Before either one could further undertake their threats, Lilith had placed herself between them; by constructing two swarming walls of insects: impeding potential conflict.
“Rabisu… Alu, my dear brother, you must save your energies for these so-called heirs of the Naacal,” said Lilith. “We’ve been gifted this great responsibility. Let us not disappoint our lord.”
“I’m not really the sort to heed another’s warning,” Rabisu sighed. “But in this case, I am content.”
It wasn’t because of any Naacal heir that he chose to act with caution. Rabisu believed, regardless of whether these humans might have inherited a fragment of a Naacal’s power, that humankind were still weak - made of tender flesh and the most brittle of bones. But it was the ramblings of a certain water guardian within an Indigo’s service that made him apprehensive. For an Indigo, as they’d often been referred to in history, was a Naacal heir who had ascended and formed a celestial bond with a guardian. This celestial bond was known to possess and supply an Indigo with great power.
“Well, now that you’ve proven fearful of challenging me, lead the way to these supposed heirs of the Naacal,” said Rabisu, picking at his teeth with his claws. “It is clear you are no match for me.”
Rabisu wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Alu dismiss this additional slight. Even if he wanted to, what else could he possibly do about it? Rabisu surmised.
All Alu did was glare back at him through the slits of porcelain, before promptly, a strong beam of yellow light pierced forth from behind the openings of his mask. Through this light, the spirit panned about the coastal landscape.
“Our lord said we’d pick up of their scents the further we travelled eastward.”
Rabisu glanced back at Alu with his nose raised, hoping the masked Corrupted would resume their hostile exchange of words. But once it had become clear that Alu was no longer willing to engage him, Rabisu let down his guard; stretching his upper torso of black marble, and adjusting his stiff neck. Once more, he tried to draw the Corrupted’s ire by flexing a pair of dark vampiric wings before his porcelain face.
“You’re no fun,” he said, his gesture having been ignored. He beat his wings, ascending high up into the night sky.
While he flew, thoughts flooded his mind of why his lord had sent for him to deal with this threat. It was an age since a Naacal descendent had challenged their rule, he thought to himself. Those few Corrupted; those who’ve chosen to join their cause and become guardians have grown scarce. During this era, few bonds with humankind have been made.
It seemed to him his lord was living in the past, haunted by what could have been that fateful day seventeen years ago atop a rocky precipice. It was a day when humanity had finally made a stand. It had also been a day to remember when a rogue organization, led by its Indigo, had managed to push lord Namtar to the brink of his power. But to send his servants, including those of high rank, to subdue a lone water guardian based on the pitiful rumblings of a weak and pitiful subordinate? Well he believed it entirely unnecessary, and couldn’t help but question his lord’s intent. The only rational explanation he could come up with was that the Lord of Darkness must sense his future of the surface world slipping away. If Namtar is indeed vulnerable, he realised, then perhaps there’s a chance for a certain ‘winged disciple’ to usurp his rule.
First, and of greater priority, Rabisu knew he needed greater strength. He sought nourishment, which involved leeching the spiritual energy of earthen beings. Any heir of the Naacal would prove a banquet. But right now, he may have to settle for even an appetizer.
He sought through the thick fog. There was a township riddled with bright lights lay below. He descended, landing gracefully atop a tiled roof, and then peered down a dark and winding alley. As he scanned about in the darkness, letting his blood red eyes trail along a series of footpaths and about the sharp sides of numerous buildings, he soon sensed a pair of frightened blue, mortal eyes gazing back at him. His hunt had begun.
With haste, Rabisu pursued the fleeing round the corner of a building. He saw his prey frantically dart toward a nearby street lamp. He couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as he watched it cower behind the steel post of this street lamp. Even though he found the sight of his prey ungainly, he found himself impressed that this mortal had successfully spotted him in the first place.
As he approached the street lamp, he pondered what might be going through his food’s mind. If this human thinks the light of a street lamp will bring him salvation, he thought, he is sadly mistaken.
Once Rabisu drifted into the light and showed off his gargoyle-esque features, the human quickly scurried away from behind the lamp and made for an adjacent alley. Rabisu slowly crept after him. Up to this point, he was toying with his food. He followed the human up to a barbed wire fence at the alley’s end, and with nowhere else to run or hide, the human desperately tried to scamper up and over the fence.
“I’m afraid this is where the game ends,” Rabisu whispered.
The human let out a shrill cry as he swooped down to feed. But he was given little time to enjoy his meal, for he sensed the presence of another close by.
“There is little need to waste time devouring so small a morsel of energy,” a familiar voice grunted down at him.
Interrupted amidst feeding, Rabisu peered up at a nearby rooftop. Lilith lazily stood there observing. He tore back the hood of his victim’s jumper and brandished a young man’s lifeless body before her watchful gaze.
Rabisu frowned. “Is this what we’re supposed to be cautious of? Now, will you quit bothering me whilst I enjoy my meal? You should have the same intent, in case we run into this water guardian so soon.”
Before turning his attention back on the neck-line of his victim, he watched Lilith finally leave him to his own devices.
It had been an age since Rabisu last tasted so fine a source of energy. He found the morsel rejuvenating, although insufficient to fill his celestial energy. In truth, the meal had only heightened his thirst.
The rain was now falling heavily. Rabisu wrapped himself in his thick cloak and left the alleyway. He dashed back along the street – but found himself halted by the blinding beam of an overhead spotlight. He scanned up and about the rooftops where many armed operatives now had their weapons directed to fire at him. There was no mistaking it; these were definitely men in service to this organization he’d come to learn so much about. Their uniforms were military attire of navy blue, riddled with belts and buckles across combat vests. Upon each sleeve’s shoulder was a familiar distinctive logo of two rifles running perpendicular, and overtop were two letters printed in bold yellow ink. Without doubt they were those described as worn in Namtar’s famous battle.
“Project Indigo…, I suppose it was only a matter of time before we ran into your regiment,” Rabisu sighed.
The operatives opened fire on the winged Corrupted, but Rabisu, not the least bit intimidated, merely scoffed and shed his cloak before he retaliated. He manoeuvred about the Indigo operatives, dodging bullets without exerting any real effort, and thrashed at them until they could no longer fight back.
For Rabisu, this was ecstasy. It had been so long since he’d felt such joy, and a wide grin had become cemented upon his marble face. But his fun was soon interrupted. A lone dagger of ice crashed at his feet. He looked down at the dagger, and at a cloaked figure that had emerged before him. The figure shed her cloak, revealing a most beautiful and womanly physique beneath.
“So you must be the water guardian that has Asag shaking in his boots. I must confess, you are indeed a breath-taking sight,” said Rabisu, admiring the Corrupted’s beautiful, slender, and dark blue complexion. “To think when we passed through those inter-dimensional tears and sought a host, that you would find one so alluring to make your own. Tell me, why would you waste such beauty upon those of lesser value?”
The water guardian brushed back a fringe of long black hair from out her face, and extended her webbed hand
s into the air. He licked his lips in response, and stood before her with his wings in full extension and his black marble body fully exposed.
“What a day. First to enjoy such a feast, and now to find myself challenged by a guardian,” he smiled, baring his blood covered fangs before her. “I also applaud your ability to anticipate my arrival. Now remains the question of whether you can stop me?”
In that instant, and with a whoosh of the water guardian’s palm, liquid water writhed and solidified. She grasped at a newly formed javelin of ice, and prepared herself to impale Rabisu with one timely strike. Rabisu simply jeered back at her gleefully and heavily beat his wings. Fierce winds then thrashed up and about the rooftops, knocking many an armed operative off his or her feet.
“You only waste my time with such inept toys,” he roared.
But he soon learned that his attentions should not have wavered from the water guardian; for he felt a splinter of ice in his side had left him with a nasty gash. He cupped the wound; dark, oily blood trickled like a stream down his clawed fingertips. For Rabisu, such pain was negligible, but his pride had been tarnished. I am one of Namtar’s Reapers, one of his very finest, he thought to himself. And yet a mere water guardian has challenged me, even drawing of my blood.
Enraged, Rabisu charged toward the water guardian and pierced her cold and fragile body. At least, that’s what he thought had happened. But as he gazed down at his drenched marble exterior, he realised that the water guardian had at the very last moment stepped out of the way and left a mirage in her wake.
Such a useful skill, he thought to himself. At least, this was the only notion that could make sense, for he was sure he’d dealt the water spirit what otherwise would’ve been a fatal blow.
He pivoted around on the balls of his feet; the guardian stepped out from behind another copy forged from water, holding yet another javelin crafted of ice.
Only now did Rabisu question that perhaps he’d underestimated this water guardian’s strength. Is this the true power of a Corrupted when one has made a bond with an Indigo?
He could only imagine what it would be like. He glanced back and forth between the armed operative’s above; his red eyes came to rest on a cloaked man amongst their ranks. It must be…yes, I am quite sure of it, Rabisu decided. This young man is indeed her Indigo.
The water guardian then hurled the javelin, and it shattered into a thousand pieces against the coarse concrete floor. He hadn’t made it easily, but Rabisu had again evaded the brunt of her attack. He pounced high up into the air and took flight.
Once again he found himself soaring through the night sky; only this time not as the hunter, but as another’s prey. He often took the time to cautiously glance back, to ensure they’d failed to pursue him. Eventually, having travelled more than a mile through the sky, he believed he could finally let out a slight sigh of relief. Rabisu then sensed he was safe, albeit hardly unscathed. With significant discomfort, he hovered toward the city’s centre, clasping his side. It seemed the wound dealt by this water spirit had caused him more damage than he’d anticipated. Had he stayed and fought any longer, he knew he’d have lost his life, almost certainly.
Anabasis: a small city in the southwest, surrounded by vast expanses of desert, was over the horizon. It was where Asag, one of Namtar’s lowly ranked minions, had recently taken up residence under the guise of a local police chief.
As he drew nearer a large block of tall buildings, Rabisu searched with his sights set upon finding a very specific address. Given his impressive senses, it took little time to find it. Fifteen Anabasis Way soon lay before him, and he landed atop the railing of its small balcony. Before him now was a wide set of glass sliding doors, and an elderly gentleman he noted, slowly approached the balcony. The old man, with a grizzled beard and balding head, slowly parted the doors so that he could enter.
“So, you’ve finally arrived,” the elderly man stated bitterly, his shoulders hunched.
Rabisu promptly reached out and clutched the scruff of his neck, and intently examined every feature of his face. The man looked back at him with a twitch of his dark brown eyes; a dust-like substance streamed down over a liver spot on his forehead.
“This look really suits you Asag,” said Rabisu. “It conceals your grotesque features and you can now masquerade within such a skin. Although, I’d have recommended you choose a little younger, one less bereft of life.”
Asag trembled before his gaze. “Please lower your voice. I’m not sure if my secretary has left yet.”
“What concern is that of mine,” said Rabisu, relinquishing his grasp.
He reached out, tearing away at the nearest window blind. He tugged at the fabric, ripping it into fine strips, and wrapped the strips about his open wound. With his focus returned to Asag, the old man appeared to have lost some of the colour in his face. Rabisu wondered what was going through this minion’s mind, and he shared a wicked smile with Asag while he envisioned the many possibilities. It would seem his reputation had preceded him, for Rabisu was notorious in their circles as being a ‘troublesome’ Corrupted; one with the tendencies of a deceitful trickster. Rabisu figured that Asag was anxious about what he might, or might not do next, and so he commenced to disrespectfully toil about Asag’s office examining many a piece of artwork that hung on the walls, and chucking them carelessly about with reckless abandon.
“Randall Waite,” he sniggered, upon snatching a name plaque from off Asag’s work desk.
“Yes, that is the human name I go by.”
This too he frivolously tossed; the plaque crashed and shattered through a nearby glass cabinet door.
“Where is my Lord,” Asag questioned. “Are you all that he’s sent?”
“If our Lord were here, I’m afraid you’d no longer walk among us,” said Rabisu, feeling somewhat spurned by the suggestion that alone he might somehow be insufficient for the task. “He has grown impatient with you Asag, of that much I’m aware. By now it was expected you’d have stunted the growth of this rogue organization.”
He watched as Asag’s complexion crumbled in response to his words speaking of Namtar’s expectation; shards of stone and sand fell in streams from his face onto the office’s carpet. Rabisu peered down at the carpet, and at what remained of Asag’s human guise. He let out a dry cackle, before he resumed his foraging about the desk to further entertain himself.
“They are more resilient than we had first projected,” Asag replied, now frantically clawing away at his face. “The numbers of my Golem brethren, reduced to dust when faced with their guardian…”
“Cease such excuses! I had my first encounter with their water guardian a little over an hour ago. Once we dispose of the guardian, our Lord expects that you will rid us of the rest.”
Asag lurched forward. “Our Lord has sent others?”
“Both Lilith and Alu have also surfaced,” said Rabisu, as he juggled a table top clock he’d taken off the desk.
“He has sent three Reapers in total?”
“I’m impressed you know how to count. What are you like at keeping track of time?” Rabisu asked him, chucking the clock. “Namtar demands that there be no further mistakes.”
Asag whimpered and his eyes bulged. “If only he’d finished them off when the chance first presented itself.”
“I’m sure he’d like to hear your opinion on the matter. Apparently his own Indigo walks among the local populace,” Rabisu replied, as he trudged past the frail police chief and pounced back up onto railing of the balcony.
He lingered a little while longer, casting a piercing glance back at Asag, in time to see more fragments of stone fall from the police chief’s brow.
“Pull yourself together. You best heed my words. Do not test Namtar’s patience.”
Chapter 2
Dawn had broken to usher in a new day of warm weather in the city of Anabasis. Winter was near its end. Flowers were in bloom, and the odd tune of songbirds had returned to echo in the air. This was a we
lcome change in Anabasis and there was that hope had developed the frequent tremors might come to an end with winter’s passing. This had become the plight of the city with which was surrounded by sand: a higher than normal frequency of earthquakes.
The change in the season had not gone unnoticed at eleven Delphi Crescent, where a young woman by the name of Katherine Munroe peered out from her bedroom window and off toward the front yard. She observed Duncan, her father, strolling about its centre, clutching a bag of bird seed. She watched him pull off a bird feeder’s lid and pour the bag’s contents inside until it reached the top. Duncan was a fairly rugged and muscular man, hardly surprising given his passion for manual labour. He often relished putting his body to the test, by accepting any and all physical tasks asked of him by the local people. For Katherine, it seemed comical seeing him carry out menial household chores; particularly some of the more gruelling and onerous tasks she’d seen him perform over the years.
Once he’d finished filling the bird feeder, he glanced up at her bedroom window. But before his eyes had made contact with hers, she had swiftly shifted herself away from his line of sight. She knew, had he seen her, he’d have been up there within a second to knock on her bedroom door and demand they start their morning routine.
Suffice to say their morning routine, or training for lack of a better word, was both physically and mentally draining. He’d often tell her there might come a time when she’d need to use what was learned each morning to one day save the world, and their training had only become more arduous as she’d grown older, but his expectations for her too had grown. At seventeen years old, Katherine was at a difficult age, and she found herself at a crossroad. She believed that the world now demanded her to act as an adult, and that she burden of greater responsibility. But at the same time, she felt the world still viewed her as a child.
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