DAJ Ch 7: Betrayal

The echo of their boots resounded throughout the spiral stairwell as they ascended its musty steps. Aesthre counted the doors as they passed, ‘three, four, five’. It seemed that there were two doors per floor. ‘Eight, nine, ten’ he continued as they made their way up in silence.
   “Here we are.” Krimsol announced as he opened the eighteenth door. It opened to a large room with one side open to the skies. Scattered about were large metal objects that looked big enough to carry four people on. Krimsol walked up to the nearest one and climbed aboard. “Taking one of these transports will be much safer and faster.” He spoke as he touched the control panel. Aesthre stepped towards the craft as its engines spouted blue flame. “Get on, Aesthre.” He hopped into the craft next to Krimsol and it lifted off the floor. The ship leaned as it turned to face the exit then sped off into the dark sky. Aesthre watched as the ground far below came closer but went by in a blur. The wind whipped past his face, and he lost the sense of fear he had before. He looked ahead to see the various features he could have never seen from the ground. The forests looked dark and charred, while the cliffs were dark red in color. There was some kind of dark beauty about this place, but he knew that its dangers were nothing to gawk at. “It’ll take almost no time at all to reach the gate.” As Krimsol spoke the ship arced over a hill that revealed the building Aesthre had entered from. The ship slowed as it lowered down to the ground just before the doorway. Aesthre hopped out before it touched down and dashed inside. He couldn’t wait to be back in the sanctuary and tell Arolas everything that had happened. He couldn’t wait to escape this man who had boldly told him he was stuck here. There was no way he would fail the Spirit on his mission. He stepped up to the gateway to see its once shimmering surface now dark and opaque. Touching its surface he remembered about the amulet he was given. After taking it out of his shirt he examined it. It was made of gold in an acorn shape. The lower half had holes that revealed a crystal inside. Aesthre realized the Spirit hadn’t taught him how he was to use the device. He looked closer for some way to activate it.
   Krimsol looked at the device over his shoulder. “Is that supposed to be some kind of communication device?” He asked as Aesthre still couldn’t figure out what to do with it.
   “Yeah, I think so.” He handed it over to Krimsol. “The Spirit gave it to me to contact him after I had completed my mission.”
   Krimsol examined the device, and unscrewed the top. After looking inside he came to a conclusion. “There doesn’t seem to be a power source, but crystal looks like it will work anyways. Working or not, it isn’t meant for inter-planar communication.” He handed it back to Aesthre who accepted it with a frightened face. Krimsol walked back to the ship and hopped in. He sat in thought about his past, about the worlds before now and about his own. He looked at Aesthre as he kneeled down before the gate with his fist on its surface. Realization set in to Aesthre’s mind, everything that had happened wasn’t supposed to. Maybe it was a mistake, maybe the Spirit hadn’t known this was going to happen. Maybe, maybe it had all been an accident. No, something was wrong with how he had treated by him ever since he could remember. It was always Arolas who was the favorite, not him. Aesthre put the amulet back around his neck and stood up. He rubbed his face and walked back to the ship where Krimsol sat.
   “What do we do?” Aesthre asked submissively.
   Krimsol looked at the boy then away. “You can stay in my castle. I’m curious as to how the virus affects a deity of the new world.” Aesthre climbed onto the ship behind Krimsol and looked off at nothing. They rode back in silence, Aesthre trying to imagine what would become of him. He looked at his left hand covered in bandages, with small gaps that showed the cursed changes of the virus. Would he become like those horrid beasts down below that only knew how to destroy each other, never dying, never free from their madness? No he wouldn’t let that happen. The ship re-entered the hangar and touched down. Krimsol hopped out and walked up to Aesthre. He sat in the seat staring blankly.
“Listen, Aesthre, I know this is hard to come to terms with but what ever comes into this world must spend the rest of its time here. There has never been any exceptions.” Aesthre turned his face away from the middle aged man. “I’ll do my best to make sure you don’t end up like one of those mindless drones.” He reached his hand out to the boy. “You just have to trust me.”
   “Trust… I trusted the one who took care of me. Look where it got me?” Aesthre layed down on the seat out of view. “I won’t trust anyone anymore.”
   Krimsol let out a slight laugh at hearing such a hopeless statement. “You know Aesthre, you remind me of my son. At first he never wanted my help for anything, always wanting to do everything himself. Most times I’d have to come help him anyways, but as he got older he became more and more attached to working with me. In fact most of the good things before this all happened was thanks to him.” Aesthre looked up at the man who had turned around.
   “What happened to him?” Aesthre asked curiously.
   Krimsol let out a big sigh before answering “He was killed in the fight against the virus. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.” Krimsol walked away down the stairs. Aesthre sat in the seat as he walked out of sight. ‘Maybe this isn’t so bad.’ Aesthre thought as he hopped out of the ship and ran after Krimsol. He made his way down the stairs expecting to catch up with him. Instead he found an open doorway with faint light coming forth. He pushed it fully ajar and looked in. it was some kind of lab with large containers along the wall and tables scattered about. Krimsol sat on one of the chairs looking down on something. Aesthre made his way over to see what he was working on.
   “You know ever since the day I lost my son, I wasn’t able to finish any more projects.” Krimsol said without facing Aesthre, who stopped cold. “You never even know how much something is worth to you until you lose it.” Krimsol turned to Aesthre with something in his hands. “You said you wanted to know what to do next? Well I might be able to find a cure for that virus, at least maybe for you.” Aesthre’s spirits rose. “I need you to put your hand on this.” He pointed to a console nearby with a hand shaped indent on it. “Put your left hand on it and it will extract any data I need.” Aesthre did so causing the device the shine light across his hand. Nearby boxes flashed data and lights. Krimsol watched the numbers and symbols scroll across the surfaces. “Now it’ll take some time to find what to do. In the mean time I’ve got something I want you to do.” He turned to Aesthre. “There was one who got infected from when the explorers entered. I’ve been giving him all the information about my original plane in exchange for information from the current one. He seems to have visions of places and events he’s never seen. Maybe you’ve heard of him. He calls himself the Prophet of the Savior.” Aesthre’s eyes widened.