Gone Fishing

Waiting for a trap to be sprung is one of those things you just can't rush. As much as you want whatever horrible thing to just happen, you can't just force people/creature in hiding to make their presence known, you have to let them toy with you. In this case it meant I explored a lot of empty houses and wondered what in the gods name had happened to everyone. I did find some decent food and made myself a really big sandwich because why not the food was going to waste if I didn't eat it! I did notice everyone's door were unlocked, which seemed extra odd (extra odd  in the face of everyone missing so helpful to me but still strange).

I did pick up a habit of talking to myself again (I swear I do this every time I'm alone for extended periods of time, in prison I had three separate personalities I would converse with, I think I scared the one guard who checked in on me, but I can't say for sure). It was a way of passing the time, at first I was talking to Carlina because she was my most recent companion and I needed someone to blam me for everything that had happened (yeah I'm more than a little screwed up). It was in the midst of one of these conversations I ran across another person. At first I thought my auditory hallucinations had moved on to being visual ones, but he was dressed so weirdly and doing something so boring I couldn't even dream up (fishing) that I had to take him at face value. Though he didn't accept me, which is kinda hilarious.

"You aren't really there." It was his first words to me as he kept fishing (have I gone over fishing before? Very quickly, extremely boring hobby people have where they use a stick with line tied to it haul in animals too stupid to live, there I've explained fishing). Next to his tackle box and bucket for his catch was a rather large hammer, no firearm but he was pretty tall and muscular I could only assume the hammer ended most conversations.

"I assure you sir I'm real." I suddenly felt very unarmed next to the fisherman, sure I had my magic, but no sword or firearm of my own, why it almost seemed like I was completely unprepared for everything on this trip, which goes counter to my usual over preparedness.

"No you aren't, because everyone here is gone." His voice sounded resigned like he'd had this conversation before. He had red hair like I used to have, and we both had dark skin, which showed we might have even been from the same place once upon a time.

"I'm not from here, I just arrived with a companion who has gone missing do you know what happened?" He sighed and kept fishing, he hadn't even really turned around to talk to me, which is kind of rude.

"You're companion is gone and you will be too Mister, I don't know what gets people but it doesn't miss you for long, you'll be the third person I've talked to about this, and you'll be the third person I've seen disappear in thin air."

"Maybe you should stop fishing and help me?"

"Help you what disappear?" He had a slow way of talking, like that sentence took about a minute for him to say, forgot to mention that earlier. I sighed and looked to the sky, I could tell it was going to be hard to convince the fisherman to help me, but for some reason I knew I needed his help. Because I'm an idiot you see.

It's Empty, Too Empty

Everyone was gone. Everyone! It was completely unsettling. There weren't any bodies, there wasn't any evidence of conflict or evacuation. Everyone was just gone. An entire populace of people completely missing. Even Carlina seemed unnerved by this. Me I could sense something wrong, not just because the sisters saw things differently, but there was a strange magical essence in the air. It's hard to describe, its like a really bad smell that was being masked by a lighter smell. I could tell something was wrong and it was awful, but I couldn't actually make it out because something was hiding it. We were driving down the empty roads, no cars or trucks were out, no commerce. At the first town we arrived at it was all empty, whatever had happened had taken everyone with it. Carlina stopped at the fuel station and filled up her car, I looked around. The station was as empty as everywhere else and I was about to turn back to the car when I caught something out of the corner of my eye. It was only there for a moment, but what I could make out was like a bad shadow, well either that or I was going crazy, either or.

"There is something here." I said upon getting back to the car, Carlina was gone. I hadn't been gone for that long, I never heard a gun shot or any commotion but she was gone. And in that I felt really alone. Also extremely terrified, because if something could have taken Carlina so easily, it could also have gotten me. But the question I had was why it hadn't gotten me. If anything I was the more dangerous person, I mean I've destroyed armies and gods, I'm really dangerous!!! I swear this being ignored by ancient evils hurts me as a person!

Wait shit thats a bad idea, nevermind.

A Time When Bombs Won't Work

"I think there is a flaw in this plan." Carlina had exploded three different packages of various explosives (powdered, liquid, something that looked like clay) all of it to no effect. I don't know what that gate is made out of, but blowing it up apparently was not going to work. That didn't seem to dissuade Carlina, I think she used up all of her explosive, each explosion getting bigger and louder, but having no discernible effect on the wall. Frankly I was surprised that all the booms and bangs hadn't brought someone out, it was getting a little scary that no one was at home. From my memory of the sisters coming through the divide, there were people there, there should have been! So where were all of them? WHERE?

"If you are not going to help me than try and find an alternative solution here Mr. Lorentino." Her voice was more gruff and exasperated, clearly not able to open this gate was pissing her off. She was over in the car trying to rummage up something new and I walked up to the gate and knocked on it. I mean there were lots of blackened marks from the explosions but overall it didn't seem that beat up to be honest. The knock resonated in a weird hollow metal way and despite all the explosions this put me more on the edge, I think because when Carlina was blowing it up I was further away and now I was front and center and if something bad was to happen it would happen directly to me. Nothing happened at first and then the seemingly impenetrable gate just opened. Like I heard the bolts locking into place the gate swung open and we could suddenly cross. There were still no people there, I saw no one who operated it, but it was open. I peered through and could see the other side. Carlina looked at me in disbelief.

"Shall we go?" I was being courteous and letting her go ahead of me.

"How? How did you do this?"

"I knocked, I guess we should have tried that to start?" She turned away from me and went back to her car and started it up. We made it through the tunnel and into the open (she gunned it down the tunnel in case it suddenly closed but it did not). As soon as we were through I wished I had never knocked at all. But that is of course next entry!

No One's Here Time To Go

It had taken us four days of driving to reach the divide (I don't remember it being that far away, but I'm terrible with maps and distances as this journal is further proof of every day!) When we arrived at the divide there was no one there. I don't mean no one trying to get in, or no one waiting around, there was literally not a soul around. No guards, no one watching the gate, it was all just shut down and not a living soul around for what felt like at least a mile (we had parked the car and walked up so as to be ready for a non existent ambush). I couldn't see a way around the wall. The normal entrance was locked up tight with securing bolts and what looked like complicated machinery. Carlina spent the better part of two hours sizing up the situation and came to the same belief. I was overjoyed it looked like our dumb journey was over!

"Well we tried, but we can't get beyond this wall so there is no point in trying something dumb." Carlina looked at me like I just told her I killed the fire god (so slightly annoyed, also known as how women generally regard me).

"Get my bag we're going to blow the gate open."

"Oh this will not go well." And for once I was completely wrong, it actually worked out exceptionally well. Well sort of. Next entry you know the drill by now!

Trains Don't Run There Anymore

We had been driving for a few hours (I say we, but it was Carlina apparently I'm not to be trusted with driving, so I've never done it and roads looked to have some kind of rules I didn't follow, I still should have been allowed to give it a shot!). It occurred to me we hadn't taken a train. Now certainly we were driving a car down there, and perhaps trains don't have a spot for cars like they used to for horses (because as things change they become less convenient this is true and you know it in your heart to be so!) But it was strange it wasn't even in the discussion to take a train, so I broke up the scintillating no conversation to ask why we weren't doing this the easy way.

"Why didn't we take a train?" Carlina didn't even look over, I mean on one hand I could appreciate her focus on the driving (there were other cars we were driving near and I would hate to collide with one, but still you could at least cast a casual glance in my direction to acknowledge I said something!).

"You have good luck with trains? I've heard the opposite." True last time I was coming this way I was blown off the train by a cult of weirdos, but you know that was just fate trying to tell me to go home!

"Well its a lot easier on my ass than these seats, when we had horse drawn carriages they used to have shocks to absorb some of the road, this car appears not to have anything."

"Comfort was not essential to our mission Mr. Lorentino, perhaps you should learn to accept that." Carlina was a fount of helpful advice like this.

"You still didn't answer my question."

"Trains don't run to the divide anymore, there was a massacre there a couple years back, people trying to run from the conflict, got to the divide, got shot up, so they stopped sending trains that way."

"Well that makes this whole mission sound easier." I sat in my seat a bit more dejected, I hadn't even thought about what they would do if they shot us before I could even try and talk my way in, and I had no idea how Carlina thought she would get all of our supplies past their gun lines (boats were out they guarded the ghost zealously). Carlina did not seem fazed by this thus is the dangerousness of zealots who always trust their cause is just.

"If it was easy, it wouldn't be worth doing." It was the last word on the topic and it didn't make me feel any better, if anything it made me feel worse! So many things are easy that are worth doing, like ripping off stupid people or sleeping with loose women! Only idiots think difficulty has anything to do with legitimacy!

Whatever Happened To Ronerawth?

"I'm not going." They were packing gear, Valerind wasn't leaving, he was too old even he admitted that, but he could still help Carlina get ready and he was. I saw a lot of bullets but not a lot of food in his preparation, explosives too.

"Yes you are, we can't track the rest of the nest without you." Carlina was speaking but she sounded exactly like her father and it was weird.

"I have a court date, if I miss that I'll go to real prison!" Not that particularly concerned me considering recent history, but still it was a valid point I don't think was being properly addressed!

"You won't in a few hours." Valerind's statement was part threat, part he knows he can resolve things without much effort. Honestly of all the people in the world who makes statements like that Valerind Mordere seemed the one most likely able to deliver.

"This is madness you guys have no idea what its like down there, the bleedings alone!" At the mention of bleedings they both stopped.

"Continue."

"Magic became an obsession for Ronerawth, I didn't see much in my time in the tower, but they bled the crap out of me, seemingly every other day they'd have a needle in my arm and pulling blood out of it, from what I could see and feel down there, that whole country was running on the juice, now with the sisters memories it was worse than that, they are addicted to magical power, to the extent they were using creatures like these to capture creatures, magical users, damned near anything to feed their addiction, its madness down there!" I didn't know it at the time, but Ronerawth had become completely isolated from the rest of the world, Hanlon's airship rescue of me was looking more and more crazy based on what I now knew of the country.

"All the more reason for us not to delay Trezlan, especially if the sisters as you call them had infiltrated their government, things are going to get a lot worse." Valerind nodded at his daughter and she took the supplies and made for their car. I just sighed and went along, clearly I was not going to convince them they were wrong, because they weren't. See that's the problem with the world in danger, someone has to save it, and that someone is more than often someone like the Mordere's a vile murderous psycho with a heart of cold iron. Which sounds a lot like a lot of the women I date (no I didn't attempt to put the moves on Carlina she'd have shot my balls off).

Incomplete Genocide

"They were here for you actually." I had come to terms with most of the memories of the sisters, they were all weird, because they were illusionists. And in their mind you could see the illusion, and the reality at the same time. How they made due with this is beyond me, I wasn't a weird snake life stealing thing.

"Makes sense, I thought I'd killed all of them a couple years back, must have missed a couple." He said it casually while sipping a drink. His daughter was sitting next to him not drinking anything.

"Yeah you missed a couple." He had given me shoes and clothes from his back room, nothing he had worn so I could only imagine these were dead men clothes. At least they were in style.

"We all make mistakes Trezlan, and I sent Carlina here to save you, so I think I we're even." I felt we were a long way from even, I mean I had the memories of those horrible creatures, that was way worse than a lot of things, but I knew arguing that point was moot. I did have to say I was intrigued into how Carlina lost an eye, I knew it was probably taken from her by her father, but I hoped he did it when she was an adult and not when she was a scared child, that I couldn't say either way spoke to so many horrible things about Valerind I didn't want to vocalize it.

"Is she your only child?"

"No I have several children, most of them are grown adults, Carlina is my last one though." She nodded to this and I was reminded that for the Followers of Fire having children was pretty much required, and even a cold bastard like Mordere could find a willing partner or partners. Still sad that the girl probably never had a good child hood (I didn't either but you know I still think kids shouldn't be raised to be flat out murderers!)

"Scary."

"That I have children or that I determined Carlina to be my last?"

"That you have children."

"No scary would be you with a child Trezlan, I raise mine to be good and strong and what they take out of the world is worse than what I put into it. Carlina is an accomplished sin and barely twenty five, you're hundreds of years old and got easily conned by those creatures." He had a point, but still he could have been nicer about it!, "All that aside Trezlan, you have knowledge of those things, where they came from correct?"

My head hurt, I was suppressing most of the images, but at his mention they came back, "Yeah I know where they came from."

"Where?"

"Ronerawth." The lands had changed, even during my imprisonment they had changed, but I could still make out landmarks, and they were definitely from there. And what I saw of their time there was terrifying.

"As I thought." He sat back in the chair and sighed.

"Well then I guess we'll have to put the rest of the nest down for good." Carlina making her first entry into the conversation and the one I didn't want. I knew things about Ronerawth, even without the sisters knowledge, I knew things were wrong down there, things were broken, and now it sadly looked like I would be the one to fix them.