Now
A never-ending grey pall hung over the soaring mountain peaks and desperate gulches of Pariah. It was a once-populated world, the people now long gone, ground into the dust by the adverse whim of its creator. The deep malaise threatened to creep into the man’s heart as he walked along the path. The road he was on wound its way through a lonely valley that sat in the shadows of the great dark mountains, and up into the caves where his next challenge lay waiting. He had long ago discarded the trappings of his old life as a petty criminal; gone were the expensive suits, the fine shoes, and the delicately sculpted locks of the cheap hustler, always looking to score. They had been replaced by a dark vest over a rough-spun jerkin, durable jeans underneath boiled leather, a pair of army issue boots, tough dark leather gloves, and long hair and a beard as black as a moonless night. He carried no weapon, as he used to, for he now needed nothing save his own mind to destroy his enemy. His strides were sure and brisk as he ascended the path as it rose up into the caves. As he entered the great, gaping mouth of the entrance, a maw of broken granite teeth that yawned wide for his flesh, he closed his eyes, and drew upon his strength and power.
He opened his eyes, which now emitted a strange and ghastly blue light, and twin halos of darkness formed around his hands. He held them out to his sides as he walked forward, grinning with the thrill of what was to come. The cave sloped downward, and ended in a great chasm around which an edging of rough stones formed a ring of handholds, broken paths, and crude parapets. The path wound ever downward into a sightless abyss. The man knew every handhold, every curve of the path, and each pitfall where he might plunge to his death. He had learned the way of the caves, and knew them like he knew his own heart. This was a place of monsters.
This was where he belonged!
He screamed his challenge into the darkness. The sound of his boldness echoed for ages, or so it seemed. Slowly, one by one, there came the cries and wails of the monsters, some passionate and angry, others miserable and annoyed, but all united in a singular devotion to hunger, and the hunt! The man did not step slowly, but ran down the slope in to the pit. He knew the path, knew where to hide if necessary, but he had no concern for his own safety.
“Come and get it!” he screamed.
He leapt off the ledge, opening his arms wide to welcome the darkness. This was all he wanted! Exultation! Freedom! Most of all – revenge!!
The darkness that he sought detached from one of the smooth slopes where it had been slumbering before the man shouted his defiance into the great abyss, and reached out with its claws to seize him and swallow him whole. But before it could devour him, the man grabbed its neck, and swung up and onto its back. The dark creature cried out in frustration as the strong hands of the man dug into its scales, and pulled back with strength well beyond what it had expected.
The man’s hands flowed with the dark and pervasive energy of his mind now, and he reached past the hard, dark scales of the monster and into its body. The beast soared up, out of the abyss and towards the roof of the cave, meaning to crush him and rid itself of its frightening burden. The man laughed, and twisted his hold with such force that the creature changed direction to avoid the agony, and it flew like an arrow at the great entrance to the caves. The man reached further now, past the purely physical and into the deep and terrible mind of the monster itself. He clung on to its neck as they shot out of the cave together, and began to climb into the sky. He yearned to reach out and touch the fierce elation that it must feel whenever the sky beckoned, and the monster stretched its great black wings out upon the grey canvas of the clouds.
There! It was there in its mind beneath the endless night of the twinned souls that were the birthright of the great winged Wraith...the writhing cacophony of its fellow brood, its singular desire to devour and thrive, the years of being trapped in this barren world...he could feel its despair, and he knew that ache in his own heart. He reached out with his mind, and soothed its pain with the fire of vengeance that raged at his very core. The wraith gladly received the gift, and they became one as if the man was the beast, and the beast knew his soul as well. Its eyes glowed with the same emerald light, and they howled in triumph together as they soared in the grey skies over the mountains.
Far below, in the darkness of the caves, the minds of the other wraiths received the singular gift from the mind of their hungry, elated brood mate, and cried out in unholy agreement with its new-found joy. They took wing as well, and sought the open sky...
Along the path, far from the cave, a legion of men and women raised their hands in victory, and shouted their exultation into the sky. A lone rider on a Wraith soared through the sky, and behind him were a dozen or so others. They followed his lead, moving as one as they flowed across the grey backdrop of Pariah’s sky. The men and women were organized in a great camp that spread across the plains, dozens upon dozens of tents arrayed in circles around a central plateau where a large tent had been erected. Every man was the same, dark-haired and dark-eyed with pale skin, as were the women. They all resembled each other in facial features and build. There were no fires, for none of those arrayed inside the camp needed the warmth. Instead, all eyes now looked to the large tent. Standing in front of it were two figures, a man and a woman. The man stood three steps behind her.
The woman had ghostly pale skin and dark red hair underneath a heavy black cloak with a hood that fell about her shoulders and down to her ankles. The rest of her body was wrapped in a filmy darkness that caressed every inch of her flesh up to her neck. It flowed and swam across her body. Her eyes were as black as deep well water, and tinged with a purple light that belonged in the swirling gases of cosmic nebulae. She smiled up at the sky as she beheld the rider and his train.
Her companion was a well-built young man with a broad chest, sandy-haired and cut short with a beard of similar trim and colouring. He wore a cloak similar to hers, but it was not hooded. He wore heavy, gilded plate armour underneath over heavy chain. His hands were encased in massive, plated gauntlets, and they rested on the pommel of a two-handed heavy mace with a spiked head that sat on the ground. He leaned on his weapon, watching the spectacle of the rider and the wraiths. His look was not joyous, as hers was, but grim and brooding.
“You must be very proud,” he murmured.
“As should you,” she replied, “You’ve guided him, and refined his power to this point. I can only imagine what it would’ve been like if you’d done the same for all of us.”
“That was not my plan. Neither was this, but it seems I have little choice.”
She turned to him, the darkness sliding across her flesh. Her hands settled over his gauntlets, and she raised her chin when she addressed him.
“You’ve helped our cause, hiding us here. In return, I have not told all of these warriors who you are.”
“Warriors? I see only drones; empty shells that would be nothing without your mind uniting theirs.”
“These drones will win you back your throne,” she chided.
“At a price.”
“All things come with a price, Cole.”
He shrugged off her hands, and hoisted the mace over his shoulder.
“Do not call me that,” he growled.
She smirked and retreated. She gazed up into the sky, and watched as the rider wheeled about. She could now feel his elation through the bond they shared. The wraith was there too, and she yearned to feel its soul herself.
“I will hold up my end of our bargain,” he said, “You will have what you want.”
“Oh, I know that you will. You have no choice, old man; our fortunes are bound.”
The rider turned in the sky, and headed down towards the camp. The wraiths in tow followed him down.
“The usurper must fall,” he said, watching the rider dismount from the wraith, “That is our bond. I do not believe in fortune, Penny; I believe in plans.”
The rider made his way through the camp quickly, being clapped on the shoulders and cheered on by the warriors. Each beheld him with admiration, and a strange sort of love they inherited from their Queen. Her first knight, her paramour, mounted the slope of the plateau, and she took his hand in her own. They looked into each other’s eyes, a knowing smile playing across their faces, and turned back to their companion.
“Then let us begin ours,” Penny said.
A roaring sound issued from the cave in the distance. A huge shadow erupted from the mouth of the cave, a form larger and more developed than its dark children. Its neck was long, and its skeletal head massive. Its wings stretched across the whole of the world, it seemed. All eyes were on it as it screamed in fury and flew over the camp, trailing the bones and debris of years spent in seclusion upon the gathered throng. The man in gilded armour watched as several shards fell upon him, and he swept them off with his heavy hand.
“As you say,” he said, “Let us begin.”
