Interlude - The Dead Whisper

“I am a respected and learned member of my order, loyal to the Church and Pancreator; enlightened scholar,  principled, gifted perhaps….I am not some skulking wriggling nematode!” fumes Lady Althea, tearing another clawing insect off the back of her neck as she and Tonbei crawl their way through a dimly lit tunnel.  Tonbei moves over the dirt as though he had legs along the length of his body.  It’s not clear how he manages it but he seems to just be able to move in a way that is, well, alien.  This is all the more infuriating for Lady Althea

“You might want to keep it down…we’re probably within the walls now” whispers Tonbei.

“I notice your beloved Lord isn’t crawling down here with us.  Don’t you think that’s a little unfair of him?” queries Althea, spitting out small pieces of loose dirt.

“He doesn’t need to…” responds Tonbei, probably trying to sound as mysterious as he can about proceedings.

A few minutes later and Tonbei finds the rock he is looking for and the end of the tunnel.  He’s amazed that all of this still exists; that these humans were once able to build so precisely and yet now seem barely capable of keeping themselves fed and watered.  The rock has a small indentation in it, with a rounded dial.  Tonbei raises a green light source that was clipped to his back and looks at the stone carefully.  Lady Althea is now plunged into darkness.  Time passes.

“Well…?” queries Lady Althea, “You can open it I presume?”  Tonbei just grunts and continues about his work.  “Our lord believes there was a trap set on the stone to collapse the tunnel.  Designed in case the enemies of his ancestors found out about it and tried to use it themselves…”

There is a period of protracted silence.  “And you had planned to tell me of this fact when, precisely?” came the voice from behind him.

Tonbei ignored her and continued about his craft.  The release mechanism in front of him was simple, but used some exotic materials he wasn’t certain of.  They had obviously aged very well, but no way to know for sure what the intention of the mechanism was.

Althea hears a faint click and a scraping noise as Tonbei pushes open the stone doorway from the tunnel.  She lets out a held breath and takes in another fresh draft of it.  “Figured it out then…” came Althea’s voiced as they clambered through into the main crypt.  “Not really”, responds Tonbei brushing himself down, “Just guessed.  It was fifty-fifty actually.” Althea is busying herself ruffling dirt from her hair when the Ur-Oban’s comments finally register.  Just as she is about to follow up with a cutting response Tonbei unfastens a rolled up bag hooked to his side and opens the contents onto the floor.  “Okay” ” whispers Althea “let’s party!”

Small lights in trees change hues and projected images of monuments, temples and citadels from all over the known universe onto the lawn of the Planetary Dukes residence.  The chatter of hushed conversations mixed with bursts of laughter could be heard throughout the gardens.  It was a beautifully warm evening and joy filled the air.  Two figures step out from the dense foliage of a Cyprus tree. 

A young partly clothed couple dressed as Hazat Cohorts meander passed, sipping decorative pungent cocktails.  The young girl lifts up a fuzzy looking jaguar mask and in a drunken wobble points at Althea and giggles. 

“Ooooh mmmmmy goonezz, I can’t beleev it!” Altheas fists clench instinctively.  “A freakin meedget priest…”  (She suddenly notices the albino Ur-Oban standing next to Althea), “An a white hurrr….hur…..Ur-Hobarn naz well?”  She shrugs her shoulders at her male escort.

“Haw en na heck duz za dewk always fine neez sortz za freaks?”  She looks at the man hoping he might have the answer to her pressing question.

She turns back to Tonbei and Lady Althea, “Tell yew wot, before yew go give me your detailz an I’ll have yew com to won o my parteez to entertayne mi…. geezts ….tew”.  She pinches Tonbei cheek and slaps him on his backside and the pair slip off noisily.

Althea and Tonbei turn to look at each other.  Tonbei  asks, “Am I dreaming this or did she just..”

“Absolutely not”, responds Althea, “It never happened.”  Althea walks off as Tonbei is left wondering if he had just dreamt the whole thing up.

An hour later and Lady Althea and Tonbei have secured themselves into a folded weave of leaves next to a garden folly.  They sit in absolute silence, their eyes taking in every movement around them.  “So….” Althea whispers, to Tonbei’s annoyance, “This party…it’s”  Tonbei leans forward gently and focusses on some movement some way off in to the distance.

“The Human Hawkwoods hold it every year in secret at this place.  They dress up as their enemies in some form of ceremonial mocking process…”

Althea suddenly catches a glimpse of a guest dressed as an Eskatonic priest.  “I both pity and hate them in equal measure…” she utters.  Tonbei turns to look at her carefully.  For one brief moment he feels there is an understanding between them.  “I like this tree” Althea offers, quickly changing the subject.

“It’s a Berevinmar tree”, Tonbei answers, “It’s from my home planet.”

“It’s very beautiful.” Althea feels compelled to compliment it.  A general sense of awkwardness the pair seemed to share returns again.  For Althea it feels like she’s been invited to a blind double-date with the other couple getting on really well and her and Tonbei just left to undergo some form of polite chit-chat.  She just would really rather be anywhere else at this moment in time.  Althea takes in a deep slow breath to steady herself and to refocus her mind.  As she exhales again she hears a strange harmonic tinkling noise around her.  Tonbei taps her on the shoulder, “Do not worry about the noise…it’s the tree…”  The tinkling continues as the tree around her is gently buffeted by a warm breeze.  It’s a wonderfully rich and warming sound to hear, especially when sat so close to the trees trunk; hearing the tune play all about her.  Althea is certain such a thing would prove invaluable with her own dedications to the holy Pancreator.

“That noise is why we are sat here...just wait.”

Lady Althea and Tonbei sit in silence, watching all the various guests mingle, cavort and generally amuse themselves.  Although Althea hasn’t undergone the same physical punishment that Tonbei inflicts upon himself, but she has still more than suffered over the years at the hands of her church elders, and so the discomfort she now feels cramped up at the foot of a tree is lost to her.  Suddenly, Althea sits upright.

“There…”, she points out for Tonbei, “That’s our man isn’t it?”

Althea points over to a hardwood decked area where a number of the guests are congregating around a banquet table lavishly filled with scented flowers, ice sculptures and the most wonderful looking food.  Talking to a large group of the assembled guests stands an imposing broad shouldered man dressed in a Decados Mantis Knight costume.  He appears to know the people there and gets introduced to some others who he clearly hasn’t seen for some time.  There is a lot of excitement and frantic chatter going on; people are obviously desperate to find out what he has to say.

“Yes, that’s him, keep an eye on him.  I’ll watch the other guests” replies Tonbei, pulling himself upward slightly to get a better view of the other people present.

The Mantis Knight does the rounds, flirts with more than a dozen of the ladies present and then eventually gets asked by a male attendee to speak to an obscured lady sitting quietly in shaded corner of the garden.

“Damn, we’re nowhere near him” vexes Althea.

“I wouldn’t worry yet, If it is worth hearing they’d have come up here” responds a calculating Tonbei.

Althea cuts him a sideways glance, “You’re pretty certain about that…”

Tonbei looks back at her, “This folly and the noise from the tree provide the secrecy some of the guests crave.  It’s the very reason the tree would have been planted in the first place.  It’s a blasphemy to me that these trees are put to such work.  They have a much more wholesome role on my world…”  Althea wants to ask more but knows now is not the time.  The fact that Tonbei is sharing anything like this with her at all is more than a little unexpected, but strangely welcome.

Eventually the ‘Decados Mantis Knight’ makes a flamboyant return to the other guests at the party.  Lady Althea watches him like a hawk, takes note of the way he mingles with the guests, who he speaks with, how he reacts, his mannerisms. 

“My goodness doesn’t De Havilland really just love himself” she croaks, shaking her head in disbelief.

Tonbei flashes a brief smile himself but keeps his eyes focussed elsewhere.

The hours pass.  Lady Althea is feeling a painful ache in her short cramped limbs.  She is thoroughly disgusted and equally bored by the meaningless debauchery that appears to be going on at the party all around her.  She starts to recite short but powerful excerpts from the Omega Gospels in an effort to keep herself sharp and awake.  The temperature has dropped significantly and many of the guests have taken to wearing thick animal pelts as cloaks.  Large firestones are brought out and laid on ornate marble plinths to act as a source of heat to the revellers.  The look of the warm glowing stones and the scent from the food is beginning to make Althea feel more than a little miserable.  How such comforts seem wasted on these degenerates, when not one mile from here there will be hunger, thirst and frozen citizens desperately clinging together for shared warmth.

Suddenly there is some rapid movement as a pair of shadowy cloaks briskly make their way over to the folly, right next to where Lady Althea and Tonbei are sat motionless in hiding.  Hushed whispers begin to start up frantically and with the greatest of excitement.  Althea tries to hear what is being said but it is all very low, just barely whispers.  She catches the sound of a young man’s voice, but she can also detect a woman’s scent on the air.  With the utmost care she gently moves a few densely covered leaves out of the way of her line of sight and tentatively looks up to see if she can catch a glance of the couple.   All she can make out are a few closely huddled silhouettes, that is until one of the decorative lantern lights hanging in a tree nearby briefly casts a little illumination.  For just one second Althea is able to look right up into the face of Baronet Christopher Hawkwood, but fearing he might spot her too she instinctively shrinks back into the fold of the tree around her.

It is almost impossible to make out the words being spoken, especially as the Berevinmar tree masks much of what is being said.  Althea looks over to Tonbei and he nods to her; Time for her to deliver.  Carefully Althea lowers her short body down to the carpet of leaves around the base of the tree.  She creeps forward to get a better look out at the feet of the people nearby.  She can just about make out the sandaled foot of a woman brushed up against the thick foliage.  Tentatively, Lady Althea extends bare fingers and holding her breath makes contact with soft skin.

 

 

A pair of heavy set doors are swung open, and two exhausted figures pull themselves wearily into the luxury of the Delphi Regnum Suite.  They drop a series of small bags and heavy tools on the warm marble floor and achingly move themselves out to the palisade which is now beautifully decorated by glorious morning sun.  De Havilland sits on a gold inlaid ornate wooden chair next to a marble rail overlooking the gardens of the hotel.  In front of him on the table is a small platter of exotic  fruits and nuts and an assortment of warm fresh breads. He holds a small sharp knife in his hand and is busying himself cutting up a succulent peach.  He balances a cut piece of the peach on the edge of his blade and lifts it to his mouth.  Chewing, he looks up at Lady Althea and Tonbei and gestures for them to take a seat and eat.  They sit in silence, eating, Tonbei and Althea slightly dazed by a lack of sleep.

After Lady Althea has finished she sits back in her chair and looks across at the Marquis De Havilland.  “Don’t you even want to know what we found out?” she asks, clearly quite exasperated.  De Havilland is munching on an apple and turns his face back from the horizon in front of him.  Tonbei is concerned as De Havilland looks unsettled to him.  This is not expected.  De Havilland speaks first.

“I‘m sorry to have put you to so much personal risk Lady Althea, that was unfair of me.”

Unnervingly, Althea senses that De Havilland is being genuine about this. 

“Well, don’t you want the grisly details?” she answers.

De Havilland turns back to face the gardens below him.  He takes in a slow breath.  “Go on” he responds coldly.

Tonbei speaks first, “We had lost hope that he would ever show up, but we were fortunate.”

“…Thank the Pancreator” interjects Lady Althea.  Tonbei recomposes himself and continues.

“It was very late when the Baronet finally made an appearance.  He spoke to a few of the guests but then eventually to one in particular.”

“A woman” follows Althea, “I think you know her...”

Tonbei looks at Althea and then turns promptly back at De Havilland. He notices that his lord shifts in his seat ever so slightly. 

“They spoke in quite some depth but were very keen not to be seen together.  They were obviously concerned that others may be watching them closely.”

“And did they?” questioned De Havilland, abruptly.

“No Lord, they were safely hidden.”

De Havilland seems to be nodding, as though he is working through a series of questions.

Tonbei, leans forward and in hushed tones continues, “The Baronet spoke specifically to her.  I caught most of the conversation, and Lady Althea was able to read the woman’s thoughts.”

“Well done”, De Havilland mutters and makes an attempt at a smile, “You both did very well, better than I had hoped.”  He looks into Lady Althea’s eyes seeming stern again to her now, more composed as though he were either preparing himself for an attack or as if he had come to terms with an inevitable defeat.

To Althea there is a wealth of emotion involved here, something personal.  This was not expected and she can feel that Tonbei has been caught off-guard by it too.  She decides nonetheless to continue with the debrief.

“You seemed to know the woman,…when you spoke with her last night.”  De Havilland looks back to the view from his balcony and casts his mind back to last night’s meeting.  The Decados Mantis Knight costume had been wearing had been ill fitting and even though it provided a believable cover, he had hated the very touch of it.  He remembers very vividly the conversation he’d shared with that woman, overshadowed by the knowledge that somewhere ‘out there’ hidden amongst the Planetary Dukes gardens were two of his people, spying on him and the other guests.  He felt as though perhaps the Decados family might have approved of his costume and his tactics.

“Her name is Lady Frieda Hawkwood.  She’s a very influential and powerful member of the Suryada elite.  She’s the mother of Count Otto Kierkegaard Hawkwood, my liege-lord before I swore myself to the Emperor.” 

Tonbei grimaces ever so slightly.

“To make things clear to you both, this woman is as strongly opposed to House Justinian as any in the capital.  The Counts half-sister is Countess Cassandra Hawkwood, ruler of the Eastern Austram Islands and prominent member of House Justinian.  You’ll remember how many knights of Deepcore 104 were being dedicated to the defence of the Eastern Islands in her name.”

“What does it all mean?” asks Althea.

“A war, Lady Althea” replies De Havilland “a declaration of war…”