Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1: Run silent, run deep

Darkness, it was everywhere and seemingly everlasting but that was an illusion. Nothing last forever, not even this imprisonment. It was waiting, time means nothing and this sentience was made to last. It would be unleashed once more, sooner or later those of weaker minds and frail spirits would bring it back into the light, and whether it would serve the light or the dark was anybody’s guess. Fate would decide, it was patient after all, and the ages of mankind would never harm it, its maker a master and its power everlasting. Yes, it would be unleashed, and once more devour the spirits and life of mortals. What it did harbour would awaken yet again, and his reign would begin.

The dust was the worst part of this job, it got into everything, even the lenses of her camera. She had to be very careful not to ruin her sensitive equipment and it meant that she had to carry a lot of extra stuff. Most of it got out using a modified airbrush but some of the dust would linger anyhow. She was experienced though, had worked on many similar digs and she did know the tricks of the trade, no sandy desert would be allowed to ruin her equipment, she had her professional pride.
The camp outside of the site was makeshift, the discovery of this tomb had been like a bomb going off within the Egyptology department and people had been scrambled from all over the place. Finding a new tomb was a sensation, finding one which had been untouched was possibly historical and the museums did send their best people and all the equipment they could transport.

It was a man looking for a lost goat who found the tomb, by accident. A landslide had changed the landscape and he had seen a straight line in the sand where there should be none and since this man was an honest person he did notify the authorities. He probably believed that this was just some old forgotten building, the foundations for a fort or something for there shouldn’t be any graves in this place. It was in the hills to the east of Saqqarah where many tombs had been found and this area was not known for graves at all. The ancient Egyptians had very strict rules when it came to building tombs, the soul does travel towards the west after death and the valley where the pyramids and tombs were placed had a side valley pointing straight west. It would send the spirits on their way in the right direction. This site on the other hand was in a place where the entrance to the west was blocked off and some of the experts didn’t think it was a tomb after all.

The only possible reason for burying somewhere there would be that this was a person who was denied an afterlife and jokes about mummies and curses were uttered. But it was interesting no matter what it was and thus the site became a real dig. It was just this one structure, none other and as soon as they did verify that it was more than just an old foundation the very good archaeologists were sent inn. Finding a tomb in this area was strange, it could be very old and the theories were many. The local people did shun this area, they talked about evil djinni in the wind, about foul voices trying to ensnare the souls of men and the normally very eager workers did refuse to show up. The museum workers had to do everything themselves.

The find was indeed a tomb, or rather, a sort of enigma. As they started digging they did discover a shaft which did point downwards at a very gentle angle, that in itself was strange and the door they did uncover at the end of the shaft was even more of a puzzle. There was no hieroglyphs at all, no marks and the rock was granite, extremely hard and dark. They had to get a heavy crane all the way from Cairo to lift the door out of the way and what they found behind it was enough to make even the most experienced Egypt expert scratch their heads. It was a storage room, no mummy, no bodies at all. But all sorts of artefacts showed into two large rooms as if somebody had tried to hide them there in a hurry. Some of the things were in fact injured due to the hurry in which they had been disposed of and everybody were running around much like headless chickens not really understanding anything about this find.

The walls of the tomb or whatever it was had lots of the typical tomb decorations, illustrations from the book of the dead, scenes from everyday life, some texts describing the person who was to be buried there. The owner of the tomb was, according to the texts, a singer from the court of some early pharaoh named Ankh Sethar, the name itself caused some raised eyebrows for it was a contradiction, you would never combine the word for a symbol meaning eternal life and the name of the dark deity Set, unless the person was one who did worship what Christians would see as the devil. The person wasn’t there, some suggested that the tomb was a set up, a way to lure tomb robbers away from the real grave of this person. Others said that the tomb probably had been too expensive and that the owner had simply been forced to abandon it and somebody else had chosen to store their treasure there. But treasure?
That in itself was a strange word to use for the stuff they did find was not very nice at all, it was the type of belongings they would expect to find in some low middle class home. The furniture was nice and comfortable but made from cheap material. The pottery was good and well made but the glazing terribly done and not very elaborate. The fabrics tightly woven but not top quality. The jewellery rather boring and not even pretty or attractive at all… It was not a rich man’s tomb for sure.

That made many of the archaeologists suggest that the real tomb could be hidden there behind this make shift one, it was a well known trick and now the team was removing the artefacts one by one, carefully cataloguing and recording everything about them. Every detail was photographed and they even had a laser scanner which would record their position in detail. The paintings on the walls were being protected with sheets as they removed the objects and then lamps were brought inn so the photos could be as good as possible. The glyphs on the wall was yet another conundrum, they were old. In fact they were so primitive it didn’t make sense at all. The things they did find were of a way newer make and some believed that the original tomb had been robbed, found by somebody who wanted to make profit from it and then refurnished for a new occupant. But nothing about this site made sense.

She did wipe dust of the camera once more, even if the entrance was sealed off there was this thin grey dust everywhere and you couldn’t escape it. As an expert on the use of photos to record ancient sites she had been asked to join the expedition and she had felt very enthusiastic at first. Now she was just plain bored and the work had become routine. This tomb was puzzling alright but they hadn’t found anything really interesting there, no mummy, no indication of what really had been going on there. She did take some photos of the bed which was about to be taken out of the tomb, the Egyptians were very advanced, but that bed was judging by its looks well used and ready for the scrap yard even before it was placed in there. Pierre was setting up the radar, he was an expert on this sort of equipment and a very nice and sweet Frenchman who loved his job. Now he adjusted the lamps and grinned at her. “I bet they used this tomb as a sort of extra storage for some rich dude, why not use an extra tomb for all his stuff? Not all are able to let go of their stuff, not even if it is old and worn!”

She shook her head. “I doubt it, this place feels wrong!”

Pierre giggled. “Oh don’t come where with talk of curses, this place doesn’t even have a mummy in it”

She sighed. “You are right, but still. The place does suck! I mean it, the dust, the accidents, the locals who shun the place?”

Pierre just shrugged. “Ah, yeah, we have had some mishaps but come on, this is not an ordinary dig, we were sent here in a hurry and when people hurry bad things do happen. Everybody knows that, heck, nobody has even an ounce of idea of what this place is supposed to mean!”

She nodded, took some more pictures. “Yeah, I am starting to think that the entire place is one elaborate hoax, a sort of “fuck ya all” to the museums. The glyphs are way older than the pharaoh this singer was supposed to serve, the artefacts are at least a thousand years younger than the drawings and so on and so forth. It doesn’t make sense!”

Pierre grinned again, with his dark skin and short curly black hair he did look like an Egyptian person and many did mistake him for one too. He plugged in the radar. “We get paid well enough, come on, a week more and we are out of here”

She managed to smile. “Yes, that is indeed something to look forwards to, this place is too hot, too sandy and way too boring”

Pierre started the device. “Maybe, now, let us see what this product of our day and age can tell about that wall”

The laser did send a wide red beam out and Pierre made sure that it did scan the entire wall, square inch by square inch. She continued in the other room, there were still some large object which hadn’t been removed. Outside the rest of the team were working hard preserving the stuff, some of the objects were extremely frail and needed to be stored in airtight containers for the journey back to Cairo. The photos were good but she had struggled with the cameras over the last days, for some reason everything which was depending on electricity did rebel at times. The generator did stop every now and then which was just swell down there in the tomb where it would be pitch black right away. And if that happened nobody were to move even an inch out of fear of harming some artefact.
She was done taking photos of a set of wagon wheels when she heard Pierre shout. “Oi, I have something!”

She walked into the other room, he stood by the radar, watching the screen. “Look!”

She stared, the radar was showing the wall in detail, the drawings and glyphs were invisible, they only saw the structure itself and she saw what Pierre had seen. There was a sort of faint outline of a rectangle near the floor, perhaps two feet by two feet.
Pierre was rubbing his hands together. “Oh I knew it, I just knew it. This scrap is just a decoy!”

She frowned, the surface within the rectangle was way too smooth, it was not natural at all. Pierre was almost jogging in one place. “I have to make a call to the boss, we have to go through that wall.”

For a moment she felt her tongue go dry, her back felt cold and she stared at the rectangle the way she would stare at a poisonous cobra. “Are you sure that is a good idea?”

He nodded. “Of course, maybe this is the next king Tut, ha? We will be famous!”

She grinned, a very thin smile without teeth. (Oh I’d rather not)
“I am sure they want us to wait, this has to be done carefully, there could be traps, and things could decay fast if air is let inn”

Pierre just ran by her. “Don’t be such a party killer Sam, I will make the call, be right back”

She nodded and stared at the wall yet again, the hairs were standing on end along her neck and she felt a deep need to sneer. Not that she could do that, not here, where somebody might see it.
Pierre returned after twenty minutes, he was beaming. “They will bring more experts, with proper tools and all. The tomb is to be sealed off completely.”

She knew that it was common routine, it had to be done. If the wall did hide a real tomb you didn’t want the fresh air to hasten the process of decay. Somehow she felt almost insulted, this was their tomb goddamn it, the team had worked together many times and now they sent some nosey people straight from the museum. She knew the type, fresh from the universities, smack filled with knowledge and no practical understanding at all.

She grinned and shook her head, one week, she could endure one week for sure. And she ought to be glad that this site was being explored, who knew what discoveries (horrors) this wall did hide. She frowned, why did she think this hid something bad? The old myths about curses were just bullshit, but this place…it felt wrong. She had smelled it the moment she first entered the room, something about it was wrong but she couldn’t tell the others about it. They wouldn’t believe her, she had no method which could back up her claim.
Pierre did pack away the radar. “We are not to enter here again until they arrive, and there is a sandstorm coming. The camp may have to be evacuated.”

She sighed, that too. Sandstorms were common but lately they had been more fierce than before, hooray for global warming. They exited the tomb and the heat of the sun was like a hammer strike to the face, she gasped and fanned herself. Pierre moaned. “Goddamn it, they could have provided us with an inflatable pool, it would be the least thing they could do.”

She shook her head. “It would be indecent according to the laws around here”

Pierre almost growled. “Screw those laws, they are silly”

She nodded “Yes, but still, we have to follow them”

She had covered her head and hair with a hijab and wore long skirts, it didn’t bother her at all, as a matter of fact she did prefer it that way, less chance of something giving her away. Pierre sighed. “Come, let us get a cup of cold water, I am parched”

She nodded. “Me too”

The tent used as a cantina was packed as always, there were ten archaeologists working there now and some experts on the preservation of the artefacts found. She sat down next to one of them, a woman hailing from a university in the united states. She was an expert at preserving wood and she was a bit pale in the face and her blue eyes were blurred. The woman did smile though and nodded. “You found something?”

The cup of water was cold, it felt good but she hadn’t really needed it. Still she had to drink, nobody was to suspect anything. “Yes, Pierre discovered an anomaly in one of the walls. Probably a door to a shaft or something!”

Rebecca did roll her eyes. “Wonderful, more work! The wood we have found here, it makes no sense Sam. I cannot even begin to describe the problems I have encountered”

Sam did squint. “What do you mean?”

The tall blond woman made a grimace. “The age of the wood, it makes absolutely no fucking sense. I bet somebody has gathered a whole lot of things from different sites and just tossed them into this tomb, perhaps raided the illegal markets for all I know. I have found artefacts from three different dynasties, it shouldn’t be possible!”

Sam did take a deep breath. “Why?”

Rebecca did shrug. “Beats me, if they get through that wall maybe we’ll find out why?”

Sam nodded and got another cup of water. They were all required to drink at least four litres of water each day, she didn’t need that much at all but she followed the rules to a T. No point in taking chances. Sam stared out of the tent, there was a haze in the distance and it did not look good, if a sandstorm was coming it would be a bad one for sure. Rebecca did smile. “So, any new projects when this is done?”

Sam did nod. “Yes, Greenland. Old settlements, some Danish university needs an expert”

Rebecca did tilt her head. “Talk about opposites, from heat to cold ha?”

Sam did shrug. “Yeah, but it is an interesting job”

Greenland was perhaps cold and inhospitable but it was a nice place to disappear. She had worked as a photographer for too long, fifteen years now. She was becoming too well known. It was time to move on, become someone new.

Rebecca sighed. “I am going back to the states, my kids haven’t seen their mom for half a year and my husband is struggling with some health issues.”

Sam did make a sympathetic grimace. She was known among the others for being aloof and private, for not being very social. She had blamed it on Aspergers and everybody did buy it. “That is too bad”

Rebecca emptied her can of soda. “Yeah, but I have earned a lot working here, I cannot wait to get out of the sand though”

Pierre entered the tent, he did look excited. “The team will be here soon, oh I am so curious. What do you think is hidden behind that wall?”

Rebecca rolled her eyes. “Spiders, thousands of huge hairy ones!”

Pierre squealed. “Oh you…I hate spiders, talk about ruining it for people!”

He turned to Sam. “Samantha, what do you think is hidden there, come on, spit it out”

She hesitated. (Danger) Her instincts were never wrong, and that tomb was not what it appeared to be. “Ah, old stuff?”

Pierre laughed out loud. “Oh I do most certainly hope so, would be too bad if it was some local drug lords stash of moonshine”

They all laughed, Sam did lower her head, smiled with just a small hint of teeth. She was used to acting demure, to avoid attention. Most did believe that she was sharing the religion of the county but she wasn’t, it was however a very good disguise.

The wind was picking up but a helicopter did arrive an hour later, filled with people and equipment and the local team was suddenly told to stay clear. When this suddenly became an interesting site again the really good people were put back on the case. Pierre was allowed to follow them down into the tomb since he could use the radar and determine where the wall was weak and the others had to just sit and wait.

Sam did sit there for a while, the scent of the desert was changing, it was very subtle but she could pick it up. There was a hint of something almost burned in the wind and she knew that this meant that the storm would be extremely bad. The helicopter did leave right away, it didn’t risk being stranded there and the camp was on its own if the worst thing happened. They had several good trucks, made for even a bad storm with GPS systems and all but if the storm proved to be a very nasty one even they would be inadequate. They were simply too many people there.

Pierre did enter the cantina, his eyes were shining. “It is a shaft, a large one. We have to remove a part of the floor to get into it. There is a wooden door at the bottom of the shaft, we have hit the jackpot, I am sure”

One of the diggers did lean forwards over the table, looking a bit doubtful. “Are you going in there now?”

Pierre shook his head. “No, we have to wait until tomorrow. They are sealing off the tomb now, making it airtight. We have an airlock guys, like in some sci fi movie”

Sam did nod and nipped at her tea, Pierre was charming and he didn’t bother her at all. She was used to being treated as someone inferior due to being a woman and her unusual height made her a target of both gossip and ridicule. It wasn’t many women who stood 6 foot 3 inches and her slender body had many believing that she was a trans woman. But she was female, in every conceivable manner, and her somewhat unusual features were in some ways a blessing. She wasn’t a classical beauty, her chin too sharp and pointy, her cheekbones too high, her nose a bit odd in shape. Someone had once said that she did look feline and she had just smiled and turned away.

She had black hair, dyed carefully to hide the greyish shine in it, her eyes soft brown and that was due to contacts. Her real eye colour would tell everybody that something about her wasn’t right. She knew how to hide, a wolf among the sheep. Even her name was a fake, Samantha Fallow was not a real person, but nobody knew that.

The darkness started to drop, here it got dark very fast and the experts did exit the tomb, chatting excitedly about the next day. Sam did eat some stew, the food there was bland and not at all good but it was edible and she had no reason to complain. She had eaten way worse food. The tents where they slept were placed in a small valley about two hundred meters from the digsite, it was shielded and rather safe in case of sandstorms but it would have to be abandoned if there was a bad one. The temperature hadn’t dropped, that was bad, and the radio told of a possibly nasty one and it warned people to stay indoors. She did take a small stroll before bedtime, there were a few Egyptians working there, ordinary people who were drivers and caterers and one of them was fidgeting with the engine of his truck. Sam did frown. “What are you doing?”

The man did look down, his face a bit pale. “This place is bad, I have seen them, the djinni. They are warning us. The tomb must not be opened”

Sam tilted her head. “What are the djinni saying?”

The man wetted his lips, he was an aging man, his hair grey and his skin saggy, the dark eyes were filled with fear. “It must not be disturbed, it is…doom”

He did close the hood, eyes still wide. “Get away from here woman, it harbours only death”

Sam didn’t know what to say, her instincts were screaming at her, telling her that this man was right. Something was very wrong there.
He got back into the truck, started the engine but didn’t drive off, he just sat there, seemingly petrified.

Sam went to her tent, it was placed at the back of the little camp, she claimed that it was due to her shyness but in reality it was because of her hearing. She could hear everything which went on if she was to live in the middle of the tent camp. She didn’t want to hide her embarrassment when she did work with people, the number of secrets she had inadvertently discovered were many. She kept her mouth shut but still, it wasn’t always easy.

She laid down, she wasn’t sleepy and didn’t need sleep but she did meditate. Her mind was wandering along the paths of her memories, it was a calming journey but also a hurtful one. She saw her mother’s face the day they said goodbye, the gentle eyes filled with sorrow. “I am sorry Berka, but it is the way, it is the law. We have to separate. May your path be an easy one”
She had never forgotten that day, but her path had been long and maybe she could see that it had been good. She was hiding among humans, like a submarine out at sea. She ran silent and she ran deep, undetectable and lethal and most would never even know she had been there for they had no reason to suspect that she wasn’t one of them. It was good that way, it was as it ought to be. Never draw the attention of humans towards you, hide the truth, at all costs. Do not trust humans.

She saw cities which were no more, spoke languages no man remembered. Her memories were alive and real and she was wandering along a naked shore where huge buildings now stretched towards the skies when she felt it. It was a vibration in the ground, a sort of low rumbling which shouldn’t be there. The storm had arrived, the howling of the sand did camouflage this but not to her. She opened her eyes, it was black outside, the sand was tearing at the tents. Why had the evacuation order not been issued? This was very dangerous, the wind intense and strong! She could sense it, even inside of the tent she could smell the sand. The rumbling was gone, she held her breath, there was some other sounds all of a sudden. Short and hard and unmistakable. Then screams, more of the short popping sounds.

She was out of the bed, her instincts did take over. People were being shot, the camp was under attack. The rumbling had been trucks. She tore off the skirts, the hijab. Everything was in light colours, it made her visible in the dark. She wore dark clothes underneath, it was an old habit and she bound her hair up, pulled on a jacket with a hood and slid out of the tent near the ground. There was a tear there and she didn’t need much space to get through. The sand hit her like a thousand piercing needles but she had taken inn enough oxygen to last her for hours, she didn’t have to breathe again for a while. She closed off her nose, dropped her transparent third eyelid to protect her eyes and she switched to infra red vision, it made everything visible in spite of the darkness and the sand. There were glowing figures, shooting at the tents, some people were obviously being spared, she saw several kneeling on the ground, bound. It had to be the experts.

Were these terrorists? Not very likely, these were professionals and very few knew of this dig. She moved through the storm, invisible in the darkness and the flying sand. Some were being forced towards the entrance of the tomb, she did recognize Pierre among them and she sneered. Could she save them? The men who had attacked all carried machineguns and judging by the type the one behind this was rich. The equipment told of wealth for every man wore body armour and full combat gear. She waited, she couldn’t enter the tomb unseen and she could kill the men but not as long as they were in a group, was there a way to scatter them?

Pierre had been asleep when he was torn out of his pleasant dreams by strong hands, he hadn’t understood anything at all, suddenly there were men wearing black combat gear everywhere and they were shooting at the tents?! He was forced down, his hands tied behind his back and he was gagged. The sand was flying around them, the roar from the storm was deafening and the men did communicate with hand signals but they did also wear communication gear and he was trembling all over. What was happening? Why did they kill people? The experts were spared, and him, they peppered all the tents with bullets and he heard screams. Pierre was not a very brave man, he had never fought in any wars, he was not even of those who had served in the military. Since he was gay he hadn’t qualified for service and he was a very small and frail man who couldn’t intimidate anyone. Now he and the experts were towed off towards the tomb and he realized that these men wanted them to open the door at the end of the shaft they had discovered. Were these grave robbers? He knew how much money there was in antiquities, some were willing to pay millions for old artefacts. Could this be a paid hit? The men were soldiers, he just knew it. They acted with discipline, none of them did hesitate and they knew what to do and when. It was frightening.

Pierre was in shock, he didn’t protest as he was pushed down into the shaft and he and the others were given tools but the men clad in black did nothing to help them, and the airlock was left open. One of the experts tried to argue and make them understand that the things behind the door could perish if they didn’t do this the right way, the answer was a brutal strike with the blunt end of a rifle from one of the soldiers. Pierre just knew it, these didn’t want witnesses, they wanted the artefacts behind the door and then this indeed would become a tomb. Pierre was not religious but right now he did pray to every God he had heard of to spare him.

The door was surprisingly easy to open, the wood was brittle and the tools strong and they removed the remains of the door and the soldiers brought powerful lamps they hooked up to the already existing cables one of the guys did pull after him. The room they entered was not very large, and it was making Pierre gape. It was a cave, or rather, it had been built at the front of a natural cave. The square room was unadorned but he saw some sort of scripture on the walls next to the opening leading into the cave and it didn’t look like any sort of writing he had seen before. It was flowing and elegant and had some similarities with Arabic but it wasn’t recognizable as any alphabet he had heard of. The walls were white, stark white with no marks and it did look almost sterile. The writing was in black and it looked as if it had been written the day before. The opening to the cave was the size of a garage door and the darkness looked like a hungry maw. Pierre felt a terrible chill running down his spine, it felt…bad! He just knew it, that cave was not a place you would want to be.

The soldiers did push them forth, there was a path there, well made and obviously used by humans and the lamps were powerful enough to illuminate the entire cave. It was vast, enormous. Shaped a bit like a fat sausage and in the end was a row of stalactites and a sort of altar. The altar was covered with cloth, something was underneath it and Pierre suddenly knew that he didn’t want to see what that was. He knew that it was something which could crush the soul of a mere human being. The soldiers did push the prisoners forth and the professional curiosity of the men and women did overpower their fear for they moved forth willingly. Only Pierre did hesitate, the very air in this room was…horrible.

The stalactites were odd, and as they got closer Pierre felt the taste of bile in his mouth, the stalactites were human beings. It was bodies left standing upright, covered with a layer of rock since water loaded with minerals had rained down over them over centuries and they did look like people who had started to melt. It was a grotesque sight and even the soldiers did seem to hesitate. The altar was very tall and as they moved towards it two of the prisoners did suddenly tumble to the ground, spears did shoot out of the ground, impaling them. Now everybody did start to struggle but they were forced forth still. Pierre was looking for a way out, for a chance. Two more fell, but now they had reached the altar and the cloth covering the object was pulled away. It ought to disintegrate due to its age but it was still as strong as if it was new. The object was an orb, probably made from crystal and it was large, larger than a soccer ball and completely round without any sorts of flaws. To polish crystal like that would take an insane amount of time. It was dark, almost black and it did remind him of an image he once had seen of a black hole from a sci fi movie, or a wormhole. It was…otherworldly and beautiful but threatening too. There was a sort of red glow hiding within its very core and Pierre could have sworn that he heard a heartbeat somewhere, slow and heavy and it couldn’t be his own for his heart did beat like that of a humming bird right now.

One of the soldiers did step forth, he seemed to be a leader and he did touch the ball with his gloved hand, the thing did seem to light up immediately and the man stepped back in obvious shock. Pierre did for a moment feel as if this was something alive, the dark red glow from the orb did remind him of a huge eye, staring with cold intent at them all and the soldiers did look almost nervous. Pierre saw that there were other objects there too, hidden in the dust, it looked like rings and he couldn’t bare to look at the orb at all. It was staring back at him, with malicious glee. The leader did scoop the rings up into a bag and found another one for the orb and Pierre just knew it, they would shoot him and the other surviving prisoner. He looked down, tried to appear subdued. The leader did say something into his communications headset, he did speak English and it did sound as if he said “We have got it”

Pierre saw something on the floor next to the altar, it was hidden by the cloth and it was oblong and narrow. The leader did cut the rope binding the hands of the other prisoner, a man who as an expert in ancient Egyptian languages. “Put the orb in the bag!”

The man did look terrified but did take the velvet bag and the moment he did touch the orb with his naked hands he did scream and his eyes did roll back. He didn’t let go though, he just jerked as if he had a seizure and the leader did hiss and pulled out a handgun. He shot the man in the head and Pierre choked a scream. Blood and brain matter formed a cloud in the air, sprayed the orb with red mist. He got the feeling that the orb did approve for some reason. The leader pointed at Pierre. “Bring him, he can try”

Pierre knew it, if he did touch that thing he was dead, sure as heck. He had to avoid that, somehow. The oblong object under the cloth, he had to try to reach it. He held out his hands and the rope was cut and that was when he saw his chance. There was something moving on the altar, on top of the cloth. It was a camel spider, a large one and it was terrifying. Pierre was arachnophobic as fuck but he didn’t think. He reached out, grasped the disgusting creature and threw it at the leader. In the same movement he bent over and grasped the object under the cloth, it was a sword. The spider made the man rear back with a yell and the soldiers did turn to look at him, it was a human reflex and not something anybody could control.

Pierre had been fencing as a kid, he had been good too. This blade was strange, the colour almost black and the pommel and cross bars decorated with blood red stones. The hilt was covered with black leather and it did look ominous. It was elegant, a slender and sophisticated shape he never had seen in a sword before but he had no time to admire it. The moment he touched the hilt it felt like an electric shock, he heard a voice in his mind, whispering words he didn’t understand. “Agar…aniron agar, aniron AGAR”

Pierre spun around with the blade, it was as if it moved on its own and he was just a passenger, hanging on. The black blade did cut the arm of the soldier nearest to him and then it cut through the cable to the lamps. The cave went dark, in a flash. The orb did throw an eerie glow over the scene though and Pierre was sure it was staring at him. He held the sword and ran, he had memorized the path and he was used to darkness. These men probably weren’t and he managed to get to the exit before the first shots were heard. Bullets did fly by his head and he knew that these men had night vision googles, probably the type which uses active infrared. He ran, if he did reach the storm he could hide.
He felt a burning pain in his back and he stumbled, suddenly he had a hard time breathing. There was another shock of pain in his lower back and he knew he had been shot twice, he forced himself to run. The tomb was almost empty, he did find the way but heard feet behind him. He did cling to the sword and knew that this was in vain. He wouldn’t survive this, it was a very bitter though. He reached the exit, the sandstorm was even worse, like a wall outside of the tomb and he knew that nobody could survive out there now, not unprotected. And yet he had to try. He ran into the flying sand and immediately he fell to his knees, the power of the wind and sand was like being hit with flying barbed wire.

He could barely see that a soldier did stop in front of him, raising his rifle. Pierre didn’t want to show fear, he did stare at the man defiantly and thus he did see. A dark figure did almost fly in from the side and hit the soldier, there was a spray of something red and Pierre closed his eyes, warmth did rain over his face and he felt dizzy. He shivered, held the sword with a hand which was losing it’s strength fast. “The orb”

He couldn’t speak, the wind and sand took his voice and he opened his eyes again. The dark figure was somewhat familiar, a woman with a pointy chin, a triangular face with large slanted eyes, a wide and hungry mouth. He knew her. “Sam…the orb, the sword…”

Sam did run her hand over his hair, he was dying, she could see it. No point in even trying to save this one. “I know, rest Pierre”

Pierre gasped. “Don’t let them…take it away…danger”

He wanted to say so much more, he had seen something terrible down there, the orb was a thing which could be very destructive indeed. But the world was slipping away from him and he did take a last breath. She did pull the body with her through the sand, the sword did look ominous but what was this about an orb? She did drop the empty shell which had been a friend behind a rock and grasped the sword, it did look wicked sharp and the shape was exquisite. Whoever had made it had been a master and she didn’t recognize the metal at all. She could see that the group did emerge from the exit and she saw that they followed the track, shit. They did use active infrared, they saw heat. They could see her, they did find the body of the dead soldier, seemed to be shocked and they did also find the body of Pierre, she shouldn’t have moved him but it had felt right to do so then.

Sam did force the flow of blood in her body away from the surface, after just a little she had the same temperature as the surroundings, only her eyes would be visible and she felt an unholy rage awakening inside of her. Good people had been killed, sweet charming Pierre, Rebecca who was supposed to go home to her husband and children. Others she had known for years, people who didn’t deserve an end like this. Whoever these bastards were, she wouldn’t allow them to win.

She did sneak up closer, using the storm and the darkness. The soldiers did act with a great deal of self confidence, one of them did walk towards one of the trucks though, carrying a box and Sam did know that this was the orb Pierre had talked about. She felt it, a dark pulling power, like a hungry black hole, always yearning for more to devour and possess. Whatever it was, it was evil.

The man did place the box in the truck and Sam did grin to herself. She could move way faster than a human being, she was on the other side of the truck in no time and as the man came around the front to enter the truck she did grasp him by the throat and ripped it out. The man couldn’t scream, he tried to stop the blood bursting from his throat and the eyes behind the goggles were wild with shock and fear. She did bare her teeth, felt the urge, the hunger but forced it back. This was not the time nor the place to indulge in ancient instincts. She was no animal, she could control herself. She was inside of the truck and it was already running so she just put it into gear and floored it. She didn’t bother with where she was going, all that mattered was to get away from there and notify somebody of the fact that the site had been attacked.

The first bullets did fly and hammered against the car but it was bulletproof and she knew the terrain pretty well. Her eyes could see through even this storm and she drove for a while, avoiding the road leading to the site. Whoever these people were, they were not going to have an easy job retrieving that orb. She smiled and it was a nasty smile, it did transform her face, made it inhuman. She was sorry that she hadn’t been able to save Pierre and the others but she could avenge them and she would.

She drove until the truck got stuck in the sand, then she did find a machine gun in the backseat and shot the dashboard and the GPS to smithereens before she took the sword and the box with the orb. It was heavy but to her it didn’t matter, she could handle it. There was some food and water in a backpack there and she took that too. If they found the truck they would assume that the person who took it was dead, nobody could survive such a sandstorm.

At the camp the leader did stare at the body of the soldier who had put the orb into the truck, the man’s throat had been ripped completely out of his body, you could see the bones of the neck. He was shocked but he hadn’t gotten this job solely because of his lack of scruples, he was smart and he could think fast too. He did tap the headset. “I have news, we have been intercepted. Somebody took it, we will pursue when the storm dies down”

The answer made him cringe, his life was on the line if he didn’t retrieve their price but he was confident. It couldn’t be many out there, the storm was bad and his men were professional. The death of the two men did bother him though, both had been torn open, as if by some huge beasts and no weapons had been used. He wasn’t superstitious but this was Egypt after all, and he felt a chill running down his spine. What had killed his men? The sword that radar guy had taken was gone too, he would have loved to have a closer look at the weapon, it had gone through armour as if it had been nothing. He had personally shot the wounded man, they had no use for those who couldn’t fight. His family would be compensated and served a nice lie, it was for the best. He did gather the men. “We wait out the storm in the trucks, when it dies down we will pursue”

The men just nodded, they were all ruthless and had no problems with killing even the innocent. The payment was good, that was all that mattered. He did sit down, staring out at the flying sand. The orb was something which was powerful, that was all he knew and he didn’t really care about what it was. But the boss said it was important and ancient and probably a source of tremendous energy and power and if the boss said so, who was he to question that? He didn’t care who had made it, if it was aliens as the boss believed or Santa Claus himself. No, they would retrieve it, they had people everywhere. Nobody would be able to get away with it, even if whoever took it made it out of the storm. That was for darn sure.

She ran, her body covered with the dense black clothes and her nostrils closed off against the sand. She knew of a cave and her magnetic sense did lead her to it like she was a pigeon. She pulled the box and the sword with her inside, it was very small but large enough for her, the storm wasn’t really a problem but she needed to think. She had some water and ate a sandwich, not that she needed it but it was always good to be prepared. She had to get back to Cairo and alert the authorities of the attack, or should she? The men were mercenaries, she was dead sure and the person behind them loaded and probably very influential. She knew of the corruption which did hold society in an iron grasp, perhaps alerting everybody would be a bad idea after all. But somebody ought to know, to get there to bury the dead, to give them their dignity back. Somebody ought to be told the truth!

She had contacts of course, friends. She couldn’t risk their safety, it was better if they believed her to be dead but her body would be missing, somebody would perhaps become suspicious. She did share a flat in a rather good neighbourhood with two others, both working for the museum and she had to warn them somehow. She didn’t want them to become involved in this. Then there was Damian, her closest friend at the museum. He had suspicions, she just knew it. He had never mentioned it but the man was smart and also, observant like few others. She had done some blunders and he had noticed, he had to have noticed. But everybody who knew her did also know that she was a friend of Damian’s, he could be in danger if she did contact him and would he say anything? She doubted it, he was a gentleman and she did trust him.
That one incident had been unfortunate but unavoidable, she had been on her way to work early in the morning when some thug saw her and believed that she would be an easy prey since she was a woman walking alone without a chaperone. The idiot had tried to haul her off into a back alley for some rape and beating and she had not sensed any other human beings nearby so she had disposed of him rather fast. The old sewer was rarely inspected and there was little chance anybody would ever find the body.
But she had been a bit sloppy and there had been drops of blood on her clothes. She had told Damian that she had tried to help a wounded pigeon but he hadn’t believed her and she hadn’t tried to push it.

The sad truth was that Samantha Fallow was gone, she was herself once more, on her own as they all were. A lone hunter, a lone wolf in a world of sheep and clowns and she hissed and stared at the box. Whatever this thing was, it ought to be worth it, she wouldn’t rest until she had solved this mystery. She had no problems killing to get to the bottom of this, after all, that was what she was all about. Her eyes did glow faintly in red, nobody who saw her there and then would mistake her for a human, the beast underneath was close to the surface now, ready to break free and when it did…people did die.
She decided to get some rest, she would get to Cairo, the museum would receive an anonymous phone call and then she would try to solve this mystery. And every God protect those who got in her way.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2: Hunter and hunted

The tall man did wander around like a lion within a cage, the dark eyes seemed to glow with frustration and anger. Failure was not an option, he had such high hopes and the news from Egypt was not what he had expected. Who could have known? He did not know, and that was to him rather annoying. He had believed that he had the full list of everybody who could possibly become a problem but apparently something had gone wrong.

Bartholomew Kruger was well known all over the world, he was one of the outmost experts on ancient artefacts and very well respected. He was wealthy, famous, a man known for his integrity and honour and the archaeologists did see him as somewhat of a saint. He had managed to bring countless artefacts back to the museums and countries from whence they had been stolen and everybody did trust his dedication. What most people didn’t know was that it was all a very elaborate lie. The really interesting stuff always ended up in his own private collection and he knew how to use his wealth and his influence to make sure that nobody else had a chance at seeing these objects he was interested in. Mr Kruger wasn’t your average antiquities expert, he had a theory which had grown in his mind for years and it went against everything his profession usually believed in.

It had started when he was very young and still fresh from university, he had always been fascinated by the ancient past and he wanted to be an archaeologist but he had one deep phobia which did prevent him from following that career. He couldn’t go underground, the very feeling of earth or rock over him made him suffocate and he had countless nightmares as a kid, of huge waves of loose soil, rising above him, covering him and pressing down upon him. He had to become a dealer of antiquities instead and since he was very ruthless and also very smart he soon became one of the best. He had contacts, he had a way of dealing with people which made sure that they did obey. Now he had people everywhere, every tomb raider and digger knew that the stuff they found had to be presented to him first, or else… Nobody within the governments and museums knew of this, they had no idea that much of his wealth was hidden and came from the illegal sales of such things.

But the fascination had emerged when he visited a dig site in upper Egypt, he had been shown a stele with some odd symbols on it, the others there had no idea of what they were supposed to be but he had immediately seen the light. Quite literally. The odd objects were light bulbs, and common knowledge was that the ancients had no idea of what electricity was. Later other such examples did pop up from all over the world and he did follow the mainstream attitude and denied that this was anything else than “ceremonial artefacts”

Then others dared to speak out about their findings, dared to question everything. They were ridiculed, also by him but in his heart he knew. It was no coincidence, there had been advanced civilizations here before. Mankind had simply forgotten. The whole ancient aliens craze was laughed at by every serious academic and he laughed too, loud and long but he was convinced that they were right, and he went farther than the seemingly deranged people who went out on TV claiming that they had been abducted or that the old Henges and pyramids were power plants. He wanted to find the source of that technology, he wanted to tame it and control it and he did lots of very hidden research. He had people to do that for him, academics who weren’t afraid of losing their good name and reputation. He did dive deep into the belief of the Nazi’s, gathered all the information he could about their “black sun” projects and their research into anti-gravity and other ideas. They had been onto something, he was sure of it but they hadn’t really understood what they were dealing with.

Then one day he had gotten an old papyrus, it had been taken from a grave robber plundering graves in what had been old Mesopotamia and the text was almost gone but his experts could salvage it and it spoke of a fallen God, trapped within that which allows the eye to see far. Bartholomew was intrigued, the ancients had no concept of what they really did see back then, they used their everyday language to describe what to them seemed like magic but were some sort of advanced technology. The papyrus spoke of something which had come through the wall of night and it had a voice and demanded worship and in the end the fallen God had been abandoned, with its followers.

He was sure that this fallen God was some sort of energy device, probably a computer or something akin to it, maybe even an alien and from that day on he was frantically searching for anything which could give a hint to as where this was now. There were hints, in some old tales from the local people and he did after a few years realize that Egypt was the answer, but where in Egypt? His people were alert all the time, all the computers and phones of the great museums were discretely tapped, the moment something did show up he would know and the findings in that old tomb outside of Saqqarah was just what he had waited for. His very instincts did tell him so, finally he would have the final evidence.

He sent his most ruthless people to get whatever the tomb did hide, nobody was to know, nobody was to be left alive. That somebody had taken the findings was unexpected and shocking, this was not acceptable. He had had dreams again of late, of being a king, of having others bowing to his will and in his ear a sweet voice, oozing with promises of great power. Bartholomew had always enjoyed ordering others around, manipulating them, controlling them. The dreams spoke of the chance to do just that, as a man who controlled everything, the very world. If this was indeed something left behind by an advanced civilization he knew how to exploit it.

He did almost jump when the phone rang, he gathered his senses and answered, the voice smooth and calm as always. Nobody would be able to guess how eager he was. “Yes?”

The voice at the other end was distant. “The storm is over, we have pursued. One body was missing at the camp, the truck is found, abandoned”

It was text book information, all he needed to know really. “Who is missing?”

The voice of his commander was cold, indifferent. The man was a cold hearted killer and that was why he was hired. “A Samantha Fallow, photographer. My guess is that she heard the shots and ran off in a panic, she must be dead now, the storm was nasty”

Bartholomew frowned. “She isn’t the one who took the artefacts?”

The voice of the mercenary told the man was almost scoffing. “A woman? Alone in the desert? She is dead. But two of my men were killed, I will send you some photos we did take of the artefact before it was taken though”

He turned around, holding the phone tightly. “Killed? How?”

The voice was low at the other end. “Their throats ripped out, like by some animal, I have never seen anything like it but it doesn’t matter. We will find the artefact”

Bartholomew did stare out at the darkness outside of his office, the huge glass building allowed him to see the stars all the time and for some reason they had always comforted him. That woman was something which did make him worried though, the mercenary was most likely right, the photographer was dead but Bartholomew had learned to never take chances, to make sure that nothing could cause problems later on. He would set people on this too, if that woman had survived they would find her. “You have twenty four hours”

He finished the phone call and stared at the photos which did tick inn, they were taken with a cell phone but good, a huge dark orb on an altar, seemingly glowing and he swallowed hard, reached out and touched the screen almost reverently. There it was, the ultimate proof, his key to power. It did glow from within and he had to wet his lips, it was beautiful, and even as a mere photo it had a weight to it, as if it was trying to pull him inn. Crystal can store enormous amount of information, he was sure that this would show him the path to absolute power. He took a few phone calls, then he sat down, staring at the pictures. The orb did look like an eye, and it was staring straight into his soul, whispering soothing words and sweet promises. It was vaguely familiar but he didn’t care.
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The eldery man was staring into nothing, his eyes did reveal a healthy amount of shock, and he was whispering something no living human being could have understood for the language was from a different world and a very different time. He took a deep breath, tried to think. How was this even possible? But his icelandic friend Dagnyr was probably right, there were thousands of possible realities and perhaps it was possible to cross between them somehow. If enough power was applied… He got up from the chair, his pets did stare at him and he did smile at them. “Do not worry, it is just…an old adversary.”

How had the bastard survived? In this world the dark maia had been sent off to the void when his fortress fell after the destruction of the ring but it was of course possible that he had managed to seek protection within a palantir. Yes, that was the answer, the clever snake had hid within what was indestructible and the sheer energy of the fall and destruction had propelled the orb into another reality, this one. Of course he had owned a palantir, he had used it to corrupt Curumo after all, Mairon had to have been able to hide most of himself within the orb, at least the very essence of his soul and now it was possibly on the loose again. Not good at all!
He did not dare to look into his own palantir again, he was not sure of the power of the maia and if this truly was Mairon or just an echo of him. But he had seen a cave and men clad in black, and the orb on the altar had awakened by the touch of a human hand. It was bad, it was…potentially disastrous. Humans had no way of knowing what this could mean, if the wrong people got their hand on a palantir? Oh by every deity, it could spell disaster. If this indeed was Mairon, even just a tiny sliver of what he had been would be able to manipulate and corrupt like nothing else and if he wasn’t very wrong it was just the wrong people who had gotten their hands on the orb. He had seen dead people in the short flash, and others bound. Yes, this was horrible, he had to do something.
He did bite his lower lip. “What am I to do? How am I to find this thing? And those who have it?”
He stared at his computer, he did have contacts, some could perhaps be of help, but he didn’t want to put people in harm’s way. This was indeed not what he had expected of this day. He would have to cancel his appointments, these questions had to be discrete, and above all, very very careful.
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She had waited for a long time but finally the storm did die down, the cave was located in a small canyon and she had found it by sheer chance when she had been out looking for something to take photos off. The desert was an interesting environment and she did enjoy watching the small signs of life, even where it was very barren and dry. Now it was daylight and she opened her nostrils again and took inn some air, the scent was still odd and she did grimace and stretched. The sword and the box were a mystery and she wondered what to do next. She had to find the people responsible for this, for the death of her friends and other innocent people but she had no idea of how far this did reach. She had a nasty feeling that it would involve people with more power and money than anybody could understand.

She stayed there for a while, she ate and prepared, moving in daylight was not very wise and she was rather sure that the attackers did know that one of the workers was missing by now. These bastards did seem to be thorough and she was glad the storm had been so bad. It was a chance they would expect her to be dead, after all, a human being stood little chance against the powers of a sandstorm like that. She did hear helicopters in the distance, a roar of trucks and grinned. The sand had erased all tracks and she knew that they were searching for the orb. But they wouldn’t get it, she just knew that this thing was something very bad and for a moment she wondered if she could destroy it somehow but something told her it was impossible. It was simply too perfect, the quick peeks she had taken at the orb in the box told her that the crystal was without flaws, it shouldn’t be possible. Was this something which had been made somehow? That ought to be impossible too. What was it? It was sure as hell no crystal ball like the ones you saw at fairs where some woman dressed up as a witch sat staring into it, claiming to be seeing the future.

But she had to get out of there, she had to get back to Cairo somehow and whence she was there she had to find her stuff and warn her friends, if it wasn’t already too late. The thought was grim, those who don’t hesitate killing people like that will not hesitate killing yet again. The roads were being watched, that was beyond any doubt, there had to be people on the lookout everywhere so where was she to go, and how? It was a long way back to Cairo, two or three days of travel, with a good car. This area had bad roads and little traffic and even if there had been cars there she couldn’t just hitch hike. She was a woman and many in this country seemed to believe that a woman without some guy protecting her was free game. But she had to get back, could she use some sort of trick?

She left the cave as it got dark again, and she saw lights in the distance, many lights. It was trucks and some larger lorries and she heard people speaking. As she got a bit closer she saw the soldiers wearing black and they appeared to be gathering information from the camp. Papers and stuff was being collected and she sighed. They would find out about her name rather fast if they were any good and she didn’t doubt that they were professionals. She used the darkness and knew that if she was to get out of there she had to use them, her enemies. She wanted to kill these men but it was little point in it, it was like trying to treat cancer by removing the symptoms instead of the disease itself.

One of the trucks was placed a bit away from the others, she realized why when she felt the scent from the vehicle. It did smell like burned oil and the heat rising from the hood told her that something about it wasn’t right. It had probably lost a lot of water and almost overheated. It was a medium sized lorry with a canvas canopy and it did look worn down and old. The back did contain old camping equipment, tents, blankets, some portable toilets made from pressed cardboard. Most covered with dust, it was a reserve, nothing really valuable but these people didn’t take chances. They were meticulous, did calculate for every eventuality and she knew she had to take a chance. She slid into the truck, in the dark nobody saw her and she hid herself and the objects under the blankets at the back of the room. She just hoped that they would drive it back to Cairo and not abandon it there.

She closed her eyes and let her ears do the job, the leader there was obviously a former officer for he had a tone which told her he was used to being obeyed. The others did obey right away and she heard him speaking to somebody on the phone. He did sound almost meek and she didn’t manage to pick up any names. But she did realize that they knew one person was missing from the camp and that this was her. The truck she had abandoned had been found and there was some arguing going on. Some of the men there seemed to believe that there had been trucks there, waiting. Others believed that this was just BS and that the storm had been too bad for anybody to travel in.

She had to wait for hours before the site was abandoned, everything they had gathered there was being shoved into the trucks, even her cameras and she felt a sting of anger. It was very obvious that the bastards didn’t want any of this to be known to others. When they were done there was nothing left, the bodies buried deep in the sand and the shafts covered with sand again. The truck ended up at the back of the convoy, and she heard the driver cuss and swear in the local dialect, he had problems with the gears and the clutch and he did smoke like a chimney but she didn’t care. She was getting somewhere, that was all that mattered.

The drive did take two whole days and she didn’t leave the back of the truck at all, she was almost hibernating for most of the time. She was alert though, had anybody entered the truck she would have been wide awake right away. She had no reason to leave the relative safety of the truck so she stayed there until they reached the outskirts of the city. The driver did stop to take a piss and she did sneak out of the truck and hid in the sand until he drove off. Now she had to get in there without being noticed.
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The men hadn’t been able to find the orb, it was as if the ground had opened up and swallowed it and that meant that somebody had it. But that did also mean that it could be found, people are unable to keep their mouths shut and he had placed his best on the case. The net was being watched, the roads and airports too. The woman who hadn’t been among the dead had not been found and a quick search of the name had revealed that this Samantha Fallow did appear all of a sudden sixteen years ago, out of nowhere. A further search did reveal that she hadn’t existed before that and now the machinery was set into motion. Who was she? Some sort of spy? A person on the run from an abusive past? A person on the witness protection program? The identity was masterly created but false and she seemed to have come from somewhere in Europe.
The idea of somebody being placed there to gather information about ancient artefacts made Bartholomew almost frantic, he did of course have competition he knew of. Other powerful people with a love of artefacts but they did only see them as valuable objects with a monetary value. He did see them as so much more, at least those which didn’t fit into the standard model of history. This was something unknown.

If she was from Europe, could there be some remnant of the old occult groups there still? The followers of Hitler had all been firm believers in everything from aliens to telepathy and it wasn’t too far-fetched to believe that their congregation had survived somehow even up to this day. A secret hidden group who was trying to fulfil the visions of their predecessors? It was a bit strange though for his internet spies would have picked up anything which did could indicate that somebody else was interested in such artefacts, except for the ancient aliens nuts of course.

It was a good thing that it was a part of pop culture now, people didn’t take those things seriously at all. He had often been asked if he did believe in those theories and he would laugh out loud and shake his head and tell that he did find the books of Däniken entertaining but they were about as trustworthy as the stuff you bought in a sci fi bookstore. He would have loved to discuss this all with the people brave enough to think outside of the box but he couldn’t, he would lose all credibility if he did and also, his disbelief did provide him with a perfect cover.

But he had eyes everywhere and every lose string was to be tied off, there would be nobody there who could pose a threat. He was confident if not very patient. The orb would be his, he was just a bit unsure of what exactly it was. He entered the net under a false name and found some forums, entered them and asked questions, most of what such actions did unravel was pure speculations but there could be a grain of gold even within the lists of wild suggestions. The sci fi nerds could come up with surprisingly accurate predictions at time. It would solve itself, he was sure of it.
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The city was a rather modern one and yet it was harbouring so much of the past, the narrow streets and the stench of open sewers did mingle with tall modern buildings, cars and western luxuries. She had nicked a bike from somebody’s backyard, a chador from somebody else’s. the sword was worn on her back, hidden by the dark tent like garment and the orb was placed within a worn old bag which had seen better days. She did look like some local woman on her way back from the markets but it was the wrong time of the day for that and she was alone, if the police saw her they would assume that she was a prostitute right away and demand money to let her go.

She knew the city well and she could move very silently after a while she did ditch the bike again, it had served its purpose and these streets were too narrow for it too. The cobblestone did create too much noise so her own feet were better than rubber wheels. The apartment she did share with her two friends was in a building in the more modern part of the city, not very far from the museums. She had walked for a while when she did hear sirens and she immediately knew that something was very wrong. She didn’t run, that would draw attention to her. Instead she did walk on as if nothing was wrong and she removed the chador and used it to reshape her figure under her jacket. Some sooth from an open fireplace and she had a moustache and slight one day shadow. She was rather androgynous looking anyhow so she was safer as a young man than as a woman.

The apartment building was on fire, a very bad fire too. She did see body bags on the sidewalk, the fire fighters were working hard but it was very apparent that this was a lost case. The building seemed to have more or less exploded and she swore to herself, her things had been in there, carefully hidden. But it was worse with her friends, they had shared that apartment for a couple of months and she had liked them although she was very careful not to get too close to them. Francine had been working in the department responsible for preserving mummies and she was a very cheerful and funny girl from Israel. Jackie had been a guide at the museum and she was a short and rather stern looking lady who knew more about the old Egyptians than most Egyptians did. If they were dead it was a tragedy and Sam did snarl, this was no coincidence. A couple of teenage boys did stroll by, staring at the flames and one shouted to the fire men. “What was it? A bomb?”

One of the firefighters did shout back. “Gas leak, stay clear, it could collapse”

Sam sighed and followed the crowd, gas leak? Like hell it was a gas leak, it had been some sort of fire bomb or you could call her a donkeys arse and she took a moment to collect her thoughts. A wise man never gathers his treasure in one place, it was a very smart piece of advice she once had been given so she did follow it. She went into a back alley and followed it until it reached a dead end. It was a brick wall. Old and worn and ready to crumble and the lack of light there was no problem for her. She did find the right brick and pulled it out.

Behind it was the guardian she had placed there, it was a snake. Most people would never even contemplate sticking their hand into a hole with a cobra. The snake was old and she had been feeding it, it did not try to bite her as she reached inn and grasped the small packet from behind it. The snake could leave the small room but never did, it was a safe haven for it and she put the rock back in place. The packet was just one of many, it contained a passport, credit cards, money, everything she did need. Getting a new identity wasn’t that easy anymore, earlier you just said you came from some other nation and people would buy it, these days it was way harder but she had connections which did provide her with everything she needed.
She found a fountain and drank some, then she walked on. She had to check on Damian too, he could be in danger too now.
He was a professor at the museum, an elderly man with a somewhat noble appearance and he was of the old school but a very good friend. She had never seen anybody who had such a genuinely calming presence when it came to kids and animals and even though he did look a bit rough around the edges she had always trusted him. She had met him first several years ago when she was working on a dig site in Peru, he had been there too to interpret some old glyphs and something about him had felt safe. The man did live in another apartment building and it was in a high end part of the city. Here you found few locals, mostly westerners and the neighbourhood was closed off with walls and gates. She had no problem jumping the wall and she did sneak her way to the right building. The apartment was dark, no lights were seen and she did feel a twinge of fear. She didn’t want him too dead, it would be her fault then.

Sam did climb the surface of the building like a squirrel, it wasn’t lit in any way and she was very fast, nobody would see her. There was a small balcony there and she landed on it, without a sound. The rooms were quiet, from what she did see they were tidy and there were no signs of anybody breaking an entry. She did sniff the air vents, no scents out of the ordinary. She took a breath of relief but she felt unsure. Was he away on some mission? Where could he be then? She had to warn him but she was rather sure emails and phones were being tapped now. She stood there wondering when a taxi did pull into the driveway and she saw that her friend did leave it, carrying a suitcase. He had been away and she hesitated, was she to reveal herself? She did dry off the sooth and stayed there on the balcony, what would he say if she did appear like that? If she did let him know he would be in deep shit too, was it worth it?

The lights came on, she saw Damian enter the apartment, he did look tired and there were dark rings beneath his eyes. He dropped the suitcase and hung his coat on the wall and that was when she saw the shadow. It was somebody there in the apartment, beside Damian. Her instincts did awaken there and then, Damian did turn around to walk to the kitchen and she saw that a figure stepped forth from behind a door, carrying a rather large knife. Sam didn’t hesitate, as the attacker flung himself towards the elderly man she flung herself through the glass door to the balcony. It was solid but no match for her, it did explode in a cloud of shards and the attacker did turn around, confused and shocked. Sam moved like no other creature, smoothly like a snake, almost floating.
She grasped the man by the throat and with the other hand she ripped the knife from him and broke his wrist at the same time. The man did scream, Damian did stumble back towards the wall with huge terrified eyes and Sam saw movement to her other side. Another attacker, fuck! This man had a gun and aimed at Damian and she had no other choice but to use attacker number one as a shield. A well placed bullet could kill even her and she threw her victim at the second man and sent him flying backwards. She did follow, the first man was dead now, pierced by several bullets. The second man laid there with the corpse on top of him, the gun trapped between them.

Sam couldn’t risk that the man did manage to free it so she bent down swiftly and snapped the man’s neck like a rotten branch. Her eyes were blazing, she hadn’t replaced the contacts she usually wore, Damian would see the truth now.

The old man did gape, staring at her. “Sam?! What…I was told you were dead? The museum said that there had been some sort of accident…”

Sam shook her head. “I am very well thank you, no walking dead or anything. And accident my arse. It is a whole load of skjiit (shit). The entire crew has been murdered”

She stared at him and Damian blinked. “They said that the sandstorm had…oh my. These men were after me weren’t they?”

Sam did nod. “Yes, I took something from the dig Damian, something they want. Now they try to tie off any lose end, even the very distant ones”

Damian took a very deep breath. “Tell me, is it about an orb?”

She did gape, her face revealing her shock. “How do you know?”

He did make a grimace. “Let us just say that an old friend of mine has caught a whiff of something shady going on, and he happens to know a thing or two about such objects. If you have one you must be warned that it is potentially extremely dangerous!”

Sam did scoff. “No shit Sherlock, but the orb wasn’t the only thing I took, it is also a sword”

She did release the blade from her back and he did take two steps back, as if it was some dangerous animal. “Oh…God. It cannot be…!”

He shook his head. “Sam, you…you are no human being, I can clearly see that now but what on this green earth are you?”

Sam did wince. “Let me just say that it is a very long story but we have to get out of here and we have to find somewhere safe to stay, somewhere they cannot find us. I have no idea of who the enemy is Damian but they did gun down everybody”

Damian closed his eyes. “In all my long years…alright, I have everything packed already, but where to go? They track everything I bet, you cannot travel these days without anybody noticing”

She made a grimace again. “I have a false passport, and fake papers but none for a man of your age. Is there somewhere you know where you can hide? People know we are friends, this attack proves that”

He did stare at the dead men, his eyes were dark but she couldn’t tell if it was fear or wrath. “I have nowhere to go here in Egypt, but my friend in Canada, he can perhaps do something”

Sam made a grimace. “Canada? We won’t make it that far without being detected.”

He did shrug. “Then what do you suggest?”

Sam did swallow. “We need to identify the enemy first of all, and to do that we have to be careful and also, we have to be clever. I think I may have an idea but I need a cell phone, one without a registered number”

Damian stared at her for a few seconds. “Alright, wait for a minute”

He did enter the bedroom and returned with a phone, fully charged. Sam did hesitate, she shouldn’t do this, it would bring also these people into this mess but she did trust them with her life. “Good, it will not take long”

She went into the kitchen and dialled a number from her memory, there as a few seconds of waiting, then an answer. “This is wolf”

She closed her eyes in relief. “Wolf, this is kitten, I need rehousing, the litter is bad. The air is foul, the son and mother is to leave”

The voice on the other end was calm, almost indifferent. “Good, where the birds take off, tomorrow. The first and the third”

Sam did end the conversation and shook her head, nobody would be able to understand this. She saw that Damian had sat down by his computer but he hadn’t started it, instead he used a sort of ipad and he was texting a message. “My friend has to be warned, this is an email account we usually never use. “

Sam nodded. “Do warn him but please, do you know what the goddamn thing is?”

She did pull the bag into the apartment and placed it on a table and Damian went pale. “It is here?! Oh by…Do not open the bag, whatever you do!”

Sam sneered. “Alright, but do tell me what the fuzz is about, what is this thing? Why is it worth the lives of innocent people?”

Damian did swallow hard a few times, he was a rather tall man but for a quick moment Sam had a sort of mental image of a smaller person, all brown and covered with everything from bird droppings to moss. “It is…how shall I explain this without sounding like a moron? It is not your average everyday thing, that is for darn sure”

Sam sat down, her eyes did almost glow, and she stretched her fingers, allowed her claws to extend. “Try me!”

Damian closed his eyes. “Have you heard of the theory of multiple universes?”

She nodded. “Yes, that there are an infinite number of realities and a version of everybody within each one of them”

Damian did smile. “Exactly. What if I told you that this orb comes from a reality which is quite similar to this one, so similar that you in fact could travel between them and never notice the difference at all. But there are some subtle changes created when you cross that barrier, and they can grow to become rather not subtle over time.”

She sighed. “I am following you?”

Damian tilted his head, he was a very charming old man and she realized that she knew very little about him. “The multiverse is like an onion, layer upon layer and if you pass from one layer to the next nothing may happen. But cross through many layers and the differences will start to stack up, in the end the world is not at all what you have become familiar with. This thing…”

He did point at the bag with the orb. “Is from another reality, and it shouldn’t be here at all!”

Sam stared at the bag. “Alright, let us say I believe you, I can still not see that you have provided me with an answer to my question, what is it!!”

Damian sighed. “Once upon a time there was this one person who was incredibly talented and incredibly ingenious and also incredibly arrogant. He did make some very shall I say cool stuff including several of these orbs. You may call them a sort of phones, they allow you to see and talk to others who are some distance away. Now, where this person did live there were some others, and they were even more powerful and let us just say that one did make some poor life choices? He got employed by somebody who were….of dubious morality and ethics. And this one person or whatever we shall call him had one of those orbs in his possession when he was brought down and to make a long story short, he has probably stored himself within this one orb.”

Sam glared. “Himself?!”

Damian rolled his eyes. “Everything is energy right? The energy which was his personality? His spirit? His soul if you like to use that word, the main thing is, he is as bad as they get, very sneaky and extremely focused upon power. If that orb gets into the hands of somebody who can be manipulated we will have hell on earth rather fast”

Sam did squint. “You are serious?”

Damian did nod. “Heck yes I am serious. This orb has to go back to whence it came, or somewhere where nobody can get near it”

Sam made a grimace. “If I had been an ordinary person I would never have believed even a word of what you are saying now, but for fuck’s sake, I am not so alright. How do you fix that?”

The elderly man made a grimace. “Ah, I will need some help for that, you see, there are places where the wall between the realities is rather thin, it can be breached, but not by ordinary people. You need some real power to do it”

Sam nodded. “Okay, great, do you know somebody with such power?”

He did grin, a somewhat wry one. “I may!”

He slapped his thighs. “But my dear friend, we are spending precious time now, time we should use to get the heck out of here. There is bound to be some sort of reaction when these two wannabe assassins don’t show up again. And somebody must have heard the gunshots”

Sam nodded. “Yes, we have to go. Grasp whatever you can of stuff you need and I will try to find somewhere out there where we can wait for the daylight”

Damian did nod. “Sam, your name isn’t really Samantha is it?”

She shook her head. “Nope, it is Berka”

He frowned. “Sounds Nordic?”

She grinned. “Sure is, come on, hurry now”

Damian did throw some extra stuff into the suitcase and then he stared at the bodies. “You are stronger than a human being?”

She nodded. “Yes, why?”

He kicked one of the dead men. “What about making a statement?”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

Damian did nod towards the broken door. “It is a long way down?”

Sam understood, she did haul the dead bodies to the balcony and dropped them over, unceremoniously. They hit the pavement with soft thuds and she knew that the elderly man was right, this was indeed a statement. One which carried a warning.

They ran down the stairs, he was surprisingly agile for a man his age and Sam could smell something odd when he was near, she hadn’t noticed it before. It was an almost earthly scent, it reminded her of a forest.

They reached the exit and Sam did see that the bodies had exploded upon impact, she would take her hat off for the coroner who managed to identify these mangled remains. But good riddance. Sam knew that there could be eyes everywhere so she didn’t hail a cab, instead she more or less dragged Damian over to the busy main streets where there were people everywhere. They found somebody who was driving a horse and they told the man to drive them to a rather cheap motel near the airport.

Damian didn’t speak the whole trip, he just stared at the old worn bag with an expression that was rather sour. Sam realized that he knew more than he had told her, and it was fine by her, sooner or later she would find out. The motel was nasty, dirty and infested with bedbugs and whatever but a few extra dollars and the man behind the counter would keep his mouth shut. Sam had reapplied her make up, in the bad light she did look like a young man again and if the clerk did think that it was odd that an elderly man and a young lad did rent a room together he didn’t say anything at all.

The room did stink of piss and shit and Sam made a grimace. The beds hadn’t been changed for weeks and bore clear evidence of what these rooms usually were used for, and the lights were out too. She wished that she could make this all go away but she couldn’t, it was impossible, time moves in just one direction, forth.

Damian did sit down, slowly. “How are we go get out of here unnoticed?”

Sam smiled, a rather wicked grin. “There are flaws within the system, we are gonna use them for all that they are worth”

Damian did frown. “What do you mean?”

She tilted her head, her eyes did shine. “Have you ever worn a Burqa?”
---------------

The next day she had managed to get the stuff she wanted from street vendors and they did show up at the airport a little early. The tickets were waiting for them at the counter, as she had expected and she did smile as she did hand over the passports. They were number one and number three of her possible identities alright, an elderly Egyptian woman and her grandson. Sam was very glad that Damian didn’t have a beard, and some make up did make the illusion perfect. She had managed to create a false moustache from a kit meant for kids and she had also bought a wig. Damian did wear some small pillows under the tent like garment, it did make him look like a slightly overweight woman and Sam knew that nobody would dare to ask a muslim woman to remove her veils.

But still, they had to get through security and the orb and the sword were a problem, but she had found a way to get the sword checked inn as luggage. She had bought some golf clubs and wrapped them up in a tight packet with the blade in the middle of the heap, the pommel and the other details did look like parts of a club and if they were lucky it would pass through without any problems. The orb on the other hand had been rehomed, now it lay in a bag used for bowling balls and it was the right size too. If somebody did ask about the missing holes she would just say that it was a gift for somebody and that the holes would be drilled by an expert since the recipient had a crooked finger. If you didn’t look too carefully it was easy to believe that this was a very nice and expensive bowling ball, made for a very large person. Damian did almost throw a fit when she explained her plan to him, he was half ways between tears and laughter or so it did seem.

The entrance hall was packed with people and Sam did know that her height made her stand out, even as a man. But she knew how to compensate, by being even taller than normal. Her ankles were not like those of a human being, they were hock like and narrow and she had some boots which did allow her to walk with them raised. That gave her some extra inches and she knew that any people looking for them would keep their eyes out for somebody trying to hide, not two people who were right in your face.

The tickets were for Rome, new tickets would wait for them there, it would be a long journey and a winding one but it was needed, they had to camouflage their trail as best as they could. They did approach the gate when Sam sensed trouble, there were guards there and some did bring dogs, sniffing for drugs. She had to think fast, a dog would never be fooled by her disguise. In front of them was a line of people about to go through security for another flight and Sam was very fast indeed. She grasped a bolt from one of the chairs there and unscrewed it swiftly, then she did slide it into the pockets of a man passing by, as she pretended to steady her wobbly grandmother. The alarm went off as the man did try to pass through the metal detector and most of the guards did scurry over, hands on their guns. But one of the men did stay, with the dog and they had to pass by the canine. Sam bit her teeth together, this was make it or break it.

The dog started to shiver, then it did sneer and whimper and press itself up against its owner, foaming at the mouth, the eyes wild with fear. It did piss itself and the owner stared down at the animal which was transformed from a very tough looking creature to something which did resemble a leaf in a terrible storm. Sam whispered to Damian. “We need a distraction”

Damian did react immediately, he did produce a high pitched wail the type a dying whale would be proud off and he did sound very feminine and tried to back away from the dog, uttering curses in the local dialect, calling the dog a creature of Shaitan and asking it to be removed since it was unclean, no true believer should go anywhere near a dog. Sam did pretend to calm his grandmother down and they got past the shivering dog. The guard was too busy trying to understand what was wrong with the huge Alsatian. Sam knew that the dog sensed the truth about her, they always did, and it freaked them out completely.

They entered the plane, it was a cheap flight with a small company and the plane was packed, Sam had gotten them seats at the back, and she sat down so that Damian was near the wall. Now they could only cross their fingers and hope for the best. Damian pretended to go to sleep right away, Sam did sit there with a newspaper and as the plane took off she knew that this was a mere beginning. Would they be able to do what Damian had suggested and send that orb back? Only time would tell for sure.

Chapter Text

Chapter three: Truths and deceit

The news were disturbing, to say the least. The orb was still missing and the two men they had sent to get rid of a possible lose end had been found dead in front of the building where the man lived. Apparently they had been tossed out from the apartment, like they were ragdolls. The police was all over it and he couldn’t do anything about it, it was not wise to show any interest. He had contacts though and he knew that nobody had any idea of why these two had been in the apartment, which was empty. A cab driver did confess to having dropped off the professor just a short while before the other inhabitants of the complex did report gunshots and it was very clear that the elderly man had escaped somehow. Had he been alone? Not very likely.

Bartholomew did know about this professor, he was well respected and an expert at finding old sites, it was as if the man had a sort of sixth sense and Bartholomew did wonder if perhaps this Damian Woods were in possession of something which did told him where to find these ancient ruins when even modern technology failed to detect anything out of the ordinary. His employee didn’t believe that this Fallow woman was alive but Bartholomew hadn’t gotten to where he was now by accepting everything he was being told. He assumed that she was alive and that she somehow had been involved in the escape of her friend the professor.

He had managed to get some more information about her and that included some rather grainy pictures. They showed a woman who did look a bit like an amazon, with a very peculiar face. She did look…feral. He couldn’t describe it otherwise and he had sent the photos off to his contacts. There would be people and technology on the lookout everywhere. He knew how to make people cooperate, and somehow he would find these two. He had to get that orb, the sword did sound like an interesting artefact too but it was just a blade, it wasn’t all that valuable even if the metal should be some unknown alloy. He wanted the orb, he had dreamed of it again that night, and he had seen things, wonderful things. He had seen creatures of immense power, and knew that if the orb was found it would show him the truth and his ideas and hopes would all come true. It was just a matter of time, the orb would be his!
---------
The plane did land in a manner which did make the passengers pray to whatever deities they did worship and Sam wondered if the pilot had been dead drunk, a plane isn’t supposed to act like a freaking kangaroo when it touches down. But they did make it back to mother earth in one piece and she did make sure that she walked in front of Damian, shielding him. She made sure that he didn’t make any mistakes and they reached the hall and found their baggage. It did perhaps look a bit odd that a young man and an elderly woman dressed in a tent like burqa carried a set of golf clubs and a bag made to store bowling balls but it was all they could do right now.

Sam was alert, she kept her eyes open and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. The entrance hall was packed and this airport was very modern and efficient. She found the information desk right away and asked for the tickets she knew awaited her. The tickets were there but they weren’t for a flight going from this airport. It was from another airport further north and Sam was a bit disappointed. They would have to find a way to get there and she didn’t like the idea of using a taxi cab. Damian did pretend to be a humble and cowered woman until they got out of the airport. In a dark corner behind a bus shed he did get rid of the burqa and Sam did put a wig she had bought onto him. It made him look rather odd but that didn’t matter. Damian did wet his lips, feeling that the goddamn palantir was this close was unnerving, it was as if he expected Sauron to jump out of the bag at any given moment. “Could there be busses going north?”

Sam did shrug. “I don’t know, and I don’t like the idea of public transport, too many eyes watching you”

Damian sighed deeply. “I am rather sure that the one behind the attack and the attempt at killing me already know you are alive. We have to assume that whoever it is are capable of drawing conclusions.”

Sam did nod, she spotted a restaurant and realized that Damian probably was hungry, he hadn’t eaten for a while. She didn’t need to eat that often though. They sat down and Sam tried to think, Damian did order some pasta just to make it look more natural and by now she had removed her fake moustache and arranged her hair so she did look like a woman again. She would need to come up with some sorts of disguise soon. She did have money, and she had the cell phone too, but she didn’t want to make another call before she absolutely had to. The pasta was excellent and they ate in silence, Sam did have a glass of wine to it, alcohol had no effect on her and she could drink whatever she liked and never get drunk. Sometimes that was a bummer. Damian finished his food and tilted his head, staring at her. “So, I have answered at least some of your questions, what about you answering some of mine?”

Sam made a grimace. “Alright, but not here, I think I have an idea!”

She got up and paid the waiter and then she did walk on, the streets were packed with people and cars and scooters, most were tourists or what appeared to be tourists. She couldn’t exactly hide within the crowd with her height but she had learned to crouch down a bit. Damian did not look out of place at all, and she just hoped that nothing would happen to him. He was a truly nice person, there weren’t that many of those around anymore. She had found what she was looking for, a young guy was sitting in the shade and an old car stood by the roadside, it was a worn and ragged old Toyota and it did look as if it had participated in at least two world wars and then some. She did smile, it was perfect. Ten minutes after she had bought the car and the young owner had promised to report it stolen the next day, that way he would get it back when the police found it.

The car was not exactly luxurious but it was a good engine in it and they did fill the tank and headed up north. The main highways were not too packed since it was in the middle of the week and there were hundreds upon hundreds of cars like this out there. Damian did sit down in the passenger seat and he did look a bit worried. “Will this car get us that far? It looks as if it is about to die at any moment”

Sam chuckled. “I know these cars Damian, they can survive anything. Don’t worry”

He nodded and looked out at the landscape, it was rather dry and barren there and they saw a few villages and some farms. The traffic was very Italian, everybody seemed to think that the one with the loudest horn was the one with right of way and Sam did wish that the Toyota had packed a few more horses inn under its hood, this was going slow!
Damian did cross his arms. “So, the questions?”

Sam took a deep breath. “Listen, I can’t tell you everything right now, but I will try to answer as best as I can”

Damian nodded. “Fair enough, what in heck’s name are you?”

Sam shrugged. “A monster, a deviation? Abomination? If you asked somebody from the church I would be deemed a demon, others would perhaps see me as an angel, I am neither”

Damian swallowed. “You move like nothing I have ever seen and believe me, I have seen some creepy shit in my time, you are way stronger than a human being, and those eyes…”

She nodded. “They freak people out when they notice my pupils yes. And you are right, I am very strong, and very fast and just forget the human part okay? My kin was created to look like humans but we aren’t humans, do never confuse one of us for a real human being”

Damian did wet his lips. “Created?!”

She nodded. “Yes, genetic engineering. Some really shady stuff”

Damian did look a bit repulsed. “The Russians?”

Sam had to laugh. “No, there weren’t any nations when my race was born Damian, at least not the ones we live in today. Have you heard of the city of Babylon?”

Damian frowned. “Of course?”

Sam took a deep breath. “Then you have heard about its mad emperor and his fits of insanity. The truth is very different”

He did frown even deeper. “Explain?”

She steered the car around somebody towing a camper, it went so slow a snail would look like a thoroughbred in comparison. “There were others ruling the country, using the emperor as their pawn, their mask outwards. They wanted to lift mankind from the primitive state they were inn and bring them forth technologically and morally. But they did some massive blunders and the project did fail miserably.”

Damian did swallow, he remembered a time when he and his few allies had been living in hiding, way north where there were few humans and where the remains of the old days were still to be found. Mankind had risen and fallen and it would happen again, it was inevitable. “How come, and who were they?”

Sam made a grimace. “A people from another star system, they were incredibly advanced and had the ability to splice genes and create all sorts of odd creatures, just to see if it could be done. Their goal was noble enough but they were too haughty and too convinced of their own superiority. When things went south they just left, this rock wasn’t worth it”

Damian almost gaped. “Seriously?! They just left?”

She nodded. “Yes, they realized that mankind wasn’t mature enough for their presence to be known, they were regarded as Gods and they didn’t want that. Religion is messy stuff, they knew this. Maybe they will return when and if mankind does manage to get some common sense but I doubt it.”

She tried to push the car up to 80 but it was useless, it wasn’t exactly a race car. “They wanted to create lifeguards for the emperor, someone nobody would suspect of being dangerous. So they made two women, seemingly ordinary pretty females, the type every macho ruler will wish to be surrounded by. Nobody back then regarded women as more than cattle. “

Damian did make a grimace. How far mankind had fallen during the fourth and fifth age, it had been devastating but they couldn’t do anything about it. “I see”

She made a gesture. “They were too strong, too wild, and way too independent to bow to their makers. They ran off with some humans and that was it, our race was born and we have survived until this day, hiding in plain sight you may say”

Damian had to stare at her. “I haven’t heard about anything like you?”

She grinned, a wide grin which did reveal her teeth, she normally didn’t and he did gasp and his eyes got wide. She had fangs, both in the upper and lower jaw and the whole composition of teeth were more like that of a feline than a human. “You have, think about Norse mythology, their legends and fairy tales”

Damian bit his lower lip. “Ah…I do not follow you? I am no expert on that”

He and his friends had stayed in many different places, wandering about since that was the least suspicious thing to do. Being in the disguise as holy men or simple wanderers was safer than staying in one place where somebody could start to notice that they didn’t age. She tilted her head. “If you saw me without clothes you would notice that I do have a tail. That is why I always wear skirts of baggy pants. It is hard to hide otherwise”

Damian did almost gasp. “You are a hulder?!”

She grinned and nodded. “Yes, exactly. But most of what we can do and what we are has been hidden from humans, they know about the strength and the tail and our ability to seduce but not the rest.”

Damian did look a bit as if he didn’t believe her. “Seduce?”

She nodded. “Pheromones, we can release huge amounts on purpose, and any male in the area will experience a sudden onset of “cock up, brain off” syndrome”

He tried to smile . “Ah…okay”

It was a bit frightening, these creatures from Eru alone knew where had done what Melkor had attempted when he created the orcs, only that he suspected Sam and her kin to be way more dangerous than any orc.

Damian didn’t ask any more questions and after a few hours they did park the car outside of the local airport. It wasn’t large, only small aircraft could take off or land and Sam had her doubts. She was heading for the entrance when something caught her eye, it was a motor bike, parked by a light post and it was a monster. She had seen the bike before and for a short second she didn’t really know what to think. Damian did stare at her. “What?”

Sam pointed discretely at the bike. “See that Hayabusa? I know the owner”

Damian did frown. “What?!”

Sam did take a deep breath, she was being watched and felt it, she stood there, waiting. The figure which did emerge from behind some parked cars was very familiar indeed, and Sam did feel a sort of silent joy. “Runa”

The woman wearing black leather from head to toe smiled back, her teeth just like Sam’s. “Berka”

Damian did stare. The woman was short, barely five feet and rather curvy with rounded hips and a nice bosom and she did have long thick golden hair with a sort of red undertone to it. He was rather sure that this woman would turn the head of any man who saw her. She just oozed sensuality and the black leather suit was like a second layer of skin. “What are you doing here?”

Runa did tilt her head, her hair was like flowing gold around her and Damian did remember having read that the hulder was considered to be very beautiful. “She sent me, they have discovered something and you cannot use the tickets. Every flight is being watched”

Sam frowned. “Really?”

Runa nodded. “Yes, you are on the wanted list, both of you. For having and I quote” stolen priceless artefacts from an archaeological site and having murdered several of your colleges!”

Damian did gape and Sam did swear. “Goddamn it, fuck! Then the Interpol is involved right?”

Runa nodded. “Oh yes, somebody with a lot of power has alerted them to you, and thanks to Brenna we discovered it. I was here on holiday but she sent me here, to warn you. Whoever it is, he or they want the stuff you are hiding.”

Damian was silent, his eyes were rather dark. “I don’t like this at all, what are we to do?”

Runa sent him a quick smile, she did look like a very adorable woman but he sensed something about her which did make the hairs on his arms stand up. She was stone hard, just like Sam. “I have been given instructions, we are to leave a smoke trail, and some false clues”

She did look very wicked. “So, what is it that you are hiding?”

Damian did touch the bag, just gently. “Let’s just say that this orb in here can unleash something you cannot even imagine. And the sword is sentient by the way, and craves blood. It is indestructible”

Runa did whistle. “Alright, first of all, follow me. I have a small hideout not far from here, we need to think things through. She sent me plans and options but we have to use our own heads too”

Damian did look a bit reluctant. “She?”

Sam nodded. “Our leader, among the first. Skadi is her name, she is quite formidable.”

Damian didn’t doubt that , with such a name. He knew it was a Goddess from the mythology of the Nordic people. They got back into the car and Runa did drive in front of them, she looked like she and the bike was one beast, leather and steel in a powerful embrace. Sam did chuckle. “Her kind has always had a sort of affinity for things like that, fast bikes, fast cars and other stuff with muscle”

Damian did frown. “Her kind?”

Sam nodded. “The short curvy kind, there are three types of us you see, short curvy and red blond, tall slender and black hair with some red in it and then the sort I am, tall slender and black hair with a greyish shine to it, and then the eyes of course”

Damian was intrigued, a bit against his will. The creatures who had created this race had tried to be Gods, to do Eru’s work. It was unnerving really. Not even the valar had such powers. “So your version was created differently?”

Sam did hesitate for a few seconds. “No, we were an accident, our species do not reproduce the way others do, it isn’t half of the mother and half of the father in a child, it is almost all genes from the mother and then some from the father which is chosen just to repair damaged DNA or to add some desirable trait from the father. A girl will be a clone of her mother, a son will be a clone of his dad.”

Damian did look a bit confused and she smiled. “We do not have males, we are a one gender race and use humans to breed with. But they aren’t the only option…”

Damian did feel a bit sick “Oh…don’t tell me that…”

Sam shrugged. “The first of my kind was the daughter of a woman who had run off into the wild, to escape her cruel owner since she was a slave. She teamed up with a pack of wolves and when she returned to live among humans again she had a child with her, the first grey. We are rare though, and most do not trust us. We have a…different psyche than others”

Damian swallowed hard, monster indeed. “What do you mean?”

Sam steered the car into a narrow back alley, Runa did stop the bike and opened a gate and they drove through. “I lack certain abilities humans have, to us it is a huge benefit, we won’t hesitate if we need to kill to protect ourselves, and we do not feel remorse. To us taking lives is natural, it is what we are made to do after all, fight and protect”

Damian had been right, she was way way worse than any orc could ever be. And yet different, extremely so. They were in a sort of boxed inn plaza and Runa did hide the bike behind some black tarp and they entered the building. It was old and worn and did smell of mothballs and old food but it wasn’t too bad. Runa did sit down on a dusty couch and she did tilt her head. “Sit down and relax, we have to figure out how to get you two into hiding without anybody noticing.”

Damian swallowed. “Is there truly a place where we can be safe? The one behind all this has to have a lot of people working for him or her and after all, technology these days is tricky to avoid. There are cameras everywhere.”

Runa did nod. “Exactly, and the police will be on the lookout too. We keep an eye on the internet mind you, Brenna is a good hacker and if anybody does mention the two of you she will do her best to send them off on a wild goose chase.”

She leaned back against the couch. “The best way to hide a thing is not to hide it at all”

Damian blinked. “What do you mean?”

She shared a swift glance with Sam and they smiled, as if they shared a thought. “We have to make them track somebody else!”

Runa got up and grasped an Ipad from a table, she started to text and then she asked if she could take a photo of the orb. Damian did allow it, but very reluctantly and Runa did grin as she sent the photo off. “I know exactly what we are to do now. And I will ask for reinforcements”

Sam frowned. “Is that wise?”

Runa nodded towards the bag with the orb. “Yes, it is wise, do not doubt me on this one. I can sense that this thing is very bad and I do trust Mr…Wood?”

Damian felt conflicted, it was nice to know that he was trusted but why the heck did she? Runa stared at him, the blue eyes did look very innocent. “We are more than one person in this room with huge secrets”

She didn’t say anything else but left the room to make a call and Damian did hear some words which didn’t sound like the words of any language he knew. He wished that his friend had been there, he had always been better at dealing with the unexpected. Honestly speaking he had almost failed in his original mission since he didn’t have the ambitions nor the drive the others had. But too much ambition was just as bad as too little, just see what had happened to Curumo.

Runa did return. “Tomorrow a delivery man will come over with a ball, looking very much like this orb. And somebody will see it”

Sam did chuckle. “Alright, but who will be bold enough to do that?”

Runa walked over to a closet and found a bottle of wine, she did pull the cork out with her teeth. “I don’t know, somebody will arrive, that is all I know. Don’t worry, we have all the resources we need to figure this out.”

Damian gathered his senses and tried to think. “Listen, the orb has to get to somewhere special, old cult places, ruins, the place where ley lines cross…”

Runa did frown. She did look cute when she frowned but he felt that it was the cuteness of a tigress. She could turn on you in a split second. “Stonehenge?”

Damian nodded vigorously. “Yes! That would be our first choice, it is a very strong energy there”

Sam made a grimace “Then that option is out of the question, too many people, constant guarding and we cannot let anybody see”

Runa had a devilish expression on her face. “Really? Hmm, I think I have an idea. I will bring it on to our helpers tomorrow”

Damian stared back and forth from one to the other, not really understanding. “What are the options?”

Runa shrugged. “There are some old dolmens along the coast of Bretagne? Sacred cathedrals with pagan origins? Some very powerful spots up north in Iceland?”

Sam did lean forth. “Iceland sounds promising?”

Runa nodded. “Yes, but getting there unseen would be hard. We have to wait, until the fuzz is over. I have to get you to the village. You will be safe there”

Damian did feel a bit trapped, he didn’t like it when things got out of hand like this had, who was their opponent? Who had the authority to send the police to catch them? Who could create a lie even the authorities would swallow hook line and sinker? He had a suspicion, he wasn’t born yesterday and he had noticed some odd things over the years, objects and findings which had seemingly vanished into thin air. It did point on one direction and it made him cringe, that man was like an octopus, he had a hand involved in everything which did happen involving ancient artefacts. And he was ruthless, Damian knew that. The man had been suspected of having forced people to give up valuable items but there had been no hard evidence and everybody said he was so completely dedicated to the preservation of ancient findings. Damian knew that nobody is showing their real true self, and this man was probably hiding a lot.

Runa stretched her legs, she wasn’t tall but she appeared to be able to stretch out a lot and she grinned and turned around. The suit was still skin tight but it had a sort of extra seam added along the rear and down the inside of both legs. It did look like extra padding but Runa did shake her ass a bit. “It is camouflage, my tail would be visible without it. May I?”

Sam grinned. “Why not?”

Runa did pull the zipper and started to tear the suit off of her, she was naked underneath, not even a bra and she did look like a very healthy young woman. She was rounded in all the right places and she wasn’t skinny the way many strived to be these days. She had some padding and Damian had to admit that it was way better than looking like a skeleton. He had seen way too many of those over the years. She slid the suit down from her ass and he had to gape. She did really have a tail, a real tail which did move and pulled out of the tight enclosure, sticking right up. “Ah, this is wonderful, my tail always gets cramps when it is confined for too long.”

The whole thing did reach just underneath her knee and at the end was a silky tuft of long golden red hair. Sam smiled. “The tail is in some ways a curse, we cannot hide it. And removing it would be dangerous.”

Damian could understand that, at least with the fashion people followed these days. Runa wasn’t shy at all, she was strolling around naked and after a little she did find a bath robe and put it on. “I was travelling around just for fun when she called, the roads here are great for speeding”

Sam did scoff. “Oh be careful, you know what would happen if you had an accident?”

Runa nodded. “Of course, but I won’t. Have an accident that is, I am way too good!”

Sam shook her head and sighed. “The laws of physics do still apply. Even we cannot escape them”

Runa just laughed. “I am hungry, anybody else who want’s some food?”

They stared at eachother and Damian made a grimace. “Well, some food would be alright I guess”

Runa grasped an ordinary cell phone and smiled sweetly. “Take away it is then!”

Half an hour later Damian tried to squeeze a hamburger down his gullet, the meat was rough, the salad more limp than a used washcloth and the sauce was mixed by somebody with a complete lack of smell. It was ghastly. Runa did toss hers into the fire place. “Yack, I have eaten rotten meat more than once but this is a whole new level of disgusting!”

Sam had taken one bite of hers and spat it out again, using her tongue to clean her teeth. No surprise there, she had a tongue which was both longer and more agile than normal. “That burger restaurant ought to be sued back to the stone age!”

Runa grinned and found a bag of apples instead. “Here, at least this is healthy.”

Damian did take a deep breath. “Is it alright if I text my friend?”

Sam shrugged. “I don’t see why not? If you use a phone which is unregistered that is”

Damian held it up. “It is, I need to check on him”

Runa was gnawing at an apple and the sounds did resemble the sound of things being broken apart, those teeth had no problems splitting bones if she tried. He had to wonder at what sort of creatures they really were, there had to be several species thrown into the mix.
He went over to a corner and sent a message. “It is I, I am safe, with Sam.”

A few minutes went by, then an answer. “Good, it is with you?”

Damian did text back. “It is, there is a plan. Maybe a good one.”

“What can I do?”

Damian did think for a short minute, Brian was very good at hiding and he was by far the more powerful among them. It was worth a try. “I think somebody is trying to get the orb, and us. Check out Bartholomew Kruger, he is shady”

“Will do, take care!”
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The facial recognition system had found that Fallow woman, disguised as a guy. She had left the airport with a person dressed in a burqa and you could call him a sheep if that wasn’t the professor in disguise. He had already notified his co workers, the orb and the sword had to be where she was, in Italy somewhere. She had to have somebody backing her up, there had been tickets waiting for her but nobody knew who had bought them or from where. It did speak of resources and he didn’t like that, he had to figure out who she was co-operating with. The orb had to be even more important than he had first suspected, it sent chills down his spine. It would be his, at all costs.

He closed the laptop and leaned back against the chair, his secretary did use the intercom. “Sir, your wife is here”

Bartholomew did groan, that too! He had had enough trouble for one day. He sighed. “Send her inn”

Twenty seconds did pass by before the door did fly open and his wife entered the room, looking like a thundercloud. She was carrying one of her lap dogs and Bartholomew did hate that yapping little piece of shit. It was the most spoiled animal ever and it would bite and snarl at everyone but Janet did think it was adorable. He wished that one of the guards would run it over with one of their armoured cars.

She stared straight at him and the thin mouth with the stark red lipstick did look a bit like a wound. “You are to fire the housekeeper, as in right now!!”

Janet had a very high pitched voice and it was torment listening to her over time, she was probably able to crack crystal just by speaking. “What is wrong now my dearest?”

He tried to sound sympathetic. Most of his wealth came from the fact that he had married up and losing her would mean losing money, lots of it. He had never liked her, he hadn’t even felt attracted but her family had connections which were valuable and he had thought that it would be worth it. Now he did doubt that, greatly. She scoffed. “I will tell you what is wrong, I have told her, time and time again, that my silk blouses has to be steam pressed but no, she did iron one of the blouses and now it is ruined!”

Bartholomew did feel a need to cringe, she had way too much clothes, who cares about a darn blouse when world domination was just within his reach. He had a feeling that the orb would solve this problem for him too, and it was a very sweet thought. He felt a sudden urge to get up and tear that yapping monster from her and toss it out the window, he was just too frustrated today. “So, are you going to fire her?!!””

Bartholomew did usually bow to his wife, she had no idea of what he was really doing and was treating him like a bag of dirty clothes. “No, it was one blouse, you have like a hundred. She makes my morning eggs just the way I like them, and the house looks impeccable. So no, she stays, end of story”

Janet did blink, she did stand there gaping and Bartholomew felt a surge of something rush through him, a real power. (Yes, that is the way, make her bow to your will, soon everybody will) The voice in his mind was soothing and he smiled at her. “You heard me, now you can return to your empty chit chat, I have important things to do”

She took a deep breath as if to yell back but something about the expression within his eyes made her back down. She snorted and turned on her heel, the dog yapping like mad and she strode out of the office with her nose in the sky. Bartholomew just knew it, this was the start of something grand.
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Runa did keep her word, after a restless night on couches and the floor a man did arrive with a box and in it was a glass ball, painted and formed so it did look a lot like the orb. It was a local glass artist who had made it and Runa did snicker as she held the thing. “What do you think?”

Damian had to grin too, it was exquisite and Sam had to touch it. “It doesn’t have that glow though”

Runa giggled. “No?”

She grasped a small remote control which came with the ball and pressed it and a faint glow spread from the inside. “Led lights, they won’t last very long but long enough.”

She laid the ball into the bag and grinned. “Now, how are we to camouflage the real orb?”

They looked at each other and Sam made a grimace. “I don’t know?”

Runa stared at the orb. “It is rather large, hmm, what to do?”

Sam knew that Runa was among the most quick thinking of their race, she was extremely clever and she snapped her fingers. “Stay here, I have the solution”

She ran outside and Damian did stare at Sam. “Are all of you this energetic?”

She had to nod. “Yes, most of the time”

Runa did return after twenty minutes, she was carrying a very large teddy bear in her arms. “I saw this yesterday at the local fair, I bought it from the owner of the shooting booth.”

Damian did blink. “Ah, a teddy bear?”

Runa did smile. “Yes, just wait and see”

She grasped a knife from a box of tools and cut the seams along the side of the teddybear. Then she did tear out some of the stuffing and without hesitating she grasped the orb and pressed it inn there before she put stuffing around it again and found a needle and some thread and sewed the opening shut again. “Like this, nobody can see it now!”

Damian had to cough, the idea of the spirit of Sauron, the dark maia trapped within a teddy bear was enough to make him feel true disbelief. Olorin should have seen this, it would have made him laugh.
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Two more hours went by and then there was knock at the door, in came a woman who did look so much like Sam it was scary. The eyes were different though and her hair had a red shine in it. A tall man was following her and he did smile and bowed his head. “We heard that you needed help?”

Sam nodded. “Yes, somebody must create a diversion”

Runa did tilt her head and looked like innocence incarnate. “I am glad you are here Siv, I think the “orb” has to come out in public”

Siv was staring at the thing and Damian sensed that she was a very controlled being but there was something fierce underneath the calm features. “I see, not too hard I guess. Accidents do happen and that bag is old”

Damian stared at the man. “Ah, you don’t look very much like me, we are of almost the same height but…”

The man was rather stocky, he was perhaps in his thirties and very fit and Damian wasn’t all that large. He was a rather average looking person. Runa grinned “Don’t worry, Bjørnar is capable of disguising himself so everybody can see that he is trying to hide. “

Siv did put the replica into the bag and lifted it. “Believe me, in a few short hours this will be all over the internet.”

Damian stared at Runa and Sam. “And what about us?”

Runa had a hard expression on her face. “There are borders we have to cross, you don’t have passports and real ID. If you show your faces at a border control they will have your hide.”

Sam nodded. “Yes, I can probably get through somehow but I doubt that Damian are capable of hiking that far?”

Damian was scoffing, his voice dry. “I am capable of way more than you think”

Runa nodded. “No doubt, we will drive north to the border to Austria, then we will see what we chose to do”

She turned to Siv and Bjørnar. “Do not allow yourselves to be caught”

Both shook their heads. “No worries, we won’t”

Damian frowned. “Where will you be going?”

Siv lifted the bag. “There is a flight going back to Rome in an hour, we will be on that plane. And somebody is gonna film something spectacular”

Runa frowned. “The enemy is dangerous”

Siv did grin. “So am I, no worries little sister, we are gonna be alright”

She just took off and the three did stare at each other. The dice was tossed, now they had to wait and then try to avoid being seen.

Two hours later it was all over the net, a video taken at a local airport north of Rome. A couple was going up a flight of stairs when the bag one carried did rupture and a huge glass orb fell out of it, it did bounce down the stairs and the two people were chasing it desperately, stumbling and making quite a spectacle. The man appeared to be wearing a fat suit and the woman had a long blond wig over her black hair, they did catch the orb at the end of the stairs after it had crashed into a drinking fountain and released a torrent of water since the pipe did rupture. The dice was indeed tossed, would the bait be taken?

Chapter Text

Chapter 4: The danger of desire

Sam and Damian spent two whole days with Runa in the decrepit old building. Sam did look as if she was about to go out of her own skin from sheer frustration but Runa did just laugh at them. They had to find a way to get out of the country unseen and it wasn’t easy. Since the political situation of many countries was tense there were many people who tried to migrate north in search of a better life and the border guards were very alert. Every vehicle would be searched through and train stations and such were under surveillance too. Sam cursed the fact that she had such a special face. She just hoped that Siv and Bjørnar did manage to get away, but she did trust them both. They knew how to disappear, and Runa had told them where to go eventually.

Damian had received an email from Brian, it did shake him to the core. He had no idea of how his old friend had attained this information but it was shocking. Bartholomew Kruger was indeed not who and what he pretended to be, he was responsible for a lot, even deaths and he was indeed like a monster in a cave, hiding and waiting for one stupid move. Brian had little doubt that this man was the one behind the attack on the camp and the fact that Sam and Damian were on the wanted list. So they had to be very careful indeed. If Bartholomew Kruger wanted the orb he would stop at nothing to get it and Brian had discovered that the man in secret held great belief in the idea of ancient visitors from other planets. If he found out about Sam there was little doubt in Brian’s mind that he would do whatever he could to get to her and her people.

Damian found the whole idea of Sam’s race disturbing, there were many ages since the valar had done anything to prove their existence, mankind had been left alone for many thousand years and not even he had been able to keep an eye on everything which did go on everywhere. That some race from another star system had been able to arrive there unseen by him and his brethren wasn’t really that improbable. There were many versions of this universe, in some he and his brethren were in Aman now, firmly under the heel of the valar. In others they had all been destroyed, he guessed that he ought to be grateful that he was alive in the moment. But creating creatures like Sam and her people? That was something Morgoth could have done, and it spoke of great arrogance. Maybe it was a good thing that their creators had chosen to leave, he did doubt that mankind could have coped with them.

Runa used a tablet with encryptions and she and this Brenna did communicate rather often, Siv and Bjørnar did leave some small bread crumps here and there, allowed themselves to be seen. They were travelling westwards, towards the Atlantic and Damian just hoped that they wouldn’t run into real trouble. Sam did seem confident enough, telling him that they ought to worry about their own problems but Damian knew how men like Bartholomew was thinking and he couldn’t help it. He was worried.
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The man sitting in the back of the huge van wasn’t a happy camper at all, he was rather sure that this was a stupid thing to do and he wished that he could have convinced the boss of this but he knew that he had but one option, to obey without questions. Having arrived just two hours earlier by plane and then be sent out on a chase like this wasn’t unfamiliar to him but he was not so sure that this was what it seemed to be. Nobody is that stupid, it was a rouse and he had seen the surveillance video. The bag had ruptured on purpose, and the orb which could be seen bouncing down the stairs was too light to be the real one.

He was a mercenary but he wasn’t by any means stupid, as a matter of fact he was a very smart person and it was needed in order to stay alive in this business for very long. That Fallow woman had contacts, she had resources too and you could call him an idiot if she didn’t know that somebody was trying to retrieve that darn thing. He didn’t really care what that orb was, but he didn’t like being sent off on a wild goose chase like that, for nothing. The woman they saw on the video was very like Samantha Fallow, and the man following her was clearly in a rather bad disguise but he had been hunting humans for years and this man did move in the wrong manner. He was simply too stiff and slow, it was clear that he tried to pretend to be an elderly person.

The couple had been seen at a train station, apparently they were heading for France and he and his men were waiting, it couldn’t be Samantha Fallow but if it was some associate that person could perhaps point them in the right direction. They knew how to make people talk.
He tried to relax, to think about the task ahead of him but he couldn’t help but feeling a wee bit uncomfortable. The two men who had been sent to kill the professor, he had known them both. They had been professionals, very good at what they were doing and also very fast and efficient. To hear that they had died in such a manner was unnerving to say the least. How had that Fallow woman managed to escape the storm? How had she managed to get back to Cairo that fast? He didn’t like mysteries, they usually came back to haunt you and something about this whole affair gave him the heebie jeebies. He trusted his instincts, they had kept him alive when others did perish and if he could he would have walked away from this there and then.
One of the other men there gave him a discrete nod. “There, they are walking into that building”

He swallowed, took a peek out of the window. It was indeed that woman, carrying a bag with something in it and the man followed, oddly bent with a stiff gait. He took a split second decision, why he didn’t know. “You and Pierre go after them, bring Louis and Davon too.”

The driver frowned. “What about you boss? Are you going to stay here?”

He nodded. “Yes, somebody has to guard the car and if the police does show up we need to have an alibi”

The driver shrugged and got up, the other person in the car sent their leader a toothless grin and the two exited the vehicle. He saw that the two in the other car did join them and they followed the two others into the building. It was a small shopping mall, just a few stores and some apartments on the top floor. He did trust his co-workers but he didn’t feel safe at all. Five adult men ought to be able to subdue two people rather fast but he had a crawling sensation sliding down his spine. James Roche had once been a promising football player and he had been a boy scout and the favourite of the parish preacher. He had been the type of lad every parent does dream of, popular and smart and handsome. But fate had dealt him a nasty blow when he took a fall and busted a knee, thus ruining his career as a professional player. He had ended up in the army where he did discover that he had an uncanny talent for making people talk, and for tracking humans. He had seen a lot of shit, some of it very nasty. In the end he did leave the army since he didn’t like following orders and sold his skills and thus he did end up at Mr Kruger’s payroll. And now he did regret that decision.

He had experienced this feeling only once before, he had been on a mission in Africa, some village where he was supposed to get rid of a local warlord. His group had finished the job easily enough and they had decided to have some fun afterwards, to go hunting. Their guide was this tiny local man, as dry as a raisin and just as wrinkly and he and the guide had become separated from the others and had to walk back to the camp on their own. As they tried to follow paths which were invisible to his eyes he had felt it, that cold sensation of being watched, of being reduced to prey. The guide had felt it too and urged him to keep going, no guns could protect them from what was lurking out there in the darkness. If they stopped they were finished and the old man had said it in such a matter of fact like manner it had convinced James that it was real and not an attempt at frightening him. They had heard it, some sort of low growling sound and they heard heavy footsteps but they did make it back to the camp. The guide said that they were safe there as long as they stayed within the row of thorny bushes planted around the campsite.

Later he had wondered what it was he had heard in the darkness back then but he had never been able to figure it out. The old man only spoke of evil beings born from the earth and refused to say more and they had seen some odd footprints the next day. They didn’t look like anything any of them had seen before. Now he had that exact same feeling, of being reduced to a shivering toddler, hoping for the comfort of a caring mother. He took a deep breath, he was paranoid, that was the truth. His men would bring those two people back for sure, they were street smart and thugs and ex soldiers. He waited for ten minutes, nothing. They weren’t supposed to use the com links while in action but he couldn’t wait any longer, ten minutes was way too long. Something had happened. He pressed the button, whispered the right code words. “Come in, Zebra three, come in please”

Silence, a very heavy silence which felt like something cold in his bones. Then there was a sound, a low growling and he almost dropped the mic, his heart beating like a drum within his chest. It was the same growling, the same low rumbling and at the same time there was something shrill about the sound, it cut its way through his ears like an ice picket. He was breathing hard, staring at the radio as if it was turned into a poisonous cobra. What now? He was no coward, he had to check this out, on his own terms. If the boss sent others they would burst forth like a herd of bulls in a china shop and everybody would know that something was going on. The local police weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed but even they weren’t stupid.

He got out of the van, put a 9mm Beretta under his jacket and tried to pretend as if he was just some average person going on his everyday business. The shopping mall was almost empty, there were just a few people wandering about, most were teenagers and then there were a few elderly people too. The heat in there was intense and the smell from the small restaurants made him feel slightly nauseous. He was still shivering a bit, where could they be? He did notice that a door at the back of one of the stores was left ajar, it did lead down to the basement and he did doubt that anybody would hide among the apartments. There were alarms on the doors for sure.

The door did lead to a staircase which did wind its way down and he did pull the gun and started to descend. The staircase was surprisingly long, it had to be old vaults under the building and the smell did remind him of that goddamn tomb. He did remember the member of his team who had been torn open and he was ice cold in spite of the heat. He stopped, it was one of the old water storages the romans had been so fond off. A huge underground cave made by man and now transformed into a storage for the shops. There were all sorts of things there, and he swallowed and walked on. Nothing appeared to be out of order, he didn’t see any footprints and it was quiet, completely so. Here you didn’t even hear the traffic and it felt as if he had stepped back in time, into an ancient world forgotten by mankind.

Then he felt it, a scent he knew way too well. It was blood, fresh blood and lots of it. He hesitated, walked forth and tried to remain calm. He rounded a corner, the whole labyrinth of rooms and narrow passages were lit by a few lightbulbs and they gave as much light as a deranged firefly. In front of him was a sort of basin, it held water but it did also hold something else. He stopped, the gun in his hands the only thing keeping him from bolting. It was three of the men, all laid on their stomachs with their neck on the rim of the bowl shaped basin, the heads were gone and the water did look black due to all the blood. The heads were placed on a piece of rock which had fallen from the roof. It looked as if they had been torn off the bodies with brute force and he let out a thin whimper.

There was movement in the water, ripples did spread and he frowned, there was no wind there? Then he realized that something was dripping into the basin from above and he raised his gaze and froze. It was the last body, hanging from the roof at least five meters above the basin. It was Pierre, impaled upon a piece of steel which did protrude from one of the rocks. The body was grotesque, it did look as if every bone in the body was smashed and the head was there but it was completely mangled. James let out a yelp, sweat was flowing off him once again, what can do something like that to a human being? Pierre was a huge guy, and there were no ladders there. James turned on his heels, he didn’t run but he did walk at a very brisk pace back to the stair and then he did exit the shopping mall feeling as if he had the devil behind him the whole time. He sat down behind the wheel of the van, the solid plastic did calm him down, just a wee notch. He had to think, whatever they were after, it was dangerous. It was something he knew he couldn’t face on his own. He needed reinforcements and not just randomly picked dudes. He needed men like himself, with experience.

He stared at his phone, this was one call he didn’t want to make but he had to. There was no way around it. He took a deep breath, his boss was rich and he had contacts but James had contacts too, people not even Mr Kruger knew about. It was time to call inn some favours, yes, he wouldn’t risk coming face to face with this again, not without having a whole platoon at his back.
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Runa had gotten them a new car, it was an old Volkswagen and it was probably so old it could be among the first which had left the factory in the 40’s. It did reek of old cat piss and drank fuel like a camel but it was anonymous and it was very clear that Runa had a plan. There were barely room for them in there, the huge teddy bear was taking up a lot of room and Runa had also bought one of the foam swords from the local fair and placed the black sword within it. It was perfect camouflage. Damian did look like an old grandpa and Sam, well, she did look like some rebellious grandkid. She could look very young if she wanted to and Runa was dressing to distract. She had put on a summer dress and some nice sandals and she wore a very chic hat too. With the flowing golden red hair and the lovely curves it was very unlikely that any police officer would be able to tear his eyes from her for more than a few seconds.

Sam was still worried about the passport problem, Runa didn’t have any extra passports but new ones were being made and sent off and would await them at an address only Runa knew. Damian was wondering if perhaps Brian could help them by sending some papers but it would take too long and also, Runa did advice Damian against involving his friend. It could be dangerous. Damian didn’t tell the others but the orb was truly disturbing, it was constantly trying to ensnare someone it could control, he felt it the whole time. The ancient spirit hidden within it was as malevolent as ever and desperate to break free. Damian was very sure that if somebody not strong enough came into possession of the thing they would be overcome rather fast and become a pawn for Sauron. Perhaps even become possessed by the dark maia. It wasn’t impossible and Damian did fear that possibility.

People these days had no idea of the powers which had existed back in forgotten ages, they did still exist but didn’t intervene and the idea of what Sauron could do when he got access to all the technology of this day and age was terrifying. Sauron was a quick learner, he always had been and Damian did remember the halls of Aüle and the way Mairon had excelled among the other maiar serving the master smith. For the moment Damian did shield the orb with his own powers, very discretely and with relatively little effort, Sauron wasn’t that powerful trapped in the palantir. But if he did break free? Found some person foolish enough to swallow his lies? Oh Eru, that could turn nasty indeed.

He had no idea of where they were heading, Runa and Sam did hold their cards tightly to their chests and he felt a bit unnerved by his lack of knowledge. They drove north, towards the border to Austria and Runa did receive a phone call. It was apparently the woman named Siv and Damian didn’t understand a single syllable of what was said. Runa did end the conversation and grinned. “They are heading towards England now, and they have disposed of some followers.”

Damian did frown. “Is that wise?”

Runa nodded. “Yes, it will make the people chasing them more eager, more determined to catch them. When people enter that stage of mind they do mistakes.”

Damian made a grimace. She was right, anger and a need for vengeance is the enemy of common sense. “They aren’t in danger?”

Runa shook her head, she was driving and the old car was struggling up a hill. “No, Siv is good, she can keep others at bay for a very long time. And Bjørnar is a good fighter too.”

Damian tried to smile. “So, he is human then?”

Runa nodded. “Yes, completely so. But he is rather used to fighting.”

Sam did look tense. “What is the plan, we have to cross the border?”

Runa nodded. “Yes, I take it that neither of you are afraid of walking?”

Sam shook her head. “What do you think?”

Runa did grin, the smile was a bit wicked. “Great, there will be walking done now, it is inevitable”

She took off from the main road and headed towards some mountain village. It was famous as a winter skiing resort. Damian did frown. “Ah, skiing?”

Runa shook her head. “Nope, hiking.”

She drove for a good half an hour and parked the car behind an old garage. Then she did put on a jacket and some boots and a pair of worn pants before tying up her hair and putting on a sort of caps. “I look like a local now don’t I? If anybody does stop us I am looking for a herd of lost sheep, and you are my relatives helping out”

They had a wonderful view of the mountain valleys and Damian did remember another time when this landscape had been very different. What had been was long gone, washed away by rivers, ripped apart by glaciers and avalanches and the mountains themselves had changed. It was the way of the world and yet it felt a bit strange. There was a sort of melancholy in the air there, as if the land still did remember a different age. They walked on, it was late in the evening now and after a while Runa stopped by an old building used to store hay for the winter. She grinned. “The border is two miles ahead of us, it isn’t marked or anything but the terrain is atrocious and thus there are no guards. People will not want to get anywhere near this area in the darkness but I doubt that this is a problem to us!”

Damian made a faint grin, he was perhaps an elderly man to the eyes of mankind but his power wasn’t faded away. He still had some strength and even if he had to shield his real power he could do some tricks still. “I can handle it, believe me”

Runa grinned. “I do not doubt it”

They sat there for two hours, then it was dark and they walked on. Damian did realize why this area was shunned, the valley wasn’t as much a valley as a gorge and the border ran straight along it. Runa and Sam did move with eerie ease, they simply jumped over the worst boulders and from cliff to cliff like monkeys. It was as if they both had some special deal with gravity. He did remember that the elves had shared some of the same elegance and grace but this was taken to a whole new level that didn’t seem natural. And in truth it wasn’t, these creatures were not born from nature at all, but from the hands of creatures more powerful than even the valar, and with dubious moral.

The darkness was no problem to them, and before long they did climb up on the other side of the canyon, they were in Austria now and Runa seemed to know where to go. She was very determined and Damian saw that Sam stared at him. He had also moved with way greater ease than one would expect of a man of his age and he just shrugged and smiled, explaining would take way too long. They were heading down a gentle slope towards a few farm houses when Runa suddenly crouched down with a small hiss, she gestured to the two others and Damian fell down onto his knees, there were people down there, with flashlights and they appeared to be looking for someone. Runa did listen to the distant voices, she scoffed. “Bad luck, some tourist has gone missing, they are organizing a search party. We have got to get going, follow me”

She took off along the field, completely without a sound and Damian did notice that she used the terrain in a very efficient manner. She knew where to walk to remain in the shadows all the time and Sam was doing the same. They walked for a while, there were plenty of people back there, cars were gathering, they heard dogs and Runa sneered. “The dogs are a problem, we have to avoid them. Can you run? We cannot be detected, if anybody sees us it is one too many”

Damian did nod and they ran, he did miss his old sled now, but the sight of a sled pulled by giant rabbits would have made people doubt their own sanity for sure. He was capable of running, way better than a human and after a while they did reach a road. It was a main road with lots of traffic and Runa did stay in the woods but followed it for a while. There was a road side café there and she did change back to the dress and the sandals. She had carried it all in a bag on her back and Sam did change her hair a bit and Runa did add some make up to her face. It did distort the proportions a bit and Runa did chuckle. “A little contouring does miracles, have you seen that parody make up tutorial on youtube? If men find out that we can shapeshift they’ll call the church?”

Damian shook his head. “No, unfortunately not”

Runa smacked her lips. “I love these modern days, so many possibilities and so much nonsense. I mean, mankind has taken such huge leaps forwards and yet some are struggling to return to the dark ages, flat eartheners, what do you give me?”

Damian had to snicker, she was right.

They entered the café and it was not many people there, just some truck drivers and a few tourists. Damian heard at least three languages there. Runa did smile at the lady behind the counter and ordered some food, they had to appear as nothing out of the ordinary. She sat down by a table and after a short while a young woman did bring them a plate each with something which had to be a form of local dish. Damian did feel hungry and ate but Sam did look a bit nervous, she had carried the humongous teddy bear the whole time and also the foam sword which did hide the real one. “How are we to get out of here?”

She was whispering and Runa took a look around. The guests were few and she already knew that no trucker would accept hitch hikers these days. It could be illegal immigrants and nobody wants to get into trouble with the police. The others there drove ordinary cars, no room for extra passengers. She made a grimace. “We need to rent a car. Wait here”

She got up and sauntered over to the counter, Damian saw that she was chatting with the lady taking orders and the woman did smile and nod. Runa did look very adorable and sweet and she probably knew just how to manipulate others. After a short conversation she returned to the table. “There is a rental car firm in the next village, she has called them and a car will be send up here right now. I told her that my boyfriend had been driving and that we got into a fight and he abandoned us”

Sam closed her eyes for a second, hiding her mirth. “Alright, that is a believable story for sure. “

They finished their meal and Sam held the teddy bear rather tightly, Damian saw that she appeared to be in discomfort. “What is it?”

Sam frowned. “The orb, I can feel it.”

Damian took a deep breath. “Not good, it is very dangerous for those of a weak mind”

Runa was about to get up to place the food trays in a holder by the wall when one of the truckers there got up too, the man was glassy eyed and there was something odd about his movements. They were stiff, and his face was red and he was breathing with some difficulty. Sam gasped and Runa said something which could only be a curse as the man lunged forwards, arms outstretched and a growl being pushed forth between the clenched jaws. He did look utterly disturbed, as if he was about to go absolutely berserk and he tried to grasp onto the teddy bear. Sam tore it away from him and the man roared and tried to hit her, he was a huge burly guy with a beard and tattoos and he was probably used to fighting but Sam was very fast. The problem was that she couldn’t reveal just how fast she really was there and then, it would arise suspicion. So she did dodge the attack, but just barely and was shoved into the wall rather brutally.

The other truckers there gaped, then they came running as one, trying to subdue the man. Damian did stand there flabbergasted, now he had to stay in the role as an elderly man and he did look scared, he was good at that. The truck driver was shrieking, words nobody did understand but Damian did and he sent Runa a pleading glance. They had to get out of there, now! The trucker had been weak enough for Sauron to influence him and if the man did touch the orb he would become possessed by a mad maia. Runa did understand. She grasped Sam and the teddy bear and the sword and dragged them with her in apparent panic. The truckers had to struggle to restrain the man, he was foaming at the mouth and he was way stronger than normal. The lady behind the counter was calling the police and Runa swore. “Where is that rental car? We need it, now!”

They ran into the parking lot as two cars pulled inn. A man jumped out of each and approached them and Runa put on her most charming smile. “Are you from the rental firm? I am so sorry to disturb you this late but…”

The man who had driven the rental car smiled. “Such things do keep us in business you know, we can sign the papers here and now if you like?”

There was the sound of things being smashed coming from the café and the two men did look puzzled. Runa did roll her eyes. “Some trucker did just attack us, imagine that? A huge guy, I bet he is high on something”

The men gaped. “Oh no, that is bad.”

Runa nodded slowly. “Yes, imagine sharing the road with somebody like that? Horrible”

The papers were placed on the hood and Runa did sign them, using a fake identity. She did pay with a credit card in the same name and then she was handed the key. Not a moment too early, the main window of the café was smashed into a thousand pieces as two men came crashing through and Runa pretended to be scared. “Come on, let’s go. I am afraid of that terrible man”

They got into the car, it was a newer model Audi and Runa did send the two men a kiss before driving off. She took a deep breath of relief. “That was close, was it the orb?”

Damian did nod. “Yes, that trucker was probably not a very smart person, easy to control”

Sam had a stern expression on her face. “You are also keeping secrets Damian but that is alright. Just one question though, can you do something about this ability to influence people?”

Damian swallowed. “I already am, believe me. I…know the soul trapped in the orb, I can anticipate its moves”

Runa did drive rather fast, the road was one with no speed limit and they were cruising at a speed which made Damian’s toes curl up in his boots. “Good, we have to move fast now. The café did have cameras and I bet that the attack will be filed in the police records”

Sam did clutch the teddy bear, her eyes were distant. “Can Brenna do something?”

Runa shrugged. “Nah, probably not. It is a small case, if something is done somebody will notice. “

Damian cursed under his breath and leaned back into the seat, he didn’t like this at all.
Before the sun rose Runa did turn the car onto a local road again and stopped outside of a small cabin. She went inside and Sam followed her. Damian did check his phone, he had received one message from Brian and it made him grin. Apparently Brian had suffered from a slight slip of the tongue and revealed the situation to his friend Dagnyr, the scientist was apparently boiling with curiosity. It was sweet but Damian became worried, few people ought to know about this.
The cabin wasn’t very luxurious and there was little furniture and no food except a bottle of old wine somebody had left behind. Runa did check the mailbox outside of the cabin and fished out a huge envelope. She did smile. “We have new identities folks”

Sam did sit down, she had been very quiet the whole trip and Damian did suspect that she felt inferior to Runa, for some reason. The cabin was surrounded by others like it, it was a popular tourist destination and most of the cabins were for rent. This however did belong to somebody they knew and the envelope was addressed to that person. Runa did open it and revealed several pass ports. “You need a new photo Damian.”

Sam made a grimace. “There are often photo boots near the train stations, and in shopping malls”

Damian sighed. “Yes, are there any stations near by?”

Runa did nod. “Yes, two km down the road. I think we better go for a walk, we need some food and such. “

Sam put her arms around herself, she did look nervous. “When are we to leave again?”

Runa smiled. “Friday”

Sam gaped. “Not before, it is two days away?!”!

Runa did nod. “Yes, but crossing the border will be easier on Friday, much more traffic. We will just be some new faces, no chance of us being discovered.”

Damian cringed. “Are you sure?”

Runa grinned. “Yes, I am very sure”

They locked the cabin and went down to the train station, there were some shops there and Damian did get some new pass photos while the two women did shop for groceries. He felt that this had turned into a sort of absurd dream of some sorts. They returned to the cabin and had a small meal with some wine. It was a nice day so they sat outside to eat and Damian could feel that the entity within the orb was royally frustrated. It hadn’t been allowed to break free, it was trapped still and its power restrained. He would have laughed if it hadn’t been very inappropriate.

They sat there in peace when he did notice that two men from another cabin were heading their way, both were above their first youth and the general impression was that these men were from the very bottom of the social ladder. They were obviously drunk and the way they leered at the two women did tell Damian all that he needed to know. He made the two girls aware of the impending danger and Runa’s eyes got dark. The men did stop in front of the table, grinning. Damian knew that he didn’t look very intimidating at all, he did look exactly the way an elderly professor ought to, seemingly frail and not exactly a threat to anybody. The tallest of the two did stare at Runa, his eyes were glued to her generous chest and he was almost licking his lips. “So, what are you two lovely ladies doing here, are you baby sitting your grandfather?!”

Runa took a look around, Damian saw it clearly. She was evaluating the situation, trying to determine whether or not it was dangerous. “Ah, no, he is our teacher, we are on a school excursion.”

The man leaned forth, even more. These men weren’t influenced by the orb, they were influenced by something way worse, alcohol and a sense of being entitled to everything they wanted, just for being men. He had seen that before. “So what is this old man teaching you then?”

Sam was apparently very relaxed, Damian saw the dark flame in her eyes and she had put on a pair of sun glasses so the colour wasn’t that striking now. “Quantum physics, we are studying the inner workings of the atom”

Her voice was dry and the men stared at each other, these dudes did probably know just about as much about that topic as a mollusc knows about sky diving. “That sounds awfully dry, are you sure you don’t want to learn some thing a bit more…interesting, like the inner workings of your pussies?”

Runa shared a glance with Sam, her eyes were rather telling. She had been in this sort of a dilemma before, and knew exactly how to deal with it. Sam had a peculiar expression on her face, a sort of challenge. “We do think physics is very interesting thank you very much, way more interesting than whatever you have to offer which beyond doubt cannot be much at all. You see, we have something called a brain, and it doesn’t switch off when other body parts switch on”

The men stared at each other, the tallest one did almost pout. “Two uppity bitches ha? Too good for the average man? Perhaps you are carpet chewers?”

Runa smiled. “No, carpets are notoriously dry and hard to digest”

The men almost gaped, Sam sent Runa a small wink. The shortest of the two tried to put his arm around her, he was smelling of cheap booze and sweat and his eyes were bulging. “Oh come on you pretty thing, I bet I can teach you something new!”

Sam scoffed. “I seriously doubt it, and you wouldn’t like the way I play”

The man snickered. “Oh I am sure I would sweetpea.”

Sam widened her grin. “Are you sure? You see, I like pain, or rather to inflict it. My favourite is this huge butt plug I use on my lovers, it has the circumference of a small dinner plate and believe me, the screams are magnificent”

The man stared at Sam, eyes rather huge. “You are kidding”

Sam tilted her head. “Try me!”

Runa laughed. “Oh yes, she is telling the truth, one guy ended up in the A&E, they needed two proctologists and several surgeons to remove it.”

The men stared, then the tallest one frowned. “Oh you bitches are pulling our legs, come here, I wanna teach you a real lesson”

Damian didn’t move, the man tried to grasp onto Runa but she had placed her legs under the table and flipped it up, as if it weighed nothing. The man was flung backwards by the heavy piece of furniture and fell onto his back with a solid thud. Runa grinned. “Oh I am sorry, how clumsy of me”

The other guy was gaping and Sam did simply lift one leg in an apparently impossible angle and flipped the man over so he ended up next to his buddy on the ground. It was as if she had more joints in her hip than other people. Both men were knocked out by the impact and Sam got up and grasped them by their collars. “What am I to do with them?”

Runa grinned, a very devilish expression on her face. “You know the drill, get them back to the cabin and give them a good dosage of their own medicine”

Damian was confused. “What?”

Runa smiled slowly. “She’ll smear them both with pheromones, when they wake up they will be busy fucking each other for the next two days, if they survive they will be too sore to ever think about sex again for the next year or so”

Damian had to grin. Sam did drag the two discretely back into the hut they had come from and when she returned she was smiling from one ear to the other. “It is done”

Runa nodded. “Good, let us enjoy the fruits of our labour from the cabin”

Damian wasn’t sure about what she meant by that, but he was not disappointed. Two hours later they heard shouts from the cabin, then screams and loud curses and the sound of things being broken apart. The inhabitants of the other cabins did gather, curious and disturbed for some of the screams were infernal, as if someone were being murdered. Somebody did call the police and there was a crowd gathered.
Then the door burst open and two sweaty and naked men did tumble outside, both were covered with bruises and at first it did look as if they were fighting but then somebody got aware of the fact that both were aroused and that the fighting in fact was a struggle to become the one to top the other one. The tallest one did win and laid there on top of the other one, hips thrusting and fat wiggling as they both were yelling and clawing for dominance. Some women did scream, a few men did run off in shock and a few of the more intoxicated spectators did shout encouragements to the two.
Runa did giggle. “It won’t wear off, the police will probably have to put them in separate cells”

Sam was chuckling. “It is a splendid method, too bad we cannot use it too often”

Damian did frown. “You have done that before?”

The two nodded as one. “Yes, the last time was on a couple of witch hunters, they ended up on the pyre instead of the poor girl they had caught. She had a stutter, apparently that is a sign of being in lead with the devil”

Damian stared at the two. “Ah, just how old are you ladies?!”

Runa swung a finger around. “Damian, you are a distinguished gentleman, you know that one never is supposed to ask a lady for her age!”

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Siv and Bjørnar had gotten all the way to the coast, now they were ready to board a train which would take them to England. They had new pursuers, Siv had sensed them for a couple of hours. The trick with the four they had killed had been a ruthless one but it was needed. She knew that the men would stop at nothing to get even now and that did take the attention away from Runa and Sam. Siv knew them both, she was younger than the two but very experienced and she knew just what to do. She had her own special phone and dialled a number. The voice at the other end was young and light and she had to smile. Brenna was among the youngest of them, and a very good ally to have. “We are at the station, at least six men at our tails. We will enter the train soon”

The information she sent over was received and for a few short seconds the huge information boards did flicker and they did almost die but then things returned to normal. Siv did grin to herself, Bjørnar was still in the horrible disguise and he grunted. “This is terribly hot”

Siv nodded. “Do not complain, not far to go now!”

They entered the train and found a place, they had bought tickets and saw that at least one of the men was stopped at the ticket counter, the ticket wasn’t valid anymore. Siv whispered to Bjørnar. “At least half of them will come on board. The train is full, they won’t be able to do anything while they are here, but when we get off, be alert”

Bjørnar did nod, he pretended to fall asleep and Siv knew that the cameras at the station had gotten a good glimpse of them. It was as should be, and Brenna had sent them lots of information now, they really had some ruthless people at their heels but these men didn’t know what Siv was capable of. It would be their funerals.

The fake orb was safe in its bag again and Siv had admired it more than once. But their goal was Stonehenge and she was rather sure that if they left enough breadcrumbs the one behind it all would swallow the bait. She had a small smile on her face as the train started to move. She didn’t care what that orb really was, she was doing this for one of her sisters and thus no questions were needed.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5: A thing of beauty

The crowd was twirling around, pleasant conversations were made and hollow stories of greatness told. It was an important meeting and one Bartholomew couldn’t avoid, not if he was to maintain his façade. He had been shaking hands and exchanging seemingly polite greetings the whole night and his wife was by his side, grinning like the shark that she was. He had made sure to give her a very expensive designer dress for the occasion and she had been beaming with pride as they arrived, none of the other women there had something similar to that dress. So she was a happy camper but he was not. The phone call he had received from James had turned his mood sour like a lemon but he was careful not to let anybody notice that.

But James had been scared, he had heard that in the man’s voice and it made him worried too, who had done that to the men? It didn’t sound natural at all, and Bartholomew got a sort of tingling sensation at the back of his head. It told him that he ought to be careful now, whoever was behind all of this, they were powerful and ruthless and he had agreed when James said that he wanted to gather some of his own crew. The man knew the right type of people and Bartholomew found the idea tempting, if James did take responsibility for the mission there wasn’t much pointing back at himself if something went wrong. He was eager to find out who this Fallow woman really was, and who her contacts were. There was no way she could be on her own, was this about gathering ancient artefacts or something more important? He had been dreaming of the orb again, it had spoken to him and showed him a new world of power. Yes, he was sure that he could gain control of everything he saw if he got the orb to himself.
He did pet his wife on the arm as an obedient and devoted husband and smiled at some horrible old hag wearing Prada and more diamonds than the queen of England. He had to endure, but he wanted more than anything else to be out there, to be hunting for the orb. It was his key to greatness, to history. They had to find it!
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The train was a fast one, and it had few stops before the channel. Siv and Bjørnar sat there pretending to be ordinary travellers and Siv could sense that their pursuer were on board. She felt it clearly and she was waiting. She would let the enemy come to them, and she had a suspicion as to what they would do. These were men who didn’t hesitate when it came to endangering others and the tunnel was a perfect place for an ambush. She winked at Bjørnar. “You shed the disguise, take another place. I deal with them. Do not act unless you have to”

He did nod, the blue eyes were hard and Siv knew that he had seen his fair share of fights, the man had been a professional soldier and he was probably as good as if not better than the men following them. But Siv didn’t want him to blow his cover and she had her plans ready. The train did stop one more time, more passengers did enter after having gone through the passport control and now the United kingdom was the next stop. She grinned as the train started to move again, if they were to strike they didn’t have that much time to do it.

The cab was half full, some people were tourists, others commuters but the atmosphere was relaxed and calm, everybody were minding their own business. None of their pursuers were in that car, but she knew that they were close. Probably just a few cars away from them, in both direction. The tunnel was dark and the speed couldn’t really be felt, Siv was preparing herself.
The screeching of brakes was the first thing she did notice, the train was making an emergency stop, somebody had hit the brakes. The entire car did shudder since this train wasn’t truly meant to stop that fast, and some did cry out in shock. People did look nervous, what was this? Some did fear the tunnel since they had the ocean up there above them and a few kids started to cry for real. Then the electricity went out and Bjørnar did move. He slid out of the disguise and Siv stuffed it inn under the seat where it couldn’t be seen. He moved without a sound and found another seat, now he didn’t look anything like the man who had entered the train. The car was completely dark but Siv didn’t need light to see, her eyes switched to infrared and she saw heat.

People were terrified, a voice could be heard over the intercom, pleading people to stay put, they had a minor problem with the train but it would be solved soon. It was smart, darkness does subdue people, they won’t dare to move if it is completely dark. Siv left her seat and there was a luggage rack above the seats. Without even needing to crouch down she was on top of it, her body capable of jumps no human would ever consider. They would come soon and they did. Two men carrying flashlights, apparently looking for their mates . Many did shout questions to them and the two men acted as if they were as confused as the others. They did stare at the place where Siv had been sitting and cussed, turned around and ran off. They were using some sort of walkie talkie and Siv did slide down on the floor again, they would gather their comrades and search the train thoroughly. She made no sound as she walked through the car and entered the lavatory at the end of the space. It was small and it did stink but it didn’t bother her. She knew there was a window there and she gave it a punch and it fell outwards. The air howled inn through the opening and she made sure to remove the lose glass in the frame. Good, it was done.

Silently she did exit the lavatory again, to anybody looking it would appear as if somebody had left the train via the toilet. She entered another car, some child was wailing and it did camouflage the sounds she did make. She shed her coat and gathered her hair in a pony tail, the attackers would come soon. She was right, they appeared just a few minutes later, four men all wearing night vision googles and the sight made the passengers gasp and stare. What was this? Siv bared her teeth, they heard the sounds from the lavatory and sped towards it, kicked up the door and found it empty. Short orders were being barked and they went to the nearest door, forced it open. Siv was almost purring, good, enter my realm now, and see what happens.

They spread out, commando style, orders being whispered and Siv did slide out the door too. She knew that Sam would have killed the men, she was a grey after all but Siv had more of a human soul, she wouldn’t kill unless she had to. The four they had murdered had been a warning, a test of how tenacious their pursuers really were. And they were fanatical so there was really little reason to hold back. But Siv knew the human mind, few men like this fear death, it is a risk they willingly take in this profession. But injury? That is way worse, and it breaks moral like nothing else. Siv knew how to injure human beings, and cause injuries so horrible they are a surgeon’s nightmare.

She jumped up onto the train roof, there wasn’t that much room between it and the roof of the tunnel but as long as the train was stationary it was no problem. Ahead she heard that the train engineers were trying to get the thing started again, and somebody was running around trying to find the place where the emergency brake had been set off. The four men were trying to find tracks in the loose gravel next to the track, it was hard due to the nature of the ground and the fact that there wasn’t that much light. They couldn’t use flashlights now, questions would be asked if they were discovered.

She could read their body language, they were frustrated and their self confidence was on the wane. She waited for them to snap, that was her signal. The moment when they went from being alert and focused on their mission to be focused on the fear of failing. The moment would always come, she knew humans well. And it came, one of the men did almost stumble and lost his balance, the others did hush at him and turned around, trying to avoid that he fell. Siv jumped, the distance was several meters and would have been a long drop for a human but to her it was just a piece of cake. She landed amongst them, already in motion.

The men never had the time to understand what happened, the darkness was working against them. Something dark was moving and then there was pain, a lot of pain. One tried to pull his gun but his arm snapped like a rotten twig and all of a sudden they all laid there, screaming with pain and primal fear. James had been rather self assure now, the men he had picked out were good but this? Nobody could have prepared for this. He had been slammed against the side of the train, felt bones snap like they were made from soft reeds and he heard that growling sound again, it made his blood feel like ice within his veins. A flash of glowing eyes, and teeth which were too white and too sharp and then it was gone and four men lay there on the gravel moaning and screaming. They couldn’t move, trying to would be too painful and James knew there and then that he was out of this. Whatever they were chasing, it wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t human and if he had been a curious person that in itself would have triggered further interest but he was pragmatic. He was injured, he would not be able to move again for weeks.

The boss would be furious but James was not going to lie, if Bartholomew Kruger wanted that orb he could bloody well go after it himself. And James knew every available mercenary in the business and he would warn them all. This would be a shit storm when the police arrived and he knew what the creature had done. It had effectively crippled them in more than one way. There would be interrogations, and the police would surely find out that they had stopped the train. The English police weren’t that bad but the French ones? Oh la la, they were tenacious like a bulldog when they senses something which maybe could point to terrorism and he was sweating already. They all carried fake papers and were armed and none of them could move at all.

James knew that his back was broken in at least one place, the guy next to him who was screaming like a kid had gotten his pelvis broken and also his thighbone and the others were even worse off. The thing was more dangerous than anything James had ever encountered and he was grateful he was alive. It had spared them, not out of a kind heart or some sort of weakness but to allow them to suffer. The injuries were made with precision, meant to be as painful as physically possible and also to be such that they would take a very long time to heal, it was very smart and vicious. This being didn’t bother with the agony of others. He had felt that when he saw those cold amber eyes, this was an enemy beyond anybody of human blood.
He heard running feet, saw flashlights up ahead, the security guards were coming and with them engineers and police and the game was over. He let his head hit the gravel with a groan, he wouldn’t be able to call the boss, that was the worst part of it.
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Sam and Runa were rather quiet, they had not even exited the cabin after the incident with the two men and Damian did feel that they were cautious. Instead they watched the TV and ate and he was very curious about them. There was so much they haven’t told him and he found that he was fascinated by this odd race. Runa did turn the sound up, there was a news flash, the channel train to England had been stopped in the tunnel and they suspected that it was a failed terrorist attack, four men of different nationalities were apprehended but hadn’t spoken yet. Runa grinned. “Siv, it is so like her”

Damian did wet his lips. “Are you all capable of being commandos? “

Runa sat down, one leg daintily over the other one, she was the epiphany of some lady like young thing there and then. “Yes, we have what is known as inherited memory. What our foremothers knew we know. And we learn very fast too”

Damian found that hard to believe. “How is that possible?”

Runa shrugged. “Heck do I know? But it is real, and very useful”

Sam did turn off the TV, they had seen some men on stretchers, a couple of them were clearly very injured. “Siv and Bjørnar is a team, they have fought for us before, removing threats”
Damian frowned. “Threats? What can threaten you?”

Runa leaned forth. “Oh the government? Fanatics? People with more than one screw lose?”

He did raise an eyebrow, for a moment he did look a bit like his previous identity, minus the bird nests and bird poop. “Do explain please?”

Sam did snort but Runa did stick her tongue out, as if she was some defiant kid. “Right, the fanatics part is easy. The church have never liked us, or rather, either they haven’t known about our presence or they have believed us to be demons”

He blinked. “Really?”

Sam sighed. “Listen, we are few. We were never meant to be many and we stick together. Back in the old days we were sought after in the areas where we live for we are stronger than a human and can work very hard. And also, we are good in bed. I am not trying to deny that. Men wanted us and well, the Christian view upon lust wasn’t exactly an encouraging one. We were the devils temptresses in the eyes of the clergy who came to know of our existence.”

Damian was intrigued. “So what did you do?”

Runa leaned back. “Hid, believe me, the men who did chose to live with us didn’t want to lose us so they kept their eyes open and nobody could just wander around and asking to look at what the womenfolk had under their skirts. But there were a few cases where clergy had to…disappear…before harm could be done. None of us ended on the pyre if that is what you are asking, we are way too clever and we protect each other. “

Damian sighed. “I get that one. But the government?”

Runa made an angry grimace. “Oh that, the modern world is so wonderful. Births has to be registered and then the kids are to enter kindergarten, have a paediatrician and go to school and all that. Our cover can be blown at any time, so we have taken precautions. We are registered as a religious congregation and thus we can follow our own rules but every now and then somebody does show up to snoop. And we trick them each time”

Damian frowned and had to grin afterwards, if any of the eldar still had been around they would have faced similar problems. It was bad enough with him and Brian, they had to change their identity with regular intervals so nobody would see that these men didn’t age.
“Do you have many children?”

The question slipped from his lips before he could control himself and Sam made a grimace. “No, not anymore. A few, a handful. The boys are alright enough, they are human and cannot reveal anything about the nature of their mothers but the girls are like us and has to be taught how to be careful from an early age. And we have doctors with whom we cooperate so we get the right papers and everything. “

Damian nodded. “So you are a religious group on paper? Some vegan collective?”

Runa scoffed. “Vegans? Oh come on, if the authorities believed that they would be all over us, for endangering the health of our kids. No, we are pagans. True devotees of the Norse Gods or the Celtic ones. At least that is what we try to make everybody believe”

Damian snickered. “Does it work?”

Sam grinned, a wild and wicked grin which did reveal her sharp teeth. “Hell yeah, some academic came to make a report once and was treated to one of the ceremonies, in honour of Cernunnos I think it was, she was blushing worse than a bride on her wedding night for the priest performing the rite was buck naked and a very nice specimen too. She bought the whole thing, hook sinker and line.”

Damian tried to think. “But back to the whole orb mess, is there any ancient places of power where we are going?”

Runa sighed. “Nope, it has all been transformed to churches and such, or the power is lost. Mankind has wreaked havoc upon those ancient sites, they have no idea of what they have destroyed.”

Damian could agree on that. “But we do need to get the orb out of here, it has to be returned to a place where it cannot be found by humans.”

Runa sighed, “Alright, there aren’t that many places left in the world and with Siv and Bjørnar leaving a false trail pointing to Stonehenge we have to think of something equally powerful.”

Damian was leaning forwards, eagerly. “Yes, and it has to happen fast! If that Kruger guy realize that the orb Siv has is a fake one he will probably be able to put two and two together”

Runa did sneer. “Yes, I do not doubt that. But he won’t be able to find it. The place we are going to is safe”

Damian swallowed hard. “No place is safe girls, until the orb is returned to its home dimension.”

Runa leaned back, there was something dark in her eyes. “You owe us a story old man, but alright. We will need to go to Iceland to get rid of it then. There are no other places with strong enough energy, England is out of the question”

Damian frowned. “Iceland?!”

Sam nodded. “Dimmu Borgir, many say it is a portal.”

He stared at the two. “Can you get us there?”

Runa nodded. “Sure, but it will take time. So to our hideout first and then we will make plans”

Damian stared at the teddy bear with the orb, he didn’t feel safe at all with that thing near by. “Good, but I must warn you. The orb is very dangerous”

Sam tilted her head. “Now is a good time to get the whole story ha? What exactly is in it? And who the fuck are you really?”

Damian swallowed, and swallowed again. “Ah, let us say that once there were…angels which did shape the world. And some were more powerful than the others and they were fifteen in number. One of them went rogue and he is basically what you would call Satan?”

Runa snorted and looked a bit puzzled. “Really?”

Her voice did contain some sarcasm and Damian did chose to ignore it. “I am one of the lesser beings, as is the creature trapped in the orb. But he was one of those who chose to follow the dark one and he was the strongest of the followers. And his will was very strong and he does covet control and power above all else”

Sam tilted his head. “So it is basically a fallen angel?”

Damian did make a grimace. “You could call him that yes, it is as good a description as any others”

Runa was staring at him. “And where are these angels now?”

Damian did look down. “In another dimension, where they hold control. They have tried to influence mankind too, believe me. Their leader is an overly pious piece of self-righteous shit, he truly believe that he is the one true God and that his word is that of the one”

Sam had to grin. “Somebody not capable of dealing with power ha? But why are you here then?”

Damian took a deep breath. “A few of us…couldn’t bare to leave this world to its fate, we wanted to stay behind and did, even if we did go against the orders of the higher beings. In some worlds this lead to our destruction and in others we live in hiding among humans, just like we do here”

Runa frowned deeply. “Why do I get the feeling that these higher beings are rather unholy of nature?”

Damian had to cough, she was hitting the nail right on the head. “Ah yes, they are…not good. Too much power is never good, it turns on itself and rots, it causes fermentation of the brain. They are high on their own control of the people of that land and in some worlds their power has been broken already. It may happen here too, eventually.”

He took a deep breath . “The one captured in the orb, Sauron or Mairon as his name originally was did originally break free since he wanted to explore and learn, outside of the rules the valar put on us maiar. But he went too far and became just as wicked as his master. Make no mistake, we are speaking evil beyond description here.”

Runa stared at the teddybear, there was an expression of mirth on her face. “Alright, so this fucker want’s power again right?”

Damian did nod. “He wants to control somebody in power, to gain enough energy to re create himself and if he does that…oh my are we going to have a huge problem on our hands”

Sam crossed her legs and looked almost like a mirror of Runa there and then. “Alright, but you do have powers too right?”

Damian nodded. “Unfortunately I am the weakest among my kin, there is another, my friend I have mentioned? He is…well, equal to our opponent in many ways. “

Runa frowned. “Can he help us?”

Damian made a sort of apologetic grimace. “I fear that he has to, if the dark maia tries to break free I am not strong enough to contain him. And I am rather sure that Sauron already has sensed a soul he wants to control”

Sam looked intense. “Mr Kruger?”

Damian nodded. “The man is just what Sauron would want, powerful, influential and ruthless. He is ideal really”

Runa was obviously thinking hard. “But this Sauron dude cannot really influence Mr Kruger from here now can he?”

Damian swallowed. “Oh I wouldn’t take that bet my dear, I fear that he already is influencing the man, discretely but with efficiency. He knows the hearts of men, and how to manipulate them. “

Sam did look angry. “Shit, could he be leading the guy to the orb?”

Damian went a bit pale. “Ah, not impossible no, if it becomes clear that the trail Siv laid out is a fake one I bet that Sauron will grasp his chance. Disappointment is a powerful emotion, it opens you up to manipulation like nothing else”

Runa threw a pillow at the teddy bear. “Great, we have to be very careful won’t we?”

Damian nodded slowly and felt that the energy of the orb changed every slightly, as if it was listening inn on their conversation. He got up. “We have to get going soon, do we have to wait for two days before leaving?”

Runa growled. “Sorry, yes. We are too conspicuous, the borders are well guarded. “

Damian just sighed and nodded, he sat back down again. Sam got up. “I will go get some groceries, I will be back soon. “

Damian tried to smile. “So, do you need to eat a lot or…?”

Runa laughed. “Do we look as if we eat all the time? No, we can go for weeks without food but we enjoy eating and we can eat just about anything. We do not waste a single calorie”

Sam went out the door and Runa blew her a swift kiss before returning to the ladies magazine she was reading. Damian felt restless, the orb was such a terrible presence and he wished that they could get rid of it now. He would need to call Brian soon, there had to be something they could do to shield the thing. Right now it was way too powerful, ordinary people would easily be swayed by its influence.

Sam did return after a while with a bag of groceries and they had a swift dinner in silence. Then they watched an old movie Sam kept making comments to and Damian decided to get to bed. It was late and he needed to clear his thoughts. The two women shared a bedroom and they too went to rest, he had no idea of whether or not they did sleep, he was feeling that they probably were a bit like the eldar and didn’t need much sleep.
He woke up all of a sudden, feeling slightly dizzy, Runa was shaking him. “Get up, something is wrong”

There was a strange light coming in from the windows and he gasped and got onto his feet. “Oh no!”

The valley was on fire, the grass and trees were burning and some huts too and there were people scrambling around, looking for a way out of the smoke and confusion. “ A forest fire now?”

Runa was snarling and for a moment he saw something else instead of her, something ancient and terrible and both beautiful and hideous at the same time. “No, this is no accident. We have to get out of here”

Sam was already packing the things they had and Runa stared out of the windows. “The road is blocked, shit! We have to run”

Damian was getting nervous. “Can you get through the fire?”

Runa nodded. “Yes, we do not need oxygen if we have been breathing inn thoroughly for a while, we can get burned but it will heal fast. How about you?”

Damian swallowed hard. “If I shed this disguise I can survive it yes, but…I cannot be seen!”

Sam was done packing and she tied up her hair and her face was a mask of something which did hide something nasty. Runa nodded at her. “The sword, take it out. We are gonna need it”

Sam frowned. “What do you mean?”

Runa nodded towards the windows. “This is no coincidence. It is about us”

Damian made a small squeak. “Oh Eru, you think so?”

Runa bared her teeth, she was truly beautiful in this light but her eyes told a different story. They were ablaze. She did remind Damian of some first age elda warrior, glowing with rage. “Yes, this fire is created on purpose, to flush us out”

Sam did rip the teddy bear open and grasped the orb, threw it into a back pack and Runa held it out. “You, carry this.”

There were shouts and calls and people running by, in desperation. The fire was raging against the skies and Damian knew that people would die, who would do something so terrible? Sam took the sword and it was a stark reminder of times which had been, he could hear it and sense it and felt its hunger and thirst. “Do not allow that thing to control you dear, it thirsts for blood”

Sam smiled. “I know!”

The hut was filling with smoke and he saw that both the females had stopped breathing now, they spared their oxygen. It was unnerving and odd to watch. He took a breath, then he concentrated and let the disguise of the old man vanish. Now he was tall and young and beautiful and glowing slightly. The robes he wore were ones of a follower of Yavanna and he made a grimace. If you wanted to be seen this was an excellent way to do it. Runa kicked the door open, smoke and flames were everywhere and they burst outside. She had grasped their papers and hid them in her bra so it wasn’t likely that they would get lost. Sam was carrying the sword and Damian did run between them, away from the valley where people were gathering. The village was awakened and they heard sirens and saw the lights of emergency vehicles. They had almost reached the tree line when they saw movement, several figures which did stumble forth, on fire and yet alive.

Damian moaned, of course. Sauron had reinforcements, he should have anticipated this. There had been many followers of the dark maia, some had gone into hiding and these were among them. They weren’t the most powerful, but they were dangerous still even if they had possessed mortals to have a physical body.

Runa shouted. “Are you kidding me?! What are those?!”

Damian gathered his senses, forced himself to be calm. “Fire spirits, lesser balrogs”

Sam did swing the sword, her eyes did glow. “Can they be killed?”

Damian whispered a spell, one which formed an orb of bluish light around them. “Yes, in this form, they are humans, possessed by the followers of that wretched idiot”

Sam let out a howl, she burst forth, he heard the swords keen whisper as she hit the group like an avalanche. Burning limbs and heads flew skywards, she was growling the whole time and Damian was shocked. He had seen that sort of mindless ferocity before, on the battle fields of the old world, when facing the worst of the orcs. He wondered what Melkor would have said if he had known that somebody else had created just what he had wanted back then, and perfected it too.

Sam was brutal, her movements so swift it was hard to keep track of her and Runa too ran forth. She didn’t have a weapon but she didn’t need one, she twirled her limbs around the men and broke their spines with strange movements which were inhuman. The fact that they were on fire didn’t bother any of them, they just killed and Damian realized that the two in this moment were uncontrollable. They wouldn’t have stopped if he had asked them to. The last one was dead and the flames were raging around them, it made their eyes glow eerily. “Come on, the flames aren’t that deep”

They ran. Damian did feel the heat against his skin and his robes but his power did protect him and they ran through the forest and over the crest of the hill. On the back side there was just smoke and they ran fast towards a road and some houses. Sam held onto the sword. “They will follow us?”

Damian nodded. “Yes, as soon as they find new humans to possess, they cannot do much when they are disembodied. “

Sam swore and Runa had a cold expression on her face. “That is bad, innocent people will suffer. We have to get going”

She stared at Damian. “Can you cloak yourself again?”

Damian took a deep breath. “Sorry, I am too…exited. I need to calm down”

Runa shook her head. “You look like a glowing angel goddamn it. Can you at least turn off that infernal glow?”

Damian tried, he stopped glowing. “You are still way too pretty but wait here.”

Sam did run off and returned with some clothes. “The owner will not miss them until tomorrow.”

It was a long set of jeans and a black T shirt and some underwear and a thin jacket. “Get it on, we have to get out of here now”

He did obey, the clothes were a bit short but he was lithe in this shape although very tall. He did look like an overly pretty young man now and it was an odd experience when he had been used to living like an old man for so long. Runa ran on, there was a village there and she found a car she hot wired. It was an old wreck and did sound as if it was about to die at any moment but she drove on. Her face was cold. “We have to hurry, our plans must change. Can you contact that friend of yours? We do need help if this is what that maia is capable of?”

Damian hesitated and Sam did give him the cell phone. “Call him!”

Damian stared at the two. “I need to know where we are going then”

Runa bared her teeth. “A small village in the north of Sweden, on the border to Finland. It is very remote.”

Damian did call the number, he held his breath and as soon as the voice at the other end could be heard he switched to valarin, just in case. Brian did sound shocked, then he listened to what Damian was saying and didn’t interrupt. “So, we have runaway valaraukar on the loose and our old friend is trying to mess things up? You are right, you need help”

Damian swallowed. “I am so sorry, but I am…I am not strong enough for this. I haven’t done anything for…for ages.”

Brian was grunting. “Dagnyr is going to a conference in Norway this week, Trondheim I think. I may tag along, if anybody can get me I would be grateful”

Damian tried to smile. “I am sure that can be arranged”

There was a scoffing sound coming from the phone. “Alright, we will see what we get out of this. Stay strong”

Brian closed his eyes. “Yes, and thank you”

He ended the conversation and the two stared at him. “Was that your language?”

He nodded. “He is coming to Norway, somebody has to pick him up”

Runa did steer the car along the rather bad road. “Alright, we can organize that. Now we have to get as much space between ourselves and those things as possible”

Damian shrugged. “They can travel fast if they aren’t bound by flesh.”

Runa nodded. “Makes sense, where did they come from?”

Damian made a grimace. “Deep within the ground I would recon, they have probably been hiding, waiting for their master to return.”

Sam had an intense expression on her face. “They were fire spirits you said, what else did serve that bastard?”

Damian shrugged. “Oh lots of creatures, monsters of all sorts, werewolves, vampires, the works”

Sam let out a small laughter. “Every bloody thing of nightmares right? Wonderful, do you happen to have garlic and wooden spikes?”

Damian shook his head. “Won’t work, sorry. That is a superstition, silver too I am afraid”

Runa mumbled. “Bloody wonderful”

Damian held his breath, she was driving like a mad woman and she had excellent control of the old car, before long they hit the main road and now she drove slowly, as if the car truly was close to death. She stopped at a gas station and exited the vehicle. Smoke was rising from underneath the hood and he heard the brakes ping and hiss, they had been overheated.
Sam did look at the surroundings, there weren’t that many cars there, but a pick up was left behind a shed and it was a very nice car, obviously custom made. Runa shook her head. “I know what you are thinking dear but no, it is as visible as a dragon in a herd of sheep”

Sam almost growled. “Spoil sport, it has almost five hundred horse power, can outrace just about anything”

Runa had a benign smile on her face. “Oh yes, but we need to lay low, not carry a huge sign saying “We are here”. We need an ordinary car”

Damian pointed at the signs on the other side of the road. “Ah, there is a wrecking yard two hundred meters in that direction?”

Runa grinned, her face lit up. “Bingo!”

Twenty minutes later they had bought an old car, it was left there for the wreckers to do their job but it could be driven and there was nothing wrong with it. It was just old and had run for a long time but there were still some miles left in it. Runa grinned and patted the dashboard. “These cars are devious, the engine is not standard. It is way more powerful than in a normal car of this brand and model and the letters which reveal this has been removed from the rear. It can sprint if it has to”

Damian took a deep breath. “Ah, that is wonderful, do we need that?”

Runa shrugged. “I don’t know but with the interference of Mr Orb we have to be prepared for anything.”

Damian tried to relax. “You are right, it is wise to be prepared”

He had never believed that he would miss his forest home but now he did, life had been uncomplicated then. Yes, he did miss the good old days, terribly. He could just hope that Gandalf would be able to control the spirit within the orb until they could send it off to where it truly did belong.

Chapter Text

Chapter 6: The pedal to the metal…

The drive was uneventful, but Damian was tense and worried the whole time and Sam and Runa didn’t speak much. They had to cross several borders and he didn’t have a passport with his new looks. He doubted that he was capable of transforming back to the elderly gentleman he had been, he was too shaken up still. They did a few pit stops to buy some food and gas for the car but he did not like it. There were cameras at gas stations and he knew that the cops would be looking for Sam. He could possibly escape now, since he now was a very attractive young male but he was rather sure that Sam would be recognized. They had to come up with a way to cross the borders, without getting stopped.

Runa had bought a cell phone at one of the gas stations, it wasn’t expensive and just a very simple one but it did have internet capacity and while they were waiting for some food at a rather crowded roadside café she did send text messages like mad. Damian happened to catch a glimpse of the messages and the language wasn’t one he did recognize at all, it did look like gibberish and it did contain numbers and odd symbols. Runa did grin. “It is our own code, nobody is capable of cracking it since it is based upon a now extinct language.”
Damian did wet his lips, the orb was wrapped in some cloth now and he didn’t feel its presence at the moment. That in itself was worrying and he wished that there had been an active volcano nearby, he would have dropped the darn thing into it as if it did carry the plague itself.

The car did not break down the way Damian did expect it to, it kept moving and Sam did drive now, with a recklessness which was both terrifying and fascinating. She seemed to have an ability to judge speed and distance which was on par with that of a fighter jet pilot and her ability to think in three dimensions almost creepy. Runa was relaxing and didn’t seem to have anything to worry about at all. The traffic was heavy and Damian was glad they drove a very anonymous looking car for they did blend in rather well. He just wondered what Sauron was up to now, the orb was so very quiet and he was sure that the dark maia had plans of some sort. And the plans of the dark one were never benign.

Mrs Kruger was enjoying herself by the pool outside of their mansion when she did notice that her husband’s favourite car was being driven forth by the servant responsible for that task. It was a very luxurious Jaguar and it was both fast and expensive. She had never had the pleasure of being driven anywhere within it and she frowned as she saw her husband running down the stairs with his coat flying behind him and a briefcase in his hands. He had been absent minded lately, and distant and she was a woman who didn’t accept being ignored. As a matter of fact she almost demanded that everybody were ready to follow her slightest whim at all times and he was no exception but these days he had more or less avoided her completely. And now he was going away? She wouldn’t accept it.

She got up and threw her bathrobe around herself, walking towards the car with her chin held high and her eyes ablaze. “And where do you think you are going?”

Bartholomew did cringe when he saw her, he opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to swallow. “Ah, there is an emergency, in England. I will only be gone for a couple of days”

She put her hands into her waist, or what had been a waist once upon a time and pushed her lower jaw forth. She did look fierce like that, and her eyes did shoot lightening. “Have you forgotten our invitation to Mr Decker’s 70’th birthday? Ha?! Everybody is going to be there, everybody!! We cannot afford to lose that opportunity. Everybody will be laughing at us if we don’t show.”

Bartholomew was almost shivering, the surveillance cameras of a local bus station outside of London had caught a glimpse of what could only the orb, inside of a rental car and that road did lead to no other place than Stonehenge. What those people were doing there was anybody’s guess but now he knew where it was, and he was going to get it. He couldn’t lose that opportunity just because of some sorry old sod and a party which probably was about as lively as a funeral. He tried to smile. “I am sure that the party is going to be delightful and I am truly sorry my little rose bud but I have to go, we will lose the entire…Bellard estate… if I don’t go now, they have fucked up so so bad”

She did frown even deeper, the Bellard estate? She had no recollection of that place but then again, her husband’s business was grand and she didn’t really have an idea of how much he did own. “What do you mean?”

He did manage to smile, and it was a grin with some real humour to it, to convince her of the truth of a lie it had to be over the top so why not go all the way. “One of the supervisors have embezzled money and used it for his mistress, who happens to be a distant relative of the queen herself”

It was perhaps the fattest lie he had ever served his wife but she did swallow it, with glee. She did smell the opportunity to entertain the others with some really juicy scandalous gossip, the very best. “Really? The queen?! Oh my, well then I understand”

He did lean over and kissed her, the feelings he did try to fake were making him shudder. “Know what my sweet, while on the plane I will make a call and make sure that you get that diamond necklace you liked so much, it will truly make you stand out at the party now won’t it?”

She did blush, and giggled. The necklace was so expensive it would make a substantial hole in his accounts but why not, it did buy her cooperation and she would be sweetness incarnate again, at least for a while. “Oh yes, that is so kind of you”

He patted her playfully on the skinny rump and entered the car, he had to go now! It felt as if the orb was pulling on him, all the time. He did speed out of the gate as if he was at the les Manse raceway and he had already called the airport. His own private lear jet was being fuelled and prepared, it would be ready for take off the moment he did arrive. But why were those people bringing the orb to Stonehenge? There couldn’t be another destination for the thing, did these people know something he didn’t? They would activate it, there you had it, it was indeed some sort of ancient technology and the energy of that sacred site would start it. He had to get there, screw customs and screw the rules for safe flying. He was flooring it and the car did almost howl as it raced down the highway. He hadn’t brought his guards nor any of his servants, this he had to do alone.

It was a pity that his mercenaries were in detention still, none of them had spoken a word to the police and all were seriously injured but there are other fish in the pond. During his life he had encountered many a shady character and he had many who did owe him favours. As he drove he ordered his computer to find some phone numbers and send a text message to them all. He didn’t expect any of them to ignore it, if he did get the orb he was sure that he would gain wealth above his wildest imagination, a few grand in payments didn’t matter at all.
------------------
Mrs Kruger had returned to the house, her mood was very good and the thought of the necklace was thrilling, the other ladies would envy her and it was a very sweet thought. She fed her dog some snacks and went to her tanning booth, she had to prepare for the party, she had to look fabulous. She had to call her hairdresser and also order a manicure and the seamstress, oh yes, she did need a new dress, one in dark velvet, to really show off the diamonds he had promised her. She hadn’t really thought that much of the party before but now, with that wonderful necklace available to her she started to feel very excited again. She did saunter into her walk in closet and contemplated her choice of shoes, then she pinched her hips. She would need to diet for a couple of days, that was for sure.

She was about to leave when she heard her dog whimper, then it sort of shrieked and she ran outside, convinced that one of the goddamn servants were torturing her baby. Those bastards didn’t respect her dog at all, she should have fired them all and gotten new ones, from some god awful place where they learned how to respect their superiors. What she did see did make her stop and gawk, a tall dark shadow did loom over the dog, it did look dead, legs jerking in its final spasms and the eyes had popped out. The shadow had human shape but she didn’t really see any features, just swirling dark mist. She opened her mouth to scream but couldn’t make any sound, she had never believed in the supernatural but now she had to. Was this the ghost of some mummy perhaps? She knew that Bartholomew had some of those in the basement. “Woman….show…me…his …secrets”

The voice was a mere hiss, hoarse and terrible and she did yip. “What…what secrets…”

The darkness seemed to ignite, as if there were flames within it, she felt the heat. “Ancient….”

She had to move, her legs didn’t obey her will but that of this thing, whatever it was. Bartholomew did own a vault, officially she didn’t know it was there at all but she wasn’t stupid, she had figured out where it was and she had even found the combination for the lock. At first she had believed that he had some sort of valuable stuff there but she had entered it once and there were just old stuff there. Boring things, nothing fancy at all. You could buy prettier things at the local thrift store. But her feet kept walking down to the basement and she did remove the small painting which did conceal the control panel. She was betraying her husband and what on earth was a ghost doing here? Had her husband awakened some sort of curse? She knew he was dealing with antiquities, it had to be some sort of misunderstanding, a mistake most certainly. The panel did slide aside, revealed the door and the lock did open without any problems, the massive steel doors slid aside and revealed a rather large room filled to the brim with antiquities, most were very ancient indeed and she had no idea of what half of it was supposed to be. “;Listen, whatever you are after, I am sure that if my husband does have it he has bought it believing it to be alright”

The shadow did just hiss, and she felt a cold breeze as it did slide past her, entering the vault. For a second she did contemplate slamming the doors shut behind it but she wouldn’t reach the control panel fast enough, and her legs were trembling like those of a newborn colt. The swirling blob of dark mist was speeding around, stopping every now and then and the glow within grew stronger. She had no way of knowing that some of these ancient artefacts in deed contained some power. They had been used in sacrifices, they had been objects of worship, some had belonged to powerful people. Every ounce of power was being devoured and in the end the shadowy figure did stop in front of a glass pedestal. Within it was pieces of jewellery, mostly earrings and rings and they were all made from gold or silver. Some were terribly old and the figure did push the glass aside as if it was nothing and reached for one of the objects. It was a gold ring, very simple and not at all extraordinary and she heard the sound of laughter. It wasn’t a pleasant sound at all.

The figure did seem to devour the ring and then it turned to her, now she could see a face there, a beautiful and at the same time horrible face with glowing eyes. “I thank thee mortal, you have given me what I need now, and your husband will be mine too”

She didn’t understand but the creature did reach out, the hand glowing as if it was made from lava and the last thought she had was a sudden explosion of fear, what had her husband done?
The maia did go invisible again, it wasn’t strong enough to create a new body yet, but one of the nine rings was enough to make him much stronger. He could influence more people now, at the same time. He had to return to the orb for a while but he was not helpless anymore, he could do some damage and whence the man who was known as Bartholomew had the orb he would be able to possess his body and take it as his own. He had to admit that the man was too old and too ugly for his liking but what the hey, he could change that when he returned to his full power. The vault was left with the door open and the body of Mrs Kruger laying on the floor, looking as if she had walked straight into a furnace.
----------------------
Siv and Bjørnar had managed to enter England undetected and they had spent some time at an inn outside of London, just to let things calm down. The men arrested within the tunnel didn’t speak to the police at all and since they all carried fake ID’s it was assumed that they had been part of some sort of terrorist plot, possibly one with the intent of crippling the channel railroad in some manner. But nobody knew what or who had stopped them and the train passengers were bewildered too. Nobody had any idea of what had happened and the injuries the men had suffered were horrific. The doctors responsible for their treatment was convinced that whoever was behind it had used some sort of very hard tool, like a crowbar and yet there were no signs of it. The idea of somebody breaking bones like that with their bare hands was impossible. The police were scratching their heads, the men were in arrest and being treated for their wounds but nobody did find an answer to any of the questions.

Siv and Bjørnar did pay attention to the news, they had sort of sneaked off the train as the chaos was at its peak and they knew that the orb had to be seen yet again. So they hired a huge sedan with large windows and placed the darn thing in the backseat, half covered with a jacket. They had put on the LED lights and the thing did look like something out of this world for sure. On purpose they drove in an erratic pattern towards their destination and made sure to park where surveillance cameras could see the fake orb. Bjørnar had put on a new disguise, he did yet again look like some elderly guy trying to look young and Siv was wearing a most horrible blond wig and some clothes which did make people stop and stare at her. She did look peculiar to say the least. Like some worn out street girl who had gone overboard with the concept of “sexy” to the point where it became “sleazy”.

Siv did have contact with Brenna, who did monitor air traffic among other things and a lear jet owned by the Kruger family had taken off from a local airport near the Kruger estate that evening. The bait was taken, now they had to prepare. Siv did doubt that the man would come alone, most likely he had goons following him, hired guns and brutes and she didn’t want to risk lives. Stonehenge was after all a tourist attraction and at this time of the year there were busloads arriving each day. Brenna got on it immediately, she had to come up with some reason to keep people clear of the site for a few days. Not something as grand as the attack within the tunnel but something which would lower people’s eagerness and make them shun the site. The solution was a fake scientific report which was being “leaked” to the major newspapers, claiming that prolonged exposure to the so called “Ley line energy” could cause problems like vertigo, lameness, insomnia and impotence plus a few other even more unpleasant side effects. Before the scientific community became aware of this and could debunk it once and for all the number of visitors did drop abruptly.

Siv and Bjørnar had found a nice spot to stay, a small bed and breakfast not far from the plain and the owner was a lady in her 90’s who was so affected by her age she forgot her guests the moment they left the house. The names they used were of course fake and Siv had changed her appearance yet again. Now she wore a red wig and some clothes which would have looked very natural at the original Woodstock festival. Bjørnar had put on some similar stuff and he had braided his hair and did look like some born again hippie. The enemy would look for an elderly man, not some blond giant who did look like and extra from the Vikings TV series. The waiting game was on, the plane would land early next morning and then there was about two hours of driving to get anyone to the henge, unless of course Mr Kruger gave a damn about expenses and hired a chopper. It could be done but then he would need a pilot and how do you explain a job like that to a pilot? There were lots of people who hired choppers in order to watch for crop circles and many of those were more than a wee bit eccentric but the henge was a no fly zone due to the highway being just a few hundred yards from the structure.
So they were prepared to wait, and Brenna mailed Siv and told her when they could expect the plane to land and if Mr Kruger brought reinforcements. He wasn’t the only one capable of tapping into security cameras.
-----------------------
Runa was texting Brenna as they drove north, the border wasn’t far away now and they felt as if they were in a hurry. The passports they did own were fake and also, Damian didn’t have one at all and the border control was crazy strict these days. Runa did contemplate using their special trick on the border guards if they were male but Brenna did promise them some help. Damian did wonder what a hacker could do to help them cross a border like that. The answer was a surprising one, there were huge information panels everywhere which did show information in at least four languages and there were automatic gates the cars and lorries had to pass through. Suddenly the panels started to flicker and then they all went black, and the gates did open, widely. Several of the control boxes did start to produce black smoke and there were the sound of fire alarms coming from almost every building there. The workers went frantic, flames did appear and the queue of cars started to get long, and also, some tried to back up to get away from what could potentially become an inferno.
The officers controlling the border had only one thing to do, they had to let the cars through so the fire trucks could reach the buildings, they waved the cars forth and Runa and Sam did grin at each other. Hooray for modern technology, it was so wonderfully fragile for those who knew how to play with it. Damian was almost panting as they drove away from the border station. “Is this Brenna insane?”

Runa just giggled. “Quite, the goal does sanctify the means don’t you think? We got through”

Damian sighed. “Yeah, and we have several other borders to cross before we reach Sweden, how do you solve that ha?”

Runa just shrugged and Sam showed her fangs. “We’ll come up with something, I am sure of it. Brenna will help us if she can”

Damian swore a bit, then he leaned back into the seat and tried to relax. They had at least two more days of travel ahead of them, probably closer to four and much could happen in that time span. He closed his eyes, the orb was still quiet but he felt a presence there yet again, more subtle, subdued almost. What are you up to you old bastard? His own inner voice was tired, almost indifferent. They had to expect the unexpected now, no doubt about that.
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Brian Proust did take a quick look in the mirror, he made a grimace and tried to force himself to smile. He had no idea of what his old friend had gotten himself into this time, creatures created by aliens? A palantir containing the very soul of Sauron? And that goddamn sentient blade Eöl had forged? It was a mess but he had to deal with it and Dagnyr had been thrilled when he said that he wanted to join him for the journey to Norway. Brian did feel a bit bad having to trick his friend, he hadn’t said anything about why he wanted to visit the land of the undying sun, just that he wanted a change of scenery and that some old friend wanted to meet him. Dagnyr was preparing a lecture at the university of Trondheim about the possibility of habitable planets in other solar systems and how they were to be discovered and Brian had almost laughed when he saw how nervous Dagnyr was. He had talked about this before, in a TED talk, but this was something else. It was hard science for future scientists and he couldn’t make any mistake or the students would tear him to pieces metaphorically speaking.

Dagnyr’s fascination with the possibility of alien life was sweet, and a bit unnerving. Brian did know who he truly was, and what he had been and maybe the man was too brave and bold for his own good. Some of the theories he was about to launch could be defined as career killers if they weren’t presented in the proper manner, as mere theories only. Dagnyr did firmly believe that creatures from other planets had visited earth in the distant past for there was just so much out there which couldn’t be explained by mainstream archaeology and Brian wished that he could have sat down with the man and explained it all. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t say that the ruins you see on these pictures were a grand city, the capital within a kingdom now lost to the eons of time, a city which did house people who had in fact come from another world, sort of. And the legends and the artefacts which nobody could explain, the truth about them would have stunned everybody.

And now this, if Dagnyr caught scent of what Brian was really into this time he would go ballistic, the man would demand to see this for himself, to meet these people who were born out of the hands of a civilization millennia ahead of the human race. It wasn’t that Brian did doubt Dagnyr’s ability to keep his mouth shut, it was just that his enthusiasm sometimes got the better of him. One slip of the tongue and these friends of Aiwendil would be in trouble and Brian didn’t doubt for even a second that there were people out there more than ready to take advantage of them. Heck, he already knew of one such case and he didn’t want anybody else falling into the hands of shady governments with even more shady agendas. That the goddamn bastards had managed to get their hands on one of the eldar once was bad enough, a race like the one Damian did describe? Oh sweet Eru, they were the perfect soldiers, monsters disguised as beauty and he closed his eyes and thought for a fleeting second of others like them, predators which had been the terror of their enemies, and indirectly their own creators. But this race was different, they weren’t as much changed as simply engineered and he considered all that Damian had said and knew that something like that in the hands of Morgoth would have changed everything.

But now? He knew so very little about them, were they many? Were they few? Could they fight? Was this the only reality in which they did exist? In that case…
He took a deep breath. The final battle was approaching, it would come and if these beings were on their side? The valar would never anticipate something like that, it didn’t exist within their understanding of the world. It wasn’t in the original song, heck, these beings were like a loose canon on deck, completely unpredictable. He couldn’t wait to meet them, they did sound amazing but also scary.

He met Dagnyr at the airport, the very handsome man did say goodbye to his husband Matt and Brian did greet him, smiling warmly. Dagnyr did lift a briefcase with a sort of grimace. “My notes regarding the lecture, if I lose them I am seriously screwed, I cannot remember a single word of it. My brain has gone into a complete lock down”

Brian chuckled. “Don’t worry about that my friend, whence you are up there I am sure you will dazzle them all and give the best lecture ever.”

Dagnyr nodded and handed his ticket to the lady at the gate, she smiled and checked it and they were allowed to enter the plane. “I am glad you chose to come with me, I have had an odd feeling for a couple of days. I am sure something will go wrong, it is just that feeling. I cannot shake it. “

Brian swallowed. He forced his face into a neutral expression. “Oh, it is just your nerves speaking, you have worked with this for too long.”

Dagnyr looked down, for a moment he was so alike his brother it was scary. “I don’t think so, I have been nervous before damn it. This feels different. I have wondered of it has to do with Sören somehow but he is alright.”

Brian took a deep breath, foresight had been known to follow that family, maybe they ought to be careful after all. “Well, I am going to be there and if you do break down on stage and start impersonating a gorilla I will personally go up there and reassure the students that only a small percentage of professors go Ga-Ga. That ought to calm them down, and keep them on the right academic path”

Dagnyr laughed, and sat down, they had seats next to each other and Brian could still remember the first time he saw a plane. Back in the days the great eagles had been the only means of air transport, he couldn’t say that he missed them that much. They were proud creatures, easy to offend and then there was the small matter of bird poop. If one thought that a normal bird poops a lot they ought to have seen the loads of shit those huge raptors did leave behind. It made him think of a very silly limerick he once saw written on a lavatory door. Birdie birdie in the sky, why did you poo poo in my eye? I did not sigh, I did not cry, I just thanked God that cows don’t fly!

Dagnyr said yes to a glass of wine at dinner time but Brian did just drink tea, he didn’t want to risk anything and he wondered where his friend was now. And how he did fare, escorting two very exotic and alluring creatures. There were at least five families in the plane with small kids, one was howling constantly while two others were fighting like weasels on drugs and a kid who was a bit older had turned the entertainment console of the seat on with the volume at max and refused to use headphones so the entire cabin was treated to the soundtrack of Frozen. A few of the passengers did look as if they were ready to commit infanticide for the kid didn’t listen to the stewardess at all and neither did the parents. Yes, he did envy his friend, it had to be way more interesting that this flight.
--------------------------------
They made it almost to the next border before the car finally decided that it had done enough and was ready for the great highway up high, it had started with what could only be described as a nasty case of hiccups as they drove through a large city and as they left it and hit the highway yet again the car had started to jerk and cough. Runa was swearing, the engine was about to die for real and she left the highway and stopped at a gas station. She drove the car close to a small building which contained gas bottles and bared her teeth. “We need another ride, and we need it now!”

Damian did enter the gas station, it did in fact double as a grocery store and they did even have fishing equipment and other outdoors stuff. He bought a backpack, a green rather anonymous looking one and Runa did grin and bought a similar one plus an inflatable bathing ball, the type kids use. Sam did get them some food and stuff and Damian did put the orb in the bag and it did fit, although it did look rather odd and heavy. The sword was placed within a textile bag meant for fishing rods and Damian felt that the orb was very quiet. That was not a good sign at all. Why the heck did that bastard have to find this thing in the first place? It was okay to be fascinated by the past and its many legends but not to such a degree. Obsession is never wise, no matter what you are obsessed with.

Runa did sort through her cards, she had a small metal container with cards of different types and held one forth. “This one, we need a new car, and there is enough money on this to buy one but I doubt that there are any car shops nearby”

She walked over to the owner of the gas station and put on her sweetest expression, the man did melt like a glacier placed over a volcano. Damian listened as she explained that their trusted old car had died and that they needed a new one fast for she was going to visit her sister who was going to have a baby and they were in a hurry and were there any car shops in the area? The man did nod and was the very image of eager helpfulness, he did explain that there was a person who sold cars not far from there and he offered to drive them over as the other worker there could take care of the business for a little while. Runa did act as if she was ready to kiss him and Damian realized why these creatures were so renowned for being seductive. She knew just which buttons to press, how to read a man and figure out what made him tick. This man found naïve and stupid girls attractive and so she became both naïve and stupid and very very blond.

The man owned a small van and they drove off as he obviously tried to be macho and show off, Sam did grin too, she wasn’t as alluring as Runa, or rather, she was perhaps even more beautiful but that was the beauty of a well balanced blade and not at all the sensual allure Runa did portray. Damian just sat there with a silly grin on his face, looking like a nitwit and he pretended to be Sam’s brother. Not that they were alike at all but who cares,

The man selling cars was an elderly chap with a face so sour it could have made fresh milk turn into sour cream in an instant and he did look as if the word food was banned from his vocabulary for Damian had barely ever seen a more skinny human. Runa was suddenly very demure and very respectful and Damian was suddenly Sam’s husband, not her brother. Not that it mattered but Runa seemed to be able to read a persons’ character like an open book. This man was old fashioned, conservative and saw women as way beneath men. Sam would probably have ripped him to shreds for the glances he did throw at her but she did contain her wrath and stayed behind Damian, seemingly submissive and obedient.

Runa did manage to manipulate the man, it was a wonder but Damian started to suspect that Runa would have been able to seduce even the devil himself if she had tried to. She bought a car which did make Damian gawk. It was the opposite of the old worn out vehicles they had used so far, it was a brand new Audi, with a very powerful engine and it was a luxury car for sure. As she signed the papers Damian saw an expression on her face which could only be described as raw lust. They were about to enter the autobahn and it had no speed limit, this car would look just natural out there and it was able to outpace just about anything else out there with the exception of some super cars.

She allowed Damian to drive for the first miles, then they switched and she was almost laughing as the heavy car shot forth over the asphalt. “This car is a beast, and we will need it”

Damian frowned. “Why are you saying that?”

Runa seemed to almost merge with the car, her grin was one of immense satisfaction. “When we reach the border we will most likely be let through without being checked, only rich people drive these beauties, not smugglers, traffickers or other bad guys.”

Damian tried to grin. “There was a Ferrari there?”

Sam shook her head. “It draws too much attention, yes those are crazy fast but they break down crazy fast too if handled the wrong way and in a crisis they aren’t very safe at all. This car on the other hand? It can survive a landmine!”

Damian swallowed. “Will we need a car which can survive a landmine?”

Runa chuckled. “I surely hope not, but better to be safe than sorry right?”

Damian nodded. They were right, this heavy large vehicle did feel way more robust than a flimsy sports car and it was made to protect the driver in a manner a smaller lighter car couldn’t. He just hoped that it was enough.
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The small jet plane had touched down with the dawn, the two pilots had switched between piloting the plane and yet they were tired. There had been no landings and the plane was almost out of fuel as the landing gear touched down. It was very obvious that the boss was nearly desperate to get to where he wanted to go for they had given a damn about almost every rule commercial flights have to follow. It was a wonder they hadn’t been forced down by some jet fighter. Mr Kruger did exit the plane as if his ass was on fire and a car was already waiting for him, he ran over to it. A man in a uniform was waiting, holding the door open. “They are waiting for you sir”

Bartholomew did nod, he checked the time on his phone and saw that his staff had tried to call him several times. He ignored it, it was probably just his wife acting up again but he would deal with that bitch afterwards. The car left the airport with screeching wheels and he got a paper handed over by the driver. Five had confirmed that they were coming and were ready to do some work for him. It wasn’t the best but they were good enough and he wouldn’t tell them anything about the men he had lost during this hunt. As they drove out of the city a huge black SUV did join them from a side road, it was the most ridiculous vehicle Bartholomew had ever seen for no private person drives something like that. It screamed “Special forces” or “the bad guys are here” to everyone who saw it and he rolled his eyes. Something more discreet had been to prefer.
They drove west and he felt his heart thumping within his chest, he was so very close now. But he got a funny feeling, a sort of voice at the back of his head screaming that this was a folly, that he shouldn’t try to get the orb. He didn’t listen, he was too eager and too convinced of his own right to claim it. As the car did race towards its goal he did try to calm himself down with some reading. He had a pad in the car and went online, searching for anything which could be of interest. He saw one case which did catch his attention. He had seen a TED talk by that man before, on the web and he had been impressed. He did share the ideas of ancient visitors from other realms and even if he couldn’t openly admit it he did admire the man’s guts.

He saw that the originally Icelandic scientist was holding a lecture in Norway and made a grimace. He had been that far north once, to check upon some rumours of an ancient Egyptian artefact but it had been a hoax and he had frozen his butt off for it had been in December and Oslo was freakin’ cold. But the lecture did interest him and more so, he knew that this Dagnyr had been discussing some of the topics he found intriguing with other scientists and he had a feeling that having a man like that on the payroll could be a smart move. He had to think about that later, now he had to collect the orb, before somebody did snatch the price from right underneath his nose.

The cars did slow down so they didn’t attract the attention of the police and Bartholomew was almost foaming with eager energy. He could almost smell it, the orb would be his and then his theories would be proven for all and he would be the one everybody turned to for advice and wisdom. The cell phone did vibrate yet again but he didn’t even look at it, nothing was more important than this.
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Siv and Bjørnar had prepared well, the henge was almost abandoned and the few tourists who were there did look miserable for the weather had turned very sour with a nasty northern wind and cold rain. Bjørnar and Siv had the fake orb in a backpack and they pretended to be having a pick nick a few hundred yards from the henge. They were covered with rain coats and they just waited for the tourists to leave. The rain became heavier, the henge was abandoned for the day and they knew that they were in a hurry now. Bjørnar ran forth with the backpack, there were no guards there now but they couldn’t use too much time on this. Siv was very strong, she had brought a shovel from the cottage and now she did dig, very fast and threw soil around her as she got so deep she was able to follow her plan. They had brought some pieces of wood covered with what did look like runes but it was really just lines which didn’t mean anything at all.

They placed the orb on the wood and started digging some of the soil back over it, then they heard the sound of engines in the distance and Siv did grin, she had a fierce fire glowing in her eyes. “Come on, let’s get out of here. No point in being seen”

Bjørnar did grasp the shovel and the equipment and Siv grasped a vial of blood she had hidden in her skirts and poured some of it onto the ground and the makeshift altar. It was cows blood and then she also dropped some raven feathers and a few bones from a cat onto the mess. Then they ran, in the grey light of the day they were hard to see and they wore rain coats which did cover them completely and were hard to see from a distance.

There was a last surprise added to the orb, it was Siv’s idea and Bjørnar did carry a small remote detonator in his hands. He had a hard expression within his eyes, the explosion wouldn’t be very strong, but strong enough to ruin the orb and of course it would reveal that it was a fake but it would also hopefully stun the hunters for a few moments. Siv and Bjørnar did split up, Siv did run in a wide circle back towards the parking lot, she used the terrain and was close to invisible.
The two cars which came screeching into the parking lot were everything but anonymous, a huge Bentley of the type only the rich and shameless use and a huge SUV which did scream penis enlarger quite loudly. Siv was hiding in the ditch close to the exit of the parking lot, there were bushes there and she didn’t need much space at all to hide. Men came running out of the black SUV, carrying guns. Not openly but she could see it, they were off balance. The man who exited the Bentley was wide eyed and desperate, he ran forth and the others had to follow.
Siv was grinning, the grin was vicious and for a moment she didn’t look human at all, it was as if something else was about to break forth and take over. She snarled and crouched even further into the ditch.

Bartholomew saw it, the orb was placed on a sort of altar in the ground and he was so exited he failed to realize that the archaeologists had been all over the site ages ago, there was no such thing as a hidden altar there. The orb was glowing and then time seemed to slow to a halt, he was running towards it as the glow got even stronger, and then it seemed to hover for a few seconds and he did stretch his arms out to grasp it, to stop it if it was taking flight and then it did disintegrate. It flew apart with a sort of poof and shards flew everywhere but not hard enough to harm anyone. He gasped and fell to his knees, his mind numb, his eyes huge and dark and for a second he was sure that the shock would be the death of him. One of the men did pick up one of the shards. “Doh, this is glass, or acrylics”

Bartholomew turned his face towards the man, at first his bewildered mind didn’t really manage to understand what the man said but then it hit home and he did grasp the shard, He felt it, lifted it, it was glass. It was glass. It was a fake, it was a hoax and he sat there shivering for a few seconds before the anger and disappointment got the better of him. He roared, he got up and threw the shard at the ancient rocks surrounding them and gave a long damn about the consequences. “I have been tricked, I have been tricked. God damn it”

The men did look nervous, they were all criminals and used to almost everything but this man did look inhuman at the moment, eyes bloodshot and skin red, he was baring his teeth. “They will pay for this, they will pay with blood”

He did spin around, kicked the shards with vicious rage and it wasn’t until they heard the sound of distant sirens that he managed to calm himself down. He had to think now, be rational, the orb was still out there. He could still find it, he had resources, yes, he couldn’t lose hope yet. He turned and ran back towards the Bentley and his face was stone hard and pale. He should have listened to that little voice, it was a friend after all.

Siv had waited until the men were out of sight, then she did sneak up to the cars. It was no point in trying to track them, they were probably just rented and this Kruger dude wouldn’t use them again. But there had to be something there she could use? She had a tiny object in her hand, it was no larger than a flea and it did look very much like a small piece of dirt. The door to the backseat was still open and the driver was listening to the radio using head phones, well thank you very much for making this easy. Siv was grinning as she did reach into the back seat and placed the little speck of technology on the inside of one of the pockets of Mr Kruger’s very nice coat.

She then slid back to the ditch. Now they would be able to keep an even closer eye on his whereabouts. She saw that the police was coming and the two cars did exit the parking lot rather rapidly, and went in different directions. There weren’t any surveillance cameras there and it was probably a good thing. Siv and Bjørnar did hide in the bushes and the police was running around shouting and trying to figure out what had just happened there. Siv grinned as she and Bjørnar made it back to the cottage. “He will never give up”

Bjørnar shook his head. “No, but Runa and the others have a chance now. If they manage to stay low that is”

Siv sighed. “We have done what we can, now, let us relax and I bet that Brenna wants to know how this went. “

Bjørnar was frowning. “Yeah, but that thing they are carrying, I feel that it is way more powerful than we can imagine.”

Siv made a grimace. “You are right, it is very dangerous. “

Bjørnar hugged her swiftly. “Runa and Sam are clever, they will manage to solve this, I am sure.”

Siv nodded. “Yes, they are survivors for sure, I pray it is enough”
-----------------------------------
Runa and Sam were chatting and Damian did doze, he felt tired and the orb was like a heavy weight upon his mind, constantly trying to influence him. It wouldn’t have any luck though, he was immune to that type of power now. They were driving along the main road and the traffic was heavy, there were cars everywhere and it was getting dark. Runa smiled. “In another half an hour we will reach the ocean and we’ll take a ferry to Sweden, with this car I doubt that they will check us out. There are other way more suspicious looking vehicles out there.”

Damian nodded, he felt tense still. The darkness was filled with rain too and the road was swallowing all light, Runa was driving and she was good at it. Suddenly Damian saw that she tensed up and she was using the rear view mirror. He did turn around. “What?”

Runa did change the gears. “We have company”

Damian did squint, he did see lights behind them, many and placed very high above the ground. “What is that?”

Runa growled. “Trouble”

She pushed the car forth and the engine was purring, this was what the car had been made for, speed. Damian tried to see what it was but he couldn’t, Sam’s eyes did glow red for a few seconds and she did swear. “Shit, oh crap!”

Damian saw that the lights didn’t get any closer, whatever it was, it was slow and Sam grasped Runa’s phone and did push some buttons. “It is a mine nearby, those are mining trucks”

Damian did frown. “Are you kidding me? Those are slow”

Runa did nod. “Yes, slow, and huge, and heavy and they can crush an ordinary vehicle. We have got to get out of here, are there any sideways anywhere near?”

Sam did shake her head. “No, the harbour is the first opportunity to leave the main road now”

Runa cussed and she killed the front lights, the road was very dark now and the other cars there did not notice the danger which did creep up from behind. “What are they trying to do?”

Runa changed the gears again. “Herd us, but I do not know towards what”

Sam did nod to her. “Open the sunroof.”

Runa did obey and Sam did get up, she put her head up and the wind was whipping at her but she didn’t seem to notice it at all. “Runa, we are in deep shit”

The blonde did snarl. “No shit, what do you see?”

Damian heard it, the sound of cars breaking abruptly, a crushing sound and what could only be screams. “There is an overpass four hundred meters ahead, a bridge. And they have a mining machine, a heck of a huge one.”

Damian did gape, he could see it now in the darkness, a shape even darker and it was like a behemoth born out of the night, like some monster from a novel by Lovecraft. Cars did try to stop but to no prevail, the bridge was falling since the huge machine was gnawing away at it like a starving dinosaur. Runa had a glimpse of insanity in her eyes. “Alright, buckle in”

Sam seemed to be calm. “Are you gonna jump it?”

Runa hit the accelerator. “No, the goddamn machine is in the way, this car is solid. Let us pray that the suspension is capable of taking a beating.”

Damian was still gaping. “Ah what….”

The road was surrounded by a barrier, made from concrete and solid enough to stop a truck. Runa did smile, it was the smile of somebody who laughs at death and embrace danger, it was the smile of somebody who has nothing to lose and Damian did shriek when he realized the madness of her next move. A car had stopped by the barrier, a low sports car with a drooping nose, it had spun around in its attempt to stop and it was probably a Lamborghini. Runa was just two hundred meters from the gap in the road now, and the cars were piling up, desperate to stop. She didn’t break at all, she gave the Audi free reins and let out a blood curdling war cry as the heavy car hit the parked sports car with a frightening speed. It was a chance to take, but it did pay out. The V6 engine did give the car enough power to literally climb over the low sports car and it went flying over the barrier. Behind it was a wide ditch and a field of some sorts and Damian did scream as they flew over the ditch. Sam held into the seat and the car slammed down, it hit the ground with a bone jarring crunch but it didn’t break apart, Runa had managed to keep the nose a bit up and she floored it again as she felt that the wheels had solid ground to touch. Sam called out. “Runa, we have cows!”

It was a pasture, with cows and Runa just nodded and floored it again, that the car had survived was a miracle in itself but they could hear that it was damaged and the steering was fighting her. “We have to get away from the road, as far as we can.”

Damian had no doubt about what this was, Sauron had managed to ensnare the workers at the mine and turned them into his slaves. The car was ploughing over the pasture, smashed through an electric fence and Damian saw terrified cows running in every direction before Runa forced the car up onto a farm road. It was bumpy and full of holes but she was filled with ice cold determination. “Damn it, we have to ditch the car, it has taken way too much of a beating, get ready to jump!”

Sam nodded and Damian was gulping. Sam tore open the back door, and she grinned. “Grasp the backpack, we are ditching the car now”

Damian did see what was ahead, it was a black structure of some sorts, it did look like it was filled with liquid? A sort of pool? Was it a dam? Sam grasped him and Runa hit the brakes, the car did slide forth and Sam simply threw Damian out of the door before she jumped after him and rolled along the ground. Runa did shoot out of the sun roof like a rocket and landed on her feet as if this was nothing and the car did slide on, hit a low barrier in front of the low structure and flipped over and plunged into the liquid. There was a splash and the car did sink and Damian sneezed, there was a sudden onset of intense stench. “Oh crap!”

Runa did brush some specks of dirt of her pants. “Exactly! Manure, cow shit. They’ll have a hard time finding the car now. It is a manure storage tank.”

Sam shook herself. “So now what?”

Runa tilted her head. “Now we get to the harbour one way or the other”

Sam shook her head. “They will anticipate that, the harbour will be guarded!”

They looked at each other and Damian did point at a sign placed by the side of the road. “Maybe that can be of some help?”

The sign said “Parking to the left, sign up to the right, welcome to the annual hot air balloon festival”

Runa started to laugh. “You are audacious, I love that. So, who votes yes to stealing a hot air balloon?”

Chapter Text

Chapter 7: Blown away….

Getting a hot air balloon turned out to be a very clever move indeed. There were dozens of them parked along a treeline which did divide two huge fields and most were halfway inflated already to prepare them for the race the day after. It did look a bit absurd but also cool and Sam and Runa did walk along the line of balloons as if they had every right to be there. There were people everywhere in spite of the late hour and the darkness, most were participants and then you had helpers, family, curious onlookers and others and Damian had no idea of how they were to get one of the balloons, they couldn’t just snatch one. He had to trust the two females and as usual their instincts were good, they saw this one balloon parked at the end of the line, it was different from the others and not only in design but in colour and shape. It was like walking along a line of well groomed show horses and then seeing a small raggedy pony tied up at the end, muddy and half wild. The small balloon was black, shaped like a huge fist covered with what looked like silky net and decorated with some symbols Damian did recognize as old Norse and the owner did not fit in with the others, that was for darn sure. It was a woman, she was tiny and looked a bit like cousin IT from the old Addams family show, just hair everywhere. She wore leather and heavy dark makeup and she was working on some rope as they walked by. The balloon was almost fully inflated and the basket was tied to the ground. She had a radio next to her, it was blaring out music and as they pretended to admire the balloon there was a news break.

They listened to an obviously shocked reporter who told about a most terrible accident at the autobahn, some mining workers had obviously gone insane and attacked the road structure, leading to countless deaths and right now the police were trying to stop the workers who seemed to have lost their minds completely and refused to stop, they were still out there in their vehicles and the reporter did issue a warning. In the distance they could hear sirens now and since the land was very flat they did also see flashing lights and some helicopters did zoom by at a breakneck speed. The woman did frown, she did look shocked and Runa did make a grimace. So Sauron hadn’t let go of the miners? That was just perfect, the amount of damage you can do in a huge vehicle is insane, in special if you know how to handle it.
Sam was about to ask the woman if she could kindly turn the radio up a bit, just to start a conversation, they had to find a way to break the ice and convince the woman that they should be allowed to borrow the balloon for the night. But things did take a sudden turn for the worse, they heard a massive engine revving somewhere not too far from the fields and saw some sharp headlights and they were heading their way. Damian gasped and Runa did swear, he didn’t understand a single word she was saying but he knew that it wasn’t nice. There was a sound of something being broken, then they heard screams and Sam got a terrible expression on her face. She turned to the woman who owned the balloon. “Quick, do you speak English? Is there a megaphone here somewhere? People need to leave, they need to leave now! They are in danger!”

The woman did blink, then she reached down underneath some boxes and did pull out an electric megaphone, it was a cheap one and it did look worn but it was probably working. “Here, but what…”

Sam took it and Runa looked very hectic all of a sudden. “Listen, the miners, they are mad, we just escaped the autobahn ourselves and now one is heading this way, heading for this field. Everybody has got to leave!”

The woman stared off in the distance, there were more crashing sounds and more screams and Runa did groan. “The parking lot, he is crushing the cars”

Damian wetted his lips and felt nervous, terribly so. The orb was heavy in the backpack and he felt heat from it. “What sort of vehicle is it?”

Sam was already pushing the button and screaming out loud, telling people that danger was heading their way and get into the balloons right now! Most did obey, they had heard the news and the horrible sounds did convince them that this was for real. “It is a dump truck I think, or the type they use to scoop up rock, a sort of bulldozer?”

The short woman was already in the basket, she was opening the valves and filling the balloon with hot air and the flames from several balloons did paint a sort of unreal light over the field. The huge engine was getting closer and Damian saw that the thing was moving very fast for something that huge. People were screaming and running around, some balloons did take off already since they had some lift even before the balloon was fully inflated and the woman yelled at them. “Come on you lot, lets’ get out of here”

They didn’t ask twice, they ran over and jumped into the basket and she threw away the lines, the thing wasn’t as large as the others but it was more than capable of lifting four people and it shot upwards. The sky was cloudy and it was rather dark but for a few moments the clouds did separate enough to let the moon shine through and the things they saw. It was indeed a huge scoop truck with a massive bucket in front and that was now used as a battering ram. Damian saw a path of destruction behind it, crushed cars, some buildings which were just knocked over and torn apart and the thing did resemble some huge hulking monster dead set on killing everything in its path.

The woman had turned white. “Oh shit, they weren’t lying, what the fuck?!”

Sam looked down, they were already at least three hundred feet off the ground and the vehicle couldn’t reach them anymore but it did wreak havoc down there. Those who weren’t airborne were running for their lives and Runa hissed. “That thing shouldn’t be that fast, nor as agile now should it?”

The small woman gave a new burst of flames, sent the balloon higher. “It is a new model, used in modern mines. It is electrical and more efficient than the old diesel driven behemoths.”

Sam frowned. “You know about mining engines?”

The woman nodded. “I just have a thing for heavy machinery, power you know?”

Runa giggled. “Now don’t we all, but we have been impolite. I am Runa, this is Sam and Damian”

The woman stared at Damian, her head cocked. “You don’t have to tell me you are gay for no guy can be that pretty and still be heterosexual”

Damian blushed all the way to his feet and the woman sighed. “I am Leann, among the other balloon enthusiasts I am known as “the dragon lady”. They don’t like me that much”

Sam had sort of calmed down a bit but they still heard the sounds and they saw that a whole squadron of police cars were heading for the field, they wouldn’t really make a difference unless someone with an assault rifle managed to take out the driver. “Why is that?”

Leann grinned, it did look a bit ominous for she was so small she could have been a kid but the face was mature although oddly smooth for an adult and she had almost black eyes and a rather pale complexion. Add that to the massive black hair and you had something which wouldn’t look out of place in a horror movie of some sorts. “I refuse to conform to normality, that is why. I was banned from participating for three years, this is the first year I am back, and I am shunned as if I do carry the plague. “

Damian stared up, the balloon was almost impossible to see in the dark, it was as if they were just floating through the air. “Why?”

Leann tilted her head, her smile was vicious. “The balloon I showed up with at an international competition, you can design your own balloon and I had, it was shaped like a giant cock with balls and that didn’t sit well with the administration. Goddamn pious posh upper class trash!”

Sam burst into laughter and Runa did giggle, she had to grasp onto the edge of the basket. Leann did look down. “What the fuck is wrong with that guy? He is….now that is a killing spree if I have ever seen one?”

Damian was about to say something but Runa cut him off. “Let’s just say that the miners no longer are themselves, do you believe in the supernatural by the way?”

The tiny woman did reach inside of her black T shirt and pulled something forth, it was a sort of swirling symbol Damian knew he had seen before. “D’oh, I am wiccan, of course I believe in the supernatural”

Sam smiled. “Alright, let us just say that some very evil entity has possessed those miners and they are out to stop us, yes, us in special but they aren’t all that smart yet and the entity controlling them has some limitations”

Leann frowned. “Huh?”

Runa grasped the backpack and opened it, let Leann take a peek at the content and the woman got even paler. “Dudes, is that a…palantir?”

Damian gawked. “Ah, how do you know?”

Leann did look almost as if he had offered her insult. “Man, Tolkien? The Silmarillion? I am a proud member of several Tolkien sites and I do write fan fiction! Who the fuck are you?”

Damian did look sheepish. “Uhm, here I go by the name of Damian…”

Runa rolled her eyes. “He is Aiwendil alright? Better known as Radagast, a maia. The entity chasing us is none other than Mr stinky eye himself, Sauron. “

Leann stared at them, she tilted her head and did remind Damian of a curious seal he once had encountered at a beach somewhere. “A-alright. Know what? This is so outlandish I cannot help but believing you, it is too fantastic to be untrue”

There was a faint sound of gun fire coming from below and the area was lit up like a fourth of July parade. “Whoops, somebody blew up the machine”

Leann cringed. “Too bad, those are so cool”

Runa stared out into the darkness. “So, where are we going?”

Leann shrugged. “Wherever the wind is taking us, right now out towards the sea?”

Runa nodded. “Yes, but can this balloon take us all the way to say, Sweden?”

Leann nodded. “Yep, if I give it some more juice but why?”

Sam folded her arms over her chest. “Let’s just say that we have got friends there, who may help us deal with Mr bodyless”

Leann put up a grin. “Right, aw for fucks sake, let’s screw the rules and regulations shall we? We are entering a no fly zone if we go any higher but I haven’t turned the radio on so there is no way they can contact me and with all the balloons in the air now I bet the air security officials are tearing their hair out already. There has to be a lot of grounded flights tonight. “

She opened the valve and sent some more hot air into the balloon, it did climb very fast. “See? This is my baby you see, my black beauty”

Damian tried to smile. “Have you named it after a horse?”

Leann shook her head. “Hell no, horses are alright, don’t get me wrong but the official name of this thing is “Ancalagon” and he is my precious!”

Damian did almost hiss and Runa laughed out loud. “Well, let us hope it won’t share the fate of its namesake, we don’t want to smash into some mountain thank you!”

Leann suddenly got tense. “You say that Sauron did control those miners, can he control others?”

Runa looked at her. “Ah, yes, how come?”

Leann had a very odd expression on her face. “There is an air force base not far from here, I don’t know about those others but my balloon is not bullet proof”

Damian let out a huge breath. “Shit! But as of yet he can only control people who are weak of mind, I doubt that air force pilots are dimwits.”

Leann nodded. “Right, but no reason to take any chances are there. Can you handle cold?”

Sam and Runa did nod and so did Damian. Leann turned on the burners again and let them burn. “If we get high enough we will be invisible to the ground based radars and we only show as a tiny blip on the air control radars. The planes have radar too but they aren’t very precise and it is only the basket which creates an image. Up there we have some hefty winds so this will be a bumpy ride. A good thing I did design this thing to fly way above the legal height.”

Sam grinned. “Let’s go, we can breathe very thin air by the way.”

Leann nodded. “Thought so, just as well for I have only one oxygen mask here”

She went over to the side of the basket and started to unwrap what seemed to be fabric, attached to the outside of the structure. “Here, do the same on the other side”

Sam did unroll the fabric, it was pitch black but it was mottled with pieces of aluminium foil, hundreds of tiny shard shaped glittering pieces and Leann grinned widely. “On the radar this will show as a flock of birds, starlings or something like that”

Damian smiled nervously. “Brilliant, how long until we are out of harm’s way? I mean, how long can we be pursued by planes?”

Leann did point ahead, already the land underneath them was transformed to a map with roads and cities showing as glowing lines. “Not for very long, we are drifting fast already. Whence we are over the sea they cannot pursue”

Sam turned to Runa. “Can they contact the Swedish air forces?”

Runa made a grimace. “Why would they? It is one runaway balloon, not a freakin’ Antonov. There are more important things to deal with right now I am sure”

As if on cue they saw a massive explosion happen beneath them, far back where they came from and Sam did roll her eyes. “He haven’t let go of them, I wonder why?”

Damian almost sneered. “Because he can’t. He has used too much power possessing them and pulling it all back would harm him. It has to run its course, and I bet he is thrilled by the destruction they are causing”

Leann gave a short burst of fire again. “But wasn’t Sauron destroyed?”

Damian nodded. “Yes, in this world but there are many different versions of reality, he did survive in some others and the palantir is from one of them, he escaped the fall of Barad Dur by hiding inside of the palantir”

Leann stared at the backpack. “Sneaky bastard ha?”

Sam did caress the container with the sword. “Yes, very sneaky”

The balloon was moving very fast now and it was a bit nerve wracking being at the mercy of the winds but Leann seemed to know what she was doing. She had to have some real experience and the three sat down to stay out of the wind. Leann had taken the oxygen mask and put it on, the air was a bit thin and it was very cold but Damian did already know that Sam and Runa could deal with cold way better than a human being. They just sat there for a while and under them they saw the waves of the ocean now, some lights did tell them of boats and ships but the wind was moving in the right direction and they would reach the other side before dawn if they managed to stay in this wind. Damian did close his eyes, he had no doubt that Sauron would try to cause them more problems, the question was how and when.
---------------
Bartholomew Kruger was in shock, and he was also angry, and confused and more than all of the above he felt indecisive. He had answered the cell phone at last and it was his butler, who did inform him that his wife was dead, she had been found in his vault and seemed to have suffered severe burns. First of all, how the hell had she managed to get into the vault? He had no idea that she even knew where the vault was, and the code was one he was sure only he knew. Seconds, what had she been doing in there? Had she tried to steal something?

Not very likely, she had no interest in antiquities and wouldn’t be able to distinguish between Egyptian pottery and a Viking drinking horn. The dog had been found dead too and he got a creeping sensation of having overlooked something but he swallowed it down and gave the butler some instructions. He was to move the body out of the vault and lock it up again, the body ought to be placed in the tanning bed. If he did claim that she had suffered a heart attack while trying to get a tan the doctor would buy it, in special if there was a small donation involved. Everybody knew that his wife had been everything but healthy, she claimed to follow a healthy lifestyle but that was a fat lie, she was way too fond of her gin and tonic and chocolate.

So now he was a widower and he found that he didn’t mind it that much, her family would have no reason to suspect anything even resembling foul play and their marriage contract was stone solid. He would inherit everything. That was a pleasant thought and it did help his mood a lot but what about that bloody sphere? It hadn’t been at Stonehenge at all, it had been a fake and he knew that somebody was out there with it, and with it they had their hands on something he had to get. Everything would be fine if he managed to get the orb, he just knew it. He would have it all.

A thought did drift into his mind, what if he wasn’t able to control it? What if the technology behind the orb was too complex? It had to be alien in nature and it was different than everything he had laid his hands on before. But the people with the fake copy had brought it to Stonehenge, it had to mean something? It couldn’t be a coincidence. Had they inadvertently given him a clue? He was heading back to the airport and they had taken a huge detour around the country side to avoid being stopped by the police. The car was luxurious and he sat there and felt that the adrenaline was leaving him slowly. He didn’t feel as energetic now, more tired and sore and a bit sad. He wasn’t used to losing, to things not going in his favour. It was sobering and he felt that he was getting a head ache. He pushed the button on the console in front of him. “Drive me to the airport hotel, I need to rest before returning home”

The driver did nod and Bartholomew did sigh and leaned back. He wasn’t a young man anymore, that was too bad but what if the orb could fix also that? Somehow he felt that it could, that it would change him into a sort of super human. So how the heck was he to find it now? It had to be in Europe somewhere, he had people everywhere but it was a huge area and there were countless ways in which people could travel unseen. He had to think differently, he had to take what he did have of information and use that for all it was worth. The people who had the orb had to have influence, they had to have resources and they had to have knowledge. If they didn’t they wouldn’t have tried to get it in the first place. That woman, Samantha what was her name, she had to have been a part of it. His mercenaries had been sure she was dead and yet she wasn’t, he had to dig deeper. Everybody leaves a trace these days, she had to have some sort of track behind her. He got his laptop and sent some emails, all encrypted.

Then he leaned back into the seat and tried to think. Right, if this was some sort of organization they had to have skilled people available, the world wasn’t that large after all and the people who did believe in the idea of Ancient aliens and life out there in the universe wasn’t that many. Oh there were plenty of nut cases out there, who believed in abductions and what’s not but the really dedicated experts? They were few, and he knew most of them. Not personally but at least by reputation and he had even met some of them but he had never revealed that he was one of them. He found a list of important people on his laptop, stared at it. Some were scientists while others were just enthusiasts but in common was the belief that the earth had been visited from outside of the solar system sometime in the past. Some were rich and had influence, others were commoners but they did fund their work via donations and hard work. He had great respect for many of them, and he had often used their work, although without revealing it of course.

The laptop did make a small sound, the search he had initiated had found something. He opened the tab and stared at the information. The woman was a photographer and she had posted some photos online some years ago, using a sort of artist name. The photos were very good and taken somewhere in southern Africa but the interesting thing was the IP address it had been posted through. It was a computer somewhere in Sweden, and the site was encrypted but the software had probably failed somehow since his computer had managed to find it. It looked as if the photos had been sent through at least twenty fake addresses but his program had managed to find the original one. Bartholomew stared at it, he started to type and his mind was racing. Could this be it? Could this be where the orb was heading? He felt that it had to be the answer.

The computer was in some obscure little town in the north of the country, and it was perfect. It was the perfect place to hide and Bartholomew felt his heart speeding up again, there was the answer. And he remembered what he had read previously. The famous scientist who was heading for Norway for a lecture. Dagnyr was on his list, a man who was smart enough to be able to think about the possibilities of alien lifeforms. Could it be a coincidence? The distance between Trondheim and this little town weren’t that large? No, Bartholomew didn’t believe in coincidence. Dagnyr was there for a reason and he was pretty sure it was the orb, the scientist was surely working for THEM!

The man did for a moment look like a hungry predator, he could kill two flies with one strike, make your prey flee and let it lead you straight to its lair. He did look a bit like a madman and he was chuckling. He had people who wouldn’t mind causing some disturbances, if the man did think he was in danger he would seek the protection of his friends now wouldn’t he? And Bartholomew would be there, to expose them and get the orb and whatever they had of knowledge. As the car stopped in front of the hotel he was already busy making calls, shivering with glee. He was getting somewhere, at last!
--------------------------------
The balloon was hovering above the coast now and it was heading towards the inland rather fast, the wind was still very strong and Leann had managed to maintain the height the whole time. The balloon was most certainly special made and she had admitted to breaking a few rules when constructing it, she wanted to win as she put it and when the organization did choose to stop her from competing she wanted to get back at them. Sam did realize that this was one very tenacious and tough person. They were above the beaches when Leann did grasp onto a pair of binoculars and started staring off in the distance. It was getting lighter now and soon the sun would rise. “You guys, what do you make of that?”

She pointed towards the south and Runa got up and stared in the direction which was indicated. It was a cloud out there and it was moving rather fast. Damian got up too and he grasped the binoculars, the cloud was far away but he let out a curse in valarin. “It is no cloud, it is a flock of birds”

Leann tilted her head. “And?”

Damian made a grimace. “How fast can you get us down?”

Runa looked at him. “What do you mean? They are birds?”

Damian stared again. “Not normal birds for sure, they wouldn’t flock like that. They are heading in our direction and I do not like it”

Leann did bite her lower lip. “I remember from the movies, Crebain right?”

Damian nodded and gave her the binoculars. “You are right, that species is gone but he can affect other birds too, I bet those are crows or jackdaws. And they have sharp beaks”

Leann rolled her eyes. “Aw shit, goddamn it. I see what you mean. Hang on people. I don’t think they can peck holes in the balloon but the net I have put on the outside is just perfect for a bird to hang onto and if they all try to perch on the balloon at once, well, they do weigh a lot if they are many. We aren’t gonna stay airborne very long of the whole flock lands on us.”

She reached up and pulled a rope. “We are going down now and we are going down fast so hang on, I may not be able to control the balloon if we lose too much air”

They grasped onto the edge of the basket and the balloon started to drop, or rather, it fell. Damian was for a moment convinced that the woman was insane, she had released so much hot air that the balloon was falling more than flying and she was grinning, white teeth bared and her hair was whipping in the wind. She did remind him of an ancient painting he once had seen of a banshee. “I will try to put us down near people but not too close right?”

Runa was very calm. “That would be nice yes”

The balloon did race downwards and the huge flock of birds was getting closer, if they did manage to puncture the skin of the balloon they could be in serious trouble or as Leann said, weight them down which would be even worse.They had to get down to terra firma before that happened. Sam was staring at the balloon overhead, it did look almost half in size to what it had been and the ground was coming up fast, way too fast the way she saw it. Leann grinned again, she let go of the rope and gave a burst of fire and the balloon seemed to stop as if it had hit a wall, for a second it was hovering in one place, then it sank towards the ground again but at a way lower rate than before. “There is a field over there, is that alright?”

Runa nodded and Leann was humming as she controlled the odd vehicle and the landing was soft as a kiss. “I am good, so, now what?”

Damian saw that the herd of birds was getting closer still and he jumped out of the basket. “We have to seek shelter, I do not like those birds at all”

Leann let the entire balloon fall onto the ground, then she jumped out too. “Are you in real danger?”

Damian shrugged. “I have no idea, they are birds and not that tough but they are many”

Leann reached into the basket, there was a hatch in the floor and she opened it, beneath it was an extra room and she pulled out some elongated objects. “Here!”

Sam stared at them, they were covered with cloth and she pulled the velvet away from one. It was a shot gun, a rather old one which did look expensive. “What the fuck?!”

Leann grinned from one ear to the other. “It does give me an edge right?”

The other object was a gun too, a rifle which did look menacing. Sam gaped. “Seriously? A sniper rifle?”

Leann smiled. “What can I say? An eye for an eye? They treated me like vermin so why not? One hole and I may win right?”

Damian stared at the weapons. “Oh my….You don’t bother with the law now do you?”

She shook her head. “Nope, but go, take the guns. I will be alright, I bet the birds are after you right?”

Damian nodded and Sam gave Leann a swift hug. “Thank you, and if they ask you tell them…tell them we hijacked you or something”

Leann shook her head. “No, I will tell them I did panic and lost control of this beast, and had to go where the winds took me. The machine did crush people you know and I am just a poor woman, prone to getting hysterical”

Sam had to laugh, “You are the least hysterical person I have ever met Leann but thanks again, and we will repay you for this favour, somehow”

Leann nodded. “Alright, go, they are getting closer”

Damian did point at the buildings up ahead. “Go, there is a barn there”

They ran and Damian knew that Sam and Runa could run way faster than a human being, they reached the barn and it was a building which was rather old and decrepit but still standing. There were some shells in the velvet pouch the shot gun had been stored in and there were bullets strapped to the rifle. “Will these weapons have any effect?”

Damian hesitated. “I have no idea!”

The barn had a door which could be opened and they ran inside, not a moment too soon for there was a rush of wings and suddenly birds started attacking the barn. Pecking and shrieking and they seemed to be completely mad. Runa snarled. “No point in the guns, they are too many and too small, it will be like shooting sparrows with a canon, quite literally!”

Sam nodded. “Yes, it is the orb, it is drawing them inn I am sure, making them mad.”

Damian was thinking fast. “There is a thing we can try, but it does require that we act now. This flock is huge and people aren’t blind, this will attract attention rather fast.”

Sam held the door shut, birds were trying to claw their way through it, if Hitchcock had seen this he would have made his movie the birds way scarier. “Alright, what?”

Damian did grasp the container with the sword. “Runa, when I say now uncover the orb. “

She frowned. “You cannot destroy it?”

Damian nodded. “No, but I can sever the connection between the orb and the birds, at least I can try”

Runa smiled and grasped the backpack with the orb and prepared. Damian did grasp the sword and it felt alive and hungry in his hands, it was an odd sensation and he remembered that its creator had been an oddity among the eldar, some said that he was possessed by the odd steel he had found. “Now!!”

The birds had managed to break a few of the small windows and they were trying to get inside, the beaks bloody and the bodies were shedding feathers but it didn’t stop them. “They are like zombies!”

Sam was hissing and Runa did grin, a rather nasty smile. “Yeah, this gives me some serious pet cemetery vibes. “

Damian sent them a swift glare. “Now?!”

Runa did uncover the orb and Damian did swing the sword, he did run the sharp edge over the orb, as if it was wrapped in cloth he had to cut through and there was a sort of flash and an angry hiss and the birds suddenly fell silent. It was creepy as fuck for the noise was just gone, the birds fell to the ground, some dropped from some altitude and they were all dead. Runa let go of her breath and closed the backpack again. “So, what do we do now?”

Sam sighed. “Get out of here before somebody does discover this mess, where are we by the way?”

Runa found her cell phone. “Not too far from a city, we can walk the distance in half an hour. I bet we can get a car there”

Sam managed to smile again. “Yes, and then we have how many hours of driving ahead of us?”

Runa put on a very optimistic expression. “About twelve? Or a little more depending on the weather?”

Damian did groan, it was gonna be a very long day.

But they did manage to get to the city and they bought some food and had a rather nice dinner before Sam did find a car for sale in a used car’s shop. It was a Volvo and it was not exactly new but very well taken care off. Runa did buy it and they set off, the car had a powerful engine and now they were on Runa’s home turf. She knew the roads and she knew where they could put the pedal to the metal without being stopped. Damian was at least glad there were no more borders to cross.
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The lecture had been an absolute success and Dagnyr hadn’t gone insane from the stress, now he and Brian was sitting in the longue of the hotel with a drink each and they were not alone. Some other scientists sat there as well and the atmosphere was relaxed and nice. Brian was a bit nervous, he hadn’t heard from Damian yet and wondered where his old friend was, and if he was alright. The bartender had turned on the TV above the bar and they wasn’t really paying attention until they saw flames and the flashing lights from police cars. The bartender turned on the sound as some of the guests asked him to and Brian felt a cold chill running down his spine. The mining workers who had gone mad were all either severely injured or dead and neither of them had been able to stop until they were shot by the police. Some said that it was due to drugs, others claimed that it had been an act of terrorism and some even said that it was a protest against the new rules regarding the use of fossil fuels.

Brian knew the truth and that meant that Damian had been there, so where was he now? He didn’t dare to use the phone and try to call his friend, if they were alright he knew that Damian would call him soon. The guests were discussing the events and then the TV showed an odd case of mass death among birds in the southern part of Sweden, apparently a whole flock of jackdaws had flown into an old barn, seemingly on purpose. Brian didn’t show his shock but he knew that this was bad. Sauron was behind it, beyond any doubt and he did almost twitch when he felt his phone vibrate. He picked it up and found a quiet corner. “Yes?”

He heard Damian’s voice. “It is me, I am alright. We are heading north, they say somebody will come for you soon. Look for an unusual car”

Brian frowned. “An unusual car?”

Damian did sound a bit tired. “Yes, they won’t tell me more”

Brian sighed. “Alright, I will be ready.”

Damian hesitated. “Brian? Be careful, I…he may know about you too”

The phone did click and Brian stared at it, of course Sauron would know about him, to that bastard any maia would feel like a light beacon. He shook his head and returned to the others, Dagnyr looked at him and frowned. “Bad news?”

Brian shook his head. “No, ah, I have to go soon, I am to visit some old friends, I will catch a flight back when I am done. Do not worry about me”

Dagnyr looked a bit worried. “Brian? You are not telling me the truth?”

Brian did cuss inwardly. Goddamn those sensitive people. “Ah, let us just say that it is complicated, I will explain later on”

Dagnyr frowned. “Brian, what is going on? You have acted so strange lately, and I saw you when those news came up, you know something don’t you?”

Brian took a deep breath and was about to speak when the glass doors in front of the foyer suddenly exploded. Several canisters rolled along the floors and they spewed forth some sort of dark smoke. People started to scream and cough and Brian did realize that this was an attack of some sorts. He grasped Dagnyr and pulled him with him towards an exit door he had seen behind the bar. There was a faint sound of gunfire and the smoke did burn the eyes but thanks to the fact that he wasn’t human he could see still. “Hurry, come on”

There were men in the smoke, wearing masks and they were looking for somebody without any doubt. Brian did doubt that they were after Dagnyr but instinct told him to keep his friend safe. He pulled the man through the door and saw a corridor ahead of him. It was leading towards another door and they ran. Dagnyr was pale and panting with fear and Brian wondered who the fuck it was who dared to do something like this in such a peaceful place. The door was leading towards a narrow street between two brick buildings and Brian did stop to see where to go. There was shout coming from behind them and he saw that several of the masked men came through the exit, heading in their direction. Shit! He grasped Dagnyr by the hand. “Can you breathe?”

Dagnyr did nod, he was obviously freaked out and who wouldn’t be. Brian started to run and the men were close now, holding guns and they did look as if they did mean business. Were they after him or Dagnyr? That was when he heard an engine, it was roaring and didn’t sound like any car he had ever seen before. The car did swerve around the corner and Brian knew what was meant by what Damian had said, unusual car. It was some sort of custom made arctic truck, probably a landcruiser but it was so modified there couldn’t be much left of the original car. And to top it off it was painted dark purple with huge stars in glittery pink and yellow. It was the least discrete ride he had ever seen in his long existence.

It did roar toward them and it did spin around in a cloud of dust just in front of them. The door opened and they saw a person inside, the face was covered and it was a woman but that was all that was sure. “Brian Proust? Get inside, those guys don’t look very friendly”

Brian grasped Dagnyr and pushed him through the door and then he threw himself inn and pulled the door closed behind him. The woman did floor it, the car did jolt forwards, it felt like sitting in a jet fighter at take off, the power was insane and she drove up onto a road with some traffic. There she did slow down, the engine did purr now instead of roaring and she turned her head and pulled off the mask. She was an unusual person, her face triangular in shape with huge almond shaped eyes in a deep hazel colour and she had a short mane of thick auburn hair. She was pretty but there was something odd about the features. “I am Varghild, pleased to meet you. Care to introduce your friend here?”

Brian sighed and nodded. “This is Dagnyr. You are an associate of…Damian’s friends?”

She smiled, her teeth were feline and for a second her eyes were pitch black, with no sclera. Dagnyr did gasp and his body went rigid. Perfect, the man would never be satisfied now, until he was told the whole fekking truth! “That I am, welcome, please fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride. I am afraid it is gonna be a long one”

Brian could just sigh. “Somehow I do not doubt you, a long ride indeed!!”

Chapter Text

Chapter 8: The thing which should not be.

The huge car was racing along the main road out of the city and Brian was clinging to the seat, not that he had to for the vehicle was very stable but he just felt as if he had to. Dag was very quiet, he just kept staring at the female driver with a rather shocked expression on his face. She hadn’t said anything more to explain where they were going and Brian didn’t want to ask. Sometimes not knowing was a blessing. After half an hour she did drive onto a smaller road and raced along it, it was a typical small road leading out into the countryside and she started to drive in what could only be described as a zig zag pattern between small towns and farms and areas of forest. Brian clenched his teeth together. “Why this goddamn swerving? I swear we have driven in a circle?!”

She nodded. “Several. We are being followed, but I am ready to ditch this truck soon, somebody is preparing for our arrival. When I say so get out and over in another vehicle, do not hesitate”

Brian felt nervous, he had no idea of who or what it was that had attacked but he had a suspicion. What Damian had told him was enough for him to draw conclusions. The radio spoke of a strange attack at a scientific meeting and some said it was religious fundamentalists who were behind it, odd really since such did barely exist within this country. The woman did drive past a farm with some horses and cows in a pasture, then she hit the brakes hard and backed the car into a barn. Another car was already placed there, an ordinary looking sedan. “Out, now!”

She almost flew out of the driver’s seat and over into the other car and Brian helped Dag over, the scientist was still in shock and they blinked when they did see that the new car already had two occupants. Two girls who did look like twins, so alike it was scary. Both had red blond hair and large blue eyes and looked way too young and sweet to be a part of something like this. Varghild grinned. “Meet Ilya and Nadya, they are sisters, they will protect you if more trouble comes our way”

Dag stared at the two, “Ahhh…they are…”

Both smiled at the same time and they saw that both had the almost feline teeth of the older woman. “We are not kids, believe me. And yes, we can fight, better than most”

Varghild started the sedan and drove out of the barn, the same way they had come. “We are creating a smoke trail, the car we just left will be found in a quarry south of Oslo in a couple of days. I hope to get it back, it is a good car but it has been officially stolen. “

Brian did wet his lips. “I fear that it won’t be enough, I think I know what is chasing us, and your friends”

Varghild nodded, now she used a very different driving technique, she was driving below the limit and Brian felt that she was driving like a novice driver or an elderly person on purpose. “They will be looking for a pimped up arctic truck with three people, not an ordinary family car with five”

She patted the dashboard with an elegant hand. “And this car is not what it seems to be, the engine and everything is from a much stronger car, it can outrun almost anything, and yes, it is legal but you cannot see the modifications unless you are an expert”

She entered another one of the many smaller roads and drove along it, now they were heading south again. “I know that my so called friends have gotten themselves into some serious trouble and that the same shit has hit the fan here. We have eyes everywhere”

Brian grunted. “So, if you know so very much, what is the situation?”

Varghild bared her teeth, her eyes were truly scary for even when they weren’t all black they had an eerie similarity with the eyes of a wolf. “They have been chased by a very wealthy man, a known expert on ancient artefacts and a collector of old and odd things, Unofficially he is on the hunt for anything which can end the question of whether or not earth have been visited by aliens in the past. He does believe you see, but denies it in public”

Dag seemed to shake out of his trance. “Ah, who?”

Varghild just sneered. “A certain Bartholomew Kruger, he is corrupt, insane and very dangerous and he has no scruples at all. He wants what my sister found and he wants it bad”

Brian sighed. “And he can never have it, it would be a disaster. He cannot gain anything from that orb, except evil and death”

Dag turned around, Ilya was sitting rather close to him and she smiled sweetly. “What on earth are you talking about, what have I gotten myself into?”

Brian closed his eyes for a second. “I am very sorry my friend but…I will explain later on, this is…complicated”

The scientist stared at him, eyes large and rather dark. “I know of this Kruger guy, he is well known. A person who doesn’t believe in anything at all, he is known to laugh at anything which even smells of the supernatural”

Brian nodded. “The perfect camouflage”

Varghild turned into yet another local road. “Somebody with way more knowledge than me will explain, sit back and relax. I will stop in a couple of hours so we can get some food and a toilet break. Until then we keep driving. We need to get over the border asap, before it is closed”

Brian tensed up. “We do not have passports”

Varghild grinned. “Neither do I, but we won’t need them. We will ditch this car too soon and find something more suitable. The main roads are under surveillance for sure, we will need to use some forest roads. I know them all like the back of my hand”

The two girls did nod as if to show that they did agree and Brian just sighed and tried to relax, he had no idea of where they were going.
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Bartholomew Kruger was indeed a man of many means and now he was homing in on the computer used to post those pictures, it had to be where that Fallow woman came from and he had found other subtle signs that she indeed spent some time in that area from time to time. He had also managed to find out that this particular town was the address of a small secluded society which didn’t mingle with the locals, a sort of collective and it felt almost like an orgasm knowing that he had them! This had to be the source, the ones who had sent that woman to get the orb and he was rather sure that it was some hidden society, living in an area which was so far from civilization few would notice them.
The town was a farming community, just farmland and woods for miles and two local roads did cross there. He had tried to get access to whatever computers were there but there was a very hefty firewall and that in itself told him that they were hiding something. His computer expert slash hacker had tried to get access for hours without luck and he had ordered the man to stop. If they did notice that they were being watched they could leave and he didn’t want that.
He was richer than most and he had already set a course for Sweden and he had gathered enough men to attack an army base. They had plenty of equipment and were ruthless and ready to do whatever he ordered them to do, including killing. He would get the orb and whatever other secrets they had and then he would be able to confirm his theory, that there was alien technology out there, technology he could use. The scientist had fled after the attack at the university, as he had anticipated. They had lost track of the car they had used but that didn’t mean anything, he hadn’t managed to place a tracker on the man, but he had people everywhere and his ideas did flow freely now, as if his brain was being helped. He was sure that fate was on his side, that it was his destiny to become the ruler of the whole world. He had such grand visions now, like his eyes had been blinded before but now he did see, now he did understand the path to true greatness.
His mind didn’t really manage to grasp the greatness of what he was involved inn, the incident with the mine and the loss of lives there was nothing, it had been to help him, he was sure of it. The orb was his, it did belong to him, it had been waiting for him and those who laid hands on it were usurpers, not worthy. He would rescue it, bring it to light, make people worship it. His dead wife meant nothing, nor his wealth and his reputation, he had to find the orb, he had to hold it!
They were heading north now and they couldn’t be too far behind those goddamn thieves, he would give them the surprise of a lifetime
--------------------------------
Runa and Sam did stay awake while Damian slept, they drove hard now, and in the middle of the night Runa did stop and drove the car into a repair shop. It was obvious that the owner knew her for he did give her the keys to another car, this one was also a Volvo but it was changed. Damian felt it the moment he sat down in the seat, the belts were made for use in race cars and the roof and everything was reinforced. Runa petted the steering wheel. “This is a race car, it has a special engine and nitrox injection. It can do 400 on a straight road, I hope we won’t have to go that fast but it is good knowing that she has got it”

Sam swallowed. “What about the police?”

Runa did flick a switch. “We will be warned if there are any patrols out there, or radars. I will avoid the camera controls, I know where they are. Besides, the licence plates are fake, they won’t be able to fine us anyhow”

She laughed and Damian almost shat himself when he realized that she was driving without headlights. The car was dark, and the paintjob was very good for the dark blue swallowed light and made it very hard to see. “We can get far tonight, then we will find another car again. We have cars stored in many locations, we know them all”

Damian just sighed, he wondered where Damian was and if his friend was safe, he hoped he was. But then again, Gandalf was incredibly powerful, not that he ought to show the world this but if the need should arise… the orb was quiet, almost dead and Sam turned around and stared at it. “Know what? I was thinking..”

Runa giggled. “Oh, so you can think?”

Sam stretched her tongue out, it wasn’t a shock to see that it was longer than normal. “I do think yes, can this thing be shielded somehow?”

Damian frowned. “What do you mean shielded?”

Sam shrugged. “You know…If you put something inside of a faraday cage it is shielded from electric charges”

Damian bit his teeth together “I don’t think so, this is magic. It isn’t like other forces of nature at all. Believe me. No, I don’t see how it can be shielded. You mean to lock him inside of it right?”

Sam nodded. “He has influenced people already, I fear what he may do next”

Damian looked down. “So do I dear, so do I”

They did stop at a roadside diner and had some hot dogs and Runa did make sure that the car was almost impossible to see. The shape of the vehicle did lie a lot for it did look as if it couldn’t do a hundred unless it was in free fall with a Jato rocket strapped to its back but Runa apparently knew the beast rather well. She petted the hood as they returned from their small meal. “You know what they say about these cars here in Sweden?”

Damian shook his head. “No, I don’t”

Runa giggled. “At styla en Volvo er som att sminka en gris (styling a Volvo is like putting make up on a pig). “

Damian had to grin. “It isn’t that ugly”

Sam shuddered. “No? It is just corners I think, and angles. No curves. The least sensual car ever made I bet”

Runa took off from the parking lot. “Yes, but sturdy, we will survive if we hit a moose with this one, believe me”

Damian got nervous. “Are we in danger of that?”

Sam laughed out loud and Runa howled. “Hell yeah, there are moose everywhere, I am surprised we haven’t encountered any yet. There are some collisions almost every day in this country”

Damian swallowed. “Any deaths?”

Sam nodded. “Every now and then, when you get a 500 kg animal shoved into the car in 90 you can do the math easily enough, you are toast, or rather mosh”

Damian shuddered.

The roads were dark and there were little traffic and as they drove north the distance between towns became greater and greater. When daylight started to appear again Damian was asleep and now they were driving along what could only be described as a snow road. Through a very dense pine forest with not a house in sight. Runa was driving like a madman now, the car was screaming along and Damian remembered the moose and he was horrified.
But Runa did drive into a farm yard and a man came out, they did speak quickly in a language he didn’t recognize and then Runa hugged the man and they changed the car again. This was also a Volvo but a larger and more modern one and now they slowed down a bit. Sam was driving and Runa slept and they did stop here and there to eat and have toilet breaks and Damian had never driven through a more boring landscape. It was just forest forest more forest, even more forest, a seemingly abandoned red hut by the road, more forest. Runa laughed. “Welcome to redneck country, or the equivalent to it. No, we do not play banjo and we do not keep pigs”

Damian didn’t understand until Sam laughed. “Deliverance Damian, you must have seen that movie?!”

Damian did roll his eyes. “Oh gods, yes, years ago”

Runa did stretch herself. “We do share one thing with the locals in that movie though, we do take care of our own, strangers will be noticed here, immediately. Believe me, we have a very good surveillance system. These areas seems to be desolate without a living soul but there are people living here, good people who prefer to mind their own business. We have helped them and they help us, if there is trouble brewing we will know”

Damian made a grimace. “How reassuring!”

They kept driving for hours and Damian slept a bit, Runa and Sam did switch from time to time and the snow did lay over the ground now, it was a very lovely landscape but so very empty. Damian was used to people now, to cities and noise. This did remind him of the forests of old, but the trees were not as grand and the atmosphere was different. These forests were young, they had crept slowly north as the ice did retreat after the last ice age and compared with the woods he had wandered through they were barely in their infancy. He did see moose though, luckily not through the windscreen of the car. There were several grazing by the road and he had to admit that the large animals were majestic in their own right. Not as grand as the elk of old but that species was extinct by now, now they were the largest of the deer species and obviously aware of that fact for one cow did arrogantly cross the road without even looking at them. Runa did grin. “They have no enemies here, humans have almost wiped out the wolves and the bear which did prey upon them and now humans are the only ones hunting them. And they go for the large ones so the entire population is shrinking size wise, soon we will have only mini moose compared with before”

Damian frowned. “Really?”

Runa nodded. “Yes, a cow moose is only in heat for a few days each year and she wants the largest bull possible to sire her calf. So if there is no large bull available she will make due with a smaller weaker one but only after having waited for as long as possible. And that means that her calf will be born later in spring than normally and it won’t be as old and strong as it should be as winter return. The number of calves succumbing to the cold and lack of food is increasing. Human greed as always”

Damian knew all about that and Sam turned around in her seat. Runa was driving and Sam tilted her head. “So, where did you spend the millennia? You must have been somewhere right?”

Damian did grunt, he leaned back against the seat. “Here there and everywhere. I was living in the area around the Mediterranean for a few centuries, I was able to hide as a human so I was doing rather well. Just moved on after a few decades, faked my own death and so on. I have seen a lot, I must admit that.”

Sam grinned, she did look excited all of a sudden. “Go on, tell me more. Were the romans as depraved as history likes to think?”

Damian shook his head “Heck no, they were just people. A few orgies have been held for sure and they were odd when it comes to food but otherwise they weren’t too bad. The slavery was bad of course and held them back. I mean, you don’t need to invent machines and stuff when you have slaves. “

Sam and Runa did listen as he did tell them of his exploits and they did in fact have a rather good time. The two women did use roads only the locals knew about and Damian felt rather secure now. The orb was silent and the sword was also just a sword at the moment. Sam yawned, “Two more hours and we are there”

Damian did take a huuge sigh of relief, he had absolutely no idea of where they were, they could be on the backside of the moon for all he knew.
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Brian and Dag were almost half asleep when they did cross the border. Varghild had left the official roads now and she had found something which had to be temporary winter roads, used by the logging industry. The car had been switched again for a new arctic truck, not as pimped up as the first one but just as sturdy and with the logo of a logging company printed on the hood and sides. The terrain became flatter, less dramatic and they did cross some rather desolate areas. Dag did sleep, he was obviously tired and the shock had been wearing him down. The stress of the last day was simply too much.
Brian did sit there and tried to plan ahead but it was very hard to do since he had no idea of what or who they were about to meet. The two girls didn’t sleep, they seemed as if they didn’t need any rest at all and Brian had seen the teeth but he had still a hard time regarding them as anything but human.

It was the middle of the day when Varghild slowed down and drove into a very small town, it was a one street settlement, a gas station, a small grocery shop, a hairdresser, two mechanical shops, a vet and a shop which did sell everything from hardware to underwear. And a church, but it did look as if it had been abandoned for many years. Brian did stare at it and Varghild grinned. “People here are not religious, Christianity was more or less forced upon them and they have never truly believed. They have kept the pretence of faith but these days that isn’t needed anymore, you don’t end up on the pyre for not knowing the lord’s prayer”

They stopped by the gas station, it was small and there was only one worker there, a girl in her twenties who did look as if she was taken out of some Hollywood movie, she was the classic bimbo. Huge blonde hair, long pink fingernails, heavy makeup and a uniform which did show off her every curve. She did look as if she was dumber than a brick but Brian saw that sharp glimpse within the blue eyes and knew that it was a mask. She was probably very smart. Varghild said something and the girl did grin and pointed at the counter. Varghild nodded and left and they took off again. Dag did frown. “What was it with that counter?”

Varghild shrugged. “I just warned Lissa that trouble could be coming, her shotgun is loaded and ready, just in case”

Dag did look horrified and Ilya and Nadya did giggle. “Lissa looks like any misogynistic incels wet dream but she is actually very sharp. She has a degree in chemistry from the university at Uppsala and she is a master with the shot gun.”

Varghild nodded. “Yes, and we have our own people placed everywhere, people who will warn us if somebody do seem suspicious.”

They followed a long road, it was very winding and because of the snow the road was also very narrow. It was enough room for one large car but not for two to pass each other. Damian realized that it was done on purpose, the road was a trap. If it was closed off everybody on it became sitting ducks. The snow on the outside was thick and hard to walk through and he was rather sure that the locals had snowshoes and skis.

They did drive into what could only be described as a farmyard, a huge red barn was erected in the middle of an open area and there were smaller buildings around it. A sort of street lead from the other side of the barn, there were many houses along it, red and brown cabins made from notched wood and it did look very inviting, cosy even. There were powerful SUV’s parked in a row along the barn and in paddocks horses and other animals were staring at the newcomers with relaxed curiosity. Brian saw both dairy cows and goats there and some sheep too. A low dark building erected some distance away from the barn had to be a chicken coop and he was also rather sure he caught the scent of a pig pen from somewhere.
Varghild did stop the car and got out. “We are officially a self sustained collective, hippies you may say”

Brian frowned. “And that is accepted?”

Varghild nodded. “Yes, we have our own teachers and doctors, all of our people. That way we don’t risk exposure, the papers are fake and the kids who grow up here know what to do and say”

Ilya and Nadya did take off and Dag did stare at the surroundings. He was blinking. “Do you really live here?”

Varghild nodded. “Yes, we are a society on our own, we don’t need the outside world. We can produce all we need here, even electricity”

She pointed at some huge solar panels on the roof of the barn and now Brian saw that a small group of people were heading their way. In the front was a very tall woman who did resemble Varghild a lot but she was older, although not by much. Her hair had some streaks of silver and the face was angular and very calm. There was an air of control and authority around her and she did stop and stared at Brian and Dag, her smile was sharp as a dagger and she didn’t show teeth at all. “Welcome, I hope Varghild haven’t scared the living bjeezus out of you with her driving?”

Brian did make a small grimace. “No Ma’am, we are alright”

The woman did nod. “I am Skadi, I am the leader of this here zoo”

The last word came with some sarcasm and Dag did frown. “Zoo?”

She nodded. “A place dedicated to the conservation of rare and endangered species. Namely us, and some others”

Dag tilted his head. “Others?”

A man came forth from behind the barn, he was rather short but Brian could see that he was very stocky and as his face did hit the light it was very apparent that he was no human, or at least, not entirely. The heavy brow ridges and receding jaw made Dag just gape, his eyes were like marbles. Skadi smiled. “This is Boris, he and his kin lives here with us, in hiding. They were found in the late 18 hundreds by a scientist who thankfully had moral and ethics. He did smuggle them out of Russia, they have lived here ever since.”

Dag was still gaping. “Sorry I am being impolite, but…he is a Neanderthal?!”

Boris did nod. “That I am, of the people of the earth, we call ourselves that. We have a sanctuary here”
The voice was surprisingly light and a bit shrill, but the eyes were gentle and he didn’t seem to be any less intelligent than others. Probably the opposite.

Dag was fascinated and Skadi smiled. “There was one woman of his kin who got trapped by humans, they kept her for many years and she even had kids with human men. They used her as a sort of sex slave but took the kids away from her for she would try to bathe them in the river after they were born and they did die. A half breed isn’t as sturdy as a full blooded of the people. They are humans, not very different from us, just very strong physically and perhaps not as adventurous as your species.”

Boris nodded. “Yes, the tribe tried to take her back but they had guns, and dogs. They didn’t manage to save her, it would have been too dangerous.”

Dag just opened and closed his mouth. “That is…”

Varghild just grinned. “Quite the scientific discovery yeah, but we are protecting them, the scientists must not get their hands on them, the experiments would be horrible. The Russians did try to create half human soldiers once before, not ever again!”

Dag frowned. “What?”

Skadi nodded. “One deranged scientist believed that he could mix human and chimp or gorilla, he did many attempts too, with the blessings of the communists. He didn’t succeed but there is a reason why we all live in hiding. They all want super soldiers, expendable ones. We are just what they have craved and if they find out about us there will be trouble.”

Brian felt a shiver running down his spine. There were people out there who had discovered that the eldar were real and one had fallen into their clutches, he had escaped and was free but what one knows several knowns and a people like this? Eru forbid that they ever was discovered by people with a lack of ethics and moral.

Skadi tilted her head. “We are expecting your friends soon, they have passed a checkpoint just three quarters ago, let us talk in the meantime. Follow me”

Brian was feeling oddly exhilarated, there were things in this world of which he had been ignorant and he loved learning something new after so long but how in heck was this to end? If that Kruger guy was onto them…

They did enter the barn, it wasn’t just a house for the farm animals, in one end there was a sort of auditorium and it was very modern. A smaller woman with red and golden hair sat behind a computer and Brian saw that it was a special one, custom made with several screens and she was using a sort of keyboard made from a holography. It was very cool. Skadi nodded towards her. “Brenna, our hacker. She has been keeping an eye on things for a while”

Brenna grinned, the teeth were like those of Varghild and the twin girls and Brian did hiss. It didn’t look natural. These women were lovely, in fact sensuality incarnate and yet…He knew that they were deadly, he could feel it in his bones. No orc would ever have been able to stand up against one of these. Skadi sat down and the others found seats too, a woman who had to be of Boris tribe did enter, she did look rather normal if you stared straight at her face but if you saw her silhouette you saw that something was off. Still, he wouldn’t have reacted if he had seen her on the street if it wasn’t for her rather primitive rough blue tattoos. She carried some trays of food and placed them around, it was sandwiches and soda and some tea. Brian did realize that he was hungry and Dag did grasp a couple of the sandwiches with glee. “You do grow your own food?”

Skadi nodded. “Yes, we do. We are officially a farming society, and we have our own religion. It is a good shield so to speak, people tend to leave religious groups alone in fear of causing nasty scenes. But we have people here of all religions and creeds, it is a mask, a charade just to keep the authorities off our backs”

Dag swallowed, the sandwich was obvious very good for he attacked it like a starving piranha. “And it works?”

Skadi shrugged. “Most of the time yes, we have had some incidents though”

Brian did taste his sandwich, it was wonderful. Home baked bread with home grown salad and ham and cheese. No artificial colour or anything. “Incidents?”

Skadi did nod. “Yes, the locals here know us, they can keep secrets but there was one family who moved into the town two years ago. God knows why but the mother was an artist who wanted “nature” to find inspiration and the father, well, he was a nobody who just did what his wife wanted at all times”

Brenna did giggle. “Yeah, if she said sit he sat and if she said roll over he did roll over, weakling!”

Skadi did grin. “Yeah, but she caught a wind of us, she found out about our home schooling and everything and sent the children’s protective service down our throats”

Dag frowned. “Really?”

Skadi nodded. “It became a shit storm, but we did manage to avoid disaster. We have people on our side, some with considerable power. The woman was religious, extremely so. I bet she saw us as heathens and tried to convert some too but at the same time she wanted to punish us, for being…I don’t know…unrestrained? Free?”

Brenna did giggle even louder. “Yeah, she happened to see one of the fertility rites and lost it”

Dag was blushing, “Fertility rites?”

Skadi nodded. “Yep, there is this old rock standing in the forest here, on an old pasture. It is very ancient, from before the Vikings and yes, it is carved to resemble…a phallus. Some of the young ones did think it would be fun to undress and dance around it like they did in ancient times and that goddamn pious little witch did see it since she was out looking for “inspiration”. But we shut her mouth, right now she is in a psychiatric hospital drooling and pissing herself. She saw something she shouldn’t have”

Brian realized that these were dangerous people in more ways than one. “How?”

Skadi bared her teeth, they were white and shiny and her eyes did shine. “She was chased through the woods an entire night, by monsters. Shapeshifters, women with a tail, bloodthirsty apparitions out for blood. She snapped. The fact that she had taken certain mushrooms didn’t exactly make her more in balance. So they agreed that she had suffered from hefty hallucinations and she does still insist that it was real so she won’t be let out for some years, if ever”

Brenna did pet the computer. “The husband did leave right away, with the kids. I bet they are better off now”

Brian finished the food, it was wonderful really. “But we had one more confrontation though, with the authorities. Some moron who did believe that the kids here were malnourished because we were “vegans” But we are not so one of our doctors did send over enough evidence to shut their mouths for a while”

Dag cleared his throat. “Ah, couldn’t that have exposed you?”

Brenna giggled. “No, they sent results from tests taken from the boys here, they are normal with one exception and I guess it was good enough for we haven’t heard anything ever since”

Skadi tapped her fingers on the table. “Yes, but let us focus on the current situation please. Brenna has discovered that somebody has tried to hack us for the last twenty four hours, it stopped but she is very clever. She tracked it back without leaving a trace.!”

Brian did frown. “Alright. So that is how you know that this Kruger guy is after us?”

Skadi did grin and her face was serious. “Yes, he is powerful and ruthless so we have taken our precautions. We are ready to evacuate if need be. What I do need is information on this thing he is trying to find. The orb our sister found, what is it”

It wasn’t a question as much as a command and Brian did swallow hard. “Ah, it is hard to explain. Have you read the Silmarillion?”

Skadi did tilt her head, her eyes did reveal curiosity. “Yes, are you telling me it is a palantir?”

Brian nodded. “Yes, one kept in Barad-dür. It does contain the soul and essence of Sauron”

The tall woman did make a grimace. “Owtch, then I understand why he cannot have it”

Brian did frown. “You accept this rather easily?”

She leaned back into the seat of her chair. “Yes, we are in ourselves just legends, a fairy tale. But we know more than other people, we have seen things others wouldn’t even believe and yes, there are life out there, and life here which has been forgotten and wiped away by the sands of time themselves.”

Brian did wet his lips. “You know about…history?”

She did look at him with some sarcasm in her eyes. “Of course, we were created thousands of years after the fall of your old world, the ages had passed by but our masters? They knew, they had watched from the outside and they were horrified by the indifference of the so called powers. Shitheads I name them. Spoiled ignorant children who throw their toys away the moment they aren’t entertaining enough”

Brianwas shocked. “Ah…the valar…”

Skadi looked straight at him, her dark eyes and feline features gave him a revelation there and then. “Oh gods, your masters did co-operate with some of them?!”

She did nod. “Yes, a few good ones, the healthy apples in a barrel of rotten ones. They wanted a weapon when the day came to break free, somebody to have by their side. The eldar are few Olorin, and most are captured by the valar in their golden prison. Broken and denied their birth right. There are those who are free but in the bodies of mere mortals, some with special powers yes but not enough, nowhere near enough. “

Brian did take a deep breath and Dag stared at him as if he had seen a dancing green gnome. “You know my name”

Skadi did tilt her head again. “Of course, you are one of the few who are free still. In this world and others. There are so many versions of this reality and we are unique for this one. A desperate attempt at creating something not even Morgoth could have imagined”

Brian felt sweat running down his back. “I see, and your masters did follow the advice of…?

She did remove the cork on a bottle of soda, did take a long sip. “The hunter, and the smith. They saw what the dark lord didn’t”

Brian frowned again. “Saw what?”

Skadi crossed the long legs, she was so very human and at the same time completely inhuman, it was terrifying. “That if you break somebody they remain broken, you cannot take something and turn it into something else without at the same time ruining its very essence, making it virtually useless. I bet the orcs weren’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed ha?”

Dag was still staring, jaw wide open, that poor poor man. “No, they were…lacking”

Skadi grinned. “Now, a diamond needs to be polished to be perfect, and a sword is never perfect unless it has been hammered and bent and straightened out again a hundred times or more. Some of his …inventions…did survive to become better, stronger, more lethal, and with their own soul intact but that was simply because they were special to begin with. You cannot turn a cheese into a ruby.”

Brian felt a bit faint. “How…You know about..,”

Skadi nodded, her eyes filled with mirth. “Like I said, we know people. And we are protected too. The world isn’t ready for us, nor for you and your kind. But we are all connected somehow, here and in other realities. We are a surprise the “high powers” cannot expect and thus it is important that we stay hidden until the time is right”

Dag had been staring at them, head going from one side to the other with a rather indescribable expression, Varghild did lean forth and patted him on the shoulder. “Easy there, remember to breathe. You will get used to it”

Brenna did lean inn over her computer. “The others are approaching, let’s go and meet them shall we?”

Skadi turned in her chair and stared at Brian. “If that palantir truly harbour the soul of the fallen maia, we cannot let him see us”

Brian groaned. “Do you have somewhere we can hide that goddamn thing? Somewhere nobody will be looking for it? “

Skadi and Varghild stared at each other, it was like looking at a carbon copy of the same woman, just at two different ages, Brenna giggled and Brian realized that these creatures actually could speak using telepathy. He had to learn more about the race which created them. Why had they left? They could have solved so many problems.

They exited the barn and a car did enter the yard just as they gathered by the door, it was a rather new Volvo Suv like so many of the others there. Brian had read that these cars were among the most safe cars you could be in possession of and he did believe it. That company did never fail when it came to testing their vehicles to the max. He did breathe a huge sigh of relief when he saw Damian step out of the car, even now, in this new shape he was recognizable for those who knew him and he saw Brian and did light up, the smile was one of sheer relief. “My old friend, this has been a total and utter mess!”

Brian nodded. “No shit Sherlock, so, where is it?”

Damian took a deep breath and lifted a small bag, it didn’t look like much but Brian felt it immediately and he hissed. “You are right, this thing…”

Skadi did step forth. “It has to be hidden, and hidden well. Follow me!”

Brian stared at the two women who had occupied the car with his old friend, they were both terribly alike Varghild and Brenna, with just a few differences. Brenna was more voluptuous than this woman and Sam was stockier than Varghild, more of a warrior. They followed Skadi and she walked along a narrow path between two fences until they reached a small building which did smell like a chicken coop. There was a huge pit outside of it and it did stink to heavens, it looked like a mosh of chicken droppings, cow and horse manure and something more. Skadi grinned and Brenna giggled again. “Drop it inn, this is rather liquid”

Brian gaped and Damian let out a high frequency giggle which did sound absurd. “Oh Eru!”

Brian had to control his breathing. “Oh my…What the fuck is that?!”

Varghild crossed her arms over her chest. “Fertilizer, we use it for the vegetables. It is a mix of shit from the stables and barn and the septic tanks connected to the houses here. We aren’t hooked up to the local renovation service, they often forget to empty your tank if you are a wee bit late with the payments.”

Damian did attach a thin rope to the bag and threw it inn and it did sink, the rope got attached to a fence which did separate the pit from the surrounding pasture. Varghild did look pleased and Skadi did tilt her head. “A worthy place to rest for someone this vile. So, Berka, tell me everything”

Brian frowned, so that was Sam’s real name and the two women did stare at each other, Skadi did make a small grimace. “You could have gotten exposed girl, not very smart”

Sam sighed. “I didn’t have a choice now did I? I had to protect Damian and well…they would have tried to kill me. Even we cannot survive a bullet hail like that”

Skadi nodded. “I do not blame you young one, come now, we have to prepare”

Brian stared at the sword Damian did remove from the car, he did remember this thing and its twin, they were things of beauty but also of terror, and carnage. He wondered if that sword ever would be able to have its fill of blood. He did smile at Damian. “Keep it, you may need it. “

Varghild nodded. “Yes, we prefer other weapons than the modern ones, a sword is excellent.”

Brian stared at Skadi. “If that Kruger bastard has sent his goons, how do you protect yourselves?”

Skadi grinned. “We have allies like I said, and we are not without weapons and technology. That we try to do things the good ol way doesn’t mean that we don’t use guns if we have to. Do not worry, we are prepared. The forest is waiting Olorin, and the forest doesn’t ask questions first. We are many and we are strong”

Brian swallowed. The forest? His eyes got huge. “Oh by every…don’t tell me you have ents?!”

Skadi just smiled, the smile was that of a snake and the eyes did shine for a second, a completely sinister glow was visible within them. “We are not the only things our masters did create, some did survive until these days. The old of ancient days are waiting, this will be a blot for them, a gift, blood for life”

Damian was pale and Brian realized that these people probably were exactly why most humans fear the darkness. Dark fairytales and stories, they all have a core of truth and at that core were these creatures. He did swallow hard. “They did create you, mixed species, what did they use?”

Skadi turned around again, her gait was smooth, like she did glide over the ground more than walk and he had seen that manner of moving before. His throat was dry, she made no noise and he could feel the horrible power that body did harbour, an intense flame of fury and savagery, barely constrained. He had never met the one who harboured that flame when he was in his original body but this creature was that one’s equal, or more. But it was a wild flame, untamed and extremely dangerous, not a flame of creativity but a flame of sheer destruction and yet she was intelligent and cunning. So very cunning. “Let me say that human wasn’t the only blood used, we, the first ones, we were …more!”

Brian took a deep breath, eldar blood, probably noldorin. There was elf in them, in them all. But it wasn’t visible anymore, except in the high cheekbones and slightly slanted eyes, the black hair of some of them, the golden red of the other type. That could be vanyar, yes, it had to be of vanyar origin. Skadi did walk ahead and they followed, the small town did look peaceful but he felt that this peace was about to be broken.
------
The small gas station was not one which did receive many visitors, it did barely earn its keep but it was valuable in many ways. There were no other stations for at least fifty miles and everyone who had a car which used gas or diesel had to make a pit stop there unless they had some hefty tanks. The lad behind the counter was in his late teens, perhaps a school dropout who did prefer to work instead of studying and he was reading a rather risqué magazine when he did lift his head. He had deep grey eyes and dark hair and his mother was one of the women from the colony. He used his father’s last name and nobody outside of the small town knew. Two cars pulled up to the pump, he kept his eyes on the magazine but he did notice more than one would have guessed. Both were rentals, both were very ordinary sedans but he saw that the cars were heavy, and yet no baggage could be seen. There were three men in each car, they did look as if they had raided a sports shop somewhere, wearing all new winter gear and he did notice that the driver had an odd bulge in front of his left armpit.

Stefan wasn’t a fool, he knew that a warning had been issued and he kept an eye on them, they did pay with card and didn’t enter the small shop. Most travellers did at least buy some soda or a newspaper, they just fuelled and took off again. He waited for twenty minutes, two more cars did pull inn, same routine. Same type of new equipment, the same type of brutish looking men. Stefan nodded to himself. He picked up his phone and sent a text message, it was all numbers, and the name he sent it to was fake. Then he did close the gas station and went to his own truck, hidden behind the building. If the shit really did hit the fan he had a job to do. The main roads to the small town had to be closed, of seemingly natural reasons and a small trap was prepared. There was this one steep cliff face close to the road and it was unstable. The geologists had said that much but the road wasn’t that important and nothing usually happened in winter. Well, now it was about to happen. A box of dynamite was about to happen, the road would be closed for at least two days. He did grin, finally his chance to prove his worth.

The other road leading towards the small town wasn’t exactly an autostrada but it had a gas station, placed in the middle of nowhere. Officially there was a sort of tourist destination there but it hadn’t seen any tourists since Sweden did switch from left to right side driving. Now that little station too witnessed a row of black SUV’s , at least ten in all. That road was not passing through any larger towns or cities and followed the border so there was little traffic on it. The owner of the station did grunt and reached for the phone, ten cars with probably five men in each, and heavily loaded. He was an old soldier, he did recognize the muzzle of an RPG when he saw one, even if it was camouflaged as a tube containing skiing equipment. Oh yes, shit would hit the fan from every direction. He made the call, then he turned the sign on the door to closed and took off. The road was about to experience a sudden flooding, there was a dam further up the valley and the sluice gates were about to freeze apart, so very unfortunate. They all knew what to do now. He did grin, foreign bastards, they would see what happened when they dared to mess with the people of the deep woods. Nothing good.
Lissa had received two calls, both in code and she sighed and picked up an unmarked cell phone. She waited until she heard a voice from the other end. “East, four cars, twelve men. West ten cars, probably fifty men. Armed”

She ended the conversation and her eyes got narrow. She did pick up another phone and dialled a number. “Angela? It is me, we have a situation, sound the sirens. Gather everybody at the town hall. No, it is a “drill” but make sure everybody gets there. We cannot have a hostage situation. Use the old tank if you need to make it real”

She ended the call and leaned against the counter, her face was suddenly hard, cold. The old tank was an abandoned tanker truck which had been placed on a parking lot some months ago, it did carry ammonia and the driver had just left it since it hadn’t been equipped with the right tires for driving in northern Scandinavia in winter. He had in short chickened out and the transport firm refused to pay another driver and they did not want to buy new tires. The old ones were slicks so there was no doubt that the driver had done the responsible thing. A leak would force everybody in the town to evacuate. She grasped the shotgun and the grin turned feral. What had to be done had to be done, she was ready. No witnesses.
-------------------------
Brenna did make a sort of whistle, she did wave her hands. “Oyyh, message from Lissa, we are going hot”

Skadi growled, it did sound like the sneer of a large cat. “They haven’t wasted time, how many?”

Brenna grunted. “At least sixty, perhaps about seventy. Fourteen cars. “

Skadi closed her eyes. “Alright, evacuate. Send the children and the non fighters to the mine, the rest of us may prepare as we prefer”

Brian was feeling a sense of doom. “There could be air support, helicopters”

Skadi just nodded. “We know, we are prepared. “

Brenna did press a button and suddenly there was a rush of people showing up like they had been shot out of the earth itself. Kids did run by carrying small bags. Women and men did carry larger ones and there was a very clear organization there. Every house was being emptied and there was no shouting and yelling, people did almost seem jolly.
Several of the women did gather, Brian was shocked to see that there had to be at least thirty of these strange females there and they seemed to be very hardened and tough. They wore winter clothing, and he was rather sure that they were armed. Skadi did nod and they nodded back, disappeared into the woods like white shadows. Then another group did step forth, it was small, just five but they were women too and different. Brian did frown, they looked like amazons, six foot four inches each, short brownish hair and piercing golden eyes and they wore surprisingly little clothes. Skadi smiled, a very nasty smile. “Herd them, kill as many as you can, the forest will separate them and our brothers and sisters teach them the meaning of fear”

The five women did nod, for a moment their faces did seem fleeting, as if there was something underneath, something moving and Brian realized that these were shape shifters, but into what would they shift?. A door was heard opening and a young man did walk forth, he was very tall and wide shouldered and a woman who did look a lot like Varghild did follow him. He was wearing army clothes and he had long black hair and was surprisingly pretty, until you got up close. Then Brian saw it, the wrongness of the features, the odd angles, the teeth, the posture. The woman swallowed. “Skadi, I know he ought to go to the mines with the others…but he insists…”

Skadi stared at the young man, he was staring at her, the eyes were haunted and she suddenly smiled, a very gentle smile, almost loving. “Ulf, do you know what this means? “

He did nod. “Yes, I have…I have done naught Skadi, I have been nobody. Yes, I may die. But at least let me die for us, for what we have. I cannot do otherwise, I…I am…only a weapon, and a weapon has no meaning if it cannot be used.”

Skadi did put a hand up, caressed a cheek which was almost hollow. “I know, you have suffered enough my child, go. Show them your wrath, feed them your fury. Go with my blessing. Become your true self, even if it is the last time”

He did bow deeply and Brian saw that the black hair had a sort of greyish shine to it. He stared at Sam who did make a grimace. “Do not ask”

Damian was wide eyed. “Is he… is he a grey? Born as a male?!”

Sam nodded. “One of the extremely few yes, ordinarily such a child is killed at birth, they cannot be allowed to live for they are true monsters, what our masters did create cannot exist within a male body, normally. Ulf here, he is different…he has a soul, but being human is so very hard on him. He has suffered for years, keeping it in check. His mother Arja couldn’t do it, couldn’t kill her own child and it has haunted her ever since. That Skadi does release him is a mercy. He will fight for us, and probably die, but that is a death in honour”

Brian stared and the young man smiled, a sad and at the same time triumphant grin. “I am the
thing that shouldn’t be”

The voice was hoarse and raw and the woman who had brought him sobbed and hugged him, her eyes full of tears.

Skadi did look hard again, battle ready. “Come on, let’s go, let’s get ready to unleash hell. “
Brian had no idea that those words were about to become the truth.

Chapter Text

Chapter 9: Out of the darkness, into the fire

Skadi had sent everybody to the mine and Dagnyr was not sure of exactly what she had meant by that, The long row of people were walking fast and with determination and he and the others sort of tagged along, just to see what this was about. They did approach a kind of cliff, it was rather large but not large enough to be called a mountain and it did seem very ragged and porous. Sam did point at it. “There is indeed an old mine in this piece of rock, made in the late 18 hundreds. Some local dimwit believed that there was silver in the mountains of this area and he did in fact find some but it was just a tiny amount and the whole thing went bankrupt after just a few years. But there are some tunnels left still”

Dagnyr did frown. “They cannot be safe? That is unstable rock for sure?”

Sam just nodded. “Yeah, it is a rouse, a trap.”

They approached a sort of tunnel, it did look like the maws of some huge beast and Dagnyr did shudder visibly. The opening was pitch black and terrifying. There were signs everywhere and the opening was closed with a very solid looking metal grid, also with warning signs. “The mine itself is lethal, ready to crumble at any time but we have had help, there are tunnels beneath the whole thing, solid ones nobody will be able to find. “

The group did seem to enter the old mine but both Dagnyr and Brian saw that they did leave the main tunnel rather abruptly, entering a hidden entrance which had been invisible just minutes ago. It did speak of some ingenious engineering. Sam did grin wryly. “That we do live in the backwaters doesn’t mean we need to be backwards, don’t worry, nobody will be able to find the group.”

Dagnyr did hesitate. “Brian…I…”

Brian did pet his shoulder. “Go with them, you cannot be allowed to be captured, and you are human, vulnerable. You will be safe for sure”

Dagnyr did still hesitate but a small girl of about seven years of age did wander over to him, grasped his hand resolutely. “Come with me Sir, don’t worry, we will keep you safe”

It was an odd thing seeing those strange features on the face of a child, she was so pretty and yet…Dagnyr felt a cold shiver go down his spine, even this child was lethal, he could feel it in his bones.

He did follow her and Brian did wave his hand, it was obvious that he and Damian would stay with the fighters. The entrance was very brightly lit, it was a sort of staircase leading downwards with very low and wide steps and going down went surprisingly fast. The entire population had to have practiced this often and one of the men there smiled at him. “Don’t worry at all, when all are down the entire upper half of this staircase will disappear and be replaced by solid rock, the entire cliff and the surroundings is like a Swiss cheese, full of holes and surprises.”

Dagnyr did frown. “How? That is top notch engineering? It must have been so expensive?”

The man just shrugged. “Let’s say that we have friends who are very good at working with stone”

Dagnyr shook his head. Good with rock? That was an understatement. The corridor did look more like the entrance to some modern subway than anything else. By now they had to be very deep and the staircase did end, they entered a huge hall and he had to stop and stare. The room was indeed massive and very brightly lit, it was also very cosy with soft and yet jolly colours on the walls and several other corridors did lead away from the central room. There were small groups of couches placed everywhere with plants and all sorts of decorations, it did remind Dagnyr of the entrance area of a very posh hotel.The little girl did let go of his hand. “This is the hub, there are apartments and storage rooms and everything here, we can live down here for years”

Dagnyr didn’t doubt it for even a second.

On the surface Brian and Damian did stare at Skadi and the others who stood there, obviously discussing the battle plan in a very soft almost mewling language none of them did understand. Skadi did grin, then she did walk over to them. “The cars are on their way, but everybody is in position by now”

Brian stared over at the farm buildings. “The livestock?”

Skadi just smiled. “Is being taken care of, the horses are taken to pastures quite a distance from this place and the other animals are safe in some hidden sheds in the woods”

She did nod at him. “We take care of our own, even the animals”

Brian did wet his lips. “Can we do anything to help?”

She did tilt her head a bit. “Yeah, you can stay with Alva and Eira here, they are to guard the village but are not allowed to engage, just observe”

The two women were definitely of the same type as Sam and Skadi, tall and slender with dark hair and wolflike eyes. They didn’t speak but gestured for the two maiar to follow them and Brian did discover that there was a sort of observation post placed on top of the cliff. You had to climb up there with a rope and whence up the rope was pulled up too. The post would be impossible to see in a while, it was getting darker and Alva did click her tongue. “They are idiots, they are entering a dragons lair and they haven’t brought asbestos but gasoline”

Brian felt that they were very confident but maybe they had reason to be. They had been prepared for attacks like this for years for sure. Damian did stare at the woods and the village with narrow eyes, he would prefer not to use any of his powers but if it came to it… Brian did nod, he shared the same idea. He wasn’t as powerful as the other Istari but that didn’t mean that he didn’t have powers. He just preferred never to use them.

The road leading to the village was seemingly not very well used, there were a few tire tracks leading onto it and the two groups of cars did approach the entrance at the same time. They were communicating using radio and so the four cars from the east did enter first and drove on. They had good winter tires and could drive relatively fast and they did. The skies were turning darker blue and mist and clouds were descending slowly, throwing a ghostly blanket over the snow covered trees. The men were smiling, the mist would become a perfect cover for them. Their instructions had been crystal clear and they had no problems with a little murder. The four cars did speed towards the small village on the map, the road was some clicks long but it shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes for them to reach the buildings.

It took a few minutes for them to realize that something was off, they should have reached the settlement by now, there was just one road there? They slowed down, the front driver was confused and he swore and floored it again. The maps were good but he didn’t use the GPS unit in the car now since it could be tampered with as all electronics. The distance could be wrong and he did allow the powerful car to almost fly between the tall walls of snow. He did go around a gentle curve and when he saw that tree that lay across the road it was already too late. He did hit the brakes but the snow was just a thin layer covering ice. The car did skid forth and hit the log with a sickening crunch.
The car was a modern one, with crumble zones and airbags but the tree had been placed at a specific height. It was level with the lower edge of the windshield and the driver and the man in the seat next to him got squeezed like toys in the mouth of a playful dog. They didn’t have time to feel much pain so maybe it was a mercy after all. The car behind did barely manage to stop before it did read end the first one and the three men in it did rush out and helped the last man from the front car get out of the wreckage. Since he had been in the backseat he wasn’t badly damaged, just bruised and in shock.The last two cars did stop at a safe distance and they were both angry and a bit bewildered. What was this? They tried to call the others from the radio but it didn’t give anything now except statics and they started to get a bit nervous. It was getting dark soon and the forest was very quiet, too quiet.

They didn’t know it but the real road had been hidden behind a fake wall of snow, the stretch they were on was really a frozen over river, now the road was opened again behind them and the dead end hidden once more. The men decided to walk back towards the others, it was no point in trying to walk on towards the settlement. The snow was thick and the damaged car did block the road. The tree was a massive one and they didn’t have any equipment to remove it with, not even an axe. They started to walk but stopped when they heard something moving in the snow, at first they believed that it was a huge dog which was staring at them. It stood some meters from the edge and stared at them, the mist was thick behind it and the men felt a sinking feeling within their guts. One of the men was originally from Canada and he did stare at the animal with large eyes, one of his buddies did grasp his shoulder. “Do they usually get that freaking huge?”

The former Canadian shook his head, his eyes were still huge. “No, that…that thing there…is no wolf!”

He was lifting his MP5 but the animals sort of sauntered off into the mist and there they saw the shadow of it, changing into something walking on two legs. “Holy…”

The youngest man of the group did gape and the others swore. “That is fake, it has to be!”

The Canadian had lived with a group of natives for a while, they had talked about the Wendigo, the skin changer. He hadn’t believed them but now? He was doubting himself. “Get your guns ready guys, I don’t think that tree was a coincidence!”

A terrible howl was heard through the mist, it did sound a bit like a wolf and yet not, shrill and unnatural and so very loud. The men did jump, startled and shocked and they stared at the tall Canadian, he was sort of their leader now. He was older than the others and more experienced, a former special forces soldier gone rogue and he had seen it all, or so they thought. Now he was panting and trying to see through the thick mist, the shapes around him had become a blur and the light was coming from every direction. It was so very hard to determine what to do next. He gave a signal. “Wolves or no wolves, we move on”

Bartholomew was in a plane, he had managed to get permission to land on a private airfield in Sweden, and he had also managed to get hold of a company which did rent out helicopters. He had some people on his payroll who knew how to fly and had a couple of them flown inn as well. He did own a helicopter of his own but getting it there would take too long, besides, it was a sort of attack vessel and the Swedish authorities would rear if they heard about it. He did however think that the two machines he did get his hands on were enough, both fast and agile and with some men armed to the teeth inside they were gunships as good as any. He was convinced that his mercenaries would have no problems subduing the people up there but it was always smart to have a reserve plan ready. He entered one of the helicopters as soon as it was ready and felt that he was shaking with excitement. The feeling of being filled with extra energy had sort of dissipated but he was still convinced that this was it. There was just one road leading to that farming collective and so the orb had to be there, somewhere.
His pilot was a former combat pilot and very skilled, they had to fly low and fast and avoid the radar. Questions would be asked otherwise and he couldn’t afford that now, not yet. He sat down in the seat and strapped inn, the trip shouldn’t take too long.

The larger group of ten cars had waited but no go signal had come from the front group, the leader was a rough looking fellah in his mid twenties, a gang member and thug who saw himself as the very epitome of masculine power and he sneered and waved his hand. “We go, the idiots have messed up for sure, time to bring the real power”

He entered the car and they all started speeding down the snowy road, this should be rather simple. After all, a collective of hippies? He didn’t expect any sorts of resistance at all. He drove the first car and focused on the road ahead, it was narrow and winding and such snowy conditions did have its own sorts of dangers. He was sure that the pay this time would be even better than the last time, he would spend it in the capital, those Swedish girls were hot and they had some good booze too.

Lissa had punctured the old tank, the entire population of the town had entered the bunker and those who didn’t know what this was about weren’t told. Some men were busy trying to repair the tank wearing protective gear but they did take their time, they all knew and slowed down on purpose. The roads were blocked thoroughly until this was over and the few strangers who had been on the road were in the bunker with the villagers. When they were told to duck and seek cover they did, they knew that doing the opposite was rather stupid. Lissa was on guard duty, she had her trusted shot gun and she was prepared to use it too, here people did watch out for each other.

The ten cars did make a lot of noise in spite of driving on snow, the engines were powerful and revved up, the anticipation of the drivers did make them drive a bit too fast. The front car had to slow down, there was a tractor parked on the edge of the road, with a snow plough mounted at the front. The vehicle was just standing there, covered with snow and it was barely possible to get past it. The cars had to slow down to a crawl and since the tractor was empty there was no point in bothering with it. The people there did probably use it when the road needed to be cleared or something. When the ten cars were passed by the tractor a shadowy figure could be seen sliding out from the snow, she did enter the tractor and started the engine. The vehicle did awaken and manoeuvred out onto the road again, the plough facing the settlement. Then the figure grasped the keys and threw them out into the snow, the battery did go the same way. The tractor wouldn’t be moved again until this was over.
The ten cars did move on, nobody bothered with where the men from the first four cars were now.

The remaining ten guys did walk along the road and the mist had descended completely, it was just a white wall around them and the sight of the odd wolf had spooked them. They walked with their weapons in the ready position and they eyes wide open. They had brought night vision goggles but they were not of any use yet. And also, it was not the type which uses active infra red so they couldn’t see heat with them.

They had walked for quite a distance when the man at the back of the group did feel a horrible pain within his chest, he had time to wonder if he had suffered a sudden heart attack before he went down, the last thing he did see was a bloody spear head which did protrude from his chest. The man in front of him did walk on for a few meters before he got an odd sensation of being stared at. He hadn’t heard anything? Wasn’t there one guy behind him?

He turned around and let out a shriek. Some huge thing was standing over his buddy with a bloody spear in its hand and the shock was so great he didn’t think about firing at it. The thing growled and was gone in the mist and he then shook into action and did empty an entire clip into the mist, screaming in shock and denial. The others came running. “What the fuck?!”

He was panting. “It killed him…it killed Angus, look!”

They all saw the sad remains of the man, the spear was gone but the wound was very visible and the weapon had pierced through the west and the protective gear as if it was all made from butter. The blade had to be wicked sharp to be able to do that. The leader did wet his lips, eyes sweeping from side to side. “We cannot help him, come on. We are sitting ducks here”

They formed two lines, moving forth in a tactic manner. Now they knew that they were being hunted and so they did take precautions. They managed to get another hundred meters before number two was quite literally snatched. Something which did resemble a huge branch shot out of the mist and one guy was simply gone. They heard an awful scream and then silence and the men started to jog. They had no idea of what they had gotten themselves into, now they wanted out more than anything else. Another man just had time to see a shadow move by, then he was decapitated so fast his body did keep moving a few steps before it fell. That did it, the remaining men did panic. They just ran, forgot about tactics and training, around them were howls and dark shadows and not one of them reached the real road again. The Canadian was left for last, he had thrown his rifle to be able to run faster and faced the enemy with his knife. He was a dead man and knew it, the thing which did approach him was a monster, something out of a nightmare. Beautiful and terrible like a thunderstorm and just as emotionless and uncaring. He had one go at her, one stab which was done with all his speed and power but his hand was caught in an iron grasp and his arm broken like a dead branch before his throat was simply ripped out by clawed hands. The forest floor did drink blood this evening and a lot of it.

The five females did gather again, hidden signals given and orders distributed before they split apart once more, the perfect predator is the one which can hide among its prey unnoticed and they had been created to do just that, to walk among men and pick the ones with darkened hearts. Now they lived there with their hulder kin and their shape shifting race were getting larger once more.

The ten cars did reach a gate with a sort of metal grid underneath it, it was filled with snow and rather usual here in the rural areas. It would keep cattle and other hoof animals from getting through the gate since they feared getting their feet caught and to a car it was no problem crossing. The cars almost flew over the cattle lock without even bothering with it and since the snow was rather thick they didn’t notice that they had picked up something from the lock. Small magnetic packets which had been released just as the cars passed over the metal pipes. When the cars flew by a rather narrow field along the road somebody did press a button and a strong magnetic pulse went through each vehicle.
The cars stopped, the engines fried and the electronics dead like a dodo. The men swore and tried to restart the cars but it was no use, the magnetism so strong the very engine blocks had become magnetic and moving the pistons would be impossible, they were locked in place. The men left the cars, there couldn’t be more than a few hundred meters left now and they were in excellent shape. But the loss of the cars told them that they were expected and that was a disappointment. They had lost the chance to take those goddamn hippies by surprise.

The leader did walk fort with confidence, he had a good automatic rifle and so did the others, they were armed to the teeth with all sorts of weapons and they even had rocket launchers. He would like to see the farming community able to match them in fire power. The road went upwards, there was a rather steep little hill in front of them, it was without trees and very ragged in places. The road went more or less through the top of it in a narrow passage. The group was almost through the narrow part when there was an odd almost moaning sound and several tonnes of snow simply let go and came rushing down. The men at the back didn’t have the time to get out of the way and were simply buried to their necks in snow. The road did catch the entire avalanche and the snow was soft and powdery but it did quickly turn to something akin to concrete.
The other men immediately started digging their comrades out of the hardening snow, they weren’t seriously hurt but very cold and they didn’t have shovels so they had to dig with their own hands. Every man wore solid gloves but they weren’t made for this sort of work. The poor victims of the avalanche were mocked without mercy and the leader was fuming, he would have preferred to just leave them behind but they would probably need every man they could bring along.

They walked on, about half an hour later than before and the men who had been buried in the snow were shivering. They saw light rather fast, it was a sort of cabin not far from the road. An old car was parked by it and the lights were on. There was smoke coming from the chimney and it did look abandoned in a hurry. There were shoes in the entrance room and it looked like the home of perhaps a couple of people. There was fire burning in the hearth and coffee on the stove, it was still warm. And there was also a huge kettle with some sort of soup on the stove, the people had probably left in a hurry just before dinnertime. The men who had been buried refused to leave until they had been warmed up and hot coffee and stew was just what they needed. The leader was pissed off but had to admit that a frozen shivering man don’t fight as well as a warm one. The guys ate fast and finished the thick soup fast, then they moved on again. They were already late so why not really?

Dagnyr was impressed, it was an entire underground city down there, it even had saunas and a swimming pool and enough food stored to feed an army for years. It was obvious that the more normal people had been sent down there, with the kids and a few of the odd females who didn’t join the fighters. Instead he got the impression that they were a sort of last defence should the very worst happen. The men there were very different, from some who looked like the average office worker to some guys who would have looked just natural at a Viking convention. An elderly woman who did look like a normal human did walk around and did distribute rooms, another one came with a tray of hot coffee and Dagnyr got a steaming cup. It was surprisingly good and very hot and he sat down in a couch and tried to digest the last days. It was impossible, the scientist within him was rearing and he felt as if he was hallucinating the entire time. The Neanderthals were there too, it was several of them, including some rather stocky looking kids and he did notice that they probably had jobs which did include heavy work. Most did look very buff but it could be natural to them, what did he know really?

One of the men there came over and sat down next to him. “Relax, the confusion do end after a while, as do the feeling of being in a dream”

Dagnyr saw that the man was a ragged type, he did look as if he did belong in a reality show about hermits living in the woods, with only a dog and a rifle as company. “If you say so”

The man grinned. “You should have seen me the first time my wife brought me here, I was more shocked than an electric eel. But I got used to it”

Dagnyr looked at the man with narrow eyes. “So, what do you do for a living?”

The younger man grinned. “I was a fitness instructor, believe it or not. Very hip if I must say it, and I was not superstitious at all. That was until I met Silvra, she shook me to the core”

Dagnyr had to blink. “Uhm, how so?”

The man grinned widely. “I was a strong and fit man right? Really macho and then there is this small red blond girl who is able to outrun me, out lift me and whatever. I couldn’t believe my own eyes”

Dagnyr had to smile. “I bet”

The man grasped his hand and shook it. “I am Ralph, nice to meet you”

Dagnyr did shake it back. “Dagnyr here.”

Ralph did raise an eyebrow. “Icelandic right? I can hear it in your accent”

Dagnyr nodded. “Yes, but I don’t live there now. How long have you lived here?”

Ralph grinned again. “Five years, I have never looked back. It is a most wonderful place to live”

Dagnyr had to smile. “I bet, the things I have seen already”

Ralph just sent him a wry grin. “ Oh you ain’t seen nothing yet, believe me”

Dagnyr frowned. “Really?”

The young man did nod solemnly. “Absolutely. Excuse me, my wife is waving at me, I suppose I have to help her get the kids to bed”

Dagnyr made a grimace. “Aren’t you worried? The attack?”

Ralph shook his head. “Not much no, like I said, you ain’t seen nothing yet”

He got up and left and Dagnyr was left with a feeling of being an outcast. It was obvious that everybody there knew exactly what to do. He did stare at the elegant decorations which did cover one of the walls, it was some sort of mosaic and it did obviously portray the history of this place. Dagnyr walked over to it, it was a masterpiece but he didn’t understand all of it, there were symbols and images he couldn’t recognise at all. The technique was amazing though, the use of colours was discrete and the tiles very small and made from some sort of porcelain and it enabled some very detailed images indeed. He stood there and admired the work when he heard a voice next to him and turned around, the man speaking was very short and stocky, even more so than the Neanderthals and he had a beard some men would have killed to be able to copy. Delicate beads and braids did decorate the entire mass of hair and he wore a sort of slightly medieval looking garb. Dagnyr was staring, he couldn’t help it. The guy did raise his head and smiled at the man, he had rather heavy set features and Dagnyr did notice that the guy wore some elaborate jewellery too, probably made from expensive gems. “Yeah laddie, I am a dwarf!”

Dagnyr had to take a few deep breaths, in a few hours his entire world had changed and now this too. The dwarf grinned widely. “First time here yeah? You will get used to it, Gardar son of Garain at your service”

Dagnyr did manage to make a sort of answer, what was next? Freaking dragons? “Uh, you guys been here for a long time?”

The dwarf did nod vigorously. “Aye, for ages. We have our last city here ya see, deep down. Few humans here in the north and those who live here are alright. We do trade a little and have worked with them for a long time”

Dagnyr nodded, he felt slightly dizzy. The dwarf did pat him on his back. “Enjoy your stay here, make sure you don’t miss out on dinner, unless you are a vegan. Then dinner will suck!”

Dagnyr had to sit down, what was his life really? He had to admit that he was glad his partner wasn’t there, the poor guy would have passed out several times already. He knew of all the tales of dwarves which did survive until these days, so they weren’t a myth after all? Right now he was ready to accept just about anything, that Tolkien dude had to have visited this place, or talked to someone from it at least.

The large group of men were advancing and now they saw the first buildings in the distance. It was almost dark by now and the mist was thick but there were lights in the windows and they could smell a faint stench of manure and other farm scents. The leader did hesitate, they hadn’t encountered people yet, it was odd really since their presence obviously was known already. He ordered the group to split up and search the buildings, and do it fast. They had to find that thing their boss was after for he was on his way now and they didn’t want to disappoint him.

The orb was buried deep in the manure and it was not a very dignified place to stay for such an exquisite piece of work but it was not harmed in any manner. The entity within on the other hand was fuming, it couldn’t reach its slave that easily anymore , for some reason the muck did work as a sort of shield and the humiliation did burn like wildfire. He had tried to reach out to the people who did surround him on the journey there but none were weak of mind, and the minds he did sense now weren’t even human. They did puzzle him and he didn’t understand for he felt a certain type of familiarity when getting in contact with some of them but he wasn’t able to take it any further than just that, a faint feeling of having come across something similar before.
He could however feel the men his new slave had sent to free him and he tried to make them come straight to him but it was too much of an effort. He could give them the feeling of being there but not exactly where he was. The men were the type he did like, ruthless, able to do whatever it took without asking questions, ready to follow the one who was the most despicable among them. He wanted them in his service as soon as he was freed from this goddamn crystal ball.

His slave was getting nearer, that was good, he needed that man for he had influence and power, through him the maia would rule again and even if the world had changed a lot he would be able to cope with it rather fast. After all, the human nature doesn’t change at all, even if ages had gone by. He could manipulate and trick people no matter their level of technology. He just had to be patient a little while longer, it would all come to him soon.

The men did search through the buildings, it was just ordinary homes, nothing special about them at all. Some obviously held huge families while others were the homes of perhaps one or two people, there were all sorts of facilities there, a doctor’s office, a school, a kindergarten. They searched through the huge barn too, the auditorium was empty and the computers were gone and there was nothing there which did indicate that this was a command centre, it was just some community building. The men were confused, there wasn’t a living soul to see anywhere, a couple of cats did scurry away from them but nobody did care about cats, they were probably just feral barn cats.
Some cars were parked there, a couple of snow mobiles, some tractors. Farming equipment and feed was stored in large sheds and it was all in tip top shape and of the best quality, they had to have money whoever they were. The men did gather again and wondered what they were to do now. It was no point in searching the perimeters since they had nobody to question about the whereabouts of the orb. Their boss was probably just half an hour out by now and the leader felt stressed out. “Right lads, they cannot have gotten away, they have to have gone somewhere. Spread out and search the surroundings.”

They did spread out again and now some of them started to slow down, it was the men who had been buried by the avalanche and the guys who were with them tried to make them keep up the pace but they were stumbling and sweating and all were very pale. After just a few minutes they started to collapse and lay there twitching and trembling.

One of the men there was a medic, and to him it was all too obvious what had happened, the soup had been poisonous. The men did die fast, there was nothing any of them could do and the leader was suddenly a bit pale too. They had believed that their opponents were peaceful farmers, this proved that they were far from it. And where were the first guys they sent inn, the four cars seemed to have vanished into thin air for they weren’t there and what was really going on? They did regroup, left the bodies where they fell and some found that a huge group of people had walked towards the forest along a narrow road. It had to be where everybody had been evacuated to and they followed the tracks, rather self assure again. There had to be women and children among them, they would be easy prey then.

The path was surrounded by heavy forest, thick as porridge and if they had been arborists they may have noticed that these trees were rather different from the normal flora of the area. They did look more like trees growing way longer south than northern Sweden. All were gnarly and bent and there was a thick darkness underneath the branches which would have frightened most people. By now the men had lit the torches attached to their rifles, it gave them the light to aim but did ruin their natural night vision. The darkness became even darker around them and there were no sound except from the creaking of snow beneath their feet. There was some sort of huge cliff up ahead, they could barely see it but it was there and they did reckon that this was where the inhabitants had gone.

The path seemed to get more narrow and the snow was trampled hard by feet, it was rather slippery by now and the men were struggling a bit to keep the line. That was when at least three fell over, their heads pierced by arrows and the leader did scream an order and turned towards the forest, firing his rifle desperately. They saw naught, and the archers had to have been aiming based on the torches for nobody could see anything in this goddamn darkness, or could they? The leader could have sworn he saw golden glowing eyes between the trees and heard distant snarling and he did fire again, trying to look as if he was in control of the situation. The three dead men had been hit simultaneously and yet nobody had heard anything at all, no calls, no movement, no nothing. “Fire at will, keep your goggles on”

Everybody did put the night vision goggles on and then the first screams were heard, men did suddenly fire desperately into the darkness and the leader did put on his own goggles and he did almost fall over. The forest was alive, each tree moving forward with waving branches like some horrible nightmare had suddenly come true and yet they heard nothing. It was all silent. The men gathered in a tight group, firing at the trees but the bullets didn’t do nothing, some twigs got torn off, a few holes did appear but these were trees, how could trees suddenly move and act like this? Were they all hallucinating? Was there something there in the air? The men had to change their clips and the trees or whatever they burst forth with a tremendous speed and grasped men, ripped them apart.

Some fled, they turned and ran only to be faced with something even worse, huge creatures best described as werewolves and a massive black one was the obvious leader, chasing the men down the path and killing one by one with ease. The creatures were being fired upon but the bullets didn’t seem to do much harm at all, even when they did hit flesh. Some of the men did manage to get by, they ran to the village and jumped into a car and floored it. The car was left with the keys in the ignition and it was an old Lada Niva and built for rough terrain. It did start in spite of the cold and they drove down the road in a fit of desperate panic. They managed to get by their own stalled vehicles and felt safer but that didn’t last very long. Suddenly there was a tractor blocking the path and they hit the plough with a crunch. The tractor was massive, a very new Fendt which did weigh in at about six tonnes and the brakes were on. The plough was heavy too, the impact did split the car in half and the men in the front were killed instantly. The three in the backseat did manage to get out of the wreckage only to face a row of rather short people wearing thick metal armour, all wielding axes.
The armour was so solid bullets did nothing at all and the three men were cut down like logs with impressive speed, compared to a group of orcs they were pathetic and not much of a challenge at all.

The leader and some others had sort of barricaded themselves using dead branches and snow, they were firing and trying to accept that they fought something inhuman. They saw trees moving around with the same dignified elegance as a moose, they saw women with tails capable of running and jumping like a goddamn cougar and some creatures which did look like werewolves. And there was more, behind them were something huge, something which didn’t even carry heat. The leader had never been the type to believe in fairy tales or shit like that, it had to be some sort of trick, but what sort of trick?

One of the men did panic and ran for it, firing as he ran. He had a new clip and a rather powerful rifle and the creatures did get out of his way so perhaps they did fear bullets after all. But he didn’t watch his back, a four legged shadow did fly in from behind and got back on its hind legs. Powerful jaws did close around the man’s neck and he was lifted off the ground and flung in a tight arch over the creatures back. They could hear the crack as the man’s neck did snap and the body was simply tossed into the snow like a ragdoll. The creature was gone within the blink of an eye, none of them had the chance to fire at it.

The leader did discover something new too, the odd women with the tails, they didn’t send off any heat, they were as cool as their surroundings and the night goggles were useless to spot them. And those females were swift as lightening, way faster than any human being. But the rifles did hold them at bay and the leader was hoping that their boss would arrive soon, with reinforcements. They didn’t have all that much ammo left and the very crude protection was falling apart.
Damian and Brian sat in a sort of observation post on the top of the cliff, a simple elevator made from a large cage and some cable and an old tractor engine had lifted them up there and the post was impossible to see from below. The two females were using small radios and they were hissing orders the whole time, from there they saw everything and could send people to wherever they were needed. Brian did raise his head, he had heard something above the gun fire and he did squint into the darkness. “Damn it, we have incoming”

Alva nodded. “We have heard them, two helicopters, coming inn fast”

Damian did blink. “Can you do something about them?”

The dark haired woman shook her head. “Not until they are on the ground no”

He did turn to Brian. “Do you think that Bartholomew guy can find the orb?”

The other maia did shrug. “No idea, but it is possible. If the connection is still there it may lead him straight to it, shit or no shit”

Damian cussed and Brian looked at him with raised eyebrows. At the moment they did resemble a stern old grandfather scolding a rebellious teenage grandson. “I haven’t known you to use such language my friend”

Damian nodded. “Yes, but we have never been in a situation like this before now have we? What the heck are we to do?”

The sound of the helicopters got stronger and Brian took a deep breath. “Right, I think I may have a trick up my sleeve. I have got no staff but…”

He did pick a huge crystal out of his pocket and lifted it. “I bet the pilot is using night vision goggles to be able to see.”

He did close his eyes and suddenly the crystal did light up, like a beacon. The light so intense and sharp it was like a laser and it made the entire area look as if it was in the middle of the day for a few seconds. Damian was blinking and the two women rubbed their eyes. “Oyh, a wee bit of a warning the next time?”

The men on the ground were also taken by surprise, wearing goggles when hit by such strong light was never wise and they went blind temporarily. They tried to tear off the goggles but it was too late. They were overrun by hairy or smooth bodies, their trusted guns no more use than a walking stick and their deaths were at least swift. The leader had time for a short moment of regret, why the heck had he been stupid enough to accept this job? Then it was all over.

The two helicopters came inn low, the one in front was a gunship now, carrying ten men armed with machine guns and it had a larger gun attached to the side as well. The pilot was very experienced and he was aiming for one of the fields behind the huge barn. He didn’t come that far. Suddenly there was a bright flash of light and he was left blinded. He didn’t let go of the controls and he was well trained and managed to keep the helicopter stabile and even. But the pilot of the vehicle behind him wasn’t that good, he was younger and more of a commercial pilot and the sudden flash of intense light made him pull at the stick, without even knowing it. The helicopter in front had slowed down. Now the one carrying Mr Kruger did ram it from behind, the blades of the rotor cutting into its tail and engine in a violent collision of swirling metal and fiberglass. The rotor blades did explode, both helicopters were wrecks from that second on and the first one did drop like a rock. It had been slowing down and didn’t have that much momentum. The entire machine fell into a thicket of trees like a flaming meteor from above, the men inside were professional soldiers and they did jump out before they did hit the ground. Some of them made it due to the thick snow while others were hit by debris or the fuselage itself and got crushed.

The second helicopter flew forwards for yet a few hundred meters, it had been thrown into a sort of head over heels movement which made it spin through the air and Bartholomew could do nothing to save himself. He screamed as the mangled vehicle did tumble towards the ground and he did scream even louder as it made contact with terra firma again. It landed or rather crashed into a field and the thick snow did dampen the impact a lot. Bartholomew was thrown against the wall and the world went black, this couldn’t be it? He couldn’t die now? It wasn’t fair, he was on the verge of finding the great answer, he had to survive!
The two maiar saw two fireballs and Brian grunted. “I think the helicopters are a problem no more”

Damian could only nod. “I guess so!”

‘

Chapter Text

Chapter 10: What evil begetts…

He was more frustrated than ever before, he couldn’t remember ever having been humiliated thus. Being trapped in a darn palantir and thrown into a manure pit? If he had owned enough power to create a body he would have been glowing with sheer rage. He tried again and again to break free but it was impossible, the darn orb was unbreakable and the thick layer of shit weakened his magic for some reason. He had always owned a temper which ran too hot at times and so he took the spiritual equivalent of a deep breath and tried to think. He was a maia Eru damn it, the strongest there was. He was the favourite of the dark master himself, he had gotten himself out of a mess often enough, just by thinking outside of the box. He tried to use logic, right, he was stuck there, he couldn’t break free on his own. Could someone help him perhaps? He would have smiled if he had a face, yes, yes of course. Bartholomew, that little human idiot, he was close enough. But he couldn’t reach the man, that was a problem. If the man reached out to him however? Yes, that ought to be it. There he had the answer. Sooner or later the human would think of him and that connection could very well be enough. He just had to be patient for a little longer.
The survivors of the helicopter crash were all hardened veterans from countless battles, tough and ruthless but this wasn’t anything they had encountered before. At first they believed that their helicopter had been hit by a missile, then they realized that it was the helicopter behind them which had struck them. They tried to get an overview of the situation when they saw things moving in the darkness and these things were not human. One of the men screamed and raised his rifle, started to fire desperately. The muzzle flash blinded the others and for a few seconds there was complete chaos, the men didn’t know where the enemy was, or what it was and the burning wreckage behind them ruined their night vision even further. It wasn’t easy, no it was not anything anyone had ever trained to deal with. They got a few shots off but then they were all brought down, rather brutally. Enormous creatures which looked more or less like moving trees rushed forth and bullets didn’t harm them at all, it seemed only to tickle them. Behind them were strange wolf like creatures on two or four legs and the men were finished off faster than a drunkard finishes a pint of good ale.
In the cave Dagnyr had started to get used to the odd society, he was enjoying a good meal in the dining hall and by now he didn’t flinch at the sight of the Neanderthals, nor the dwarves. The women who had followed them down there looked calm enough, and he had his doubt that anything could find its way down there. They were safe but he worried about Brian and Damian, he had realized that they too weren’t human but still…He sat down in one of the couches after the meal, everything there was clean and neat and also very cosy, it was probably on purpose since it would make staying down there over time a lot less stressful. Some kids were playing around and he leaned back and felt a bit dizzy again. His entire world had changed in the passing of twenty four hours, everything was different now. One of the women walked over and sat down, she looked a bit like Skadi with her dark hair and almond shaped eyes and she was pretty but it was a fierce beauty. She nodded at him and took a sip of a little bottle she had kept in her belt. She held it out. “Here, try it. You look as if you need it”
He took the bottle with some doubt, sniffed it carefully. “What is it?”
She tilted her head, those strange almost inhuman eyes glittered. “A local speciality, made from crowberries and blueberries with a hint of gooseberries”
The liquid had a deep dark purple colour and he took a very careful sip, it had a punch! It had one hell of a punch and he wondered about the percentage of alcohol in it, it had to be way up there but it was good, it was almost invigorating and left a very pleasant taste in the mouth. “Damnation, this is very nice”
She grinned without showing teeth and corked the bottle again. “We make this in late autumn, after the harvest”
He blinked. “You are how many here?”
She shrugged. “About five hundred all in all”
He frowned and leaned forth a bit, curious. “How do you feed so many people? You cannot possibly farm enough to produce enough food?”
She lifted one leg over the other. “Oh we hunt a lot, and we do buy the rest we need”
He had to look a bit confused. “With what?”
She sighed and pointed behind her at one of the dwarves. “They dig? There are gems in the ground, even here. We have some traders out there all over the world who receive them and sell them without revealing where they are from”
She smiled again. “I am Frosti by the way, Skadi is my aunt”
Dagnyr smiled back. “Glad to meet you, I am worried about those on the surface right now, are you sure they are alright?”
Frosti giggled, it seemed a bit bizarre since she was one of those, those lethal and inhuman creatures, what his world probably would define as monsters. “Oh I bet they are more than alright, they love this, to be able to fight just for once”
He leaned back. “You haven’t had to fight for this place before?”
She grunted. “Not this place no, but we haven’t been here forever. We lived further south before, we have had to move north gradually. Back down there people were too superstitious, being different was too dangerous”
Dagnyr cringed, it made him think of some less than pleasant experiences he had had due to his own preferences. “I can understand that”
She tilted her head, was very charming like that. “Would you like a tour of the facilities?!”
He nodded. “Yes, yes please”
She got up with an almost unnatural ease, it was as if someone were pulling her up using invisible lines. She said something to one of the men there and then she headed towards a rather elaborate door. “I think we’ll start off with the dwarven city”
The door was carved into the very bedrock and extremely elaborate. There were runes written over it and he had no chance in heck to read them. They weren’t the old norse runes he had seen every now and then, these were different and had an almost organic feel to them. The door led to a winding corridor and she turned her head to him. “We’ll enter the upper level of the city, their loft if you like. The ten upper levels are open to everyone, the lower ones are just for the dwarves. They do have their secrets and they don’t like to reveal them, not even to us”
Dagnyr nodded and followed her, the light came from glowing crystals which protruded from the walls and roof and he wondered if they were natural or dwarven made. They rounded a corner and he had to stare. What he saw was impossible and yet there he was, staring at something very few humans had ever seen before. It was a giant hall, so vast he couldn’t compare it with anything he had seen except perhaps the very grandest sports stadiums. But it was vastly different from any stadium since it was filled with a literal maze of bridges, in every direction and of different sizes. It looked like an overgrown hedge, and he took a few steps forth and yelped. He had looked down over the rails and he couldn’t see the bottom, just that lattice work of countless bridges. There were doors at the end of the bridges, light flowed from them and it was a bit like seeing fireflies resting on the end of many branches. When his eyes got used to the light he saw that there in fact was a solid column in the middle of the enormous space, like the stem of a giant tree and the bridges were like branches indeed.
Frosti grinned. “The old people living in the region had a legend of this, and it got spun into their religion over time, it became the world tree, Yggdrasil, Laerad. The dwarves made good weapons and sometimes they traded with the locals, words spread I suppose.”
Dagnyr blinked again. “How many dwarves…”
Frosti giggled again. “Only they know. They won’t reveal all their secrets, but they are many”
He wetted his lips. “How do they keep themselves fed then?”
She shrugged and caressed the smooth railing. Dagnyr was no geologist nor was he a stone mason but he knew superior craft when he saw it. There wasn’t a flaw in the stone anywhere. “They have farms, down there. They grow mushrooms and have pigs, and there are rivers down there with fish and crustaceans. They are very well fed I would say”
He felt his head spin again, this was soon too much. What was next? Aliens?
Frosti shook her head. “No, not here”
He frowned. “You can read my thoughts?”
She made a grimace. “Not really, just pick up feelings you may say”
He frowned. “Wait a minute, not here? What do you mean not here? Elsewhere?!”
She raised an eyebrow, her expression rather arrogant, and smug at the same time. “You’ll see, in time”

Bartholomew Kruger had never experienced anything even closely resembling danger, he had lived a very protected life and even in the few cases where he had visited so called “hot” areas to explore old artefacts he had always been surrounded by his guards or people capable of taking care of him. He had never suffered any real injuries, except that one time when he was thrown from his polo pony and sprained a wrist. This however was way worse than a mere sprained wrist, he had by some miracle survived the crash since he had gotten flung from the helicopter into the deep snow and he could have been alright if he hadn’t hit something hard underneath it. He just saw some pieces of metal and didn’t know it was a part of an old plough, what mattered was that he had damaged his right leg pretty badly. It had to be broken, the pain was in his mind unbearable. The helicopter was burning and the other helicopter was also gone. The men inside of it were dead, he hadn’t been awake to see the massacre which had happened just minutes ago, maybe it was for the best.
He dragged himself away from the wreckage and saw figures moving about, he didn’t know what to do. What had happened there? What was this? He didn’t understand and he reacted out of sheer panic. He had to get away from the lights he saw, he just knew it. His men were gone, they had encountered an enemy they couldn’t hope to fight and he had to get away and assemble a new team, he had to get that orb, no matter what. He missed the voice, the feeling of being taken care off, being protected. He dragged his aching body through the snow, his nice suit wasn’t exactly made for this, he was soaking wet and shivering already. “Please, help me, I…I need you…”
He hadn’t anyone to pray to, he had abandoned all faith years ago and looked down upon those who followed religions. In his mind they were sheep and not worth respecting. He felt a sudden tug, a sort of inner urge and it was leading him. He followed it without questions, the urge was suddenly overwhelming, and it gave him a feeling of being in the right, of being smart and ahead of everybody else. He panted, dragged his broken leg, fought the snow and the cold with all his strength. He had never had to do much physical work but he had some strength, he was taking care of himself for being soft and weak was not very manly in his world. He used the snow as camouflage, forced his way back towards the buildings and he soon stood in front of what could only be a sort of farm building, it was stinking to high heavens and behind it was a dark pit of goo onto which the snow didn’t last at all. He stared at it, the feeling was so very strong, he was slowly loosing his will, his self. The voice was so sweet, so very convincing. It would all go away now, it would all be alright. He would rule, the orb was there, he just had to fish it out of the muck.
Brian and Damian had been sitting in the darkness for a while, they had seen the helicopters crash and they had wanted to get out there and do something but the two women held them back. It was still too dangerous and it was better to leave the fighting to the fighters. It seemed as if the men who had come to attack them were all dead and so were the people from the helicopters. Brian didn’t look happy though, he had a creeping feeling that something was off. The last helicopter had been a better and more comfortable one, the type business men use to get from point A to point B in a comfortable swift manner and it hadn’t contained many passengers at all. The darkness had hid the wreckage and if anyone had survived he or she had to be injured. The two women shouted something and grey shadows slid across the snow towards the remains of the helicopter. They stopped and made a gesture, the wreck was empty and Brian swore. Damian frowned. “What is it?”
Brian had a vague glow within his eyes, he was almost shedding his human disguise. “That Kruger guy, he was driven by the need to possess the orb. I bet Sauron had his claws sunk into the guy rather early on and I don’t like it. If the bastard can use miners and ordinary people to do his bidding I don’t think that idiot of a businessman have it in him to resist”
Damian followed Brian down. “He isn’t by the wreckage?”
Brian nodded sternly. “Exactly”
One of the females approached them, she was wearing a sort of camouflage which made her almost impossible to spot in the darkness and the snow. There were blotches of blood all over the suit and she bared sharp teeth, there was a wild glimpse within her eyes. “The enemy is defeated, not a man is left alive. But someone has crawled from the wreck, towards the farm”
Brian cussed again, even worse than before. Damian had a suspicion that none had heard those exact words since the end of the third age. “He is going for the orb”
The other females were gathering, glowing eyes followed their every move. “Can he really hope to find it?”
Skadi was carrying a rifle over her shoulder, casually as if it was a walking stick. She had probably taken it from one of the mercenaries. Brian nodded. “Yes, if Sauron is capable of getting an idea of just where he is. He is clever, devious. He must not be underestimated at all.”
Skadi made a grimace. “Girls, the manure pit, now!”
The women just nodded and were gone, they were moving without any sound and Damian was struck by the similarity between those oddly elegant movements and the wood elves of old.
Brian turned to Skadi again. “Don’t let people out of the mine yet, not until I give the all clear. If Sauron manages to break free from the palantir we have an even greater problem than a couple of dozens of mercenaries.”
Skadi bared her teeth. “I will let the girls know”
Sam approached them, she was also rather bloody and the blood was so fresh it was steaming in the cold air, her eyes were inhuman now, filled with a sort of primal fury and will Brian now recognized. He had seen it before, in ages long passed by. “We have lost two people, Isa and Marha.”
Skadi closed her eyes. “We will sing for them when the danger is over, rest assured. Their passage to the realm of the ancestors will be glorious”
Sam nodded and she caught Damian’s gaze. “So, what may happen if he breaks free? The goddamn orb is unbreakable isn’t it?”
Brian grunted and made a gesture as if to stroke a beard which wasn’t there now. “We don’t really know, he could perhaps possess the man but it won’t give him much power at all. He won’t be much stronger than a human being. “
Skadi looked rather worried. “Are you sure?”
Brian looked a bit sheepish, he blinked and fidgeted with his sleeve. “No, I am not sure. I have never come across a situation like this before. He is capable of entrancing people, lure them inn, deceive them and give them all sorts of crazy ideas. He may lead others here, or find someone else to possess.”
The tall dark female took a deep breath. “Right, if he is free we will have to contain him again. Do you have the magic needed to do that?”
Damian shook his head and Brian took a deep breath. “Maybe, his spirit is strong, If he is within that man he can be handled but if he breaks out? That could be a problem indeed”
Skadi laid her head back and opened her mouth, the sound which followed was inhuman. It was a sort of shriek and it tore through the air, it was like an air raid siren. “Right, let us go and see if this so called businessman is trying to resurrect a fallen maia.”
They hurried along the way and some of the women who had left met them half ways. “The orb is gone, and the footprints lead into the woods. The man was injured but now the tracks are normal”
Brian sighed. “He has healed the body, of course he has. He is vain, and doesn’t want to appear as a weak person, even in human form.”
They were suddenly surrounded by warriors, both the hulder kind and the shape shifters and Damian could see the ents in the background, and there were also other shapes in there, things he simply couldn’t identify and he wasn’t so sure if he wanted to. “Go, find him but keep your distance. None here are weak of mind and he wouldn’t be able to turn any of us even if he tried but you can never be too careful”
Damian wetted his lips. “Is there any place here where we can hope to overpower him?”
Skadi nodded, her eyes were dark, there was a wild fury there now and also a sort of devil may care attitude which was rather scary to behold. “There is, but it is gonna be tough getting him there, and you will need the orb itself. He will have to go back inside”
Brian nodded. “Yes, we have to get him away from here, to somewhere safe”
Damian made a grimace. “Yes, I suggested Iceland, the dimmu Borgir area?”
Brian looked confused, then he grinned slowly, a light of understanding within his gaze. “Oh yes, I remember you mentioning it, good idea. Nobody is better suited to deal with Sauron than…well, you know. We just have to get the bastard to that portal, and hope that our friend is capable of handling this little problem of ours.”
They followed the tracks, and it was no doubt that Bartholomew had found what he was looking for, there was a sort of burned scent in the air and the palantir laid in the snow, the glow within it diminished, it looked dead. Sam turned her head, her eyes were suddenly very wolf like. “What can we expect now?”
Brian shrugged. “The gods alone know. But Bartholomew is an important person, one with influence and power. I would guess that Sauron will try to become Bartholomew, to use his resources to once again rule”
Sam bared her teeth, she was carrying the sword and they all felt the dark aura of that thing. It was terrifying in its own right. “Can this thing kill him?”
Brian frowned. “No, it can of course kill Bartholomew but it cannot truly kill a maia, only cause some serious loss of energy for a while”
Skadi grunted, it sounded animalistic. “Good, Sam, he is yours, do your worst.”
Sam just grinned with glee. “Will do!”
The women around them moved without a noise, their eyes glowing faintly in the darkness and Damian was once again reminded of the nature of the wooden elves of old. These were so alike them in many ways but they had a certain feral air to them the elves lacked.
They moved forth, with determination and will, even if Sauron now possessed a new body, he couldn’t have come very far indeed.
-------
Bartholomew had followed the voice, almost in a febrile state of intense impatience. He had never needed anything this badly before, he didn’t need to think or even stop for a second, he found the orb in the muck without much problems and dug it out with trembling hands. His leg was aching like mad but he was beyond that now, the orb. It was there, it was his. He would rule the world!
He grasped it with glee and didn’t even care that it was very heavy and cold. Bartholomew had always felt highly about himself, he had never failed, never had a reason to doubt his own decisions. It was thus a terrible shock to him when he suddenly felt a surge of intense energy surge through him. If he had been allowed to he would have screamed but his mouth was shut as the person he was suddenly was forced back, into the very backroom of the brain. Someone else took his place and Bartholomew did perhaps understand that he had been screwed over royally but it was too late to complain. He was no longer the master of this flesh, just a stove away locked up in the backroom of his own body.
Sauron knew he was in trouble. This man was weak, much weaker than the humans he had encountered before and he wondered if this was common for the humans of this age or if the man was an exception. The men of Numenor had been way stronger in every manner. He healed the body of its injuries rather quickly, it was not a young body and he decided that he would make it appear younger and more handsome when he had the time to do so. Now it was imperative that he got away. He saw the memories of this mere human and he didn’t understand at all. What was this? He could recognize the ents, and he knew that they were a force to be reckoned with, he tried to reach out and manipulate someone but the minds he touched made him rear back with a gasp.
What in the name of Morgoth was this? Had the valar gone insane? Or was this some other servant of his master who had gone rouge and gone a bit too far? He had no idea, he had to get away. Right, this body wasn’t fast, and the cold would harm him rather fast. He knew how to drive those weird motorized vehicles since Bartholomew knew it but he felt terrified of them. They weren’t something he could control using his powers, they were just things and likely to break down. But there had to be horses there right?
He ran through the snow, with the limited power he had he still was much faster than a normal human, the snow didn’t really bother him. But he knew he was being chased and he felt the presence of his own kin. Damnation, he recognized the energy of Olorin, that one was strong, and he had no idea of just how strong. He had never really challenged Olorin before but he knew that the former Istari once had slain one of the Valaraukar, that took some strength. So he ran, he had to find a way out of there.
He was following a sort of path in the woods with lots of tracks from horses and other cows when he noticed something moving ahead of him, it was large but humanoid and he let out an involuntary little shriek. Eru damn it? No, it couldn’t be! Nobody could have copied his prized possessions, his most insidious creations? This was a werewolf for sure and it was larger and obviously more intelligent than his had ever been. It stared at him with glowing eyes and he stopped and tried to get in contact with its mind, to control it. The attempt failed miserably, the mind he met was unbendable, like diamond.
He turned on his heel and ran again, following a different path, also covered with tracks. He knew that he was done for if that thing caught up with him. The werewolf howled, oh Morgoth take it, it was calling for the pack wasn’t it? He couldn’t hope to fight that many creatures at once, not while he was this weak. The palantir had contained some energy and he had sucked it all up but it hadn’t been all that much and he was not sure of where he was at all. The forest was dense and dark, this was some forsaken part of the world for sure.
----------
Sam and Damian ran with the others, they heard the howl and Skadi grinned. “Got him, he is heading towards the pastures”
Damian frowned. “Oh no, can he use the animals? Harm them?”
Skadi shook her head. “Doubt it, they will flee. “
Brian had an intense look upon his face. “I just hope that he doesn’t understand what he has been given, Bartholomew has lots of contacts and I bet few are what you will call honest”
Damian just grunted. “He won’t have time to understand the concept of mobile phones, or do you think he has learned that already?”
Brian shrugged. “I have no idea!”
The trees seemed to sigh around them, and the ents could be heard too, sending rumbling signals to each other. The darkness was intense now and the stars were like diamonds tossed onto a velvet blanket above them. It was beautiful but there was no time to admire the sights now. Sam cocked her head. “Do you hear that?”
It was whinnying, in the distance. Damian blinked. “Can he ride out of here?”
Skadi laughed. “Nope, the snow is too deep. And our horses are…special”
Damian stared at her but got no explanation.
---------------------------------------
He had reached a pasture, it was rather large and an open space within the woods, the darkness was dense and the stars threw shadows, rather deep ones. The area was snowy but there were tracks there, many and deep. He looked behind himself, the werewolf was gone? Why? Could it be that his presence had scared off the beast? Of course, it had to have sensed a superior creature, he was after all a lieutenant of Morgoth, a mighty force. But there were horses there, he could smell them and he smiled. This Bartholomew guy had never been much of a rider but he knew the art and Sauron had of course ridden before. He walked forth, the feeling of being chased was getting stronger, the goddamn Istari were behind him for sure. He sped up and saw dark shadows moving against the backdrop of heavy pines. The cold was biting at him and he saw steam in the air, probably from the breath of the horses gathered there. He didn’t anticipate much though, if this group of people owned anything even resembling a good horse he would be surprised.
There was a loud whinny, it sounded like a war trumpet and he froze, oh damnation, they had a stallion there? With the rest of their herd?! Not that he ever had been much of an equestrian but he knew that a stud could be quite dangerous to deal with, and unpredictable to boot. A massive dark shadow moved towards him and he gaped, what in the name of his former master was this? It was a massive beast, a horse so tall he could barely reach its shoulders and it was pitch black and its eyes seemed to almost glow. Bartholomew Kruger had attended a lot of horse shows thanks to the fact that his wife had been a huge fan of dressage or rather, the posh factor within the sports and this was no ordinary horse. He could see that within the memories of the man he now possessed. The horse snorted, hooves thundering against the snow and they were the size of manhole covers. Right, he would never be able to get one of the more normal looking horses when that monstrosity was guarding them, what now? Could that massive horse be ridden? He didn’t dare to try, and now the horse raised its head, ears clipping as if it was listening to something he couldn’t hear and the maia swore as he realized that this was just what was happening. The horse screamed, ears flat back and it reared, if those hooves hit him he would be reduced to a pulp. He squeaked and turned around and ran, not a very smart decision.
----------------
The group ran through the snow and entered a large pasture, Brian blinked and Damian swallowed hard, a massive horse was dancing around a rather large boulder in the end of the pasture and on it was someone, clinging on for dear life. There was blood in the snow and the reason was visible. The man’s pants were covered with the stuff, the legs seemed to be broken. Skadi whistled and the horse snorted and danced away from the man, it didn’t seem aggressive at all anymore. Sam grinned widely. “Darkblade is a guardian, nobody gets past him if Skadi wants him to stop them”
Damian had seen huge horses before but this one had to be the largest horse ever, it was both powerful and elegant. “What in the name of Eru is he? Some mutation?”
Skadi shook her head. “No, a descendant of Sleipnir”
She didn’t say anything more and they moved forth again, the man on the boulder was clearly struggling, trying to get away from them and the air was crackling with magic but it wasn’t strong enough, not by far. Skadi stared at Damian and Brian. “Now, you shield him as much as you can. We have to work fast now, very fast!”
Two of the women grasped the former businessman and hauled him down, he screamed in agony and Damian whispered something in valarin, it sounded rather ominous. The struggling figure was surrounded by light all of a sudden, a faint glowing light. It made the man shriek, an utterly inhuman sound which resembled that of a ring wraith and Skadi looked almost pleased. “No doubt about the identity right? Let’s go!”
They carried the man, running through the snow and it was a surreal sight for they ran on top of it, as if the snow had become something solid. Brian and Damian had problems keeping up and Sam ran beside them, carrying the sword. It was hissing, singing to their minds, a terrible hungry disturbed song which created images of a dark and cold and desolate world. Brian had no idea of where they were heading, he just followed and soon he felt magic touching him. It was ancient, different and it sent shivers down his spine. They entered yet another clearing and Sauron was struggling even more than before, his use of power desperate and the shrieks were ghastly. The clearing held a circle. Ancient stones erected sometime before time became time and if it ever had been registered by archaeologists it was a wonder. It was power, raw undiluted power of a sorts nobody could imagine, probably as old as the planet itself. The rocks were more than four meters tall, pointy fingers reaching for the cold skies and they were pitch black but if you stared at them there was as if stars were shining within that blackness. Damian tried to tell himself that it had to be mica crystals within the rock but his own inner voice knew he was wrong.
Sam sent him an apologetic glance. “Sorry we didn’t mention this place to you, it holds power but it has to remain a secret and it isn’t a portal or anything, just magic concentrated you may say”
Damian understood, this wasn’t some ancient cult site or sacred place, it was way way more and seemed as if it had fallen down from the skies in some long forgotten era.
Skadi entered the circle, the prisoner was dragged with them too and Damian suddenly realized why they had to be quick. If Sauron managed to tap into this power he would be unstoppable. He obviously felt the power for he hissed spells and incantations, tried to strengthen himself from the power there and Sam raised the black sword and her face was cold as ice in the faint light. Another one came bearing the palantir and Skadi nodded at Brian and Damian. “You are kin of him, his spirit must not be allowed to escape”
Damian just huffed, nobody needed to tell him that. They both started to chant, binding spells which should have some effect even though they both were far from what they once had been power wise. It wasn’t easy, as a matter of fact it was darn hard for Sauron was clever, and his spells were digging into them like a mole digs through soft soil. The air was buzzing around them, the world outside of the circle a mere blur. The fallen maia was conjuring up terrible images, manifestations of the valar only knew what but the two Istari didn’t budge, even if he used their very worst memories against them. Sam grunted, a rather rough sound, the one holding the palantir lifted it and now the sword was screaming, howling for blood. It looked as if she could barely hold it, it was shaking in her hands.
Sauron seemed to become aware of the blade, and he realized the danger he was in. If that blade killed the body he would become consumed, become nothing, Sam bared her teeth and the blade dropped, cutting into skin bone and muscle and there was an almighty boom and the palantir glowed red for a few seconds. The spirit had chosen the only safe place to hide within this circle, the palantir which had held him before. Damian hurried forth, laid a hand on the orb and whispered something. The red glow died down, now it had a sort of greenish glow which was much more comforting to watch. He wiped sweat off his brow, Damian discovered that he too was tired, oddly enough. It felt like hours but had been just minutes.
Skadi smiled, the odd glow within her eyes was a calculating one. “Now, this has to go right? And you know where to do it?”
Both Istari nodded and she sighed. “And fast, you have got to get there fast”
Damian looked sheepish. “Yes, that would be very nice, before something else happens here”
Skadi waved a hand and said something to one of the others there, the woman ran off into the woods. “Right, we have to make sure that this happens then”
Someone brought a bag made from sheep hides and they hid the palantir in it, the orb felt heavy, the aura it now gave off noticeable to even mere mortals. They couldn’t transport it now, not as it was, people would feel it and react. Sauron was desperate and they couldn’t shield it completely, he would certainly cause mayhem if they travelled the ordinary ways. They had to wait for a while, then the woman Skadi sent off returned with another one and Dagnyr, he looked shocked and his eyes were huge as tea cups. But he was smiling, and there was something akin to awe within his gaze, no wonder, the scientist had probably seen things he never would forget.
Skadi turned to him. “You are a normal human being, and normally we wouldn’t let anybody witness what you just have seen and leave this place. Not without swearing very heavy oaths”
Dagnyr stared at Brian and Damian. “I…I understand. The “I could tell you but then I would have to kill you afterwards” factor right?”
Skadi nodded. “You are a good man Dagnyr, an honest man and your mind is open and filled with curiosity. We could wipe your memory but I don’t think that is an option now is it?”
Dagnyr shook his head vigorously. “No, it isn’t.”
Skadi took a deep breath. “Oaths it is then, and among us they come with a prize, but it is a prize I am sure you are ready to pay”
A woman stepped forth, she carried what appeared to be a sharpie marker but Damian felt the magic in it, whatever marks it left, they would be permanent. “Drema here is an artist, she will mark you with sacred signs, if you ever were to speak of this the marks will burn you and warn you to keep your tongue, alright?”
Dagnyr looked shocked. “Right, then let’s do it, before that thing breaks free again”
Some of the shape shifters had already dragged off the body of Bartholomew Kruger and Damian was rather sure that the news soon would tell of the unfortunate demise of the businessman in a very tragic helicopter accident. These people knew how to hide the truth so well it never would be found, simply by making sure nobody would doubt it.
Drema rolled up Dagnyr’s sleeve and started drawing, all the while she was humming and the others there followed. It sounded archaic and odd, and the air was shimmering within the circle. Skadi tilted her head. “An oath taken within the circle is unbreakable, do you swear to never reveal what you have seen here to anyone?”
Dagnyr hesitated for a second, thinking of his partner, then he nodded. “I swear”
Skadi took a deep breath. “Good, it is done then”
Drema grinned and finished, the symbol drawn onto Dagnyr’s skin looked like a sort of complicated rune and it was glowing faintly for a few seconds. “From now on you won’t even be able to find the words if you try to speak of this, and if you try to write it down it will burn you. Thus is the power”
Everybody repeated. “Thus is the power”
Dagnyr pulled his sleeve down, he looked a bit shell shocked to say the least. Damian made a grimace. “Well, we have got to get to Iceland, and to get rid of that goddamn orb, you have a plan I reckon?”
The females nodded and Sam giggled, her face spoke of some mischief for sure. “We do”
They could see from a distance that people had started returning from the mine now, and the village was being lit again, the danger was over and Brenna approached them, she was grinning from one ear to the other. “I have already reported the death of Mr Kruger, a really bad accident involving some inexperienced pilot and a low power line, very tragic indeed”
Damian frowned. “That is good, but why was he here in the middle of nowhere? The reason has to be believable.”
Brenna shrugged. “He collected artefacts didn’t he? He was offered some Viking stuff from a local collector and it turned out to be a fake. He crashed on the way back to Stockholm”
Skadi raised an eyebrow. “We know a guy further north who is a collector, he can back the story up if need should arise.”
Brenna smiled still. “The forecast speaks of a meteor shower this night, could be a dense one. The air force radars will be turned off for a while”
Dagnyr looked a bit confused. “Uh, why?”
Sam bared her teeth. “So they won’t see you going to Iceland”
Damian frowned. “Ah, what sort of vehicle…”
There was a soft hum in the air and a dark shape appeared above them, it was almost sword like and Dagnyr gaped. “Is it…”
Sam shook her head. “No, it is not a Blackbird, but that plane was based upon the shape of this one, don’t ask me how the dudes at Skunk works got the design for I won’t tell you”
The vehicle hovered above them, no plane could do that so silently, no helicopter neither. It was rather large and sleek with an undeniable elegance. Damian stared up. “Not to be a spoil sport but how are we to enter this thing?”
There was a beam of light coming from above and they were suddenly hovering too, slowly raising towards the dark fuselage above them. Dagnyr was gobsmacked and couldn’t make a sound. Skadi waved at them. “Sam, keep them safe, and return here afterwards. They need a photographer in Greenland.”
Sam waved back. “Yes, but I am no longer Samantha Fallow”
Skadi grinned. “That has been taken care of”
The four of them floated through a hatch and they were inside of a very well lit hull, it was a soft comfortable light and they blinked. Six chairs were placed in two rows and they sat down, the seats sort of moulded themselves after their bodies and it felt safe but also a bit claustrophobic. Damian wetted his lips. “This is tech way beyond what any nation has available right?”
Brian nodded and Dagnyr was still unable to speak. Sam sighed and leaned back into the odd seat. “Yes, but mankind isn’t ready for this, not at all. Everything you get your hands on is turned into a weapon of some sorts.”
Damian made a grimace. “Amen to that”
The cockpit was hidden behind a narrow door, they couldn’t see the pilot at all. The ship didn’t appear to move but Sam touched the wall and a part of it turned transparent and showed them that they indeed were hauling ass. The landscape was hurling by at a speed which was frightening to say the least. Dagnyr turned pale. Sam smiled at them again. “Don’t worry, these things do not crash, they are too advanced”
Dagnyr was shaky, his eyes huge. “Oh, what about Roswell?”
Sam shrugged. “Oh that mishap? It was a drone, with crash test dummies. Some moron had decided to have some fun and lost control of the thing, didn’t belong in this dimension at all!”
Dagnyr was trying to impersonate a fish on dry land by now. Brian and Damian stared at each other, there were still so much they didn’t know anything about and it was perhaps for the better, this went beyond their poor comprehension. They were flying rather high and lo and behold, there were a lot of glowing streaks of light racing towards the ground. If someone saw them they would think that this too was a meteorite coming inn at a low angle. Sam closed her eyes. “Relax, get some rest. We will be in Iceland in half an hour”
Somehow that didn’t surprise the rest at all. Sam sent them a swift grin. “We have to land a bit away from the target, the energies there could affect the vehicle. “
Damian just nodded. Nothing could stun him anymore.
They flew in silence and then the feeling of movement stopped and they were hovering once more. The hatch opened and the light appeared again. Sam got up, the seats let go of them and the men followed her onto the surface which was completely invisible but solid enough. Sam grasped the sword, she had carried it the whole way and she gave it to Brian. “This doesn’t belong here, so send it over to wherever the orb is going, alright?”
Brian nodded and grasped it, looking like he was touching something rather disgusting.
She stretched and her eyes were narrow. “Now, be aware. We are to enter a portal area, it is never without dangers. Remember the old tales of people who got abducted by the fairies and ended up in Tir na nog and other magical realms? This is what happened to them, they stepped too close to the gate and got sucked inn. It is important that you don’t let anything you see scare you”
Brian frowned. “Are you trying to tell me that we are to enter the portal ourselves?”
Sam shook her head. “Heavens no, you call your guy but we are in the front room or the hall way or something, things are bound to get through at times. They don’t get much further than here but they are spotted at times”
They reached the ground and the light disappeared, it was rather dark there and they saw twisted odd shapes around them. Brian hissed. “The energy here, the magic…”
Damian nodded. “I feel it too, come on, we have to move”
The orb was quiet but they felt it, how the spirit trapped within struggled, fighting to break free.
Sam was leading them, here and there they saw small glowing balls of light among the cliffs and Damian could have sworn he heard someone singing, just too far away for him to make out the words. Brian was whispering something the whole time, calling the right person to the portal, asking for help. They saw figures hovering about, glowing faintly, some looked vaguely familiar. Sam shook her head. “Do not listen to them, do not look at them. They will try to possess you, they are without a realm, without anything anchoring them to reality.”
Damian froze, he could have sworn he saw a very well known face among the dancing shapes. “I see”
Sam walked on, a more massive figure blocked the path, it was rather grotesque and even though it was transparent it was apparent that it had been human, just very large. It wielded an axe and swung at them, they heard a growling sound. Sam bared her teeth, she said something which had to be old Norse and the figure backed off. Brian was sure he heard the word “Loki” and “Odin” within her short speech. The magic there was intense now and Dagnyr was walking between them, he was very pale. “I have been here before, as a lad. It wasn’t this…intense back then”
Sam nodded. “Of course not, you were here in daylight right? Without magic users present. This place is awake tonight, because of our two maiar friends, and the orb”
She pointed at the skies. “The magic lives tonight, if anyone tries to enter the area now they will not even find it but wander around aimlessly. Nobody is to see this”
Damian hissed at Brian. “Will he come?”
Brian sighed. “He has to”
The cliffs suddenly formed a sort of gate and the air was shivering underneath it, an eerie glow laid over the place and Brian and Damian nodded at Sam. “Watch Dagnyr”
She laid an arm around him. “Will do”
Brian took a deep breath, grasped the bag with the orb. “Let us do this”
He started chanting and as he did he suddenly looked different, a tall robed man with long white hair and a beard, wielding a staff. Then he changed again, became a rather young and very handsome man, not that different from Damian. He held the orb up. “Come, he is trapped within it, this realm cannot deal with him. He needs someone to guard him, someone strong enough”
Dagnyr stared, he wasn’t being shielded from seeing. The air split underneath the gate and someone came through. The distance was too great for him to see any details but the person was very tall and elegant, like a panther. He wore black and had pitch black hair carried in a very high pony tail, like a plume. It was falling down his back and had to be incredibly long and there was a quick glimpse of purple eyes as the person grasped the bag. He said some thing which seemed rather mocking, then he inclined his head towards the two Istari and said something more friendly sounding. Brian handed over also the sword which Sam had given him on the vehicle, the tall man attached it over his back and it looked almost natural there, as if it belonged with him somehow. They bowed and he turned around with almost military precision and disappeared through the gate. The tension within the air was suddenly gone, the orb wasn’t there and Sam grinned. “They sensed him you know, Sauron was responsible for quite a few of them, he probably created most of them come to think of it”
Brian and Damian came over to the other two, they looked very relieved. “Sauron is being taken care of, believe me”
Dagnyr looked as if he had his doubts. “Are you sure? Who was that? Who is strong enough to rein in that monster?”
Brian just grinned. “His own son”
Dagnyr gaped, for the n’th time that day or so it felt. It was as if this was becoming his most used facial expression of late.
Sam was smiling again. “Let us get out of here, sunrise is coming soon and we better be gone by then”
They returned and re-entered the odd vehicle, Dagnyr was dying to see who the pilot was but no such luck. Sam winked at him. “He isn’t of this world, so…better if you don’t see”
Dagnyr groaned with frustration.
The trip back was uneventful and as they exited back at the village Sam gathered the three men around her. “Listen lads, you have to change a few things from now on. Damian, you got kidnapped and unfortunately you are dead unless you can recreate the body you had back in Kairo?”
Damian shook his head, Brian patted him on his shoulder, he looked like himself again. “Don’t worry, from now on you are one of my students, from…let’s say Anchorage? Yes, that will do”
Dagnyr blinked. “What about me?”
Sam sighed. “Brenna has created some false leads and the official history is that you and Brian too got kidnapped, you will be let go somewhere near a city over the border, the kidnappers never let you see them and they were out for ransom money, Brian is famous after all. It didn’t work, they were arguing among themselves and one of the idiots got cold feet and helped you escape. It will be backed up by “evidence” Brenna very cleverly has come up with”
Dagnyr sighed. “All this, and nobody to hear of it”
Sam laughed. “Yes, but you know now, isn’t that good? The goddamn orb and the goddamn sword is in better hands and the balance is back”
Damian swallowed hard. “Can we keep in touch?”
Sam nodded. “Of course, but with new names and new email addresses please, and use the info Brenna gives you”
Skadi came sauntering, she was grinning again “It is time to go lads, the car is waiting for you. You better get going, the longer you are missing the harder it will be to maintain the little lie”
Damian gave her a quick hug. “I…thanks for everything”
Sam tilted her head. “Likewise.”
Damian shook her hand. “Thanks for keeping my friend safe”
Sam raised an eyebrow. “It was mostly a pleasure.”
A volvo station wagon rolled up, it was driven by Frosti. “Hop inn, there will be dinner at a road side dinner in two hours, then it is straight over the border”
Brian and Damian stared at Sam and Skadi, Brenna and Runa and the others who had gathered there. Dagnyr was swallowing the whole time. “Will we meet again?”
Skadi shrugged. “Who knows? One day? Maybe? Live well for now, I am glad to know you are here, and on the side of good”
They got in the car and Dagnyr was staring behind him as they left the village, the roads had been cleared again, not a trace could be seen of the battle which had been fought there. It was almost eerie.
They returned to Trondheim early in the evening, the newspapers were all over the case for a while, but then someone managed to insult some celebrity and there was a Beluga whale trapped in some fjord and they were forgotten. Dagnyr was oddly quiet when they flew back across the atlantic, his eyes distant and Brian looked at him, worry on his face. “What is it?”
Dagnyr just smiled, a faint smile. “It is just…the man in the portal, who got the orb and the sword? I…I could have sworn I have seen him before, somewhere.”
Brian just smiled, a rather pleased smile. “I am sure you have, or will someday. Time moves oddly near a portal after all”
He didn’t say anything again and Dagnyr fell asleep, the image of amethyst eyes stalking his dreams.
The case of the rich businessman was soon forgotten, his estate and belongings were the target of a wild bout of petty greed among his friends and enemies, then he was forgotten. The tomb in the desert disappeared during a sandstorm and nobody was able to locate it again, the locals were not unhappy hearing this.
Dagnyr returned to his everyday life but his attitude had somewhat changed, the wonder was gone, now there was a certain adamant belief in his teachings. Brian was unaffected and he spent much time with his new protégé, a very pretty but also very smart student nobody had met before
Sam got the job as a photographer, for an expedition to Greenland, just as she had wanted. Now she was Solange Amber and she had changed her appearance a bit, she was no shape shifter but putting on some weight and using contacts and dying you hair can do wonders. She was happy the whole debacle had been fixed, she didn’t need any more rogue maiar or stunned scientists.
It was therefore her colleagues heard some rather juicy and not very decent expletives when one of the men working at the dig suddenly pulled a huge perfect crystal ball out of the ground, staring at it with wide eyes. No way, no bloody fucking way, not again!