Children of Ruin: Light in the Darkness

The sky was cloudless and full of stars, the first such night that had been witnessed by the ruins of Neo Mechanicus in many moons, moons which now shone overhead, full in concert, their pale blue light cast over the rusting hulks of the buildings that had once, not too long ago, shone brightly under such a sky.

A lone orc sat, cross-legged, on a precipice overhanging the hollowed-out remains of one such building, hunching forward slightly, a sign of his advanced age, a mane of once black hair - now going grey - tied tightly back into a ponytail. He had walked the world and seen many such nights, but only a few had been spent in a world where the technological mecca that had once been his home city lay smote down against the earth, reduced to so much rust and rubble. A rifle was slung over his shoulder, an artifact of the time before the destruction, and its cold steel reflected the light mockingly, a reminder of times now dead; the symbol of St. Tracy stamped on its stock seemed the most eager for the light, yet it, too, seemed to taunt him.

"Loktar." A soft voice whispered from behind him. "Something troubles you."

The orc turned, and saw the familiar wide eyes of one of his companions: Li, a lunari, a race of people who were similar physiologically to halflings, but adapted to the night - naturally and utterly nocturnal. Li's tail - long, slender, and covered in black fur - swished gently against her leg, making almost no sound.

Almost.

"Yes, Li." Loktar rumbled, then turned his gaze back over the ruined city. "Something troubles me." He gestured with a hand out over the ruins.

She sat nimbly beside him, with movements that he almost could not catch. She looked out over the city for a few moments, then tilted her head to look up at him.

"There is nothing that can be done for it now." She spoke softly. "We have all lost something, Loktar. The world is moving on. You know that."

Loktar nodded. "Yes."

"Then why do you insist on looking at it?" She asked, more forceful now. "It does us no good to hold onto the past. We have to think about the present."

Even before she had finished, Loktar was shaking his head. "Past, present... you have listened to Tethysia too much, or perhaps not enough." His gaze hardened as he turned to face the small woman. "If she is right... perhaps it can change."

She started to speak, but he held up a calloused hand.

"If, I said. But that should comfort me, shouldn't it?" His gaze returned to the city.

Li tried several times to say something, but could not find the words. The few times she thought she had found what to say, she saw the orc's eyes focused, moving almost imperceptibly: tracking far-away movements in the distant dark. Whatever it was, he needed all his concentration to see it, and attempting to answer him would cause him to falter.

Two hours later, they rose, and headed back to their camp.

-----

"Explain it to me again."

A distance away from where the orc and lunari were gazing wordlessly over the remains of the city, a small group huddled around a campfire. A more disheveled group had never been assembled, they were convinced, yet here they were: two humans, one from the farthest reaches of what had once been the Greater Ronkan Empire, another from the Boomerang Isles; a clavat who had once been a hand on one of the most notorious pirate ships of the day; and a moogle, from who knew where - even she had forgotten, her memory distorted and ruined by the destruction of the city.

One of the humans was dressed in rugged traveling clothes, a sword scabbard hung on his belt and a loop for his guitar - how in his restless hands - on his back. His hair was cropped short, bright and blonde, and his grey eyes shone brightly in the night.

The other human was dressed simply, a simple shirt and simple pants made of black silk, which glinted in the moonlight - steelcloth, and all but the other human amongst them knew it. His hair was black and longer than the other human's, ragged and unkempt from a long period of travel and misuse. His closed eyes would have glinted a pale blue color under the night's skies.

The moogle was young, exuberant, full of life, a light blue pompom dancing above her white and tan mottled fur. Her eyes shone a deep, dark blue, showing a depth of understanding that seemed beyond the others - she seemed to always be seeing more than they. Her garb was rough-and-tumble, the familiar denim style of this part of the Greater Ronkan Empire, and her attire looked as though it had seen a long journey.

The clavat was dressed in loose-fitting clothing, thickly made of wool - to protect her from the frigid winters of the cursed north, or so she said. Her dark green eyes danced in the flame, the eyes of a trickster, curtained by flowing brown locks that reached the middle of her back.

"Dalaris, it's late. We should call 'er a night." The clavat spoke, her accent a strange drawl that the group still found foreign, coming from the mouth of a clavat.

"No, I need to understand this, Memphis." He said, strumming lightly on his guitar, more of a nervous twitch than a conscious motion. "What are you trying to accomplish here, in this ruin? We should be heading for safe ground. We don't know if it'll come back..." His voice trailed off, and he shifted his gaze around the campfire nervously.

The moogle laughed, a light-hearted sound that seemed utterly bizarre and alien in this desolate place. "Dalaris, trust me, your anxiety is misplaced. If it were to come back, we would all know it, and there would be plenty of warning. Talking about it isn't going to summon it." She smiled.

Dalaris smiled grimly, and nodded slightly, rocking ever so slightly back and forth. "Alright, Tethysia. But could you explain it, anyway?"

The moogle called Tethysia smiled and nodded, her blue pompom bouncing jovially as she did so. "Yes, I will explain. I know we've had to keep quiet since we found you, what with sneaking about and trying to avoid the Cult, but now that we're out of their earshot, we can try to explain."

"There has been... a disruption. In time." She said, the smile fading quickly from her face and her eyes. "It's... a door. A door to the past. But door isn't really the right term, either... it's more like a... a rip, a fracture. This isn't an opening like a templar would make, a concrete doorway to another time. It's like the fabric of time itself is being torn apart by something."

"Did the... entity cause it?" He asked.

At this point, the other human looked up, breaking his meditation. "No."

Tethysia nodded. "Ian is correct. The entity didn't cause it. Though it wasn't there for very long prior to that... it's possible that they're related, but I'm not sure."

"How can you be unsure?" Dalaris asked. "Aren't you a templar, or whatever? Aren't you supposed to know?"

"Dalaris, hon," Memphis cut in, "Tethysia lost 'er mem'ry. She fergot a lotta thangs she used ta know."

"How'd that happen?" He asked.

"The Cult." Ian, eyes closed once more, responded softly.

Tethysia nodded slightly. "The Cult used some kind of... either psionic or akashic effect to wipe my memory. The process wasn't perfect, but it was enough to disrupt whatever it was that I was supposed to do here. But I know that it has to do with the rift that is here, somewhere."

"And changing this." A gruff voice from beyond the range of the campfire said.

"Loktar the Keen." Ian's eyes opened once more, and this time he rose from his lotus position, and moved towards the orc. "Is the city quiet?"

Loktar came forward, into the light, and nodded once, slowly. "Too quiet."

Mempis looked up at him - a full four feet separated the two, when she was sitting - and raised an eyebrow at him. "That 'cause it's dead, or 'cause th' Cult's up ta somethin'?"

Another voice, quieter and more feminine than Loktar's, replied: "Both."

-----

The small band had reassembled itself around the campfire to better accommodate the six of them: Ian next to Tethysia, next to Memphis, next to Dalaris, next to Li, next to Loktar, next to Ian. What tiredness what been present before Loktar and Li's return had vanished from their faces - their lives depended on avoiding the Cult.

"We know they've been moving crates of supplies from the rest of the city to a central location." Li said, her voice short and atonal. "We can't be certain what is in them, but..."

"They are ammo crates." Loktar finished.

"But we also know that they're not all usin' tech." Memphis said, rubbing her chin slightly. "Since some of 'em're psi er akash, enyway, righ'? So they couldn' be usin' tech?"

Tethysia nodded. "A large majority of the Cult forces seem to be anarchic or tech, but recently - and I can't say how recently, or how I know this - there has been an influx of psi among their numbers. I get the feeling they had a... change of leadership, maybe, to encourage that? It's only a feeling."

"And with psi, the tech's gotta go." Dalaris said, nodding. "So the question is - what are they doin' with all that ammo?"

"Removing future problems." Loktar said slowly. "Heavy on psi, so remove your enemy's ability to wield technology."

"But no efforts were made to remove magical presence?" Dalaris asked.

Loktar shrugged. "Neo Mechanicus. What magic?"

Ian smiled at this. "Our good sniper makes a point. Neo Mechanicus has no inherent magical bias, and the environment is satured with technology. There would be no point in removing magical threats, as they would be rare, and few who would stay here would know how to use them."

"Ammo crates are not the only thing they are collecting." Li said. "They are collecting weapons, as well. Even experimental plasma prototypes, from the CWI facility outside of the city."

"They have collected far more weapons than their numbers would require." Loktar continued. "Even if we take the worst guess - five-hundred? - they have collected far more than that. Thousands."

Tethysia's brow furrowed. "What could they possibly need with all those weapons?"

"Well, it certainly is quite the conundrum, ain't it."

"They're outfitting an army. That's the only thing they could want with it all." Dalaris said, shaking his head.

"What army?" The orc asked gruffly, shaking his head in return and crossing his arms over his chest, leaning back.

"Maybe they're..." Dalaris looked around, his face contorting somewhat, searching for an answer. "I don't know, teleporting them in, somehow?"

Tethysia shook her head. "The fallout from the entity is acting as a dimensional anchor, no one can teleport in or out."

"I know, I know." Dalaris said, throwing his hands up. "But really, I mean, thousands of weapons, and even some experimental ones? From way outside their main point of operation? What's the point? Even if someone were to come here with the intent to get rid of them, how many could they really bring? I mean, the Cult has Saints-damned power armor! A few experimental photon-thing proto-whatevers isn't going to do anything useful against them, so why bother collecting them unless you're trying to outfit an army!"

The group was quiet for a short while.

"Loktar," Ian said quietly, "have you noticed an increase in their numbers?"

The orc shook his head. "Not on that scale. Perhaps a few, but not that many."

"Wait." Memphis said, holding up a small hand. "Hol' yer horses fer a minute. Tethysia, you said that there's some kinda thang, like a hole, 'at ya can use ta go through time er somethin', righ'?"

The moogle nodded.

"An' we got a bunch a weapons an' all that kinda thing, jus' kinda disappearin'?" She looked to Loktar and Li, who nodded.

"What if they-"

Tethysia's eyes opened wide, and she stood suddenly. "Oh, Uriah's Road, why didn't we realize that before!"

"They're equipping an army, alright. But it's not here, and it's not now. It's then!"

"...wait, what?" Dalaris asked, a puzzled look on his face.

"It's on the other side of the rift!" The moogle exclaimed. "They've found the rift, and they're using it to forward their own agenda! The equipment seems to disappear because it isn't here anymore; it's wherever the rift goes!"

Ian nodded. "So it is decided, then."

"We must find the rift. Not just because of Tethysia's purpose here, but also to stop whatever plans it is the Cult has for whatever time is on the other side."

The other four nodded their agreement.

"Time to make our move."