Fan Fiction ❯ Kingdom Come ❯ Mortal and Immortal ( Chapter 5 )

"Lord Faust, the scouts say there's a group of tall black towers ahead. When we reach the top of the next hill we should be able to see them."

 

"Towers? There's nothing up there - I've seen it myself, just sheep grazing grounds!"

 

"Yes, but yesterday, today rather, we saw signs in the heavenly hosts and the earth itself replied to them."

 

"Quit the drama. Ah, lets see .. towers? What in the ... !"

 

Lord Faust stopped in mid-sentence, something he did not do often, upon catching sight of the "grazing grounds." Where he had remembered gently sloping plains, there was a massive crater in the earth, and jutting out of it, reaching toward the sky were several towers, all darkened as if by soot. He had a sudden recollection of burnt bodies, the hands of which looked like that - long, black and sharp. The towers seemed to claw at the sky. For a moment, he was frozen to the spot, his logical side racing to reach a sensible conclusion before he went entirely insane. His horse took a step forward and tripped slightly, jolting him.

 

"Whoa!" he said, jerked back to reality. "We had better return to town immediately. This cannot be a good omen. We had better be prepared. Gather up everyone. We better not waste any time."

 

"Yes sir."

 

A short couple of hours later, Faust and his retainers reached the gates of the town, just as the sun began to set on the horizon. As was to be expected, the town's various lights were lit and shone their light across the gates and buildings. What he did not expect, however, was the extremely tall and heavily armored figure standing just in front of his gates. He urged his horse forward slightly and it happily obliged. "Why do you bar my way?"

 

"Let me guess - Lord Faust is it? I must say, it wasn't very wise to leave your town with only a few soldiers. Did you know the pirates sent an attack today, hmm?"

 

Faust was surprised to hear the sharp rasp of steel. Turning his head slightly, he saw that all his men had drawn blades and nocked arrows. Turning back, he realized that he, too, had drawn steel. He shook it at the dark figure that was insolently blocking his way. "Are you threatening me, brigand?"

 

To his confusion, the shadowy figure laughed. "You're a very lucky man Lord Faust. Your friend Lord Eldon has, in a couple of hours, gained you and your citizens the personal protection of a Council member." Turning its back, it pointed to Eldon's house. "Go on ahead, good man. You'll find everyone you need to meet in the town hall having dinner. It's not too late for you to get a bite."

 

Rather surprised by the unexpected reply, Faust made a tight circle with his left hand, extended a thumb to the guardhouse near the gates, and his small finger to the town hall. His men broke into two neat groups. One moved closer to him, and the other made for the open barracks door. The dark figure laughed again, more softly than the last time. "There's no one in there, friends. They've all been given a rest after the pirates were driven back. Even though they didn't actually have to engage in combat themselves." Another chuckle. "And besides, I was given orders to defend these gates. Go on to your homes friends." it said, turning its head to look at them. They slowed, looking at Faust. He gave them a nod, and they broke up, moving to their homes.

 

Faust led the other half of his soldiers to the town hall. There were other tall figures in plate armor scatted around the road he took, as well as milling around the town hall. He made a larger circle, pointed at the town hall and held up four fingers. His men split up, moving around in the square, except for four of them, who casually entered the town hall. A couple of minutes later, hearing nothing to worry him, Faust entered the hall. And received yet another shock. In the large ballroom in the center of the hall, several large tables had been pulled together. Seated around them were Eldon, his wife Althea, and Faust's wife, Serle. There were various servants, of course, bearing various plates, pitchers and so on, but what really caught his attention was the six tall figures seated around the table. In the bright light given off by the many lamps - the lights were never ALL lit, come to think of it - he could identify them, since they had apparently doffed the plate-and-mail that they always wore in stories and pictures. Angels.

 

Serle, upon seeing her husband quickly pushed her chair back, got up and rushed over to him. An observant servant stepped out of a door to bring in another chair. "You're back in time to meet our new friends!" Faust blinked. He was quickly led to a chair and seated before he could speak again.

 

"This is unexpected, so say the least." were his first words. Serle pushed a goblet of wine at him. "There are several black towers in a new crater not far away, and here I find everyone eating."

 

"Ah," commented one of the strangers. "I would guess you turned back immediately, since it took you so long to reach back. I apologize, of course, for being too busy to worry about cleaning up the Temple. The Engineers are already going mad trying to right it, let alone do things like repair the surface damage."

 

Faust remained silent as the rest of the situation was carefully explained to him. "How do we know you are who you claim to be? And even if you are, why come now? You've left our world to rot for three centuries and now you return?"

 

Another angel, Talia, he thought it was, who was seated across from Eferlon opened her mouth angrily, but Eferlon stood up, making a small gesture that was partially hidden by his body. "True. Your doubts are all true, though caused by lack of faith. Eldon could tell you that Alavaria here just removed five ships worth of pirates, but he could have been mistaken too, right? Kisha, lets visit the local sickhouse, shall we? Oh, Faust, come along if you would."

 

On the way there, Eferlon continued to chat amicably with Kisha. Apparently they had no idea where they were, and his town was the closest human settlement to where they had landed, as well as the only one they knew about so far. Before long, they reached the infirmary, which was on the west side of town. Faust instinctively covered his nose with a hand to avoid the smell that usually surrounded such places. Kisha looked at him curiously, and turned to examine the narrow alleyway that they had just walked down. Stretching out her left arm, she turned her hand slightly, as if opening a doorknob, and drew it back sharply. A whistling sound filled the air as a sudden wind blew down from above, flowing smoothly into the small building at the end of the alleyway.

 

"Bad spot for this," Kisha commented, eyeing the narrow door. "This shouldn't take too long." Opening the door wide, she stepped in, shooing away a nurse that tried to stop her. Her short brown hair stirred slightly as the wind followed her in. Foust stepped through the door as she conjured a thin thread of light. There were three patients inside, more than most days. One had a rather serious stab wound, not poisoned thankfully, but the other two showed signs of minor poisoning, complaining of stomach clenches, among other symptoms. There were another two people who were asking for some ointment for bruises. Doubtless they had gotten careless and fallen on something hard. The nurse herself rubbed her head unconsciously, searing for the requested balm.

 

"I don't doubt this will hurt somewhat." Kisha said firmly. "But it will pass very quickly, no worry." Faust swallowed a question as she raised her hands toward the ceiling, muttering some words in an unknown language. Her conjured light went out, masking the room in darkness again, but before long, Faust could see magical energies building up around Kisha's hands, swirling lazily as she drew upon her will to add to them. Slowly they gathered into two brilliant spheres that hovered just above her hands, and then began to move towards each other. He watched, entranced, as they inched closer and closer. They touched.

 

The room was suddenly flooded in a burning light. Faust felt as though he was on fire. Groaning loudly, he fell over, clutching himself. Only the two angels were unaffected. Everyone else suddenly felt as though they had been doused in liquid fire. Moments passed. The light faded, and the room was washed in shadow again. Eferlon conjured a thread of fire that gave off light and warmth.

 

"It seems that I underestimated the effects." commented Kisha. "But is everyone better now?" Indeed they were. The three patients had been confined to their beds were suddenly able to get up, though they were still feeling the effects of their healing. Everyone else was also as good as new, even himself, Faust realized. His mind back pains had disappeared, and he was no longer feeling tired. There was no doubt that he had been affected by some very powerful magic.

 

"You know Kisha, that actually looked quite painful." The Council was flying back to the Temple, but taking their time about it, resting for a while and enjoying the cool night. Shortly after Eferlon returned to the town hall they had left. Clearly Faust would need to be convinced by Eldon, in which case, staying longer would be a waste of time.

 

"I knew it wouldn't harm them, but they are mortal after all. In any case, I'll remember not to try multiple healing on humans again."

"Alright then lets go back and look at that map. Who got the map?" "Me!"

 

Shortly after they reached the Temple and entered via one of the archers balconies, Maeror pulled out the map. It was still rather new, and appeared quite well done. "He seemed quite happy to hand it over, actually. I wonder why."

 

Because the whole tower was slanted, everything had to be fixed down. Eferlon spread the map on the wall and held it in place with a bit of magic. "We're here." he said, pointing to a place just slightly south of a large mountain. Moving back to the town, he pointed out a long road snaking south east. "It seems that traveling to the south-east of the town we just visited, we would encounter a farming community, a clearing in a strip of dense jungle, and then eventually reach the 'capital city' even though Eldon did say that there is no unified government now." Eferlon wondered why law and order had apparently broken down, at least near where they landed. "Also, to the south west of us is a naval base, built near what appears to be a bay that's been dammed up. Somewhere north of us are more villages, though they arn't shown here, and a group of nomads. These towns," Eferlon pointed to three small towns, north of the town they knew. "are apparently now just burnt ruins thanks to the raiders we encountered."

 

He frowned. "Somewhere they have a base. They also have to be getting supplies from somewhere, otherwise they'll starve to death whenever a raid fails. This strongly suggests that they're privateers, however their habit of attacking small towns is very puzzling, as well as the fact that they're not acting near the large city on the west coast."

 

Talia pointed at the right section of the map. Another continent, quite a good bit smaller than the one they were on, was drawn but completely unmarked. "Althea did say that Eldon suspected the pirates were hired by nations over there. She was more .. forceful .. than he was in requests for our aid. Worries every night about an attack, apparently, especially since Eldon is usually in charge of defense."

 

"Well," said Maero, "The two of us," he indicated his brother, "will go down tomorrow and look at the coastal area. Faust's wife, whose name I didn't get, was lamenting the loss of property there. Given Faust's nature, and how the town looks, I would guess that they moved to where they are now to be better defended from coastal raids."

 

Maeror stepped up to the map, peering at it. "If that is so, anything they built might be intact, though looted. I can't see raiders burning down those structures, especially since they could provide cover if they needed to land with Faust's men there. It's not like Faust would even try using flimsy civilian buildings as part of his defense."

 

"That makes some sense." Eferlon said, nodding.

 

"Tomorrow we will see what can be found there. Given that to the north-west of the beach area there are rock formations, perhaps they might be able to find stone for construction. However, first we need to help deal with the raiders. Though I don't think sending some of our people would be a bad idea, perhaps the naval base might be of some help. We'll leave at daybreak, once we can see. For now you should try to sleep. This land doesn't work the same way ours did - there are no energy auras to help with fatigue, so I suggest you take this time to rest. Tomorrow will be busy."

 

Once everyone had left the room, Eferlon pulled the map down and rolled it up. When he stepped out of the room, Alavaria was there. "Where are you going with that?" she asked him.

 

"Oh I need to hand this over to the Engineers. They might have some ideas on how to help Faust's people."

"Didn't you say we should rest?"

 

"Not at all. I said 'you' but I'll try to get some afterwards."

 

"Suit yourself. See you."

 

Eferlon watched as Alavaria turned and hopped out a window. It never occurred to him to use such shortcuts. Even though flying was faster, he always ended up taking the long corridors in the Temple. He was going to follow her idea, but decided that he didn't know exactly where he was. Mentally sighing, he walked down the corridor, wondering where he could find the Engineers. Well, since they were all spread out over the Temple complex, and he only needed to catch one or two, Eferlon realized he could look outside. Finding a nearby window, he jumped out and opening his wings. Soaring upwards, he caught sight of some small figures on top of the central keep. Bulls eye.

 

"There's a town north-east of here that needs some construction expertise." he said without preamble. "No, no. Let me guess, you're trying to calculate how slanted it is. If you're really not up to it, ask someone else to travel there." Ignoring protests that they were capable, just busy, he opened the trapdoor and left down a corridor, disturbing yet another group of Engineers that was leaving it, telling them the same thing. Send Engineers, check.

 

Now he had to find some scouts. That should be easier than dealing with Engineers. Eferlon exited though a nearby window and dropped about ten stories or so before seeing the large sliding door that the air force usually used for deployment. Ever since Talia's idea of having them use windows and such to spread out deployment, the room behind it was used as their control center. Selecting a nearby window, Eferlon entered the Temple again and took the short corridor. Knocking on the door, he opened it and went in. There were several desks, which had been hauled in, as well as people milling around looking at scouting reports. Eferlon moved over to a person seated at one of the desks who was drawing something. Cartographer.

 

"Here, try this." he said, handing over the map. He watched as it was promptly put up. Waving over a scouting commander, he pointed to the map. "I need two each, at least, mind, to go here, here, here, here, and here." he told him firmly, pointing out the three ruins, the beach area and the town. "Three would be better if you could."

 

"Of course. I'll send them out immediately."

 

So sending out scouts was done. One last thing remained to be done. Stepping out of the room, Eferlon walked half-way down the corridor before remembering. Taking another window shortcut, it took only a few minutes to reach the infirmary. "How are they?" he asked one of the healers softly.

 

"I haven't the least idea." was the cautious reply. "Our strongest healers only seem to make them worse. Well, at least they feel worse. Anything else appears to have little effect."

 

Eferlon looked sadly at the badly burnt fighters. Angels had a tendency to have pale hues, often explained by the fact that they were created by divine energies. However, those who were 'caught out' in the outer rooms of the Temple when the shielding collapsed had apparently been greatly harmed, despite the fact that the actual building bore nearly all of the blast. It didn't make any sense. They were whole and in perfect health, according to various tests, but looked as if they had been very badly burnt. Eferlon had only seen such extensive third degree burns on corpses. By rights, no one should be able to survive that amount of damage, but every single angel who had been thus wounded lived. Even more mystifying was the discovery that nothing was burnt, except for the soldiers.

 

"Various attempts suggest that they cannot be healed back to normal. It is as if they were burned to near the brink of death and healed. A couple who are not delirious have expressed confidence that their bodies can function normally." He paused. "Another thing - such serious burns are usually painless, due to the amount of damage done to the nervous system. However, many of them rant about burning and fire. For whatever reason, they are in great agony, and we can't do anything that even touches that."

 

Thanking the medic for his help, Eferlon went back and tried to sleep, something he hadn't done for three centuries. He would later wonder if his first dreams - of hellfire burning, consuming, devouring - were caused by of what he had seen, or an omen.