The days that followed Vamenco’s funeral were a blur. So much happened and yet it was very much in the framework of a routine. Some desperate attempt to return to normalcy combined with the inevitable cleanup that came from a sudden, destructive rampage of monsters through a city. This wasn’t the first time that Mirage had had to pull itself up off of its hands and knees and pick up the pieces. Historically speaking, the odds were likely it wouldn’t be the last.
Even William had found himself within the trappings of a routine, of sorts, one befitting the eidolon of Twilight and Choice. Divided were his days between spending time with Marisia and Daniellex, Captain Teutna and the surviving crew of the Andros, and the Elder Council. Realistically his days were divided in two – visits with the council, and visits with the ningen he’d come to know the most since arriving in Mirage. Some days he spent with Teutna and the crew, others with Marisia and Daniellex. He and Joscur had kept a respectful distance of each other.
On days when he visited with Marisia, they were spent in very close proximity to her. She’d become somewhat dependent on his visits, he realized, to function. She clung close to him – not in any way that would be intrusive, but with a growing necessity borne from mourning. He didn’t mind sitting with her. Sharing meals. Giving her and Kara company when she came to visit, which, too, was often. She seemed to simply desire his presence and, while he waited for actions from the Elder Council, he didn’t mind lending it to her.
Daniellex, too, was often over when William came to visit. The two of them didn’t spend any direct time together alone with one another, but the older, bearded ningen had made it clear that he appreciated William’s visitations. “It helps,” he had stated bluntly while they were washing dishes together one day. “Marisia seems almost able to forget for a while, so please… keep visiting her.” Appreciation and camaraderie were what Daniellex had to give William for simply being there. For his part, William took it in stride. More often than not, Daniellex was busy tending Joscur who hardly ever seemed to leave the far side of the room beyond the sitting pit. The area had become a darkened corner that often stared daggers at William if ever he chose to gaze into that particular abyss. Fortunately, for the sake of his daughter alone likely, the broken father had not tried to come to blows with the eidolon again.
Despite his assumed responsibilities over the Elder Council’s efforts to locate Lucifer, study the oleum, and the containment of damage and rebuilding of destroyed portions of Mirage, William was still technically a wellerman. That meant he had to show up to work with Teutna and the crew of the Andros occasionally. Almost all wellerman activity had been halted temporarily, save for those which set out across the Wastes to get in touch with one of the imperial outposts for supplies impossible to find in the desert. The Andros was one such crew without any normal, active duties. So Teutna had them doing what most every other docked sandsailor crew was doing – helping those who needed it. She changed up the duties they performed daily, as though trying to avoid boredom, and as such, William helped with distribution of food, the loading and hauling of rubble, and any sort of help sets of mostly healthy, strong hands could give the animunculi who, by William’s orders, had been set towards the larger engineering tasks that came with Mirage’s restoration.
Namely those tasks included the restoration of damaged clepsydras and the removal of large-scale wreckage, such as the fateful tunnel. Presently there were only three clepsydras in need of repairs and those had taken priority. The damage to two of them were relatively minor, and while the functionality of the clock portion of the machines had been deemed of lesser import, they had managed to restore water collection so that fresh drinking water could be distributed. The third clepsydra had been damaged deeper down, and efforts were ongoing to get it repaired with what equipment was available to the people of Mirage.
Thankfully, the barrier around Mirage itself had not been damaged in the attack. With the patterns of explosions that were able to be determined by the animunculi who, along with the technicians of Natator Tower, were set to analyze the blasts, it was determined that at least one of Lucifer’s directed attacks had been intended to weaken or outright disrupt the protective shell that allowed Mirage to exist in relative safety in the Wastes. William had felt quite the relief wash over him when he learned he’d managed to force Lucifer to retreat before this goal had been accomplished. The realization that it could have been so much worse, and that the attack had been intended to harm as many as possible, was as much a comfort to him as it was disturbing.
Fourteen days after the attack on Mirage William was on his way to have yet another meeting with the Council of Seven. These meetings had become fairly routine at this point and the routine was helpful in returning a feeling of normalcy for William – that is, as much normalcy as could be had with an Eidolon. The meetings gave him a sense of purpose that, in the confusion and sorrow of Lucifer’s attack and the days that followed, all Eidolons felt as a core part of their being. Meetings meant progression. Progression eliminated waiting.
Natator tower had always been busy, but in the fourteen days since the attack it had become even more of a central hub than it had been before. Ningen and bloodlings who had lost their homes but survived had been brought there to seek shelter if they had no family that they could temporarily stay with. The bottom floor had been completely repurposed as an emergency shelter with small, personal stations for everyone lining the mosaic floor. Guards were constantly coming and going, seeking volunteers who were healthy enough to help with relief efforts, distributing aid to those who couldn’t, or patrolling to make sure that no one is behaving in a disorderly manner. William walked past them as he made his way to the elevator and he looked down at them as he rose upward. All those lives in his hands…
It was customary at this point for William to come and go as he pleased. No one could stop him, after all, and they had tried. More than once Mernavia had attempted impede his intrusions with words, guards, and other means but had, each time, found her efforts in vain as William simply chose for her to not speak, for the guards to let him pass. The Elder Council had simply come to begrudgingly accept that the Eidolon of Choice was in charge of any proceedings related to Lucifer. Blissfully, that seemed to be the only thing he cared about.
“Any news of Lucifer’s location?” William spoke up over the whir of surveilance equipment.
“We are uncertain, but, possibly,” Thrain responded from atop his seat, his tone ever so slightly optimistic. William looked to him as he signalled to one of the technicians who pulled up a projection of a live video feed. The feed depicted a view of the Wastes from above, but something was strange about it. Silvery tendrils like so many veins traced their way over the sandy surface of the ground below.
“What are we looking at exactly?” William asked.
“We do not know exactly, which, all things considered, seems promising,” Thrain replied. “The Wastes are far from completely mapped, you understand. Even so, we have never encountered anything resembling… this. As far as we know this is not the doing of reavers, nor is it something naturally occuring…”
“This is live, right? Can the ornithopter be directed to get closer?”
Buttons were pressed and the perspective on the feed changed. Far away, the ornithoper dipped downwards towards the silver streaks in the sand, revealing them to be much more than they appeared from above.
“Are those…?” Eira mused.
“Trees?” Niamh finished the thought for her.
Trees they might have appeared but they were anything but. A reflective mockery of what a tree should be. Mirror-like, they were able to see the ornithopter through the surfaces of the tree-like structures. There were dozens of them that could be seen. An entire forest of mirrors with leafless branches sprung up from desert sands. Said sands were lesser here William noticed. The dry, cracked earth could be seen at the base of these mirror trees where wispy sands kissed unnatural roots.
“Where is this exactly?” William wanted to know.
“Due north of here. The ornithopter was headed towards a peninsula that stuck out into the Eundian sea,” Thrain answered.
“And there’s not been anything like that in that area before?”
“We have not extensively mapped the Wastes, so we cannot be certain,” Niamh replied hesitantly, still watching the feed of the ornithopter. “But nothing like this has ever been seen, so, it is safe to say that this is -”
“New,” William concluded flatly.
“And you think that is where Lucifer may be?” Mernavia piped up.
“It’s a safe bet and a good place to start. Call the animunculi back, I want the footage analyzed and -”
“What is happening?” Ode interrupted, drawing William’s attention back to the projection.
The ornithopter’s visuals were suddenly thrown into chaos! The feed whirled and spun and jittered as the flying machina came crashing down to the unforgiving ground. Kieran let out a surprised gasp. William took a step forward reflexively as though he could do something about it from so far away. The feed settled for a moment though it did jump as the ornithopter tried to fly once more. It was stopped abruptly by something stomping on it which made the video feed jitter once again. All of them in the room waited and watched with baited breath as a shadow passed over the lens. When it passed the ornithopter was being angled upwards, staring directly into the corrupted visage of Lucifer, his unblinking orange eyes boring holes into each and every one of them.
“Tell the animunculi to get back here now!” William ordered as Lucifer dropped the flying machina. The last thing they would see is the glint of a blade blade being thrust downwards before the feed was cut off.
“I am trying to get a hold of it, but it is not responding!” one of the technicians cried out.
William let out a frustrated sigh and turned his back on the council, running his hand over his mouth and trying to think. They’d found Lucifer. He was still alive despite the injuries that had been inflicted on him. Did he realize that the animunculi and ornithopter had come from Mirage? Was there anything left of him to come to a realization? The issue of Lucifer’s personhood had been put to the back of his mind since reading into the research that he’d left behind.
There wasn’t much to be read. What had survived were little more than journal entries. Notes written in half code that William recognized as the same sort of half-speech that he himself used when evading the question of what he truly was. The notes spoke of something monstrous within the oleum. Something unspeakable. Lucifer wrote how they needed to be destroyed, how he knew how to do it. Exactly how was left vague in what survived his departure. William had begun to believe that what was left had been done so on purpose. Most disturbing of all were the scrawlings about the theorized loss of self, written in the first person.
“We need to send an expeditiary force to that peninsula,” William stated after a moment of silence. “We assume the animunculi is lost and proceed to hunting Lucifer and the other oleum down. They need to be exterminated before they become an even greater problem – if they haven’t already!”
“An expeditiary force?” Ode echoed warily. “You are… talking something military in nature…?”
“It doesn’t need to be, no,” William replied with a wave of his hand. “Some guards from Mirage and volunteers will do so long as I’m with them. We’ll need ships. Supplies. Weapons…”
“Hold a moment,” Mernavia spoke up, leaning forward in her chair. “You are sounding as though you mean to take half of the city’s defenses with you! We cannot be allowed to be defenseless while you run off to deal with this… this eidolon!”
“I’ll hardly be leaving you defenseless,” William spoke over the vermillion clad councilwoman, not quite interrupting her. “With the right armaments and people behind me, I should be able to eliminate Lucifer and the oleum. Time is of the essence though. We have to act fast…”
“Time? What makes you think we have that luxury?” Eira inquired skeptically. “It took the ornithopter a full ten days to get to that… that forest we just saw. Who knows how many more oleum Lucifer will make during that time!”
“Then I’ll be supplied with the intent to overkill,” the eidolon said confidently. “I’ll need as much incideary weapons as can be spared. Explosives, too, if you have access. Nets and bolas to restrain oleum. We’ll need food for the trip, ships and cargo crates for storage and transport…” As William spoke, listing off the things he knew would be needed for this voyage off of the top of his head, no one heard the door to the council chamber opening nor noticed the figure of Joscur walking in. The council members were too busy talking among themselves as William rattled off items and the technicians too focused on trying to retrieve any footage that could be remotely salvaged.
“You are going after Lucifer?” Joscur raised his voice, drawing every gaze that wasn’t masked behind a suit towards him as he stepped up towards the mosaiced center of the chamber.
“Joscur? What are you doing here?” Thrain inquired.
“Is it true?” Joscur insisted. He looked exhausted in a way that no amount of sleep could ever fix. Every bit a shadow of who he was when William first met him out in the Wastes as Lucifer had been that fateful night two weeks prior. The bags under his eyes were puffy and his cheeks gaunt from lack of eating. His clothes had been haphazardly thrown on without care. He only gave William the briefest of glances. “You plan on finding the bastard who did this to us?”
William knew that ‘us’ was really a ‘me’ with a flimsy coat of paint. He took a gentle step towards the bereved father. “Why aren’t you at home with Marisia?” he asked quietly, trying to tread lightly on a subject that was bound to be sore.
He failed to do so. Joscur made sure he knew it by tossing him a hateful glare, turning towards the eidolon. He beat his chest twice, the bass of his ribs reverberating in that tall room. “I am going. I want to help avenge Mirage. You are not going to stop me!”
“Joscur, please -” Kieran tried to say, meaning the absolute best as she went to encourage him to return home and be with his remaining family rather than risk being lost to them. She was stopped by William holding up his hand and making her choose to end her sentence there. The black haired eidolon met Joscur’s gaze with his own, cool as stone.
“This is going to be extremely dangerous,” William warned. “There’s every chance that whoever goes with me isn’t going to come back… Joscur, you’ve got Marisia to take care of and Daniellex to help take care of you. You shouldn’t risk -” He was interrupted curtly by Joscur who took an aggressive step towards him.
“My daughter is why I want to do this!” he insisted, vitriol oozing in his tone. “I have not grown deaf since the tunnel collapsed!” he continued, sharply pointing to his ear. “I’ve heard what you and others have said about what happened. How Lucifer was responsible for robbing me of my son…!”
Joscur’s voice broke for a moment. He inhaled sharply to recompose himself, straightening up, his lower lip stiffening as the corners of his mouth threatened to drag out more tears from his eyes. He continued after a moment.
“Vamo… deserves… to be avenged. My wife deserves the same vengeance, and my daughter deserves to never be afraid of the night again! So I am going with you to hunt down Lucifer, and I am going to help you kill him just as you are to help me! I knew Lucifer while he was here, and I have much to say to him now! I came here today to demand that something be done, and to my fortune, it seems you were a step ahead of me! So when are we leaving?”
William replied after a moment of hesitating. “Soon. Within a couple of days, most likely,” he said, reaching out and placing a hand on his shoulder ever so gently as though the very touch of Joscur might burn him. “If this is really what you want, I’m not going to stop you… but while I’m getting things ready, go home. Be with your daughter and friend. Visit... your son. Really think about if you want to take the risk. I’ll come by and tell you when we’re expected to embark as soon as I know.”
Joscur scoffed. He rolled his shoulder out from under William’s hand. “And who are you, exactly, to be making all of these decisions?” he demanded. He’d imagined having to convince the Elder Council of his demand, not being acquiesced by William.
“I’ll explain that later, too. Just go home for now. Be with Marisia. I promise your son will be avenged, with or without you.”
The father of one glowered at the eidolon, half turning to leave but spitting on the mosaic floor at William’s feet. “I will avenge him myself,” he declared before walking away. William watched him go and felt certain that this wasn’t a choice he had any right to take from him even though he could.
His thoughts were torn away from the despairing Joscur as the door slammed behind him and a technician’s tinny voice cried out, “We are getting a visual again!”
Whiplashed from one thing to the next, all turned back to the projection which was flickering back on. Static danced across the beamed light as a dark shape took form over the silvery branches of trees.
“What in the world…?” Niamh asked aloud as the picture came into relative focus. The feed was dark and jittery, unable to focus fully. Never the less it revealed the dark silhouette of an ominous building, beset by lumbering steeples and broad. It appeared to have no windows and a single, cavernous maw of a doorway that could just be made out through the branches of unnatural trees. The stone that comprised it was dark. Shadowy.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“A building?” Eiran puzzled.
“A citadel,” William corrected. “We’re being invited.”
“You’re sure?” Ode asked, turning to face William who looked on at the stuttering footage.
“As sure as I can be. Lucifer and the oleum are there, and I need as many able bodied ningen and bloodlings as is possible to spare to go and exterminate them,” he confirmed gravely. “Make the preparations.”
***
The following days were no more busy in Mirage than they had been the weeks prior, but the people within it moved with a rekindled vigor. Word spread quickly among the guards of the Elder Council’s decree – Lucifer, the cause of this tragedy, had been found. The oleum had returned and were a threat to their lives once more. They were charged with hunting these monsters and wiping them out of this world, any who would volunteer themselves that is. Many were fueled by righteous anger and a lust for revenge and quickly jumped at the chance to go along. Others elected to stay and continue their duties within the safety of the barrier where ordinary citizens still needed them. None blamed those who elected to stay behind.
Although efforts were taken to insure that this information was kept on a need to know basis, spread only among city guards and those who would be required for the mission such as a hand selected amount of wellerman captains, a tragedy of this magnitude had not gone unnoticed by eyes far and away from the Wastes. Many of the guards had forgotten that the animunculi who helped secure and safeguard the city along with them were not, in fact, one of them, and so had spoken liberally within their pressence. The information was delivered in ways that only animunculi could, and in less than two days a representative of Golem’s Isle was meeting with the Elder Council in their chamber.
The animunculi was small, little more than the size of councilman Boma, and ordinarily would have been kept out of sight deep below the city itself. Its job was to help maintain the flow of water throughout the city – it was, in fact, a chief engineer of sorts, and one of several animunculi who had been responsible for the installation, maintinance, and intergration of celpsydras many generations of ningen ago. It stood, now, as an elected representative for forces older and greater than even the enduring Mirage.
“We have received confirmation of your plans to hunt down and eradicate the things which have harmed this city,” it said in perfect Mirage-Tongue despite an even, electronic tone.
“So sorry, but I fail to see how this is cause for concern for the animunculi…” Niamh responded from his seat.
“Have you perhaps forgotten that we animunculi were employed to monitor activity within the city during the events preceding these five years prior?” the small representative asked.
“The ornithopters were brought in for that purpose, yes. You have been here much longer,” Niamh replied, voice laced with confusion.
“It was the wisdom of Golem that any and all animunculi within the bounds of Mirage also be set to the task of monitoring the activities of oleum, as you know them to be.”
The unease within the room spiked with the skip of six heart beats. Boma didn’t quite understand what was happening as of yet, the large picture eluding his young mind. “How is it you know that name?” councilwoman Eira asked.
“We’ve known about the oleum for some time,” the animunculi replied simply. “As they had been neutralized, contained, and safely kept a secret until now, Golem saw no need to inhibit your methods of discretion. We merely monitored and observed your efforts.”
“But how did you come to know of them?” Eira insisted.
“We merely monitored and observed your efforts,” the animunculi repeated with the exact same intonation. “Rest assured that the imperial mainland remains ignorant of your deeds at this time.”
“What is this? Blackmail?” Thrain demanded to know.
“Not at all,” the animunculi replied, offering the draconian salute of the Empire. “We animunculi of Golem’s Isle wish only to extend our services in helping to eliminate this threat to all of ningenkind.”
Ode leaned forward in his seat. His expression was hard, bushy brows pulled inwards with scrutiny. “Perhaps there have been far too many secrets within this city as of late. What is it you are not telling us?” the old ningen asked coldly.
“I assure you that there is nothing to be suspicious of, councilman Ode,” the representative said, lowering its metallic arm. “We merely wish to help eliminate this threat. As such, a contengency of animunculi from within Mirage will be accompanying the volunteered individuals who will pursue Lucifer and his oleum. Their presence will help insure the successful eradication of these creatures.”
Ode reclined backwards, keeping his piercing stare on the animunculi.
“Be contented in knowing that Golem’s gaze is upon you and is willing to offer His aid in this endeavor. However, be advised,” it said after a near instant’s pause. “Those animunculi who are sent along with the volunteers will be monitoring the situation and reporting back to Golem’s Isle with their findings. Should the expedition fail or the situation become untennable, we will have no choice but to alert the mainland in order to request Imperial assistance.”
“No!” Mernavia gasped. Her protest was accompanied by several other sighs and moans. Boma sat and quietly watched the adults reactions curiously, unsure as to why everyone but Ode and Eira seemed to look scared.
“Please understand that such measures are for the sake of de-escalation and prevention of a potentially catastrophe. Golem wishes for the oleum to be monitored closely and feels that their danger may be such that, if not stopped here, interrupting the ongoing civil war efforts to deal with it may be preferable. It is, as you say, for the good of us all. Pleasant moons to you.” The animunculi, having concluded its business, turned and left the chamber. Six of the Seven felt an insurmountable sense of unease fall upon their shoulders after this visit, an ominous dread of the uncertain future that lie ahead of them, the unfortunate consequences of their past.
***
Joscur stood with Marisia in his arms and an uneasiness in his heart three days after his encounter with William and the Elder Council. Just as William had said, he had come and told Joscur two days ago when they would be leaving. Just as he’d told him in the tower, the two of them had had a long talk about who – and what – William was. That talk was the source of his unease. Not the potential danger of what lied ahead. On facing Lucifer and avenging the deaths of his family his will was ironclad.
Daniellex had been present when William gave the word of the volunteers’ departure and had volunteered himself on the spot, much to the disapproval of both Joscur and Marisia.
“Out of the question,” Joscur had stated firmly, giving his friend Dani a stern gaze. “You need to stay here and take care of Marisia while I am gone.”
“The best way I can take care of her is to make sure that you come home,” the godfather had retorted, crossing his arms over his wide chest.
“Uncle, no, it is bad enough that my father is suggesting this insanity, you cannot-” Marisia had tried to discourage, moving away from her father and placing her hands on her godfather’s round arm. His calloused hand gently touched hers and pulled it away from his bicept.
“Please, understand my sweet girl. I must go to make sure that Jos returns to you. He is unwell right now, not thinking clearly, or else he would never even suggest leaving you at a time like this,” the bearded ningen stated in plain words, entirely within earshot of Joscur who only continued to give him that defiant look.
“No! No! I will not let either of you go!” Marisia declared, choking back tears of fear and rage as she beat her fist into Daniellex’s shoulder. “We just lost Vamenco! I cannot lose you two, either one!”
“You will lose neither of us, I will make sure of it,” Daniellex stated, turning and pulling Marisia into an embrace as she blindly continued to beat at his chest. “That is, of course, unless your father sees reason and chooses to stay…” He glanced over at his lfie long friend.
“Vamenco must be avenged,” Joscur stated coldly, hands balled into fists.
“Then Marisia must be protected, even from you,” Daniellex replied just as coldly. They had reached and impasse and Marisia was caught in the middle, unable to convince either one to budge and do the sensible thing of walking away.
William had watched them speaking in Mirage-Tongue from where he had stood in the doorway and delivered the news.
The talk with Joscur had come after and had taken place within Joscur’s room, a modestly sized bed chamber that served the practicality of a guardsman and housed the accouterments of a grieving man. Some of Vamenco, and his wife Syla’s, things littered the space in which he slept.
Once William had explained what he was in as much detail as he had the Elder Council Joscur was left sitting on his bed in quiet contemplation. He was raging and yet chose to say nothing – just as William wanted for he did not have the patience to answer any questions of ‘why’ at the moment – and instead absorb all that he’d been presented with. William had performed the same trick of the hands as he had done with Mernavia. Joscur had demanded several more demonstrations for certainty than she had.
“If you are this… embodiment of choice, then how is it that I can… that anyone can do anything you do not want to happen?” Joscur asked quietly after a time.
“Oh, that’s easy,” William stated, taking a seat on the bed beside him and mirroring his position of hands clasped together in his lap. “You can’t, if I want it so. But I’m just a physical body for the universal metaphysical concept of Choice itself – there’s limits to what I can do. The more effort I exert on dictating choices, the more I need to concentrate on it. Think of it like trying to solve something mathematical in your head. If it’s anything beyond the simple basics, you have to pause and think about it, even for just a split second, right?”
Joscur numbly nodded.
“Same concept. The more thoroughly I exert the tyranny of Choice, the more focus it requires. Theoretically, I could probably make everyone on this planet make the same choice simultaneously if I wanted to, but I’d probably end up comatose from the strain. I don’t know. I’ve never had to go that far before, but my body is exactly the same as yours in function. So, it has its limits that I have to abide by. It’s the price that the Ultimatums had to pay to directly interact with the universe.”
“The Ultimatums?”
William turned and gave Joscur a look but didn’t answer. Instead he pat the ningen on the knee and stood up, saying as he departed, “We leave in two days.”
Now the time had come and Marisia was giving one final effort to keep her father and godfather from leaving. Of what use such begging would be to him she could only guess. She hardly recognized her her father these days.
“Please, baba, I’m begging you. Do not leave me alone here…”
“You will have Kara. You will not be alone. I will return and you will be safe,” Joscur assured his daughter. His words were hollow and meaningless and Marisia could hear it in his voice.
“At least leave William behind, then! If you are so fixated on throwing your life away I should have someone here who can make me happy!”
The words are agonizing. So much so, in fact, that they jostle Joscur out of his stupor and for the first time in days he actually looks at his daughter. She wasn’t wearing any of the decorative coverings that hid her affliction from the world. Her cheeks were wet and her brow was furrowed in confused rage. Her words had struck a chord of fatherly protectiveness within him. A reminder that she was his daughter and she was still so young and as her father he still had so much to protect her from. Including boys. Including William who, some part of him had noticed that wasn’t entirely lost to the fog of grief and hate, Marisia had moved closer and closer towards since his arrival. Even more so since the death of her brother. What was she saying now? That William could make her happy? What did she mean? That she…?
Then he remembered that talk he had with the Eidolon and what he was and his heart was hardened once more.
“William is needed for this fight. I have to go for the good of us all, and you are staying here. That is my final word on the matter!” he pronounced, breaking away from his daughter’s grasp and pushing her back as he turned to step outside and leave. Daniellex was waiting for him outside and stayed for a moment as his best friend walked past him, looking back at Marisia hanging on the door and crying out.
“No, baba! No! No! Come back! Come back! Please!”
Joscur ignored her. The burly godfather turned to follow after him, reminding himself that he’d promised to bring him back alive. The promise was justification to ignore his goddaughter’s pleas as she blindly grasped for them in open air.
***
In total, fifty guards had volunteered to venture forth into the Wastes in pursuit of Lucifer. Three Wellermen sandsailors were commissioned for the voyage with their accomapnying crews of fifteen each. Along with the Andros there were the Tesstess and the Pequod all of which had been relieved of any burden of cargo that wasn’t strictly necessary for the journey ahead. Said cargo included supplies of food and water stores of course but also, importantly, each had stowed two wagons down in the hull the likes of which William had been brought into Mirage on. These wagons were to be their mode of transportation once they got closer to Lucifer’s citadel as a way both to avoid drawing attention to themselves and as a way to deploy more portable ornithopters, of which each sandsailor had three for this very purpose. A contengency of nine armored animunculi, the same sort that had come to assist in William’s collection from the Wastes as well as patrolled and monitored the illusory barrier around Mirage, were bring brought along as well to man and maintain the ornithopters as well as, potentially, being some additional muscle for the conflict that was to come. Animunculi were, as a rule, pacifistic by nature, but the Elder Council, and by extension William, had been assured that these oleum warranted a special exemption from the rule.
Each and every ningen and bloodling had been outfitted for the nearly month long trek they were about to undertake. The desert colored leather fatigues that all of the guards wore had been distributed to the wellermen as well as William who would all don the turbans and cloaks once they had a moment to spare. It was the only sort of armor that was afforded to them by way of Mirage having none to offer the intrepid souls who went forth for the good of all. There were no imperial military outposts anywhere west of the coastline on the entire continent and so they would simply have to make due without.
That did not mean that they were going in with just the clubs to defend themselves with. As William had suggested, each and every person had been given a flamethrower the likes of which Daniellex was all too familiar with. A gauntlet and accompanying fuel tanks numbering one hundred in total - a small buffer of extras provided in case some broke down, were lost, or otherwise damaged. Spears and plumbatae had been requisitioned for this undertaking as well. Arms which were reserved for times of actual emergencies, such as this, that had been repurposed into incendiary projectiles with just a little bit of rigging. If it came to it, there was also the possibility of using the harpoons on the ships as well although William sincerely doubted if it would be possible to get them that close to the citadel with those strange trees in the way.
There were nearly a hundred individuals embarking on this mission and they had all met at the outskirt North One at dusk. Many had family and friends who were seeing them off, offering hugs and kisses and tokens of good fortune and fairwell. Just as many passed through the opened barrier to approach one of the three ships having no family at all or none who remained among the living. Joscur and Daniellex were among those who stepped out into the sandy Wastes without much fanfare. Present among the sizeable crowd of people bidding the volunteers farewell was the Elder Council itself, all seven of the members standing beside the citizens that they governed and offering their silent solidarity to the brave ones who sallied forth to do what they couldn’t.
Before night had fully settled over them they had each climbed aboard one of the sandsailors and ridden off into the sunset. William, Joscur, and Daniellex were all stationed on the Andros along with Captain Teutna. Each ship had three animunculi who stationed themselves at the front of the bow and looked out into the desert sands before them, monitoring for any activity whatsoever. They were, all of them, leaving the safety of Mirage behind them and there was more than oleum to worry about. No one disputed that having sets of eyes that cared little for the dark on watch was a good idea.
William stood leaned over the side of the Andros and looking back at Mirage as they slowly rode away from it. As soon as the shield was closed Mirage was visually lost to them but even so he kept looking back on where the city should be for a good five minutes before stepping away and making his way past far more people than he was used to on his way towards Teutna who was behind the wheel.
“Captain, bring the Andros to a full stop,” he ordered, earning him a brief and bemused glance from the shorter ningen.
“Aye? Forget something back home did we? ‘Fraid to say it, Songbird, but I was given the impression this was far more important than some trinket. You’ll just have to go without, kin it?” she retorted.
“Stop the ship. Now. I need to talk with everyone,” he stated firmly and walked away. Teutna scoffed, staying the course for a moment longer before groaning and giving the signal to let the engine die and calling out to signal the Tesstess and Pesquod to do the same. In short order all three sandsailors were dragging themselves to a halt in the shifting sands and voices were being raised in confusion at their stoppage.
William climbed up onto the port side railing of the Andros and looked out at the nearly one hundred people who were coming with him into truly unknown waters. One hundred ningen and bloodlings and nine animunculi. All their lives in his hands. It was time for them to understand that fact.
Joscur and Daniellex watched William closely.
“My name is William, and none of you know me,” William began, projecting his voice loudly and clearly in the fading twilight – his time. “But I know each and every one of you, ningen and bloodling alike, and I think you all have the right to know what it is we’re headed towards in pursuit of! You’re putting your lives on the line. You deserve to know what for…”
Rapt silence. All were choosing looking his way and keep quiet, although some wished to be beligerent.
“Some of you have heard the name Lucifer and connect it with a ningen. Some of you may have even heard the term ‘oleum’ and know that it’s what we’re hunting, but none of you know what either of them really are!” A small breath, then the plunge. “Lucifer is an Eidolon, an incarnation of primordial Darkness itself! The oleum are some kind of corruptive influence, an ooze that infects body and mind of anything it comes into contact with, changing it irrevocably! I know that this is difficult to understand and believe, but I need you all to understand what it is you’ll be facing with me going north. We’ll be fighting monsters. Real monsters, the stuff of your childhood nightmares…
“But you mustn’t lose heart!” William roared, raising his swordarm up high, barring his teeth like fangs and mustering up every bit of charisma he had within him. “The foe we face may be incomprehensible, but that doesn’t make it insurrmountable! Know that we go forth to burn away a blight upon this world greater than any distant civil war! There is nothing more worth doing with your lives than this! Nothing! We sail forth now towards a citadel of shadow beyond a forest of glass, ten days hence from here, where we will give our lives if necessary in order to end the stain that is the oleum from the face of this world! Those of you standing with me today can call yourselves heroes! Your names will be remembered for all eternities by the deeds you put forth on this expedition! And if we survive and succeed in burning away any trace of corruptive filth in our paths, know that we will be saving more than just Mirage, but every ningen, bloodling, arbora, and animunculi on the face of this planet from a possible oblivion!”
He paused in his speech only to swing his sheathed sword across his chest, catching the blade in his free hand. Yanking it out of the leather covering, William threw it away into the sands between the Andros and Tesstess, swinging the singing steel to point northward. “Go now! Make haste to Lucifer’s citadel and make ready to take history for your own! FORWARD!”
Teutna was the first to answer the call to action, letting out a frankly startled burst of laughter that was accompanied by a smile of tremendous girth. “Rally-ho!” she cheered, giving orders to get the sandsailor moving at full speed ahead. The captain of the Andros was downright inspired – less by William’s words and more the fact that he’d said them. This was a side of the black haired eidolon that she’d never knew existed before. She was flabbergasted! She thought it suited him well. She didn’t even mind that he’d usurped her authority on her own ship in order to make this little speech of his. As far as she was concerned, he’d just declared himself the leader of this voyage and she had no issues in letting that be so.
Others were quick to follow in her cry on the Andros as well as the other sandsailors. William’s words, though harrowing, had their intended effect and spurred all into a flurry of action. He barely had to influence the choices of those hundred around him. His words had given them the fire they had needed to charge forth with gusto and face the dangers that awaited them with as little fear as facing the unknown allowed.
Even Joscur, perhaps the most bitter ningen of all gathered there, couldn’t help but look at Daniellex with shock on his face. They, like Teutna, had had no idea that William could speak like that.
Sails were unfurled, propellers whizzed, and the engines roared! The trio of sandsailors slashed trails through the Wastes just as night laid its curtain over the world proper. The triplets watched on as they raced towards the only certainty that was afforded to any of them:
The only way was forward, just as William had declared.