Reverse Entropy: Chapter02

Your Mission, You Will Accept It

<Disclaimer> I don’t really need one do I? Habit I suppose. I own everything. Slang, characters, some species. I don’t own Gandalf. Pity, he’s cool.

Author Note: Next one! Whee! To clear confusion; fellmas is a shortened term for fell messenger, I’m sure you can see how that derives, it’s just slang. Greater and Lesser is intra-species ranking, for fellmas it is determined by size and loyalty, for ghouls it’s more an army rank given by reaching another level experience and fighting prowess/powers. Since these two species are rather low on the totem pole the ghouls are melee fodder and the fellmas are useless, neither tend to live too long, so Greaters are rare in both. Oh and I decided that Klyznix has two eyes; despite the way I drew her.

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            I sigh and shift slightly against the chain I’m leaning on, wings folded. My legs ache from the way I’ve been crouching. I finally give up and sit all the way down, mentally recoiling from the muck on the platform as I shift my legs and tail to a more comfortable position. Bored my eyes trace a random pattern over the area I am in; I consciously avoid looking in the direction of the door, and them. < It’s been hours. Why tell me to wait if I’m not going to do anything? That damn door is creepy. It’s clean. Someone has got to wash it, keep the soot off and shine the handle. Who the hell would do that? Especially here… I mean really. Dammit, Justrad is watching me, I can tell. He’s not looking at me but he’s still watching. It’s driving me nuts. For granted if he wasn’t I probably would have roosted here before now, but that’s nothing to be thankful for. >

< What else can I think about? Um. Magic. The Library. I wish I was a scholar. Just hide in the Library all day. Read about the Outside, read about the hero’s, poor fools. I wonder what a tree looks like. Not the twisted things they force in the back caves, but a tree that grows in the sun. Green yes, but what kind of green? The color of Frogloks? The troglodytes? One of the Under-snakes? The color of Justrad’s eyes? Heh, I doubt anything is that bizarre. Oops, laughed aloud. That’s got to seem weird. Who am I kidding, I’m giggling to myself while waiting outside the door of a madman with a pair of ghouls staring at me. Of course it’s not normal. Hell, I guess I’m in good company. After all, who’s ever heard of a fellmas that likes to read, much less one that is attempting to sneak in learning magic. I could be killed for my impudence, or worse, sent to the pens. The rest of my brood-mates just want to fight amongst themselves, eat and sleep. I just want out. The Outside maybe, freedom, something. Maybe this quest will give that to me. Else I’m trapped here forever. A servant of the mountain for my entire life, as my ancestors have done, as my descendents are likely to do. >

Her golden eyes glittered and reflected the ambient red light out of a soft round soot-covered face. As usual there was no expression on her face, she had learned early that letting the fact that she had emotions show invariably brought pain. Yet in her eyes the despair could be seen as she looked out over the evil place that she was forced to call home. Did anyone acknowledge it? Did anyone care to see?

The Door opened. Klyznix’s wings fluttered as she scrambled to stand and face the opening. Even the ghouls shifted from their position from watching for outward threats to gazing inward. The madman smiled as he looked at the expectant eyes watching him. “Please, come inside. I have a mission, a quest for you to complete.” Klyznix made hesitant tapping steps towards the door. The ghouls watched motionless. The man smiled again and looked at the greater ghoul, “All of you are required.” The green of Justrad’s eyes narrowed at him as the lesser shifted sideways uneasily. Justrad seemed to tilt his head, peering with slitted eyes at the man while remaining motionless. Finally his lidless eyes seemed to blink and he nodded gravely. The madman smiled and turned down the hallway, leaving the ghouls and fellmas behind to follow. Klyznix had come to halt a short distance from the doorway. She waited and watched Justrad nervously waiting for him to be the first to enter the hall. Justrad stood motionless, expressionless, looking back at her. Suddenly he gave an elegant half bow and gestured for her to precede him. Wings rustling and her tail whipping back and forth in the air Klyznix entered the Door and the darkness on the hall, followed by Justrad and the lesser. The Door closed behind them, leaving the platform outside it, empty.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">        </SPAN>

            The room was yellow; not cheerful intentional sunny yellow, but more like the color of tallow, aged and soiled plaster. A blocky plain pine table dominated the center of the square room. Worn mismatched chairs were pulled up to it, three on the long side that was facing the entrance hall, and another facing them across the table. Darkened doorways gaped from every direction, dark pits leading off into unlit chambers. The madman, safe in his usual habitat once again, seemed to relax a trifle, and then glanced over his shoulder to assess the progress of the minions. Nodding he turned and sidled crabwise around the edge of the table towards the forth chair. Klyznix appeared silently from the shadow of the hall and halted abruptly at the edge of the room, hiding in the darkness as she looked for traps.

            Her eyes tracked about the room, blinking at the table too large for the room it was in. Glancing in the corners she noted the lack of the omnipresent spider-webs and mildew that draped most of the halls and rooms outside. Books, bones and leather jars littered the table before her as well as the tables and shelves clinging to the walls of the room. For a moment she observed the human clearing the table, trying to make space upon it for one of the large rolls of parchment she had brought.

            She did not watch for long however, as behind her in the darkness a pair of glowing green eyes appeared, followed by a red pair. The ghouls had arrived. Justrad stepped forward into the light glancing at the cautious fellmas hovering by the threshold. After the quiet clicks of her talons upon the rush covered stone floor the thud-clack of his boots was clearly audible. At the sound the man looked up and waved to the trio, smiling, “Please, come sit, I apologize for the seating arrangements but fear that it is all that I have to offer you.” The ghouls moved forward, automatically assuming the positions they had outside, they moved to the left and right. Stiffly taking the outside chairs they left the center for Klyznix who dawdled behind. She slid into the final seat, hunched forward and trying to look both front, back, and side-to-side to observe everyone and her retreat at the same time.

            The man gave up clearing the table by neatly piling it on shelves and simply pushed the junk cluttering the left half of the table off onto the floor; it landed with a thump and a small plume of dust. With a sigh he flopped into his chair and seemed to sparkle at his visitors. “Well now that’s over with we can get started.” The ghouls gazed at him blankly, unconcerned; the fellmas hunched more towards the back, her expression apprehensive. “I suppose you’re wondering what I’ve asked you here for. Well, at least our young fellmas is.” Klyznix hunched even farther down into the chair, her hands convulsively clutching at the arm rests, her talons scraping lightly along the wood. The ghouls didn’t move, although Justrad glanced briefly towards her, then continued looking around the room and watching the man across from the table. “There is no need to worry my child, you are not in any kind of trouble. In fact you are in a position to do me great service. You may call me Monianor. I have a task for you three. I need you to leave the Mountain and deliver a message and artifact for me.” Klyznix blinked at the use of the phrase "my child". She wasn’t human, why would her superior address her as such. When Monianor told her she would be leaving the Mountain she assumed that she was hallucinating, she relaxed, knowing that this was not real comforted her slightly. Monianor reached to his right and riffled through the pile of map scrolls she had fetched from the library. Selecting one, he attempted to unroll it upon the open space on the table. The parchment crackled and curled, refusing to unroll completely. Justrad moved, causing Klyznix to lurch away from him, almost tipping her chair over. Not looking at her he reached out and held down the right corner of the map, Monianor beamed at him and used an empty dusty inkpot to anchor the other side of the map. “As you all can see this is a map of the area to the south of us, it’s a general map of the Darkhill area, through the forest of Roscant, across the Tchet Plains, then to the border kingdom of Carisec. Now this is very general, but it is one of the best maps of the area you will be traveling through.” The fellmas sat, nervous, but secure in the delusion that this was all just a very strange dream. For the first time both ghouls moved, they looked at each other, then turned back towards Monianor. Justrad made a sound like a rusty hinge tearing from its place in a wall; it might have been a polite cough. “Yes?”

            Justrad shifted in his chair, uncomfortable at being forced to speak, “Where exactly are we going?”

            Monianor beamed at Justrad like he was a prize student, “Well, that’s easy enough, the Temple of All in Carisec’s Western Capitol. It should be an easy enough journey, as there will only be four of you, that should help getting across the borders.”

            “Four?”

            “Yes, you, your lesser, this fellmas, and a pack golem. Then again, I suppose there isn’t any need for two warriors, just you would be enough, and attract less attention. Hmm, well that can be decided later, I shall leave it up to you as you have more experience than I in military matters. Now, your quest is to take a satchel that I will give you to the Over Priest of the Temple of All for offering to the gods. You will also ask him to offer a prayer for the soul of Monianor the Lesser Wizard of Caltath. Now this is a secret mission and I would like you to leave tonight if it is at all possible. So if there is anything in your quarters that you will require on your journey I suggest you fetch it while I arrange the matters of the golem and horses if they have any available. If they do not it will be necessary for you to ride Squarh-birds, I hope not as they are rather intractable. Now here are the maps,” he said picking up the pile of scrolls from the floor and dumping them on the table on top of the general map, “I need to run along and arrange things, you take the maps and meet me in the southern secondary corridor in a glass, I will have a few packs of special equipment for you there. If there are any more questions?” Silence echoed in the small room, “That’s good, well then I’ll be off, isn’t this so exciting?” Monianor stood and edged around the table again, with a happy grin and a nod he bustled out of the room and down the hall to the exit into the cavern outside. He left behind two ghouls looking as shocked as fleshed skeletons can, and the fellmas staring at the ceiling.

            Justrad looked at the lesser and the fellmas. “Y’know, I usually wake up about now,” Klyznix said, shifting to look at Justrad, “Or I start having nightmares, but even my nightmares aren’t this strange.”

            Justrad shook his head, and then slowly removed his hand from the map. It curled up with a soft fiwp sound, creating a loose bundle of the scrolls resting on top of it. “I have a feeling fellmas, that this isn’t a dream. This is unfortunately real.” He stood; looking over at the lesser that had risen with him he shook his head.  The lesser twitched slightly, and seemed to take a firmer stance. Justrad’s eyes narrowed and then he drew himself up to his full height, towering over the confused fellmas and defiant lesser ghoul. The lesser wavered, then sagged and bowed his head. Justrad nodded. The lesser bowed, first to Justrad, then to Klyznix who was still seated and confused. It turned and left via the hallway.

            “What was that all about?” she asked as she stood up, feeling puny compared to Justrad’s height. Justrad just shook his head and did not reply. “Okay. Then if this is a real escape route from this hellhole I’ll take it. Um, do you have anything you need to retrieve from your quarters?” Justrad just gave her a look, seeming to ask what use does an undead have for clothing or material objects. “Right. In that case I’ll just, ah, go get my stuff then.” Justrad made no reply, either verbally or in motion. Shrugging she turned and started down the hall. Justrad scooped up the curled maps, brushing off the inkpot, looking around he spotted a large dusty leather scroll case on an upper shelf. He reached up and pulled it off the shelf, stuffed the maps inside, swung the case’s strap over his shoulder and followed Klyznix down the hall in a matter of seconds, catching up with her before she reached the door.