~*~Crossworld (The RPG)~*~

[~[Kryssi Katt]~]

He knelt beside Nightingale, just within arms-reach of the child and looked down at him sadly. He had to know what the boy had seen, but looking through another's memories, even fresh memories, could be painful, but it was his gift, or curse, just as the shadows were, and just as his second form was.

Blood, he smelled the blood over the stench of rotting garbage. Chunks of meat, was he below the butchers? He must be. Take another step forward, another. His foot hit something solid and he looked down into the lifeless eyes that looked through him. Blink, blink, he had to get out of here. He turned and ran, and ran, climbed the ladder and kept running.

Kryss jerked his hand back as though he had been burned. There was an art to entering another's mind without expiriencing their emotions, and it was not an art he had mastered. The boy, Andrew, was sobbing now, having also relived that memory.

He looked up at Nightingale, met her eyes and looked away in shame. It had not been necessary, what he had done, but his curiosity had to be sated. Slowly, hesitanty he reached for the boy's hair again, almost cringing when the boy flinched away from him.

Darkness, it was hot, maybe he would go out for a walk? Tip-toe, shh! Can't wake mom and dad...Fast forward to when he would be back asleep in bed. If it worked, he would never know he had been awake at all. Just another normal night.

After all the years he had lived, magic was something that had been taught to him, although most of what he recalled involved healing, but hopefully it had not been too long since he had done a compulsion spell. The boy could get home on his own if it worked, the shadows would protect him. He would go back home and sleep, shadows ensuring that none would notice his presence, or lack thereof.

It had been the demon's work...It was the demon who should have to endure the boy's pain and fear, not Kryss. It was the demon would should be responsible to getting the boy home safe and blocking his memory, not Kryss. But the memories were his now. The fear was his now.

He sighed. "The boy will be all right, mi'lady. Shadows are...truely wonderous things." He smiled reassuringly as the boy stood and headed home where he belonged. His eyes were blank like a necromacer's zombie, his mind thought it was sleeping, but his consciousness was not necessary. Only his memory and his body.

He looked up into the tree above him at the half-demon. "This is your hunt as well, is it not? I can help you find your way through the tunnels better than anyone else here, I think."

But what he wanted most to do was go home and sleep and pray to whatever god would listen that he could forget the boy's memories. The last the he wanted to do was go down there and see for himself what he had just witnessed, but he would do it because he had said he would, and he would not, could not break his word.