Chapter 6: Jack; Shauran 18th, 344SR; 13:54
"Jack Eldritch?" a young angel in familiar white robes asked.
Jack struck the wall with the pickaxe, cutting a chunk of the wall off. The logorite ore rolled off the wall, and clattered against the ground. Jack huffed in and out as he turned towards the angel, who stood with his body facing away from him. He held out the strip of paper as he analyzed a list in his other hand. The angel stood over an arm's length away, their robes had the red edges typical of House Pendragon's uniforms.
"Yeah... That's me," Jack replied with a tired huff.
"Here you go, your food for the next week," the guard handed him the ticket.
"Thanks..." Jack replied after taking the small sheet of paper.
"Use it wisely, don't be a pig, waste those five meals and you starve till the next one," the guard advised while walking away.
Despite the hospitality and the laid-back attitude, Jack remained skeptical of the angels. The guard walked off into the darkness of the mines towards the next slave. 'Even he sounds tired of saying it...' Jack rolled his eyes and put the ticket into his pocket and readied himself to mine once more. 'How much longer will I do this...' He slammed the axe into the rock, rubble rolled onto the ground. Jack squatted down to analyze it, he picked out the ones with green crystals and put them into a plastic bucket half full with the logorite he had already collected. He put his hand into his pocket and dusted any small shards off his hand.
"Having Arthur as the warden of Logos is much better, we've got an angel like this helping us out!" the miners cheered from across the cave.
'As if...' Jack clenched his pickaxe and looked to the other side of the cave. An angel in white robes with his hood off helped those slaves mine. 'What the hell?' Jack was surprised to see such a thing, he looked down at the green rocks and remembered that day. Jack swung his pickaxe down to the ground, 'It's not like Arthur didn't do anything good... But we still belong to them... Why are you idiots getting your hopes up...' He raised it high up before striking it down harder. 'Well... I don't even know what Arthur even thinks of this anyway... And that book...' Jack remembered the story in the book Arthur regarded as true.
'Well, not much else to do...The story of the angels and the demons encountering the creature known as Ragnarok... With its destructive power, it laid waste to the planet... But they survived... Ragnarok just left after defeating them...'
Jack sighed as he raised his pickaxe again. 'Honestly the ending didn't even make sense... It still just sounds like some ancient fairy tale... But if it's true as he says...' Jack looked down. 'Carol would've liked to read it if she thought it was true...' Jack twitched, and shook his head once.
'Except none of that matters because the demons isolated themselves in the north... Probably because the angels are mostly just a bunch of pricks...' Jack swung his pickaxe again, but rather than feel it ricochet off the wall, it got stuck.
"Huh?" Jack uttered, his thoughts interrupted.
Jack pulled the handle of the axe with some force and he stumbled backward as it came out of the wall. There was a black hole against the orange lit wall. He tried to look through it, but it was too dark. Jack quickly glanced around for any guards, the one from earlier was already on his way back up the hill leading to the entrance. Jack readied his pickaxe, and swung, striking lightly around the edge of the hole and revealing more darkness. 'What is this?' he pondered as the hole became larger. After several well-placed swings, Jack had smashed open a small entrance.
He leaned his pickaxe against the wall, his palms felt cold after letting go. Jack picked up the lantern and entered the small cavern. The lantern reflected a green glint into his eye, he shielded his face from the green light. As he slowly moved his arm down, he was dumbfounded by the sight.
"Wha-"
'This... This can't be real!' Jack stood in front of an abundance of large logorite crystals. Raw logorite of all sorts of shapes and sizes decorated the interior of the hidden cavern. 'One... two... No, I can't count it, it's not ore, its pure logorite! How far back does this go?!' The walls of the cave reflected green light from the logorite as Jack's lantern shone over the stones. 'This is at least three quotas worth of... Pure logorite...'
Jack turned and peeked his head out of the entrance to the cavern. The number of people in the cave had decreased, 'Ever since Arthur became Warden we haven't needed to work as long or as hard... One bucket of ore is enough to be done mining for the day... With this, we may not have to mine at all for some time...' Jack felt the smooth crystal, he pushed his hand against it and it didn't budge at all, instead, he put his lantern down and walked out of the cavern.
"Everyone! The sun's going down! Head back to Logos and rest," the angel from earlier shouted, his voice echoing through the cave.
Jack reached for the pickaxe he left outside. Then for the bucket of logorite. He put the bucket down and started to mine. He struck the smooth surface, the axe made a deep thud rather than a clang. Cracks rippled through the interior, he raised the axe and struck again and the cracks divided the crystal into smaller broken shards all over the ground. Jack picked up a large chunk, and analyzed the gem's deep green allure. 'I need a bigger bucket...' Jack remembered the devastation from destroying the mines with a little bit of Logorite. 'With this much logorite... I could...'
"Wow... This is a lot of logorite... And its all green and shiny!" a curious voice came from behind him.
'Huh...' Jack slowly turned to see an angel without a mask on. It was the one who had helped the others mine. He stood by the entrance to the cavern, his eyes wide as he observed the abundant amount of crystal. Jack panicked and got on his hands and knees.
"I'm sorry! Please don't report this to Arthur!" Jack begged.
Jack's eyes were shut tightly as he listened to his own anxious breaths.
"Uh... Do you need help mining all this?" the young angel asked.
Jack opened his eyes, and looked up. 'Is he not mad I disobeyed an order? Or that I didn't report all this logorite I found?'
The angel had short white hair, he wore the common clothing guards wore, but without the mask. His torso was hugged by a white vest, and he had no sleeves. 'A scout?' The angel was well-built despite his short stature, his arms were especially toned. He looked soft, there was an innocence in his eyes that made him appear childish. He had an orange sash wrapped around his waist. 'Is that formal uniform? I've never seen that before... Is he special or something?'
"Yeah- some... Help would... Be nice?" Jack asked awkwardly.
A shiver ran down Jack's spine as the angel walked forward, but he nonchalantly walked past Jack and got started. His single strike shattered the logorite into huge chunks and he readied to strike again. 'This... This is weird... Act natural...' Jack stood up and readied his pickaxe for another swing himself.
The rhythmic thuds of the two pickaxes was all he heard for half an hour. 'This is really awkward...' He wasn't used to hospitality from the angels, let alone a total stranger. However he glanced over to the angel and watched him work diligently, 'Should I tell him I can mine the rest? No... He's gonna report all of this to Arthur... It wouldn't matter... I can't use any of this now...'
"I think we need more than one bucket... At least more than ten? Maybe even more..." the angel looked anxious as he stared at all the Logorite on the ground.
"Well... We can mine all this logorite but we'll probably have to wait until tomorrow to collect it," Jack picked up his lantern and walked towards the exit.
"You're leaving?" the angel asked.
"Yeah... I'm hungry, I might go get a bite to eat from the merchants and come back tomorrow..." Jack yawned.
'Come on... You wanna go home, right? Just leave the cave so I can collect this without you seeing...'
"Okay. I'll finish up here," the angel continued breaking the logorite.
'Huh?' Jack turned around.
"You're... Staying?" Jack's eyes went wide as he looked at the young angel.
"Yup, I'll get this done and leave," the angel said.
Jack let out a sigh and walked back in, he put his lantern down and began to mine once more.
"I thought you were done?" the angel asked curiously.
Jack swung the pickaxe into the green crystal.
"I'd rather finish this sooner so you can get out of here too," Jack admitted.
"You really don't have to... I'm doing this to get stronger," the angel replied.
Jack looked at the angel's toned arms. 'Stronger?'
"You already look pretty strong..." said Jack.
"I want to be as strong as possible to fight the demons... And then... If I become renown enough, I think my family may be able to find me..."
"Your... Family?" Jack squinted.
"I used to live in Helios's mountains but I was forced into the army. I want to go back, my family are all still there," the angel explained. "But.. I can't find it... I've searched everywhere and I can't find them..."
'Helios has mountains?' "So... You want them to find you?"
"I hope they do... I miss them..." the angel looked down.
"Don't you just need an ability from the Celestial to be strong?" Jack asked.
A loud crack echoed through the cave as a large crystal of logorite rolled on the ground.
"I have one, but he's not really a fighter," he answered.
The angel raised his palm, a yellow light manifested into a small golden rabbit with jet-black eyes. It stood on two feet and pounced off his hand, only for him to catch it without his gaze moving. 'Huh...'
"I mean, look at him... He's not really a strong gift... But he's really fast though," the angel held the gold rabbit up under its arms.
Jack was shocked to see a spirit-based ability this close, he leaned forward to get a better look. The angel set it down on its feet, and the golden-furred rabbit rubbed its eyes as if it had just woken up. It looked around and started to frolic around the room, keeping an eye on Jack all the while.
"Woah..." Jack's eyes widened in shock.
'His gift is a spirit?! Isn't that rare?' He tried to approach the rabbit but it evaded him and ran to the other end of the cavern.
"He's scared of everyone but me, sorry. Come back, Wubble," the angel commanded.
Jack watched the rabbit dissipate into golden dust and returned to him. 'Wubble? What kind of name is that?'
"Why are you mining after hours?" the angel asked.
Jack gulped. "I'm... If I mine this now, people can just collect it for the next few weeks and have easier shifts for a while, right?"
"Ah, that's nice of you. I had a feeling you were a good person. What's your name?" the angel asked.
Jack stopped and looked down at the green crystal. The words reminded him of what Carol told him. He shook his head. 'No I'm not...'
"Is something wrong?" the angel asked.
"Oh, uh... My name is Jack," he replied.
"Jack... You ever play the game Jacks?"
"What?"
"It's a game people play in Helios... I thought you might know it..."
"Never... Heard of it..."
Jack shook his head and returned to mining. 'What's up with this guy... He's way too different...' After a few minutes, they broke the last large chunk of logorite. The crystal split in two from the strike and crumbled into smaller shards.
"Well, we broke up a lot of it, the rest is practically embedded into the wall... We can come and fill as many buckets as we can, then continue..." Jack wiped the warm sweat off his cold forehead.
He picked up the lantern and left the hidden cavern, the angel followed.
"You really can't find your way home? How did you get separated from your family?" Jack asked.
"My mom always told me to stay out of the forest or else I'd get in trouble, and then I went into the forest with my brother one night, and beyond it, we found a cave... It was a long time ago, I was like four when it happened..." the angel's shoulders slumped.
"Four? What happened in the cave?" Jack asked curiously.
"Me and my brother found a monster with a gold face... And I ran away... Then I got lost for like... Hours... I kind of thought I was going to die..." the young angel admitted. "But thankfully someone found me... Some old guy named Shinra..."
"Shinra? You mean... Shinra Pendragon?"
"Yeah, that was his name."
Jack look forward with wide eyes. 'Isn't that... Arthur's dad?' They reached a pathway upwards in the darkness, torches lit the stone-carved hill snaking back and forth up the side of the wall. Jack was silent for some time, he felt bad for the angel.
"I'm sorry to hear that... That must have been traumatic..." said Jack.
They got to the top of the hill. Jack looked to the right, and gazed over the lower area of the cave they just came from. The hidden cavern was barely visible in the wide chasm. Jack turned to see the path extend further upwards in the opposite direction this time, torches lit the rest of the path to follow.
"I really miss them... It's been so long since I last saw my siblings... And my mother..." the angel looked down.
The two continued in silence for a few minutes.
"Oh, I forgot to ask, what is your name?" Jack asked.
"Oh me? I'm Eos," the young boy stated.
"Eos. It's nice to meet you..." Jack nodded.
* * *
Jack and Eos eventually made it to the mines entrance and walked out of the narrow part of the cave. The entrance was a wide open space blasted into the rock by the noble of House Lightbringer. Large rocks littered the short divot in the ground.
"Where were you before you came to Logos?" Eos asked.
"Torovince, received full education by fourteen, then worked there in a factory line for about two years, then I was brought to Logos..." Jack recalled.
They walked away from the large entrance to the mines. Jack looked up at the dark blue sky, the lanterns shone against the ground, and the light reflected off dark green foliage.
"How were those places?" Eos asked. "I've only ever been to Helios and Logos..."
"Torovince sucks, the rich non-unified folk from Ulkay just live off the people while licking the boots of the hybrids. Roccan has a port with some nice scenery, but it's just Logos without the farms to be honest..." Jack explained. "Since you're an angel, you should be able to go to all sorts of places, like Andurill or Dorad. I'd want to go to Welis."
"Well, maybe if you were a noble or higher class, I'm just a low-class scout," the angel replied.
"You're a scout?"
"I was kind of lucky, the day I left military school, I was assigned to House Pendragon, the same day the Warden changed. Their house doesn't normally need scouts..." Eos explained.
Eos rambled on about his scouting duties as Jack thought about what the angel said. 'That day...' A branch cracked as Jack stepped through the dense foliage, he remembered Alexander beating Carol. 'How much longer am I gonna do this...' Jack looked down at the path he'd walked over countless times. Each tree, its branches, the fallen logs around it, the various kinds of leaves and foliage.
"Jack," Eos called.
'How much longer am I gonna do this...Mining every day...'
"Jack?" Eos repeated.
'Nothing has changed... There's nothing my life is even worth other than as a slave...'
"Jack?" Eos tried again.
"Sorry! I got lost in... Thought... What kind of work do scouts get here in Logos?" Jack apologized.
They neared the edge of the forest while Eos continued talking about his daily duties. The path stretched to the town, fences surrounded the fields of crops. In the center of the brown buildings, orange and yellow light seeped out of the town. The people in the distance going about their evening looked tiny. As they got closer, they could hear the faint words and laughter of the slaves enjoying their moment of rest. To the left and right were paths that lead around the town, they went straight forward toward the town center. However, a commotion came from the left side.
"No! Let go! Stop! Stop it!" A woman cried.
Jack looked to the left down the path and saw the lady who lived across from his house. 'Isn't that... Lydia?' She ran forward but was stopped by two angels. Lydia struggled to get free, she tried her hardest to push through them. Another angel put two non-unified babies into the back of a caravan. 'She had a kid? When?'
Lydia was a farmer, older than Jack by several years. Her eyes were blue and her long blonde hair was tied back. Her clothes were covered in dirt, and she appeared bruised in some places. She was tiny compared to the two angels, but she managed to push through just enough. The woman slipped through the angels and ran forward to the wagon, they tried to grab her but tore the sleeve of her white shirt. She grabbed the back of the caravan as she stumbled.
"Please! Give him back!" she begged desperately.
The angels tore her off the black caravan. The reins were connected to two horses, held by an angel wearing white robes with green details. 'They're from House Rael?'
"Persistent maggot!" the angel groaned, it was a woman.
She grabbed an iron staff and stepped off the caravan. Jack was surprised to notice the angel's voice, something sounded familiar.
"Ugh... No one can bear to tolerate your lack of respect and dignity," the female angel complained. "You should be grateful we're giving them a much more fulfilling life," she raised the iron staff to smack the woman.
Jack squinted. That's the same bitch who hit me... Did she get promoted? Of course, the prick would go to the house full of pricks...' The angel swung the staff down and the metal struck with a loud thud. Everyone was shocked to see Eos block the staff with his left arm. 'Holy shit!' Eos held his stance, quickly grasping the staff when she tried to pull it away. Jack's head whipped between where Eos just stood, and where he was now. 'How did he do that?!' A golden horn glowed on his head for a moment, then faded away.
"You low-class scum! What do you think you're doing!" the angel from House Rael shouted.
She tried to pull the staff away, but couldn't. Eos just looked slightly embarrassed as she grunted angrily.
"Can you stop?" Eos asked, "Y-you shouldn't be attacking the people who work for House Pendragon," Eos instructed her with an awkward smile.
"You dare command someone of higher-"
The door of the wagon opened and a blonde angel who wore a half-buttoned white shirt poked his head out. He rubbed his hand through his messy blonde hair, and let out an audible yawn. Jack recognized his clothing and the insignia of a green fist over his chest, 'That's one of Alexander's lieutenants... What is he doing here?'
"Hey, can we hurry up and get-" Lector started to ask, but she immediately pulled the staff out of Eos's hand, walked back to the front of the caravan, and took the reins of the stone horses.
"My apologies Lieutenant Lector," she bowed.
"That's more like it, alright I'm going back to bed now," the angel turned to go back into the wagon but stopped as he locked eyes with Jack.
Jack looked away to avoid eye contact. 'Why did he look at me...' Jack looked back, Lector was still gazing at him with an intense focus. 'He's still looking at me...' Jack sighed as his eyes wandered to the right. Jack heard the door to the wagon close, and the horse's hooves pressed into the dirt as it began to trot forward. They turned down the path Eos and Jack came from and went on their way toward Helios.
"Are you okay?" Eos asked Lydia, her knees in the dirt.
Lydia just watched the wagon roll away with the newborn children, tears streamed down her face. Her fingers curled into a fist, grasping at the mud.
"Do you need a hand?" Eos reached forward but she slapped his hand away.
"I don't want your help! Give me back my son!" Lydia roared.
Tears poured down her face. Eos stepped back as some of the townsfolk went to comfort her. Her fingers dragged through the mud, clenching dirt in her fist to whip at Eos.
"Monster!" Lydia cried.
Eos shielded his eyes from the dirt. Jack pulled Eos away by the arm as she continued to wail. Eos continued to stare at Lydia with a worried expression, his mouth hung slightly open in confusion.
"Hey, how did you get there so fast?" Jack asked. "It was like I blinked and you were there!"
Eos looked at the crowds of people. The people in the towns center all laughed and enjoyed their meals under the black night sky. Among the crowds of cheering non-unified, several parties of people glared at the angel with intense hatred.
"I'm new here, but... I get the feeling they hate me. A lot of the people..." Eos observed the crowd.
Jack looked at him for a moment, then looked up at the grey clouds against the black sky.
"It's not that they hate you, they just hate angels in general..." Jack tried to reassure him.
Eos tilted his head, he looked even more confused.
"That still means they hate me?" Eos looked down.
"Well, I wouldn't exactly say you... Uh," Jack didn't know what he could say. "You shouldn't take it so personally, there is more to you than just being an angel..." said Jack.
"What?" Eos scratched his head.
Jack was about to try and explain once more until a crowd of men began to cheer. Jack and Eos glanced at the crowd, the group moved toward the western side of the town. The sound of large steps marched through Logos, coming from the direction people were headed.
"Oh, I almost forgot the council meeting is tomorrow morning!" Eos recalled.
'Council meeting?'
"Sorry Jack, I'll talk to you tomorrow I have to go! I forgot I have a report to send!" Eos ran towards the crowd in a rush.
Jack walked towards the crowd, curious to see what everyone else was focused on.
"It's the queen!", "Where is she?", "She's a beauty!", "It's the chieftains of the Hirian clans!" the people in the crowd all shouted.
They cheered for a large party of people on the backs of horses, wearing clothes Jack didn't recognize. Burly soldiers clad in black armor, with a green robe hanging off their left shoulder. Slim women dressed in a blue robe, with swords sheathed at their waists. Tall men and women with long hair, wearing a purple robe and holding wooden bows studded with gold over their shoulder.
'Nothing to do with me...' Jack turned and walked away from the commotion, he wasn't interested. Not until he heard the crowd scream even louder in excitement. A rumble shook the ground. Jack glanced back to see a massive beast with brown fur. It was over double the height of a house, at least five times bigger. The beast's head had large horns curling downwards on each side of its face. It's body was armored with bright silver plates adorned with flags. A symbol depicting a flower made from six overlapping circles was on each flag. Each step the beast took, shook the ground, and even caused some houses to creak. Above the beast, sat a woman.
Her legs were crossed as she leaned against a railing and gazed down on the people of Logos with a somber look. She had long straight black hair that reached past her shoulders and cold blue eyes. She wore pristine white silks that wrapped tightly around her body but exposed her shoulders.
She didn't have to do anything for the men to holler once more in excitement. 'They can barely see her from down here...' Jack turned and walked away from the crowd. The people followed the Hirian troops toward the north part of the town as they made their way toward Helios. As soon as Jack turned the corner he looked around to see if anyone was around. 'No one's here...' He sprinted towards the rubble and debris of Carol's destroyed house.
In the middle of the houses frame that still stood, was a divot into the ground where the basement was. Jack stepped over debris and wooden chips carefully, then dropped into was once the basement. He made his way toward some rubble that had been positioned in the corner. He lifted a plank to see a single glass device with a tank attached, and a small pile of logorite. Jack pulled the logorite out of his pockets and added them to the pile. He pulled his pocket's inside out and dumped as much of the green dust into the pile as he could.
Jack stood up to leave, checking the decently sized pile of logorite. Some of the bits that were once powder had been compacted in little chunks of dense powder. 'I've been collecting tiny bits of logorite for a year, throughout Grivar and then Vagril... And now it's Shauran again... An entire year of my life...' Jack sighed as he covered the logorite with some debris. 'How long am I going to do this... How long before I get caught... By...' Jack remembered the caravan belonging to House Rael, then squinted. 'Wait...' Jack stopped and looked up through the broken floor board at the Celestial, it towered majestically over the land.
'Those angels from House Rael went toward Helios as well... Aren't newborn children supposed to go south to Torovince?'