[Brefalac the Lich King]
[3590585543-00001-02]
[1]
[Scrio]
[Network Archon Striga-600 AI-Neuralet]
[D2-45 Eren]
[Ezekiel Ratakana]
[FTL 3862|05|(3)24|12-21-13]
[The Rapture| Network Space]
[Unidentifiable Energy Residue-Integrity Uncompromised]
Hello again. It is I, Ezekiel Ratakana, Outbound Saint, explorer extraordinaire. It has been one month since I departed Starato aboard the Rapture. Things are going swimmingly. The adventures never stop. I spend each day exploring the nooks and crannies of the ship, searching out every last one of its secrets. This is a job I received from Captain Harlow himself, though he called it something different. I can still hear his words today: ‘Mr. Ratakana, since you’re only able to pay part of the passenger fee, you’ll need to work to make up the difference. Start by swabbing the deck.”
That’s right. I’m actually supposed to be cleaning. I just can’t help it! There are just so many little hidden nuances to the Rapture! She’s absolutely amazing! The way she was put together is sublime, stunning, and elegant beyond comparison. The way her Rift Speed Drive connects to her M.A.N.A. reactor leaves almost zero room for waste and the internal systems have clearly been optimized over and over and over again to iron out every last unneeded redundancy. She is divine.
‘EZ, we’ve received a message from the captain. He wants to see you on the bridge.’ Of course, it could not last. Eren, my ever-faithful companion, reminds me with a swift word that there is still work to be done.
I give a deep and hefty sigh before turning toward the bridge. ‘Very well. Tell him I will be but a moment.’
‘EZ, are you sure you want to do the recordings like that?’ Eren says. She has been worried about something for a few days now. This must be it. ‘Your audience won’t find all that passive voice jarring?’
“Of course not, Eren, my dear!” I say out loud unnecessarily, “This is the language of the arts, of literature! I must paint a picture for my audience, and bring them here with me so they can see what I see and feel what I feel.”
‘Wouldn’t a video recording be better for that?’
“Of course not!” I say out loud again, “That would detract from the beauty of it; from the pure magic of creating something out of words alone.”
‘Are you sure that’s true, EZ?’
“Beyond a doubt.”
‘If you say so. I just think it might help to be more concise, to improve the clarity, or more active, to be more engaging?’
“Absolutely not!” I nearly scoff, “Words are like paint. The more the better”
‘I don’t think that’s true either, EZ,’ but the bridge doors slide open at just that moment, cutting the conversation short.
There are four people here already. Each is performing some task that I assume is needed to keep the Rapture running. Captain Harlow stands before a slightly elevated chair, arms crossed, scrutinizing an image of a planet on the main display, an ugly gray little thing that seems to almost be flinching from the light of its star.
“We’ve arrived,” he says as I approach, “Gremle.”
“The ancient home of Brefalac the Lich King,” I cannot help but smile at the hideous little ball. The amount of history packed inside it could floor even Lucan the Keeper.
“And the resting place of many a valuable relic.” The captain crosses his arms, a glint in his eye, and a grin splitting his face.
[2]
[Scrio]
[Network Archon Striga-600 AI-Neuralet]
[D2-45 Eren]
[Ezekiel Ratakana]
[FTL 3862|05|(3)24|14-17-48]
[Gremle-Lost City of the Torn]
[Unidentifiable Energy Residue-Integrity Uncompromised]
‘Time is short, gents,’ Captain Harlow bellows into my head through the communication channel, ‘let’s make the best of it.’ He gives each of us in turn a long stern look through the visor of his helmet. Thirteen of us, including the captain, stand in a small huddle in a barren expanse of dead trees just outside the Rapture. But it isn’t just the trees that are dead; everything else is too. All the way past the trees to the skyline of towering buildings, it’s all dead and gray, even the air, even the sky.
“It’s like something tore the very soul out of the planet,” says the crewman next to me as he peers around wide-eyed and already sweating.
“That’s probably the reason for the name, I’d wager,” I say, with a shiver from the cold. Looking around, I can’t help but think it is both disgusting and beautiful at the same time, this Lost City. How did such a thing happen? Surely Brefalac alone was not the cause of a planet-wide catastrophe? He would have to be a Printer of at least Imperial level to do such a thing. And if that was the case, how did he remain so hidden?
Captain Harlow’s continued bellowing interrupts the thought, ‘Everyone knows what they’re doing? Good. Primary and secondary rendezvous points? Good. If we lose contact, be back at one of them no later than twelve hours from now. The Rapture will maintain a holding pattern until then. Move out!’
From there we split into two groups, one of six and one of seven, with me as the odd man, and travel in opposite directions. The crew is here to scavenge relics from the ruins to sell at market. I have a set of coordinates that I believe will bring me directly to one of Brefalac’s workshops and I intend to search it for new insights into who Brefalac was and what he did to earn the name Lich King. The goals happened to align nicely so Captain Harlow agreed to send an escort with me.
The leader of this escort is… ‘Jack’ Jack, that’s it. Thank you, Eren… Jack seems like a gentle man but can be quite strict from what I’ve seen. He is apparently a veteran of the Network military. He wanted a little bit more adventure so now he is a trusted lieutenant of a space pirate -’Merchant’- yes, space merchant vessel, galavanting across the galaxy in search of treasure.
I’ve learned that most of the crew have similar stories. Admittedly, We fit together rather well.
Jack insists we walk in some kind of triangle shape that he calls a wedge and search the surrounding area for potential threats as we go as if there is actually anything still alive on this planet besides us. Even if there were, how could it compete against six men holding rad-casters? He worries too much; he and Captain Harlow both.
‘And me?’
‘And you, Eren. You worry too much as well. This is an adventure. We should be having fun!’
‘We can’t have any fun if we’re dead, EZ.’
“What could possibly happen to us here, Eren? This whole planet has been dead for Melenia. The atmosphere can’t even support life any longer, which is why we’re even wearing these suits. And for that matter-”
‘Mr. Ratakana!’ Jack’s voice abruptly cuts in. I glance over to see him glaring at me -a few of the crew as well.
I feel a heat rise in my neck. I had accidentally begun speaking out loud. I clear my throat uncomfortably, which elicits a flinch, and realize that I am the only sound to be heard. ‘My apologies,’ I send, ‘Please proceed.’
It isn’t long before we are out of the trees and into the streets. Everyone knows that Gremle has been uninhabitable for generations, but looking at the ruins one would think it more like a few weeks. Walls of steel rising into the sky close in all around us, wholly intact, shading us from the meager starlight. Our boots striking the pavement make the only sound for miles. I stare in wonder at every passing structure, at the street below us, and down every narrow ally. It has all held up far too well against the passage of time. Hardly anything has crumbled, cracked, or broken. No plants, animals, or waterways have crept in to retake the land. It feels as if something froze the city in the moment just after its demise.
We walk for some time like this, turning here and there deeper into the labyrinth. Everything looks exactly the same and my head is just starting to spin when Eren chimes, ‘We’ve almost arrived, EZ.’
My stupor dissolves immediately, ‘how much further?’
‘Only a few hundred meters left.’
I glance at the map. The guide-trail stops just at the other end of the next block. In a single beat, my lethargy twists into excitement. I am practically bouncing with anticipation by the time we come to a halt at the corner of a tall gray steel building that looks no different from all the others around us.
‘This the one?’ Jack asks.
‘This is it.’ I am already searching for the entrance.
‘Let my boys go first, Mr. Ratakana,’ Jack sends as he puts a restraining hand on my shoulder. Four crewmen step forward. ‘They’ll clear and secure the building so we can look around unbothered.’
‘I don’t see why that will be necessary, Jack.’ I simply cannot wait any longer. ‘There isn’t a single form of life out here other than ourselves. And your boys might break something valuable in their haste to destroy a threat that isn’t there.’
‘You needn’t worry about that. These are the best guys in the crew; hand-picked by yours truly just for this mission. We’ll be good to go before you can blink twice.’
Without hesitation, I blink twice at him. He only continues to smile and wait for my answer. I sigh. I don’t really have much choice.
If I was practically bouncing before, I am actually bouncing now. I manage to blink quite a few times more before they finish. Not another moment passes before I am inside.
I can’t for my life think of a good way to describe it other than dark. There is no power, no windows, no light inside of any kind. My eyes quickly auto-adjust to night vision mode and nothing much changes about my testament. It is just a normal lobby of any building you would find on any city street that should be filled with normal people conducting normal business. The fact that it isn’t sends a chill through me.
I ask Jack if his boys found anything on the upper floors. They did not. Brefalac knew what he was; what people thought of him and his practice. He was known to hide his secrets behind more than a savory mask. My gut tells me to check the lowest level.
Downstairs, in the utility room, I scour every inch of the floor, run my hands along every wall, inspecting every nook and cranny while Jack and his boys wander around watching for invisible dangers.
Eventually, Eren brings my attention to a piece of wall different from everything around it. A square section right at waist height two feet to the left of a corner on an otherwise blank stretch of steel glows with a blue highlight. ‘Good find, Eren.’ I rush to it. If it isn’t a hidden button then my name is not Ezekiel Ratakana.
I glance behind me to see if Jack or his boys have noticed. They have not. I am alone for the moment. It’s now or never. I reach my hand toward the button.
‘It might be trapped, EZ,’ Eren says mere moments before my fingers make contact.
‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained,’ and I touch it.
Nothing happens.
After a moment I say, ‘Eren, why isn’t it working?’
She does not respond.
‘Eren.’
‘I think you should let the crew search it before you do anything that might get us killed, EZ’
‘Eren, you’ve been with me long enough to know that danger is the name of this game,’ I say and decide to press a little bit harder. Maybe it didn’t register my touch.
To my surprise, the button actually depresses into the wall. A kinetic force mechanism? That is terribly old-school, even for Brefalac’s time. After a brief pause the wall next to me slides open -as if it were meant to be a door the entire time- revealing a staircase leading down. I ignore Eren’s protest and take the first step.
As I approach the bottom a light activates further in, shining on a hallway with doors on either side and another at the far end (eleven in total). Each door appears constructed, thick and heavy, of some kind of black steel that contrasts sharply with the walls. The eleventh door is larger, thicker, and heavier, and each of them is decorated end to end with symbols that I can’t read from here. As soon as my eyes land on it I hear Jack calling out my name.
Something hooks me. Some spectral force sinks claws deep into my thoughts and I cannot think about anything except opening that door.
I close the distance even before realizing that I had taken the first step. The thought passes to inspect the symbols now that I am closer but, instead, I reach out and push. It is much heavier than I thought and I have to use every ounce of effort in me to make it move even an inch. It squeals on long unused hinges the entire time but I manage a crack large enough to slip through sweating and panting with exertion.
Inside, the most wondrous thing awaits. The large room is perfectly preserved as if it were freshly constructed and still in use. I don’t know a good way to describe it except ‘laboratory’. All along the walls and strewn about the floor on tables, desks, and shelves, are beakers of many strange shapes and sizes, exotic machines with functions I haven’t the faintest clue of, elaborate Mana circles scratched and painted and drawn into the steel, and most wondrous of all: books, actual physical tomes of paper and leather, nearly a hundred of them and each one alone could be worth a fortune.
But In the very center, as if given a spotlight on a stage, is the largest and most elaborate Mana circle I’ve ever laid eyes on.
I remember only a few things from that point: I had the thought that this circle was truly the work of a genius, blood rushing in my ears, my heart pounding, and my feet continuing to move forward without my consent. Eren’s protests rang wordless in my head like a bell. Thankfully, Jack probably found his way down there by this point because somehow the two of us are still alive.
As soon as both my feet reach the circle it flashes to life, shining a beautiful white light that fills the room. Then a bolt rockets through me. From the tips of my toes to my fingertips and nose lightning seizes my nerves. I hear Eren screaming.
[End Chapter]
One response to “Brefalac the Lich King”
Very much enjoyed. Excited to see what happens to Ezekiel next.