Tough one to write, this chapter... It's full of littles clues and references, so I had to measure the words carefully as not to say too much :P
It's another load of information, sorry about that. Important information, though...You'll just have to bear with me, I guess lol I said things would start happening and indeed they are happening... next two chapters will (hopefully) be more dinamic.
Oh, and many thanks for the reviews :)
enough rambling, on with the chapter:
A darkened world stretches before her, its voracious tentacles by now fully engulfing her in cold unbearable darkness. She has had enough time at this point to understand what they mean when they say that 'the darkness is but the absence of light'… Her darkness is the absence of everything. She has comprehended that after those fifteen years… or was it sixteen? She isn't counting. Her darkness is, after all, also an absence of time.
A universe frozen in time and space where all senses merge and fuse into black nothingness.
It had scared her at first, the absence of everything… Suddenly finding herself chained in a timeless cage where she hadn't been able to see, hear or feel a thing… the cold press of the silver chains on her wrists being the only reminder that she was still somewhere in the physical world. But even that had faded with time. A forgettable detail after you spend fifteen (possibly sixteen or more) years in a limbo devoid of any life.
It had scared her so… the silence, the darkness… But one gets used to it.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger… or insane.
She laughs to no one in particular, amused by her own sarcasm. The sound echoes all throughout the hollow place, reverberating on the imaginary walls. She knows there must be walls. What is, after all, a prison without walls?
No. She knows she is surrounded by physical limits of some kind… but are they walls? She honestly doesn't care. The silver chains are enough to bind her, she won't have to worry about any other restrains…
She'll never leave this place.
The ones who locked her in here made sure of it.
Fifteen years… fifteen long years since her usefulness had ended. What a foolish girl she had been back then… she had believed it all. It had sounded like such a genius plan… the ultimate Nephilim, the perfect killing machine. Bred thanks to the knowledge of the noble arts of alchemy genetics. Who ever said that humans hadn't invented anything worthy?
A perfect plan, a perfect specimen… and all she had to do was carry it in her womb.
Blood of the enemy, seed of the angel… and egg of the mortal.
All pieced together and inserted in the womb of the demonic mother thanks to the wonders of modern medicine.
All she had to do was carry it for nine months, nine meaningless months… then give birth to it, watch it grow, be trained and then behold the wonders of perfection.
Soon, the pathetic little beings that populated the earth would be drowning in an endless pool of their own entrails. Such a perfect plan…
Such a bad choice…
A bad egg it had been. A mortal's egg. Too much humanity in the newborn child, too much weakness… Too weak to fight, to even desire to fight… too human. A failure.
It was her child, nevertheless; hers…
She had carried it in her womb… nine months…
Things had started to go wrong when she had begun to get 'maternal', as her brother often put. Her mistake: opposing the fact that her offspring was to be raised as a war machine, trained like a hunting hound and treated like cattle. Surely blood of her blood deserved more?
She couldn't have that. It was her child. And her capital error had been thinking that that fact made any difference… not to her brother it didn't.
He wouldn't have no teenage mother tell him what to do, especially when she carried the perfect killer machine inside her… As soon as it was born, her child was taken from her, never to be seen again.
Of course she opposed. Of course she put up a fight, of course she did her best to recover the baby… but her best hadn't been good enough. Her brother was so much older, so much stronger…
Soon after, she had, herself, been taken to what would become her eternal prison. Her personal hell of darkness, bound with silver chains and blood of her ancestors.
Of her child, she had heard nothing more.
The prisoner sighs.
Fifteen years… too long… too damn long to spend alone and remain sane.
But she hadn't always been alone. In the beginning, they used to come once in a while to feed her. Her brother and that waste of a mortal on skinny legs. He was her brother's second hand man, she gathered. Along with the alchemist guy, of course, but that one was just a puppet…
For a long time she had entertained the thought of gutting the pitiful creature and feeding on his innards, but that would take too long and it would stain her beautiful prison with filthy human blood… She had settled, then, for a classy souvenir to his left eye, a reminder that you should chain scratching Nephilims tighter.
She had never seen the human ever since that day, or his deformed remnants of a face. And for that she had been grateful.
Her brother had visited for a while longer but then he too had disappeared. She isn't fed anymore, no need for that. Food is but a commodity to pure blood Nephilims, not a necessity.
Fifteen years have passed. She sees no more, she hears no more, feels no more.
Not until today.
She feels it now, the humming energy, the intoxicating restlessness seeping through the 'walls' of her void of a cage.
Something is happening. She knows it. She can feel… one of the kids is up there with her brother… but it is not hers. It is one of his beloved protos. She loses interest and returns to her restless slumber.
Let them worry about their mundane affairs. She shall sleep.
"Come on in, private"
Captain Connors shivers when hearing the cold hiss from inside the room, but still opens the door for the private to enter.
The younger man walks in arrogantly, crossing the threshold of the doorway in a purposeful stride.
Wondering if the boy is extremely brave, too proud for his own good or just completely demented, Connors also enters the room, closing the heavy metal door behind him.
It slides into place, hinges screeching in protest, and then a loud 'slam' announces that they are alone inside. Alone with it.
The room is poorly decorated with cracked stones from floor to ceiling, a couple of bookcases and a cheap bed in a corner. A wooden desk stands to the left, scattered papers on it illuminated only by the dim light of a candle. A candle which light wavers constantly, as if blown by an inexistent wind.
Captain Connors finds no explanation whatsoever for this, as he finds no explanation for why the room is bathed in bright light when the only source seems to be the remnants of that candle.
He wastes no time on this, however, for he knows that the 'explanation' probably lies in the centre of the room.
It is there that it sits.
Slumped in a luxurious armchair (the only piece of decent furniture in the chamber), fully enveloped by a dark cloak, it sits calmly. No sound emitted but the deep shallow rasping of its breath.
Captain Connors approaches cautiously. Not too close, as if it would somehow upset the creature. He bows deeply, averting his eyes to the ground.
"Sir, here's private #1, sir. As ordered" he barks.
The private, however, settles for a brief nod, a simple acknowledgment of the creature's presence.
The Captain is now sure that the kid is insane.
"Thank you, Captain" it hisses.
Taking the cue as quickly as humanly possible, Connors bows again and rushes out of the room, closing the squeaky door behind him.
He sighs in relief as the heavy portal slams shut.
His visits to the creature's lair are extremely rare, but he still dreads every single one. He is perfectly aware of what one of those creatures is capable of, even if diseased… and he surely doesn't want to end up like good old Rouzic, oh no…
The mouse should be cautious when approaching the lion, even if he's chained…
"Long time no see, private"
"Lucky me. And I have a name…"
"Ah, yes…"
"…which is for my friends. You may call by that most ingenious code name you picked for me… Shadow, is it not?" An arrogant grin, a flick of sandy hair and the young man stares provocatively at the creature.
"Indeed, Shadow…" he sounds amused, perhaps even slightly entertained "… a fitting name for the little assignment I would like to request of you"
"Lets hear it, then. My time's precious and, if you don't mind, I have better things to do than to stand in this stuffy closet with the leftovers of your decrepit body"
"You know I could just fry you on the spot for your insolence, my dear boy?" refrained laughter in his tone now.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't that kill you?"
A cracked chuckle irrupts from the depths of the cloak, quickly killed in order to avoid a coughing fit.
"Indeed… decrepit I am, rotten to the bone. Many would surely call my survival 'divine intervention' but both you and I know how preposterous that sounds"
Shadow laughs softly, waving his head.
"Preposterous… as if the idiot up there would want anything to do with us. So, it not being a miracle, I guess we could say that satan finds my career quite promising, no?"
"Satan is a fickle friend" Shadow replies, his grey eyes sparkling with disdain "You know how fast he'll abandon you should your… career collapse"
"But of course. And that it is why it must not collapse. It is why I need your help"
"Finally, we're getting there!" he gestures impatiently, rolling his eyes "Count on old men to ramble like hell… What is it that you want from me then?"
"Calm down, my boy! Why in such a hurry? You didn't even give me the chance to welcome you home…"
"I am not your boy" Shadow interrupts, all traces of amusement gone from his tone "And the only reason why I came back home is because you said you'd help me find them"
"I thought you wanted to see the pathetic humans exterminated as much as I do?"
"I don't need your help for that"
"Such confidence! Talis arrogantia"
"Not presumption, realism"
"If you think so… But mind your ego, boy. Superos fuga, superos cado"
"Supera dictata"
"Also very true…"
Shadow fidgets impatiently.
"Why don't you let me worry about my ego and just worry about filling me in concerning that little 'assignment' of yours?"
"Ah yes, the assignment… As I've said, I need you to be a shadow. Someone's shadow"
"Go on"
The creature shifts uncomfortably and speaks in a bitter tone, as if angered by the subject.
"I need you to track down a mortal. Follow her around, scout the terrain ahead… I need to know what she knows"
"Concerning?"
"Us" he replies bluntly "The great work, everything…"
"Is she… an issue?"
"Not for long"
"Should I take care of her?"
"No. Not yet. For now I just need you to be her shadow"
"Sounds easy enough…"
"Do not take her lightly, my boy, that was my mistake as well and it almost proved fatal" his voice sounds crisp, his tone sour "For the mortal that she is, this woman deserves credit"
"How so?" Shadow sounds mildly interested now. It is not everyday, after all, that you hear the creature compliment a human…
"She is… resourceful. Very resourceful. And she might be accompanied by yet another loose end. A male"
"Is he also… resourceful?"
"And powerful. Guardian scum…"
A smirk plays on Shadow's disdainful mouth.
"Lux?" he guesses.
"Indeed… just a human, but do not let your guard down"
He chuckles.
"I think I just might enjoy this" he says to no one in particular.
"That's up to you. Just make sure you don't kill them both before you return to me with info"
"Make no promises…"
The creature leans forward, a bony finger sticking out from under the cloak, pointing at Shadow.
"You better follow my orders, boy" he hisses "I will not have anymore of your arrogant attitude! Remember what happened to that brother of yours? Jason, was it not? Very messy business…"
Shadow has significant trouble in biting back a growl.
"Of course I did not approve of such extreme measures…" the creature leans back, pleased with himself "…but the ends justifies the means. Insubordinate soldiers can become a menace"
"Even when they're eleven-year-olds?" his voice is but a menacing whisper.
"Bad eggs must be ruled out early. Sure taught the rest of you to keep your tails down…"
"Careful with the tails. They might rise when you least expect. Isn't it how it works with the wolves? The younger ones finishing off the old ones and taking over the pack?" he smiles now. A devilish smile in an immaculate face. A wolf in a sheep's cloth.
"You need me" the creature concludes with a tinge of humour.
"And you need me"
"Should we be friends?"
"Please. As long as you keep your part of the deal…"
"I will. Your siblings will be back home soon. And then we shall regroup and complete what was left unfinished… you will be treated with more respect this time. Now I'm in charge, not some idiotic human…"
"Quit complaining. You trusted the human"
"Seemed promising at first…"
"Looks can be deceiving" he pauses as if collecting a thought "He never knew of us, did he?"
"No, of course not. Not even Boaz. Only me and Rouzic knew"
Shadow twists his nose.
"I don't like that one. Call it intuition, but there's something about that guy…"
"Don't worry so much. You're here to kill, not to think"
"Would help if I did both, nah?"
"Surely, but as you seem unable…"
"Let us hope I don't end up proving you wrong"
The creature doesn't reply, but Shadow knows for sure that there is a smile on his mouth… on what's left of his mouth.
"You will probably find the woman in England" he goes on "She owns a residence in Surrey, it appears. Check with Gunderson for details"
Shadow frowns.
"Am I gonna have to let the big bull tag along?"
"Of course not… they're all yours. My gift to you, boy. Welcome back to where you belong"
"I belong in hell, and so do you. If it wasn't for our resilience in not going to where we belong, this entire mess wouldn't be happening in the first place…"
"Blame the careless watchers and the reckless humans. If our crime was being born, then theirs was judging us"
"Very deep today, aren't we?"
"Indeed. Here I am, sharing my wisdom with some insolent kid… Get out of my room, I must rest"
"No rest for the wicked"
"Still. Go, I'll be waiting for news. Thread carefully"
"You know me"
"Yes, I do. Which is why I give you this advice. Go now"
"Yes, Master" Shadow drawls, producing a mock bow.
He leaves the chamber, the squeak of the door almost fully drowning the coughing fit that erupts inside. Almost.
Confused? Don't worry, you're supposed to be. All this stuff will make sense later on.
hehe silly me, I forgot to write the translations for the latin stuff:
Talis arrogantia- such presumption
Superos fuga, superos cado- the higher the flight, the higher the fall
Supera dictata- the bigger the lesson
Hope the translations are accurate, I totally suck at Latin and those online translators don't allways help...
Reviews are allways welcome, as well as guesses!
I'll give a cookie to who can tell me who Shadow is... :P
Merry Christmas and a happy new year! See you in January!