They wrestled for position and Naurus wound up winning as he was able to push off a wall behind him, using the leverage to get into a side mount on top of Swadil. He grabbed the truncheon and tried to wrest it away, finally succeeding only after eating a few painful blows to his ribs. He attempted to swing his knee over to full mount but only managed to get it halfway over as Swadil pushed his knee back to try to shrimp out. Naurus figured the best course of action would be to ground and pound but it was awkward doing so from the side and only managed to land a few glancing blows on his opponents ever moving head. Swadil suddenly grabbed Naurus by his collar and yanked him down, before wrapping his arm over his neck, pinning him to Swadil’s chest and rolling over. Now Naurus found himself on his back and grabbed Swadil’s arms but it didn’t work for long.
Swadil cocked back his arm for the opening salvo of a ground and pound. Naurus covered up with his arms crossed over his face and turned his head to the side looking towards the fence. There he saw a dark figure standing behind the fence and silhouetted against the lit-up window on the other side of the courtyard. He noticed the same glowing amber orb, the same eyeball shining the in the dark, the same exact one he saw in the Broken Sword Inn last time he was there in the otherwise shadowed face of the figure. He didn’t have time to think too much about this or even say anything as the first blow landed on the crown of his skull. He squirmed around, blocking some blows but a few eventually broke his guard. No matter how hard he bucked and rolled he couldn’t stop the blows for more than a few seconds. His face ached with every hit and Swadil kept sweeping his arms to the up and down to clear the way for the next shot. His head was starting to buzz and spin. He stuck his arms out to try to intercept the next blow and noticed the glowing eye was directly behind Swadil now.
The shadowy figure landed a sledgehammer of a punch right in Swadil’s ribs. A wet crack echoed in the alleyway as he rolled off of Naurus, coughing and sputtering out of breath. He felt strong hands pulling him up to his feet, and for the first time saw the face of the man with the amber eye.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Dad? We were just—”
He stopped short, hearing the commotion of Talfin and his foe still wrestling behind him. Naurus ran up and planted a kick into the side of his head. He stumbled to his feet and got off Talfin before stumbling down and out of the alley. Naurus helped his friend to his feet and looked back at his father, whose face glowered with anger but whose eye no longer glowed either.
“I knew you two morons were following me a good long while. I figured you would get bored, but you didn’t. I decided to lose you in here, but then heard the commotion out here and what do you know? You just had to start a catfight with your boyfriends and son are you lucky I was here.”
“I...I don’t know. We didn’t mean to start trouble. I just wanted to see what you really do when you go out all night. I just—”
“That’s enough. None of this is befitting to talk over in a trash and piss filled alley. We're going home. You are going back home too; your night is over with.” His father pointed a gloved finger at Talfin, who meekly slunk away out of the alley without saying a word.
“Don’t get mad at him. It was my idea. I can explain!”
“Well that’s just grand. You can explain this all at home then.”
The walk back home was wordless and awkward in equal measures, but finally they entered home sweet home. Naurus was expecting an immediate tongue lashing but instead his father gingerly made his way over to the kitchen table after grabbing a liquor bottle. He pulled his leather gloves off and they landed on the table with a heavy thump. Naurus sat down as his father looked at him at the end of a glass bottle of imported vintage cognac. Looking at the gloves on the table, they seemed rather thick and heavy so he picked one up. They were otherwise normal, except for the knuckles which were full of small lead shot adding a significant amount of weight. He rolled the knuckle around in his fingers, then looked up at his father's solemn gaze.
“So, you want to know what I do now. I knew this day would come. Tell me something. When I say acrobat, what comes to mind?”
Naurus thought over it for a moment as it seemed to be a trick question. “I don’t know...I guess those guys that do circus shows and fly around on swings and walk tight ropes?”
His father sneered and chuckled. “No son, it’s simply a euphemism. A very polite one at that. I’m a second story man.”
“You...you steal things for a living?” Naurus bit his bottom lip.
“It’s not quite that simple. You say steal, I say repurpose. You say thief, I say vigilante. The households I pay my visits to are owned by evil men. Some more so than others. Some are just fucked in the head and others weren’t hugged enough as kids. Some are rich, others not so much. All I care about is they are all tied to The Black Door in one way or another. They all had a part in screwing me over, embezzling my wages and ultimately setting me up for my downfall. The world is a very fucked up place champ, and I’m sorry you had to learn it this way.” His father said heavily.
“Well...ok then. I hope Ma knows about this.” Naurus wasn’t quite sure how to process the fact his father was a career criminal. “But your eye, what's wrong with it? How does it—”
“Of course she does. I know you’ve never seen that before either. This scar, remember how I got it?”
“You said something about getting cut up in a boarding action a long time ago.” Naurus foggily repeated what he remembered.
“Yes, that’s right. What you never realized though is that this is a fake eye.” His father pointed to the eye bisected by the ugly scar. “This happened a very long time ago, long before I even met your mother. Not only did I have an exact replica made in the likeness of my other eye, this one is enhanced with a certain magicka that I can invoke to help me see in the dark better.”
“Wait, what? You can just make it glow on command and see like a cat in the night? What other spells do you know?”
His father laughed. “It’s not so much a spell as much as it is an enchanted glass eye. It only works as I have a connection to magicka due to being a changeling, albeit a far weaker connection than it used to be. It's difficult for me to invoke the night vision more than a few times a day, and it's exhausting to use it continually. It makes my head ache sometimes, and this magical elixir sure helps.” He knocked back another swig of booze.
“So it was you, I did see you at the Broken Sword! You were looking right at me!”
“Well you caught me, what can I say? I’ve been there enough times to know the dark little alcoves that are perfect to hide in.”
“Hmm...so I’m guessing your money and all that fancy booze is also repurposed? Nobody around here can afford that sort of drink!” Naurus went on the offensive.
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a flat-out genius? My god, you are so perceptive.”
“Well I was genius enough to foil your plan to break into someone else's house tonight!”
His father slammed the bottle back down on the table and leaned forward.
“You're so lucky I heard the commotion and came back to see what was going on. Turns out, it was hardly worth bothering with. That was the most goddamned embarrassing slap fight I’ve ever seen. You hit like a bitch and your friend isn’t much better. You should be thanking me for breaking your boyfriends’ ribs. Is that how they teach you to fight in the service now? Gods alive what an embarrassing spectacle, you might have gotten bodied had I not been there. I might just have to show you how to throw hands too.”
“Thanks dad, I love you too. I’m too tired for all this. Good night and try not to drink too much.”
His father nodded towards him and took another swig. “Hasn’t killed me yet…won't kill me now. Don’t forget, I’m not a half-breed.”
“Oh thanks Swadil, just what I needed.”
“It’s not that he’s wrong, he just thinks you’re a half vamp, and fear is the root of all hatred.�
�� He knocked back another shot.
Naurus rolled his eyes and made his way back to up to his room. What a fucking day. My face hurts, my back feels like I rolled over nails, and this is not how I wanted to find out my dad’s occupation.
He couldn’t be bothered to do much more than flop into bed at this point so that’s exactly what he did. As was custom, Mokhey joined him shortly after with a deep chirp and starting kneading biscuits and dancing around his usual spot under the crook of his arm. Something didn’t feel right though. The air in his room was heavy for no apparent reason. A faint smell of ozone lingered around. He propped himself up and looked around in the soft moonlight that filtered into his room. Everything seemed normal, except for the corner directly across from the foot of his bed. There the corner was drowned in heavy shadows, with not even the slightest inkling of light penetrating where it usually otherwise would. His palm tingled and started to burn for no obvious reason.
There was only one way he figured he could put his mind to rest. He grabbed a hefty volume off his night stand: The Complete Bestiary of Myths and Legends by Grandmaster Tullis. With both hands he hurled the book at the shadowed corner only to be met with a dead silence as the book seemed to simply vanish into the shadow without so much as a peep.
“I sense a soul who has found answers.”
Naurus shot up in bed and Mokhey immediately started hissing and spitting something fierce. Within a moment a hand grew out of the inky shadow and motioned strangely. The cat was suddenly silent. Naurus looked over to see that his cat looked like a stuffed carcass and was perfectly still, frozen in time despite the feline rage on his face. He looked back over to see Recht emerge as the shadow dispersed from around him.
“You seem to have dropped something.” The kind old voice said as he set the book down on the foot of the bed.
“What the fuck are you doing here and what the fuck did you do to my cat?!” Naurus said with agitation.
“Shush! Or you’ll wake your mother and bring your father’s cranky old self in here. Your cat is fine, merely in a temporary stasis so he won’t be a bother. The marks on your face are telling. Find what you were looking for, did we?”
“Sure, I guess you could say that. Mind leaving now? I didn’t invite you here and how the hell did you get in?”
Recht chuckled, slowly making his way around the bed with footfalls that were utterly silent on the usually creaky wood floor. “Such fire and such belligerence. Of course you didn’t invite me here. I never deign to ask an invitation when secrecy is of the utmost. I know you never thought the life you thought your parents lived would be so much different than you thought it was. But really, you’ve known since childhood you weren’t normal. Did you think that your eyes and hair were merely happenstance?”
“I mean…yes. Some are born deaf, dumb, blind, mute, or disfigured. Who is to say I’m not just lucky to not have something worse wrong with me?”
“Indeed, Fortune smiles upon you.” A grin could be felt penetrating from under Recht’s hood. “Your father has told you much, but still is reluctant to reveal the full extent of his and, by extension, your nature. You and I are just getting started, and with that I bid my goodbye. Rest up, you’re going to need it tomorrow.”
“Wait what do you…” Naurus trailed off, realizing that suddenly he was talking to no one.
Recht simply melted back into the shadows and suddenly the room was normal as it had ever been, no corner or wall cloaked in unnatural blackness. Mokhey was instantly reanimated and back to his normal self, seemingly completely oblivious to what just transpired. He sank back into his bed and just then realized how tired he was. The henpecked husband received his usual tongue lashing down the way, and an owl hooted mightily not far off. The bed was even more comfortable than it usually was.
Remember My Family
The usual morning assassination attempt by his fat feline warded off once again, he sat up and rubbed his face. It was sore and tender where he had been hit, and his back ached with a sprain in a location he didn’t think was possible. This was little but a momentary distraction as his eyes laid upon his desk and to his lack of surprise another mysterious parcel was awaiting him.
He went over and picked it up, realizing there was something more substantial in it than just paper. He broke the usual seal, narrowly avoiding a nasty paper cut. Inside there was a letter, but also an amulet and a ring. He decided to read the letter first.
Good morning,
Enclosed you will find some new toys to play with. This being an amulet of mark and a ring of recall. Simply put, this will make traversing back and forth to me far easier since your bedroom is not the appropriate forum for such delicate matters of state. I have already keyed the amulet to teleport you back over to Arx Fatalis, so please do so as soon as you are ready. To use it, simply wear the ring and then find the corresponding slot cut into the left side of the amulet to invoke its effect. Put them together and soon you will be where you belong. You will also be meeting someone new and quite important, so don’t keep us waiting.
-R
P.S.—Don’t worry, the ring will fit.
Naurus rubbed his eyes, then emptied out the contents of the packet onto the table. He had to catch the small, rose quartz ring as it tried to roll off the table. It was obviously too small for his sausage fingers. The amulet was much more of a complicated affair. Attached to the fine silvery chain was a small, rectangular piece of polished marble. Indeed, on the left side was a small notch wherein the ring looked like it would fit. However, the ring was still too small to fit on his finger. He pondered it over as he rolled the ring around in his palm, then decided to try to slip it on anyway.
The ring immediately expanded on the tip of his finger and grew just large enough to be a perfect fit. It made his hand feel warm and fuzzy for a moment, as did the amulet to his chest when he slipped that on. As he got dressed, he pondered what fate awaited him next. I’m hungry, but there was some tasty looking fruit in that garden in the courtyard he thought up as he finished tying up his boots and looped his baldric back over. He had a feeling this matter would be a little more formal and wanted to impress the new person he was to meet, so he made certain his uniform was completely up to standard code and took a deep breath as he looked himself over in the mirror. His face was scruffy, and his bedhead wasn’t exactly well tamed but he felt rushed and didn’t want to risk getting in line at the barber. He cradled the amulet in his hand, suddenly nervous about what would happen. It hasn’t killed me yet, won’t kill me now. He lined up the ring into the slot.
His feet were on solid ground, but the world around him seemed to spin in a million different directions. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, then opened them. The vertigo was still there but fading away as he realized he was flat on his back in the middle of the courtyards walkway. The looming walls and keep of Arx Fatalis towered over him. Getting up, he dusted himself off and looked around. The garden seemed more vibrant and inviting than last time, but for now his nausea emanating from his empty stomach kept him from enjoying the scenery for too long. He found what he was looking for, and plucked a large, red and gold apple from a nearby tree. It was sweet, meaty, and utterly delicious. He sat under the tree enjoying it and at the same time feeling that old familiar feeling of being watched by forces unknown. Finishing the apple, he tossed the core into a rose bush and noticed an odd bald spot in the garden. It was rectangular and roughly large enough for an adult to lay down in, fringed by petunias and hyacinths. He didn’t pay it much mind as he made his way to the towering double doors of the inner keep.
He rapped the huge knockers and waited eagerly. Just like last time the door slowly opened, the massive steel hinges groaning as it swung in with no one behind it. He slowly made it way in, checking the corners and behind the door but finding no one but himself in the massive throne room that stretched before him. He gingerly made his way towards the front and decided to take a closer look at the throne itself as he was await
ing Recht. He hardly got a chance to appreciate its masterful workmanship and exquisite materials before he felt a stuffy heat emanating from behind him.
“Well there you are!” Naurus proclaimed as he turned around, but it certainly wasn’t Recht who was there.
Instead he was met by two pairs of smoldering coals for eyes behind oversized, grotesquely human faced steel helms that were a head and shoulder taller than him. The Crimson Guard startled him such that he took a couple steps back and ended up stumbling directly into the throne chair and sitting on it inadvertently. He knew this was a critical faux pas at best, but he didn’t want to get up and try to slide past the great halberds of the massive steel-clad sentinels merely feet away. He didn’t have much time to ponder his predicament before he felt a warm hand as hard as granite firmly plant onto his shoulder. Startled, he tried to squirm away and get up but was pinned down by what felt like a boulder pushing him down. He reached up to pull the hand away, looked at it and then froze. It definitely wasn’t Recht’s wrinkly, bony old fingers. This hand was impeccable and bore not a single flaw, much like the gemstones inset into the gold, silver, and platinum bands on all of his fingers. Following the arm up revealed a tall and broad-shouldered man clad in a shimmering, iridescent kaftan who looked down upon Naurus with a regal visage and a face that looked carved out of stone. His salt and pepper hair was closely cut on the sides which offset a long sweep on top.
“Well, it looks like I’ve been usurped. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Are you sure about this?” The smooth and deep voice sounded like it was coming from everywhere at once, but Naurus knew those sapphire eyes from somewhere.
Shadow Kingdom Page 18
