Chapter 5-147 - Another Way (1/2)
The words burned in front of him for a long minute. Despite them hurting his eyes, Pedro did not look away, and the golden light of Wrath seemed to reach inside him and find something he didn’t know was there.
It turned out that there was indeed something he would not do to escape his Pact...
“Save them?” he croaked after a long minute, striving to straighten up. “Save them from what? How do you know my family?”
The woman who had killed his team took half a step forwards. “It is the principle of the Shrine to cut off the dependents of those who have fallen... unless they choose to be recruited as well. If they are at all suspected of having sensitive information, they are removed.”
Unless they choose to be recruited...
They are going to make a Sinbound of my little sister!...
He wanted to deny it, but cold, hard rationality stopped him. He knew how the Shrine operated, how callously they manipulated those around him. He had one bottom line, and they respected it while they used him... but once he died, that line was no longer there.
His mother and sister became liabilities, and the Shrine had no empathy for liabilities. His sister would replace him, or she and his mother would be removed, likely offered to the Lord of the Shroud as Congregants, as so many hapless fools were...
It made liabilities back into positive assets. The undead were useful allies to have guarding the Shrine, after all...
“What do I have to do?” he managed to whisper. This was a fate worse than death, condemning his sister to a fate worse than death as well, and his mother, too!
WATCH, was the reply, and misty white fire billowed down the length of the black sword with the razored silver edges.
Seven Runes lit up, and the vivic fire seemed to grow even stronger. Then hellfire bloomed down the length of the Blade, pure, vicious, callous, domineering, and the vivus raged upon it, devouring it and pouring down into the ground.
He stared at it, wondering what it all meant, and then the ground began to turn white, to crack and crumble and darken to an earthy brown.
He stared as tiny shoots of green began to emerge from around the Blade, from the hellfire being devoured by the white mists pouring into the ground.
Hellfire... making life? His world turned upside down. He came from a poor family; his father had once been a farmer, how could he not know the value of such a thing?
YOU WILL MAKE A WARLOCK STAFF, WHICH WILL BEAR THE VIVIC FIRE. OF THE POWER OF SIN AND HATE, YOU WILL MAKE LIGHT AND LIFE WITH THE AID OF VIVUS.
OH, AND YOU WILL GET PAID VERY WELL TO DO SO. IS THIS AMENABLE TO YOU?
He blinked. He had been sure he was about to be drafted to assault the Shrine, and have no choice in the matter. Dying in service to the Silent Warlock did not seem a horrible way to go...
“I... will not need to kill?” he asked in disbelief.
ONLY FAMINE AND STARVATION, was the immediate reply.
Pedro blinked several times, wondering if this was even possible. He looked at the patch of green in the middle of this lifeless Shroudzone, where nothing like that could live.
There had been no spells woven, no magic to conjure this forth, he was certain. That was simply hellfire devoured, and turned into something else.
Feeding the Land...
“What do I need to do?” he asked softly.
GRAB YOUR FAMILY AND GET YOURSELVES TO MOTHER CHILITZIA IN HAKEMBA VILLAGE. THEY WILL FIND A WAY TO GET YOU TO THE PENITENT’S BUILDING AT HEAVENBOUND HALL, AND YOU CAN START MAKING AN HONEST LIVING, AND STICKING A FINGER INTO THE EYE OF SIN.
Traveler gestured, and the Collar fell off his neck.
Pedro touched his neck in disbelief, but there was no joy, as there once had been, when his Pact surged up and offered him power.
It was simply doom, now.
The Silent Warlock stood up, looming over him, reaching up to his Vest pocket and drawing out a pair of pilot’s glasses. He handed them down to Pedro, who took them carefully and fit them on.
A PROMISE. A callused hand was extended to him, offering him a hand up. Still in some disbelief, Pedro took it, and was hauled to his feet as easily as a child, by a strength that could only be inhuman.
WE ARE BOTH GOING DOWN, IN THE END. The silver in black locked on his eyes, and despite himself, Pedro could only nod. They had signed on the line, and that was their fate. DO THIS WELL, AND I WILL COME LOOKING FOR YOU WHEN I GET THERE.
Pedro had the weirdest feeling when he read the words, and saw those solemn, somehow sad eyes staring at him.
“I-I won’t mess up, señor,” he promised, that strange feeling fluttering inside him, and found himself shaking the hand that still held his. “And I’ll see you there...”
He understood all the grimness and grief behind that thin smile abruptly, and emotions long buried under the cruel necessities of life bubbled up in him.
He had to go, to get his sister and mother and get them out of here, beyond the grip of the Shrine.
Sanctuary... in Heavenbound Hall, of all places!...
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The Sinbound Warlock melted into shadow and was gone. He couldn’t jump very far as a Four, but it would get him over any rough terrain, and just be a convenient extra distance as he trotted away, heading out of the Deadzone, where he could find a vehicle and get out of there.