Wayfare to an Uncertain Asylum, Chapter VI

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Chapter VI - Even In Death

Arkanian followed Saros up the steps of the building until they reached the landing before the entrance way, two guards manned the set of double doors but appeared to be letting any who desired to exit or enter. The two exalts passed the guards without a second glance, once through the doorway they found themselves in a grand hall that continued the white marble, pillar based construction. The hall was rather crowded and not all that wide, a number of doors lined the outside walls of the hall and several winding staircases wrapped around individual pillars up through the ceiling to an apparent second floor.

“Saros, this is the Council of Entities building, what are we doing here?” Arkanian asked as he followed Saros towards a set of spiral stairs on the back left side of the building.

“We have little time, and this is where the target is.” Saros paused as he started to climb the narrow set of stairs at a light jog, “Takeshi Irugawa is a member of The Council of Entities, it would be wise if we could convince him to leave this place, it isn’t exactly secure.”

“A member of The Council of Entities? I thought it was The Emissary’s job to protect them?” Arkanian also paused as he followed Saros up the staircase at a jog, “This is going to be a disaster isn’t it?”

“Most likely.” Saros responded flatly as he reached the top of stairs and walked out onto the second level. As they reached the second level of the building they found themselves in an open waiting room with comfortable seating for a number of people along the walls. A glance up would reveal that the ceiling was a glass tank, filled with crystal clear water and varieties of colorful fish not native to this part of the world. Several people sat in the comfortable seating in the room though they appeared to have been waiting for quite some time as they looks of dreary boredom, one of which had drifted to sleep with an occasional snore. A tall desk greeted them straight ahead; the only door in the room behind it, the lone figure that reacted to their presence attended the desk. A young, attractive girl, though probably no older than 16 sat behind the desk, she was dressed in courtly clothing of fine silk, though not very much of it as the attire left little to the imagination. She greeted them in a friendly, high pitched tone asking them if they had an appointment.

Takeshi Irugawa

“Of course we do, I was here just earlier today in fact to meet with Councilor Irugawa. He sent me to find a friend of his,” Saros stopped briefly as he indicated back towards Arkanian, “a prominent musician whom he needed for a ritual. I’m sure you remember, it was only a few hours ago.”

The girl at the desk had a rather perplexed look on her face as she looked back and forth between Saros and Arkanian, clearly having no memory of an encounter if in fact there had been one. “Well he has had several visitors today already, he’s with several right now. You will have to wait Mr. - …. What did you say your name was again?”

“I didn’t.” Saros responded as he turned to give a sharp look back to Arkanian, clearly the two had the same thought. Arkanian bowed his head for a moment as he closed his eyes and attuned his essence to the flow around him. His eyes quickly shot open as he raised his head, drawing the Plasma Tongue Repeater from his side in a single swift motion he blasted a bolt of fire into the wooden door behind the desk. The boom of the shot echoed throughout the stone room, the girl behind the desk fell to the ground with a scream as the fire traveled harmlessly past her. The wooden door was blown cleanly off its hinges, splintering fiery pieces of wood into the Councilors office; Saros quickly rushed through the doorway followed by Arkanian to find three men scattered hiding on the floor. Saros rushed to the man he recognized as Takeshi, picking him up from the floor and dragging him to his feet; Arkanian addressed the other two as he forced them to roll over at gun point. It didn’t take long to realize they’d been mistaken as the two men appeared to be mortal merchants, unarmed and terrified they were certainly no assassins.

“We are not here to harm you Takeshi, we are here to protect you.” Takeshi struggled briefly with Saros, who despite being the smaller man was by far the better combatant. After only a few moments Takeshi was subdued, at least willing to accept the fate that he would not be able to escape on his own.

Arkanian turned back to the door as he spoke softly, almost more to himself, “They are still here.” With his gun still gripped tightly in hand he peered into the waiting room outside, it appeared to be empty; the people waiting seemed to have run down the stairs. It was then that he noticed a pool of blood spreading into his view from just out of sight, from behind the desk. The girls blood? He was sure his shot was well clear of her and Saros went straight for the door, a horrible and familiar feeling swept over him. “Run! Find a way out!”

Arkanian slipped his gun back into its holster as he quickly drew Mugenjin from its sheath, in one quick motion he leapt into the air making a long vertical slash running towards the door. The soulsteel pierced easily through the glass of the fish tank, cracks spreading along the entire ceiling until it could hold no longer and with a crash of shattering glass gallons upon gallons of water fell from the ceiling of both rooms. Takeshi had led Saros over to a closed cabinet at first sign of trouble, opening it to reveal a bar, but as he quickly knocked the shelves and their contents to the floor a secret passage was revealed behind it. The passage was more of an escape chute than a passage way, Saros pushed Takeshi through first and gave a glance back into the room as he saw three figures emerging from the rushing water headed towards the office with only Arkanian to stand between them.

“Go! They’re just ghosts, the deathknight is still in hiding somewhere. Watch your back.” Arkanian looked away from the approaching enemies for only a moment before looking back to the ghosts with a smile, starting to whisper a poem laced in hatred in old realm.

Saros did not wait around to see the effects of Arkanians words as he dove down the chute after Takeshi, closing the cabinet door behind him hoping no one would follow. Black tendrils sprang forth from the water as Arkanian finished his whispered words immediately lashing out at the three nemissaries that approached. The effect lasted only a moment but allowed Arkanian to redraw his gun and prepare for battle.

---

The Nexus Undercity

Saros found the short ride through the small metal chute to be a quick and rough ride, falling out rather quickly onto a small patch of dirt. After taking a moment to gather his senses he found himself in a large dark space, they appeared to be underground and in some sort of ruins. Saros quickly realized they were in the undercity.

“Are you alright?” Saros spoke flatly to Takeshi, who was quite taken aback by the entire situation at hand, and brushing himself and trying to look presentable again. “Get over it, we need to find a way out of here.”

Saros did not need to have a sense of foreboding to know that the undercity was not a safe place for anyone, it was run by ghosts of a different age, filled with shadow lands. If they did not make a quick exit he would never get the information he needed out of this man, he couldn’t believe he had seen something in the stars that they hadn’t. Saros started to lead Takeshi through the dark ruins with a bit of regret for being on a mission to save this incompetent star gazer. They hadn’t been traveling for five minutes when Saros felt a dark presence in the shadows, instinct told him to duck but he ignored it and dove for Takeshi, dragging him to the ground. The two of them hit the ground hard, but not a moment to soon as a dark bolt of essence whizzed over their heads. The bolt exploded as it hit a large pile of stone ruins behind them, a large cloud of dust filled the already dark space. From the darkness they could hear a quiet laugh, someone or something was enjoying this game.

“You were lucky star gazer, your friend has good reflexes. Now things will have to be much more painful for you both.” The voice came from the darkness and seemed to come from all around them, there was no way to tell where the being was, not until he launched his next attack.

Saros could hear it before he felt it, something small was falling from the sky, something that made a soft clicking sound. Saros moved quickly from where they stood, quickly brushing off the one that had landed on him, it bit him immediately and drew a drop of blood through his cloak. Takeshi was not so lucky, he had tried to run after Saros but fell instead. By the sound of his screams and his flailing on the ground he’d been hit several times by the flesh eating maggots, little did Saros know that they were now borrowing deeply into the mans flesh, eating their way slowly towards his vital organs. Still the only sound that came from the darkness was the evil laughter, but the mans attack had given something away to Saros. He couldn’t see Saros any better than Saros could see him, that is why he’d used such a broad attack.

Saros quickly moved into the darkness, taking his best guess at the location of the attacker, stealthily moving through the rubble he soon spotted a figure with a faint light emitting from his forehead. Saros moved quickly, though completely silently and careful to remain out of sight. The man confidently started to move towards Takeshi, who had gone mostly quiet now, though the sound of occasional thrashing upon the ground was still present. Knowing it was his chance Saros struck at the figure, a series of rapid attacks from the bladed end of his staff caught the man off guard. He staggered back in an attempt to dodge the attacks, several connected cutting into the dark robes that hung over the figures body. Saros felt as much as he heard the blade of his staff striking the hard metal of magical armor, only one of the strikes found a hole in the armor, drawing just a small amount of blood.

“I underestimated you, it won’t happen again.”

The man followed his statement with a quick attack, he didn’t draw a weapon but his hands felt like they were forged of pure soulsteel. He unleashed a flurry of attacks that caused his castemark to grow brighter, Saros expertly dodge the first two blows but the third was a sweep kick that knocked him to the ground. Saros was helpless on the ground, at the mans’ mercy, though Saros expected to receive none. The man raised his hand, pointing the palm down at Saro’s body, the hand crackled with purple and black essence.

The explosion from the bolt hitting the earth was massive, a cloud of dust shot up around the figure, who laughed in triumph assuming the helpless figure had been completely destroyed.

“You are a fool, a slave, and completely worthless. You’re master would be disappointed, you could not even kill two petty star gazers. Now you have an opponent who knows your tricks and your weaknesses.” Akranian’s voice rang out across the chamber, the cloaked figure approached the crater left by the other mans blast calmly. “I’m afraid you will never be able to bear that news to your master however.”

---

Saros knelt over the body of Takeshi, who seemed to be quickly fading away into death. Saros quickly examined the body, finding small puncture holes over it, faint twitches of muscle could be seen under the mans flesh, after a brief moment Saros realized what had happened. The maggots that had reigned down over t hem were not borrowing through the mans flesh, eating him alive and digging their way to his vital organs. Even a skilled surgeon would have difficulty saving this man; it was certainly beyond the scope of Saros’ power.

The sound of Arkanian fighting with the other abyssal rang loudly throughout the chamber, and bright flashes of essence and fire occasionally lit up the area, several small fires burned off in the distance. They provided some light for now, but soon they would only be filling the area with smoke. It was too late to save Takeshi, but not too late to accomplish his mission. He looked back to find Arkanian, as he did the chamber was lit with a bright flash as Arkanians anima came to life around him. The necrotic essence wrapped itself around his body, illuminating both figures standing upon a ruin in the distance, Arkanian’s plasma tongue repeater was leveled at the back of the mans head. Two more bright flashes of fire erupted from the end of the barrel, echoing bangs rang down towards Saros, causing small rocks and debris to fall from the ceiling all throughout the chamber. The other abyssal was thrown across the chamber, wrapped in flame and landed with a crash, breaking through the wall of an old building that crashed in around him.

“Arkanian, we have a problem!” Saros yelled out across the chamber, to Arkanian who was standing exactly how he had been when he pulled the trigger to shot the man. He did not respond for a moment, looking to the rubble of the building, then finally he jumped down from the ruins he stood upon and quickly jogged over to Saros and Takeshi.

Arkanian could tell by the look of the man that he was dying, it was only a matter of time now. Saros was kneeling down next to the man, trying to wake him from the coma he’d fallen into. Arkanian had turned away from the scene and walked a few paces away, waiting for Saros to finish what he considered feeble attempts. To his surprise he heard Takeshi take a few sharp intakes of breath, apparently regaining consciousness. Saros was leaning over him now, whispering quietly to Takeshi, something that Arkanian could not make out.

“Let him die Saros, its over.” Arkanian walked back over to the two of them, looming over them and casting a glance down to Takeshi of apathy and pity.

“We need him, at least we need this information.” Saros responded as he lifted Takeshi’s head slightly, trying to urge him to speak.

Takeshi for his part seemed determined to try to say his final words, as he tried to mouth them he could only produce a soft wheezing sound. Arkanian knelt down over the man, studying his moving lips…”Can you save me?” Pathetic human, the moment of his death and all he can think of is if he can be saved, he deserved the painful death he received.

“We can save you, but first tell me what you saw. Tell me why they are after you.” Saros spoke calmly, just above a whisper and with a certain command to his voice that Arkanian was surprised to here him exert.

Takeshi tried to mouth something else, but he was slipping away faster now, from the sound of the wheezing one of the creatures had borrowed its way into his lung. Neither Saros nor Arkanian could make out what he was trying to say, though it seemed clear he was trying to pass along his final message.

“Perhaps it is not too late for you after all.” Arkanian leaned over the mans body as he spoke a hushed whisper, pressing a kiss to the mans forehead. Takeshi’s eyes went wide as he felt the rush of essence enter his body, flowing through him and penetrating his mind. Arkanian’s eyes remained shut and the essence around him started to glow brighter, flooding the chamber with light. In a matter of moments Arkanian’s body had undergone a radical transformation, before Saro’s very eyes Arkanian had completely morphed into Takeshi.

Arkanian ran the cold blade of his daiklave along the man’s neck, cutting him open and making sure he did not come back a ghost to tell of his unfinished business. Takeshi died with a look of horror upon his face as his throat was slit by a man who had just turned into an exactly likeness of himself.

“Do not open the vault, an ageless horror awaits within the armor of darkness.” Akranian spoke the words, though the words and the voice were clearly Takeshi’s. Saros had received what he came for, but now he must decipher the prophecy before it was too late.

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