Gift of the Gods - Chapter 2


Gift of the Gods - Chapter 2


" This is insane, Mathers is insane." Hawthorn cursedunder his breath as he and his companion, Joseph Fairdale,more commonly known under the name of Enigma, boarded hisshuttle. " How can you be sure, you never know...?" Enigma began.
" I don't even want hear it from you, are we clear?"Hawthorn scolded the man.
Enigma was an unusual man, of about normal height. His hair was a whitish-grey color and his eyes were of steel blue. He wore a ocean blue cloak and everything else underneath, was black.
" Oh, lighten up." Enigma replied almost comically, in response to his companion's gruffness.
" Why the hell are you here anyway ?" Hawthorn questioned the man seated beside in the cockpit of the shuttle.
" Mathers asked me to accompany you on this little assignment he's sent you on." the white haired man replied.
" Weren't you have supposed to have killed this guy before, I mean...before we crashed here." the strangely clad man asked.
" Joseph, why don't you just crawl back into the hole you crawled out of." Hawthorn answered back with a sneer.
" Hey, the names Enigma, don't you forget it. And no, New Canavarel is on the brink of civil war, I'm not about to go back until things settle down a bit." Hawthorn's companion replied in an even tone. " Don't tell, your actually afraid of something.That's amazing." Hawthorn continued, trying to get a raise out ofhis incredibly calm companion.
" I can tell this is gonna be a long flight." Hawthorn muttered under his breath as he piloted the small silver craft out of the shuttle bay.
" You had better believe it..." Enigma went on to say.
All the while, the sleek silver and black craft made it's way into the upper atmosphere. They're destination, north, to a small port city on the eastern continent. A city named Dri Tarbon.



" What do you make of it ?" Lucius asked, staring down at the strange looking retangular silver block, laying inthe center of the strangely lit chamber.
" I'm not sure..." Shara began, " I can understand some of these markings, but these others..." the priestess stopped.
" What ? What about these others." Lucius asked, pointing at the wall. On the right wall, where the merchant was pointing were five strange symbols (I, II, V, III, IX ).
" Wait a minute. There are more of those symbols on this small silver box." Lucius said, pointing to the small silver box that was attached to the left side of the strange metal object that rested upon the dais in the center of the room.
But,the symbols on this small box were glowing a bright amber color, and above the symbols was a smaller black rectangle with one of the symbols on it ( I ) , glowing the same amber color. " Hey,wait a moment. I have an idea." Shara said to her companion as she kneeled before the great silver block.
After a few moments of inactivity, the priestess begandepressing the small upraised squares on the small silver box. Pushing in each symbol that was on the stone wall, in the exact order they were written.
A faint beep accompanied the depression of each symboled square. When she had finished depressing the last of the symbols, the great silver block began to make a sharp, hissing sound. It sounded almost as if to door to a great tomb were opening some where near them.
As the two of them continued to stare at the great silver block, a stream of air started to gush forth from a crevice just below the top of the great metal block. For about five minutes or so, this stream of pressurized air continued to hiss forth from the great silver block. But, now it seemed that the air that it was
beginning to stop, the force of the air wasn't as strong as it had been when it had first begun to come out. After a moment, the air stopped coming out of it altogether. But, the weird thing now that was happening was, the top of the great metal block was commencing to rise.
" What in the name of Mykara is happening." Shara whispered under her breath.
" I thought that you knew what you were doing." Lucius questioned her quietly.
" Your guess is as good as mine. I have no idea what I did." the priestess whispered back to her companion, unsure of how to proceed from this point on.


" Marcus, the gentleman from Haplo shipping is here. Shall I show him in, or tell him to come back some other time ?" David Southerland asked, standing in the doorway of Hawthorn's office.
David Southerland, a local of the port city of Dri Tarbon, now an aging man in his fifties and business partner to Marcus Hawthorn.
Marcus had been penniless when he had come to the city. David had taken pity on him and had helped him to start whatwas now one of the largest shipping companies in the world. David had assumed the role of the silent partner. But, now, Marcus wasn't his usual cheery self, and David suspected that it had something to do with that brief vocation he had taken only a week ago.
" I said that the gentleman from Haplo shipping ishere." the grey haired man repeated, becoming concerned by the minute, about his friend.
" I heard you the first time." Marcus said in low tone," Please show him in."
"Whatever you say, Marc." David replied softly as he turned to leave the room.
After a moment or two, a richly clad gentleman appeared in the doorway. His hair was of pure black, neatly combed back, ending in a long ponytail.
He was wearing a red silk shirt with pearl cuff links, a pair of midnight blue velvet trousers and a pair of highlyshined black leather boots. To top it all off, he wore a crimson cape that looked absolutely smashing, considering what he was wearing.
With a polite bow, the gentleman began to speak, " It has come to my attention that a certain friend of yours is in need of my services."
" And what might those services be ?" Marcus asked in return, trying unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn. " Why good sir, you know exactly what those services are, or do you want me to say it out loud, just to reascertain my reason for being here ?" the gentleman replied, amused by Hawthorn's little game.
" Why don't you just reenlighten me." Hawthorn replied curtly. " Oh, come now. Why don't we just dispense with all these formalities and get on with the business at hand." the dark haired gentleman continued. All the while, Marcus remained silent. " Alright, fine, have it your way.I'm here on behalf of the Black Hearts. Need I say more ?"
" And what's all this business about you being from the Haplo shipping company?" Marcus asked, vaguely aware of what he was looking at.
" It's one of our front companies, I figured that by saying that I was from a shipping company would get me inside your door faster than saying that I was from an assassin's guild. Quite ingenious, don't you think ?" the dark haired man explained.
" Leave." was all Marcus replied to finely dressed man's question.
Becoming agitated, " I was led to believe that you were in need of our services."
Remaining calm, " I said leave, are you that dense that you can't understand that." Hawthorn said, meanwhile, he reached his hand into the right hand desk drawer. Feeling the cold sensation of the cool metal pistol against the palm ofhis hand, Marcus repeated himself for the last time." I said leave."
" Hey, you can't do this to me..." the dark haired manbegan sputtering, but, he never got the chance to finish hissentence. Because, there was now a gaping bloody hole in hischest, still smoking from the laser blast. With a final gasp,the dark haired assassin fell face first onto the floor.
Getting up out of his chair, Marcus leaned across his desk, peering over the edge at the dead man now lying on the floor at the foot of the front of his desk. Noticing now thatthere was a rather large puddle of blood forming on the floorboards at the foot of his desk.
" This conversation is over." Hawthorn spoke cryptically, as he gazed down at the dead man. When Hawthorn finally looked up from the dead man, he noticed David standing in the doorway to his office, a lookof utter shock forming in his deeply set brown eyes.
Hawthorn's brown oaken desk now had a large, gaping hole in it's front, blackened around it's edges from the heat of the blast.
" David, would you please help me remove this piece of trash. It's beginning to stink up the office." Marcus began. A look of pure and utter shock still engraved in his face, " David, now please." Hawthorn continued.
" Wha...,Wha...,What happened." David began, stuttering. When he finally looked down onto the floor, his jaw dropped open and remained that way for several seconds.
" David, the body..." Marcus began again, picking up the dead man's feet. " Stop gawking and help me, David !" Marcus repeated,becoming exasperated with his silent friend.
" What ?" David asked blankly, shocked at what his friend had just done.
" Pick up his shoulders, David, now ..." pausing for a moment "...we don't have all day." This time, Marcus raised his voice.
" Yeah, right." David replied blankly as he went to thefront of the desk, kneeled on the blood stained floor boards beside the body, blood stains forming on the knees of his grey woolen trousers. Slowly, almost mechanically, David slipped his arms underthe dead man's shoulders, and in almost the same slowness, he picked the dead man up from off the floor.
Numbly, still in shock, David Southerland helped his friend remove the dead assassin's body from their warehouse office, depositing it in the alleyway behind their place of business, for the rats and local constables to find.



" Stand back, I'm not entirely sure of what's happening here." Shara warned her companion. " What do you mean, Shara ?" Lucius returned.
" Nothing,...it's just that I'm not sure what's about to happen." The priestess explained." I've seen nothing like this ever in my life." she continued.
With a sudden rush of air, the top the large silver block slide to it's side. A fine mist was now, slowly, crawling it's way down the sides of the metal block.
Stepping closer, her curiosity getting the better of her, Shara made her way toward the giant metal block. As she continued to get closer, her view of it's contents was becoming ever clearer.
Suddenly, without realizing what she was looking at, she began muttering the words " A man, there's a man in here. How can this be, a living, breathing man."
" What did you say ? " Lucius asked her, concerned by her unusual comment.
" There's a man in here." Shara repeated." A soldier of some sort I think."
" Let me have a look." Lucius said, easing his way past the momentarily stunned priestess to have a closer look at theman in the metal block.
" You may just be right..." Lucius commented, quickly adding " ...about him being a soldier, I mean."
The prone form lying in the large metal sarcophagus was wearing a dark blue uniform of some sort. At the cuffs of each of his coat sleeves were three golden bands. His hair was of dark brown, his eyes were of the same color. His boots were of shining, highly polished black leather and at his feet was a rather large bag.
" Well, what do we do first?" the priestess's companion asked. Mist still crawling down the sides of the great silver sarcophagus.
" Well, the..." Shara paused a moment to collect her thoughts." ...first we should get him out of here before he awakens. We won't want him waking up in these surroundings, grab his bag."
Bending over slowly, Lucius gently removed the large brown leather bag from the sarcophagus." Now what?" Sighing inwardly to herself " Hand it to me. Your crazy if you seem to think that I'm going to lug this fellow out of here."
A bit embarrassed by his trepidation, Lucius handed the large sack to his companion and proceeded to pick up the sleeping soldier from out of his icy resting place.
After resetting the lid of the sarcophagus back into place, the two adventurers set off back up the long staircase leading to the main chamber above.
Without even turning around to check on the secret doorway, the two of the carried their sleeping cargo out of the ruins of the fallen tower and in the bright sunlight of late afternoon.




" Shut up and help me." the man in black barked at his companion.
With a sigh of resignation, the man's partner picked upthe other end of the long rectangular crate in front of them.
The two of them had come into the storehouse via asecret passage located at the base of the far wall of the storehouse. Their reason for being here, they were both members of the Arcadian Underground. A secret organization dedicated to bring down the Invaders who had so successfully taken their land from them, the Arcadian people. Both of them were dressed completely in black, right down to their black cloaks.
" Come on ! They'll be wise to what's happening in a few minutes. We've gotta get out of here." the older rebel barked back at the younger man again, becoming angry with him for his foolishness. Especially in such a dangerous place as theone they were in.
Above them, was the city of New Canavarel. Center of theInvader's power.
The two rebels stealthily carried their stolen cargo tothe opening of the secret passage.After scanning the roomfor any prying eyes, the older rebel opened the passage wayand the two set off on their long journey to the south, to their hidden base of operations.
As the two of them left the city's sewers, they could hear alarms going off from the room they had just been in.