, and was in league with the Spirits. Shin had doubts about the former - she had seen this woman shot and stabbed, yet simply refused to die, unbothered by injuries, bringing her supposed humanity into doubt. 

 

She was about to speak when the air split open and a cat spirit slipped through the hole in the reality, where beyond the shifting space lay everything the priest was afraid to ask about.

 

The voices heaved.

 

The cat spirit meowed. The two words he didn’t understand, yet was tempted to repeat, as the witch’s escort echoed them. 

 

Repeat the words and the crack in the truth shall appear.

 

He shook his head. 

 

The priest felt alone, his connection to the heavenly power of the High Lady waning even faster, making his heart skip a beat. He felt even more abandoned, sinking into even greater sadness and despair when the witch finally spoke. 

 

“My god demands your services.” She said, “Go, speak to the people, to serve your uncaring goddess, as she serves him in turn.” 

 

She gestured the moment he managed to get back on his feet. 

 

“Go, before Madame Sora loses her patience.” 

 

Another, even greater rift, had opened, its edges indescribable, unimaginable, seeping the incomprehensible eldritch powers, endlessly shifting again and again, while the hundreds thousand whispers tore his mind apart, and the Heavens above were ever so distant. 

 

The priest looked at the witch. 

 

She brushed shoulders with the Spirits, the ever so beautiful ones, with their gleaming fur, and the shining sight, and Shin was tempted once more. 

 

The whispers in his skull had noticed, commanding him once more. 

 

But this time, Min Shin, the faithful, yet unworthy servant of the Viridian High Lady, had obeyed, making his jump of fate through the portal, and fell through the endless void towards the thing he was not meant to know about.