Chapter 15 - Kill Ten Hordelings (Part One).

Søren's awareness returned gradually. Like a faucet dripping into an empty vessel. Pins and needles spread from the tips of his fingers and toes to along his nerves before coalescing in a ball of jumbled feeling in the center of his chest. A wave of ice and fire within his veins burned outward from his core and washed away the pins and needles. The wave left behind an awareness of his body unlike he'd ever felt before. When finally opened his eyes, the feeling faded and he found himself standing atop a white ceramic platform engraved with Atlantean runes. The haft of the darkwood spear topped with the crystal blade was held firmly in his right hand.

Faint light from the runes around the edge of the platform illuminated Søren in his white jumpsuit and a little bit of the area around him and the platform. He could make out the shape and texture of what appeared to be clay pots, vases, and urns deliberately placed at different locations around the circular platform. Dried plants rested inside the vessels, poking up out of the top. Flat plates rested beside the clay vessels, with yellowed bones, copper and silver jewelry, and coins on top of the plates. A section of the vessels and plates appeared recently disturbed, as if something had knocked them over when stepping off the platform.

An earthy scent caught his attention and left him a little light headed after the sterile nature of the station and the acrid scents of the dead Hordelings, burnt wiring, and destroyed electronics. A slight breeze brushed across his skin, raising gooseflesh on his arms. He turned towards the breeze, but couldn't see an exit in the dim light of the runes on the platform. A window appeared in the middle of his interface.

Congratulations! You have discovered an unbound [Resurrection Shard]. Would you like to claim ownership of the shard? Y/N

"Sure..." Søren said, drawing the word out as he mentally confirmed the action. He felt his awareness expand momentarily to include the platform beneath him, which was much like an iceberg in the ocean. Most of the platform was buried in the solid rock below. In his mind's eye, he could see an irregularly shaped, man-sized shard of crystal embedded within the white ceramic material. Bands of gold-colored metal were attached to the shard and were covered in Atlantean runes that matched those on the platform. He got the sense that each of those runes held significant meaning, but the pressure on his mind when he tried to look at them warned him from pushing further. A second window replaced first.

A mindshard you carry has an active mindscan that will expire in 74 years, 10 months, 11 hours, and 39 minutes. Place the mindshard on the platform to revivify [Neeka of the Water Finders, Fuervan Speaker (Copper VI)].

An active mindshard? Søren's first instinct, driven by his curiosity for all things unknown, was to place the mindshard onto the platform and step away. Ah, no... wait. This could be dangerous. Their name is yellow. I assume that's stronger than I the blue and green I've seen so far. I've also no idea if Neeka is a threat. Not to mention who knows how long they'd been trapped up there. Could've been ten, twenty, a hundred years. The condition of the remains and the atmosphere within the chamber was conducive to the preservation of organic materials. Søren reached up and cupped his chin, mouth, and nose with his hands and then closed his eyes to clear his thoughts to keep himself from sliding down the rabbit hole of assumptions and deductions from incomplete information.

A decision like this is not what I want to deal with right now, but I don't know when I'll get the chance again to revive them. Will they be a threat? Will they feel beholden to me? What about any survivors, friends, relatives... how will they react? What kind of mental state was Neeka in when the scan was taken? Søren removed his hands and looked at the platform.

Do I have the right to bring them back?

In the darkness surrounding him, he stood in quiet contemplation for a scant few minutes before making his decision. Søren's father had always taught him to make a decision and follow through. Don't dilly dally.

I have to bring them back. This world, simulation, game, whatever it is... it appears it was designed with resurrection as being a possibility. A respawn mechanic? Would fit with the rpg style interface. Scans of your mind can apparently be saved inside crystal pendants worn around your neck.

Søren dug the crystal mindshard out of his pocket and bounced it in the palm of his hands for a moment before he kneeled and placed it on the center of the platform. He stepped away, taking care not to disturb the large number of clay jars and other funeral offerings around the platform. A third window replaced the first, asking for confirmation for revivifying Neeka. Quickly, lest he change his mind, he acknowledged the prompt and stepped back a little further.

The light of the runes on the platform increased significantly as the lightning bolt shaped shard of crystal emitted the same cyan glow and lifted into the air, slowly turning in place. A wireframe hologram that matched the chameleon-like humanoid he had discovered in the gate room appeared on the platform. The shape, roughly four feet tall, filled in with light that soon became too bright for Søren to look at. He shielded his eyes with his hand and looked away, seeing the walls of a rough cavern around him. A dimly-lit tunnel to the south was also revealed by the light, though it quickly turned out of sight as it spiraled upwards to the left.

The light faded and dropped back down to a faint level of illumination that revealed little more than the immediate area surrounding the platform. Standing where Søren had been a few minutes ago was a healthy version the desiccated Fuervan from the station. The markings on the pebbled leathery skin matched what he recalled. They wore not a single stitch of clothing. Tremors shook through the creature's limbs and then the floating shard of crystal fell to the ground with a sharp ringing sound. The Fuervan's eyes opened and they looked at Søren.

"Hi." Søren lifted a hand in greeting. I should have paid more attention to Professor o'Riley in anthropology. Uh, damn... should've waited for the translator upgrade to finish. Curiosity and impatience could get me killed here.

The Fuervan crouched halfway down and took a step backwards. A claw on its three toed foot shifted the crystal mindshard. One eye dropped down to the ground instantly while the other eye on the creature's face remained locked on Søren. Without taking that eye off Søren, it crouched further and picked up the shard, bringing it up to look at more closely. The electrical wire that Søren had replaced the twine with caused the Fuervan to twitch its head to the side, still keeping one eye pinned on Søren.

Neeka felt life return to her limbs, a tingling feeling of pain and joy that began at the tips of her finger-claws and toe-claws and washed over her scale by scale. When she could see, hear, and feel again, she saw that she was standing on the platform that had cursed her to the damned Tutorial and an unending series of trials and tribulations against the hated Hordelings of the Collective. A voice drew her attention to the side. The dim light from the runes on the platform provided enough light for her to see every part of the funerary chamber.

Neeka stared at the tall, light skinned human in front of her. She took in the pristine white garments and the presence of her spear in its hand and her dagger on its belt. A touch on her toe-claw sent her left eye down, where she spotted the symbol of the Gods that marked her as leader of the Water Finders clan, the voice of her family at the clanmeets. She knelt slowly, keeping one eye on the creature in front of her, the other on the pendant. She lifted the mindshard up and twitched her head in confusion. The twine that had held the shard of crystal before had been replaced by a strand of wire from that looked to be from a ruin of the Gods.

"It is forbidden. To tread ruins of Gods," she rasped out in the sibilant language of the Fuerven. "To all but the Gods themselves."

The person in front of her made a face and tilted its head sideways. It spoke in a soft, musical sounding language that flowed from word to word. Not that she understood a single bit of it, but it did feel familiar. She stepped forwards, toward them. Her toe-claws clacked on the ceramic platform. Move quick, strike like the feathered serpent.

Neeka stepped off the platform and onto the stone floor. She was two steps away from him when he lifted her spear and held it out towards her, the haft resting on both palms. Odd. She focused on inspecting him and was surprised to find he gave off a weak, grey aura. Neeka turned one eye to the platform and then back to the creature. She reached out and took the spear from him.

"Who are you?" she asked. He responded in the musical sounding language again and then gestured towards its soft, fleshy ears. Neeka pulled the spear close and stepped closer, breathing in the scents of him. Clean, earthy, fresh. Like her own scent. Her eyes were drawn to a faint gouge in the floor behind the tall creature in front of her. Several more marks beyond the first led towards the exit from the chamber. Neeka pointed towards them and made a quiet interrogative cough to get the attention of the person that stole from the Gods.

"Hordeling." She lifted her arms and imitated the talons of a Hordeling Spawn and screeched like one of the hated creatures making an attack. The forward facing green eyes widened on his flat face. Weak eyes. Child could sneak up on him. He pulled an item off the side of his leg and pulled her dagger free from the sheath at his side. He stopped and looked at the dagger and then held it out to her. She slashed her free hand in a diagonal gesture across her torso. He then shrugged and moved towards the exit.

Neeka gestured with her clawed fingertips and spoke a Word of Power. The crystal blade on the end of her spear glowed from the center, shedding a dim sun-like radiance that illuminated the cave. The creature in front of her had turned around with a look of astonishment on his face. He studied the blade and looked between it and Neeka. She gestured with the spear to move on.

Neeka gestured with the spear and Søren turned towards the exit, leading the way as the Fuerven followed behind him. He had tried to communicate with her, but neither spoke the other's language. He'd considered briefly trying other languages, including Danish, Irish, and even Latin, but had decided against it. Not likely to speak any language I know. Curious how one of the Hordelings got here though. I wonder if it is a spawn or the bigger variety. Neeka has good eyes. I wouldn't have noticed the tiny scrapes in the thin layer of dust on the stone.

Together, Søren and Neeka moved upwards out of the chamber. As Søren crossed the threshold, another window popped up into view.

Warning, you are leaving the area of a Resurrection Shard without completing a mindscan and setting a restoration point. Would you like to create one? Y/N

Well, would be stupid to not do so. Søren reached up and tapped the window, acknowledging the prompt. The runes on the platform glowed brightly and a series of runes appeared in the air around Søren, two tracks gently rotating in a circle. Neeka stopped and her eyes twitched around wildly, trying to track each of the runes. After a few breaths of time, the runes disappeared and Søren shrugged at Neeka. He gestured up the tunnel and attempted to imitate the screech of the Hordelings. Neeka made a dismissive coughing sound and moved ahead of him.

The glowing spearhead looks useful. I wonder if they can teach me to do the same with the dagger and that word they spoke. I could feel something stir in the air and the spearhead when they said it. Søren glanced back at the platform again and then brought up the timer for the upgrade. He sighed. Still thirteen hours left. And no time to wait. The Hordeling needs to be tracked down while the trail is still fresh and before it kills someone. Neeka's people have to be close.

The two vanished up the tunnel, following the winding path it led towards the exit from the cavern. In the deepest shadows on the ceiling of the chamber behind them, a talon edged out from behind a stalactite, followed by the eyeless chitin shell of a Hordeling Spawn. It's jagged maw worked soundlessly as it spewed out a viscous brown substance onto the stone. Within a few hours, it had encased itself in a pulsating sack of mottled brown flesh. Tendrils of the material stuck to parts of the ceiling and nearby stalactites to held it in place.