Mystics
Chapter 2

Zven stands on the deck of the docked ship. He boarded the ship when offered one of the ships many bunks, and got his first comfortable rest since he arrived to this place three years ago. He’d been catching up on things he missed in all that time. Not a whole lot has changed outside of the fact that there is an air of distrust between the Shadows Bane military, and the Seekers. But that is also nothing new.

Sinead walks to his side. She looks up at the night sky the stars always casting that wonder upon the soul. Her attention then shifts as she looks to Zven.

“I’m sorry.” The lich opens.

Zven looks to her saying. “I’m sorry. I assumed you lied to me three years ago. I had no idea you never knew.”

“I unknowingly did lie to you. Whether I was aware of it or not, it did happen, and you were made to suffer for my blind loyalty to a fool, who lied to and manipulated me.” She says.

The man turns to face her, looking into her eyes as he says. “We didn’t exactly meet under the best conditions last time. How about a fresh start?”

“You’re willing to look past everything, even after all that has happened to you because of me?” The lich asks.

It’s not that she doesn’t want to take him up on that ‘fresh start’ approach. She very much does. But it was because of her he ended up on that god forsaken ship, ended up in a war zone which he had a hand in creating, and ended up in a liminal space displaced from time. How, after all that, can he overlook that it was her that caused him to experience all that?

With a shrug, he answers. “I don’t know, maybe because you had no idea that I ended up in that position in the first place? Besides, I’d like to think that the chaos I helped create here three years ago will prevent Marcie’s reality from becoming our own. Don’t take this the wrong way, but in a messed up way, I should actually thank you for putting me in a position to cause so much chaos, and shin a light on a seriously messed up situation.”

She saw first hand that Zven has no issues with causing chaos when he shot at the members of the Havoc’s crew when she thought she had recruited him. In a way it reminded her of herself before she left her home tone in Ireland on the Crimson Moon. It was something she admired. Zven’s tactics with the founders power, is a terrifying combination. With those two as a team they could be chaos incarnate if they wanted.

“Marcie was right, that place looks like shit now.” Zven says, looking over at the remains of the building.

The moonlight shines bright enough to give a clear view of the derelict outpost. His mind drifts into recollection.

Zven wakes up to the feeling a rifle stock hitting him across the face. The two soldiers carry him out of the cell where he’s lined up with four others. A number of armed soldiers escort the four along the halls of the Havoc, and step into an elevator. When arriving to the outer deck they’re forced to walk the left side of the deck, where they are lined up with a variety of other prisoners. Looking up reveals six extended prison like platforms.

A man walks along the line of prisoners, saying. “Welcome to the Forest Outpost. You are here because you have been donated by the crew of the Havoc to our services. All of you will become part of the experiment approved by our master. When you aren’t part of an experiment you will be put in holding cells. Anyone caught trying to escape, will be severely punished. Comply with all our demands, and you’ll be released into our great society.”

“You can’t do thi-” A woman starts to yell, before a plasma bolt passes through her head, killing her instantly.

Looking around at the prisoners the man, presumably the warden asks. ”Anyone else care to run their mouths?”

That ‘great society’ doesn’t even know what happened here. The lengths both he and Raven went to just to make people aware of what was happening here. Truthfully he had no idea that when he had the idea to create the chaos in the Forest Outpost that he would become part of something so much bigger. Zven has always been the guy on the side lines, hoping things will work out. He only got back into the hunting life, because his blood father got involved in hunting. Max never left the life, and dad was looking to bridge the gap. So he got back into the life by training with Ivan Yelara and his vampire nest.

“I used to look up at these stars with my parents before we left for Canada. They always used to say that tomorrow would be the difference... Then that day happened... and I was angry at the wrong people for so long... I can never escape it.” Sinead says, her mind drifting into regret.

Zven turns to her, saying. “Then don’t. Don’t escape it. Make it the reason you fight. Turn that anger, that hatred against the people who deserve it. Fight so that what happened to you doesn’t happen to someone else.”

He knows that a lot of hunters only become hunters for that reason. So no one suffers what they did. But it has also often been the death of many hunters, since most charge blindly into battle, their only focus being revenge. But Sinead doesn’t strike him as the type to charge blindly into battle without first sorting things out. She’s no strategist, but she’s smart enough to know that. Which is more than he can say for the zealous hunters who believe all monsters are evil.

“How do you do it? How can you fight with such devotion?” Sinead asks, turning to him.

“If I don’t do it, who will? The man who raised me taught me ‘If you can’t think of a reason for yourself, replace a new reason’. Before all this, I got back into the hunting life because my family was in it. I do it because I want to give people a chance to live their lives without worry. I fight so that they shouldn’t have to." The man answers, a look of understanding on his face. “Before all this I didn’t think there was a bigger picture. We have a chance to stop the apocalypse, and save not just Earth, but our entire dimension. I have a reason to pick the right side. We both do.. and I would like to face that with you.”

The lich eyes him with wonder, a grin creeping onto her face, as she says. “It could get ugly.”

“It wouldn’t be a fair fight if it wasn’t.” He answers, extending a hand, a smirk forming on his face. “Besides, you still owe me a proper introduction to the Shadows Bane.”

Although she tries to hide it, she fails miserably as a her grin turns into a smile, and she shakes her head in slight amusement at how quickly he turned to jokey banter. Then again, it was that which draws her to him. Even when that report came in that he tried to use the warden as a hostage, she felt there was something more, even back when she was a blind follower.

As the two begin to talk more the conversation shifts to what they do when they aren’t in their chosen roles. Marcie turns to face Raven when the cambion walks out onto the deck. Marcie had been keeping an eye on Zven, having only come to know him since she no-clipped. Raven wasn’t much for conversation outside of forming a strategy to fight the monsters of the liminal space.

“I have never seen a nephilim as surprised as you about the existence of other realities, Marcie.” Raven opens, her tone much softer than before.

Turning, the young woman admits. “I’ve only ever known running. Then I met him... and he gave me the chance to fight my fear and take the fight to them.”

“Fear can be a powerful ally. It keeps you in check, and ensures you don’t fall into arrogance. This world is so much more than the next fight around the corner. It’s a chance to discover yourself, and by so doing, change the lives of others.” She says, setting a hand on Marcie’s shoulder.

The nephilim turns to face her, noticing that Raven’s gaze seems fixated on the ruins of the building. But the look in her eyes says that she sees more than that. Until now she assumed that Raven didn’t speak to her because she is a cambion, and Marcie is a nephilim. Now she realizes she was wrong to ever assume that.

The young woman looks up at the sky. Such a wonderful look. It’s so different from the shattered moon that makes up the sky in her dimension. This dimension doesn’t have that same feeling that would have her constantly looking over her shoulder for the next demonic threat. In a way it both comforts and terrifies her. It comforts her because she knows that those threats are gone. But it terrifies her because she knows that entirely new threats are out there, and while they may not be present, they still exist.

Marcie decides to confide in her, and ask. “How do you teach someone that has only known, pain, and struggle, and scavenging to integrate?”

“In all honesty, I too am very disconnected from these modern times. Unfortunately I differ in that I had years of interaction where you did not. We can learn about the events of this time together.” Raven says, offering her a heart warming smile.

Which is true. She was engaged by the military well before she could even learn the year when she manifested in physical form. She ended up a prisoner and was cut off from society. Her first interaction with modern humans came in the form of Zven when the guards threw him into her cell. He was the first human she saw who wasn’t afraid to do what needs to be done when he realizes the severity of a situation. He’s made no secret of the fact he never expected to become a part of something so huge.

She admires the fact that when he realized what was going on in the Forest Outpost that his first plan was to create a facility wide prison break. Raven learned from Zven about the Sunset Movement, a group of human and turned blood activists working to get the governments of the world to acknowledge the existence of turned bloods and give them the same representation as everybody else. Like Zven, she hadn’t expected the Sunset Movement to show up during the prison break. But it seemed that the appearance of the Sunset Movement caused the Havoc’s crew to turn against the military forces at the prison facility. It didn’t do them any favors because she killed the entire crew of the ship.