A… Greeting…?

  Eik groaned and kicked a pebble down the street.

  “What?” Gul asked, looking up from his own arm.

  “I am…” Eik began, each word delivered with gradually deeper sighs. “so damn tired of these cryptic ass messages.

  “A Greeting,” Andihar muttered under his breath as he read over Eik’s shoulder. “Now that’s a weird one, I’ll admit.”

  “What do you think it does?”

  “You’re a Worldbreaker, right?” Gul pointed out. “You’re weirdos, the lot of ya. If you’re inheriting the abilities of a primal being, then it’s obvious that you’ll get weird stuff in your messages as well, right? Profound Toxin has screwed with your skill selection before, hasn’t it?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “See? If it’s called A Greeting, then that probably means it’s a greeting.”

  “With who?” Eik asked.

  Gul looked at him as if he was an idiot. “Your Worldbreaker, of course. Isn’t it about time you had a talk?”

  “What? A talk? How do you know so much about this crap, dude?”

  “He doesn’t really,” Andihar broke in. “We’ve all heard the legends of the hosts talking to their Worldbreakers. We’ve talked about this before, right?”

  “I mean, yeah, but… I kind of thought it was a load of bull,” Eik admitted.

  Andihar chuckled. “I concur. I’ve never met a Worldbreaker that I know of, and neither do I think I know anyone who has—well, except for you, of course. I’ve got to say, I always thought you guys were a bit… overrated. But nonetheless, here we are. I can’t think of a better explanation for that truly odd naming.”

  “Yeah, me neither,” Eik said with a nod. “And when Profound Toxin fiddles with my system messages, it always end up giving me something good, so I guess I’m picking this.”

  “What’re the other two again?” Gul asked.

  “They’re called Death Star and Binary Fission.”

  “Any idea what they do?”

  “Honestly, no. Death Star sounds… extremely focused on offense, and after the experience we just had, more attack power can’t be a bad thing, but I can’t figure out how it would work.”

  “And Binary Fission?”

  “I’ll have to check with Michael who knows the same language as me and has medical knowledge, just to be certain, but I’m pretty sure binary fission in science refers to an asexual reproduction process where two single-celled organisms divide into genetically identical daughter cells.”

  “That’s… impressive knowledge, actually. You just had that stored in your head or what?” Gul asked.

  “You’ll be surprised to know that I went to high school back home,” Eik deadpanned, looking between them. “Despite how I might appear, I actually did pretty well in school. Or, I should say, I did well in the sense that I didn’t do too badly.”

  “What’s high school?” Andihar asked.

  “Don’t bare your ignorance so readily, Andi!” Gul scoffed. “It’s obviously a school located high up on the top of a mountain in order to naturally train the children’s physiques.”

  “Uuh, no, that’s actually not the case at all. As a matter of fact, I doubt anyone could have come up with a worse guess, Grandpa Gul. I’m impressed,” Eik snickered but shrunk a bit at Gul’s indignant glare. He cleared his throat. “If that’s what the translation spell interpreted to you from the word high school, then something went wrong. It’s just a school for kids of a specific age. You go to high school after graduating middle school.”

  “The school located halfway down that mountain,” Andihar added with a shit-eating grin, which earned him a heavy hit on the shoulder.

  The old fart was not the type of man who enjoyed being mocked. “My granddaughter will hear about this,” he hissed, cold eyes locked onto Eik.

  Eik suddenly felt panic invade his body. “Okay, hey. Just wait a god damned minute, all right? We-We can talk about this, you know. Work it out like adults.”

  “We’ll just have to see about that, won’t we?” Gul muttered as he skulked along.

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  Eik rolled his eyes and sighed. “Great…”

  ***

  The Oracle was having a meal with Vendekaabe when they arrived.

  When Vendekaabe had first come to Earth to request Eik’s aid in his Lady’s rescue, his reverence for her had been at the level of a peasant in the presence of a god. Now, however, after sufficient reprimand from the Oracle, he had begun to realize that he was actually showing more respect by following her wishes to not be so stiff and silent in her company.

  The fact that he was even sitting with his plate at the very edge of the same table as she was eating at showed great progress. The Oracle looked almost satisfied.

  “Eik Magnasen,” she said with a nod of greeting. “I can tell that you have had an encounter.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Because of your hocus pocus magical powers of prophecy?”

  “Yes,” she confirmed solemnly.

  “Good, so you know what we’re looking for.”

  “Yes. Information on the monster you met and whether it’s connected to the Lord of the Moon.”

  “Exactly. Glad to know we’re on the same page.”

  “Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to discern that yet.”

  Gul scoffed and turned to leave again. “So it is exactly as I expected. She has exhausted her usefulness.”

  “Is this about the Life Harvesters?” the Oracle asked, slightly taken aback. “You already know that Qarr the Pillar had laid those additional plans without my involvement. I was tricked just as much as you were.”

  “Wrong,” the old man spat. His eyes were hard and distrustful. “You say you had no knowledge of it, but how are we to know whether you speak the truth or not? Did you have a hand in the success of the reawakening ritual?” he hissed, aura flaring and sending shivers through the two cultists.

  “Hey, what’s with you all of a sudden?” Eik asked, putting a hand on Gul’s shoulder. “Calm that aura for a minute. What’s going on?”

  “This is not sudden!” Gul spat. “Ever since their inception, Moon Shall Swallow has been killing, abducting, and mistreating our people! No, distrust is the standard with these damned cultists. Cooperation was always a matter of temporary necessity. And now I’m starting to see an end to that necessity.”

  Eik knew well what kind of history existed between the cult and most of the members of the Nidafjeld Alliance. War had raged for generations, frequency and intensity of conflict varying greatly but never ceasing.

  A glance at Andihar told him that the elf wasn’t exactly happy with the Oracle’s immediate admission that she could be of no help in this either. Andihar was always the most reasonable one among them but Eik knew for a fact that he had lost many people to the cult through the years. People he had cared for.

  But it had been going so well. Fuck.

  “Hold up, guys, let’s just calm down,” Eik tried. “We’re all friends here.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” Andihar muttered with narrowed eyes.

  “Well, it is certainly unfortunate that we can’t help each other right now, but we can’t know whether that is the case in the future. The Oracle’s assistance could be imperative for the real clash with the Lord of the Moon?” he said and looked to her. “Right?”

  She just nodded, clearly wary of the situation. This could well be the moment where it was decided that she and Vendekaabe had become more trouble than they were worth. Vendekaabe’s eyes shone with the general hostility he had been full of in the first days after he had turned himself in to their custody.

  “Come on, guys!” Eik exclaimed. “Don’t tell me I’m the voice of reason here! There’s just something wrong with that! Am I wrong?”

  Andihar sighed. “No, you’re not wrong. That was a bit hasty on our part. I apologize,” he said with a small bow toward the Oracle and Vendekaabe, although his face showed his heart wasn’t entirely in it. Gul did not appear to have changed his mind as the door slammed behind him.

  Eik groaned as he and Andihar left. It would do none of them any good to stay near the Oracle right now.

  This partnership between the Alliance and the Oracle of Moon Shall Swallow had never been a true companionship—there had never been any illusions about that—but Eik hadn’t realized quite how close to the precipice that relationship had been from the beginning.

  Fuck.

  Outside he threw himself in the grass and resisted screaming to relieve his frustration while Andihar watched. Gul had been waiting outside. None of them said anything. The mood was shitty.

  “You seriously think we should just get rid of them?” Eik asked as he laid on his back, staring up into the clouds.

  “Ye—” Gul began.

  “No, you were right,” Andihar interrupted. “Truth be told, I have been looking for a reason to get rid of them as well.”

  “Seriously?”

  “They killed your people too, didn’t they?” Gul growled.

  “Yeah, but… Those two are obviously different.”

  The old man’s aura made itself known in response to his annoyance. “If you think that, that means you’re falling for their tricks.”

  “Gul,” Andihar warned.

  “Then why did you even help pitch the rescue operation, not to mention carrying it out?” Eik exclaimed.

  “Because we needed her then! She was our best shot! And in the end her information was bad! They had a second ritual set up! And now she can’t even answer basic yes or no questions about a subject she’s supposed to be knowledgeable about to a supernatural degree!” Gul raged. “She a liability!”

  Eik bit his lip. Was he just falling for a ruse? Fuck, fuck, fuck!

  “Fuck this!” he hissed and sat up. “I’m going for A Greeting.”

  “Right now?” Andihar asked with surprise.

  “I don’t know what to think anymore so I need something else to focus on. And is there ever going to be a better time? Shit only seems to be getting worse every time I check.”

  “I’ll keep an eye on you.”

  Eik smiled. “Thanks, man.”

  He didn’t have to reach deep for A Greeting. It was right there at the surface, ready to trigger at any time. “All right, I’m doing it,” he said and activated the skill.

  There was no inherent power behind its approach. It merely flowed through his body with an almost ticklish feeling. What followed was a drowsiness that nearly overwhelmed him in an instant but an instinctual relfex to resist allowed him to stay awake just long enough to see someone come running up the path to Andihar’s estate.

  Whatever the person was saying was muddled as Eik’s brain seemed to quickly grow numb. Narrowing his eyes, he tried to listen but he could only catch snippets. “… Come quickly!… -ing’s happened to team t—… -tely annihilated!”

  What had happened? He put a hand in the grass to push himself back onto his feet. A Greeting could wait if it was this urgent. But the limb barely obeyed him and he simply fell over onto his face instead. Opening his mouth didn’t do him any good either since no intelligible words came out.

  Shit. He was losing consciousness fast. A Greeting wasn’t willing to be canceled.

  And then something rushed up from the depths of his spirit, seized his mind, and hauled him down into the darkness.

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