78 Not As It Seems (2/2)

I scratched the side of my face, sand falling out of my helmet, “You sure it was inherited from your parents? That shit on the seekers looks more like cancer than eldritch.”

Hod peered up, tapping the metallic plate covering his head. He raised the finger to the sky, “Hod have one other guess.”

He pulled off his cape, revealing a ragged, black long sleeve underneath. After taking the shirt off, he turned his back towards us. Across it, only a few feathers dotted his pale skin. A massive, intricate tattoo traced up and down his entire back. Beneath the tattoo, lines and lines of symbols were branded into his skin.

“Hod think it could be this. This last message parents left Hod. Hod still not read it…” He turned to me, “Ok, Harbinger force it out of Hod. Hod can’t read. Too hard for Hod.”

I stood up, shaking my head, “I don’t think this is a message.”

I walked over and glanced closer at them. The tattoo and brand both had been done multiple times. Upon the scar, different textures and depths of scarring were used. Combine that with the several colors of the tattoo, and it looked like a puzzle more than language.

I nodded, “Yup. This is what causes your transformation. This is like a variant of the eldritch runes.” I gave Hod some space as he put back on his shirt and cape. I cupped my chin, “Hod, can you tell me anything about your parents?”

Hod shrugged, “Hod know little. They die not long after Hod born. Parents not obey other elders. Parents disobey tradition. Village kill parents, throw them to worms. Hod angry, but parents tamper in dark arts. Parents write the language of ancients.”

My eyes narrowed, “You’re telling me they could write the eldritch runes?”

“Language of ancients, runes, Hod not know what it called. Hod do know runes evil. Runes brought cataclysm. Runes brought end. Now village suffer.”

Althea turned from me to Hod, “Does anybody, I don’t know, remember more about that stuff?”

Hod nodded, “Elders do. Hod take you. Hod even put in good word for Harbinger and lady friend.”

I nodded, “Then let’s go.”

We passed through the tunnels of rock. More life thrived the cavern until we reached the massive chasm the Eltari called home. Once inside, we headed out towards the elder’s shanty shack. Just like before, the village greeted Hod with open arms. Based on what I heard, most seekers were isolated and treated as freaks.

Despite that, Hod’s personality had a way of disarming people. Even I was a victim of that. So were the elders. Jass, the only speaking elder so far, walked out of her shack. When she saw us, she raised an eyebrow,

“You killed the Drikah?”

Hod shook his head, “Harbinger hasn’t. Harbinger getting closer. Not why here though. Harbinger interested in history of village. Jass smartest elder, know the most about village. Jass help Harbinger?”

Jass pursed her lips, her eyes narrowing, “If I must.”

I jumped up towards her, landing on a telekinetic pad that compressed my sides. I glimpsed at her, “I just have a few questions.”

We walked into the room full of other elders. The wheezing, sniffling, and medley of odors made the place less than pleasant. I was on a mission though, so I waited until Jass sat down on a cushioned seat that used old feathers.

I opened a palm to her, “Why do you kill people who know the ancient one’s language?”

The old seekers looked at me from across the room. Several of them sharpened their gazes. Many of them kept drooling as they stared at nothing. Jass sighed, “You ask questions that are hard to answer.”

I waited for a real answer. She glanced up at the ceiling then back at me, “Because the language caused the cataclysm.”

I leaned towards her, “How do you know that?”

She glanced around the room like she was looking for a way out, “It is a part of the legends told during mealtimes. The ancients discovered a language that could do things that shouldn’t be done. They opened a doorway that should never have been opened. What came through that doorway obliterated them, leaving nothing but their precious runes behind.”

She leaned onto her cane, “Their dabbling destroyed our people.”

I raised an eyebrow, “So you’re telling me you killed two seekers because of some myth?”

Her eyes hardened, “They both studied the language for ages. They ran experiments on living Eltari. On our people. They touted that they could create an Eltari immune to the corruption. They spoke lies about us being able to return to the surface safely. Our people have scraped by for many years by following our traditions. It is the exploration they so craved that caused the cataclysm.

I crossed my arms, “There’s nothing that verifies that though. You’re basing all this on that one assumption. That’s like building a castle on sand. It’s dumb.”

She coughed into her hand while the other elders shifted in their seats. I held firm.

She stared daggers at me, “We know it is true. We are not as primitive as you’d like to think we are.”

I rolled my eyes, “Come on then, let’s see it.”

She glanced at the other elders. She bit her lip then walked over towards a mat made of straw. She kicked it aside, exposing a trap door. She tapped it with her cane, “Look at it.”

I walked over, lunging to one knee and landing on a telekinetic pad. The trapdoor popped open from redirecting the force of the lunge, and I caught the doorway with a hand. Within were stone tablets and a pile of garbage, including the gas masks the seekers used. I glanced up at her,

“What is this?”

She frowned, “What remains of the ancients.”

I turned back to the piles. Inside were yellowed paper manuals. Some of them revolved around farming in desserts. Others explained how to collect water. They all revolved around surviving a desert climate. On the dozens of tablets were incomplete markings of the eldritch runes. I leaned closer, tapping the edge of one.

I clanked my teeth, “These are the tablets that Hod’s parents used.”

Jass nodded, “And they’re what caused the second coming.”

I turned to her, “The second what?”

“The second cataclysm. The sky turned from orange to red. The machines came once more.”

I squinted my eyes, “Machines…what did the machines look like.”

She bent over and took the tablet out of my hand, glancing at it as if staring somewhere else in time. She answered,

“There were three of them that came. Two of them wielded violet spears, covered in blue armor. They were covered in a blue aura and armor, and they covered their faces with masks. No eyes or ears or anything.”

I gritted my teeth as she continued, “The other was a giant with enormous hands and covered in black, except the shining steel over it. It glowed and hissed as it moved, and it would lift its hands and bend anything it wanted too with just its fingers. It had several eyes over it, and it made the sky change with gigantic squares.”

I shook my head, groping for possibilities. It had to be something else. I thought of all the eldritch I’d faced, but none of them fit the bill. None of the monsters in the books Torix gave me matched her description either. The resemblance was uncanny, from the violet spear to the dimensional shift using squares. There was only one thing that either of those could be.

I whispered, “Those machines…They sound a lot like a sentinel and overseer.”