He glanced down and observed the marble, rotating it around and around his fingers in twisting motions, attentively analyzing it. It glistened under the starlight, and resembled the color of pure blood. This was from that strange man that was in the city, and as to what this thing was, he didn't know, he only took this because the light deemed it to be important enough to take.
As if out of thin air, the light appeared right beside the marble in his hands, flickering that bright, blue light.
Oddly frustrated, Adaceus asked, "What is it this time?" Trying to stay silent as to not disturb the people sleeping.
Anticipating silence, Adaceus only gave the light a focused glare, and as expected, it was quiet. In a sudden burst of movement, it blitzed across his body in rapid speeds, leaving a blue trail everywhere it went. Adaceus, shocked by the sporadic movement, only stood still as this was happening. This went on for a few seconds, and after one last lap on his body finished, it stopped at a specific spot, floating at his waist. It placed itself beside it, hovering in place and started to undulate waves of energy, the thing it did when it wanted his attention on something, like a signal. Adaceus looked toward where it was signaling, and found a tome that hung on his side.
It was another item he took from the man, and it was hung on a piece of fabric.
"This?" He said to the light.
It merrily went up and down in agreement.
He unlatched the tome of the fabric, and placed it on his thigh. The light then hovered on top, and spun in a circle in quick intervals. Adaceus waved it away irritatingly, caressing the covers design and opened it, revealing the weathered pages of the tome.
He saw the pages, the contents of which were still incomprehensible to him, and flipped through, a couple of them, the mysterious symbols a complete mystery to him.
He continued to skim to just at the outer parts, trying to discern something, anything, that he could understand or notice from it, until the pages, the letters in them, slowly started smoking. The billows of smoke slowly appeared, and multiple extensions of black, translucent, misty tentacles gently rose up to thin and wispy peaks. The strands of smoke danced on the air in wild and random movements, like gray and ashy ribbons, and covered the vast majority of the pages surface.
Slowly, the same smoke crept up toward Adaceuc's body, first latching on to his hands before moving up. Adacues was oddly calm as this happened, and allowed the smoke to continue further, observing as they slithered upward. The smog stopped their ascent as they reached the shoulder height of his arm, staying put as they whirled around it, covering it wholly in grainy torrents like a whirlpool of black.
He cautiously moved, waiving his arm about, and wherever he moved the smoke followed lazily behind, trailing along like the surface of water. Next he rotated his hand a full turn, the thin quality of the smoke allowing him to still see his palm, wiggling his fingers and feeling around the space. It was a strange energy, one that was similar to mana, but it reacted to him in a more vigorously than normal, and it was more familiar, oddly intimate, its contents more attuned with himself.
Strange, He thought.
So far, after a few seconds of the smoke lingering, nothing happened. He let it move on his hand, and even tried to grasp at it, fiddling with its smoky substance as it escaped out of his fingers. Gazing hard unto it, his entire focus still on the smoke, a sudden, slight, sharp feeling crawled over his entire body like a cold chill, and in an instant, it escalated in an intense surge of force that struck on every nerve in his skin, and it made him tremble, like a thunderclap had struck his body. A rushing realization came to him, his minds working overflowing with vigor; this smoke, this power emitting from this tome, was him, this force was a part of his very being.
Because Adaceus, was the deity that ruled over the domains of death. He was bestowed this authority in the early years of the cosmos being built.
Somehow, this tome was harnessing the deep wellspring of power that was death; the energy, the powers of it was inscribed to every page and every written word, and Adaceus was rightfully perplexed by this revelation. He began to recollect thoughts of how he acquired it and remembered what that man had told him about this book. This belonged to something called a lich lord, whatever that was, and somehow this individual was able to funnel the powers of death into this grimoire.
This was yet another mystery this world had.
The light suddenly blitzed across his face unexpectedly, and interrupted him.
"What is it," he angrily said, still keeping his voice low.
It signaled with energy toward the marble that was still in his hand-he had completely forgotten about it. It was still on his fingers, and the light hovered above and spun until it looked like a halo.
"Right, what do you want me to do with this?" He said in a whisper.
The light made a full stop on its spinning, and sluggishly moved to his face, and placed itself on his left eye, where it began to undulate waves of light. Adaceus, as if an understanding came upon him, took of his mask, and raised the marble to where the light directed, and shoved it inside the hollow eye socket that was his left eye.
The vision on that side immediately began to be coated in a crimson sheen, completely covering his vision in a blood colored filter. He looked around in a hurry, but anywhere he looked it was always with a cover of red, and it made his sight be irritated for some reason, and it began to feel painful. He grabbed at the marble and even tried to take it out, clawing and prying at it with all the strength he mustered, but no matter what attempt it wouldn't budge. Adaceus winced his eyes close and open, and leapt back because of the intensity of the pain, tripping on the log he sat on and falling on the ground behind him. The pain caused him to convulse in the grass, and out of desperation he tightly grabbed at a few strands that stuck out, lifting fistfuls of dirt as he squeezed tight, in hopes to relieve this torturous feeling, he didn't even have the capacity to scream as he felt his throat dry and close up.
"Hrrghh!!" He painfully screamed out, in a dry and raspy voice.
Seconds pass, the pain still remained constant, and the red sheen was still here. He felt the marble burrow further and deeper into his bony face, planting itself on the surface like a plants roots, and that's where it hurt the most. The only thing that distracted him, was the light that was flying above him, moving around in front of him like a fluttering bug, and his frustration towards it made the pain somewhat bearable.
Damn you!!! He said in his mind.
He closed his eyes in frustration, but this time, the pain was slowly went away. He kept them closed, and after only a few seconds going by, it subsided completely, and a sweet relief reverberated on his entire body. In an exhale of breath, he opened his eyes, where the vision on his left eye was clear as can be.
He stood himself up, and went to rub his smooth head that ached. Looking around in unease, the pain still fresh on his mind, he began to crawl on all fours to the log, incapable of even standing up.
Adaceus, weakened, climbed the log with shaking arms and slumped his body on it, and saw in the corner of his eyes, the dropped tome on the ground, with the light encircling it like a vulture.
This was another signal, and he cursed in a whisper. He was furious at the light for subjecting him to the pain, but as of now, he had no choice but to trust it. The light had been helpful to him thus far, his literal guiding light, and without it he was lost in this world. Angry, he turned his focus to the book.
He reached for it, struggling to reach to it at this distance. After a very brief lunge, expending a burst of energy, he got hold of one of the corners barely with his fingers, and slowly started to grab it towards him.
Placing it in front of him, an immediate reaction happened, with the red filter appeared again. Taken aback Adaceus recoiled in fear, but to his fortune, he felt none of the pain he felt before. Blinking a couple of times just to make sure it was so, he stole a glance toward the book, and saw the pages, its contents warp and contort. Picking it up, he placed in close to him, only to witness the words on the page transform into a myriad of shapes like ink, whirling around in the water of the pages, and they all started to become familiar.
After the forms placed themselves still on the pages, all the symbols, all the sentences and paragraphs, all of them began to become words he knew of, words he understood. The marble on his left side somehow, by some unknown way, translated this page of the tome, and his eyes turned to intense focus as he flipped through another page.
This was going to be a sleepless night.