Theater 2 chapter 4

Season 2 Chapter 4
Storm FrontsBoth Carolynn and Jed knew what needed to be done. “The people” were a legend, and must remain so if the lives of the “herders of the Lead-Lands” were to stay free and uncompromised by the Imperium and it’s thirst for wealth and power ! Up here in the Worldspine Mountains, it was as though the very substance of Zalthar had risen-up to keep this secret, a secret that now it was down to them to defend. But what was this secret, was it more than some fragments of a strange metal that seemed to defy natural laws, the remnants of a forgotten people that once trod these lands ? Of one thing the pair were certain, if there were an answer it would be here in, just above the tree-line some 17,000 feet up in Zalthar’s most desolate Peaks*, where even the Long Arm of the Empire had trouble reaching !

*Some of which exceed 25,000 feet, with Mount Venae at 27,893 ft and the highest, Mount Sacrum at 31, 264 ft - some 2,235ft higher than Terra’s Mount Everest !

They were now at the top of the High Valley, where the Bright River Falls dropped some 100 foot or so into a fern ringed basin, surrounded by old, disused Mine Workings, now no more than a series of shallow moss-covered pits and cuttings, in parts collapsed, reclaimed by Kell and her Mountain.
Almost quarter of a light passed, during which they scrabbled about in the damp mossy rocks, collecting whatever fragments of the metal they could find, for later disposal as planned, when Jed quite literally stumbled across another piece of the puzzle. On one of the scree slopes of the dark igneous rock of these Mountains that fringed the basin and its workings, lay strewn about sections of a stone slab that whole, would have been almost 7 foot across. Jed called Carolynn over, for something about it, about the way it lay, did not sit comfortably with him. Between the two of them, they were able to turn-over one of the larger pieces, finding the surface of the opposite face unnaturally smooth, as though it had been machined. Gradually they picked over other fragments of this slab, finding they also had the same “artificial” finish. 
“It looks as though it has been machined !” exclaimed Jed, “I can see no tool marks and the finish is just too good, even that boaster Ranz would not try to claim he cut a piece this smooth “. 
Ranz, as well as a herder, also practiced Stone Masonry of some skill, a trade by which he subsidised a fairly affluent life in Bronze-Hearth, often just for cutting “Sleep-Stones”*
*These 1’ x 2’ stones were the herders simple markers of the dead, to sit watch over their mortal remains. Each member of the herders family would place a “Sleep-Stone” on the Cairns of their Ancestors, followed by the herders friends, to watch over them for all time, in the various Clans Burial-Grounds, high in the Worldspine Mountain’s.
“If that is so, then a machine able to cut such large sections may be a new Imperial device to re-shape the Mountains“, stammered Jed, a note of rising panic in his voice, “How did they get such a machine up here, and why, what do they want with our Mountain ?”
“To carve it into one giant Imperial Aquila, one that can be seen from orbit ?” suggested Carolynn, and the two of them burst out laughing, laughter that came for the first time in far too long. 
“Joking aside though, it must have been part of something, something a lot bigger than a ‘Sleep-Stone’ and there is nothing out here that big, or one of the herder’s would have seen it before now.”
“Unless”, suggested Jed,” its been here for a lot longer than that !”
“You think maybe it has something to do with Ben‘s “lonely-ones“, they or their people“ cut it ? Possibly some kind of building, a home, like the ‘Pods’, or something like that where they lived while waiting for their King?”
“Don‘t know“ said Carolynn, but it has to have gotten here somehow, I mean look at it, by the feel of these edges it did not break hundreds of cycles ago. Surely too, had it have been here longer, it would be buried in scree, not resting on the surface. The backs too were cool and damp, but no moss, which all say its not been here that long, maybe even since the last one, could be two snows have been ?“
“Maybe,” said Jed, “which would mean it likeliest came from up there”, gesturing with his hand to the dark rock cliffs behind the two of them, over which fell the foaming scar that was the Bright River Fall’s ! 
It would be a tough one, even for those with experience of these Mountains. The rock ran in bands, sometimes smooth and steep, interspersed though with sections of precarious loose boulders that could and did detach themselves with unnerving regularity. Even Jed’s shorter years were long enough to have placed a “Sleep-Stone” to watch over a friend or family member who could bear testimony to that. Carolynn and Jed exchanged glances, before staring up at the wall of rock, both unhappily aware of what came next, !
“We need something to eat“, Carolynn‘s matter-of-fact comment broke the thoughtful silence that threatened to ensnare the two, faced with a task neither relished. Carolynn handed Jed a strip of Morac jerky.
“From the top. I think we need to view this from up-there !” said Jed, obviously pleased with his idea, “From up there we’d get a better look at what’s what. I don’t reckon that even between us we have enough loops and catches for such a climb, and besides, I’d rather be belayed down than attempt to lead-climb up, that’s for sure !”
“I’ll second that”, agreed Carolynn,” but whatever way we go, we have to go soon if we are to beat the dark !”

Back at Bronze-Hearth Ceramite City, the Wake had been over some time, and once the last of the well wishers had left Nathan‘s ‘Pod‘, he had slipped away and sat now in the gathering dark with Alice and Ben by the dull orange glow and welcome warmth of their kiln.
“Must be on the return leg by now”, mused Nathan to himself as much as the other two, “their pockets and bags stuffed with that Metal. The plan to dump it somewhere inaccessible, keep it out of the grasp of the Empire or big business, let things carry on a normal,” he reminded himself.
“We’ll have to watch the Morac Trains for some time to come too“ he then added, “ its certain “they“ are sure to send someone. I mean, an opportunity to print money like that and it bears no fruit. Then there‘s their inside man meeting an early demise in a climbing accident before he can pass on anything ? It won‘t go unnoticed !” 
“Puts me in the clear though” joked Ben, trying to ease Nathan’s mood, slapping his partly atrophied leg to emphasise the joke, and they all felt the relief, following the lead with his laughter !
Alice poured another glass of Mount Necros, a Reserve’, as Nathan questioned Ben.
“Do you think they will find much more than further fragments of metal up there, I mean, have there been other stories, rumours like those “lonely-ones, now one of them would take some hiding until we could be rid of it “. His attempts at levity were becoming less and less successful with each attempt Nate made to steady his nerves with a humour he did not possess. Nathan was not an impatient man, but he did not like waiting at the best of times, and these were most definitely not such times ! 
His two closest friends were up in the Peaks at Dark, searching blindly for other-worldly artefacts, the concealment of which he knew the future of their entire way of life rested upon, and there was little or nothing he could do to help.
“Nate“, said Alice gently, as she squatted in front of him, taking the wine glass from his hands before clasping them firmly in hers, whilst gazing directly into his pained eyes.
“You know the Worldspine’s well Nathan, you know the dangers and the risks as well as any so tell me, if you were out there and it was Dark and the Shroud* came, all you could hear was the Mewling of Lope-Cats and you were cold, hungry or just hopelessly lost ? Tell me, Nathan, from all the Herders of the “Lead-Lands” you have ever known, who would you want searching for you, who would you trust to find you and bring you safely home ?
Nathan did not need to reply !

*The Shroud , an old Terran name for Grave Clothes or Burial Sheet, and the name given to a thick Mist in the Worldspine Mountains’, that appears suddenly and without warning and has lead to many deaths, with people unable to see where they are and falling or getting hopelessly lost !

“They will come through this, they are my friends as well and I still feel Carolynn’s presence, can’t you ?” But Alice saw in Nathan’s face the puzzlement that said he had not the gift Alice’s Mother gave her, not the gift she always saw burn so bright in Carolynn, the same gift that refused to let Ben go before his time.
“Trust me Nathan, they are coming, my Mother taught me how to listen, to, to reach out with all your senses, including your feelings, and connect with others I… euch”, Alice swayed a little as she stood, momentarily unsteady, putting it down to the act of standing a little fast,.

At the Moon-House, Crowley too began twitching as he sensed the power building within the Imaterium, whilst many miles away, the old Eldar Webway Portal began to emit a low hum as the hunger of those within began to force a salient into the materium. The currents in the Warp stirred Crowley’s companion, making him restless, anxious, for he could sense powerful presences out there, “OUT THERE” he screamed as he woke, tearing and clawing pointlessly against the chains, straps, wards and all manner of sorcery that kept him tethered. Like a pet, he thought, 
“I’m a DAEMON, not a child’s plaything, a toy for two, Boys ! I was spawned for malice, for evil, to be the bane of Man, not his servant”
As it was, Crowley’s host body was looking pale and drawn, and was given to more 
frequent episodes of “madness” when Crowley was not in the ascendant !
“Crowley, wakey, wakey, !” Crowley recognised Castiel at the door-grill, then staggered as the Psy-Dampener kicked in betraying his thoughts.
This bemused Castiel, for the notion of that Crowley may envy his role in Lord Samuel‘s life as opposed to Crowley’s own was an anathema to him.
Castiel was Samuel’s Aide, sent to assist him by a grateful Emperor, though his true purpose was anyone’s guess. Thus far though he had proved loyal and exceptionally gifted, with a real passion for economics and bureaucracy, that to Samuel made him the perfect man for the job ! Who needed people skills anyway ?
Castiel unwrapped a packet of fresh raw Morac steak s, popped them in the chute, sending them through to Crowley. He then turned to the Warden.
“Twice, light and dark and you personally are to ensure they are fresh !“
The Warden looked a little off-colour as Crowley fell on the Meat, slavering in a bestial fashion, though Castiel had no idea why, and merely offered his thanks and set off to his next appointment.

High in the dark rock over which plunged the Bright River Fall’s, Carolynn and Jed found their next answer. Over ten’s, maybe hundreds of cycles, the Fall’s had slowly cut back into the rocks over which they spilt, and in so doing had exposed the roof of a passage, the cover-stones of which they had already begun to strip away. It was one of these same stones the pair had stumbled across where it had fallen and smashed, many feet below.
“This is the bit where we should pack-up and come back at mid-light with more support, you know that Carolynn don’t you ?” said Jed, as the two of them ducked under the splashing river water and into the passage.
“Yeah, the bit with the dramatic yet sinister music”, laughed Carolynn as they clicked on the LED beams of their lamps, revealing a long ascending passageway that led off up away from the falls.
“Shite !”
Carolynn swung round to see Jed flat on his face,
“it’s the surface”, he spluttered,” no grip when its wet !” Carolynn breathed a huge sigh of relief.
“Try this side, its drier Jed”, he replied, extending a hand to help him up.
The two carried on upwards with no idea where they were headed.
“What you think this is man ” asked Jed ?
"No idea, never seen anything like it before.” Carolynn replied.
“Not even when you was at those Hives ?”
“Not even then.”
They trudged on in silence, Carolynn estimating they must have travelled about almost a quarter of a mile and the passageway had not changed in the slightest, still about 7 foot square, polished on all 4 sides and angled at about 4-5 Degrees up from the horizontal.
”So getting deeper”, Carolynn surmised Based upon those stinking years in the Hive, it felt deeper too, and he noticed he was sweating and his pulse had quickened. He also suddenly noticed the colour of the walls, and now he looked closer, of the floor and ceiling of the passage had changed. It was ever so slight, but they had perceptibly darkened. In the Van, Carolynn slowly raised his arm and Jed came to a halt just behind and to his left. Pointing backwards twice, the instruction voicelessly communicated, the pair began carefully retracing their steps until Carolynn could make-out both shades. Moments later they had the transition point, but they could not make-out a joint or point of change.
“Maybe it faded back there”, Jed indicated the way back toward what Carolynn realised they were already assuming to be the entrance, as it was where they had first gained access. 
“How very quick we are to make and insidious our findings “ thought Carolynn, for they were in a place quite unknown, but he suspected, one that would not be forgiving of such hasty unconscious judgements !
“Maybe”, he agreed, “but what say you that as we are now committed to this passage, we hang back for a bit for something to eat, and I don’t know bout you, but my nerves could use some time-out ?”
“Your not wrong” enthused Jed, and so back-to-back, they sat to take 5 and something to eat.

The chance to stop bought with it opportunity to look and listen as well, and the two could not understand how “fresh” the place looked, for somewhere that had been buried and apparently abandoned for so long ? Impressive too was the flawless’ architecture and apparent scale of the place, were this merely a connecting passage !
Carolynn also took time-out to reassess his kit, checking his “New” PDF Lasgun (from the Tyranid Wars) was clean and charged, that his fresh clips were fresh and where they should be, before turning attention to his shotgun. It was a pump-action Combat Shotgun, of compact design with a 16 shot drum magazine, firing standard shells, high explosive blast, fragmentation, and HEAP grenade rounds, fin-stabilised flechette slugs and the more accurate Brenneke style hollow-based slugs. Altogether a light yet durable weapon that with custom load-outs was versatile enough to suit most situations. Jed also carried a “New” PDF Lasgun, but preferred his Machine-Pistol for spaces such as these. 
Finishing their dried Morac meat, and the now not-so-hot sweet tea that Carolynn swore by, it was time to pack-up and push on. 
“Over a quarter of a mile in !” said Carolynn, breaking the silence,” What are you thinking Jed ?”
“Doesn’t seem to be doing anything does it, no doors, air-shafts, Kell a window would be nice,” a comment both would normally have found funny, but neither of them were quite in the mood to laugh. Just then, Carolynn felt it first, rather than saw it, the floor dipped back to the horizontal.
“Whoa, that’s a relief,“ he smiled,“ thought we’d need O2 Bottles if we carried on up further !”
“Nate’s going to be pissed with us, said we’d not be much past dark”, chipped in Jed.
“Couldn’t have turned back though could we, huh ?”
“No, no we couldn’t”, replied Carolynn,” Five lights before we’d get another chance, and they may be sending someone up with the Trains to see what’s what with Kern’s accident, and we couldn’t risk anyone else getting here first.”
“We can hardly hide this though can we !”
“Don’t need to, you know it was only that slab that bought us all the way up here, so depending on what’s down here, we may be lucky and just have to get shot of those lumps of slab !” 
Carolynn and Jed looked at each other, and then they laughed at their own insane optimism as they continued on.
Another 45 foot further, they found the runes, made of what looked like back lit green glass, inlaid into the walls, floor and ceiling in bands of strange pictograms or Petroglyphs - rock-engravings, that ringed the passage. Carolynn and Jed looked at one another again, this was not good, nor to Carolynn’s prescient mind did it feel at all right. It felt like a sharp rebuff to his Psyche, a forewarning, though somehow he new he was not the intended recipient, no that was someone or something else. 

The pair exchanged glances again, each of their expressions confirming what the other knew, so they moved on. The Petroglyph bands became increasingly frequent, until they reached an apparently final single unbroken line around the passage, some 2” wide, with what appeared to be a band of the dull-metal set into the green glass. Beyond it the floor dropped away sharply, the passage itself ending in what was like a balcony in the wall of a cavern, some hundred feet or more across. The walls were punctuated all round by many more such balconies, all equally-spaced, whilst in the middle was a huge up-turned pyramid, suspended beneath the point of which was a Greater Lorelei Crystal, some 30 to 40 foot long, a dim light shining from its many facetted sides, keeping the pervasive green-glow at bay in a violet Halo.
“Wow !” exclaimed Jed.
“I’ll say”, agreed Carolyn as they gazed in wonder at these vast shapes suspended in the gloom of the Chamber.
“Bit more than parts of a slab now though Car eh !”
Carolynn looked at the awestruck Jed, surprised at being called “Car”, but unable to help a smile. 

This was not what the Empire wanted, oh no not at all. They would be as desperate to keep the lid on this as Carolynn and his own people. At worst they’d send down some boffins on the QT, but there was one thing the Empire was not fond of, and that was indigenous populations and certainly not right now on Zalthar !
Carolynn and Jed had all they needed, there was nothing they could do here and the absence would start ringing bells elsewhere ! Definitely time to go 
As the regained the Mountain side, a crack of thunder echoed around the Peaks like a gun shot. Fork lightning ilt the undersides of the thunder clouds electric blue, and the rains came.
“Quick, your cape”, yelled Carolynn over the rising wind, pulling his own waxed leather cape from his pouch and hastily tying it around him in the time honoured herder fashion. Rain drove against them as they sought to gain purchase to pull themselves out of the passage, but Carolynn had already seen they would not stand a chance traversing the Fall’s in such weather, for soon they would be swollen with fresh rain.
“Come on, he yelled”, catching Jed’s arm and pulling him back to the dry, relative safety of the passage, and panting with the exertion, the two of them dragged their sodden packs a little further up the slope, before laying them down.
“I think we’ll be safer here til light”, suggested Carolynn !
“You’ll get no arguments from me”, Jed yelled back, trying to make himself heard over the howling wind and hammering rain outside. So the two of them un-packed the basics, and within moments had a spirit burner on and hot sweet tea going, safer than a fire in the circumstances they concluded.

The thunder snapped Nathan back alert, the wine and the warmth of the kiln had seen him doze after Alice’s reassuring words, but the plink, plink, plink of the rains opening salvo on the roof of the kiln, and the fierce flash of blue up in the Peaks raised a small doubt. Not the weather to choose up there, as he stared up-wards at the imposing Mountains.
“Remember how much Carolynn loves those Peaks” Ben spoke softly to Nathan’s ear, “If they love him just a fraction of that they’ll be fine !”
“Yeah, ! Sorry, yes you’re right, the both of you, just one of nature’s worriers me. I remember how he looked at those Peaks when I first bought him here, and I knew then I‘d got trouble !”

The rain picked up its beat, Ben slapped Nate’s back, “Another glass, as I doubt we’ll sleep much before light !”, so he poured three more and they pulled round the Bales , fleeces and blankets, so they could sit back all three, under the roof of the kiln with a grandstand view of the storm wracked Peaks. Here, they would wait and keep watch for friends !

Mk