The Keeper

Triginta quinque: Positive Parchment

It was night. I had taken the first watch. My wand beside me, I kept my gaze going back and forth. As the time passed I saw someone stir. Delph rose from his bed of leaves and strode over to me, carrying a loaded crossbow that was Petra’s weapon of choice but which Delph had used to devastating effect against the colossals. I passed Destin over to him and watched as he slung the chain around his waist. I also handed him the Adder Stone. I would always hold on to my wand of course.

“Nothin’?” Delph asked as he took up the vigil.

I shook my head.

He plopped himself down and said, “Get some sleep, Vega Jane.”

“Who’s taking the third watch?”

“Petra. She and me worked it out.”

“I’m sure you did.” My harsh tone surprised me and it seemed to startle Delph.

“You okay?” he said.

I didn’t look at him. “I’m fine, Delph.”

“No, I think there’s more to it,” he insisted. I scowled at him until he said, “Sit, Vega Jane, and talk to me.”

I plunked down next to him. “Okay. Petra and you seem to have become good friends really, really fast.”

“I feel sorry for her and Lack. They’ve had it rough. Lost everything.”

“Yes, but she keeps... well, rubbing your arm and looking at you.” I knew this sounded positively stupid, but they were the only words I could think of.

To his credit, Delph didn’t laugh or make me feel like I was being silly.

“I saw you staring at me when I was looking at her once,” said Delph. “But there was a point to it, see.”

“What point?”

“It was when Lack asked where we were headed.”

I looked at him curiously. “Right. And you said we were heading out of here, meaning the Quag. And he called you daft.”

“Right. But see, I looked at Petra when he was saying that, and she didn’t look like she thought it was daft, gettin’ outta here, I mean.”

“What did she look like?”

“Like she wanted to leave this place.”

I snorted. “Well, who wouldn’t?”

“No, ’twas more’n that. It was like she knew it was possible. It was like she knew there was another place to go to, see?”

This struck me like a hard slap. “You could read all that in her face?”

“It was pretty obvious, Vega Jane. I may not talk much, but I don’t miss much neither.”

His words embarrassed me. It seemed I often took Delph for granted when I should consider myself the luckiest Wug there was, to have him with me.

“Then it seems there’s more to Petra than we thought,” I commented.

“But I still feel sorry for her,” he said.

I sighed. Males. They couldn’t see everything, could they?

“Thanks, Delph. I’m glad we had this talk.”

“Right you are.”

I strode over to the others and lay down on my cot of leaves, my tuck as my pillow. Harry Two was next to me. I closed my eyes. However, I quickly found that I could not fall asleep.

How could Petra know there was a place to go to?

I opened my eyes, reached in my cloak pocket and pulled out the wrinkled parchment pages. I pointed my wand and muttered, “Illumina.” But mere light was not going to make the strange inkings understandable. In frustration I smacked the parchment with my wand and said, “Make sense.”

Next moment, I almost dropped the thing. The words on the first page started swirling around and around, like water going down a drain. But the words didn’t disappear. And yet they didn’t re-form into words that I could understand either. Instead, they came together and out of their midst a face materialized on the parchment. It was the aged, wrinkled, heavily bearded countenance of a male I had never seen before. He seemed to look directly at me.

“Who holds the parchment?” he asked.

Well, blimey, I thought. With my voice quavering, I said, “I do.”

“Your name?”

“Vega Jane.”

He seemed to consider my response for a few moments. I took the opportunity to glance around. Lackland and Petra continued sleeping. Delph was far away, sitting on the rock, his back to me. Harry Two panted quietly next to me, staring at the face.

“I do not know you,” said the male.

“Well, I don’t know you either.”

“How came you to have the parchment?”

“Lackland Cyphers and Petra Sonnet. They’re Furinas. They had it. Or you, rather.”

He nodded, but said nothing.

“The parchment was all gibberish before. They could never read it.”

“Then you must possess a wand.”

“I do.”

“A sorceress, or a witch if you prefer. From where do you come?”

“Wormwood. But I was trained up as a sorceress after I left there.”

“For what purpose would you be trained up?”

This bloke was too nosy. “Why so many questions, eh?”

“I have been part of parchment for a very long time with no one with whom to converse. You would be inquisitive too in that position.”

That seemed reasonable enough. “Well, who are you? And how came you to be in the parchment in the first place?”

“You would not know me, as I do not know you.”

“Perhaps I know some of your descendants if you are so very old.”

“I meant I am not a real, living thing.”

My eyes widened. “Then what are you?”

“I am a remnant.”

“A remnant? What is that?”

“A collection of memories from an assortment of folks. A record, if you will, of their remembrances.”

“So you have recorded in you the information from the Furinas?”

“Not them, no. I do not know how these Furinas came to possess me.”

“Who else, then?”

“I go far back. To the ones who created this place.”

I took a deep breath. This bloke could be of help. In a lot of ways.

“Okay. But why gibberish on parchment?”

“That was for protection, in case the parchment fell into the wrong hands.”

“I see. Smart, considering the Maladons can do magic too.”

Now the bloke settled his gaze on me and I knew he could see me as well as I could see him. “And how do you know about them?”

I said, “Astrea Prine. Do you know Astrea?”

“I can know no one. I am a remnant. But I have heard the name. She is a powerful sorceress. The Keeper of the Quag in fact.”

I looked around again, but Lackland and Petra still slept and Delph still kept watch. I glanced down at Harry Two and found his gaze remained directly on the image.

“You say you cannot speak unless someone has a wand. But what if the wand holder was a Maladon?”

“I can tell.”

“How?”

“For me, the wand of a Maladon produces only darkness. Yours was, by comparison, a bright, shining light.”

“We’re traveling across the Quag. Can you help us do so?”

He shook his head. “It is impossible.”

I said defiantly, “We reached Astrea’s cottage. We cleared the perfect maze back in the First Circle and defeated both a manticore and a wendigo in the process. And now we’re in the Second Circle, where I have killed two colossals.”

This seemed to give him pause. “Impressive,” he said at last.

“So can you help me?”

“I’m not sure how.”

“You said you have remembrances from those who created the Quag.”

“ ’Tis true.”

“The Second Circle,” I said. “It’s full of beasts that want to do us in. But are there creatures that can aid us?”

He said immediately, “Hyperbores live here. You’ll want to befriend them.”

“How?”

“Hyperbores will respond to the same things that make friends everywhere. Respect and kindness. Now, I am tired. I haven’t spoken this much in, well, never.”

“But I can call you back, right?”

“If you desire. Just tap your wand as you did before.”

“And you have no name?”

“You may call me Silenus, Vega.”

And before I could utter a response, he was gone and the gibberish had returned to the paper. I got up and raced over to Delph and told him everything that had just happened.

His jaw dropped farther and farther as I recounted the story.

“Silenus, a bloody remnant?” he said when I had finished.

“Yes. So what do you think?”

“I think we need to find these hyperbores.” He glanced at where Petra and Lackland lay sleeping. “And maybe they can help us, eh? They know about hyperbores. They nick from ’em.”

Despite the truth of his words, my spirits sank a bit for an obvious reason.

Bloody Petra.