chapter 22
previous chapter
"This is a story of a bounty hunter, the best one there ever was. He was a legend among legends: few have not heard the whispers of his existence, but despite this, nobody really knows anything about him, not even the people who could afford his services. Very few people actually remember what his face looks like, or his name, or even if it really is a he. But I know, of course, I know his story.. and I tell you now, it was indeed a man, and his name was Evangelion..."
* * * * *
Once again, there was a prickly sensation of time rolling backwards, and we are back in the City, flying through the streets, admiring the amazing light-bloom special effects, until we see...
Evangelion stepped out of the stagecoach, clutching his heavy oiled great-coat against the pelting rain. It was raining heavily, and even with the coat he was shivering. He hurried across the street, and stood for a moment in front of a pair of wrought iron gates. The gates swung open, and he strode onwards, past a driveway with shady trees on either side, up the marble steps, through the door, and into the mansion, his long white hair gleaming with silvery raindrops.
"Your coat, if you please, sir," came a voice dripping with contempt. Evangelion turned, and saw the butler gazing icily at him as he stood in the hall, dripping water all over the expensive floor.
"If you don't mind, Jeremiah, I'll hold on to the coat," Evangelion returned the stare with an equally stony one, turned, and trudged onwards into the mansion, leaving behind a trail of muddy footsteps. The butler gritted his teeth. Bounty hunters! in his opinion, they were the bane of all domestic housekeeping, which made them on par with serial killers in the butler's book. It'll take ages to get the scullery maids to scrub the floor clean again...
* * * * *
Mr Porpoise looked up from his huge oak desk as Evangelion entered the room.
"Ah. You must be the famous bounty hunter I have heard so much about," said Mr Porpoise as he steepled his fingers. "Evangelion, wasn't it? I am honoured that you found time to fit me in your busy schedule. Certainly a man of your abilities would be... very busy indeed."
Evangelion replied with a cold silence that lasted several seconds longer than Mr Porpoise was comfortable with. Mr Porpoise squirmed. Outside, the rain continued to pour down, falling noisily on the rooftops.
"A man of few words, I see. Very well, very well... I shall cut straight to the point then. The reason you are here today is because I need someone with your, shall we say, unique abilities, to retrieve something for me. Quite probably it will be a rather drastic departure from your other contracts, and I would therefore advise you to go into this with both eyes open, and if possible both ears as well." Mr Porpoise leaned back in his chair. "Of course, the reward will also be befitting of such a difficult contract. You will be handsomely compensated upon completion of the contract. The fee will be upwards of $8,500,000, in precious stones and any currency of your choice."
Evangelion raised an eyebrow. Eight and a half million dollars? One hell of a job this is, then. A small smile curled in the corner of his lips, and he felt a brief rush of excitement. He has done many things that men could only dream of, and yet, something had always eluded him: the satisfaction of completing a truly impossible challenge, rather than callenges that were merely highly improbable. Evangelion lived for this: to one day know that he had truly broken all barriers of possibility, and stepped into the rarefied air breathed by heroes and gods.
Every field has a person like him: a true genius who pops up every few hundred years or so, someone so good at doing things that it bores them to follow the old traditions. And so they push the envelope out of sheer boredom, doing things previously thought impossible, setting new standards for the field, and sometimes they permanently alter the future of the world they live in.
"Tell me more," said Evangelion, carefully concealing his excitement. His smile vanished and his face faded even further into the shadows.
"Of course. As I have outlined to you, you will be retrieving an item for me. A rather unique item, in fact." And Mr Porpoise gave Evangelion the description of that item, which was met with a raised eyebrow from Evangelion. "You will most likely be up against some very powerful foes on this little mission... I believe you have heard the legend of the Ancients?"
"I thought they were a myth... but yes, they were rumoured to exist many centuries ago, before man arrived on this island. Supposedly each one of them was more powerful than a hundred strong men," said Evangelion.
"No, maybe not a hundred, but certainly they were no myth. The Ancients were very powerful, but they were forced to the peaks of the Spire in the aftermath of a great war... and there they have been since. But they will be seeking the same thing as you, so be very careful," replied Mr Porpoise sinisterly. It was risky to warn the bounty hunter of their existence, but Mr Porpoise could not afford to hide this. The Key was too important: if the bounty hunter didn't know what he was up against, he would certainly be killed, and the Key would be lost.
"Oh? And, pray tell, how would you know all this?" asked Evangelion curiously.
"I have my sources, and this has been a little, hm, passion of mine for the last few years. Enough chatter, Evangelion. Go, find the item, and bring it back to me. And good luck, I believe you will be needing a lot of it," said Mr Porpoise, and he went back to his desk, signalling the end of the conversation.
Evangelion turned to go, and paused for a moment, a silhouette in the light of the doorframe. "Luck? I don't believe in luck, Mr Porpoise... a man must forge his own destiny. Good day to you," and then he was gone.
* * * * *
"For the next few months, Evangelion completely vanished from the public eye. Of course, he had always been nothing more than a passing whisper to the public, but this time he really did utterly vanish... it was like he never existed. Mr Porpoise lost all contact with him, and despite the best efforts of his vast network of spies, he could not determine Evangelion's whereabouts..."
* * * * *
A figure trudged through the thick snow, leaving behind little footstep-shaped craters in the white landscape. He was wrapped in a thick furry cloak and wore a grimy great-coat, yet moved surprisingly quickly in the freezing cold weather. It snowed lightly as he walked.
And there, up ahead, was a small cottage, where a thin wisp of smoke was rising. A wolf howled in the distance, and a mountain goat peered curiously as the figure stopped in the snow. There was a moment of hesitation, then the figure continued trudging onwards, and knocked on the door of the cottage.
The snow continued falling lightly, like flakes of manna falling from the heavens.
The door to the cottage creaked open, and an old lady poked her head out. The figure pulled off his cloak, revealing a head of white hair, and he smiled politely at the old lady.
"Good morning. I believe you are the one they call the Messenger of the Ancients?" said Evangelion. His features appeared more haggard and drawn than usual, like he had been on a very long journey.
"How did you find this place?" asked the lady sharply, ignoring his question. "I had some extremely powerful charms in place, and I'm pretty sure nobody else even knows that this cottage exists." Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Ah.... you're that genius bounty hunter I've heard so much about, aren't you? Evangelion, that's the name..."
"Yes, I am. Amazed that you've heard of me," Evangelion gave her a thin smile and bowed. "And your protection charms were rather tricky to defeat, of course. The Gyst rune had me lost inside my own head for several days before I managed to get out, but here I am now."
The Messenger sighed. Gyst runes were extremely difficult to create, but worth every last drop of time spent. They were almost invisible to intruders, and when triggered, seamlessly drops the mind of an intruder into a dream of reality while the body collapses in a deep sleep. Most people will never realise they were dreaming, and eventually died from thirst or madness. They were a relic from the Demon wars, serving as mental minefields to protect the fortress of the Ancients. Only two exist now, and Evangelion had just defeated one. Oh well, she'll just have to put out the last rune later...
"Very clever of you to be able to find me, for a bounty hunter," admitted the Messenger grudgingly. "I suppose you would be pleased to know that I put my best spies on your case, yet you still managed to shake them off: something that, surprisingly enough, nobody has managed before. And now you have come all the way here. So the burning question is... what do you want?"
"I want many things," said Evangelion, "but you can only give me a few of them. But for now... let me into the cottage, and I will explain everything."
* * * * *
It was warm and cosy inside the cottage. The fireplace burned brightly, while a kettle whistled over the stove. A half-finished sweater lay on the table, with two large knitting needles poking through the wool. A coat stand stood forlonly in one corner, with a few shawls and cloaks hanging from it. There was a large, comfortable sofa in the middle of the room. The Messenger walked to the sofa and sank into the seat. She offered a stool to Evangelion, who politely declined and remained standing.
Evangelion removed his great-coat, and hung it on the coat stand. "I am searching for something, and I'm sure you know what it is. Your famous spies have ears everywhere, no?"
The Messenger chuckled. "Yes, you are looking for the Key. I know that much.. your friend Mr Porpoise is not nearly as careful as you are. But I still wonder how you found me... and I am quite frankly surprised that you even know of my existence."
"It wasn't easy," said Evangelion, and his voice took on a hard edge. "There were plenty of... obstacles, and it's doubly hard with your spies on my tail. Furthermore, you were very good at keeping yourself hidden, and the loyalty those spies have in you is inspiring, to say the least. But even they don't know your real identity, am I correct? Last I heard, they sincerely believed they were volunteering information for a top secret branch of the City Watch."
"Very good, Evangelion, very good indeed, to have even found out that much. So... how did you do it?"
"Mr Porpoise mentioned that the Ancients would be very interested indeed in my mission, and I was naturally curious. As far as I knew, they were creatures of legend, stories made up to frighten young children. But then, Mr Porpoise is no small child, and he mentioned that he had an interest in them. So, it logically follows that the thing I am looking for is connected to the Ancients. To find it, I would first have to find out their true history."
"I first realised that I was being followed when I left the Porpoise mansion," continued Evangelion. "She was well-concealed, of course... surely, no one would suspect a ragged old street cleaner of being anything but another hardworking citizen. It was when I saw her again, fifteen streets later, still sweeping, that I realised something was wrong. Either she was unnaturally determined to keep the streets clean, or I was being followed. I spotted more of them after that, and once I knew they were there, it was a simple matter to give them the slip."
"Observant," muttered the Messenger appreciatively. "And cunning, too."
"It was necessary to completely drop out of sight for a while, of course. I tracked several of your spies, but it was practically impossible to find out where the radio imps were going. So I gathered what little information I could find, and then I began searching the libraries for any mention of the Ancients. Here I found something strange... every book or scroll mentioning their very existence had either been destroyed or damaged, as if someone was very determined to ensure that their names were simply forgotten. And there was a nagging doubt: if all the information had been destroyed, how had Mr Porpoise known so much? Could it be that he had something to hide?"
Evangelion paused and stared out the window. Outside, the snow was growing into a fierce blizzard, and it snowed in torrents.
"In any case," continued Evangelion. "I found clues in artefacts, and various monuments hidden deep under the bowels of the City, that mentioned a Demon king called Nargarath, who was a fearsome creature. Far beneath the depths of the City sewers, I discovered some ancient tunnels that led further and further down, until at last it came to a sealed door. The entire story of the Ancients was written on that door: their rise and fall, the defeat of their glorious Emperor, the slaying of Nargarath, and the story of Arathea and his Gifts, even a map to the Vault itself. I realised then that Mr Porpoise must have discovered the location of the Vault, and sent me to recover the Key."
"And now, for the reason I came to see you. I know that the sealed door was a locked portal, for it reeked of ancient magic. A single rune was written on the door, but I could not decipher its meaning, for the language of the magic is unknown to me. But also written on that door was your story: the Messenger who brings tidings of the City to the ears of the Ancients. I wish to know the meaning of that rune. I wish to reopen the portal."
Evangelion slowly pulled out a crumpled, folded parchment, and handed it wordlessly to the old lady. She stared at it, and with a trembling hand, took the parchment and opened it. On it was a rough sketch of a rune.
The Messenger's eyes remained firmly locked on the rune for the longest time, and then she bowed her head. She slowly got up and burned the parchment in the fireplace, and there was silence as they watched the paper burn.
"If you must know," whispered the Messenger quietly, watching the smouldering ashes of the parchment rising up into the air, "the word is 'regret'. Now go, and leave a tired old woman to the peace she deserves."
next chapter
"This is a story of a bounty hunter, the best one there ever was. He was a legend among legends: few have not heard the whispers of his existence, but despite this, nobody really knows anything about him, not even the people who could afford his services. Very few people actually remember what his face looks like, or his name, or even if it really is a he. But I know, of course, I know his story.. and I tell you now, it was indeed a man, and his name was Evangelion..."
* * * * *
Once again, there was a prickly sensation of time rolling backwards, and we are back in the City, flying through the streets, admiring the amazing light-bloom special effects, until we see...
Evangelion stepped out of the stagecoach, clutching his heavy oiled great-coat against the pelting rain. It was raining heavily, and even with the coat he was shivering. He hurried across the street, and stood for a moment in front of a pair of wrought iron gates. The gates swung open, and he strode onwards, past a driveway with shady trees on either side, up the marble steps, through the door, and into the mansion, his long white hair gleaming with silvery raindrops.
"Your coat, if you please, sir," came a voice dripping with contempt. Evangelion turned, and saw the butler gazing icily at him as he stood in the hall, dripping water all over the expensive floor.
"If you don't mind, Jeremiah, I'll hold on to the coat," Evangelion returned the stare with an equally stony one, turned, and trudged onwards into the mansion, leaving behind a trail of muddy footsteps. The butler gritted his teeth. Bounty hunters! in his opinion, they were the bane of all domestic housekeeping, which made them on par with serial killers in the butler's book. It'll take ages to get the scullery maids to scrub the floor clean again...
* * * * *
Mr Porpoise looked up from his huge oak desk as Evangelion entered the room.
"Ah. You must be the famous bounty hunter I have heard so much about," said Mr Porpoise as he steepled his fingers. "Evangelion, wasn't it? I am honoured that you found time to fit me in your busy schedule. Certainly a man of your abilities would be... very busy indeed."
Evangelion replied with a cold silence that lasted several seconds longer than Mr Porpoise was comfortable with. Mr Porpoise squirmed. Outside, the rain continued to pour down, falling noisily on the rooftops.
"A man of few words, I see. Very well, very well... I shall cut straight to the point then. The reason you are here today is because I need someone with your, shall we say, unique abilities, to retrieve something for me. Quite probably it will be a rather drastic departure from your other contracts, and I would therefore advise you to go into this with both eyes open, and if possible both ears as well." Mr Porpoise leaned back in his chair. "Of course, the reward will also be befitting of such a difficult contract. You will be handsomely compensated upon completion of the contract. The fee will be upwards of $8,500,000, in precious stones and any currency of your choice."
Evangelion raised an eyebrow. Eight and a half million dollars? One hell of a job this is, then. A small smile curled in the corner of his lips, and he felt a brief rush of excitement. He has done many things that men could only dream of, and yet, something had always eluded him: the satisfaction of completing a truly impossible challenge, rather than callenges that were merely highly improbable. Evangelion lived for this: to one day know that he had truly broken all barriers of possibility, and stepped into the rarefied air breathed by heroes and gods.
Every field has a person like him: a true genius who pops up every few hundred years or so, someone so good at doing things that it bores them to follow the old traditions. And so they push the envelope out of sheer boredom, doing things previously thought impossible, setting new standards for the field, and sometimes they permanently alter the future of the world they live in.
"Tell me more," said Evangelion, carefully concealing his excitement. His smile vanished and his face faded even further into the shadows.
"Of course. As I have outlined to you, you will be retrieving an item for me. A rather unique item, in fact." And Mr Porpoise gave Evangelion the description of that item, which was met with a raised eyebrow from Evangelion. "You will most likely be up against some very powerful foes on this little mission... I believe you have heard the legend of the Ancients?"
"I thought they were a myth... but yes, they were rumoured to exist many centuries ago, before man arrived on this island. Supposedly each one of them was more powerful than a hundred strong men," said Evangelion.
"No, maybe not a hundred, but certainly they were no myth. The Ancients were very powerful, but they were forced to the peaks of the Spire in the aftermath of a great war... and there they have been since. But they will be seeking the same thing as you, so be very careful," replied Mr Porpoise sinisterly. It was risky to warn the bounty hunter of their existence, but Mr Porpoise could not afford to hide this. The Key was too important: if the bounty hunter didn't know what he was up against, he would certainly be killed, and the Key would be lost.
"Oh? And, pray tell, how would you know all this?" asked Evangelion curiously.
"I have my sources, and this has been a little, hm, passion of mine for the last few years. Enough chatter, Evangelion. Go, find the item, and bring it back to me. And good luck, I believe you will be needing a lot of it," said Mr Porpoise, and he went back to his desk, signalling the end of the conversation.
Evangelion turned to go, and paused for a moment, a silhouette in the light of the doorframe. "Luck? I don't believe in luck, Mr Porpoise... a man must forge his own destiny. Good day to you," and then he was gone.
* * * * *
"For the next few months, Evangelion completely vanished from the public eye. Of course, he had always been nothing more than a passing whisper to the public, but this time he really did utterly vanish... it was like he never existed. Mr Porpoise lost all contact with him, and despite the best efforts of his vast network of spies, he could not determine Evangelion's whereabouts..."
* * * * *
A figure trudged through the thick snow, leaving behind little footstep-shaped craters in the white landscape. He was wrapped in a thick furry cloak and wore a grimy great-coat, yet moved surprisingly quickly in the freezing cold weather. It snowed lightly as he walked.
And there, up ahead, was a small cottage, where a thin wisp of smoke was rising. A wolf howled in the distance, and a mountain goat peered curiously as the figure stopped in the snow. There was a moment of hesitation, then the figure continued trudging onwards, and knocked on the door of the cottage.
The snow continued falling lightly, like flakes of manna falling from the heavens.
The door to the cottage creaked open, and an old lady poked her head out. The figure pulled off his cloak, revealing a head of white hair, and he smiled politely at the old lady.
"Good morning. I believe you are the one they call the Messenger of the Ancients?" said Evangelion. His features appeared more haggard and drawn than usual, like he had been on a very long journey.
"How did you find this place?" asked the lady sharply, ignoring his question. "I had some extremely powerful charms in place, and I'm pretty sure nobody else even knows that this cottage exists." Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Ah.... you're that genius bounty hunter I've heard so much about, aren't you? Evangelion, that's the name..."
"Yes, I am. Amazed that you've heard of me," Evangelion gave her a thin smile and bowed. "And your protection charms were rather tricky to defeat, of course. The Gyst rune had me lost inside my own head for several days before I managed to get out, but here I am now."
The Messenger sighed. Gyst runes were extremely difficult to create, but worth every last drop of time spent. They were almost invisible to intruders, and when triggered, seamlessly drops the mind of an intruder into a dream of reality while the body collapses in a deep sleep. Most people will never realise they were dreaming, and eventually died from thirst or madness. They were a relic from the Demon wars, serving as mental minefields to protect the fortress of the Ancients. Only two exist now, and Evangelion had just defeated one. Oh well, she'll just have to put out the last rune later...
"Very clever of you to be able to find me, for a bounty hunter," admitted the Messenger grudgingly. "I suppose you would be pleased to know that I put my best spies on your case, yet you still managed to shake them off: something that, surprisingly enough, nobody has managed before. And now you have come all the way here. So the burning question is... what do you want?"
"I want many things," said Evangelion, "but you can only give me a few of them. But for now... let me into the cottage, and I will explain everything."
* * * * *
It was warm and cosy inside the cottage. The fireplace burned brightly, while a kettle whistled over the stove. A half-finished sweater lay on the table, with two large knitting needles poking through the wool. A coat stand stood forlonly in one corner, with a few shawls and cloaks hanging from it. There was a large, comfortable sofa in the middle of the room. The Messenger walked to the sofa and sank into the seat. She offered a stool to Evangelion, who politely declined and remained standing.
Evangelion removed his great-coat, and hung it on the coat stand. "I am searching for something, and I'm sure you know what it is. Your famous spies have ears everywhere, no?"
The Messenger chuckled. "Yes, you are looking for the Key. I know that much.. your friend Mr Porpoise is not nearly as careful as you are. But I still wonder how you found me... and I am quite frankly surprised that you even know of my existence."
"It wasn't easy," said Evangelion, and his voice took on a hard edge. "There were plenty of... obstacles, and it's doubly hard with your spies on my tail. Furthermore, you were very good at keeping yourself hidden, and the loyalty those spies have in you is inspiring, to say the least. But even they don't know your real identity, am I correct? Last I heard, they sincerely believed they were volunteering information for a top secret branch of the City Watch."
"Very good, Evangelion, very good indeed, to have even found out that much. So... how did you do it?"
"Mr Porpoise mentioned that the Ancients would be very interested indeed in my mission, and I was naturally curious. As far as I knew, they were creatures of legend, stories made up to frighten young children. But then, Mr Porpoise is no small child, and he mentioned that he had an interest in them. So, it logically follows that the thing I am looking for is connected to the Ancients. To find it, I would first have to find out their true history."
"I first realised that I was being followed when I left the Porpoise mansion," continued Evangelion. "She was well-concealed, of course... surely, no one would suspect a ragged old street cleaner of being anything but another hardworking citizen. It was when I saw her again, fifteen streets later, still sweeping, that I realised something was wrong. Either she was unnaturally determined to keep the streets clean, or I was being followed. I spotted more of them after that, and once I knew they were there, it was a simple matter to give them the slip."
"Observant," muttered the Messenger appreciatively. "And cunning, too."
"It was necessary to completely drop out of sight for a while, of course. I tracked several of your spies, but it was practically impossible to find out where the radio imps were going. So I gathered what little information I could find, and then I began searching the libraries for any mention of the Ancients. Here I found something strange... every book or scroll mentioning their very existence had either been destroyed or damaged, as if someone was very determined to ensure that their names were simply forgotten. And there was a nagging doubt: if all the information had been destroyed, how had Mr Porpoise known so much? Could it be that he had something to hide?"
Evangelion paused and stared out the window. Outside, the snow was growing into a fierce blizzard, and it snowed in torrents.
"In any case," continued Evangelion. "I found clues in artefacts, and various monuments hidden deep under the bowels of the City, that mentioned a Demon king called Nargarath, who was a fearsome creature. Far beneath the depths of the City sewers, I discovered some ancient tunnels that led further and further down, until at last it came to a sealed door. The entire story of the Ancients was written on that door: their rise and fall, the defeat of their glorious Emperor, the slaying of Nargarath, and the story of Arathea and his Gifts, even a map to the Vault itself. I realised then that Mr Porpoise must have discovered the location of the Vault, and sent me to recover the Key."
"And now, for the reason I came to see you. I know that the sealed door was a locked portal, for it reeked of ancient magic. A single rune was written on the door, but I could not decipher its meaning, for the language of the magic is unknown to me. But also written on that door was your story: the Messenger who brings tidings of the City to the ears of the Ancients. I wish to know the meaning of that rune. I wish to reopen the portal."
Evangelion slowly pulled out a crumpled, folded parchment, and handed it wordlessly to the old lady. She stared at it, and with a trembling hand, took the parchment and opened it. On it was a rough sketch of a rune.
The Messenger's eyes remained firmly locked on the rune for the longest time, and then she bowed her head. She slowly got up and burned the parchment in the fireplace, and there was silence as they watched the paper burn.
"If you must know," whispered the Messenger quietly, watching the smouldering ashes of the parchment rising up into the air, "the word is 'regret'. Now go, and leave a tired old woman to the peace she deserves."
next chapter
posted by nerdook at 4:25 PM
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