The immediacy of their threats quickly resolved itself: the young man among them relinquished his powers unto the universe once more. However, if he were so easily able to release them, Nikolai had to assume he could summon them as smoothly. Meanwhile, Nikolai's own senses ached with the the surge of power flowing through him, whispering the need to be used, like the ghosts of the dead begging for purpose denied their formless souls.
It was the girl whom stepped forward. Nikolai found himself surprised she was the leader of the trio, if he were inclined to recognize such emotions; moments such as these were void of such trivialities like emotion.
She wisely provided names to the three, and upon identification, each in turn earned the weighty gaze for which Nikolai famously judged others. The results of his judgement remained a mystery for the intensity of his attention was unchanging between the three. Until proven otherwise, he would assume all three could wield powers similar to his own, although he had yet to experience the presence of a female with such abilities. They were poised vipers in that regard.
The girl, Aria stumbled through an explanation for her presence. Again, her judgement proved wise by providing answers to the Ascendancy's questions so quickly. However, she was either a skilled actress or sincerely intimidated by the coincidental encounter.
Godling was perhaps an apt term for young Nox; however, Nikolai found the lack of respect offensive. Michael was no godling; Valdir either. Yet there were souls blessed with powers that paled in comparisons to the mighty for whom Nikolai had no term. Demigods seemed most appropriate, yet he referred to each as ascendants nonetheless. The disdain in Aria's term was condescending. Why did Nox put up with it? She was clearly his leader, yet the affection with which she described Lucas suggested a personal loyalties lay elsewhere. It was only a passing thought.
The gist of her confession lacked specifics. She referred to a handler like he were a superior, and researching him by feeling the remains of a ruined temple. Her fear of dying was clear, as it should be. If Nikolai were not entrusted with moral imperatives, he would have allowed Simon to take his shots and they could join the grave he was soon to exhume.
Finally, a few rays of clarity penetrated her statements. Nikolai pieced the puzzle together the moment she referenced a mission, and the taste of his mouth filled cinderous: ashes of the dead that lined his path to ascension. And it seemed Michael Vellas was poised to join the ranks. Yet Nikolai did not deem a man's acquaintance with a random woman to be grounds for execution - Michael earned more than that - but neither would the admission go dismissed without investigation.
She was hardly the first person to be sent to kill him. Although how the Atharim thought she might succeed when their best spies and assassins failed, Nikolai did not know. "A new approach for the Atharim to send a diminutive woman, although it is impossible for you to have anticipated my presence today. I will accept this encounter as coincidence; however, I am not inclined to leaving Atharim with missions to kill me wandering free in this world."
Nikolai had to consider what to do. Killing each was easiest, as he could not trust the three to walk away unwatched.
Thus, a moment's consideration, and he knew exactly what he was going to do with her, but first, he had work to complete.
"Despite appearances, I am not here for nostalgia. I came for something I buried in this ground long ago. You three will sit and wait while I find it, alive, or you can lay on the ground dead where you will be left behind. If you agree, now is the time to sit, out of reach of one another. I will resume my work and Simon will guard you in the meantime."
He waited for their compliance, or dissent, either way was little difference to him. When men chose death in the face of an alternative, he did not mind dealing it to them.
However, should they sit, he would take the motion as a sign of consent and wrap each with ropes of Essence in which they would be bound until he willed their release.
The sense of danger and menace was palpable. Aria was tense though she didn't shrug off his touch. Lucas felt of the weight of the Ascendancy's gaze on him but did not flinch. He was here for Aria. He broke his gaze and turned to look down at her. He felt his heart warm, the fear no longer paramount.
Strangely, a sense of peace came over him. He was where he belonged. He returned his gaze to the Ascendancy, more curious than anything else. The man was fair. They had done nothing. Aria's admission and her clear indication that she had no intention of trying to carryout her mission had some effect, it seemed. She was safe for the moment.
All they needed was for Nox to blow it with a stupid comment or some trick or other. God, even that smirk alone might set Ascendancy off. It sure made him want to hit him. That did send a spike of fear through him. He prayed that Nox hold his tongue for once and shut the hell up. Which, of course, almost guaranteed the opposite. Nox was going to speak and cause it all to go to hell because he didn't understand when to shut his yap.
He needed to act before Nox ruined it and got her killed. He raised his hands and took a couple steps or three away from Aria. As he did he looked at her and smiled reassuringly, then nodded as he made as if to sit down.
The Ascendancy was still suspicious of them, which Aria did not blame him, he did seem to understand what she'd meant, though she was not sure she liked his last comment. Death was not something she was ready for, and Lucas was with her. Aria sighed inside, this was going to go very badly.
Lucas put his arm around her and Aria wasn't sure about it, it wasn't an move of possession, but he refused to see the danger he put himself by being near. They would have to talk about it later if they survived this. He made her job more difficult having to worry about him too. At least Nox was prepared for all the bad things that could go down.
Ascendancy requested their submission. Nox had already dropped the power and he was clearly ecstatic about meeting a real person of talent with in the power. Inside he was nearly bouncing off the walls. But he held it together well. Aria sat down on the surprisingly dry ground. The wonders of the power of the gods never ceased to amaze Aria.
Weaves of some kind snaked around her and Aria sighed, it was one thing to know about his ability, but to have it used against her made her shutter inside. It was something she was going to have to remedy with Nox. They'd agreed to be guinea pigs for each other, but Nox's tendencies were to blow things up, not restrain someone, he definitely needed more practical uses for his talents as well.
Aria closed her eyes and waited for the end to come, his words resonating in her mind. "I am not inclined to leaving Atharim with missions to kill me wandering free in this world." She could hear it as clear as he'd just spoken it. Free was a relative world. And it could mean any number of things, and that is what Aria worried about, not being free could mean dead...
There was no doubt that their lives hung in the balance. Despite his normal attitude towards life he was not a stupid man, he knew better than to mouth off, not that he wanted to. But it was a challenge not to speak. He wanted to know more. He was afraid, but he should have been more afraid than he was. The prospect of even seeing a man like Ascendancy wield the power of the gods. A man who had lived much longer than he had, and yet he still looked so young. He'd been wielding this unknown power far longer than anyone really knew. And here he was holding an enormous amount of power, and he was actually going to do something with it. To say Nox was giddy inside would have been an understatement.
Nox wondered what other thoughts would start popping into his head. First the ability to hold multiple weaves at one time, and now Ascendancy was going to continue his work. Nox probably wouldn't have shared any of his secrets with someone he called an enemy, but unless he was told to not watch the chances of him not learning something here this day, if he survived, was going very small. But to do that he had he had to survive. Without word or ceremony Nox sat down. It was far less graceful than it could have been, he felt like a child who was about to listen at story time. And really this was more like show and tell. Except he didn't think Ascendancy would be telling him anything, and he doubted he'd answer any questions Nox had. But he would learn something, Nox had no doubt in his mind. He just might not understand it.
Cords wrapped around him, unseen to the normal eye, he could see Aria's discomfort. He looked over at Lucas and reigned in his comment to soothe her, Lucas was temperamental. They may have come to an agreement of sorts but he had enough to worry about as it was and it was best not to say anything anyway, with Apollyon lurking nearly 10 meters in front of them.
Simon guarded the three once they were seated. He kept them under the strictest of gazes, aim steady. There was nothing about this situation that he found unusual or unexpected. Although alert, his emotions were still as ice. Simon's priority was to his man, only. These three were only alive because the Ascendancy required it; however, Simon was willing to defy such orders at the slightest provocation.
Nikolai was hardly content to allow three assassin Atharim, of whom one, or more likely, all three could wield power, to wait under the guard of a sole agent. Were that man Alric, circumstances would be different. As it were, the Ascendancy maintained a web of ropes around the three like they were his prisoners while the former web of veins delved into the ground once more.
The focus in his eyes glazed abstract as his senses shifted, though he was peripherally aware of the three Atharim nearby. Soon, the sense of rock and dirt, bone and metal returned. Like the fleck of metal on the tip of his tongue, he found two pits that harbored precious metal. Either could be mundane jewelry, a ring or necklace, or it could be the charm he sought. He picked one at random and went to stand over it.
Nik never had need of digging a hole with powers before, but it was easy enough, he found. Very soon, a mound of hard-packed dirt opened before the graves. He peered down into each, but there was little to see beyond bones. Brushes of the same power that found the metal were laid across the remains like a gauzy shroud until a tiny spark of recognition jolted his senses. Essence lifted it from the grave and laid it across his out-stretched palm. He cast the broken chain aside and examined the surface of the charm, rubbing it clean between two fingers as he did.
But the slim twinge of victory was quickly smothered once the hourglass symbol was revealed. The hate that festered for forty years swelled briefly as he studied it in the mountain light, but the emotion seemingly broke when the charm lifted from the surface from his palm. It floated to hover in front of Aria. Nikolai followed a few steps behind. "Mean anything to you?"
He asked, hands clasped behind his back as he looked down upon her. He assumed it would, this symbol. What else could it be if not Atharim? "Momento mori?"
he added, tone morbid, although he carefully studied their reactions for signs of recognition.
Nox watched with amused glee as Ascendancy didn't hid from him what he was doing. He couldn't understand exactly what he was doing. Nox memorized the weave, the intricacies of each cast thread. He wanted to draw upon his power and make the weaves just to see what it did. Ascendancy easily moved earth. None of this was likely to help Nox, but this was the first time anyone had showing him something so easily. When Bas formed his weave cutting weave it had been purely coincidental, he hadn't known how to do it either.
Nox's body nearly hummed with the need to touch the power, it was too intoxicating, the power beneath, the call to learn and drawn from what little knowledge he could gain from the most powerful man he'd ever meet.
Having easily found what he was looking for, Nox slowly came to understand what he'd been doing, granted that meant little to Nox until he could try the weave itself. But he had been looking for the buried metal. Nox knew very little about history, or current events and he didn't really care either, but this was how this man became Ascendancy. Nox grinned.
It was the tiny floating pendant that he showed Aria that he'd been looking for. The hour glass, the words he spoke, completely foreign to him. Nox didn't care, he couldn't add anything to the conversation, he kept his mouth shut despite the complete desire to ask questions. To learn...
Aria watched Nox, whatever Ascendancy was doing had him in a state that rivaled something completely different. He could barely sit still even with bound hands and feet. It was interesting seeing the overly confident man become the childlike boy, eager to learn... Aria turned to watch Ascendancy but she couldn't see anything that he was doing until the dirt started to move and he picked up something from the earth and cleaned it with his fingers.
The tiny object floated in front of Aria on wings of unseen power. Aria shivered. It was one thing for Nox to show off, but this, this was far scary, this was Apollyon, the Destroyer, end of days where heralded by his appearance. Doom and destruction, and Aria could feel the parchment she'd felt. The scared tattoo in the video flashed into her memory. The burning man, the power that Ascendancy wielded was scary, and the man in front of her wielded that power with untold knowledge, she could feel it in Nox, the awe and the dread and the fear, but he was eager not completely afraid though he should be. They could die this day and for what, for nothing.
Ascendancy asked her about the tiny hourglass symbol, and spoke in Latin, something about the moment of death, at least that was the best she could translate it. Aria looked up at the man towering above her. "Should I? An hourglass represents time. As does the oroborous tattoo'd on three out of four of our arms, but that is the only connection I can give you to what I could possibly have with that symbol."
Aria wondered what this had to do with the destruction of the monastary. "Those men attacked you? You destroyed the monastary because of them. They wore that symbol."
Aria smiled, "A faction with in the Atharim? How interesting."
If it were the case she wondered what side of the lines drawn by the Atharim they stood upon. If they attacked Ascendancy, Aria wasn't sure she believed they were on her side.
"I know nothing of your symbol or the true meaning of the Latin you speak. And I doubt the Atharim's data for field hunters that I have at my fingertips will yield anything. But you never know, there is no harm in looking."
Lucas sat there. At least the ground wasn't covered in snow, otherwise it would have gotten cold real quick. Not that it was warm. Now that they were still, the cold was seeping in.
Lucas looked over at Aria and gave her a reassuring smile, then watched the Ascendancy stare at the ground. It still blew his mind that the man was standing in front of them. He'd seen pictures and video of course. Everyone had. He was everywhere. Riding horses. Hocking vodka. Hunting. The man was the epitome of Russian manhood. He even had a vague memory of him winning some dance competition though it was hard to imagine him ever relaxed enough to do that. He shook his head at the thought. Lucas had to have been high. You imagined all kinds of stuff in that state.
Suddenly the earth seemed to move without anyone touching it. Lucas looked over at Nox, who seemed to be staring like a kid at a bag of candies. Damn! It just blew his mind. Stories made real. Strangely, he felt a sense of pride. The leader of their world was like Nox. Stronger even, from the way he easily subdued them all. He didn't expect that. He'd never grown up particularly nationalistic. Ascendancy just existed. But to know that he was like this- had this power- well...it just made him glad. The CCD was a good place to live. There were opportunities if you worked hard. And things were getting better. He knew that. Hoped it, anyway.
Suddenly, a piece of metal on a chain lifted up and hung in the air before floating to Aria. Ascendancy's question didn't make any sense to him. And once he started in with the Latin, Lucas was lost. Still, a burst of pride surged in his chest as Aria answered. No fear. Just plain truth. She was so strong. He couldn't help smiling to himself.
The scrutiny of his gaze was obscured by twin pools of glassy darkness, yet Nikolai understood eyes were the telescope into the soul. Indeed, his was clouded by a long life of distrust and fortified by an anger so deep his revenge was to claim the world for himself, but as he pulled the sunglasses from his face, he meant to impress the enormity of his humanity upon these three Atharim, whom were so interested in discovering it they journeyed to the edge of the known world.
The boy, Nox, pined after every web of power that the Ascendancy crafted on sheer will. The power that surged within dominated both their presences, but Nikolai was aware the danger of proximity to another of his kind, boy god or otherwise. He did not intend to unleash the ferocity that drove the universe upon the boy, as he was confident such was unnecessary; however, neither had he the opportunity to press his skills against an Atharim who could wield the powers of a god. He would need to practice to hone such a craft, despite his confidence. For one day, he may need to face a titan of strength. When that time came, he would be ready.
The second of the two young men he judged next. Aria claimed he was a simple citizen and not borne of the Atharim's dogma. Yet Nikolai doubted. Whether he bore the tattoo or not, whether he'd donned the black robes of the rites, he shared the company and lives of two of the devout. Lucas was the same as Nox and Aria, and he would share in their fate.
Aria answered swiftly, her tongue sharp as a knife. Her initial analysis of the symbol he judged accurate. The hourglass measured time in the ancient world by the drip of a thousand grains of sand. Her insight lacked depth, however. The hourglass measured time, and by the hourglass, time came to its end. The oroborous was infinite, with no beginning nor end. Both referenced time, yet with dichotomous interpretations. She offered something, however, that made Nikolai dissect the acuity of her sincerity.
He returned the sunglasses to his face. Their moment of insight into the Ascendancy had come to its end. His orders followed. "You whom named yourself 'Aria', you will stand and walk ten steps ahead of me."
He lifted the ropes that bound her to her place. "Your arms will remain restrained behind you,"
he added.
"Your companions will return the direction you came. Gods living among the Atharim is an inevitable outcome I can consider. I believe Aria's claim to leadership among you three. Therefore, you both will return from whence you came and thus go free. However, if you step a foot inside the city of Moscow again, you will go under automatic surveillance, and a single act against me will be interpreted as a threat and you'll be arrested for conspiracy as assassins and charged with grand treason."
He did not elaborate on the fates of such individuals confronted with similar charges. They knew.
Order proclaimed, the ropes dissolved about their persons. From this vantage, Nikolai and Simon, with Aria as their custody, waited for their departure before returning to their own way. Aria would walk ahead of Nikolai, whom would otherwise provide directions back to the helicopter, however the fire-blanketed path of snow melt marked a clear path. Simon would follow behind, guarding against attacks from the departed men.
Well shit! This was not good. Well not all good. Living was great. Ascendancy had gazed upon them, Nox could feel him judging him, he wished he could feel what he did like Aria. Some indication as to whether or not his life was truly in danger. But he doubted the man was lying.
He and Lucas were free to go. Aria was staying. That was the not good part. And Nox didn't exactly like the idea of being watched. But he wasn't about to stay away from Moscow either. Before he walked away, "Ascendancy. I intend to go back to Moscow. It is my home now."
Nox was afraid, but, the worst that could happen was he would be struck down for his words. Death came to everyone. He knew this. It was his life, so it didn't matter. "So whatever man you have following me should be warned of what I do. I hunt in the tunnels of Moscow. Even without Aria at my back, I will hunt. The monsters in the tunnels are dangerous. Be sure that they understand. I'd hate for you to have to replace good men for their blind obedience."
New fears to grow. Now he had to watch his back in all directions. And he could only hope that Aria would find her way back to the hunt. He wasn't exactly sure how he was going to explain any of this to Borovsky. Either way the moment that Borovsky and the Regus found out that Aria had been taken by Ascendancy, and Nox knew they would find out eventually, but that moment would seal Aria's fate. She failed to kill Ascendancy. Her life was forfeit. The death warrant would be signed and some eager hunter would try to take her out. Nox doubted Borovsky or the Regus would do so themselves, be bothered with such a lowly creature as a Sentient, when they were hell bent on killing gods.
And now Lucas was tangled up in this web of death. Best thing for him was to forget about Aria, leave her to her life and live his own. When they were free and clear of danger Nox had every intention of telling him to do just that. The man already disliked him. He may as well hate him for saying it too. But it was the safest route, his life wasn't worth losing over a girl, particularly a girl who already knew she was living a short life. He'd kept her happy, now she needed to keep him safe, and Nox was fairly certain Lucas didn't see it that way. Didn't see anything she did to keep him safe, he came out hunting with them because of some fool jealousy. He put himself next to the one person who was taking responsibility for their being there. Right in the middle of the danger when she was trying to distance him from it. Not that it mattered now anyway, Lucas was deemed dangerous now. And that was so far from the truth Nox could laugh.
This was a new fear. He was losing everything just as things were starting to fall back into place.