[Merrywinds]

Synopsis: Two tired and one insane refugees flee from Lo'Crannor.

Slowly, ever so slowly the small, fiery mushrooms rose towards the sky. The low moaning of separated souls was a constant undertone in his thoughts. He looked on as smoke rose from behind the walls in black pillars. He looked on as a sharp slam and a warm rush of air announced the destruction of the military fuel depot. And he waited for his two companions, if they were even coming. If they weren't... Well, he would start right away.

From the grass-covered hill that he sat on he could clearly see the death of Lo'Crannor. He felt as if he was watching some titanic orchestra, straight from the fiery pits from the far edges of hell. He had seen two similar performances, but the former cities had been only big in terms of size, without noteworthy military might. He could see the small flashes of fusion rockets as bitter street fights broke out, people fighting people. Smouldering explosions rent the air apart, accompanied by the chatter and hum of super-fast small arms fire. From the looks of it, all six of the.... Friends who were chasing him had entered the city. Only together could they activate the device they were carrying. To create such chaos, he marveled.

It had been going on for almost a day now. Soon there would be nothing more but a ruined crater full of concrete skeletons, smoking until they would be rotten away too. He felt no regret, no guilt, although he knew that all this was his fault. The fool had let go of such feelings a long time ago. He felt shivers of pleasure running down his spine as he felt the low boom of the underground facilities being destroyed. It forced the air in his lungs to vibrate, making breathing difficult. Grass waved around him, resonating to the low vibrations from the constant explosions.

He bit his lip. It was possible that he was making a mistake; if Baddon and Sham didn't show up, he'd be left pretty alone, with almost no distance between him and his assailants. That would force him to fight and he was not very keen on doing that. There was no telling the outcome and he had no death wish. The fool felt his heart rate climbing rapidly at the thoughts of a battle with the six, and struggled to calm himself. Getting all worked up would only draw them to him.

The fool let his hand fall to his loyal, old pistol, just as ragged and travel-worn as he was. It had been with him for almost as long as he had been travelling. It felt like a limb, like a third arm. The gun faintly answered to his touch, sending a weak, drowzy answer to his worrying thoughts: Calm. Ease. Wait. Feelings, nothing more. It was enough, and his heart rate slowly returned to normal.

He sipped his drink, the small steel bottle glinting in the sunlight dimmed by the smoky dying breaths of Lo'Crannor. He then lifted the battered, scratched binoculars back on his eyes and scanned the grey, dead safety perimeter. His mouth twitched as he saw two figures climbing down the high walls of the dying titan. The other figure was holding its side as it hurried away from the city. As soon as the other caught up with it, they leaned heavily on each other. The fool remembered kicking Sham and grinned. It seemed that his violent actions had given Baddon a new girlfriend. He could sense the waves of affection and thankfulness even over the death screams of the millions of souls inside Lo'Crannor. There was something else too, but he could still not make out what it was. Possibly the same thing he had sensed while he had visited Baddon.

The fool smiled knowingly at his suspicions. He had not expected both of them to leave. They were most likely plotting something. After all, Sham was an enemy and Baddon.... Well, even though he had been the fool's only friend here, there had always been a deep pit between them. Mostly because of the fool and his arrogance, he reminded himself.

Then came the crescendo of the massive, hellish sonata he was attending to, the culmination of everything that was happening around him.

In the middle of Lo'Crannor there was an insanely high tower, completely made out of oxy-titanium. It was over four miles high, a vain creation of the most likely short engineer who had a thing about high structures. As he watched, he could hear the scream of over-stressed metal as it gave up, bending with a horrible screech. Slowly the sky-wounding pillar tipped, drawing a dark line to the fair cloudy-white skin of the sky with the smoke trailing from it's top. The fool could imagine the horror of the people who were still alive in the top floor. He watched, even forgetting his worries of the four who were chasing him, bathing in the thrill of the moment, in the destruction of the symbol of Lo'Crannor's might.

And then it was over, the tower crashed down with a loud metallic ching and a billowing cloud of dust and the fool stood up, waving for Baddon and Sham. They headed towards him, and he stretched. Finally, things were looking up.

Both Baddon and Sham looked pretty beaten. Apparently they had had a tough time getting out of the city. Baddon was carrying a gun, which he threw to the fool.

'You forgot this to my room. I thought that you might want it back,' he panted. The fool nodded and inspected the gun. Good, it had not been tampered with. That would have been an unpleasant complication. Anyway as, that did not matter anymore, came the afterthought.

Then he felt a six-mond chorus greet him from inside the city. He wanted to recoil in fear, but instead, to his horror, he greeted them in return. Then the connection snapped and he was left in the aftermath, as if in some kind of trance. It had been so fast...

Of course, the two exiles began to ask him awkward questions, and as he gave them only awkward answers, they began to blame him. Then they began to get angry. And even more weary. The fool let the arguments slip past his ears, listening to the now fainter dying coughs of Lo'Crannor. After a while the shouted questions and answers started to fade and suddenly stopped. The fool woke up from his trance and saw Sham lying facedown on the ground, apparently still too weak to keep up with her huge feelings. Baddon was kneeling beside her.

'Don't wake her up just yet. We must flee and fast, and she will only slow us down in her present state and mood,' the fool said. Baddon raised an eyebrow but hoisted Sham up on his shoulder and started walking away from the city, alongside the fool. He noted Baddon doing a remarkable job in suppressing his anger.

'What the hell is going on here?' Baddon asked after a while. The fool stopped for a moment and looked around him. Then he started walking again, Baddon catching up with him. The question hung between them like a heavy rope.

'I am being hunted, by four other cathedralics,' the fool answered slowly. Baddon felt his jaw drop and he almost fell over.

'What?' He asked, almost shouting. The fool looked at him and repeated what he had said. Baddon shook his head violently, almost dropping Sham.

'You've got to be shitting me,' he said silently. The fool shook his head. Baddon was silent for a while.

'Why do they hunt you?' He asked. The fool grinned, and for a while he looked like something not quite human. Baddon shivered, almost regretting the question.

'I was... I had differing opinions. And I decided to do things that I should not possibly have done, like sparing her,' he said, nodding towards Sham with his head. Baddon looked surprised, but the fool went on.

'Yeah, I killed her entire family. Some four thousand dead, counting in all the relatives,' he said slowly. Baddon averted his eyes in barely controlled anger. The fool didn't notice it though; he was looking at the Cloud falls in the distance. The white sheen of vapour fell down the beautifully lush mountainside.

For the fool, the situation felt somehow awkward. He knew that a horde of questions would follow soon, but he was not going to answer them, not yet. Not until they had reached the place he had in mind. He only hoped that Sham could keep her temper reined in, as Baddon had done. He looked at the gun Baddon had brought him, and when his friend was not looking, he threw it among one of the higher bushes of grass. It would not be doing him any good anymore.

The fool steered Baddon away from such bushes; his friend was not aware of all the dangers of the land on this side of Lo'Crannor. Most of the bushes were just bushes, but some were camouflaged predators. They had razor-sharp teeth, an ability to move unnaturally quickly and tons of toxic spikes, disguised as hay. The fool grinned; he would not be seeing his rifle again.

For a long time they walked, Baddon deep in his troubled thoughts, the fool drinking in the sight of the beautiful stream of clouds flowing down the side of the huge range of mountains ahead, slowly dissipating before touching the ground. Here the earth was lush, without any trace of human touch, which was a miracle in itself, considering that it had had a huge megalopolis right next to it. Possibly human paranoia had saved the land; the inhabitants were too afraid of their neighbour to come out from inside their protective walls. Inch-high, velvety vegetation brushed his feet. The fool took off his shoes and sighed happily when his bare feet touched the soft grass. After a very long time, perhaps an hour, he spoke up.

'I know a place nearby where we can safely rest for the night. She will also get medical treatment,' the fool said. Baddon popped out of his trance. He had not even noticed the shaking muscles in his legs and the small rivers of sweat flowing down his face until now.

'What about the four who are chasing us?' He asked, somehow detached. The fool noticed the signs of weariness and shock. He answered carefully, not wishing to send his friend over the edge. They had enough things to worry about already.

'They will have their hands full for the moment. We won't have to worry about them for the time being,' he lied. The six who were chasing them would meet them tomorrow, he knew. And it would be the chased, not the chasers, who would most likely have their hands full.

He smiled at the worried thoughts flooding from his friend's mind. Suddenly he understood why Baddon had left the town, instead of obeying the rules of duty and honour and staying to defend the dying behemoth against itself. Baddon was married to Sham, at least in heart, if not formally. The fool amusedly cursed himself for not seeing it. It was obvious now; the way Baddon had restrained from asking the questions that must have troubled him and especially the waves of affection he had sensed from them when they were running away from Lo'Crannor.

It also made sense in the fashion that he had brought her body back to life. The fool smiled, thinking that it was exactly like his friend to make him do the work instead of doing it himself. Of course, had the fool failed, Baddon would have put Sham's mind inside the body himself. It made sense in a twisted sort of way; it was a code of tradition to make the asker responsible for the process.

The sun started its long scorching midday duty, and the fool relieved Baddon from his burden, taking Sham on his shoulder. Baddon stretched his back and looked around him, sending careful mind probes out in circles. It was a normal custom when arriving on unknown territory.

'Where are we exactly?' He asked. The fool started walking again.

'We are close to the Northern Mountain Range and the Cloud falls, as you can see. We will stay overnight in a... Hostel of sorts,' the fool said while walking. Baddon caught up with him, for the first time drawing in the lush beauty of the landscape.

There was no road, only a huge plain of the same inch-high flora all around them. Here and there was a tree, always the same shade of brown, with huge leaves and thousands of long, twisted branches. Small rivers flowed here and there, their bluish water getting its colour from minerals that had flowed down with the water from the mountains.

However as beautiful as the landscape was, there was something eerie about the plains. Baddon could not quite catch it, but it was definitely there. The fool let his friend work on these thoughts without interrupting him; Baddon was in a deep shock and was thinking sluggishly. The Chaos Pyramid that his assailants had been carrying had messed up his mind. The fool felt a slight twitch on the edges of his mind, but he instantly crushed it without any kind of hesitation; he could not afford to have them tracked by anybody just now. A faint scream of madness echoed around the plains, unheard by any but him. His eyes twinkled.

And they marched on. As evening approached, the fool noticed a form that did not belong to nature. He smiled and picked up his pace. Baddon lifted his head and squinted, barely seeing the small spot in the distance. As they approached, he began to see high energy walls and power matrix turrets. Such armament was normally only present at highly guarded military compounds. This almost looked like one, but was something else. The ”hostel”, the fool told him. A huge octagon-shaped area, walled with energy fields and several turrets, it looked very forbidding.

However, as they closed on the structure, they noticed a light but steady stream of people passing through the narrow gates between the energy walls. It was impossible to see through the walls; the energy currents twisted light and all other methods of surveillance, even most psychic methods. That, the fool knew, would not stop the hunters in this little game of theirs. They walked on, hunger starting to make its presence known.

The small corridor acting as a door was under oddly heavy guard. The fool smiled at the wariness of his old friend, who owned the entire compound. There were several guards around the entrance, collecting weapons from customers. The fool knew most of them, but there were a few unknown to him. He stopped and nudged Baddon.

'You go ahead. Give them all your armament and if they ask any questions, be honest. Ignore their comments. They may be testing if you can be let in. Once you are inside, wait for me and see to her,' he said, indicating Sham. Baddon nodded.

'I'll come right after you,' the fool said, a shadow of a twisted smile playing around his lips.

He watched as Baddon walked towards the entrance and was stopped by a bulky guard. They talked for a while, and then Baddon gave his handgun and knife to the guard. He indicated for them to move on. Okay, you're up, the fool thought to himself and started towards the door. He saw the familiar faces smile and wink to him, but nobody tried to stop him. He smiled as the idea dawned to him. The old guys were using him to test the new recruits.

Just a few steps later a guard that looked like he was made of solid rock stopped him. His muscles bulged, veins criss-crossing under his clothes. While the fool was not too short, some six feet tall, this man was at least eight. His arms were almost as thick as the fool's legs. His jaw was wide and heavily built. Sharp green eyes stared from under thin black eyebrows.

'Hand over any weapons you have,' he said. The fool detected the slightest amount of arrogance and pride in his voice and smiled. Apparently this one had never met anyone willing to argue.

'You have a good vessel there. Tell me, which model is it? ORMACH 48 or 89? I really can't tell...' He said, walking around the guard. The man turned around, not showing his puzzlement on the odd response.

'I told you to hand over your armament. Do it or get out of here,' he said again, a little bit irritated. The fool looked like a bug beside him, and the obvious advantage gave him confidence.

'No,' was the fool's answer. The guard raised an eyebrow, but merely pointed towards the fields.

'Get out of my sight.'

'No. I am going in, but I am also taking my gun inside,' the fool said. 'You can have my knife, though,' he added. The guard grabbed the fool from the collar of his shirt and lifted him easily from the ground. The grey shirt complained at the sudden stress. The fool saw the knowing smile of a few passing customers and decided that enough was enough. Oddly, he noticed a tiny bird flying through the corridor. It was quite out of place in this region, where all non-predators quickly became prey.

'One last time. I am going in, with my gun. Let go while you still are alive,' the fool said. The guard merely smiled and lifted the fool to his face. The guard's green eyes met the emotionless orbs in a steady gaze. The fool heard a small laugh and recognized the voice of Alu, an old friend of his and a veteran doorman.

Suddenly there was a break in the sounds around them, like a short, extremely loud period of white noise in a radio broadcast. The energy walls around them seemed to bend and reflect an endless horde of twisting, grotesque figures. The grey pavement under them cracked a bit. The bulky guard collapsed to the ground, his eyes and hair smoking. Grey smoke also flowed from the fractures on the pavement. The fool bowed down to check if the guard was alive and resumed his walk, when another hand stopped him. As he turned, he looked directly into the hollow eye of a gun.

'Out of here. Now,' said the other rookie guard. Another break of white noise and he collapsed. This time there were small black lines under his skin, coiling this way and that before stopping. Sweet smoke rose from the lines in long streams.

'You should have shot me when you had the chance,' the fool muttered to the corpse.

'Nice to see you haven't lost your knack, Jon. They were dicks anyway. One arrogant son of a bitch, one violent idiot, all this and that because of their new ORMACH 48's,' a tall black man laughed. The fool turned to look at Alu. His high cheekbones and black eyes hinted an unknown origin, but he was a friend to everybody who was a friend to him.

The fool smiled and turned to walk inside the protective walls. As he turned his back, he heard Alu shouting for someone to come and get the bodies away. His steps echoed hollowly in the narrow corridor. He looked above him to see if there were any more birds around but saw none.

Inside the walls all sounds seemed muffled. Baddon was sitting next to Sham, who was still unconscious. The fool took a short break to look around him. The reception hall was large, with a deep brown stone floor and matching walls. Soft light came from murky light tubes inside the roof. A receptionist came next to him. He had the sort of ageless look that some people get when they grow old.

'Ah, I see that you have returned, sir. Would you have your old room for use?' He asked politely. The fool nodded. The receptionist hurried to the long desk and drew a key card from under the mountains of paper. As he gave it to the fool, he smiled and said quietly:

'Grallav has been waiting for you.'

The fool nodded slowly, gazing into nothingness. Then he turned to the receptionist.

'Would you please escort my friends to the room and see to their needs? The woman is injured and the man is very exhausted. It would please me if they were not disturbed during our stay,' he said and handed over the key. The receptionist smiled politely, bowed and led Baddon, who was carrying Sham again out of the room, not asking any questions. He was used to odd requests.

The fool stood in the empty, silent hall for a while, arms folded and head bowed, thinking. As he stood there, a couple of men walked past, carrying the two young guards from outside past him. Alu came in with them. As he saw the fool he shook his head and walked to him.

'What did you do to them? Both are beyond our reach.' As the fool only grinned, he shrugged and continued, 'Well, ain't my problem. I guess you are going to have a talk with Grallav anyway. He's in the night bar,' he said and went his way after the group.


The fool turned and headed to the night bar. It was a large room, dark for now; it was not night quite yet. Chairs were arranged around small tables, with a large oval service desk in the centre of the room. Four men were busy around the hall, while one was sitting by the central oval. The fool headed his way.

'Jon. I see you're back,' the man said. His voice was emotionless; the fool had a sudden image of an iron bar sliding out from a cave. He sat next to the man. For a while they said nothing, both staring at the surface of the table. It was jet-black, with swirling dark grey mist captured in mid-motion, like a moment just between night and morning. The other man rose up and walked through a gap in the table to the inside of the oval. There he stood opposite to the fool. The fool smiled at the obvious hint about power.

'Would you like anything to drink?' The man asked. The fool nodded.

'Is your old machine still working?' He asked.

'Always,' the man said and the tension broke. The fool smiled as he watched the man turn around to the huge contraption in the middle of the oval. It was the heart of the bar; it had all controls for the lights, music and all the drinks and snacks. The man took a beautiful, murky white glass and poured something dark to it from a small red machine. One could barely see the two white stylish C's on the surface. The fool barely remembered bringing that piece of machinery here; it was a part of their old deal.

The man turned around, and the bar slowly rose from the silence to life. Soft music started playing and the lights went on. The first customers entered, and a few staff members hurried to the inside of the oval.

As the soft lights hit the face of the man, the fool could see that he hadn't aged a day. He looked still like he was in his mid-forties. Black hair with a few traces of silver, white teeth and a regal face. His eyes were shocking; the other was bright yellow, the other black. A smile broke on his face, softening the sharp gaze.

'Here you go.' The fool sipped the drink and closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the sweetness of the drink.

'Thank you,' he said and put the glass down. The other man pulled a chair from under the table and sat down. A long minute of silence followed; two old friends sat and enjoying a little moment of companionship.

'So, you are called Grallav these days? What happened to Channues?' The fool broke the magic of the moment. Grallav smiled and winked his golden eye.

'Grallav seems to sell better. That and boredom. Besides, most people don't know how to pronounce Channues, especially when they are drunk. It really pisses me off when people can't say your name and yell for more drinks,' he told. The fool smiled.

'I hear you killed two of my new doormen,' Grallav continued. As the fool said nothing, he went on, 'But I guess they deserved it anyway.'

'Yeah, they kinda did.'

'I hear also that all hell is loose outside,' Grallav said. The fool nodded. 'So, no more customers from Lo'Crannor? Oh well, the refugees might pass through here,' he said carelessly. The fool, however, leaned closer.

'You ought to warn your doormen. There are six very dangerous people after me. I doubt they will hurt anybody if they are left alone, but if they are bothered, they will cause trouble,' he said. Grallav's face darkened.

'Do you think they might come here?'

'They just might. Oh, they won't pick a fight here, but I still suggest leaving them alone or you may end up with a few less doormen than you'd like,' the fool said. Grallav nodded and turned to talk to one of the employees. The young woman ran to the doorway and disappeared through it. A few more customers entered the room.

'Are you sleeping the night here?' Grallav asked, filling himself a glass of clear golden liquid. The fool shrugged.

'I don't know. My companions are sleeping in the shielded room and I think it is best so. They are both psykers and exhausted from our escape. Especially the woman. She died and was resouled within two hours of death,' the fool said. Grallav raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

'Well, as the owner of this place I'll ask you not to fall asleep; I don't need terrified or mad customers running around here. However, as a friend I'll say that you can sleep anywhere you want,' Grallav said. The fool nodded his thanks. Grallav motioned towards a few customers and left the fool to his thoughts. Such was the nature of meeting old friends, the lonely sitting man thought, a short moment of companionship.

The fool sipped his drink and waited. He was just about to ask Grallav for another glass when a soft voice said: 'I can help with that.' The fool looked up and felt his throat tighten. A high-pitched cackle echoed inside his head, mocking him for his boyish reaction.

Thick, wavy black hair cascaded down on soft, light chocolate coloured sensual shoulders. A small mouth with thin yet full lips and white teeth, two light brown eyes and a face like a goddess, with a body to match. Adna hadn't changed a bit.

'You haven't changed a bit,' she said. The fool smiled and offered the glass. Adna took it with a smile and turned to fill it from the old red machine. As she bowed down, she gave the fool a view that made him take a few rapid breaths. During his life he had seen and done many things that defied any sense of morality, but such beauty made him always feel almost weak.

She was wearing a satin suit that clung to her figure seductively. The fool felt the thoughts of many customers swing to her as they walked past. As he took the drink, Adna winked at him and slid her hand on his. The touch felt almost electrical to the fool. He held her gaze as he pulled his hand away to slowly lift the glass to his lips. Adna bit her lower lip, a warm promise in her eyes.

The moment shattered when a man appeared out of nowhere and stuffed himself next to the fool, shoulder to shoulder. The fool looked at him emotionlessly. The entire oval was empty; he was apparently after Adna.

'And what would you have?' She asked the man in her sweet voice.

'I'll have anything he has,' said the man, indicating the fool and winking. Apparently he had seen the lingering touch Adna had given the fool and saw it as a challenge. The newcomer was a soldier, a part of the low-orbit speedfighter company, judging from his badges.

'Sorry, special passes only,' said Adna indifferently. The man was about to open his mouth, but closed it suddenly. He looked at the fool angrily.

'Fuck off,' said the fool in a friendly way. His eyes, however, looked like they could crush stone. Slowly the man rose and backed off a few meters. Then he turned and rapidly walked away. After watching him for a while the fool holstered his gun and turned to the table. Adna was looking at him oddly. The fool merely ignored her gaze and sipped his drink. The moment of return was already ruined.

'Getting drunk, are we?' Said a familiar voice from behind him. The fool grinned as Baddon sat next to him. Adna gave him a glass of something dark and red ('Friends of friends,' she said and winked). Baddon sipped the wine and sighed.

'God, how I've missed these little things,' he muttered and leaned his elbows on the table.

'Is she sleeping?' The fool asked Baddon. He nodded slowly.

'Yeah. She has a lot to recover from, but I think she'll be fine,' he said.

'Good. Tomorrow is going to be a rough day,' Jon muttered so quietly that Baddon could not hear him.

For a while, neither of the two men said anything. The slow thumping of music, silent laughter and clinking of glasses were the only sounds. Even Adna was quiet; she sensed that the two ragged men before her had something left unfinished. Then Baddon turned to the fool with steely glint in his eyes.

'How old are you?' The fool averted his eyes and said nothing. Baddon kept his unusually hard gaze on the cold orbs that the fool had for eyes. Adna opened her mouth.

'Jon...'

'I'm not sure, exactly. Too old,' the fool said. He turned to Baddon, who recoiled from the haunted look in his eyes.

'And my name is not Jon, it's Jonah Mîrammaer Chrann,' he said. Aka the fool, he added in his mind. Or was it me? The look in his eyes was pained as he turned to Adna.

'Please, leave us alone for a moment. I need to... We need to discuss something between the two of us,' he said, indicating towards Baddon with his head. Adna walked slowly away and Jonah turned back to Baddon.

For a while he only looked at Baddon, who felt a mind contact from the fool. It confirmed that the fool would not lie; when in such contact, it was impossible to lie to the other side of the conversation. Baddon had a sudden, excited thought flashing through his mind. It was partially because the fool thus proved that he was going to be honest, partially because the mind he had a contact to was so alien...

Oh shit, he really is gonna tell me the truth, he really will, I'm not sure if I can take it, oh come on already...

The sound of music grew faint in his years, everything else but the two dead eyes before him disappeared. He was suddenly very cold. Like diving to icy water.

'I'm... My age is, by my counting, something between a quarter million years to three hundred thousand.'

Then, almost instantly another voice, which was the same, yet not the same as the other, screamed insanely

'Two hundred ninety nine thousand seven hundred sixty six!'

Then another voice, which was the first, yet not it, but a part of it and the second, making a third, screaming

'Kaksisataayhdeksänkymmentäyhd eksäntuhatta seitsemänsataakuusikymmentäkuu si!'

And a third voice, this one something between a throat-ripping scream and a sob

'...And you know it!'

Baddon felt the glass drop from his numb fingers. He didn't hear it hitting the marbled floor.