Author's Note: As of June 27th, 2016, the entire fanfic has been rewritten. That means this chapter, all that came before it, and all that follow it now contain different content that they did previously. You are strongly encouraged to go back and reread the entire fanfic from the beginning, as the revised continuity may confuse you if you jump in part of the way through.
Foothills of the Yadrek Mountain Range, Norga Province
January 2476, Fifty years ago
The intense wind howled in Virnakt Milzaek's ears as he trudged through the snow. In front of him, his client led the pair of shivering bodies up an increasingly steep hill toward a well-hidden cave entrance imbedded into the base of the mountain towering above them. They trudged along in silence because, despite the heavy amount of protective clothing each of them wore, the intense cold had sapped their willingness for conversation soon after their latest visit to the Norgabard for supplies. That was two days ago. As the cave approached, Virnakt smiled internally at the prospect of warming himself up a bit. Unfortunately, that goal would have to wait.
As soon as the pair reached the cave, they were astonished by what they found. The interior was a perfectly circular tunnel that twisted and turned its way into the mountainside, while the walls were completely smoothed flat and covered with a thin layer of a blue material that had the texture of glass. The strange and fantastic sight alleviated Virnakt of the cold's reticence.
"What is this place, doc?" He asked as he and his client, a middle aged man named Doctor Harrison Bone, a professor who taught ancient history at Boneville University and who had only a few years ago helped to found the Boneville Explorer's Society, tentatively began their descent into the cave's depths.
"Well, according to ancient religions, this mountain was the sight of a titanic battle between two gods, brothers in fact. In legend, the battle was so intense that the brothers almost cracked the earth in two, spewing up lava from deep underground that cooled around the brothers, sealing them within a prison of magma in the mountainside." Harrison recounted the tale with nostalgic fascination. "But in reality this passageway was most likely carved out by a magma flow during an eruption that took place almost a thousand years ago." He tacked his more scientific explanation on as an afterthought.
"So, not that I'm complaining or anything, but if we're not robbing some sort of ancient tomb, then why did you go out of your way to hire someone of my particular skillset?" Virnakt pulled out a flashlight as the light from the entrance receded behind them. Harrison did the same.
"Well, this area of the country is known for being extremely dangerous almost all year round, and I figured hiring one assassin would provide as much protection as I'd need at the fraction of the cost of an entire crew." Virnakt flinched at the mention of his occupation.
"Assassin is such an ugly word. I prefer freelance problem solver." He corrected sheepishly before remembering why he asked his question in the first place. "But that's not the point. The point is, why not get some local guide to bring you up here? I'm sure they'd know the land a whole lot better than I do."
"Well, I tried that, but they refused to go near this place. The ancient religious practices of this region are still heavily entrenched, and the locals refuse to trespass on the resting grounds of their gods. They're afraid of the consequences." Virnakt could hear a hint of fear in Harrison's voice.
"It sounds like they aren't the only ones." He commented smugly.
"While it is true that an unusually large number of people have gone missing in this specific area, that doesn't mean this cave is somehow haunted. It's more likely being inhabited by some creature, probably a bear."
"Sure, doc. Whatever puts your mind at ease." The pair arrived at what looked at first like a flat wall at the end of the tunnel, but upon closer inspection the pair realized that there was a crack in the rock near the wall just large enough for a Bone, though not a human, to squeeze through. Out of the crack radiated a faint glow. They stood enraptured around it for a few seconds without moving, at which point Harrison gestured from Virnakt to the opening. Reluctantly, Virnakt crawled through. What he found on the other side confused, frightened, and excited him all at once.
The antechamber was a large circle with a domed ceiling that stretched up almost twenty feet into the air. The walls were covered in the same glassy substance as the passageway, although in this chamber the substance was several feet thick at its thinnest and spread around haphazardly, forming rippling wave-like formations and stalactites that dripped like melting wax from the top of the dome. But the geological fascinations were by far the most mundane aspect of the sight that lay before him.
Imbedded in the far wall were two Bones who seemed to be frozen in place inside the crystalline substance covering the walls. The first was a male of slightly higher than average height, for a bone, who wore a red tunic draped with a brown cloak fastened over his right shoulder with an intricately carved golden brooch. On his face was frozen a scream of either anger of intense pain, and out from the sleeves of his tunic protruded a black substance that covered his arms down to his elbows. The Bone next to him was an infant swaddled in a white blanket who seemed to have been asleep when he was frozen. In addition to the two trapped bones, there were several dead bodies littering the ground, all completely devoid of flesh and wearing clothes from disparate eras stretching back almost four hundred years. At a glance, the most recent was approximately just over forty years old.
But the crowning marvel of all the strange aspects of the antechamber was the Bone sitting cross-legged in the exact center of the room, staring intensely at the infant in the wall. Its entire body was covered in the black substance that enveloped the frozen Bone's forearms. Its hands were raised above its head, clasping an object between them in a manner that resembled a worshiper offering prayers to a deity. It shook violently, and murmured almost inaudibly in an ancient language. Despite the low volume of its words, they permeated the entire room, and seemed to reach Virnakt not through his ears but his mind.
"Would you move out of the way? You're blocking the passage." Harrison tapped Virnakt on the shoulder, snapping Virnakt out of an entranced stare he hadn't realized he had slipped into. He moved to the side, and Harrison stepped through the crack in the wall. As soon as he passed through, he stopped in his tracks to drink in the strange and fantastic fixations of the antechamber.
"So you see them too?" Virnakt asked, unassured of his own sanity. Harrison nodded. "Good. At least I'm not hallucinating." Virnakt turned back to the bone sitting on the floor. "So… do you have any idea what that thing is?" Without flinching, Harrison gave a matter-of-fact reply.
"Assuming we aren't both crazy, that person in the middle of the room and the other one stuck in the wall are most probably the twin gods of legend."
"You're kidding, right?" Virnakt almost laughed, but the look on Harrison's face was highly serious.
"If you have an alternative explanation, by all means, voice it." Harrison stared ahead contemplatively. He turned to Virnakt, as if he expected a reply. Virnakt remained silent. Content that he had made his point, Harrison returned to observing the thing in the center of the room. As the pair stood in perfect silence, the chanting began to grow louder. The mountain itself began to shake as the "god" in the center of the room began to shake more violently. Then a light emerged from the forehead of the infant. It traveled through the crystal toward the black Bone. As it emerged from its crystal housing, the area of the wall where it left liquefied and traveled with the light, cooling to form a perfect sphere of crystal around it. The black bone stood up and plucked it out of the air with one hand, whilst grasping the object it had held so tightly in the other. It then took the ball and sunk it deep into its own forehead. The light crossed the surface of the black substance, which rippled like a liquid in response, before it was swallowed whole into the thing's body.
Immediately after this occurred, the substance began to recede across the creature's body, revealing an average looking, albeit completely naked, male Bone that resided underneath the phantasmal coating. As the substance slinked backward it all pooled in the middle of his back, where it too sank underneath his skin. It was only now that he realized Virnakt and Harrison were in the room.
"Ven, it appears we have visitors." He spoke aloud to no one as he turned around to face them. At the same time, he unclenched his hand and Virnakt and Harrison finally saw the object he was holding onto so tightly: a golden chain necklace with a large blue crystal pendant hanging from the middle. He placed the pendant around his neck. Then he glanced down at it, as he was upset by something it had said.
"No, we can't just let them leave… Because I need to replenish the energy I expended during the extraction if we want to keep the barrier up. Or would you prefer to just let your brother run off and free the councilman?" He continued to talk to the pendant. Virnakt and Harrison looked at each other, more than a little confused by what they were witnessing. They had little time to ponder their predicament, however, because the stranger had apparently finished the conversation with his necklace, and began walking toward them. Instinctively, Virnakt drew two small knifes from a sheath on the backside of his belt and prepared to engage the stranger in combat.
"I apologize for my rude behavior earlier. Had I known guests would be arriving, I would have left a more presentable impression." The stranger spoke at them. Direct focus from his voice sent chills up Virnakt's spine. He hadn't been this frightened or excited by anything in his entire life. Harrison, on the other hand, was barely phased. Apparently, it took more than the gaze of a supposed god to bother him.
"I am extremely confused right now." Virnakt locked eyes with the stranger. The malice in them almost made him flee, but he held his ground. "But if you take another step toward us, I will not hesitate to put you down." The stranger stopped moving and immediately burst out in uncontrollable laughter. It took him a minute to compose himself. His nonchalant appearance only put Virnakt more on edge.
"I'm sorry." He replied as he wiped a tear from his eye. "It's just that… You're… Damnit, I lost the word." Without turning his gaze from Virnakt, he pointed at Harrison. "You, scholarly man. What's the word for nogolek in the modern tongue?" The sudden address threw Harrison for a loop, but he quickly recovered.
"Nogolek…" Harrison pondered for a moment. "That particular form of the word is from a Middle Morun dialect most commonly spoken during the Wadralian war and the century preceding it. Less than twenty people speak it now."
"Less that twenty people still speak it? That's disheartening. I was rather fond of that one. But that is beside the point. Now will you please answer the question?" The stranger was growing visibly impatient. He clenched his fists and a vein was starting to bulge in his neck, almost as if he was holding something back.
"Mortal. The word you're looking for is mortal." Harrison begrudgingly divulged the information. Satisfied, the stranger resumed his conversation with Virnakt.
"Mortal. There you go. You're mortal. And as such, you cannot even fathom the power required to touch me, much less harm me. In fact, you're only alive at this moment because I find the pair of you rather amusing."
"Doc, is it cool with you if I tear this guy's limbs off, or would you prefer to actually know what's going on here?" Virnakt asked, feigning calm while internally working his analytical skills on overdrive to find some sort of strategy for survival. Then he remembered the Bone still stuck in the opposite wall.
"Just do whatever gets us out of here alive." Harrison responded. "We can figure out the rest later." Virnakt smirked, excited by the prospect of going all out against a supposed god.
"Roger that, boss." He responded gleefully. Without another word Virnakt threw the small knives in his hands at the stranger's face. The stranger caught them with ease, and returned them at twice the speed Virnakt had thrown them. Virnakt was barely able to dodge the counter-attack, but before he could recover, the stranger was somehow already standing next to him. The stranger tapped him on the stomach with what seemed like only the slightest of force, and Virnakt collapsed to the ground.
"You cannot best me, boy. Accept your fate now, and I will make your death painless." The amusement was gone from the stranger's voice. The novelty of his guests had worn off. Virnakt grunted in response, unable to deliver any coherent response. What he was able to do was draw a small submachinegun from the inside of his coat. Crouched on the floor, he sprayed an entire magazine at the stranger at point blank range. Every round rippled through the stranger harmlessly as if he was made of liquid. They continued uninhibited on their trajectory and imbedded themselves in the far wall, coating the entire surface with bullet holes.
The stranger seemed only slightly disappointed by the apparent shamelessness of the attack, but before he made another move Virnakt attempted to sweep his legs out from under him. It had the opposite effect, as Virnakt's legs slammed at full speed into what felt like walls of solid steel before he fell flat on the floor. The stranger's legs didn't move. Virnakt instantly rolled behind the stranger. A fraction of a second later, the stranger's fist slammed down into the ground at the spot where Virnakt was crouching. The punch carried such force that it broke through the crystalized surface of the floor for several feet, lodging itself into the resulting crevasse and forming large spider web cracks that spread throughout the room and connected the bullet holes along a network of larger cracks.
Virnakt used the miniscule amount of time the stranger took to deliver the punch and free himself from the opening it created to press himself against the wall in which the other Bones were still trapped. He glanced quickly at the small holes he had made in the wall and the network that had formed between them. Satisfied at his work, he returned his attention to his opponent. The stranger turned to face him. He looked at Virnakt, but in his eyes there was no intent to kill. No malice or rational motivation. His eyes were those of a beast that had gone days without food. He was hungry, almost uncontrollably so, but Virnakt could not fathom a guess as to what the hunger craved.
Quickly the stranger changed his mood. He appeared angry, malicious, and murderous, as if Virnakt's very presence had offended him in some way. But Virnakt did not forget the hunger he had seen. He knew that this thing, be it man or god, was desperate. It was hanging onto the ability to control its actions by a thread, and that thread was about to slip from its grasp. Virnakt surmised that if he pushed it in the right direction, it would lose a hold of that thread, and fall apart entirely. And Virnakt had just the tool necessary to make that push stuck in the wall a mere three feet behind him.
"Has the art of combat degenerated to such a degree that you will not even attempt to die honorably? You would prefer to have me skewer you as you run around like a dog? I'm disappointed. I assumed from your ability that you were the type of person who wanted to die with dignity." The stranger spoke almost with a snarl. He was close to losing control. Virnakt smirked. The stranger's hesitation had guaranteed his victory.
"I actually wouldn't know the first thing about the art of combat." Virnakt began to monologue as he reached into one of his coat pockets and grabbed two small, round objects. "You see, I'm an assassin. I don't deal in combat. I deal in deception, trickery, cowardice, ingenuity, stealth, and most importantly survival. My own survival. I don't intend to die here at all, much less with dignity, and neither does my client. We intend to live. And thanks to your shortsightedness, we will."
Virnakt pulled the objects out of his coat pocket. They were grenades. While he was talking, Virnakt had pulled the pins and kept a tight grip on the safety clips. As he pulled them from his coat, he let go of those as well, igniting the explosive fuses. He jammed them into one of the expanded bullet holes near the frozen bone, and they stuck in place. Immediately the stranger lost control. Virnakt ran in the direction of Harrison's unmoving, slightly quizzical form frantically to escape the blast radius. Expecting the stranger to intercept him, he pulled a handgun from his belt to defend himself until the grenades did their work, but the action proved redundant. The stranger was no longer focused on Virnakt. He was focused single-mindedly on the grenades.
He ran at the wall at lightning speed, desperately trying to prevent the grenades from detonating and releasing the stranger's captive. But he wasn't fast enough. As he reached for the grenades to pull them from the wall, they exploded. The resulting concussive blast shredded the stranger's arm and shattered the crystal wall imprisoning the other two Bones. The stranger looked around frantically, wounded and angry. He looked down and noticed that his pendant had survived intact. At this realization, he breathed a sigh of relief. That sigh was cut short by an inky jet black arm that plunged through the stranger's chest. Standing behind the stranger was the other frozen Bone, now fully enveloped by the black substance in a manner identical to the stranger's prior transformation. The stranger collapsed to the ground and the other Bone stood over his barely conscious body.
"Hello, Nagratek." The bone crouched down and smirked at the stranger called Nagratek with genuine malice in his face. "I've had a lot of time to think over the last thousand years. And I decided that I want you to witness how spectacularly I will defeat you in the coming years. So I will not kill you now. Only when everything you built to defy father comes crumbling down around you will I grant you the mercy of a long, excruciating death."
He stood up and walked to the infant, who was still blissfully asleep and completely unharmed after dropping several feet to the ground. The Bone picked him up and held him in his arms. He placed his hand on the baby's forehead and closed his eyes for a moment.
"Oh my son. It seems Nagratek managed to take your inner soul from you. No matter. You may still prove useful to me." He clutched the child close to his chest, and turned to look at the ceiling, as if he expected an exit to simply appear. At this point, Nagratek stood up and punched the ground with his remaining arm. The entire room cracked in half, and it seemed to Harrison that even the mountain itself may have been split. The Bone lost his grasp on the baby. Out of instinct, Virnakt, who had been watching the scene with a mixture of relief and terror, dove to catch the infant before it hit the ground. As the other Bone turned back to face Nagratek, Nagratek lunged at him and plunged his remaining hand into the other Bone's face. They both began to writhe in pain.
"You will end here, Deyavara! No more chances!" Nagratek shouted. Deyavara, the other Bone, grabbed Nagratek's hand and began to pull it out of his head. Both of them collapsed on the ground in the process. Eventually, Deyavara dislodged the hand from his head. He looked shaken and spent, with the same hungry look Nagratek had in his eyes not a minute earlier. But Nagratek began to rise again, and he opted instead to preserve himself.
He hit Nagratek with his palm at full force in between his eyes, and sent Nagratek flying into the opposite wall. As Nagratek recovered again, Deyavara jumped up and punched the slope of the ceiling, shattering a good chunk of the mountainside and creating an exit for him to escape. He jumped out, and as he left, the entire mountain began to crumble. Nagratek stood up in time to grab Harrison, Virnakt, and the infant and shield them all from the tons of rock that collapsed on them.
After everything settled, he cleared the rock on top of them away with a sweep of his hand, exposing them to the open air. As Harrison and Virnakt, who was still holding the still sleeping baby, stood up to survey the situation, Nagratek collapsed and his body began to slowly liquefy into the substance that had previously covered it. The pair stood over him, unable to muster the words to question anything they had seen. Finally, Virnakt settled on asking the smallest, most insignificant question first.
"Why is the baby still asleep?" He asked. Nagratek laughed, despite most of his ribcage having been shredded.
"You just witnessed a battle between two Nightmare Entities for the first time, and that's the question you lead with?" He was silent for a moment. "I took its inner soul. It will not wake for another few hours. The process is… draining, for all parties involved."
"It's inner what? Also, what's a Nightmare Entity? Who are you and who was the other guy? Who is this kid? What the hell is going on?" Harrison finally broke his prolonged silence. Nagratek's body was almost half liquid now.
"Set the child down and come over here for a moment. I'll attempt to answer your questions as best I can." The two of them did as they were told and crouched around Nagratek's mostly liquid body. With his hand, Nagratek pulled the pendant from his neck and handed it to Harrison. "Before I tell you anything, you need to promise me to get this necklace and that child as far away from here as you can. Make them disappear. Do both of you understand me?" They remained silent. "I need an answer."
"Yeah, sure, whatever." Virnakt tried to hurry the conversation along. Now that Nagratek was talking, he was itching for an explanation. "Now tell us what the hell just happened."
"Deyavara, the one who escaped just now, will attempt to wipe out all life on this planet if I don't stop him. But I'm afraid I don't have the capacity to chase him down at the moment. My body is entering an emergency shutdown state to recover, but the energy I pulled out of Deyavara when I pierced his head during our exchange won't be enough to complete the healing process. I need an alternative source of power to ensure the process goes smoothly, or I could slip into a coma, perhaps indefinitely, but almost certainly for too long."
"What do you use as energy, exactly?" Harrison asked, both intrigued and slightly terrified as to what the answer might be.
"Various things that constitute negative dreaming energy. Negative emotions and thoughts are the chief source, but usually any brainwaves will do. Unfortunately, since this place lacks a dreaming field, I'll have to consume the energy directly from a soul." Nagratek was almost entirely liquid now. Only his face was still recognizable as a solid object. Tendrils of the black liquid rose up from the pool that was once his body. "And since you two are the only souls around, you'll have to do." The tendrils attached themselves to Harrison and Virnakt's foreheads. Both of them screamed out in pain as the memories of recent events were stripped forcibly from their heads. Then they blacked out.
Virnakt woke up with a splitting headache. All around him were scattered large boulders and broken trees. In the midst of this wasteland an infant, no more than a few months old, sat sleeping soundly on a rock next to him. On his other side slouched Harrison Bone, barely conscious.
"What the hell happened?" Virnakt asked as he rubbed his head. "The last thing I remember was finding that crack in the wall and then… nothing."
"There appears to have been an earthquake of some kind that devastated the mountain. Somehow we emerged unharmed." Harrison responded as he stood up. "And I woke up with this necklace in my hands." He held out the necklace to examine it. "It is a curious specimen. My son Henry will greatly appreciate it."
"Speaking of children, where'd the baby come from?" Virnakt asked as he too stood up. Harrison looked at the child as if he had just noticed its presence.
"I have no idea. Perhaps someone left it here with us while they went to go get help?"
"That's not even a remotely logical possibility."
"Then perhaps it was saved by an act of God, just like we were."
"You're kidding, right?"
"We survived being inside a cave during an earthquake that took apart most of a mountain. What else would you call that but an act of God?"
"Dumb luck." Virnakt walked over to the infant and picked it up. "Now let's get this guy to civilization before he freezes to death out here."
"What if his parents come back?" Harrison asked as Virnakt began walking in the direction of the Norgabard.
"Taking a child away from parents who would leave it out in the cold is probably considered a public service in some provinces. So, if they exist, I don't give a damn. You can stay here and tell them I went on ahead if you want, but I'm leaving. You can freeze to death for all I care."
"Where is this hostility coming from?" Harrison began to follow him.
"I almost got killed in an earthquake. I don't do unavoidable risks. After we get back to civilization, I want my pay and then I'm leaving."
"Fair enough, I suppose." The two of them walked in silence for a long time after that. Eventually, the infant woke up. It smiled, and began grabbing for Virnakt's face with a childlike innocence and glee that made Virnakt smile unconsciously. Harrison began to laugh. Virnakt turned around and scowled at him.
"What's so funny?" He demanded.
"I think he's taking a liking to you, Virnakt." Harrison continued to chuckle. "I just never thought of you as the parental type."
"Neither did I." Virnakt commented lightheartedly as he stared into the child's eyes. "But if this guy's parents don't turn up, who knows? Maybe I'll raise him myself. I've been considering retiring to a small apartment in New Taebid anyway.
"I don't think domestic life will agree with you." Harrison took the time to look at the necklace he had found himself with.
"Ignore him." Virnakt said to the child in his arms. "Now if you turn out not to have parents, we're going to have to think up a name for you. How about Faldr?" The child began to babble excitedly at this name. "Ok then. Faldr Milzaek it is." The new father smiled to himself. He had a feeling he was going to enjoy parenthood.
More than a hundred miles to the south of Virnakt, Faldr, and Harrison, another father was in the midst of enjoying a reprieve from his parenthood. His name was Gaimus Betredin. He was the CEO of a declining telecommunications conglomerate which happened to have recently acquired, through a series of complicated shell companies set up by his predecessor, the Boneville Explorer's Society. Currently he was on a much deserved vacation. His wife Maria and his teenaged son Kelkaid had chosen to stay at home in Boneville. As he drove along in a flashy red sports car, an urgent news bulletin interrupted the music Gaimus was listening to over the radio, which mildly upset him. He turned to another station, but it seemed to be playing the same story. He flipped back to the first one and decided to wait it out.
"This story is shocking, to say the least." The local news reporter spoke aloud as Gaimus drove along, only half listening. "An unprecedented seismic event in the Norga province leveled an entire mountain in the Yadrek mountain range only a few short hours ago. Local authorities are en route to the scene on a search for a missing pair of explorers from the fledging Boneville Explorer's Society who headed off for the mountain almost two days ago. We'll have more for you as soon as we can." Gaimus didn't think much of the broadcast. He wasn't a particularly caring man, even when it came to people that were technically in his employ. But what did startle him was the man that stumbled out in front of his car suddenly immediately following the announcement.
Gaimus slammed on the brakes, and the car stopped just short of hitting the man staring at Gaimus from the other side of the windshield. The Bone walked around to the passenger side of the sports car, opened the door, and got in without speaking.
"Who are you?" Gaimus asked, less scared than angry that someone would just force with way into his car like that.
"My name is Deyavara." The man spoke in a low growl. He sounded exhausted.
"And what are you doing in my car?" Gaimus asked the obvious question.
"Shut up." Deyavara reached out and placed his fingertips on Gaimus's forehead. Instantly he searched all of Gaimus's memories to fill in the last millennium's history. He didn't take Gaimus's memories, however, and thus lost power in the exchange. He now needed to recharge. Gaimus, meanwhile, only vaguely understood what had just taken place. His father had been a fervent subscriber of the old religions. And after years of near constant devotion to a host of gods and goddesses, he realized that he was really only worshiping one god as perceived by many groups of people. This god had a few defining characteristics, such as the ability to absorb souls and read minds. Upon experiencing Deyavara's mind scan, Gaimus understood that this man next to him was that deity, and felt a fraction of his true power. Such power so totally overwhelmed his small mind that from that instant onward he regarded Deyavara as his god.
"Lord, what is it you require of me?" He asked his new master.
"Take me to your dwellings. I need a place to recuperate and put my plan into motion."
"There is a cave system underneath Boneville that should serve those needs sufficiently, my Lord." Gaimus put the car in drive and pulled a U-turn, putting them on a three day course for Boneville.
"Good." Deyavara muttered. "Now I must get some rest. As soon as we arrive, there will be a lot of work to do."
Camp Stalwart, Kuvek Province, forty eight miles inland from the Wadral coastline
May 2499, Twenty-seven years ago
X'lish and Nibet both stood on the lawn in front of Camp Stalwart where a large crowd of reporters, journalists, cameramen, and other such individuals had gathered in front of a stage with a singular podium to attend a press conference being held by Senator Patrick Holdsten. Both of them were disguised as journalists in order to get close to the Senator. Their job was to stage an attempt on the Senator's life in order to draw out their high priority targets: the two individuals who attacked the Ryonia building. X'lish casually glanced around, surveying the Senator's protection and looking for anything out of place. Two armed soldier dressed in combat fatigues stood at the corners of the crowd to keep order. Jeleset was posing as the one in the top right corner. She locked eyes with X'lish and they exchanged confirmatory nods. Two secret service officers stood unblinking on stage, awaiting the Senator's arrival. One of them was Viprus, and the other was Selthash. She nodded slightly at each of them and continued to rove.
As her eyes darted around, she also glanced at Izagail, posing as another reporter in the crowd about a dozen feet to her right. As she did so, she accidentally caught the gaze of a reporter standing next to him who had been staring at her for quite some time. He was smiling at her, which, for a reason she couldn't place, set her on edge. He whispered something to his cameraman and then winked at her casually, as if he and X'lish were old friends. She glared at him menacingly for a moment. He only continued to stare at her, undeterred. She broke eye contact and took a step back, concealing herself from him within the crowd.
"Do you know him?" Nibet asked, giving the reporter a cursory glance. "I sure don't."
"We don't exactly have many contacts out in the real world, Nibet. I've no idea who he is. He's just been staring at me, probably trying to act seductive or something. Honestly, it's just creeping me out."
"Well at least you can get someone to notice you. Selthash barely even gives me the time of day."
"I think that's the thinnest excuse I've ever heard you use to complain about your nonexistent relationship problems. And since you are, I'm going to say once again that he doesn't take your affections seriously because you don't have any prior relationship experience and your entire presentation seems rather immature. And also he's a hypocritical jerk who has no prior relationship experience of his own."
"Selthash isn't a jerk. He's just… Shy. That's it. Shy."
"He's not shy, he's a professional killer who lacks a real ability to feel emotion, and you're supposed to be too. This may be the first time you've had real affections for someone, but you're acting like a child."
"I am not." Nibet strained a defensive laugh.
"You are. And besides, you can do so much better than him."
"I seriously doubt that. My options are pretty much limited to people inside the Vanguard, which doesn't give me much to go on. Viprus is like my big brother, you and Izagail already have something going on, and all the other Vanguard guys barely talk to us, so that leaves just Selthash."
"You think Izagail and I are a couple? Seriously? Wow you are more oblivious than I thought."
"You aren't? Then why are you always telling him stuff behind my back that seems to make him uncomfortable."
"Ask him about that. Anyway, that's not important right now. We need to focus on getting the mission done."
"Wow, am I hearing things? Usually I have to be the one to tell you that."
"Ha-ha very funny."
"Jokes aside, this isn't like you. What's on your mind?"
"I just want this over with. Conversation only distracts for so long. The sooner we get away from this sordid affair, the better." She tried to pass off the comment nonchalantly, but Nibet pursued the topic further.
"What do you mean? The press conference? This cannot possibly be that boring. I thought you loved pretending like you were a normal person for a few minutes?"
"No, not the press conference, the mission."
"Well there's a surprise." Nibet rolled her eyes sarcastically.
"It's different this time. Before I was curious about why we were doing what we were doing. I was interested. I wanted to know because I genuinely felt like we were doing good work. But now…" X'lish's tone grew somber. She stared at the floor.
"X'lish?" Nibet asked, concern rising in her voice. "Please don't say what I think you're about to say." X'lish closed her eyes.
"I want out." She flinched, as much in response to Nibet's disapproving visage as her own words. "I don't know what we're doing anymore."
"We are the protectors of the faithful. Be that protection against threats of external origin or-"
"Against demons of their own making." X'lish cut her sister off and stared at her, through her. "That's always your go to response. But we aren't even protecting people anymore. We've spent the last seven months killing people almost at random just do draw two men into a contrived ambush."
"Those men mean to do harm to the entire Order. Stopping them here will end potentially the greatest threat the Order has faced so far. Or did you forget that they're the ones that attacked us at the Ryonia building?"
"I didn't forget. I remember that night vividly. I also remember that they didn't kill anyone, even when they could have, while Jeleset went out of her way to make sure Lady Ryonia ended up dead."
"Lady Ryonia was a traitor who attempted to reveal compromising intelligence about the Order to the enemy." Nibet was visibly appalled that her sister stooped to such lows. X'lish didn't notice, or didn't care.
"Was she? That sounds like justification. In other words, an excuse. Or worse, a flat out lie. Who did her death protect? I'll tell you who, Kelkaid and his influence. I'm starting to think he's the only one benefiting from our services."
"You would dare to question the wisdom of the High Awakened Justicar? You know full well I'm going to have to report this."
"You do that. And while you're doing it, consider whether or not our spree of assassinations over the last few months has been for the good of protecting the faithful, or the good of Kelkaid's close and personal friend Senator Patrick Holdsten's political career." Nibet stared at her sister dumbfounded. X'lish sighed. "You cannot honestly expect me to believe that you haven't picked up on the political climate in the past seven months?"
"We are weapons of a holy crusade. It is not our duty to bother with the fuss of the less enlightened."
"In other words, you've been too wrapped up in your fantasy affair with Selthash to care. Typical. Well, in any case, I refuse to take part in that crusade any longer. After tonight, I'll not be going back to headquarters. I'll stick around and see this mission through because I owe you at least that much, but after we're done here, don't expect to see me again."
"X'lish be reasonable. We can discuss this after the mission's over. But please stay, I know you'll see reason. What we do-"
"Is murder. Unjustified, unsanctioned, baseless murder." X'lish would have continued, but the crowd hushed as the subjects of the press conference made their appearance. "We'll continue this later." X'lish muttered as they both turned their attention to their supposed target.
Senator Holdsten and General Haenkos, the man in charge of the military base, walked onto the stage as the crowd applauded vigorously. They both waved for a moment before they took their places. The Senator stood in front of a modest podium with several microphones from major news networks mounted on it. He drew a sharp breath and delivered his speech.
"First of all I would like to thank my good friend General Haenkos for his continued support of my proposals and his steadfast avocation of peace and security." He paused a moment to applaud the man standing next to him. The General smiled and nodded his head as the crowd followed suit. After the applause died down, the Senator continued to speak. "This is why I felt that is was so appropriate to host my press conference in a military installation. Because despite my best efforts, the Senate once again slashed funding for the Department of Defense. Many naysayers of my continued efforts to increase defense spending have pointed to the flawed notion that, because our country faces no danger from outside invasion and we have refused to involve ourselves in human politics, we have no need of a substantial military. However, this argument fails to acknowledge a particularly glaring truth.
"In the last seven months, the province of New Taebid has borne the brunt of a vicious and unrelenting string of assaults. Its people have suffered almost three dozen terrorist attacks. Skyscrapers explode in the dead of night, civilians are gunned down at random on street corners, and all the while the perpetrators of these rampant acts of violence have eluded the police, the National Guard, and even the FIC. But New Taebid is not alone in suffering these abuses. Over eighty attacks have taken place in a total of sixteen different provinces, and the estimated death toll is in the thousands. All of this has been coupled with severe accusations of corruption among the municipal police services across the country and staggeringly high national crime and murder rates unparalleled in all of Bone history. My fellow citizens, we stand on the cusp of a social and economic crisis, and the only way to return from the edge is to revitalize our armed forces. With the military budget I've proposed and the leadership of General Haenkos, the National Guard would be able to respond to any threat within minutes, root out the murderers responsible for the fear we as a nation have been forced to live under, and end the suffering that has plagued this country for the last decade." He paused for a brief moment to give his audience time to process his message.
"But I know that I cannot instigate these changes while I'm stuck fighting a losing battle in the Senate. Which is why I am as of now announcing my candidacy for the National Party's Presidential nomination." Everyone in the room reacted at once and began excitedly asking questions. He calmed them all with a wave of his hand, and they settled back reluctantly as he continued his speech. "If I am graced with the executive office, I can assure the people of this country, my country, that I will restore order and push back the terror that has gripped our beloved nation for the last seven months. Now, I imagine you must have many questions for me. Fortunately, I have come prepared to answer them as best I can." The reporter who winked at X'lish earlier stepped forward immediately.
"Senator Holdsten, am I accurate in saying that you have every intention of bringing the terrorists currently at large to justice?" He asked. Senator Holdsten was puzzled by the redundancy of the question, but indulged the reporter anyway.
"That is correct. If I am elected president, finding the persons, no, the monsters responsible will be our nation's highest priority. Now, who else had a question they wanted to-?"
"Not so fast, Senator." The reporter waggled his finger at Senator Holdsten in a disapproving manner. "I haven't finished asking my questions. I have a follow up. If you so badly want to see these men pay for their crimes, then why did you invite five of them here tonight?"
As soon as he spoke, X'lish and Nibet felt the barrels of handguns press against the backs of their heads. Across the room, the rest of their team were put in similar situations. The soldier across the room from Jeleset, who also happened to be a woman, shot her in the knee, crossed in front of the stage, and put a gun against her head. As this was going on, Viprus pulled a gun on Selthash and the reporter took a knife from his belt and pressed it against Izagail's neck.
"What is this?" Senator Holdsten shouted. He looked around confused. Viprus drew a second handgun from inside his coat and aimed it at the Senator's head. In response, General Haenkos drew his sidearm and aimed it at Viprus. From the edge of the crowd, the soldier standing over Jeleset unholstered her sidearm and aimed it at the general.
"Move, old man. I dare you." She stared daggers at him. His eyes widened when he saw her face, but he said nothing. Instead he lowered his gun.
"Move in front of the stage, kneel down, and face the crowd." The man holding X'lish and Nibet at gunpoint whispered into their ears. They did as they were told, followed closely by the man holding the guns. As X'lish and Nibet moved, they managed to catch a glimpse of their captor. He was the reporter's cameraman. The rest of their team, Senator Holsten, and General Haenkos were all directed to kneel beside them by their respective captors. Once they were all lined up in front of the stage, Viprus began taking their weapons. When he came around to Nibet, she looked at him with shame, disappointment, and disbelief. It was the same look she had given X'lish in their earlier conversation. He looked back at her with pity. As this transpired, the reporter turned smugly to face an aghast crowd.
"The good Senator here would have you believe that the acts of terrorism he condemns so vehemently were perpetrated by an elusive band of murderers who want nothing less that death for every man, woman, and child in this country. This is not true in the slightest. While it is true that the people behind these attacks have remained out of reach of the authorities, this is not because the FIC and the army are incapable of doing their jobs, but because the Senator wished it to be so. He hired the individuals you see kneeling before you to spread fear, and colluded with General Haenkos to ensure they would remain at large, all so that the masses would rally behind his call for a larger, more powerful military and elect him president. Don't believe me? Listen for yourselves." He nodded at the cameraman, who pulled out his cell phone and typed a few keys. The speaker system crackled to life and began broadcasting a recording.
"It's me." Spoke Senator Holdsten's voice over the speakers. "I need a favor."
"Losing face in the Senate over your vocal anti-human sentiments, I take it." Another voice in the recording responded. It was Kelkaid's, though only the people kneeling in front of the stage knew that.
"It's not just that. I was going to announce my bid for presidential candidacy in a few months, but my public approval ratings are at an all-time low, and they look like they're only going to get worse. I need you to help reverse those numbers."
"You would dare to contact me while I'm still in the midst of containing the Ryonia situation?"
"Believe me, I wouldn't dream of it if I had anyone else to turn to."
"Consider yourself lucky, Senator. It just so happens that I know a way we can both benefit from your current predicament."
"How so?"
"You'll make a speech on national television tomorrow about the reprehensible actions of the people who attacked Lady Ryonia in her sleep last night. Say you will do everything you can in the Senate to see that new measures pass that will help bring them to justice, or something to that effect. Then in a few days, I'll make sure New Taebid suffers another attack. And another. And another. And you'll turn these attacks into fuel for your campaign to pass new laws in the Senate. Eventually, in a few months' time, you'll make a speech where you announce you'll be running for president to put an end to this threat once and for all. That in and of itself should sway enough public opinion to get you elected without a hitch. Meanwhile, I'll leak some false information on unsecured networks that will ensure our enemies make an appearance at your speech as well. We can capture them on live TV, pretend to save your life in the process, and we both get what we want."
"I suppose that could work, but how do we guarantee the army or the FIC doesn't interfere?"
"I'll lead the FIC on some wild goose chase. But I'll need you to talk to General Haenkos about delaying the National Guard response times to give you something to go off of when you speak publically about the issue."
"And, when this whole affair is settled, what do you expect in return?"
"I want my men in your administration once you're president. We can speak more on the issue of compensation at a later date. For now, just contact the General. Let him know it's a direct order from me."
"Of course." Senator Holdsten and Kelkaid finished their conversation, and recording cut out. The reporter continued to talk to the crowd.
"As you just heard, both Senator Holdsten and General Haenkos collaborated with another individual to orchestrate most, if not all, of the terror attacks that have taken place in the last seven months. If there is indeed an elusive group of murderers on the loose, then these two men are, without a doubt, members of it." The reporter produced an official FIC badge from his pocket and held it up for the cameras in the crowd to focus on. "Which is why the FIC will be taking these seven individuals into custody until they can be brought to trial." He then raised his gun into the air and discharged a single round. The crowd fled in a panic "Now, I'm going to have to ask you all to vacate the premises."
As he finished speaking, a helicopter emerged from over the tree line behind the crowd and hovered over the reporter's position. A ladder dropped down from the helicopter and the reporter's cameraman pulled Senator Holdsten and General Haenkos to their feet. With a little encouragement, they walked over to and ascended the ladder up to the helicopter's chassis. The cameraman followed them up. Then Viprus came over to X'lish and Nibet.
"Get up you two. We're going." He spoke without a hint of emotion in his voice.
"Viprus, what are you doing? Why are you helping the enemy? These people want to tear down the entire Order, how can you just go along with them?" Nibet began pleading with Viprus.
"You can't honestly tell me that, after everything you just heard, you think that the Order still deserves to exist." Nibet was silent. She didn't know if she could honestly answer the question. "In any case, you don't have a choice. Get up and get on the helicopter." X'lish and Nibet did as they were told, and they too ascended the ladder with Viprus right behind them.
"I'm not letting you get away, traitor!" Jeleset shouted. She pulled a small knife from the heel of her shoe and rushed the soldier and the reporter. The soldier moved to intercept her, but the reporter held her back. As Jeleset reached the pair, he knocked the knife to the side, swept her off her feet, and kicked her in the head. Several squadrons of armed soldiers emerged from the base, noticed the helicopter, and began running at them.
"We need to go." He turned to the soldier. "Get on the helicopter."
"But Faldr, we can still get them on board!" She protested.
"Get on the helicopter. That's an order, Satranik." Faldr snapped at her. Lieutenant Satranik Haenkos nodded begrudgingly and ascended the ladder. Faldr turned to the two conscious members of the vanguard as they began to approach him.
"I'm choosing to leave you two behind. This is not a blessing, nor is it kindness or pity. If it was any of those things, you'd be on that helicopter right now. Instead, I want you to take a message back to your boss. Tell him he can't hide anymore. Tell him that if he doesn't surrender soon, I'm going to make his death slow, and very painful." With those words, Faldr grabbed hold of the rungs of the ladder and began climbing. As he climbed, the helicopter rose and disappeared back across the tree line.
Izagail slung Jeleset's unconscious body over his shoulder, and he and Selthash ran into the woods toward their secondary evac location. Izagail was fuming as they reached the clearing to await pickup.
"They got Nibet!" He shouted as he put Jeleset's unconscious body on the ground. "I can't believe they took her! And I couldn't do a thing to stop them!" He punched a tree next to him, and his hand began to bleed. "I swear I will get her back."
"I've never understood your obsession with that woman. She's so childlike and immature. And plus, now she's a traitor to boot." Selthash responded. Izagail walked up to him and punched him square on the jaw.
"What the hell!" Selthash shouted.
"Don't you talk about her like that! She's practically falling over you, and you sit up on your high horse thinking you're too good for her! Well I've got news for you. You aren't fit to walk on the same ground as her, you elitist pig!"
"You've got some nerve, defending a traitor like that." Selthash responded smugly.
"Call her that again, and I break your jaw!"
"Call her what, the truth? She climbed that ladder of her own free will, we both saw it. Her and her sister are both traitors, as far as I or the vanguard are concerned."
"That's it! You're dead!" Izagail began winding up to take another swing at Selthash. He was interrupted by the intervention of a third party.
"Losing two members of my inner circle and letting half of my best vanguard team turn traitor wasn't enough, you have to tear each other apart over it too? I'm starting to think I made the wrong choice appointing you two to the Vanguard." Kelkaid walked into the small clearing, visibly disappointed by what he was witnessing.
"High Awakened Justicar." Izagail and Selthash both fell over themselves to bow in his presence. "We were not aware that you would be attending to our retrieval yourself."
"I do not make a habit of it, but I thought I would make an exception this once. Clearly, I was mistaken. Come, the vehicle is not far." He began to recede back beyond the trees.
"High Awakened Justicar." Izagail interjected, remembering Faldr's message. "Wait."
"What is it? Do not make me waste any more of my time my time." Nonetheless, Kelkaid stopped moving.
"Their leader said he had a message for you. He said that if you didn't surrender soon, he'd give you a slow, painful death."
"Did you really ask me to stop because you wished to relay the empty threats of some piece of driveling scum?"
"No, your lordship. I also overheard one of his followers call him by name. She called him Faldr." Kelkaid stood silent for a moment.
"Now this is interesting. I thought Virnakt's boy had perished with Graham seven months ago. If he is still alive, then I will relish the opportunity to face him on the field of battle. Now enough distractions. You two follow me. You've got a lot of explaining to do before we get back to Headquarters." Selthash picked up Jeleset's still unconscious body, and the three of them walked out of the clearing and into the trees.
Boneville Explorer's Society dig site nine, somewhere in the Eastern Desert
May 2499, Twenty-seven years ago
Dig site nine was, in and of itself, not very impressive. It was a small collection of beige rectangular canvas tents and metallic supply crates clustered around two twin blue crystal spires that rose into the air from the desert sand about five hundred feet apart. At the moment Jigafta snuck through the camp, it was just past midnight. The camp was inactive and silent, save for the hushed chatter drifting from underneath the flap of one of the medical tent. The camp was staffed with a crew of just under ninety, including a dozen archaeologists from the Boneville Explorer's Society and a few handlers from the Order of the Hallow Soul disguised as hired hands to keep an eye on the dig and ensure it went smoothly should anything interfere.
Jigafta knew all of this from simply looking around at his surroundings as he snuck through the camp. None of this interested him, however, because he was fixated on one object in the camp, and one object only. Even since he learned of this dig site's existence seven months ago, Jigafta had been attempting to track down the necklace he gave away to the professor who had inadvertently helped free Deyavara twenty three years ago. Unfortunately, the memories he had taken from the professor's head to keep himself alive did not contain the professor's identity, so he was forced to track the necklace down the hard way, which had lead him, conveniently, to the destination he intended to journey to after he had found the necklace.
Now that he was in the dig site itself, he could feel the pull of the necklace's energy from within one of the tents toward the center of the camp. He darted inside, expecting to have to disable its residents before he could retrieve the necklace. To his surprise, it was empty. The only contents of the room were a pair of cots, some basic supplies, and a small wooden box sitting on top of a crate. He opened the box, and inside sat the necklace he had been trying to find for the past seven months. He pulled it out, and reveled in the feeling of having it close once again. Without hesitation, he focused his mind and produced from inside his head Deyavara's son's inner soul trapped within a sphere of crystal. He took that sphere and held it up next to the necklace. Instantly the necklace absorbed the soul from the sphere and incorporated it into itself.
"Almost there, Ven. Just one last piece." He whispered to it as he placed it around his neck. Now he had to go secure his second objective. He slinked out of the tent and headed for the reason for camp nine's existence: a large jagged hole that loomed in the middle of the five hundred foot expanse of sand in between the two crystal spires. At the edge of the hole that faced the camp, the archaeologists had set up a large wooden platform, able to be raised and lowered by a system of pulleys, in order to transport material out of the hole. Jigafta ignored the platform and instead jumped straight into the opening.
The drop was two hundred and fifty nine feet, more than enough to kill any normal Bone. But Jigafta was not a normal Bone. He landed at the bottom of the drop completely unharmed, and standing inside the last place he ever wanted to go back to. Inside the drop was a large, almost cavernous, and completely unlit rectangular room made entirely out of more blue crystal. From floor to ceiling and from wall to wall, empty crystalline racks loomed over Jigafta's head. All around him, piles of blue dust coated the floor of the entire room.
"Damn, they've all decayed already." He commented as he looked around at the remains of his objective.
"Oh they didn't decay, Nagratek." An eerily familiar voice spoke behind him. "I sucked them dry just after you left, with the exception of the Successor." Jigafta whirled around to face the voice. The person he saw standing behind him was the last person he had ever expected to see.
"Shard?" Jigafta asked. The thing Jigafta saw facing him could hardly be called a living being. Shard was a First Folk, like the Crystal Councilman and Lorimar, whose soul had been shattered as punishment for attempting to betray the Councilman. He survived by using his people's unique affinity for soul transference to transfer part of his soul into an inert mass of crystal that he slowly shaped into a body he could move around in. As a result of his shattered state, he was unable transfer out of his shell, and remained in the form of a vaguely humanoid, seven foot tall crystalline structure that lacked any defining characteristics save for a lopsided mouth and two glowing eyes.
"In the flesh. Or, crystal, as it were." Shard smiled. As he did so, the crystal that formed his face contorted and bent in ways not unlike human or Bone expressions, revealing a row of many sharp, needle shaped crystal teeth.
"How did you know it was me?" Jigafta asked, raising an eyebrow. Shard hadn't seen Jigafta in this form. They hadn't seen each other at all for over three millennia.
"I will admit, the new look did throw me for a loop, especially when you came down the hole. But once I saw you wearing that necklace I knew it was you."
"So you absorbed all of them?" Jigafta asked as he began walking around the room, examining the piles of dust.
"Yes. It took me a bit of time, but we won't have to worry about new Nightmare Entities popping up."
"Did you remember anything?"
"Bits and pieces, but nothing substantial. Mostly fragments from my time in the research laboratories. I think I was head researcher for something, but what is was, I can't say."
"Wait… how can we understand each other?" Jigafta paused. "You didn't absorb anyone, did you?"
"No. As it turns out, I can't absorb souls that aren't my own. Not that I would need to. The Valley people speak the exact same language as the "Bones" do. They even share many of the same idioms."
"That's not possible. They've been separate for over three thousand years, their languages couldn't have developed in the exact same direction."
"Not under normal circumstances, no. But they did. And the minds of the Valley people are fully exposed to the influence of the Dreaming."
"You aren't suggesting…" Jigafta began seriously examining the implications of what was going on.
"I am. I think Mon'Yaran is attempting to synchronize variables between the Morudagni and the Valley people."
"But that would mean he's fully conscious again, and that would mean the Locust would begin waking up."
"It has, actually. And though it isn't fully conscious, its influence has caused the hairy men to revolt. Additionally, the growing fear has pushed the current leader of the Vedu, Tarsil, over the edge, and now he's interpreted our pledge to keep the dragons in check to mean that he should kill all the dragons. Also, he's been increasingly vocal about announcing the Vedu's existence to the public. But that isn't even the worst part. If Mon'Yaran successfully synchronized language between a group of people inside the Dreaming and a group of people outside the Dreaming, that means he has an agent operating under his control inside the Morudagni population."
"Great. Now I've got to deal with Mon'Yaran's men and Deyavara's insanity."
"What happened to Deyavara?"
"His wife died. And now he's switched sides again."
"That would explain it."
"Explain what?"
"The reason I'm here. A little more than two seasons ago, the hairy men's attacks generated enough negative energy that Sozenga was able to escape her confines and flee here. I immediately went after her, but I lost her trail west of here, near some densely populated centers. It's obvious now that she went to go meet with Deyavara."
"Which means that now Deyavara is not an isolated incident." Jigafta stopped to think for a moment. "You need to get back to the Valley immediately."
"But if Mon'Yaran has an agent here, then-"
"Then I'll deal with it myself. Right now you need to get this Tarsil guy in line and make sure Sozenga doesn't accomplish whatever goals Deyavara gave her. In the meantime, I'm going to focus on finding the Successor. Deyavara is searching for it, and if I can find it first, then his whole plan, whatever it is, should go up in smoke. Or, at the very least, it'll buy me the time to find him and end him, once and for all."
"Well, you won't find the Successor here. The Bones carted it away on that lift two days ago." Jigafta nearly had a stroke when he heard those words.
"What!" He shouted. He ran for the exit back to the surface. "Why didn't you tell me that sooner?!"
"You never asked. I didn't think it was that important until now." Shard shrugged sheepishly.
"Well, it is!" Jigafta shouted back as he prepared to launch himself to surface level. "I only hope they didn't already get it to him! For now, just go back to the Valley and do your damn job for once!" With those words, Jigafta leapt out of the cavern in the sand and landed back in the middle of camp site nine.
As soon as he landed, Jigafta heard sobbing coming from the medical tent. Tentatively, he tried to search around the camp and avoid the tent altogether, but soon he found himself standing front of it, caught in between his sense of urgency and his morbid curiosity. Eventually, he reasoned that if the Successor was still here, it wasn't going anywhere, and his curiosity won out. He opened the flap of the tent and stepped inside.
The tent was occupied by four Bones. The first one that caught Jigafta's eye was the man standing in the corner doing an amateur job of concealing a firearm underneath his working cloths. The second was a man in medical scrubs standing next to a small metal tray on a stand cleaning fluids off of some medical implements using a rag. He was also concealing a gun. The last two were a man and a woman, presumably a couple. The man was dressed in a full archaeologist's getup, while the woman wore surgical scrubs. She was sitting up on an operating table near the doctor, and the man stood next to her. Clutched in her arms was the body of a recently deceased infant. She was the one crying. The couple and the doctor were in the middle of a conversation when Jigafta walked in.
"How could this have happened, doctor?" The man asked. He looked as if he was about to throw up. The doctor turned to face him, obviously distraught by the outcome of whatever had taken place.
"There were complications during the birth." He remarked matter-of-factly. "They were most likely the result of Janet placing undue stress on the fetus over the past few months. If she had only taken my suggestion and not worked herself so hard at the digs, then-" The man banged his fist on the operating table.
"Damn it, don't you blame this on her! You failed to deliver our child properly. Our son is dead because of you!" The man began shouting.
"Now Henry, calm down. Let's be reasonable about this. I did everything I could to save the child, but there's only so much I could do."
"Bullshit!" Henry looked like he was about to kill the doctor. It was at this point that the guard in the corner noticed Jigafta.
"Looks like we have a visitor." He remarked. He reached for his gun. Jigafta drew a knife from his back pocket and threw it into the man's throat. The doctor pulled his gun in response, but before he could fire Jigafta ran up to him and broke his neck. Henry stepped back in shock. Janet just began to cry more.
"What the hell is this?!" Henry shouted. He realized what kind of danger his wife was in, and placed himself between Jigafta and Janet. He looked around frantically for something to defend himself with, but came up short. Jigafta walked up to him and looked him over from head to toe briefly.
"Judging by the fact that you haven't made some sort of foolish attempt to kill me yet, I'm going to assume you didn't know that the Order had imbedded agents into this camp's staff." Jigafta walked away from his and began looking around for something. Henry and Janet stared at him, unmoving. After a moment he turned back to face them.
"I'm not going to kill you, if that's what you're wondering. Well, not yet anyway." Jigafta returned to his search.
"Who are you, and what do you want?" Henry asked tentatively.
"We don't have much time, so I'm going to make this brief. I can save your child's life." Jigafta responded without turning back around to face them.
"My child is dead. What makes you think you can just magically bring the dead back to life?"
"To you people it would certainly appear like magic." Jigafta commented offhandedly. After he had searched the whole room, he turned to face them again. "Your team recovered a large blue crystal from an antechamber in the cavern outside about two days ago. Is it still on the premises?" Henry paused for a second at the sudden shift in the conversation. After a moment, he found himself.
"Yes it is. Why?"
"Retrieve it. Bring it in here as soon as possible. With it I can bring your child to life." At those words, Janet looked up from her sobbing and begged Henry with her eyes to do as Jigafta said. Without another word, Henry left the tent.
"What's the child's name?" Jigafta asked, after a minute of palpable silence had passed. He was trying to distract himself from the fact that what he was about to do violated three thousand years of gut instinct.
"We hadn't picked one out yet." Janet said quietly. "It was a tossup between Aaron and Fone." Jigafta burst out laughing. After a moment, he composed himself.
"I'm sorry, but... Fone? I've never heard a name like that before."
"Is that a problem?" Janet asked weakly. She had returned to staring at her child's dead body. "Henry came up with it."
"I see. I'll have to hear the story of how some other time, I guess." At that moment, Henry burst through the tent flaps dragging a metal cart behind him. On it sat a large mass of jagged blue crystal, almost as big as an adult Bone. As soon as it entered the room, it began glowing.
"Good, there's still time. Put it over there." Jigafta pointed next to the table. Henry did as he was told. As it was being positioned, Jigafta muttered to himself. "I can't believe I'm about to go through with this." He turned to Janet. "Can I please hold your baby for a moment?" She recoiled from him. Jigafta looked at Henry. Henry approached his wife and coerced the infant from her arms. Then he handed it over, begrudgingly, to Jigafta. Jigafta took the child and raised it up to the crystal lump. In response, it glowed. Tendrils of light reached out from it and wrapped themselves around the child's body. They dragged it into the interior of the crystal. The glowing intensified, blinding everyone in the room. After several minutes it subsided, and the crystal was gone. In its place lay a perfectly healthy, living male Bone infant. Henry and Janet were stunned.
"How… What… Why…" Henry struggled for words.
"In simple terms, I've given his soul a new body, but in reality it's slightly more complicated than that." Jigafta picked up the child and handed him to Janet. In response, Janet became ecstatic, and began crying tears of joy as she cradled her newborn baby in her arms. Henry looked skeptical. Jigafta continued talking. "What I can assure you of, however, is that it is really your son, and not some sort of imitation or clone."
"I suppose that will suffice." Henry shrugged. "Now that you've done this for us, I'm going to have to ask why you barged in here and killed two of our coworkers beforehand."
"That's fair. My name is Jigafta Utenki. I'm going to need you to listen to what I say very carefully." Jigafta spoke to the couple. They looked at each other, and nodded. Janet spoke for them.
"Whatever it is you have to tell us, we're all ears."
"Before I continue, I'll need you both to swear to me that everything that happened in this room, and everything I am about to tell you, will be secrets that you take to your graves. You will tell no one, not even the people you think you can trust the most or that I tell you you can trust, unless I expressly give you permission. Is that clear?"
"Why all the secrecy?" Henry asked.
"The less you know, and the less other people know, the better. Now are we clear?"
"Of course." Henry responded. "No one would believe us if we said a giant crystal brought our son back to life anyway."
"Good." Jigafta walked over to the corpse of the doctor. "These men worked for an organization called the Order of the Hollow Soul, a criminal syndicate and cult that I've been hunting for years. They deal in everything from drugs to prostitution, and have bribed or bullied their way into virtually every position of power in the country. More recently, they've been looking feverishly for artifacts of historical and religious value, and have sent organizations they have on their payroll, like yours, on expeditions to find them."
"Wait, you're saying that we've been working for criminals this whole time?"
"Unknowingly, yes."
"Everyone here has worked with us for years. How could they have been cultists without us knowing?"
"The Order is an extremely zealous organization. If it is for the good of the Order, they'll do anything necessary, and act in any manner to accomplish their goals." Henry continued to stare at him. "You need proof? They carried guns into an uninhabited, lifeless desert on a supposedly scientific expedition. Why?" Henry didn't respond. He didn't have a good reason. Jigafta pointed at himself. "They brought them because they knew I would eventually show up, and they were here to kill me. Unfortunately for them, the Order has consistently underestimated my abilities."
"Why tell us this?" Janet asked.
"Now that you two owe me, I want you to spy on the Order and find out where they operate from. Once I know that, I can cut the head off the snake and put an end to them. Will you do it?"
"Of course we'll do it. The real issue is how we're going to clean up this." Henry motioned around at the dead bodies.
"Wheel that cart back to wherever you found it. In about twenty minutes, wake up the whole camp. Say I burst in here just after you successfully delivered a healthy child, killed these two men, and forced you to show me where that crystal was being kept before knocking you two out. That's believable enough, and it'll take suspicion off of your son. I'll contact you when I can." He began to head out the door.
"Wait." Janet stopped him. "I've one question." Jigafta paused. Janet stood up and put her baby down on the table. "What should we name him? Aaron or Fone?"
"Fone. Definitely Fone."
"Fone Bone." Henry muttered to himself. "I always knew it'd make a good name."
"Out of curiosity, where did you get the idea for it?" Jigafta asked. Henry though on the subject for a moment.
"Well, when we found that crystal thing, the word FONE was carved into the wall above it in an ancient dialect. With a child on the way, I joked that it'd make a good name for our son. I suppose it just stuck."
"I thought as much. I always knew the acronym could make a good name."
"It's an acronym? What for?"
"It's probably for the best that you don't know. Now I've got to be off." He started for the door again.
"Wait." Henry stopped him. Jigafta rolled his eyes, but turned around all the same.
"What now?"
"Biologically speaking, Bones bruise easily. How are we supposed to fake being knocked out if we don't have the marks to show for it?" Jigafta almost slapped himself on the forehead. He had forgotten that little detail.
"You aren't going to fake being knocked out." Jigafta walked back to the couple and stood between them.
"Don't tell me…" Henry sighed in frustration. Jigafta smirked. Before Henry or Janet could protest, Jigafta elbowed them both in the temples. The pair was unconscious before they began to slump to the floor.