Review response time! BOO YAH 2 REVIEWS! Danny Barefoot- thanks for the advice RCF- Yay I have a fan!
Anyone reading this should go to it's a really good forum. Talk about everything HDM related including The Book of Dust and the movie speculation. Great stuff.
I'd also like to thank my friend Supertechy2, whose real name will be withheld for his own safety, off Runescape for... well... never mind...
Chapter 4
Early Midsummer
The early hours of Midsummer. And Will had been up for almost an entire day. He was still alive, and that was the first and not the last surprise of the day, he thought he would come here, they'd ask him where the letters from his father were held, and they'd shoot him. The blond man did ask for the location of the letters, but when Will responded that the letters were impossibly far away, not a lie at all, the man nodded as if he already knew and accepted Will's answer. Will then believed that momentarily he would be looking down the barrel of the revolver. But the blond man and his accomplice, whom Will expected to be the other man from the burglary, were waiting for something, and Will, Mary, and Elizabeth weren't being treated poorly at all, which came as the second surprise. In fact, the blond man's accomplice had gone into town to bring back food stores for the wooden house.
When the man came back he slapped a thick bundle of white papers, which Will identified as a newspaper, in front of Will who had been sitting in the rear-left corner. Will gasped as he read the front page whose article read under the words, 'Shooting in Oxford Bar Results in Loss of Eight Lives". Farther down the article a black and white picture of Barry's Bar, recognizable by the unlit neon sign, showed the grimy place looking even worse, the windows shattered, the door broken down and a squad of police men standing around in front of a 'POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS' ribbon.
"You... saved our lives?" Will knew that they had, but why they did, and how they knew were beyond him.
The blond man nodded.
"Why?"
"The Master." It wasn't an explanation and Will wondered if the blond man had meant it to be one.
The man who first was the threatening gunner, now sounded crazy and Will wasn't prepared to ask who the 'Master' was.
"But... how did you know?"
The man was ready to respond, "The Master."
"The err... Master... tells you?" Will offered.
The Man nodded enthusiastically.
"And... why did you want the letters?"
"Not us, letters for Master."
The man sounded too much like a priest for Will's comfort. The talk about this 'Master' was incredibly similar to someone talking about their god.
"The Master requests your presence." The man pointed up to the ceiling of the building when saying this. And Will began to think the man was some kind of monk.
"How do we get to him?" Will decided to play along with the man's insanity, until such a time would arise when he could escape.
"The Shards of Senyul." The man said it as if he wondered how anyone could not know, but three out of the five people sitting in various spots around the room were lost in bewilderment at the strange word. "You may call it..." He looked at his accomplice for the words that had seemed to escape him.
The blond man's accomplice shrugged, "Donno, the... something-knife?" It was the first time he spoke, his voice was deep and he spoke with a slight Irish accent. In his voice somewhere lacked the insanity of his companion.
"Oh," Will said after several seconds of thought, he realized what the men were talking about. If the men knew about the knife, then they must surely know of the Ci'Gazze world. He began to become curious about this 'Master' of whom they speak of like a god.
"You are in possession of the shards? You do bare the mark of the bearer." The man said, looking curiously at Will's two missing fingers.
Will was hesitant about telling the man, but his curiosity about the 'Master' outweighed his indecision, "Yes, back at Ms. Malone's house." It was now that Will wondered why Elizabeth and Mary had been taken here as well.
"The shards must be reformed under the Master's direction."
Will was, by now, thoroughly confused. "He will... tell you how?"
"Yes"
"Why can't he talk to me through you?" Will didn't mean to sound rude but the way he said 'through you' sounded as if he thought the men were only there to do just that.
However the man took no offense at this, and if he did it was masked well enough. "The Master requests your presence. If it was not important he would."
Light had begun to stream through the cracked window on the left side of the building, and Will just now realized that the Midsummer's Day had dawned.
"Do you have the time?"
The blond man's accomplice looked onto the old watch secured around his wrist. "5:30."
Will sighed, up almost twenty-four hours and with no chance to rest in his future.
"When do you think we should do this?" Will had hoped that it could be done in a few days.
The man responded without hesitation, "Midnight. The Master's directions will come to me then."
Will let loose a held breath, as the man said midnight, he had enough time to go to the garden, sleep, and then get the shards. He also realized that the blond man's accomplice didn't hear this 'Master' as the other did, and wondered how he could believe his cohort.
The blond man saw the agitation in Will's face, "Go if you must, be back at midnight."
The other man challenged him and dragged the blond man to a corner to converse privately. However, the building was small enough for Will to hear every word that was said between the two.
"How can we trust him?"
"We can't, our Master can not see into the boy, something blocks him."
Will had a feeling he wasn't going to understand much of this conversation, but listened in anyway. He couldn't see it, but the other man rolled his eyes, "He's not my master, I'm not the one with the mark of insanity!"
"Then why did you join the Disciples? To mock us?!"
The man paused, "I thought that we would do more than the Master's bidding."
"The Master knows more than anyone in any of the worlds."
This confirmed Will's suspicion that the men knew more about the other world's than he himself did.
"But does he know what's right? How many of us were part of the Assault on the Clouded Mountain?"
"It was a losing battle; the Master didn't need us to die."
"Then why did he need Mark to die!?" The man shouted this out but took no notice of the three sitting in the opposite corner. Will knew that Mark must've been the man he had killed, it seemed to be so long ago, the way his neck bent at that horrible angle that still made Will shiver.
"For a reason far beyond our comprehension, if we needed to know he would tell us." The other man grumbled. "Once you're in you can't leave, Shawn."
Shawn turned around and took the several steps to the edge of the table in the middle of the room. The blond man had laid his pistol onto it when he had been dragged into the far corner. His eyes held a treacherous glint in them. He reached for the pistol and Will cried out to the man now facing him. Mary and Elizabeth, who must have been asleep during the conversations, came awake in an instant. But it was too late. Shawn spun around and fired a shot off into the man's chest. The man slumped down the wall leaving behind a bloody streak. Before his eyes finally hazed over in death he tried to say something but it came out as a gurgle and blood dripped out of his mouth, he spit out a hideous amount of it before he could talk. "The Master knew of your treachery, it was meant to be."
And it came to be that of the three men who had long been searching for Will, only one remained. The moment came as Will had expected it would several hours ago, he was now looking down the barrel of the revolver.
Anyone reading this should go to it's a really good forum. Talk about everything HDM related including The Book of Dust and the movie speculation. Great stuff.
I'd also like to thank my friend Supertechy2, whose real name will be withheld for his own safety, off Runescape for... well... never mind...
Chapter 4
Early Midsummer
The early hours of Midsummer. And Will had been up for almost an entire day. He was still alive, and that was the first and not the last surprise of the day, he thought he would come here, they'd ask him where the letters from his father were held, and they'd shoot him. The blond man did ask for the location of the letters, but when Will responded that the letters were impossibly far away, not a lie at all, the man nodded as if he already knew and accepted Will's answer. Will then believed that momentarily he would be looking down the barrel of the revolver. But the blond man and his accomplice, whom Will expected to be the other man from the burglary, were waiting for something, and Will, Mary, and Elizabeth weren't being treated poorly at all, which came as the second surprise. In fact, the blond man's accomplice had gone into town to bring back food stores for the wooden house.
When the man came back he slapped a thick bundle of white papers, which Will identified as a newspaper, in front of Will who had been sitting in the rear-left corner. Will gasped as he read the front page whose article read under the words, 'Shooting in Oxford Bar Results in Loss of Eight Lives". Farther down the article a black and white picture of Barry's Bar, recognizable by the unlit neon sign, showed the grimy place looking even worse, the windows shattered, the door broken down and a squad of police men standing around in front of a 'POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS' ribbon.
"You... saved our lives?" Will knew that they had, but why they did, and how they knew were beyond him.
The blond man nodded.
"Why?"
"The Master." It wasn't an explanation and Will wondered if the blond man had meant it to be one.
The man who first was the threatening gunner, now sounded crazy and Will wasn't prepared to ask who the 'Master' was.
"But... how did you know?"
The man was ready to respond, "The Master."
"The err... Master... tells you?" Will offered.
The Man nodded enthusiastically.
"And... why did you want the letters?"
"Not us, letters for Master."
The man sounded too much like a priest for Will's comfort. The talk about this 'Master' was incredibly similar to someone talking about their god.
"The Master requests your presence." The man pointed up to the ceiling of the building when saying this. And Will began to think the man was some kind of monk.
"How do we get to him?" Will decided to play along with the man's insanity, until such a time would arise when he could escape.
"The Shards of Senyul." The man said it as if he wondered how anyone could not know, but three out of the five people sitting in various spots around the room were lost in bewilderment at the strange word. "You may call it..." He looked at his accomplice for the words that had seemed to escape him.
The blond man's accomplice shrugged, "Donno, the... something-knife?" It was the first time he spoke, his voice was deep and he spoke with a slight Irish accent. In his voice somewhere lacked the insanity of his companion.
"Oh," Will said after several seconds of thought, he realized what the men were talking about. If the men knew about the knife, then they must surely know of the Ci'Gazze world. He began to become curious about this 'Master' of whom they speak of like a god.
"You are in possession of the shards? You do bare the mark of the bearer." The man said, looking curiously at Will's two missing fingers.
Will was hesitant about telling the man, but his curiosity about the 'Master' outweighed his indecision, "Yes, back at Ms. Malone's house." It was now that Will wondered why Elizabeth and Mary had been taken here as well.
"The shards must be reformed under the Master's direction."
Will was, by now, thoroughly confused. "He will... tell you how?"
"Yes"
"Why can't he talk to me through you?" Will didn't mean to sound rude but the way he said 'through you' sounded as if he thought the men were only there to do just that.
However the man took no offense at this, and if he did it was masked well enough. "The Master requests your presence. If it was not important he would."
Light had begun to stream through the cracked window on the left side of the building, and Will just now realized that the Midsummer's Day had dawned.
"Do you have the time?"
The blond man's accomplice looked onto the old watch secured around his wrist. "5:30."
Will sighed, up almost twenty-four hours and with no chance to rest in his future.
"When do you think we should do this?" Will had hoped that it could be done in a few days.
The man responded without hesitation, "Midnight. The Master's directions will come to me then."
Will let loose a held breath, as the man said midnight, he had enough time to go to the garden, sleep, and then get the shards. He also realized that the blond man's accomplice didn't hear this 'Master' as the other did, and wondered how he could believe his cohort.
The blond man saw the agitation in Will's face, "Go if you must, be back at midnight."
The other man challenged him and dragged the blond man to a corner to converse privately. However, the building was small enough for Will to hear every word that was said between the two.
"How can we trust him?"
"We can't, our Master can not see into the boy, something blocks him."
Will had a feeling he wasn't going to understand much of this conversation, but listened in anyway. He couldn't see it, but the other man rolled his eyes, "He's not my master, I'm not the one with the mark of insanity!"
"Then why did you join the Disciples? To mock us?!"
The man paused, "I thought that we would do more than the Master's bidding."
"The Master knows more than anyone in any of the worlds."
This confirmed Will's suspicion that the men knew more about the other world's than he himself did.
"But does he know what's right? How many of us were part of the Assault on the Clouded Mountain?"
"It was a losing battle; the Master didn't need us to die."
"Then why did he need Mark to die!?" The man shouted this out but took no notice of the three sitting in the opposite corner. Will knew that Mark must've been the man he had killed, it seemed to be so long ago, the way his neck bent at that horrible angle that still made Will shiver.
"For a reason far beyond our comprehension, if we needed to know he would tell us." The other man grumbled. "Once you're in you can't leave, Shawn."
Shawn turned around and took the several steps to the edge of the table in the middle of the room. The blond man had laid his pistol onto it when he had been dragged into the far corner. His eyes held a treacherous glint in them. He reached for the pistol and Will cried out to the man now facing him. Mary and Elizabeth, who must have been asleep during the conversations, came awake in an instant. But it was too late. Shawn spun around and fired a shot off into the man's chest. The man slumped down the wall leaving behind a bloody streak. Before his eyes finally hazed over in death he tried to say something but it came out as a gurgle and blood dripped out of his mouth, he spit out a hideous amount of it before he could talk. "The Master knew of your treachery, it was meant to be."
And it came to be that of the three men who had long been searching for Will, only one remained. The moment came as Will had expected it would several hours ago, he was now looking down the barrel of the revolver.