Restless - Chapter 3

I awoke tied with bonds tied tightly around my wrists. Thankfully, the wound on my arm had at least been treated. Thick bandages wrapped around where the Shade got me, though they had the unfortunate effect of making my bonds slightly tighter.

I’d been moved to a room at some point, faintly reminiscent of those interrogation rooms I’d heard about on the radio. Rope tied me down to a chair sitting right in front of a table. An empty chair sat on the other side.

”H-hello?” I called out. No one responded.

Okay, okay, deep breaths… where am I? What happened? Who was that guy with the purple beret? Was I- was I kidnapped? I’d stayed away from shady dealings ever since Vayne left, so it wasn’t something along those lines.

 Unless- Vayne used to warn me about human traffickers. There were apparently ‘free planets’ with no laws against slavery. Was I captured by slavers?

What about Melissa? Was she safe? What happened to her? Did she get help in time or did that group not even try to- no, she was fine. She had to be fine. I had to have made it in time.

I sat in the room for what felt like an hour or two, my mind spiraling from one theory down to the next about what happened. Something finally changed just as I was wondering if I was taken as some kind of twisted experiment. A door to my side opened up and a woman walked through. 

She was dressed head to toe in white with all her features obscured. Her clothes looked almost like plate armor with dozens of flaps of fabric all blending to entirely block out even a hint of her skin or hair. Icons of the sun and dawn symbols covered her clothes in golden thread. Two blazing gold fires burned on the fabric right over her eyes and yet didn't actually burn the fabric.

“Where am I? What- what do you want from me?” I asked as I briefly tried to struggle against the knots to little effect.

”Calm yourself, child.” The woman’s voice sounded extremely pleasant as she moved to the chair across the way from me. The flames that acted as her eyes burned gently. “I mean no harm.”

I struggled against the ropes again. “It doesn’t feel like it.”

She sighed. “Security… you’ll be untied after we talk.”

”What do you want? I- I don’t have very much money-“

The woman slapped a folder onto the table, cutting me off. She flipped it open to show a file with ‘Jasper Nythgale’ written in bold on the top of it. A picture of me, looking extremely recent, was clipped to the file. I was passed out amidst a field of rubble in the picture. Probably taken when that goon hit me over the head with his rifle.

My features matched up with the last time I checked the mirror at least. My jawline looked as sharp as ever, slightly protruding from a lack of nutrition. High cheekbones were there too. I was told that I was quite handsome, but the gauntness in my face detracted massively from that. My sunken eyes, although closed, wore deep bags. Since my eyes were closed, they didn’t show off my cursed violet pupils.

”Jasper Nythgale. Adopted son of Vayne Nythgale. Voth Prime’s first records of you showed up after you arrived in Deep Blue Orphanage. Suspected street rat for the first eight yeas of your life.” The woman asked, though it sounded rhetorical. “Violet pupils suggest a connection to an Umbral Cult or something similar… were your parents Cultists?”

“Are you trying to scare me?” It’s working. It’s working extremely well actually. I felt my heart rate pick up as she read the file.

This group wasn’t just some Undercity gang looking for a quick buck. They had access to Voth Prime’s files at least. That paired with the kind of gear the purple beret guy wore tossed a stone into my stomach. Add on the style of the woman's clothes, and there was a high chance she was some kind of higher-up in the church.

”Pyre no, child. Just trying to make sure we have everything right… as for why you’re here?” The woman shrugged. It had a sad undertone to it even as the sparking gold flames that acted as her eyes creased like she was smiling. “You’ve been picked to have a shot at being a Herald.”

My mind froze- a Herald? Like the superhuman Heralds? Like Wayrider who could control the ocean as if waving his hand? “What-“

“Ah, calm your excitement.” The woman flipped the page with my information on it to the side.

Excitement? No- no, that wasn’t right at all. Fear ate at me as my hands started to turn numb. Why the hell would I be excited about this kind of thing? 

Outside of the legions, Heralds were the main fighters in the war. So what if they had powers? It didn’t matter with a Zo’thir platoon bearing down or a Lyzar raiding party passing by. 

What good were powers when they put a massive galactic target on your back- on my back? Vayne had always been good at picking out the real stories between the gaps of propaganda. Heralds, unless assigned to a planet like Wayrider, were a horror story waiting to happen.

Still… it would be wrong to say there wasn’t some excitement. Heralds lived a life of adventure, going and seeing planets and systems across the stars… how great would a life of adventure be?

Then all the cons came back to the forefront of my mind. ”There- there has to be some kind of mistake? I’m just a lowly courier-“

The woman cut me off as she passed me a picture, her flames tragically drooping. “Unfortunately, it isn’t up to us… and you might not even be one at the end of the day. You’ll have to pass the trial first.”

The picture was of Melissa being brought back to the campgrounds. She was bloody and missing a leg, but a radiant smile clung to her lips. Two of the guards that were with the scarred man escorted her. Or at least, I assumed they were two of the guards. They wore the same style of armor.

A wave of relief momentarily flushed away the panic of my situation. At least Melissa was safe. I’d barely known her for a week, but the thought of her dying just so I could get away ate at the back of my mind like poison.

”The captain of the squad that found you wanted me to pass this to you. Said it might help with the transition.” The woman took it back and slid it into the file.

I took a moment to gather my thoughts. “What is it that you want? I- I don’t want to take this trial.”

The woman shook her head. “I’m afraid you don’t have a choice… no Herald does.” She withdrew a device from her pocket. It looked like the same kind of device that beret-wearing guy had. The white-clothed woman pointed it at me. A bulb on the top of the device pulsed with purple light as a slow ticking sounded. “You have a few days at most. Then, you’ll be sucked into it willingly or not.”

The fear from earlier returned, pushing out the relief brought about by seeing the picture. “W-what is it then?“

”I can’t tell you… it's unique for every person. Without the time to fully prepare you, telling you anything will only hurt you in the long term. I can give you a few words of warning though. Whatever you do, don’t die, try to stay awake, and for all that is holy, never, ever break character.” She shuddered with that last part as a deep fear seemed to chill the room more than it already was. “You pass, you become a Herald. You fail? Well… we’ll have a lot to clean up.”

“What do you mean?” I asked as the woman stood up. I tried to struggle with my bonds as she walked around the table. “Break character? What- what are you talking about? I don’t even want-“

The woman lightly tapped my shoulder. I felt a pulse of lightheadedness before everything turned dark.

— — —

I awoke in a bright white cell. I wasn’t sure how much time passed, but occasionally food and water were tossed into my cell. I mulled over the warnings for days as fear of the unknown ate at me. It was already hard to sleep with the brightness and coldness of the cell, but add to that the unceasing fear and her warnings to stay awake? It was nearly impossible.

I fell asleep three times, each time quickly interrupted by a guard barging into my cell with some kind of shock baton. Each time, they’d scan me with that weird device. Each time, it would shine a darker purple as the ticking increased. 

Finally, after what felt like weeks, I fell asleep one last time. As the darkness embraced me, I could hear the device ticking so fast it drowned out the entire world.

— — — 

The first thing I felt was overwhelming compression. I pushed with all my might, and yet my arms couldn’t get past whatever blocked me in. I desperately twisted and twirled in an attempt to find more space, but I was trapped like a rat.

My heart started to pound as my head turned fuzzy. I could see nothing but darkness and the stench of mud and wood. My limbs slowly turned numb as my breathing picked up pace. No matter how much I struggled, I couldn't escape from the coffin-like space. I tried screaming for help- screaming for someone- anyone to help me, but the air slowly turned more and more sparse with each scream.

My entire world turned fuzzy as if I’d pass out at any moment. My hyperventilation didn’t help in the slightest. Just when I thought I’d die from lack of air once more, I heard something piercing through what sounded like mud.

Fists pounded against wood. It took me a moment to remember that they were mine even as sharp splinters pierced underneath my skin. I couldn’t bring myself to stop as my heartbeat turned erratic. There was no controlling it. The square breathing I was told oh so long ago vanished to the back of my mind in favor of sharp, desperate drags of stale air.

The piercing grew louder and louder as my hands turned bloodier and bloodier. Then, something sharp sounded off as the wood shuddered harshly. A few moments later, a shovel stabbed through the wood just above my chest, bringing with it a spray of dirt.

“Help!” I cried desperately.

The sounds of digging paused as a voice harshly whispered. “Quite! Do you want the whole town to wake up?”

My foggy brain focused on his words as fresh air rushed in through the gap in the wood. The shovel- I was sure it was a shovel- continued to dig as my brain locked onto the word town. What town? Where am I even? Last I remember, I was in that white cell. How’d I end up here?

Eventually, the shovel stopped entirely as the wooden lid of what I was starting to believe to be a coffin popped off. I felt tears in the corners of my eyes as I was exposed to the dark, open sky above. Oddly, there were no stars in the sky, but that hardly mattered as fresh air hit me in the face.

My dread faded as I scrambled up out of the hole- the grave, I realized as I got to the surface. The hole was in the middle of a graveyard, illuminated by a rickety lantern on the edge of a mound of dirt. In it stood a man that I’d never seen before, bent over from all the digging.

The man looked up at me, covered head to toe so that only a small slit for his eyes peaked through between a black bandana and a wide-brimmed hat. I think- I think it was a cowboy hat? I’d heard about these ‘cowboys’ on other planets from the radio, but seeing as Voth Prime was entirely deep ocean, we didn’t have them. 

He wore clothing typically described by the radio- a long duster covered everything up, though the lantern glinted off of something silver in a holster at his waist. Probably a revolver based on the shape. I’d seen a similar weapon from the Emberguard on patrol.

”Well howdy day to ya’ too, Jasper.” His voice sounded old. Not quite ancient, but definitely past the prime of his life. The slight hunch to his back reinforced that idea. The man tossed the shovel up onto the pile and then reached up a hand. “Well? Ain’t no way you leave me down here, eh?”

He knew my name… and he spoke with familiarity as if we were old friends. Just what was going on? I reached down a hand in response, pulling him up and out of the hole with surprising ease as my brain scrambled.

”Who?” The rest of my words seemed to freeze up in confusion.

”Now, I know you hate them tight spaces but ain’t this a bit much? Don’t give ole’ Clyde that kind of treatment.” The man’s eyes squeezed into a smile barely visible over the bandana covering the bottom half of his face. He picked up a duffel bag off to the side and tossed it to me before picking up the lantern and shovel. “C’mon, Moll is over yonder. We gotta get her up too.”

I hollowly followed the man as I tried to figure out where I was at least. We were in a graveyard, that much was obvious, but the dark clouds covering the moon and stars made it impossible to see much of anything. 

Everything smelled way too clean too. As we trudged through spots of fresh mud, I could smell burnt ozone. It surprisingly smelled good. Usually, at least on Voth Prime, the pollutants made the scent of lightning noxious. 

As I looked around, I saw lights of what looked to be a fairly large town surrounding two sides of the graveyard. The other two, although almost impossible to make out against the darkness, were blocked in by a massive wall. It faintly reminded me of home.

The graveyard sat pushed up against the corner of the place, and it was unreal in size. I tracked the wall all around the town, losing it in the lights beyond the dark graveyard.

”Where are we- uh, Clyde?” I asked as I looked down at myself. I was dressed in a similar style to Clyde. When was I changed? Who changed me? 

I picked at the splinters in my hands, pulling them out one by one as I checked my arm. Even my arm was entirely healed. New scars crisscrossed my arms, which had seriously bulked up at some point, but there wasn’t a scar from where the Shade got me.

I was even more confused as I looked over the rest of my body. It wasn’t- well, it didn’t feel like my body. I felt like a stranger, and yet I could still move around with the ease I normally could. Better, even. And I had so much more muscle than I used to have. Was I even still me? Nothing made sense anymore

Clyde paused for a moment and glanced over his shoulder. “Malak. Don’t tell me ya’ forgot the plan now, son. Hit yar head on the coffin?” He asked lightly, though the smile faded from his eyes. Instead, they were squinted with barely disguised suspicion.

“Wha-.“ I paused as that woman in white’s warnings came back to the forefront of my mind. ‘Never, ever break character’. Was this what she meant? The suspicious gaze evoked a sense of horror deep inside. I tried to imitate his accent and deep drawl. “Somethin’ like that. It’s comin’ back.”

”Good, good.” He stopped in front of a particular grave and set down the rickety lantern next to it. Clyde slammed his shovel down into the mud, using his boot to wedge it even further. “C’mon, let's get Moll up a’fore that darn groundskeeper comes back ‘round.”

I joined the man, pushing the raging questions in my mind to the side in favor of not ‘breaking character’ and helped him dig up yet another grave.