Pt. 3

Galen pulled his hood up over his head, hiding his face from his companions as he moved towards the portrait. He examined the painting with care, using not only his eyes but also the enhancements of his built-in technology. It was, for all intensive purposes, nothing more than a well-preserved oil painting, on a slightly cracking canvas. The work itself was no better or worse than the other three paintings, though not as well done as some works of art he had seen. The artist had yet to work out the subtleties of light and shadow, with the background details merging into one another. Yet it was the subjects eyes that drew the viewer in, eyes that seemed locked in what Galen had once heard referred to as a "thousand yard stare". Eyes that had seen all the pain and despair a world could offer set in a face as cold as stone. His face. For a moment, it was as if he were looking into a mirror of his own soul. He shivered, suddenly cold.

"Galen?" Gideon called out, his voice hushed. "Something you want to tell us?"

"What is there to say, Matthew? I suppose he could be an ancestor of mine…"

Selma reached out and grasped her elderly husband by the shoulder. "Herodotus? Please…we have guests. Look who has come to see you? It's Sarah…Sarah Chambers. You remember her don't you?"

"Oh course I remember her." her husband replied, irritably. "I haven't lost my memory no matter what you think of my other faculties." The old man turned to Dr. Chambers and smiled, suddenly the gracious host. "Hello my dear! It's so good to see you. I wish I had more time to spend with you but as you can see, I'm quite busy."

"Yes, Selma was telling me about your portraits." Sarah replied, cautiously. "Which one is this again? The Swordsman?"

Dr. Grey chuckled indulgently. "Very good, Sarah. Humor the madman until you can figure out how to deal with him. That's a very good strategy. But it won't work with me, my dear, since I'm not mad. At least, not yet." He glanced at the dusty portrait for a moment, and then shrugged. "Ah well, I suppose I should introduce you and your friends to the Immortals. You never know when such knowledge might be useful. I didn't realize how useful it would be until I saw the first of the paintings. Here.." he thrust the edge of the painting in Gideon's general direction, "you take one end and I'll take the other. It's about time the four were re-united."

Gideon sighed then lifted one corner of the painting, grunting as most of its weight was leaned onto him. The older man started to drag the other end of the frame then stopped, stymied by its bulk. Galen grimaced, then walked around the older man and leveled his staff horizontal to the ground. He murmured a simple equation then motioned with the staff. To Gideon's surprise the portrait levitated on its own, making it easier for him to guide it as they maneuvered it into the living room and placed it carefully beside the others.

"Don't suppose you'd be willing to tell me how you did that?" Gideon asked his friend quietly as he watched the old doctor carefully wipe the dust from the portrait's frame.

"Not really." Galen replied his eyes fixed on the four paintings. His heightened senses were picking up something from those canvases, a dim shimmer that seemed to emanate from their very core. It hadn't been there when they had first entered, only appearing when they had put the fourth canvas beside the other three. He wondered, briefly, if he should warn the others then thought better of it. The light didn't seem to be growing and he could register no heat associated with it. Whatever it was, it wasn't a threat. At least, not yet. "Dr. Grey, you were going to tell us about these people?"

Herodotus Grey looked up at the Technomage with a frown. "Yes." he said slowly, trying to peer past the shadows Galen's hood cast over his face. "But you should know them. You might be one of their children." He looked back at the new addition thoughtfully, his mania subsiding as his scientist mind considered the possibilities.

"Well, I don't know anything about them." Dureena moved towards the paintings slowly, keeping the old man well at arms length. "Who are they?"

Dr. Grey smiled and waved in the general direction of the canvases. "They are the Immortals, beings I've dedicated my last remaining years to finding. They are the source of all magic, capable of incredible deeds of wonder. That one for instance." he pointed to the woman's portrait, falling automatically into lecture mode "She is called the Dark Lady. She is the pivot around which the three male figures always revolve, each with their own part to play. The dark one is called the Mage. He is part priest, part wizard, part soldier, part anything and everything. From my research I've come to the conclusion that he is the Lady's brother, her opposite number in all things. The blond is called the Phoenix Lord. He is the Lord of Light and Fire, who lives through Magic alone. He is also her brother, but more her Lord and King than sibling."

"And the Swordsman?" Galen asked, softly.

"He is the odd one." Dr. Grey admitted, faltering. "He lives to serve the Lady, but not the two other Lords. He is Magic, yet it all revolves around his blades and his service to her. I don't really understand where he fits into this circle yet I know without him here, the petition won't work."

"Petition?" Gideon asked, skeptically. "Look, I don't know what you think these over-sized Tarot cards are capable of but right now, we've got a more pressing issue that you need to be made aware of. There's a crisis on Earth…"

"Yes, I know. The Drakh plague. I've already been informed about it. But don't you see Mr…"

"Gideon, Matthew Gideon, Captain of the Excalibur."

"Captain Gideon. Don't you see? If I can wake them from their ancient sleep, they can solve your problem for you. They are capable of anything." The old man turned away from his guest and began to carefully clean his new acquisition, mumbling to himself as he worked. "Yes, soon you'll awake and everything will be just as it was. Just as it always was."

Gideon shrugged then motioned to Dr. Chambers. "Well, there's your answer. The man's one brick short of a load. He can't be of any help to us."

Galen watched the doctor putter around the four canvases, noting that the glow he had seen before was spreading across the canvases, yet was still invisible to the naked eye. "Don't be so sure of that, Matthew. There might be more to this than either of us knows."