Sunday, September 9, 2007

Fortune's Barter

He gazed down over the edge of the fortress' plated steel wall. It was a long way to the ground and, like the Zig, there was a mass of sharp rocks and embankments below to greet anyone foolish enough to try the fast way down. There was ocean past the violent landing, bring home to him the dangerous truth of where he was - the Rogue Isles.

A long time ago, before the Zigguraut, before the drugged coma of untold days, he had known this place as the largest gathering of villains and evil in the known world. A series of small islands roughly the size of Hawaii, the Rogue Isles fell outside any legal jurisdiction and swore allegiance to only one master. If the ruler of the Rogue Isles had a real name, only he himself knew what it was. The rest of the world, even his own subjects, knew him by only one title.

Lord Recluse.

The mastermind behind the megalithic criminal organization known as Arachnos, Lord Recluse had come across this unclaimed island chain early in his villainous career and established a headquarters base on its largest land mass. Mercy Island became known as a hideaway for anyone running from any law anywhere else in the world.

The rules on the Rogue Isles were simple. Obey Arachnos or stay out of sight. Do this and you can live in relative peace. It was a sort of functional anarchy in the shadow of a totalitarian state but for more than a million people, it worked. No one really had a choice after all; there was nowhere else to go.

Before his fall from grace, Bloodravyn would never have considered being here. Not out in the open, at least. This wasn't the first time he'd been to the Rogue Isles but it was the first time he'd been so... blatant. The last time, he was constantly on the run along with his teammates, desperate to complete their mission before the forces of Arachnos came down on all their heads. It had been a very narrow escape and even then, they hadn't accomplished their objective. That wasn't exactly a bright chapter in the annals of the Vigilant...

But then, neither was their last chapter. The one where they betrayed him to a terrible fate and left him for dead. He corrected himself even as guards started leading him to an apparent 'appointment' elsewhere in the base. That wasn't the Vigilant's last chapter.

Their last chapter was the one he would be writing soon. The one that would end, as annals of hatred often did, in blood. Lots and lots of blood.

Before he could dwell on his revenge any further, the guards parted in front of a meter-tall podium of burnished dark steel. Standing atop it, her crimson cloak and cowl billowing in the midnight breeze off the ocean, was a tall woman with an athletic figure clad in an armored crimson bodysuit and very little else. Her face was concealed in a strange, visage-less helmet of black chrome and her shoulders were draped in a mantle of ebon silk.

He knew who she was before she spoke. This was Kalinda; he was sure of it. he was not entirely sure how he knew. He simply felt her, as if she had not truly left his mind since their brief exchange at the Zig.

"You have excellent instincts, Lord." The figure shifted as if she was speaking but the voice was once again in his thoughts. She reached out with one hand and unflinchingly touched his face. Cool, gloved fingers traced over his cheek and jaw. The touch was almost intimate and, as such, felt acutely painful to him. He had not been touched by a woman since... since...

He reached up and took her hand in his gauntleted own, almost immediately suffering for the action by taking a sharp blow to the back of the head. He dimly felt the impact and started to turn with a snarl. Someone was volunteering to be dismantled...

By the time her voice stopped him, he was already reaching back with a devastating punch, staring into the slightly panicked face of an Arachnos guard with a powered cudgel and the audacity to have hit him. "Lord, please. He meant you no harm. Guards, step away. I am in no danger here."

Bloodravyn looked back at her, his hand not letting hers go. "That may not be true. Not if you touch me again." The hostility remained in his tone. Part of him wondered if it would ever leave.

The woman's helm tilted forward slightly. "My apologies, Lord. I should have asked you first." Her voice was calming, even gentle, but he could hear the pride in it as well. This was not a woman used to saying sorry. As she spoke, she rested her other hand on the back of his. "Please forgive my guardians. I am also not often touched and they react poorly to changes in routine."


He let go of her hand and shrugged away from it after a moment, trying to ignore how nice the contact had been. He did not like the memory she had almost brought to mind. In fact, just the merest hint of it in his thoughts was enough to bring back the same rage that had fueled his prison rampage.

His mind cleared, filled with the beautiful, mysterious woman's words. "And forgive me for hearkening an ghost of your past. That is certainly not why I called you here, Lord."

He tried to recover, concealing as best he could what felt to him like a dreadful weakness. Memories were now clawing at his consciousness, trying to force their way into awareness. He quieted them by focusing on Kalinda, making himself think about nothing more than a single question. "Then why did you call me here, Fortunata?"

"The past is gone but the future is another matter entirely. Yours may lie here. I have seen this to be a possible truth. We may have need of you, Lord of the Ravens, and you certainly have need of what we can give you, provided the key survives its turning."

He narrowed his eyes. Riddles. He despised riddles. "And just what can you offer me?"

She shifted again, obviously hesitating before answering. "In due time, Lord. For now there is a room for you here in our metal home, a warm bed and a warmer meal before you enjoy it."

Bloodravyn stared at her, unmoving. "And the cost?"

She gestured with her red-gloved right hand and shifted again, moving with the almost hypnotic grace of a dancer. "Until you earn your rank among Arachnos, you will be tested to see if you are truly the man I have foreseen you to be. While you undergo these tests, you are given room and board as compensation for your... participation."

He looked down, staring at his hands as the obsidian growths surrounding his armor began to pull away, melting into vapor. He was rather hungry, now that she'd mentioned eating, and his body was starting to feel the strain of his long battle to escape the Zig. He was losing his focus because of that exhaustion, so much so that the earth's gift of rock and glass protecting his body was starting to fade away.

He had to rest... and aside from Arachnos, his prospects were bleak. He knew no one here and had no way of returning home, not that he had one any longer. He was a fugitive now. His choices were to make a home here or leave and strike out on his own.

Of course, that was assuming he could leave. The guards were well armed and his defenses were wearing thin. Even if he could take out these six sentinels, there were hundreds more before he could reach the front gates. Even with all his powers, he would never make it. If they took offense to him during down this woman's offer, his chances of survival were slim.

Very, very slim.

He didn't speak. Instead, Bloodravyn did what felt right. He leaned in slightly, bowed his head, and crossed his arms over his chest. He had seen soldiers in the Arachnos' Wolf Spider army do that in front of their commanders. It seemed the correct thing to do now.

The woman practically purred in his mind. "Good instincts indeed." She turned and pointed to a circular door nearby. "They will take you in there and provide you with all you need."

He nodded, still silent, and turned to walk that direction. As he took his first step, one that was instantly shadowed by six guardians with weapons at the ready, Kalinda reached out again and laid her fingertips on his armored shoulder. "Yes, Lady Fortunata?" he rumbled.

He couldn't see it but he could somehow feel her smile. "Rest well, Lord."

He did not respond. He didn't really know how to answer or if she even expected one. Instead, he just nodded and left with the guards. Around him, their mood had grown almost hostile. They were looking at him now in renewed aggression, despite him no longer threatening them in any way. They almost seemed... angry.

He didn't understand. Then again, they were criminals.

He had never understood criminals.

---------

She watched him go, grateful for the mask that hid her expressions from the world. Was he the one? Could he finally be the man she had been waiting for these many long years? The one the Fortunatas all whispered of in the dark places of the Isles where even Recluse could not hear?

If he wasn't, he would never survive the coming trials.

But if he was? Gods, if he was...

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