“Ah, that is unfortunate,” the man sighed. “I was hoping you would not look under these cloaks. We are not exactly a very sightly race.”
He took a swig from the jug of water and started to peel another fruit for himself. “So,” he said. “Why have you come here? What is it that you seek?”
“I haven’t the slightest clue,” Q smiled.
The man chuckled. “I like you, boy. There’s nothing like an adventurous kid.”
Q chuckled in agreement.
“I know you haven’t asked me yet,” the man said. “But you must be wondering what exactly we are.”
“Well, it is quite intriguing.”
“If you were able to get here on your own, then I believe you should have already heard of my species before.”
“What?” Q looked confused.
“We visited your world a long, long time ago, boy.”
Q’s heart stopped. His body shook as he looked at the hooded figure in front of him, his eyes wide in fear and horror.
The man casually leaned back on his chair. “We are the Megethos.”
***
3-2
Q really wanted to say that he was surprised, that he was in shock at the new development. But he honestly felt none of that.
Of course, that didn’t mean he already knew that these people were the Megethos. In fact the people here were nothing like Carlos had described the Megethos to be. He had gotten so used to being shocked that he didn’t really care about it anymore.
“You’re quite calm, aren’t you?” the man asked, a bit surprised.
“Well, I’ve been through quite a bit,” Q said.
“I can imagine,” he chuckled. “Anyone capable of passing through that portal would have probably gone through a ton.”
“What?” he asked. “How do you know that I got here through a portal?”
“I’m the one who set that portal up in the first place,” he said. “It’s been up there for who knows how long. Only people with a significant life energy can pass through it.”
Q immediately became suspicious. “Why would you do something like that?”
“There are…complications that are too hard to explain,” he said.
“It’s fine,” Q said sternly. “I’ve got all the time in the world.”
The man sighed. “Do you have a machine that can decode binary?”
Zelph, can you do it? Q asked.
“I’m a self-aware, high tech AI, and you’re asking if I can decode simple binary?!” Zelph asked. “Of course I can do it!”
Q turned to the man. “Yeah, I do have a machine,” he said. “But what does that have to do with anything?”
“Words cannot convey what you ask for,” he said. “I can only show you what you desire.”
What do you think? Q asked Zelph.
“I’m an AI. How am I supposed to judge whether he’s lying or not?”
I’m just asking for your opinion, Q said.
“Oh. Well, I think we should go with him. It’s not like we have anything better to do anyway.”
Fine. He looked at the man. “When do we leave?”
The man walked over to a stone-cut table and picked up a metal staff from it. “Now?” he asked.
“Now sounds good,” Q smiled under his hood.
The man took a few purple fruits and put them in a cloth bag. He picked a leather-skin bottle from the wall and filled it with water before putting it in as well.
He slung the bag around his shoulder. “Come along then,” he said, holding the door open with his staff. Q walked out, and the two of them headed through the city once more.
Q noticed that it was still night, but he didn’t ask anything of it. Bigger questions were on his mind at the moment. Carlos and a few others had always portrayed the Megethos as vicious, beast-like beings who craved war and blood. But these people were completely different from that image.
“So,” Q said, trying to get a conversation going. “You set that portal up by yourself? In this primitive world?”
The man looked at him for a moment. “I’m just good with machines,” he said.
Yeah, but where in this backwater world could he have found or even made a portal generator? Q thought.
“I’m actually not that sure,” Zelph said.
By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask, Q said. Did you see if you could find anything to communicate with? Any sort of device?
“None,” Zelph said. “I couldn’t find any piece of tech in our vicinity.”
What about that portal generator this Megethos guy supposedly built? he asked.
“The portal was already unstable when we entered it remember?” he said. “The generator would have incinerated because of the load we put on it when we entered this world.”
Keep searching though, he said. There’s no telling what we might find here.
Q felt an arm on his chest push him back. He looked up to see two hooded figures standing before him, a metal spear held upright in their hands. They looked less like guards, and more like amateur peacekeepers.
The Megethos man, which is what Q called his new friend, talked to both of them. They looked at the man, then at Q, and finally let them both go.
“What was that all about?” Q asked quietly as they headed to the city walls.
“I think they sensed a weird aura around you,” he said. “Made them a bit nervous.”
“What did you tell them?”
“That you don’t keep yourself clean, and that’s what they were sensing.”
“Megethos man has a golden sense of humor,” Zelph laughed.
Shut up, Q sulked.
They headed right up to the doors, which had a sole hooded civilian guarding it. Megethos man went and talked to the guard. The hooded figure nodded and opened the door for the two of them. Megethos man politely nodded to the figure and gestured to Q to follow him out of the city.
“Finally,” Megethos man took in a fresh breath of air and immediately started coughing. “Looks like I’m not used to this fresh air after all,” he said. “It’s been a while since I left the city.”
“No one leaves the city?” Q asked. “Surely there must be other places you can go to?”
Megethos man laughed. “I have heard of no such place, young one,” he said. “I am quite old, and Araneer is the only city whose existence I know of.”
“Wow,” Q said. “One city on an entire planet?”
“There are far more surprising things than that,” he chuckled and walked along.
They walked for about three hours, chatting a bit. Q asked if the cracked skin was something that happened because of the harsh desert. Megethos man in turn told Q that was how all Megethos naturally looked, and that they all wore cloaks to prevent their dry, cracked skin from worsening in the harsh weather.
This went on until the Megethos man stopped at an oddly colored patch of sand in the desert. It was about the size of a large truck and was colored golden yellow, but still subtle enough to look normal.
“Whoa,” Zelph said.
What? Q asked.
“I’m getting some really weird readings from the sand below us,” he said. “The data doesn’t even make sense!”
Q alerted himself. He didn’t think Megethos man was a threat, but his natural instincts were still suspicious.
Megethos man firmly held onto Q’s shoulder. “Come along now,” he said and pushed him onto the odd patch.
For a moment, Q stood there, confused and silent.
And then the sand exploded around him.
***
At first, Q thought something had exploded, throwing up the sand all around him.
Then he realized that he was actually sinking into the sand. He held his breath as he slid down into the ground. He wasn’t glad the scenario changed this way though. An explosion was bad, but sinking into the sand was worse. He could feel the pressure around his chest squeeze his lungs and constrain his breathing.
Just as he began t
o worry about suffocation, he dropped out of the sand and fell hard onto a cold surface. He heard another thump come from behind him and turned around to see Megethos man standing right next to him.
“What did you do?!” Q yelled.
He laughed. “Sorry, but I really couldn’t resist having a bit of fun,” he said. “That was just quicksand.”
“How come it isn’t falling off the ceiling though?” he asked, looking up at the ceiling that held together quite well. Quicksand was basically very loose sand, so it was highly unlikely it could stick into a ceiling like it was doing now.
“This quick sand is more like water than sand,” he said. “Right now it’s basically using its surface tension to keep that ceiling together.”
“Couldn’t we have come some other way?” Q sighed.
“That is the only way one can get to this.” He gently tapped his metal staff against the ground, and an orb of white glowed from its tip.
Q watched as the light bathed everything around him. They were standing on a lone platform that looked over a massive, dark cave. All Q could see were broken pillars and half cut stones lying all around the ground below them.
Megethos man tapped his staff once more. The orb of light detached from it and flew deep into the darkness, and grew larger, its light becoming more radiant.
“Welcome to the Ruins of Arahar,” Megethos man said, as the orb lit up the entire cave.
Q looked in wonder at the beautiful buildings that were all crumbling and broken, at the roadways that were completely blocked off by fallen debris. He could see acres of beautiful ruins, all showing him the greatness of a city that once existed.
“Was this a major city?”
He sighed. “It was the biggest city on the planet. But it was buried by an earthquake ages ago.”
“Oh,” Q said quietly, trying to imagine what the city looked like back when it was alive and filled with people.
A terrifying cry screeched through the dusty air, rumbling through the ruins, echoing through the sandy walls.
“Ah,” Megethos man said, his voice a whisper. “It is still alive.”
That can’t be good, Q tensed.
“I’m getting a massive heat signature coming from below us,” Zelph said. “You better-”
The ruins exploded as something shot straight out of the ground. Q looked up, his eyes staying on the thing that had just exploded out of the darkness.
Bad idea.
A massive snake like creature wound itself out of the ground, curling along the ruins. To be honest, it would have looked exactly like a snake if it weren’t for the fact that it had three heads instead of one. Its heads screeched out once more, and it turned towards them.
“Oh dear,” Megethos man sighed.
“Umm...shouldn’t we do something?” Q asked.
“Yes,” he put his arms around Q, and pointed his staff to the cave ceiling. A string line shot out of it, and stuck to the ceiling. “Come along now,” he said and jumped off the ledge, Q in one hand, his staff in the other.
The snake-beast tried to jump and snap at them as they swung across the ruins, but they were too fast for it. Megethos man cut the line just as they were above the snake’s body, and they fell right onto its scales.
“What are you doing?!” Q asked, struggling to keep his balance on the creature’s body.
Megethos man pulled Q up. “We need to be quick,” he jumped off the snake’s back. Q followed him, falling softly on the floor to make sure he didn’t make unnecessary noises. Megethos man led Q to the hole the snake had come out of.
He pointed into it, “Get in there,” he whispered.
“What?!” Q exclaimed.
The snake-beast’s roar rang through the air, and Q didn’t need to look behind to see it was coming after them. He jumped into the hole without another word, and got ready to face a hard fall. Instead he landed in a pool of crystal clear water. He swung around his arms and swam up to the surface, gasping for breath.
“Zelph?” he asked, trying to see if his lenses were still on.
Megethos man fell right on top of him and both of them sank into the water once again.
“That was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen,” Zelph laughed as Q and Megethos man made their way to the surface once again.
You can be really annoying, Q complained.
“We must head there,” Megethos man pointed to the banks of the pool. Q quickly swam there and dried himself as best he could.
He turned to Megethos man, who didn’t seem bothered that his cloak was soaking wet. “What was that creature?” he asked.
“An Apophis,” he said.
“Apophis?” Q raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you think it’s too clichéd to name a snake-beast after the Egyptian snake of chaos himself?”
“Do you really think a cliché is what we would be bothered about?” he asked. “It is a very rare beast. An Apophis has never been seen in our city before. People have only heard of them.”
“Great,” Q sighed and looked around. “So what was it you wanted to show me?”
Megethos man walked ahead, straight into the darkness.
“Can’t you do that staff light thingy?” Q asked.
“There is no need for it,” he said and walked faster.
“You better follow him quickly,” Zelph said, and Q dashed after him.
Megethos man walked for a few more minutes, and then abruptly stopped. A glow emerged around staff, giving Q just enough light to see that they were in front of a door. Megethos man placed his hand on it, and the door began to rumble.
Runes began to appear all over the massive black door, each one glowing in different colors. When the last rune lit up, the door sank into the ground, allowing them to pass through.
Megethos man used his staff to light the path ahead and they walked for a while, until the roaring sound of wind became apparent in their ears.
“We stop here,” Megethos man extinguished the light on his staff and took a crystal ball out of his bag. He smashed it against the ground, and a bright flash of light shone through the entire room, showing that it was cylindrical in shape. The entire room began to glow dimly, giving them just enough light to look around. Q finally saw that what he had thought to be a pathway had actually been a narrow bridge-like platform.
And he only said ‘bridge-like’ because unlike a bridge, this platform ended halfway through the room in the shape of small circle. He leaned over the edge and saw sheer darkness beneath them, as though it were a bottomless pit.
“This is what you seek,” Megethos man pointed his staff at the circular walls, at the dots and dashes that were engraved on their surface.
Q smiled to himself. A primitive form of binary code, he thought.
“Those codes have everything you need,” he said.
“Very well,” Q nodded, even though he didn’t really understand how exactly decoding this stuff would help him answer his questions. “Zelph?” he asked.
“Just look around the whole room once. I’ll get all the code from the lens’ video feed.”
Q nodded and turned around slowly, giving Zelph enough time to make sure he got every last bit of data. A blue light shot out from the lenses as the AI captured every last dot and dash. Once Zelph got the data, it took him another five minutes to process it all.
“Alright, it’s ready,” he said. “It’s a video file.”
Q’s eyes widened. He looked at Megethos man. “You wanted to show me a video?” he asked.
“Ah, so it’s done?” He reached into his bag and brought out a small box. He opened it and took out a small white cylinder.
“Ooh, he has a projector,” Zelph said.
I thought you said you couldn’t sense any tech before? Q asked.
“Look close, he’s been holding it inside a lead box,” he said. “I don’t have enough equipment to look inside solid lead.”
“Can your device connect to this?” Megethos man asked. “I know it’s a bit selfish, but
I would like to see this video as well.”
Q nodded. “Zelph can you-”
“Already done,” he said.
The projector slowly lifted off the ground and floated in the air above them. Its projection light fluctuated as it started, and quickly began displaying a steady feed.
“Playing video now,” Zelph said.
The screen projected onto the circular wall and the video began.
It started with a busy city. Human children ran around the streets, cars zoomed past roads, mothers strolled their babies on the sidewalk.
Earth, Q realized.
The wind blew through the trees, rustling some leaves, and taking the rest within its grasp. He could hear birds chirp in beautiful melodies as the sun shone brightly.
And then it stopped.
A deafening sound tore through the air and the sky turned blood red. Clouds evaporated in a second, and birds fell dead from the sky. People on the streets ran in terror, all of them soon collapsing to the ground unconscious.
From out of nowhere, a massive shockwave descended from the sky and shot through the city. Trees were chopped in half, and buildings were turned into collapsing towers of shattering glass as the wave passed through them all. The Sun shrunk, disappearing from sight, and all that was left was a darkness that had no stars.
Q watched, breathless, as the video sped up time.
The people on the ground began to spasm violently, their body writhing in pain. Screams of terror rang through the air, lasting for a few seconds before everyone froze. The roads and towers crumbled, prisoner to the Earth once again. The trees wilted and the air turned dusty as silence returned to the surface. The ground trembled as the once great city submerged into a mere desert of parched sand.
Q’s eyes widened. No, he froze. It can’t be.
The feed fast-forwarded. Parts of the desert began to split open, and humanoid creatures climbed out from inside. One of them walked closer to the camera, its features now showing clearly.
Q gasped, horror imprisoning his mind. The man’s face was cracked, just like the bandit’s face from before, just like every other Megethos’ face. His mind went blank as everything he knew of this world was ripped apart, as every piece of truth he had known tore itself into a lie.
The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5 Page 89
