[Mkguild] Past Present and Future Part 4

[christian okane]

Here is part 4



   Once they reached where the old Suielman road started things got a lot
easier. The route was steep, but the road was broad and easy walking so the
group made good progress on their journey. The group climbed higher and
higher, soon the peaks of lesser mountains were left far below as the road
took them constantly upward. Gradually the plant life thinned out and
finally stopped all together. Eventually even the clouds were left behind as
the valley floor disappeared in the mists below. By noon the air was growing
colder and they began to notice patches of snow on the ground. The stops for
rest grew more frequent as the thinner air began to take its toll. And still
the road kept climbing higher and higher. They had been here before but
familiarity didn't make it any easier. At least they did not have to worry
about being attacked by anything. No Lutin would climb this harsh terrain
and no wildlife lived this high up. That left them alone with the road and
the climb.

   Eventually the road made a sharp turn to the right and ran straight into
a tunnel carved into the mountainside. The group slowed and came to a halt
just short of the tunnel mouth.

   "This is it," Misha said. "That's the entrance to the fortress."

   Rickkter looked at the tunnel mouth for a long moment. "I can see many
spells in effect mostly for disguise but several warding against magic."

   "I also see several very well hidden arrow slits," Charles commented.

   "Assaulting this place must have been very bloody," Misha said. "I'm
surprised they succeeded at all."

   "They had help," Caroline explained. "Bolva betrayed the order. He
destroyed it from the inside."

   "Did he?" Rickkter asked as his tail moved back and forth slowly. "After
they threw him out of the Amber order mages must have been expecting treason
from him. Why were they caught so badly off guard?" He turned and looked at
Misha. "Has Madog revealed anything?"

   The fox shook his head. "No aside from some vague, contradictory and
confusing statements, nothing. And Omega has no memory of the fortresses
fall and very little about the order."

   "There is always Bolva," Rickkter said. "He was there."

   "We can't trust anything he says," Charles snapped.

   "True, but he is the only living witness left," the raccoon countered.
"And even with all the lying he is sure to pass along some real information.
We just need to separate the lies from the truth."

   "Just?" Caroline remarked sarcastically.

   "Not everyone finds it so easy to lie," Charles said.

   "Still," Misha said. "I do want to find out more from him. There are so
many questions that only he can answer."

   "But will he answer?" Charles asked. "And if he does will it be the
truth?"

   "That's the hard part," Rickkter quipped. "Telling fact from fiction."

   The fox turned to his friends. "Before we enter let me put some wards on
you that should allow you some protection  from most of the defenses the
Order might have left behind." He took a small bottle of ink and a brush.
Caroline extended her hand as Misha dipped the brush into the ink. With fast
but precise strokes he drew a complex symbol onto her palm. Then he drew the
same symbol onto Charles and finally Rickkter as well. "These will last at
least a day or two."

   "Will it protect us against everything?" Charles asked.

   "I'm honestly not sure," Misha answered honestly. "I'm not sure what
we'll find here. But we just need to careful."

   "I'm always careful," Rickkter commented.

   While Charles bit back a laugh, Misha drew the last of the symbol onto
the raccoon's palm. "That's one reason you're here."


*****************


   The three people were as silent as the forested ruins around them. The
only sound was the faint rustle of  trees in a wind that living people never
felt. Through the brush around them the shapes of ruined buildings would
loom up suddenly and then vanished back into the shadows.

   "This is a death march." Stealth mumbled out loud as they walk along the
weed and brush covered road.

   The paladin looked at his friend. "It is not a death march!" Edmund shot
back.

   "Well it is a dead forest." Nestorius answered.

  The paladin stopped and looked at Stealth. "Is anything killing you?"
Edmund countered.

   "Not yet," was the response.

   Edmund shook his head and turned and continued walking. 


***************


   The group found itself standing in a courtyard. Tall, stone columns lined
the edges of a courtyard paved with broad, flat stones. Behind the columns
doorways loomed as dark openings in the rock and stone. Each opening leading
into a separate darkness. A variety of weeds, bushes and flowers poked out
all over between the countless cracks and fractures in the stone. All had
the battered and well worn look of long abandonment.

  Caroline looked around. "It doesn't seem any different from our last
visit."

   Rickkter looked carefully at the ruins all around them. "Nothing has
happened here in centuries."

   "This must have been an entrance yard. A place to greet what few visitors
the order had," Misha commented.

   "We're the only visitors to these ruins in several hundred years,"
Caroline said as she examined a faded mosaic on the floor beneath her paws.
It was hard to pick out the pattern amidst the dirt and weeds.

   "There weren't many visitors even when the order did live here," Rickkter
said.

   Misha spotted a doorway that had daylight behind it and stepped through
into another courtyard similar to the first. Looking around he spotted
doorways leading off in all directions. "This place is smaller then I
realized."

   "There is only so much room on the top of a mountain," Charles commented.

   "Plenty of space inside the mountain," Rickkter pointed downward. "Sure
to be an extensive underground complex."

   Charles nodded slowly pressing his fingers and then his entire hand into
the stone beneath them. "I can feel that the stone beneath us has been
manipulated, carved and shaped into many tunnels and rooms."

   "How many?" Misha asks. "Can you tell how deep?"

   "No," was the rat's answer, standing up and wiggling the flesh back into
his fingers. "But it goes down to the very roots of the mountains."

   "That makes sense," Caroline commented. "The order was here for
centuries. Plenty of time to do all sorts of digging and building." The
otter was slowly looking around with an arrow nocked to her bow. "So where
do we begin?"

   The fox pointed to an open doorway that led further into the ruins. In
the distance a squat tower loomed over the ruins. "That way. I promised
Madog I'd check on our prisoner first."


***************


   It was an unusually quiet group that stopped to eat a late mid day meal.
The three felines settled down on a large bench overgrown with weeds but
still sturdy and strong enough to support all three easily. The felines were
silently eating a meal of cheese, bread and dried lamb meat all washed down
with cold tea.

   "You are unusually somber Edmund," Nestorius said between alternate bites
of bread, cheese and meat.

   "Still thinking about that wall and my memories of it," the paladin
answered.

   "Those were just dreams," Stealth commented.

   "Were they?" Edmund countered. "Or were they memories of a past life?"

   "You are talking about reincarnation," the lion commented. "The belief a
person can be born, live, die and be reborn many times."

   "Doesn't believing in reincarnation clash with your beliefs as an
Ecclesia paladin?" Stealth asked.

   "Not everything the ecclesia hierarchy says is the final truth," Edmund
said in clipped tones. "People make mistakes."

   Stealth turned his head and looked at the paladin. "Would that include
the final truth of the existence of your god?"

   "Your refusal to believe in the great one still confuses me," Edmund said
without looking at his friend.

   "Edmund, you're not a lightbringer, a rebuilder or a Predecessor, you're
a Follower."

   Edmund looked at the fellow cheetah. "What do you think of
reincarnation?"

   "I suppose it's possible but you follow doctrine," Stealth countered.

   "I do follow doctrine but no doctrine is perfect," Edmund gave a chirp of
laughter. "And you really didn't answer my question."

   "Neither did you," Stealth countered quickly.

   The paladin shrugged. "To be honest. "I don't know if I do believe in
reincarnation. Until I came to Metamor I didn't but I've seen too many
things, remembered too many things."

   "Yes, so have I," Stealth admitted.

   "So we're both learning new things here and relearning old things,"
Edmund commented.

   Nest stiffened and his mane bristled. "I was never . . "  he paused and
huffed once. "There is so much we don't know and so much we've forgotten. So
much of our own past is forgotten. Who is to say where our souls have been
before this lifetime. If I was here in a previous life." The lion paused for
a moment. "It did not end well. It was a violent end."

   "Everybody here died violently," Edmund commented. "Nothing survived the
fall of the city. Even the attacking lutins were slaughtered. We must
understand what happened."

   "How's your diet?" Stealth asked Edmund suddenly.

   "My diet is fine and yes I've been having regular bowel movements too."
Edmund answered sarcastically.

   "Have any bad memories been coming to the surface lately?" Stealth asked
in a friendly tone.

    "No," Edmund answered in clipped tones. "And why are you asking me
this?"

   "No reason." Stealth said quietly.

   There was a moment of silence between the two.

   "Stealth," Edmund said slowly. "WHY ARE YOU ASKING!"

   "Edmund, you got yourself cursed so you could help dead people and you
think you died in those woods because of a dream you had."

   The paladin's eyes narrowed and his tail whipped back and forth. "So? You
think that's odd? We're both talking cheetahs led by a talking horse. So
define odd."

   "That's physical, I'm concerned with your state of mind," Stealth said
and tapped the side of his head. "How long have you been a warrior? How much
death have you seen? How has this life affected you?"

   "I have been worried about your state of mind since we first met," Edmund
countered.

   "For not believing in something that you can't prove?" Was Stealth's
sharp response.

   "Yes and for being so adamant in believing that," the paladin responded
harshly.

   "That makes two of us," Stealth snapped.

   "Nice to see you two getting along so well," Nestorius said
sarcastically.

   Stealth patted Nest on the head lightly.


***************


   The four keepers walked carefully examined the rooms that led off the
courtyard but all they found was ruins overgrown with weeds and half buried
under rock and earth. In one room something caught Caroline's eye. One wall
had a small shelf carved into the very stones itself. On that shelf rested
some small object that was neither plant nor rock. "I've found something!"
She called out and moved over to the shelf. Soon the other three cluster
around. Resting on the shelf was a small, little metal figure. Caroline
picked it up and examined it. She found it was of some four legged animal
with a long, thick tail. It's head had two pointed ears and a long, muzzle.

   "I don't sense any magic on it except for a simple preservation spell,"
Rickkter said simply.

   Caroline brushed away some of the dirty and dust revealing that the small
item was made of a gray-black metal.

   Misha lightly touched the item. "It's made of simple iron and it's not
even animated. It's one solid piece."

   "Is this Madog?" Caroline asked. "I think it's a model of Madog!"

   Misha peered at the small figure. "Great Maker! It is!" He said with
delight. He took the metal item and examined it closely. "Odd. It has no
animation to it at all."

   "Reminds me of the toys I played with as a little girl," Caroline said.
"Perhaps it's just that, a toy."

   "What else could it be?" Charles asked as he examined the toy.

   "There isn't enough detail for it to have been a plan or a prototype,"
Misha said.

   "I think it's cute," Caroline responded and deposited the toy in a pocket
for safekeeping.

   The four searched the room carefully but found nothing else, even the
walls and floor were frustratingly bare. Reluctantly the group walked
through the door way they had entered through. 

   The four Keepers walked across the ruined courtyard and to another
doorway. A few steps took them into another courtyard that closely resembled
the two they had already seen. The big difference was the squat tower that
stood opposite the doorway they had entered. It's tall, stone walls seemed
as tough and solid as the mountain on whose top it had been built. Set in
the base of the tower was a door. Moving closer the keepers got a better
look at the door and saw that it was completely covered with symbols and
runes.

   The otter pointed to the door. "Wasn't this door destroyed the last time
we were here?" Caroline asked.

   Rickkter ran his hands along the door and doorframe without actually
touching it. "It was but it's been carefully and expertly repaired."

   "Madog and Omega repaired it," Misha explained.

   "Did you know they've been repairing things here?" Rickkter asked.

   "I was aware of the fact that the two had been watching over the ruins,"
the fox explained. "But not that they have done such extensive repairs."

   "I thought you controlled this place?" Charles asked nervously.

   "No!" the fox responded. "Those two control it. And they gave us
permission."

   "And you let them control it?" Rickkter asked, surprised.

   "I don't let them do anything," Misha responded. "Since when have I ever
been able to force Madog to do anything he doesn't want? Bolva couldn't
command Madog and he helped create Madog."

   "Where are Madog and Omega?" Rickkter asked and looked around as if
expecting the two automatons to appear from some doorway.

   "Madog said he was busy," the fox explained. "And Omega I have not seen
in several days. I think he is here already."

   "They are here," Rickkter responded. "But why? What are they doing here?"

   The fox shrugged. "I don't know but I have the feeling I'll find out
soon."

   Misha touched the door and the massive stone slowly and silently slid
open revealing a staircase leading downwards into the darkness. He placed
his foot carefully onto the first step and slowly made his way down.

   Rickkter's voice floated down to him from back up the stairway. "These
stairs were destroyed after our fight with Bolva. I wonder what else those
two have been up to."

   "So do I!" Misha added.

   "Do you still trust them?" Came Rickkter's voice.

   "Of course!" Misha responded instantly. "Do you?"

   "No," was the raccoon's answer. "I don't trust anyone."

   Misha stopped. "What about Kayla?" He asked.

   There was no answer from Rickkter for a long moment. "Kayla," he said
softly.


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