My brothers and sisters.
Let us give thanks for the dawn of a new day, revealing in the wholesome gift that is life once more.
In these hard times, it is more important than ever that we remain unified in our conviction, ever hesitant to trust the words of those who would slander us. The Keepers are not a threat to us, only our faith. Remember that a side should always be chosen, in stark contrast to their continued neutrality. While we may coexist, it is only a matter of time before one side rises above the other; and it will be a glorious day when we look to them below, and offer forgiveness graciously.
To our supporters in the City, still oppressed by the naiveté of their neighbors who continue to hold the Traveler in such an esteemed position, we offer our sympathies. Remain strong, for one day its Light will not blind them from the truth any longer. They will then see that shadow is the true form of the universe, and light is nothing more than an anomaly that resists the path of conformity.
To the Keepers who stand firm against us, we do not hate you. We hate that which flows throughout your veins, but that is through no fault of your own. One cannot blame a child for the sins of their parent. Instead, learn to control it as we have; do not let it guide you. If there should be a master, then it should be you, and its will should bend to your own; not vice versa. Only then will you see the proper way to humanity's ascension, and how we will gain the power we had once more.
And to those who ignore our teachings, and instead choose to defend the Traveler still; a day is coming when you will no longer have a broken God to watch over you. And when it has abandoned you, we will be waiting.
- Opening to this morning's sermon of the Trinary Star
"Okay, so you came from this orb, this Traveler," repeated Clara, trying to cement understanding in her mind. "What exactly is it?"
"You ask a lot of questions, don't you?" chirped the Ghost, still ahead of her as they hiked up the side of the mountain.
When he'd first told her that there'd be a lot of climbing, she hadn't though that he'd meant that so literally. But, for the last few hours, they'd been steadily ascending the mountain. Apparently, whatever place he was talking about was high in the ranges. It was also understandably cold, so she'd shut off her neuro-sensors a while back. Until she could exchange her nudity for some warm clothes, she didn't want to feel herself freezing in the wintry air.
It had been several hours, hours that would have gone by painfully slowly if nothing entertaining were to take place. So, naturally she'd given a few attempts to kill the time.
"Well, I need a lot of answers," she quipped back. "Tends to happen when you wipe every memory from your mind."
He gave an annoyed sigh, but explained anyway. "It's a large white orb that hangs over the City. And before you ask, the City is where most of, if not all of, humanity used to live."
"Used to?"
He gave a small hum. "Yeah. There's way more human settlements around, now that the Darkness isn't a threat."
With every response, she was given a new question to ask. "What exactly was the Darkness? And who fought it off?"
"I'm not sure. It's odd; I know that I was created by the Traveler and its light, but nothing else about it. Just that the Darkness was its antithesis, and it's gone now. As for who fought it off, I've heard quite a few stories."
Looking ahead, she could see a thin pass that connected the tops of the mountain in front of her with the one she was on. Taking a few tentative steps onto it, she distracted herself with more conversation. "And what would those stories be?"
"Well, for starters, one is that Ghosts and humanity had a very different relationship back then." He flew around her body, and she became nervous that he'd accidentally bump her off or something. "They formed a bond between one Ghost and one person who was then known as a Guardian. As the name implies, they fought the Darkness for the rest of humanity, to keep them from going extinct."
"Are we still in danger of becoming extinct?" asked Clara, ever curious.
Ghost gave a sigh of somberness. "No, but things still aren't that great either."
She waited for him to elaborate. "Ghost?"
"See, even if you guys aren't fighting for your lives anymore, it seems like there's a lot of you guys fighting each other instead. Most people try to stay neutral, but it's becoming very hard to do that nowadays. You have people who still revere the Traveler as a savior, like they believe it used to be." He scoffed. "And then you have the Star, who curse its Light and say that it's the source of all of humanity's problems."
"You've mentioned the Star a few times now," she remarked. "I still don't-"
He interrupted, opting to answer her question before she answered it. "They're a cult of sorts called the Trinary Star, though nowadays they're much more influential than a simple cult. They think that without the Traveler, humanity wouldn't have been dealt with so harshly by the Darkness. Therefore, the Traveler is directly responsible for humanity's near extinction and its current state."
As her metallic feet crunched in the snow, she gave that line of thought some consideration. "What do you think?"
He snorted. "I don't think anything. Maybe it was responsible, maybe it wasn't. Frankly, the Trinary Star could be completely right; but it doesn't make me want to hand myself over to them anytime soon."
"They're the ones hunting you?"
"Not really hunting," Ghost confessed, "but if they saw me, they wouldn't hesitate to destroy me. Like I said, they hate the Light, and I was literally created by it. That's why whenever a new Ghost is created, they're cast out of the City. It tries to remain as neutral as possible, so the people can't have us in there with them. I'm sure that if the Star had their way, each Ghost would be immediately destroy upon their 'birth', but thankfully that's not the case."
"So let me get this straight," she said. "Most of humanity is pretty neutral regarding the Traveler, but there are those who both revere it and hate it. But who enforces anything? If these 'Guardians' aren't around anymore, who defends anything?"
"That would be the Keepers," replied Ghost. "They're able to use the light, like Guardians once could. But they don't fight for or against the Traveler, they just try to keep people from killing each other. As it is, they don't fight the Star unless it provokes them or antagonizes a settlement. In turn, the Star doesn't push its luck, and they keep to themselves most of the time. That doesn't mean they don't hold any power; they just prefer working behind the scenes."
He looked around at the swirling wind and snow around them. "But, the temperament of both sides has … escalated, as of late."
He'd placed a bit of emphasis in his wording, suggesting to her that perhaps the situation was more dire than he was letting on. "Why?"
"Just some old legend, a story." He looked at her, his blue eye glowing through the mist and fog that shrouded the mountaintop. "But, sometimes stories have a bit of truth to them. Or people like to believe they do."
"What story would this be?"
"Some people think that there's still a Guardian around, a real one, not the diluted forms of one like the Keepers. And what's more, it's a Hunter."
"I don't know what that means," she admitted.
He twirled in the air contentedly. Obviously, he wasn't as opposed to conversation as he'd let on. "Well, Keepers nowadays are made up of what people used to call 'Warlocks' and 'Titans', scholars and guards. But there was a type of Guardian called a 'Hunter' that didn't help with security; instead, they were explorers who ventured off into unknown places, taking risks in the wild in exchange for potential territory. But once humanity effectively restricted themselves here on Earth, they were … well, they disappeared."
"So, it's a story on top of stories," she concluded. "A legend that may or may not be real, that's based off of these 'Guardians' that may or not be real either."
Ghost chuckled. "Yeah, there's definitely a lot of speculation when it comes to this sort of stuff. But there might be some truth to this one. In fact, that's the only reason why anybody's even remotely anxious."
"Really?"
"Like I said, this is all speculation," the Ghost iterated, "but there's some evidence to support the existence of this individual. For starters, the sightings are usually reported all around the same time. Sure, you get people who say that 'they've seen the Last Hunter', but the number really spikes at specific times. And then there's the correlation between the sightings and some unusual data."
She tilted her head. "Data?"
"There's still a lot of sensors that the City uses to monitor the planet. Now, we Ghosts can tap into these sensors at different relays spread throughout the different continents, and we can access the readings. And," he said with some warmth in his voice, "we Ghosts haven't entirely resigned ourselves to the life we currently live. Apparently, there are a few of us who want to change things, and they love the idea that there's still an original Guardian around. So, they go about trying to prove what they can."
Something appeared on the right side of her vision, and she freaked out a moment before the Ghost calmed her down. "Don't worry! I'm just superimposing a few charts into your optics."
Now that she understood what it was, she relaxed. The Ghost continued to explain the meaning behind it. "See, that's a timeline of the last few decades. Each dot is a claim that someone has made in regards to seeing the Last Hunter. Notice how they clump up in some odd years?"
She saw what he was talking about; while there were some interspersed through years at random, there were larger collections of them in the same relative time over a number of years. They didn't seem to have any pattern in which year they appeared, just that more sightings were reported. No more than one or two in any other year, but those spots would jump up to ten or so. Quite unusual, if it was truly nothing.
"Now, this is where it gets serious," said the Ghost in an excited tone. "See, remember the sensors we have access to? Well, one of the data points deals with temporal anomalies, or time distortions."
She jerked her head back in surprise. "Well, this suddenly became very complicated."
He ignored her. "Obviously, these sensors were put into place for a reason. Especially ones that have to do with temporal energy. No matter how many times the Star claims they hold no truth, there's just no reason why humans would have put them there if they weren't aware of these anomalies existing." He hovered in front of her as they walked. "Now, these are the data points for when bigger concentrations of temporal energy are recorded."
He overlaid a second chart on the existing one, this time with squares instead of dots. "And if you line them up with sightings that happened in the same year …"
The single dots that had no purpose or weight disappeared from the chart, but the clusters of ten or so at a time remained. What was more, they aligned perfectly with the years that temporal anomalies had been present. "The last alignment like that was almost seventy years ago, way before any information about this was being leaked by Ghosts."
She nodded her head as the charts disappeared. "Okay, so there's some evidence to suggest that they exist. But why's that riling so many people up?"
"Because," said the Ghost, sounding like he was grinning, "additional anomalies were recorded and leaked just over two weeks ago."
Her eyes widened slightly as it dawned on her. "You mean …"
"Yeah. If the Last Hunter is real, they're going to be appear soon."
"I'd imagine that's a pretty exciting prospect."
"Understatement of the century right there."
She gestured to the air around them. "Well, do you guys have any idea where they're supposed to be? Where anyone's going to see them?"
"Yup," he replied happily, "we're almost there."
—X—
She wasn't exactly sure what she'd been expecting, but it hadn't been this.
They walked through structures built onto the mountain, ruins of some ancient purpose that had long since been fulfilled. Evidently, they hadn't been completely forgotten; snow had not covered them, which meant that they were taken care of to some degree. Was there activity here?
"Is this the place?" she asked Ghost curiously. He pulsed slightly.
"No, this is just an old observatory that was … repurposed," he decided upon. "Now, it's more of a common area for those who aren't actively in the temple. But nobody's over here right now, I'd imagine that they're all talking up ahead."
"Temple?" she questioned, but she didn't have to wait long for an answer. Looming suddenly out of the fog was a set of large doors, heavy and unyielding. Emblazoned on them was an emblem of some kind; it appeared to be two gauntleted fists gripping an double-bladed axe, all of which was overlaid on a shield.
"Yes, this used to be a temple of significant importance centuries ago. Welcome to Felwinter peak."
With a loud groaning noise, the doors began to suddenly open towards them. Taking a defensive stance, Clara shifted herself subconsciously, waiting to see whether to fight or flee. Ghost moved back a bit, and subtly hovered closer to her for protection.
Behind the door, someone stood waiting for them. The wore metal armor that looked much like a knight's, with a helmet that matched. Only two black holes had been left for eyes, the rest was a single face-plate. Draped over their shoulders was a wool cape, heavy and fluttering every so slightly in the wind.
Once the massive entrance was free of any obstacles, they stepped forward cautiously.
"Most people are here for the gathering, but I take it that's not the case with you …?" they inferred cautiously. It was a man's voice, rough but not menacing.
"The gathering?" asked Ghost. One look from the man in his direction, and darted back behind Clara. Still, he answered the Ghost's question.
"A lot of people have been showing up here in light of the stuff your kind have been releasing to the public," he muttered to the polyhedron. "Can't ever remember a time when it's been this busy here, so thanks for making my job harder."
Clara decided to answer in place of Ghost's silence. "He found me frozen out in the wild. I don't know much about anything at the moment, other than I wiped my memory beforehand. As you can understand, I'm a little disoriented and I just want to find somewhere safe."
He looked her metallic form up and down, realizing that she was 'naked'. "Not a problem." Reaching one hand up, he unfastened the cape from his armor and held it out to her. "Here, I'd imagine that you want to be warm … as well as uh, cover up a bit."
She took the garment gratefully, and wrapped it around her form. Turning her neuro-sensors back on, she was stunned into silence by the frozen ground beneath her feet; but the cape was indeed quite warm. She nodded in thanks.
"Come on," he said, gesturing for her to follow. "I'm sure we've got some spare sets of garments in the temple."
She hurried after him as he led her across a wooden bridge, also swaying from side to side in the breezy altitude. She had a momentary fear that it might tip or fall, but the man didn't seem too worried, so she followed his example. Behind her, Ghost cautiously trailed behind.
"I'm Dirk, one of the Keepers around here," he said. "Anyone gives you trouble, just come to me. They shouldn't, but we got a lot of people I don't know here. Better safe than sorry."
"Are they all here for the Hunter?"
Dirk turned to look at her. "So you do know a bit, huh?" He snickered. "Yeah, they are. And they're all gonna be mighty disappointed, too. I've been here for nearly twenty years now, never seen anything along the likes of 'the Last Hunter'." He shook his head frustratedly. "I've also never seen a crowd this large here, so it's gonna be a real pain in the ass trying to get them all to go home."
Now on the other side of the bridge, she understood why. Ghost's data had indicated that a maximum of maybe ten or so people were here at any given time; but she could see that that number had been easily surpassed. There had to be more than a hundred people around the courtyard, though she couldn't be sure of an exact number.
"Some of them are Keepers from other provinces, others are just citizens that are here to decide for themselves if it's true or not," Dirk explained.
"How long have they been here?" she asked in awe.
"Earliest one was about a week ago, most came in the last three days or so. They all mind their own business for the most part, and go back to sleep in their ships, or on the ground if they don't have one. Had one bastard who came here on nothing but a sparrow and a ripped tunic." He shook his head while chuckling.
In the center of the courtyard was a fire pit, one that she eagerly walked towards. Here, the ground was thawed and the air was hot. She gave a content sigh of pleasure as the rest of her warmed up as well.
He stood beside her, laughing at her behavior. "Every time, I swear. It's a good thing we keep this thing lit, or we'd have people after our blood. It's much colder up here than people think."
Walking away, he called to her. "Come up the stairs when you're done, I'll find a fresh change of clothes for you." He ascended the stairs, and disappeared from site behind the lip of a ledge above her.
She nodded, and continued to hold her hands out to the fiery embers, allowing them to fill her with much needed heat. Next to her, Ghost looked around awkwardly.
"I thought you wanted to leave?" she remarked teasingly. He looked at her.
"Well, I mean … I feel invested, I can't just leave you."
She gave him a deadpan look. "You want to see if the Last Hunter is real, don't you?"
"I want to see if the Last Hunter is real."
She laughed. "Well, I'd be lying if I said I was disappointed. Happy to have you here, Ghost."
"Happy to be here," he replied chirpily.
Together, they watched as the flames danced around in the bitter winter frost.