Zyrix
Legacy Name: Zyrix

The Teller of Ghost Stories

Zyrix the Spook Seeker - introduction to
Zyrix' best-selling audio book

You're being watched.

Every minute of every day. They sit across from you at the breakfast table, look over your shoulder as you're reading a book and poise their lingering fingers just above your forehead while you're sleeping.

No need to call the Kumos Patrol, my dear. There's nothing you can do about their presence. But maybe...just maybe...you can learn to live with these creatures that go bump in the night.

Ghosts are real.

Don't believe me? You will...for I am Zyrix, Subeta's leading expert on all things supernatural. I can not only tell you which locations are favored haunts but if the spook in question is in a good mood (and has an appendage not entirely made of slime,) I'll get you its autograph.

It's a task best left to experts. There are those ethereal beings that would give anything for a taste of human blood...

Ah, there you are Stares. This draconook is my own little haunt and Subeta's most incredible assistant. She not only keeps me from getting my head bit off by carnivorous plants, she's also an excellent typist and a skilled camera-minion, for those of you familiar with "Ghost Hunters".

Enough of this beating around the headstone, though. You want the story of how I came to be a ghost hunter in the first place. So settle into your cozy chair, grab the popcorn and take one last look over your shoulder.

It all started when I was seven. My family had just moved to Shadowglen. Ah, Shadowglen...ancestral land of my people. The nightmare blobs of old weren't content to be mistaken for beanbag chairs on a dark night. I'll bet you didn't know that wild blobs could eat their weight in decay every night. We put the flies to shame with the dead matter we devoured before the offerings of Quick Bites ruined us to refined taste.

Mom took to cooking more traditional recipes as Dad kept up his usual silence about just what it was he did at SAI. Half Baked goods seemed disgusting until we began to develop a taste for mold and rot and just a dash of blood sauce.

At our last home in Centropolis, Dad would keep my siblings and I awake half the night after telling stories of the ghost wyllops living in the walls of our apartment building, skittering over the boards of the original floor that had been rebuilt many years before after Prodigy went on a rampage that took out nearly half the buildings in the young city of Centropolis. We whispered back and forth about what it must've been like, hiding in the squat rooms of early Centropolis, trying not to make too much noise in case it brought the wrath of howling winds and crackling blue fists stronger than iron. We loved to give each other chills. We'd even pretend to be the ghosts of the wyllops, trying to best each other with stories of how each of us died.

A bit morbid for such youngsters, I know, but it was those stories that sparked my interest in the world beyond our own, the world of ghosts and other creatures from beyond our dimension.

Back to Shadowglen, then. I was sitting on the rose-colored stone bench Mother had bought from a Shengui Guo peddler. For once, I was alone. My siblings were probably down at Black Water Creek trying to scare up some nightmare xotls for a screaming match. I was staring past the backyard at the little graveyard on the hill beside our new home. I heard this gruff voice and turned my head to see the Mage making his way home. He had to repeat his question.

"Are you trying to summon the Lost Legeica?"

"Sorry, sir...I don't know what you mean?"

"Aethera, the Lost Legeica, the dream-granter who only appears to children on the day before the night of a full moon. The way you were staring off into the distance, I figured you must be whispering your own request in your heart."

"We just moved here, sir. I never even heard of a Lost Legeica."

He told me a tale of the gorgeous blue-green spirit who would not only grant the wishes of living children but would take the new ghost children up on her back and see them safely up into the sky, beyond even the pull of the moon of Atebus. With a friendly paw, he beckoned me to see the ring of glowing mushrooms that was said to be her favorite resting place when she paused at Shadowglen. I could feel the breeze teasing my hair as I stared at that mesmerizing ring. My older self would argue it was probably the Mage using a touch of air magic. That chai has such an odd sense of humor, I wouldn't put it past him. He couldn't make up the flash of blue-green light I saw as I turned to return home, though.

It was my first ghostly sighting and it made me hungry for more.

Unfortunately, many of my friends that you'll encounter run more to the fiend...so change the batteries on your flashlight and come along on a journey to the unknown.

If you dare.

AHAHAHA!

From the episode Ghost Hunter:
Arctic Anxiety

You know that feeling a few days before Luminaire as you relax into a cozy chair with your feet up to the fire, a blanket wrapped around your shoulders, taking slow sips from some steaming seasonal drink?

You won't get it at Glacial Scream.

This sinister cave is located forty miles north of Arctic Frost, beyond the boundaries of the Arctic Fields that leave so many travelers running for their lives from cookie-stealing anyu cubs. Its walls are quite the sight, pulsing with an inner light many compare to the cool tones of the Northern Lights.

The lichen hanging from its mouth takes on a reddish tint the color of dried blood when viewed between the third and fifth hours of the afternoon. A trick of the light or nutrients for the cave's latest victims? You be the judge.

Even Ice King is reluctant to set paw within the boundaries of that cave's glow. This is where the founder of Arctic Frost mysteriously vanished on his never-ending quest to seek new gold veins to increase his ever-growing fortune. His name has been lost to history but his tenacity in pursuing wealth in any shiny form it may take lives on in his many-greats grandson, Saggitarius.

The floor of the cave is coated in a brittle layer of what looks like mere icicles yet contained in each tiny spine is a powerful toxin said to be produced by a natural underground sulfur deposit thousands of feet below ground level. Yet chemical tests on the area show none of the compounds found in sulfur.

Nobody talks about the ectoplasmic deposits overlapping that supposed sulfur pool because it's hard to take a scientific reading when every instrument you wave about mysteriously vanishes upon coming into contact with that you wish to study.

Subeta's top scientists still can't determine what it is about the deadly crystals that give them a constant glow. Interest in this difficult to reach natural wonder has waned in recent years, particularly after the rather spectacular disappearance of a full dozen respected members of the Subetan Scholar Society.

From the episode Ghost Hunter:
Delphi Disaster

Today's story takes a turn for the tragic. The Shriek Shack...at least what's left of it...was once a popular getaway destination for Subeta University undergrads looking for something fun to do over spring break. Those brittle and blackened walls were once strung together with twine and driftwood, housing the bright minds of tomorrow. Though lacking in facilities, the rather quaint house made up for its missing luxuries with easy access to the less-crowded eastern half of the beach, granting an indescribable view of the sunset. The shack could hold a dozen occupants and if the night got chilly, the little fire pit up front brought visiting youths together for campfire songs and toasted marshmallows.

It might have been a careless spark that started the fire or maybe Risabonn's temper was the spark needed to turn wholesome fun into widespread terror. Risabonn was the only one of a dozen lodgers to survive the fatal flames. Right up to the day of her death she swore she had nothing to do with the incident that followed her argument with Kaliani over their mutual interest in Rissonak.

It was not long past the midnight hour. The sand was painted silver by the moonlight and the only creature walking along the shore was a qyrkee that could drink Angrybeard under the table...only on this night, he'd gotten into a particularly strong bottle of port. All hint of good feelings vanished when he witnessed what he swore was a leaping tigrean made entirely of flames rising into the sky as if to do battle with the far-distant constellations. He stumbled toward the Shack, crying out when the screams reached his ears. There was nothing he could do against the extreme heat of the flames. He saw what he thought was a graveyard feli stumbling over one of the benches that was set around the fire pit. Risabonn was glacier when she fell asleep that night but most of her fur was lost to the flames. She kept calling out the names of her friends, too dazed to even resist when the Kumos Patrol showed up to guide her to a waiting car.

Not such a scary tale, you say? Clearly you haven't heard the footage from the interrogation tape. There are voices in the background that have nothing to do with the usual Kumos Patrol complaints of not enough coffee and doughnuts.

Kaliani was rather well known as the leader of the Subeta U debate club. Her voice was heard around the world on the still-popular Voice Your Opinion. Her quavering voice can clearly be heard begging for someone to save her from the Tigrean's Eye.

The catch? Not one single occupant of the shack was a tigrean.

From the episode Ghost Hunter:
Shengui Guo Secret Shrine

The Lost Shrine of Shengui Guo is in a lovely little garden where the scent of cherry blossoms hangs heavy in the air. Wind chimes can be heard even on calm days and visitors are often seen rubbing their ears at the sound of phantom laughter that echoes between the jade pillars of the arch that's even older than Shengui Guo's finest temples.

The Lost Goddess was surely a creature of exceeding loveliness with a genuine adoration for nature. What was her true name? Was she actually a distant blood relation of Shinwa that was doomed to be forgotten when she drew the jealousy of that lovely figure in pink and blue? Residents of the Sacred Lands may scoff at the rumors surrounding this light-hearted haunt but a secret group of TLG worshippers have kept her memory alive as much as possible within the pages of Leaves Touched by Heaven, a poetry collection cobbled together from ancient texts and more modern events in which an unexplained benevolent forced aided a seemingly lost cause.

We often think of ghosts as forces of evil or mischievous creatures intent on causing havoc. TLG is neither. All mentions of her presence name her as a force for good and her acts of kindness serve as an example for us all.

From the episode Ghost Hunter:
Coda Cave Chiller

Did you really think ghosts were limited to Subeta's native soil?

Think again, dear viewer.

In the early mining colonies of Atebus, a force of evil was once unleashed, one so terrible that it was known simply as The Darkness. This sentient cloud could devour light and happiness with the ravenous appetite of a survivor of starvation. It took its victims regardless of size, gender or status. It devoured life force down to a few fickle drops, leaving breathing shells that could make your average zombie look like the star of a dance party. The settlers of Ziara came to fear its presence so much that for nearly a year, the glowing lights of that marvelous city went dark.

It was as the Masquerade season approached that a fairy prince with starlight in his beard went forth to do battle with The Darkness. He learned of its true nature, discovering the furious spirits of thousands of misplaced souls on their way to their final rest. They'd been bottled up by dark magic specifically targeted at Atebus by mages afraid of what the future would hold if just anybody was allowed to contaminate the astral plains.

That prince's name was Iltallo.

He formed a circle with the Seven Fae Lords, combining his cosmic powers with those of fire, light, wind, water, earth, ice and magma. From their efforts rose a new chunk of land, one that shaped a brilliant cave full of crystals.

Every time you walk through the Coda Caves, you are trodding on an ancient evil so powerful that it nearly destroyed the world. I suggest you wear boots with very thick soles...or your own soul may be at stake.

AHAHAHA!

Excerpt from editor Morris DeMarco of Shadowlands Publishing

"He (Zyrix) is a Nightmare Blob, and uses it to his advantage to set the stage more or less. He has a deep voice that he makes a little sinister when he tells a story to add inflection and atmosphere. And he has a seriously deep creepy laugh that sends shivers up the spines of his listeners (and me, every time I hear it!) and just adds so much to their experience. He loves to set the tone and scare the bejeezus out of his fans all in good clean fun. He does have a great sense of humor and it shows; but he tells a ghost story with feeling and skill, painting in nuance and dimension with his voice and his knowledge."

Art by: Ammoth

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