Savon was waiting outside. Kayla had gone in to get some sleep, the other car wasn't back yet. He saw the headlights coming and Savon moved from where he was. Before the car was at a stop he checked each mind in the car. None of them were possessed, so he stepped back into the shadows and just waited.
The others got out, Drake and Hannah met them. They already knew how the mission had gone from those that came back first. There was a quick bit of talking and then they were moving off to their respective resting areas.
Just as Savon hoped, Jonas stayed back and outside. He moved to the side of the building that his group was staying in. After this they might be moving else where. However they were talking about merging their groups, it would be a great help in keeping the place up. Though they would be moving soon to a new area either way. To dangerous to stay in one spot to long.
Savon moved forward, he walked slowly but didn't make a sound. He saw Jonas leaning against the side of the building, and he saw a bit of a glow. The scent coming to him. Where he managed to get cigarettes Savon didn't know. That was a very hard item to obtain, but not impossible if you knew where to look, stupid in his opinion. Or someone that made them he guessed, still not common.
"Jonas." Savon said stopping where he was and the man's head snapped around to look at him. He moved, turning to face him.
"What do you want?" Jonas said snidely. Savon noted his hand on the weapon he had, just resting there. Savon wasn't concerned.
"Touch her again and you'll be dead before you draw your next breath." Savon turned to move away. If he didn't he would attack the man. He wasn't going to lie it was extremely hard to walk away and he half hadn't planned on letting him be. He felt that telling him he was going to kill him next time was more than fair. Even if he wanted to this time. His acolyte was coiled in wait.
"I'm watching you."
"I'm not worried." Savon said and moved off. He went around the buildings and into the trees there. Jonas was asking for it with the way that he was going. Savon wouldn't mind the excuse. Just give him one and the man was dead.
"I need to talk with you." Savon said coming up to Kiore who stood up and looked at him. A bit of a puzzled look. He needed a distraction from going back over there and doing something irreversible.
"Nothing happened while you were gone." Kiore seemed a bit lost.
"Not about those here. I need to know about the acolytes." He said, he was very confused about himself and the things that Porui had said. His acolyte was confused as to what it was. What it was meant to do. It knew what Astor wanted, but if he was something else...
"What is there to really tell, they are killing machines. The best in the business and they thrive on the pain of others. On their life force and are driven to kill, to create pain for their pleasure and power."
"I want to know about the levels. Just like there are with demons, I know less about the acolytes, some ingrained things but not much else." He went over the things that Porui had said and Kiore sat looking at him.
"This is a very odd thing, not that I know the really workings of acolytes but I can tell you what I do know." Kiore let out a breath and started telling him what he knew.
There were different blood lines, not levels that he knew of. The bloodlines all had different talents, or powers, associated with them. There were three categories, those of the mind, those of physical, and those of ether.
Bloodlines that dealt with the mind had a wide range of talents but normally only one a piece. Physical was self explanatory. The ether was harder for him to describe. He wasn't sure exactly what that blood line was.
"As far as I know there were only a handful to that line, and they were the most powerful. They say that the last of that blood line was supposed to be the one to cross over, not Astor. Of course there are only three that are the strongest of the acolytes and no one crosses them. They are only equal to each other."
"Being who?"
"Well there is Jahrqu, he is the one of physical. No one matches him. I saw him once when I was young, didn't wish to see him again. Then there is Astor, the one of the mind. He would have all the talents. I do know that they are draining to use most the time except the ones that he is prone to. The last one was the ether. He I never saw but heard of, terrifying from what I hear. He along with Astor and Jahrqu controlled them all."
"What happened to him what was his name?"
"That's the whole story of how everything came about on earth, at least hell's version. This part I know because there was a great stirring in hell. his name Lycian . You should know this."
"I know as much as the humans do on this topic." However the name seemed to pull at his mind slightly. Kiore looked at him blinking.
"Nothing?" Savon gave a shrug, and Kiore started the story. He didn't mind telling it. He felt very useful to his master at the moment. That was what his kind lived for, if you weren't useful to your master you were dead.
He told him how it started, that the acolytes knew that a specific group of humans were going to try and call up the powers of hell. It was a prime chance for one of them to finally get out of the gates. With that happening he could bring the others over. It would take the offering of power from the other side and that of human blood.
They had the power, and when the humans started the ritual there was no control over it. The power snapped and with it, it grabbed the number needed to sacrifice to bring one of them over. Since there was no control, the power had to equalize itself with whatever it could. It just grabbed up numbers by the millions, until the gate opened. Just enough for one to come through,
"Lycian was to come through, he was the strongest. The most capable, but Astor it would seem didn't like being pushed aside. There is a moment of weakness right before you are pulled through the gate. From what is told he struck him down, killed him and went through himself."
"He tired." Savon snapped his eyes going emerald for a moment. "I am not a common demon to be dealt with."
"I know." Kiore said and Savon blinked his eyes going normal and Kiore looked confused. Savon rubbed his head, a horrible headache hit him suddenly. Like his mind had tried to split for a second.
'I am sorry, I became angered.' His acolyte didn't apologize, however this time it did. Because they both knew that if his mind was torn apart then they were no more. It wanted to exist and they were one and it understood survival.
'Is this true, are you this Lycian?' The evidence he had would now support this. He felt relieved in a way that part of him was not Astor. He wasn't the reason Savon could do the things he could.
'I am you.' The voice said. 'a name does not define what something is.' How philosophical of his acolyte.
'But you were at one time.' He said sitting down the headache starting to subside.
'I believe that I was. No longer am I just that being. I remember a dark place and things that no longer matter to me. Things that I no longer desire as they have changed. I'm not just acolyte, and you are not just human, we are merged, and continue to do so.'
"Porui called me a learning acolyte." Kiore looked at him his ears perked.
"Another name for the ether. The ether is what the rest of us call them. The acolytes have all this defining names for who and what they are. The different types, they revered the learning acolytes because they could learn any talent. There was no challenge that defeated them long. It was their crux, they had to keep at something until they got it. Until they understood it, or it could drive them to madness."
'Sounds like me.' He said thinking about all the things that he'd done in his life. He had to know everything. If something came to him that he didn't know he found out what it was. If there was a skill that he didn't have and came across it, he learned it. It was like a compulsion at times. When he was younger he remember how well he excelled at learning the things that Astor taught him. It was why Astor had such high hopes for him.
"Do you know how it would works for an acolyte to have a child?"
"You ask a lot that I don't know. That I don't have the answers for. Lucky for you my patriarch was owned by an acolyte. That was how they thought to bring up large numbers of themselves. However humans are very opposite what an acolyte is. They figured that having a child would give you a half breed. Humans have souls, acolytes don't. they are the soul in a word. How do you bind something like that at birth? Two different souls if you will in the same body? They would be at war for control of that body."
'You were born without the acolyte part.' The voice suddenly said like it all made sense. 'You need that part to live, but it kills you anyways.'
'That's refreshing. So why am I alive?'
'Because I heard your cries. I was hanging in that black land of Myst and then the cries of a babe came to me. Calling out for the part that was missing. I seared myself to your flesh, permanently making me part of you so that we would both live. Flesh was the better option than the soul.'
"Kiore, I think that my acolyte is this Lycian." Kiore's ears flattened to the back of his head.
"He can't be here, he should be dead. You are a half breed." His eyes flashed again.
"By blood I am, half human, half acolyte. He was in limbo, the voice in my head tells me that I was born without the acolyte soul." Kiore gave a shrug.
"What does it matter, in the end you are what you are and it doesn't change what Astor wants."
"No but it changes the playing field. I... I can be fully acolyte, fully human. I might be able to pull one or the other fully forward at a given time."
'Not truly fully.'
'No but very close.' Savon said with a bit of excitement. It meant that he could be strong enough to take Astor, to kill him. That excited his other half as well. All this time he'd thought that he was extremely limited, this might not be so.
'This will work well for both of us. I wish to be rid of him. He is a threat to us, to our survival just like all the others. They can't come here.'
'Isn't that what you died for?'
'I am no longer truly acolyte, nor are you truly human. We are a mix and there is no before for us, our life started when we took our first breath with this body.' Savon found this whole conversation odd, but he liked it. His mind working overtime to figure it out a challenge and he was working it out.
"We have to find Astor before he finds us." Savon said more to himself than to Kiore.
"Hold on, are you insane? He is still stronger than you are. You are easier to kill than he is."
"Short of taking my head I'm not going to die."
"How do you know that?" Kiore said, he truly liked Savon as his master. He didn't want him killed, didn't want another. If it was Astor that he ended up stuck to he'd rather kill himself.
"I can't be killed like a normal human. The acolyte part will take over."
"Oh." Kiore said. "Still, you could be out cold long enough for someone to take your head."
"Let's hope that doesn't happen." Savon said. "I'm going to sleep. I will talk to you later, thanks for the information."
"You have but to ask." Kiore said. "Do you require anything else of me?" Kiore said and Savon turned looking over his shoulder, but he saw the bit of a grin on the large hellhound. His silver colored teeth showing for a moment.
"Careful hell hound. Not sure I like this development of a sense of humor. Besides I thought I told you not to ask that."
"Who said I was asking the question of you? There are two in that body of yours, sort of." Savon felt the marking move slightly.
"Don't ask either of us."
"As you wish." He said and turned to move off. Savon did the same with his mind a jumble of thoughts.