“It is not that I do not love you,” I swore, watching the color drain from poor Shukri’s face, “But that I promised myself to another.” \n\nArikh, my dearest love, had somehow found me. I had heard his voice call to me under the moonlight. It was quiet at first, and I feared it was merely an apparition, an artifact of my own guilt. But it was clear as day now. I would not leave him again. \n\nThe sands swirled around me in the blistering wind as I struggled to follow the call of his voice. I needed to see him. To embrace him. To know he had forgiven me so that I could forgive myself. I climbed to the top of a dune and shielded my eyes from the wind, staring off into the dark. He called my name again. Closer this time.\n

His voice

Arikh, Part 1

“Arikh!” I cried out with joy and desperation, running as best I could in the dim light of the stars.\n\nBut the fel beast before me had stolen the form of my beloved. Ice flowed through my veins as I gazed upon the cruel parody of his handsome face. It smiled at me, this phantom, this doppelganger. Its sallow lips pulled away from its gaunt cheeks, exposing a long, foul grin of cracked and pointed teeth. \n\nAs it stretched out its arms to embrace me I froze. I lost the will to run, the will to live! That's when I heard it—the cruelest sound I shall ever hear.\n\n“No!” came Shukri's voice, “Take me! Take me instead!” The creature turned its gaze past me into the dark. I collapsed, pulling my knees to my chest, too frightened even to breathe.

Its arms

Arikh, Part 2

After the apparition left, it was a long time before I dared to stir again. I sat, quivering in the darkness, knees pulled to my chest. When I at last dared to move, I saw Shukri, my brave beloved, lying prostrate in the dirt, flesh blue and mottled like a festering corpse. I hobbled to his side to confirm what I already knew.\n\nBut he moved. Horror overcame me and I wrenched myself free from his grasp, dashing off into the night. The last thing I heard was his soft, tender voice, imploring me not to abandon him.\n\nI hear his call now, every night, carried like a whisper on a soft wind, loving me endlessly. And when I hear him call my name, I ache with the knowledge that I dare not answer.

Shukri

Arikh, Part 1 #1

Arikh, Part 2 #2

Shukri #3

The sandswept and sunscorched desert in the West, and the last known home of the Ancients

A Debate on Ethical Warfare, Part One #1

A Debate on Ethical Warfare, Part Two #2

An End to the Debate #3

Pompey's Letter #1

Antony's Letter #2

Brimstone Sulfur Experiments #1

Nostalgia #2

Against the Sages #3

A New Path #4

Drusilla's Letter #1

A Dream of Riches #1

Mind the Gap #2

Awakening #3

The Problem of Suffering #1

The Natural Order #2

A Small Test #1

The Last Resort #2

Gnosis #3

On the Evolution of the Roman Centuries #1

Local Superstitions #2

Firsthand Observations of Roman Pila #3

The Passage of Time #1

Bitter Truths #2

Crassus's Oath #3

Materials #1

Methods #2

Blasphemous Musings #1

The Narrowing Road #2

Abandonment #3

Mysterious Riddle #1

DINGTA #1

JIIBA #2

KEYYA YIB' #3

TEYII #4

WETZUU #5

CRUUJ #6

AMBA #7

PIMBII #8

D'UN-YICH #9

HIMDE #10

AABER #11

ITKA #12

DZUU #13

J'IJ #14

TSADZUI #15

HID #16

RIIGA #18

EYBUE #19

CRUUJ'II #20

D'UN-GA #21

TAB' #22

B'ENGYING #23

TSANGMIIJ #24

JICH #25

DUBUU #26

Malatesta's Letter #1

Gateway to the Gods #1

The Secrets of Akhet #2

The Will of the Gods #3

Crassus's Letter #1

The wisdom of the word is #1

A Mysterious Threat #1

The Malevolence Grows #2

Day 1 #1

Day 2 #2

What Day? #3

The Cradle #4

The Child #1

The Huntress #1

Devourer, Part 1 #1

Devourer, Part 2 #2

Devourer, Part 3 #3

To My Love #1

Yvette #2

A Satisfying Home #3

The Amazing Trades of Giovanni #4

Ogdan's Journal #1

Goat-sick #2

A Quiet Corner #3

Favorites #1

Hymn to Absent Gods #1

Testament of the First Peoples #2

The Doom of Eternity #3

Brimstone Nursery Rhyme #4

Pharaoh’s Decree vol. I #1

Pharaoh’s Decree vol. 2 #2

Witness of the Faithful vol. 1 #3

Witness of the Faithful vol. 2 #4

A Legionnaire’s Lament #1

Behold our queen’s salvation! #2

The Journal of Publius Canidius Crassus #3

Scouting Report #4

Tales of Brimstone Sands

Dune Phantoms

Dune Phantoms Chapter - NWGuide Database of Lore

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