Haakon
Early Dark Age - Stavanger, Old Norway
The stench woke him.
Rotten wood mixed with the smoke from last night's fire wafted into his nose, and he opened his eyes immediately as he got the full breadth of that campfire smell.
Haakon sat up slowly, his muscles groaning and tensing as he stretched them and yawned. His gaze fell on the source of the nauseous yet comforting scent next to him. The small circle of dirt and ash surrounded by rocks was still going, the embers still alive despite the lack of heat.
Day seven. He noted, still staring at the remainders of the flame. Then, he'd remembered where he was, taking a brief survey around the old office he had set up camp in the night before. The wood floors might've been polished and clean once, but it had clearly aged horribly, being torn and rotten in some places. That it still held his weight impressed him.
There was a tossed-over desk on the opposite end of the room, Haakon had used its legs for firewood the night before. The chill reminded Haakon of the gaping hole in the wall, exposing an outer bricklayer, and the cracked window by the exit. He wondered why it was still holding strong, not that I'm complaining.
The howling winds outside sparked a sudden need for something warm. Coffee. I need coffee.
Reaching over into the stitchwork bag next to him, he grabbed a small bundle of sticks, and some bark, withdrawing them and the axe strapped to the side of the pack. Quickly, he assembled the bundle into a small teepee and took out the flint from his pack.
Holding the axe and flint right above the bark, he got to work.
Chink. One
Chink. Two
Chink. Three
The bark caught flame after the third strike, the sparks combusting on the dry material. Setting down his tools, Haakon snatched the tiny flame and placed it under the smallest of the twigs in the teepee. He smiled once it lit up, spreading the flame to the others. Soon enough, Haakon had a small fire warming his chest.
Taking a celebratory swig from his water canteen, Haakon pulled a small, dented pot out of his bag, pouring some of the water in it before setting it on the edge of the fire. It was boiling after a few minutes, after which, Haakon got up and walked to the window.
Haakon took in a deep breath before reluctantly opening the window, getting the flurry of wind and fresh snow pelting his face and beard. Swiftly, he shoveled the snow on the window sill into his arms, taking as much as he could before slamming the window shut.
He sat back down in front of the pot, tossing in snow every few seconds. Unfortunately, that left his shirt rather wet as a result. He reached back into his bag, taking out a tiny bag of coffee beans, along with a tin bowl, and a smooth stone.
Dumping the rest of the beans into the bowl, Haakon gripped the stone in his right hand while holding the bowl with his left. As soon as he got to mashing, though…
"Good morning!"
In a matter of seconds, his axe was gripped tight in his hand, his knuckles white. He spun around to face the source of the interruption.
"Ah!" It screamed, disappearing into nothing. Haakon sighed, putting his axe back on his belt. Sinking back onto his knees, he continued mashing the coffee beans with the smooth stone. Oughta not jump me like that.
A minute later, he heard the whoosh that came with its entrance. "That was uncalled for, you know!"
He didn't even bother turning to face her, he just kept grinding. "Maybe you should knock, next time."
It flew in front of him, it sounded like a woman, though Haakon couldn't really put together why. A floating eye was all he could see, framed by a blocky eggwhite shell. A woman wouldn't be the first word I would use…
"With what, exactly?" She questioned, pointing out her obvious lack of limbs.
He provided a light smile. "Doorbell?" his lips tugged into a grin. "I'm sure you'd figure something out."
"Whatever," she huffed in indignation, and he just went on, mashing the last of the beans until they were a cloud of fine dust. He looked to the spot next to the fire, it was full of boiling water now.
Retrieving his metal cup from his pack, he filled it partially with some of the hot water, and poured it into the ground coffee, saturating it. Soon, the aroma of brewed coffee began filling his nostrils.
"So… uh…" she started, garnering his attention right before he was to pour the rest of the water into the grounds. Under his steely gaze, she flustered. "How are you, Haakon?"
"I'm living the dream," he answered dryly, going back to what he was doing, pouring the water out of the pot and mixing it with the grinds. After a good minute, he was satisfied with his work, pouring his prize back into his metal cup. "You?"
She took a few seconds to think about her answer. "Oh… you know…" she rattled off. "Same old, same old."
He nodded along, lazing back as he drank the bitter brown liquid, taking joy in the warmth that spread in his belly.
"How does it taste?"
Haakon breathed in another puff of steam from the warm cup. "Like iron." The fact that the beans had lasted this long was a miracle in itself, so to question their freshness would have been akin to looking a gift horse in the mouth.
"Cool," she said. Haakon quirked an eyebrow, why is she walking on eggshells? As if she could read what he was thinking, her eye opened fully in a desperate act of self-consciousness. "Oh! Sorry!"
He narrowed his eyes at her, and she realized her mistake then. Haakon instantly put two and two together. "Get out of my head," he said, his grin fading into a stone-cold glare.
"Yes! Of course! Sorry!" she squeaked.
Haakon sat back in contemplation. What else can she do? He wondered, feeling just a bit violated in the would-be privacy of his thoughts. This time she didn't react to his question.
He knew she was some kind of robot, made by a big ball in the sky, but his orientation was quite limited in what he actually knew at the time.
Now that he had been up and running for a week, however, Haakon got a rather good idea as to what happened, and the snowstorm outside certainly wasn't the problem. The desolate streets and buildings explained a certain passage of time, yet the skeletons in the rusted cars also told another story.
Though his apparent lack of personal memories didn't really help much at all, either. Only once he got up did she reveal that he was one Dr. Haakon Ragnarsson of Clovis Bray. Whatever that was.
Of course, Haakon hadn't bothered asking about the small machine. Until now, that is. "What are you?"
"Oh! Me?" She was surprised. Him, not so much at her reaction. This was the most they'd spoken since she woke him up. "I'm Ghost. Actually, I'm your Ghost-"
He interrupted her with a dismissive wave of his hand. "You told me that when I got up." Haakon took another sip from his cup. "What are you? What do you do? Why are you here?"
"Ah jeez… Those are some big questions…" she groaned. Sighing, she glanced at him sheepishly. "I'm a… sapient machine made to find people like you, and keep them alive as long as possible." She perked up suddenly. "Hey, I answered all three of those in a row! Not so big after all, huh?"
Haakon shook his head, practically a child, and my life is in her metaphorical hands. Great. "Alright," he paused, sitting back straight. "What do I do, then? Why am I sitting here?"
"Yeah, right. Ok." she nodded. "You are a Risen… and you… uh… kill things, I guess." She hastily added, "Bad things, of course."
Haakon took another sip, staring at the tiny blue eye. He gestured for her to continue.
"Uh, right!" she quickly added, flustering. "You can channel a source of energy called Light- which you can also use to kill things- and you are sitting here because you have an exceptionally large amount of it, where other things or people do not."
Energy? How can I use that? Might not have to deal with campfires if that's the case. "So out of all the dead people you could have picked for resurrection, you chose me, because I have a larger amount of this… Light?" Haakon repeated, to which Ghost nodded. "And how do I use this Light?"
Ghost paused, glancing up at the ceiling. "Uh… that I don't really know. But it comes with practice!"
"Alright." Haakon sighed, "How do I begin practicing it?"
Ghost went silent, trying to think of an answer. "I don't know. But I'm sure it will come to you!" she chirped.
That's reassuring.
"You said people like me. There are others?"
Ghost nodded. "Yeah, some are nice, and some are mean." She explained, "Others are kind of loners, and others are the "For the good of us all" type."
"Naturally," Haakon felt the bitter metallic taste roll down his tongue. "It's a mixed bag." he agreed with her rather simple statement. I need to know more about this Light. "What can Light do?"
She did her equivalent of pursing her lips. "I guess you could call it magic, or something like that. It's kind of based on your imagination and personality." she reasoned. "You can throw fiery hammers, conjure a spinning vortex of dark energy, or even a lightning staff!"
It's based on your imagination, and they use it to conjure a stick? Haakon's competition was really shaping up. "So there's a variety of outputs... Tell me more."
"Right!" She continued. He briefly imagined the tiny eye breaking out a chalkboard, and smiled. "Solar energy is pretty self-explanatory; it's basically fire-"
"But fire only happens when an element is oxidized to the point of giving off tremendous amounts of energy." Haakon interrupted, running a hand through his beard. "You said 'Solar' though, that implies energy directly from the Sun."
Ghost nodded with his assessment, "Yes, it's sort of the same concept. You aren't necessarily drawing energy from the Sun, though. It just… happens…"
"Just happens?" He almost spat out his coffee. "Nothing really just happens. The fire started because I clicked," he lowered his drink to hold up the axe and flint, "these two together a few times."
"I know, but with Light… it just happens. As I said, it's like magic."
Haakon folded his hands together against his face, breathing in deep. "That's not how the Universe works. Everything happens because something caused it."
"To be fair, you being alive contradicts how the Universe should work…" she pointed out. "You do know that you used to be dead, right? Or did you forget that?"
Haakon just sat back and lifted his morning cup to his mouth. "Fair enough," he muttered, sipping it.
"What was that?" She asked.
"Continue with the lesson, please." She's a lot more confident giving a science lesson, I'll give her that.
Ghost nodded, "So, as I said, these elements of Light just happen, like magic. Now, Arc is a little more like electricity. I saw this one guy shoot a giant beam out of his hands like you wouldn't believe it! Oh!"
Haakon sipped his coffee, rolling his eyes, and stewing in his silence. Cool.
"And Void! Well, this one is sort of weird. The things we see around us appear to our eyes because of light from the Sun, but Void is almost like you're creating the absence of that light. But Void energy is like the empty patches of space between planets and stars. Its force is like a sort of deep gravity well that can pull stars apart or kind of…"
He raised an eyebrow at that one, sitting forward. "So, this Void is the absence of heat? Of light? Can it manipulate focused spaces by exerting gravity?"
"Yeah, kind of. It's really cold for one like I said, it's more like the dark patches of space in between planets and stars, but manipulated by an external force that can accelerate at an exponential speed."
"And this force is likely gravity…" Haakon concluded. "Seeing as how stars can form into black holes, which are gravity wells…"
She gave him a strange glance. "Hey, how do you know all this stuff? That's supposed to be my job!"
He nodded to the flint and axe next to him.
"Well, yeah! I know that!" she exclaimed, "But how do you know the black holes, and gravity stuff, too?"
Haakon paused just as he was about to take another sip from his coffee, carefully setting it back down on the floor as his thoughts scrambled to find an explanation. How did I know that?
"You said I was a doctor, right?"
Ghost leaned back, "Well, I didn't think it was in astrophysics! Your ID card from Clovis Bray doesn't really glean too much."
Astrophysics? It's not as if he actively thought about black holes, his additions to the conversation didn't seem conscious on his part. It was almost intuitive...
Haakon frowned in mild confusion. "Do you have it?"
She nodded, "Why, of course. Do you want to read it?"
It was his turn to nod. Just at that exact moment, a small rectangular badge appeared on his lap. Haakon picked it up, feeling its weight. It was light but was made of some kind of metal alloy. Too light to be steel.
On the front was a picture of himself, smiling, eyes crinkled, and obviously way cleaner than he was at the moment. "Haakon Ragnarsson." He read off, going over the surprisingly sparse details on the metal card. Besides the shiny metallic strip running down the left side, there wasn't much else.
"Date of birth; 2086. Height; 6'3. Male, blue eyes. But…" He trailed off, his bewilderment spiking as he read the next two lines. "It says this card was issued in 2324. Last I checked, humans don't live that long…"
Ghost nodded in acknowledgment. "Right, after the Traveler arrived, it didn't take long for humanity to think up a way to prolong their lives."
"Fair enough." Haakon shrugged, glancing briefly at his supposed birth date. "What's the date today?"
She glanced up at the ceiling in contemplation. "Psh… ah, I dunno… People don't exactly keep up to date on it…" she mumbled. "I could be wrong, but I think it's… 2358. Things have only been like this for a few decades."
Haakon glanced back at the window, seeing the white haze beyond it only left him with few options. "Month? Day?"
"Sheesh, really making me work for it…" She pondered again, floating back and forth, literally. "Ok, once again, take this with a massive pinch of salt, but… Wednesday, November 28th, 2358."
34 years… He calculated. 34 years since this card was issued. "It's been three decades. What happened?"
"You've seen the outside, right?"
He hadn't. When he scooped up the snow, he'd been half asleep.
But he had seen it. The desolate streets, abandoned cars, the skeletons and corpses. The city had been so worn by age, yet it had only been decades since he was last alive.
"What happened?" he asked again.
"Something big." She answered ominously. "It's gone now, whatever it is, but it left its mark. It's on us to pick up the pieces, though."
Haakon stared back into the fire. "It's a lot to think about."
"I agree."
He glanced back at her, lips pursed. "Let's take it one step at a time." He downed his last cup. "For now, let's figure out a way to get out of this storm."
She frowned. "How do you plan on doing that?"
"Well…" He trailed off, throwing his cup into his pack. Glancing back at the window. Ice was encrusted over the cracked glass.
"I thought I'd give it the old college try."