CHPT 521: Letters and Journals

"….. It's not like I expected this place to be safe. It's exactly as i was told it would be. Someone's stealing students in the middle of the night. There's Vampire's with impossible power everywhere. The Nine so close it makes my stomach twist. But I'm here. Helping my friends. We'll be home soon, Rollan. And then I'd like to take Canis and Piet into the Tangents and Infested Areas where we're needed. If they stay close to me they need to get a lot stronger. But fighting aside, you're also my people. I miss you guys. Stay safe."

"Who are you writing?" Isaac asked as he sat beside Claude in the restaurant where they served pounded yam and an odd smelling soupish stew at blinding speeds.

Claude signed the letter and closed it, "My people back home."

They hadn't really talked since their impossibly tense shared moment the previous day. When he came about as close as he'd ever come to flat out dropping the news to someone without dire circumstances needed.

He found Isaac staring out the window they sat at, watching the fluffed number of Sunlandian guardsmen patrolling the streets with their pyramid helms and rune-written weapons.

"The Druids." Claude further explained.

Isaac turned his head, "The ones that found you and Ursula….?"

Claude held up a thick bony finger, "Just one. But yes."

"He followed you back home?" Isaac seemed surprised as his thick black eyebrows climbed up the dark skin of his forehead. He must've known something about the old nomads.

Claude nodded as he folded up the letter, "His Grove was destroyed…."

"No peace after the demon attack huh?"

"Not at all…" Claude shivered at the memory of Rollan's fellow abandoned Javelin gone psycho….. and the massive Protartyrannus…. And Demonized Det. Cyrene…. And Pit-Gnoll…. And HellBred Cyclops'…. And—

A piece of frozen meat hit the back of his head, knocking him out of his thought.

They both turned and found Ursula with her thick hands rested on her wide hips.

"My bad." Claude said to her mentally before she turned back to Maris and Warren to continue ordering their massive laundry list of food.

"Speaking of demon attack….. why didn't you give up my backpack for evidence?" Claude asked calmly. "I'm not trying to accuse you of anything or act like I don't appreciate it. I do."

Isaac nodded in understanding and flipped through the table menu casually, showing the array of colorful images of different foods drizzled in a thousand sauces and seasonings.

"It wouldn't have done anything. Sure maybe Ronin would feel justified in some areas…. But the… Aeron's Journal is an in depth look into his own mental collapse. It's freaky as hell to be honest I had to stop reading."

Claude side eyed him.

Isaac looked around the restaurant a few times. Most of the reporters were trying to find Samuel and Bengal or speak to the other super powered giants in the making like the Chosen students. It was empty more or less.

Isaac cleared his throat, "I mean…. He was a Tangent Biologist….."

"And some rogue Guild turned him into a WereWolf." Claude finished.

"Yea….. that right off the bat could send the new Glorian Guild association into mayhem. I'm good on that. Somehow that wasn't the worst part."

Isaac looked at him repeatedly as if he was checking for something. It had to be what the Journal said about him. Then again it couldn't have said much. Unless he was being watched. He didn't have Natural Vision back then.

"[You still had incredible senses.]"

Fair point.

Isaac went on, "He forgot about his family but in his writing….."

Isaac swallowed.

"He killed them."

Isaac nodded.

"WereWolves— especially new ones, can't live with people. Oddly enough, packs benefit society in that way." Claude added, remembering how close Sloane stayed to her betas. They were all each others anchors.

"But…. He didn't even remember. He just goes on and on about meeting the Gnolls and he gets this weird obsession with it. He starts talking about the potential it all had. How one dimensional shifters like himself are flawed. He even had a cutout in the journal with schematics and plans to raid a jail to take prisoners for testing."

"[Looks like Raiders were a much easier option.]" Arne thought.

"Yea but improvising on the spot kind of screwed him."

"[Kind of? The bastard no longer has a windpipe.]"

"As he should." Claude tapped his knuckles on the table.

Isaac looked back at Ursula and the others. The fabrics of his navy blue and orange lined University uniform stretched like linens. Ursula and the others all calmly chatted about what might come of the next tournament as their food fried, chopped and sauced its way into existence at the cooks hands in the kitchens at the back of the store. He could feel Ursula listen through his mind. She didn't know much about Aeron. He wasn't ready to tell her when she'd first woken up.

"He didn't make it to the city to find that jail." Claude assumed.

"No, he did."

Claude blinked. "What stopped him from reaching the jail?"

Isaac side eyed him, "You know a lot. How much did you read?"

"Enough." Not really.

"Well. He meets this man. He never really described him as anything other than a red eyed shadow that smelled like gun powder."

That specific smell was still fresh on his mind after the Summit of the Blooded.

His heart skipped a beat.

"He said the shadow gave him something…. Told him to use it if he wanted to be more than the moons slave and instead a soldier with it as a weapon."

"That feels incredibly specific." Claude whispered.

"Gotta relate to how he introduced himself. Like a weird archaic gimmick."

"How do you mean?" Claude asked.

"Well, Aeron referred to him as The General."

A cook in the back dropped a pot of food and yelled in a cursing rage. The sky blotted out the sun as a wave of clouds rolled in, darkening the streets outside that felt absent of guards suddenly.

"The General...? As in….. Sgt Bertrand?"

Suddenly the smell of gunpowder made perfect sense. But him being in New Gloria long before the Red Queen shenanigans didn't.

Unless…

"[No. Back then Maris could barely manipulate blood.]"

"I know." Claude cursed himself for being clueless about something so important.

"[Ask him about the item for me, please.]" Arne suddenly asked.

Claude looked at Isaac, "What was the item?"

Isaac shrugged as he racked his brain while he tapped his chest, "Like a necklace..? He drew it. It was old…. I don't know like a—"

"Artifact."

"[Sgt Bertrand gave an Omega WereWolf a Lunar Artifact….. that actually makes sense. Vampires hold many…. Or at least they used to. Same way WereWolf Packs hold BloodStones. Keeps them from ripping eachother apart. They hold each others currency to make themselves valuable to each other. But this transaction makes no sense….]"

"After he got that, the writings stop making sense. He says the necklace gives him the source of his power whenever he needs it. But the more he uses it the less effective he becomes in a weird way. The dates switch from past to present— the writing loses coherence…. Sometimes entries just stop mid sentence….." Isaac shook his head at the memory.

"It drove him insane... like Lunar Magic Poisoning…?"

"[Oh dear god….]"

"What?" Claude questioned.

"[We had you use that fucking thing every day to train your shifting ability….. and then you had a psychotic break just from seeing Ursula's face. Those two instances are less than a couple weeks apart.]"

"Yea but that was because Ursula was changed…. She was asleep for a month… I…."

"[You can't say you weren't affected. Hell if you were a WereWolf like Aeron that stone could've cooked your brain already.]"

"How didn't we know?"

"[Im entirely to blame, Claude….. I was foolish to encourage the use of such a powerful and sought after item without proper knowledge. We didn't use such objects since we never needed to. And the WereWolves I knew only used such things in sacred rituals. You and Aeron used it daily…. Im sorry, mate.]"

"You've saved my life a thousand times. We're past it. Now we have to figure out why Sgt Bertrand gave it to him."

"[Indeed. It seems the Elder has been on the outer edges of your life experiences for quite some time….]"

Isaac spoke up, "Claude?"

Claude shook his head and ran his hands through his long black hair. It smelled like the trees…. And Frosty.

"You good?"

"Of course not. Are you?"

"Of course not."

Claude held up his fist to Isaac, "Thank you for telling me all this despite… well our current dynamic. I'll return the favor."

Isaac looked at him for a moment before bumping fists with him, "Solid."

Ursula and the others came with enough food to fill an Elephant.