บท 28: Hollow Mountains
"You did what now?" Emile asked.
"Assassinated the Queen of Rising Tide four years ago. Since then though we've been very quiet." Jumper repeated.
"Well yeah!" Emile yelled, "You killed a Queen! Of course you have to lay low! Why did you even kill her anyway?!"
"We were worried about her gift. She was on the verge of becoming Perfected. We obviously did not know how her gift would evolve, but if it evolved into one of the possibilities we hypothesized, we'd be in danger."
"What was her gift?" Emile asked.
"The world called her a Seer, nobody is quite sure how exactly her gift worked, but it was as if she could see everything. Of course, we knew she could not see the entire world, but what if one day she could? And what if becoming a Perfected allowed her to see far enough to find us. To us, the whole world is three measly kingdoms, we thought it entirely reasonable that a Perfected would be able to see the three kingdoms."
Emile thought about this for a few moments. On the one hand, a preemptive strike is the best approach, but on the other, is killing a person who may or may not become a threat really justifiable? From what Emile has gathered so far, gifts tend to evolve in extreme and unpredictable ways. A gift that was undesirable before could evolve into something domineering, there was no way to tell.
Because of that, Emile felt like that train of logic could be applied to any and all of the Chosen. They are all potential threats down the line, but the organization presumably does not kill every Chosen they come across.
"What is the group's purpose?" Emile asked.
"That… I'm not quite sure." Jumper's voice turned soft, like he was reminiscing about some part of the far away past.
"How do you not know? Then why did you join?"
"You will understand once you arrive yourself, for now I cannot answer those questions." Jumper said.
Emile didn't ask any other questions after that and the familiar quietness returned to the group.
And just like that, over two weeks passed. During that time they fought off another group of Locusts, but it went much better the second time around since the group noticed them in advance.
In addition to that, Emile continued to ask questions: other missions the group has completed, information on the Black Gates, the inner workings of relics, just general things that popped into Emile's mind.
The group currently stood at the edge of the desert, ahead of them the sand disappeared and black rocks took their place. Off in the distance, Emile finally got a look at the Hollow Mountains.
They were a chain of multiple different volcanoes, all varying in size. Craters soaked the surface of the many volcanoes, some of them from past eruptions, others entrances to the caves.
They were extraordinarily tall, their peak covered in an ocean of what looked like snow, but it easily could have been ash. And below that layer of white powder the same onyx stone absorbed the light around them.
The group persisted through the heavily rocky area until they came across a long divot in the ground, Emile assumed it used to be a flowing river.
Jumper stopped in the center of the riverbed and created a rift beneath him. Blood slipped through first, then Emile stepped up to the rift. Looking down, Emile saw mostly a black hole, but a hint of warm light crept in from the corner.
Emile stepped into the hole and instantaneously found himself falling a few feet above the ground. He stepped aside and Jumper followed.
Emile walked over to Blood who was standing by the single candle in the otherwise pitch black room. Jumper proceeded to create another rift within the stone wall besides the candle.
The moment the rift appeared Emile noticed it was different. Instead of the black, lifeless rift that Emile was used to, on the other side of this one reflected a warmly decorated living room.
A huge, red couch stuffed with brown throw pillows, a small wooden coffee table covered in unique cups, and the room was filled with natural light that illuminated the varying different paintings on the maroon walls.
Blood hopped through the rift and kicked his shoes off to the side then left down one of the hallways. Emile carefully stepped inside and noticed that directly to his right stood a rack filled with shoes and multiple coats hung above them.
Besides the unexpected homey feel, Emile also noticed a distinct smell to the base, the smell of coffee. Jumper followed behind him and closed the rift. He carefully removed his dress shoes and hung his coat.
"Your shoes—" he pointed to the rack, "then come with me. I'll show you to your room."
Emile obliged and removed his shoes then followed Jumper. They walked down the same hallway Blood disappeared to. The hallway, like the previous room, was filled with paintings; some of the Hollow Mountain range, some of the three kingdoms.
Doors filled the hallway as well and the end of the hall opened up into a grand kitchen and dining space. The kitchen was made from the white marble that encased Fallen Sky while the dining table seemed to be made of the onyx rock that presently surrounded them.
The dining table sat sixteen people, seven on each side and one at each end. And it just so happened that one of the side seats of seven was currently occupied by an older lady.
She had long light brown hair, with a streak of gray running down the side. She, like Jumper, wore a white button down shirt but paired it with a long black skirt.
Noticing them, the woman looked up and Emile saw her crystal clear blue eyes look him up and down. She stood up and put her hand out in front of Emile.
"It's a pleasure to meet you–" She said with a radiating smile, "you can call me the Collector."
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