Personal goals
Arkan-tar smiled to himself. He felt no remorse for not being completely honest with both his comrades and the Lord Admiral. He guessed that everyone involved had their own personal goals. Lady Cala and her "keeper" weren't just a noblewoman and her servant, and Antares wasn't just a mercenary. He wasn't sure about his other companions. Rehiza had some connection to his friend, but as far as he knew, she served the Order of the Eclipse and could be a minor obstacle. Dilayla, Rosie and Dr. Qin were not hiding any secrets, they were just random participants in an extremely interesting game. Of course, he wasn't fully aware of everything himself, but that only made it all the more interesting.
He went to the cantina at the spaceport. It was a rather pleasant placet, brightly lit and clean, even somewhat sterile. There were two bodyguards here, both androids, and they seemed a bit like siblings, though it was hard to tell with these biomechanical organisms. It served mostly strong Vesks beer and that ubiquitous sweet liquor on this planet that was hard to drink without nausea. The food here, judging by the smell, served mostly reheated packets, though at least they were top-shelf ones. It was mostly members of those few ship crews that stopped here to replenish supplies or buy any valuable goods available the speakers came the unobtrusive music typical of such places, no Shirpop or Orkopunk. It was even pleasant here, although he rather liked more ... dynamic places. But he wasn't here to have fun, there was something for him here. And he was seeking information at the same time, because it was in the interest of all of them. He sat down at a table, ordered a beer from a Shiren waitress. There weren't many guests here at the moment, so he decided to join the interesting half-drow and the huge Veska with a huge hammer on his back. At a glance, he could tell free pirates apart from corsairs and fanatical cultists.
- Hello, I'm Arkan-tar. - He offered them his hand and the half-drow shook it.
- I'm Boatswain Kaert. - he said, and Veska growled.
- And I am Gydwa. -She gave Verthani a stern look.
- Second mate on Merciless. - Kaert finished her's sentence halfway. He seemed to be very drunk already, but also quite likable for Arkan's taste.
- Merciless, is that a ship... - he searched his Exocotex resources. – of Captain Moonshadow. i presume correctly? - He looked at them with admiration. „Such a pirate in such a place... It could be a coincidence, but...
- Yeah, that's her... We're taking part in a wonderful expedition, and then we're back to fight with the Azlanti. - said the half-drow, but Veska glared at him. "Oh mysteries, interesting," thought the scholar.
- I am a member of an archaeological expedition organized by Kemanis University and funded by Lady Cala Grayskull of Carurystal. - he said after taking a few sips of beer. He looked over the foam at the interlocutors.
- How much they're paying you? You know, we could use a decent scholar to show us which shells are worth something and which can be used as shooting targets instead of tin cans.
"And so the spell was broken. I'm talking with the ignorant."
- Well, if you have the right contacts, there is no such thing as worthless shells. Every remnant of lost civilizations gives us clues about how they functioned, so it is valuable, and often priceless. - Arkan-tar said with a hint of superiority in his voice. Sam didn't have clean hands. He destroyed many relics of the past as he sought to obtain the more valuable treasures. Well, the work of an archaeologist and explorer involved fierce competition and often required difficult decisions to be made.
- I told you our captain knows what she's doing, and you constantly suspect her of the worst. You could show her the respect due to someone who will make you rich. - said Kaert too loudly as someone who is already heavily drunk.
Veska gurgled menacingly.
- If I'm going to get rich picking up garbage, I'd rather scrub the deck for the rest of my life.- she said grimly, looking at Bo'sun.
- Oh, I see that Veska's honor has awakened in someone. - The half-drow laughed violently, spitting beer at Verthani. „Definitely not worth my time, Arkan-tar thought as Veska eyed the boatswain with a clear desire to kill.
- It's very interesting. But I have a question, where are you going? - the archaeologist asked, trying to extract information about the destination of his interlocutors. "Coincidences happen and a true explorer must be able to take advantage of them, but he must not confuse them with the deliberate action of third parties."
- Not yours... - Gydwa wanted to say,
- Into the zone... to a place called... Enteria, Emeria... Etheria! - he said loudly.
- First I hear, and I know a lot about lost civilizations. Could you tell more? - he asked, trying to control his emotions. "And now it's starting to get unsettling."
- The captain comes from there, apparently it is full of ancient artifacts ... This is confirmed by some data we have obtained ... - said Keart and called for another beer.
- Did you get them from an Azlanti ship?" he asked with an indulgent smile.
- Yes, how do you know? - asked the surprised boatswain.
"Because you're an imbecile. Your captain is known throughout the galaxy for raiding Azlanti ships…" Arkan-tar thought.
- It's quite a well known story ... in certain circles. The Azlanti allow their ships to be captured, and leave information about the hidden treasure there, and the pirates go to the indicated place and die there in trap. - he said in a grim voice. His debaters exchanged glances. Veska looked triumphant, and the half-drow was scared. - Well, I have to go to the restroom, see ya! - Verthani called, and got up from the table. As he turned away from the two bewildered pirates, he allowed himself a shy smile.
The bathroom in this establishment was pretty good, though it was a spaceport cantina, so it had to maintain a certain standard. He took care of a minor need, washed his hands and then walked over to the mirror and slipped an implant screwdriver from his finger and unscrewed it. There he found a message left for him. He read it, then ignited it with the micro laser hidden in his other finger. The order he got from his patron contained an important clue ... But unfortunately it required further work from him. He didn't put the mirror back in place, he didn't have time, and he didn't want to go out through the main hall, he noticed how that Giant Veska was watching at him, and he didn't want to get in her way again. He took a micro-folding stool, normally the size of a matchbox, from his pocket and placed it under a small window near the ceiling. Using the screwdriver again, he unhooked the window and laid it gently on the floor. Then he climbed up and squeezed through the hole. He fell through the other side with a groan. His job required a lot of physical fitness. He was not an academic, but a field worker, forcing his way through thickets of carnivorous bushes and examining a hundred-times cursed shipwrecks. Despite it, he had to rub his aching arm for a moment. But he couldn't waste any time. Those two were busy for now, but he was sure Veska would want to find out what was going on with him and why he had broken his neck… He could defend himself, but he wasn't going to risk it. He dusted himself off and headed towards where the Relief was supposed to be. He needed the help of his companions in getting to the place he found out about, and besides, they would support him if a couple of pirates wanted to bother him.
Rechiza didn't expect them to find the ship so quickly. She even expected them to fail. After all, spaceships aren't something you can buy in the fair, and in this goddamn shitjole of the universe, getting one should be impossible. And here the ship basically found them. Under other circumstances, she would have considered this incredible luck, but now...
She wasn't sure if she had done the right thing by agreeing to this mission. She owed a great debt to the Order, and they have common enemies. They shared common goals. However, her personal goal was ... to find answers to the puzzles she came across on Cracked Skull "It's not true ... You are looking for something completely different. Something with a much more pronounced flavor." She thought bitterly. She had studied the ruins long ago…a beautiful crystal palace, a seemingly idyllic artist's work…She remembered strange inscriptions that their best linguistic computers could not decipher, as if the language itself refused to be understood. She remembered the beast that had murdered all her comrades and the flash brighter than the light of a thousand suns. "On whom should I seek revenge? On a race that died out so absolutly so given it lost its name? The ones who are worshiped by the Anacites on Abbalon, though even the machines have forgotten who they were?" she thought, and glanced at Miss Daisy walking beside her. The woman was more gloomy and introverted than usual, which could be considered an interesting sight. But there was something else. It seems that that conversation brought back some unpleasant memories for her. "Does someone like her even have a jolly one?" Lashunti thought as she looked at the elf as she scared away the Shiren kebab seller with one look.
- What do you think of this elven wizard? - She asked, to break the tiring silence.
Miss Daisy snorted contemptuously
- She's an incompetent idiot... Noisy, and undisciplined. I've known students like that... I've had students like that when I've been teaching. - She shook her head and the witchwarper felt some of the anger escaped from the woman.
- Nantambu was a great school of magic on the Lost Golarion. It was one of the first schools of magic to be established in the post-Starfall era. If she's really from there... She might have a great deal of experience in magic to match yours. – Lashunti said, remembering her... friend who had given her eyes. "Oh doctor, in all your millennia of life, have you ever been to that place? Did it still exist in your time?"
Miss Daisy answered her with a shrug.
- I don't know much about your Golarion, it meant nothing to me before i left my home planet, and now it's just somethimg that others miss, though knows it only from fairy tales brought to their world. I know there's usually a nasty truth behind these stories. - she said grimly. - But I know someone who is said to be from that your Golarion... His name is Prince Zed and he's an Automaton.
Rechiza raised an eyebrow.
- Do you have one of them on Carurystal? I didn't know that even one survived to our times. - she said, genuinely surprised.
- Yes, his name is Prince Zed. He was a great friend of Lady Cali's family, though our personal relationship is complicated. - replied the sorceress
- Just like that... you have a complicated relationship with someone who remembers the times of Golarion...?! - Rechiza asked in disbelief.
Miss Daisy shrugged again.
- I don't understand what you all see in this old planet. It was neither technologically advanced nor particularly pleasant to live in, even if we believe the stories that always embellish reality. I know much more about thatthan I would like. - she said with an energy that the witchwarper had never seen in her before.
- That's interesting... I was born on Castroval and spent a large part of my life in the Pact Worlds. I've been everywhere except maybe Aukturn. - she said, and out of the corner of her eye saw Miss Daisy start. It didn't surprise her.
- What was your favorite place? The one that meant the most to you… - Miss Daisy suddenly changed the subject of the conversation.
She thought in surprise.
- Not counting Castroval? I spent a lot on Abbalon studying the ruins of the First Ones. Have you heard of them? - She looked at the mystic and saw that she had stumbled. She was clearly agitated, which she tried to hide.
- And what have you learned about this ancient and wise civilization? - the sullen woman asked.
- Not much on Abbalon. More during my travels, especially… while on Cracked Skull.- she said after a moment's thought. She unconsciously looked away when she mentioned the planet where such a great tragedy had befallen her, but Miss Daisy noticed because she asked.
- And that's where you lost your eyes and antennae? The first guarded their secrets very jealously. - said the grim sorceress, and the witchwarper sensed some sympathy in her voice, but she only felt fury.
- What would someone like you, someone from the backwaters of the galaxy, know about one of the greatest civilizations that ever inhabited the universe?
Miss Daisy laughed very bitterly.
- Oh, what can I know... Absolutely nothing and more than you can imagine. - she said smiling sourly. Rechiza frowned suprised. She didn't want to be surprised by someone like that.
- I didn't know you were interested in the history of the First one… - Rechiza asked, carefully examining the gloomy mystic.
- For many years ... I was in touch with their creation, one of the most perfect ... - said Miss Daisy. Lashunti had the impression that she sensed great sadness in her voice and ... something else? Guilty? Disgust? "The Grave Robber or someone like that" she thought. She knew many who had no problem looting places of worship and graves, perhaps Arkan-tar was such a person, but in the case of a dark sorcerer whom she suspected of colluding with cults, it could involve much darker deeds. "Is that where you got those scars from?" she asked in her mind, feeling for a moment a strange bond with that woman. Then she heard someone calling them.
- It's great that you're here! I was just looking for you! – Arkan-tar shouted.
She did not trust Rechiza, though perhaps a better word would be that she beware her. But Arkan-tar annoyed her. In Mystacor, she met many arrogant hustlers like him, who preferred to get what they wanted using their own cunning, rather than working hard for their success. "You, on the other hand, have been worked for your own downfall for decades..." she thought and smiled nastily.
- Why would someone so learned and resourceful wll need two sorcerers? - she asked with undisguised reluctance, but Verthani spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness.
- I need you because I have obtained important information, but I am unable to get it myself! -shouted the archaeologist.
- What important information our scholar has learned in the canteen over a beer. - There was sarcasm in her voice, but Arkan-tar didn't seem to care
- Listen, I spoke to a former employee of an observatory, and they said they were scanning the Ravaged Zone. There may be maps there that will corroborate what Lady Cala has provided us with. - Verthani said smiling quite ingratiatingly. She thought for a moment. The maps they had were accurate, much more accurate than what they could reveal. Unfortunately, they were full of holes, because the cults of Nyarlathetop and other Great Old Ones and Outer Gods were not equally strong everywhere and did not always have someone capable of contacting Creeping Chaos. Besides, she wasn't sure if they could fully trust such demented people who would knowingly give their souls to such terrible beings. "Just because they're like you, you know what someone like you is capable of"
- I take it you don't need these maps to show that my Lady participation in this expedition is no longer needed? - she asked coldly.
- I would never leave you here if you sugest that. I would never have thought of such a thing, my lady. - said the archaeologist spreading his hands. -I'm not going to do that out of sheer laziness. It would take so much effort to figure out a way to board a ship secretly without your knowledge, and the Lady's company is very welcome for many reasons. Apart from the fact that we don't have a ship yet.
- We just got it, or rather we have the oportunity, to rent a ship with a crew. But they were interested in the presence of the Archaeologist and the Sholar on the ship. - Rechiza interjected.
- They probably want someone to train the crew in matters of a more scientific nature, and perhaps teach them how to get around with a little better company. - she said, seeing how Verthani's gray face faded when Rechiza mentioned that they needed an archaeologist. "Interesting"
- What kind of ship is this? -Arkan-tar asked cautiously.
- Well, we don't know much yet. It is own by a certain Bina and has such a funny sorceress to help. - said Laszunti, grinning happily. She tried to glare at her, but the Witchwarper didn't seem to mind.
- Okay Arkan, let's go there. You're right, it wouldn't hurt to find out more about where we're going. Just rent a car, 'cause this sun is killing me. - she said, sighing heavily.
It took them a while to get transport, there weren't that many vehicles in this city, and even fewer people were interested in taking them out of town to this whole observatory thing. Finally, they found a small, horribly sheckening car with four hard seats in a cramped passenger compartment, where they had to sit facing each other, holding on to metal brackets hanging from the roof. The driver was a sullen and surprisingly menacing-looking Shiren. She smiled bitterly to herself when she saw the car. „Well, i am returning to old garbbage" she thought. In all the decades she'd spent in the Horde, she'd ridden a variety of vehicles, though she'd never learned how to drive them. At first she had an overwhelming aversion to noisy and clumsy machines, and then she had lost the ability to leave the Fright Zone anyway… But now she had come to appreciate Hordak's near-genius pragmatic ingenuitness, who could create such advanced machines with limited resources. "Who knows, maybe if you had somehow found your way to the Pact worlds, you would now be a respectable if surly businessman, and I would be the respected Head Sorcereress of Mystacor," she thought, feeling the vehicle tossing her with every bump. She thought about it. Virtually no one on Etheri knew how Hordak had ended up on her planet, including himself. Recently, however, she has got som suspicions. She was curious if anything had been concluded about this in her former home. But would anyone want to investigate a seemingly meaningless matter? Maybe her former superior would be interested, but she wasn't sure if he survived the final battle. In fact, she knew almost nothing about what happened after… her death, Creeping Chaos spared her information on this subject. They only told her that Catra and Adora had survived. She wasn't sure of anything else, not even if Glimmer was still alive, though from some allusions made by Nyarlathetop she could hope... Apart from them and maybe Mikah and Castaspella, there were no people on Etheri whose survival she cared about. "But does anyone remember you without feeling hatred? Will anyone be happy to see you back?"
The grim tone of her thoughts must have begun to show on her face, because Arkan-tar turned to her smiling cheekily.
- Why are you so gloomy Miss Daisy? The two of you managed to capture a ship, which is a respectable act in a place like this. And you look like you've been ate lemon!
She began snapping her fingers, trying to prevent the vision of black tentacles strangling Verthani until his eyes popped out of their sockets.
- Mister Arkan-tar, I know from experience that easy beginnings do not ease future difficulties. We just had a bit of luck, and that's not something you should rely on. We must be absolutely focused and not let anything distract us if we are to survive! "Do you hear what you're talking about again?"
- Well, someone who survived such a terrible accident has the right to see the future only in dark colors. Rechiza said with feigned sadness. She smiled at her, imagining the Lashunta shrouded in black flame. The archaeologist raised an eyebrow curiously, but before the witchwarper managed to say anything, she reached from behind her neck and turned off the mask. The two passengers sucked in a whistling breath. Arkan-tar's eyes widened in obvious shock, and Rechiza couldn't take her eyes off her face. She smiled at them, showing two protruding sharp fangs.
- There have been few in the last thirty years who have had the honor of seeing my face, so take a good look. - She ran a clawed finger over the scars.- This is only a fraction of the price I had to pay. And believe me, it was absolutely not worth it. - she said sharply. - So I've learned to see the world as dark as possible, believe it or not, what you can't see will be much darker anyway. - Then she put the mask back on. For a long time everyone was silent, which allowed her to return to her unhappy thoughts.
- Why are you doing this? - Lashunti finally asked in a softer voice than before.
- Why am I doing what? - she asked, startled out of her thoughts.
- Why do you serve Lady Cala and join this expedition with her?
She thought for a moment. She had to come up with a safe answer, as close to the truth as possible, only she wasn't sure what the truth was.
- I guess I do it because I have to. Because I have nothing else to do. - she said and realized it was true. Creeping Chaos would probably accept her refusal, then punish her in ways unimaginable. Most of what she did, she did to survive. She became an unrivaled master at this. "I was like a rat, clinging to life with all my claws... Ready to do anything to survive, betray anyone, hurt anyone." In fact, it always just went with the flow, only paving the way with its claws. But once she did otherwise, and that's why she's where she is now. "I will do it this time too. I will do everything so that nothing happens to them. May no more misfortune befall them. That will be my personal goal, only in this way will I find redemption."
- That's pretty fatalistic thinking. - Rechiza said.
- Because I'm a fatalist ... What did this creature look like. - She suddenly changed the subject.
Lashunti turned those strange, metallic eyes on her.
- How ... - she asked clearly shocked.
- I know a lot about the ruins of the First Ones, though most of what I know isn't first-hand… But I've seen creatures like this, and their power is potentially immense. - Lashuntka replied with a weak smile.
Rechiza shook her head.
- It was something like a solfuga... it took my antennae off, but... To get rid of it and hundreds of others that were in production, I used a rock incinerator- she said. She didn't know much about galactic weapons, but she guessed it must be something terrible, but she didn't pursue the subject. They have enough time to find out everything, so they spent the rest of the way in silence, thinking about what reasons led them to participate in this crazy enterprise.
You have been waiting for this chapter for a long time, although it is neither the longest nor the most dynamic.