1
"What could this guy possibly want, anyway?" Alvero called out ahead of him, his voice ragged. The air was hot and muggy, and quick wipe across his brow did nothing to deter the sweat stinging his eyes.
"It doesn't matter, so long as I get paid," Gio called back. A stocky, weather-beaten man of about fifty, he cut a remarkably different figure than his lanky nephew. "Now keep up."
Summoning up a quick burst of energy, Alvero closed the distance between him and his uncle. The soft clay trail did not provide good traction, and the tropical shrubs that lined its edges provided little protection from the oppressive sun overhead. "But if he wants to worship there, the Moonlight Festival will be held next week," he wondered aloud.
"I doubt he's here to praise the gods." He glanced toward Alvero with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "I heard he's a bounty hunter."
"Bounty… hunter?!" The kind with the bracer?"
"Uh-huh." The mixture of curiosity and uneasiness in his nephew's voice provided Gio with a much-needed source of amusement.
"Don't you have to offer your soul to a god for one of those?" Alvero futilely wiped the sweat off his brow. "Or something like that… I wonder if he got it from a pretty angel."
"Wait." Gio stopped dead in his tracks, and stuck his arm out to hold up his stumbling nephew. "Look."
Just off the main path, a brown horse was trying to graze on the meager amount of grass that populated the ground, its movements partially obscured by the leaf of a palm tree. Squinting, Gio could just make out a saddle and reins, but conspicuously absent was a rider. "Let's take a closer look," he whispered.
As they approached, Gio was sure that the horse was aware of their presence, but seemed to pay them no mind. In fact, it seemed almost unnaturally calm. Inching closer, Gio noticed the horse had its gaze locked on him, but continued to simply gnaw at the grass. "Where's your master, huh?" Gio mumbled, noting that the animal's calm stare made him unexpectedly uncomfortable.
"Uncle Gio, we should probably get go… URK!"
At his nephew's exclamation, Gio spun around and found Alvero with his eyes bugged out in fear and his hands above his head. The cause of his distress was rather conspicuous: a repeatable crossbow pressed firmly against the back of his head.
Gio's eyes met the resolute gaze of the wielder of the crossbow. The man's bright orange afro contrasted sharply with his dark complexion, and a series of prominent scars ran from the ridge of his nose across his left cheek. His emerald green held an intensity that did not match the rest of his appearance.
If nothing else, his face was definitely memorable.
"You wouldn't happen to be Favaro Leone, would you?" Gio called out.
Favaro offered a wide grin in return. "That's right."
"I'm Gio from Cadonae. That one there…" He gestured at the petrified Alvero, "…is my nephew. I'm supposed to be your… uh… guide. To the Temple of the Sacrifice. That right?"
Favaro smirked and lowered his crossbow. "Sounds about right." He directed a curious stare at Alvero, who remained rooted in place with his hands above his head. "You're free to go, kid," Favaro laughed.
Alvero sulked away toward his uncle, his embarrassment evident.
"Favaro… Leone?" he whispered when he got within earshot.
Before Gio could respond, Favaro excitedly burst in: "So, I take it you've heard of me?"
His enthusiastic expression was met with a brief moment of silence, followed by a synchronized shaking of heads. Favaro's beaming smile fell for just a second, only to be replaced by an even bigger one.
"That's weird." He scratched his chin. "I'm something of a celebrity around here. Has something to do with me collecting four hundred bounties, and all."
"Four… hundred!?" Alvero's jaw dropped in disbelief, much to Favaro's amusement.
Gio wasn't as easily impressed; he was more than familiar with acts like the one in front of him. "Does the notorious bounty hunter happen to have my money?" he deadpanned.
Favaro glanced away, and his expression unexpectedly hardened. He skillfully - but absent-mindedly –twirled his crossbow around his finger, a move that made Gio just a touch nervous. After a brief moment, he spoke: "You get me in there, and I'll make sure you get your money."
"N-nothing up front?" Gio stammered. That was definitely not what he had been told when he had accepted the job earlier. In fact, he had explicitly been told to collect something up front, since the client seemed like "a shady character."
Favaro's self-assured smile return, perhaps in response to Gio's obvious hesitation. "Do I look like the kind of guy that would lie to you?"
Absolutely, Gio thought, but he responded only with: "Let's get going then." With that, he turned and headed away from the main path and into the denser part of the forest, waving for the other two to follow after him. Alvero quickly fell in behind him, but Favaro first made his way over to his horse and gave it a gentle pat on the muzzle. "Good girl," he said affectionately as he removed the knapsack that was tied around the horse's flank. "Now go home." As he turned and disappeared into the forest, he added, "I'll be back. Wait for me."
"How much longer, old man?" Favaro complained in a harsh whisper. The sun was beginning to set, but it was still oppressively hot and humid, and, after an hour of lying in the brush, he was beginning to itch. All over.
"Patience is a virtue. Didn't your momma teach you that?" Gio whispered back, much to Favaro's grumbling chagrin. "Anyway, it's almost time. I swear."
The trio had worked their way well off the beaten path, and, after a seemingly interminable hike, they ended up on the edge of the forest at the far side of the Temple of the Sacrifice. A ways into the forest behind them was a steep rock face (that provided a rather scenic view down into the valley below, Favaro noted) and not much else. Most importantly, there were no guards to avoid this direction.
The temple in front of them was constructed of brilliant white marble that shone in such a way that made it obvious it was polished regularly. The overall structure stood about four stories tall, with giant pillars supporting a perfectly flat roof. Despite its obvious opulence, the temple's appearance left Favaro with an uneasy feeling, as though he was looking at a mausoleum.
Gio's gaze was focused intently on the guard that was pacing back and forth along the roof. "He'll be off duty soon," he whispered to Favaro, without averting his eyes from the guard. "When he leaves, we'll have a small window to get up there."
Favaro nodded in affirmation. Gio motioned to Alvero, who produced a climbing rope from his bag.
"Get ready," Gio breathed when he saw the guard turn his back to them. "Let's go," he said, when the guard finally disappeared from view.
The trio hastily left the cover brush and swiftly and silently made their way over to the side of the temple. Favaro pressed up against the wall, and quickly glanced around the corner. He didn't see or hear any commotion, so it appeared that they had made it undetected, for now.
Favaro gave a thumbs up, and, at Gio's behest, Alvero tossed the climbing rope up and over to the top of the roof. After giving it a tug to make sure that it was secure, he motioned for Favaro to go first. Instead, Favaro grinned and turned away from them; deftly producing his crossbow as he did so. In the blink of an eye, he fired a grappling hook up to the roof and winched his way up, leaving Gio and Alvero dumbfounded as they climbed up behind him. As they approached the end of the rope, they were once again greeted with Favaro's infuriating smile.
"You could've at least told us you had that," Gio said, as he accepted Favaro's help in getting up onto the roof.
"You sure you got this, old man?" Favaro simply responded.
"Worry about yourself, kid," Gio shot back.
"Kid?!" Favaro chuckled. "You know, I was actually starting to worry that I was getting too old to be called that."
"Hey… uh… we should probably get going," Alvero butted in, before adding a meek "right?"
"Right." Favaro took a step forward, before realizing that he had no idea where they were supposed to get going to. "Uh, you go ahead," Favaro conceded to Gio.
The trio worked their way across the roof by crouching behind the parapet, in an effort to avoid detection from the ground. So far, they were lucky that no new guards had made their way to the roof for their shift, but it was obvious that time was of the essence.
About halfway across the roof, Gio abruptly raised a fist, signaling for the group to stop. "Here," he whispered, gesturing to a raised section of roof a couple of meters to his right. It took Favaro a moment to realize that it was actually a large granite slab disjoint from the roof itself. It wasn't difficult to put two and two together: "you really want to move that?!" Favaro whispered back harshly. While it was only about knee high, the thing probably weighed more than the three of them put together.
"Do you want to go down there or not?" Gio responded, as he crawled over to the slab and tried to push it, to no avail. Favaro sighed to himself, cracked his knuckled, and made his way over to the slab, followed closely by Alvero. A quick, half-hearted attempt to pick it up and slide it over yielded no results.
"Together," Gio hissed. "Put your back into it, kid!" Favaro grit his teeth in response and lowered his shoulder in an attempt to gain leverage. Sure enough, the slab began to move, accompanied by harsh grating noise. He felt his mechanical leg lock up from the stress, but he kept pushing, dragging his leg under him, until a hole in the roof just large enough to fit a person was revealed.
The slab settled with a thud, followed by silence. The three perpetrators froze, expecting the worst. Amazingly, there were no sounds of commotion coming from anywhere. No shouting from the guards below or the pounding of boots running up the stairs. Nothing. They all breathed a sigh of relief.
Favaro looked down at the hole they had uncovered, which he correctly presumed would be their means of entry into the temple. From the looks of it, the damage was fairly recent, and the granite slab was probably just an ad hoc fix until repairs could be made. It was all a little too convenient. He glanced to Gio, who didn't meet his gaze. I wonder who he knows here…
"You first," Gio said to Favaro, as he anchored a rope to the roof and dropped it down into the blackness below. Favaro gave his two companions a little salute and dropped backwards out of sight. A few seconds later, a clang sounded from down below, followed by a soft "ow!"
"Stupid," Favaro muttered to himself as he tenderly stood up, rubbing his backside. His eyes slowly adjusted to the lack of light: he found himself in a tall and narrow antechamber, facing an archway that seemed to lead into a larger room, its details hidden by the darkness. Favaro reached into his bag and produced what looked to be a normal piece of wood cut to the size and shape of a torch.
"Evicendo soh arbus!"
A single green spark leapt from the torch and fell harmlessly to the floor. Favaro knitted his brow in confusion. "Stupid thing," he said irritatedly, and gave it a shake. Suddenly, the tip exploded in a brilliant green flame, causing Favaro to bobble and almost drop it.
"You're a magic user?" Gio asked, appearing suddenly behind Favaro, one eyebrow raised. His words ushered in an uncomfortable air of mistrust.
"Not quite," Favaro said quickly. "I got this from a friend." After an awkward second where it looked like Gio was weighing whether he should broach the subject further, he gestured toward archway and added, "Let's take a look, shall we?"
The interior of the main chamber was in a surprising state of disrepair, especially given the immaculate look of the exterior of the temple. Cracks worked their way across the floor, giving the appearance of a giant spider web, and the walls were damp and eroded. The roof curved up into a massive dome, which was adorned with an impressive painting of what looked to be the sky at twilight, complete with the moon visible at its apex, its brightness faded with time. Protruding from the far wall was a large statue of what looked to be a man with his arms outstretched. Closer inspection revealed the chiseled armor of a god, complete with a long flowing cape that blended into the wall behind it. The once sharp edges in the stone were worn smooth with age, and a lot of detail, especially in the face, was now barely discernable, but the statue still gave off an aura of sanctity. From Favaro's perspective directly below it, it looked as the though the god was reaching up to challenge the sky above him.
"Here you are. The statue of Zeus." Gio paused. "What is it that you wanted here anyway?"
Favaro continued to wordlessly study the statue in front of him, much to Gio's puzzlement. After a while, he turned around and looked past Gio to Alvero, who had hung back behind the other two.
"Hey, you."
"M-Me?" Alvero pointed to himself.
"Yeah you. Come here."
Alvero hesitantly shuffled over to where Favaro was standing.
"Stand there. No, a little to the left. Yeah, right there. Now stand still."
Without warning, Favaro deftly jumped onto Alvero's shoulders and spring boarded himself into the air. By the tips of his fingers, he was able to grab onto the outstretched arm of the statue. Hand over hand, he expertly worked his way toward the face of the statue.
"Whaddya think you're…" Gio trailed off from down below, and watched as Favaro began patting around the individual folds that made up Zeus's sizable beard.
Click.
"There it is!" Favaro exclaimed.
Suddenly, a fissure appeared at the base of the statue and worked its way up just under where Favaro's hand was. In the next instant, the statue began to split with a whirring sound that Gio could only describe as similar to that of a sailing winch being wound tight, but much faster than any human could produce. What started as a thin crack quickly grew to a gap large enough for two people to stand side by side. Gio had to do a double take. The newly-formed void was actually the start of a stairway that twisted and disappeared out of sight. A soft, decidedly unnatural blue light emanated from down below.
Favaro dropped back to the floor with a soft thud and dusted himself off.
"Wha…" Gio and Alvero looked back and forth from Favaro to the statue, dumbfounded expressions plastered on their faces.
"Would you look at that! By Zeus's beard! Ha!" Favaro was so amused by his handiwork that he failed to notice the obvious stupefaction of his companions. He squinted at the faint light reflecting off the walls in front of him. "Well, then. You ready to see what's down there?"
"Hold on a sec…" Gio blurted out as he stepped in front of Favaro.
Favaro sighed; he really wasn't in the mood to provide answers, nor did he have the time. "Old man, you stay up here and keep a look out," he responded simply.
"If you're not going to explain this..." Gio shook his head. "Well, what exactly am I supposed to do if someone comes? Are you going to give me a weapon?" he asked, eying Favaro's crossbow with a raised eyebrow. Favaro hesitated, and then his eyes lit up as an idea came to him. He reached into his bag and produced another torch, which he tossed to Gio.
"And what I am supposed to do with this?"
"If someone comes, swing hard." Favaro smirked as he motioned for Alvero to follow him down the stairs. "Let's go."
"Unbelievable. He arms me with a stick," Gio muttered to himself as he watched his two companions disappear into the darkness.
As they descended, Favaro ran the fingers of his left hand along the wall. Both the walls and the stairs were made of a strange material that Favaro couldn't quite place. It was too smooth to be stone and too plentiful to be some kind of precious metal. It almost seemed like an incredibly thick opaque glass. The blue light that he found himself bathed in radiated from precise incisions that decorated the walls, sometimes running parallel, other times diverting away from each other with perfect perpendicularity. The patterns they created were too exact to have been etched by hand, either human, demon, or god. Favaro had seen this technology once before; he was acutely aware of how much power it could potentially hold.
Favaro froze mid-step as he noticed that the shadow cast across the step below him changed ever so slightly in intensity, right where he was about to place his foot. He held up a fist to signal for Alvero to do the same.
"Careful… look." He motioned for Alvero to follow his eyes. "Traps."
Alvero gulped, but said nothing. Favaro gave him his best reassuring smile. "Just watch your step, okay?"
As they continued descending, the stairs began to flatten out, until they found themselves in a narrow rectangular room that seemed to be completely empty, except for narrow pillars that weaved back and forth all the way to the far wall. The pillars themselves were made of a different material then the rest of the structure, almost as if they were constructed at a later time. The same lines that ran down the stairway painted the walls of the room, in a much greater concentration than before.
"What is this place?" Alvero spoke up. "Hey… uh… Mr. Leone… do you know what this is?"
Favaro barely registered his question, as his mind was racing to process what he was seeing. Or, perhaps more accurately, what he wasn't seeing.
Is there really nothing down here?
Favaro shook his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts and his doubts. "Maybe," he said, in response to Alvero's earlier question.
Favaro worked his way toward the far wall, zigzagging around the pillars that dominated the center of the room. Closer inspection of the pillars and walls revealed nothing of interest. "I guess this was a waste of time, huh." Favaro put his hands on his hips and let out an exasperated sigh.
"Wait a sec…"
Out of the corner of his left eye, he noticed something unusual: standing out against the uniform blue light was a dull red glow. Favaro held out his arm and examined the bracer on his wrist. The gem set in the middle radiated softly, a signal that indicated he was in the presence of powerful magic. The problem was that the bracer was a fake, or so Favaro thought. Favaro waved his arm through the air curiously. He stepped to his right and observed that the gem glowed ever so slightly brighter. What the hell…
Favaro began moving toward the far wall as though he were possessed. As he approached, a magic seal materialized from the wall at about chest height. Drawing power from the circuits behind it, the seal began spinning about its axis until it was seemingly a blur of pure energy. Favaro unconsciously reached his arm out and stood transfixed as his hand was swallowed by the whirling vortex. His bracer glowed a bright, blinding crimson, and Favaro felt a bead of sweat work its way down his temple.
"Mr. Leone, what are you…" Alvero called out anxiously and then fell silent.
Nothing happened. Favaro waited. Still nothing.
"All this and… nothing." Favaro sagged his head against the wall. "Well, I guess we should head back now." He heard Alvero let out a sigh of relief in response.
Favaro wiped the sweat from his brow and tried to pull his hand from the seal.
It wouldn't budge.
A wave of fear rushed over him. It felt like he was pulling against a vacuum: he felt no force holding him back, yet he couldn't move his left arm at all. As he struggled, a tingling sensation worked its way through his hand. It quickly grew in intensity until it felt like his hand was on fire.
"That's not good."
Favaro tugged harder, but the sensation only worsened; it now felt like his bracer was searing his wrist.
"Okay, that's really not good!" Favaro cried out in pain as his bracer grew even hotter from the energy running through it. "Hot! Hothothot!"
"Mr. Leone, are you alright?!" Alvero raced up behind Favaro and craned his neck to try and get a better look at what was happening.
"I could use a little help here!" Favaro shouted, and a panicky laugh escaped his lips. "Pull me out of this thing!"
Alvero's eyes widened in shock, but he nodded and hooked his arm up and under Favaro's left shoulder. "All right… three… two…"
"JUST PULL DAMMIT!"
Alvero obliged, sending the two of them went tumbling backward to the floor. The seal disappeared with a sharp hiss the instant from Favaro's hand was ripped from it, plunging the room into near darkness; the only light source came from the last embers of the torch Favaro had dropped as he struggled to break free. The dying green light illuminating his face gave him a very sickly appearance; he looked almost as bad as he felt. Wincing, Favaro looked down at his wrist. The last vestiges of his bracer flaked off as ash, revealing what looked to be a bracelet, beset with a deep blue gem. Favaro blinked, not quite processing what he was seeing.
Before Favaro could collect his thoughts, the air began humming with energy. Favaro instinctively shielded his eyes just as a surge of bright light pulsed past him back toward the entrance.
This isn't going to be good…
Alvero opened his mouth to say something, but his words were taken away by a shock wave. The pillars in the center of the room had exploded, knocking Favaro and Alvero back to the floor and showering them with debris. Favaro forced himself to open his eyes, which immediately began to sting from the dust that had been kicked up into the air. His eyes locked on a deep fissure that was forming along the roof, which itself seemed to be canting down towards them.
"What's happening?!" Alvero choked out between coughs.
In response, Favaro dragged him to his feet and shoved him toward the entrance. "Run!" he shouted, just as the first portion of the roof collapsed behind them.
They sprinted to the entryway and up the stairs, with Alvero taking the lead and Favaro right behind him.
"Watch your… step!" Just as he issued the warning, Favaro careened into a frozen Alvero and almost fell backward down the stairs. Favaro's mind raced when he saw that Alvero was bound in place by a magic spell, courtesy of one of the traps he had noticed earlier. I've seen this before…
"Fight through it!" Favaro shouted, and shoved Alvero forward, causing the spell to dissipate. "Keep going!"
Up ahead, Favaro could just make out the entrance at the top stairway. He let out a pained groan when he saw that entrance was closing up.
Faster! Gotta go faster!
As he reached the top of the stairs, Alvero ungracefully dove forward through the opening as it closed down on him from above. Favaro slid through behind him, just barely making it as the collapsing roof clipped his afro. He rolled to a stop and ended up on his back. Behind them, the statue of Zeus rocked back and forth for a second before settling still with an echoing thud, looking to all the world like nothing had happened.
"Whew!" Favaro pumped his fist jubilantly. "Ha, ha! That was a close one! Hey, kid…" He rolled over on his side and found himself staring cross-eyed at the tip of a spear.
Damn…
They were surrounded on all sides by armed guards. Beyond the first line of guards, Gio was on his knees with his hands tied behind his back. He noticed Favaro's gaze and gave him a shrug.
"The stick didn't work."