Chapter 4 - A Poltergeist's Work

↤Chapter 3 - Listen to your Lords
“Fear is a terribly useful commodity.” Svari muttered angrily to himself as he re-watched the footage from the apartment bombing for the umpteenth time this evening, rolling a small ball of light through his fingers and around the palm of his hand. The Noble shook his head and pinched the glowing speck between finger and thumb, squeezing it as if were a grape.

Svari was vexed, unreasonably so! Glo had been so extremely terribly misunderstanding of him during that meeting, Svari had shared his ideas of the war, his opinions no less valid than that of Izzac, the addict or any other Noble and Glo had just dismissed them as the ravings of a madman!

Frustration burned through his entire body like wildfire. Glo had no right over what he, Svari, could do with his nobility. The only issue is that Glo had the backing of the rest of the Nobles, so Svari wouldn’t be able to easily go through with his plans of interdimensional genocide of the Abstract race… At least not as easily as he hoped.

There were a few other Nobles who agreed with him; they’d all lost friends and family in the war and all the attacks conducted by the interdimensional vermin. Svari had lost nothing to Imagination; he just had a deep-rooted hatred for the insects that called themselves civilised. The Abstracts weren’t remorseful of what they had done to his planet and those under its protection in the past few years and that made them even less than mere insects below his boot.

Svari closed his fist on the mote of light, extinguishing it and plunging the room into darkness. Svari stood and slammed his hand on the door to the room, moments later it opened and the butler of the house appeared in the lit frame. Janus wasn’t exactly a butler, more of a watchman turned manservant. Svari liked him enough to call him a butler, something that he’d picked up from his time visiting Earth, a term of endearment

“Yes, Svari?” Janus asked expectantly. His voice was rather hoarse as if he had spent two hours screaming his lungs out before speaking.

“Get a transport ship ready for me as soon as possible, the destination would be mainland Nova.” Svari requested curtly.

“Should I notify Achromatopia of your arrival?” Janus asked, a small pen and a piece of paper in his hand.

“Yes, you do that.” Svari muttered, waving his hand at the butler who jotted the commands down quickly before making his hasty leave.

Svari waited a few moments as he heard Janus’ prim footsteps pitter down the corridor of the home before he too exited the room, the corridor itself had a very low ceiling and had only been scarcely decorated. The Novan man tucked one hand into his jacket pocket and traced the other across the wall as he began to walk through the halls of his home before coming across something we’d consider a reading room, although this one was horribly messy in a form of organised chaos that only its meticulous creator could have a hope of understanding.

The Noble flicked his wrist and illuminated the room, a faint orange band encircling his wrist. Now illuminated, it was easy to see around the room. One wall was completely made from glass, creating a portal that he could look out upon the world through.

Svari lived in one of the more prestigious parts of the city-moon that circled Nova, Nova Prime, where the residents could appreciate true darkness, unadulterated by the light pollution that ravaged the rest of the world. He knew that if he were to stand outside, he would be able to see millions of stars speckling the night sky above his head.

He had no interest in stargazing though, instead he turned to the papers strewn about him on the floor. Each one was a file on a different Noble containing many personal details that Svari had painstakingly stolen and recorded for his own needs. The folders were not usually this disorganised but Svari was in a rush to find some way he could get back at Glo for disrespecting him so much in front of the rest of their Noble peers.

The Noble of light crouched down and picked up each of the folders in turn, looking for the one on the Noble of time. Eventually, Svari had found the right envelope of paper and returned the others to their rightful place on his shelves. Svari sat down at his desk and flicked the file open, he knew that there wouldn’t be much on the man because of his frustrating ability to be practically untraceable throughout time. All Svari really knew about him was his home address and some establishments he frequented… and that he had an older brother who participated heavily in the war, Cyan Prizmatica, his parents were also alive, something Svari was intensely envious of as his mother had died during childbirth and his father had died at his own hand when the Noble had been twelve years old.

The Noble of light sighed rather despondently before an idea blossomed in the back of his mind, the news that the Nobles had been called to war had been broadcasted publicly to all of Nova and Nova Prime, something that the Abstracts must have seen if they had any sense. There was a rather convenient war that Svari could use as a cover to perhaps have Glo and maybe a few other Nobles he didn’t particularly like wind up dead at the hands of a group of raucous and dangerous Abstracts.

Svari smiled as the idea took root in the back of his mind, the best bit of it was that if things began to go awry Svari could deal with the Abstracts himself and be hailed as a hero for preventing more Noble fatalities.

It was perfect, the only way that it could go wrong was if the Nobles managed to survive the Abstracts’ attempts and worked out that it was him that had handed their information over to the enemy. On the other hand, if they survived, they’d undoubtedly pick up arms and storm into the war with vigour and get themselves killed. It was a win-win, Svari could get rid of the Nobles he didn’t like and kill some vermin in the process.

He spared himself some time for a happy chuckle on his lonesome; there wasn’t a way that this could go wrong. The only problem would be finding some Abstracts who could get the job done, he’d pay them handsomely for their troubles, mercenaries were mercenaries; everyone had to make their money somehow.

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Ukedideka slunk up the stairs to his own guild. A tiny, sly smile crossing his face in amusement at a rather humorous thought. He’d been called away from his house to the Poltergeists’ Guild at very short notice, he had been rather enjoying a glass of pluplerry juice on his lonesome and contemplating yet another way he could spoil his boyfriend.

The Poltergeist chuckled as he got to the top of the stairs, pausing as he felt a cold line of metal press against his neck. He didn’t flinch, knowing the procedure he lifted the patch off his eye and opened the seemingly untouched eyelids. This revealed the mess of sigil and retina that was Ukedideka’s birth-scarred eye, the formation of the black circles that made up his sigil had obliterated the coloured portion of his eye and replaced his pupil with the unchanging dot in the centre of the Poltergeists’ sigil.

Ukedideka exhaled as the line of cold metal was retracted away from his throat before returning his patch to its normal place over his eye. He was happy that he could cover up his ruined eye. Before he began to wear the patch, he would receive countless stares from other Abstracts all the time, making the Poltergeist feel extremely self-conscious.

Something unseen pulled the door open from inside and Ukedideka took his time striding into the gloomy, medieval interior of the building. The walls were constructed like an elderly English castle, grey stone mortared together with crumbling cement that contrasted with the blood-red carpet rubbing under the Poltergeist’s boots. He couldn’t directly see any other Poltergeists in the room with him, but he knew that they were in the gloomy corners and hanging from the rafters, all their eyes watching him carefully.

Ukedideka glanced momentarily around the grand hall, taking in all the details of the room with his one uncovered eye. Standing at attention around the room were suits of Poltergeists’ armour, black carapaces that fit tight around the body to help blend into shadows and protect the wearer.

Ukedideka wasn’t wearing the ceremonial armour at the moment, but a more casual version of it. Black-stained leather clung tightly around the Poltergeist’s body as he sauntered silently across the carpet.

“Ukey! what brings you here?” A female voice playfully echoed through the room, shattering the silence and Ukedideka’s calmness.

“My legs, Kefi.” Ukedideka growled, not particularly wanting to talk to the Poltergeist woman. He cringed away when she dropped her arm heavily around his shoulders.

“You heard the news about Nova?” Kefi purred into his ear, “Nobles being called to war after we took out that apartment.”

“After you took out the apartment, Kefi.” Ukedideka growled, pushing the other Abstract away from him with a sharp elbow, “I couldn’t care less, I just came here to see what Inkosi wants.”

Kefi tittered and rubbed her ribs where he had jabbed her, she was taller than  Ukedideka, auburn hair fell from her head in rather deep contrast with her light grey skin. Her sigil was easily made out on her cheek, almost identical to Ukedideka’s in his eye. She was wearing the same casual armour that Ukey had donned that morning, but hers was a little less tight fitting.

“He wants to screw up Nova, apparently he was handed some rather interesting information by someone who wanted to hit the damn planet hard.” Kefi purred again, drumming her fingertips against her arm in thought.

“Information?” Ukey asked, pushing the oaken door on the opposite end of the long hall open. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, Ukedideka, he called me here because he wants me to be in on it too.” Kefi muttered, walking through the door behind him. “I know as much as you do.”

The pair were met with a long, gloomy corridor, each wall was lined with heavy wooden doors and the floor was covered in the same red carpeting as the grand entry hall. Ukedideka made his way towards the stairs at the opposite end of the hall, Kefi close on his heels.

At the top of the stairs there was a huge black door, surrounded by large dark grey stones and mortared in place. Ukedideka took the knocker and banged it against the metal plate on the door, the long hall echoed with the resonating noise, it bounced around inside from stone to stone like an angry bee trapped inside of a glass. The sound faded after a long moment and was replaced with an all-encompassing silence for a moment that felt like an eternity.

“Enter, Ukedideka Aphré, Kefi Cathinone.” Came a deep rumbling voice from inside the room after the silence had grown heavy like spiders’ webs strung through the air.

“After you, Kefi.” Ukedideka muttered, grunting with effort as he pushed the heavy wooden door open.

Kefi smiled and thanked him with a polite kiss on his cheek before walking past him and into the room, Ukedideka joined her and closed the door behind him.

Before them was a tall menacing man sitting at a desk, shrouded in formal Poltergeists’ armour he looked like a well of darkness drinking in the light from the room. His helmet was casually thrown aside on the table next to him. Ukedideka smiled at his friend, Inkosi Dháala who looked worked off his feet behind the table.

“Sit down, you two.” Inkosi muttered, waving his gloved hand at a group of chairs next to his desk, he rubbed his pitch-black forehead and pushed a lock of his white hair out of his face.

Scattered across the desk before him were several files and pieces of paper, Ukedideka counted about thirty different files in total. Both Abstracts took their seats and waited for Inkosi to talk to them.

“You both know about the events of last week?” Inkosi asked and Ukedideka nodded his head.

“In short, I had a group of Poltergeists, including Kefi here conduct an attack on Nova that would show how easily we can damage infrastructure. It was a resounding success, in response Nova has replied with a declaration that they will send their Nobles to fight in the war alongside them.” Inkosi explained to Ukedideka with a small, tenacious smile on his face.

“I’m guessing from your general demeanour and air of confidence that you aren’t bothered about this and that has something to do with the paper scattered over your desk.” Ukedideka said, fiddling with his patch.

“Well then you’d be guessing correctly, yesterday I received these so-called, ‘files’ from a Novan.” Inkosi replied, picking up one piece of paper and handing it over to Ukedideka. “Apparently this Novan doesn’t like several Nobles and have asked us to… remove them from the game as permanently as we can.”

Ukedideka looked down at the paper and was rather surprised to find it written in the flowing curls of the Abstract language, Abstraki, he asked and Inkosi told him that he had had the originals translated.

Reading down the sheet of black curls, he was presented information on where to easily find the Noble called Loogrei, where they were most likely to find her and photographs of her.

“So, whoever this is has given you a hitlist?” Kefi asked, picking up another file off the table, after a moment she clicked her tongue and exclaimed provocatively, “This one’s hot.”

Ukedideka leaned over and completely agreed with Kefi, the albino man in the photo was someone Ukedideka would definitely ask out if not for his current relationship. Glo Prizmatica, pity the rest of the file appeared to make him out as a horrible person.

“In an essence, yes. I’ve been told that we’ll be compensated for each attempt that we make on a Noble’s life. And apparently, it’s got to be public and the body identifiable. It’s quite obvious that whoever this is who sent us this is more than likely someone who has a personal vendetta against these Nobles.” Inkosi said, pulling each of the papers into order, “And someone who wants this to end in public outcry so more Nobles will join in the war.”

Kefi raised an inquiring eyebrow, placing the sheet of paper back on top of the pile. “You’re going to take them up on it? I’m more than happy to get my hands dirty with Novan blood.”

“I am, we’ve already been given a large sum of goods by this Novan and Imagination cannot simply ignore an opportunity like this.” Inkosi put the papers aside and leant towards the pair across his desk, “We have to show the Novans that we are more than happy to and more-so that we’re able to kill anything that they throw at us.”

Ukedideka nodded, already formulating a plan on how he could make the death of a Noble as public as possible.

“We have to start big.” Inkosi stated, “Prove that we can kill any Noble, so we will start with time. Ukedideka, you up to murdering a god?”

Ukedideka shrugged, he was more than happy to do pretty much anything he was paid to. As long as he got his money at the end of it, he’d make the death of the time Noble as public as their benefactor wanted.

“Which one’s time?” Ukedideka asked, “And how much is the pay?”

Inkosi pointed at the appropriate sheet across the table towards the excited Poltergeist. Ukedideka’s face dropped when he turned the paper over, the attractive yet stony face of Glo Prizmatica glared back at him with a look that could kill a man. The Poltergeist sighed in dismay and picked it up between finger and thumb.

“Pay’ll be three hundred thousand when you get back.” Inkosi answered quickly, “Try not to get yourself killed, Ukedideka.”

Chapter 5 - Sweeping↦