The Dead Scout's Handbook of Afterlife Survival

Chapter 42: Theories of The Four

The hazel eyes at the front of the class failed to match the smile below it. "Nobody understands what The Four are, though we all have ideas. We've debated on this with the leaders of all eight districts and it invariably devolves to silly tales and hearsay. If you ask me, I would guess they're a group of raiders."

"Why do you think it's just a legend? We killed them in the town of Greybull. Then they attacked Cody," Cayden said.

"Interesting. You saw them dissipate into their respective power?"

"I saw Death and Pestilence," Cayden said.

"I can confirm that with Famine, not War. He got away," Sarah added.

"Never heard that anyone had destroyed them together. 'The Four' is another story that gets my hair standing on end and after years of discussion, we still don't have an answer as to how to destroy them. Some claim they're immortal, others suppose they found a way to reincarnate and more than a few say they don't exist in the first place. We guess their end game is to find the end of all end games."

"What does that mean?" Cayden interrupted.

Vin released a sigh. "I gave you information telling you where you came from and why you're here. That's an answer science couldn't give you in the last universe. Whenever the subject of The Four comes up, we veer off the road of scientific discovery and on the dirt trail climbing whimsical, Nonsense Mountain. There are tales of every city and none of the material worth writing about holds any truth."

Sergei, Cayden, Sarah, Martha and Rebecca stared with at Vin, their postures revealing a hunger for information that Vin couldn't resist. "I suppose I'm a better storyteller than a teacher. Do you know of the Demigods?" They nodded, fixated on Vin's wrinkled and chapped lips. "I will keep it short."

"As you have likely heard, the Demigods fought over Agdina, the goddess of Life and as you also know, her opponents prevailed. She disappeared. As for the others, they each perished in their own way. The pyromancer deserted, the speedster burst off into oblivion, the telekinetic faded into obscurity, the hydromancer threw herself into a lake, the earth user sank into her creation, the intellect vanished, the healer developed a technique for immortality then wasted away, and the strongman tried to develop a technique for learning new powers, but passed away in his home, nonetheless."

"Why tell us this?" Sergei asked.

"Because, five partnered with the Goddess of Life. The intellect, the strongman, the earth user (who could control lower creatures), the healer, and the speedster joined. Do the latter four sound familiar?"

"Are they The Four?"

"That's how the silliness goes. Some believe the intellect created a computer construct to maintain his legacy, and that it controls those awful flying machines we spot from time to time. More realistically, the birds have a weak, artificial intelligence and raiders keep pillaging the dead Intellect's belongings."

"We saw one!" Cayden said.

"One of the flying machines? Where? Do tell."

"Before I died, it caused the plane wreck that killed us. Also, they popped up a few times during our journey here."

"Some of his creations distort other universes, though nothing close to crashing a plane...perhaps a paper airplane. Perhaps you imagined it. Sometimes the memory transfer can become a bit hazy."

Cayden pondered for a moment as his skin tingled with questioning glances from everyone in the room. He sunk back into his chair.

"Anyway, to tack another chapter on this wonderfully fictitious tale, The Four's motive, that we suspect, is locating the Goddess herself."