'Get your own body?, Sharing a core?... I don't follow'. Although C9 took his sweet time to explain, at the end of the day a knucklehead was still a knucklehead because Samuel understood absolutely nothing...he actually felt like a part of his memory was removed instead of gaining something.
'You know, sometimes you actually act like a normal person would, but on other occasions you give me the impression that your IQ is in the negatives...as if your mind works in reverse or something'.
'At this rate, chances are high that I'll be the one to murder you before the Rodinians get to you, can't guarantee for how long my patience will last if you keep refusing to operate your brain like this'. C9 was not very pleased with his partner's incompetence.
'It was him who was supposed to be in your place...you were the unknown variable that compromised everything'. Sigh.
Then C9's indifferent and irritable voice dramatically adopted a hint of emotion and longing for the past, completely changing his voice from that of a robotic existence making it sound more humanlike.
Samuel had learnt one valuable lesson... to avoid interrupting C9 as he was talking at all cost, or the madman would start firing an endless barrage of curse words.
A crazy and detached person is still acceptable, those are the least dangerous. But the same cannot be said for a combination of emotions and insanity, it is like storing dynamite and a burning lighter in the same container...one wrong move then boom!. But since Sam did not fully well know the extent of C9's psychosis, each and every move was a wrong move and the only way to go forward was staying still. It was as if he was stepping on a landmine, any slight movement and his body parts would scatter in the distance.
'15th Century'. C9 paused for a moment, and then continued.
'We were the first of our kind to be created, and they called us, "The Nove Neoterics".
'Others who came after us named us The Custodians because to them, we were no different from shepherds, and they were the lost sheep in this worldly wilderness. I know all the questions you have... strap on and allow me to quench your thirst'. Resounded C9's voice with a depth that was obviously faked to make it sound more mysterious.
'This world might have looked peaceful on the surface and not under any form of threat or whatsoever, but the World Will could feel it.
'Surely enough, there are wars recorded in human history that looked as if they would topple this world off it's axis and send it spinning through the universe...but that was all nothing compared to the real unseen threats that lurked in front of them, threats that they could not see'
'That is when the Nove Neoterics chimed in...I know you're probably thinking that is awesome but not really, we were much more cooler than that. Especially me, I was more awesome than the whole bunch, actually I still am and it takes extra smart people to see it. It is such a shame you were not graced with sufficient intellect, so you'll probably not realise how great I am'.
Samuel was at a loss for words. 'This narcissistic prick was like the guardian of our world?... I'm sure the people back then were really in a desperate for a protector Was population really that low?'.
Fortunately for Sam, C9 was busy glorifying himself so his opinion went unnoticed otherwise the egotistical prick would have already started firing another volley of curse words.
After an endless amount of torturing an innocent soul with his self worshipping ,the egoist finally remembered how a normal person behaved.
'Italy, Milan and the year was 1405, ...oh yes... so vivid as if it just happened yesterday. Everything was going on as normal, the Romans were going by their carefree lives... worshipping their great gods as they went'.
'Then small number of Scots was captured in one of Italy's small towns, Milan. Nobody knew how these unknowns ended up in the middle of Rome but they would keep their mouths shut nomatter how inhumanely they were tortured. These people had an unshakeable faith in their beliefs, probably the most devout among all the other Celts to ever live'.
'Since this was also during that period of a hundred years of war between France and England, they were just presumed to be English spies sent to stir yet another storm in Rome...and that was punishable by death'.
'However these strange men made a strange request that perfectly suited their strangeness before they were executed...to have nine virgin girls [*1]wicker willows around their bodies and creating a kind of body cage that they could be enclosed in, and they requested to be burnt in those weird human shaped baskets'.
'Nobody listens to the ramblings of a dying prisoner but oddly enough, the executioner in charge granted their request. Regarding to how Romans issued death penalties... being buried alive, impaling and crucifixion was their modus operandi and they rarely executed captives by burning.
'Sigh, That is why I am saying their requests were out of place, and even I still have questions about that executioner in charge'.
'It was later discovered that according to the Celtic beliefs and customs, these men were actually sacrificing themselves to their gods because Celts prepared sacrifices in whicker statues in the shapes of giant humanoid forms creating what the scholars called 'the wicker men'.
'These enormous wicker men were stuffed with the offerings to be sacrificed ...offerings such as live animals, humans... mostly prisoners though, but they would pick innocent humans if necessary. 'Then they burnt them alive.
'So these people were literally conducting a ritual with themselves as the fuel, why they did this...all question marks'.
'Of all the selected girls, none was familiar with the way of the Celts, so they could obviously not complete the task required of them.
'So a decision was made, wickers or not...the men were to die at noon the next day, sad right?.
'But here is the interesting part...'
'Inside the dirty dungeon, at the dawn of the next day occured something that shook the whole of Milan... the previously selected girls were found standing like statues beside what looked like interwoven willows with human shapes and sizes, the job had been successfully done'.
'What shocked the prison guards was the palm-sized mystical tatoo drawn on each of the virgins' backs'.
'It was of a bluish glowing circle containing three lines below three short dots, and no one could explain it's symbolism... except for the Celtic prisoners themselves or their own Roman scholars'.
'But it obviously had everything to do with the mysterious Celts. So they vied for the latter option and the scholars identified this strange symbol as Awen, said to be the Celtic symbol for the spark of life, creativity and wisdom... bestowed by their god Dagda.
'It was also said that those who received this marking earned the title of "awenydds" or blessed individuals'.
'Hey primate, you still there?'. C9 found his listener's silence as odd, telling a story that long and not hearing even a single shriek from the monkey brain? Something had to be wrong.
'Where do you expect me to go when I don't even know where I am?'. Retorted Sam in a voice weaved with a thread of irritation.
'Oh, you're still here?, Good you are now starting to behave more human.
'As I was saying, since the girls were found working with the prisoners... judgement was passed and they were found guilty of conspiring with the enemy, so naturally they had to accompany the prisoners to their graves'.
'In a short space of time, the pyre was constructed on the town square, upon which the traitors were to be purified on...and even if they supposedly drew other strange markings that made them immortal they were still going to be executed. Their fates were all sealed.
'How come when you speak you sound as if you were actually looking forward to the prisoners' deaths?'. Sam needed answers, this man that addressed himself as C9 was acting weirder by the day.
'That is because we have not yet gotten to the most important part of the whole affair, now, allow me to continue'.
'All nineteen of them were dragged to the pyre they were to be executed on, but listen here...none of them showed even the slightest hint of emotion as if they were in some sort of trance.
'Of course no one could see the facial expressions of the initial nine prisoners since they were enclosed in those strange willow wickers, but they made no sound...weird if you ask me'.
'The signal was given, the immolation fire lit as the crowd was watching and that was going to be the end of it all, tragic isn't it?.
'Let me ask you this, what colour flame should be a normal wooden fire be?'. A seemingly irrelevant question was popped, with Sam as the target.
'Another strange question', the target in question said to himself.
'Due to incomplete combustion it has to be orange, why?'.
'I only asked a simple question you dimwit, save your textbook definitions for science class.
'In any case, yes, that is the colour of the flame...or how it is supposed to look like. At first, when the fire was lit there was nothing out of place...the only abnormal factor were the prisoners who did not release even a sniffle'.
'But something peculiar happened as soon as their bodies were fully engulfed in flames, the fire changed colour. You hear that? I said the fire changed colour!'.
'It burned with a mystic bluish green colour...like the colour of green jade, the same colour that glowed on the virgins' markings.
'The whole crowd fell so silent that you could ever hear the sound of a pin dropping, except for the fire'.
'It was singing, singing with the voices of a hundred maidens... maidens no one could see, singing in such a way that would make you want to submit, to kneel before it and surrender all your sorrows'.
'But the mysteriousness did not end there, the fire was absorbed by the nine wicker men, transforming the wickers' exteriors into that mysterious greenish blue colour again... but brighter this time and the woven willows developed a shiny jade like appearance'.
'The fire died down, since it was all absorbed by the strange wicker men, but they were all that remained...none of the girls' bodies were to be found, not even a single trace of their ash was left'.
'Then like cocoons, the strange jade wickers started to crack and peel off , as if what was contained inside was getting reborn'.
'What emerged from the mysterious cocoons were beings that mankind during that era could not explain'.
'Existences that had four limbs, heads just like any other human being...the only things that set them apart from the rest of your kind was their unblinking emotionless eyes and smooth exteriors that looked like highly polished wood with a bluish-green finish, oh yes...such majestic creations'.
'They lifted their heads, and as soon as they did...a dazzling blinding blue light emerged out of their bodies dispersing into the crowd and with that, the nine vanished into thin air as if they never there to begin with'.
'Each and every single person that witnessed this occurrence lost the memory of what transpired that day, save for a few people in the crowd selected by the world consciousness, and they were the only ones that lived to tell the tale'.
'That is how the nine of us were birthed...The Nine Custodians'.
*Author's note*
[*1] A Wicker is not a material, but a method of weaving by which products are also identified with it's name.