Rift Chronicles

Epilogue

Epilogue

Narute sat on the upper deck of the airship, the Queen's Thistle, as it gently rocked while it was anchored for the night. None of the crew besides than the lookout was up and she was busy keeping an eye out for trouble. It was well past midnight, but he still couldn't believe his last Hunter's exam had come to a close. It had been seventy-five years since he had founded the Hunter's Guild, and now it was free to grow without his guidance.

The sky was so clear, it was easy to make out the swirling nebula that enveloped the entirety of Chronos, if there was an actual end to the ever-growing world. The sight left him feeling nostalgic for the first time he arrived on the world. Through a secret of his own, he had lived for centuries and had seen many worlds. And yet when he had first stepped out into the jungle that he had wound up in, he found he was in a place that when you looked up, you could see another jungle looking down at you from up in the sky, and his breath had been taken away. Never before in all of his travels had he seen such a world. It existed outside the laws of space of time and was governed by its own rules of reality. A place outside the laws of space and time and governed by its own rules of reality.

And now a whole new generation of Hunters would get to see and explore it for the first time. He wondered what new sights might await them, as well as what new things they might discover. The fact that some of them had to deal with a rift incursion and had survived long enough for the Hunters to arrive was impressive. They were young and inexperienced but their potential for growth was staggering. Narute was certain that not all of them would remain Hunters or survive long enough. But for those who had what it takes, just what sort of Hunters would they grow into?

Narute smirked. The last time he had seen such potential was fifty years ago with the pupil of a longtime friend of his. She was a Shuravari woman named Jashmir. That had been a trial by fire as they were investigating the disappearance of a remote space station's crew. The government of Rishi Prime had asked his friend, Asa, to check out why it had gone silent. Asa had invited Narute because he had a bad feeling about it, which turned out to be valid as there was a strange starship docked to the station. The markings on the ship and its design was unlike any starship in the entire Rishi Galactic Empire. Narute could still remember the sinking feeling he had in his stomach when he first laid eyes on the starship. At that moment, his gut told him everyone one the station was dead.

Sure enough there weren't any signs of the inhabitants, though that wasn't to say the station was empty. Inside, it was crawling with strange humanoid robots that spoke a language none of them could recognize. And those robots instantly turned hostile towards Narute's group and attacked without provocation. None of the crew had survived and not a single body was ever found. By the time they were finished, every robot had been dealt with, and it was never concluded where the starship came from or why it had invaded. Yet despite it all, Jashmir had kept a level head and proved invaluable for the mission. And now she had made quite the name for herself as a superhero to all of Rishi Prime. He chuckled to himself; he doubted any of the new Hunters had her potential, but he hoped that some of her kindred spirit was among them.

In years to come, looking back at that moment spent in reverie would prove to be ironic. As unknown to him at the time, a starship was coming through a rift in the sky over a remote desert kingdom. Its design was eerily similar to one from fifty years ago when he had first met Jashmir and had seemingly killed that crew. And it would soon put many of the new Hunters through their own trial by fire.

*****

Narute wasn't the only one having trouble sleeping that night. The Vipers Mansion sat on top of a lone crag that overlooked the town below it. It had long ago been founded and built by Auntie in her youth, not long after she had founded the Vipers itself. It served as both the headquarters and home for the entire group. It was in such a remote place that no outside government had ever found it, as it was over ten thousand miles away from the nearest civilization. Here, it was the Vipers law that ruled and saved the town below.

Auntie looked out the stained glass window onto the town below. There wasn't a light on in any of the windows in the buildings. It was well past midnight and seemed like everyone must have been asleep. The town was made up of individuals who had the unfortunate experience of falling into a rift in space and time. It was a rarity but over the past half a century enough had arrived to form a town protected by her good grace, along with protection provided by the individuals she had hired and who had agreed to leave their old lives behind to work as staff members for the upkeep of the mansion. Now there were even adults who had been born and lived their entire lives here never knowing the outside world.

Beyond the town's border was a dense jungle filled with nightmarish creatures, and beyond that was the storm that had swirled around this area of Chronos for ages. It was a swirling vortex, dark black clouds that rippled with lightning and reached so high into the sky that the only sliver of sky they could see way down below was through the eye of the storm. It was because of the void overhead in the storm that she had named the place The Void. Though ever since she had recruited Poe into the Vipers, the small patch of sky was filled with thousands of Crows and Ravens keeping an ever-watchful eye on the jungles. If it wasn't for his control over the birds, their calls would be deafening in such numbers. Instead they remained surprisingly quiet for their numbers. The storm that encircled The Void had raged for centuries and probably would continue to rage after everyone here was long gone.

The great storm rumbled as she finished a cup of tea and set the cup on the stand next to her chair. The past few days had been filled with highs and lows. On the one hand, Yoshi was still missing. It wasn't the first time he had disappeared to take care of whatever he occupied himself with. She knew in due time he would show up on his own, with his own explanations that hid what he truly had been up to. But that didn't concern her; over the decades she had come to understand his eccentricities. It was clear that it was of a personal nature and meant no harm to the Vipers. So she let him take care of his own business in his own way.

But on the other hand, Larch had done it, he had acquired a Hunter's license. He had grown up so quickly, all while she still wished he had followed her advice not to become a Viper. She did admit that he had proved to be very useful as he had yet to form the reputation that the others already had. It would've proved difficult to sneak one of the others into the examination with that old codger overseeing it. She wondered if his taste of the outside world would leave him longing for it and regretting his decision to become a Viper. If he ever brought up the matter, she already knew her answer. The question remained, though, if he would ever summon up the courage to ask.

Yet they needed that license. What they had been hired to retrieve was in a place that even she with all her powers would be unable to arrive at undetected, whereas the Hunters were one of the few organizations that had permission to pass there. She shook her head in dismay. Of all the places it could have landed, it had to be in a living forest with a mind of its own. She never could understand Tom's fascination with the place.

Still, things had worked out thus far. Now all she needed was Dalton to pinpoint Rishi Prime's "misplaced object" and they would be able to retrieve it without causing a major incident. The pieces were coming together nicely, and now all she had to do was wait. And playing the long game was something she was very good at.