The Chronicle of Heroes ~ Of Fiends and Shadows

[The Midgard Times]

Day 15

Sir Melot exited from a lonely alley in the Yuno Residential area, looking around to make sure he wasn't seen. On his way to the town square, a familiar voice talked to him.

"Pals with Archelaus now, huh?" The male voice asked, judgingly.

Melot sighed, and closed his eyes as he shook his head. "Rajnish, what a disappointing surprise." He candidly commented. "What brings you here?"

Rajnish chuckled, appearing from out of nowhere. "Oh, nothing much, just rumors of you disappearing randomly."

"Can we take this elsewhere? The Paladin asked, looking around nervously.

Back at one of the Dark Allegiance's safehouses, Sir Melot tried to explain what was going on. "He gives me intel on The Golemancer, that's it." He informed. "Adelaide's investigation is moving forward with the volunteers' help."

Rajnish just stood there, looking at him. "You're lying. Tiamat was the one who gathered intel. Why would you do it now?" He stated. "If your secret meetings with Light Side councilmen gets out to the press, our members will lose what little trust they have left in us!"

Melot began pacing. "I know..." He began. "I can't tell you what's going on, you have to trust me. It's in the Dark Side's best interests to avoid conflict."

"Who else knows about this?" Rajnish asked, looking away from him.

"Thea, Archelaus, Tiamat and I." The paladin replied.

The stalker scoffed, shaking his head. "You shouldn't keep secrets from your fellow councilmen, Melot... Just tell me what's going on."

Melot looked down, somewhat ashamed. "Fine." He looked back up at Rajnish, with a serious expression. "I'll tell you why Thea and I have been so cooperative with each other recently."

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Day 18

The makeshift lab in the basement of the Dark Allegiance Temporary Headquarters was, simply put, a mess. The head researcher, Ciar, had no assistants to help ever since the Prontera Headquarters was destroyed by The Golemancer. He quietly tinkered away on his own, trying to recreate an old weapon the Dark Allegiance once used, when 'Orpheus' walked into the room, trying to survey yet another council member.

"Do you need anything?" Ciar asked, having not even looked at who walked into his lab.

Orpheus wasted no time in small talk. "How well do you get along with the other members?"

The head researcher continued tinkering with a mechanical blue sphere. "... Why do you want to know?"

"Just curious."

Ciar kept silent for a few seconds before replying. "I... get along fine with all of them."

Dissatisfied with the response, Orpheus instead approached Ciar and his experiment. "These are forces, no?"

"Yes, they are!" Ciar replied. "Seen them before?"

Orpheus picked up one of the odd machines to inspect them. "I've had experience working with some great minds in the past. What exactly are you trying to do with them?"

"They were used by the Dark Allegiance long ago, but the exact way to create them was lost. I've only managed to reverse engineer Seal Forces, but not the rest." Ciar explained, now more engaged in the conversation.

"Mind if I suggest a few tweaks?" Orpheus asked, opening a force and fiddling with the core. "Hmm... try a dark crystal fragment."

"And remove the regular crystal fragment?" Ciar asked, tilting his head.

"No. Use both." Orpheus responded, placing the sphere on the table and glancing around at other experiments in the messy room.

After a conversation about the rest of Ciar's projects, Orpheus began to try and get to know more about Ciar again. "Are you as fierce a believer in Non-Intervention as Tiamat?"


Ciar nodded. "Yeah. We don't need to go around getting our hands dirty over every single issue like we used to ages ago. We have to get on with the times." He explained, ever-entranced by his own work.

"Oh, so that's why..." Orpheus murmured.

"Why what?" Ciar asked, seeing from the corner of his eye that Orpheus had turned away from him.

"Oh, nothing..." The other scholar replied, quietly. After half a minute of silence, he turned around again. "Actually... I'll tell you, but you didn't hear it from me..." The tone of Orpheus voice changed slightly. "Rajnish said you and Tiamat were weak and undeserving of being in the Dark Allegiance, much less the council." He shrugged nonchalantly. "Especially after an apparent incident with some bell?" Orpheus added, shaking his head and softly patting Ciar on the shoulder.

Ciar's expression changed. He clenched his jaw, moving away from Orpheus. "I expected nothing less from that Erebos-lover." He quietly responded. "He still worships and prays to him, you know. Says a lot about his 'progressive' ways."

Orpheus' nerves had been struck. "The Allegiance was founded on Erebos' beliefs that only the strong survive." He said, with a grave tone.

"Ugh. Ancient gods, ancient teachings. We hadn't seen or heard of any Asgardian up until Odin showed up last year and pranced around Prontera for a month." Ciar replied, disdainfully.

Orpheus had heard enough. As he got ready to leave, he made one final comment. "Erebos will return again one day, however. The world will be his for the taking... and he wil allow only the strongest will survive."

<><><><><>

Day 18 (still)

The door to Rajnish’s office opened rather abruptly, and in barged a very unhappy-looking Ciar. “Leave, we have matters to discuss.” He told an alchemist, gesturing rudely.

“The hell is wrong with you today?” Rajnish asked, at a loss.

Ciar waited until the two were finally alone to speak his mind. “You better quit trash-talking Tiamat and I behind our backs just because we don’t believe in your trash ideals!” He quite loudly said, pointing his index finger at Rajnish in a threatening way.

The stalker shook his head in disbelief as he sat down in his office chair. “What are you talking about!? I haven’t said anything about you two!”

“Don’t lie to me, Rajnish!” Ciar yelled, banging his fists on the table and accidentally setting a stack of papers on fire.

“My paperwork!” the stalker yelled, dowsing the ember with a water bottle. “Sit and calm the hell down, or I’ll have you thrown out of my office!” He exclaimed, rubbing his forehead.

Ciar remained standing up, “Your newest recruit, Orpheus, I think is his name? He told me how you keep calling us weak and undeserving of the chair in the council.”

Rajnish was stunned at his new recruit’s treacherous acts. “He what!?”

“You heard me.” The scholar replied, with a furious glare.

Rajnish sighed, shaking his head. “I assure you, I haven’t said a word about you.”

“You better stop this crap if you want me to continue making machines for you.” Ciar remarked, slamming the door as he stormed off.