IV: Abschussen im Dunkeln

[Nayt]

The appearance of the girl wasn't so much a terrible surprise. A surprise, yes. Brenden wasn't counting on that. Sometimes, that made being part of this organization so fulfilling. It was so difficult to guess at "what's next." Sometimes, the inclusion of others into conversations and meetings seemed so random, yet they could often end in some of the most useful exchanges. The inclusion of this girl into the organization was one such surprise--yet still not unpleasant, nor completely unwarranted. Brenden himself was just a few years older than her, after all.

Well, nonetheless, this girl, one of the lowest of their ranks, was here with a purpose, and Brenden didn't lift a finger to stop her. She'd been sent to save lives, and he let her stop him from ending Naav's.

"Good thing, too," Brenden replied smugly.

Truth be told, Naav was closer to death than Feires. Feires was definitely the more annoying of the two, yet Brenden had no plans on killing the guy off. Naav, on the other hand, was pushing a boundary. They were both soundly defeated, but Naav was about ready to keep on trying. Their defeat had Brenden enthusiastic. The smirk he wore for the duration of the battle began a smug smile, and the way he posed himself was as if he were ready to motherly scold two children for an unlawful uprising. And though he seemed haughty about it all, his reasoning here was far from smug.

"There's delicate research goin' on in this place," Brenden motioned to the walls, which were only beginning to settle after Naav's rude attempts at them, "Research old Sobiadin's putting a lot of weight into. If Naav was really gonna start threatenin' that, well . . ."

Brenden lifted his hands and shrugged his shoulders.

"It is my duty to take care of traitors an' all . . ."

[Sage]

" Funny, I thought it was for fear of not being able to watch Nomidad in action any more that the men stayed loyal. " Nomidad was indeed a...gifted individual, with a body and face equally as amazing as her powers. Aros seldom imitated real emotion unless she was trying to accomplish a task, but there was one emotion that she came close to perfecting when she looked at Nomidad: Jealousy.

Her own body was coming along, though, suffice to say she did not often shed her cloak and favor some of the more freeform outfits Nomidad chose to wear. Where her body was still a child, however, her mind was very much adult at times, and she could have a frighteningly grim sense of humor. In fact, she would likely be ridiculed for her age and her rank if not for her infrequent but terrifying displays of power, almost always sparked by boredom rather than any real threat.

Though it was hard to tell what she would do to any real aggressor, what with the Grims favoring her so highly for her frequent trips into the world of mortals, always taking several of them with her.

" How's life outside the Spire, I see you're shaking things up as usual. "

[Nayt]

"Heh . . . well," Brenden dropped his arms to his side, "You'd be surprised what these children do when Nominad's an' Sobiadin's not lookin'."

Brenden folded his arms over his chest and thought over the girl's question for only a second. His grin faded somewhat, and it didn't take long for a frown to show from below his hood--and soon, just before he began to speak, a sneer. It looked as if he'd just realized something.

A conclusion he wasn't too fond of . . .

"Life outside?" Brenden looked from one wall to the other, to the cracks in the slag and the dust collected upon the floor, "Couldn't be better. 'Specially with this new development with Naav an' Feires. Though . . . to tell you the truth, I think Naav orchestrated it. He's been pretty suspicious for awhile . . ."

Brenden didn't exactly explain what he was talking about right then and there, but it probably wouldn't take much inquiry to convince him to go on.

[Sage]

" Orchestrated? "

The smile on her face was almost evil, she flashed it at him as she pulled back the red hood containing her pristine curls. She couldn't decide whether Brenden generally though she was unintelligent, or if he himself was just a bad liar.

" I think we both know those two couldn't spell orchestrated, much less plan a preemptive strike against you. No, I'm sure it had something to do with your shining personality. "

Her expression revealed that none of this was altogether a bad thing, but she was definitely upset with the group of them for nearly adding permanency to what would have otherwise been a simple scrap in the dark.

" You should get out in the sun more often, this place must get maddening after a while. " Whether she was suggesting they go together, or whether he should just go himself was unclear. If he was shirking his duties to the Grims, then he was old enough to be close to corruption, and that wasn't something she wanted to see happen to him. He was the only interesting one, the only entertainment she had.

[Nayt]

He'd no intentions of going to the mortal world for sun, not right now. He'd been there too long, anyways. Before this, he'd spent a lot of time in Prompt--and, well, everyone knew how that turned out. The official report said he was present during an all-out shade invasion. Prompt was ultimately wiped from the face of the planet, one of many nations to simply blink out of existence in the last few months. The mortal world was going to hell so quickly it wasn't even funny; it almost made no sense to use those people anymore.

According to Brenden's report, the shade hordes were far more immense than he could handle, even in the company of Sleiden. That was to be expected, though. What, with the expect number of shades in Prompt being in the upwards of millions. Chances were Brenden was done with the mortal world for the time being. For now, it seemed his concerns were dedicated to their dark world.

"No, they're not stupid enough to go after me . . ." Brenden replied.

Brenden motioned upstairs.

"You hear that?"

The commotion, if Aros were to listen closely, was a bit distant but ultimately audible. There was a commotion up there, one entailing a great many voices all calling and shouting at once. They almost sounded mournful.

[Sage]

Aros actually quite enjoyed her regular trips to take the Grims to feed. The mortals were interesting at least, and there was much to be learned from them. She spent as much time as possible there, studying remote villages and vast cities, or at least what of them were left.

Her favorite places and people were on the water. Something about those who did not have to stay in one place on land all the time imbued mortals with tons of character, and interesting behaviors. Their expressions when she showed up out of nowhere also tended to be amusing, as was their horror when the Grims followed.

Feires and Naav were nothing but tools to Sobiadin. Aros and Brenden had managed to elevate themselves above that position, somewhat, but it was still unwise to go around stirring up trouble within his ranks, despite the power they held. She didn't know how their Superior would react to this set of circumstances, and as he spoke of ignorance so freely of men he had just goaded into a fight, she began to question both his motives and sanity. Perhaps he was slipping, becoming one of them.

She turned her head, her ear aiming toward the noise. It could have been any number of things. Someone from the other world who finally managed to break through into Oblivion, some lost adventurer. It could have been the remains of a body the shadow beings had drug through with them, or even a new mortal who was becoming one of them, a Gartel.

" Suffering...in Oblivion. So very refreshing a concept. " She had yet to master mimicking annoyance.

[Nayt]

"Not the kinda sufferin' we wanna hear, though," Brenden corrected calmly.

Truthfully, he didn't mind the sounds of suffering and whatnot. It was a good means to an end, usually. If you needed someone to talk, they'd certainly talk after you made them suffer for a little while. And if they didn't want to talk after a little bit of suffering? More suffering would suffice.

Unlike most Gartel, Brenden's duties dealt less with Grims and more with Shades; they were much more versatile and better evolved hunters than Grims, things that Tyrian Sturm theorized to be offshoots of Shades. Grims were of much fewer number than Shades, however. They were literally a finite number compared to an infinite one. The Limitless Shadows' name was fitting. It broke all conventional laws of physics known to man, and housed a literal infinite number of consistently spawning Shades. The problem, however, was how impossible it was to control these limitless numbers of Shades, compared to how easy it was for Gartel to control just a few Grims at once. Of course, that's where Sturm's research came in handy; the man was out to create artificial Shadelings, a bio-tech development that would grant Sobiadin full control of the Limitless Shadows.

And so, Brenden's work dealt with Shades more often than not--which was to say he was the Gartel's control method for Tyrian Sturm. Of course, there were other tasks, but those were done specifically at Sobiadin's request. Few others ever knew about those.

"That's Sturm up there. Either dead or dyin'," Brenden remarked begrudgingly; it was obvious by his tone that he was displeased with the idea. "That's the only kinda mournin' fanfare you're ever gonna get in this place. He's like a damn father to some of those Ersatzshad."

Tyrian Sturm being in dire straights meant ill for the whole lot of them. His research may have been a side project, but it was the most efficient side project they had.

"You don't think it the least bit funny? I'm protectin' that guy every second of the day--and the only moment I'm away, shit goes down."

[Sage]

A few things could be said about the relationship between shades and Grims. The fact that they were related somehow was a known fact, and some people like Sturm were not entirely incorrect in assuming they were a much-devolved form of the creatures known as the typical shade. But there was more to be learned, harder things to comprehend due to their secretive nature, and strict involvement with the Gartels, whom they could use as transportation after losing the ability to traverse the realms. This ability to create, and to distort things, not just destroy made them completely distinct from their cousins.

Aros had seen first hand what they could do to a Gartel, a shade, not to mention a mortal. They were capable enough hunters of the living, but in rare situations they would even turn on the shades. Only in the real world, to defend food sources, but it happened. And while there were some shades that were different, more powerful, a normal Grim had been known to fight and die, taking several shades with it. The bigger shades, the more complex had advantages over the Grims, however, and Grims usually left them alone.

Aros and Brenden, though unique, were not immune to the Grims' power either. Both of them were required to take the Grims to their food sporadically, or face deteriorating into something corrupt and perverse. Gheists did not last long.


" I suppose you're right. I don't think it's natural to be so wrapped up in those things, being what we are. All these experiments on our kind, on theirs...the Ersatzshad being formed. Don't you ever think that Oblivion would be better off without beings like Sturm creating more monsters? "

[Nayt]

"Nah," Brenden shook his head, "We need what he's makin'. The sooner he's perfected the Shadeling, the sooner we'll have all the Shades in the world all to ourselves. An' after that?"

Brenden opened his arms symbolically.

"We'll be complete again."

He folded his arms over his chest again, but soon after lifted one hand to his chin. He stroked his slight goatee in thought. He couldn't think of a person in the universe that wouldn't want to be complete. Anyone that had to live a Gartel's existence would probably agree all the same; a full existence was worth the sacrifice of a few dozen people. A few dozen hundred. The problem was, that wasn't getting them anywhere at all. They couldn't do a full scale hunt as needed to gather the exact number of souls required to fix all their problems. It'd take eons to achieve at this rate--and with whole nations disappearing from the mortal world, that made their circumstances all the more dire.

"Problem is, the good doctor's probably in deep shit, now," Brenden stroked his chin in thought, "Feires an' Naav's timing was just Goddamn impeccable. A li'l too perfect for my tastes . . ."

[Sage]

" We need our bodies, Brenden. " Her voice was almost a whisper. She hadn't been aware of what exactly Sturm had been up to, and why Sobiadin might have sent Brenden to watch him, but now it made sense. Sobiadin had promised them completion, but she'd known for years that he'd been delaying fulfilling that promise so that they would keep acquiring power for him. But without their bodies, their real bodies, they could never go back to what they were. They would be complete, but they would still be Gartels. Still be shadow beings, still have these unnatural powers, and relations to the shades and Sleiden.

Aros knew she'd rather be incomplete than artificial.

But he wasn't wrong about one thing. Feires and Naav were stupid, and likely meant no lasting damage in their attack. But if they had gotten an idea into their minds, if someone had told them that occupying Brenden would hurt Sturm; but who would want to hurt Sturm? Who would have access to the Gartel, so as to introduce such lunacy?

" You know they're not smart enough to do this alone. If they had meant to hurt Sturm, they just would have went after him. "

[Nayt]

Whether or not Brenden was previous aware of Aros's statement was unclear; he didn't seem to react to it at all, regardless of whether it was some sort of revelation or common knowledge on his part.

"That's the problem," Brenden replied, "I can't think of anyone that'd want the doctor outta the picture. Didn't think Naav or Feires would, either, though. But then again, you're probably right. They probably didn't know at all. Naav orchestrated the meeting, but probably didn't know the reasons . . ."

Brenden dropped his arms to his sides. He looked beyond Aros and to the elevator shaft that'd take any of them upstairs. If Sturm were in dire straights, it was best that he get up there will there was still room to see what the hell was going on, and if this was going to end poorly for them or not.

"I'm gonna check on Sturm . . . then see what I can't drudge up 'bout these two," Brenden announced, before taking his first steps since the end of his brief fight against Naav and Feires. He started past Aros, but put his hand on the girl's shoulder just as he reached her side, "'Til then, do me a favor: keep this 'tween us, will you? If our hunch is right, we might tip someone off askin' premature questions."

Following this statement, he'd take his hand off her shoulder and start for the elevator shaft; he spoke one last time as he took his leave of the lobby, "I'll keep you posted."

[Sage]

She shook her head, a childish defiance welling up in her expression.

" Naomi, she can be trusted. I don't keep secrets from Naomi. " She thought back to all the plots so far that had arisen in the Organization. They had always been squashed by someone before a casualty. If Sturm died, there would be consequences, they would all lose freedoms. If people found out that Naav and Feires did have something to do with his death, the Organization could tear itself apart.

Cloaked figures, bones rattling and raspy breath greedily sucking near every side of Aros gradually rose in volume, both sound and number. She sighed as the beings closed in on her, eager for their regular feeding, knowing she was their best best.

" You'd better."

[Nayt]

IV.5 You Can't Go Home Again

"Well, here we are."

Tanner and Cyril finally stepped into Sinir's territory. It looked no different than the rest of the city; its gray structures were all the same and its skyline was no different. Tanner only knew where they were by the most basic of signs: a claw scar across a tall apartment building, leading from the base of it to the top, leaving shattered windows and undone boards in its wake--and at the very top of it, the ruins of one of the "eyes" that Tanner informed and showed to Cyril on their way. Those "eyes" were ultimately what they needed to avoid, and being in Sinir's territory meant no eyes in the streets.

And so, Tanner left the dank alleyway and stepped headlong into the middle of the street. He'd always hated traversing the alleys and the like as if he were some kind of sewer shadow. He took in a deep breath and dropped his arms to his sides. Hell, even the air about this place smelled better than the alleys and the dumpsters . . .

It was a bit amazing, though. Even Tanner was surprised at himself. He and Cyril had managed to get away from such a large force of Ersatzshad after them. Of course, they still hadn't a clue if Yuri and Maladi made it--but Tanner had hope enough. He wasn't the type of man to outwardly vent those sorts of hopes, but if Maladi were with Yuri, chances were they were just fine.

[Ramlock]

"Great..."

Cyril stepped out into the alleyway following Tanner, though he didn't have any strong feelings. Plain view was pretty much the same as being hidden; Cyril wasn't concerned about any sort of reputation here. Cyril didn't really understand where they were, but judging by the damage that had been done to the nearby building... Well, it wasn't the most orderly part of town. That could only make things better for him, at the moment. A gang war, or whatever similar conflict was being conducted, was all well and good, so long as Cyril and the rest of the visitors to this city could stay out of it...

"I really hope your friend is taking care of Maladi..."

Cyril considered asking where they were going, but honestly, it didn't particularly matter. For the moment, Tanner was the only thing close to a lead he had, and Cyril was going to be following him. Truthfully, he was quite a few steps below just a few hours ago, as he was now separated from Maladi and most of the pets, and had also been given a side in this conflict by proxy... And he still had no idea how to find Edii. Not to mention, he wasn't exactly thriving in the environment. A few more encounters like the one he'd had so far, and he'd be leaving this city in a box, it seemed...

[Nayt]

"Yuri?" Tanner asked.

He grinned some and shrugged his shoulders before looking back to Cyril. Truth be told, Tanner hadn't a single doubt about Yuri's abilities. He'd worked with him for too long to have doubt.

"Your friend's safe with Yuri," Tanner replied as he looked ahead again, "I'm more worried 'bout the body count Yuri'll leave behind. A few of Sturm's guys dying out in the open . . . that's gonna leave a few more eyes on us."

But at the very least, Yuri and Maladi were likely going to make it, even if suspicious eyes were set entirely upon this territory and its leader.

Tanner paused at the next street corner, now that he'd taken to the streets and abandoned all use of the alleys. He reached into his pants pockets and withdrew a small tin. When opened, it revealed a batch of self rolled cigarettes and a small box of matches. He plucked a cigarette for himself, set it between his lips, and offered the open tin to Cyril, just in case he would like one as well. Baht, sitting on Cyril's shoulder still, seemed to avert her eyes from the cigarette tin and put her hand over her tiny nose. It seemed the shade was adverse to smoke, and recognized the shape of a cigarette.