Chapter 30. Heir to the Gatekeeper
Amndo rose early the following morning, earlier even than Jonas, at least he hoped this was the case. He knew what he must do, but he did not want anyone else to know, this he must do alone, he only wanted to risk what belonged to him, that is himself. He crept through the house not wanting to meet with anyone that may ask awkward questions of him. It was an easy task to get from his room to the tower rooms that Serinae occupied when she lived in the house. He only had to travel the guest quarters section and none of Solin’s staff were up, even if they were then they would not enter here yet so as not to risk disturbing any of the guests too early. Not that the house held any other guest than himself, but it seemed the house rules prevailed at all times, even when only one guest was staying. Never the less Amndo found himself treading carefully and stealthily through the corridors, it made him feel a little unclean somehow, like a sneak thief especially as he had enjoyed the openness and hospitality of this house and its staff many times in the past. He hesitated at the top of the staircase that led to the banqueting room below. He listened carefully, no sound came up the flight of stairs so he crossed the landing quickly. It just felt so wrong to be doing this; somehow it felt like a betrayal of trust. He chided himself for being so overly sensitive and tried to persuade himself that the staff wouldn’t care one bit in reality what he did as long as it didn’t affect them or the house adversely.
Amndo stopped; he was surprised for he stood in the main room of Serinae’s old suite. He couldn’t recall climbing the turret stairs or entering this room, his thoughts being elsewhere. He looked around, a covering of dust lay everywhere. It was also in the air, he stifled a sneeze making his eyes water. He walked across the room and opened the bedroom door in an attempt to get out of the dusty environment, but to no avail for here also a coating of dust lay everywhere, the act of opening the door had already caused a great cloud of the stuff to rise up into the air.
He walked forward the room was dimly lit, he looked at the windows, something like parchment had been glued across them as if to purposely keep out much of the light. He searched around trying to find any clue as to where the small keyhole may be, he knew it was near here but there was no obvious sign. He sneezed again for he was crouching down at floor level in his search and much disturbed dust now hung in the air. He stood and moved across to a large picture window and opened it slightly to let in some fresh air. He took a few deep breaths. As he did so a stiff sea breeze caught the open window and flung it open wide, the frame banging loudly against the outside wall of the house. He winced as sunlight streamed in through the open window; a million dust specs sparkled in the beam of sunlight like a tiny shards of glass.
He tried to reach the open window now flung back wide against the outside wall. But he could not stretch his army far enough to grab hold of the latch. He tried to work the window closed by turning the exposed hinge, but his fingers weren’t strong enough or the hinge was too stiff. He groaned and turned to look for anything on which he could stand and thereby extend his reach. But his eyes caught site of something else. A bright patch on the wall opposite, something glinted brightly at about waist height. Amndo walked across and there on the wall as if soaking in the sunlight a little circular hole could be seen. It was as if the sunlight shone through the hole and whatever was on the other side drew on the light and reflected it back through. That shape, thought Amndo, by the Maker it was a keyhole! But he had no key. But he already suspected that it was not the key itself that initiated the portal. The key just belonged to someone else, it was an innocent thing, it just unlocked a small hidden cupboard, this cupboard in which someone kept a small thing of value. Amndo smiled long ago someone had locked something in this cupboard and left a cryptic clue as to the whereabouts of the key. But someone else had played upon that clue to hide something far greater, far more dangerous. His smile left his lips as he thought of the unfortunate individual who had fallen prey top that trick and caused all the events that followed to happen.
Amndo inspected the hole carefully, there must be a keystone, a portal stone somewhere in there somewhere, but whoever created this little deception was careful to hide the obvious. Amndo sat back upon his haunches. He looked at the light being reflected out from the small hole, it looked brighter than the sunlight streaming through the window and illuminating the wall into which the key hole could be seen. He was curious; maybe the light coming back out wasn’t light at all but something else? Bah! He needed an T’Iea here, someone familiar with the arcane signatures, someone who could decipher the energy. He smiled; perhaps if Solvienne was here she could most probably identify the form of arcane energy. A carefully focussed beam of energy that connected the outside world with the keystone that was most probably mounted on the inside rear wall of the cupboard where it couldn’t be easily seen. This portal was possibly at best created as a joke, a surprise. At worst it was created to capture someone unawares, or even perhaps allow them access by choice if they knew about the portal and about where it led and finally decided to use it.
But now was the time to prove his theory, to make a little experiment. Amndo Slowly extended his hand until it hovered slightly above the beam of energy being reflected back through the keyhole. He took a deep breath and lowered his hand breaking the beam. He saw the energy light a small round area of his palm.
Suddenly, time seemed to slow, the keyhole grew in size until it appeared to be so big that Amndo could have walked through like a passageway. Amndo began to get curious as it then started to increase in size in another way. Seemingly it began to stretch out before him like a long tunnel. He looked behind expecting to see the sunlight streaming through the picture window he had opened and could not reach to close. But the tunnel seemed to stretch out in that direction to. Then he perceived that he was moving rapidly down the tunnel, he felt nothing, yet could quite clearly see the tunnel walls moving rapidly by. The tunnel itself was filled with light. It started to wind about as if it led around unseen things. Each sharp movement left, right and up, down did not affect him. He smiled; he was very used to the physical manifestations caused by travel through a portal. After all he was very used to similar forms of travel, although he had not experienced a portal quite like this one before. Its dynamics were subtly strange to him, he marvelled at the ingenuity of its creator, the one called Tezrin, he would have been an interesting person to talk with, a T’Iea with much knowledge of portals, knowledge he could only have gained by talking to the keepers. But the keepers guarded their knowledge jealously; they would not normally divulge anything to another race. This was a mystery, one that Amndo had long considered, one that made him shiver. It was a shame the thief was dead, all that knowledge and experience lost, especially the knowledge of the name of the keeper who had broken the code of silence.
Suddenly in the distance a dark circle began to grow rapidly. Strangely it appeared as if he was catching up with something else that was travelling down the tunnel. He was closing on it rapidly. But as he suspected no impact came, no bone crushing, flesh splitting impact. As he suspected what he had seen rushing towards him was the exit of the portal, he braced himself ready to switch on his muscles in case he fell through upside down or in some other undignified manner. But he needn’t have worried for he felt the ground exert pressure upon the soles of his feet, his knees buckled slightly as the weight of his body was once more exerted upon them.
He looked around. He found he was standing in a small area enclosed by cliffs of red rock. The cliffs went up higher than he could see, at least from this acute angle. But they did seem to get lost in the clouds and the blue of the sky high above. Some plants grew here, no trees at all but some kind of low shrub grew in clumps around the place, they were a little sickly looking as if they did not receive sufficient rainfall to gain their proper proportions, they reminded Amndo of the heather and other heath growth around where Deanola’s encampment was built in the eastern lands. The earth was red, a deep red colour, he bent down to
touch it. It was, moist soil, almost like a peat bog in consistency, firm yet with a higher than normal water content. Hmmm, so the plants suffered from too much water, not too little. Yet, to his surprise the earth did not smell of mould and old rotted things.
He walked forward following down the ravine made by the cliffs on either side. But he knew this was not really a ravine. No, he had been here once before. Long ago he had entered this place with the human mage Deanola. He strode to one of the cliff faces, strange horizontal and vertical marks could be seen in places, these were obviously not a natural features for when he looked closer each line was as straight as a die and all the same dimensions. Curiosity got the better of him, so he took a small dagger from within his robes and scraped at the surface along some of these lines gently. He smiled in realisation, revealed beneath the red dust he found a smooth surface, a manufactured surface. One thought came into his mind, ‘bricks’. His thoughts from his previous time here were confirmed. These cliffs were not cliffs at all; they were the remains of walls. Pnook-made walls he suspected, the remains most probably of the ancient Pnook city that he knew must lie somewhere here in the east. He continued down the ravine, what perhaps must have been a street in the old Pnook city of long ago.
The whole place was filled with an unnerving silence, not a single sound could be heard not even his own footfalls on the soft ground. Before long though he became aware of a familiar sight. At regular intervals along the way depressions in the rock wall could be seen. Not natural features but clearly carved out of the rock for a purpose, for he knew them to be the sarcophaguses of the Startmektoken. He had seen many before in the facility beneath the Rust Desert when he had passed through with JDC, Jonas and Nar’Allia many years before. Yet these were part of the feature of these ancient walls, they were here built into these walls from the very start. A growing fear knotted Amndo’s stomach, yet all these were empty, the bio-machine soldiers called Startmektoken which they had once contained were gone. But it was not the fear of meeting one or more of these monsters, the fear he experienced was generated by other thoughts a realisation of something far darker.
He started in shock as he came across one such monstrosity, it hung clear of its sarcophagus leaning forward upon bended knees, the tube that connected it still ran from the back of the Startmektoken into the sarcophagus, but it was stretched taught as if refusing to let go of the soldier. The Startmektoken itself was covered in dust and debris, it obviously had not moved in a very long time. As he proceeded still further down the ravine. More of the dead Startmektoken, if that’s what you could call them, also lined the ravine. Amndo knew that at least part of these monstrosities were biological so he assumed that they could actually die of some causes natural to the demise of the biological components, even old age perhaps. Some were in a similar posture to the first; others had fallen upon their faces onto the ground in front of their resting places. One had actually made it a few steps beyond the sarcophagus before it had pitched forward and lay still. Amndo stepped around the beast looking warily down as if he half expected a hand to suddenly reach out and grasp his ankle, drag him to his doom. Amndo quite childishly he supposed afterwards, kicked the dead machine in the side of the head, but at least it made him smile. But the smile was wiped from his face as the eye of the machine glowed and the head turned slightly towards him. Amndo jumped back in shock, but the head again stilled and the eye dimmed, grey ooze dripped from the eye. Amndo felt a degree of sadness, for it looked like the deadly machine soldier had used its last miniscule reserve of energy to cry a single tear. Amndo frowned at the thought as he hurried on down the ravine road at a quicker pace being careful not to disturb any others that lay prone upon the damp ground.
As Amndo turned one last bend in the road there before him he stood a great wall, stretching off to the left and to the right. This wall looked very different than the ancient ones he had been walking alongside for the last half an hour or so, this wall was a much more modern structure or so it seemed, but then it occurred to Amndo that perhaps this was an illusion perhaps it was just that this wall was better maintained. But in any event he knew he had reached the outer defences of the city of R’Iggorr’Thegoran. Directly in front of him a great gateway stood closed, either side a turret rose vertically high into the air. The gates themselves were immense. As he approached he could see they were made almost entirely of iron, or some other ferrous metal for rust could be clearly seen across each gates surface in many places, but this was just a surface discoloration not any deep weakening oxidisation of the metal.
But his thoughts were forgotten as a great clanking noise started, the sound of many mechanical devices crying out in stress at being forced to move accompanied by the cry of tortured metal, the bang and crack of rocks and stones being crushed into dust under the great weight of the opening gates. A gap appeared in the centre, light shone forth from beyond and within the city. Amndo peered through the opening gates, but could not see its source from where he stood. He stepped forward slowly at first but faster as he remembered the role he was here to fulfil; he shouldn’t show hesitation for in the eyes of the T’Iea’Neat’Thegoran he was here to become something, to fulfil a destiny.
Once through the gates Amndo stopped, within the gates attractive architecture could be seen. The buildings rose up to a fare height, plants hung for the balconies and trees, big trees grew in great courtyards. He had not been into many T’Iea towns, but this one impressed him, it was in deed beautiful, at least as attractive as he expected from any T’Iea city. A movement caught his eye; a group of figures had stepped into view. One in hooded robe strode forward, arms crossed in front of him. Amndo immediately felt a strong arcane presence probing his mind; he reeled back from it, shocked at the pure malice that lay within the strength of its intensity even though it was held in check. He had felt it before, it had held him before, held him immobilised, it was the evil presence within the Rift. But this time Amndo was prepared. The keepers have a capability, it allows them to split their consciousness into two parts, the amount of their conscious mind they held in either of these two parts was adaptable depending upon how much activity needed to be processed within either half. It was a neat trick, he didn’t know why he could do it, but it allowed him to adjust time in part of his mind whilst allowing normal time to flow in the second part. It had many practical values. So he gathered his being, his intellect. He gathered all that was Amndo, his character, his learning, his very soul, everything that made him Amndo and was good and unsullied and quickly split his mind, shut this into a separate place, he then entered there himself and locked this place away with a mental key from the inside. Then once he was satisfied that the door to this place was shut and safely secured, he let go and allowed the world outside to do whatever it would with his body and what remained within the remaining half of his conscious mind.
The hooded figure said two words. “Welcome Gatekeeper.” but Amndo, the real Amndo, did not hear them.
Sometime later, Amndo aroused himself from his meditations and finding the mental key he risked unlocking the door in his mind then opening it up a little he looked outside. The part of his consciousness he had left beyond the locked space appeared to be asleep; he probed around further and saw a sleeping malice there in his mind. Quickly he placed a ward around this alien intrusion, he shuddered at the thought of the violation, he felt physically sick, nauseous at what the evil intelligence within the Rift may have done to him. He then remembered he had a job to do, but he found himself pitying the T’Iea’Neat’Thegoran, he understood why Serinae was so desperate to save them. He knew then that the Rift somehow controlled them, controlled their very being, he didn’t know what would be left if the Rift was ever removed, he hoped that some of the true T’Iea character even still remained within them, that it could be saved and recovered and could grow back. He opened the door of his sanctuary fully and let his true awareness and inner being flood back out into his inner self. His senses returned, firstly
that of touch, he was lying on a soft bed. He listened, an inner pop sounded in his ears, but all he could hear was the blood rushing around his veins and the sound of his own breathing. Then sight, but wherever he lay he was in total darkness, then smell, there was a pleasant aroma to the air, slightly floral, somewhat spicy. Taste was the last to realise, his mouth felt dry, a little stale. He tested his muscles; he was not restrained in any way so he sat up.
He felt around him, a table, a bed head, soft pillows. He drew back the bed cloths, turned so his legs hung down the side of the bed, his feet touched a cool tiled floor. He was still fully clothed. He slid off the bed and felt his toe against something else that lay there. He bent down, his staff lay on the floor. He grasped it and raised it, he allowed a dim glow to shine forth. He found he was in a large room. He had just risen from a large bed, a canopy of fine linen was held above the bed by four ornately carved posts, one in each corner of the bed. He stood and moved towards a dark area on one wall. He felt a warm breeze, a window then. But as he got closer he could see that this was an opening out onto what looked like a veranda. He walked out into a typical night sky. Stars shone down from above. He realised then that for whatever reason the T’Iea’Neat’Thegoran had not replaced the shroud over their city, but then the gatekeeper, the one who had placed the shroud there had not returned. City yes, he must be in R’Iggorr’Thegoran, the city of the T’Iea’Neat’Thegoran. He strode to the edge of the veranda and realised that in fact it was some form of wide balcony, for he now looked out over the city. The architecture and layout was indeed typically T’Iea in design. But then why not he supposed, after all the T’Iea’Neat’Thegoran were just as T’Iea as any other of their race.
A slight sound behind him made him turn. It had sounded like a sigh. He peered back into the room but could see nothing, so he risked a little more light from his staff. There was something on the floor at the foot of his bed, a pile of bedclothes? Perhaps he had knocked them onto the floor when he rose, or even dislodged them in his sleep. He walked across. Something beneath the mound moved. He stepped back. A shape rose from the floor, bed cloths fell down and there before him sat a T’Iea woman, she was naked, at least the part he could see, her eyes still closed after sleep. She was beautiful, her dark long hair although in need of grooming was shiny and well looked after. Her skin a golden brown as if she had spent much time in the open air beneath the sun. She stretched and yawned, thin but elegant arms stretched high above her head and she grasped her hands together were they met above. Her arms had elegant tattooing starting at the shoulder and running to her wrists, several colourful bangles slid down her arms to her elbows as she yawned and stretched. Her neck was long and narrow, her breasts rounded and beautiful, pushed together by her raised arms in a very alluring manner. Suddenly she stifled a scream, her eyes were wide in terror as she grasped hold of the bed linens that had fallen down around her and raised them to cover her upper body. Amndo immediately stepped backwards, his first instinct was to apologise, he did not know she was there. But before he could utter a word, the young T’Iea prostrated herself upon the floor, held her hands toward him and cried out sobbing, “master, forgive me master, I did not hear your rise.”
Amndo was lost for words, he stepped forward, bent down concern upon his features, he held out a hand, she did not move, she was shaking visibly, obviously in great fear perhaps for her very life. He bent further and grabbed her by the upper arm intent on helping her rise. But she screeched, snatched back from his grasp and scuttled backwards on all fours until her head and back hit against the far wall. Here she raised both arms in front of her head as if about to ward of a blow. “Please master, be merciful, I did not hear you, I slept too soundly. Forgive me.” She wailed forlornly.
He stepped forward, “I will not harm you child, here please stand.” He held out his hand once more, he had grasped a robe he found draped across the end of the bed; she looked up at him fear on her features, terror in her red watery eyes. Tears streamed down her cheeks, but she stood shakily to her feet. She grabbed at the offered robe and held it against her person, then she backed against the wall as if trying to get herself as far from his outstretched hand as possible. She looked at his hand there in front of her and slowly shook her head. Amndo could not help but look at her but he turned to preserve her modesty. He heard her cross the room behind him. When he thought enough time had passed he turned once more to look at her. She was indeed beautiful; she now wore a short silken top, barely enough material to cover her upper body. Her midriff was bare, and she wore a long silken skirt wrapped around her hips in a matching material to the top a golden broach kept the material closed and in place. If he were T’Iea and probably younger, he was sure he would find her irresistible. She appeared both very athletic and very feminine. He shook these thoughts from his mind, he once again thought like a keeper, not like the Rift wanted him to think. He realised there was nothing upon her feet, the skin was stained with dirt and dust. She was also perhaps a little thin, too thin perhaps, for although beautiful, her muscles were visible beneath her skin just a little too much, she carried not an ounce of fat upon her frame.
Amndo was shocked; he just stood there and gapped. She seemed to calm somewhat as he stepped away from her. But she continued to shake in fear, the occasional sobbing sound came from her throat as she stared at him with bright green eyes heavily made up with dark shadow, but skilfully applied. This made her eyes look even more piercing. He smiled, she flinched.
“Do not fear me child, I shall not harm you. Come what is your name?”
She stuttered as if she faltered, she obviously tried to be extremely cautious, eventually she said. “You, you know my name master, I, I am the minion.” She looked questioningly at him, her features mixed with a confused expression.
He detected both great awe and fear within her being. Whoever she was, whoever he was supposed to be he struck fear into her soul. This he was not used to, he felt ashamed. “No your real name my child, what name did your parents give to you eh?”
She looked at him curiously and dried her eyes on the back of one hand, then she looked down from his gaze and said, Shak’Ee’Roe, my name is Shak’Ee’Roe. She repeated her name twice more as if she were unused to hearing it, or had just remembered it after a long time.“
Amndo detected a faint smile upon the T’Iea woman’s lips as she said her name again; it was as if to say the name gave her great pleasure, or perhaps the memory of something pleasant. But she frowned and looked up quickly, staring at him at him once more with piercing bright eyes refilled with fear. Then it struck Amndo, this could be a problem. He was obviously introduced to this T’Iea woman after he had set the ward around the Rift Amndo. Now the real Amndo had returned, the real Amndo was in charge once again and he of course had no recollection of earlier events. What was he to do? It would be far too risky to drop the ward and bond mentally with that part of his mind that had the memory of this girl. He had to play along somehow.
“Master?”
Amndo looked up at Shak’Ee’Roe, she continued to look questioningly at him. He had to do something, allay her suspicion, he had to have time to think, so he said with some truth, “I am hungry child, go fetch me something to eat, some fruit perhaps, yes, some bread and fruit. Perhaps a little water.”
Shak’Ee’Roe nodded with some enthusiasm, he suspected she was glad to be given the opportunity to get out of his presence, to remove herself from this strange behaviour being exhibited by her master. But also she was obviously programmed to honour his every command immediately. He watched her as she grabbed a grubby shawl from the pile of cloth upon the ground that must have been her bedding and putting this around her shoulders and over her head she bent down once more and retrieved a dagger which she slid into the waistband of her skirt. She then walked briskly across the room and opened a door. She darted through the opening, bowed low and shut the door behind her. Amndo sat on the bed, by the Maker, he hoped against hope that his other self,
the Rift Amndo had not done anything harmful to the poor girl. But what could he do? If he started showing too much sympathy towards Shak’Ee’Roe how would she take it? She may become suspicious and talk to someone else, raise the alarm with the guards perhaps. She may even in some perverse way resent his attempts at kindness. She was a dark elf after all.
He pitied the T’Iea’Neat’Thegoran at that point, he suddenly thought how they were so similar to the T’Iea he knew, they were no different really, just deluded, perverted by an evil malice that affected their minds. He then felt great hatred for the Rift. He stood firm in that moment that he would do everything in his power to save them from it. Do everything in his power to remove such evil from the world. He would destroy the Rift and he knew how to do it. But deep down he suspected that even if he were successful then that was just going to be the start, the first beginnings on a greater road to recovery. Not just for the T’Iea’Neat’Thegoran, but for all of the races. He ate the fruit that Shak’Ee’Roe had brought him. As he did so he invited her to eat with him. She declined, even though she looked hungrily at the food. “You do eat don’t you my child?”
Shak’Ee’Roe nodded.
“Good. Then I release you from your duties to go and eat.”
Shak’Ee’Roe appeared hesitant, but he shooed her towards the door and opened it for her. She darted through and he closed the door behind her. A few minutes later he opened the door, he thought he would have a tentative look around his new home. To his surprise Shak’Ee’Roe sat at the foot of the wall opposite, her knees drawn up and her arms hugging her legs. She stood immediately.
“Go. Go and eat my child.” Shak’Ee’Roe looked confused. Suddenly he thought of his own responsibilities to the Grand Master in TeraT’Inu’Itil, so he said, “go and eat, return to me when you have done so and be quick about it.”
He thought she actually smiled, but she nodded as she said, “thank you master, I will be as quick as I can.” She skipped off down the hallway and disappeared round a corner at the far end. Amndo was concerned for her so he did not travel far from his rooms. When she returned he was reading having found many books upon shelves in an adjacent room. The rest of the day passed similarly, he kept asking Shak’Ee’Roe to do odd things, he felt it his duty to set her tasks of varying sorts. Some were mundane, but she smiled and bowed undertaking the task without question every time.
The next morning when he awoke Shak’Ee’Roe had already risen; breakfast was laid out upon the table on the balcony that overlooked the city. Shak’Ee’Roe was looking out over the city from the balcony, her back towards him. She was humming a tune and slowly swinging her hips from side to side in time with the music.
Amndo was mesmerised, to his horror he found himself admiring the young woman’s figure, relishing the movement of her lithe body, heat arose within his being. He struggled within himself, gave himself a mental slap across the face, this was so unlike him. But then this was not him.
But Shak’Ee’Roe had turned aware of his presence; she bowed low to him and said, “at your wish Gatekeeper?”
He went out and sat at the table. But he was not hungry, he ate sparingly, mainly to please the T’Iea’Neat’Thegoran girl, he still felt very sorrowful for her and a little ashamed at himself, even though he was sure that he had not done anything to be ashamed of. He was more ashamed that this girl should act in such a way towards him, as if she were born purely to do his bidding, whatever that may be. This made him feel very uncomfortable. He wanted to get on with the real reason he was here, wanted to make a start and not stay any longer than he needed to. He stood, wiped his mouth on a napkin placed by his side and said, “Shak’Ee’Roe, you will take me to the Rift, to the bridge that spans the void.”
Shak’Ee’Roe bowed low and said, “of course, as you wish master, come I will show you the way immediately.”
They walked through the city. It was indeed similar to other T’Iea city that Amndo had been in, not that he had been to many. The T’Iea’Neat’Thegoran whatever their distorted views were still very much like any other T’Iea. The streets were full of people going about their daily routines. The architecture was similar in many ways but it was missing something. The other T’Iea city’s he had experienced showed another influence, as if some other culture had left its mark, enhanced the pure T’Iea in subtle ways. But then why not, the T’Iea in the world had mixed with other races, some of those other races influences must have rubbed off upon the T’Iea, it was inevitable. The T’Iea’Neat’Thegoran on the other hand did not have the benefit of that inter-racial communication; they had kept themselves alone for centuries. They had remained isolated from all others in the world. It was strange for it occurred to Amndo that because of this self-imposed isolation they were probably closer to the true T’Iea race in many ways than their cousins in the west.
They passed through the artisan quarter. Something here was very different. Amndo knew of the renowned expertise of fashioning things that the T’Iea possessed, he knew that they made many things of great renown. But here in this place he thought he saw much more. There were skills being shown here that he had not seen before. Many arcane skills and forms could be detected both sides of the street in the many workshops and smithies that lined the way. The T’Iea here were exhibiting the skills of their kin that was for sure, yet more was going on here, something additional and unexplained was happening. But it was happening normally as if it were common place, had always been here. He couldn’t place his finger upon it at first, but then it occurred to him. That same isolation that had kept other racial influences away from the T’Iea’Neat’Thegoran had also preserved their knowledge, these skilled craftsmen were working with pure T’Iea practices and knowledge that had not been influenced from outside. Things were being made here that other T’Iea societies did not make. The T’Iea he knew had forgotten much. In contrast here the T’Iea had not forgotten, they still retained that old knowledge.
But they came out of the end of the street into a wide, open area. Amndo turned his attention to his surroundings and looked forward. They had stepped out onto a narrow structure. He stopped dead, something within him told him not to step any further. He raised his eyes slowly; He looked up the narrow structure. So there it was. It looked much the same as it did the last time he was here. The broiling mass of the Rift energy swirled beneath his feet as he walked out upon the bridge that spanned the gaping hole in the world’s surface. It was like a gaping wound, a wound that would not heal, a festering sore oozing poison and infection just waiting to strike out and corrupt the rest of the body. He smiled at this thought, the simple irony was exactly that for the T’Iea’Neat’Thegoran were in effect just waiting to strike out and infect the rest of the world with their particular strain of belief, or to be more accurate the beliefs of the thing that had corrupted them. He stared ahead of him, there, sure enough confirming his previous suspicions from what he had read in the Pnook city of Scienocropolis, there high upon the very apex of the span sat the black shiny block of stone. The largest keystone he had ever seen. He could feel it. Feel the focussed power within the stone, even above the brooding malice in his heart and mind that came from the Rift below. He knew the stone was an inanimate object but he felt as if it posed an enormous threat, a controlled intelligence filled with malice. It was a window, an open window through which could be seen a vista of complete evil. It was all he could do to demand his mind and body walk further and approach it.
Shak’Ee’Roe ushered him onwards; she kept looking from him to the block and back again, as if she feared it also. Or at least felt his fear.
He could not show fear, if this continued he risked everything, risked discovery. He strode purposefully forward right up to the massive stone and stood there regarding it. Slowly he brought up his hands and reaching out he placed both palms upon the block. He was surprised, he felt nothing. Nothing grabbed at him, tried to draw him in. He felt relief. So it was true then, what he had suspected. Something in his
very being mapped him within the energy field of the Rift, a signature that mapped him as the Gatekeeper. It was amazing; he wanted to know how it was done. Wanted to understand how the Rift reacted, what it did to change his makeup to recognise him as the T’Iea’Neat’Thegoran Gatekeeper. He was almost disappointed that he had locked the Rift Amndo away and thus had missed the process to make the change in his mind and perhaps his physical body. He relaxed. He chided himself, he was not here for his own selfish desire to explore and discover; no, he was here to see what could be done, he had promises to fulfil.
He pressed upon the stone harder. He directed his concentrated thoughts into the stone through his palms and was rewarded by the presence of intelligence. He knew this presence he had felt it once before, yet on that occasion it had been an unstoppable force of malice, intent on dragging him into its very being. Now it brushed against him like a kitten around his ankles. It almost adored him, looked to him as master and one whom it should spend all its energy and very existence trying to please. Amndo laughed inwardly, it was almost intoxicating he had to admit. This presence had never known a physical form, at least not flesh and blood. It had known many individual entities, many nodes as the Rift knew them. Amndo imagined it to be like the queen bee, inert and sitting inside the deepest reaches of the hive. Her workers and soldiers fussing around her, seeking to please her, do her smallest bidding. He dug deeper, the nodes weren’t here, he wondered why, he was shown a picture, machines flew around above and below him, the landscape was wrecked. The machines communicated with each other and with the Rift. They all desired destruction, desired conquest and total annihilation of an enemy. The Rift commanded them, sent them to do its bidding and they obeyed without question. But he knew these nodes to be individual machines of battle; they were filled with memories of war and constant untiring battle. But the nodes were all gone now, nearly all gone. One type however remained. He saw a vista in his mind, moorlands stretching out as far as the vision could detect. The vision changed slightly, as if he had adjusted his vision, then it changed once more. This process became faster and faster, until he felt he was spinning around an axis, all the while looking out on the moorlands that surrounded him. Suddenly he knew. The Rift was showing him the moor surrounding the T’Iea’Neat’Thegoran city; it was showing him through the eyes of its remaining nodes. These nodes of course, they were the cordon of the Startmektoken that surrounded the T’Iea’Neat’Thegoran city. The unsleeping and vigilant mechanical army. But then something unexpected happened. The Rift suddenly turned its attention and completely focussed upon another node. A lone object, far away at the moment, but moving towards the T’Iea’Neat’Thegoran city none the less. The Rift was probing, trying to discover the identity of this node. But Amndo knew of it, he knew what this node was, he had travelled the world in it, had left it in the far north with the ognods. Amndo suddenly understood, so the Leviathan does not belong to you then. As soon as he had mentally voiced his suspicion he regretted it. The Rift stabbed at his mind, it almost turned on him as if he had made an accusation that it recognised as truth yet did not want to admit to.
Then something within the Rift started to become suspicious, he felt it falter, pull back slightly as if it had made a mistake. Amndo recoiled from the stone, he did not want to be suspected as being a spy so against all his desire and pushing all the alarms and warnings in his mind he quickly locked all that was precious to him away behind the locked door of his psyche and let the malevolent intruder in his mind free to take over his conscious being once more. He was vaguely aware of the Rift rushing in, just in time he shut the mental door and locked it tighter than ever.