The Revelation of the Vine: Graft

Chapter 28: The First Words

  The night sky stretched out like a dull sheet of black, behind a veil of fiery auroras that stringed across the exosphere like blazing serpents. An assortment of stars twinkled faintly behind them, as the bright half-moon hung in the corner toward the west in a patch of open sky. Its silvery light mixed with a red hue from the fiery aurorae, and illuminated the snowy peak, drawing a long shadow of the Crown like an ellipse around the mountain. The Crown circled around the peak, supported by long pillars and natural cliffs in the icy rock. Eight long towers of frosted stone climbed from the walls of the ring of courtyards that surrounded the mountain. It took only ten years for the founders to build it, or so the old Sages said. But there were no lights on in the windows, and no patrols on the walls. No scouts in the towers to spot a group of returning knights. A sick feeling twisted my stomach into knots. The entrance to the winding steps that led up the peak stood a dozen yards ahead of us. Many large pillars emblazoned with twisting vines that curled into lemniscates around their surface framed the way, one on each side every 20 yards along the path. Normally, small lanterns would be hung on the rings that dangled near the tops of the pillars facing the stairway, but not tonight. The sick feeling in my stomach crept up into my throat. An out of place silence lingered over the white peak, occasionally cut by frigid winds that howled as they passed between the mountain and the ring of the Crown. "This place gives me the shades," Falkir said. "Where is everyone? It looks deserted." "I don't like the looks of this either," Feng spat, "it creeps me to Shadow." "Keep your eyes peeled," Solanicus advised, rubbing the pommel of his sword with his palm. "We don't know what's happened since we left." We passed by a turn-off that led around the valley and faced the Uncharted Territory. I wondered if any scout parties had been sent out before the freeze. It might take them some time to thaw but they would return eventually if they survived. As we came around the northern face of the mountain, the vast tundra of the Rime, with the frozen waves from the false tear rolling over it, came into view behind the Greidahns to the northwest. Swirling Rime-storms raged over the blue-white glaciers and scattered mountains of jagged ice. I switched spectrums to see through the mist, hoping I could spot the impact-crater or hole that the false tear had made. A pillar of frozen water became visible in the distance. It climbed into the sky like a geyser, only, it never fell back down. The freezing, black waters of the Oracle Sea stretched out from the eastern edge of the Rime's icy cliffs, as far as the eye could see. Layers of frozen water cascaded down the cliffs and splashed up into the air like ice sculptures. From the horizon in the north, and all the way around to the south there was nothing but effervescent water sparkling under the red and black sky from the light of the aurorae, stars and moon. The road brought us eastward along the northern face of the mountain, and then snaked its way to the south going up the peak. After a brief hike up the slope it curved to the southwest under the keep and then hair-pinned up a natural stair in the peak. All the while the keep remained silent and dark. "Captain," Vhalrin said running up to the side of me, "There are some other things about Veil I think you should know before we get to the keep." "I'm all ears Vhal," I said as we walked. "Well," He started. I could tell he wasn't quite sure how to put it as he searched for a way, "There's something else I came to warn you about. It's about the Pantheon." "The Pantheon," I repeated. The word didn't seem to ring any bells, but then a flash of images passed through my mind. The world around me became hazy and out of focus. The visions in my mind crept over my eyes and I began to see them vaguely in the foreground of my sight. Shadowed figures wearing elegant, dark robes were standing on a floating platform that hovered over the ground in a desolated canyon of ruined buildings. A group of people stood before them, listening, as the robed figures spoke in an indecipherable language. I was in the crowd looking up, but I still couldn't see their faces. One of them reached its hands out, as it continued to speak to the crowd -- to us. I felt myself begin to be enamored by the words I couldn't understand. The visions faded, and the world came back into focus. "Yea, they're the ruling faction in Veil; the ones behind all the Corruption research, among other things." "Ok, they already sound like a twisted bunch." I replied. "Yeah, they are. They've been in power for as long as Veil has and have pretty much rebuilt the entire continent." "Wait," The idea stopped me in my tracks. "You mean Veil looks like Atmos did?" "Probably not exactly like it," he replied. "I've only been above the surface to make my way here. No one gets to go up, unless they're called by the Pantheon, and once you go up you never come back, so no one knows what it looks like up there." "Did you live with your parents," I asked. "No." He shook his head. "I never knew them. I was told by the people who raised me that my mother died during childbirth. My father had already died from a disease a few months before. They said that my mother died from grief. The doctors thought I was going to die from my father's disease when I was born. I had some kind of strange mark on my face, but I survived, and it eventually disappeared. "So, I ended up in an orphanage that some sleazebags owned to get funding from the Pantheon, and sometimes they even sold kids to the Pantheon. Other times they sold them to the surface gangs. The ones who didn't get sold ended up fighting in dumpy bars and underground clubs while even sleazier people watched, but winning was the only thing that kept us from getting sold. I never got sold, so I guess you can imagine my life." "I'm sorry," I said, "I can't say I know how you feel, but I'm sure it wasn t easy growing up near the Breach. Here, kids grow up in peace, knowing that we fight the Corruption for them, and that maybe one day they can become one of us. At least, they did." "Yea it could have been worse. My best friend in the whole world is there, and I did eventually find a family. But it was nothing like the world I discovered when I woke up here 2 years ago, though. The people were so happy and healthy-looking, so friendly and wise; I thought I'd died and gone to the Core. But anyway; the point I was trying to get to is that one, or more, of the leaders of the Pantheon are Founders of the Order of the Vine. Most, if not all of them, were Knights of the Vine, like us . . . once. Now, they're something more, something darker, and stronger. I couldn't be sure before, but now that I can compare the power I felt from them with my own, I know they're somehow stronger than we are." Something strange clicked in my mind as I looked at his face, gleaming under the light that shined down in streams of fire and ice, an overwhelming sensation of de ja'vu. It looked more and more familiar as I stared at it, and for a brief moment it was like I was looking into a mirror. My own face flashed in front of my eyes. Then my brain registered his point, and the harsh realization of what he said dawned on me. "What!? Who?" The words rushed out of my mouth, but I felt like I already knew the answer; like it was stashed away in my mind somewhere only to be suddenly remembered after it was revealed. I didn't even think about the question I had just asked; my mind was too busy trying to solve the mystery inside of it. At this exact moment I felt like I had d'j'vu on top of my d'j'vu; like I was remembering this moment more than once. "I don't know," Vhalrin said, shaking his head, "That was all we intercepted before the transmission changed encryptions." "Well, this day just gets more and more interesting by the hour," I sighed, "And soon we'll have 24 more." I turned my head to look up at the keep, wondering who among the Founders could have possibly chosen that path, but soon realized I had never learned that much about them. The Knights and the Sages pertained to different duties; one, the path of combat, and the other of wisdom and knowledge. Until recently I had never questioned the system, but, thanks to Jurgen, I eventually started to wonder if it was somehow set up to keep us unaware of the strings that were being pulled around us. The moon lingered in the backdrop, slowly being covered by an aurora that stretched over it like a veil. The moonlight turned rosy and then blood-red. "Whoa," Tenbu exclaimed, looking around as the world was draped in a crimson tide of light. We continued the rest of the way up the road, until it dead-ended at a large plaque carved into the side of the peak. The words that adorned it were engraved with intricate, ancient lettering, and read:From the edge of snow to the depths below, Through shadow, and mist, and the Vale of the Glow,By the fruit of renown, the few have been crowned, Through darkness, and hardship, and woe; From fruit of the Vine, a bond has been woken,A kind which was lost from the dawning of time, And from union of the broken, Living Souls have now spoken, The first words of Man in the Vine,
Here lies the Crown: Keep of the Order of the Vine; Built by the Founders of the Order; Finished in 15 AV; Apokalipsis Vina, Revelation of the Vine.