"This is some real good stuff. You said you made it from potatoes?" Maks Yudin asked one of the border-guards that were in the cabin. Here the group was waiting until it was the right time to leave for the trek across the border. Maks, Jelena, Mihai, Urola, Galen and Yakov were drinking the stuff the guards had brought up from somewhere. Vladimir didn't really think it would help, but had made one toast to the glorious red army nonetheless. Juri had just sat in his corner the entire evening, Vladimir noted. He had had a discussion with him about the possibility of using prisoners to advance medical studies, mostly out of trying to get some kind of an idea why the man had come to this trip. Juri seemed interested in the concept, especially war-prisoners. He wanted to test some of his work on other kinds of people, well trained and fit soldiers would be much better than the trash he had to work with now, he had said. But mostly Vladimir just sat to himself and watched at the group drinking and laughing.
He later figured out he was too nervous to be able to relax, but at the time he was just angry with himself for not taking part. Later the guide arrived, and Vladimir wondered whether Isaias real plan had meant for him to die someplace near the border. Surely his mighty nation could get a handful of people somewhere easily by plane. But off he and the rest went, and soon enough the cold and the warnings of the guide silenced them. The crossing of the border into Finland went without a hitch.
Vladimir didn't like Finland. It was cold, snowy and empty, but home in Russia the people spoke understandable languages and he always had someplace warm to go into. No one had noticed that the people coming weren't all who they were supposed to be, and the trek over the border had been uneventful. Uneventful and cold. His guide told him that they would be setting up camp in the forest soon, and tomorrow morning a van would be brought. A van, he though. He had flown in a private jet from the base, where there was vodka and caviar in abundance, and now he was freezing in some forest. He supposed he could try and use the power to warm himself, but he didn't want to risk burning himself and the power would just make him more aware of the cold. Much more aware.
He spotted a figure coming from behind a tree. As it began speaking he noticed it was his guide Michail. "Sir, shall we continue? Our equipment is just two kilometers more to the west, and after we get the tent raised we can sleep for three or four hours until the car arrives," the man said in his unbelievably dull voice. Vladimir just nodded, and started walking back towards the others. At least taking a piss had been nice.
After arriving at the resting location it took a while to get the tent up. Everyone was cold, and very unused to setting up military tents. At least the guide knew well enough how the get the fire up in the stove, so much fire in fact that the lower half of the metal smokestack became red. Some of the group went to sleep immediately, some talked about how to safely use the power to heat yourself. Vladimir really wanted to sleep, but he had heard how everyone said that army-comradeship was the best, and if wanted to counter Isaia, he needed at least some people he could trust.
The next morning the van came, and they were far enough norths to get quickly to the Norwegian border. The border was technically open and it should have been possible to simply drive across it without having to stop for any border checks, but the Americans were not blind to the massing of troops near Murmansk or to the fact that a major anti-NATO propaganda war had been initiated in the whole USSR. The engineered border-incidents hadn't helped either.
The border was unsafe, but that wouldn't be a problem. Vladimir had been skeptic to the idea of using snow-scooters to pass the border in daylight, but the guide assured him that it would merely make them look like tourists. When everyone was so nervous about a war they would be happy to see any signs of normality, and would just let them pass, if the Americans even bothered sending a helicopter.
And the guide was right. Vladimir began getting suspicious as everything worked almost too perfectly. The snow-scooters worked well, and Mihai began jumping with his by going at the small bumps in the snow at high speeds. He fell off his scooter a few times and everyone had to wait a few minutes for him to get moving again. This annoyed Vladimir to no end, but he had decided to get people he could trust, small annoyances could be ignored. Besides, he could always get rid of the man later, maybe by him falling of a cliff. He smiled at the though. Mihai noticed the smile and smiled back, as he was yet again starting his engine.
While they were passing trough Norway they stopped at a town of some kind. The guide bought a newspaper and some food for the group. Galen and Jelena were especially interested the strange types of candy that was available in this western country. Maks made fun of them for that, to which they taunted back at him for being a stupid cow. Vladimir quickly had to step in and stop it as he noticed that some of the people walking nearby were giving them strange looks. He was mostly interested in the newspaper anyway, food would fix itself, he though.
The guide was asked to read what it said. Most of the news was uninteresting, some drunken US soldiers for the exercises there had broken a window or two, a few tourists had hurt themselves, and some local company reported something uninteresting. The only things real interest was the information-box by the article of the drunken soldiers, giving some info on the current NATO-exercise in the area. The other interesting article was that apparently some conservative elements backed by the church had attempted a coup in Chile, but had been crushed by magician-forces loyal to the president. As a matter of fact the president, Loganus Cervaz, was himself a channeler. The coup had resulted in a possession of church property, and there was talk of officially declaring the nation as some kind of protestant one. 'Religion is the opium of the masses' he though as the guide told him this, and soon enough stopped thinking about it and put his mind on the more important issues.
There was enough ice that they didn't need a boat to get to Mageroya. Once they were finally there on solid land again Vladimir rose up on a nearby hill to look at the island. He could only see a portion of it, but it looked empty, cold, and hard. It was perfect. The others soon followed him up to the hill, but he just stood there and stared at the island, and though. I feel strange. I feel like this place wants me to come, but something else, something deep, doesn't like this place. I hate this place, I fear it. It's not perfect, it's terrifying. But then again, he though, I cannot turn back. This place feels like... destiny.
After he had finished looking and thinking, he turned towards the others. Galen asked if they should ask or interrogate some of the local fishermen, if any were here over the winter. Someone was bound to know if the island had lately gotten any strange new things. Vladimir replied without hesitation "No. We don't need to. I know where I have to go. And I don't believe you are meant to come with me," and as he finished, he started walking towards the inner-part of the island. He heard they were about to follow, and promptly formed a wall of air behind him. He was beginning to feel more certain, and he did not believe anyone with him today was meant to follow where he was going. He hoped they would get the hint; he had spent too much time trying to gain their loyalty to not care about killing them.
He walked for what felt like hours. It probably was hours, he figured, the island wasn't that small. He didn't look behind, only forward. And with every step he felt something deep within him, even deeper than the power, beat harder and harder. Until he finally found what he was looking far. A cave. The cave looked like a huge hole, the ceiling, and floor filled with sharp stalagmites and stalactites as far as he could see into the cave. It also looked strange in other ways. The light from the snow would make the night seem light outside, but he though he could see far, far into the cave, as though it had some kind of translucence. It also felt, alive, but when he used the power to focus he could notice nothing.
But in he went. He could feel the ceiling of the cave being almost ready to crush him, but he walked onward. He didn't grasp the power, he didn't know why really, but he told himself that using it here at the source would be dangerous. Maybe the power was unstable here, or maybe it would overwhelm him and burn him out, as he had seen it do to so many others. It was dangerous to take it here, and he was not one to take risks. "Vladimir, you are one smart g..." he said loudly to himself, when he suddenly noticed that the cave ended in some kind of void.
Soon enough he exited the cave, and noticed the massive size of the abyss. It was almost 20 meters wide and maybe even 40 meters tall. Although how tall it was could only be counted by how high it stood from the cave-exit. Around the cave exit there was a small area big enough for handful of people to stand on, but the rest of the void disappeared down into an abyss, so deep and dark that he could not even begin to figure out how deep it was.
He was looking down at the abyss, thinking of what to do next, when it suddenly spoke to him. "MAVAZOR. YOU HAVE RETURNED TO ME AGAIN, AS IS YOUR DESTINY. YOU KNOW ME, AND I KNOW YOU, WHATEVER NAMES YOUR MORTAL BODY NOW CARRIES. SERVE ME. SERVE ME!" the voice thundered in his head. He fell to his knees from the force of the voice, and tried to block it by putting his hands over his ears, but the voice would not relent. "YOU WILL SERVE ME, VLADIMIR GLENKO. THE GAME IS ON, THE PIECES ARE NOT SET. RELEASE THE STORM OF CHAOS, AND LET ALL THINGS BURN. YOU WILL SERVE ME!" the voice continued, then suddenly fell silent once again.
Soon thereafter, after Vladimir got a few ten seconds to bring himself together, he started to ask a question back. "What do I g..." he began, only to be interrupted by the voice. "YOU SEEK GAIN AND POWER, AS THE ONE WHO CAME BEFORE, AS THE ONES YET TO COME. MY POWERS ARE ENDLESS, THOSE CHOSEN BY ME BECOME AS HALF-GODS. SERVE ME, AND GAIN ETERNAL LIFE. LEAVE NOW, SERVANT, AND LET THE DARK NIGHT FALL." After it had finished Vladimir slowly started walking back up trough the cave. He hit his head on the stalactites a few times, as if the cave was closing, and after he had made it out he puked on the snow.
After several hours he found his group again. They had taken shelter in some odd cabin, and put some fire in the fireplace there. "Vladimir, what did you see? What was it?" Juri asked from his place on the bench. Vladimir ignored that question and all others for several minutes as he sat in front of the fire, warming his hands and feet by placing them towards it. Finally after he felt calm again and his hands began to feel normal he began to speak. "Yes, I didn't see it, I heard it. It may want to speak to you too, or not. If you feel like you want to kill yourself or are just to fucking greedy for power, go ahead and meet it. It's that way," he said as he pointed with his hands vaguely trough the wall into the north.
"But what was it. I mean, that there is pretty damn vague. Give us details. I at least am going there myself, that's what I study," Yakov said, leaning over the table as if to get closer to Vladimir. "You want details? First you walk trough snow until you get to the cave. The cave looks, well, strange. If it doesn't crush you like a bug, come back and I will assume it didn't. After that you come to a large void, where there is an endless pit in the middle. Then the voice starts talking, so loud you can't even hear yourself. It was, glorious. It wants you, and it will have you. Then you may walk away, but a part of you is forever stuck in that cave, held by the power of that voice. So, now you now what it is up there. Now Vladimir is going to sleep. When I wake up tomorrow we will go south to kill Americans. Everyone who is not here tomorrow I will assume went up to the lo.. voice, and were killed. So, good night, may you see the sun rising from the east some other time," he spoke, sometimes loudly, sometimes so softly he didn't think anyone could hear. He hoped they would go there. The ones who did would at least be loyal to the same things he was. He thought about the voice as he fell asleep lying on the wooden floor, feeling cold even
When he woke up in the morning he noticed the fire was out and everyone else was asleep. He looked over and noticed Maks Belov and Mihai Jonker were missing. A bit later Jelena woke up and started to apologize for not going. She said she had planned to go, but before her Maks went, and did not return. Then Mihai went, and he didn't return either. So I stayed here, and waited, and prayed. But they didn't come back. So I, well, I just didn't go," she said, sobbing a bit as she spoke "I meant to go, but I didn't, and I, I hope you can forgive me," she said, her face hidden behind here eyes as Vladimir noticed small tears dropping down on her shirt. "Hmm, you may yet find the chance to redeem yourself. We will be going south again today, and in three days time, the war will begin. Yes, you will find many chances to prove yourself," Vladimir said, then walked outside. It was a beautiful day. He had had bad dreams during the night, but now he could not stop feeling, complete. Even the cold air chilling his skin and the flakes of snow falling on his face, of which the power allowed him to feel every single one, only improved his mood. He knew he had found the thing that he was looking for.
After some 6 hours everyone was awake and they begun the trek southwards. There wasn't much talk as they walked, everyone just though of what they had been trough tomorrow. The fact that they were going to be in the middle of a war in a few days, was simply ignored as irrelevant.
OT : I would like to thank everyone who has read this far. I will not forget this fanfic, and will update it (the next update will certainly come within a month). But I ask for you to write at least some kind of note that you are reading this fanfic in the reviews, and if you have any criticism for me on how to improve this, please give it.