The Cainite Order

CHAPTER 9

IMPARANDO AD OBBEDIRE, SI SA COME COMANDARE

CHAPTER 9

"By learning to obey, you will know how to command."

"Again sorry about the firing squad greeting, we were expecting you a few days ago." apologized Edgar Darby, a Magus of the Order and Head Historian for the Eridu Chapter House.

"I understand. Who knows what can try and breach the Veil? I'm still wondering why you're waving a crystal all around me, along with the other strange tests you've been conducting. But I'm not tied down yet so that's a plus." Beathen said, trying to not sound as pissed as he really was.

"Right, I told you I would explain as I went didn't I? Sorry 'bout that. And call me Edgar. Right, so these tests I've been doing for a few hours now are to see what happened to you while you were.... delayed in the transition here, and to see if anything tried to piggyback its way on you." said Edgar, slightly flustered at the lack of results he was getting.

"Wait, what do you mean piggyback on me? Why am I just finding out now what the potential dangers were long after the fact? Here I could have died or worse! I gotta tell you Edgar if Attar wasn't a Reaper I would fly back and beat the shit out of him right now!" he said letting his anger out slowly.

"Aaah, that makes more sense now. Reapers have a nasty habit of only giving information when asked for it. Even then it can be like pulling the teeth out of a polar bear. All that nonsense about knowledge is power and they try to control power for the best possible outcome. Rubbish you ask me. The good news though, is that you appear to be fine." Edgar said, trying to change the subject.

"Ok so what's the bad news? Am I getting locked up or something?" he said, getting more annoyed.

"Goodness no nothing like that. We will just have to do these tests once a day for a while to make sure you're ok is all." Edgar said happily.

"That's definitely the best bad news I have had in a few months." Beathen said, letting his anger abate.

"What's that supposed to mean then?" asked Edgar quizzically.

"Did they tell you anything about me other than when I was supposed to be arriving?" he asked without surprise.

"Not really, just that you had some special talent we needed to research because of how rare it was. Why, what did they leave out?" said Edgar, trying to hide his growing curiosity and failing.

"Let me start at the beginning then. We might want to get some coffee and food; this is gonna take a while to get you up to speed." Beathen said preparing for a very long night.

...

A week later Beathen was finally starting to get settled in the new location. It had only taken a few hours to explain the whirlwind that his life had turned into only a few short months ago. Edgar had almost exploded with excitement when he had told him about the tattoos. He didn't think he had ever seen a grown man be so giddy before in his life. At one point he was pretty sure Edgar was going to explode. They had discussed many different subjects in the last week; history, supernatural creatures, women, but none were as fascinating to Edgar as Beathen's past. In the middle of morning physical training he had almost ran Beathen over in his excitement. He had finally found some ancient text that had a reference to another that had the ability to absorb charms. It took a solid five minutes to get Edgar to calm down enough to speak in an actual language.

"It has to do with Cain!" he finally blurted.

"What, my ability? How does it relate to Cain?" Beathen asked confused.