Part 4 – The Betrayer

Chapter One – Into the Strange

The next morning, we awoke to find Sir Carbury waiting for us at a table downstairs in the inn.

“Good morning, my friends,” he said with a wide smile as P.T., Claire, and myself joined him. “It’s a beautiful day.”

Sunlight streamed in through the windows, lending warmth to the cool stone floor, and a soft breeze filtered through the open doorway. We enjoyed a quick breakfast before Carbury’s patience met its end and he ushered us outside to a waiting horse and buggy.

Carbury explains our journey will take us far from the village, and that Ardeyn isn’t a globe like Earth. Instead, it’s flat and has an edge, which we are heading towards. Along the way, we passed a massive split tower with a giant metal ring like a great portal in between. Even Carbury didn’t seem to know what it was, but his eagerness to press forward kept us from investigating more closely.

“So, where are we going?” I asked Carbury.

“To the Orb of Worlds,” he said, slowly and with both hands gesturing like he was performing a magic trick.

“Uh huh,” said P.T. “and what’s that?”

Carbury smiled. “Sort of like Heaven. There, you can create anything you can imagine.” Seeing the look of bemusement upon P.T.’s face, he added, “don’t worry. You’ll love it.”

I looked ahead toward our destination. Upon the horizon, the sky was filtering through all the colors of the rainbow, like a slow moving Aurora Borealis, with energy crackling on the edges.

In the distance, a stone pier appeared at the edge of the landscape which seemed to extend infinitely into the void beyond. The horses brought us up next to the pier where a tall, well-dressed man was buffing the side of a floating vessel.

Sir Carbury climbed out of the buggy and strode confidently toward the man. “Ah, I see our vessel is prepared.”

The man glowered at him, clearly unimpressed. “You’ll have it back in three days time.”

Carbury waved the concerns away like he was swatting a gnat. “Yes, yes, of course.”

The man watched the rest of us climb from the buggy and join Carbury at the base of the ramp leading onto the skiff.

“You’re not from here, are you?” he said.

I shook my head no.

“You’ll get used to it,” he said. “Gets easier every time. Just watch out for the Kray. You don’t want to get infected by one of them.”

“What are the Kray?” P.T. asked.

The man shrugged and walked away.

“Their brood mother is what Ardeyn was created to defend against,” Carbury said, then waved his arm and ran up the ramp. “Come on. Time’s a wastin’.”

We followed him onto the skiff as he took the wheel and set us off. The skiff bobbed, sending my stomach to churning, but after that the ride settled down and we drifted away from the land of Ardeyn.

Raw, dark energy cascaded all around us, presenting a sea of infinite possibilities. Fractal pathways emerged before us, fading as quickly as they appeared and were immediately replaced by new ones. I felt my stomach lurch and nearly lost my breakfast.

“Time to fractal surf,” Carbury said with glee. “If only I could remember how. Who here is good with numbers?”

Claire pointed a finger in my direction, and I joined Carbury at the helm. I tried to focus on the numbers he presented rather than the growing feeling of nausea. It seemed like hours before we finally broke through, and before us floating in the purple void of space was a moon-like orb with perfectly round craters. Carbury navigated the skiff into one of the larger one.

“The monks who protect the Orb live here,” Carbury said. “They’re a bit sensitive, so watch what you say.”

Inside the crater was a long pier attached to what looked like the entrance to a temple, but appeared to bring people inside the orb. A feeling of dread developed in the pit of my stomach when I spotted four figures in yellow-red robes lying unmoving at the end of the pier. Beyond them, the entrance to the orb had been ripped open, pieces of the door scattered upon the stairs leading up to it.

I jumped out of the skiff and ran to the bodies, kneeling beside the first to examine it. I lifted back the hood to reveal the bruised and bloodied bald head of a monk, and as I rolled him over, I saw several bullet holes in his chest.

“What happened here?” Carbury asked nervously as the others joined me.

A bracelet fell from the monk’s wrist and rolled towards Claire. She picked it up, and pocketed it.

“They’re dead,” I said, noting the blood stains near the other bodies. “All of them.”

“But that,” Carbury stammered. “That can’t be.”

“I’m afraid it is,” I said. “Looks like an ambush.”

“M-maybe we should go back,” Carbury said, casting a longing glance back at the skiff.

“Forget it,” I said. “I’m not going through that crap again. We’ll figure out what happened here. That’s what we do.”

Chapter Two – Terrors in the Dark

We made our way toward the stairs and the opened doorway. Claire poked her head through first, then gestured for us to follow. The room beyond was filled with massive machinery buzzing with energy. The corridor beyond contained a number of windowless doors. We tried the handles, but they were locked, so we pressed forward.

At the next intersection, the artificial lights began to dim, so I took out a lantern and lit it, though it didn’t seem to help much. We continued forward, ignoring the side passages. Up ahead, we saw another body lying on the ground, and lights began to flicker. I dashed forward to examine the body, but came up short as something slithered from the darkness and slashed at me. I reeled backward, just barely dodging the attack.

Then the shadows coalesced into strange shadow creatures, soimething like djinn. Surrounded, I remembered my bracelet and activated it, sending out a spray of acid all around me. The creatures shrieked in pain, and collapsed to the floor. As they melted into a strange goo, the lights brightened once more.

I knelt next to the body, and pulled the hood back to reveal a blanched face and sunken eyes. I had the feeling whatever those shadow creatures were had caused this.

“If you see any more of those creatures, don’t let them touch you,” I said over my shoulder.

I examined the body, and found what looked like a smart phone, a pill that appeared to be curative, and a statuette of the Big Ben clock, which seemed more than a little out of place. Carbury seemed very excited about it though, so I handed it to him and the pill to Claire, pocketing the phone for myself.

“Let’s keep going,” I said, and Claire took point, leading us further down the corridor.

We came to a t-section, and arbitrarily chose to go right. The corridor turned back to the left and ended at a larger t-section. The connecting corridor contained small, brightly colored orbs floating near the ceiling. Carbury wondered aloud if they might be baby recursions.

We continued to the right, and soon came upon a trail of blood and the sounds of coughing. Following both, we discovered a bald figure in yellow-orange robes slumped against the wall, blood flowing freely from a wound in his side.

He tried to speak as we approached, but the words sounded foreign to my ears, unlike anything on Earth.

“Do you speak English?” Claire asked, kneeling down beside him.

The monk closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “Help,” he said, his voice raspy.

I took a first aid kit from my pack, and handed it to Claire. She did her best to patch up what appeared to be a bullet wound, though she was concerned his lung may have been punctured.

“Thank you,” he said after she finished. He seemed to be breathing easier. “My name is Yar-daan. Please forgive me for breaking my vow of silence. I was attacked by OSR agents.”

Carbury hissed at us from the down the hall a bit, and waved us over. We excused ourselves from Yar-daan, and went back to huddle with him.

“What is it, Carbury?” I asked, somewhat annoyed at his interruption.

“OSR is what’s up,” he said, equally agitated. “If they’re here, we need to be careful. They can’t be trusted.”

“Who are they?” P.T. asked.

Carbury rolled his eyes. “The Office of Strategic Recursions, of course. They’re a big corporation supposedly designed to defend Earth, but we at the Institute suspect a darker purpose.”

The sounds of gun shots echoed through the corridors from the direction we came from, fading back to silence as quickly as they emerged.

“Let’s not linger too long,” I said. “Claire, keep watch. P.T, let’s find out what we can from Yar-daan and move on.”

“What about me?” Carbury asked. I shrugged, and headed back to the downed monk with P.T. at my side.

“Why did OSR do this?” P.T. asked.

“They are trying to steal a reality seed,” Yar-daan said through a grimace. “We protect against such thieves, but they got the drop on us.”

I thought about that for a moment. “Are those the orbs we saw floating near the ceiling?”

“No. Those are just models. Seeds are rare. We never have more than one. OSR is militant, always looking for weapons. Be careful. Who knows what damage they can do if they escape with it.” He dug into the pocket of his robes and produced an object that looked very much like a science fiction phaser. “Here, take this.”

P.T. took the device from him. “What is it?”

“When you find the seed, it will look like something else. You’ll need this to transform it back to normal.” He reached out to grab P.T. by the arm. “Be careful,” he warned. “The others might assume you are part of OSR. If you see them, tell them I invited you here. It might be enough.”

P.T. took Yar-daan’s hand, holding it gently. “Thank you, Yar-daan. We will.”

He stood and began to turn away, but I had more questions. “Wait. What were those shadowy creatures we saw earlier?”

“Inklings,” Yar-daan said. “They swarm from the shadows and feed on corpses. The OSR agents probably brought them when they attacked.”

“Right,” I said, “and which way did your shooter go?”

Yar-daan raised one hand, and pointed up the corridor opposite the earlier gunfire.

“Alright, we’ll go that way first.” I reached down to help Yar-daan to his feet, but he raised a hand to stop me.

“Thank you, but I need more time,” he said.

I frowned. “Are you sure? Sounds like there are more around.”

He nodded and smiled. “I’ll be fine, thank you. Just find that seed. We cannot let OSR have it.”

“Very well,” I said, and waved for the others to follow.

Chapter Three – The Traitor

We followed the direction Yar-daan indicated, and soon came to another junction. Examining the floor, I couldn’t find any indications of which way the agent had gone, so we continued straight. Further ahead we came to a junction where a small passage leading to the right was blocked by a blue shimmering sheet of energy. Behind the blue sheet was a man in combat fatigues wearing an angered expression upon his face and a lapel tag indicating his employment with OSR.

He banged on the force shield as we came into view. “Hey! Hey, you. Help me out of here! Quick, before he gets away!”

“Before who gets away?” I asked.

The man growled. “The spy from Ruk, you fools. The Karum agent. Geez. Did they tell you anything before you got here?”

P.T. stepped up to examine the force shield and try to find a way through.

“What’s your name?” I asked the OSR agent.

“Jason Wang,” he said. “Look, you need to get me out of here. The monks think we attacked them, but we didn’t. The spy did. He’s disguised as one of them, and I’m the only one who knows what he looks like.”

P.T. found a button, and moved to press it, but I grabbed his wrist to stop him. “Wait. How do we know we can trust this guy?”

“How do we know we can trust Yar-daan?” he countered. “If he’s telling the truth, we’re gonna need him.”

I considered that for a moment, then released his wrist, but when he pressed the button nothing seemed to happen. “Now what?” I asked.

“Find another way,” Jason said.

“Wait, maybe this will help,” P.T. said then fished out the phaser, pointed it at himself and activated it.

I watched, slightly terrified, as P.T. began to shimmer like the force field. He gave me a confident smile, and tried to push through the shield. Unfortunately, whatever frequency the shield worked at prevented him, and he just bounced off. He scowled, then tried the wall, and passed right through. He came out of the wall beyond the shield, grabbed Jason by the arm and yanked him back through. Both stumbled back into the hallway, and a moment later re-materialized into normal.

Jason, apparently flustered by the ordeal, spewed out a string of curses and swiped his jacket with his hands as though trying to wipe away the phaser’s energy. After a moment, he collected himself, and lifted his semi-automatic rifle.

“Alright, let’s go,” he said, and began moving back towards where we left Yar-daan.

“Wait,” I said, catching up. “Who is the traitor?”

“He calls himself Gaben-saag,” he said without slowing down.

A minute later, we arrived at the site where we found Yar-daan, but he was gone. Jason continued past without sparing a glance, and led us back through the room with the floating orbs and beyond to a corridor we hadn’t yet explored. He pulled up short as we came to a pair of bodies in OSR uniforms upon the floor.

“Damnit,” he said, then knelt beside them. “Daniel and Andrew.” He roll the bodies over, and quickly searched their pockets, producing a letter. He handed it to me without a word.

I opened the letter as Claire and P.T. gathered around me. It appeared to be an official letter from someone named Angela Whitesides, a colonel within OSR who was requesting that Jason and his team apprehend a Karum spy suspected of hiding out in the Orb.

“Believe me now?” Jason asked, hands on his hips.

Carbury was rifling through the bodies, and soon came up with another phaser and a strip of some filmy substance. “I’ll hold on to this,” he said, pocketing the phaser. “We might need another one if they only have one charge.” He then handed the film to Claire.

“Alright,” I said. “Where to now, Agent?”

Jason shrugged. “I don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine at this point.”

“Fair enough.” I turned to Claire. “You’re in front. Let’s keep going. The spy has to be here somewhere.”

Claire nodded, and led us forward. We passed through more corridors, turning at various junctions, sometimes with purpose, other times arbitrarily. We soon arrived at another unconscious monk, this time a woman. Jason took one look at her and declared her not to be the spy.

Claire knelt down beside her, and applied some of her newfound medical skills to her wounds. The woman soon stirred, and her eyes blinked open. Upon seeing Jason, though, she pulled back, but Claire placed a calming hand on her shoulder.

“It’s okay,” Claire said. “He’s not here to hurt you.”

She turned dubious eyes upon Claire, so I produced the letter from Colonel Whitesides, and handed it to her. She scanned it briefly, then handed it back, nodding in recognition.

Claire helped the woman to her feet, where she produced a piece of chalk and some security badges. She handed the badges out to each of us, and began writing on the wall with the chalk.

“I’m Melissa,” she wrote. “Badges for safe passage.”

“Thank you, Melissa,” I said. “We’re looking for a spy who came here in search of a reality seed. We think the spy may be disguised as a monk named Gaben-saag. Do you know of him?”

She thought for a moment, then nodded. “New recruit,” she wrote. “Speak to Rive-shamash about seed.”

She put the chalk away, and gestured for us to follow. I urged Claire to stay with her, while P.T., Carbury and myself hung back and Jason trailed, his rifle at the ready.

As we rounded the next turn, the lights dimmed, and more inklings appeared, emerging from the shadows. I stepped up next to Claire, and the hallway erupted into a flurry of chaos as both sides took up arms and attacked. Jason fired his rifle with abandon, somehow managing to keep his spray of bullets above our heads. Claire and P.T. attacked with mace and sword while Melissa pulled out a device and aimed it at our enemies.

I looked up to see one of the creatures descend towards me. For a moment, I froze, uncertain what to do next. The creature reached with one clawed hand, and tore into my skin, tearing flesh and draining energy from within me. I screamed in pain, and wished desperately for some way to attack. Suddenly, a blast of energy erupted from my mind, and slammed into my assailant, pushing it away and severing its grasp.

I reeled back, uncertain of what just happened, but as the creature drove forward once again, I focused my thoughts on blasting the creature, and a second blast emerged, shattering the creature’s chest. It fell to the ground, and dissolved into a puddle of sticky goo. I stared at the puddle for a moment, then realized the battle around me had ended. I looked up to see Claire attending to P.T.’s wounds. Melissa waved us forward, and led us to the next room.

We rounded the next corner, and through a doorway on the opposite end of the chamber we entered emerged Yar-daan.

Jason’s eyes bulged in surprise. “Traitor!” he yelled.

Yar-daan stopped in his tracks, fear evident upon his face, and dived backward. Jason began to chase, but just at that moment, the door behind Yar-daan opened again and out came several monks, one especially stern looking woman in the lead. Yar-daan stumbled, and crawled away from them. Jason took aim, and was prepared to fire upon the spy, but I put my hand on his gun and lowered it.

“Wait, Jason,” I said. “The monks will prefer to handle him themselves.”

He looked at me, a fire burning in his eyes, then he seemed to realize the gravity of the situation as the monks stared at him with a hatred of their own.

Yar-daan, or really Gaben-saag I realized, tried to crawl away. I pointed to him, and said, as authoritatively as I could, “Detain him!”

Melissa stepped forward and grabbed him by the arms, pinned his hands behind his back, and hauled him to feet.

I stepped forward to address the woman monk who seemed to be in charge. “Rive-shamash, I presume?”

The woman nodded, her eyes studying me with intent.

“My companions and I are from Earth, but we are not a part of OSR. The agent here, Jason, is, but before you arrest him, please understand he is not your enemy.” I took out the letter, and handed it over to her. She read it over, and handed it back.

P.T. stepped up to the man we thought was Yar-daan. “What’s your real name, spy?”

He hissed in defiance, but grunted when Melissa twisted his arm just a bit more. “I am Gaben-Saag.”

“What’s your mission?” P.T. pressed.

“To retrieve the reality seed for the glory of Ruk. You may have stopped me now, but you will never find it before more of my kind come for me and the seed.”

“Does anyone know what the seed looks like?” I asked, looking around.

Rive-shamash shook her heard, and pulled out some chalk. On the wall, she wrote, “It would appear mundane, out of place.”

Suddenly, the memory of the Big Ben Clock flashed through my mind, and all eyes turned towards Sir Carbury.

An evil grin spread across his face, as he drew forth the clock and the phaser he took earlier. “The Institute thanks you for your help, but I’m afraid I must be going now. For Moriarty!” With that cry, he activated the phaser, and the room exploded into a swirl of cascading colors.

Epilogue – Nuclear Wasteland

When I next opened my eyes, I had no idea how much time had passed or where we were. The world before us was a sea of sand and heat, stretching as far as the eye could see. I looked around. Claire and P.T. were with me, but once again our appearances had changed.

P.T. sat up and looked around. “Crap,” he said, a sentiment that echoed my own thoughts precisely.