Terror of the Shadow

CHAPTER TWENTY

Laban jumped out of his seat when he heard footsteps drumming against the metal floor behind him. Someone must have watched him come up here. Laban hung his head, ready to be reprimanded for entering a restricted area.

"Hello there, brother," said Kol, stepping into the cockpit with him.

"I'm sorry for wandering up here," Laban said. "I know I'm not allowed—"

"Don't worry, brother," Kol replied. "I won't tell on you. I'm not technically allowed to be up here either. I just came here to get away from all that. Besides... where else am I going to get a view like this?"

He took the seat next to Laban and leaned back, putting his feet up on the console and his hands behind his head. He let out a long, contented sigh.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Kol said.

"I guess so," replied Laban.

Kol looked over at Laban. He was staring down at his feet.

"You alright, brother?" Kol asked.

"I'm fine," he replied.

Kol cocked one eyebrow.

"I'm not sure you are, brother. That face... isn't the face of someone that's doing fine."

"I'm fine... really. I'm just thinking."

"Oh? Thinking? What about?"

"I don't... I don't really even know where to start. I'm just confused. There are just too many questions and not enough answers. Every time I think I'm getting close to making sense of things, something else gets thrown at me and all of a sudden I'm back at square one. Ever since I lost that stone... back in the cave. It's like a light has gone out. And now I'm just stumbling around in the darkness, trying to figure out how to turn it on again."

"I see. It sounds like you've got a bad case of life, brother. I don't think that anybody really has it figured out. If they did, then they wouldn't need to be living in this world, now would they? Those Above would have taken them home long ago."

"That isn't really helpful."

"Well, maybe someday you will understand."

"Someday. I don't want to understand someday. I want to understand now."

"Patience, brother. All things will come with time."

"Yeah. Sure. I get that. I'm patient enough. But when you lose your way on the Outland, you don't just say 'oh, I'll find my way home eventually.' No. You've got to at least figure out which direction home is. Or else you'll be dead before nightfall."

"I think I get your point, brother. I'm sorry for being less than helpful."

"That's okay. You've helped more than most. At least you'll actually talk to me."

"So, what is it that you would like to know?"

"I want... I want to know about the Territes. Tell me everything you know. Who are they?"

Kol shifted uneasily in his seat.

"I know very little more than you do, I'm afraid. And most of what I know comes from rumor, which I don't trust to be any more factual than the tall-tales my parents would tell me to put me to sleep... But I do know that they are far more advanced than us, and there are far more of them then there are Malkuth. I know that we fought a war with them that lasted a very long time. Some legends say that it lasted even as long as a thousand years."

"But we lost the war."

"Yes. We did. That is why we are left in the desert so suffer."

"Do they know about Those Above?"