There are a few things one does not notice until it is gone. A droning sound that suddenly ends or a chronic pain that is finally relieved. Passing into the Badlands the misfits encountered a different type of absence. And that was an absence of life.
None of them had given it any particular notice but the wilderness had been filled with life up until then. The woods and rolling hills had a sense of personality to them or a kind of energy as most places do. People get used to such feelings because they feel them everywhere.
But as they passed into the Badlands that feeling, that sense of personality and energy was slowly drained away. Replaced by an emptiness that unnerved them. If the Primordials had shaped the world, infused it with their essence, then that essence had been sucked out of this black desert. For it was an empty plateau of dunes and jagged rocks.
The girls pressed on, following the tracks through this quiet and lifeless place and all the while they felt a sense of dread. Not the familiar sense of being watched or sharing one’s space with something unknown. No, this dread arose from the sense of being completely and utterly alone.
As the sun began disappearing over the horizon, briefly silhouetting the broken spire at the center of Okuza, Raven quickly began looking for a place for them to make camp. For the last thing she wanted to do, was to camp out in the wide open empty space of the Badlands.
Arcaea and Janette sat around the dim glow of their bonfire. They could barely see each other while the rest of the world was shrouded in pitch black darkness. As night fell they had taken refuge in an ancient cube-like ruin. It was so old and weathered that there was no way of telling what it used to be. It was almost entirely submerged in sand but had just enough space inside its main entrance for the four of them to make camp. Raven had fallen asleep an hour ago, right after she had eaten her dinner. They had all partaken of their rations which were dry but nutritious. Kurai was lying on her back with headphones on, listening to music and wiggling her toes and nodding her head to the rhythm of the beat.
For the most part they only heard the muffled crackling of the fire but every now and then they would hear something from the desert around them. Luckily, the only way to see them was to peek into the tiny opening they had squeezed through so they felt assured that any of the desert wildlife that came out at night would not be able to find them.
“Weird day, huh?” said Arcaea.
“Yeah. Those woods were spooky.” said Janette.
“Yeah, let's not go that way when we go back.”
“Agreed. I feel bad about the family though. Sad that they’re gonna end up sick no matter what we do.”
“I know, I am too. But all we can do is give it our best. At least they will still have each other. Family is important.”
There was a moment’s silence before Arcaea spoke again.
“You mind if I ask you a question?”
Janette sighed. “Is it about my family? You wanna know more about the Blackwoods?”
“Uh, no. I wanted to ask you about the octahedron and that sword hilt that Raven keeps in her bag.”
“Oh.” Janette felt ashamed for having assumed what Arcaea was going to ask her. “Uh, yeah of course. Ask away.”
Arcaea smiled. It was enough to disarm Janette’s worries.
“What do you think they are? You have spells that identify things right?”
“Oh yeah. That was the first thing I did after we got back to the ship that night...and after I had made sure that red door didn’t follow us in.”
“Oh yeah, let’s not talk about that. And? What did you find out?”
Janette looked over at Raven who slept with her back to them. For a moment she wondered if she was actually asleep.
“The hilt is a holbrand. It’s a valkyrie weapon.”
“How so?” Arcaea leaned in, curiosity taking over.
“I’m not entirely sure how it works but I’ve heard of valkyries using such weapons. When they activate it a blade made of nilshards folds out of the hilt and it's supposed to be one of the deadliest types of melee weapons in existence.”
“That is very cool.” said Arcaea who then furrowed her brow, thinking. “Why do you think Raven bought another shortsword instead of just using that?”
“Well, apparently they can only be activated by high ranking valkyries so I doubt Raven can even use it.”
“Ah, that makes sense.”
Arcaea picked up her new cleaver, which she had purchased with the urthog money back in Keystone, and began sharpening it.
“What about the octahedron?” she asked after a while.
“That’s the weirdest thing.” said Janette. “I tried to use my Analyze spell on it and it didn’t work. Even if it wouldn’t be able to identify exactly what it was it should have at least told me that it was an ‘octahedron’ or just a ‘geometric shape’. But it came back with nothing. It was almost as if the relic resisted the spell.”
“Does that worry you as much as it worries me?”
“A little bit. What also worries me is that the body that we found those items on was clearly a valkyrie, since it held the holbrand in its hand.”
“Huh. Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”
“But it hadn’t been there for more than a couple of years. So that means that Infinitum sent her there to possibly retrieve this artifact. I’m guessing those other ‘fresher’ bodies we found, the ones with the markings on them were part of her team.”
“It’s possible. It could’ve also just been someone who had found a holbrand on a dead valkyrie and then later found the artifact.” said Arcaea who then brought up her cleaver to closely inspect the edge of her cleaver.
“I’m not ruling anything out. Just trying to figure out all the possibilities. There’s a lot of questions involved in that scene. What was this affliction the people in that bunker suffered from? And did the valkyrie or the owner of that holbrand and their team also suffer that same fate? Could it be related to this octahedron? We have no way of knowing. If only we’d have thought of looking for tablets or PDAs on the bodies. That would have helped fill in some of these blanks.”
“Why do you think Raven didn’t sell it in Keystone like she said she would?”
Both of them looked over at their sleeping comrade.
“I don’t know.” said Janette. “Most likely because she’s just as curious about it as I am. Or maybe she has an idea of what it is. Who knows.”
The two then turned to stare into the flickering bonfire.
“You wanna talk about your family?” asked Arcaea, awkwardly. “I’ve never heard of the Blackwoods before.
Janette sighed again, now more in resignation. “Not really. They’re a weird bunch. They fancy themselves as independent arcanists. They renounced Infinitum about six decades ago and began looking for arcane secrets out on the Frontier. They apparently found a few ancient ruins and managed to amass a small library of grimoires, almanacs and reports from before the Downfall. When I was a little girl my parents made me study all day, every day. They wanted me and my brothers to follow in their footsteps.”
“So...they’re a kind of...occult collectors?” asked Arcaea who had very little knowledge of magic or the pre-downfall world.
“Kind of.” Janette gave her friend a pained smile. “I think they envision themselves as a rising arcane power, one that will one day rival the Magistry.”
“That’s...scary.”
“Yeah. Along with those ruins they also managed to stake their claim and mine a few veins of arcanum. And they’ve been processing and refining it ever since, selling it to spellcasters and communities to power up their machines.”
“That actually sounds pretty generous. These communities probably wouldn’t last long out here without it.”
“Oh, make no mistake, they hoard most of it for themselves.”
“I see.”
Silence fell again and the only thing they could hear were the faint beats of Kurai’s headphone music.
“Can I ask you a question?” asked Arcaea.
“Sure.”
“Why are you out here?”
Janette smiled sadly and looked into the flames. “I ran away. I wanted to explore the world, find secrets of my own I guess. I...I just couldn’t live in that house anymore.”
Arcaea noticed that Janette was now rubbing her left shoulder. She also remembered that day they went to swim in the lake after killing the urthog that she had seen a nasty scar on her left shoulder which Janette had tried to hide.
She felt sad for her friend and was about to offer words of comfort when…
Screeeeeeeeeech!!!
The piercing sound echoed throughout the neighbouring ruins. Both Arcaea and Janette rose up.
“What was…” was all that Janette was able to say when she felt something grab her foot.
Frantically she looked down and saw Raven looking up with one finger over her mouth. They both nodded. She then pointed at the fire and motioned for it to be put out.
Janette muttered a couple of arcane words and slowly put out the fire without giving off too much additional smoke. And then they sat there in silence. After nothing happened for several minutes Arcaea leaned over to Raven.
“What was that?” she whispered.
“No idea. But let's keep the fire out and take shifts watching the entrance.” said Raven.
“Alright. I’ll go first.” said Arcaea.
Enveloped in darkness they couldn’t see Raven lie back down but they could hear it. All they could see was the faint moonlight barely lighting up the ground outside the ruin. It at least gave them a clear view if something attempted to sneak in and kill them.
“Well, guess I’ll go to sleep.” whispered Janette as she got ready for bed.
“Hey, Janette.” whispered Arcaea.
“Yeah?”
“You deserve better than your family.”
There was a long silence before Janette spoke again and when she did Arcaea could hear her smiling but there was a sadness in her voice that was unmistakable.
“Thanks.”
She then crawled into her sleeping bag and went to sleep.
Arcaea sat there, keeping her eyes on the entrance and her ears open. But the only thing she could hear were the soft beats of Kurai’s music and her low snoring. She couldn’t help but smile.
Then something occurred to her. She knew Raven was a light sleeper but she couldn’t help but wonder if she had been awake this whole time. Had she been lying there, quietly listening to their conversation about her?
Arcaea continued to hold watch in the darkness surrounded by the faint snores and heavy slumberous breathing of her companions and the eerie howling of the winds outside. Constantly vigilant for any and all dangers that this dark desert might hold.
Comments (2)
See all