Ch10-4: Dirty Work
“So… what’s the word on the Fire Crystal?” the single burning eye of O.M.E.G.A. focused, a fixed green gaze in the middle of the night’s shadows. The shifting hiss of dark desert sands rose and fell like a petrified ocean in the distance.
Joran’s face was blank as her head turned towards him. Kip was a mind mage… one with the ability to take control of another’s mind and functions. Still, something about the vacant expression replacing one that had once been so full of life left a prickle over his skin. Her mind belonged to him. She would do what he desired without question or hesitation.
And the feeling made him sick.
“The Crystal is not within Damcyan Castle,” she answered with a monotone voice.
That had certainly not been the answer he had wanted or expected. “Are you positive?”
“Yes,” Joran looked at him with unblinking eyes. It had been a silly question for him to ask. She couldn’t lie to him even if she really wanted to.
The humans must be getting smart to the pattern… they think they can hide the Crystal so I can’t find it. Or remove it… so that it causes less damage to their precious city.
Kip traced lines in the sand with the tip of his toxic blade.
How cute.
Then he gave the ground a sharp stab that sent dust clouding up in a little puff at his feet.
It won’t save them, however.
Joran stood motionless. She hardly seemed to be breathing. That vacant face saw without seeing. And Kip felt sick again to see it.
“Get out of my sight,” he told her. Though the words were rough formed, the tone was not. Kip forced the regret out of his mind as he had to do so many times that night.
The girl did as she was told, curling up in a crook of stone in the back of the underground cavern. It was a natural desert cave positioned not too far from the castle-city of Damcyan. A perfect distance to study their terrain. To spy and gather information. To make plans for their next move.
We don’t have a lot of time. As soon as Golbez gets his head on his shoulders, he’ll figure out how to track us down. If I haven’t located and destroyed the last Light Crystal by then, things are going to get interesting. In a difficult sort of way.
And difficult was not what Kip wanted. He stabbed at the ground a few more times, a deep scowl crossing his face.
I’m still not exactly sure what Luccious’ game is with these Crystals. But so far, he’s pulled through on what he’s told me. So I guess I’m going to have to give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to knowing about Crystals.
O.M.E.G.A. pulled his gloves on one at a time. Then he double checked the straps of his tall black boots and his coat collar. Finally, finding everything satisfactory, he began to place lines of wards around the entrance of the little desert cave. Not that it was all that easy to find… nor did he think Joran would attempt to escape. But one could never know.
And O.M.E.G.A. had some work to do.
“I’ll return shortly… I’m going to the castle to scout out some information. You stay here and guard Incrytan, yes?” Kip glanced back over his shoulder at Joran.
The girl returned his words with a blank nod. It wasn’t as if she needed any verbal commands to know his imposed will. But maybe it just didn’t seem as rude if he gave her an explanation before leaving.
“Alright,” he gave a soft sigh before heading into the shroud of darkness outside the cave.
The desert was a dead place. So very fitting for what was about to play out. The sands churned around his feet, cast upon the chilling air. The lights of the distant human habitat shone like foolish beacons, leading O.M.E.G.A. straight towards his goal. He knew they were there, lying unaware in the night. Oblivious of the dangers that stalked them, the single burning eye that watched the flickering of their heart-fires in the distance.
Don’t worry. It’ll all be over with soon. Don’t struggle. I can make it quick and painless.
A twisted smile curved the corners of his mouth upwards as he finally came to the base of the tall stone wall. Sand beat against the structure like waves upon the ocean shore – rising, denied and falling. Time and again. The smooth lower half of the wall was slick from the wind’s relentless struggle. But there were still plenty of handholds for him to find.
O.M.E.G.A. pressed himself against the wall, inspecting his surroundings. After walking along the perimeter of the structure for a few more moments, he finally hoisted himself up and began to climb. It didn’t matter if anyone saw his ascent – they would not have the mind to remember what they saw when he got done with them.
You don’t see me. There’s nothing here out of the ordinary. Nothing at all.
Finally, O.M.E.G.A. pulled himself up to the top of the wall, balancing with one leg up over the edge. Below, he could see the shadows of guards dotting the courtyards. Some were doing their quiet rounds. Others were chatting and joking with each other at their posts. A game of dice was in its height at a crowded table somewhere on the other side of the hedges.
Kip frowned.
I hardly need mind magery at all. They’re all a bunch of slackers.
Then he flipped himself over to the other side of the wall, carefully sliding down hand over hand in the shadow of a wide leafy tree. The only sound came when his boots crunched on the stone on the other side. After being out in the desert world, it came as a surprise to see plantlife actually flourishing on the inside of the castle.
I guess when you got as much money as a king, you can buy ways to make a flower grow in the desert.
With the cheers and jeers from the distant dice game as his cover, O.M.E.G.A. easily slipped from the courtyard into the dry stone corridor. He moved swiftly, his mind ever vigilant to turning the eyes of anyone curious enough to glance his way. Tiny thought pulses were all that he needed. It didn’t take him long to pick his way through the narrow halls to the heart of the castle. Where the Crystal of Fire once had been kept.
Kip needed information. And he knew the best place to get it was still in the Crystal chamber. Even if the Crystal no longer remained there.
As he crept up to the area outside the throne room, O.M.E.G.A. found the doors to be shut fast for the night. Undaunted, he slipped closer, using the pattern of shadows as his shroud. There was but one lone guard left there on the night watch – no doubt the humans thought that there was nothing left to guard with the Crystal itself no longer present.
They were wrong.
O.M.E.G.A.’s hand shot out of the shadows, clamping firmly on the back of the other man’s throat, just between the plates of helm and neckguard. Armor was made to keep out a blade… but it could never withstand the malicious mind mage. One touch was all it took – flesh against flesh. The pulse of fatal will. And the human belonged to him.
Delving. Deep into memory-images.
Sorting through them piece by piece to find what was needed. The image of the hazy glow of the Crystal of Fire flickered into O.M.E.G.A.’s mind-eye. Connecting deeper, he could see the memory as if it had been his own.
The man was frozen under his fingertips. The only trace of life in him was the soft, periodic moan and shallow, hoarse breath. Terror. The dull, rapid thrumming of his frightened heart. All of these things O.M.E.G.A. could feel – he was both himself and his victim. The Master and the slave.
“Quiet now,” his raspy voice hissed in the guard’s ear. “We’re going to think about the Fire Crystal. That’s what we’re going to do.”
Once again the focus shifted to a hazy memory. The Crystal of Fire. It was taken down from its pedestal by the young king of Damcyan. Then wrapped away in a thick red cloth.
“Where did it go from there?” O.M.E.G.A. prodded, tightening his grip on the man’s throat.
Men walking. A royal guard escorting the King. Escorting the Crystal away. This guard had not been in the escort though. His memories stopped there.
“I need a location,” the voice growled low.
A twinge of fear shivered through the guard’s body. His mind was reeling, searching hard for the information that would please his Master. A crudely drawn image began to form, black on a wrinkled brown-like parchment. As O.M.E.G.A. concentrated, he could make out the details of a map. A map of the Damcyan desert lands.
The guard had not been part of the escort. But he was familiar with the Crystal’s final destination.
“Good… yes. That’s it…”
The map became clearer and clearer, superimposed upon the memory of what seemed to be a sand-blown city. A city with tall, brown spires that lay broken and scattered under the pressing blue, cloudless sky. A city that opened up into a deep cavern below, a place where people had once lived in the shelter of the cool underground.
It was here that the people of Damcyan took refuge in times of war, storms and need. And though it was now completely abandoned, it was here that the humans had chosen to hide the Crystal of Fire.
O.M.E.G.A. lingered upon the memory for a while, ignoring the pleading gasps of his victim. He burned the image of the crumpled city into his mind. The details of the ragged map thrummed in his vision with the beating of the man’s heart. Faster and faster. Until limbs began to jerk and convulse.
What’s this..?
The hand opened in a last moment act of mercy. O.M.E.G.A. watched as the human dropped, crumpled against the blank stone of the wall. He lay unmoving, but alive, shifting strands of silver light rising like ghostly smoke from his body.
Mindmelding has never had that sort of effect before.
Then his thoughts cast back to the words of Luccious. To the power that was gifted to him. And a frown drew over O.M.E.G.A.’s lips. But there was no more time to waste thinking. The final piece of the puzzle was in place.
O.M.E.G.A. wove his fingers through the air, hovering above the guard’s head. The man’s breathing deepened, the semblance of sleep falling over him. And memory of the terror of the mindmeld became nothing more but a twisting dream of strangeness that would be shrugged away upon waking. Anyone without a trained eye would simply see a man who had fallen asleep on duty.
Not that the humans can do much to stop this. But it’s still best to cover the tracks and leave them as little warning as possible.
The shadows welcomed him back, muffling his footsteps along the corridors. His hand reached down, fingers searching in the pocket within his coat. There sat the bundle, safe as it had been since Bradhoc had given it to him in Baron.
The last Dark Crystal.
How a human had managed to get his hands on such a thing, O.M.E.G.A. didn’t know. It had probably had something to do with connections to Luccious… and things that were better left unspoken. But the matter was that Bradhoc had. And during their meeting in Baron, the Dark Crystal had been given to O.M.E.G.A.
The location of the Crystal of Fire was all there was left. Now that we know where it is, we can destroy the last of the Blue Planet Crystals and turn our sights on the Lunar Planet.
How they were meant to get there, he was unsure of. But so far, Luccious had his ways of making things happen… which said a lot for a guy who was supposedly sealed away on the other side of the spirit world. Kip had decided long ago when he had cut his bargain to sit back and let the situation unfold as it would.
It’s not as if there is much to lose.
Making his way out of the castle was just as easy as slipping in. Every now and then, a guard call rang out over the courtyard, accented by the motion of armored feet. Still, for all of their number, Kip found it easy enough to stick to the shadows and turn their attention away from his activities. Inch by inch, stone by stone, he made his way towards the outer wall.
It wasn’t so much the escape from Damcyan that played on his concerns.
This could make things more difficult if word gets out.
He knew that it would only be a short matter of time before the loss of the Dark Crystal was reported. And O.M.E.G.A. only had a small window of opportunity to reach the Fire Crystal before Golbez and the others realized what was really going on. But it would be long enough.
I have to make it long enough.
By the time he finally landed on the other side of the fortress line, the midnight was hanging heavy over the desert world. There was no better time to travel than that, he knew. And time wasn’t something they had a lot of.
Once O.M.E.G.A. reclaimed Joran, they would begin their journey to find the sunken city in the sand.