1Silence. Endless waiting, endless patience. Years they have been gone, years I have been alone, and yet I feel they shall return.
What of these creatures, these humans? They scrabble about my sides, seek, dig- oh so ineptly!- exclaim over the treasures of my Keepers. I heed them not; they shall vanish as snow in summer. And my Keepers shall return.
My Keepers loved me, cared for me, gave their lives for me. They named me as a friend, a father to them. But these humans sense no emotion, their names have no feeling in them: The Site, The Excavation, The Find. I am become a thing, an object to be viewed and handled and discussed.
Now they penetrate into my deepest recesses, where none but the Keepers ever dared to tread. Not even the servant of Darkness, Darkness spiritual and not physical, has seen what these insects have seen, not even the infesting hordes of his servants pried as deeply as the humans.
"Primarily a metalworking people." "Highly militaristic, relying chiefly on the axe for warfare." "Shorter but far stronger than humans." "Few natural motifs in architecture and artifacts; mostly geometric." How I long to smite them, to extinguish their immoral searches! Only my Keepers deserve to know me so.
I suffer through the years, the humans multiply like base animals and fill my caverns with unnatural light. Shall the small groups of explorers not suffice for my debasement? No, bring in those who merely wish to look, to have, to tell stories to their other crawling acquaintances before they die. And still my Keepers wait.
They are not immortal, my Keepers. They died, their bodies passed away. But unlike these humans, my Keepers knew their fate and prepared for it: their spirits throng my passages in millions, their works of stone and art shall outlast a thousand generations of humans. My Keepers shall return and cast forth the invaders, and I shall be what I once was.
Jack Winder leaned back in his chair, balancing a drink in his hand. The man across the table from him leaned forward and waited calmly for a response.
Well, he could wait a moment longer- the glass was almost empty. Jack pretended to think hard about the offer, although the possibility of a refill was taking up most of his brainpower. "Sounds interesting," he finally admitted, despite himself. "I'll think about it."
His would-be employer nodded and smiled, leaning back himself. "Why don't you come and see what we've already found? I'm sure that will push you on over the edge. And you won't regret it."
Jack eyed the glass significantly, but the other managed to ignore the look. He decided to go for less subtle methods and drained the glass. "If you'd get me another Guinness, I'll agree to come to the site." He received a thin smile in return.
"I hardly think you need more alcohol, Mr. Wilder..." Jack frowned, but decided not to push any more. He'd kinda expected that anyway.
"You're probably right, Mr...?" He realized he didn't know his new acquaintance's name.
"Mr. Kayam, and I'll be pleased to see you in the airport parking lot tomorrow morning at 7." Jack nodded and let his chair slam back down onto the floor, then began considering leaving the bar.
Kayam managed not to roll his eyes and pushed back from the table, then left the room. Jack stood up, then staggered forward to support himself upon the table. Whoa- that was more than he'd meant to drink, actually. He focused his attention on the tabletop and noticed two small white squares; a shake of the head resolved them into a single business card. After a couple of inept attempts at picking it up, he managed to grab it and peered closely.
Isaac Kayam
United Discoveries, Inc.
(788) 490-0183
And below the information a brisk neat hand had written, '7 a.m. at the airport entrance. Don't be late.' Jack blinked and stuffed the card in his shirt pocket, then made his stumbling way out of the bar.
—
"S'there's a goo' shance... chance I call again," he slurred to the answering machine, mentally cursing his inattentiveness. Who could possibly take him seriously when he spoke like this? Jack gave his head another ineffective shake and hung up. Two down, one final associate to contact. He pawed around in the drawer until he recognized the green post-it note stuck to the desktop, and the number on it. There she was- he'd definitely need Steph here.
As luck would have it, she actually answered the phone. He made a valiant effort to drive the alcohol from his brain, failed, and launched into the spiel.
"...so I wants you t' hep. Hell... help," he finished lamely. For a moment he feared she was about to hang up on him, or had already done so, but then he heard a strange snuffling sound.
This abruptly changed into full-fledged laughter, and brought a bemused smile to his own face. "How much did he give you to get you to say yes, Jack?"
"Ho' mush wut?"
"Oh, I don't know, tea, maybe?" she answered with an almost-audible roll of the eyes. "Alcohol, you doofus." Jack blinked.
"Uhhhh... two Guinnessesses?"
"...and?" Jack closed his eyes completely this time and tried to remember. Two Guinnesses wouldn't have done it, would they? No, he'd also gotten...
"...and s'm'other stuff," he finally amended. Stephanie chuckled.
"Where do you want to meet, then? Airport entrance?"
"S'right."
"OK, sleep well and I hope you'll only have a mild hangover. Take care." After a moment holding the phone, Jack remembered that that noise meant the other phone had been hung up; he hung up his own and collapsed backwards onto the bed.
Oh, wait, set the alarm... 6 should be good. And some medicine for the hangover. With a monumental effort, he managed to lift one arm and gave up. Maybe he'd get up in time anyway, luck could always take a hand.
I grow old, the humans have lived ten thousand generations and I have ceased to notice individuals. It is a vast creature, this humanity, an undying beast that grows ceaselessly and never releases anything it has grasped. Parts of the animal fight with one another, I feel the wars through the earth. Humans can kill each other more efficiently than even my Keepers slew their enemies, and I find they can even destroy the land. Once I hoped that they would destroy themselves, that the creature would commit suicide, but now- were it to die it would take everything with it. And my Keepers still have not reappeared. I begin to doubt their return. I am forgotten, lost, unknown and confused in a world completely unlike that I once knew.
I am dying. My belief was wrong, the creature called humanity has committed suicide. It did it a thousand years ago, and I survived. But my Keepers, if they yet lived, have vanished along with the humans, along with the birds and the beasts and the fish of the sea. The humans have destroyed all life.
No, not all life; the earth still lives. She twists and groans, tortured and abused by the millennia of the human creature: now she has broken me. My force ebbs, I sink into the deep places of the world. None shall remember me- not that it is anything to me without my Keepers. None shall remember me, grandest of the kingdoms of Mahal's folk. None shall remember me... Khazad-Dûm.