Year 23 A.B. (After the Black)
The sky was the color of bones.
Cross was on his back. The tent flap was wide open, and his head and shoulders lay exposed to the cold air of the tundra. His eyes locked on the dead white sky. Frozen grass cracked beneath him as he rose from the uneven ground. His ears and nose felt frozen, and the light from the white sun seemed to pierce straight through to his brain, giving him the sort of headache he usually only got after a long night of drinking…not that he drank all that often anymore. His muscles were stiff, and he wouldn’t have been surprised to actually hear himself creak as he sat up.
Maybe if I didn’t always sleep in my flak jacket, I wouldn’t wake up feeling like a piece of wood.
The Lithian campsite comprised of about twenty tents in all. Most of those tents had been stitched together from Tuskar skins, though a few shaman’s tents had been made from the hides of white lions or snow snakes.
The snowy expanse of the Reach stretched on for as far as the eye could see. The shadow of Thornn was barely a blot on the western horizon.
Cross stood up, slowly. He smelled campfire smoke and tasted cold air that cut to the back of his throat and burned his lungs.
“ Morning, sunshine,” Dillon said from behind him. The lean scout was in a pair of camouflage pants and a loose tee-shirt.
“ Aren’t you cold?” Cross asked. He reached down and found his green wool blanket, which was nearly as stiff as his back. The interior of the tent was littered with more blankets and the rest of Cross’ gear, which was actually quite little: his backpack and his weapons, two pairs of gauntlets and their insulated battery packs, a cast iron skillet, some clothes, and a map case. The tent was barely big enough to fit Cross, let alone his gear. He wasn’t sure how the Lith managed to sleep two or sometimes three deep in those tents, even with as light and as thin as they were.
“ Nah, man,” Dillon said as he folded out a second shirt. He set his backpack down, which was loaded with weapons and filled canteens. “You get used to it.”
“ Yeah… how long have we been out here?” Cross asked. He rubbed his hands together over and over again, desperate to work some warmth into them.
“ Most people get used to it,” Dillon smiled.
The air was the same hue as the drifts of ice and snow that covered so much of the Reach. The sky seemed unusually bright, especially compared to the smog and smoke that Cross was used to back in Thornn.
His home city was actually close enough that it could be seen, but the smoke of its industry and the arcane fog generated by its perimeter defenses crowded the air around it and contributed to the red haze that constantly suffused the western sky. Sometimes that haze was more subtle, a ring that clung to the pale air like a faint sore or a bruise, but the air held some trace of red no matter where you went. People of the Southern Claw called the effect Blood Skies: a perpetual crimson gloom that clung to the atmosphere, an unwholesome miasma of unstable arcane energies and unholy toxins released over twenty-odd years ago, when Earth had been fused with uncounted other worlds during The Black. No one really knew exactly how or why it had all happened. They likely never would.
Standing in the snowy wastelands of the Reach, while exceedingly dangerous, was worth the risk for the brighter air, made that way since they were away from the cities and because the pale sun reflected so easily off of the snow. It was pleasant. It reminded Cross of his youth, and that was difficult to remember, sometimes.
The condition of the atmosphere was worse the closer one drew to the Ebon Cities. The vampires were hundreds of miles away, but their influence extended all across the north and western rim of the continent, which was thick with the presence of malign blood spirits, hunter wraiths and winged necrotic patrols. Poisonous gases and aerial toxins gushed out of the Ebon Cities’ industrial vents day and night so as to dissuade Southern Claw approach; naturally, those poisons had no effect at all on the city’s undead inhabitants.
I never want to see the Ebon Cities. Not in person, anyways.
But seeing them was always a possibility, of course. Cross was a warlock of the Southern Claw Alliance, a coalition of humans and their allies who controlled the southern half of what was commonly believed to be the only continent of the new world. Before he and Viper Squad had been dispatched to hunt down the traitor Margrave Azazeth, it had been their job to carry out special missions against the vampires of the Ebon Cities. Now, Cross was the only member of Viper Squad left alive, and his role had changed.
“ So is today the big day?” Dillon asked. He sat down on a smooth and dark stone and fastened his combat boots. Jamal Dillon was a frighteningly tall man, easily a head higher than Cross’ not inconsiderable six-foot-two, and when he wasn’t burdened down with eighty pounds of Southern Claw standard issue armor his carefully honed muscles were intimidating to behold. Not that his physical appearance was in any way indicative of his personality: Dillon was about as laid-back of a soldier as Cross had ever met, and after having served in Wolf Company and Viper Squad, Cross felt had met his fair share. Dillon reminded him a bit of Samuel Graves, Cross’ best friend, killed in action while fighting Sorn in the ruins of Rhaine. Graves had saved Cross’ life and paid for it with his own. Not a day went by that Cross didn’t remember that, or him.
“ I think so,” Cross nodded. He ripped open a packet of jerky, and looked around as if a fresh cup of coffee would magically appear for him. When it didn’t, he settled for some water from his canteen, instead. “I need to find Sajai and see if she’s ready.”
“ No you don’t,” Dillon said with a shake of his head. He didn’t bother looking up from his boots. Dillon was a man of few words. Living in the wilderness for weeks on end would make one reticent to speak, Cross supposed, so Dillon made sure that the few words he did use were efficient.
“ Right,” Cross nodded after he thought about it for a moment. “She’ll find me.”
“ There you go.”
“ I’ll figure this out eventually,” Cross said as he pulled on his sunglasses.
“ Yes, you will,” Dillon answered. “Just in time for us to leave.”
“ Better late than never.”
Dillon reached into his pack and pulled out a piece of jerky and a sealed plastic cup. Dillon shook the cup, which rattled the handful of beat-up dice that were inside. They made quite a racket in the still morning air, but none of the Lith ever seemed to mind. He cast the dice onto the ground, and then he wrote the sequence of numbers down in a little notepad with a charcoal pencil.
“ You know how strange that is, right?” Cross asked with a grin on his face.
“ Can’t say that I do,” Dillon laughed.
“ Really?” Cross pulled his jerky apart with his teeth. It was surprisingly juicy and hot. “Are you ever going to tell me what that’s all about?”
“ Maybe,” Dillon nodded. He finished the sequence, and put everything away. He’d gone through the same routine every morning that Cross had spent with him out there in the Reach. “You want to talk about strange…when are you going to name that camel?”
“ I’m not,” Cross said with a smile.
“ Do you even know its gender?”
“ No. And the thought of checking is kind of repulsive.”
Dillon laughed, and gathered the rest of his gear. He was something of an irregular soldier. Like Cross, he’d served with Hunter squads and large Companies, and, also like Cross, Dillon had gained distinction by living through some impossible situations, and he’d earned himself something of a non-traditional role in the Southern Claw military. In Dillon’s case, that role involved serving as a guide for special missions that ventured deep into the wilderness. Dillon had been doing it for almost eight years now (which meant that he was older than Cross had originally thought, and certainly older than he looked), and he was on friendly terms with various mountain tribes and non-humans, including the mysterious Lith.
Cross saw a few of the Lith now, breaking camp as they prepared to move on. There were over two dozen of the silent nomads in the camp. They were almost invisible in the dull white dawn thanks to their incredibly pale flesh and hair. A full-grown Lith male was barely six feet tall but only, Cross estimated, about 150 pounds, and yet somehow the Lith managed to actually thrive in the harsh winter wastelands called the Reach. The females were smaller than the males, but Cross thought they all looked as thin as skeletons. He watched them move across the camp, bound in white and deep blue furs and boiled leather armor, ghost-like as they expertly broke down their tents. They left no trace of their presence.
Dillon and Cross grabbed their packs. Any business Cross had with the Lith had to wait until they broke camp. The humans were guests there, and not terribly well trusted ones in spite of their best efforts to abide by Lithian customs and obey the ghostly people’s loose laws. The Lith were one of the few races that humans got along with, after all, and while their presence was much quieter than the Gol or the Doj, the Lith were a valuable source of information and trade. They were tied to the land in a way that humans hadn’t been since The Black, and they had ways of culling resources from the inhospitable terrain that people of the Southern Claw couldn’t, even with the aid of magic.
Perhaps most importantly, the Lith were a race of prophets. Their witches sensed future events and determined when and where something of significance might occur. Cross wasn’t sure how they did it — if it was through the use of spirits, it was in a manner that was unknown to humans.
No surprise there, Cross thought. For as much as we know about magic, we still don’t know a damn thing. It’s a wonder we’ve survived as long as we have.
Once Cross had all of his gear stowed away, he cleaned his weapons and tended to the camel. He’d first worked with such a beast during Viper Squad’s last ill-fated mission, when they’d purchased one from a merchant in the armistice city-state of Dirge. That camel had noisily but faithfully served at Cross’ side for the rest of the mission, and while he never found out what had happened to it (he was fairly certain it had either wandered off into the dead lands north of the Carrion Rift or else had been eaten by ghouls), he decided he’d always bring one along whenever duty required him to trek into the wilderness. This camel — which he didn’t name out of pure superstitious habit — had been with him for the better part of a year. Cross still didn’t know how to ride the beast, and he didn’t think that either of them was up for trying.
The rock shelf that the Lith camped on overlooked the Reach from the side of a squat mountain. Navigating up and down the sliding mountain face to get to and from the camp was treacherous, but the elevated position meant that only the most dedicated predators would dare try to harm them. The air was thin and cold atop the rocks, and the wind snapped against Cross’ cloth-wrapped face and cut straight through his grey armor like a blade. At times the gusts were so strong Cross felt sure they could have forced him off of the rock and into open air. The campsite was large enough, Cross guessed, to land a pair of the Southern Claw’s new Bloodhawk airships.
Dillon stood next to him. His scraggly black beard had finally shed some of the frost it had accumulated overnight. Cross’s own face bore only slight traces of stubble. Growing a beard wasn’t in the cards for him, and never had been.
Cross’ spirit pushed against him. Before the Viper Squad’s last mission, such an act would have brought him comfort. His spirit was tied to his soul, after all, an ethereal feminine counterpart, an extension of his own life force that he called on to craft magical effects and to gather information. She had, in many ways, been his deepest friend and companion, and his one true love aside from his sister.
They’re both gone now. Gone, and they’re not coming back.
The touch and feel of his spirit had changed, just as Cross had changed. The spirit he was bonded to was an entirely different entity than that he’d spent most of his life with.
A year before, in the secret obelisk prison that housed humankind’s arcane souls, Cross had destroyed Margrave, and his original spirit had, in turn, sacrificed herself to save him. His new spirit was a reward, of sorts, granted to Cross by whatever entity it was who ruled that obelisk.
It had been an uneasy marriage thus far. Sensing this spirit was like reaching through ice-water, or staring into a smoky mirror.
His spirit was a shadow of the one he’d once known, a bitter and resentful echo. The emotions that she emanated usually felt like an indictment of Cross, a resistance to whatever he attempted.
He felt more alone that ever.
There’s still so much we don’t understand about magic…so much that still doesn’t make sense. Maybe that’s why I’m still here. Maybe that’s why they sent me back.
He sees his old spirit, falling into the sky.
“ Hello?”
Cross snapped to. Dillon was looking at him.
“ Sorry,” he said.
“ Are you all right?” Dillon’s voice was thick and loud. Rangers had to be silent. Cross was fairly sure that was why Dillon actually didn’t talk all that much — even his whispers were easy to hear. He had to make an effort at being quiet, which was probably why he was so good at it.
“ Yes,” Cross said after a moment. A thick crust of iron clouds crept over the stale sun. Heavy shadows floated like vessels on the face of the pale valley. A silver-red river wound its way across the land below like an open wound. “What’s up?”
“ Sajai,” Dillon said with a nod.
The Lith witch worked her way up the stone hill and towards the two Southern Claw men. Like all Lith, Sajai was thin and short. Her golden hair flowed in the freezing mountain breeze, and her milk white skin was as flawless as snow. Sajai was dressed in a pale blue cloak laced with gold and platinum cuffs, but the garment was tied tight at the waist like a corset. A series of tall knife scabbards surrounded her washboard frame, while her gloves and boots were made of some sort of animal skin, probably ice wolf.
Sajai came and stood before them. Cross found the Lith unnerving because of their physical appearance. He hated that he felt that way, but it was what it was. Their eyes were blue, so bright they sparkled in even the barest hint of light. They held themselves with perfect posture and poise, and the Lith made no sound, not even by mistake. They were like living wraiths.
Strangest of all, the race had no mouths: their faces beneath their small nostrils were like surgical masks made of flesh. Cross had no idea how they ate, and had never seen them do so, even though they always took meat from the animals they killed. So far as communication was concerned, all Lith seemed to have some telepathic or empathic connection with one another. The Lith also had a system of hand signals that they used to communicate with outsiders, but Cross had never seen them use it with each other.
Sajai, the witch mother of this band of Lith, used those signals now. They were subtle, and didn’t involve a great deal of overt motion, which seemed to suit their quiet race. The hand language still looked complicated, and Cross wished he’d been able to pick up more of it, which should have been possible given how many weeks he and Dillon had spent in their company. The Lith were nomads. They lived off of the harsh environs of the Reach, and though they never looked for trouble they always seemed capable of dealing with it when it came. They had also forgotten more about magic than the collective warlocks and witches of the Southern Claw would ever even possess, which was why Cross was there now.
Cross looked at Dillon.
“ She wants to know if you’re ready,” Dillon said.
Cross nodded.
Sajai stood a full head shorter than Cross, but those blue eyes pierced straight through to his core. He felt his spirit twitch, as if afraid. Sajai’s arcane sight cast her face in a near invisible corona that surrounded her like gossamer dust. Cross could feel as her gaze took in everything about him, from his thoughts to his fears, from his past to his soul. She’d done it before, when he and Dillon had first arrived.
She wants to make sure I’m still driven by the same motives. She has to know that I’m not letting something slip, some hidden agenda.
When she seemed satisfied, Cross felt the tension in his body let up. He hadn’t even realized it was there in the first place. Sajai turned and started down the slope. Cross had the impression he was supposed to follow her, confirmed when Dillon nodded expectantly.
Sajai moved quickly down the hill, and Cross had to watch his footing on the unstable rock as he scrambled after her. Most of his gear was in his pack; all that he carried with him were his arcane gauntlets, bunched together in his fist.
“ I’m surprised you didn’t pick up more of their language,” Dillon said from behind him as they carefully stepped down the hill. Dark protrusions of rock jutted out of the stone and formed the semblance of steps, but the pace at which Sajai moved and the height of those steps still made keeping their balance tricky.
“ Me, too,” Cross said. “I’m better at reading languages than speaking them.” He looked back over his shoulder. “Do they think I’m idiot for not having learned more of it?”
“ I doubt they care,” Dillon said quietly. “They’re not like us. They don’t really judge.”
They came into the company of more Lith when they arrived at the bottom of the hill. The trek down the breadth of the mountain to the Reach itself would take hours, but the Lith had completely broken down their camp, and everything that had once been spread across the hillside had been rolled and neatly packed away and bound to the backs of stark white horses with reptilian skin and tufts of heavy hair on their feet and joints. The horse’s manes were like melted crystal.
The other Lith parted before them. Their weapons were sinuous and sleek, bows carved from stark white wood and swords and axes with blades made of translucent crystal. Cross saw no firearms anywhere in their midst. His spirit bristled as if threatened, and Cross had to exert some mental force to rein her in.
It’s like owning a pet wolf, sometimes.
Sajai passed through her fellows and walked towards the cliff, where they had a clearer view of the Reach. It looked like a sea of ice. Thick canyons of gray and green rock covered the landscape like wounds.
Sajai stepped up to the edge, propped one foot on a short stone that dangled precariously over open air, and looked out.
Cross had been sent by the Southern Claw High Command to learn something from this Lith woman, the leader of a tribe that in the past had given the White Mother valuable information about the Ebon Cities. He’d been sent to find something hidden out there in the wastes.
But the Lith had their own way of handing out information. They would not be rushed. They lived so much longer than humans, and much of what humankind found frightening was entirely familiar to the Lith.
She had to make sure that my need was genuine. She had to know I could be trusted.
Over the course of the past few weeks, Cross had done his best to earn that trust, with Dillon’s knowledge of the Lith guiding his actions. He felt bad for Dillon, really — the ranger was used to running reconnoiter missions for Hunter squads or charting out unexplored territory for Company deployments, not baby-sitting a warlock of dubious qualifications while he tried to get information from a race that he didn’t even share a common language with. Even though Dillon didn’t complain, Cross noted restlessness in his gait and in his thick voice. He was a ranger, after all — he wasn’t used to sitting still.
But you never complained when the mission came straight from the High Command. If they were giving the order, it meant that it was something the White Mother herself wanted done.
Without turning to regard them, Sajai pointed out to the Reach. At first Cross didn’t see anything: it looked like the same arctic wasteland it had always been. The air was dirty and cold and Cross tasted glacial smoke on his tongue. His scarred left hand burned in the frigid temperatures. Hard wind pushed against them.
“ Crap,” Dillon said after a moment.
“ Tell me about it…”
“ No, look!”
Cross followed Dillon’s gaze. A few miles away, just past a ridge of low and dark hills, amidst a drift of early morning haze and ash, was a stream of smoke that curled up into the sky.
“ Is that from a wreck?” Cross asked.
“ Looks like it to me.”
An airship, he thought. It could’ve been any sort of mechanized or thaumaturgically driven vehicle, of course — a tank, a Rathian war wagon, a Bonewalker, an Ebon skiff — but somehow Cross knew what it was.
Sajai looked at Cross. She made a simple hand motion: a sweep and cut, drawing her hand away from Cross and above her own throat, then back out towards the trail of smoke.
“ Follow,” Dillon said, reading the signal. His eyes went back to the smoke. “Follow and you will find.”
She’s been waiting for this, Cross thought. That’s why they’ve let us stay for so long. She was waiting for this day, this place, to show us where we needed to go. That ship had to be there. In order to find what we need, our next step is to go to that wreck.
Cross considered asking her what the smoke was, but he knew that she wouldn’t tell them.
Follow and you will find.
Cross looked at the smoke, and he felt something cold inside of him. It was as if eyes buried deep in the distance stared back.
“ Thank you,” Cross told Sajai. “Dillon. I think it’s time for us to go.”