It was another warm sunny day and another short winter gone and forgotten. I quickly got dressed, pulled the curtains open, and made my way down to the kitchen—I was starving.
“Hey Cian, good morning,” Zypher called to me from the kitchen.
The kitchen in Alden’s house was nice and spacious with a center island that had five bar stools nestled underneath, one of which was occupied by Zypher.
“Good morning,” I said, yawning.
“Where’s Nicole?” I asked, glancing around the kitchen.
“Oh, she said she was going to take a shower before breakfast. Where’s Alden?” He asked in return.
“I think he’s just finishing up with Yuenna. She apparently needed to talk to him in private?” I said, with a hint of skepticism.
“Weird. Well anyways, I made bacon, eggs and pancakes, help yourself,” Zypher said with a warm smile.
“Oh, awesome, thanks!” I said, grabbing a plate and placing some bacon and pancakes on it carefully, avoiding the eggs—they just weren't my thing.
We sat in silence, eating, when we heard slow dragging footsteps approach.
“Good…morning…” Alden said as he entered the kitchen, pulled up to the stool, took a seat and sprawled onto the counter.
“You good?” I asked, with a chuckle.
“Oh. Far from it. It's way too early to be awake,” Alden announced groggily.
“Sooo…” I started to say but Alden spun his head around to glare at me.
“Ok, I won’t ask…Zypher made breakfast, but I guess you probably won’t have any anyways,” I said, shrugging as I finished my last few bites of food.
“Yeah, breakfast is a no for me. Coffee however sounds great,” Alden said, pushing himself off of the counter and down from the stool.
As he made his way to the other side of the kitchen we heard another set of footsteps making their way in.
“Morning guys,” Nicole said, cheerfully as she made her way to the plates to get some breakfast.
“Good morning,” Zypher, Alden said while I just stood there like an idiot.
Her hair was still wet from her shower and she was wearing a sweater twice her size with matching shorts. For some reason this captivated me, I usually only saw her in school clothes, not something casual like this. I quickly snapped myself out of my stupor before I gave Alden reason to chastise me.
“G-good morning,” I stuttered—damn it.
“That was a bit delayed, but good morning. It feels weird not being tired after all that,” Nicole said as she took a seat at the counter and began gathering food onto a plate.
“Agreed, but you get used to it after a couple times. Although, sometimes I just sit and meditate instead of going on an adventure,” I said, getting up to stretch after regaining my composure.
I noticed Alden slowly sneaking away outside through the backdoor and decided to follow, Zypher and Nicole just looked at me oddly as I gave them a shushing gesture. As I followed Alden onto the kitchen balcony, he just stared out across his backyard sipping his coffee.
“I’m not going to tell you,” he said promptly.
“I know. If you were going to, you would have said something already,” I said as I walked up beside him, staring out at the alcove.
“Fair enough,” he replied simply.
“So, what did you find out about the church? You didn’t actually share anything, and tried to play it off with that stupid hat,” I said, nudging him in the shoulder.
“Oh yeah… Basically, the Sundals and Graff have been basically waging a cold war on each other despite some collaborations. It seems like it has something to do with the origins of the 4th World and the location of Talis. They’re also secretly trying to capture you. Although I’m not sure they understand what a secret is…” he said chuckling, causing me to raise an eyebrow judgmentally.
“Well, it’s definitely not too much of a secret anymore. That dude that you said attacked you before? He’s related to that somehow but I don’t know much more than that right now. After the Graff had to intervene in the Sundals' failed attempt to capture you, they've gone back into hiding and I’m entirely out of leads,” Alden said before taking another sip and staring me in the eyes, his expression showing a disconcerting amount of concern.
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“That just doesn’t make sense, the Sundals clearly tried to kill me,” I argued.
“Yes, they wanted you, the vessel, dead, so that they could release that which resides within. It’s clear to me that the only way we’re going to get any real answers is by getting in with Xiphias,” he continued, turning around and leaning his back against the railing.
“And you don’t want them to know?” I said, motioning my head in a sideways movement towards Zypher and Nicole.
“Pretty much. Do you really think they could keep their mouths shut about it? Zypher already works for them and Nicole has been training to become an operator for months, there’s no way they could remain silent. And, let us not forget, Nicole being as curious about things as she is will just end up in trouble. I also have no idea how far the conspiracy goes, who we can trust and who we can’t. I know we can trust those two, well Nicole for sure, but passed that? Look at the lack of communication Zypher receives under the guise of minimal resources and yet we’ve discovered an easy way into the 4th World that no one else is aware of? If the churches are really that prominent, then there is no way soul sense isn’t widespread amongst guardians as well. To put it simply, I don’t like anything about this…but I’m paranoid by nature,” Alden explained, turning back around to face the backyard.
“I think maybe we expected more of a support structure than they actually have. I’m willing to bet that they really are thin on resources as is, otherwise they’d alert the necessary governing bodies and at the very least they’d have introduced some sort of emergency policy for the citizens. Regardless, we have to get more information. I agree though, telling Nicole and Zypher about all that wouldn’t work out in our favour. I guess all we can do is depend on Zypher to get us in contact with Xiphias. If Xiphias is working with the churches then Xiphias will likely come to recruit us soon anyways. I wonder if it's related to the strange presence of the island. I know it’s not talked about much but why is it just ‘The Island’…?” I asked, scratching my chin in contemplation.
“I did some research on that too actually. The official story is that this is a holy land, so-to-speak, and cannot be sullied with a name as its true name is forgotten,” Alden replied, “Adding a name over top of that would be an affront to the gods. Mind you, this story is corroborated by both the Graff and Sundals so I’m incredibly skeptical. Not to mention, at this point, it being referred to as The Island pretty much defines it as a name but what do I know,” Alden said, shrugging.
“Unfortunately, while I have limited data on the island and am unable to provide much information outside its ecology, I do have data on the Graff and Sundals,” Cadeyrn suddenly spoke up.
“Oh? You have additional details to share?” I asked, curiously.
“To summarize what I had previously covered. The guardian’s database lists them as the original factions of guardians, but due to some infighting the factions unified under Xiphias,” Cadeyrn started explaining.
“The Graff and the Sundals worked on creating artificial beings in order to become the ruling power over the 4th World but the Sundals creations failed, going rogue wreaking havoc. In order to deal with the situation, they partnered with the Graff to eliminate them. Afterwards, as a show of good faith, they unified in order to establish true order amongst the guardians,” Cadeyrn said.
“That was what I had relayed to you before but it seems some new information has been made available to me, somehow,” Cadeyrn stated, seemingly confused by its own revelation. “To answer your question before, regarding the churches having gods. It seems there is a strong possibility that they’re being manipulated behind the scenes by powerful individuals with their own motives.”
“Interesting…and what exactly is the source of this information?” I asked, skeptically.
“Unknown. It just…is” Cadeyrn said, with some odd hesitation.
“So the churches are secretly vying for more power within Xiphias, but we pretty much already knew that. It is good to have some supporting information that there are likely gods behind the churches, even if that information itself is suspect. And that likely means there is a god behind Xiphias as well, or perhaps multiple… Either way it tells us we need to be much more careful with our movements. If we were to figure out why there’s so much quanum here and how that fits in with everything we may discover the enemy behind the enemy? Any chance we could gather information off of the island?” I suggested, with a shrug. “That may give us some much needed perspective on the political situation.”
“On the mainland? I think it may be possible? That being said, even at our speed I don’t think we would make it further than half way by flight before we tired ourselves out. We could take an actual plane or a boat I guess,” Alden agreed. “It would be complicated though, since they only let tourists come here, and residents only get to leave for the mainland if they have a business visa. Even that requires special certification. We’re sort of cut off from the rest of the world, just no one really talks about it because there’s no real reason to leave,” he continued.
“Well…That’s suspicious, not sure why I’ve never really thought about it before. Basically we’re stuck with limited resources and cut off from the rest of the world until we enter the workforce…” I complained.
“Not necessarily. See we actually have a lot of social services here as well as unified basic income that’s subsidized by the churches. We also have access to quite a few resources given our status as a heritage site. Heck we’re more or less autonomously governed, with no reliance on another country. That’s probably the main reason why we have to have a business visa to travel to the mainland,” Alden explained.
“Interesting…I wonder if we could teleport there once we finish the actual teleportation pad? Then we could bypass the need for a business visa or anything else,” I asked as a sudden gusts of wind started to buffet us on the balcony.
“True, let's talk it over with Zypher, looks like a storm is coming anyways so we should head in,” Alden said as he approached the door to head inside.
“Hold on, one other thing I’ve been thinking about. I’m not the greatest when it comes to political situations but I think it’s safe to assume that like in the 3rd World the churches likely have their hands all the way to the top. Wouldn’t joining the GDF under Xiphias be a bad move in that case?” I said, some anxiety in my tone.
“I suppose that’s true but I figure instead of you being an unknown on a secluded island, if you were to put yourself in their hands where they can watch you more easily they’ll be less likely to act rashly. Besides, like you said, we have too limited resources here as Guardians. We need a lot more if we want to figure out what’s going on with you and this island,” Alden said matter-of-factly. “Come on, let’s head in.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s a fair assessment. Thanks,” I said, as we headed inside.