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The Hangmen [A Fantasy Epic LitRPG]
Chapter 11: Downtime Discussions

Chapter 11: Downtime Discussions

“Do we have to do this in my room?” Ace asked, lounging on his bed.

The others were clustered on the floor of Ace’s room. Kai tinkered with the revolver Ace had returned. Draxl sharpened his sword, coating the floor with metal dust. Riven was absorbed in a book, only half paying attention as she waited for everyone else to arrive.

“We drew straws, and you lost,” Kai said.

“Ugh, fine.”

“Are the others going to show up?” Riven asked.

“I’m here! I’m here!” Cili exclaimed as she entered the room. The others shuffled on the floor to make room for her. Once Cili sat down, she began fiddling with the fletchings on her arrows and cleaning blood from the ones she had used.

“Sorry about the delay,” Galina said, walking into the room. She stood in a corner, resting against her staff. “Halvor said to start without him.”

“Alright, let’s start with what we know,” Draxl said. “Raevens attacked Wickerbound. We helped out, so the town probably feels at least a little indebted to us, especially the captain of the guards, since Ace saved his family. Good going with that.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. Turns out this Cally So is the person Galland sent us to find to get rid of these chains.”

“But we gotta wait till morning before she’ll tell us how,” Kai said.

“And likely what we’ll have to do for her in exchange,” Riven added.

“She’s gonna make us do something?” Cili asked. “But we saved the town.”

“That may put us in her good graces,” Ace said, “but she seems like the type that's eager to squeeze everything she can get from someone.”

“She does run a casino,” Galina remarked.

“No use talking about it till we heard more from her. I’m more curious about what happened to you.” Riven pointed at Ace, causing him to freeze slightly in anticipation. “What was that thing you were fighting? And what was that skill you used that cut through the darkness? How were you using that artifact Cally took from you?”

“Ok,” Ace groaned, rubbing his face. “I don't know when it happened, or how it happened, but I can talk to spirits.”

“Like souls?” Galina asked.

“Yeah, sorta. I can talk to them, and they can do things for me. It’s how I got us off the tree. The spirits of the people who were hung on it wanted revenge. The tree was a suitable vessel, so I jammed them into it. Also that rope we found in Ronan’s office, the way I made it suspend itself so we could climb down to the courtyard was by having the spirit inside possess it.

“I took the rope with me and when it got destroyed that same spirit managed to possess that artifact that Cally had. The katana flew straight to me and when I held it the spirit wanted to possess me. I didn’t have a whole lot of options so I agreed. I wouldn’t say I blacked out, but it was like I was a passenger in my own body. All my senses were diluted, and I couldn’t move a muscle. By the time I was back in control, I was falling through the sky, and then Cili saved my ass.”

“Spirit magic, huh?” Riven muttered.

“Do you know anything about it?” Ace asked. “It’s really all new to me, so I’d appreciate any advice.”

“No, not really,” Riven said. “My dad was just interested in it for a while. He was in the process of researching it when he, well, disappeared.”

“Sorry if I opened old wounds.”

“Don’t worry, I heal fast.”

“Can you do it again?” Draxl asked.

“Not with that spirit. The spirit, Kegan, said that was the last of what he had left, and that that was only a tiny part of his spirit. He was also referred to as ‘The Moonlit Shadow of the Sun.’”

“Damn, he had an epithet.” Kai said.

“Is that impressive?” Ace asked.

“Pretty much only avatars get them,” Draxl said. “There are some people who aren’t avatars that acquire them through grand achievements, but they’re one in a million. The fact that Kegan had one meant he was, at the very least, an avatar.”

Cili waved her hand dismissively. “Eh, we don’t need him.”.

“We probably do, but we’ll manage,” Riven said. “Ace, you mentioned the creature you were fighting could regenerate, is that right?”

“Yeah. It was definitely a raeven, but giant, grotesque, and mutilated. It had double the arms, heads, wings, and talons. Every time I hit it, it just healed itself instantly. Hitting it in the head seemed to stun it, but other than that, without Kegan, I don’t think I could’ve damaged the thing, let alone put it down for good.”

“Makes sense. It was paralyzed when you hit it in the head. The brain operates the body, so without one, it couldn’t move,” Kai said.

“Riven, you knew a lot about raevens. Does any of this ring a bell?” Galina asked.

“No, but it might explain something that’s been bothering me,” Riven said.

“Which is?” Draxl asked.

“Raevens normally work for The Scrap King,” Riven said.

“Isn’t he an urban legend?” Kai asked.

“No, he’s real,” Draxl replied.

“Wait, seriously.”

“Guys of course The Scrap King is real,” Cili said. “My best friend told me he’s real and she never lies. Okay, well she lies a lot, but not to me.”

“Oh, don’t worry it gets better,” Ace assured the group. “He’s a family friend too.”

“Okay, tell me if I have this right. The Scrap King, not only is he real, but he’s also a family friend of yours,” Kai said.

“Yeah,” Riven replied matter-of-factly.

“Noted.”

“Anyway, as I was saying, raevens normally work for The Scrap King. What doesn’t add up is that The Scrap King ensures his people act quietly and non-violently,” Riven explained.

“Okay, so what? This group wasn’t acting under The Scrap King,” Ace said.

“But why?” Riven asked. “If they had no other leader, The Scrap King would’ve snatched them up. His influence stretches all across Fable. Something, or someone was leading them.”

“It must be the raeven Ace fought,” Cili said. “In my tribe, whenever creatures' behavior would change, we were always taught to look for a change in leadership. If a creature that was stronger or smarter suddenly showed up then all the behavior of the whole pack would change.”

“I’m inclined to agree, but for a different reason, one I’m not sure I should say,” Galina said.

“I’m assuming it has to do with Halvor,” Ace said.

“Yeah, what the fuck happened to him?” Kai asked. “He was covered in blood, but it wasn’t black, it was red.”

Galina sighed. “I’ll explain the little I saw. During all the chaos I started to notice tremors resonating out from one house. I flew down to peek inside, and there I saw Halvor. There was someone else inside too: a woman with skin even paler than Riven’s.

“I think they were fighting. It was hard to tell since it seemed so one-sided. Halvor continuously whaled on the woman, tearing her skin and muscles, separating her torso from her waist, pounding her skull into a pulp, and turning her bones to dust. Throughout it all she just laughed. Her body kept putting itself back together.

“I should’ve done something, but the brutality of it all, the way the woman laughed at the pain, how her body refused to stay broken, it all just enamored me. I was frozen.

“Then suddenly, the darkness split open and gave way to sunlight. It drew my attention for only a moment, but when I looked back the woman was gone. Halvor looked ready to reduce the house to splinters, so I stepped in to calm him down.”

“Well that just raised a whole lot of questions,” Ace said.

“Who is this woman? How’d she disappear? Where’d she disappear to? Why was Halvor trying to kill her? Tell me when to stop,” Draxl said.

“No use rattling them off, man,” Kai insisted. “We’re all asking the same ones.”

“Kai’s right. There’s no point,” Riven said. “Unless one of us has any answers.”

“I do.” Standing at the door frame, no longer soaked in blood, his body heavy with an invisible weight was Halvor.

Ace stood up from his bed. “You wanna sit?” he asked.

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“Thank you,” Halvor said as he stepped into the room and sat down on the bed.

“You don’t have to tell us anything you don’t want to,” Galina assured Halvor.

Halvor nodded his head. “I know. I caught what Galina said, so I’ll just fill in the blanks, and do my best to answer any questions.

“The woman’s name is Vivyan. She’s a hybrid, part hydra, though I don’t what know percent, anymore. That’s why she kept regenerating. It’s also how that raeven kept coming back. She said it was mutated using her DNA.”

“DNA?” Cili asked.

“Deoxyribonucleic acid,” Kai said. “It’s basically what makes up every living creature. I heard about it from my mom, but how do you know about it?”

Halvor shrugged. “I didn’t even know it stood for something. I just heard it used a lot, and I got the general idea of what it meant from context.”

“Where?” Ace asked.

“Nobody knew the name, so we just all called it the lab,” Halvor said. “That’s probably where Vivyan escaped to. The raeven was an experiment she was observing. Once it was dead she had no reason to stick around.”

“An experiment? So this lab, they made the raeven like that?” Galina asked.

“Yeah, that’s what they do,” Halvor said. “At least the part of the lab I saw was focused on DNA. Modifying avatars, hybrids, monsters, and even normal people with DNA from other creatures. Anything that responded positively was classified as a mutant.”

“And what about the people that responded negatively?” Draxl asked. “What were they classified as?”

“Dead.”

“Not to pry, but absolutely to pry, you said your mother was an avatar. You’re a half-hybrid. I’m assuming your experiences with the lab were, to say the least, not good,” Riven said.

Halvor looked to the floor, breathed in, breathed out, and raised his head. “I spent a long time at the lab. It broke me. Shattered me into pieces I’ve been trying to find ever since I left.

“I don’t even know how many pieces I’ve found or whether they’re even mine. I’m just mashing them together in hopes it works. It's like trying to solve a puzzle, but you don’t know what it's supposed to look like. I don’t know what I want it to look like.

“Then there are some pieces that weren’t broken off but eroded over time. They’ve changed, permanently, and I can’t get them off. No matter how hard I try to bury them when the time comes, they show themselves.

“I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore. I get this is a lot. My outbursts make me a liability, I understand that. If you want me to leave, just say the word, and I’m gone.”

After a prolonged silence, Ace decided to speak. “Listen, I wanna apologize. When I first met you, I thought you were someone who didn’t know how ugly the world was, because you had it easy. I figured the only reason anybody wouldn’t immediately assume every inch of the world was rotten was because they never had to deal with the worst it had to offer. But no.

“Turns out believing there’s still good in the world doesn’t mean you’re naive or ignorant, it means you’re strong. Yeah, you’re tough on the outside, but you’re a hell of a lot tougher on the inside. I was wrong about you Halvor. I’m sorry. I don’t want you to leave. I don’t think anyone does.”

Ace’s words were met by a collective silence from everyone else that resonated more powerfully than words, affirming they shared Ace’s sentiment.

“Okay,” Halvor said. “We’ll stay together.”

“One more question. How’d Vivyan escape?” Galina asked.

“Yeah, I doubt you let her walk away,” Kai said.

“Her teeth were infused, allowing them to act as a connector. She used them to teleport away.”

“What the fuck. Is that even possible?” Ace asked.

“Theoretically, all a connector needs to be is stable enough to support the connection. Sure, the runes would rip apart her teeth, but if they repaired as quickly as they were broken, then it could work,” Riven explained. “Probably hurts like a bitch though.”

“Even still, she’d need a chant to cover any real distance, whether or not there was an anchor set up,” Draxl said.

“She did use a chant. It was rather unusual.”

“Chants for artifacts need to evoke something in the artifact, not the person, so it wouldn’t matter how weird the chant was,” Riven said.

“I guess that makes sense,” Halvor said. “Her chant was ‘78.2357, -15.4913.’ All the people at the lab used similar chants when using connectors they were given.”

While everyone else was focused on Halvor, Cili noticed Kai’s face morph as his mouth hung open slightly and his eyes widened with recognition.

“You okay, Kai?” Cili asked.

“Halvor can you repeat those numbers?” Kai requested.

Halvor did as he was asked. Kai dove into his bag, dredging his notebook from it, sending several of the bag's contents flying out onto the floor.

Kai quickly turned to a specific page in the notebook. “78.2357, -15.4913,” he muttered to himself as he copied the numbers in his book. “Wait, you said other people used similar chants?”

“Yeah,” Halvor said.

“Do you remember any?” Kai asked.

Halvor rattled off as many pairs of numbers as he could remember. Whenever Halvor struggled for even a second, Kai rushed him, though the rest of the group was quick to shut him down, telling him to give Halvor time.

Kai’s whole body was trembling with excitement. He had to make sure to steady himself before every stroke.

“I think that’s it,” Halvor said. “I’m sorry that’s all I could remember.”

“No, no you’re fine. This is plenty.” Kai looked down at the eleven pairs of seemingly meaningless numbers he had transcribed into his notebook. “This opens up so many possibilities. I mean the fact they can be negative changes so much! And they were used for connectors so maybe they have something to do with travel! Maybe they’re a form of transportation, or a skill, or even a location!”

“Could you explain what’s going on, because I am terribly confused?” Ace asked.

“Alright, we don’t have time for the full story so I’ll just cut that all out,” Kai said. “One day my parents had to send me away, and I haven’t seen them since. All they left me was this.”

Kai held up the locket that was on his neck. “Inside was this.” Kai popped open the locket and pulled out a small folded piece of paper.

Written on the paper was “32.3078, 64.7505. We love you, son.”

“I didn’t know what it meant. I still don’t. The first time I read it I put the paper back in the locket, then trimmed the chain, and welded it shut, so it’d never come off. I tried to figure it out, but my dataset was too small to make any assumptions.

“My plan was to head to Journey to try to get access to their libraries to look it up, but now, things are different. I have other pairs. There’s so much I can do! It probably won’t get me an answer. I’ll still need to do proper research, but these extra pairs will at least give me direction. Thank you Halvor, seriously.”

“I’m glad I could help, but be careful. Whatever this is might be tied to the lab,” Halvor said. “If it is, and they find you peering into their business—”

“They’ll kill me?” Kai asked; his voice oozed overconfidence.

“Worse, they’ll think you’re interesting. Find you fascinating. And then they’ll never let you go.”

“Got it. I’ll be careful.”

Halvor breathed a sigh of relief; he knew Kai was likely saying it just to put him at ease, but he needed to buy into the lie—at least for tonight—so he could sleep.

“So, we're done?” Riven yawned.

“We’ll wait for tomorrow to see what Cally says, and then go from there,” Draxl said.

“Is it time for bed?” Cili asked.

“I believe so,” Galina said.

“Cool, so can everyone get out of my room, now?” Ace asked.

----------------------------------------

Knock. Knock.

“Can I come in?” Galina asked.

Halvor tossed off his blanket and rolled over to face the door. “Sure.”

As Galina entered the room, Halvor moved himself to the edge of the bed and shifted from lying down to sitting.

“Move your leg, I’m gonna sit too,” Galina said.

Halvor scooched over to make room for Galina. She sat down beside him, resting her staff on the bed frame.

“I had a feeling you wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight, and this was my only moment to catch you alone,” Galina said.

“What did you want to talk about?” Halvor asked.

“The thing is, I lied to the group. I didn’t tell them everything I saw between you and Vivyan. I heard what you said, about your mother. The lab, they have her don’t they?”

Halvor’s silence confirmed Galina’s suspicion.

“Why didn’t you tell them?” Galina asked.

“I think they’re nicer people than they let on,” Halvor said. “If they knew they’d try to help. Obviously, I don’t think they’d try to fight the lab and risk their lives.”

“Well, Cili might.”

“Eh, I’d rather she not. Like I was saying, none of them were going to take up some huge fight on my behalf. I know that. But, they might try to help in whatever way they can, so long as it doesn’t inconvenience them.”

“Like looking into, doing some research, asking around, that kind of stuff?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Things that don’t seem like much trouble. They’d think they were staying far away from any trouble. They’d be wrong.

“The lab’s reach is a lot larger than even I can imagine. The fact that we took part in their experiment today already means they have an eye on us. If any of us took another step forward, we’d be in the palm of the lab’s hand. At that point all the lab would need to do is form a fist, and crush us like an ant.”

“Alright then, your secret is safe with me.”

“Thank you.”

“Though I don’t like this uneven power dynamic, so I’ll tell you one of my secrets.”

Halvor looked at Galina surprised. “You don’t have to.”

“But I want to,” Galina insisted. “See this staff, it actually doesn’t help my abilities at all. It’s meant to hinder them. My mind is … special. I’m not sure how or why, just that it is. I’m naturally gifted with telepathic and telekinetic skills. Too gifted.

“For me, it’s like everyone’s head is a room that has music playing in it. This staff shuts the door on those rooms. I don’t need to hold it, just be in its proximity. Without it, I would end up reading the minds of everyone around me. Their thoughts would pour into my ears, and I’d be powerless to stop them.

“Oh, but don’t worry. It only dampens my skills. You and everyone else will be fine.”

“That must be hard to deal with,” Halvor said. “I only wish I could offer more than my sympathy and support.”

“You’re fine. Well, now that we’re even I suppose I’m done here. Cili, you can come in now.”

“How did you know I was there?” Cili asked, creeping into the room.

“You were peeking too much. It’s not good to try to listen in on private conversations,” Galina said.

“I wasn’t trying to listen. I didn’t hear anything. I promise! I was just waiting for you to be done.”

“It’s okay. I believe you,” Halvor said. “So, what brings you here?”

“I made these.” Cili presented Halvor and Galina with two finely crafted bracelets made of feathers pulled from the raevens they had fought earlier today. “In my tribe, everyone who participates in a hunt takes a trinket from the creature that was slain.”

Halvor and Galina both put on the bracelets immediately.

“I used three for yours since I knew your wrist would be bigger,” Cili said to Halvor.

Halvor glanced at the bracelet. “It fits great. Thank you, Cili.”

“Thank you Cili,” Galina said.

“You’re welcome! Okay, I gotta go work on the rest. Bye!” Cili rushed out of the room.

“I should get going as well,” Galina said, standing from the bed, and grabbing her staff. “Goodnight Halvor.”

“Goodnight.”

Once Galina left the room, Halvor laid back down on his bed and shut his eyes. Just for tonight, the weight of his memories lifted, and the haunting echoes of his troubled past fell silent.