Point of Documentation: Marshall

  Tethel stood on the table that was roughly in the center of the room as if he had just had the worst apple in existence. His face was scrunched up and looking around the room as if to look for the culprit of the apple-poisoning. All his eyes landed on, however, were the shocked looks of those non-cored at seeing this creature just appearing before them. Marshall could sympathize since he had the same reaction himself when he first saw Tethel.

  “Well, we might as well get this circus on.” His head turned to Marshall and locked eyes with him. There was a silent word that passed between them, but Marshall didn’t care about the thing’s obvious reluctance. He was tired of not being on the up-take.

  Marshall gave a gesture to the creature on the table and spoke. “This is Tethel, a type of Voidling that apparently makes contracts with people dying from the Void Scourge. If you take them up on their offer, they ignite your core and contract you.” His eyes landed on Valentine and Arnold, who were turning a shade of green and white respectively. “That contract, I’ve figured out so far, keeps you from talking about them and their business to non-cored people that don’t already know. You get some powers, some weaknesses and drawbacks, and then you fight and gain power while venerating some Greater Being. Did I get that about right?”

  There was visible confusion amongst those gathered, Cadence looking like she was going to burst being one of them. However, it was Valentine that answered first. “That’s… right. A very rough and very crude summary, but correct in its basic form.”

  Valentine’s hand came up and a form appeared in it. A small mouse, no larger than the center of his palm, appeared from thin air and rested in a small chair for it. The mouse took a sip from a small cup and laid it’s harsh, judgmental eyes on Marshall. “I detest this one. Remove him Tethel.” came the harsh, commanding, but small voice of the mouse.

  Tethel sighed and rubbed his face in an exhausted motion. “I would if I could Trireme, but this human isn’t contracted through me. He’s unbound.”

  A second form materialized around Arnold’s head. This one was of a fractal piece of glass that seemed to toss around light as it hovered there. Arnold shielded his eyes as if it hurt to look at the thing. “You allowed this mortal to ignite their core without shackling them first? Tethel, for being a seasoned hunter, you have slipped far past the barest of standards.”

  Tethel threw of his hands at the glass-like creature that had appeared. “I have done NOTHING. I have not allowed anything, nor did I assist him. He is self-ignited. He started his own core. I had nothing to do with it, and provided him nothing. So spare me your chiding, Kinthelint. You would have done no better than I and still would have come out with less.”

  The other two handlers seemed to fume at Tethel as Marshall watched this whole display. However, things needed to be sped up a little if this would at all be resolved before Marshall turned old and grey. He cleared his throat and caused the three feuding handlers to turn and look at Marshall. “We can discuss who is at fault later. Right now, I need answers. A lot of them. I won’t ask you any crazy questions about the universe at large, I just need simple answers to get me up to speed with everything else.” His eyes passed between the gathered handlers. “So… who wants to humor me?”

  The two new handlers gave dismissive motions, the glass one being harder to describe than feel. “We have no reason to humor you, mortal. Contract and maybe you can ask that unlucky handler your pointless questions. We three refuse.” Her smug eyes landed on Tethel before faltering. “... Right, Tethel?”

  Tethel, for all he was worth, seemed to be thinking. His blue hand rested on his chin and rubbed it back and forth as he thought. As if prompted, he turned and gave a small bow to the other two Handlers. “I do apologize, but didn’t you just claim I was incompetent? So I shall act my part. That, and I have taken a shine to the boy.” Tethel turned from the incredulous eyes of the Handlers back to Marshall. “I’ll humor only you for now, but my patience has not been something I’ve been known for. Speak, self-igniter.”

  Marshall observed the interaction and settled on a decision. Tethel was the least trustworthy of them all, and seemed to want to be on the more interesting side of the coin. Whatever that may mean for the ones who were with him before. He needed to be careful of this one. “Well, let’s start simple. I’ve been told about the whole Void Scourge thing when I got here and got heavily affected. What actually is it?”

  Tethel waved a hand dismissively. “Easy to start. Laughably so. What you call the Void Scourge is a leaking of Void Energy, akin to your radiation, from Nests. It inundates the terrain around it as it attempts to terraform the planet. When humans come into contact, it tries to make you into a something more fit for the terrain it wants. What you call Voidlings. Nests make Void Energy, which terraforms and causes Void Scourge, which eventually either causes Void Cores or mutations and possibly unique Voidlings. Next?”

  Marshall sent a silent command to Archie to note all this down and record it. The action caused him some pain, but he grit his teeth and bore it. “Next: why the secrecy? Wouldn’t it be better for you all for humans to try to get contracts? It seems a little too convoluted for what it is.”

  The little goblin nodded along and paced back and forth on the table. “That one is a little harder. There are only so many of us Handlers that operate for the Great Beings. Too many cases would be a waste. It, however, goes a bit deeper than that. If it was brought to light that Voidlings were cultivating people to fight and gain powers, then action would be taken against us. As it is, being a third-party to this all is hard enough.”

  That last part pricked Marshall’s interest, so he drilled down on it. “Third-party? So you’re not a Voilding?”

  Tethel let out a laugh that sounded like rocks tapping together. It was a harsh bark that fit his form to a tee. “No, we definitely are what you would call Voildings. However, we aren’t of the two factions that are warring for your planet. You call them Angels of Demons, a tasteless name if there ever was one. Whilst Demons are barely controllable monsters that seek only to grow stronger by any means and Angels are stuck-up pricks with far too much power; we’re a separate group entirely. You can simply keep referring to us as ‘Handlers’ for now, but we aren’t naturally hostile to Humans like the other two factions.” His eyes went to the mouse resting on Valentine’s open palm. “Although some of us try really hard to be above everything else.”

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  The mouse turned its nose up and Tethel refocused on Marshall. “But these aren’t the real question you wanted to ask, are they? You wouldn’t have called everyone together off a false premise of what you were going to do from here when that only really concerned a single group of them. No, you want to ask something more… intimate.”

  Marshall’s eyes narrowed at Tethel, but after a moment he nodded. “You’re learning my motives at a frightening pace. Are you sure you can’t read minds?”

  Tethel raised his hands in an innocent gesture. “The only thing I read is obituaries in the morning print. Some fun stuff in there, gotta tell ya!”

  His hands came up and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Alright, alright.” Marshall turned to the crew of the HMW Betty and spoke. “We had a conversation the first time we met, Robert. About what the Void Scourge was and what happened to people when they caught the sickness.” Robert nodded to it and Marshall continued. “Something didn’t sit right with me during that conversation. Like something was missing. I thought about your explanation of Void Cores and how they always have a flaw in them. How power begets a shortcoming.” He gestured to his own core as he spoke. “And yet, the only downside I had was overuse.”

  A tapping sound came from the table as Tethel drummed his toes against it like a second pair of hands. “Yes. Yes, yes, yes! Good. Ask the question that is burning at the edge of your tongue!” An excitement seemed to overcome the little blue goblin as he paced in place.

  Marshall watched him and sighed. “Tethel, I don’t need to. I already figured it out when Aaiden was explaining my future to me.” Tethel’s pace slowed but his eyes only grew in intensity. Marshall ignored it and continued. “Cores don’t have flaws. Mine didn’t, and it ignited on its own as you said. If a core should have a flaw, then mine would have major ones if not supported by your Greater Beings. Yet I didn’t. So I reasoned that it’s not the cores, but the contracts that cause the taxes on the powers. A right to use them, if you will. After all, they only ignited with your help.”

  The goblin stood as still as stone as he listened to Marshall. The look on his face was neutral and pierced into Marshall as he spoke. Evaluating. Assessing. When Marshall had finished speaking, Tethel raised his hand and extended a finger up. “One: No one leaves this room now without taking an oath of silence. No one can know about this.” A second finger rose. “Two: You’re mostly right. While you’re smart and witty, you missed one important fact. The only other option is to die. They’re buying a life back, and that makes the price fair.” A third finger rose. “And third: those that find this out that aren’t partial to you will have a reason to kill you. I suggest keeping it to yourself. It’s that right boys?”

  Marshall gave a glance to the two contracted Void-Cores in the room: Valentine and Arnold. Where there was fear and nervousness was now anger and resentment. Their gazes fell on their contractors, but held no pause in throwing him a resentful glance as well. They were angry, sure, but would they really cause him harm due to just knowing this?

  Of course they would. Marshall hadn’t thought of the feelings of those under a contract that handicapped them for life. To save their lives, they gave up being able to use all of them as they wanted to. It was like losing your arm and gaining back a new one only to be told that they had to pay a fee to lift it. To them, Marshall would have been a freeloader, and those who had to pay never saw those who didn’t as fair equals. Yet, Marshall trusted Cadence, and Cadence had trusted Valentine. The only unknown was Arnold.

  “I… see.” Was the only response from Marshall as he looked back to Tethel. “I’ll do what you say after my final question.”

  Tethel raised a brow and rolled his hand in a motion for Marshall to continue with his question.

  Marshall gritted his teeth for a moment to release some tension, then relaxed again and asked. “Who is the Conductor and what was that place I found you in? It seemed like the Old World made contact with the Void long before The Fall.”

  “Not telling, it was a testing lab, and wouldn’t you like to know?” Came the cheeky response from Tethel. He raised one of his fingers to his lips in a shushing motion and spoke. “Not all things are mine to tell. You need to figure some things out on your own.”

  A sigh escaped Marshall’s lips. He knew it wouldn’t be that easy to uncover something massive like that. After the man had seemed to know he was there in that memory Archie had given him, he knew the Conductor was important somehow. Tethel’s answer only confirmed it.

  “Hold on–” Came the rushed words from the Captain. “If we can ask anything, then–”

  Tethel waved a hand dismissively at him. “I said I’d answer his questions, not all of yours's. Besides; you non-cored are always so plain in your question. I don’t know the meaning of life, how to find love, the best way to get stronger, or why cats tend to land feet first.” Marshall raised a brow to the last one but didn’t interrupt. “If you seek answers, I’ll tell you the same that I told Marshall here: find them yourself. Stop being so damn lazy and just go do it.”

  The Captain leveled his eyes on the creature, but made no motion to counter him. He simply went back to rubbing his chin in contemplation.

  Marshall gave a sigh and leaned on the table. “Alright, so what’s this oath I need to perform?”

  With a node, Tethel flicked his hand to reveal a bundle of ethereal twine. “I need you all to promise not to tell anyone anything you heard in this room regarding the Void. A simple thing, but made in the presence of this becomes binding.”

  Marshall looked around the room and asked simply. “Who won’t do it?” The answer was silence, even if Martinez and Cadence seemed to be on the fence about it. Marshall looked back down. “Alright, let’s get this over with then.”

  It took all of five minutes for Tethel to bind each one, and in reality it was a simple thread that came from their chest to the twine in Tethel’s hand. When done, he explained that it would notify him if anyone broke their word. With a flash, it all vanished and seemed to have not existed at all. The only remnant was a small cold he could feel on his Void Core.

  “Well, that being settled,” started Marshall. “Shall we get on to how to live in a town like this?” His eyes turned to Cadence. “I need some advice here, above all else.”

  Cadence hesitated, still seeming to be recovering from all the events that had happened in front of her, but nodded after the delay. “Right. So we need to look at houses for you. Then we need to…”

  Marshall and Cadence sunk into deliberation, with the tuning in from Valentine occasionally and the Captain on finances when relevant. All the while Tethel watched. Marshall wasn’t sure of what to make of his gaze, but the little goblin’s eyes had turned… hungry after their talk.