Chapter 21
Daniel was repulsed at his own growing interest in the conversation being mostly up-held by Vala and the Wraith. The wraith had gone into a detailed description of an event where the dead really did come back as zombie like husks that fed off of the flesh of the living. He made it sound almost possible. Vala was mesmerized.
"Okay, you are making this up," Daniel challenged, "No way did an undead army rise up 412 A.D."
"To your understanding, Daniel. I'm sure travel between interstellar bodies by stepping through a puddle was also outside your understanding up until 10 years ago." The wraith responded in no way deterred from Daniel's disbelief.
"That is different, and please don't speak about that out here." Daniel whispered back, this was an unsecure location.
"I didn't say anything," the wraith held his hands up faking innocents, "But let me ask you this, why do you believe that energy can be harnessed by an object maid by man and not be harnessed the same way by an unseen force?"
"I do believe it can be harnessed by an unseen force." Daniel answered, "My own experiences prove it is possible and I've been energy for lack of a better term."
"Exactly, does that not sound like magic or sorcery?"
"But it is not, it is physics if you ask Sam.
"Sam, Sam who?" The wraith asked.
"A colleague of ours," Vala cut in, "She is not with us right now but she is really smart."
"Oh," the wraith nodded his head in understanding, "Sam, short for Samantha, as in Colonel Carter. Yes I remember reading about her, seems smart." He nodded his head in agreement. "But may I put forth that physics as you know it is still just a step to something even greater."
"So you say that there is magic and monsters and the rest of the world is oblivious to it," Daniel couldn't help but start to feel like this was turning into a fun debate.
"Yes, never underestimate the ability of people to overlook, block-out, or simply ignore what they do not understand or they do not wish to accept as fact. But if you don't agree that there are monsters or let's just call them beings that look fearsome and prowl the earth may I hold myself as an example."
"Buy you're an alien," Vala countered.
"Yes but I've been called a monster, as well have other creatures that were not borne abroad. Many of them were produced here on this planet." The wraith tapped the table to indicate the ground. "After all you are the second evolution of this form." He gestured to both Daniel and Vala, "When was the last time that was taught in your history books at school?"
"I never went to school." Vala answered and Daniel hung his head admitting that he couldn't deny some of what the wraith had said.
"Okay, so there are still mysteries to the world that we do not understand." Daniel submitted. "But that does not mean that we are surrounded by magical forces."
The wraith leaned in, "I think you just do not approve of the name 'magic'. If I called it strange mysterious forces you would be much more agreeable."
"Probably," Vala answered for Daniel. "Hey, question, you know a bit about Merlin and the Sangrall and stuff right?"
The wraith looked at Vala and raised his left eyebrow again. "Very devious."
"What?" Vala said innocent as she could. Which Daniel also knew was how she acted when caught doing something she was not supposed to.
"You get me in one train of thought to lower my defenses and hope that when you spring another topic on me I might let something slip." The wraith stated.
"No, I would never…" Vala defended herself. "Where is the food anyway?"
"It should be along soon," the wraith took another sip of his daiquiri finished it off." Anyone want the strawberry, "I don't like the seeds getting into my teeth?"
"Oh yah…" Vala took the offered strawberry.
"And I'll let you ask the question you wanted to ask as a reward for your deviousness." The wraith said offhandedly.
Vala looked at Daniel and winked. "Okay, why is it that we found all this Camelot stuff off world? I mean there was Camelot on another Planet and then the clues to the Sangrall and all this other stuff. Couldn't Merlin just stick it on earth somewhere and be done with it?"
"Yes he probably could have. But you must keep in mind that none of those people you met in regards to Merlin or the Sangrall ever met any of them. The knights never even left earth. That was all my own doing." The wraith explained.
"Wait, what do you mean." Daniel cut in. This was too important to let it drop. "What are you saying they had nothing to do with the Knights and the Sangrall?"
The wraith considered this for a second. "Alright, I'll tell you this much. Merlin planned this whole thing out for over a century. And he wanted to make it complex so that if the Ori ever did find earth they would have to go on a merry chase to find his stuff. I was his hands. I built those hideaways and in many cases freed the people from Goa'uld rule so that they would act as camouflage for them. Over the many years that I visited them I slowly introduced ideas to them and told them stories including the one of Arthur's fight with Mordred. After I was finished I assume the stories became true to them. Just goes to show how simple the fools really were."
"You were traveling through the Stargate during the Dark ages?" Daniel asked.
The wraith looked at him. "Sorry Daniel, that's all you get on Merlin for now." Just then the waitress came with a trey of food and a second waiter carried another tray.
Vala went ahead and began with her meal while the wraith seemed to take a moment and sample each part of his chicken salad and then the milkshake. Daniel watched as the wraith first put his hands together and bowed his head in what looked like prayer. Then he slowly took up the knife and fork and slowly cut the food into very small pieces then once in his mouth his head leaned back and he seemed to swallow the item whole. Made sense kind of, Daniel thought, He doesn't have any molars to grind food with so he would have to swallow whole.
The wraith caught Daniel observing him and swallowed. "Is there something interesting you Daniel?"
Jackson wanted to get back to the topic of Merlin but maybe he could explore this behavior more. "Do you get full like us? I thought the wraith didn't eat…food."
"No, not like you I do not get hungry like that. I eat and drink for pleasure."
"How did that come about?" Daniel asked. There was a slurp, and they both turned to Vala would was clearly enjoying her shake. She gave an embarrassed shrug but kept on eating. "When did you start to assimilate into our culture?
"I would say somewhere about a hundred years to maybe five hundred after I came to earth. I originally avoided people. I hid myself in the wilderness away from people and came down only to hunt."
"What changed?"
The wraith was quiet. He was thinking. "I got stuck in a bad situation. When I got out I learned the value of company."
"That is not much of an answer." Daniel stated, "Why are you so cryptic about parts of your past? You want our trust, isn't that it, but you won't tell us anything." The table lost its light hearted banter again like when Jackson brought up the wraith's sense of justice."
The wraith was quiet again. Vala had stopped eating. Daniel didn't like the feeling that he had ruined a good time but this was serious. "You are right Doctor. Parts of my actions were to show to your people that I was more than just a monster. It is a technique I have used for many centuries to begin negotiations. Posturing for lack of a better word." He put the knife and fork down.
"But you want to know why I am keeping cryptic about my time with Merlin, or how I came to earth. I have lived a long life and I have experienced a great many things. There are many secrets that I would be jeopardizing by telling my complete story. Also why expose myself to those who would do me harm if given the chance?"
It was Daniel's turn to sit back. "What does that mean?"
The wraith gave him a candid look. "Dr. Jackson, you and I are not friends. You are intrigued by me, that I know but you feel no compassion for me and nor should you. You work for an organization that would kill me as soon as look at me. I have invited you here to dine with me as a means of passing time and exchange pleasantries. But I have no dilutions that we won't be opponents after this event comes to an end." The wraith looked down at the table. "Fortunately, I have gone a long time without. And I do not need companionship or any friends." He looked up and stared Daniel in the eyes. "Sometimes it is better to have an honorable enemy than a weak friend."
Daniel didn't flinch. This had taken another change for the dark and potentially dangerous. "If we are not friends than how do I know you haven't been lying to us his hole time?"
"Because, Dr. Jackson, lying shows a weakness in character that I detest. I will not lie with my words." The wraith was adamant as if challenged about his honor.
"Fair Isle, where you there?" Daniel asked the question quietly and Vala lowly reached for her fork and moved it off of her plate afraid to hear the answer.
"Yes, I was." The wraith said simply. "Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"You butchered that village. Men, women, children, you killed them all. Where they part of your justice too?" Daniel's voice was also cold, thinking about what Landry had described. "Was it another Troy?"
"No," the wraith was calm and reached to pick up a piece of chicken then popped it into his mouth. He leaned his head back to swallow. Then he returned to staring at Jackson. "That was not for justice on my behalf. It was justice for all the men that those heathens murdered in their ritual killings."
Daniel and Vala didn't respond, what was He talking about?
The wraith continued, "I woke up under water, buried alive a hundred years after my appointed time for revival." His voice raised just a small bit, there was passion here, this was important to him somehow. "It was the dyeing screams of a man being sacrificed in fire to a bitch goddess for some blasphemous ritual. I found the bodies. The one that brought me back to the world had been a Christian, and his life had been stolen to fill some foul demonic lust and greed! So I did my duty as a Christian, a Knight and a son of Rome. I destroyed them for their crimes against man and God!"
The wraith looked at both Jackson and Vala. He could tell this was news to them. "Did any investigators mention the 48 bodies buried in shallow graves? I marked them clearly and gave the last poor sole a proper burial with his Christian rights though I know not if he was of Rome or of Luther. And if you resent what I did, than that is too damn bad."
"Children…" Vala whispered, "They were children."
"Children of witches, who would have grown up to be witches and continue the cycle if allowed to live." The wraith shot back with no room for argument in his voice. "I have seen attempts to rehabilitate such children, less than a hand full ever come back to the light, and they grow up to go back to the ways of their progenitors and good people suffer for it. I saved souls of the most young before they could have done too much ill. And as for the others, I did burn them and I made them suffer, but not for their sake. It was not to cleanse their soles that I brought pain to them. It was to warn others. And there are others, Dr. Jackson, Vala. There are always others. They have existed since the beginning of your world and they will be here till its end. Now when one of the damned souls comes to that island they will know what awaits their folly and maybe, just maybe, turn from their dark pursuits."
"You're mad!" Daniel said his voice was a whisper much like Vala's. The sheer force the wraith projected showed almost a fanatical commitment to what he was saying.
The wraith reached into his shirt and pulled a wooden crucifix, "I am far older and more knowledgeable of this world than you, boy, and I have seen the forces that surround us all the time yet are unseen." He held up the cross and then put it back into his shirt. He looked down at the table. In a much softer voice he spoke again. "You are a smart and compassionate man. For many in this world there is comfort in a belief that there is nothing left that hides in the dark places of our souls or in the deep dark caves of the earth." The wraith looked up, "The stars are not the only places where mysteries lay hidden. Your own world is far more metropolitan than you will ever know, and compassion has its place and a price."
Note: Okay, I introduced again the idea that the wraith not only believes in the supernatural but that it motivates him. I also wanted to remind that he has also assimilated into the Catholic Church which is the motivation for his mass murder spree. Don't worry supernatural forces will not be a big part in this story. It is more for a set up of character and possible sequels than anything else.I'm going to try to move this story along again in the next chapter. What I would like to know is One: is there anything that so far does not work? Two: what questions do the readers have and that must be answered to maintain interest? And Three: do you want the wraith to start forgiving those that crossed him or do you want to see him finish them off quickly so we can move on to other issues?