Project Renaissance

by Out of Service

Chapter Seven: The Knight Moves

The stone was cold. Green eyes stared, unwavering, at the scrawled images of stick figures drawn feet above, etched into the stone. A bead of sweat crawled slowly down Ulysses’ cheek and dribbled silently onto the table he lay upon before disappearing down a small crack in the wood. Nearby, Westin watched, one of his molars now golden and enriched with Sidium. He stared intently at LeBlake and the third foreseer, Ares. Ulysses didn’t have to ask to know that Westin was communicating with them mentally. It seemed the tooth was working.

Ulysses had yet to receive his own implantation of Sidium. The idea of a tattoo was appealing, as he had never found the time to consider getting one before, when the world had still been whole. LeBlake’s tail made a distinctive swishing, a quiet whispering, on the rock as she approached the paler man, his bare chest exposed, long hair splayed out underneath him, the beard still not gone from his face. Westin’s bandages had been removed and light scarring could be seen upon his visage. It had been strange that both men had forgotten to tend to the putrid bandages, even more unusual was that their hosts had not mentioned it until now, asking if it was a norm for humans to wear such things.

"I'm surprised that you didn't develop an infection," Ares commented. "The scarring should take care of itself with an application of willberan jelly. Just be careful for now."

Westin nodded, "Don't worry about me. Take care of this nigga, and give him a haircut while you're at it."

Ares chuckled at the glare directed Westin's way as she handed Ulysses a decorated flask. Her intent was obvious, but even he was wary of the bitter smell wafting into his nose. The human pinched his nostrils and downed the warm drink quickly so as to not savor it. His gag reflex nearly forced it back out. It managed its way down into his core and the warmth grew in intensity to the point that it felt as if flames were gently dancing in his stomach. A distinct numbness crept its way outwards and soon his entire body tingled with every movement. Even breathing seemed to make his stomach flutter with euphoria.

Ares pushed him onto his back, "There, there. Just lie down and I'll get to work."

Ulysses felt the tingling associated with magic and the hairs on his chest and arms rose, accompanied by a strong shivering, as if a cold gust of air had blown across his exposed flesh. There were flashes of bright, colored lights and Ulysses felt, distantly, as if he was miles and miles away, someone chopping away at his greasy hair. There was a warm sensation spreading across his pectoral muscles and then his stomach and back. It was akin to being wrapped in warm bandages or cloth. Nearly comatose, Ulysses gave a startled kick as a small burning feeling enveloped his left row column of ribs.

The burning exploded into full-fledged, incendiary pain. In his startled and drugged state, Ulysses let out a strangled cry as his body reacted to the Sidium. Behind him, LeBlake looked startled and Ares had a look of horror across her face.

“What is happening?” LeBlake asked in a fearful tone.

Ares struggled with the spell, “I…I don’t know! He shouldn’t be conscious! His body is fighting the implantation!”

"Man, just force that shit," Westin prodded. "Probably deserves it anyway."

“I can’t!” Ares yelled as Ulysses thrashed on the table, “Something’s wrong! His mind is resisting the ether, too! The Sidium isn’t attaching!”

LeBlake stepped in to aid Ares, her own claws moving in rapid succession, “He’ll die if we don’t stabilize him! We cannot have him die!”

Ulysses arched his back and let out a scream that froze the blood of everyone in attendance. It rose in volume as his hands clutched and his fingers curled. Even Westin looked disturbed at the sight. The two monitors struggled to finish their incantations as Ulysses screamed and shook upon the table, his legs kicking and twitching as runic characters, blackened and edged, cut across his torso, wrapping around and around. LeBlake and Ares uttered the final syllables and Ulysses gave one last heave, a guttural, fear-inducing scream following it before he fell still, blood running from his nose.

Before Westin could speak, LeBlake rushed him from the room, pushing him as she ejected the him from the area, slamming two oaken doors behind him, her tail making wild swings as she hurried back to Ulysses. Ares was bent over the table, her claws grasping the side of it, as she fought for breath. Obviously the incantation had not gone as expected and had taken a fair toll on not only Ulysses, but on her as well.

Outside, Westin shook off the uneasy feelings in his chest and found himself coming to the strong realization that he would be without a partner for the upcoming trials. Though he had a thorough dislike of the only other human he knew to possibly be alive, the man would rather have at least someone to have his back in case things got out of control. Unfortunately, Ulysses seemed to be his only real option for a partner. Semi-fortunately, said human was likely in shock as of that moment and wouldn’t be up before Westin departed. Still, he felt as though it would be highly dangerous to go through with this crazed mission without help.

Westin’s tongue slid across the Sidium-enriched tooth, tasting its metallic smoothness. Communication with the freaks he was now associating with was good and all, but what good would it do him when some monster was attempting to gouge out his throat? The forest beyond the settlement was far more than simply eerie. What dangers it held, he didn’t know. Why he was even participating, he didn’t know. Where had it all gone wrong? He would have to save that for some time later to answer.

The only conscious human left on the face of planet, Westin trekked through the village tiredly. Heads were lowered in his wake, each step making more and more of the seemingly detached citizens bow themselves in reverence. In some way, it sickened, annoyed, and particularly bugged him that this was even happening. The pain was far too real to state otherwise, so he simply ignored them as best as he could and continued his stroll. Maybe there would be a place to get some lunch at the end of the road.

The dark-colored man sipped at some coffee. Fledgling thoughts on how sour things were going to get soon skittered around in his head, pausing briefly every few seconds to take a bite out of a turkey sandwich. It was an odd site, given that the primary meat-eaters were the partial avians. Even more so was the milk he so eagerly declined. When he questioned the owner of the deli as to where it came from, despite the fact that no cows were present in the village, the only answer he received was a hoof pointed at a mare bussing tables. It took a few moments for the connection to be made, but the gagging spared no time in its arrival. To sum up his entire experience of the quaint home of the fanatics, it was terrible.

The deli owner noticed the human click his tongue at the taste of the coffee, “Something the matter, sir? I can make another cup if this one isn’t to your liking.”

“Bitter as hell.”

“Would you like milk with it?”

Westin’s retort was only half considered when a voice gently prodded its way into his head.

‘We’ve stabilized Ulysses.’

The owner shied away once the human appeared to stare intently at a wall, his face unwavering.

‘Damn, not dead?’

‘Thankfully. Are you ready to play your part? I’ve already organized the plan and map to provide the safest route towards the ambush, if you’re still willing to participate, that is.’

‘Safe? You’re tellin’ me that there’s some shit in that forest that’s dangerous?’

‘We won’t be able to provide some form of weaponry. It would jeopardize your chances of getting through this unharmed if the prince discovered you with something such as that.’

Westin took one last bite and sip, and then left the shop, ‘So what, I just lie down and let them take me?’

‘Of course not, you simply have to struggle a bit to add realism to your abduction,’ LeBlake added carefully. ‘Playing your part well is key here.’

'Sure, you’re right.' He hoped LeBlake understood the concept of sarcasm.

Westin’s short trip through the village ended as he slowed his walk when the ossuary came into sight. Now that he looked at it with much better lighting, it became eerily relatable to one of the few things he remembered from a high school history class: an Aztecan temple. The irony was biting like a rabid dog. Uneasily, and clearly not ready, Westin progressed up the steps and pushed his way through the large, mahogany doors.

“Will there be any other questions?”

LeBlake couldn’t help but ask such a thing to the clearly troubled human sitting on a marble bench. While she definitely had faith in the abilities of humans as a whole, just having two of them meant that each was absurdly precious to their cause. So despite Westin’s assumptions, the Monitor was not very keen on letting him go off and be captured by an Equestrian normally so furtive to her eyes. Maybe there was reason in that, but it would only take so long now for information detailing the humans’ arrival to land right in the hooves, claws, and paws of every important political figure in the known world.

This ultimately meant that if they didn’t act fast enough to establish at least one human as physical proof of their existence, the entire village plus humans might likely never get the chance again to do so again internationally. Foresight in an entirely dynamic game of chess the size of a world could only do so much, especially when the more ambitious beings were usually cloaked in their own detachment from the world. With so many different dangers and risks burgeoning all over at any single moment, the Monitor felt it readily agreeable to give Westin as much information as they possibly could in the quest.

“Shit, what if I get jumped or something?”

“As much as we’d like to give you some sort of weapon, you’re likely to be teleported somewhere heavily guarded,” LeBlake pointed out. “And given the zeal the Royal Guard has frequently displayed in dispatching threats, I advised against doing so.”

Westin’s left leg was jumping slightly, a sign of his increased irritation, “Yeah, cool, but what about before any of that even happens? I’m gonna be in a forest filled with all sorts of crazy ass shit.”

There was silence in the small circle around the middle statue. The marble benches surrounding it were largely left to foreseers for their own inspiration or to discuss the various topics of governance for the community. Today, that changed. Westin was the fifth amongst them, and though they prodded for him to use the mind-links, he flatly refused. In truth, it was grating to hear them all talk in his head in deliberation. He had enough of that from one of his ex-girlfriend for three life-times. Thankfully, none of the Monitors were near his ears and yelling about his lack of priorities in life.

No one had said a word until Ares had stepped through from behind several standing curtains to the far off side of the chamber. She took note of Westin’s presence and headed over eagerly. While he was unique from nearly everything in the village, the Monitors, Griffons, and Equestrians all looked the same to him. So as she came, he only regarded her as one of the many similar faces that he was forced to be exposed to.

While Westin helped himself to a bowl of nearby cashews, LeBlake spoke, “How goes Ulysses’ recovery?”

“Faster than I expected,” admitted Ares. There were both hints of concern and excitement in her voice, “I can’t say that this was a good experience for his health, but we were able to isolate the cause of that-“

“Meltdown?”

The younger Monitor nodded, “Yes, that’s one way of putting it. As it turns out, his body was going into shock from magic intoxication. Ulysses’ resistance to it was severely hampered by the sidium.” She noticed the look on Westin’s face, “I wouldn’t be too worried about yourself, though. All of the material coating your tooth was re-coated with gold, which has inherent magic-nullifying properties.”

“Keep in mind that that won’t help against a direct magic attack, let alone anything other than the mild forms of magical radiation one would receive during the day,” LeBlake added. “Though the fact Ulysses would succumb so quickly is rather peculiar…”

Westin poked at his tooth with his tongue. It had a distinct metallic taste that was unnatural to his mouth. Then again, he never bothered to taste gold before, so it was likely just that.

“How does that shit happen?”

LeBlake snapped from her musings, brow furrowing, “Hmm… To put it simply, if a being with a natural tolerance for background magic, like most living things, spends enough time underground, far at sea, or at a high enough altitude, they may lose some of that resistance as their body weakens from the original disconnection. Likewise, if a being with no inherent tolerance is being exposed to it, the magic will likely cling to their blood cells and cause a level of toxicity dependent on the exposure.”

“Unfortunately, it’s true.” Ares looked back at the curtain for a moment, “Can’t say I’ve ever heard of someone being exposed to sidium and getting sick as a result though.”

“So why didn’t it happen to me?” Westin himself didn’t feel at all sick, if not apprehensive, “I feel pretty damn good, so am I immune to that shit like I was that whole virus or whatever the hell it was?”

At the mention of “virus”, each of the Monitors seemed to cringe lightly. It would have been hardly noticeable to most people, but his view of all of them simultaneously twitching gave off an easily recognizable clue. What the man said didn’t seem all that pleasant to them.

“Yes, that plague…” Ares ran a claw down her robe idly, “We don’t know as much as we’d like about what it truly did or how it occurred, but that it was an event cataclysmic enough to create everything before us today.”

“We’ll have to ask more on that from Ulysses. I’m afraid our time is up.” LeBlake stood and extended a clawed hand towards the human, “Are you ready to journey through Leota again, Sir Fairbanks?”

Westin snorted at the formality but took what was given regardless. He got onto his feet and took one last look towards the curtains at the other end of the vast temple. Not a single drop of empathy was in his body as he nodded his head towards the exit to quicken the whole experience he was about to go through. Alone, in fact. That thought quickly reminded him of one last matter to settle.

“That horse. It’s coming with me.”

The statement caught the Monitors off guard. The established plan had literally revolved around his solitary quest through the various regions of Equestria, as well as the political channels. Another body could possibly compromise that, making all of their effort in vain. Each of the lizards shared looks between themselves in silent contemplation of his request.

The oldest looking Monitor was gazing upwards, eyes a milky white, “I can’t quite say I foresaw that addition.”

LeBlake removed herself from her present thoughts and nodded, “So be it. We’ll arrange for her immediate release into your custody.”

The human’s grunt of approval didn’t do much to stem her interest in what had just happened. While Monitors were one of the very few races capable of seeing into the future should they pursue it as a skill, lesser events lacked clarity while larger ones were well-defined. The advent of a new piece to the chessboard should’ve been notable enough for them to have picked up on it, yet, with Westin and possibly Ulysses, their foresight had repeatedly shown to go only so far with their lives. As everyone except for Ares shuffled out of the room, LeBlake found her own curiosity taking root once again.

Outside, two figures looked on silently as the large wooden gate swung slowly open, creaking and crying for them to stay, to be safe. Pyrite and Westin steeled themselves against the coming storm. The game of chess was about to begin.