Race Through Time:
Darwin
"So what's the 'ancient ruin' that Darwin referred to in his letter?" Harry asked. The group had left their hideout and made their way through the ruined city once more as the moon began to illuminate the sky with ominous lights pale as death.
"I can think of only one obvious place," Tristan said. He pointed at the destroyed street that laid in front of him, but it wasn't the street he was pointing at: he was pointing at a distant, tall building that might probably take about five minutes to get there by foot. "The Batrishan Palace."
"You mean the old home of the Batrishan royalty?" Eglantine asked. "Why does it still exist?"
"Maybe it's an old monument?" Harry suggested to the prioress, although it was hard to tell if whether or not he was serious or joking. Rosetta saw an image in her head: a group of Batrishans, male and female, all wearing golden medallions and some sort of toga, standing in front of a large, white palace while a crowd of Batrishans applauded them.
"Did the Palace become the headquarters of the Batrishan priests?" Rosetta asked. "I think I saw a vision of it in my head."
"You're correct, unfortunately," Tristan said. He avoided stepping on a puddle of glass shards. "After the last Batrishan prince, Bartok Ashiva Rex, abdicated the throne in order to leave the Batrishan Sanctuary and see the world, the king quickly died from the fever he was having despite the healers attempts to cure him. Without an heir to the throne, the Sanctuary nearly went through a dark age of chaos until Bartok's distant cousin, Vidovit, got the idea to assemble a group of people among the Batrishans who are the most faithful to Ashiva and have them rule the Batrishan Sanctuary."
"Wait! If the prince had a distant cousin, how come the cousin didn't become king?" Harry asked. "I mean, if Vidovit was related to the royal family, then he was eligible to attain the crown, right?"
"Hard to say. As I've mentioned, he was a distant cousin, and according to the laws of Ashiva, only a descendant of the god with the closest link to his godhood can obtain the crown. Bartok, the king, and all of their predecessors have had very strong links to Ashiva's godhood. But Bartok was the last one to be close to the godhood and he refused to take on his royal duties by abdicating, thus ending the legacy with him. As for Vidovit, his link to Ashiva wasn't very strong, and even if he was related to Bartok, Ashiva didn't send any sign saying that Vidovit should become the next king."
"But did Ashiva say anything about Vidovit's idea of the priests' formation?" Rosetta asked.
"Surprisingly, Ashiva did agree on that. He was even the one who sent the golden medallions to those who would become the Batrishan Priests, the unit that would lead the Batrishans, and he was the one who chose Vidovit as the Head Priest."
"What a twist of fate," Harry said sarcastically.
"But it didn't end well, right?" Rosetta was now walking close to Tristan, who gave her a quick glance as she said her question. "I mean, the priests must have been bad enough for Ashiva to refuse them protection, especially when the Evil One came."
"It's more complicated," Tristan answered in a sad tone. "At first, Vidovit and the other priests led the Sanctuary without any difficulty and brought peace and tranquility. But you know how time goes."
"Generations, even centuries, passed." Rosetta got the message. "As time flew, they began to lose their memories of what the purpose of their duty was. The group proliferated and began to pass out strict rules that both damaged and kept the peace. And Vidovit...his legacy was forgotten, lost among the numerous priests who began to take over the city."
"Ashiva must have started to see how immoral his servants were becoming throughout the generations," Eglantine joined. "That must be why pure golden medallions became so rare among the Batrishan priests: their lord must not have deemed their souls of any pure value."
"And then there was the thing you said about that priestess that got raped." Harry coughed. "What was her name again?"
"Svjetla," Tristan answered.
"Right. You said that some of your people believed her to be Ashiva's distant descendant. When she got violated and impregnated by the Evil One, the priests went after her baby's death. You mentioned how Ashiva detested infanticide and killing his family."
"Now you all know why the priests' were doomed by Ashiva." Tristan looked at the Batrishan Palace as they got closer to it. "Hope you don't mind us going to the most haunted place in all of the Batrishan Sanctuary."
Eventually
Rosetta had to admit: for an ancient ruined castle, the Batrishan Palace looked like an impressive hybrid, with an architectural variety that went from U.S Capitol rotunda design, Croatian to Roman towers, Ancient Greek columns made of pure marble, and a large outdoor garden way much better than the one of the Taj Mahal.
"Okay," Rosetta commented in awe. "This would totally put every single historical monument back home to shame."
"Once we save the others, remind me to get earmuffs," Harry grumbled. "I can predict Maurice doing endless mumbling on how great the architecture is here."
They saw the light of what seemed to be a bonfire in the front steps of the palace. The closer they got, the more the scene became clearer and horrifying to the group: the bonfire was occupied by at least fifty more of Darwin's goons and burning underneath an enormous statue of a headless statue of Ashiva. Something was hanging from one of the idol's arms: a metal cage, and in it were the five other pilgrims.
"Finally! It took you a long time!" Isaac shouted from the cage. Darwin's goons overheard the reeve shouting and had the group surrounded in less then ten seconds.
"Remind me to turn you into grilled bacon once we're done," Harry grumbled.
"Finally!" a voice boomed. "I was concerned that you wouldn't come!"
The one who spoke was a tall man with skin so pale that you'd think the fever hit him for centuries. His face was crowned with a dark unibrow, an old Dutch beard, and dry hair pulled up in a ponytail that literally looked like it was an actual pony's tail. He was dressed in some sort of burning red-and-black shirt and hakama with Asian flame patterns. In his hand was a dragon naginata staff with the blade made of some sort of black stone.
"Darwin is a Japanese warlock?" Rosetta frowned. "Well this is new."
"I'm Chinese, not Japanese!" Darwin exclaimed in a frustrated tone that made it sound like he had heard that comment several times. "Just because I'm into Japanese fashion doesn't mean I'm from that country!"
"Right, and I'm the Wicked Witch of the West," chuckled Anaïs. Some of her friends in the cage gave her joke some snickers.
"SILENCE!"
"We came as you asked, Darwin," Tristan said coldly. "Now what do you want from us?"
"Forgive me if this was the only way I could get you animals to come here," Darwin began until his golden hawk eyes got a closer look at Rosetta. Stunned, he walked down the steps and straight towards the group. Seeing him analyze her like some scientist inspecting an animal before vivisection with his creepy eyes almost made Rosetta cringe, but reminding herself of Fidget's yellow eyes with crimson irises reminded her that this warlock was no match. Nevertheless, it didn't stop Tristan from placing a protective arm in front of her to separate her from Darwin.
"Since when do you pilgrims travel with a human demigoddess?" Darwin asked curiously.
"It's none of your business," Tristan spat.
"What? It doesn't hurt to ask." Darwin bent closer in order to have a better look at the child, only for Rosetta to instantly kick him on the right knee. It must have been really hard, since Darwin yelped in pain and nearly fell a few inches close to the bonfire if one of his goons didn't catch him. Three other goons tried to aim their weapons at Rosetta, still protected by Tristan, until Darwin gave them a 'halt' gesture with his hand.
"Serves you right!" Aaron called out to Darwin. "Kidnapping us, hanging us over a bonfire, and now assaulting a child? Your actions make you rather unholy, Darwin!"
"I don't know what's keeping me from turning her into a toad," Darwin muttered as he got up and dusted his clothes off.
"Maybe...because if you did, then we might get another wrath of the god similar to what happened to the locals here." Harry motioned the ruined city that surrounded them.
"Let's go back to the main topic," Tristan told Darwin. "You said you'd return our friends in exchange for a deal. What do you want? Because if it's for us to give up on our quest, than forget it!"
"Calm yourself, squire." Darwin paced around, with the flames giving him an ominous shadow. "All I want is your map towards the shrine of Canterbury. If you give it to me, than your friends will be released."
The pilgrims, from the ground and from the cage, made uneasy faces: on one hand, they didn't want to give away the only piece of information they had to reach the shrine, but on the other hand, they didn't want to be cooked into a bonfire. Rosetta then saw the vision she needed in her mind.
"Darwin is lying," she said out loud. "Even if we did give him the map, he'll still kill us."
"What proof could a simpleton like you possibly have of me being capable of such deception?" Darwin scoffed.
"She's right," Tristan declared while he, Eglantine, and Harry pulled out their weapons despite the numerous goons surrounding them. "After all, you've done numerous misfits just to prevent us from even reaching the shrine."
"Frankly, I don't even see why he needs the shrine to grant him any solution," Isaac commented. "I mean, he's already got so much power..."
"Power?" Darwin chuckled. "Why would I want more power than what I already have? No, I want the shrine to help me get rid of a wicked enemy that I wish to meant once more...so that I may crush him on the spot."
"You've got so many enemies and there's only one you want to crush so badly?" Maurice asked. "This is such a low point in your warlock career."
"It wouldn't be such a low point!" Darwin snapped as the fire cracked. "That demon humiliated me! Look at what he did to my skin!" To that, he unbuttoned the front of his shirt and revealed a ghastly wound all over his chest, exposing a butchery amount of flesh, bone, and muscle. The scariest part, however, was that they could see parts of his heart pumping with life and blood.
Now I know why mommy swore to never expose me to horror movies, Rosetta thought to herself.
"Cover yourself!" Eglantine said, disgusted. "Your unholy body is..."
"Disgusting, isn't it? And haven't you noticed something about the shape of my wounds?" Darwin said angrily as he pointed at his ghastly wound, revealing its shape to be similar to those that one would have gotten if some sort of savaged, clawed beast had tried to maul him.
"Why didn't you use your powers to hide the wound?" Maurice asked curiously.
"Believe me, I did. But that metal-winged demon had his claws dipped with some sort of venom, courtesy of my brother Chaucer..."
"Oh, Chaucer! The friendly, benevolent, and immortal warlock who warned us about you three summers ago?" Dwight grinned. "Yeah, he was a great guy.
"For a great guy, he certainly knew how to get me injured and have my aggressor attack me with a venom that would prevent my wound to heal, thus giving me a humiliating appearance!"
"Why didn't he just do it by himself?" Aaron frowned. "Why on earth would he need to send an attacker?"
"I asked myself the same thing. Turns out he made a deal with the aggressor...it had something to do with 'granting him immortality'."
"Chaucer can't grant immortality," Harry said in an unconvinced tone. Darwin took no notice as he re-buttoned his shirt and then addressed Tristan.
"You know what else was weird? He sort of looked like a member of your species, only much more dark skinned."
"What?" Tristan was baffled.
"Oh good Lord," Rosetta groaned as she realized who Darwin was referring to. She facepalmed herself. "Don't tell me that he actually did something like that!"
"Who?" Tristan asked.
"My friend Fidget," Rosetta sighed. "He tried this thing of making deals with five immortals in order to get invincibility." Everyone stared at her in disbelief while Darwin looked like he was about to explode.
"Don't tell me he actually succeeded," Tristan said quietly.
"Well let's see: there was the Dark One, there was the Queen of Hearts, and Kaïra, and now I just learned that Chaucer was one of the five. I still can't remember who the fifth one was..."
"Rosetta, I think that Tristan's remark was rhetorical," Isaac said from the cage.
"Oh," Rosetta realized.
"So, since you're friends with the one my brother send to savagely maul me," Darwin hissed, "I hope you don't mind me killing you."