AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I needed the votes of confidence. I've decided to keep going with this, so enjoy.


Chapter 2
(Year 2799- Present)

"Here, look!" The young teenage girl shoved her book up into her father's face, pointing at a passage for him to read. Ever sinceshe had found the old history book she had been forcing its teachings upon here family and the rest of the province whenever she could get them to listen.

Her father shook his head. "Put that nonsense away. Be sensible, Jackie, get your head out of them books and go help your mother." He stood up from the half broken armchair he had been sitting in, pushed Jackie and her book aside and left the sparsely lit home he had lived in since the day he had been born.

"But Father!" Jackie called after him, stepping outside of the house onto the frozen ground. "It's history!"

"It's lies!" He trudged over the frozen earth in the direction of town and was quickly unable to be seen due to the large amount of fog that had settled that day.

She sighed and went back inside, mumbling to herself as her pink dress dragging over the splintered hardwood floor. "Nonsense… How can the truth be nonsense? Ignorance is nonsense."

"Jackie!" her mother called for her when she heard her reenter the house. She poked her head through the swinging door that divided the kitchen from the living room. "Come in here and help me with dinner. Things won't get done if you don't pull your share of the weight."

Jackie put her book down on a small round table next to her father's armchair. She moved sluggishly through the kitchen door and sat at the dining table. "They'd get done if you and all of the rest of the people stopped accepting this way of life. In the book I have, it says there were these machines that did things for you, like washing the dishes. You just put them in there and it was all done."

"Jackie," Her mother's tone was near scolding, "When are you going to get your head out of the clouds? If you believe all of the things you read in those book then you'll end up no better off than the fools that go traipsing off into through the gates of that old city. The people that once lived here might have been more advanced that us, but where are they now? Crushed by their own knowledge and technology." She paused for a moment, the peeling of the potatoes that were for dinner being forgotten. "Those books, that history, it was put here by ones more evil than you can possibly imagine, Jackie. The same evil that lives within those gates."

"There's nothing evil in there!" Jackie screamed before storming through the kitchen, grabbing her book and running out of the house into the chilly evening air.

Goosebumps began to for on Jackie's exposed skin as she stomped over the frozen ground and down a worn path that lead to where the river passed through the settlement. The fog was heavy on the riverbank but she didn't mind. As long as she was away from the house that she shared with her parents and younger brother then was content.

She sat down on the ground with her back against a tree and opened her book. How could anyone call it nonsense or say it was put there by evil? The ignorance of the town's people was what was nonsense. And the greed that drove others to explore the city was instilled by evil. But still she couldn't help but wonder too if the legends were true or merely old wives tales. Were there really riches galore in the city? She shook her head to clear such silly thoughts from her mind. If there was something there to be found then surely she would know of it. She sighed, her mind carrying her off on a tangent she hadn't intended upon, but now unable to stop thinking of the possibilities.


(Year 2494- Past)

Vaako opted not to knock on the door that led to the Lord Marshal's chambers; he knew that his presence was detected once he stepped into the corridor so there was no need. He opened the heavy door slowly, peering into the darkened room.

The Lord Marshal sat relaxed in a corner, armor off, one foot on the floor and an arm resting across the bend it created in his knee. "What do you want Vaako?" He didn't take his eyes away from the window he gazed out of as he addressed the commander.

Vaako allowed himself to enter the room further, squinting in the darkness. "Your men grow weary. And Commander Toll is tired of waiting for your word."

The Lord Marshal nodded. "Fuck Toll!" In one swift and silent movement he was up from the floor and across the room. "They'll do it when I'm ready."

"And when will that be!"

"When I decide if it's even necessary."

Vaako stepped to the Lord Marshal. "You must do it for the faith!"

"This isn't my faith!" The Lord Marshal's hand whipped out and closed around Vaako's throat, not tight enough to choke the commander, but just enough to get his point across. "You wiped out my people years ago, so don't talk to me about faith."

Vaako could see anger flicker in the Lord Marshal's mercury shined eyes, but he did not back down at the Lord Marshal's words. "Hundreds of people have met death at your hands and you cannot give word for hundreds more to meet death at the hands of another." His eyes challenged the Lord Marshal to send him to his afterlife in the Underverse. And for a moment the Lord Marshal contemplated it.

However when he realized he would be bringing death to one whose faith looked forward to the afterlife, he knew there was no point and released him, shoving him back towards the door. "I didn't ask to be in this position!"

Vaako shook his head sadly. "No, you didn't. But you must keep what you kill, that is the Necromonger way. And you shall serve as a proper lord until your due time."

The Lord Marshal shook his head. "I'm not your lord and I'm not a Necromonger."

"You took the throne!" Vaako screamed at him.

"I didn't know the rules!" The Lord Marshal screamed back. "I came here to settle a personal score and I end up with your whole damn civilization kneeling at my feet."

"A civilization that needs to be led. Your personal vendetta for revenge has placed you in your current position."

"Revenge didn't put me here. You did!"

Vaako closed his eyes for a brief moment, remembering the events that lead to the man in front of him taking the throne, become the leader of his faith, becoming the new Lord Marshal. "You think I set you up for this? You think I tricked you into taking the throne?"

"That's what it looked like to me," The Lord Marshal replied with a snort.

"Why would I place you, a Furyan, in the position to be our lord? We dislike your kind." Vaako took on a defensive stance. "You were an accident! You were an accident when you were born, you were an accident when you survived the destruction we brought fourth onto your planet, and you were an accident when you took my throne! So do not think that I set you up to receive a position that I had planned to inherit and lead a faith you know nothing about!"

The Lord Marshal's eyebrows rose in the darkness. "You were gonna kill him to take the throne?"

"His fear led him more than his faith! He was unworthy of lordship."

The Lord Marshal couldn't help but laugh. "You? You were gonna kill your leader to take the throne from him? What kind of corrupted shit is this?" The moonlight danced in his eyes as he continued. "I screwed that up, didn't I? Oh this is just too much! Commander Vaako, plotting to kill the Lord Marshal, only to have it ruined by Big Evil." He pointed at himself. "Talk about perfect timing on my part. I waltz into Necropolis and murder your Lord Marshal right in front of you when you had been planning to do it? Then low and behold, I get to keep what I kill."

"Bite your tongue, Furyan!"

The Lord Marshal's laughter ceased, not because it was Vaako's request, but because it was the first time since he had come into the power that he had been referred to in such a shrewd manner. "Remember who you're talkin' to."

"A murderous Furyan who does not know his place!" The veins in Vaako's neck strained as he fought to keep control of his temper.

"I almost killed you once, Vaako. And that time I wasn't even trying. Things won't be pretty if I have to put effort into it."

"You do what you must, but remember, this is your only escape from your previous life." Vaako stared into the Lord Marshal's eyes, searching for some sign that his words had been taken to heart. There was a flicker of something that he couldn't recognize and the muscles in the Lord Marshal's jaw twitched for all but a second. "You are the leader of our faith, but you are still a Furyan nonetheless. Do not let that slip from your thoughts." He left the room as the Lord Marshal's gaze again fell to the window.