The Lost Book of Chaos: How to Divide the World (The Secret Wars of Angels 1)

by Thomas, J. D.

  “How long do you think until that meal is ready?” Judas meant to say. But the words that came out of his mouth were gibberish. His tongue and lips didn’t work like they were supposed to, and at that moment he felt the same way that he usually did when he was in between sleeping and waking, unable to move his body properly.

  Suddenly, Judas’s world turned upside down, and his vision turned black.

  Chapter 2 - High Priestess

  When Judas awoke, he found himself tied to a chair in the same room. He was right all along, the woman had planned to take the bounty on his head all to herself. There was a figure in front of him, across a small table, but it wasn’t the woman.

  “He’s awake, Arcana,” the man spoke. Judas noticed that the man bore the same engraved symbols as the ones on the woman’s blade. But while the woman named Arcana wore a dress, the man wore full plate silver armor with golden engravings.

  “So you lied, you are just after my head,” Judas said accusingly.

  “Be careful what you say,” the man growled in a deep voice. “It might cost you your life.”

  “It’s all right Varak, I told you he’s not an enemy,” the woman said. “How are you feeling?” She didn’t have the right to ask how he was feeling after what she had done to him. “I didn’t really mean to hurt you, or tie you, but Varak insisted on making sure you won’t try anything once you woke up.”

  “And don’t worry about me turning you in,” the woman added, trying to pacify him. “I believe you, and I believe that you’re innocent. And I won’t stand by and let an innocent man be punished. Instead, I’m here to offer you something.” Whatever it was she was going to offer him, it meant trouble.

  Judas sighed.

  “So, what is your offer?” Judas said.

  “My offer to you is that you can come with us and escape from the empire,” the woman said. “With our protection, you will never be in danger from villagers, or any human at all. We can keep you safe.”

  “Wait, wait, wait…” Judas said. He sensed something off with what the woman had just said. It was just one word, but it stood out to him. “What do you mean when you say any human?” It might have been nothing. But it sounded as if the woman suggested there were other threats aside from humans. Judas remembered the voice in his head. It had gone silent for a while now.

  “He’s a bit sharp,” Varak grunted.

  “Think about it,” the woman said, “you won’t have to keep running. Besides, it’s safer to travel with company. And you will receive pay as is your due.”

  “I don’t like this one bit,” Varak said, “this will draw more attention to us.” For once, they had something they could agree on—Judas did not like this either. “We need speed, we need to be able to move around at a moment’s notice. Look at him. There’s not a mean bone in him. If we get into a fight, he will just slow us down. In my opinion, he’s a waste of gold. I’d rather we hire warriors and horses than a weakling like him.”

  “But on the other hand it can be advantageous for us,” the woman said. “Our hunters are looking for two people.” So Judas was right, there were people hunting them. “I have been observing him run throughout the village, and while he may not have the ability to fight, he can run well. I even saw him save one of his pursuers. We have use for him, he might serve as a good messenger and scout.” Judas was worried with the method with which she was able to observe him. Judas had covered a lot of ground, and there was no way she could have followed him on foot.

  “He may be a criminal in these lands” Arcana continued, “but no one will recognize him in other kingdoms. And besides, I am interested in this Master of his.”

  “Ha! A man who cannot die?” Varak said disbelievingly. “How do you know he’s not making it all up? And how do you if that man is not our enemy? What if he’s one of them?” Judas tried to interrupt by pointing out that he hadn’t even agreed whether or not he would join them, but he found it hard to get a word in so he remained silent.

  “I poisoned him with my blade,” Arcana said, “you know that there’s no one who can tell lies while under its power.” Judas was stunned. That explained the burning sensation from earlier, it explained why Judas was unable to control his own body, and his sudden passing out.

  “You should have let him die rather than give him the antidote,” Varak argued. Was Judas, just a few moments ago, on the brink of death? “You and I both know its power is not perfect. There are ways to resist its effects.”

  “I’m sorry, what?” Judas said, raising his voice. The two stopped talking, as if they just remembered he was there. “You almost killed me with poison?”

  “Almost, but I didn’t, otherwise you wouldn’t be talking to us right now would you?” the woman said. Then she smiled. Smiled! As if that was enough after what she had done. But her smile was... charming. Judas felt a wave of weakness, but it was probably from not having eaten anything worth eating for days. As if sensing Judas’s thoughts, she went to the kitchen and brought back a meal and placed it in front of him. His stomach rumbled. The food smelled good. But no, he would not be tempted.

  “All right, what is it you really want from me?” Judas said. For now, all he could do was play along. Maybe he would pretend to be part of their group as they escaped the city, but when the opportunity presented itself, he would get as far away from the two.

  “All you have to do is work for us as a scout, occasionally you will serve as a messenger, and sometimes, you will go on errands,” the woman said. “Varak and I will handle the fighting.”

  “That’s it?” Judas said. It sounded simple enough. And besides, that gave him room to escape whenever he wanted. But he would not give in so easily. At least he would make it a bit harder for them to convince him.

  “And why would I go with two strangers who just tried to poison me and who have kept me hostage against my will?” Judas said. “And I don’t even know your name.” Judas lied. He had heard Varak mention her name once.

  “I’m Arcana,” the woman said. “And this one is Varak. Untie him Varak.”

  Good. He was making progress. Judas massaged his numb arms to get a little feeling back into them.

  “Think about it, if you’re with us, we can protect you. At least until we’re both away from this village. Of course, should you ever decide to stop working with us, we won’t stop you. We are not like other people who will throw away their men once their usefulness is outlived. And we will not force you to do anything. You are not our slave.” Judas eyed the food on the table.

  “Go ahead,” Arcana said, wearing that small smile again. Judas cursed, she was cute when she did that. “You must be starving.” Indeed, he was. He gulped his own saliva, but resisted the urge to eat. Despite the food smelling good, he was not comfortable eating what she prepared, not after poisoning him like that.

  Suddenly, someone knocked from outside. In mere moments, Varak had crossed the room and was over at the door. Judas had not even seen or heard the man unsheathe his blade. Judas made a mental note not to cross the man, he was probably as dangerous as Arcana, maybe more with the blade.

  Arcana and Varak looked at each other.

  “Who is it?” Arcana called out.

  A man answered from outside. Varak nodded, and Arcana opened the door a crack.

  “Ma’am,” the villager spoke, tipping his hat. “We are looking for a criminal named Judas Iscariot, he is also known as the Betrayer. He is about this tall, with long golden hair, and a bit scrawny. We believe he passed this way earlier, but we lost his trail.” The villager tried to peer inside.

  “We should just bust in,” another villager suggested. There were several of them, maybe a dozen, outside. “Just in case he’s inside and holding her hostage.” At this, Varak revealed himself and grabbed the cloak of the man who threatened to barge in.

  “Try going into My Lady’s house and you will taste my blade,” Varak’s voice boomed. The villagers outside seemed to cower at his voice.

  The
ir leader signalled for the others to stand back. “It’s all right,” the man said. “Obviously Judas couldn’t possibly be holding them hostage, there’s a soldier protecting this house.”

  Varak released the man.

  But the leader was persistent. “But just to make sure, can we take a look inside the house?” The villager said. “We promise we won’t cause any trouble. We are doing this in all the other houses. Nothing personal, see? I hope you don’t mind?” If worse came to worst, the two would probably ditch Judas. After all, he was just a stranger to them.

  “What did this man do?” Arcana said. She was trying to stall while Judas hid himself inside. There wasn’t much to hide in, but he went inside one of the small rooms and put himself close against the wall. If they went in, they would find him for sure.

  “He is the reason for the death of our Master Joshua,” the villager said. “There is a large bounty on his head.” Judas cursed mentally. That was something he would rather Arcana and Varak not know.

  “When you say large, how much are we talking about?” Arcana asked as if curious. The villager answered but Judas didn’t hear it. All he heard was Arcana’s gasp of surprise.

  “That much?” Arcana said disbelievingly. “Why, we could hire an army with that.” She turned to Varak. “How many horses do you think we can get with that? Maybe we should join the hunt ourselves. What do you think?”

  Varak grunted. Judas heard Varak sheathe his sword. After all their talk, did they plan on turning him in?

  “Very well then, we should let them in,” Arcana announced. Judas’s heart pounded. Arcana had betrayed him after all, for all her self-righteous talk of not letting the innocent suffer.

  But the villager just peered inside, without actually coming in. “As long as you know how much his head is worth. Keep a look out for him, we could use someone like you in our search. We are not warriors, but we want his head, whether or not it’s still attached to his body.”

  Judas heard the door close. Was he safe? Or did Arcana and Varak decide to turn on him to get the bounty all to themselves? But just as he stepped out of the room he was hiding in, there was a single dull knock on the door. Judas stepped back again to hide.

  “Did you forget to tell me some—?” Arcana said as she opened the door, but she cut herself short. Judas heard Arcana and Varak unsheathe their weapons. Had the villagers decided to force their way in?

  “Judas we need to go,” Arcana called out.

  The first thing Judas saw was the body of the villager lying lifelessly on the floor. “You killed the man?” Judas wailed. Not only were these two witches, they were murderers!

  “It wasn’t us,” Arcana said flatly. Varak shook his head in disgust.

  “They found us, and they even sent a jinn,” Varak said, then cursed in a language that Judas did not recognize. At least, to Judas, it sounded like a curse. “Be ready to run, I will buy you two time.”

  Varak roared as he charged outside, slashing at a black garbed man. The man’s face was hidden save for his eyes. The man blocked Varak’s attack with his own blade. Outside, Judas saw the bodies of the villagers sprawled around the house. These were the same villagers who had been hunting for him, but somehow, he felt sorry for them. They weren’t really bad people. They were just angry, and when people were angry they stopped thinking straight. That didn't mean they deserved to die.

  “Run, before other hunters arrive.” Varak said. “I will hold this one back.”

  “This way!” Arcana said. Judas gave one last look at Varak, just as he slashed at the enemy, but while the enemy dodged, Varak’s attack uncovered the enemy’s face cover. Judas cursed at the sight because its eyes were all black and its skin was bronze in color. “Hurry!” Arcana urged. Judas cursed, trying to get the image out of his mind, but he followed anyway, seeing that he did not have much of a choice.

  “What is that thing?”

  “It’s a jinn,” Arcana said, as if that was enough to explain anything. “It’s one of the creatures they send to hunt us down.”

  “Great, so now not only are people hunting me down, now beings like that are going to chase after me too?” Judas cried. As they turned around the corner, villagers saw them. “And we’re cornered.” Judas let out a sigh of resignation.

  The villagers began to head in their direction, but Arcana didn’t slow down.

  “We don’t have time to circle around, we have to go through them,” Arcana said, but Judas hesitated. Sensing his hesitation, Arcana said, “Trust me, that jinn is worse news than these villagers. There are only about a dozen of the villagers, we can take them on.”

  Only a dozen? She must be out of her mind. But Arcana charged and when she reached them, she spun, kicked, and punched, taking the villagers down. One form led to another, it was a marvellous sight, with her dress clinging tight to her body, emphasizing her figure. By the time she was done, the villagers were on the ground, some groaning, some apparently unconscious, but still alive.

  “Let’s go,” Arcana said, then added as an afterthought, “You understand that I had no choice, I had to take them down. It's safer for them that way; if they got in the jinn’s way, it would have killed them too. They are better off unconscious, that way the jinn won’t pay any attention to them.” They ran to the outskirts of the village and into the trees.

  “Keep running,” Arcana urged. Then muttered under her breath, “I wish we had horses. But it’s hard enough getting them with hunters following us.”

  “What about Varak?” Judas said.

  “He can take care of himself, we will meet with him later,” Arcana said. “He has fought against jinns before, he will survive. He will have to.” They went deeper and deeper into the forest. Then, after a while of running, Arcana stopped.

  “It’s good you were able to keep up,” Arcana said, catching her breath. He could say the same thing about her too.

  “If there’s anything I can do well, it’s running,” Judas said, immediately regretting he had said that. Running away wasn't exactly something anyone should be proud of. But he was surprised how far he was able to run, even after collapsing just today. How had he recovered so much in such a short time? And for how long was he out and unconscious? It only felt like a few moments, but he felt well rested. His recovery was too unnatural. “Did you give me anything else aside from the poison?”

  Arcana nodded. “You had to be recovered in case we got into a situation like this.” That explained it.

  “Did you use...” Judas said, “sorcery on me?”

  “It's not really sorcery,” Arcana said, “merely an understanding of nutrition and herbs. Some of the things I do, others who do not understand will call it Magic. But to me, it's simply knowledge, technology, wisdom.”

  Then Judas had a thought. “Right now, I could run away from you, and I would be safe from that creature,” Judas said.

  “Like I told you,” Arcana said, “I wouldn’t hold it against you if you did. And I’m sorry if we put you in more trouble than you were already in.”

  He took a step away, as if to escape. Arcana had stopped too. But then he stopped and looked back at her. He could really escape from all this now, it was tempting. But Arcana seemed like she was in serious trouble. Judas was the kind of man to repay his debts. And, besides, he found that he liked her as a person.

  Judas sighed. This was going to be troublesome. “I could run away now, but you did save me when I was in a tight pinch,” Judas said. “I’ll stay with you, but only until Varak returns, and only until you get horses. I can help you with that, but once that’s done we’re even.”

  Arcana brightened. At this, Judas felt his face flush.

  “But now that I’ve decided to come with you,” Judas said, trying to distract himself from her deep, beautiful eyes, “you should tell me first who you’re running from. I need to know who I’ll be going up against.”

  This time it was Arcana’s turn to sigh. “Very well,” she said.

  “There
are powerful people chasing us,” Arcana said, “because of knowledge that I possess. Several groups are after us, each group more fearsome than the other.”

  “This knowledge?” Judas said. “Magic?”

  Arcana shook her head. “There is no such thing as sorcery or magic. All magic and sorcery are mere tricks. True power lies in knowledge and wisdom, an understanding of the universe. If you understand even a little about how the universe works, you can use that understanding to influence reality.”

  Seeing as Judas did not comprehend the difference, Arcana said, “Magic and sorcery rely on senseless rituals. For example, if you kill a dove and sacrifice it, it would have no effect in the universe. But if you use knowledge of the universe, you can affect reality. For example, with the knowledge that wood floats on water because wood has less density and more buoyancy…”

  Judas had trouble grasping what that meant, but he did not argue.

  “And,” Arcana continued, “with the knowledge that you can use nails to construct the wood into a ship, then you have used knowledge to affect reality.”

  “What I use is like that,” Arcana said. “It is simply Technology, but not just any human technology, but the Technology of the angels. It so happens that the angel Technology is thousands of years ahead that of humans. That is what I do, it is not witchcraft, sorcery, wizardry, magic. I merely take knowledge I learned from the Ancients and use it.”

  Judas nodded.

  “Have you heard of the Zohar?” Arcana asked.

  Judas tried to recall, it sounded familiar but he couldn’t quite remember from where or when.

  He shook his head.

  “The Zohar is a key to something powerful,” Arcana began. “There is a legend passed down through our clan, that in ancient times, there was a war between the angels of Earth and the angels of Heaven. During that war, there was a weapon so powerful that even angels feared it. In that time, we humans were the servants of angels, mostly mining gold and silver they needed for their Technology. We worked for the angels, we tended to their agriculture and livestock. And we built them temples according to their will, and we managed the other humans for them. Some angels were followed as gods. Some angels were followed as mighty ones. Some angels stood beside us as equals, even as friends. But more than servants, we were also involved in building that powerful weapon, they called it the Forbidden Weapon.”