07-28-2019, 02:57 PM
He wiped his parched mouth, but the back of his hand was as rough as sandpaper from the ash. He unhooked his water bottle and sucked at the cool moisture. Screwing the cap back on his bottle, Lih braced himself for Nox’s next utterance. It was as wholly inevitable as it was insane.
“Not cleaned up. My gut says they licked the stones clean,” the atharim explained what happened. His word was proof, and good enough for Lih.
Nox surprised him by speaking to his new recruits on a private matter. It made Lih see the atharim differently. He seemed to have a soft spot for Ivan. Ivan was one of the channelers and enjoyed a far more cordial relationship with the atharim that Lih did. Ivan’s steadfast manner was a true virtue. Lih became panicked, in the heat of things. Perhaps Nox and Ivan could help him overcome it. Maybe he could learn from them.
And maybe Nox liked underdogs. And never had a dog been so much under, thought Lih. Ivan’s brand of courage defied reality, and Nox had been plain about their grim situation. Three men, two channelers even, against an unknown world of numberless hostiles. This was not a battle to win for the domovoi; this was just a last stand, where, by the light’s grace, they might take as many of the monsters with them as they could before they finally fell.
“I understand that,” he admitted, “we don’t hide our mistakes. I made a mistake. I acknowledge my failure. I used my gun,. it was a waste. You were right, Nox, I’m sorry. I hope you’ll still let me come with you guys.”
Lih found himself truly warming to Nox for the first time. He had not imagined they were ever be close, but what had at first seemed to be tight-lipped, reserved and stern in Nox was proving to be plain spoken, empathic and wise.
Nox was a reclusive man, and it appeared, lonely. Nox had cut off his roots to the atharim, but it left him stranded, and disillusioned, adrift between worlds. The only place left for him was the place his atharim upbringing had given him: wherever monsters go.
He knew a secret society like the atharim did exist within the CCD, occult and private. According to rumors, they had been active here for a long, long time. Lih wasn’t sure what something that operated perpendicular to the normal chain of command might look like, but it sounded wrong to him. Wrong, if nothing else, in that it was deliberately secret and thus deceptive. Wrong, in that Dorian and Nox disapproved of the atharim. Wrong or not, Nox made it plain that any domovoi intending to serve under his leadership should have nothing to do with the past. There had never been any sign that anyone in the atharim was involved in this case. Now the dead atharim had turned up.
Lih frowned. He was greatly troubled by the discovery that Dorian and Ivan were being threatened. He remembered Dorian talking to him about protecting people on his return from Boda’s, but he had been too distracted then. He cared little then about the fate of a man who’d angered his own kind, but it was another distraction, and he needed as many as he could get. Dorian was a lousy man. Stubborn. Annoying. But he spoke the truth, no matter how unpalatable that was. He told the truth, and said things others dared not. He wondered if, more than field experience, Dorian meant them to look after Nox, as a favor for him. Make sure Nox was not alone too often.
Following their strange and disconcerting conversation with Nox in the tunnels, Lih felt better. He smiled respectfully at the other two and began to walk around. Crossbow in hand, Lih swung back to face the entrance they had emerged from.
A sudden noise from Nova made him start.
Lih knew what that meant.
From a distance away, through the tunnels, the dog had their scent. Their position was being attacked.
“We need to move,” Nox said to Ivan and Lih. “This way.”
He hastened over to the direction that the atharim had indicated. The area they now slipped through was forward from where they came. Nox ranged them out in a line. Lih carried the crossbow. Nova was running at Nox’s side, helping his owner to sweep and locate.
It had become very still and dark. Amping their land warrior acoustics, they could hear sounds Nova detected. From far away, the splash and spatter of movement in the wet ground. In the enclosed passageway made by sediments, the fierce sounds suddenly travelled much further than before.
Scrambling down, Lih peered at the darkness nervously. The tunnels, admittedly sheered with smoke and dust, seemed especially murky around them, as if the air had been stained brown like the fingers of an old smoker. There was a slight flicker in his lens-filtered vision too, so in the poor light everything looked like an old time-y visual recording, running slightly fast, with jerks and jumps on the film.
He felt a touch, like light fingertips on his skin, and he jumped, and then reassured himself that it was his own imagination.
His skin crawled, and he had no wish to get any closer for a clearer look. But he ran onwards, and trained his weapon at the oncoming forms.
“Not cleaned up. My gut says they licked the stones clean,” the atharim explained what happened. His word was proof, and good enough for Lih.
Nox surprised him by speaking to his new recruits on a private matter. It made Lih see the atharim differently. He seemed to have a soft spot for Ivan. Ivan was one of the channelers and enjoyed a far more cordial relationship with the atharim that Lih did. Ivan’s steadfast manner was a true virtue. Lih became panicked, in the heat of things. Perhaps Nox and Ivan could help him overcome it. Maybe he could learn from them.
And maybe Nox liked underdogs. And never had a dog been so much under, thought Lih. Ivan’s brand of courage defied reality, and Nox had been plain about their grim situation. Three men, two channelers even, against an unknown world of numberless hostiles. This was not a battle to win for the domovoi; this was just a last stand, where, by the light’s grace, they might take as many of the monsters with them as they could before they finally fell.
“I understand that,” he admitted, “we don’t hide our mistakes. I made a mistake. I acknowledge my failure. I used my gun,. it was a waste. You were right, Nox, I’m sorry. I hope you’ll still let me come with you guys.”
Lih found himself truly warming to Nox for the first time. He had not imagined they were ever be close, but what had at first seemed to be tight-lipped, reserved and stern in Nox was proving to be plain spoken, empathic and wise.
Nox was a reclusive man, and it appeared, lonely. Nox had cut off his roots to the atharim, but it left him stranded, and disillusioned, adrift between worlds. The only place left for him was the place his atharim upbringing had given him: wherever monsters go.
He knew a secret society like the atharim did exist within the CCD, occult and private. According to rumors, they had been active here for a long, long time. Lih wasn’t sure what something that operated perpendicular to the normal chain of command might look like, but it sounded wrong to him. Wrong, if nothing else, in that it was deliberately secret and thus deceptive. Wrong, in that Dorian and Nox disapproved of the atharim. Wrong or not, Nox made it plain that any domovoi intending to serve under his leadership should have nothing to do with the past. There had never been any sign that anyone in the atharim was involved in this case. Now the dead atharim had turned up.
Lih frowned. He was greatly troubled by the discovery that Dorian and Ivan were being threatened. He remembered Dorian talking to him about protecting people on his return from Boda’s, but he had been too distracted then. He cared little then about the fate of a man who’d angered his own kind, but it was another distraction, and he needed as many as he could get. Dorian was a lousy man. Stubborn. Annoying. But he spoke the truth, no matter how unpalatable that was. He told the truth, and said things others dared not. He wondered if, more than field experience, Dorian meant them to look after Nox, as a favor for him. Make sure Nox was not alone too often.
Following their strange and disconcerting conversation with Nox in the tunnels, Lih felt better. He smiled respectfully at the other two and began to walk around. Crossbow in hand, Lih swung back to face the entrance they had emerged from.
A sudden noise from Nova made him start.
Lih knew what that meant.
From a distance away, through the tunnels, the dog had their scent. Their position was being attacked.
“We need to move,” Nox said to Ivan and Lih. “This way.”
He hastened over to the direction that the atharim had indicated. The area they now slipped through was forward from where they came. Nox ranged them out in a line. Lih carried the crossbow. Nova was running at Nox’s side, helping his owner to sweep and locate.
It had become very still and dark. Amping their land warrior acoustics, they could hear sounds Nova detected. From far away, the splash and spatter of movement in the wet ground. In the enclosed passageway made by sediments, the fierce sounds suddenly travelled much further than before.
Scrambling down, Lih peered at the darkness nervously. The tunnels, admittedly sheered with smoke and dust, seemed especially murky around them, as if the air had been stained brown like the fingers of an old smoker. There was a slight flicker in his lens-filtered vision too, so in the poor light everything looked like an old time-y visual recording, running slightly fast, with jerks and jumps on the film.
He felt a touch, like light fingertips on his skin, and he jumped, and then reassured himself that it was his own imagination.
His skin crawled, and he had no wish to get any closer for a clearer look. But he ran onwards, and trained his weapon at the oncoming forms.
Viktor Lih
Officer of CCDPD
Officer of CCDPD