Drake's Second Message

I had listened to this message prior to facing Grendel the first time, and had intended to post the contents after investigating things, but getting my ass kicked as thoroughly as I did kinda prevented me from posting it immediately. Of course, once I was repaired, I was more focused on getting some payback rather than posting the rantings of this damn madman. But now is a good time, as the Boneswulf story has been told, and in the coruse of it, more has been learned about Drake. Some of this second message actually makes more sense now than when I heard it for the first time.

So, I will now post the contents of his message, without editing it this time-you bastard, I know you’re reading this-and I will now have time to make progress towards getting his next damn love letter. Without further blather on my part, here is the message:

“Ah yes, I see you do desire to learn more about me. I am glad to see that you still have enough vestiges of your humanity to be curious. That is a good sign, a good sign indeed.

“So you know by now that I was a mentor to the man best known as Rasputin. He was one of my pupils, a fast learner he was as well, but alas, he was too interested in the pleasures of the flesh to master the lessons I had to teach. Still, he nearly escaped from the trap that was laid for him.

“But enough of poor dead Grigori, I merely wanted to peak your interest with him. I am sure that even you have surmised by now that there is far more mystery about me than my mere age. For while it is remarkable how long I have been around, it is more remarkable the way in which I have accomplished this over the many centuries of my existence.

“That is the mystery you must unravel, my dear son, if you are ever to discover how to bring about my end. But let us not get ahead of ourselves here.

“Right now, I want to focus not on the How of my immortality, but the Why of it.

“For as long as humans have had the brains to recognize their own mortality and to fear what laid upon the Other Side, there have been those who also had the ability to manipulate matter and energy with what we call magick. In those earliest, primitive groups, those people who had the innate ability to do things with magick were seen as special. Their talents were often seen as useful to the whole group, either in healing the sick, or in foretelling good times to hunt or move the group. These talented people were fairly rare, probably no more common than 1 in 1000 adults, which is a really small percentage when you consider how small most of these groups were, often no more than 10-20 adults per group.

“When someone was discovered to have this talent, they were given special status in the groups, and indeed they would often come to serve more than one group with their skills, as they were seen as too valuable to everyone’s survival for just one group to benefit. Over time, as groups of humans grew in size and some became more sedentary, these kinds of specially talented people became a distinct class of priests or shamans. In some societies these people were elevated to the point that they either ruled directly, or they selected those who ruled in their name.

“But in some societies, these people were cast to the fringes, and their abilities regarded as suspect, as well they should have been. Over time, almost all societies came to recognize the threat that these people represented. You must understand, when a group of people possesses a set of skills that sets them far above other people, those who lacked those skills feared that they would be forced into being the slaves of those who had them, and rightly so, since in many of those ancient societies that were ruled by this priestly class did become enslaved.

“The most successful cultures found ways to identify and either eliminate these ‘sorcerors’ or force them into roles that served the greater good. Organized religion is one such avenue. Even Christianity has evolved from a small cult of followers of a powerful ‘mystic’ to become an organ of control over the masses and the small minority of magically talented people, many of whom become ‘called’ to the ministry.

“But in many cases over the centuries of human civilizations, many of these ‘talented’ individuals escaped into the shadows of society and formed secret groups, cults, or covens where they could learn to practice their talents and use them in secret to gain advantage over those who didn’t possess these skills.

“Now some of these secret groups formed merely to help others of their kind to survive, and some even helped ‘normal’ people in times of need. But most of these groups had secret agendas that envisioned them regaining the power over the masses that they once had back at the dawn of civilization.

“I am sure your mind is beginning to wander, so let me bring you back into focus with this little lecture. I was born a very long time ago to a family of very ‘talented’ people. However, I learned very early on that this ‘talent’ is not always hereditary, as I completely lacked any of the abilities that made my family ‘special’.

“In my youthful naivete, I tried as hard as I could to please my parents through hard work and diligence. But to no avail, to them I was just an extra mouth to feed with no useful skills. I was a burden and a symbol of failure to them, even as my siblings all showed promise and potential. It came as little surprise to me then to be sent packing as a young man, to find my own way in the world with nothing to survive by but my own strength and my wits.

“Yes, I know this hardly sounds like a unique sob story, but it is important if you want to know why I became who I have become and why I have done many of the things I have done.

“I had seen the intimate world of these ‘talented’ people and I saw how my parents were far older than they appeared to be. I saw how they used their ‘talents’ to improve their lives at the expense of others who didn’t have those ‘talents’.

“When I left our family home, I was ashamed of being weak, of being without any ‘talent’ and I was burning with the desire to find my own talent, or to acquire one in some way and return to show my parents the mistake they had made in sending me away.

“I returned many years later, after travelling much of the known world at that time as a soldier, as a seeker, and finally as a man who become more than a man. It was with great relish that I saw the look of horror and surprise on the faces of my former family as I took their power and extended my own life beyond my own wildest dreams.

“Your quest, should you choose to continue it, is to find out where I came from, and what secret I found. When you do that, you will find out how to defeat me.

“That is enough for now. I will be following your progress. When you are ready, I will send you the next message and the next clue to your journey.”

With that, the message ended. What did I tell you? The ravings of a madman.

Facing the Music

In a rush, I became aware of myself again, mainly becaus Ravyn was shaking, or at least trying to shake me. “You damn fool stoopid zombie! I don’t even know why I care! I can’t believe he grabbed the blade like that!”

That and more than a few expletives flew from her lips as she was trying to pry the blade from my fingers without actually touching the hilt of it. Herne stood nearby clutching his side, a look of bemusement and concern on his face.

I must say, I was a bit bad as I let her continue on for a bit, just to see if she could actually pry the blade out my hand. It was amusing to listen to her tirade. (And boy am I gonna hear it when she reads this!)

“Rusty Bones, you better snap out of it before I burn this thing out of your hand. We need to destroy these cursed blades!”

“No.”

She just about jumped out of her skin at hearing me respond to her last comment. She recovered far quicker than i normally do after being surprised though. She stopped trying to pry the hilt loose and instead whipped around to face me, hands on her hips with a very defiant glare in her eyes, which were flashing bright orange warning signs. “What do you mean, ‘no’ to?”

“No, we cannot destroy these last two blades.” I stood back up, glad that I never had to worry about tightness in muscles, or at least not having to worry about feeling it. “The Spirits in the blades do not wish to be released just yet.”

Herne spoke up, “Look Rusty, these blades are abominations beyond belief. They must be destroyed so that those poor innocent Spirits can be released. It was the only on the condition that we finally dispose of them that Moira allowed the blades out of her eyesight.”

Ravyn piped in, “Have you been possessed by one of those damn things?”

“No I haven’t been possessed, at least not by the blades. But the Spirit of this blade, Diego, did draw me into the Spiritworld for a discussion with his sister, Herlinda, she’s the Spirit in the other blade.”

Herne cocked his head, “The Spirits spoke to you? What did they have to say?”

I told them what had happened and about how the twins wanted to remain as they were until they had a chance to help destroy the man who was most responsible for their being trapped within the blades and forced to kill other magickally talented people...Drake.

Ravyn’s eyes grew wide as saucers, flashing brighter than ever before, “That bastard again! How is that even possible?”

I shook my head, “I don’t know for sure, but I have my suspicions, especially after reading the messages he has left on that PDA he left for me. Now, the Spirits in these blades tell me that they saw their creator in my memories when I was being separated from Ma Grendel. When we spoke during the struggle, Ma Grendel did refer to him as my father, and said that she had met him many times.”

Herne spoke up, “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me all that much. There was a similar feel to both Grendel and Drake when I got near either of them. Perhaps they are of a kind, and perhaps that explains his seemingly extraordinary age. They are not of the natural world, that much is for certain.”

I was still holding Diego’s blade in my hand, I brought it up to look at it a little bit better. Something seemed changed about it, the blade actually reflected a little of the light being shed by Ravyn’s floating flame orbs. He felt lighter in my hand, the blade seemed to want to dance and play, much like the youthful, playful spirit contained inside it.

Reluctantly, I sheathed the blade in the sheath that been for another weapon, now destroyed. Nothing happened as I sheathed it.

Ravyn had gasped as I made the motiuon to sheath it, but the gasp died down quickly as nothing happened. “You shouldn’t have been able to do that.” She said it very quietly, almost like speaking it louder might bring about some sort of reaction.

“Look, I told you, Diego and Herlinda have promised to work with me, to help destroy Drake. Maybe because we are all abominations created by the same bastard, their curse doesn’t affect me like it would someone else, or maybe it’s because I am already dead, but I do know that they have said they will serve me, so long as my cause is Just, whatever the Hell that means.”

I walked over to Herne. “Let me have the other one. I can promise you that they will only be used against creatures and foes like these things we just killed, and against the likes of Drake and whoever he gets to serve him. Once Drake is gone, I have a feeling these Spirits will allow themselves to be released.” I held out my hand.

Herne looked hesitant at first. Herlinda was still sheathed on his belt. With a glance over to Ravyn, who wasn’t looking too sure herself, he reached down to his belt and undid the ties that held the sheath in place, handed me the sheathed blade.

“Thank you.” I drew Herlinda from her sheath and examined her blade as well. Was it me or did her blade seem slightly longer, slimmer and more graceful than her brothers? Her blade also now reflected the orange flames of Ravyn’s orbiting flame balls. Herlinda didn’t seem to be as eager to play as her brother, there was a far more serious feeling of deadly purpose about her. She had killed many, many times but took no joy in the activity. I could feel her deep desire to kill just one more time...

I sheathed her quickly, again no reaction. I tied her sheath to my belt for the moment, with the intention of finding a way to mount both blades on my back for easier, quicker access.

Ravyn was strangely subdued as she spoke up again, “We need to get out of here. Let’s tend to Fang’s remains and get back to the Frau for some much needed healing. I’ve had enough excitement for awhile.”

Herne looked relieved that someone else felt the same way, “Yeah, I need to get home and do some ‘splaining to Moira. She’s not going to be happy about this turn of events. We also need to let Fang’s family know that he died a hero.”

“Yeah, I’ll take care of the Bureau paperwork. Ravyn, can you manage to transport you guys back to the Frau? It will only complicate things if you guys are still here when I make my reports.”

“I think so. Once we get back to the home of that unfortunate fortune teller, I think I saw a Portal we can use.”

With nothing else to say, we turned and headed back the way we had come.