Rise Of The Godking

It was that of a knife or a sword being sharpened. The whetstone traveled across the length of the blade smoothly and without pause, as if the user had done it a million times. Even though it wasn"t loud, it echoed all around as if the room they were in was very small, and the more he heard it, the more he was able to imagine it at his neck.

A hood had been placed over his head, preventing him from seeing anything. It was unwashed and rank, smelling of sweat and blood, and for a moment, he wondered if it was his.

It soon became clear that he was wrong when the only difference between that moment before he had fainted and now was a dull ache at the back of his head. He tried to raise his hands and touch it to see if it had swelled… and that was when he found out that his hands and legs were bound to the chair he was sitting on.

"h.e.l.lo? Who"s there?"

The sound stopped as he asked this, and it was followed by that of footsteps trudging away. Finding himself alone, he turned to the one who could tell him what the h.e.l.l had happened and asked the question in his mind.

[Responding to host. A male child, estimated to be 14 years old, used a metal rod to induce unconsciousness. A sack was then placed on host"s head, before he was transported to host"s present location. No conversations were held near host. Long-range auditory a.n.a.lysis skill is locked. Please continue finis.h.i.+ng missions to generate criteria for the unlocking of this specific skill.] 

For once, he didn"t find the answers he had been looking for from the system. He already knew everything it had told him, and for some reason, that prompt at the end made him feel a sudden surge of frustration that he was sure he had experienced many times before, even though he didn"t remember it, at all.

His thoughts came to a halt when the pitter-patter of many people walking at once came to his ears. A few moments later, the hood was ripped off, and Daneel had to squint in the darkness to see the ones responsible for his present state.

He hadn"t really registered it before when the system had told him that a child had knocked him out… but that information came back to him, now, as he came upon a gaggle of teens who were all definitely younger than him.

They were all dressed in torn rags they barely served as clothes. One of them was tall and lanky, and from the way the others crowded around him, it was obvious that he was the leader.

The sound of footsteps heavier than those he had just heard made all of them turn. He saw, then, that he had been right about the size of the room; it was so small that five people wouldn"t even be able to stand inside it, so with at least ten stuffed into the thing, it would be hard for anyone else to enter.

He was soon proved wrong, though, when a middle-aged man appeared in the doorway. The kids all moved to the side, and he walked to the spot right in front of Daneel. He was so close that even the slightest movement would result in the two of them touching, and Daneel had to look up to meet his face.

In the process… he came upon the hilt sticking up from the man"s back, and right away, he knew that this was who had been sharpening the blade while he had been unconscious.

He opened his mouth to ask what the h.e.l.l was going on here, but the words died in his throat when the man raised one finger to his lips. Understanding the extremely precarious situation he was in, he decided to obey instead of tempt danger, but the first sentence that came out of the man"s mouth made him gape.

"Why did you save that kid in the refinery?"

All around, he could see inquisitive eyes looking at him in the darkness, watching for the slightest hint of dishonesty. He didn"t understand many things. He didn"t understand why this topic was relevant when they were so far away from the second layer. He didn"t understand who these people were, and how the even knew about his actions that he had hidden to the best of his ability.

He did understand that his very life hung on his answer, so he said the first thing that came to his mind.

"Because I felt guilty."

The man"s face twitched once, but gave nothing away. Slowly, he raised his hand to the hilt of his sword, causing Daneel to stand ready to order the system to get him out of here even if he would faint when it was done.

The blade made a rasping sound as it emerged from its sheath. He raised it above his head, as if preparing to lop off Daneel"s head in one fell stroke, but then… a smile broke across his lips, and the sword fell to meet the rope binding his hands.

"Uncle, you should really stop doing that! Rope isn"t that cheap, you know…"

The teen who had been in charge before whined, but the middle-aged man chuckled and said, "It"s not every day that I"m able to do this, so leave it alone, boy. Untie the rest."

The teen grumbled under his breath, but he followed the orders. Sheathing the sword again, the man smiled at him and left through the doorway, while the teens shuffled away behind him.

When Daneel was free of his bonds, he raised one hand to his head. Beside him, the lanky youth said, "Sorry about that, but we needed to make sure."

He was about to ask what they wanted to be sure of, but the youth left, too, leaving Daneel no choice but to shamble forward as the blood flooded to the parts of his body that had laid still until now.

He came upon a larger room built of the same rotting wood as the one he had been held in until now. There were holes in the ceiling through which sunlight fell on the floor. All around him, the ground was dotted with rough pelts, at least half of the fifty that he counted occupied by men and women who seemed either sick, or injured.

The teens were bustling between them, catering to their needs, and feeding those who couldn"t feed themselves, in some cases. Only a single chair was present in the large open s.p.a.ce, and on it was the one who had sent his heart thundering for dramatic effect.

Walking up to him, Daneel folded his hands and waited for an explanation. The man studied him, running his eyes up and down his muscled body that hadn"t begun to shrink, yet. He nodded approvingly, then, and said "As expected from a surface dweller… you"re quite different from the rest of his. You can expect how shocked I was when I saw that I can only say that about the outside. We know that it was you who stole crystals from the refinery. We won"t ask why. We thought that you would forget those that sacrificed themselves to save you… but we saw how anguished you were when that whip met their flesh. We also saw the way you saved the kid…but we wondered why you came here. Well, again, I won"t ask the reasons behind your actions… but I will give you what you came for. We look out for each other, you see… and we have a saying here. "Good deeds must always be repaid, no matter how long it takes". One needs to believe in such things if they want to survive in places like these… so now that we have a chance to follow it, we have no reason to be hesitant."

Daneel didn"t know what to think when the man got up and handed him a piece of parchment that had been lying on the desk in front of the chair.

"Here you go. Everything you want to know about Jeza is in here. It is a sad tale… and one that can teach a lot. You can read it here, or after you leave. I would advise the latter, as it isn"t very safe to stay any longer than absolutely needed."

He took the parchment gingerly, hardly able to believe that he had succeeded in such an unexpected fas.h.i.+on. He read a few lines to verify, too, and after seeing that it was the real thing, a small smile came on his face.

"There we go. I"m sorry about the whole fainting thing. You are infamous, after all. If you had reacted with death threats, or if I hadn"t liked anything when we talked…the lads would have been digging a hole out back to bury you, by now. Before you go…one last thing. Here."

From a pocket, the man withdrew a wooden carving of a bird, half of it stained a dark red.

"You"ll understand what this is after reading our dear Jeza"s past. With this…our debt is repaid. Farewell…and, oh yeah, sorry, again."

The apology threw Daneel off. He took it in stride, though, thinking that it must be for the injury before…but the reason behind it became instantly clear when he heard a familiar sound again.

"Oh, come o—"

His curse stopped mid-sentence as the rod descended on the other side of his head, and once again, he toppled to the floor, resignation mixed with annoyance writ across his face.