Woo! Back to Ymarkteg!
This week has been busy for me as a person, loaded out and worked two of four days on set for a short film
Best part: we worked with a wolf dog! :D
Chapter Four
Malsean Clock Tower
The large monolith stood above the rest of Malsean, the massive clock face continued counting dutifully as Soren and Mia entered from the bottom.
Being so late, no one was around; as they ascended Mia whispered "Why are we here, Soren?"
Soren glanced back at her "I felt something when I looked at this tower yesterday…like there was someone here. I didn't want to tell you about it at the time because I didn't want to worry you. We both remember vividly what happened last time I took off on my own."
Mia nodded as they entered the Gear Hall with countless shifting machines. The two surveyed the room just as the clock began its twelve resounding rings to indicate midnight.
Soren noticed a door open and close higher up and signaled Mia, the two approached rapidly and walked through into an office. Soren drew the conclusion that this was the caretaker Ulmeihn's station.
As they walked through to another staircase that led to the roof they heard rapid steps followed by a door, the pair turned to each other quickly before running up the steps.
However, upon exiting onto the roof, it was silent; even with enhanced senses the two could tell that there was nothing up here.
"Where could that person have gone? Is there a ladder on the side of this building?" Mia asked.
"If there is, he is long gone…" Soren stated, as the two turned around they came face to face with a tall bald man wearing glasses and a robe, undoubtedly it was Ulmeihn.
"Who are you two? What are you doing here at this hour?" the man asked.
"Long story…do you know if there was anyone else here, aside from us?" Soren asked.
The man scratched his head before turning away to head down the stairs.
"No…I was down in the main lobby getting some paperwork together and the like, I didn't notice anyone enter the building…was there someone else here aside from you two?"
Soren and Mia followed the man back down to his office where he decided to ask them another question.
"Surely you both know in addition to caring for the lighthouse I am delivered…cadavers."
"You examine dead bodies?" Mia asked.
Ulmeihn nodded "Yes, two recently came in, one from the overwatch hill and the other from Red Farm…those poor girls, no idea what anyone would want with them."
"Can we see them? There are a few things we feel we should tell someone." The sage stated, Ulmeihn nodded after a while and led them back down to the lobby then through a locked door, there they saw a body on a table with a drape over it.
Mia tapped Soren's shoulder and whispered "Are you sure we should ask this guy?"
"He works with dead bodies, if anything strange is going on, he is our best bet." Soren whispered back, Ulmeihn pulled the drape over; the body was that of the bandit Mia killed at Crown Overwatch.
"This one has baffled me very much…I'd like to think he took an arrow bolt to the head like the other one but the wound is too clean and cut…more like the arrow bolt was flaming…even so, there is no wood residue from a bolt so it's like he was hit by a fire ball that cut through his head. It is truly fascinating…"
Soren nodded "What worries me is this…" the sage pointed to the scar on the man's chest.
"Yes, this wound is deep…I'm not sure which came first yet but either could've ended this man's days easily…"
Mia approached and took a deep breath "We were actually attacked by these two men on the Otrobort Way; I killed this one myself with that cut to his chest."
Ulmeihn stood silent as he stared at the injury then turned to Mia "Then who, where and why was he shot in the head?"
Mia rubbed her arm nervously "Well…he attacked me and the Red Farm girls at Crown Overwatch earlier today…so I guess I killed him…again…"
Ulmeihn approached her "How did you do that injury to his head? What kind of-"
"That isn't the important part, the fact is both these men were killed by us twice…how is that possible? Is there anything you can tell us?" Soren asked, cutting in and pushing Ulmeihn away from Mia.
"Any being should know that you should not have to kill another person twice…it shouldn't even be possible…but if what you tell me is true." The caretaker was silenced by the clock tower ringing again, but not once, it continued.
"That's odd, I just fixed this thing a few days back." He muttered to himself as the rings continued, signifying midnight a second time.
Ulmeihn looked at Mia and Soren quickly "Someone else is here…my office, go you two! I'll catch up!"
The pair took off as Ulmeihn covered the bodies.
This time they visibly saw a person shut the office door and take off, most likely towards the roof again.
Soren signaled Mia and they passed through an opposite door that led to a balcony beneath the large clock face. Mia held onto Soren as he blasted an Arcwind into the ground.
The two shot up into the air and landed on the roof, the caped man with a mask covering his face skidded to a halt as the pair landed in front of him. Soren reached into his cloak and pulled out a sword, handing it to Mia quickly.
The three stood there on the roof, the masked man's eyes darted between Soren and Mia.
"Who are you!?" Mia demanded.
The man drew two blades from his back and lunged at Soren, both were caught by Mia's sword as Soren dove aside and nailed the man with an Arcwind to his side, he skidded across the roof before jamming the swords into the ground to stop himself from moving.
Mia lunged at him as he brought the blades up, the weapons clashed again, the man tried to kick Mia but she broke away and flipped out of range as he tried to strike her, a current shot from Soren, and curved into the ground before coming up below the man like a powerful uppercut.
He flipped into the air several times dropping one of his blades before landing on his back. Mia moved in again, kicking the fallen blade away as she approached.
The man scrambled to his feet, Mia saw the attack coming and arced back as the blade swung over her, both were now with their backs to each other, the man spun quickly but Mia jammed her elbow into his face. He spun out and landed on the ground, Soren immediately jumped over and stepped on his hand. The man released the other blade. Mia kicked it away just as Ulmeihn emerged from the building.
Soren tore the cloth off the man's face, he was probably in his late 20s and had brown hair, he glanced at the two angry "You don't know what you're messing with!"
Soren shook his head "No, it's you who has absolutely no idea what you are trying to do. Who is fool enough to send someone to try and kill us three times?"
"I wasn't sent to kill you…at least not at this point…I was sent to distract!"
The man realized what he said and stopped struggling, Mia and Soren glanced around, Ulmeihn turned "I heard something…like a loud wrenching sound!"
"Mia! Try to get to the ground quickly, Ulmeihn go back to your lab I think it has something to do with the bodies!"
As Soren began to tie up the man on the roof, Mia took off and began jumping down ledges on the side of the building as Ulmeihn descended the staircase.
Near the bottom, Mia saw a carriage take off, before she could yell, arrows whizzed by her and embedded into the tower wall. She landed on the ground as the cart disappeared into the distance.
The four of them entered the lab, the door had been torn open and inside the bodies of the two bandits were gone.
Soren threw the captured man against the wall "Who are you and why did your cohorts take those bodies!?"
"I'm not going to tell you anything! The hour has passed, I no longer-" just then the tower rang again, only once and the stranger erupted in flames laughing before falling to the ground, dead.
After a stunned silence, Ulmeihn approached the burnt remains "What is going on here?"
The Tellian pair glanced at each other with the look that they had no idea.
"I believe you two now…if something like this can happen, then undoubtedly those two bodies may have been alive again even if you'd struck them down."
"But how?" Mia stated "In all our travels we never encountered something like this…who could pull something off like this?"
Ulmeihn turned to them "I may not be privy to your experiences, but I feel I can help in at least one area…I'll examine these remains and see if anything odd turns up…will you two still be here tomorrow?"
The pair nodded and Ulmeihn continued "I'll let you know anything I find tomorrow…truly this is an…unbelievable event."
After a few parting words, Soren and Mia left the Clock Tower, the trueblade let out a deep sigh and Soren placed an arm around her.
"What do you think all of this means?"
The archsage gritted his teeth "Someone we don't know is up to something…something terrible and they've determined that we're a problem."
The next day the pair stood in Ulmeihn's office as the older gentleman walked in holding a folder with his findings.
"I spent quite a lot of time examining the cadaver."
"Did you get any sleep?" Mia asked, slightly worried.
"Enough for my line of work, I'll be alright…anyway, the man was definitely not dead before you met him, there were no fatal or near fatal scars I saw while he was alive and while the remains are hard to tell anything, it all points to him being burned alive…which we saw…the fire seemed to explode from within though as most his organs are completely fried…what I could pull out looked like standard human remains except for one thing!"
He pulled a piece of paper out and laid it in front of Soren and Mia "There were very few of these micro-organisms in him…however they are also dead, by now whatever ones I observed last night have dissipated…something very unusual as well. These things were bound to the insides of his body and carried within them several unique chemical…solutions I've never seen before…as much as the guy didn't like you two, it looked like his anger was helped along."
"These things have…twelve sensors?" Soren stated as he looked from the paper to Ulmeihn. The man repeated twelve and they all thought about the tones from the clock tower, the hour of midnight.
"If these attacks on us were all coordinated…they were done very well…" Mia stated.
Soren nodded "So, do you know anything more about these things?"
Ulmeihn sighed "Unfortunately, I do not…there is someone who may know more…west of Malsean in the city of Euto there is a Researcher's Center, a facility dedicated to the expansion of knowledge. An old friend of mine, Eminse practically lives there. Take this paperwork to her; she may be able to tell you more."
Soren and Mia nodded to him "We appreciate the help Ulmeihn."
Thanking him again the two left, Soren noticed Mia was very worried.
"You think we should drop this?" Soren asked.
"I don't know…I feel we may stumble into something huge…but at the same time, we're already in it…for some reason whoever is behind these people decided to involve us instead of leaving us to ourselves."
He placed an arm around Mia again, she was right, the decision to get involved was practically taken out of their hands after the events of the past few days. The two saw Fistivus waving them down and as they approached Soren turned to her.
"We'll return for Corelis for now and prepare for a longer trip to Euto and maybe even further…maybe we could even get some help to make this whole thing less painful for just the two of us…unless-"
Mia held a finger to his lips "Nope…while I have reservations, I'm sure you do as well…we've been through so much as the Greil Mercenaries, we can do this even if it somehow leads to another huge conflict."
Soren smiled "Very well…we'll do this…and we'll come out on top like we always have."
Mia kissed him and smiled as well "Of course we will."
Now! We must return to Corelis for the true story to begin...
I've written up to chapter 20 (no joke) and am still working at a frightening pace writing a story that moves at a more mellow pace, weird.
This begins the first leg of Soren and Mia's mission, to take the work from Ulmeihn to an old friend of his named Eminse.