The words burned in front of him for a long minute. Despite them hurting his eyes, Pedro did not look away, and the golden light of Wrath seemed to reach inside him and find something he didn’t know was there.
It turned out that there was indeed something he would not do to escape his Pact...
“Save them?” he croaked after a long minute, striving to straighten up. “Save them from what? How do you know my family?”
The woman who had killed his team took half a step forwards. “It is the principle of the Shrine to cut off the dependents of those who have fallen... unless they choose to be recruited as well. If they are at all suspected of having sensitive information, they are removed.”
Unless they choose to be recruited...
They are going to make a Sinbound of my little sister!...
He wanted to deny it, but cold, hard rationality stopped him. He knew how the Shrine operated, how callously they manipulated those around him. He had one bottom line, and they respected it while they used him... but once he died, that line was no longer there.
His mother and sister became liabilities, and the Shrine had no empathy for liabilities. His sister would replace him, or she and his mother would be removed, likely offered to the Lord of the Shroud as Congregants, as so many hapless fools were...
It made liabilities back into positive assets. The undead were useful allies to have guarding the Shrine, after all...
“What do I have to do?” he managed to whisper. This was a fate worse than death, condemning his sister to a fate worse than death as well, and his mother, too!
WATCH, was the reply, and misty white fire billowed down the length of the black sword with the razored silver edges.
Seven Runes lit up, and the vivic fire seemed to grow even stronger. Then hellfire bloomed down the length of the Blade, pure, vicious, callous, domineering, and the vivus raged upon it, devouring it and pouring down into the ground.
He stared at it, wondering what it all meant, and then the ground began to turn white, to crack and crumble and darken to an earthy brown.
He stared as tiny shoots of green began to emerge from around the Blade, from the hellfire being devoured by the white mists pouring into the ground.
Hellfire... making life? His world turned upside down. He came from a poor family; his father had once been a farmer, how could he not know the value of such a thing?
YOU WILL MAKE A WARLOCK STAFF, WHICH WILL BEAR THE VIVIC FIRE. OF THE POWER OF SIN AND HATE, YOU WILL MAKE LIGHT AND LIFE WITH THE AID OF VIVUS.
OH, AND YOU WILL GET PAID VERY WELL TO DO SO. IS THIS AMENABLE TO YOU?
He blinked. He had been sure he was about to be drafted to assault the Shrine, and have no choice in the matter. Dying in service to the Silent Warlock did not seem a horrible way to go...
“I... will not need to kill?” he asked in disbelief.
ONLY FAMINE AND STARVATION, was the immediate reply.
Pedro blinked several times, wondering if this was even possible. He looked at the patch of green in the middle of this lifeless Shroudzone, where nothing like that could live.
There had been no spells woven, no magic to conjure this forth, he was certain. That was simply hellfire devoured, and turned into something else.
Feeding the Land...
“What do I need to do?” he asked softly.
GRAB YOUR FAMILY AND GET YOURSELVES TO MOTHER CHILITZIA IN HAKEMBA VILLAGE. THEY WILL FIND A WAY TO GET YOU TO THE PENITENT’S BUILDING AT HEAVENBOUND HALL, AND YOU CAN START MAKING AN HONEST LIVING, AND STICKING A FINGER INTO THE EYE OF SIN.
Traveler gestured, and the Collar fell off his neck.
Pedro touched his neck in disbelief, but there was no joy, as there once had been, when his Pact surged up and offered him power.
It was simply doom, now.
The Silent Warlock stood up, looming over him, reaching up to his Vest pocket and drawing out a pair of pilot’s glasses. He handed them down to Pedro, who took them carefully and fit them on.
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A PROMISE. A callused hand was extended to him, offering him a hand up. Still in some disbelief, Pedro took it, and was hauled to his feet as easily as a child, by a strength that could only be inhuman.
WE ARE BOTH GOING DOWN, IN THE END. The silver in black locked on his eyes, and despite himself, Pedro could only nod. They had signed on the line, and that was their fate. DO THIS WELL, AND I WILL COME LOOKING FOR YOU WHEN I GET THERE.
Pedro had the weirdest feeling when he read the words, and saw those solemn, somehow sad eyes staring at him.
“I-I won’t mess up, señor,” he promised, that strange feeling fluttering inside him, and found himself shaking the hand that still held his. “And I’ll see you there...”
He understood all the grimness and grief behind that thin smile abruptly, and emotions long buried under the cruel necessities of life bubbled up in him.
He had to go, to get his sister and mother and get them out of here, beyond the grip of the Shrine.
Sanctuary... in Heavenbound Hall, of all places!...
--------
The Sinbound Warlock melted into shadow and was gone. He couldn’t jump very far as a Four, but it would get him over any rough terrain, and just be a convenient extra distance as he trotted away, heading out of the Deadzone, where he could find a vehicle and get out of there.
Doubtless he would already be planning to work the angle of everyone else having died, so he had as well... at least long enough to get his relatives out of there. If the Shrine ended up dying, too, that was only good, right? Fewer people to come after him...
“Well done,” Topaz said. “Think he’ll make it?”
“By all accounts, they train their people well. What do his seniors think?” I replied.
“They are all wishing they could have gotten that deal, rather than dying... but they don’t want to grab his Sword.” The way the young man’s hair had gone snow white after gripping Idiot had made an impression on them.
Master Fred picked his Sword up, spun it around his fingers back to the size of a dagger, and sheathed it behind himself. DID THEY MISS OUT ON THE FEELING OF THEIR PACT DEVOURING THEM?, he asked her calmly.
“Hmm.” She rolled her eyes thoughtfully. “Pretty much?”
He drew Idiot back out and held it out wordlessly.
She looked him in the eyes, and then resolutely reached out and grabbed the Sword.
There was a slight hitch in her breath as her eyes glazed over. Unlike the junior Warlock, nothing happened to her hair, the only change being a hardening of her eyes, and a glitter of grim resolve and appreciation for what she was seeing.
As the last of the many, many undead in the Mnecromonic record faded away, she let go smoothly, glancing between the two of us.
“Your hair is fine,” I assured her, and she nodded in relief.
“Well, that certainly did settle down a bunch of them... but there’s still a few I can totally do without. Master Fred, if you would?” She parted her shirt for him.
He looked at her, and at me. “Poke her heart with it so it goes into her Pactspace. She’s going to get rid of some unmentionables... who probably don’t want to burn in Hell, anyways.”
He flicked Idiot over into an overhanded grip, paused for just a second, and drove it down from above in a line just left of center, between the ribs and avoiding her breastbone.
“Ouch!” she exclaimed, as her smooth cocoa skin blackened and peeled away from the faint vivic flame, but didn’t otherwise react to the pain. Her eyes sharpened internally for a moment, and then little spurts of mistflame jetted backwards along the Dagger, spilling out and down like misty raindrops as they did so, pooling around both of their feet before slowly dissipating into the stone.
The little patch of grass grew another half-inch, I noted.
“Good!” she gasped after about twenty seconds and scores of vivic bursts had fallen away from her. Master Fred withdrew Idiot. She glared down at it as the blackened flesh, now the size of a palm, began to heal and restore its normal smooth luster. “That stuff is very dangerous!” she pronounced with feeling.
“You want a vivic sink so you can plow energy back into the Land?” I asked conversationally.
She looked at me, thinking. “You know, the Lands don’t really like me, especially when I borrow Pacts. I think that might help their attitude towards me!”
I snorted, Master Fred sighed, and she grinned shamelessly. “That it screws the Dark Powers is a freebie!” she laughed easily.
I just shook my head. “Got information we can use?” I asked by way of reply.
“Wards, location, defensive placements, traps, passwords, choke points, layout, reserves, personnel, and magical items enough?” she asked archly.
“My, didn’t those fellows suddenly become informative.”
“They don’t want me to go and die, and their Pacts take them.” She smirked. “Helpful, indeed.”
“Any more teams out here to be wary of?”
“There’s a sniper team setting up closer to the Shrine. I can go take them out,” Topaz offered.
“Give us a full debrief, and then go ahead. We’ll follow on Disks.”
She pulled out a thumb-sized quartz crystal, which lit up with Cantrip-level energy and started forming a basic Hologram in the air. “The Shrine is located about a half-klik proper from where it was suspected; that site is a killzone designed specifically to eliminate sneaky intruders. The main Shrine is actually located beneath this hill over here...”
--------
I scanned and plotted everything into my Visual File, recording the details of the mostly men and a few women inside. It was extremely thorough, and it was going to be the death of them.
Topaz was going to be the life of a few of them, in a down-the-hatch kind of way.
“So, there’s a Penitent Hall at Heavenbound Hall?” I asked Master Fred archly after Topaz melted into the ground, gone to snuff some unlucky snipers and ambushers.
I AM CERTAIN THERE WILL BE BY THE TIME THEY GET THERE, he flamed back. I laughed and began to Message Abby on what needed to be done, and why, and how it should be publicized.
That new notice of amnesty for Penitent Darkbound was going to shake the world... and we were going to make good money off it.
If Heavenbound Hall was a bit taken aback by the sudden offer, the realization that they could neutralize more new Pacts by keeping Darkbound who wanted a shot at reforming gainfully employed and productive soon won them over.
The fact that having that much raw energy and extra people around to power up magical items wouldn’t hurt a damn thing, either!
It was a Good solution to a vexing ongoing problem. Arguably, stopping the turnover of Pacts was as or more important than defeating the wielder of a Pact itself. Being able to turn that into a net benefit for everyone involved, and screwing over the Glooms, was gravy on top of everything.
It was a small movement, but it might grow into something much bigger, who knew?...