Book 3, Chapter 75 - Complete Resolution? (1/2)

Cloudhawk had changed. Selene had changed. Squall, Asha… no one was the same person they used to be.

Hellflower was the exception. Cloudhawk knew she was in her thirties, but on the surface her tender skin and fine figure still bore the mature, feminine charm of a woman in her mid twenties.

Of course, Cloudhawk was familiar with what was below the surface as well.

He’d run into a number of attractive women over the course of his adventures. Selene was an unsurpassed beauty, practically inhuman. But there was also Autumn, a rare flower from a hidden garden; Natessa, wild and unpredictable as the wind. Claudia, Barb… the list went on.

Where Hellflower differed from these other women was that she was a wastelander, through and through. She had spent her life in the same twisted, blasted landscape that spawned Cloudhawk. A beauty like hers was rarer and more precious than eboncrys out here. Her beautiful, alluring presence was more shocking than a sudden rainstorm.

What had she been doing all this time? Had she joined up with the Dark Atom?

“You little scamp. Who’d have thought we’d meet again here.” Hellflower glanced back at him with a charming smile. She was as inscrutable as ever, impossible to read. She saw Cloudhawk open his mouth and cut off his questions before he could give them voice. “After all this time I know there’s a lot you want to know. I’m anxious, too. But I need you to hold on to those thoughts for a little while. You need to see the man in charge, first. Maybe afterwards we can rekindle old flames, hm?”

What did she mean by that? He wanted to ask her a few questions, but the way she spoke to him it sounded like she had other ideas.

They made their way through an old-style building, where oddly not a single guard could be spotted. Crossing a large antechamber Cloudhawk looked up to see the ceiling open to the elements. Under the mountain they didn’t need to be concerned with sudden rainstorms or other natural troubles. An open architectural style gave the place a grander sense of scale and ample light.

Lining the walls were stacks and stacks of books, several stories of them carefully arranged on bookcases. There were large leather volumes, rolled up scrolls and more. Some of it was bits and pieces of ancient knowledge, pieced together into volumes of data and old pictures. Most of them were treatises and works of current Seeker researchers.

There was a lone occupant, climbing down one of the towering ladders that gave access to the upper shelves.

He was thin and unimpressive in demeanor. He was covered in a set of clean robes and was descended the stairs with a tome in hand. Once his feet were back on solid ground he threw the cover open and began to recite from a paragraph. His hands traced dramatic patterns through the air as he spoke aloud.

It sounded like poetry, smacking of literary self-importance.

He had a very scholarly appearance, a rare thing in the wastelands. However, it was undermined by the nondescript eyepatch that partially obscured his vision. ‘Scholar’ was the correct term, but perhaps with ‘Wasteland’ added as a prefix.

Hellflower strode forward. “I’ve brought him.”

Cloudhawk looked at the one-eyed scholar with uncertainty. “You’re Wolfblade?”

“Yes, yes. That’s me. I am Wolfblade!” He fired back a rapid response to Cloudhawk, as though afraid someone else might claim the title. With an expression of irritation at unfinished business he slapped the book closed. He looked the warden over with his one exposed eye. “Ah, this young man… You look very familiar. Have we met before?”

Wolfblade had led the charge against Hell’s Valley three years ago when they went after the demon skull. His power and leadership had left Cloudhawk with a deep impression. Could that be what he was referring to?

That would be… strange. It had been a chaotic scene when the Dark Atom razed the valley.

Cloudhawk wasn’t the least bit familiar with this man. It could have been because of the circumstances, or because the Wolfblade he thought he saw was masked and covered in bandages when he almost single-handedly took on the giants of the valley. He remembered the seething murderous presence that he had, and to look at the middle-aged scholar now it was like they were completely different people.

“You must be wondering why I haven’t just thrown you in a cage.”

“Yes, actually. I’m from Skycloud. You are the leader of the Dark Atom.”

“Skycloud, wastelands… what’s the difference? If you spent some time here studying history you might find that the dirt we all stand on was a unified whole a thousand years ago, a place we called Earth. It was a place brimming with glorious accomplishments, culture and knowledge. At one point the human population was in billions.”

That was a surprising claim. So the Dark Atom had found out what happened to the world all those years ago?

“In other words, there are no ‘elysian lands’, no ‘wastelands.’ All of it is a ploy by false gods to force division.” Wolfblade flung his hand and released the book he held. It spiraled through the air and landed in its prescribed spot on the shelves with a thunk. “Hellflower told me your story. The powers of a demonhunter, but a child of the wastelands. Interesting. What is it that brings you here?”

There was no sense of hostility from the terrorist leader. However, Cloudhawk still decided it was best to tread with caution. The simpler this man seemed, the more dangerous the Warden believed him to be.

If he were some average schmuck that would be one thing, but Wolfblade commanded the biggest Seeker organization in the wastes. If he commanded an organization this big and this secretive, he was anything but a common man. So what was he getting at?

“Back in Sandbar Station there’s a man named Adder. He managed to get his hands on a map to your headquarters.”

Cloudhawk had no qualms throwing Adder to the literal Wolf.

It wasn’t like the guy was a friend anyway, and Cloudhawk needed a way to get out from the predicament he was in. Of course he was stupid enough to say that it was an agreement between him and Adder that lead to the map coming into his possession. He figured they would find out the truth eventually, but hopefully by then Cloudhawk would be long gone.

“So in the end we were discovered?” There was brief indignation in Wolfblade’s demeanor, but it quickly melted away. “Well, in a hundred secrets there is bound to be a few that leak. It was only a matter of time before Nucleus was discovered. But that doesn’t explain why you were so eager to come here, alone.”