-1After a few long hours, Chaya eventually emerged from the back room with a dusty old book with the pages falling out that was far thicker than any of the tables in the room.

“Here we go!” Chaya dropped the dusty lump on the table, waking Burton from a brief nap due to boredom and snapping Taehoon out of his infinitely stretching fascination with the objects on the walls and ceiling of the room. “It’s pretty old and there’s eleven other volumes in addition to this as well. My grandfather did a lot of traveling and was extremely interested in all the different peoples and cultures that existed in the world. Of course, back in those days, it wasn’t illegal to move around so much… though it was highly discouraged…”

“…I wish I was allowed to travel,” Taehoon spoke up, feeling like he was the ‘lame’ person in the room. Chaya and Burton both seemed to be pretty familiar with the real world, while he had only just been introduced to the lands and ways that existed beyond the state borders.

“Jared, from what I’ve seen, you won’t have much of a choice but to keep traveling,” Burton said thoughtfully.

“What do you mean…?” Taehoon asked.

“The way those government guys were after you? Do you really think you can go back to your home?” Burton didn’t move a muscle and Taehoon looked down in sadness.

Chaya saw the emotion on Taehoon’s face and made a pouty expression. “Aww, Jared, don’t worry about that! You always can come here and you’ll be safe!” she bounced a little in excitement. “This place doubles as a café and restaurant, so there’s always food! And I have a spare bed you can stay in whenever you want to!”

“It’s sad how desperate for company you are, Chaya…” Burton smirked on the inside, though kept his cool composure. “Why don’t you just get a boyfriend?”

“Oh, shut up, Burton!” Chaya growled, “Those are big words coming from a guy who probably never dated a girl in his life! You don’t know how to act around them! That’s your problem.”

“A problem? Sounds more like a solution.”

Chaya stuck her tongue out at him then turned her attention to Taehoon, sticking her nose up, “Ignore that bastard. He is just jealous that I’m hot and he’s not.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” Burton’s voice had a relaxed tone to it.

“Whatever…” Chaya spat out, then turned back to Taehoon with a playful and friendly smile. “Anyways, Jared,” she began, “It took me a little while, but I finally stumbled across this entry where my grandfather talks a little about the Seugfa person he had met. I’ll read it out loud, so you can hear it, and same for certain other bitter people who don’t act curious, but I know is.” She shot another cold stare at Burton, though he didn’t seem to notice.

Taehoon looked over to Burton, then huddled closer to Chaya to get a better look at the original writings. The pages were worn and yellowed and all the words were handwritten, and oftentimes completely illegible. The words, themselves, appeared to be in English, though the letters were highly stylized.

“Anyways, I’ll begin,” Chaya spread her arms wide to either side of the book as she leaned over to read.

“In my journeys through the mountainous and uninhabitable lands of the north, I had never once thought I would meet anyone as unusual as a weary old man by the name of Corvis Seugfa. He was a tall, slim being who wore colorless clothes and lived alone, without electricity, in a cabin in the middle of the woods of Vancouver. I met him when I was worn out and lost, searching for a…” Chaya paused, squinting her eyes at the lettering.

“Tired of it already?” Burton muttered.

“What? No.” Chaya glared. “This part just seemed water damaged so I can’t tell what it says at all.”

I know all about water and ink on paper, Taehoon thought to himself.

“Okay, then. I’ll just skip that part and move on to the next readable word.” Chaya took a deep breath before continuing on, “I did not know what to expect from Corvis, as he spoke of weird creatures and far away lands. It was hard to interpret at times and I figured out that he might have been a Native, despite his nearly colorless blond hair and light skin. I had never seen such a Native as he and when he invited me into his home, I saw that it was full of books, scrolls and other documents. I asked what it all was. He told me that they were the stories passed down from one generation to the next through the Seugfa family line, a family of high priests.

“I asked him what high priests were and he just smiled at me, knowing that my knowledge was indeed very limited. He then told me stories of a land long past. I wish I had written them down! Though I couldn’t comprehend most of what he was telling me. It felt so alien… And once I started to pull out my paper and pen, he stopped me, saying that the most important memories were the ones that I didn’t have to write down to remember. To write them down, he said, would be an insult to his people and his culture.

“While I didn’t understand, I nodded and put my papers away in respect to his way of life and his beliefs. The last thing I wanted to do was insult my new friend.

“I spent three days with Corvis Seugfa, and in every one of those days, he told me countless stories. My memory is failing me now and I wish that I could remember more of his fantastic tales.

“On the third day, he grew very serious and told me a story that he said was incredibly important for all of his family to know: a tale about a forbidden ritual called the Black Earth Ritual. He told me that it was a dangerous ritual that split his people into two many millennia ago as it angered the god Gallio that someone Corvis called ‘Kolaro’ would involve himself in such activities.

“What the Black Earth Ritual actually was is something that he would not tell me, perhaps fearing that I may take part in it myself. ‘We Seugfa remember and understand the past in order to better prepare ourselves for the future,’ he said in a serious tone. ‘It is why we have lasted so many ages. Outside of the Seugfa lineage, much has been forgotten by the people of this world and they are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.’

“The way he spoke sent chills down my spine as I listened to his words. The words themselves were none to be feared, but how he said it made me feel as if I was suddenly part of an ancient story that no human could possibly escape from.

“After he told me his tale of the Black Earth Ritual, he stayed quiet so I felt I had to leave his dwelling to continue on my own quest. Bidding my farewell, I wondered if I would ever meet that man again. I wanted to, but a part of me hoped that I would never feel the chills he gave me ever again.”

“So,” Taehoon mumbled, “the Seugfa are found in a place called… Vancouver?”

“Well, just the one my grandfather met lived there,” Chaya sighed and stretched. “I’ll keep looking for other possible references to his encounter with Corvis Seugfa, but I’m pretty sure this is the longest addition to his journals about him. At least, the longest one I remember reading.”

“Seugfa…” Burton closed his eyes in thought. “I wonder where I had heard of the name before… and I don’t think it was the same man your grandfather referenced…”

The room went silent as no one really could find any leads in the writings. Sure. One location was named, but there was nothing to say that the man would still be there now and there were no leads to the possible existence of other Seugfa family members.

“Man, this is why I hate the government!” Chaya spat out randomly as the others turned their heads to stare at her for the sudden change of topic. “What’s with the confused looks? I’m talking about the internet and computer networks. They’re all so heavily monitored by the government these days that we can’t use them to find information from people in other places. Instead, we have to travel to our contacts’ homes and gain information face-to-face! It’s incredibly annoying!”

“The government is just paranoid and what is so wrong with a little travel? You own a bus company for crying out loud! You make money off of people traveling,” Burton growled without looking at her.

“True, true!” Chaya made one of her ‘cute’ expressions. “I am just taking ‘dvantage of the times, Burton! It’s always best to put yourself in a winning position in times of change.”

“So what are we going to do?” Taehoon spoke up, wanting to know where the disk will lead his future.

“Good question! I suppose I’ll need to figure out which contacts I have that would be helpful in finding mysterious people like the Seugfa,” Chaya ran back behind the counter and started sifting through various file cabinets and papers. “Because of the way the government manages their state border patrols nowadays, there are a lot of people who I won’t be able to get you to, especially if they’re anywhere east of the Rockies. That region just has way too many people!”

“The… Rockies?” Taehoon tilted his head.

“Don’t worry about it,” Burton looked over towards him. “Vancouver is to the north and nowhere near the Rockies.”

“I just didn’t know what they were…” Taehoon mumbled.

“The Rockies are an exceptionally tall and beautiful mountain range! Unfortunately, people aren’t allowed in there anymore since we apparently ‘destroy nature’ or something silly like that,” Chaya continued to shuffle through papers and references.

“Well, yeah, humans and nature are enemies,” Taehoon stated as if it was the law of the universe. “We can’t have them interact…”

“Jared, knock off your silly government propaganda talk,” Burton shot a glare at the boy coldly. Chaya even froze for a moment from Burton’s cold tone of voice. It sounded to her as if Burton actually took offense from those words. “You don’t know a thing about nature. You grew up in a government-controlled state and was taught all your school lessons in a classroom made of a floor, a ceiling, and four walls. Those four walls separated you from anything and everything nature represents. Saying that humans and nature are separate entities is a stupid statement. Just because you were told to think a certain way doesn’t mean it’s necessarily true.”

Taehoon and Chaya were silenced by Burton’s rant. After several long quiet moments, Chaya went back to searching through her papers, thought Taehoon just sat there, shocked and almost insulted.

“That’s the problem with you government citizens,” Burton spoke with bitterness. “You’re all ignorant of everything besides your heavily propagandized existence.” Burton pushed his chair back and stood up, then headed for the doorway.

“Hey! Where are you going?!” Chaya noticed right away and felt the need to ask.

“All I promised Jared that I would do was bring him to a place where he could gain some more information and help him until we got there,” Burton didn’t bother looking back. “I have some business of my own to attend to and I don’t feel like wasting any more time with someone who has been brainwashed by the government.” With that, he stepped outside the doorway and slammed the door behind him.

Taehoon just kept his eyes on the doorway that Burton had left through, a little shaken up and unsure if he should say anything at all. Did Burton really hate the government that much? What did it ever do to him? All the government does is try to help…

“One of these days he’s going to break something!” Chaya grumbled, “And then I’ll make him pay!” Her tone seemed somewhat non-serious and Taehoon looked at her oddly. Chaya sighed, knowing that the boy probably didn’t know Burton very well at all. “Don’t worry about him, Jared. He’s always been that way, though he has never actually said why. A lot of people don’t like the government for one reason or another, but he acts like he has some horrible grudge against it.”

“…How much do you know about Burton?” Taehoon finally decided to say something.

“Not much, to be honest,” Chaya paused from her searching to talk to the boy. She enjoyed his company and found his naïve nature to be quite fun to be around. Perhaps it was because he made her feel smart. “I first met him when I was a teenager just starting out as an entrepreneur under the watchful eyes of my father here in this very trading post. Burton was my first real customer, and I thought he was so hot back then!” Chaya’s eyes sparkled in admiration. “He appeared to be a little older than I was and I loved his serious approach to everything. He seemed really smart and responsible.”

“So in other words, he hasn’t changed much,” Taehoon concluded.

“Oh he is still pretty much exactly the same as when I met him,” Chaya’s expression got solemn all of the sudden. “Even though I grew up into a fine young woman, Burton hasn’t aged a day…”

“Wh-what!?” Taehoon’s eyes grew big. “He hasn’t… aged?”

“Maybe it’s just my fantastical memories of him, but I swear that he doesn’t look any older or more mature than when I first saw him.”

Taehoon started to think critically about this, wondering if maybe Burton was one of the people who had stayed loyal to the government all his life and was given a special treatment to become immortal. But if that was true, why did he hate the government so much? And why was he so unhappy?

Chaya giggled to herself a little, “Though I wouldn’t doubt that he is just that good-looking of a guy!”

Taehoon shrugged, figuring that Chaya probably wouldn’t be able to tell much more about Burton’s life. He guessed that Burton was a traveler and likely had no single place he called ‘home’, or at least, that’s how he made himself out to be like.

“Hmm… I wonder if these two will help in your hunt for Cole Seugfa,” Chaya pulled a file out from a cabinet, getting back to business.

Taehoon looked over to Chaya, then stood up and came over to see what she had.

“Their names are Tanja and Todd, members of the Bismarck family that were apparently an extremely intelligent group of people back in the days of the Revolution,” Chaya began. “They were so good at what they did, they were considered modern ‘ninjas’ skilled in many different arts.”

“Revolution? Ninjas?” Taehoon was trying his best to understand.

“Oh jeez, you really are as ignorant as Burton said you are!” Chaya said seriously at first, then laughed. “Oh, don’t mind me! I like you a lot, Jared, and you know it!”

Taehoon dropped his head a little, embarrassed over the situation. Am I really that ignorant?

“Anyways, Tanja and Todd live in a place far to the northwest from here, but sadly, my bus service doesn’t reach their location as it crosses some critical disputed border areas between this nation and the PRC,” Chaya pointed to a map on the page in front of her and tapped at it. “I can only get you as far as the Modoc region but from there, you’ll have to find some other mode of transportation.”

“…There’s no one closer you think can help me find Cole Seugfa?” Taehoon questioned.

“Well, not for people like you as a client,” Chaya winked.

“What do you mean by that…?”

“You have no money!” Chaya laughed.

“…Oh… yeah…” Taehoon drooped.

“Which is why Tanja and Todd are the best means of helping you out,” Chaya was all smiles. “They’re an interesting pair: as long as it’s fun, they won’t turn down a job!”

--------------------------------------------------------------

The state military headquarters was on the outskirts of the city, protected only by a single chain link fence with barbed wire along the top and a few guard towers. The main gate entrance was at the end of a dirt road where two guards stood, armed and ready.

Patrick’s caravan of military vehicles drove up, engines growling and loads bouncing up and down from the potholes. None of the men spoke, afraid to get on the nerves of their captain, and even he didn’t make a move to complain. He stayed focused on the road ahead as Tanner watched nervously.

When they came to the gate, one of the guards asked for an identification and Patrick showed him, giving him clearance to go forward.

“Fucking dick,” Patrick mumbled after he drove through the gate. “He’s seen me enough times to know who I am. Why he has to ask every time is beyond me… Does he have the memory of a shrew?!”

Tanner decided to just ignore the comment, knowing it was just his captain needing to vent once again. Besides, it wasn’t like his insults were harming anyone. Everyone in the truck had long-since gotten used to it.

Driving around a little down the gravel road, they eventually made it to the military parking garage and drove up to the second level where Patrick had his favorite spot. From there, they had easy access to a pedestrian bridge that was connected to the main building. It was convenient and everyone knew about Patrick’s low tolerance level for inconvenient things.

“Tanner, we are going inside to meet with the commander. You men,” Patrick pointed with his weapon. “Take Mr. Seung to the interrogation office and I’ll meet with you later.”

The men saluted and went about their duty as Patrick turned and headed for the bridge with Tanner following right behind him.

“Something is bothering you, captain?” Tanner walked by Patrick’s side.

Patrick didn’t look at him, “That kid… what could he have done to make the government call us off like that?”

“That is still bothering you, sir?” Tanner looked at him obediently.

“Of course it does! I swear I saw that the kid was dead, floating in that lake after leaping from that cliff…” Patrick looked down slightly as they came to the bridge. “People don’t just… come back to life.”

“Perhaps, sir, you were mistaken about his state of being?”

“No… I know what a dead person looks like when I see them, Tanner. Maybe they were the ones mistaken and there’s a third party involved in this case,” Patrick picked up his pace a little.

“A conspiracy?” Tanner wondered if that was what his captain was getting at.

“Maybe…” Patrick glared at the building in front of them before entering the metallic doorway that would lead them within. “Mr. Seung’s son is most definitely not the only other person involved…”

Tanner looked ahead as they came up to a desk where a woman dressed in office clothing sat and looked up at them through thick-rimmed glasses. “Captain Patrick Zinn? You are to meet Sargeant Velasquez in Room 7 on the fifth floor.” She handed him a thin file of paper.

“The Sargeant?! I won’t be seeing Cordero?” Patrick was confused.

“General Cordero is busy and has left Velasquez in charge of talking to you about this mission,” she said, going to work at her computer and ignoring Patrick as if it were routine.

“What could that man possibly be busy with?!” Patrick cursed.

“He is in charge of all military forces in this region after all.”

“Urgh,” Patrick stamped away with Tanner following close behind him. “How important is this disk anyways if I can’t even get orders from Cordero?!” Patrick opened the file folder as he walked and flipped through the few pages that were in there. “The kid we are after was just a normal punk kid. ‘Strange powers’? ‘Unconventional weapons’? ‘Impenetrable from bullets’? Might as well be fighting aliens!”

“It definitely is intriguing…” Tanner pondered. “We are the most technologically advanced country in the world. How can a teenage kid cause so much trouble for one chopper crew?”

“…This is either a big conspiracy from a foreign nation or someone is playing a big joke on me,” Patrick growled. “I can’t believe any of the stuff in this folder!”

“What is in that file, sir?” Tanner peeked over, then was shoved the file into his hands.

Tanner took the file and started to flip through its contents, seeing that it was rather sparse of information. There were a few fuzzy black and white images in one section that caught his interest. It was likely the UAV photos taken at the citizen cleansing site. Just as described from Danni earlier, there was a person there who appeared quite young taking out military soldiers as if it were nothing at all. He seemed to carry two blade-like weapons? How archaic.

“See? It’s total bullcrap from start to finish,” Patrick spat out as they stopped in the hallway for Tanner to get a better look at the information. He never was good at walking and reading at the same time.

“I’m still reading,” Tanner raised a hand to indicate to Patrick that he needed quiet to read the material better. Continuing on, he read that all the soldiers killed on the scene of the cleansing was done in under two and a half minutes, resulting in a young female citizen picking up a gun and trying to take matters into her own hands. In the end, she shot a round but a second strange figure appeared, who looked like a small girl, and somehow stopped the bullet in midair. The strange duo then apparently vanished into thin air as a means of escape. This paralleled with the report the helicopter team had brought back with them: where they shot rounds at the male target, while he was in the air, but those projectiles were also halted in the air, though unlike at the cleansing, these projectiles were launched back at their attackers, killing two.

“The boy with the disk was… in the air?!” Tanner exclaimed.

“I told you this stuff is absolutely ridiculous!” Patrick glared.

Tanner stood there for quite some time, trying to understand the situation better but to no avail. This was, indeed, an unusual situation. How were they supposed to handle it?

“We don’t know the motives of these people, or if they are planning to attack again,” Tanner brought up.

“They already have the disk! What more would they want?!” Patrick was getting impatient.

“Our government seems pretty intent on getting that disk,” Tanner mentioned, “for something that they won’t even tell us what it is.”

“Or allow us to see Cordero about it…” Patrick added in.

“That, too…”

“What could Velasquez possibly have planned for us to get the disk back?! We don’t know where the disk is or how that kid can do these strange things…” Patrick was obviously frustrated, or beyond.

Tanner bit his lip, having a feeling as to why they were going to see Velasquez instead of Cordero, but he decided not to mention it. “Your guess… is as good as mine.”

The pair continued on down the hall until they reached the elevator and entered. Patrick pressed the appropriate buttons and the elevator started to rise. The electric humming of the lights and the sound of it sliding up its metal track was all that was heard within the metallic box it was. The buttons shined unnaturally at them and everything seemed normal, even though the situation at hand was far from normal. When the elevator finally stopped and the door opened, they stepped out quickly onto the well-vacuumed carpet and headed towards their destination where they would meet Velasquez, a man who Patrick despised, though that wasn’t anything special. The walls of the hallway were blank and bare, completely uninteresting, and the doors were simply polished wood with their respective numbers etched into them.

“Here it is… conference room number seven…” Patrick said mildly as he reached for the doorknob and opened slowly. He put on his most un amused expression possible as he allowed for Tanner to enter first.

“Gentlemen!” a classy male voice spoke from the end of a long conference table. There were other men in the room but Patrick’s glare went straight towards the Sargeant. He was a tall man, decorated with military awards of excellence for his achievements, with slicked back black hair and a thin moustache. He always spoke with his head angled upwards, which gave him a nickname of ‘Mr. Nosehole’ among the lower ranked officers under his command as it was always easy to look up his nostrils as he spoke. “Captain Patrick Zinn, you are earlier than I had expected!”

Patrick grumbled to himself as he hated this constantly perky man. He was always suspicious of Velasquez as he always appeared to be extremely stuck up. Velasquez had come from a rich family in the east, where things had been handled differently. Nobody was really sure why Velasquez was sent to this western state. It was rumored that he was looking for something in the west, but the more likely answer was that he had been demoted somewhere along the line and working in the west was the only place he could get a job. There were far less people in the west to manage, and less of a need to have military dogs snooping around, though some blame the lack of military enforcement in the west as the reason why the PRC managed to break away from the most powerful country in the world.

“Please, do sit down,” Velasquez opened his arms wide in generosity as Patrick and Tanner took two seats at the end of the long conference table in the room, as far away from Velasquez as they possibly could. There were a few other men in the room, but none seemed to be of any importance. They were likely just grunts who worked under Velasquez that he had ordered to work as servants under him for a little while. They may have owed him a favor, or something. “It seems that I have taken over the role as your commanding officer,” Velasquez started, snapping his fingers to a grunt in the room who obediently brought over yet another file.

“I should train you to do that,” Patrick nudged Tanner and whispered. Tanner just sighed and turned his attention back to the Sargeant.

“Just to fill you boys in on what’s been going on, Cordero has headed north to gather troops at the PRC border near, and perhaps in, Veneta State,” Velasquez always enjoyed some general chat before moving on to the more important matters. “Word is around the compound that war is right around the corner.”

“So we’ve heard,” Patrick refused to rest his arms on Velasquez’ conference table. “Even though we don’t even know where these two intruders came from and who Seung’s boy is working with.” He tossed his own file folder onto the table. “At least based on what I’ve been given, there’s way too much we don’t know about what’s going on to go to war with the PRC.”

“Oh, so you don’t believe what Cordero is doing to be the correct course of action?” Velasquez’ oddly expression ate face looked at Patrick with surprise. “The way Cordero spoke of the incident, he seemed convinced that there was clear proof the PRC was involved.”

“Where is the proof?” Patrick demanded, not wanting to send his men into a war without probable cause.

“I wasn’t given anything hardcore about it,” Velasquez turned his nose up higher. “Cordero is of a higher rank than myself and has more access to special ops and federal information sources. I am sure he knows what he is doing.”

“That’s not good enough!” Patrick gave in and slammed the table hard with his fist. “I’m sure he must have told you something about the situation for you to act so smug about it!”

“Don’t let your testosterone get the better of you, Patrick,” Velasquez kept his cool. “The General is an experienced man. I’m sure he knows what he’s doing.”

“So here I am, ordered to go to you about my team’s next mission, and you don’t even know anything about the damned situation!?” Patrick snarled.

“Well, then it should be no surprise that I am not involved with that particular mission,” Velasquez shrugged and smiled cleverly.

“What!?” Patrick was unsure of what the man meant.

“I am in charge of a different mission altogether! The General has changed your responsibilities.”

--------------------------------------------------------------

Burton walked down the dusty road and eventually made a quick turn into narrow alleyway after looking around and making sure that no one was watching his movements. Confident he wasn’t being followed, he moved quickly down the dark alley, keeping an eye out for garbage or stray animals that he would rather not step on. Even though he was in the desert, there was a mucky, wet feeling about the place, where moisture made itself home.

He eventually came to a corner, where he was forced to make a right-hand turn. Going a few more yards, he bent over onto all-fours and found a small window opening. Carefully, he opened the window and slid himself in through the small entryway. It wasn’t a terribly tight fit, but would have caused larger people a lot of problems.

Once inside, he looked around in the darkness until he saw a small, blue light in front of him. He pressed it without hesitancy, as if he had done it before, and a small doorway opened. He walked inside it and into a dimly lit room with a man sitting behind a wooden box. The man wore unusual dark clothing and had a mask on featuring one large unblinking eye.

“…Burton… or so you call yourself…” the man had his elbows rested on the box with his hands together, rested under his chin. “You are the only one who ever comes to see me…” his voice was old and crackly.

“Where is Nathaniel,” Burton didn’t ask, but demanded.

“Nathaniel… Nathaniel…” the man seemed to ponder, though he didn’t move a muscle. “Why do you need to see him so badly, Burton?”

“He’s the Irvanis with the seal, isn’t he?” Burton focused his eyes narrowly on the man. He was being cautious, though up-front. “He is one of your kind! I am sure you know what I’m speaking of!”

“Hush, hush now, Burton,” the old man’s words were slow and calm, preferring to stay polite throughout the interrogation. “The seal… the seal… which seal might that be?”

“Don’t play games with me, old man!” Burton stepped forward and grabbed the man by the collar of his strange shirt with a matching eye symbol as the one on his mask. “The Seal of Nebe…!”

“…Nebe?” the old man said as if he was really searching his memory for a definition to that word.

“Yes, Nebe!”

“My, my… I have no heard that name in quite a long time…” Burton let go of him and he was allowed to sit once again. “Nebe is such an… old story, Burton. What validity does it have now for you?”

“If you know the story, then you already understand my intentions,” Burton mumbled. “So where is Nathaniel?”

“If your intentions, as a follower of Trevorin, is what I think they are, then I have no intention of helping you on your quest…”

“I’ll pay you, your people, and Nathaniel well for the Seal of Nebe,” Burton pulled out a disk from his pocket. It shown silver, even in the dim of light. “Do you know what this is, old man?”

Burton was incapable of knowing if the old man was allowing his eyes to wander because of the mask, and just waited for a response.

“…You are a dangerous man, Burton,” the old man finally replied. “How, in the name of Kotondre, did you acquire that?” his voice seemed nervous.

“It can become yours, if you help me find Nathaniel,” Burton tossed it onto the small, wooden box.

The man backed away from the box, scooting his chair back with a screech of wood against stone floor. “That… if you have it… does that mean… does that mean…?”

“The Gallio are dead,” Burton whispered, though it felt far more intense in the darkness of the room. “Your people don’t have to live in fear of them anymore.”

The old man was too afraid to even touch the disk that lay on his box. His body shuddered and he couldn’t even bring himself to speak.

“Now tell me where Nathaniel and the Seal of Nebe are!” Burton yelled.

“…I… I cannot…!” the old man continued to shake. “The People of Irvanis… we have changed since your time! We understand the world better than your cursed race! To intentionally destroy the Gallio…! The world will only continue to be thrown off more…!”

Burton stood his ground, thinking that this man was likely not going to give in to his demands.

“Who will honor their god now…?” he looked at Burton through slits in the mask that Burton could not see.

“Not my problem,” Burton pulled out his spear and lengthened it, figuring that this man was no longer of use to him.

“Wait… wait! What are you planning on doing with that!?!” the old man held up his hands in fear, but Burton would not respond with words. The old man’s time was up and his body collapsed as red blood splattered onto the walls of the room and the little box that he had done business behind for many, many years. Not a scream was heard and no one would know of the slaughter, besides Burton, and, he hoped, Nathaniel.

Burton lay the silver disk on the body of the old man. He was sure Nathaniel would know what it meant.