Chapter 1  Knowledge and Vengeance

 

Ten minutes ago... this was a nice, quite library. The old man who lives here is very knowledgeable... he can speak intelligently on almost any subject... physics, astronomy... entertainment and fine cuisine... demons and ancient religions. It is this knowledge that has brought Brad and Ryan, two of the Dragoon Warriors to his library.

 

Nine minutes ago... the beatings started. The Dragoon Warriors received information saying that there is an old librarian in this city who not only knows about the Children of Jove... but actually worships them as higher beings. The team split up to search the city... Justin and Saphir took the south side... Arrowny and Brad took the north. What they didn’t tell Saphir and Justin, was that they already knew the location of the library in the northern most part of the city.

 

For nine minutes... Arrowny has been basically torturing the librarian, while Brad is just standing off to the side, holding his cold blue double bladed sword, and watching silently.

 

Finally, Arrowny throws a bloody and bruised old librarian upon the top of one of the tables in the room. He wraps a hand around the librarian’s throat to hold him down. Arrowny glares down at the man...

 

“You will give us the information we want!”

 

“No! I can’t! They will kill me!”

 

“Oh... is that all...”

 

Ryan raises his free hand... and using his inborn magical powers, covers it with a hot, bright, magical fire. Ryan places his flaming hand upon the librarian’s chest... he screams in pain as the fire burns through his clothing... and then his skin. He starts to cry out...

 

“PLEASE! Stop! Let me live, and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know!”

 

Ryan ends the magical fire around his hand, and glances down at the burned handprint in the old mans chest. Arrowny slowly nods...

 

“I accept your terms. If you tell me what I want to know... I give you my word that I will not end you life.”

 

“What proof do you give me?”

 

“Only my honour as a Protector.”

 

The librarian seems to take this as proof enough, and points over at one of the nearby bookshelves.

 

“The text on the second shelf... with the gold binding. It is one of the only books in this dimension that contains information on the Children.”

 

Ryan walks over, and takes the indicated book. He flips through the pages, making sure that it does in fact have the correct material. He can’t read it... but there are a few pictures of the Children... Io, Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede. He glances up at the librarian... who is smiling...

 

“If you are pleased... we have a deal, correct?”

 

Ryan slowly nods...

 

“Yes... we have a deal. I will not kill you.”

 

“Thank Jove... I thought I would die.”

 

Ryan’s eyes widen...

 

“That’s not what I said... the deal was that I wouldn’t kill you.”

 

Ryan turns, and gives a small nod to Brad, who walks toward a now shaking old man.

 

“Wait... WAIT! PLEASE!”

 

Brad slashes the librarian’s chest with the sharp blade of his sword, spilling blood, and other various bodily components across the table and floor.

 

A few minutes later, Ryan and Brad are standing outside a burning library... Brad is cleaning blood off of his sword with a cloth, and Ryan is safely packing the book away.

 

Brad turns to Arrowny...

 

“Are we going to tell Saphir and Justin that we knew where this guy was before we came to the city? They might not like the fact that they just spent a while searching for something we already knew the location of.”

 

Ryan shakes his head...

 

“No... they’re better off not knowing...”

 

“Okay... here’s another question. Was that guy evil?”

 

Ryan shrugs...

 

“Never bothered to find out. Far as I’m concerned... anybody that’s involved with the Children deserves to die.”

 

“Fair enough.”

 

“You know... I realize that you don’t have any problem killing bad guys... but I thought you would have some objections to killing somebody that hadn’t been proven guilty yet.”

 

“What can I say...” Brad raises his sword, watching the sun glint off the cold blue metal... “it just doesn’t bother me that much.”

 

“Good to know. Let’s go meet up with the others.”

 

It takes them about half an hour to get back to the rendezvous spot... a small pizzeria located on a small back street. Saphir and Justin are already waiting inside, with a half eaten pizza sitting on the table between them. They raise their heads when they see Brad and Ryan.

 

Justin nods his head in greeting....

 

“We didn’t find anything.”

 

“We did.”

 

Ryan pulls out the gold bound book, and hands it over to Saphir, who looks as though he was just given a really, really neat Christmas present.

 

“Oh... shiny!”

 

Brad and Ryan take seats beside Justin and Saphir, each taking a slice of the pizza. Saphir flips through the book, slowly nodding.

 

“I can translate this... it actually looks easier than that Journal we got from Morning Star.”

 

Ryan swallows a mouthful of pizza...

 

“That’s lucky.”

 

Saphir buries his head in the book, and Brad starts eating a great deal of pizza, after ordering an extra pitcher of Pepsi, of course.

 

Justin turns to Arrowny...

 

“You guys got lucky. All we found was a nest of Protoeugoric demons. Nothing too hard... but not what we were looking for. So... what happened to you guys... did the librarian just hand over the book?”

 

Ryan slowly nods...

 

“Pretty much. He was nice enough to help us out.”

 

“That’s good. Hopefully we can get more information out of him... he might even be able to help us out in the future.”

 

Brad slowly stops eating... and looks around almost nervously at the others. Ryan clears his throat...

 

“Um... yeah... see, thing is... he told us not to contact him again... said he’s leaving the dimension or something.”

 

“Ah... I see.”

 

“OH!”

 

Saphir points to the book.

 

“This has quite a lot of information on Jove... but I haven’t found much on the Children yet. It seems that Jove ruled over the family of gods who had control over the Roman Empire about six thousand years ago. It says that he was so evil...so cruel... that all the other gods got together to imprison him. The Roman people, not wanting to be remembered by history as following that kind of god, borrowed some mythological concepts from nearby cultures.”

 

Justin nods...

 

“That explains why Greek and Roman myths are so similar.”

 

Brad glances over at Saphir...

 

“You got that much information from a book that is written in an ancient language that you’ve never seen before... and you did it all in the amount of time it took me to eat a few slices of pizza.”

 

Saphir looks almost offended... but in a good natured way...

 

“Well... if I had my reference texts from our library here, I’d probably have the entire thing translated... as it is, I’m working from memory. Sorry if it’s not fast enough for you!”

 

Brad smiles widely...

 

“Well, I certainly did not mean to offend you!”

 

“Speaking of our library...” Ryan throws a couple of twenties on the table, and stands... “we really should get back home.”

 

They all get up, Brad quickly downing his nearly full pitcher of Pepsi and grabbing the last two slices of pizza, and they leave the shop to find a nice deserted alleyway in which Saphir can cast his Warp spell.

 

*        *        *        *        *        *

 

A great many reference texts are open on the library table. Justin and Saphir are searching through all the literature at their disposal in an attempt to completely translate the gold bound book.

 

Downstairs, in the training area, Brad is working on a complicated set of attacks using his new sword. The cold blue weapon slices through the air smoothly, a work of art in his hands. His old axe lays in its special spot against the wall... long since forgotten.

 

Not far away, Ryan is sitting in a chair, beside a bed, in a rather empty, locked room. Not long ago, he sat in this same chair, beside this same bed. He sits in silence... until, in a small flash of white light, a young girl appears lying in the bed. She has long white hair, and is wearing pure white clothes...

 

Ryan barely glances at her...

 

“Callisto?”

 

The girl shakes her head...

 

“Io, actually. You killed another of our followers. Are you still angry with us?”

 

“You are responsible for Crystal’s death. As of right now, I have no way to kill you... so my plan is to hunt down every single one of your followers, and kill them.”

 

“You hate us that much? Perhaps if you could only see the world from our perspective... then you would understand.”

 

“That will never happen.”

 

“I wonder...” Io sits up, resting her back against the headboard of the bed, “why it is that you have not told your friends about your talks with me and my siblings? You have spoken to each of us, a few times over the past two months... yet you have never even told them that you’ve talked to us.”

 

“Why should I bother? Each time one of you shows up, all you do is taunt me about how it’s my fault Crystal’s dead. How, if I had just been a few minutes faster killing your champions, she’d still be alive. All you ever do is tell me things that I already know. I know that it’s my fault she’s dead... I don’t need you to constantly remind me of that fact.”

 

“It is our opinion that you do, in fact, need reminding. You seem to blame us for an event that you, yourself, admit is your fault. Why are you so angry at us, if her death is your own fault?”

 

Ryan lowers his head, but doesn’t answer. Io just smiles.

 

“It doesn’t really matter. We already know the answer. You are responsible for her death... there is no question about that. The reason you are angry with us, is because you do not truly wish to blame yourself. Even though deep within yourself, you know it is your fault, you want to have somebody else take responsibility for the event. You should not blame us.”

 

“I DO blame you!”

 

Arrowny stands up quickly, knocking the chair over backwards. His face is red with anger, his hands are shaking...

 

“She died because I was too slow! But that wouldn’t have mattered if she hadn’t been poisoned in the first place! That... that was your fault! I DO blame you for that...”

 

Io smiles slightly...

 

“We’ll talk again soon...”

 

In a white flash of light, she disappears just as there is a knock at the door. Ryan takes a few deep breaths to calm himself before opening the door. Brad is standing there, holding his sword, glancing around the room...

 

“Anything wrong? I could hear you yelling.”

 

“No... sorry... just talking to myself.”

 

“Right... you’ve been doing that a lot lately.”

 

“Yeah... sorry.”

 

Ryan walks out of the room, closing the door behind him.