Chapter Four: Ankh
“Thank you for coming here.”
We’re in a park. It’s night time. Small lights hang from trees, illuminating the way down a path. Further up is a small pond. Once beautiful, it is now littered from those who frequent the park. Some even call it home. Those who have nowhere else to go. Jack and Madison are here with me. Mason has been doing business. No doubt the uproar I’ve been hearing among the vampires. Rumors circulating of the Council that has been killed.
“I know it’s a far way out to come, but as I’m sure you can understand, these meetings are to remain private. With word spreading the way it does, you never know who’s listening.” Jack nods, his face illuminated by one of the lights dangling from the trees. Madison is quiet. She’s been quiet all night. I wonder if there’s a reason to this. Maybe the way Jack looks at her. Her discomfort from his affections. Maybe she’s just got something else on her mind. After all, a girl has gone missing.
“Yeah, no worries, bud,” At this point, we are not, as he just assumed, buds. I am going about my business as an informant of sorts. One that is in the loop with the Forsaken. After all, they are the ones who included me in this. I may have known about the disappearance of the girl before they came, but together we worked on it to find what was going on.
“You were there with Mason that night. You know the girl was a deity. I’ve got more,” I speak. Madison still stands behind Jack quietly.
“And? What do you have to tell us?” I’m not quite sure how to put it all. So, I take a moment to consider the actions and implications of what I am about to share. After all, this is Forsaken business. The Agency has nothing to do with regards to my kind. The reason for this? They don’t have the potential to rule the Forsaken. They never have and they never will. So, trusting them with this information is futile. They will use it and share it around like whatever meme is circulating at this point. A virus circling their world and ours. The problem is, this is bigger than ourselves, and if my people cannot see that, then they are blind. Rash decisions follow our kind. So, this one is no different.
“The man who killed the young girl is named Victor. I was there when they sentenced him to the Darkness. I watched and witnessed as they imprisoned him.” Jack looks into my eyes.
“I sense a ‘but’ coming along,” he says. Madison gives a forced chuckle and looks onward. It’s here that it strikes me. She is scared. Similar, problematic issues have followed her before, and now it seems they are resurfacing just as she does.
“But he has freed himself.”
I give them a moment to digest the information.
“What do you mean?” Madison finally asks. A glimpse of hope stripped from her with my words. The trembling fear in her voice strikes a chord with me. I say nothing on it. We are here for business. Not for false words to cower behind.
“To understand the intricacies of a prison cell in the Forsaken realm, you will have to understand the magic we produce,” I begin. “We do not work with restraints in the ways that you do. They are primitive, archaic. Our bonds are manipulated matter, binding and bonding you through a force of energy.” I raise my hand and wave it in the air to demonstrate. Jack’s hands are forced together without his consent, yet try as he might, he does not pull them free. I release him. “Now, I had the ability to restrain Jack because he was unsuspecting. My abilities in that front are not all too good.” This being true, he will not have been able to escape if I did not release him either. I simply do not want to get into a pissing contest now. “The stronger the Forsaken, the greater this ability. It was my own father who sentenced Victor to the Darkness, and it was my father who bound him. These bonds seem to have been shattered with dark magic I do not understand.”
“So, he’s free?” Jack interrupts. “Trapped in the Forsaken realm?”
“That, my friends, is where things become trickier to explain. It seems in his freedom he began killing the Forsaken. Low-level demigods such as myself mostly–”
“Mostly?” Madison’s turn to interrupt.
“Yes, mostly. It seems that this man is far greater than what we may have taken him for,” I hesitate. The words that are to leave my mouth now are not words that have been spoken before. “And it is with an aching heart that I declare, he has killed Zeus.”
I give it a moment to let the implications of what I have just told them sink in. One of the most powerful Forsaken in existence was reduced to nothing by one man.
“And where is he now?”
“I can’t say. He’s entered the Bifrost.” I look between Jack and Madison. It seems he understands what this means, but she is perplexed.
“The Bifrost Bridge in Asgard is the portal linking the Forsaken realm to many various realms. We do not know where Victor has gone, for there is no tracking system. He was there, and then he was not,” I explain.
“Thank you for coming to us with this information. It’s good to know we have you on the Agency’s side in this matter,” Empty words from a soldier but I nod and accept.
“Ankh,” Madison speaks, “I’m afraid. What does he want?”
“I do not know,” I admit. “But you are lucky, Madison. You have a protector watching over you and Mason. He’s not a man that will go down without a fight.”