Chapter 63

Long hours later Mikel opened his eyes, the air stinging them and drawing tears. He blinked the pain away as a gentle shake rocked him awake.

“I need a few hours, young master,” Helsket said gently, “You stand watch until the sun is a hand width into the sky, and then wake me and we’ll be off.”

Mikel nodded as reality came back into focus. He took in the room, the empty door and window, and finally Helsket himself before the recent memory of what had occurred mere hours before raced back into his mind.

Any semblance of exhaustion vanished from Mikel as his adrenaline spiked and he scrambled to his feet, “I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” He said, even though his legs and lower back screamed for a longer rest. They ached from the prior day’s hike, and even as his heart hammered in his chest and the memory of the thing with the golden eyes ripped through his mind, his body urged him to return to the dusty ground and curl up against the night and sleep once more. To hide. To cower from the shadow thing that had come so close to luring him into rushing out the door.

“It’s good you did,” Helsket said as he settled down beside his pack, “We’ve a long walk today, and you’ll need your rest if we’re to make it in one go. We’re trying to cover fifty-plus miles in two days - not a mean feat by any standard.”

“But… The thing - what if it comes back?”

“It won’t,” Helsket said, “I’ve seen a few other, smaller, critters lurking out there while you’ve been asleep, but nothing like the Gigant we saw.”

“Gigant?”

“Yes, that’s the proper name for those things. They’re quite rare - I know of several scholars who would pay dearly to live through what you just did.”

“But you said that it was one of the Sunken Folk - you -”

Helsket cut him off with a smile as he pulled his traveling cloak about his shoulders and settled back against the wall as if it were the most luxurious bed imaginable.

“What I told you is an old story and a theory your father and I put together in the long dark hours of the night when there wasn’t anything else to do. It might be completely off. You can speak with him about it once you get him better. He’s always had a better grasp of things like that, than I.”

That last statement hit Mikel hard and he grunted in response.

“Remember - one hand width above the horizon,” Helsket said holding his hand in the air to show how to measure, “No sooner and preferably no later. We’ve a long way to go and we can’t conscience a delay. Every second that passes is a second your father might succumb to the rot. We’ve also got our little miss here - She’s going to slow us down a bit but not much. I’m guessing her body is in shock from the broken arm. It would be better if she could walk, but I doubt she’ll be much good in her current state. We can take turns hauling her.”

Mikel didn’t know if he’d mind taking a miss on seeing the Gigant again, no matter how long he had to delay - but, Hesket was right. He didn’t know how long his father had left… and although the Panacea could work miracles, it stopped short of bringing the dead back from the land beyond the light. Only gods and devils could do that.

“Good night, lad - see you in a few hours,” Helsket said and Mikel nodded in response as he turned his attention towards the door and the pitch-black night beyond.

"Oh, last thing," Helsket pointed out the window, "You see that tower in the distance?"

Mikel moved to the window and looked out into the city as smoke swirled through the streets. It had grown thicker during his nap, but he could still see well enough - especially large things like the towers in the distance.

"There are three I see - which one?"

Helket pointed again, straight out the window and up, "That one - the tallest of the three. That's The Tower of Stars. If we get separated tomorrow meet there at its base. I'm not sure if you can get to it easily, but get there. I'll be waiting and vice versa. If you get lost, go there and wait. I'll join you as soon as I can. Some nights there's a strange light at the top - look at it if we get separated at night. Don't forget it."

Mikel furrowed his brow, his mind working slowly through the exhaustion seeping into his bones, "Are you planning on losing me?"

Helsket grunted as his eyes began to close, "Not a chance - but you've got a bad streak of luck. Knowing you, you'll chase down a Gigant and either try and ride it or kill... Or both."

"That doesn't sound like me at all," Mikel said with a chuckle - but Helsket never heard it. He wasn't quite asleep yet, but he was beyond hearing.

Within minutes Helsket was snoring contentedly and Mikel, for all intents and purposes was alone. Sure, there were two people with him, but they were dead to the world. If something happened it would be on him to solve the problem.

“What do I do on watch… aside from the obvious,” He muttered to himself as he began to pace in front of their sleeping area. The terror of the memory of the Gigant had faded somewhat, and as it faded the exhaustion from earlier returned in full force. He knew he couldn’t sit down, lest he collapse once more and neglect his duty.

Each step kicked up small puffs of fine moon dust, which had settled on the floor over long years of disuses. There were spots where the dust was thinner than others, where people had lain and slept while passing through the ancient ruin, but barring that, the place appeared as a tomb.

His mind wandered to the Gigant again, partially intentional, to perk him up and keep him awake, and then to other, less aberrant, dangerous things. He thought of his father, his sickness, and then how he might resolve the issue. The Panacea was his goal… but did it exist? Much like Helsket’s theory about the Sunken Folk, he had assembled a collection of stories, half-spoken rumors, and whispers - all held together with the glue that is hope, to form a plan to save his father. He meant to traipse into the most dangerous place on the entire Continent on what was essentially a whim.

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He shivered at the thought. How was he to convince others to join him when he didn’t even have a fully formed plan? Didn’t know what he was doing?

A glance at Helsket reassured him that, although things looked grim at the moment, they might be better in the morning when the sun had risen.

“And that can’t come soon enough.” Mikel yawned and scratched his head before going to his pack and withdrawing a block of thick, white cheese. He cut a square chunk off before wrapping the cheese back in its leather sack and chewed the sharp-tasting morsel as he walked to the window and once again looked out at the darkened streets.

The sky in the west still burned with the hidden sun’s might, but the light had grown dim in the south as the fiery orb prepared for the new day’s dawning.

He stuck his head out the window and glanced back and forth before placing his forearms on the bare window sill, staring out into the darkness. The thought of the Gigant was fresh, but the area appeared to be clear.

Opposite him on the street were houses and shops identical to this side, with the exception being, some were in a bit rougher state. All were constructed of the same, dusted-over, glossy gray rocks.

He felt himself nodding off and out of necessity lifted his arms from the sill and went back to pacing, preferring the motion to standing still in the dead city, letting his mind dwell on dark and mysterious things.

Every step was a reminder of the unknown power source below the city which vibrated at such a low frequency, it was only noticed if you were alerted to its presence or had spent hours in solitude amongst the crumbling buildings.

Helsket hadn’t lied - the sensation, The Dread, was less in the building than it was outside, but Mikel could still feel the steady, enthralling thrum as easily as he could feel his heartbeat.

Eventually, his mind turned to the conversations of the day - particularly the one about the demon his father and Helsket had slain - and how Crest of the Evening had been mostly lost.

The only shards that remained to his family were the golden hilt, untouched by the raging time eddies within the demon’s carapace, and a single sliver-shard of the blade that his father had pulled free of the demon. He’d always heard the sword had been destroyed in some great battle… he hadn’t ever heard the details and these were what his mind chewed over as he waited and watched for the sun to rise in a few hours.

“How can I be as strong as Dad?” he asked himself as he paced, “He ran right towards a demon - an actual demon when I nearly wet myself when the Gigant looked in at us. Helsket is right… I needed to see what we’re up against because I didn’t even have a clue about how far out of my league I am.”

He looked at the sleeping man and sent a silent prayer up to whatever heaven was closest that he’d be prepared to fight and able to fight when the time came. Mikel was thankful Helsket had agreed to come along on the trip at all. He might not have done the same had a man, a child really, come calling with a similar task.

Asking Helsket had been a gamble to begin with - one which, if lost, would have ended Mikel’s mission before it had even begun. He had every intention of going to Helgate with or without help, but knew he’d been crushed should he go alone. Tonight's incidents had proven that fact, unequivocally.

The fact Helsket had said yes mollified him and strengthened his courage in the face of the looming mission - but he still had a long way to go.

Mikel lifted his sword two inches from its scabbard before letting it drop back into place with a satisfying thud. He repeated the habit he’d picked up over the past year while learning swordplay on his own a few more times before turning back to the window where he resumed his position and gazed out at the world beyond.

The ruins weren’t unique - there were dozens if not hundreds of both smaller outposts and larger cities scattered across The Continent. He didn’t know if there were similar ruins in the lands beyond, but Mikel expected there to be. The Sunken Folk, by all observations, had been a hardy and robust folk who took to the water as easily as the land. To his mind, it would be more odd if they weren’t present in other lands.

He lifted and dropped the sword once more, a gift from his father on his tenth birthday - and it had only seen real fighting a handful of times. He’d wielded the strange, blood sword more more than his standard blade.

He struggled to put the thought of the strange armor and weapon out of his mind - for the time at least. It was dark and it was night - he didn’t care for how those two factors influenced his already dark-tended thoughts.

Instead, he thought about all the things he hadn’t yet done in his life.

What was he compared to his dad? Erik Raithson, by the age Mikel was now had helped conquer new lands and had established trade routes across half The Continent. What did he, Mikel, have to show for his time on the planet?

Years of training in the sword and other martial skills? Reading many books on all subjects under the sun? Taking a noble girl on a walk around a moonlit lake last winter? All these things had come to pass, and yet he felt left wanting when compared to his father… or many other scions of the warrior houses who were his family's peers.

Peers, at least for now. Come winter, when the debtors came calling, his family might not even have an estate left if he failed in his quest. They might not have an estate even if he succeeded in his quest and returned home too late to save his father.

There were many ifs to be seen, and very few certainties. Mikel liked certainties, but ever since he’d set out from home, he’d received fewer and fewer of them until now, he’d begun to suspect they didn’t exist at all, except in the minds of fools and children.

I hope I’m not a fool he thought to himself, at least I know I’m not a child anymore. I think.

From across the city, a plaintiff cry wafted in on the wind, too far to make out the words, but from the tone and pitch, Mikel knew it to be the Gigant, imitating an ancient victim to lure in more easy meals.

He shivered at the thought of how easily he’d been lulled into attacking the creature. Hadn’t he been raised with tactical and strategic planning drilled into him from day one?

He’d also been raised to run towards the danger of the world, instead of away - especially if someone was in peril and might be saved, as he’d thought of the girl’s voice.

“Maybe the Gigant knows that?” he asked the air, “Maybe it’s seen enough nobles come through that it’s developed its lure just for us - just to take advantage of our better nature? It seemed smart enough, so… why not?”

He’d heard of other animals using calls and deception to lure in prey, and they were little more than base beasts - where the Gigant was something far more… dangerous. A creature of magic, of this plane, specialized in hunting a single group of targets. A predator designed to prey on the brave and foolish people of the land.

Helsket snorted in his sleep and Mikel turned in time to see him slump to his side, body casting up a cloud of ultra-fine dust, before he curled into a ball underneath his cloak and resumed his slumber.

“I wonder if I slept that well?”

His aching legs and back argued against that thought, and a single glance at his backpack made his shoulders burn with fire anew.

Upon examination, he doubted it but forced himself to stay upright and awake nonetheless.

He went back to leaning on the sill, watching the subtle play of light in the street, as the glow from the bricks in the houses, mingled with the scant ruddy light from the horizon.

He had to do something to stay awake.

Slogging over to his pack, Mikel took the chance of kneeling and pulling the slate out. He found the earpiece too, but didn’t feel like talking with anyone at the moment. He was exhausted, and if he followed through with what he was about to do, he’d be even more tired.

He hoped the information he was about to delve into kept him awake, but he half doubted it. He needed to sleep - but he could put it off a bit longer. If he could only manage to conjure up some Essentia.

With careful measurements, Mikel sussed out his Stamina reservoir and found it only contained what felt like sixty or seventy points.

“I was hoping for over one hundred, but I supposed you take what you can get. It’s amazing there’s any left at all.”

He closed his eyes, daring fate once again, and guided the appropriate amount of Stamina through the gates in his body and transformed the glowing green shards into shimmering, white-blue blips of energy.

The exhaustion he knew was coming hit him all at once as the Stamina he’d managed to earn back with some little sleep and rest was ripped away from him to fuel Essentia.

With his eyes lagging he dumped the ten points of Essentia he’d mustered up into the slate and was rewarded for his efforts as the welcome screen lit up.

Hello Mikel Raithson, This is your Monitor. How may I help you.